Trouble In Spades (8 page)

I had six employees all together, three part-time, three full-time. Tam, Kit, and Deanna Parks worked full-time; Marty Johnson, Coby Fowler, and Jean-Claude Reaux worked part-time, except for summers, when Marty and Coby, full-time students, worked more than forty-hour weeks. No one was quite sure what Jean-Claude did in his free time. No one wanted to know.

Since all my employees came to me through Ana, they'd all been on the wrong side of the law at one time or another. We all suspected Jean-Claude was
still
on the wrong side, but what he did on his own time was his own business. Until it affected his work, I'd stay out of it.

The phone rang and I heard Tam pick it up.

I booted my computer, and waited for it to clear out the cobwebs. I thought about the Fryes and how I'd agreed to do a mini for them.

I hadn't heard from Maria yet that morning, but I knew it was just a matter of time. I hoped she'd call with good news.

Forcefully, I pushed thoughts of Maria and Nate away. Work. I needed to get some work done.

"Nina, call on one," Tam called through my open door.

Picking up the phone, I said, "Nina Quinn."

"Hi there."

My stomach did a happy little flip. He didn't need to say who it was—with my body's reaction, it could only be one person. Robert MacKenna.

"Hi," I said.

"You haven't returned my calls. I was worried your stash of Almond Joys had run out and you'd fainted somewhere." I told my stomach to knock off its happy dance. Nothing good could come of this f
riendship
MacKenna and I shared. Nothing. He was married. Off limits. I was on the rebound. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Still, I didn't want to let him go. So I compromised. "Robert, I can't talk right now. Lots of work to do."

"Liar!" Tam shouted from the other room.

"I'll talk to you later," I said, while giving Tam the Ceceri evil eye through the wall.

"Wait!" MacKenna said. "You've been avoiding me, Nina. Why?"

"I . . . It's complicated."

"Is it because I'm Riley's vice principal?"

Oh jeez. I hadn't even thought of that.

"I've got to go," I repeated.

"Liar, liar," Tam yelled.

I was seriously thinking about wringing her neck.

"I thought we had . . . something," MacKenna said.

"We . . . did." I swallowed. "We do."

"Then why?"

Taking a deep breath, I let all my misgivings hang out in a big rush of words. "I can't be the other woman, Robert. I can't. Not after what Kevin did to me, and even if he hadn't. It's just not in me to be a home wrecker. You're married, and I won't cross those lines."

"But Nina, I—"

I hung up before he said something to make me change my mind and question my morals.

Almost immediately the phone rang again. I sprinted to Tam's desk. "Don't answer it!"

Her hand inched toward the receiver.

"Don't!" I warned.

"You're being chicken," she said.

Another ring.

I grabbed Sassy off her desk. "If you answer that phone, Sassy's gonna be nothing but a stem," I said, holding a leaf between two fingers.

The phone rang again. Tam gasped. "You wouldn't!"

I tugged.

"No!" she shouted, eyes all wide. "Fine! I won't answer. Just put her down."

The phone kicked over to voice mail. "And if he calls again, you're going to say what?"

"You're busy," Tam mumbled, not taking her eyes off her prized African violet.

Carefully, I set Sassy back on the desk and backtracked into my office before Tam hole-punched me.

Back at my desk, I opened my bottom drawer and stared at the stack of Almond Joys. Robert had been sending me them once a week since the day I'd almost passed out in his office from hunger.

I plucked one out of the drawer, tore open the wrapper, and tried really hard to get Robert MacKenna off my mind. Work. I needed to focus on work.

Verona Frye wanted a mini. Leaning back in my chair, I could just imagine what she considered mini. I seriously needed to learn how to tell my baby sister no.

Part of me wanted to pawn this project off onto Deanna, an up and coming designer, but I had the feeling Maria wouldn't stand for anyone other than me doing the job. As I wondered how to get out of doing the mini, I doubleclicked to check my e-mail. It took a few minutes to delete spam. Served me right for not checking my mail for a few days.

One e-mail in particular caught my attention:
[email protected]
. It wasn't unusual for Nate to e-mail me. We'd been sending backyard plans back and forth for a while now.

This e-mail, however, had come in yesterday, which made me hurry to double-click it open.

First off, I checked the time: 8:45 a.m. My gaze then jumped to the text.

Nina, no time to explain—my boss is waiting for me.

I've messengered a package to you. Could you bring it

with you this afternoon when you meet Maria and me

at the house? Whatever you do, don't open it, and

don't tell Maria about it. Thanks much. Nate.

Two things struck me. One, that Nate had fully intended to meet with Maria and me yesterday. Second—I looked around my office—I hadn't received any package. I found Tam, clipboard in hand, pencil between her teeth, taking stock of the fridge in the lounge area.

There didn't seem to be any lingering hard feelings about Sassy as she looked up, removed the pencil. "There's a Mountain Dew missing."

I didn't even want to know how she knew that. "I bet
he
drinks Mountain Dew."

Oh. We were back to being paranoid about Leo Barker. "I drink it too, once in a while."

Her gaze narrowed. "Maybe, but I'd know if
you
drank it." 

I didn't want to know how she'd know that either. I think maybe I was too predictable. "Tam," I said, "did I happen to get any packages yesterday? Something by messenger?"

"Lyle."

"Who's Lyle?"

"The messenger."

"Oh."

"Do you know what happened to the package Lyle brought?"

Her eyes widened. "With those men here yesterday, I forgot to give it to you. Then you left and I didn't want to leave it here overnight, because if it was special enough to be messengered, then well, it must be important, right? I didn't want Leo to put his sticky fingers on it." She stood up slowly, wobbled slightly. "Now look! Look what he's done! He's making me incompetent at my job!"

I'd never seen her so angry. It was the first time she hadn't sounded like Queen Elizabeth in the three years I'd known her. "Tam," I soothed. "It's okay. It's not important at all. Just something from Nate."

She walked over to her desk, rifled through her tote. "I forgot I had it."

Which said a lot. Tam never forgot anything. Ever.

Whatever animosity she held toward Leo was taking its toll on her. That, and maybe the six pounds of baby and twenty-five pounds of water she was carting around. She handed me a small five-by-seven manila envelope. "You've got to get rid of him, Nina."

There was no need to specify who the "him" was. Since she felt so strongly about it, I considered it, but the thought of unlawful termination lawsuits flitted through my head. "Let me think about it, Tam," I said to appease her. "In the meantime, why don't you run a more thorough background check on him?" All Leo's references had panned out, but maybe Tam, with her notorious computer skills, could dig deeper. If nothing else, it would keep her busy. Her chin dropped down, and she fiddled with one of the buttons on her blouse. "Tam?"

"I already did."

I should have been shocked, but I wasn't. "And?"

She looked up. "Clean," she grumbled.

"And?" I knew Tam wouldn't stop there. "I'm still digging. I've got feelers out."

"Just don't get arrested," I said, turning.

"Oh, don't worry about me," she said regally. "Him. It's him you need to worry about."

Envelope in hand, I ducked into my office and closed the door.

My inner voice begged me to take my letter opener to that manila. However, Nate had specifically asked me not to open it.

But, that voice argued, Nate had gone missing, and what was in that envelope might help him. Oh, the decisions.

I shook, squeezed, and held the package to the light. Whatever it was had a square shape and was flexible. Nate was missing, I told myself as I reached for the letter opener . . . Or was he?

I still hadn't heard from Maria this morning. It was entirely possible that Nate had shown up in the middle of the night full of excuses and apologies.

I jumped at the knock on my door. Kit poked his head in. "Found the new guy lurking in the parking lot." He shoved Leo into the room.

"Didn't want to be too early," Leo said, all wide eyes and innocence. "I was taking a look around, trying to familiarize myself with the grounds."

"Hah!" I heard Tam cry out from the other room.

Kit folded meaty arms across his chest and gave Leo a look that should have had him shaking in his Docs. His explanation had made perfect sense, but with Tam's feelings about him, and my own questions about how he'd learned about this job in the first place . . . I doubted him. Sue me.

I tucked Nate's envelope into my backpack. "Actually, Leo, I wanted to ask you about some—"

The buzz of my cell phone cut me off.
M
aria
. Leo would have to wait.

As I flipped open my phone, I thanked Kit again for his help the night before with Maria's door and asked him to show Leo around. In other words, babysit. "Maria?"

"Ever heard of ricin?"

I sighed. "Do you really want to poison him?"

"Yes," she said.

"So, he still hasn't shown up?"

"Nope."

"No calls?"

"Nope."

I really didn't like what I was hearing.

"Well, not from him. I did get a call from Nate's secretary this morning. She just wanted me to know that Nate's boss came back yesterday afternoon and told everyone she was resigning. Said she'd be back today to clean out her office. When Nate's secretary asked her about Nate, she got the brush-off."

A horn blared in the background. "What was that?"

"Idiot driver didn't want me to pass him." More likely, she cut him off.

I held the phone away from my ear as she yelled, "Dammit, bimbo, the gas is on the right! The right!"

Horns shrieked and tires squealed.

"
Where a
re you?" I asked.

"Coming to get you."

"Me!?"

"I'm going to the Kalypso. I made an appointment to meet with Claire Battiste. If she knows what's good for her, she better tell me where Nate is. If she doesn't know what's good for her, I need you there to back up my claims of self-defense."

Could it be deemed self-defense if it was premeditated? "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"I'll go alone—"

"No!" Jeez, with her temper, there was no telling what she would do. "I'll go. I'll call Ana too." I might need her help to restrain Maria if it came to that.

"Fine. I'll be there in ten minutes." I hung up and called Ana.

"Ana Bertoli, probation officer extraordinaire," she said dryly.

"Hi," I said. "Listen, I don't think you're feeling well."

"Huh?"

"Cough."

Ana hacked. "Why? What's up?"

"You need to go home sick."

She coughed some more. Added a sniffle and a moan. "What're we up to?" she whispered.

"Going on a field trip."

She coughed some more, added a wheeze. "How sad is it that that excites me? I really need a man, Nina."

"Maybe you'll find one at the Kalypso."

"The Kalypso?
You're
going to the Kalyspo? Are you out of your mind?"

Her voice sounded so hoarse I almost believed she was ill. "No, I'm not."

She coughed some more. "Do I need to remind you—"

I cut her off. "No, you don't."

"Oh, we'll see about that."

"Can you be at my house in twenty minutes? Maria and I will meet you there."

"Yeah, but I really don't think you should—"

" 'Bye!" I hung up before she could launch into an inventory of my past sins that involved casinos and too much liquor.

I left Kit in charge of the office. With the rain, there wasn't much anyone could do. Catch up on paperwork, tend to the tools, clean the storage barn . . .

Dragging my backpack up onto my lap, I pulled out the envelope Nate had sent.

I tucked it into the front pouch and pulled the zipper closed.

I'd wait to see what we'd learn at the Kalypso before I opened it.

Out the front window, I saw Maria's Mercedes fishtail into TBS's parking lot, the windshield wipers on high. I looked back at Tam. She was holding her hole punch with a speculative gleam in her eye.

"Behave," I called to her before pulling the door closed. I thought I heard an insane laugh float out.

Great. I made a mental note to make sure Leo was still alive when I got back.

Maria honked. Through the windshield, I saw her throw her hands up in a what's-taking-so-long motion. She was never one for patience.

I opened the door and choked as a haze of Chanel No. 5 engulfed me like a bear hug.

As I got in, I said, "Jeez, Maria, you have enough perfume on?"

"No," she said, backing out. She sniffed. "And it wouldn't hurt for you to wear some. That, and," she said, eyeing me critically, "a little makeup wouldn't kill you either." I checked my reflection in the window. A thin red scar arched above my left eye. My dark green eyes looked nearly brown in the dismal light, and the bags that hung beneath them didn't help my self-esteem any.