by ERIN BEDFORD
Mandy adjusted something on the computer and looked up at me. “Now. We wait.”
22
Apparently waiting was a typical thing for Mandy to do on the job. I’d always imagined if they were waiting for a bad guy it was, like, BOOM, breaking down doors and yelling. Didn’t criminals have common courtesy for those of us with other things to do?
My stomach grumbled. Lunch. That sounded like something hugely important right now. I’d already missed breakfast in my hurry to get over here.
“How much longer?” I asked Mandy, who was checking the computer again for any activity. Nothing had changed.
Mandy lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. It could take all day. We don’t really have a time frame.”
I groaned and leaned back on the couch. I wish Michael were still here. He had to leave for something or another an hour ago. My eye caught sight of the mini fridge. Inching off the couch, as casual as can be, I started for it. I glanced over at Mandy, whose back was turned to me, before kneeling by the fridge. I put my hand on the door.
“No.” Mandy’s stern voice made me freeze, my shoulders shooting up to my ears. “No mini fridge.”
“But Mandy,” I whined, standing up and stomping toward her, “I’m starving over here.”
Mandy shot me a look. “I don’t know how you stay in such good shape with how much food you shove in your pie hole.”
“Oh, pie,” I cried out longingly, pulling at my hair. “And it’s just good genetics.”
Mandy snorted. “Sure. Too bad those genetics don’t apply to your patience.”
I leaned against the back of the couch and poked at her back. “That has nothing to do with it. Any sane person would be going crazy sitting in a room with nothing to do but scratch her ass.”
“Please don’t do that.” Mandy made a disgusted face. “And you can have one thing from the fridge. One.” She held her finger up just as I started skipping to the fridge.
My hand reached for the mini bottles of alcohol and Mandy added, “No alcohol.”
“Why not? This party needs a bit livening up.” I held up two bottles of tequila and shook my tits at her.
Giggling, Mandy shook her head. “This isn’t a party, and it’s not even after five yet.”
I shrugged. “So, when has that ever stopped us before?”
Mandy leveled a glare at me. “No, absolutely not. We can get good and drunk after we catch this guy.” She turned back to the computer and waved a hand over her shoulder. “Get something food wise out of there and get back here. We don’t want to miss anything.”
Sighing, I went back to the fridge and grabbed a bag of chips. Glancing at the price tag, I winced. Ten bucks for potato chips? What, were they made by blind Tibetan monks? They better be some holy potatoes was all I could say.
Flopping back onto the couch, I opened my chips and glared into the bag.
“You look angry. Are you really that hungry? Or did the chips hurt your feelings?” Mandy asked, not looking away from the computer.
“Look at this bullshit.” I held the bag out to her, so she could see the inside.
She glanced away from the computer screen quickly before turning back to it. “What about it?”
“Ten bucks for one, two, three, eight chips! Eight fucking chips and the rest of the bag was air. What a fucking rip-off.” I shoved my hand into the bag and grabbed a few of the chips. Putting them in my mouth, I chewed them around before swallowing. “And they taste like a fridge. I’m paying ten dollars for fridge chips.”
“Oh God, Jane, can you be any more dramatic?” Mandy shot me an incredulous look which quickly turned to alarm as something moved on her screen. “This is it! Look.”
Tossing my chips aside, I leaned toward her, my eyes on the screen. Something was moving on one of the cameras. “Are they coming through the window?” I gaped at the screen.
Mandy frowned. “It does look that way.” We watched as the person in a pair of dark pants and a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over their head started into the room. They kept their head down as they went straight to the built-in safe.
“It’s the window washer!” I pointed at the screen. “How come you didn’t put him on the list of suspects?” The memory of the window washer platform sitting outside the spa when I first arrived came to my mind. They must have been spying on me when I first stayed here.
“We didn’t know about him. The manager never said anything about him.” Mandy grabbed her gun and badge and stood. “Come on, let’s get in there before he sees there’s no ring.”
I got up and started after her but stopped her at the door. “What about O’Connor? He said to call him for backup. We can’t go in there by ourselves.”
Mandy pursed her lips. “The guy is barely half my size, soaking wet. I don’t think we need any backup.”
“What if he has a gun?” I asked, digging my fingers into her arm. On my list of things to do before I died, getting shot was not one of them.
“I have a gun too, you know.” She placed her hand on her holster. “Now, are you coming, or you waiting in here?” She shook her head. “Actually, you wait here. I’ll take care of this.”
“The hell you are,” I shouted, chasing after her and into the hallway. We inched toward the door next to ours, and I whispered, “Are you going to kick it down? Maybe shoot the lock off?” I held onto her shoulders, using her as a shield. Hey, a girl had to think about her own safety. And Mandy had a gun!
Digging into her pocket, Mandy pulled out a card. “I’m going to use the key. Really, Jane. You watch too much television.” She slipped the key into the door slot and shoved it open. The door banged against the wall as Mandy hurried inside, her gun at the ready.
A crash followed by a set of pounding feet alerted us that the thief had heard us. I shoved at Mandy’s back. “He’s going to get away. Hurry up!”
Mandy glared at me before running into the room. “Freeze, police! Stop, or I’ll shoot.” She pointed her gun at the dark figure, who kept his head down so we couldn’t see his face. Her shout only made the thief move faster as he darted for the window.
Panic raced through me, and I searched for something to throw. Mandy tried to get a good shot while I grabbed the nearest thing to us, a coffee pot. Running into the bedroom, I chucked it with all my might. It banged into the thief’s head just as he tried to escape through the window, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto the platform.
“Score!” I shouted, hopping in place as I fist bumped the sky.
Mandy rushed up to the window, but the impact of the thief falling had caused the platform’s lock to break, sending the contraption falling to the ground. I stopped celebrating and ran over to the window beside Mandy.
“Is he dead?” I asked Mandy, who put her gun up.
“No, it’s only a two-story building. Come on.” She pulled me away from the window. “We need to get down there before he wakes up and has a chance to bolt.”
She pulled her phone out and hit her speed dial. “Yeah, it’s me. We caught the culprit. It was the window washer. We’re heading to make the arrest now.” She paused for a moment as we hurried down the stairs. Who had time to wait for an elevator? “Okay, see you in a few.”
“That O’Connor?” I pulled the door open to the stairwell and stumbled into the lobby.
“Yeah, he’ll be here shortly.” Mandy put her hand on her gun as she searched for an entrance to the back of the building.
I pointed to an emergency exit next to the stairwell. “There. We can get out that way.”
Mandy nodded and pushed the door, causing a blaring alarm to shout through the lobby. Wincing at the sound, I raced after her, not wanting to miss a thing.
We moved around the building until we saw the window washer’s platform where it had smashed into the ground. Thankfully, as we came up to it, there was still a prone figure laying inside of it.
“Now, what?” I asked her as we stared down at the figure.
Ma
ndy frowned. “Well, he seems out cold. We have to wake him up before we can arrest him.”
“So, more waiting?” I asked, but before Mandy could answer, I kicked the guy in the side. He groaned and shifted atop the collapsed platform. “Look, he’s waking up.”
Glaring at me, Mandy pointed her gun at the guy and then dug out her handcuffs. “Here, since you’re in such a hurry. Why don’t you cuff him?”
I glanced at the cuffs and then back to the guy who had rolled over, his hood falling back. “Riley Parks!” I cried out, pointing a finger at the weaselly-looking manager. “I told you it was the manager, but nooo, no one listens to me.” I beamed at Mandy who only shoved the cuffs into my hands.
I clutched the cuffs as I approached him, his eyes finally coming into focus. He tried to scurry away from me, but I jumped on top of him. “Now, hold up. I didn’t wait all this time for you to get away.”
“Get off me.” Riley twisted beneath me, trying to fight the cuffs.
“Riley Parks,” Mandy moved into his line of vision, so he could see the gun. “You are under arrest for the multiple thefts here at the Blessed Falls Spa Resort as well as the murder of Ernie Slousky. You have the right to remain silent …”
“Fuck you!” Riley snapped as I clipped the handcuffs on him.
I smacked him on the back of the head. “Hey, that’s my best friend you’re talking to. Have some respect.”
“Screw you, you mumbo jumbo bitch.”
I glanced up at Mandy. “Do you have to arrest him? We have a gun. We could just end it right here.”
Mandy gave me a disapproving look. “No. Now can you hold him down until O’Connor and the others get here?”
I bounced on top of Riley slightly, making him groan. “No problem. Maybe I can teach him the weight of his actions.”
“The only weight I’m feeling is from your big ass. Get off me. This is police brutality, I’ll sue!” He shot Mandy a glare, and I bounced a bit more.
“Hey, I’m not that heavy, and I’m not a cop. So, chill.” Riley grumbled under his breath but didn’t fight me any longer. “You know, to pass the time, you could tell us why you would call the cops if you’re the one stealing stuff.”
Riley glowered up at me. “I’m not saying crap without my lawyer.”
Of course, he wasn’t. “Well, I bet I could guess. Then you could tell me if I was right or wrong?”
Mandy tapped on the platform’s railings with her gun. “Stop antagonizing him.”
“I’m not.” I squinted up at her, the sun getting into my eyes. “I’m helping you do a thorough job.”
Mandy rolled her eyes and dialed her phone. Probably calling O’Connor to ask him where the hell he was.
I turned my attention back to Riley. “So, you got this big idea to steal from your guests. You use the window washing platform to spy on the guests to see if they were in their rooms. Then when they were gone, you’d go into their room and steal from the safe.”
Riley grunted beneath me, not agreeing or denying it.
I continued, “I bet Ernie figured it out and tried to catch you in the act, just like us. That’s when you smothered him with one of the pillows from the room and then stashed him in the fridge while everyone was at the big staff party.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Riley growled, shifting beneath me. “Why would I want to kill Ernie?”
I leaned forward a bit. “Maybe because he was now dating your ex-girlfriend and you know how much of a mooch he was. But sadly, Crystal doesn’t know how much of a cold-blooded killer you are. You’ll never get her back now.”
“I did it for her!” Riley shouted, finally breaking. “She wanted to leave Ernie, but he had taken out all this debt under her name. I was only trying to help her.”
“Thanks for painting such a clear picture for us,” O’Connor said as he and a couple officers showed. They came over to me and grabbed Riley so that I could get up.
I smirked and wiped my hands on my pants. “Just doing my job.”
“Not you,” O’Connor frowned at me. He turned to Mandy and asked, “How did he get the safes open?”
“Haven’t you ever forgotten the password to one of those hotel safes?” Mandy put her gun in her holster and faced him. “Usually, you have to call the manager to get it open again. I’m assuming that’s what happened.”
“Yeah, what she said.” I threw my arm over Mandy’s shoulders and grinned.
“Well, good job, Stevenson.” O’Connor jerked his head toward her and then stared at me. “Mehr.” The last bit was like an afterthought as he followed the officers back inside with Riley Parks in tow.
I patted Mandy on the shoulder. “So, ready for some tequila?”
Mandy cocked her head at me before shaking it. Walking away from me, I held my hands out. “What? You said after we’re done. It’s after!”
23
I followed Mandy and the others back to the police station in my car. Except I stopped at Macho Del Taco on the way. A girl’s gotta eat!
Pulling into the parking lot of the police station, I tossed my empty wrapper in the passenger seat and got out. With my stomach full, I hoped I would get paid today. I wanted to add this case’s payment to the already bulky amount I’d gotten from Mrs. Garret’s ghost. It would make things a lot easier if I didn’t have to worry about money for a while.
I walked through the parking lot, calculating my bills, my eyes on the ground … and stepped right through something that caused my whole body to tingle. More than familiar with the buzz of walking through an angel, I turned to gripe at whichever one of the guys decided to mess with me.
My words caught in my throat when I came face to face with someone I didn’t know. He had dark eyes almost to the point where his pupil swallowed the iris. His equally dark hair was long and hung around his shoulders. Unlike my angels, this one didn’t bother trying to pass as human. He wore long dark robes with intricate designs, his feet bare.
“Uh, hello?” I cocked my head to the side and adjusted my bag on my shoulder. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m Jane.”
The angel was quiet for a moment, his eyes going over me the same way I’d done. Except he didn’t seem nearly as impressed.
Getting uncomfortable with his staring and not speaking, I shifted away from him. “Ohhhkay. I’m going to go now. It was nice meeting you, whoever you are.”
I turned away from him and started toward the police station, but then he spoke, his voice low and commanding. A bit like Michael’s really. “So, it is true. You can see us, human.”
Pursing my lips, I spun around. “Yes, I can see you, and I can hear you. By the way, it’s not human. It’s Jane. J-a-n-e. I don’t know how they do it up there.” I jutted a finger toward the sky. “But down here, it’s polite to use someone’s name.”
The angel didn’t seem at all affected by my ranting. In fact, he only seemed mildly curious. Taking a few steps toward me, the angel crossed his hands behind his back.
“I will address you as you are. A human. One of many bugs that infect this planet.” His nose curled up in clear disgust. Someone was prejudiced.
“If humans disgust you so much, then why are you here?” I snapped, putting my hands on my hips. This guy was really starting to get on my nerves.
The angel’s eyes flashed with anger. “Do not address me in such a manner, human. You are nothing but a flea compared to the rest of the universe. How Michael has taken such a liking to you is beyond me. Gabriel and Lucifer, I could see, but you are far below the likes of Michael. I suggest you keep your distance if you value your pathetic life.”
I started to argue that my life was far from pathetic, but he had disappeared. Growling in frustration, I stomped my foot and spun on my heel. Freaking angels and their stupid superiority complexes. Seriously, it’s not like I wanted to see them. They’re the ones who kept coming to me, not the other way around.
Of course, that’s how it had been at the st
art. Now, I was more than happy to see my angels. Well, not that particular angel. He could keep his asshole self as far away from me as possible.
I shoved the police station door open and found Smith sitting at her desk. Great. Just what I didn’t want to deal with.
Coming up to her desk, I tapped my fingers on the counter to get her attention. “I’m in a bit of a hurry. Could you buzz me back?”
Smith looked up from the magazine she was ready to look at me. “No, I can’t just buzz you back. What kind of place do you think this is? The courthouse?” she waved a hand with long red painted nails toward the bench. “You can go sit over there and wait for the detective to come get you.”
“But I don’t have time for this,” I argued, gritting my teeth.
“And I don’t have time for your sass. Now, do as I say, or you can wait in a holding cell.” She raised a brow at me.
I wasn’t sure she could actually throw me in jail, but I didn’t want to take the risk. Huffing my displeasure, I shuffled over to the bench. Sitting down next to a painted-up woman in a short sparkly purple dress, I forced a smile. “I like your dress.”
“Thanks, honey.” The voice that answered me was low and masculine. It made me do a double take on the woman. By the time Mandy came to get me, I was deep in discussion with Tanya about what kind of skin care she used to keep her looking so young and feminine.
“Jane?” Mandy grinned at me as I exchanged numbers with Tanya. Never hurts to make new friends, especially ones with fabulous fashion sense.
“Gotta go.” I hopped off the bench and waved at Tanya.
“See you, girl. And don’t forget to moisturize.”
“I won’t!”
Mandy chuckled as she let me in the back. “Well, you make friends fast.”
I shrugged. “People just like me, I can’t help it.” We went into the conference room where O’Connor stood. He glanced up from his papers and glared at me.