“What policeman does that?” Ash said in a clipped, tight voice. “You just get this woman off the street who looks like she really could use the money honestly—you get her to pretend to be a drug dealer for these people and put her in all kinds of danger and then just toss her back when you’ve gotten what you came for?”
“So, you’re afraid for the woman’s safety?” Titus’s blunt question made Ash uncomfortable. “Do you know her?”
“No. But she came to me for help because the desk sergeant wouldn’t offer to let her talk to anyone. He kept saying that everyone was gone. Not that it was the truth, but I felt sorry for the woman. So, I pointed her toward Lowell and he suddenly decided to make her into an accessory!”
“And you don’t think this is a good idea?”
“The girl talks when she gets nervous. She will blow her cover three seconds after making contact and Lowell doesn’t seem to care!” Ash tried to calm down. His voice was getting louder and louder and if the other customers kept looking at them, they were going to wind up being observed by the wrong people.
“Calm down,” Titus suggested. “Let’s think about this for a minute. Right? The girl has information. She’s essentially been tagged by these bad guys anyhow. She probably needs money. So, what makes you think there’s any guarantee that she won’t wind up in this bad situation that you’re trying to protect her from anyway?”
“I’m not trying to protect her,” Ash said quickly. Then he stopped talking. Dammit. Titus was right. Sort of. “And she honestly doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who would allow herself to be bullied into breaking the law. She seemed almost horrified at the idea she would have to sell drugs.”
“Well that’s at least something to recommend her character then.” Why did it seem almost like Titus was teasing?
Ash felt as though there was something wrong, something he was missing. “I don’t like the idea of using someone like her. She’s down and out. The woman looks like a charity case and yet you can tell that she’s working her ass off to try and make ends meet. It’s sad. I don’t want to see her get hurt because she’s trying to make things better for herself and something backfires.”
Titus’s lips twisted into a smile. “So, you feel sorry for her.”
“I guess. In a way.” Ash didn’t like where this was heading. “But it’s not about that. It’s about why Detective Lowell suddenly seems like the drug angle has been on his agenda all along.”
“Now that,” Titus murmured, “is an interesting question.”
Chapter Six
Branson’s House of Mirrors was always fairly crowded. By the time Mindy got back from her extended lunch hour, the place was absolutely packed with people waiting to get in. Mindy had to squeeze her way between families and groups of tourists all trying to shove their way past the front doors of the building in order to stand in line where there was air conditioning. The rest of the would-be customers had no choice but to stand beneath the shade awnings on the sidewalk out front. It wasn’t like this was unusual. It was mid-August. In only a few weeks, or in some cases days, school would start. This was the last big family vacation week of summer and the mirror maze was a hot destination.
“Where have you been?” Delia groused as Mindy slipped behind the counter, clocked in, and went right to work selling tickets. “This place is a madhouse and I never got to go to lunch because you didn’t come back!”
“I’m sorry, Delia,” Mindy said between smiles as she helped customer after customer. “I didn’t realize it would get this backed up until later this evening.”
“Kevin is looking for you,” Delia told Mindy with a sideways look.
Delia might have said more, but a big man with his head shaved clean wearing camp shorts and a tank top and sandals and smelling as though he’d been camping in a tent for the last month bellied up to the counter.
The man took one look at Mindy and glared. “Why are we waiting so long? You need to let more people in. You can’t tell me that place is full. It’s a huge building!”
Mindy sighed. No matter how many times she gave this speech, she felt like she was having to explain logic and safety to people who just didn’t care. “I’m terribly sorry for your wait, sir, but the fire marshal has strict regulations on how many people can be in the maze at once. It wouldn’t be very much fun if there was a solid line of people all the way in and out, now would it? I promise, just as soon as the next group goes out, our ushers will let the next one in. We do our best to keep things moving as quickly as possible.”
“Uh huh.” The guy glared at her and then moseyed on over to his very large family group.
“You know,” Mindy murmured to Delia. “If you tried to explain to people that their group of thirty was the seventh or eighth group of guests over twenty-five you’d seen that day, they wouldn’t believe you.”
Delia only laughed. She might have said more, but Kevin Eads chose that moment to walk up with his chest thrust out and his manager pin on full display. Delia ignored him by beaming at a customer and making sure she gave bouncy, perfect customer service while Kevin looked on.
But Delia wasn’t Kevin’s concern. Mindy was. “Mindy, I want to talk to you about your long lunch hour.”
“Well, Kevin, I will come to your office just as soon as this line dies down a bit. I’m very sorry that I was late getting back.” Mindy gave him what was supposed to be a pleasant smile, but not an overdone smile. Then she ignored him.
That was the best strategy when dealing with Kevin. Sort of. Mindy tried not to dread the meeting in his office as she helped person after person coming up to the counter. Across the cavernous entrance hall to the castle-shaped mirror maze, Mindy could see an employee waiting outside the gift shop. That meant that the shop was full as well. They were having to have people stand in line to get inside. Mindy could not begin to imagine just how much money they were bringing in just for these few hours. If only she got a bonus to make up for having to be on her feet for hours upon hours selling tickets and handing out maps and information, it might all be worth it.
When the stream of people finally slowed down at about four o’clock, Mindy knew she could not put off her meeting with Kevin any longer. “Hey, Delia, I’m going to head back to Kevin’s office.”
Delia turned and gave Mindy a dark look. “Don’t take any crap from him, Mindy.”
Mindy laughed. But it wasn’t exactly a laugh, it was more of a pretend laugh. Because Delia had no idea how much crap Mindy had to take from Kevin. But that’s what happened when you made really bad decisions that affected your life in lasting ways. And Mindy had made more than her fair share of those.
Winding her way out from behind the counter and past the gift shop, Mindy headed straight for Kevin’s office. It was tucked back behind the shop near the inventory storage area in a tiny oddly shaped room with no windows. The room was triangular on one half and circular on the other, evidence of the maze’s unique structural shape that lay on the other side.
Mindy knocked.
“Enter,” came the reply.
She rolled her eyes. Enter? Really? Great, that likely meant Kevin was in a mood. Mindy took a deep breath and steeled herself to walk into his office. “You wanted to see me?”
He had been sitting behind his desk. Mindy had intentionally left the door open behind her. Kevin was a decent enough looking man in his late twenties with a mop of brown hair and an expression that made you realize just how handsome he thought he was. In fact, Kevin pretty much figured he was it. Regardless of what it might actually be.
Kevin got up from his chair and sort of swaggered around his desk to the door, which he closed with a muffled click. Mindy’s breath got stuck in her chest when she heard the lock click as well. She swallowed and found her mouth dry as cotton.
“I only have a few moments,” Mindy explained to Kevin. “I left Delia up there at the registers all alone.”
Kevin’s expression suggested he wasn’t much worried about this
. “Come in and sit down. I’m concerned, Mindy. Very concerned. Why were you so late coming back from lunch today?”
Mindy did not sit down. Kevin was standing and there was no way she was going to sit. He was already a head taller than her. As she stood there thinking about her lunch hour and meeting Ash Forbes, she realized Ash was so much larger than Kevin in every single way and yet there was nothing about Ash that set off her warning bells. He just gave off that vibe that told you everything was going to be all right. No matter what.
“I—uh—I had to go to the police department.” Mindy decided that the best way to derail Kevin was to actually go with the truth. Sort of. “My brother has been having some issues up at Dino Golf and I needed to get some law enforcement advice.”
“Your brother?” Kevin arched an eyebrow and perched on the edge of his desk so he was basically right on top of where Mindy stood. When she tried to back away, there was a filing cabinet blocking her movement. “What about your brother? Is he in trouble again? I’ve told you time and time again, Mindy, I would be glad to help take your brother in hand. There’s just no need for you to shoulder that burden when what he really needs is a male role model.”
Kevin said this without smiling or laughing even though Mindy felt herself hard pressed not to roll her eyes. Kevin had absolutely no friggin’ clue what was going on with her brother Darren. And what did Kevin propose to do anyway? Move into Mindy’s one bedroom apartment and become Darren’s father? That wasn’t going to work.
“Thank you so much for the offer, Kevin,” Mindy said, because it was super important to make Kevin feel as though he was appreciated. “But I really just needed some legal advice from the police department. I spoke with a very nice detective and…”
“Sellers?” Kevin prompted. “Yes. He’s a good guy. Straight on the money. He’s really sharp and knows his stuff. Sellers and I go way back. I can put in a good word for you if you like. I’d do that for you, Mindy.”
Mindy felt her whole brain just stop right there as it tried to process what he’d said. She wasn’t sure if it was more disturbing to hear Kevin say that he’d known Detective Sellers for a very long time, or that Kevin would be happy to put in a good word for her. Sellers was the man Detective Lowell and Ash Forbes had been talking about. The dirty cop. Kevin knew him?
Unfortunately for Mindy, Kevin took her silence completely the wrong way. Before she knew it, Kevin’s arms were around her waist and he was hauling her up against him. “I’ve missed you, Mindy Moo.”
Mindy Moo. As if any woman in her right mind would allow a man to use that for a pet name. Mindy swallowed back her irritation and tried to remember the crucial point here. Kevin held her job in his hand.
“Kevin, you know we shouldn’t—not at work.” Mindy tried to take a step back, but Kevin blocked her progress.
“Mindy, Mindy, Mindy,” Kevin chanted. “You know you want to. I’m the one who has what you need.”
He was totally wrong about this. But if she told him that he was rather bad in bed, he would fire her on the spot and be done with it. So she bit her lip. “Kevin, I’m so flattered. Really. But I should be out there working. I don’t want people to think badly of you that there is a line out there and Delia is the only one ringing up tickets.”
Kevin actually laughed it off. Then, to her horror, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her with such force that Mindy was pretty sure her lips were about to be bruised. She tried not to struggle, but she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t kiss him back. She didn’t dare incite him to anything more. If she did, she would be bent over the desk and half naked with him inside her and no choice in the matter. It had happened before.
“Mindy, God, I need you!” Kevin told her roughly. “It’s been too long.”
Mindy swallowed and tried to put distance between them. His arms were locked around her waist though. “I thought you were sleeping with the woman you met at the club. That’s what you said, remember? When you told me we needed to take a break?” A welcome break in Mindy’s book.
He gave a nonchalant wave of his hand. “That was just a fling, Mindy. You know that. You and I always come back to each other. Don’t we?” He seemed to reconsider this. “Well, you’re never with anyone else, but that’s how it should be. You’ve got no time for other men. You’re a busy woman. But me? I’m playing the field exactly like all men do. That’s just nature.”
Mindy didn’t know how true this was. She had a strong feeling it was just true in Kevin’s self-centered world of getting exactly what he wanted. But she had been the one stupid enough to believe his nonsense in the beginning all those years ago. She had thought he was her Prince Charming and that they would have forever. He had been working his way up the management ladder and she’d needed a job. So, Kevin had helped her out and Mindy had been paying for it ever since.
“Tonight,” Kevin told her. “Come to my apartment and we can do it.”
Do it. Because every woman loved to be propositioned with those two words as though her man was some horny thirteen-year-old. Perhaps, in the past, she had considered it and usually had gone through with it because where else was she going to have the time or energy to find a guy for a quickie that did not come with strings that she had no time for right now?
“I’ll have to see how my evening goes,” Mindy finally told Kevin. That, at least, wasn’t a promise in either direction. “Then we’ll sort of go from there. You know?”
“Great.” He was ignoring what she’d said. She could actually see it on his face. “So, I’ll see you at eight. No. wait.” His brow furrowed a bit. “No. Better make it nine. I have a—meeting.”
Any thought of actually going through with this ridiculous plan was completely out the door when Mindy heard that. She felt as though someone had thrown a bucket of cold water right in her face. Why was she always so stupid? There was no doubt in her mind that Kevin had already made plans with someone else for tonight. The ass actually thought he was going to get one woman to come around at like seven or eight, and then another one to come by at nine. Wow. Kevin really thought he was the Casanova of Branson. But he wasn’t. Not by a long shot. And right now, she was going to make sure she did not fall into any more of his stupid traps.
“I’m going to go back to work now,” Mindy told Kevin hastily. She had to push him out of her space and sidestep in order to get back to the door. She fumbled for the lock. “I don’t want anyone to think something is going on back there. I’m sure that would be bad for your management position. Didn’t you tell me once that you were up for a promotion?”
“Yes!” Kevin brightened up and stepped back. Both good things. “They’re talking about moving me to another attraction here in town though. One of the miniature golf courses. They need a general manager I think. It would be a bump in pay.”
“That would be great for you!” Mindy did not even bother to suggest he should recommend her for the vacant shift manager position here at the mirror maze. That would cost her and the price just wasn’t worth it.
Mindy fled from the office and headed back down the short hallway to the crowded entrance hall. She slipped back behind the counter and was glad Delia was busy. It was time to get to work and forget everything else. As if she ever could. As if Kevin would ever let her.
Chapter Seven
The deep shadows surrounding Dino Golf were only emphasized by the football stadium-style floodlights blazing away at least sixty feet off the ground. Ash decided he would rather have those lights off, though he knew from experience they were never off at night. The industrial green carpeted world of the miniature golf course stretched down the terraced hillside for nearly a mile. Up on top of the ridge, the bumper boats and the bumper cars were all parked for the night. The go-kart track was silent. It had been designed to wind its way in and around the rest of the Dino Golf complex even going down into a manmade tunnel and then popping back up again near the fence that separated Dino Golf from the sidewalk running along the Route 76 strip
.
It was just after nine o’clock. The business was still open and Ash had chosen a nice spot in the scrub brush and trees just below the property and to the side where, with the help of binoculars, he could see most of what was going on. Of course, his main concern was that maintenance shed on the bottom lip of the property line.
For a place that supposedly closed at midnight, there really wasn’t that much business going on here at nine at night. Many families had already gone home after they’d seen a late show. Others would be at the movie theater or the IMAX where the air conditioning made for a pleasant evening. There were a few groups, teenagers mostly, wandering around the miniature golf course. Ash kept an eye on these kids. He wanted to see if any of them went down to the maintenance shed. Because that was likely to be a transaction that would kick start this whole investigation.
Ash wasn’t entirely sure how long he had been sitting there in the bushes absorbed in the simple stupidity of watching teenagers when he heard the crunching sound of someone else walking up on his position. He was dressed in camo gear and face paint with a wide brimmed hat helping to hide his head. Burrowed into the brush and dirt beneath a tree, there was no doubt in his mind he was invisible. The only thing left was to figure out who else had come to watch.
Mindy.
Ash felt a strange sort of thrill at seeing her. This was bizarre, of course, but then, perhaps, the thrill was just because his surveillance had been super boring so far, and Mindy’s presence was likely to spice things up a bit. In one way or another anyhow. There was really no telling why she was there or what she intended to do.
She was dressed in plain terry cloth shorts and a thin T-shirt that looked as though they’d seen better days. Her path had come up the steep street that plummeted from its intersection with Route 76 on the ridge above all the way down to a cluster of old buildings at the bottom. It occurred to Ash that Mindy and her brother probably lived in one of those ancient apartment complexes down at the bottom of the hill. They were practically derelict now. The real estate boom caused by the influx of tourism dollars and time shares made it almost impossible for locals to afford to live within the Branson city limits.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 76