Cassie McGraw Box Set: Books 1-3

by David Archer

  I rode the elevator down to the first floor, walked back to the front desk, and looked at the woman sitting there again.

  “There’s another patient here,” I said. “Nicole Rayburn. What room is she in?”

  “She’s also under police guard,” the lady said. “But I guess, if you can see one of them, you can see the other one. She’s in 509.”

  Back in the elevator, and up to the fifth floor. The officers standing in front of Nicole’s room looked at me for a moment, then one of them smiled. I recognized him from my big undercover case; he was one of the responding officers who came to help with the women I had rescued.

  “Ms. McGraw,” he said. “Good to see you again. I heard you might be coming up here.”

  “Hi, there,” I said, frantically looking for his name tag. “Officer Landers, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. I think I detected a hint of pride that I remembered his name, so I hope he never figures out that I had to read it off his chest. “The doctors ran in here a few minutes ago, I guess the lady finally woke up.”

  I broke into a bigger smile. “Really? Can I go in?”

  He held the door open for me and I stepped inside. Jimmy was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding Nicole’s hand, and she was looking up at him. She heard the door and glanced my way, and suddenly started to cry.

  “Cassie,” she said. “Oh, God, I’m so glad you’re okay. Jimmy said there was a bomb…”

  I walked around instead of the other side of the pack. “Yes, there was. Brenda was killed, and one of Marsha’s clients, Leanne Downey. The guy who did it kidnapped Marsha and Angie, but Marsha has been found. She was in pretty bad shape, she’s here in the hospital, too. How are you doing?”

  “The doctors say I’ve got a concussion, and had some swelling on the brain. I guess it’s going down, now, but they say I have to stay a day or two.”

  “Nicole, what do you remember about what happened?” I asked.

  “I can’t say I really remember anything,” she said. “I remember walking in the door, and then I woke up here just a little bit ago.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I was just told a little bit ago that the crime scene technicians thought that’s what had happened. They said it looked like you had just come in the back door when the bomb went off.”

  “I guess so. God, I wish I could remember. How bad is Marsha hurt? You said she was in bad shape?”

  I didn’t think I should go into too much detail, so I just told her that the guy who did this had beaten Marsha pretty badly and left her to be found. I also told her that Detective Pennington would probably be coming to see her, and I explained about the police guards on her door.

  “It’s always possible that the perpetrator might think you know something,” I said. “Probably not, but just in case he might try to get to you, they decided to give you police protection.”

  Jimmy looked at me. “He’d have to get past me,” he said. The look in his eyes told me he meant business.

  “See?” I asked. “Between Jimmy and a couple of cops, you couldn’t be safer.”

  I stayed and chatted for about twenty minutes, mostly just to reassure her that she was going to be okay. When I told her I needed to go, she pulled me down and gave me a hug.

  Jimmy walked out to the hall with me and followed me to the elevator.

  “Cassie,” he said. “I want to hire you to find out who did this.”

  “You don’t need to, Jimmy,” I said. “I’m already on this case, and so are the police. Trust me, we’re going to get this guy.”

  He looked down at the floor, then raised his eyes back up to meet mine. “Look, I don’t know for sure how Nicole feels, but I’m just crazy about her. It makes me nuts to think somebody would have killed her so callously. If you need anything, and I mean anything at all, don’t you hesitate to call me. I don’t care what it costs, I’ll sell everything I’ve got if that’s what it takes.”

  I reached out and patted his shoulder. “It’s already covered, Jimmy,” I said. “Go back in there and take care of her. That’s what she needs right now.”

  He looked like he was going to say something, but then he turned and walked away. I pushed the button for the elevator and waited for it to come up to me.

  I walked out the front door and across the street to the parking garage, then took that elevator up to deck three. I stepped out and looked around, because I couldn’t quite remember where I had parked the Kia.

  There was a horrendous explosion, and the shockwave knocked me on my ass.

  EIGHT

  I sat there, stunned, wondering just what had happened, and then it dawned on me that the blast had come from the other side of the deck. That was where I had parked the Kia, I remembered suddenly, and the blast came just after I stepped out of the elevator.

  Alarms were going off on half the cars on the deck, and the noise was deafening. Well, it would have been, had the blast not already set my ear to ringing. I was trying to get to my feet when several people came running, some of them from further down the deck and some out of the stairwell beside the elevator.

  Hands were grabbing me and trying to lift me up, and I saw people trying to talk to me, but I couldn’t hear a word they were saying. The ringing was so loud that I could barely even detect the noise of the alarms, so I just kept shaking my head. I remember thinking how strange it was as a blue van passed us, driving calmly and slowly down and toward the exit. The driver, a man with a hat on, seemed to be looking straight at me, but it didn’t really register at that moment.

  There was a bench beside the elevator, and a couple of men walked me over and made me sit down. A lady produced a bottle of water out of her purse and handed it to me, and when I saw that it had never been opened, I gratefully twisted off the top and took a drink.

  I’m not sure how long I sat there, but police and firemen arrived pretty quickly. Sure enough, it was my Kia that had exploded, and while my ear wasn’t ringing quite as badly as at first, my anger was suddenly through the roof! That was my Kia, I had that car since high school. Well, longer, in a way. It had been my mother’s car, and I sort of inherited it when Mom got a new one from Dad for their twentieth anniversary. I’d kept it for sentimental reasons, even after the settlement with the city of St. Louis made me relatively wealthy.

  One of the police officers figured out quickly who I was, and it wasn’t long before Jim Pennington showed up. He hurried over and asked me if I was all right, and I assured him that I was.

  “Well, this just gets weirder and weirder,” he said. “We’ll check the security camera footage, maybe we can get a picture of the guy. He must’ve planted the bomb while you were in the hospital.”

  “You think? I’d say he’s definitely trying to finish the job he started yesterday. Dammit, he blew up my car.”

  “Finish the job? You think he was trying to kill you?”

  I looked at him as if he had purple hair. “He blew up my car,” I said. “I don’t think he was trying to tell me he has a crush on me.”

  “But it blew up while you weren’t in it,” Pennington said. “If he wanted to kill you, he would’ve waited until you got in.”

  I stopped and thought about what he had said. “You could be right,” I conceded. “I had just stepped out of the elevator when it blew up.”

  His eyes registered comprehension. “He had to have been watching for you, then,” he said. “I’d say that kind of confirms that he isn’t trying to kill you, but maybe we should put protection on you for a while, anyway, just in case.”

  “Oh, the hell you will,” I said. “I want the little bastard to keep coming after me.” Suddenly, I got a grip on the raging anger driving my thoughts. “Wait a minute, was anybody hurt when it blew up?”

  “Doesn’t look like it,” Pennington said. “We were lucky on that, I guess. There wasn’t anybody else close to it when it went up, but several other cars were damaged. The two right beside it were totaled, but there’s probably eight o
r ten cars with broken windows and other damage. Your insurance company can expect to get sued.”

  I leaned against the back of the bench, relieved. “Thank God nobody was killed,” I said. “I meant what I said, though. If he’s after me, then hiding me away isn’t going to do any good. We need to do whatever we can to catch him while he’s trying to get to me.”

  Pennington sat down on the bench beside me and looked at me for a moment. “You might be right,” he said. “But let me know if you change your mind. I could put a surveillance detail on you. Four different people, four different cars. Nobody would notice them, but they’d be watching you and keeping an eye on your car when you’re out of it. I mean, assuming you have another car?”

  I sighed. “Not yet, I don’t,” I said. “Can you give me a lift to the Ford dealership?”

  “Sure,” he said. “But are you sure you want to involve your boyfriend in this?”

  “Trust me, you won’t keep him out of it. The reason I need a ride, though, is because I need to buy a car. I’ll deal with the insurance company on the Kia later.”

  “Okay. Just let me know if you want police protection, so I can start the surveillance.”

  The crime scene technicians had arrived and were going over what was left of my little Sportage, so he led me to his car and even held the door open for me. It was the first time I had actually been in a police car—well, in the front seat, anyway—and I was surprised at how crowded it was. There was a shotgun standing straight up from the floor, right beside my left knee.

  I had him drop me off at the service entrance, and I walked up to the cashier’s window. The girl who works there looked up at me and grinned.

  “Hi, Cassie,” she said. “You need to talk to Dex?”

  I grimaced. “Yeah, kinda,” I said. “Is he real busy?”

  “Always, but I’ll get him for you.” She picked up the telephone and pushed the button, and I heard her calling for Dex over the intercom. I felt a sense of déjà vu, because I’d gone through the same exact thing the first time I ever met him.

  Dex came out front a moment later and broke into a smile when he saw me. The smile vanished a split second later, when he saw the thin line that my lips were set in.

  “What happened?”

  I didn’t want everyone in the place to know, so I motioned for him to step outside with me for a moment. When we were out in the parking lot, I told him about the Kia getting blown to smithereens.

  He shook his head. “How are we going to stop this guy?” he asked me.

  I sighed. “I don’t know, Dex,” I said. “At least, this time, all he did was blow up my car. Nobody was hurt, thank God.”

  “It could’ve been a lot worse,” he admitted. “He probably did it with a remote, just waited until he saw you coming out and pushed a button.” He shook his head. “You ever think it might be a miracle that he didn’t decide to wait till you were in it?”

  “Trust me, I know what a miracle it was, okay? I’ve already said my little prayer of thanks, but now I need to buy a car. What’s the best one?”

  He grinned. “That depends on what you want,” he said. “You want another SUV? Or would you rather have a sports car?”

  I looked at him for a moment. “Maybe something sporty,” I said.

  “Well, they don’t let me out on the sales floor. Go up front and talk to Jake Hogan. I’ll buzz him and let him know that you get my price.”

  He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me in for a quick kiss, then turned around and was gone. I walked around to the front of the building and stepped inside, and four salesman tried to descend upon me at once.

  “I’m looking for Jake,” I said.

  “I’m Jake,” said an older man. “Relax, guys, this is Dex’s girlfriend. He told me to take care of her.”

  The other three grumbled as they walked away, and Jake stuck out his hand without a moment’s hesitation. I shook hands with him.

  “Cassie McGraw,” I said. “I’m here to buy a car.”

  “Well, then, you came to the right place, because that’s what we do. We sell cars. Any idea what you’re looking for?”

  “I was talking to Dex, and I think maybe something like a Mustang. Something sporty, you know?”

  “We’ve got quite a selection of them. Have you got a particular budget in mind?”

  “No, not really,” I said. “Why? Are Mustangs expensive?”

  Jake laughed. “They can get that way,” he said. “What we can do is start you out looking at the less expensive ones, and then see what kind of options you might want to add in.”

  I looked at him for a moment, and thought about all the stories I’d heard about the car salesman trying to take advantage of women.

  “I got a better idea,” I said. “Let’s start with the absolute best Mustang you’ve got on the lot. Which one would that be?”

  His face took on a sly look. “Well, most people would say that’s the new Mustang GT fastback. I got to warn you, though, that is an extremely powerful car.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “I’m not scared.”

  Jake grinned, grabbed a couple of things, and we walked out onto the lot. He led me right up to an absolutely beautiful new Mustang, used the smart key to unlock it, and then held the driver’s door open for me. I got behind the wheel and adjusted the seat as he got in the passenger side, put on my seatbelt, and pushed the button to start the car.

  The engine roared, and I felt a thrill go through me. Dex’s Mustang was one of the original ones, a 1965 model that he built from one he pulled out of a junkyard. This machine was brand spanking new, showing only six miles on its digital odometer. The whole car vibrated with the engine, and I felt myself starting to fall in love.

  “We can take it for a drive,” Jake said, but I was already putting it in gear. I pressed gently on the gas pedal and it pulled out smoothly, and I drove it cautiously to the exit onto the street. I turned onto Sheridan, then gave the pedal a much firmer push.

  The car leaped forward, and Jake and I were both thrown back into our seats. I let out a laugh, curved onto the ramp for the Broken Arrow Expressway, and then floored it.

  The car took off as if it had been standing still. A quick glance at Jake showed me that his eyes were wide and he was staring through the windshield, but I had been a farm girl. If there was one thing we learned how to do, it was drive like a bat out of hell.

  This car was built for it, there was no doubt in my mind. I was weaving in and out of traffic like a professional race driver, and I was shocked when I glanced at the speedometer and saw that I was doing over a hundred miles an hour. I swear it didn’t feel like we were going a bit over eighty, so I eased down on the brakes and brought it down to the speed limit.

  Jake seemed to be catching his breath about then, so I peeled off the next exit and turned around to go back. As we pulled into the dealership lot again, I looked over at him and said, “I’ll take it.”

  He gave me a funny-looking smile, and acted like he couldn’t wait to get out of the car. I parked it right up near the showroom and we walked inside. Forty-five minutes and a lot of money later, I was the proud owner of a new, shiny black Mustang GT.

  And then Jake told me I could pick it up the following day.

  “I beg your pardon,” I said. “I need it today.”

  “Well, there are some things we have to do to it before you take it,” he said. “It’s normal procedure, like making sure it’s clean and…”

  “Then do it now,” I said. “I have to take the car with me when I leave today.”

  He looked at me again, then let out a sigh and picked up the phone on his desk. I’m not sure who he talked to, but the next thing I knew, they were rushing my car into the service center, and Jake told me it would be ready in about an hour.

  “Okay, thank you,” I said as sweetly as possible. I got up from his desk and found my way back toward the service department, and the girl in the window showed me where I could sit and watch as th
e prep guys got my new car ready for me.

  I took out my phone and called Pennington. “It’s Cassie,” I said. “I just bought a new Mustang GT. They’re getting it ready for me right now.”

  “Wow,” he said. “Alicia said you weren’t hurting for money. I’ve looked at those but I can’t afford them. Which one did you buy?”

  “A shiny black one. It’s really beautiful, and absolutely awesome.”

  “All right, then,” he said. “Incidentally, we checked the security video in the parking garage, but there is no sign of anyone getting close to your car. If he knew where the cameras were, though, it wouldn’t be hard to avoid them. And I’ve got your surveillance detail all set up. They’ll be on you by the time you get home, and they’ll stay on you twenty-four hours a day until this guy is caught.”

  “If you really think it’s necessary,” I said. He insisted it was, and we said goodbye.

  Dex came walking up to me a couple minutes later. “You bought the GT?” he asked.

  “Yep,” I said. “Have you ever driven one of those? Oh, my gosh, it is awesome! I took it for a test drive and decided I wanted it before I even got out of the parking lot.”

  He stood there grinning at me. “Okay,” he said. “It is a good one, I’ll say that. And it’s one of the most powerful cars we’ve got.”

  By the time the prep guys were finished, it was Dex’s quitting time. We drove home together, his classic Mustang right behind my own new one, and we ended up parking side-by-side in my driveway.

  Normally, my car goes in the garage, but my garage remote had been in the Kia. The new Mustang had buttons that could be programmed to work with my garage door opener, but I didn’t know how to do it and didn’t feel like taking the time to read the book and learn.

  Dex, on the other hand, had apparently been busy. While I was buying a car, he was talking to Alfie and running down the street to some electronics shop. He spent ten minutes crawling all over my car, hiding little sticky-backed things up underneath it, inside it, and under the hood.

  “Mind telling me what you’re doing?” I asked.