ENTANGLED PURSUITS (MEN OF ACTION Book 1)

by Brenda Jackson

  He nodded as he turned another corner, which led to a street filled with colonial-style houses. It appeared to be a nice neighborhood of older homes that were well cared for. Even the yards looked decently maintained.

  A short while later, they were walking up to Pamela Larkins’s grandmother’s home. When Andrew pressed the doorbell, he looked at Toni through his sunglasses. As usual, she looked absolutely delicious.

  He loved spending time with her on the weekends, at his place or hers. Last week, they played tennis for a few hours, then he grilled steaks in the backyard. They were also putting his theater room to good use, and spent almost as much time in there as they did in his bedroom. But oh, the things they would do in his bedroom. Often, they would wake up to make love in the middle of night and then lie in bed and talk for hours.

  The door opened, and Pamela Larkins’s eyes widened in surprise. “Detectives Logan and Oliver? What can I do for you?”

  “We’d like to ask you some more questions, if you don’t mind,” Toni said.

  “Oh. I was hoping you were here to tell me you found the person who killed Maria.”

  “Sorry, but the investigation is still ongoing. May we come in?”

  Sure,” she said, stepping aside. “Nana just went down for her nap. We can sit in the dining room and talk. Would you like anything to drink?”

  Both Andrew and Toni declined as they took a seat at the table. Andrew glanced around. This house reminded him of Stonewall’s grandmother, Granny Kay’s house, colonial-style, both inside and out. He bet this was the original wallpaper on the wall, and the hardwood floors were the real thing. Even the furniture was dated but sturdy—the kind that could last forever. The only difference between this house and Granny Kay’s was the kitchen.

  One of the first things Stonewall had done when he’d gotten out of prison was replace all of Granny Kay’s appliances with new ones that were all stainless steel. This house might not have the original appliances, but the fridge and stove in the kitchen looked pretty close to it.

  “So...you had more questions?” Pamela Larkins asked, joining them at the table.

  He let Toni take the lead since coming here had been her idea. “I just wanted to review the list of Maria Tindal’s ex-boyfriends, just to make sure we didn’t miss anyone.”

  After Toni went down the list, Pamela Larkins said, “That’s everyone. She didn’t date much. If you want me to include the guys she dated in high school and college, I’d have to do some digging.”

  Toni shook her head and chuckled. “No, we don’t need to go back that far.”

  Then, she asked about the flash drive, but again Pamela said Maria never mentioned anything to her about the flash drive or about her taking it from Nettles. When Toni then asked if Maria had ever made a comment about something that had left Pamela puzzled about anything, Pamela paused.

  “There was something I thought was odd, but when I asked her about it, she explained the reason.”

  “And what was that?”

  “A few weeks before she died, she went through her photo album looking at old pictures. When I asked her about it, she said she’d been feeling melancholy lately since it was close to her mother’s birthday. She said she wanted to look at old photos of happier times.”

  Andrew sat listening, finding nothing odd about that. He did the same thing around his mother’s birthday. He would pull out a photograph he had of her—his favorite one—then he would look at it and remember the day it was taken. It had been a good day, one that his father hadn’t been around to ruin. He only had a few photos of his mom, but it sounded like Maria had an entire photo album.

  Andrew suddenly thought of something. He’d reviewed the inventory list of the things they’d found in Maria Tindal’s house at the time she was killed. He’d been looking to see if a flash drive had been found. It hadn’t been. He pulled the list out of the file he’d brought with him and looked at it again. There was no photo album on the list either. “What happened to the photo album?” he asked.

  Pamela looked confused. “I assume it’s where she always kept it.”

  “And where was that?” Toni asked.

  “The first drawer in her dresser. But then she’d began placing it on top of the dresser because she’d started to look at it often.”

  Andrew glanced over at Toni. She had obviously picked up on his train of thought. “There was no photo album listed on the inventory sheet.”

  “Maybe they forgot to list it,” Pamela Larkins reasoned.

  “They know to list everything.” He didn’t want to mention, fearing she might begin crying again, that numerous photos had been taken of the murder scene, including all the items in all the drawers of the dresser and nightstand. There had not been a photo album.

  “Someone must have taken it,” Pamela Larkins said, frustrated and clearly getting agitated.

  To calm her down, Andrew offered, “Maybe she gave it to someone.”

  “No, she would not have done that. She treasured that photo album.”

  Then it must have been taken, Andrew thought, but he would not dare speak that assumption out loud and run the risk of agitating Pamela Larkins any further. However, he had to wonder if the killer took it, then why? Was there a damning picture in the album?

  “Do you remember what kind of photos she had?” Toni asked.

  “There were a lot of pictures of her and her mom when she was growing up, and then pictures of her, her mom, and stepfather. But her favorite was the one of the four of us.”

  Andrew lifted a brow. “The four of you?”

  “Yes. It was taken at our high school graduation. Since I was Maria’s best friend, Ms. Constance insisted I be included.”

  “Where was Jennifer?”

  “Umm, I think she was out of town that day. But even if she’d been home, she would not have come. She didn’t like Maria, even though Maria went out of her way to get along with Jennifer.”

  “How did Jennifer treat her around school?”

  “Jennifer didn’t attend our school. She went to private school all her life. When Ms. Constance married Mr. Morey, Maria was attending public school and that’s the way Ms. Constance wanted it to stay.”

  The more Andrew heard about Constance Evans, the more he thought she had been a force to reckon with, but in a good way. She put a stop to her husband’s swinger days and kept her daughter well grounded.

  “Did Jennifer and Maria attend the same college?” Toni asked Pamela Larkins.”

  “No. Maria and I attended FAMU in Florida. Jennifer went to a private college in Boston.”

  Toni nodded as she stood. “That’s all of our questions. Thanks for clarifying a few things. By the way, we have a copy of the missing flash drive. We’d appreciate it if you could come to headquarters one day this week to take a look at it, just to see if there is an item on it that you recognize.”

  “Okay. I’ll just have to make arrangements with the pastor’s wife to sit with Nana while I go out.”

  “Alright.”

  “Detectives?”

  “Yes, Pamela?” Toni answered.

  Pamela was nibbling on her bottom lip in a fretful way. She was also nervously wringing her hands together. “I hope there was a mistake made and the album is found. I haven’t had the courage to go back there to see if any of Maria’s things are missing. I’d just assumed that since the house hadn’t been burglarized, nothing had been taken.”

  Andrew also stood. “We assumed it hadn’t been burglarized because there was no sign of forced entry. However, we knew the flash drive Maria had in her possession was missing, and now, thanks to you, we’ve learned a photo album is missing, too.” There was no way he could not make that fact known to her now.

  He rubbed his chin in thought. “I’m curious as to why you thought the one of the four of you was Maria’s favorite photograph.”

  “She told me. We were all happy that day. That’s the reason she kept looking at it. Graduating from high school was a b
ig deal for us.”

  Toni glanced at him and he knew her curiosity had been piqued also. “Can you tell us more about this particular picture? Where was it taken? Was anyone in the background?”

  Pamela Larkins gave them a bewildered look, as if wondering why any of that mattered, but she answered anyway. “I remember we were at dinner at a restaurant in town, Shaggy’s. That’s the reason my grandmother wasn’t in the photo. She left for home right after graduation. The Evans’ had invited me to join them for Maria’s celebration dinner. It was so long ago, I don’t know if anyone was in the background or not. But I have a copy of that particular picture, if you’d like to see it.”

  “That would be great,” Andrew said.

  A few minutes later, Pamela returned and handed the photo to Toni. She and Andrew both looked at it. It was just as Pamela Larkins had said, Andrew thought. Both girls were wearing their caps and gowns, their diplomas in hand as they smiled brightly for the camera. The older couple, Morey and Constance Evans, were smiling brightly, as well. They were standing near a wall, and there wasn’t another soul in the background

  “I feel like crying every time I see this photo,” Pamela Larkins said. Andrew could hear her voice breaking and figured it was time to leave.

  “I can understand. I can see that you and Maria were happy that day,” Toni said. “I remember my own graduation and the photos taken.” She looked a little closer at the photo. “Wow! That is one gorgeous necklace Constance Evans is wearing. Simply breathtaking.”

  Pamela smiled. “It is, isn’t it?

  “I never saw anything like it before.”

  “And you never will. It’s one of a kind, custom-made by the jeweler himself. Mr. Evans paid a lot for that necklace. He gave it as a wedding gift to Ms. Constance. She only wore it for special occasions, and she said our graduation was definitely one of them. That’s why Maria was so sad when it was stolen.”

  Andrew glanced over at Pamela. “It was stolen?”

  “Yes, during the home invasion that killed Maria’s mother and Mr. Evans. The robbers took off with a lot of stuff.”

  Toni nodded. “Do you mind if I hang onto this photo for a while?” Toni asked.

  Pamela frowned. “It’s my only copy. If anything were to happen to it...”

  Andrew heard the panic in Pamela Larkins’s voice and was glad when Toni reassured her. “I will take good care of it, Pamela. I’ll make sure you get it back as soon as I can release it back to you.”

  Pamela Larkins drew in a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”

  Once Andrew and Toni were back in the car, he turned to her and asked, “Are you wondering the same thing I am?”

  She looked over at him. “How an expensive necklace once owned by Constance Evans, a necklace that was stolen six years ago during a home invasion with homicides is now a part of the Wizzin auction?”

  Andrew nodded. “I suggest we grab lunch and then go pay Byron Nettles another visit.”

  At that moment, a crackling sound came through on Andrew’s radio. He turned up the volume so Toni could hear, too. “Dispatch to Detectives Logan and Oliver. Do you copy?”

  “This is Logan, we copy. What’s up, Joanie?”

  “Officers at the scene of a one-car collision with one fatality. Helms and Duval Road. Driver of the vehicle was forced from the road and crashed into a tree. Driver dead on impact. Lieutenant McPherson advised that you be informed immediately.”

  Andrew glanced over at Toni, then asked, “Have they ID’d the victim?”

  “Male. Name of Byron Nettles.”

  “SO, WHAT DO YOU think, Toni?”

  She switched her gaze from all of the sticky notes on her desk to Drew. It was close to eight o’clock that night, and they were still at headquarters. Fred Tatters had been brought in for questioning regarding the death of Byron Nettles. Of course, he claimed innocence, but didn’t have an iron-clad alibi. He’d told them he’d been on his way to a business meeting on the other side of town. Traffic cameras of the intersections he would have passed through to get to his destination were being checked out to verify his story.

  When Toni and Drew arrived at the crime scene, the skid marks and tire tracks indicated there had been a high-speed chase between two cars—Nettles’s vehicle and an unidentified one. Nettles lost control and hit a tree. Who had been the driver of the other car?

  They’d had a chance to search Nettles’s house again today. His laptop had been confiscated and was currently with Valerie. If there were any hidden files, she would find them. However, they did find a beautiful bracelet in one of the bedroom drawers with his t-shirts. In fact, it was sitting right on top of them so it wouldn’t be missed.

  On a hunch, they paid a late-night visit to Pamela Larkins. She took one look at the bracelet and immediately recognized it as belonging to Maria. It had been a gift from her mother on her sixteenth birthday. Maria didn’t wear it every day, and she usually kept it in the jewelry box on her dresser. So how had Nettles gotten it?

  At first, they’d thought that maybe Maria had left it behind the night she stayed at Nettles’s place, but Pamela was certain that Maria had worn the bracelet since then. That meant Nettles had taken the bracelet at some other time. Had it been the night of the murder? And why had he only taken the bracelet, and not any other jewelry?

  And then there was the fact that Nettles’s home had been searched weeks ago. Why hadn’t the bracelet been found then?

  “Things seem to be coming together too easy now,” Toni said. “Someone is going to a lot of trouble to link Nettles to Maria’s murder. That makes me think…”

  “We’re deliberately being misled,” Drew finished for her. “Too bad whoever is behind this wasn’t aware that we’d been through Nettles’s place weeks ago. If the bracelet had been there then, we would have found it.”

  “And that makes it seem unlikely that Fred Tatters was involved. He knew we had the apartment searched, so planting the bracelet would not have made any sense,” Toni said.

  She glanced at her watch. “It’s late. Neither of us had much to eat all day except for snacks from the vending machine. I suggest we call it a day. Tomorrow, we can pull the Evans’ homicide file and review it.”

  “That sounds like a good idea. Do you want to go grab something to eat?” Drew asked.

  Toni knew that since they had missed lunch, Drew felt justified in suggesting they go somewhere to eat on a workday. She stood to stretch the kinks from her body and didn’t miss how Drew’s gaze followed her every movement.

  “I don’t feel like being around anyone tonight,” she said. “How about dinner at my place? I can fix something quick.” She knew she was breaking her own rule, but she wasn’t ready for him to leave her yet.

  “I’m fine with that suggestion.” From his expression she could tell he was surprised she had made it. “You ready to go, then?” Drew asked, standing, as well.

  “Yes, I just need to clear these sticky notes off my desk.”

  • • •

  Andrew could tell something was bothering Toni, and the moment they entered her apartment, he drew her into his arms and held her close. He had wanted to do that all day but knew she wouldn’t have appreciated it.

  To reassure her, he had intentionally brushed up against her a few times, and more than once had discreetly touched her hand. But now that they were alone, he needed to know what had her so out of sorts.

  Sweeping her off her feet, he carried her over to the sofa and sat down with her in his lap. “What’s bothering you, sweetheart?”

  She tilted her chin up. “First of all, I don’t want you to think I’m weak, Drew.”

  He frowned, wondering where that came from. “Why would I think you’re weak?”

  She broke eye contact with him and looked across the room. “Because we should never let our job get to us, but it got to me today, Drew. Two people have been killed, and somebody is playing a stupid, sick game with us. It’s just so wrong.”

  Andre
w nodded. “We’re cops, Toni. But we’re also human. That’s the only way we can do our job effectively. We have to care. Being weak has nothing to do with it.”

  He paused a moment. “But there’s something else going on with this case, isn’t there, Toni?”

  She held his gaze. “What makes you think that?”

  “Because I know you.”

  She didn’t say anything for a minute, then admitted, “It’s Maria Tindal, and her relationship with Pamela Larkins. They were best friends—loyal and dedicated to each other. A friendship like that is rare. I never had someone like that in my life.”

  “You and Joy were friends, right?”

  “Yes, we met in college, but even then, I fought the friendship all the way. I didn’t want to depend on anyone, because people let you down. It was hard for me to let others in. But Joy wasn’t giving me any choice.”

  “You let me in for those ten months,” he reminded her.

  “Yes, but look at all the restrictions I’d placed on our relationship.” She sighed. “I was also thinking about how Maria Tindal must have felt when she lost her mom. Granted, she was older than I was when I lost mine, and she was away at college, but I can imagine the pain she’d felt. And then to see that necklace on Nettles’s flash drive? It must have shocked her.”

  “So, you think that’s what happened?”

  “I might be wrong, but yes.”

  He nodded again. “I was thinking along those same lines. I believe when she watched the video with Nettles, she recognized that necklace. That’s why she took the flash drive.”

  “But why didn’t she go to the police with her suspicions?”

  “No idea.”

  “She didn’t tell Pamela anything either. I’d have thought she’d have been the first person she’d tell.”

  “Me, too.” He stood and placed Toni on her feet. “How about letting me whip up something in the kitchen while you take a soak in the tub. I want you relaxed and fed before I leave.”

  He leaned in and kissed her, more passionately than he’d planned. But once his mouth tasted hers, he couldn’t release her lips. When he finally broke off the kiss, he stepped away from her. “Now go.”