In Her Sights (13 page)

He laid the last of the pages out. The top sheet listed a
name, last-known whereabouts, mug shot, and several other assorted photographs
that looked like snapshots. Likely off the Internet. Social networking made
background checks a lot easier these days.

Livingston sat across from them and gestured at the
photographs. “They’re all from Gillette. Most of their crimes are B&E out
of the surrounding area. There’s some weapon possession charges. Couple lost
their license. Carjacking.”

Russells’ brow lifted. “Don’t forget our streaker.”

Livingston grimaced. “And a streaker who ran through town one
mid-morning. I wouldn’t search that one. Lots of pictures.”

Clayton lifted a stack and thumbed through it. Lexie leaned
over his shoulder as he flipped. “Assault?”

“Just a few. Some fighting.”

Lexie pointed at the birth date, putting one at nineteen. “So
young for a stack of papers that thick.”

Russells nodded. “Most of them had their first arrest around
twelve.”

Clayton passed her the stack in his hand and grabbed
another. Oh yes, thank you for that. She turned to the photos and looked for markings.
Anything like the turn of a sleeve to hand signs in the caption snapshots. Especially
that tattoo she’d seen, but was too far away for a good look. She glanced at
the pictures, then at the second stack Clayton handed to her, and she saw it.

A thin black line going down this one’s neck. She hurried to
her desk, grabbed a magnifying glass, and was back in seconds. Trying to be
quiet was over. She had a connection. She grabbed two other stacks and brought
them close, searching the images for another black line. They weren’t always in
the same spot. Sometimes the line was incorporated as part of another tattoo.
There were only four standards for the marking.

Black.

Vertical.

Thin.

Two inches in length.

“Lexie?” Clayton leaned over her shoulder now. “What is it?”

Show of faith
. She’d be more comfortable with just
her and Clayton, but he’d already mentioned the confidentiality clause. Knowing
Clayton didn’t want the dagger connected to him either meant these men wouldn’t
be here unless they were his best. She breathed and tapped the second man she
found with a black line. “He has a gang marking for The Sidewinders.”

Livingston frowned. “They use hand signs.”

She nodded, leaned forward, flipped a photo around, and
showed him the picture of the man. “They also do this tattoo.”

“I’m not familiar with this.”

Well, sometimes that was the idea. When it came to running
drugs and passing them, things like a secret code and easily copied hand sign
weren’t enough.

She pointed at the tattoo of a line separating two letters
on one man. On another, the same line, but on an arm with a mermaid. Another on
a temple. “These are all members of the Sidewinders gang.”

Clayton watched her. “Are you sure about the tattoos?”

“Positive.” She nodded.

The men stared at her.
How?
was all over their faces.
This was partially secret, part not, but she knew she had to give them
something. “Have you heard of The Jack Settler Medical Clinic?”

Clayton blinked at her.

She smiled and swallowed the lump from the back of her
throat. Not from nerves. This story always got her a little choked up. “Jack
Settler. Courageous ten-year-old boy who managed to stop a rape in Gillette.”
She frowned at him, needing a moment to finish the story. “It was about nine
years ago.”

A tissue appeared by her shoulder, and she looked up to see Reid
holding it out. She cleared her throat. “Thank you.”

Clayton rubbed at his chin, then his brows lifted. “The
incident was before I moved to town, but the clinic was in progress. The woman
was a prostitute. Little Jack stepped in, the man crushed his face, then ran
off.”

Lexie nodded. “Samantha, the prostitute, carried him for
blocks looking for help, but got nothing. She had no car to take him anywhere.
There was nothing she could do for little Jack but hold him. He died in her
arms. I funded the Clinic in the area, and I made friends with some locals.”

Samantha being the main one. Lexie put the woman on the
board managing it. Having been raised there, hired out for parties in the past
as entertainment for some of these gangs, Samantha knew things most didn’t, and
she trusted Lexie.

She kept her informed of things like private markings. Who’s
done the worst, who was responsible for finding new members. The kind of things
Lexie’s alias, Artemis, liked to keep track of. When it came to having an ear
to the ground in that area, Samantha had it.

Lexie put her through nursing school, got her off the
streets, and when it came to first aid, Samantha was there and didn’t ask
questions.

Clayton leaned his elbows on his thighs and clasped his
hands together while looking at the two investigators. “Anything at all on any
of these guys who could be linked to the dagger?”

Russells and Livingston shared a look. They both shook their
head. “Nothing.”

Livingston sorted through the pages and pulled two out. “These
two are part of an open investigation that’s unrelated.” He glanced to Lexie,
then Clayton. “I have a few details on that.”

“What details?” Clayton turned one of the stacks around, and
Lexie leaned over his shoulder to look. A twenty-eight-year-old white male.

When Livingston didn’t answer, Clayton looked at him. “What
details?”

Livingston’s gaze strayed to Lexie. If that was supposed to
be the hint she didn’t need to hear this part, she got it loud and clear. She
also didn’t get up.

Clayton flipped a page. “Lexie’s fine with hearing sensitive
details.” He looked to her and winked. “Sometimes we learn things that…we
shouldn’t.”

And that explained why Clayton was the best in the business.
As long as the job was done, she didn’t care the means to go about it. Red tape
was a pain, and if he had a source or a program to route around it, by all
means, use it. Give her access, too?

Russells cleared his throat. “All right. These two are
snitches. I don’t know what information they’re after, but these two have been
on Melville P.D. payroll for nearly a year.”

Livingston pulled the pages back. “We’re not sure if they’re
cops. Or if they’re just paid-off members.”

And just like that, Lexie’s world flipped upside down.
Because there was a chance a couple of these men got a good enough look at her.

This also meant the police knew about the dagger. Or if they
didn’t, they would the moment they pulled those two snitches aside for
questioning.

Clayton glanced to her and lowered the papers. “Thanks. Y’all
can head on out.” When they started to grab the paperwork, he shook his head. “Leave
it.”

They didn’t ask questions. But then, he was the boss. And it
was back to the three of them.

With them looking at her. She looked back. “We are in deep
shit if those two boys are cops.”

He winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “We fibbed a little
on the series of events. I wouldn’t get worked up until you know more.”

Wouldn’t get worked up? She had far more at stake here than
he did. “The night you came in my house, you said Arnold brought me that dagger.
What did you see to think that?”

He shook his head. “I suspected that’s what he did with it
because the men who followed him searched his vehicle when he got home and then
watched his house.”

“You’re positive you never saw it.”

He shook his head. “I was parked right in front of your
gates. I saw nothing. I had a better vantage point than whoever followed him.”

Good. That was something she could work with. “In that case,
if this dagger business comes out, I’m going to continue saying I don’t have
it. I don’t want my name mixed with a stolen object.”

“What if they search your house for it?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. They wouldn’t find
it.”

Clayton adjusted the stacks of papers. “They could just be snitches,
too. Not cops. We’ll have more flexibility that way because a snitch is still a
gang member, and they can be unreliable.” He sighed. “Hopefully with these
thick records, the ones who aren’t snitches will see a little jail time, and
that’ll take the heat off the dagger from this group for a while.”

“The weapons should put them back for a little more.”

He pushed at a couple stacks but didn’t pick any up. “Maybe
after a few hours of sleep, I can make some sense out of this, try and find
some connections on why this gang is after the dagger.”

She sat back and shook her head while looking at a file. “Something
is funny with that to me. I don’t think it’s them. Or at least, I don’t think
they’re at the front of it.”

“Considering what happened here tonight after you didn’t
show for the meeting, I think it makes a lot of sense.”

She leaned over to him. “You said the dagger was being tracked
heavily since it was stolen, and that’s possibly why it’s getting passed
around. I don’t think the Sidewinders would be the one doing all that. They don’t
have the money for it.”

Reid, having been mostly quiet, nodded and sat forward. “I
agree with her. You know I have some family from that part of town. Nobody has
money to be funding an operation like this. Most of them are too stupid to
organize it.”

Clayton tapped his jawline for a moment. “Drug money can be
a lucrative business.”

Reid shook his head. “There’s not a big dealer in Gillette.
They buy it and sell it on the streets. A few of these gang leaders have got
some cash, but they blow it as fast as they make it.”

That happened because going around at night as Artemis made
sure of it. It was harder to target single sellers without a lot of local
surveillance, but a big drug kingpin made for a big target. “I agree with Reid.
I don’t think they’re pushing anything worth a whole lot. If they were, I think
we’d have a bigger drug problem than what we’re hearing about.”

“That’s true, too.” Clayton stretched and returned to the
coffee pot. Reid was right there with him.

“I thought you were going to get some rest? Keep inhaling
that coffee, and neither of you will get any sleep.”

Clayton leaned against a chair and stirred in sugar. “I
never planned on sleeping. We’re here for the night.”

She blinked. “At my house?”

The corner of his lips tipped up. “That’s what we told the
police. We’re watching you until your system is installed.” As he kept
stirring, he winked.

Not that it really mattered. She just didn’t trust him
enough to want him around a lot. He was far too observant. “Come on. If you two
are staying here, I’m not going to have you up walking around all night when I
have a house full of extra beds to put you in. We all know no one will be back
tonight, and you should get sleep while you can.”

Clayton didn’t follow. “We’ll be fine.”

“I didn’t ask if you would be.” She motioned them to follow.
“Move your feet. Get some rest. I’d rather you be bright-eyed tomorrow so we
can figure out what this connection is.”

She shut off the lights in her office before they could grab
anything and left them no choice but to follow or stay in the dark. The guest
rooms were on the west end of the second floor. She put them across the hall
from one another and hurried off to copy that paperwork before they went back
for it. She wanted to know if Livingston had dug up anything else he shouldn’t
have.

Clayton would have let her look, but she wanted copies. That,
she wasn’t sure he would have gone for.

Chapter Twelve

Someone was banging on Lexie’s door at too early an hour for
the late evening she’d had. Figures that when she was finally getting some
solid sleep, someone would wake her. “What?”

“Lexie?” Julia called. “Detective Breeze is on the phone. He’s
wanting to stop by and give you an update from last night.”

She glanced up and at seeing the clock, crashed back on her
pillow. Geez, it was already ten. “Tell him lunch at Cliff’s at noon. And
get Mike to make me some breakfast, please. Not a lot, just something to tide
me over.” She groaned and rolled off the bed. She had no more tossed on a robe,
brushed her teeth, and ran fingers through her hair when Julia was back. This
time, she let herself in.

“Mr. Maxwell called. He wants to see you this afternoon to
sign some paperwork. And Addison’s Security will be here at any time for your
upgrades. Mr. Addison and Mr. Parkwood left early this morning to get the
things they needed.”

She was way too tired to deal with all this today. By no big
surprise, she hadn’t been able to sleep through most of the night, so she’d
combed through the documents she’d copied. Read every last detail, took notes,
and didn’t feel like there was any new information. The two snitches Livingston
had pointed out had nothing spectacular on them at all. Nothing to say if they
were undercover cops or just snitches. As for any other deep secrets? If
Livingston had more, he didn’t put it in the pages he’d drafted up.

Today was a new day. After all her errands, she would go
through the papers again, just in case. “If you would take care of Clayton for
me, that would help. He shouldn’t have any questions. I won’t be back until
probably two or three.”

Hopefully they would be finished and gone because she had
plans to lay poolside and do a mix of sleeping and reading those notes again
before traveling to Gillette tonight. The phrase
no rest for the wicked
was holding up now. It was time for Artemis to become involved. No one could
get information out of a gang quicker than she could.

Julia pulled out the same purple sundress from yesterday and
hung it on a hook in the bathroom. She added a pair of white kitten heels on
the floor underneath it. “I’ll take care of Mr. Addison. This outfit should do
for what you need today.”