Deep In Death: A Shelby Nichols Adventure by Colleen Helme
“I’d appreciate it,” Uncle Joey said. He leveled me with a cold stare. “I just need my lawyer to make sure the papers are in order before I sign them.”
“Uncle Joey, you don’t need Chris for that,” Kate chimed in, a little offended. “I’m a lawyer too. I’ve been working on the paperwork with Alec’s lawyers. I’ll make sure everything is done right, and you can read over every little detail with me before you sign.”
Uncle Joey studied Kate before he nodded his agreement. “Hmm…you’re right. That should work.” He put his hand on Chris’ shoulder and pursed his lips into a wry smile. “I guess you’re off the hook. That should make Shelby happy.”
I felt the blood rush to my face, but decided to make light of it. “Uncle Joey, you are such a tease.”
No one moved a muscle. How could I say that to a mob boss and live? Even Chris was waiting for Uncle Joey’s reaction. To my great relief, Uncle Joey laughed. “Shelby…you are a treasure. And I mean that in the best way.” He took my arm. “I hope you had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you for coming. Let me see you both out.” I caught a stray thought from Julia that if I wasn’t related, I’d probably be going to my execution…in fact, I still might.
Uncle Joey ushered me and Chris out of the room and down the hall. Dropping his voice, he said, “I take it you heard something that’s made you nervous.”
“Yes…I did,” I said, grateful he wasn’t as bad as everyone thought. “I’m not sure you should go through with this merger. Jon isn’t real happy with his mother. He doesn’t think his father would approve. In fact, he thought his dad hated you. He’s going through with the merger, but he’s hoping to figure out a way to take you out of the equation. I don’t know if that means he’s planning to kill you to do it, or what. That part wasn’t real clear.”
Uncle Joey let out a breath. “All right. Thank you Shelby.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Make plans of my own.”
“Do you need me to come?” I asked, feeling Chris stiffen beside me.
“No,” he answered. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll have Ramos with me, and if what you say is true about Alec being in love with Kate, I’m sure we can use that to our advantage.”
“It’s true. He does love her.”
“Good. Then we should be fine.”
“All right,” I said. “But don’t trust anyone… and watch your back.”
“I will,” he answered.
Chapter 6
We drove home in silence. Since Kate had gotten Chris off the hook, did that mean I owed her one? Ugh, I hated being in her debt.
Chris was another story. He was miffed that I’d offered to go with Manetto, especially after the way I’d blurted that he couldn’t go. That was embarrassing. At least Manetto took it all in stride. But that was pretty stupid of me. Even he was nervous about how Manetto would handle my comment about the teasing part. It made him sweat just to think about it. Sometimes I was just so clueless…
He glanced at me and noticed my wide-eyed stare. “Oh shit! Uh…sorry. I didn’t mean…well, I guess since I’m thinking all those things I meant them, but I would never say you were stupid. I mean…I don’t think you’re stupid…not at all. It’s just that…you know…that was a little tense back there.”
“Yeah…I know. I get it.” I knew I shouldn’t feel bad, but that didn’t make his thoughts any less hurtful. I should have put up my shields once he got started, but I already knew without hearing his thoughts that he wasn’t happy with me…just not the stupid and clueless part. I guess I did say stuff I shouldn’t. “Stupid, clueless, and naïve…I guess that’s me in a nutshell.”
“Shelby…you know I didn’t mean it.”
“Yeah…I know. It’s my fault that I heard, so just forget about it. Okay?”
Chris sighed deeply. He knew from my tone of voice that he’d hurt my feelings. He also knew apologizing wasn’t going to help. I put my shields up after that, like I should have earlier. Was I a glutton for punishment, or what? It must be the stupid part of me. I closed my eyes and sighed. Now I was feeling sorry for myself.
Chris reached over, took my hand, and rubbed his thumb across my knuckles. “I remember the first time I saw you at that frat party. You took my breath away. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. I even forgot I was there with another girl. Remember how long we just sat there and talked about everything? From then on I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it.
“What?” I asked, shocked. “I thought talking to you for so long was my idea. You really felt that way?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Shelby, you have no idea. I tried to seem like I was all macho and everything, but you really had me tied in knots. Now, times like tonight and seeing you in that gorgeous dress…well…you still make my heart race. The luckiest day of my life was meeting you at that party. I just…I want you to know that I’m sorry I made you feel bad. You’re an amazing woman…you’re not perfect…thank God…because neither am I, but you’re perfect for me, and that’s all I need.”
We pulled into the garage and Chris cut the engine. He glanced at me and noticed that my eyes had filled with tears. Even though they were the good kind, Chris groaned and quickly got out to open my door. He pulled me out of the car and held me close. With his strong arms around me, my distress was forgotten, and I sank into his arms in complete surrender.
“Thanks honey,” I said, pulling back just enough to look into his warm brown eyes. “I love you so much.” Our lips met in a crushing kiss that turned my insides to mush and curled my toes. Needing to breathe, we finally pulled apart.
“Let’s go inside,” Chris said.
“Oh baby, oh baby,” I giggled.
***
When I woke the next morning, Chris was already up and cooking breakfast. It was Saturday, and the smell of bacon hit me like an elixir, dragging me to the kitchen. Savannah and Josh were already up, and the table was set. I gasped in surprise. This was a minor miracle in my house, and I couldn’t help clapping my hands with joy.
The rest of the weekend went by in a blur, and it wasn’t until Monday that I got back to my case. I hadn’t heard anything from Uncle Joey, so I figured no news was good news. Today was my appointment with Sean Hanley, and I quickly got ready to meet him. I hoped he was the one so I could close the case, but on the other hand, meeting with a serial killer kind of freaked me out…if that’s what he was. At least we were meeting at the office, so I didn’t need to be afraid anything bad would happen, right?
As I slipped on my shoes, my cell phone rang. The caller ID said it was Billie, and I quickly answered. “Hi Billie. What’s up?”
“You’ll never believe this, but Addie, the Attorney General’s secretary, just called me. Did you watch the interview Saturday at the A.G.’s office?”
“Uh…no.”
“You didn’t? I thought for sure you’d watch it.”
I grimaced from her disappointed tone, hoping I wasn’t in too much trouble. “Sorry, but I had a lot going on over the weekend.” I didn’t dare tell her I’d forgotten all about it.
“Oh…well, I got in a couple of good questions, and I really think I’ve got him scrambling. Addie seemed quite upset about the whole thing, and she called me late last night to set up a clandestine meeting. She wanted to make sure no one saw her, so we decided to meet at Gracie’s Tavern around nine-thirty tonight. It’s kind of out of the way, so that seemed like a good place to meet. She wanted you to come too. Can you make it?”
“Sure,” I agreed. “I’ll be there.”
“Good.” She gave me directions and we disconnected.
I let out a sigh and rushed to finish getting ready. At least Addie had called Billie first, so that was a plus. I also hoped she actually had something concrete to go on so I didn’t have to push her into a corner by reading her mind. That would make Billie happier about the whole thing, and I wouldn’t have to lie about my facts.
As I contemplated my next move with Sean, I realized that if I felt like I was in too deep, maybe I could ask Billie to help me. I’d helped her, so turn-a-bout was fair play, right?
Once again, I pulled into the parking structure where Darcy had been taken. Too bad I wasn’t really a psychic, then maybe I could pick up some kind of latent energy and figure out what had happened. Oh well…I didn’t really believe in that stuff. Of course, what was so different about it than reading minds?
Did that mean that since I could read minds, a whole bunch of other stuff was possible too? I’d never thought of it that way, and it kind of made me sick to my stomach. Could it be true? What if people really did have premonitions, or were psychics, or ghost whisperers. In fact, just the other day in the Reader’s Digest, I’d read about people who’d suffered brain injuries. One woke up speaking with an accent; another saw mathematical patterns, and one more played the piano for hours with no musical training. I was probably like them, although I’d never heard of anyone reading minds. Of course, if they knew what was good for them, they’d keep it to themselves.
I entered the lobby and made my way to Marketing Solutions. I walked in and the secretary smiled, thinking that Sean hadn’t made it in yet and wasn’t I early? I checked my watch. It was nine fifty-nine. What was early about that? In fact, for once, I wasn’t late. “Hi,” I greeted her. “Shelby Nichols…here to see Sean.”
“Yes. Hi Shelby. He’s not here yet, but he should be walking in any moment now. Would you like to take a seat until he gets here?”
“Sure.” I sat down where she could see me waiting and glanced around the room. I hated waiting, but tried to get my thoughts in order for the upcoming interview. I had to admit that my palms were a little sweaty just thinking about how this meeting might go. What if Sean was the killer? I’d have to be careful that I didn’t give anything away since I certainly didn’t want him stalking me next.
The door flew open, and a man in jeans and a graphic tee shirt strode in. His hair was cut short, and he was clean-shaven and wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He was fairly good-looking in a boyish sort of way and, with sneakers, looked like he belonged in a band or something.
Relief poured from the secretary, so I knew this was Sean. He blinked a few times, like he wasn’t sure where he was, then glanced at me and smiled, surprised. “Uh…hi…you must be Shelby Nichols. I’m Sean.” He extended his hand.
“Yes. Nice to meet you.” I shook his hand, surprised to find such a firm grip.
“So…um…you wanted to talk to me?” he asked. At my nod, he continued, “Let’s go into my office then.” I followed him into a spacious office with windows overlooking the golf course. The room was bare of any personal items like photos or knick-knacks, and the desk didn’t even have a computer on it. The secretary must have cleaned it though, because there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere, and I could still smell the scent of lemon furniture polish.
Sean hastily sat behind his desk and motioned for me to take the seat facing him. He studied me with shrewd eyes, thinking I was the first customer who’d ever wanted to meet him, and wondered if there was another motive besides the obvious one.
“I don’t get into the office much,” he began. “I work at home, mostly. So, what can I do for you?”
“I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me. I hope it didn’t interfere with your busy schedule too much.”
“No…it’s okay,” he said. Something about me set off his internal alarms. What did I really want from him?
Damn. This wasn’t going very well. “I don’t know if you know about my business, but I have a consulting agency and I’m considering hiring your company. I always make it a practice to meet everyone I plan to work with, just to see if it’s a good fit for me. I met everyone in your company, but when I found out you were the brains behind the system, I wanted to meet you too. Does that make sense?”
“Oh…sure.” He thought it made a lot of sense, and he was flattered that I appreciated his contribution. He’d better do what he could to sell me on it. “The system we use is top-notch, and I make sure everything’s up to date.” He hadn’t done an update for a while, but unless Craig found a problem, he probably wouldn’t. As long as the program got the job done and made him lots of money, he was more than happy to leave it alone.
“Great,” I said. “So, you actually wrote the code for this system? You must know a lot about computers.”
“Yeah, I graduated in computer science.” He was thinking he was mostly self-taught because he was so smart, and hadn’t actually graduated, but I didn’t need to know that.
“So…are you working on any new programs?”
My question caught him by surprise and he glanced at me sharply. “Maybe. Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seems that since you don’t come here very often, you must have something else you’re working on.”
“Like what?” His heart rate jumped. Did I know something? How? He was a genius, no one knew about that part of his life. It was the reason he never got caught.
“Oh…you know…in case I wanted to invest? Like…get in on the ground floor of a future computer program and make lots of money?”
“Oh...I get it. Sorry…I can’t talk about that.” Relieved, he settled back in his seat. “Intellectual property contracts and all that, so it looks like you’re out of luck.” Now that he knew that’s why I was interested in him, he could relax his guard a little and study me. He liked what he saw. “So what’s your company called?”
“Uh…Shelby Nichols Consulting Agency,” I answered, suddenly nervous.
“And what do you do?”
“Lots of things,” I shrugged. “Most of my jobs are helping people find things out. Lately, I had a mom call to find out what her daughter did after school while she was at work. Stuff like that.”
His eyes narrowed. “Like a private eye?”
“Not exactly.” I knew admitting that would be a mistake. “I’m more like a consultant. But I could move into that if I had some help. First I need to get my name out there, then I could hire people to work for me and do that kind of stuff too. That’s why I was thinking about hiring your company.”
“Right,” he said. “Well…if that’s what you want to do, then you really should hire us.”
“Yeah…it’s looking more and more like that’s the way to go.”
He smiled, pleased with himself. “Good. Well if that’s all, I need to get going.”
“Thanks for meeting with me.”
“No problem. Glad I could help.” He stood and once again shook my hand. “I hope this turns into a lucrative relationship for both of us.”
“Yes…well…I’ll let you know,” I said. As I walked to the door, I picked up a sense of satisfaction from him that grew into a feeling of euphoria. He was scrambling since his latest target had moved and blown everything he’d worked for all to hell, but with my blond hair and blue eyes, I was the perfect replacement.
I left his office door open and caught that he was going to check out my address and phone number to begin the stalking process. This was perfect timing since his last candidate had moved away right from under his nose a few days ago. He guessed he’d overplayed his hand and scared her too much. But with me it would be different. Since he didn’t have a lot of time left, he couldn’t employ his full arsenal before the deadline, which was probably for the best and could possibly heighten the challenge. He was even thinking, let the games begin, and mentally rubbing his hands together.
Oh hell! I was his next target? Damn! It was him! I faltered just a bit but managed to walk out of there without fainting or anything. The outer door shut behind me, and I leaned against the wall to support my shaking legs. This guy needed to be stopped. Right now. If I followed my instincts, I’d march right back in there and punch him in the stomach and then kick him in the balls. Once he was lying on the floor, I’d kick him a few more times and then stun him with my stun flashlight.
That mental image helped get me out of the building and into my car without once checking to see if he followed me. Let him come. He’d picked the wrong girl to mess with this time. He thought he was so smart, hah! He wouldn’t know what hit him.
I drove home with a new purpose, knowing that whatever he planned to throw at me, I’d have to have a counter-plan. Or I could just ask to meet with him again, tie him up real tight, and ask him questions about where the other women were buried. Even if he didn’t answer, I’d know.
I still might want to torture him a bit anyway, or at the very least, stun him a couple of times. But I could do that. I’d just have to pick the right time and place. Maybe I could even use the basement room in the same building as Thrasher Development. I’d spent some time tied up down there and knew firsthand what a perfect spot it was.
I’d probably need some help. I wasn’t sure Chris would agree to do what I wanted, but he might if he knew I was the next target, although he didn’t have much experience with kidnapping and torture. Dimples was out of the question, but what about Ramos? He had all the necessary skills and lack of conscience that would make him the perfect partner. The only problem with that was not telling Chris anything about it. Could I do that? I wasn’t sure. I only knew that I wasn’t going to be anyone’s victim, and I wasn’t going to end up dead. So that meant being proactive.
Of course, once I knew what Sean had done with the bodies, how was I supposed to get him arrested and help the police build a case against him unless he came after me first? Since I didn’t want that to happen, it left the door open for him to bring charges against me. I could hardly leave him alive if that were the case, but I couldn’t really kill him, no matter how much I might want to. Hmm…I might just need Chris for this after all. He’d know how to build a case without getting me in trouble. But how could I torture him then? Damn! I’d probably have to leave the torturing part out.