“I don’t love you,” Velma said, and even to her own ears the words sounded false.
A few miles away, Pruitt was telling his troubles to Jake.
“Take this blonde I saw right before I got shot. I’m telling you, Caliber, she was about the hottest little piece I ever saw. If that came on to me… I don’t know if I’d be able to resist temptation.”
Jake rubbed a hand over his face. Pruitt had been going on about his fear that he could never be faithful to Rayne, and it was boring Jake to tears.
“Pruitt?”
“Yeah?”
“Why not worry about things like that later on? You know, after you’ve actually gotten Rayne to agree to go on a date with you.”
Pruitt hung his head.
“You think I’m being stupid because I’m worried about cheating on a woman who doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“I’m just saying, first things first, hmm? Get Rayne to go out with you, then see where it goes from there.”
Pruitt raised his head and smiled. “Thanks, Jake. You know, you’re not the smug prick I thought you were.”
“You’re growing on me too, Pruitt.”
Pruitt was about to say something else, but he stopped as he spotted the driver of a car that went past them going in the opposite direction.
Jake had followed his gaze and turned his head to look at the car.
“What, was that the daughter and her boyfriend?”
“No,” Pruitt said. “That was our client.”
“Mike Carlson?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, how did you know that, Caliber?”
“A lucky guess. He’s about the only one beside Llewellyn who has a reason to care about the robbery that took place at the other store.”
“The dude is pissed. The daughter’s boyfriend really gave him a working over. He wants them both to pay. It’s why he hired Pruitt/Carver.”
“Yeah, but why is your client riding past this location?” Jake asked. Then, he realized that the store Velma was guarding was in the direction Mike Carlson’s car was traveling. Jake took out his phone to call her.
Velma and Sammy had been staring into each other’s eyes when her phone vibrated, alerting her that she had a call.
After clearing her throat, she answered Jake’s call.
“What’s up?”
“I’ve confirmed that Pruitt’s client is Llewellyn’s employee, Mike Carlson. He’s trying to go behind Carlson’s back to have the daughter arrested.”
“Ah, so that’s why we’re working on the same case.”
“Yeah, but get this, Pruitt just spotted the guy driving past us. He was headed your way in a late-model red Mazda 3. I only caught a glimpse of the plate, but the last three digits were 826.”
“We’re only a few minutes away from you. If I spot him, I’ll call you back.”
“Do that, Velma. And hey, how are things going there?”
“Sammy and I are keeping each other amused.”
“Yeah, Pruitt is a lot of laughs too.”
Jake ended the call, then sat and listened to Pruitt whine about how Rayne wasn’t being fair to him. When Velma called back and said she had spotted the red Mazda, and that Sammy had confirmed it was Mike Carlson driving, Jake’s sense for danger began sounding an alarm.
After shushing Pruitt, Jake called Chris to tell him about Mike Carlson.
Rayne had grown silent after Chris had hurt her feelings, but her emotions didn’t get in the way of her doing her job. It was she who spotted the flashlight bobbing around inside the jewelry store.
The front of the store was protected by bullet-resistant glass. Although the interior of the store was dark, spotlights highlighted items in the display window.
Rayne had seen a flash of light moving around behind the display and correctly identified it for what it was.
Without saying a word to Christopher, Rayne took out her phone and dialed the police.
“Yes, my name is Rayne Carver. I’m a private detective and I’d like to report a robbery in progress at Llewellyn Jewelers.”
Chris stared at her with confusion showing, but then he too caught the beam of the flashlight moving about the closed shop.
“Damn it, Rayne. Why didn’t you tell me they were here?”
“You work your case, Christopher, and I’ll work mine.”
Chris got out of the car and headed for the shop just as Jake’s call came in.
“Jake, they’re here, and I’m going in. But Rayne’s already called the police. I’ll call you back once I have Llewellyn’s daughter.”
Chris put away his phone so fast that he never heard his brother’s cry of warning concerning Mike Carlson.
As Rayne left the car and followed Christopher toward the rear of the shop, Mike Carlson grew closer to their location. On the front seat of Carlson’s car was a sawed-off shotgun.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Shea O’Reilly followed Stan Harper to a block on the high end of the Upper West Side.
Harper stood outside a liquor store while gazing in the direction of an apartment building across the street. The apartment building was beside a church, while a row of townhouses was at its left side.
Stan Harper alternated from staring inside the liquor store and peering over at the apartment house.
Shea wondered if he were debating whether to grab a bottle to get drunk on, or was working up his courage to attack Leslie when she arrived home.
One of Harper’s hands was still inside his jacket pocket and holding on to something as if for dear life.
Shea hoped it wasn’t a gun.
She thought of calling Hector to warn him about Harper, but if she did that, she would have to admit that she was watching Hector’s back.
The big man wouldn’t like that. He had told Shea in no uncertain terms that he could handle himself.
Shea decided to wait and see what Harper would do once Leslie came home. If he made a move to harm the woman, then, Shea would step in and arrest him.
Hector would still be furious, but he’d also be safe.
After staring into the window of the liquor store again, Harper turned and bolted across the street.
Shea left her vehicle to follow him. She was certain he was planning to break into Leslie’s apartment to wait for her to return home, but she was wrong.
What Stan Harper did next took Shea totally by surprise.
“Faster, Pruitt!” Jake said, although he didn’t need to do so. Pruitt was driving like he was being pursued by the Devil himself.
Jake told Pruitt he thought Mike Carlson might be using him as a stalking horse, along with Rayne, and Sammy Sloan. Once Llewellyn’s daughter and her boyfriend were cornered and restrained, they’d be that much easier to handle.
“You mean he’d kill them, and Rayne along with them?”
“It’s possible,” Jake said, “If he’s crazy enough.” That was when Pruitt hung a sharp U-turn to speed toward Rayne’s location.
“She’s not answering her phone,” Pruitt said, and Jake heard the fear in his voice.
“We’ll get there in time, Pruitt, don’t worry,” Jake said, even as he felt concern for Christopher’s safety.
Rayne reached a hand inside the darkened jewelry store. After feeling the light switch, she flipped on the overhead fluorescents inside the back room.
From farther within the shop a female voice cried out in surprise, even as a deep male voice let out a string of curses.
Rayne and Christopher moved out of the storeroom and saw Llewellyn’s daughter, Emily. She was standing beside a muscular young man with short blond hair and a wild look in his eyes. The punk had dropped his flashlight and taken out a cheap revolver.
When he saw that Christopher and Rayne had their own guns drawn and pointed in his direction, he grabbed Emily and shoved her at them.
Emily Llewellyn stumbled and fell at their feet. Rayne bent over to grab hold of the girl while Christopher leapt over her to pursue her male
partner.
“Place Emily in my car, Rayne,” Christopher called, but as he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw that Rayne was taking out a set of handcuffs. He guessed correctly that she was planning to hold on to Emily until she could hand her over to the cops.
Christopher nearly stopped his pursuit of the punk with the gun, but he feared what the man might do on the streets with the weapon.
Despite knowing that he might be failing the client by allowing his daughter to be arrested, Christopher couldn’t let the punk escape. He had seen the look in the man’s eyes and had no doubt that he would harm anyone who got in his way.
The man had to be stopped, and he was the only one around to do it. As he ran along, Chris felt his phone vibrate, but he ignored it. His prey was in sight and beginning to slow.
Rayne cuffed Emily Llewellyn’s wrists behind her back, then called the police and informed them that a thief had just fled the jewelry store.
She had made no mention of Emily, and felt sympathy for the girl, who was crying at her feet.
“Get up,” Rayne said, as she took Emily by the arm.
“Rudy said he loved me, then he just shoved me away and left me here,” Emily said.
“Men say a lot of things for sex, but it’s their actions that count,” Rayne said, and realized that she was talking to herself.
“That was Chris!” Jake said, as he spotted his brother chasing after someone holding a gun.
Pruitt came to a hard stop on the next corner and pointed down an alleyway.
“You can cut them off by heading down that way.”
“Right,” Jake said. He knew the streets of New York better than most and had played stickball in the alley once as a kid. Due to the alley’s angle, he would catch up with Chris if he ran full out.
“I’m going to find Rayne,” Pruitt said. He sped off the instant Jake left the van.
Rayne had placed Emily Llewellyn in Christopher’s car as he’d requested, but it was only because it was convenient to do so. Like Christopher, her phone had vibrated while she was working. Rayne hadn’t answered it. She had needed both hands to handle the sobbing girl she had apprehended. Once Emily was in the car, she checked her phone and saw that Pruitt had been trying to reach her.
Rayne sighed. He was probably just calling to ask her for a date again.
When the police arrived, she would hand Emily over as she had been paid to do. Afterward, she would call Pruitt and Sammy Sloan to tell them it was over. Once back at the office, she would send her client a text, informing him that he had spent his money well.
Rayne had no sooner thought of her client when he appeared. Mike Carlson drifted out of the passing traffic, parked his car in front of Christopher’s vehicle, and stepped out into the street.
Rayne almost didn’t recognize the face buried under the folds of the hood Carlson wore, but the discoloration around his eye gave him away.
“Mr. Carlson? What are you doing here?”
“You caught the bitch, good.”
In the backseat of the car, Emily’s tears ceased, but her face had become a mask of fear.
“The police will be here soon, Mr. Carlson. I suggest you leave if you hope to remain anonymous.”
“I don’t care about that. All I want is to pay back this devious bitch for using me the way she did.”
Rayne looked over at Emily, saw the terror in the girl’s eyes, and knew that something was wrong.
“I’m sorry, Miss Carver,” Carlson said. “But I can’t leave a witness alive.”
When Carlson’s right hand came from behind his back holding a gun, it took Rayne by surprise. She went for the weapon on her hip, aware that she’d never bring it up in time.
Jake’s heart beat faster when he heard an exchange of gunfire coming from around a bend in the alley. When he reached Christopher’s side, he saw a cop he knew slightly, then realized it was the officer’s gun he had heard.
Lying at the cop’s feet was the body of the young man Chris had been chasing.
The cop, a young man himself, looked up at Jake, and Jake could see he appeared shaken.
“This guy took a shot at me as I was headed inside the store here to get a coffee. I… I had to shoot him. He left me no choice.”
“He tried to rob a jewelry store,” Chris said. “You’ll find his prints on a flashlight he dropped at the scene.”
The cop sent Chris a nod, then used a trembling hand to tap his shoulder mic to call dispatch.
As Carlson took aim at Rayne, there came the screech of brakes. Trace Pruitt’s van plowed into Carlson and sent the man flying backwards.
Carlson hit the mailbox in front of the store with enough force to bend the metal it was made of, before falling to the ground. Carlson lied flat on his back, unconscious and bleeding.
Pruitt leapt from his van and sprinted to Rayne.
“Are you all right?”
Rayne stared at him, as she was too shocked to speak. When Pruitt took her in an embrace, she let him. They separated when the lights of an approaching police car illuminated the area.
“You saved me, Pruitt,” Rayne said.
“Thanks to Jake Caliber. He’s the one who smelled a rat.”
Pruitt’s mention of Jake brought to mind Christopher, and Rayne asked Pruitt about him.
“I’m sure Christopher Caliber is fine, Rayne,” Pruitt said in a listless voice.
Rayne understood her concern for Christopher had hurt Pruitt. The man had just saved her life, but she was still more concerned about Chris, and had yet to thank Pruitt.
She was about to kiss him on the cheek and thank him when a female officer demanded that they show their hands. They complied as Rayne spoke.
“I’m Rayne Carver. I’m the one who called in about the robbery.”
“Let me see your I.D.,” the cop said, as her male partner checked Pruitt’s license.
When the partner realized who Pruitt was, he relaxed.
“It’s cool, Annie,” he told his partner. “This is Trace Pruitt, the guy that saved the mayor.”
The female cop smiled as she recognized Pruitt. Then she looked past him and spotted Emily in the rear of Christopher’s car. She could only see the girl from the neck up.
“Who’s the young lady, Mr. Pruitt?”
“She’s an informant of ours,” Rayne said. “She’s the one who told us about the robbery.”
Rayne felt no allegiance to a client who tried to kill her, and figured Emily likely deserved a second chance.
The male cop checked on Mike Carlson.
“This one’s breathing, but he’s got busted ribs and a dislocated knee.”
“He tried to kill me,” Rayne said, “but Trace Pruitt saved me.”
As the cops checked out the jewelry store and spoke to arriving paramedics, Rayne slipped into the rear of Christopher’s car and uncuffed Emily Llewellyn.
“I suggest you don’t say a thing to the cops, Emily. I’m sure your father will hire a lawyer to do the talking for you.”
“Daddy hired you?”
“No, but you can thank him for keeping you out of jail, if you stay out of jail.”
“Mike was going to kill us.”
“Yes.”
“I hurt him. I played him for a fool and then I used him to rob Daddy’s other store. He’s the one who gave me the alarm codes.”
“Maybe he loved you,” Rayne said, “and his love turned to hate.”
Emily stared at her.
“Can love do that?”
“It can, but more often it starves from inattention and indifference.”
“What’s your name?”
“My name is Rayne Carver.”
“Thank you, Rayne.”
“Don’t thank me. It was Trace Pruitt who saved us.”
Emily looked out the window at Pruitt, who was giving a statement to the female cop.
“He’s your partner?”
“Yes.”
“He’s very good looking. What’s h
e like?”
Rayne smiled. “He’s extremely annoying, but he grows on you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Shea thought Stan Harper was headed to the apartment building across the street, instead, Harper entered the church that was beside it.
She followed Harper along the rows of mahogany pews and into a back room, where she saw Harper greet a man in his fifties with a tight smile. The man patted Harper on the shoulder and asked a question.
Silent tears flowed down Stan Harper’s face, but he smiled as he took out the object he’d been clutching in his pocket.
It was a silver chip, similar to the kind the casinos use, but Shea recognized it for what it really was. She walked over to a table littered with ashtrays and coffee cups, then looked down at brochures that confirmed her suspicions.
She was at an AA meeting. The silver chip Stan Harper had been clutching signified that he had gone 24-hours without alcohol.
Harper walked over to the table while talking with his sponsor.
“I saw the woman I harassed the other tonight, strictly by accident. She was in a bar I was walking past.”
“I hope you didn’t approach her again?” the sponsor asked.
“No, but I felt angry and began blaming her for my problems. Then I remembered what you told me, and I came here for a meeting.”
The other man smiled. “You did it, Stan. You’ve gone two days without a drink.”
“Yeah, but I almost gave in at that liquor store across the street.”
The sponsor laid a hand on Harper’s shoulder.
“One day at a time, my friend, one day at a time.”
Shea left the meeting. Stan Harper was no threat to Leslie, and therefore he wouldn’t be giving Hector any trouble either. She was still glad that she had followed the man, and she assumed that Hector had dropped Leslie off at home without incident.
Caliber Detective Agency Box Set 3 Page 11