Deep In Death: A Shelby Nichols Adventure

by Colleen Helme

  There had to be another way to get the results I wanted, but right now, I wasn’t thinking rationally, mostly because deep down, I was scared to death. It creeped me out to think I was his next target, especially when I could imagine all sorts of horrible things he may have done to the other women.

  I got home and went directly to the den where I kept the files of all the missing women and opened them up. I had a small whiteboard and taped each picture to the top and wrote their names in dry-erase marker beneath. Then I wrote “Sean Hanley” below that and circled it. Next, I drew lines between each woman’s picture to Sean’s name with the date of disappearance on the line.

  I propped the whiteboard on the desk against the wall and studied it, feeling a sense of control wash over me. This was my storyboard, just like the one Kate Beckett used on my favorite TV show, Castle. She always figured it out, and I could too. Too bad I didn’t have Richard Castle standing beside me right now, telling me how to catch him. I needed to lay a trap, but the only thing that really made sense was using myself as bait. I didn’t really want to do that much, but with Ramos as back-up it could work.

  I spent the afternoon thinking up different scenarios to catch Sean that didn’t involve letting him get me first. In all of them there was just too much that could go wrong, and it didn’t leave me with many options besides just grabbing him like I first wanted to.

  I looked up Sean’s address and phone number to add to the storyboard, and found it on google maps so I’d know exactly where he lived. Maybe I could drive by on my way home from my meeting with Addie and Billie later tonight and check it out. If he had a big yard, maybe the victims were all buried there. Or maybe I could sneak in while he was gone and take a look around. Thoughts of doing that kind of made me sick, but if I got Ramos to help me, it could work.

  My kids got home from school, so I took the storyboard off the desk and turned it around against the wall by the side of the desk where no one would see it and left the room. I was ready for a break, and talking to my kids and getting dinner ready would help ground me. I hurried into the kitchen where Josh was guzzling milk straight from the jug. It was almost empty, so I only shook my head and let it go.

  “You know…you could have some cookies with that,” I said.

  He shrugged and kept guzzling. Savannah rushed past me, heading up to her room where she could cry in peace. Whoa. What was going on with her? I followed her to the bottom of the stairs.

  “How was school?” The words popped out of my mouth before I could call them back. I inwardly cursed, knowing it was about the worst thing a parent could ask their child if they wanted to know the truth.

  “Fine,” Savannah said, but inwardly she was thinking it was crappy and about the worst day she’d ever had in her life, and life sucked, and all she wanted to do was listen to her music and cry and never go back to school again.

  “What happened?” I asked, hoping she’d open up.

  “Nothing! I said it was fine.” She continued up the stairs to her room, and I had no alternative but to follow her if I wanted to get her to talk to me.

  “Yeah…well, if the way you’re snapping at me is any indication, then fine isn’t quite the right word to describe it. How about crappy? Does that work better? What was so crappy about it?”

  “Mom…” she whined, turning back before she entered her room. “Are you doing that premonition thing on me again? I don’t like you doing that. It’s like…invasion of privacy.”

  “No honey, not at all. I’m just concerned because you seem a little upset and I’d like to talk about it…if it would help.” Since I didn’t really have premonitions, saying that wasn’t lying.

  “You wouldn’t understand,” she said, thinking no one my age could ever remember what seventh grade was like, especially since cell phones and the Internet weren’t even invented back then.

  I almost blurted that she was wrong and it wasn’t that long ago, but let it go. “I remember seventh grade very well,” I said. “It was one of the worst years of my life. I was always getting picked on by the older kids and sometimes the boys were really mean. Other times, the girls were even worse, especially my friends. I hated that.”

  “You hated seventh grade?” she asked. “Then why did you tell me it was going to be fun?”

  “Because I hoped it would be fun, and I didn’t want to discourage you before you even got started.” The glare in her eyes softened, so I took that as a good sign and continued, “So just tell me one thing that made today so bad.”

  She let out a sigh and heaved her backpack onto the floor, leaving the door open for me to follow, then threw herself onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Grateful, I sat on the edge of the bed and listened as she began to talk. As all her frustrations spilled out, I got her to move over so I could lie down beside her.

  An hour later, she was feeling good enough to help me fix dinner. As we got started, I picked up from Josh that he was relieved to see us out of her room. He was starving and had debated about asking what was for dinner earlier, but he didn’t want to interrupt our ‘girl’ talk. What was it with girls anyway? They were always so hard to understand. One minute they were nice and happy, and the next they were screaming and crying. He didn’t get it. Now it looked like Savannah was turning into one of them. That was tough, and he thanked his lucky stars he wasn’t a girl.

  That thought coaxed a laugh out of me, and I glanced at him with a knowing smile.

  “What?” he asked. “What’d I do?”

  “Nothing,” I answered. “I can just tell that you’re hungry, that’s all.”

  He shook his head, thinking he’d never understand women. “I’m going to go shoot some hoops,” he said. I nodded and he left to go outside where we had a basketball hoop set up against the garage.

  Chris pulled up a few minutes later, shocking me that he was home early. He quickly changed and joined Josh in the driveway while Savannah and I finished dinner. As we sat around the table for dinner that night, I sighed with gratitude for my family. We had our challenges, but having them in my life was worth everything.

  Around nine o’clock, I got a text from Billie reminding me about our meeting with Addie. I’d totally forgotten and had to rush to get ready. Chris wasn’t happy I was leaving, but since it didn’t have anything to do with Uncle Joey, he couldn’t complain too much.

  “Just call me if you’re going to be later than eleven,” he said.

  “Oh, I’m sure it won’t be that late.”

  “Good. How’s the investigation going anyway? Was today your appointment with that guy from the Marketing Company?”

  “Yes. It went well, and I found out some stuff, but I don’t have time to tell you about it now.” I’d put off telling Chris about that meeting because I hadn’t decided exactly what to tell him. Now that would have to wait until I got back. “I’ll fill you in later.”

  I rushed to make it to Gracie’s Tavern by nine-thirty and pulled into the parking lot only a few minutes late. For a Monday night, the place seemed a lot more crowded than it should have been. Thankfully, Billie spotted me and waved me over to her table. I slid into a chair and smiled at Addie whose pale face and haunted eyes underscored the quick smile she gave me. I picked up on her anxiety and the subsequent stomachache she suffered. She was thinking that if we ever let anyone know she was the source of this leak in the Attorney General’s office, her career would be over. She still wasn’t sure she could go through with it.

  Billie was ready to get down to business and get this done, totally missing Addie’s reluctance. As she opened her mouth to ask Addie what information she had, I spoke up. “You can trust us, Addie. Neither of us will ever tell anyone where we got this information. That’s a promise.”

  I glanced at Billie with raised brows and she quickly responded. “That’s right. As a journalist I don’t have to reveal my sources, as long as the information is accurate. So your secrets are safe with me.”

  Addie licked her lips. “H
ow will you put it in the paper then?”

  “Oh we always say it’s from an anonymous source.” She didn’t add ‘close to the attorney general’ like she was thinking. “No one will know who gave it to us, so you’ll be fine.”

  Addie glanced between the two of us, then sighed and leaned forward. “Okay. Here’s what I’ve got. First of all, I overheard Grayson talking to one of the businessmen who contributed quite a bit to his campaign about getting the charges dropped against him. I don’t know exactly what that means, but you can guess. After you left last Friday I got suspicious about something.

  “A while back, I caught Grayson at my computer a couple of times. He brushed it off, but on Friday, I decided to check all my files. I found one I didn’t know about and opened it up. It showed two men’s names that I recognized as campaign contributors along with files showing inquiries into their businesses. The inquiries all came in at different times, in various stages of investigation, and were based on things like tax evasion, retaliating against witnesses, and obstructing justice. They’re all felonies. When I checked the public records to see what became of the charges, I found out our office had never filed them. It looks like they were given to Grayson, and he put them on my computer.”

  She licked her lips nervously. “From how big the files were, I don’t think Grayson could have put them there from just the few times I caught him, unless he somehow found out my password. But I change it every month and these files spanned about six months’ time. So I don’t know how he did it.”

  “Hmm,” Billie said. “Unless he got your IT guy to give him your passwords. Then all he’d have to do is stay late or come in on a weekend and use your computer.”

  “So do you think the reason he put everything on my computer was so it would look like he never got them and it was my fault?” Addie asked.

  “Could be,” Billie said. “So what did you do with the files?”

  “I copied them onto a thumb-drive,” Addie answered. “And it’s a good thing I did too, because this morning when I checked my computer, they were gone. He must have come in over the weekend and deleted them.”

  “Wow,” Billie said. “That was close.”

  “Tell me about it.” Addie sighed and opened her purse. She took out the thumb-drive and handed it to Billie. “It’s all there. After everything I’ve done for that man, he pays me back like this? It’s unbelievable. I guess you never really know someone as well as you think. I believed in him. I thought he was a good man.” She was thinking how stupid she was to turn a blind eye to his above-the-law attitude. She could see it now, but she’d mistakenly let the power go to her head as well. Now look where it had gotten her.

  “Thanks,” Billie said. “You won’t regret this.”

  “Just keep my name out of it.” With a nod from Billie, Addie stood and quickly left the tavern.

  Billie glanced at me. “What a story. This is great.” Before I could respond, her phone rang. “Um…it’s my boss. I’ve got to answer it.”

  I nodded and gathered my things to leave. Billie’s hand on my arm drew my attention back to her, and I found her eyes round with surprise and shock. I hadn’t been listening to her conversation, but from her expression, I knew something big had gone down.

  “What is it?” I asked, my stomach clenching with dread.

  She put her phone away and pursed her lips. “There’s been an explosion…in Seattle. A yacht owned by the Passini Shipping Company blew up about an hour ago. They’re saying Joe Manetto was onboard.”

  Chapter 7

  “What?” I felt the blood drain from my head. “What do you mean? He was on a yacht? What happened?”

  She shook her head. “The only thing my boss knows at this point is there was some kind of a party on the yacht…and it went down from an explosion. Apparently several people made it off, but others are missing. I guess the rescue operation is still underway so it’s too early to have a list of names.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay.” This was awful, but I had to believe that Uncle Joey and Ramos had survived. They were smarter than to let themselves get blown up, right? They’d survived worse things, hadn’t they? Just then my phone rang, and my heart skipped a beat. Maybe it was him or Ramos telling me they were okay.

  “Hello?”

  “Shelby! It’s Jackie. Something terrible has happened,” she sobbed. “Kate called. There was an explosion on the boat. She doesn’t know where Joe is. I need to know…Joe told me about you…that you have premonitions. I need to know if he’s okay. Can you come to the house?”

  “Yes. Yes, of course. I’ll be right there.” My throat closed into a tight lump. Hearing Jackie’s frantic voice made it all real. If Kate had called and didn’t know where Uncle Joey was, did that mean he was really dead?

  I glanced at Billie. Her brows were drawn together in concern and she was thinking I seemed almost a little too upset if Manetto didn’t mean anything to me. Who had just called me? Where was I going? I cleared my throat and swallowed. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Who was that?” she asked.

  “I’ll… tell you later,” I answered, knowing she would never let it go unless I gave her a promise of some kind, even if it was a promise I didn’t intend to keep. Without waiting for a response, I hurried out of the tavern and jumped into my car.

  I drove to Uncle Joey’s place in a daze, still not believing it had happened. If it had…and they were dead…tears gathered in my eyes, but I blinked them away. I wasn’t ready to believe Uncle Joey or Ramos was dead. Not yet. The Passinis had planned this. Their plan all along must have been to get Uncle Joey to sign the merger and then kill him. I didn’t think for one minute the explosion could have been an accident, but if Kate was still alive, did that mean she was on their side? It wouldn’t be the first time she had double-crossed Uncle Joey.

  I turned into the driveway and my stomach clenched. What was I going to tell Jackie? She thought I had premonitions, so I had to tell her something. Even if it wasn’t the truth, I knew I had to tell her Uncle Joey was still alive. No way could I tell her he was dead. He couldn’t be dead.

  The walk to the front door seemed to take forever, but was also too short once I got there. Before I could ring the bell, the door flew open and Jackie grabbed me. She held onto me like I was a life boat and she was a sinking ship.

  “It’ll be okay,” I murmured, patting her on the back, and my eyes filling with tears. “It’s okay,” I said over and over. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

  Her breath caught and she stepped back. “You are? You’re sure he’s fine?” Hope brightened her tear-filled eyes.

  I nodded and smiled, wiping away my own tears. “Yes…pretty sure. Let’s go inside.”

  She swallowed and stepped aside as I walked past, closing the door behind me. I followed her down the hall and into a comfortable sitting room. “Thank you so much for coming,” she began. “I was going crazy here by myself.”

  “When did you find out?”

  “Kate called to tell me, just before I called you. She said she’d call me back as soon as she knew more, but she hasn’t called yet.”

  “Did Kate say what happened?” I asked.

  “She sounded out of breath, and she was shivering, like she’d just been pulled out of the water. She said the yacht was anchored near the docks, not too far from shore. Then there was a big explosion, and the boat started to sink. Alec helped her get into a lifeboat, but she couldn’t find Joe and Ramos in the confusion.”

  “Did she see them after the explosion?”

  “I don’t know. She wasn’t making a lot of sense.”

  “She was probably in shock,” I said, knowing firsthand how that felt. “But if she saw Uncle Joey and Ramos after the explosion, that means there’s a good chance they got off the yacht before it sank, especially if they could swim to shore. They might be on the beach somewhere.”

  “Is that what your premonitions are telling you?” Jackie asked, sounding desperate.

&
nbsp; “Yes.” I nodded. “Either that, or someone else helped them off.” Of course, I had no idea, but it could be true. “Let’s see if we can get through to Kate again. Do you have her number?”

  “Um…it’s on my phone.” Jackie picked up her cell, but her fingers were shaking and she couldn’t get the numbers right.

  “Can I try?” I asked. With a grateful sigh she handed the phone to me and I quickly brought up Kate’s cell number and pushed call. It rang several times before it went to voice mail. I left a message that I was with Jackie and to call us back right away.

  After I disconnected, Jackie reached for the phone. “I haven’t tried Joe’s cell phone yet. Maybe I should do that.”

  “Oh…yes, that’s a good idea.” I handed it over and watched as she pushed in his number. She held it to her ear, and we both listened with baited breath, hoping he would answer. It went to voice-mail and Jackie’s face crumpled, but she left a tender message for him to call her, telling him how much she loved him and he’d better not be dead. She disconnected, then pushed in another number. From her thoughts, I knew it was Ramos’ cell.

  The same process repeated without him picking up, and she left another message, only this time it wasn’t so sweet. “Damn it Ramos!! You or Joe better call me or you’re in deep shit!” She clicked the phone off and sent it spinning across the coffee table, then glanced at me. “That felt good.”

  “I’m sure it did.” I smiled, wishing I could yell at them too. “How could they let this happen?”

  “I know!” Jackie agreed. “This is horrible. How could they do this to me? If you weren’t here, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d probably go crazy. I hate this. I hate waiting around for the phone to ring.”

  She took a deep breath and began pacing back and forth across the floor like a caged animal. “Joe did tell me something before he left. He said if I heard any bad news not to worry, he had plans in place that should keep him safe. But then he ruined it by telling me that if anything did happen to him, he made sure in his will that I’d be well provided for. Damn that man! What am I supposed to think?”