“Not necessarily. Men with nothing to hide, tell the truth. Obviously, these men didn’t. We know the mob enforcer probably hasn’t changed his ways, even though here in town he’s looked up to as a successful businessman. The lying politician still lies, in debt up to his ass, taking political contributions right and left that he deposits directly into his personal bank account. And a preacher—my parents trusted implicitly—has a history that only started twenty years ago. Your guy verified they’re all deceitful liars.”
“That’s one way to make me feel better.”
“The interviews weren’t a waste of time if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I was.” She tilted her head up to his. “How is it you’re always able to boost my confidence?”
“Because I’m taken with how hot you look in that suit.”
She put her hand up to her mouth to stifle a laugh. She gave him a little shove with the other. “Go mingle. Your family needs you in there today.”
Over Garret’s shoulder she spotted Royce, sitting by himself. “Besides, in my mood I’m ready to piss someone off. I see a good prospect.” She nodded her head toward the old man.
“Ah. Be good now,” Garret said, kissing her hand before working his way back inside.
Anniston decided it was as good a time as any to rattle Royce’s cage. She detoured through a side door into the kitchen where she picked up a pitcher of lemonade off the table and a bottle of whiskey from the counter.
She headed back toward Royce with one purpose in mind. It didn’t hurt to approach the wealthiest man in the county with a little honey instead of a vat of vinegar. “How are you holding up?”
“Many more days like today and I’ll be joining Carla, Winnie, and Walker in the family crypt. They’ve left me alone, an old man with his memories of better times.”
“I’m truly sorry.” She held up both the pitcher and the bottle. “I noticed from across the room you looked thirsty. Refill? Your choice.”
“On a day like this, I’ll take the whiskey, even though Doc Whitten will probably have my head for it.”
“He won’t find out from me.”
Royce chuckled. “That’s one reason I like you.”
“Glad to hear it.” The man was also perceptive, she decided as she watched his eyes glow with a twinkle.
“What do you want to know?”
“Ah, I like a man who’s insightful. How’d you know I came over here with questions on my mind?”
“Why else? A pretty thing like you wouldn’t waste ten minutes on an old coot like me if you didn’t want a bit of information.”
“Okay, I’ll get right to it then. Have you ever heard of a woman by the name of Darla Pendleton? To jumpstart your memory, she was the sister of Braden Pendleton. She disappeared in 1992 from right here on the island.”
“I wouldn’t say I knew her. But I am the one who brought her to town. She was supposed to interview for the job as my assistant.”
It sounded so innocent, thought Anniston. But she wasn’t in the mood to buy a bunch of lies today. “What happened?”
“I interviewed her in my conference room, spent about an hour with her and she went on her way.”
“That’s it? She wasn’t your mistress?”
He choked on his whiskey. “No. I barely knew the woman. If you’re interested in getting to the truth of what happened to her after she left my office, you might want to ask Jessup Sinclair. I always thought he had something to do with the woman’s disappearance.”
“Well that certainly came out of the blue. Why would you think that?”
“From my office window I saw him leaning on her car, a blue sedan waiting for her in the parking lot. And it was Sinclair’s first year here. It’s the same year he was elected police chief. He had a dark history when he was with the highway patrol. You don’t believe me, check it out for yourself.”
“I’ll do that.” She already knew about it, of course, but decided it would be much better to keep Royce talking. She took a seat next to him. “Why do I like you so much?”
“Because I’m not the monster Tanner Indigo has made me out to be.”
She wanted him to prove it. She chewed her lip and realized she’d have to find a way. In the meantime, Anniston listened to Royce as he went on about Walker. To her, he sounded like a typical father who greatly missed his only son.
“You aren’t upset the Indigos are burying Livvy and her babies in their family plot, are you?” Anniston asked.
“As long as they let me have my boy to put alongside his mother and sister, I don’t care what they do.”
Chapter Nineteen - Heat
It was around two o’clock when The Blue Taco cleared out and Raine ushered the last of the guests out the door. She flipped the lock to keep the public at bay for a little while. That left behind the small group of Indigos to meet with Anniston and Sebastian. Even Dominka stayed.
When Sebastian cornered Garret near the restrooms, he leaned over to whisper, “You aren’t upset that I brought Dominka, are you?”
Garret gave him a half smile. “Not really. Unless you think she’s becoming a nuisance. Because I already told you when we were on stakeout, I’ll talk to her about leaving if you want her gone.”
“She’s more of a distraction for me than anything else.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. Your focus should be on the case.”
“I didn’t mean that. Did you know she started out in a coal-mining town near the Arctic Circle? She has a great sense of humor, although she barely eats. I’m from an Italian family that loathes the idea of turning down pasta or pizza. She turns her nose up at both.”
Garret slapped him on the back. “I doubt that’ll change. But I know she eats eggs and avocado. Get her to eat one of Raine’s avocado sandwiches over there on the table. I bet you five dollars she stuffs her face with the veggie lover’s dream.”
“You’re on,” Sebastian said, elbowing him in the ribs. “Anniston’s ready to start the meeting. We have an announcement to make.”
Sebastian strolled over to the dining room and picked up an empty glass, clinked it to get everyone’s attention. “My sister and I talked this over and came to a decision last night. From this day moving forward, we won’t take another dime of your money.”
“Please tell me you aren’t resigning,” Garret said, cutting a look at Anniston.
She slid her arm through his. “Not at all. We’re working toward a common goal. Sebastian and I grew up with Dack. Our families are very close, always have been. We now have a personal stake in catching the people responsible for all these murders. So, we’ve decided to work this case for free. Sebastian’s already uncovered an important aspect of what happened the night Dack was killed. It involves Baskin.”
Sebastian had been waiting for this all day. He took out his laptop and flipped it open. “Anniston mentioned that you guys weren’t quite sure if Roger Baskin could’ve slipped past the man you had watching him. The answer to that is yes. Baskin’s auto garage shares a building with the body shop he owns around the corner. I found a surveillance camera on another commercial building across the alleyway. The owner of that business is Royce Buchanan. He gave me permission to go through the video.”
He hit a few keystrokes and brought up a grainy image. “This is Thursday night at 6:10 p.m. See the time stamp. It clearly shows Baskin leaving out the backdoor of the repair shop and going the thirty feet or so through the backdoor of the body shop. He gets into a gray Chevy Malibu that was probably in for body work and drives off.”
“So Baskin knew he was being watched. He had access to another vehicle and didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it,” Mitch said, not surprised. “Walsh had Baskin covered during the day. I was on Dandridge. But neither one of us considered the possibility the men would evade by sneaking out the back. That’s on me again, my mistake.”
Sebastian zoomed in on the frame. “Dandridge lives about a block from the church. His hous
e sits looking south toward the marina. We know he didn’t leave out the front. So the nearest camera to the back is affixed to the roof of the florist shop, right about here. I found video from that angle that shows Boone walking down the alleyway eight minutes later, at six eighteen. A gray Chevy pulls up at the end of the block and Boone hops into the car.”
“But all that really proves is they didn’t stay put,” Garret growled.
Sebastian nodded. “Unfortunately that’s true. If we could get video near the rest stop that would be the nail in their coffins.”
Garret dug his hands into the pants pockets of his suit and roamed between the tables. “I don’t want to step on any toes here, or make anyone mad, but I’m beginning to think our time would be better spent looking for the old sailor.”
“Why?” Tanner roared. “Why not stay on Baskin and Dandridge?”
Garret didn’t back down. “Because we’re already convinced they’re responsible. It’d be nice to build a case against them. Hugo might be able to help us by filling in some blanks. We have to try.”
Mitch folded his arms across his chest. “At the risk of making a wrong step here, I didn’t want to say anything, either. But I think the stakeouts are a waste of time. I think both men know we’ve been watching them. For the past three nights, they’d go to work, go back home and act like choirboys in between. We’re getting nowhere.”
“I’m not too keen on spending the next week sitting in a car all night. I agree we need to watch Boone and Baskin. But how do you catch them doing anything if they know we’re sitting down the street? Maybe it’s time we shift our focus. There has to be a better way to keep track of those bastards,” Jackson suggested.
“There is,” Sebastian offered. “As I suggested before, we install our own set of cameras. Strategically placed, they’d do our work for us. I’d do the monitoring.”
Mitch lifted a shoulder. “Let’s do it.”
Garret angled to look at his dad. “There’s something else we need to talk about. And we don’t want you to blow a gasket at the suggestion. We think you should take Mom and get out of here for a little while. Just until we can bring this thing to a resolution.”
“No way. You want me to run?”
“No. I want you to take my mother out of harm’s way and keep her safe. Hear us out for a change, will you? There’s no way we can be everywhere. Whether it’s staking out those jerkwads or going after Hugo, for the next week or so, we’ll likely be stretched to the limit. If you and Mom were to go somewhere safe, it’d be one less thing to worry about.” Garret glanced at his brothers for a little backup.
Mitch stepped up to use his wild card. “Protecting Mom would almost be like protecting Livvy and the kids.”
Jackson cut his eyes toward his mother. “It’s okay to leave town. Neither one of you are abandoning us. After the service at the cemetery, feel free to fly to New York and use my loft there.”
“Better still, fly to Oahu, stay in my house,” Garret suggested. “It’s right on the beach and the weather’s perfect this time of year.”
“See, there are any number of options you could take to get away for a little while,” Mitch proposed. “The stress you’ve been under has to be taking its toll. You’ve lost a child. No one knows what that’s like.”
“Let me think about it,” Tanner finally said.
Bone-tired from all the talk about murder and conspiracies and plans for the future, Raine left the dining area visibly upset and ducked into the kitchen where she could be alone for a few minutes.
She wasn’t happy to look up and see that Mitch had followed her.
“Are you okay?”
Raine started wiping down counters. “No. The truth is I may never be okay again. I just need a minute.”
“You did a good thing today,” he said as he stepped closer.
“I did it for Livvy and the kids.”
“You did it for my family. I appreciate it. Do you realize it’s been four whole days since we last yelled at each other?”
She cracked a smile. “That has to be a new record. We should circle it on the calendar.”
“Definitely.” He stalled, picked up one of the dishtowels and twisted it like he was nervous. “There’s something I need to say to you. It’s long overdue. I’m sorry I didn’t come back for Danny’s funeral. I didn’t even know he’d been killed until the following Christmas. By that time, it had been months. And I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing and avoided you while I was in town. I even stopped coming into the restaurant for a couple of years after that. I want you to know, I’m truly sorry. I loved Danny like you loved Livvy.”
“And they’re both gone. You’re good at avoiding things. People,” she corrected. “How do you do that? How do you manage to throw people away like an unwanted piece of trash any time you feel like it? If they aren’t convenient to you, they’re gone.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that. You know narcissists do that. It’s one of their traits.”
His back went up. “So now I’m a narcissist? Things change between two people when they’re apart. Long-distance relationships don’t work.”
“You would know that infinitely better than most. As I recall, you didn’t even give long distance much of a chance.”
“There was a time you knew me better than anyone else ever did. The only one I could talk to at a time in my life when I was too young to know what I wanted. You used to be the one I came to when I needed advice about my life, my future.”
“Why was that? Because you knew I wasn’t part of the long-term plan?”
“See, I can’t come within five feet of you before you start spouting nasty things at me.”
She held up a hand. “Never mind. I’m not doing this again. I’m wasting my breath with you. What’s important now is that we understand this town’s very different from the one we grew up in. Sometimes I wake up at night and realize how hard it is to accept all this evil happened right here, where we used to trust and love and care about each other. The town we knew is gone. I’m not sure we’ll ever get it back.” She turned and busied herself at the counter, grinding beans for a fresh pot of coffee.
He came up behind her, stilled her hands. Over the sound of the grinder, he whispered, “Raine, honey, we used to love each other. Talk to me. You don’t have to make coffee right this minute. Why don’t you sit down? You look exhausted. All this work on the memorial service is catching up with you. What you need is a good night’s sleep.”
“We could all use eight hours of uninterrupted shuteye.” Her stomach jittered at his touch. He was too close. She couldn’t breathe without her chest tightening. If he didn’t step back, she thought she might be sick.
“Something’s wrong. You look like you’re about to drop.”
“I’m fine. I have to stay busy. For me, that means being in the kitchen, cooking, making something. I should probably put on some taco meat. Your parents will be getting hungry soon.” She tried to make it to the commercial fridge, but he snatched her hand.
“Raine, look at me.” He turned her around and was surprised when she leaned into him, all but melting in his arms.
“This isn’t about me or you. Today is about comforting you and your family,” she said in protest. “Not the other way around.” She rubbed her forehead where a headache began to throb. “I’m making a mess of this again.”
“Come on, Raine. Life is too short. I think it’s time we comfort each other. Livvy would’ve liked the idea, don’t you think?” Without waiting for an answer, Mitch ran his fingers into Raine’s blond hair, tugged her head back where he could tilt her mouth up to his. At the first touch of lips he recognized old familiar territory—old magic versus a skill or two he’d picked up in the last dozen years or so.
Her lips parted as his tongue teased out that seductive pull in the belly. Her pulse skidded as the space closed between them. She yearned to have him run his fingers along her breast. As if reading her mind, he brushed his hand over a nippl
e through the satiny fabric of her blouse.
She didn’t protest because today she needed it there, wanted him to put his hands everywhere. When he dropped them to cup her butt, she felt her feet leave the floor.
They went at each other like hungry wolves. The urge to mate nipped at the fringes.
As abruptly as the volcanic kiss started, Mitch set her back down on the floor. He said nothing as he left her like that in an aroused state, still wanting, yearning for what might’ve been.
She’d barely opened her eyes before she caught a glimpse of his back disappearing out the door.
Annoyed with the way he made her feel, she was embarrassed he could still make her shudder like a schoolgirl.
Raine had to give her heart time to settle before she could move her feet. Shaken to the core, she forced her brain to work, made it engage again. She had a business to run. She checked the food on hand in the cooler, knowing full well that after the wake she’d have to reorder almost everything.
Damn him, she thought. All these years she’d been able to hold her feelings in check until that smoldering kiss changed everything. It was probably his plan. How exactly was she supposed to get over the man she’d once loved with every fiber in her body? And now, he’d awakened all those dormant emotions she thought she’d locked away forever.
Raine took a seat on one of the kitchen stools. She took out her purse from under the counter. With her hands still trembling, she dug out the picture she’d hidden behind her credit cards, the one she kept there and carried with her wherever she went.
After so many years the paper had seen better days. Worn and frayed around the edges, it even suffered from a stain or two.
But it mattered little to Raine. She stared at the image and felt the tears stream down her face. “Oh, Livvy, what have I done? So much animosity built up and for what? If you were here I know exactly what you’d tell me to do, something I should’ve done years ago.”
The Indigo Brothers Trilogy Boxed Set Page 54