Number's Up

by Annabelle Hunter

  Kenneth handed me the pen. “Let’s make this official.”

  Chapter 17

  After a few minutes, there was a knock at the door. Kenneth opened it to reveal Nic, whose gaze went to me instantly and I flushed under his concern. Kenneth watched it silently, before nodding to us both and slipping out, closing the door behind him.

  “Who killed Henry?” I demanded. Oops, wrong question. “Are you okay? No one was hurt?”

  He smiled at my concern. “I’m fine. I wasn’t the one tackling men with guns.” His head tilted forward, hitting me with a glare communicating how unhappy he was with my choice of action as he put down some files on the desk.

  “I was pissed. And not ready to let those two idiots kill me,” I muttered, slightly embarrassed now that the adrenaline had dissipated.

  “Yeah. I heard there is quite the speech for us to listen to later.”

  I blushed. “Henry?” I reminded him.

  “You don’t want to know about Frank and Donald?”

  “No, I think I have a handle on Dumb and Dumber. I want to know why you aren’t arresting Dan Ellson for Henry’s death.”

  “Because Dan has an airtight alibi. He didn’t do it.”

  “How airtight?”

  “He would suffocate.”

  I was pretty sure that meant Dan was innocent. “How?”

  “He was meeting with the DA at the time of the murder. The meeting was supposed to be at 11:30, but the DA was running early and so they rescheduled for 10. He didn’t do it.”

  “Wait, the unsavory character he was meeting with before coming here were you guys?”

  He glared at that but nodded to confirm. Well, that was kind of funny.

  “So, he didn’t do it. Frank didn’t do it. Charlotte didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. Donald didn’t do it. Who did? Because I’m out of people who knew who he was. Was it really just a robbery?”

  “We have no clue.” Nic collapsed into a chair, sending me a frustrated frown.

  “Okay.” What would help us? “More information.”

  “What?” He looked at me like I was crazy.

  “I need more information. We have a problem. There must be a solution. We need more information.”

  “Well, you were there for most of the murder.”

  “Yep. Dude in all black ran me over.”

  “You sure it was a dude?” His eyes lit up.

  “No.” I was no help. “What about the wound?”

  “You sure you want to know?”

  No. “Yes.”

  “Point blank to the chest.”

  “Point blank?” Interesting. He had mentioned that before, but it hadn’t registered. They would have had to walk up to Henry to shoot him. Why would Henry have just stood there? I mean, even I tried to leap at Frank. “And the room was searched, right?”

  “Superficially, yes. Things were thrown around, but nothing taken.”

  “And the cameras?”

  “The one in the hall outside his room was broken and had been for about a week, so we think that it might have been a coincidence. The other cameras didn’t see anything.”

  “Nothing?” I had forgotten about that. How inconvenient.

  “Nothing. We thought maybe they ducked into another room on the floor, but we went through the guest list and no one had any ties to Henry, Tony, or Dan.”

  Missing information. There had to be information missing. What would Henry tell me in this situation? Start at the beginning.

  “Can I go home?”

  “Why?”

  “Well, other than the fact that I’m supposed to have evidence linking Donald to the crime? I want to check something.”

  “Sure.” He picked up the files and his keys as he opened the door.

  Wait. Those were my keys. He had my car? Oh my god. He had driven me here in my car and then drove off in it—

  “Jen. Oh my god, you poor child.” Dorothy was standing right outside, straightening up like she had been listening through the door.

  “Kenneth told you?” I was disappointed. I thought he had more discretion than that.

  “Nope.” She held up her phone.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Grabbing it out of her hands I started to read.

  Perilous Accounts

  Just a little over an hour ago, our own Jennifer Ward was involved in an altercation with the man she was on a date with not three hours ago. Also involved was another man, believed to be her ex-business partner’s son. What the altercation was about is unknown at this time, but witnesses in the resort lobby overheard shouts about ‘proof’. We are assuming that this proof is in reference to the murder of Henry Boyd, who was killed in the same hotel, two days ago. Could Jennifer be involved in her business partner’s death? Or could she be dating a criminal? We will follow up with the police when they make an announcement, as well as Miss Ward’s response to accusations that she was sleeping with a client.

  “I’m not sure if I’m more insulted that she claimed I was sleeping with a client or that I was sleeping with Donald.” That was insensitive. “Sorry, Dorothy. I’m sure that Donald has… good attributes that I have yet to see.”

  “I’m sure he does. When someone finds them, they will have to tell us,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe he was involved. I think I’m more upset that he was that stupid.”

  “That’s what got me, too,” I admitted. “I can forgive being less than normal looking, but stupid? At that level? How is he from your genes?”

  “If he didn’t look so much like Kenneth, I would question that too.”

  Yeah, there really was no denying the two of them were related, even if one was a lot more attractive than the other.

  “Kenneth is a good guy,” I remarked.

  She beamed, every inch a proud grandmother. “He is. He will make a fine leader for this company. Better than my husband was.”

  “Okay, then, I will just be heading home now.”

  “Hold on. I just wanted to tell you that Julia and Logan have decided to move here. In three weeks. Don’t tell Lark. Or Brecken.” She smiled broadly at me with a wink, obviously proud her plan had worked.

  This was going to blow up in their faces. “Sure. Whatever. I know nothing. In fact, that sounds good. I know nothing, saw nothing, you all did it without me.” I grabbed Nic’s hand and started to pull him away. “Remember, I’m a good little monkey statue.”

  “Got it. You two have fun.” She smiled at the two of us like she knew what we were up to, and it wasn’t as innocent as reality.

  “We’re not… He’s not…” I dropped his hand.

  “I’m just glad to see you welcoming our new security expert so warmly.” She waved, as she walked away.

  “She thinks we’re sleeping together,” I groaned.

  “Is that a problem?” He asked with a smirk.

  “Yes. Maybe. No… No, yes. Yes, it is a problem.”

  “Is that your final answer?”

  “No,” I groaned.

  He paused, trying to figure out what question the last no referred to. I used his distraction to get ahead and walked to my car, which he obviously had been driving around all night. Drunk me didn’t even notice that when he drove off earlier, he still had my car, but had noticed the lack of alcohol. I didn’t know if I liked what that said about me. He paused to throw the file in the back seat before getting into the driver’s seat and starting the car.

  “You remember how to get to my house?”

  “Yes.”

  Good. I sat in silence, thinking. Henry had to have guessed that I gave the feds the tip, so he started to protect his son by faking records. But that didn’t explain why he took a vacation to my hometown. Or why he did it with his family and the people involved in the case.

  All the people involved. They were all here.

  Donald, at Henry’s request.

  At the same time the FBI was knocking on my door to finalize the case.

  The same time Dan was
. Even worse, he was meeting with the DA. To make a deal. What did I want to bet that the deal included his partners?

  Everyone was here. Dan was striking a deal.

  What could he do with that?

  He stayed in his dream suite.

  Oh. MY. GOD.

  Scarlett Johansson. I owed Lark an apology for making fun of her Marvel obsession.

  “Do you have a list of all the people staying on that floor?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Can I see it?”

  “Why not? Nothing else is going right on this case.” He came to a stop outside the resort and reached behind me to grab his briefcase, flipping through it to find a folder before handing it to me. While I opened it, he moved back to the road and continued on. Part of me wondered why he had it on him, and in my car, but I was more focused on getting the information out of him before he realized he shouldn’t be talking to a civilian.

  I scanned the names. No… No… No…. Wait. I pulled out my phone, thankful for all those nights I stayed up watching reruns. Yep. Bless my nerdy little heart. Or the anxiety that made it hard for me to sleep.

  “Maggie Hayward.”

  “We didn’t talk to her, but she is a waitress from San Francisco. She was just here for the weekend. Checked out about thirty minutes before the murder. No connection to Henry.”

  “I wonder what car she drives.” Could she have been in the car speeding out of the driveway?

  “Why? We couldn’t find a link.”

  “That’s because she’s connected to Natasha Romanova, or Natalia Romanova depending on your expertise, most recently played by Scarlett Johansson.” And knowing that meant I needed to stop letting Lark control our movies.

  “How?”

  “Maggie Hayward is the name of the girl who becomes Nikita.”

  “The assassin?” Nic’s face was still blank.

  “And Scarlett Johansson was recently Natasha Romanova. Otherwise known as Black Widow.”

  “An assassin. I’m seeing a trend.”

  “Yep.” I was gloating. I tried to hold it in, but it was a full-out gloat.

  “So, you think someone hired an assassin? To kill an accountant who already confessed to everything?”

  “Nope. You’re forgetting something. The emails to Scarlett Johansson were from Henry.”

  Nic pulled off onto the side of the road again.

  I glanced over at Nic’s distracted expression. I was pretty sure he was thinking about the case. Not making out in a car. Because that would be very immature, but I had to admit that after all these missed chances, I was starting to get curious. I mean, lots of people say it’s sexy. Maybe it was time to see for myself.

  “You think he killed himself,” Nic breathed out the words, obviously following my thoughts.

  Talk about a topic change. I couldn’t believe I let myself get so distracted. “Yep.”

  “That explains the gun,” he muttered.

  “The gun?” There was a gun found, and no one told me? I was pissed. And a civilian. They didn’t owe me an explanation. How inconvenient.

  “Dan came back to his room to find the murder weapon. Only he had a federal agent with him.”

  “Henry set him up.” Genius. Also, wow. He must have really disliked Dan. More than Tony.

  “Yes.” Nic’s eyes were unfocused and moving rapidly. Whatever he was thinking, he was thinking it hard.

  “Why would he go to such lengths?”

  “Dan was going to turn over his accomplices. That was what the meeting was about,” Nic admitted. “He signed a document incriminating Frank at the meeting and was going to sign one about another partner, who we know assume is Donald, later that day. Before the murder.”

  Haha. I was right. I was a criminal crime-solving genius. And so humble.

  “You think that he committed suicide to incriminate Dan? Dan goes down for Henry’s murder and it discredits Dan’s plea deal that blamed Frank for the fraud?”

  “I guess. I mean, it might have worked had the timing been better. Everyone has readily believed it was Dan, even without any evidence.”

  “I still think that it was stupid,” I grumbled.

  “It is elaborate,” Nic agreed. “You really think he sent you evidence?”

  “No.” I sighed. “He probably lied to make sure that they didn’t do anything stupid.” That also meant that he had set me up to find his body. Why? Why would he want me to do that?

  “Why are you looking so sad?” Nic asked.

  “Henry set me up to find him.” And that hurt.

  “You were supposed to meet at nine, remember? I bet he moved the assassination to accommodate and the timeline got messed up,” Nic admitted. “Henry was told about our second search ahead of time. Well, to be honest, I’m guessing he overheard the conversation during one of our last interviews.”

  “You sure your boss isn’t trying to get rid of you?” I glared. “Talking about the investigation in front of one of the perpetrators seems stupid.”

  “One, you are using the word ‘stupid’ a lot tonight. Two, I was talking to her, so no, she isn’t trying to get rid of me.”

  He glared, but I just shrugged. They made the mistake. I just pointed it out.

  “Why didn’t you have a warrant ready?” It occurred to me that if this had been planned, they should have.

  “Honestly? We were going to, but it got held up at the last minute. I went to your house to see if we could get in anyway, but you were stubborn.” He gave me a sheepish smile. “I was on my way to your house to serve the warrant when I ran into you at the resort on the morning he was killed. I was delayed by another case.” He sat for a second. “That’s a lie.”

  Okay. I just waited for him to continue.

  “I came a day early to see if I could fix my original impression.”

  Wow. “You failed.”

  “Yeah. It didn’t go the way I wanted. I panicked a little.”

  That was so cute. But we were talking about Henry.

  “Then who was supposed to find Henry?”

  “Probably Carrie. She had a meeting at ten-thirty.”

  That made me feel better. We pulled up at my house. I studied it without leaving the car. I didn’t know what to do. My reasons for coming here were voided. If we weren’t looking for evidence, what were we looking for?

  “Why aren’t you getting out?” Nic asked, after a second.

  “I don’t know what I’m looking for.” I sighed. “The house has been searched twice by the FBI. Once by Dumb or Dumber. One of the two. I haven’t chosen which Frank is. Dumb or Dumber. All the ideas I had were about Henry’s murder. Not suicide. There probably isn’t even a letter with proof, which explains why no one can find it.” I pursed my lips, studying the house again, as if something might occur to me. I mean, that should be what happened, right? I would have an epiphany and know right where it is. That happened in TV shows.

  Maybe I needed someone to say something inspiring? Where are all the nosy gossip queens when I need them?

  “Do you want to go back to the resort?” Nic asked, putting his hand on my thigh to reassure me.

  Well, that wasn’t helping me think.

  “No. Maybe we can look around and see if anything inspires me?” There had to be something. Maybe if I went in and thought about it.

  “Sure. Worth a try.” Nic shut the car off and opened his door, following me up the walkway.

  I took the keys and unlocked the front door, looking around to see if anything looked disturbed or a good place to hide something that may or may not be evidence. I flicked on my lights and glanced around.

  Chaos. Complete chaos.

  Nothing was where it was supposed to be.

  Books were thrown across the floor. My throw pillows were on the ground, making walking hazards. My drawers were all open, their contents strewn about the floor.

  I was going to be sick.

  “It’s going to take me forever to get everything back in its place
.” I spun around, trying to take it all in. Or avoid taking it all in. I couldn’t tell. Or decide.

  I needed air. More air. Different air.

  I needed to start now.

  I couldn’t leave it like this.

  Everything needed to be put away.

  Now. Everything in its place.

  Nic grabbed my hand and brought it in front of him, forcing me to turn into him. “It can wait. I can help you. But do it tomorrow. After your massage.”

  No. I couldn’t relax until I started cleaning—

  His eyes had me caught and I could feel the pressure in my chest relaxing. “It can wait,” he repeated, brushing my cheek with his hand.

  I breathed out. “You’re right.” It could wait.

  “Of course, I am.” He smirked before his face went serious. His eyes hooded and dropped to my lips. “How drunk are you still?” His voice had dropped an octave. And gotten rumbly.

  I liked that. I stepped closer, smiling shyly at him. My chest was still heaving for breath, although for a completely different reason. His hand clenched on mine and pulled slowly, encouraging me closer. I leaned into him, lifting up on my toes to get as close as I could to his lips. He—

  “Please don’t.”

  I screamed and pushed Nic away.

  There was someone else here. A female someone else.

  Screaming and pushing him away ended up being stupid, since he had been leaning toward me when I pushed, which meant he wasn’t balanced. He took a step backward, but his foot met a throw pillow, tripping him and causing him to land on his butt, his phone sliding across the floor with a clang.

  “Okay, I take it back. That was funny. Feel free to throw the FBI agent around more.” The female voice was definitely amused.

  I didn’t recognize the voice, even after my panic settled a little and I spun around, searching for the source. Only the movement itself told me that someone was in the shadows. She was dressed in all black, covering even her face and hair. I wouldn’t be able to tell the police anything about her.

  Typical. Once again, I was useless.

  “Don’t even think of reaching for the gun, FBI.” More movement, but this time I recognized enough to know what it was. A gun. Another gun.

  What was up with tonight? And I need to work on my stress responses. The screaming thing might have just gotten us killed. I was a CPA. I could handle stressed out CEOs and angry managers. I didn’t scream when startled. Except for tonight. Then again, CEOs didn’t jump out of the dark at me.