“Agnew, I understand your concerns,” Hannah said. “I think if we met, I could lay them to rest. You see, the things you’re talking about …I’m well aware of them. I understand the …shall we say, unique …nature of this particular case and your family.”
Again, Agnew paused. “I see.”
“You might say that’s why I’m involved. I’m well-versed in such things.”
“I see,” Agnew said. “I’m not welcome in Baton Rouge because of my family. I’ve been deciding whether or not to come up from New Orleans. I don’t suppose that you’d be willing to come down here for at least an initial meeting? Just so that I can decide what to do next.”
Liam nodded at Hannah’s questioning look, and she quickly assured Agnew. “We would be more than happy to come to you.”
“We?”
“Myself and the …interested party,” Hannah said. “If that’s all right with you.”
Agnew sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I don’t see why not. Is this your cell number? I’ll text you my address. During the day is better. I have several tours to do tonight, back-to-back.”
Liam checked his phone, noting the time. “We can be down there by about four o’clock, Agnew. Does that work?”
“Huh? Oh, hi. The interested party, I presume. Sure. Four o’clock is fine. My tours don’t start until seven o’clock. Then I have another at nine o’clock.”
Liam nodded to Hannah, and they wrapped up their arrangements to meet Agnew. Then Hannah hung up, blowing out a breath.
“Wow,” she said. “I have a good feeling about this. What about you?”
“He sounds very troubled,” Liam said. “I wonder what he’s going to actually tell us. I wonder … if he knows me.”
“He didn’t ask anything about you,” Hannah said. “That’s a little odd. But I think that he’s in a bit of shock. He sounded like it, anyway. And I think he’s afraid of his family as well. Poor guy.”
Liam stood up carefully, bracing himself on Hannah’s shoulder. “It sounds to me like we should get on the road to New Orleans.”
Standing with him, Hannah gripped his arm to keep him steady. “Are you really, really sure that you should be coming with me? You need rest, Liam.”
“I’ll rest in the car. And in the hotel tonight.”
Hannah’s eyes darted up to his, and heat flashed between them, just as it always did when they were standing so close together. Liam lifted his hand and skimmed his thumb along her bottom lip. She closed her eyes, then shook her head as she opened them. “We have a deal. Remember?”
“I know,” Liam said. “But, Hannah—.”
“No buts,” Hannah said, stepping away from him. “You have to stop touching me, Liam. It’s distracting, and it’s confusing, and it’s going to get us both into trouble. We talked about this, didn’t we?”
“What if it’s different with you?” Liam asked, speaking without stopping to question himself. “What if this time I actually feel something more than desire?”
“You don’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
Hannah gave him a look, as she grabbed her things from her desk and shook her head. “I’ll tell you what I do know. I know that a man who can usually get any woman that he wants is going to become fascinated with the one woman who won’t give it to him. If we gave in and …did whatever …then you would end up feeling the same way about me as you do about all the other women you’ve dated. The fascination would fade, and you would want the same things you’ve always wanted—independence and variety.”
“That’s not a very flattering assessment.”
“It’s not meant to be an insult,” Hannah said, heading for her office door, her hand settling on the doorknob. “I don’t begrudge you, your right to have independence and variety. That’s what you want right now, and that’s fine. It’s just not what I want, and what I do want is not something you’re interested in. We’ve already talked about this, Liam. If I just gave in and acted on this …physical connection, I promise you that the intensity of what you are feeling would cool.”
Liam gave her his best scoundrel face. “Only one way to test that theory.”
Hannah laughed softly and shook her head again. “With great reluctance …no. We’re friends. And you’re my client. That’s that. Now—are you ready?”
He nodded, not pushing her any further at the moment, but as he walked out of the building behind her, he knew that, astute as she was, she was wrong about this. He did feel a fascination for her, and he was used to being able to have any woman he wanted—that much was true. But he had a gut feeling that if he had Hannah once, he would be hooked. And that, when he thought about it, was a very good reason to listen to her and not pursue this any further. She hadn’t meant it that way, but what she had said had made him realize that he wasn’t sure he could handle what he was feeling towards her. He wasn’t sure he was ready for it. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be ready for it.
Maybe, after all, it was better to just let what was between them lie there, untouched. It would protect both of their hearts that way—hers from getting too attached and his …from getting too attached.
Chapter 15
Hannah
Hannah and Liam kept things casual on the drive down to New Orleans. It was a little more than an hour and a half trip down to the party-central city, and they chatted lightly between themselves about the case and about each other’s lives. A vivid debate about the superiority of cats or dogs took up at least half an hour, and before Hannah knew it, she was crossing the long bridge that would lead them into the heart of New Orleans.
Agnew’s address was not far from the French Quarter, and Hannah knew just how terrible the parking was down in that area. So, she stopped out in the suburbs and secured a parking spot where she wouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to stay there.
“We don’t have a place to stay tonight,” Liam said, as he followed Hannah out of the car and started walking down the sidewalk with her. “It’s kind of a busy time of year down here, isn’t it? We might end up spending a lot of money for a room tonight.”
“If we stay,” Hannah said. “It could be that Agnew isn’t that helpful, or that he’s willing to come up to Baton Rouge after talking with us. It might be easier just to drive the two hours home tonight.”
Liam nodded, thoughtfully, rubbing a hand along his jaw. He hadn’t shaved that morning, and he was accumulating quite a bit of stubble along his chiseled jawline. “True, true. But …we could still stay.”
She sent him a look. “Uh-huh.”
“Not like that,” Liam said. “Although …maybe like that. But that’s not what I meant. I just meant …New Orleans is so close, but I never actually get around to coming down here. I’m always too busy with things, or I just hit my usual bars up in Baton Rouge. It might be good to have a night away.”
“You’re severely injured,” Hannah said. “Your back—remember?”
“It’s not so bad,” Liam said, shrugging a shoulder. Then he winced. “I mean, I shouldn’t make that motion. But it’s not so bad. You’ve taken very good care of me. You and your healing friend.”
Hannah shook her head. “I’m not letting you charm me into forgetting that you should be laid up, resting. Clearly, taking it easy is not your strong suit.”
“Clearly.”
“Well, taking care of people is my strong suit,” Hannah said. “So, if you listen to me, we’ll be just fine.”
“And, if you listen to me, we’ll have fun.”
Hannah tried to hide her smile as much as she could. “Let’s focus on the murder investigation we’re conducting, shall we? You know, the one that might get you killed if we don’t figure out what’s going on?”
“Well, if you insist,” Liam said, shrugging a shoulder and then wincing again. “Damn. I didn’t realize how often I shrug.”
Ignoring Liam’s charm and humor, Hannah attempted to refocus them. “When we get to Agnew’s address, we need to play it by ear a littl
e bit, but we also have to have some sort of game plan. I think it’s best if I take the lead, and if you …well, if you fill in as needed.”
“Basically, I’m there for eye candy.”
Hannah pressed her lips together to hide her smirk. “You’re there because you persuaded me to let you come along on this investigation instead of forcing you to stay in bed. Which is not to say that you are not helpful—you are. But I have an idea of how I want to lead Agnew around to talking about what I want to talk about, so… what I’m saying is follow my lead.”
“I’ll follow you anywhere,” Liam said, as they got closer to the French Quarter. “Man, the vibe here never changes, does it? It’s four o’clock on a Thursday, and yet you get that feeling that makes you want to listen to good jazz, and eat seafood, and dance in the streets.”
It was true that New Orleans had a feel like no other city in the world, and Hannah did love to come visit the unique cultural conglomeration. But dancing in the streets would have to wait. She touched Liam’s arm, indicating that they were about to turn, and then led him down a maze of small back streets. As vivacious as New Orleans was, it also had a lot of small alleys lined with rundown houses and trash in the streets. It was a dichotomy of a city, and at the moment they were in the part of it that had suffered the most.
And then they were at Agnew’s address. The house was rundown and painted a bright blue—neither of which was unusual for the area. They walked up the porch steps, but before Hannah could knock on the door, it opened.
“You made good time,” Agnew said, stepping out onto the porch. He was a good-looking man, with sandy-brown hair and light green eyes, and a face that held both hints of softness and a lifetime of worry. He was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans with bare feet, and he had his hands shoved into his pockets. “I’m Agnew. Nice to meet you, Hannah. And …”
“Ethan Rodgers,” Liam said, sticking his hand out. “Nice to meet you, too.”
Agnew shook Liam’s hand, but he stared at him with a strange look. “You seem familiar.”
“Oh?” Liam asked, releasing Agnew’s hand. “Maybe we’ve seen each other before.”
“You knew Trinity?”
Hannah glanced at Liam somewhat nervously, unsure how he would handle the question. But he didn’t disappoint her.
“I did,” Liam said. “Not well, by any means. We were friends for a brief while, and then lost all contact. But I always thought highly of her, and I hate what’s happened to her. That’s why I’ve hired Ms. Reese to get to the bottom of it.”
Agnew turned towards Hannah. “Yes. Ms. Reese.”
“Hannah is just fine,” she said, gesturing towards the door. “May we come inside and talk?”
Agnew led them into his house. It was largely bare, with just a few key pieces of furniture—a couch, a table, and a large plastic container with a small TV set upon it. It was clear that being a tour guide only paid for so much, and Hannah couldn’t help but feel, as she looked around, that Agnew didn’t have much to ground him in life.
“How long have you lived down here?” Hannah asked, sitting gingerly down on the edge of the couch, as Agnew gestured for them to sit.
“About three years,” Agnew said, dragging the one chair over from the table and sitting across from Liam and Hannah. “I know it doesn’t look like much. It isn’t much, if I’m being honest. It hasn’t been an easy road, but I’m still driving along—making it work.”
Hannah nodded. “Of course. Do you enjoy being a tour guide? You must meet so many interesting people.”
“I do,” Agnew said, nodding. “To both. It can sometimes get repetitive, telling the same stories all of the time. But the wonderful thing about New Orleans is that there are so many different ways to tour. Food. Ghosts. Crime. Culture. History. Religion. Nature. Wildlife. You can do it all. And each tour genre has so many different stories. I have some favorites, of course, but I will often switch the stories up from night to night just to get some variety. It’s about reading the crowd as well. If there are a bunch of younger people, I don’t usually tell some of the gorier crime stories that I have in my repertoire. But if I have a lot of young people in their twenties—they love that sort of thing.”
Hannah smiled, settling back on the couch. “It sounds like you’ve really made this your craft.”
“It’s a nice way to make money,” Agnew said. “I was never the one in the family who was going to make a great deal of money on my own. I wasn’t ever interested, I guess. It really frustrated my parents. My grandfather was an entrepreneur, and he started his own furniture company that took off. He made millions when he sold it, and then he spent the rest of his life investing in start-ups, and stocks, and all sorts of things. He had the head for business. And my father, his son, was the same way. My father owned clothing stores, and he made his own millions—of course, with much help from the millions that my grandfather gave him to start off with. Trinity was more like them. I …never was. I don’t have much use for money, I suppose.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Hannah said. “Money is one of those necessary evils. We have to have it to live, but having too much of it seems to just complicate things. You said Trinity was more like your father. Do you mean she was a natural businesswoman, or do you mean that she cared a lot for money?”
“She was more interested in business,” Agnew said. “Trinity had a love-hate relationship with money. It was the natural product of her interests—business. But she also felt very self-conscious about having come from money. She didn’t like how people reacted to her when they realized that she was wealthy, and she didn’t like a lot of the pressure that came with it. That’s why she owned that boutique and ran it herself, but she never told anyone that she was the owner. She didn’t even tell her employees that she was the owner. She worked there as the manager, and took orders from the pretend owner, who was really Trinity communicating via email.”
Hannah glanced at Liam, nodding at him to acknowledge that they had been right. “I see.” She crossed her legs and rested her hands lightly on her lap. “We talked to Willa, who works at the boutique your sister owned. That’s why we reached out to you, actually. She mentioned that you and Trinity had quite a fight in there one day. Over family stuff?”
Agnew winced, looking away. “Yes. Not one of my finer moments, I have to say. I hinted before that there was much that people don’t understand about my family. You see, my grandfather and my father were excellent businessmen, but it was my grandmother who was behind the whole operation. I never knew just how much of the business success my family had was because of her …influence.”
“She’s a witch,” Hannah said, her words simple but packing quite a punch. “Isn’t that right?”
“She is,” Agnew said, nodding slowly. “Yes. She is. She’s not a sorceress, though.”
“Witches have magical powers, but to a lesser degree than a sorceress,” Hannah said, for Liam’s sake. “The magic comes from different sources. Witches are more reliant on spells and potions, whereas a sorceress has a power that sort of …comes from within, fed by life forces.”
Liam nodded calmly, as though this was a normal conversation to be having. “Right.”
“She’s a powerful witch,” Agnew said. “Make no mistake about it. My grandmother is well-versed in her craft, and she’s not shy about using her power to her advantage. To the advantage of my family, as a whole.”
“But you don’t approve,” Hannah said, drawing inferences to try to push the conversation along. “You fought with your sister about it.”
Agnew nodded. “Yes. I did. I fought with her often about it, actually, though not always in person or as aggressively as we fought that day. Trinity …she liked to try to ignore the situation as much as she could. My grandmother is a woman that you do not want to cross. I have had many a curse put on me over the years—trust me. My life would be very different if I were to focus on garnering my grandmother’s favor. But I won’t do it. Trinity pla
yed the game, and because she did …more people got hurt.”
“Can you be more specific?” Liam said, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. As his shirt strained across his back, Hannah saw him wince ever so slightly.
“More specific?” Agnew asked, looking off into space. “I would rather not be, actually. I know that it wasn’t my grandmother who killed Trinity, though God help the person who did. When she finds out who it was, she will destroy that person. But it wasn’t my grandmother. I can tell you that much for certain. So …I’d rather not discuss her more than I have to.”
Hannah sympathized with the man, but she couldn’t let it stop there. “Agnew …your grandmother thinks that she does know who killed Trinity.”
Agnew looked at Hannah, then his eyes shifted to Liam. He nodded. “Ah. I see. That’s the sort of interested party you are. And why does my grandmother think that you killed my sister?”
“I have no idea,” Liam said, shaking his head. Then he came clean. “I dated Trinity for a few weeks last year. It was very casual. I knew very little about her. I certainly didn’t know that she was wealthy. She kept that from me, and it never occurred to me to ask about her financial status. We stopped dating by sort of …mutual agreement. No bad blood at all—at least none that I was aware of. Months went by, and one night I was in this bar that I go to all the time, and your grandmother appeared out of nowhere.”
Agnew shook his head. “Oh God.”
“She put a curse on me. The curse of mediocrity,” Liam said, sounding dumbfounded all over again. “I had no idea who she was at the time—just some old woman who said I had stolen from her granddaughter, and she was going to make me pay for it. I didn’t take her seriously … but then …”
“Things started not going so well,” Agnew said, “but it was hard to put your finger on any one thing that proved that there was a curse on you. Trust me, I’m familiar.”
Rockwell Agency: Boxset Page 82