King of the Friend Zone (Power of the Matchmaker)

by Pratt, Sheralyn

  There was a moment of silence before Esme looked up at Hunter and mouthed. She’s home.

  Hunter could have kissed her for getting that detail. He could have kissed her for any number of reasons, but especially for having the presence of mind to grab key information like that when he’d totally spaced it.

  He looked at Kenny. “What’s her address?”

  Esme kept talking next to them while Kenny looked it up on his phone. Hunter kept his phone to his ear waiting for an operator to pick up.

  “It’s just about this case file you passed off to me,” Esme said. “It’s my first appointment tomorrow morning and I wanted to get your thoughts on the child. I can see you’ve put a lot of work into him.”

  Knowing Esme would do everything right on the call with Shauna, Hunter re-focused on the equally necessary call when an operator finally picked up.

  “9-1-1. What is the address of your emergency?”

  Hunter turned away so his voice wasn’t pointing Esme’s direction, Shauna’s address jumbling in his mind as he looked at it on Kenny’s phone. He could have screamed in frustration but instead he looked at Kenny and mouthed, Read it to me.

  He did and Hunter repeated it back to the operator.

  “And what is the nature of your emergency?” the operator asked.

  “My friend is on the phone with a woman—Shauna Weekes—who claims her boyfriend is in her home with a gun and that she’s in danger.”

  “Are you at this address with Miss Weekes now, sir?”

  “I’m not. But my friend is still on the phone with her, pretending to be a coworker with questions.”

  “So Shauna is speaking with someone on the phone right now?”

  “Yes,” Hunter said. “But she has the phone on speaker, so I’m assuming the boyfriend can hear everything. I don’t know how much we can say to her without raising red flags.”

  “I’m dispatching officers to the address now, sir, but can you answer some more questions for me?”

  “Of course,” Hunter said as Esme waved to get his attention and pointed to the truck.

  Let’s head over to her place, she mouthed.

  “Would it be easier if I just came over?” Esme said into the phone.

  Hunter shook his head. They should definitely not head over—especially with Kenny in tow. What in the world was she thinking?

  Kenny muttered, “I’m with her,” and grabbed for Hunter’s keys. Hunter moved them out of his reach.

  In case we can help, Esme mouthed. Trust me.

  “Sir?” the operator said. “Did you hear the question?”

  “Sorry, no,” Hunter said, reluctantly heading to the driver side door. Esme was rarely wrong. If she said they should head over, they should head over. “Could you repeat that?”

  “What is your phone number, in case we get disconnected?”

  Hunter told her.

  “Thank you. Now tell me exactly what happened leading up to this call.”

  Hunter recounted everything as best he could as he pulled out of the gym parking lot with his two passengers. He spoke softly, hoping Esme’s phone wouldn’t pick up his voice and let Aaron hear what he was doing. When he was done repeating his version of events to the operator, more questions came.

  “Do you know the boyfriend’s name?”

  “Aaron Sarvo.”

  “And Shauna has indicated that he is armed and dangerous?”

  “As much as she can while he is listening in on the conversation, yes. I’m pretty confident Aaron has a gun.”

  “Okay, I’m going to need a physical description of both Shauna Weekes and Aaron Sarvo.”

  Hunter kept answering the operator’s questions while following Kenny’s fingers as they pointed for him to go right, left, or straight. When the kid wasn’t giving silent directions, he answered questions Esme typed into his phone about Shauna while Esme kept talking in her almost-dumb blonde voice.

  “You know what?” Esme said as the operator typed updates into a computer. “Maybe this would be easier if I just came over to your place. How about a nightcap and we’ll chat about Tommy?”

  The operator spoke in Hunter’s other ear. “Is that your friend talking to her in the background?”

  “Yes,” Hunter said.

  “Is there any indication that Shauna has been harmed?”

  “Not so far,” Hunter said.

  “Okay. Tell your friend to keep Shauna on the phone as long as she can. If anything changes, please interrupt me immediately to give me the update.”

  “Will do,” he said, then kept talking until the operator said she had everything and told him officers were on the scene. At that point the operator ended the call, but told Hunter to keep his phone close in case someone needed to call him back for more information.

  Hanging up with the operator, Hunter turned and made eye contact with Esme to check in. She was still talking, and making it look easy. She put a question in her eyes as they looked at each other, silently asking him what the operator had said.

  Talk as long as you can, he mouthed.

  Esme sent him a solemn nod before chipperly saying into the phone, “I know, right? This system is so inefficient. Thank heaven for people like you, who actually care.”

  Esme was humanizing Shauna. She was letting Aaron know she was a person who would be missed. She was trying to urge him to rethink things with her language.

  In short, Esme was amazing.

  Chapter 55

  Hunter saw the patrol car as soon as they pulled onto the street—lights off and stopped in one of the darker areas of the street. They’d arrived silently. That was good. Really good.

  Kenny passed his phone up from the back seat with the answer to Esme’s most recent question. He’d been inside Shauna’s office and knew a lot of things Esme didn’t know, and they seemed to be working together pretty seamlessly to keep Esme’s cover story of being a coworker on track.

  Hunter parked his truck in the first available spot he found on the street and motioned for Esme and Kenny to stay in the truck. Esme nodded, and so did Kenny after Hunter sent him a stern look. Only then did Hunter get out.

  As he walked forward, an authoritative voice called out, “Stop right there!”

  Hunter squinted his eyes, trying to see the silhouette in front of him better. “Flynn?”

  There was a pause. “Chase?”

  “Yeah,” Hunter said, moving forward again.

  “This is your call?” Flynn asked, stepping forward as well.

  “Yeah. I called Shauna—the woman in the apartment—after hanging up with you,” Hunter said. “She is definitely in there and the guy definitely has a gun.” He jerked his thumb back toward the truck. “Esme’s still on the phone with her.”

  “You brought her here?” Flynn asked. “Chase, that’s—”

  “Look, Esme manages crises for a living,” Hunter said over him. “I didn’t want to come, but if Fortune 500 companies trust her judgment, I should too. And she said we should be here.”

  Flynn shook his head. “Well, I can’t let you near the apartment complex.”

  “But if you knock on that door and Aaron sees you, he’s going to shoot Shauna. I’ve met the guy. Thinking things through isn’t his forté. Got anyone in plain clothes?”

  “You telling me how to do my job, Chase?”

  “Just trying to help,” Hunter said, eyeing Shauna’s apartment complex.

  Flynn’s smile curved up into a smirk. “Well, why don’t you help me out by going back to your truck and nama-staying out of my way?”

  Hunter let out a quick chuckle. “I see what you did there.”

  “It’s karma dude. For once you’re the stupid person on the scene of an emergency.”

  “I guess,” Hunter said, looking at his truck. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk to Esme? She’s still on the phone with Shauna. Maybe she can code something into what she’s saying, or get Aaron to focus somewhere that gives you a blind spot. She’s really go
od, Flynn.”

  “I know,” he said. “I’ve met her. But she’s a civilian.”

  “She’s an asset,” Hunter countered. “A highly trained asset in crisis management, and she’s not in any danger. She can stay out of sight in the truck. Let her know what you need, and she’ll get it done.”

  Flynn sighed, then held out his hand. “Stay here, man,” he said, then got onto his radio and walked out of hearing range.

  Chapter 56

  “I’ve looked in that filing cabinet,” Esme said into the phone. “But I’ll look again. The file obviously has to be here somewhere.”

  On the other side of the line, Shauna sounded a bit more stressed than she had thirty seconds ago as she replied. “You know, let’s just sort this all out tomorrow.”

  “Oh,” Esme complained. “That would mean both of us coming in early, and I’d really like to avoid that. We already stay so late every night.”

  “I know,” Shauna said. “It’s just that my guests are here and I’m being rude by staying on the phone.”

  The boyfriend was applying pressure for Shauna to hang up. Esme could tell by the tension in the other woman’s voice. Shauna was strong, but the stress of whatever was happening on the other side of the line was cracking her. Esme’s best play was not to escalate and to only do the minimum it took to stay on the line—like reintroducing the possibility of exposing Shauna’s cover story of having guests over. Applying the slightest amount of pressure there had the potential of making Aaron’s behavior more predictable if the police made the decision to use her.

  “Do you think your guests would mind terribly if I just swung by for a sec?” Esme said. “I’m only a few minutes away, and things would just happen so much faster face-to-face. If we can just look at everything at the same time and get your input, I probably won’t even need this missing file.”

  Esme did everything in her power to make her voice casual and non-threatening. It was important that the boyfriend believe that Shauna was talking to a half-witted woman, not someone who was an actual threat. No big words, no power statements, and a peppering of words like just and you know and like to diminish herself in the man’s eyes.

  It was getting harder to do, though. She and Shauna had been on the phone over ten minutes, and there were only so many times you could circle the same conversational drain without getting flushed. All she could do now was try to stay on the phone long enough to do some good.

  A dark shadow walked down the street toward her, and Esme knew it was an officer by the silhouette of the utility belt the man wore.

  “No,” Shauna said on the phone. “I would really prefer it if we could do this over the phone. Can you look in the beige cabinet one more time? Second drawer down?”

  “I’ve looked twice,” Esme said as the officer stopped in front of her and pulled out a tablet. “I’ll try one more time. Hold on.”

  Across from her, the officer held the tablet out so she could see it. On it he had written: My name is Officer Flynn. I am a friend of Hunter’s and he says you are trained in crisis situations and can help.

  Esme sent the man a nod before speaking into the phone. “I’m still not seeing it, Shauna.”

  Officer Flynn cleared the text and started writing something else.

  “Are you sure?” Shauna pressed. “It should be the fourth or fifth file back.”

  “Nope,” Esme said after a beat. “Is there anywhere else you would have put it? Anywhere at all? Did you take it with you somewhere?”

  Officer Flynn held up the tablet again. Do you think you can separate them?

  Esme shook her head and reached out for the stylus the officer was using to write. Under his question she wrote. I’ve tried. He’s on her like glue, but seems unwilling to hurt her while she’s on the phone.

  “…I never take files out of the office, as a rule,” Shauna was saying when Esme tuned back in.

  “And no exceptions to that rule?” Esme pressed.

  Officer Flynn held up the tablet again. Do you think you can get them out of the apartment?

  Esme hesitated, then nodded before the officer quickly scribbled, Give us 60 seconds to get into position.

  “Tell you what,” Esme said into the phone as Officer Flynn ran out of sight. “I feel horrible about holding you up while you have guests over, so how about this? I’ll check all the files one more time, and if I still can’t find it, then you check a spot for me. If we still can’t find it, then we’ll call it a night and I’ll just come in early and try again. That sound okay?”

  “That sounds perfect,” Shauna said, still clearly tense.

  Esme kept chattering on, pretending to go through filing cabinets until the clock on her phone showed it had been over a minute. Then she made her move.

  “I’m so sorry, Shauna,” she sighed into the phone. “I’m still not seeing it, so will you just do me a favor and check your car for me? Whenever I can’t find my files, nine times out of ten that’s where I find them. I take them with me as a reference and I just forget to re-file them.”

  “Oh,” Shauna breathed, and Esme wasn’t sure if the woman was acting or if she really found the idea revelatory. “You know, now that you mention it, I think it might be in the car…in the pocket behind the seat.”

  “Could you check?” Esme gushed. “For me? I swear I won’t sleep tonight until I know whether or not it’s not in your car.”

  “Yeah. Give me two minutes.”

  Esme could do that. A two-minute break sounded fabulous. “I’ll be right here.”

  The good news? Shauna had jumped on the bait. The question now was whether or not her boyfriend was actually going to let her walk out to the car or not, or if he was going to force her to pretend she had. Esme wasn’t in line of sight of the apartments, so she had no way to know. All she knew was that Shauna had put her on mute, which meant she and the boyfriend were likely arguing.

  If the combination of Aaron wanting to get Esme off the phone and Shauna convincing him that this would get rid of her for the night was convincing enough, then Aaron might let Shauna walk out to her car.

  Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty. Esme began to think that her bait hadn’t worked. Then there was a whole lot of yelling to “Get down!”

  Part of Esme was waiting for gunshots to fill the air and was relieved when there were none. Aaron hadn’t fired. The police hadn’t fired. When the yelling stopped, no one had been shot and Esme felt herself slump against the truck. The phone was still silent in her hand, and when she looked down it was shaking—or rather, her hand was shaking. Odd. She couldn’t feel the tremors.

  She slipped her phone into her purse so she could flex her hands in an effort to stop the shaking. It didn’t work. If anything, the tremors started moving up her arms.

  Hearing the commotion rise and fall over at the apartment complex, Kenny opened the truck door. “Is it over?”

  “I think so,” Esme breathed, hiding her hands from his sight. “I think they’ve got him.”

  “Is Miss Weekes okay?” he choked out.

  “I’m pretty sure she is,” Esme said, reaching out a hand toward the boy. “Come on. Let’s go check, hero.”

  Chapter 57

  Hunter did his civic duty by staying behind the tape while Flynn grabbed Esme and brought her inside the tape to talk. It had been amazing to watch Flynn and the officers on the scene take Aaron down so smoothly.

  Somehow, Esme must have gotten Shauna and Aaron to walk out of the apartment, and when they had, officers had been framing the door. Shauna had walked through first with Aaron only a step behind, but it was enough to get the drop on him. He’d had his gun hidden in his jacket pocket to hide it from anyone who might see them, so he’d had exactly no time to respond to the multiple guns aimed at him from three different directions. In less than a second, Shauna had been pulled behind one of the officers and Aaron’s hands had been in the air.

  And that had been that.

  No officers had truly been in h
arm’s way that night, all because Esme understood how to talk to people—even currently insane ones.

  “Amazing, isn’t she?” a lightly accented voice said from next to him. It was odd to Hunter that when he looked down and over he wasn’t surprised to see Miss Pearl. For some reason, it seemed totally normal for her to be hanging around a crime scene making idle conversation.

  “Where’s the cookie cart?” he asked.

  The woman smiled. “I don’t need it anymore.”

  “No? Do you not need your accent either?”

  Miss Pearl shook her head. “I needed to trick you into listening carefully before. You can be very dismissive of new ideas when you think you have something figured out. I spoke differently before so you would hear differently, but I think you hear me well enough now.”

  Huh. Hopefully this woman never met his mother or he’d never be able to sit at a family dinner containing correct grammar again.

  Miss Pearl cast a pointed glance at Esme. “You love her,” It wasn’t a question.

  He looked across the yellow tape and let his breath catch in his throat at the sight of her. “I do.”

  She held up a container with two cookies in it. “You also know what these cookies taste like. My question for you is how long are you going to pretend you don’t want to taste it again for the rest of your life?”

  Hunter’s eyes moved back to Esme. “Look at her. She could have anyone.”

  “Except you, it seems,” Miss Pearl mused.

  “It’s not that,” Hunter said. “You know it’s not that.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Hunter didn’t have a ready answer.

  “I match up a lot of couples, Hunter, but you are a rare man.”

  He grinned at the compliment. “I am?”

  She nodded. “So stubborn. Many men are stubborn, but you are special in your stubbornness.”

  Man, he liked this woman. “Thank you.”

  “It wasn’t praise.”

  “I know,” he said, still looking at Esme. He loved that even though her heels left her shorter than all the men around her, she still stood among them as equals. Flynn seemed to be interviewing her, asking questions and jotting down answers as he got a handle on the full picture.