Protector (58 page)
Authors: Laurel Dewey
Tags: #Police Procedural, #Denver (Colo.), #Mystery & Detective, #Psychic ability, #Women detectives, #Crime, #Suspense, #Women Sleuths, #Children of murder victims, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural, #Espionage
They drove off in the Subaru, Jane’s heart beating hard the whole time. Pulling into the parking lot of The Pit Stop, she checked the time. It was Monday around noon. He should be home for lunch. This phone call was a long shot and risky as hell. She would also have to check her pride at the door for the whole thing to work.
She got out of the car and dialed the number. The phone rang three times and then, “Hello?”
Chapter 25
“Hello?” the voice repeated. It wasn’t the voice Jane was expecting.
She hesitated, not sure what to do. Her knee-jerk reaction was to hang up, but she stayed on the line. “Hello? Is someone there?”
“Yeah,” Jane nervously said. “It’s . . . it’s Jane.”
“Well, hi, Jane. This is a surprise.”
Jane felt her stomach churning. “Yeah . . .”
“Listen, your brother’s not here. But I’ll certainly tell him you called.”
“Well, the thing is Lisa . . . I was actually calling to ask Mike if he could ask you something.” Jane realized she sounded like some tiresome high school kid.
“Ask me what?” Lisa replied with an ease to her voice.
Jane snapped into her cop mode. “Here’s the drill, Lisa. I don’t know you. I’ve only met you once and you seemed okay.” Jane waited for Lisa to say anything but heard only silence. “Do you love Mike? Or is this some sort of cut and run deal?”
“Cut and run? I’m not following you. Are you okay, Jane?”
“Do you love my brother?” Jane asked pointedly.
“Yes, I do,” Lisa said without hesitation.
“So, am I hearing that you want to be part of our family?” The words seemed foreign to Jane as they came out of her mouth.
“I’d like that very much, Jane. And I’d also like to get to know you better when you’re comfortable with that.”
“I’m going to be straight with you, Lisa. I don’t usually do this sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?”
“I get to know people very well. At least, I like to think I do. I listen to the change in their voice to see if I can hear a lie . . . Oh, fuck.” Jane knew she was rambling. “What I’m trying to say is that I get to know someone extremely well before I ever ask anything of them. Especially anything that could be dangerous.”
“Jane, I—”
“You have to understand that I would never ask this of you unless I was as fucking desperate as I am right now.”
“Jane,” Lisa said kindly, “whatever you need to ask me, it’s okay. Just ask.”
Jane took a deep breath. “You said your brother used to be a bounty hunter?”
“Yeah, right. My older brother, Jeff.”
“And now, he’s a private investigator.”
“Yes.”
“I remember that you said that he does fraud and adultery cases.”
“That’s right.”
“So, tell me. Does he have the balls for a case that carries more weight?”
“What kind of weight are you talking about?”
“The mafia. The Texas mafia, to be exact. And the Denver PD. And perhaps how those two may be in bed together?”
There was a long, thoughtful pause on the other end of the line. Jane waited. “Gosh, Jane. I don’t know. Are you in some sort of danger?”
“I don’t give a shit what happens to me, Lisa. It’s someone else I’m worried about.” Jane stole a glance toward the Subaru and acknowledged Emily.
“The little girl?” Lisa said with deep concern in her voice.
Jane turned around. “Yes. Look, calling you like this, getting you involved, this is all totally against policy and procedure. But the thing is, I need your help. I need your brother’s help. I need you to talk to him and convince him to check out some downtown businesses for me. Specifically, foreign downtown businesses. Asian businesses. They’re used to paying protection money back in their home country. They’re always the first targets for the mob. He needs to ask around about who’s getting paid and who’s getting favors. He’s gotta work it so he finds a trail and he’s gotta follow that trail to wherever it leads. I’m telling you right now that I think that trail leads to Denver PD and possibly to a man named Weyler. I have to know the truth and I have to know it damn fast. I can’t . . .” Jane choked up. “I can’t lose another kid to those assholes. You understand me? If I have to, I will ditch the car and we will take a bus to another state and we will disappear forever. They will not get their fucking hands on her!” Jane knew she had gone too far.
“How can he contact you?” Lisa asked confidentially.
“Is that a ‘yes’?”
“I have a way with my brother. Just like you and Mike, we’re real tight. If I tell him I need a favor for a good friend, he’ll do it. So, how are we going to contact you?”
Jane was dumbstruck. After all the awful things she had said about Lisa—out loud, under her breath and in her head—after all that, this girl was willing to play the middle-man in a dangerous game. “My pager,” Jane said quietly, before giving her the number. “It’s a voice pager. So, if he can cut to the chase in sixty seconds or less, have him leave a message. Otherwise, tell him to give me his number and I’ll call him right back.”
“I’ll take care of it, Jane.”
“I don’t want you involved in this any more than just contacting your brother!”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. Like you said, I’d like to be part of your family one day. And family does this kind of stuff for each other.”
Jane was completely floored by Lisa’s words. She closed her eyes, listening intently to Lisa’s voice echo in her head. She heard neither a lie nor the whisper of betrayal in the timbre. “Thank you.”
Monday turned into Tuesday and there was no word from Lisa. Jane noticed that Dan increased his self-appointed, drive-by patrols each day and evening. Late Tuesday afternoon, he stopped by to share news with Jane. While Emily played in the backyard, Dan and Jane stood at the front door, talking in confidential tones.
“I don’t know exactly what’s goin’ on,” Dan revealed, a worried look etched into his face, “but I think Sheriff George is fixin’ to investigate you.”
“I thought he bought the whole story about Emily being sick.”
“I thought he did, too. But that’s the word I’m gettin’.”
Jane let out a tired sigh. “What in the hell made him change his mind?”
“I don’t know. Unless . . .”
“What?”
“Unless he heard or saw what happened with Emily at the carnival . . .”
Jane thought it through and realized Dan was probably right. “Shit! If he starts poking around on his computer, he’s bound to figure the whole thing out—”
“If I catch wind that he’s found out about your ex, I’ll let you know.”
“Dan, if he finds out the truth about me—”
“I guess all we can pray for right now is water seepin’ into the underground lines. It breaks the Internet connection around here.”
“Then I suggest you go break a water main.”
Tuesday melted into Wednesday and Jane’s voice pager remained silent. Knowing that she now had the added stress of Sheriff George searching on his computer for information on her, Jane’s tension was growing exponentially. Thanks to her constant paranoia, the two had not left the house since returning home from making the phone call at The Pit Stop on Monday afternoon.
By Wednesday afternoon, Emily was stir crazy. With Kathy’s “welcome basket” nearly drained of its contents and the refrigerator and freezer almost empty, Emily begged Jane for a trip to The Mountain Melon Market. Jane acquiesced with the caveat that Emily stay within eyesight of her the entire time.
Main Street was alive with red, white and blue banners, American flags and countless signs and posters heralding Sunday’s Independence Day Parade. Jane parked the Subaru. “Stay next to me in there. Understood?”
“Understood,” Emily said, feeling like a trapped animal.
The market was empty, save for the cashier whose head was buried in the National Enquirer. Jane grabbed a cart and headed to the frozen food section at the rear of the market. No sooner were she and Emily hidden from view when the bell attached to the market’s front door chimed.
“Hey there, Sheriff!” the cashier called out. “How’s it goin’?”
Jane suddenly felt cornered.
Emily perked up. “Can I go—”
“Shh!” Jane cautioned her.
“Say, is your lotto machine working?” Sheriff George asked the cashier.
“Nah. It’s havin’ one of them days. Why? Is your computer down again?”
“Yeah. That damn water in the lines is causing it to crash constantly.”
Jane half wondered if Dan had taken her seriously when she told him to “break a water main” to prevent smooth transmissions on the sheriff’s computer.
“It’ll dry out soon,” the cashier said.
“Not soon enough,” the sheriff said curtly.
“You got yourself a big case?” the cashier said with great interest.
“I might. I don’t know just yet. But I might . . .” Jane stood still, the freezer door propped open against her hip. She heard the sound of the sheriff’s boots scuffing across the floor toward a nearby bank of shelves. She knew he wasn’t crossing to the shelves to get something as much as he was moving in that direction to see who was in the market. Since he probably spied Jane’s Subaru parked in front of the market, Jane figured he suspected that she and Emily were inside. She kept her head forward, appearing as if she were examining a frozen food entree. Her eyes moved slightly to the left where the glass door cast a reflection on the shelving. There was the sheriff, reflected back in the icy glass. He waited for her to turn around but Jane refused to acknowledge his presence. After what felt like an eternity, Sheriff George moved back to the front of the store.
“You have a good day,” the sheriff said to the cashier before leaving the market.
Jane dumped an armful of frozen food into the cart. “Come on, let’s grab what we need and get the hell out of here.”
“Sheriff George is nice,” Emily said, confused. “How come you didn’t want to talk to him?”
“Not now,” she whispered.
“I want chips and salsa,” Emily said as she marched down the aisle. “Hurry up,” Jane said impatiently.
Emily wound around the far aisle to grab the chips. The front door opened again and the cheerful bell rang out.
“Well, hey Kathy! Hey, Heather!” The cashier said.
“All ready for the fourth?”
Jane let the door to the frozen food section slam shut. “Shit!” she said, turning to get Emily’s attention. But it was too late.
Emily skipped to the front of the store. “Heather! How you doing?”
“Hi, Patty! Long time no see!” Heather said in a disingenuous tone.
“Are you here all by yourself, darling?” Kathy inquired. “No. My mom’s in the back. By the frozen food section.”
“Frozen food.” Kathy said in a catty tone. “Well, of course she is!”
Jane shook her head in disgust.
“Hey, Heather! Guess what?” Emily said. “Mom says that I can have the sleep over at our house!”
Jane spun the cart around and headed down the aisle to get to Emily.
“Great!” Heather said. “When do you want to do it?”
“How about this Saturday? The third? Then the next day, we can all go and watch the Independence Day Parade!”
Jane reached the front of the store. “Patty, we need to discuss this.”
Other books
Countdown by Natalie Standiford
No Other Love (A Walker Island Romance, Book 2) by Kevin, Lucy
Critical by Robin Cook
Secret Taboo in the Attic by Cheri Verset
(1/3) Go Saddle the Sea by Aiken, Joan
Deep Water, Thin Ice by Kathy Shuker
Something Wicked by Sterling, Jillian
Twelfth Angel by Og Mandino
Open Pit by Marguerite Pigeon