Nearly Departed (Spring Cleaning Mysteries) (23 page)

Getting the hint that I didn
't want to talk home improvement strategies with him, the detective got to work. "So tell me what happened."

"
I got a phone call." Grabbing a Styrofoam cup I poured him some coffee.

"
When?"

"
At 5:53."

"
That's a pretty specific time."

"
The phone rings in the middle of the night, you look at the clock." I put the drink down in front of him and was pleased when I noticed that my hand no longer trembled.

"
Okay, so you get this call at 5:53. Did you recognize the caller's voice?"

I sat down in an empty seat so that we made a triangle around the table.
"No. He was using one of those machines to distort his voice."

"
You're sure it was a he?"

I hesitated.

"Vicky?" Reed prompted.

"
I thought it was a man, but I can't say for sure."

"
Okay. For our purposes we'll refer to him as 'he' for now. So what did he say?"

I glanced at Smoke. He nodded reassuringly. When I looked back to Alan, I could tell he
'd noticed our exchange.

"
He said I should stop poking my nose where it didn't belong, or I'd end up dead too."

"
Dead too?" the blonde detective asked. "Like the frat boys?"

I shrugged
. It wasn't like I could say "or Juliet Rato." Not without both men at the table thinking I'd lost my mind. "I guess so."

"
Did he say anything else?"

"
You wouldn't want Ruth and Artie Spring to lose another kid." My voice shook, and I had to blink away tears.

Alan
's gaze flicked across the table to Smoke and then back to me. "And then what happened?"

"
I hung up on him…her…whoever it was. And then I called Smoke."

"
You called him?"

I nodded.

He glanced down at his watch. "It's not even seven yet."

"
I was already here when she called," Smoke interjected. "I was concerned for her safety after the tire slashing, so I spent the night keeping an eye on the place."

Reed cocked his head to the side and considered the former cop thoughtfully.
"Outside?"

Smoke nodded.

"I guess your instincts were right about someone being after her."

"
They usually are," Smoke said dryly.

Reed pivoted his head in my direction.
"So you called him and then what?"

"
I let him inside and told him what happened." I could feel my cheeks flush as I remembered the whole chemise thing, and I fervently hoped neither man noticed my high color. "And then he called you."

"
Which was the right thing to do. I'll see if we can figure out where the call originated from."

"
Good luck with that," Smoke muttered.

"
Do you have any better suggestions, Barclay?" Reed didn't bother to disguise his annoyance.

"
Figuring out who killed those kids would probably be a good start."

"
I'm working on it."

"
Work harder," Smoke said. "In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on her."

"
You do know I'm sitting right here, don't you?" I snapped, interrupting them.

It was Reed
's turn to mutter, "Good luck with that."

"
And I don't want or need anyone 'keeping an eye' on me," I continued. "I'm perfectly capable of watching out for myself."

Smoke raised his eyebrows but didn
't remind me that less than an hour before I'd been reduced to a quivering, crying mess because of one phone call.

"
My mother was right," I blurted out, needing to prove I wasn't as incapable as the two men seemed to think I was. "Buck didn't have a brother."

"
What?" Reed's confusion was almost comical.

Smoke frowned.
"You're sure?"

I nodded eagerly.
"I read their obits online last night. So Sal couldn't have been…"

"
Who?" Reed asked.

"
You know," Smoke answered in a deceptively quiet voice. He fixed Reed with a glare that looked harder than diamonds. "The one you told her to expect at the frat boy house."

Frowning, Reed scrolled through his notes.
"I don't think so…"

"
You didn't tell her the brother would be stopping by?" Smoke's disbelief was evident…and downright insulting.

"
Buck Hopkins didn't have a brother," Reed said, reading his notes. "Nottoway did."

"
This guy who showed up said he was Buck's brother," I said quickly.

"
Maybe he's my suspect," Reed mused.

"
Ya think?" Smoke asked. Considering he wanted back on the force, you'd think he'd make an effort to make nice with the Police Chief's son, but instead he seemed determined to antagonize Alan.

Alan refused to take the bait.
"What did this so-called brother look like?"

After Smoke and I gave our descriptions, I
stood. "I've got to get on with my day."

"
You have my number." Alan rose. "Call me if you think of anything else or if something else happens."

"
Like what?" I asked.

"
I dunno. But haven't you ever noticed how things happen in threes?"

"
Oh my God, he's superstitious." Smoke threw back his head and covered his face with his hands. "Save me from these people and their illogical beliefs."

Ignoring him, Reed told me.
"I'll let myself out."

A moment later I heard the front door close.

"You can go too," I told Smoke. I really didn't want him hanging around watching my every move.

Dropping his hands from his face, Smoke picked up his coffee and sipped it.
"You're forgetting something,"

"
And what's that?"

"
I'm your ride to work."

"
Oh."

"
I'm starving. The tire place isn't open yet. Let's go to breakfast. After all, it's the most important meal of the day."

And
I had a feeling it was going to be one hell of a day.

I eyed my cell phone like it was a rattlesnake ready to strike. So far I'd answered the death threat call, a call from the tire place saying there'd been a delay in getting the replacements for the van, my mother insisting I show up for dinner with my grandmother the next night, and a call offering me a job to clean up a meth house.

I felt like I was playing Russian Roulette with the thing. One answer too many
, and I'd be a dead woman. Which would be a pretty terrible thing at the moment because I'd told Martin that I couldn't help him any more because it was too dangerous. He hadn't taken the news well. Somehow he'd managed to slam every door in the house simultaneously.

"
What the hell was that?" Smoke asked as he ran in from the other room, brandishing a carpet knife like it was a deadly weapon.

"
It's drafty?" I'd suggested weakly.

An unfamiliar number was calling me now
, and I made no move to answer it as I sat Lucky Liu's Chinese Restaurant. I'd been sitting there for what felt like hours, but was more like twenty minutes, waiting for Smoke. He'd told me what to order for him and then gone outside to make a phone call. He hadn't returned, and his lobster sauce had cooled and congealed. I'd given up being polite a while back and eaten most of my meal while it was hot.

Sudd
enly Detecive Barbie slid into the seat opposite me without asking if I wanted company. Glad I'd already eaten, since her presence made me lose my appetite, I put down my chopsticks and met her probing gaze steadily.

"
You look tired, and the MSG in that isn't going to help," she recommended as though I was her best girlfriend.              

"
I need a day off." I may have come across as a tad defensive, but I hadn't appreciated her unsolicited advice.

She raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows
. "You should book a spa day. Have you ever been to the Oasis?"

I shook my head. Venus had offered to treat me to a
"girl's day" there once, but I didn't like to be anyone's charity case, and it was way above my price range. I decided police detectives must make more than I'd imagined.

"
But you know where it is?"

I nodded
. The sprawling campus painted seashell pink was wedged between a childcare place and the world's largest pet supply store. Personally I wouldn't find that to be the most tranquil of locations.

"
You should get a seaweed wrap. It would detoxify you."

I frowned. Was she hinting I had a toxic personality?
"I'm guessing you're not here to talk about beauty treatments."

She sighed and tapped her freshly manicured nails on the tabletop.
"This is none of my business, but…"

I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. If one more person asked why I did this grisly work…

"…but why are you letting Reed railroad Smoke like this?"

"
Excuse me?" Sure Reed and Smoke didn't get along, but I thought "railroading" was a pretty harsh term to describe their relationship.

"
Smoke's a lot of things, but he's not a cold-blooded murderer."

"
What?"

Barbie aka Lacey stopped her drumming.
"You really don't know?"

"
Know what?"

"
Smoke is downtown being interrogated right now. A couple of uniforms picked him up outside the restaurant."

Confused, I tried to ignore the sense of panic enveloping me.
"About what?"

"
I heard they're going to charge him with the homicides of the three frat boys."

A chill shimmied down my spine
, and my stomach flip-flopped traitorously.

I shook my head denying the accusation against him.

She shrugged eloquently. "It's what I heard."

I stared at her dumbfounded for a long moment. Then,
knowing that sitting around wouldn't help Smoke, I roused myself. "We've got to stop them!" I grabbed a couple of twenty dollar bills from my purse and threw them on the table before jumping up.

She shook her head.
"Not me. They won't let me anywhere near this thing considering I'm his ex…you know."

I could well imagine what the two of them had shared.
"Fine. I'll take care of this myself." I hurried out of the restaurant.

"
Good luck!" she called after me.

I didn
't need luck. I needed Mike. I called his law office and insisted that he meet me at the police station.

"
I'm not a criminal lawyer," he'd argued weakly.

"
He's your friend," I countered.

Which must have worked because h
e got there before me. Though, in my defense, I'd had to take two buses to get across town since the van was still in the shop.

"
Let me handle this," Mike urged as we approached the police officer pushing paper at the counter behind the bulletproof glass. "Excuse me," he began politely. "Who would we speak to about—"

"
Reed!" I bellowed at the poor detective who had the misfortune of walking into the hallway, ending up in my line of sight.

The overgrown surfer dude
who until just recently I had thought was handsome, approached me warily. "What are you doing here?"

"
I'm here to bail out my employee."

"
You can't."

"
I can't?" I turned to Mike. "Can he do that? Can he prevent me from bailing him out?"

"
If they consider him to be a flight risk," Mike replied, shooting me a warning look that clearly indicated I needed to cool my jets and let him handle the mess.

Ignoring him, I turned my angry gaze on the detective.
"We'll see about that."

"
You can't bail him out," Alan Reed continued, "because he hasn't been charged with anything."

"
Can they do that? Can they hold him without charging him with anything?" I asked Mike.