Trapped By Revenge: A Shelby Nichols Adventure

by Colleen Helme

  “I know, I know.” He was right, but that wasn’t helping now. “Let’s get me out of this first, okay?”

  “Sure,” he agreed.

  We pulled into the driveway, and I tried to get my nerves under control before we went inside and talked to our kids. “What should I tell them?”

  “Tell them what happened. They’re old enough to know the truth. If this does end up going to trial, it’s better they know what we’re dealing with now than finding it out some other way.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “It can’t go to trial! We’ve got to find out who did this long before that happens.”

  “We will. We’ll figure it out.”

  Chapter 12

  Just after midnight, I woke from a deep sleep, pulled into consciousness by the realization that the voice I’d heard last night about how fast I got out of jail belonged to a woman, and it wasn’t Billie like I first thought. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but if someone was watching me and it was a woman, it had to be important.

  With all the evidence piling up against me, I still didn’t know how in the world I was going to figure out this case and stay out of jail. Worrying about all this kept me awake, and it was a long time before I could quiet my fears and go back to sleep. So when my alarm went off, I was ready to smack somebody.

  Lucky for Chris, he had gone into work early so he could work on his case load. He needed the extra time in order to fit my arraignment into his schedule. Apparently that was planned for next Tuesday. This was where I would be formally charged with murder in a court of law before a judge. Just thinking about it sent shivers of dread down my spine and filled me with fear.

  Today was Friday, and it was my turn to drive the carpool to school. Since none of the parents had called to tell me they didn’t want their kids anywhere near a woman accused of murder, I took heart that my name wasn’t in the paper and no one knew.

  Picking up the carpool went like it normally did, and I didn’t hear any of the kids thinking about me, but once I got home, I checked the paper anyway. With baited breath, I combed each section, and drooped with relief to find I wasn’t mentioned.

  Last night, my kids had taken the news rather well, and didn’t seem too concerned as long as it didn’t interfere with their lives. They thought that since I was innocent, I’d figure it out. After all, I did have premonitions, and that gave me an edge. I had solved a lot of cases and found a little girl who’d been kidnapped. I’d even helped rescue her before she was killed. If I could to that, I could figure this out. I was relieved, and a little worried that they had so much faith in me. Now if only I could have the same faith in myself, I wouldn’t worry so much.

  Since I’d seen Billie Payne at the station last night, I decided to call her and find out how much she knew about my arrest. She answered on the first ring. “Hi Billie, it’s Shelby. Is it you I need to thank for leaving me out of the paper today?”

  “Well, mostly, but you also need to thank Drew too, um…I mean Dimples…er…Harris.”

  “Oh…well I’ll be sure to do that then.” Did she call him Drew? Wow. Things must be going well between them. “How’s your investigation coming? Have you learned anything new?”

  “Yes I have, but I’m not sure how much it will help, and I’m running out of time. A week from today is Jim’s execution.”

  “Oh that’s right!” My heart sank, I’d forgotten all about that, and here I’d made a promise to Jim that I’d find evidence that would free him. “How’s he holding up?”

  “Not real well. He keeps asking if you’ve figured it out, and I haven’t been able to tell him anything.”

  I sighed, knowing I’d failed him, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d be next. “Can we meet for lunch today? I might have something for you, and I’d like to hear what you’ve learned too. Maybe we can put the pieces together from what we both know and make some progress.”

  Billie agreed and after deciding on a time and place, we disconnected.

  Next, I called Uncle Joey at Thrasher Development, knowing I needed to thank him for getting me out of jail so quickly. Jackie answered and put me right through.

  “Shelby,” he said. “How are you doing?”

  “Better today. I just wanted to thank you for bailing me out last night. I was starting to go a little crazy in there, so I’m really glad I didn’t have to stay all night. But I just wanted to let you know that I’ll do everything I can to figure this out and get your money back.”

  “Don’t worry about the money. We just need to clear your name. I talked to Ramos about your discovery yesterday and he’s already come up with a few leads.”

  “He has? That was fast.”

  “Well…you getting arrested seemed to motivate him,” he said.

  “Oh…” Did that mean Ramos really cared about me, or that he didn’t want to have to keep his promise of taking me to South America? “Well yeah, it certainly surprised me. Dimples promised to let me know when it was going to happen, but someone else bypassed him and got a warrant. But get this, the DA’s office approached the detective, not the other way around. Sounds like someone higher up is pulling strings, doesn’t it? Someone…like a judge?”

  “It certainly does,” Uncle Joey agreed. “I’ll get my source in the police department on it right away. Maybe he can find out which judge signed that warrant.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “Maybe this is the break we’ve needed. It makes getting arrested not so bad if it leads us to the right judge.”

  “My thoughts exactly. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you see or hear anything out of the ordinary, I want to know. Sometimes it’s the little things that can make or break a case.”

  “Okay, thanks, I will.” We said our goodbyes and disconnected. Something unfurled in my chest and I took a deep breath. That little chat had me feeling more optimistic than I had all morning. In fact, I felt good enough to eat some yogurt and take a shower.

  At lunchtime, I met Billie at the restaurant and we found a seat in a side booth. After placing our orders, we got down to business. “So tell me what you found out,” I said.

  “Okay, here it is, but don’t tell anyone. I talked Drew… ah…Dimples…”

  “You can call him Drew,” I interrupted. I gave her a knowing smile and she blushed. “So have you two been seeing a lot of each other lately?”

  “It’s purely professional,” she said, but she was thinking about the kiss they’d shared, and how amazing it was.

  “O…kay,” I said. “Go on.”

  She took a deep breath and refocused her thoughts on our conversation. “Right. Um…I talked Drew into sharing some of Killpack’s files with me. After I told him of my conversation with Killpack about Jim Porter’s innocence, he remembered seeing a file with Rebecca Morris’ name on it. I convinced him that it might help me keep Jim from being executed if I knew what was in that file, so he made copies and gave them to me.”

  “Wow,” I said. “That’s huge.”

  “Yeah, just don’t tell anyone or he could lose his job.”

  “Oh, sure. I won’t breathe a word.” Poor Dimples. That meant he could be in double trouble for taking the file about me too. Of course, when I considered that Uncle Joey had also received a file, it meant Dimples wasn’t the only detective taking them, so maybe it wasn’t too bad. “So what did you find out?”

  “From his notes, it looks like Killpack was observing Rebecca’s routines. He kept track of when she was at work, at home, and anywhere else she went. He kept track of her daily schedule and noted the times she was with Jim and the times she was alone. He knew where she was at certain times of the day and what days of the week she routinely did the same things. Including the nights she usually stayed late at work. It was kind of creepy. He basically had both of their lives all mapped out on paper.”

  “So…someone was paying him to do this?”

  “It looks like it,” Billie agreed. “In fact…in his notes of the nights that Rebecca worked late�
��the night of her murder was one of them.”

  “Then whoever killed her planned it from the information he told them?”

  “I think so,” she answered.

  “Do you think Killpack knew that?” I asked.

  “No. Not at first, because there’s a notation that when he drove by her house the next day, he found it swarming with cops. He notes that when he found out she was dead, he let his client know and then closed the file.”

  “Wow. I wonder when he figured out that his client had something to do with her murder.”

  “I wish I knew,” she said. “But I really think he must have found out something about it that got him killed, which is what we basically knew. So if you think about it, this doesn’t really change anything.”

  “But it might be the evidence we need to get a stay of execution. Let me call Chris and see what he thinks.”

  “Okay.” She sighed. “I just wish I could have gotten a client list from Drew. Apparently, Killpack’s client list didn’t include all of his clients because the invoice in Rebecca’s file only had a number, not a name. He must have kept that information separate.”

  I paused, wondering how much to tell her. “You’re right. I talked with his former secretary about how he billed his “special” clients, and she told me he kept a ledger with their names on it in his safe at home.”

  “Really?” Her surprise turned to excitement. “Well that’s great! I’m sure Drew could meet us there. Let’s go get it.”

  I grimaced and shook my head. “Sorry, but I already tried that and it’s not there. Worse, I think the killer beat me to it.”

  “What?” she gasped. Her brows drew together with alarm. “What makes you think that?”

  “He left me a nasty surprise and a note. So let’s just say I have a friend who is trying to track him down.”

  “Damn,” she said. “That ledger could be the key to Jim’s case.”

  “Yeah…mine too.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “How would it help you?”

  “I think Killpack might have kept a file on me with the same kind of invoice.”

  “Might?” she asked. Her inquisitive nature was going off the charts, and she knew there was a lot more I wasn’t telling her. Had Drew found a file on me and taken it? Maybe even given it to me? She knew we worked together, but would he go out on a limb for me too?

  “It makes sense that Killpack would have known about me,” I reasoned. “Maybe the same client who hired him to spy on Rebecca, had also hired him to spy on me. That would make him suspicious, right?”

  “Yeah. That does make sense.” What was I hiding from her? Something important, she was sure of it.

  “Okay…just so you know, I’m working on finding the ledger. I have a couple of leads, so if the ledger turns up, I’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, I’ll tell Chris about the files and see if he thinks it might be enough to get a stay of execution for Jim.”

  Billie nodded with admiration, realizing she had to give me credit for being such a good investigator. She only wished I’d included her a little more. It would have been nice to see me in action, or even help me out. She wondered if I’d broken into Killpack’s house or something. Now that would have been exciting. “All right. But if you find the ledger, I want to see it before you hand it over to the police. Okay?”

  “Of course. You’ll be the first to know.”

  She nodded. “Good. I just hope you can find it soon. At this point, it might be the only thing that will keep Jim alive.”

  With that somber thought, we concentrated on eating. I didn’t have much of an appetite, and was glad I’d only ordered a salad. From the looks of things, Billie wasn’t real hungry either. Thinking about an innocent man getting executed had a way of doing that.

  “Oh, before I forget,” Billie said. “Tomorrow is Sam Killpack’s graveside service. It’s at noon. Do you want to go?” She was thinking it might look weird for the woman accused of murdering him to show up, but since I didn’t do it, it was probably okay.

  “So you’re going?” I asked, stalling for time to decide.

  “Yes. I want to see who’s there and what they have to say about him. I think it would be good for my next article.” She was thinking it would be a nice lead into her article about Jim, where she planned to reveal Sam’s involvement in spying on Rebecca and her consequent murder. The big reveal would be hinting that someone else was involved. That someone had set Jim up. It could not only help Jim, but go a long way toward her dream of a Pulitzer Prize.

  “That’s a good idea,” I said. “As long as it doesn’t make you a target.”

  “Huh?”

  “Oh…well…I was just thinking that if you wrote something in your next article that hinted about Sam’s involvement, it might make the person who hired him nervous. He might want to shut you up.”

  Speculation gleamed in her eyes. “That’s true. I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Look sweetie…it’s not a good thing to have a bad guy after you,” I said. “Don’t forget, Sam was killed for what he knew, so if you take that path, you’d better have someone watch your back.”

  Her thoughts immediately went to Dimples, and she was sure he’d think the same thing, which was a good thing in her mind. “Oh, I’ll be fine.” She wasn’t a shrinking violet. She carried a gun and knew how to use it. She was also a black belt in Aikido. She could handle herself.

  Now it was my turn to be impressed. I could learn a lesson or two from her, and wasn’t Aikido a martial art? Maybe she could teach me, or at least I could train with her. Now that would be fun. I could just picture myself throwing Ramos over my shoulder if he ever tried to kiss me again, and couldn’t help the smile that spread over my face.

  Billie was thinking she’d get to the bottom of this mess. Not only for Jim, but because she couldn’t stop thinking about Sam’s message to her and how honest he was about her writing.

  “I can see you’re taking Sam’s criticism to heart about getting “the story behind the story,” aren’t you?” I asked.

  “Wow. I was just thinking that.”

  I smiled. “It makes me wonder if we shouldn’t be looking into Rebecca and Jim’s relationship a little deeper. Maybe Sam found out something about their past that would make sense of all this.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not that easy. I’ve been over everything so many times, and nothing is really clicking. Even Jim is stumped.” She pushed away her plate of uneaten food, and finished off her diet soda. “So do you think you’ll come tomorrow?”

  “Um…I need to think about it. I’d like to come, but I’m not sure it’s appropriate.” I needed to go so I could listen to everyone’s thoughts, but that meant I might need to go incognito in my black wig or something.

  “Come with me. No one knows you’re a suspect yet.” She was thinking she could keep it out of the paper until my arraignment on Tuesday, so I should be all right.

  That decided it. “Okay. I’ll come.”

  “Good. I’ll pick you up at about eleven-thirty.”

  ***

  The next day was cloudy with a chance of rain. Perfect for a graveside service. I dressed in my black pencil skirt with a white blouse and black blazer, and pulled my hair back into a tight bun. With my dark glasses on, I didn’t think anyone would know who I was. And going with Billie was a plus because she wasn’t related to anyone either. We would just be acquaintances of Sam’s, like most people there.

  Chris couldn’t believe I was really going to go, and it shook my resolve. “But honey,” he said. “What if Detective Bates is there? Going makes you look guilty.”

  “I have to go. If the killer’s there I can’t take the chance of missing him. It might be the break we need to get out of this mess.”

  He sighed, thinking that he should be the one to go with me, not Billie. If he was there the detective wouldn’t try anything. He was still upset that Bates had the gall to question me before booking me. And worse, that he had tried to
bully me into a plea-bargain. That guy was bad news.

  “If Bates is there,” I began, “I won’t let him bully me, I promise. Besides, if he’s there, then Dimples will probably be there too.”

  “Um…you should know that Dimples is off your case,” Chris said.

  “What? When did you find that out?”

  “Yesterday. I called him about your arraignment, and that’s when he told me. He said Bates is now the lead investigator.”

  “Well damn,” I said. “That sucks. Bates didn’t find out about my file did he?”

  Chris shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that. But I know that the evidence they do have is pretty solid. The only thing they lack is a motive, so that’s what I’m focusing on.”

  “We just need to find that stupid ledger,” I said. “It’s the key to everything.”

  “Yes. That about sums it up. You heard from Manetto?” He’d almost slipped and called him Uncle Joey, and he hated that. If I’d just stop calling him Uncle Joey too, he’d feel better. It was almost like I thought of Manetto as my real uncle, and it bothered him. I shouldn’t be so attached.

  Was he right? At first, I’d called him Uncle Joey to bug him, but now it was a habit, and I realized that somewhere along the line I’d lost my objectivity. “Not yet,” I answered. “I’m hoping to hear from him today though.”

  “What about Ramos? Is he any closer to finding the ledger?”

  “Not that I know of,” I answered. “I can give him a call though and maybe meet up with him.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Chris said, instantly disliking that idea. “I’m sure they’ll let you know if they find anything. I’m just on edge. I don’t mean to take it out on you.” His worry stemmed from my upcoming trial. He was thinking he’d do his best, but the evidence against me was so solid…it would take a miracle to get me acquitted.