Archie looked stuck for an answer. Harley wanted to tell him to think of something fast, because Bates didn’t look at all happy.
“Look, Bates, it wasn’t my fault Yogi wouldn’t give it up. I tried to get it,” Archie said after a long moment ticked past and the shredder still loudly masticated empty air.
“By kidnapping a dog? Friggin’ brilliant. You couldn’t give him a photo of the piece like I told you? You had to risk the real thing?” Then Bates glanced at the papers in Archie’s hand, and his voice got real soft. “You’re covering your tracks. You’re shredding any paperwork with your name on it, aren’t you?”
“No . . . no, I’m just . . . these papers are just invoices you wouldn’t want in the wrong hands. Chickie here told me she had the necklace.”
Bates swiveled his gaze toward her, and Harley gulped.
Eleven
“Tell me where the necklace is.”
Harley stared up at Bates, paralyzed with terror. This guy was no moron. This guy meant business. She resorted to ignorance.
“What necklace?” she squeaked.
He moved to stand over her, and then bent to put a hand on each shoulder, his fingers digging into her skin and muscle and bone, like the talons of a hawk, as he hauled her up and slammed her down into a chair.
“No games. Just answers. The necklace. Where is it?”
“At . . . at the police station.” She heard Archie let out a long sigh. Paper and keys fell from his hand to the floor. Bates straightened, gimlet eyes boring into her for what seemed an eternity.
“Well, well.” He turned to look at Archie. “Looks like you can kiss your ass good-bye.”
Archie stood up quickly. His chair went spinning across the floor, wheels clacking. The paper shredder kept growling. Harley shuddered.
“It was a sweet setup,” Bates said, “then you got fucking greedy. Wasn’t your share enough to suit you?”
“It wasn’t just that.” Archie looked a little desperate, but oddly defiant. “You and Neil, you always act like I’m some damn idiot. I wanted to show you I could do stuff on my own.”
“And ended up showing us all what an idiot you are. Moron.”
Archie’s eyes narrowed again. His nose twitched, and he really looked so much like a weasel that Harley almost laughed. She must be hysterical. Insane. God, she was terrified.
Bates went behind the desk, unlocked and jerked open a drawer. Then he sat down in the chair, and it squeaked a little as he rocked back in it to study Archie. Bates had a broad face, but his eyes were small and close together. His hair was dark, not the greasy brown of Archie’s, but a dyed blue-black color and style like an Elvis impersonator. A flashy gold nugget ring winked on his left hand, a diamond horseshoe ring on his other. Obviously, the jewelry theft business paid well. He turned the ring on his finger idly, and then bent to scratch his ankle before straightening.
“Archie, Archie,” Bates said with a sigh that sounded almost like regret, “you ruined a lovely scam.”
“How the hell did I do that?” He sounded belligerent. “You and Neil had your own deals going. I just took advantage of opportunities. For all of us.”
“No, you took advantage for yourself. We had it sweet. Easy. What made you do it?” Bates put his hands together fingertips to fingertips, his tone almost benevolent.
He didn’t fool Harley. She saw the muscle in his jaw flicker with suppressed fury. Uh oh. It didn’t look good for her or Archie. Squirming a little, she felt one of the drapery braids shift. That was good. She flexed her toes. She couldn’t feel them. That was bad.
Apparently, Archie wasn’t fooled by Bates’s benevolence either.
“What made me do it? Shit, you oughta know! All the time going on about how dumb I am, like I’m not even standing there listening—cutting me outta some of the take ’cause I’m just the errand boy. I got sick of it. I’ve been running my own scam for almost three months, and made more money than I got the entire time we’ve been at it.”
“And managed to catch the attention of the cops while you were at it. Did you think they wouldn’t figure it out?” He leaned forward in the chair to stare hard at Archie. “I’ve got one more deal to finish, and I’m handling it. I don’t need any screw-ups hanging around me.”
“Fine. I got my own thing going.” Archie sounded defensive, and beads of sweat gleamed on his forehead. His eyes looked kinda glazed. Harley’s stomach rolled. This was serious. “Just give me my cut and I’m outta here,” Archie said then, adding insult to injury.
“No friggin’ way,” Bates said. “Do you know how hard I worked to pull it off? It takes time to set up everything, but the payoff—the payoff is so sweet once the hard part is over. You ruined it, breaking into damn houses. Now the cops are looking at the jewelry store, and they’ll figure out Neil switched clients’ stones, if they haven’t already.”
“I didn’t have to break in. I knew the codes. I just walked in, took my time, and took the incriminating stuff.”
“You and Neil got greedy. You should’a left it alone. We had photos of the real pieces we gave to the insurance reps. No one could prove we’d switched anything. Until now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. You and Neil stole other pieces, fenced them, and got stupid about it. You didn’t stick to the plan, Archie. You got greedy. You screwed up, you dumbass.”
Archie looked indignant and uncertain. “No, I didn’t.”
“The hell you didn’t. Which means I’m out of here.” He bent to scratch his ankle again, then sat up and looked over at Harley, as if considering what to do with her. Her stomach flipped. She tried to blend into the scenery. Unsuccessfully. He smiled, but it wasn’t a smile that she found pleasant. “Now we have the added problem of what to do with our visitor.”
When Archie looked at her and narrowed his eyes, she knew it wasn’t going to be good. Then he surprised her. He just shrugged and said, “She’s better as a hostage than dead.”
“You think so?” Bates nodded thoughtfully. “Perhaps. Or perhaps she’s another liability. Like your aunt. Like you.”
“You won’t do nothin’ to me,” Archie said, and Harley rolled her eyes in exasperation. He really was an idiot. But Archie’s smile was suddenly sly. “Neil wouldn’t like it.”
“Neil can kiss my ass. Both of you screwed up. You used me, and I don’t like that. I had a nice little business going here until you got greedy and stupid.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t mind taking your part of the money. Neil was the brains; you just gave us a good cover, fencing stuff through the warehouse. You got just as greedy as we did.”
“And I regret that.”
Harley went cold when she saw his hand drop to the open drawer. Beads of sweat popped out on her skin. This was about to get really ugly, and she’d be in the crossfire.
Maybe Archie finally figured it out, too, because he took several steps back, bumping into the paper shredder and knocking it over. It made a loud growling sound, gears grinding.
Bates smiled. “Where’s the other one? The other girl?”
Don’t tell, don’t tell, Harley pleaded silently, but Archie obviously had no compunction about telling all he knew.
“In the trunk of my car. What do you think we should do with ’em?”
Harley had to do something. Say something. Put some kind of wedge between them if nothing else. Anything to delay the inevitable.
“Ask Bates how your aunt got killed,” she threw out for lack of anything better to say, a desperate attempt to create suspicion.
Archie looked first surprised, then doubtful. He frowned. “Yogi killed her.”
“No, he didn’t. He wouldn’t have anything to gain by it. Master Bates, however, had a lot to gain by shutting her up. Isn’t that what happened?”
“Shut up,” Bates snapped. “I don’t like bein’ called Master Bates.”
Archie turned back toward him. “Did you kill her? Did you ki
ll Aunt Mavis?”
“You’re so damn stupid.”
“Don’t call me that,” Archie snarled. “I don’t like being called stupid. You did it, didn’t you. You killed her because she was threatening to go to the cops to report Yogi!”
Harley realized suddenly that it had to be true. When it became clear Mrs. Trumble could blow everything, she had to be eliminated. Panic set in. So Bates would think nothing of killing her and Cami next.
“No, you dumbass, I didn’t kill her,” Bates said impatiently. “I should have. The old bat drove me crazy the one time I met her. But I didn’t kill her. I only saw her that one time.”
“But your car was there,” Harley said without thinking. “The day she was killed.”
Bates flicked his eyes toward her. “You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.” Archie was glaring at Bates, and if she could just get them focused on each other instead of her . . . . “I saw it. GR8LIFE, right? It was in her driveway that afternoon. I went to talk to her, but you were there so I didn’t knock on the door. Listen to me, Archie, he’s lying. He was there. He had to be the one who killed her.”
Bates stared at her, and something flickered in his eyes. He nodded. “Right. My car may have been there. But I wasn’t.”
Harley blinked. “So who—?”
“Isn’t this cozy,” a voice said from the open doorway and they all glanced to see a bulky, balding man standing in the opening. He wore black glasses and had a rather pleasant face, but the gun he held in his hand detracted from his harmless appearance.
Christ. Harley gulped, shifted her feet, and felt the ties around her ankles fall away. It was a miracle. Not that it’d do her any good. Not with him waving a gun around. Just who was this guy?
“Neil,” Archie said, and the mystery was solved. “I thought you’d never get here.”
“Got here as quick as I could. You never do listen when I tell you what to do. I figured you’d get into something over your head.” Campbell’s eyes flicked to Bates, who had bent to scratch his leg again like he had chiggers. “Sit up. Open your coat. Slowly. Then your shirt.”
Archie looked startled and Bates looked resigned. He slowly opened his coat and then unbuttoned his shirt. “You think I’m wearing a wire,” he said, and Campbell nodded.
“Just want to be sure this isn’t one of your setups.”
Archie blinked rapidly in obvious surprise. “But why would he wear a wire, Neil? He’s been in on everything with us. If we go down, he goes down.”
“But maybe not as hard. Someone tipped off the cops and they’re all over the shop.” Neil leaned forward, flipped up the tails to Bates’s shirt, and then nodded when he didn’t see anything. “It pays to be careful.”
Harley thought she should subscribe more freely to that outlook on life. It paid to be careful, indeed. Excellent philosophy. If she got out of this in one piece . . . well, no point in going in that direction. She’d end up paralyzed with fear and that wouldn’t help. She was already getting lightheaded. There were too many people in this tiny office, sucking out all the oxygen.
Apparently, Neil Campbell thought the same thing. He looked at his brother.
“Archie, go get that girl and bring her in here. The one you’ve got in your car.”
“But Neil—”
“Now.” The single word came out like the crack of a whip, and Archie scuttled out the door and disappeared into the shadows of the warehouse. That left just Harley and Bates looking at Neil.
Bates sat down in the chair, and it squeaked slightly under his weight. He stared at Neil with wary regard, one hand inching toward the open drawer. Neil waggled the end of his pistol.
“Both hands on the desk, Bates. You and I have a little business to tend to while Archie’s away.”
“I don’t think so.”
Campbell smiled, only it wasn’t a real smile. “You ratted us out. To that undercover cop. I know you did, so don’t bother lying. It’s time to take care of some loose ends around here. You and the motorcycle mama first.”
Harley tensed. Her hands were free. Her feet were free. But she’d never make it across the office before a bullet got her if she rushed him. And that damn paper shredder kept snarling on the floor, sounding way too loud and distracting.
“What are you saying, Neil?” Archie appeared in the doorway, staring. “You aren’t gonna shoot anybody, are you? Not for real?”
Neil looked disgusted, and Harley spoke up before he could lie some more. Speaking loudly so she’d be heard over the paper shredder, she said, “He’s going to shoot both of us and Cami, too. Just like he shot your Aunt Mavis.”
She wasn’t sure about the last, but suddenly it was the only thing that made any sense. Bates’s denial had held the ring of truth.
Archie looked at her and laughed, but he didn’t sound too certain. “He didn’t do that. Tell her, Neil. Tell her you’d never have killed Aunt Mavis.”
Campbell lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “She’s just flapping her gums, Archie. What are you doing back here? I told you to go get that other one.”
“I left my car keys in here.”
Archie walked over by Harley, and she said, “He’s lying to you, Archie. He killed your aunt, and he’s going to kill us.”
Archie unplugged the paper shredder and picked up his keys from the floor where he’d dropped them earlier, then turned to look at his brother. “Neil, where were you the day she got killed?”
The office was suddenly quiet, the abrupt absence of the noisy shredder leaving a wake of heavy silence.
Bates spoke up. “He borrowed my car that day. The one Blondie here saw in the driveway right before your aunt was killed. You figure it out, Archie, since you think you’re smart.”
Anger flitted over Archie’s sharp features, and Harley could almost see the wheels in his head slowly turning.
“Neil? Did you borrow Bates’s car?”
“Shit.” Campbell shook his head, irritation recognizable. “Yeah, I borrowed the car that day.”
Archie staggered a little, and put out a hand to grab hold of the table. “You did, Neil? But you wouldn’t have shot Aunt Mavis.”
“Not if she’d been smart enough to keep her mouth shut. Going on about that damn dog and Yogi—I was about ready to strangle her anyway. Then she said she’d called the cops to report Yogi for violating the restraining order, and she intended to tell them all about him stealing a diamond necklace from us. I had to shut her up. There was no other way.”
Archie let out a howl, and then everything happened so fast Harley had no time to think, only react. Bates grabbed for a gun in the open drawer just as Archie leaped for Neil, hands out like he intended to go for his throat. Two shots rang out, deafening in the small space, and the smell of cordite hung thick and heavy in the air as she flung herself from the chair to the floor. Seconds later, a body fell on top of her.
She pushed it off frantically, flipping to one side. Someone kept screaming but it wasn’t until Neil Campbell told her to shut the hell up that she realized she was the one doing the screaming, and she stopped.
Neil knelt down to where Archie lay sprawled on the floor, felt his neck, and then shook his head. “Damn. Damn it! Ah, Archie. You stupid bastard . . . damn.”
When he stood up, Harley stared at Archie, lying still and quiet. His mouth was open, his eyes staring but empty. Like windows into an abandoned house. Blood spread in a bright crimson blossom on his shirt. She shuddered and got to her feet somehow, stood there swaying, her knees wobbly. Neil blocked the way to the door, but then he turned toward the desk.
Bates lay face down on the desk. A pool of blood spread beneath him. He still held a pistol in his hand, fingers loose around it. Neil bent over him, checking for a pulse in his neck, and Harley took the opportunity to edge toward the door. Her ears rang, fear beat a swift pulse through her body, and her feet felt like heavy concrete blocks.
Neil straightened up and turned to grab her by the shirt. �
��Oh no, you ain’t going nowhere. I got to make this look like it was between all of you somehow . . . .” His fist tightened in the cotton fabric as he held on to her, and he chewed on his lip while he thought about it.
Harley had no intention whatsoever of hanging around to participate. Twisting agilely for someone scared half out of their mind, she ducked out of her shirt and left him holding it. She was free of Neil but not yet home free. Leaping forward, she grabbed the office door, slammed it shut on him, and shoved a heavy garbage can in front of it to slow him down.
Then she headed for the warehouse doors at top speed. Only she had no idea where the doors were located. The warehouse was huge, one of those gigantic metal structures with rows and rows of shelving and pallets of wooden crates stacked up ten or twenty feet high.
She was halfway to the back when she heard the office door smack open, and she ducked down a narrow aisle between metal shelves cluttered with merchandise. She shivered, glad she’d worn a sports bra. At least she wasn’t completely naked from the waist up, though the damn thing didn’t do much to keep her warm. Cool air made her nipples pucker. Neil coming after her made something else pucker. She tried to blend into the shadows.
Fuzzy light from hanging fixtures lit up the main part of the warehouse, but back in the storage area metal shelves soared up twenty feet or so, darkening the wide aisles between. It was like hiding in a briar patch. Merchandise like statues, tin suits of armor, vases and rolled up rugs clogged the shelves and aisles. She darted down the closest aisle when she heard Neil yell at her to come out or he’d start shooting. Like he intended to do anything else anyway. If she could just lose him in this maze . . . .
Running wasn’t as easy as if she’d had both her shoes. She’d lost one somehow, so she had a lopsided gait, one athletic shoe clomping, her sports sock sliding on slick floors. Easy enough to fix. Hopping along on one foot, she wrenched off the shoe and stuck it on a shelf out of sight. No point in leaving a trail for Neil to follow. She heard him out there, his feet slapping hard against concrete, but apparently he hadn’t seen which way she went. A definite point in her favor.
Hound Dog Blues Page 20