by CP Smith
“The dead man?”
“The same. We found them scattered in his car parked across the street from your family’s cottage.”
I scanned through them all and came to one where Devin was looking directly into the camera as he moved toward it.
“He looks pissed, don’t you think?”
“I’d be pissed, too, if someone cut my brake line hoping I would crash.”
“Pissed enough to kill?”
I dropped the picture.
“The only way Devin could have killed that man is if I was involved, too, and I’ve been with him since this mornin’.”
He leaned back and studied me.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Do I look like a killer to you?”
He studied me a moment longer then stood abruptly. Pulling out his wallet, he produced a business card. “Here’s my card, Calla. Contact me if you have any questions . . . or need anything at all.”
The officer in the corner grunted, then coughed to cover it.
I stood, too, shocked and relieved. “Thank you, Deputy Moore.”
“Sheriff,” he responded.
“You’re the sheriff?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a smile and then held the door open for me.
Maybe those crinkles were from stress?
I headed for the door, but the minute I walked through it, I stepped into a warzone.
Devin stood nose to nose—or nose to forehead since he was a good three inches taller—with Bobby when I stepped out, and Bo Strawn was close by, mumbling, “Use your head.”
“Devin,” I cried out, rushing to him before all hell broke loose.
He turned at my voice and headed for me, Bobby forgotten for the moment.
“Calla, we need to talk,” my grandfather ordered, stepping in between Devin and me.
“You need to let Calla pass, Sir,” Justin ordered my grandfather.
“Go to hell,” I bit out and pushed past him.
“Is that any way for a lady to speak?” he growled, grabbing my arm. “One day with that man, and look what you’ve become.”
My aunts materialized from around the corner and glared at their father.
“Get your hand off her,” Devin hissed with a lethal edge.
Justin moved between Devin and my grandfather and with an equally murderous tone said, “Take your hands off Calla, or I’ll lock you up.”
When his grip loosened, I yanked my arm from his clutches and walked into Devin’s waiting arms. “My apologies, Granddaddy,” I snipped, turning in Devin’s arms. “I should have said go to hell, please. How could I have forgotten my manners?”
Bernice beamed at me. “Pure southern smartass. I couldn’t be prouder if you were my own daughter.”
Justin looked between Devin and me. He held my eyes for a moment then turned to Devin and asked, “You got her?”
“Always,” Devin replied with a bite. “Don’t let us keep you.”
Justin studied Devin for a moment, then nodded and turned to my grandfather, glaring at him before heading down the hall.
For once, my grandfather was silent, but the color rushing to his face said he wouldn’t stay that way.
Devin squeezed my shoulders and I looked up. “Let’s go home,” I whispered.
He gave me another squeeze, then jerked his head at Bo Strawn. “He’s givin’ us a ride back to my bike.”
We made it two steps before my grandfather broke his silence, “If you walk out that door, Calla, I swear I’m cuttin’ you out of the will.”
“Same old, Daddy,” Eunice hissed. “You think money and power are more important than your own family.”
“This is none of your concern,” he bit out. “You made your choice years ago, and I can see your flawed judgment rubbed off on my grandchild.”
“How dare you,” I shouted, ripping from Devin’s embrace. “They were there for me when I lost my parents. Where were you?”
“Dealin’ with the aftermath. You forget I lost my only son.”
“And I lost everything,” I cried out. “Momma, Daddy, Frankie. I was six years old and needed you. I NEEDED you, Granddaddy. To scare away the monsters, to hold me and tell me everything would be all right, to tell me you loved me and would always protect me. But you took advantage of my trust in you. You schemed and manipulated me for years for your own misguided end. You think our family’s legacy to Savannah should be about power, but you’re wrong. Our family’s legacy should have been one of love, of compassion and loyalty to each other, but you’re so power hungry you’re blinded to anything else. So you can keep your money. I’d rather be poor with a good man who loves me, surrounded by children who will never know an unkind word, who will always know that family comes first, and that I would rather die than make them feel a single once of the pain you’ve caused my aunts and myself.”
He didn’t even blink. He was so consumed with his own immortality that he turned a deaf ear.
“This isn’t over,” he hissed, looking at Devin. “I’ll not allow the likes of you to pollute this family.”
Devin curled me into his side and looked down at me, ignoring the insult. “Fearless,” he whispered then brushed a kiss across my lips.
“Guess I’m not borin’ after all.”
He grinned. “Thank Christ for that.”
Devin turned us toward the exit, my grandfather forgotten.
“You’re just lettin’ her leave?” Bobby asked incredulously.
My grandfather ignored him and roared, “Calla!” as Devin opened the door.
I kept walking, shaking inside. All those years I’d prayed for that man to love me, and now I felt nothing for him. With the palm of his hand, he’d severed what thin line of family still remained between us, and now I was free.
Free to make my own way in life without the Armstrong noose around my neck.
Eleven
Evil is as Evil does
MIDNIGHT LOOMED WHEN DEVIN entered Jacobs’ Ladder with Strawn in tow. Nate stood at the bar, his eyes on the two men as he opened a bottle of Jack.
He’d left Calla with her aunts and with a promise he’d take her to work in the morning, then he’d made a call to his old friend, Dane Parker, as they walked the few blocks to the bar.
Parker had been boarding a plane, so the call was brief. Devin gave him the rundown on Maria’s murder and the possible involvement of Preston Armstrong and Bobby Jones. There’d been a pause before Parker had mumbled, “Christ.”
Being a native of Savannah, Georgia, Parker knew exactly whom Devin was dealing with.
“You dig around in that man’s business, and he’ll cut you off at the knees,” Parker said.
“I’ve felt the cut of the blade already,” Devin growled.
“He made a move this soon?”
“Probable. But I need more information.”
“Give me the details.”
“I’ve got a dead woman who went lookin’ for his granddaughter minutes before she disappeared. Calla is a fuckin’ book editor, who’s never gotten so much as a parkin’ ticket. That puts the spotlight squarely on his shoulders, since he’s the only person in her life who’d accumulate enemies. He’s either involved, or someone associated with him is. I need information that only you can dig up.”
Parker sighed, muttering, “Give me the names of the players, and I’ll get back with you as soon as I land.”
“Where you headed?”
“Alaska. Got a weddin’ to attend.”
“Who the hell do you know in Alaska?”
“You remember Jack Gunnison?”
“The sheriff in Colorado?”
“That’s him. He pulled me in on a case a few months back, and the couple involved are tyin’ the knot.”
“Watch out for bears,” Devin replied.
“Right.” Parker chuckled, then signed off, “Later.”
Strawn and Devin sidled up to the bar. Nate placed three shot glasses on the poli
shed wood and poured the amber whiskey, ordering, “Lay it out for me.”
Devin took his shot and threw it back, letting the burn steel his anger before he began.
“Taft was done in the cottage, which means he followed us to Tybee. He wasn’t a small man, so it would take strength to subdue him. Jones is big enough, but he’d never get his hands dirty. And Armstrong’s too old to handle Taft. That leaves the bodyguard.”
“He was stone cold dazed when we left,” Strawn put in, “but Taft could have been on the payroll and called in your location. And if Armstrong’s involved in Maria’s death, then he’d have no issues with killin’ again.”
“We need to find out what started this chain of events,” Nate added. “What the hell did Maria see that had her lookin’ for Calla, yet not skittish or afraid?”
“And,” Strawn continued, “how do Stutter and Yoo figure into the equation?”
“That’s the million-dollar question.”
“Billion,” Devin corrected. “Armstrong’s worth billions.”
Devin stood up and began pacing. He needed music to think, but pacing was the next best thing.
“Let’s assume for a minute that Jones and Stutter have some sort of arrangement with Yoo. Maria overhears, and knowin’ Calla is related to Armstrong, she goes looking for her. If she was followed by Stutter and didn’t know it, then she wouldn’t have been on guard. Which would explain her casual demeanor.”
“Why’d they toss her apartment?” Nate asked.
Good question. A picture? No, a picture would be too easy to explain away unless it was of them dumping a body. In that case, Maria would have gone straight to the police. No, it had to be either written evidence or . . .
Devin turned to Strawn. “Did they find a cell phone in her possessions?”
“None on her body or in her apartment. We searched for it hopin’ she might have made a call after her mother. We’re still waitin’ on a court order to subpoena her phone records.”
“You think she recorded the conversation?” Nate asked.
“What’s the first thing that happens nowadays when you come across an accident or police brutality?”
“He’s right,” Strawn said. “Everyone records shit these days.”
“We know her apartment was secured the day after she disappeared, because Carmella went by. So they tossed her apartment lookin’ for it after they killed her, which means it wasn’t with her.”
“That means whatever she heard has to be on that phone,” Nate bit out. “We need to find it.”
“It wasn’t in her car. We found it parked down the street,” Strawn replied.
There was silence for a moment then all three men started moving toward the door. “I’ll call Calla,” Devin said, pulling out his phone. “She has keys to the buildin’.”
“The Cartwright woman said Maria stayed behind near Calla’s office,” Strawn stated.
“Right, and if the lights go off while you’re on a secret mission, you might just hide your evidence with the one person you’re hopin’ to help,” Devin returned.
✿✿✿
Nate ginned at me as I unlocked the main entrance at Poe Publishing. I peeked a look at Devin and caught him glaring.
“It’s company policy that all unauthorized personnel must be accompanied. I told you this,” I stated, returning his glare. “The manuscripts are the authors’ intellectual property. If anything happened to one, we could be sued. Besides that, you don’t have a search warrant.”
“You gave us permission to search your desk. We don’t need one.”
“Alexandra Poe doesn’t care. She owns the buildin’, which means she owns my desk. I explained all this to you after I called her.”
“I’m still pissed that you called her. If you’d just given us the key, we wouldn’t be havin’ this discussion,” he shot back.
“Well, if you’d explained to me why you think Maria hid somethin’ in my desk, maybe I would have. But I don’t like secrets.”
“It’s a hunch,” Nate threw in, looking at Devin. “We know you were friendly with her, so she might have left evidence with someone she trusted.”
Right. Not buying that for a second.
“I don’t give a fuck about the rules,” Devin interjected when I opened my mouth to say, Maria was friendly with many people who worked there. So why, out of all of us, did they think it would be me? “In one day, you were hauled off against your will and we found a dead man. The way the day’s progressin’, I don’t want you anywhere near this shit when it goes down.”
My lips twitched. “Duly noted,” I replied, then pulled open the door. Who could argue with a man like Devin when he was beating his chest because he wanted to keep you safe?
“Why don’t we stay in the lobby while they check,” Nate suggested, taking my arm. “Police procedure and all, we might get in the way.”
I don’t think so.
They were playing at something, and my bullshit radar hit DEFCON 1.
“We aren’t goin’ another step until someone tells me what’s goin’ on. Clearly, you’re protectin’ me from somethin’.”
Devin’s jaw twitched, then he sighed and dropped his head back on his shoulders. “I didn’t want to tell you this way.”
“Just spit it out. I’m a big girl.”
My heart began to pound when he stood there instead of answering immediately.
Raising his head, he muttered, “Christ,” then began. “The reason Maria came here the day she disappeared is because of you.”
“Me?” I cried out. “Why? How do you know this?”
“She ran into Jolene Cartwright,” Strawn added. “Told her she was lookin’ for you.”
“I don’t understand. Did she say why she wanted to speak with me?”
Devin shook his head. “That’s all we know. We want to search your desk in case she left somethin’ behind.”
I started to relax then remembered our earlier conversation.
“But you told me today that you were gettin’ closer. That you had a suspicion about who was involved. If that’s so, then you must have an idea why she came here lookin’ for me.”
“That’s true, but it’s all conjecture. And I don’t want to upset you if I’m wrong.”
I looked at Strawn and then Nate. They both had their eyes cast down, and Strawn was rubbing the back of his neck. They wouldn’t look at me, which meant they didn’t believe it was conjecture.
Who did I know who was capable of murder?
Oh. My. God.
“It’s my grandfather, isn’t it?”
“We don’t know anything right now. That’s why we’re here.”
OhGodohGodohGod.
I began to pace, trying to wrap my head around this news. My heart slammed a mile a minute as I tried to come up with some other reason Maria would have come to see me. I couldn’t.
My grandfather was hateful and vindictive, but a killer? I couldn’t see it. Didn’t want to see, if truth be told. And it became apparent in that moment, even after everything he’d done, that I still held out hope he would change before he died. But if he murdered Maria?
“This will destroy my aunts,” I cried out.
“Baby, we don’t know anything for sure,” Devin said, grabbing my arm to stop me.
No, we didn’t, but there was one way to know for certain.
“Then let’s find out,” I said, pulling away from him, heading to the bank of elevators.
We rode in tense silence to the third floor. Devin took my hand and squeezed it, but it didn’t help. I was on the verge of throwing up for the second time in one day.
When the elevator opened, I took off running around the corner to my desk.
I used my computer for everything. I didn’t even open my drawers on a daily basis, so it was possible the key to her murder had been in my desk all along.
Pulling the middle drawer open, I began digging through my scrap paper and notes.
“Move aside,” Strawn sai
d. “I can’t have you touchin’ anything.”
Devin pulled me back and sat me in a chair a few feet away. Running his hand through my hair, he whispered, “Stay here, okay?”
I nodded in quick succession as my foot began to tap out a rapid beat. Then my nails took the brunt of my anxiety as I watched Strawn methodically empty each drawer, then pull it out and look at the bottom. In the second to last drawer, he paused and looked up at Devin. I stood and asked, “What?”
His glove-covered hand pulled out what looked to be a white phone wrapped in a sheet of my pink notepad paper.
He folded back the paper, his eyes scanning it, then he read out loud, “Ms. Armstrong. I need to speak with you as soon as—” he ended abruptly.
“Is that it?” I blurted out.
He looked at me and nodded. “We need a phone charger.”
I dropped my bag and began digging. “I have one.”
I handed it to Devin then held my breath as he plugged it in and turned the phone on. It took a lifetime to boot up. When he tried to swipe it open, Strawn said, “It’s password protected. I’ll need to get this to the tech boys.”
I was desperate to know the truth. I couldn’t wait the time it would take for the tech boys to get around to hacking the phone.
“Do you know her birthdate?”
Devin turned and looked at me. “Why?”
“Because every woman I know uses their birth month and day as their four digit code.”
“It’ll be in her file,” Strawn said, putting down the phone.
He’d brought the file with him, so he opened it and flipped through the pages. When he found what he needed, he picked up the phone and punched in the number. The screen opened, and he looked me. “You want a job?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t joke at a time like this. “Just look, please.”
His eyes softened before he flipped through apps.
“Got it,” he mumbled, looking up at me with concern.
“Just play it. I have to know.”
Devin curled me into his body and held on tight. “No matter what we hear, this isn’t a reflection on you or your aunts.”
I said nothing, because it was a lie. If my grandfather had murdered Maria, it changed everything. We couldn’t bring her back, and I’d never be able to live with myself knowing my family had brought that kind of pain to her family.