by Lisa Olsen
But then she had a realization. There was an answer in the question itself. Before she’d done the reading, she hadn’t admitted to herself what she wanted out of her relationship with Nick before. Yes, she loved him, but she’d always prided herself on her independence and maintaining a cushion of space around her heart since her first disastrous marriage and divorce. But now she could admit she craved some of those traditional values. She wanted a stable, happy home with Nick and Veronica. She wanted to make a family with him. The fact that the outcome card displayed change sent a ribbon of worry through her that hadn’t been there before. Did it mean she was about to lose her chance at this happy future with them?
Chapter Twenty-One
By the time Nick came downstairs, dressed and ready for the day, Veronica was in the shower and Natalie was nowhere to be found. She’d left a note on the breakfast bar next to a pile of weeds, thanking him for last night and she’d see him at the office. Nick picked up the weird bulb with the frothy spray of greenery. It had a scent he couldn’t quite place that made him think it might be a bunch of herbs instead of weeds. What the hell was he supposed to do with this? Not quite sure what to think of it, he dropped the thick bulb into a glass of water in case it was something that needed preserving and fixed himself a bagel to eat in the car.
On the drive over, he thought about calling Annaliese but decided it was too early to bother her and resolved to try and catch her later in the day. Besides, he needed to get into the office for their next briefing, especially if Natalie was running late. Not that they had a whole lot of intel to share with the team, he hoped the others had been luckier with their interviews.
“I had a chance to meet with Hayley Lambert’s family last night,” Park reported, and Nick sat up to pay attention. “Unfortunately, they didn’t have a whole lot to contribute. They can’t think of anyone who might’ve meant her any harm, she hadn’t been displaying any unusual behavior lately. She’d never been to Los Angeles before and this was her first Forsaken concert. They had no idea she even had any tattoos, let alone the band one. To hear them tell it, she was a sweet, smart girl who never gave them a moment’s worry.”
“Yeah right,” Brady scoffed. “Show me a twenty year old girl who doesn’t give her parents anything to worry about and I’ll show you a couple of parents with their heads buried in the sand.”
“Or a nun,” Nick quipped. “What about the sister? Was she able to expand on your impression of Hayley at all?”
“Yes, she was more forthcoming when I got her alone,” Park nodded, a light of satisfaction coming into her eyes. “She painted her sister as more of a typical college girl. Smart, and good in school, but definitely not a candidate for the novitiate.”
Brady’s brow puckered in confusion. “What’s the novitiate?”
“Nun school,” Nick replied. “Did she have any information on the tattoo at all?”
“Not specifically about the band symbol, but she said she knew her sister went to a place on McLoughlin called Star Tattoo. I’m headed there next with her picture to see if they can tell me anything about it.”
“Good girl.” Nick smiled his approval. “My interviews were basically a bust yesterday, how about you guys?”
“Nada for me,” Brady reported. “But we did get an updated file from Fielding. There were no other drugs in the vic’s system besides the GHB and hormones that were consistent with her birth control pills. And the analysis of the stomach contents showed the remains of Oberto teriyaki beef jerky and Johnnie Walker Red Label Whiskey.”
Nick couldn’t be sure, but he thought he’d seen a bottle of Johnnie Walker in the hotel room when he’d gone to visit Jax. Not that it was a crime to drink whiskey and there had been other bottles of booze present, but he filed it away for later. “Where are we on usable DNA from the crime scene?” They should’ve had something by now.
“It’s not that there isn’t any, there’s too much in a shitty place like that. You don’t want to know what kind of specimens the CSU team picked up.” Brady made a face.
“Skip it, I can fill in the blanks myself. Did we get anything to tie May to the scene? Actually, do we even have a DNA sample from May?” He couldn’t remember seeing a mention of it in the reports.
“Ah, not officially, but one has been obtained,” Park said, trading a nervous look with Brady.
“Sneaky, I like it,” Nick winked. “But I take it his sample isn’t hitting any buzzers?”
“No, sir. There’s nothing to link him to the scene.”
That was a blow. Even the faintest trace of his DNA would’ve blown the case wide open, but they’d have to rely on more than luck. “Anything else?”
“I did pick up on something,” Brady said, his voice hesitant. “It might not mean anything at all, but I sent out a discreet inquiry to this guy I went to college with. He does financial planning in L.A. for a bunch of the bigwigs in the music business down there and I asked him about the band.”
“Are they in financial trouble?” Nick frowned. That didn’t seem possible, their star was definitely still on the rise, despite any negative press surrounding the murders. Or maybe because of it, if Gideon could be believed.
“No, but he was able to find out that Gideon Strong’s finances are tied completely to the band. He sunk everything he had into promoting them, which wasn’t much when they all started out. Today he’s rolling in it, but he’s living the rock star life alongside them and he doesn’t represent anyone else. Without them generating more income…”
“Then his cash camel dries up,” Nick finished for him. Could Gideon Strong be capable of murdering innocent girls to keep his star clients in the forefront of the media? “Let’s dig deeper into Mr. Strong, see what you can come up with.”
“You got it, boss-man.”
“Alright, before we head off, let’s compare notes on who we have left to interview and divvy them up.” He still had a few on his list and Park still had a half dozen. Natalie’s list had several more she hadn’t gotten to the day before because they’d teamed up for most of the day. Only Brady had none left and he didn’t look too happy about having to take on more, but those were the breaks. Instead of waiting around for Natalie to show up, Nick emailed her with her share of the list.
“Let’s move like we got a purpose, people. I’d like to get these knocked out as soon as possible.”
Park hustled off to attempt one of them before the tattoo parlor opened, while Brady fussed over the computer, plotting out the order of his allocated list.
“Hey, what are you monkeying around with? Hit the porn sites up on your down time, we’ve got a lot to do today,” Nick razzed him.
“Scoff all you want, this is how I got to all of mine yesterday. Organization,” he bragged. “Where’s your sidekick today? She coming in or what?”
“Beg pardon?”
“No wait, she’s the Fed,” Brady amended. “I guess that makes you the sidekick.”
Nick’s lips twitched, but he didn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know the dig sank in. “I’m sure she’s out there making the rounds, I sent her an update.”
“You hitting that?”
“Wha… huh?” That startled any witty quip right out of him.
“I’m just saying, the two of you seemed pretty cozy yesterday. And there’s history between the two of you, am I wrong?”
“Yes and no. Yes, there is history and no, I’m not partaking of the lovely Agent Fox’s charms. You know I’m a one woman man. Unless you count Veronica, that’d be two women, but not the same way. You know what I mean.”
“Methinks he doth protest too much,” Brady snickered.
“Methinks you’d better get out on the job before I give you something to protest,” Nick muttered, picking up his keys and heading out before Brady got on his last nerve. Ducking out before he ran into Natalie and had to rehash the awkwardness from the night before, he sent Annaliese a brief text, half in joke, half serious. You still alive?
> Her reply came only a couple of minutes later. Don’t be ridiculous, of course I am.
No smiley face, no indication as to whether or not she was still mad at him. We should really talk.
The wait was longer this time, nearly five minutes before she sent, I can’t get into it right now, Nick. I’m busy with the store.
Still mad. Letting out a long sigh, he tried again. Later then?
Maybe. Ask again later.
Ask again later. It reminded him of one of those old Magic 8 Balls. He was half tempted to dig through Veronica’s room to try and find hers and give it a shake. Will Annaliese forgive me? Then again, maybe he wasn’t ready for the answer.
Pushing it aside for later, he drove to the nearest address on his list, for one Mickey Friel, one of the extra bouncers hired to work security the night of the concert. Mr. Friel was none too happy to be woken up on the wrong side of noon, by a cop no less, and refused to invite him into the room.
“Where did you go after you were dismissed?” Nick asked, deciding to conduct the interview in the motel hallway.
“Out for a drink.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know, some bar. I didn’t write it down.”
“Do you have any receipts that might have the name of the establishment?”
“What kind of stupid question is that? It’s not like beer is tax deductible or nothing,” Friel sneered.
“Fair enough,” Nick replied mildly. “Can you tell me where you were on the nights of the three previous murders?”
“I don’t fucking know, that was weeks ago.”
That’s how it went, making it officially Asshole-Wednesday. Nobody wanted to talk to him and when they did, they were frequently openly hostile and suspicious when he questioned their movements. Nick wanted to take them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them. Did they not get that he was trying to catch a killer? Who cared about their petty secrets and vices?
By the time lunch rolled around, he thought he’d try Annaliese again, but she sent him another dismissive text.
I really am busy this time.
Did that mean she wasn’t busy before? Brought low by the notion that she was ducking his calls, he tried the one other person in the world who could lift his spirits.
It wasn’t hard to get Veronica out of school for some much needed father/daughter time. The brief mention of a doctor’s appointment and the lady in the administrative office had been all kinds of helpful. Less than ten minutes later she’d located and retrieved his daughter, no muss, no fuss. Veronica, for her part, played it off beautifully, not even questioning why he’d turned up out of the blue until they made it to the car.
“What’s up, Dad? Are we making a run for the border, Thelma and Louise style? If so, can I be Thelma?”
“I was thinking more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
“How about you can be Butch and I’ll be Thelma, and you can go rob a train while I pick up a sexy hitchhiker?”
“I worry about you sometimes, kid.”
“You’re the one who got me out of school under false pretenses. Who’s the bad influence?”
“Fair enough,” he chuckled, bringing them into the parking lot of Cold Stone Creamery, the home of the best ice cream in all the land.
“I’m not five, you know,” she pointed out as they gave their orders, Mud Pie Mojo for him and Our Strawberry Blonde for her. “Ice cream doesn’t make everything better.”
“Bite your tongue, woman,” he said in mock offense. “Ice cream makes everything better, and don’t you forget it. I’m not a kid anymore either, that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ice cream for lunch.”
“I think that’s the first time you’ve called me woman before,” she remarked, taking a seat by the window.
“I take it back, I meant girlie. You’re still five to me and you always will be.” He tapped her on the nose with the end of his finger before he dug into his rapidly melting heaven.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, when he didn’t start talking.
“Sure, of course. Well, as okay as it can be in the middle of a murder case. We’re making progress though.”
“What’s up then?” Veronica pressed. “What’s this afterschool moment about? The dangers of older boys? Premarital sex?” She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a stage whisper. “Do you need any pointers?”
“Ha-ha, you’re a hoot,” he smirked. “And you’d better be kidding, young lady.” Nick wagged his spoon at her before taking another bite, working himself up to the question at hand. “What do you think of Annaliese?”
Veronica’s brows drew closer together. “Isn’t it kind of late for you to be asking me that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve been in her pocket for the past year, right? Why ask me now?”
He wasn’t sure if he liked that term, but he could agree it was somewhat true. “Because I’ve been thinking about making some changes.”
“You’re not going to break up with her, are you?”
“No, why would I do that?”
“I don’t know, because you’re a guy, which makes you genetically predisposed to fear commitment in any form,” she pointed out, stopping to take a huge bite of ice cream before continuing. “You have to admit, you’ve totally been pushing her away lately.”
“I have not, she’s the one who’s been…” Nick forced a breath, not wanting to be drawn into an argument. “This is not the point of why I wanted to talk to you. And this disagreement we’ve been having is not a big deal, I promise.”
“I don’t know about that, Dad. I think you might lose her.”
“Over this?” he scoffed. “This is nothing.”
Veronica’s brows rose. “You spending the night with FBI chick? I wouldn’t call that nothing.”
“I didn’t spend the night with her, she slept in my bed is all. You know that, we talked about it last night. Besides, how would she even know Nat was there?”
“She already knows. Annaliese showed up this morning with a bunch of fennel.”
So that’s what that was. No wonder Anna was dodging his calls that morning. “Did she say why she came over?”
“I didn’t get to talk to her. She took one look at Special Agent Bitch and beat feet.”
“Hey, watch it. She’s not a bitch.”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” Veronica said around a spoon full of ice cream. “She’s obviously trying to sink her claws into you.”
“Can we get back to the original topic at hand, please?” Nick frowned, wondering if things were really as bad off as Veronica seemed to think they were.
“I like Anna just fine, we get along great. You know that.”
So far, so good. “How would you feel if Annaliese was around a lot more? As in… every day.”
Her eyes widened. “Like her moving in with us?”
“Maybe.”
Veronica’s head canted to one side as she worked her way through the ramifications of that single word. “Are you sure she wants that? She loves her house.”
“It’s something we’d have to discuss.”
“Would we move into her house above the store instead? Does that mean I’d have to change schools?”
“I… don’t know, we haven’t gotten that far.” He shook his head, trying to gain control of the conversation again before they spun off into the land of what-ifs. “The point is, before I did anything drastic, I wanted to sound it out with my best girl first.”
“Then what are you doing talking to me?” she deadpanned.
“Very funny,” he grimaced, throwing a balled up napkin at her. “I mean it, kiddo, it’s been just the two of us for a while. I don’t want to do anything to upset you.”
She stared at him long and hard before answering. “You know I like her, and she’s at our house all the time, so not a lot would change. What is this actually about?”
In for a penny, in for a pound… Nick pulled out a smal
l velvet box and set it on the table, cracking it open to reveal a ring set in white gold, the round moonstone flanked by Celtic knotwork on both sides.
“Is that what I think it is?” Her eyes goggled wide.
“Do you think she’ll like it? I know it’s not the usual type of engagement ring…”
“Oh, Daddy,” she gasped, growing all misty eyed. “She’ll love it,” she said with absolute sincerity.
“What about you? How do you feel about adding another person to our family?”
Veronica smiled, ice cream forgotten as she blinked past the emotion. “I think as long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”
Did that mean she was only happy because he was happy, or did the thought make her happy on its own? Woman speak – it had him going around in circles. “Wait… but I want you to be happy too. I can hold off if you have any reservations at all. You’re almost eighteen and you’ll be going off to college soon enough. If you think it’s too soon…”
“No, I don’t think it’s too soon, if it’s what you really want. But if you’re only doing it because you feel guilty about how things are going between you two…” she sobered and Nick put up a hand.
“No, I bought this ring way before. This whole mess just helped me see what I’ve wanted for a while now.”
“Then I think you should do it. You deserve to be happy and Annaliese is pretty great.”
“She is, isn’t she?” he smiled, looking down at the ring before he snapped the box closed and put it back into his pocket.
“Wow, you’re really going to propose. I take back what I said about your fear of commitment, you’re a tribute to your gender.”
“Alright, finish up, you,” he smiled, attacking what was left of his chocolate concoction with gusto. “I have to get you back to class.”
“Aw, I was hoping you were still feeling outlaw enough to drop me off at the mall. Especially now that I have to look for something to wear to your engagement party. And the wedding. Do you think she’ll ask me to be a bridesmaid? Or a flower girl?” Veronica made a face. “I hope not. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not actually five,” she teased.