Cromwell and Captain Briggs stood on either side of me to watch through the one-way mirror as a uniformed officer brought Thomas Gentry in and seated him at the table in the next room. Gentry’s usual sunny smile was replaced by an expression of gut-wrenching fear.
Ryder walked in and sat down across from Gentry. “Hello, Mr. Gentry. Thanks for coming here this afternoon.”
Gentry gave him a confused glance and nodded. “I didn’t have much of a choice, Mr. Smith, and I don’t understand why you’re here.”
“About that…my name is Detective Ryder Hamilton. I was undercover when we met before.”
I was jealous of how calm he seemed. I was sweating bullets even though my part was over and done with and I was merely watching from the other side of the glass.
He continued, “I have the findings from the investigation Maya Huxley and Juliet Langley did for you.”
Gentry breathed, “Uh…okay.”
“They were able to trace the cash you’d been worrying about coming into Wonder-Gen. It seems that there have been fake purchase orders being made and then deleted from your computer system.” He set my photos of the POs and the printouts from the deposit lists in front of Gentry and explained how Maya and I had come across the missing transactions and how we’d connected them to Wonder-Gen’s local deliveries.
Gentry cleared his throat. “So those boxes—the ones with the chimney caps in them—were fake orders?”
“Yes. The chimney caps weren’t what the supposed customers were interested in when they placed their orders. It was what was added to the boxes after everyone went home for the night.” Ryder paused for a moment. “Mr. Gentry, your business partner has been using Wonder-Gen to smuggle drugs. And it’s been going on for some time. We believe that the shipment of the chimney caps was one of many that have contained drugs lately.”
Gentry covered his mouth with one shaking hand and stared at Ryder. Then he murmured, “Jim is…smuggling drugs?”
Here I thought he was losing his shit, but somehow he managed to feign surprise. Someone needed to give this guy an Oscar.
Ryder replied, “Yes. And not only that, some of your employees are helping him.”
“Helping him? Surely not.”
“One of them is dead because of it.”
Gentry stammered, “Not…not Laura. She wasn’t involved.”
“How can you be so sure?” Ryder asked.
“She wasn’t…She’d never do something like that.”
“I was actually talking about Dmitri Vashchenko.”
This wasn’t true. Dmitri Vashchenko was very much alive and in protective custody. But Gentry didn’t know that.
The color drained from Gentry’s face. “No…he can’t be…He wasn’t supposed to…How?”
“He was found dead in his home earlier today.”
Beginning to lose it, Gentry muttered to himself, “He wasn’t supposed to be there.”
“What was that, Mr. Gentry?” Ryder asked. “Where was Dmitri supposed to be?”
After hesitating for a moment, he replied, “I…assumed he’d be out of town. He said he was taking his family on a vacation.”
Ryder flicked his eyes toward the mirror. Gentry was a smart guy, able to think on his feet. But he was also soft in a lot of ways. The right push, and he was bound to crack.
Nodding, Ryder said, “We believe he was working with another of your employees to move some drugs the two of them stole from Wonderlich. We’ve arrested Josh Cleary for drug trafficking, and we hope to be able to tie him to the deaths of Laura Farmer and Dmitri Vashchenko, plus a drug dealer who died a few weeks ago.”
Another carefully crafted lie—Josh Cleary didn’t even know we knew anything about his role in this mess, mostly because we didn’t want him tipping off his father.
Sweat popped out on Gentry’s forehead as his face caved and he began to shake uncontrollably. “No, not Josh…Not my boy. He had nothing to do with this. I won’t let him take the blame for my mistakes. It was me. I did it all.” He put his head in his hands and let out a sob.
Ryder didn’t back down. “Well, if that’s true, I’m going to need evidence and a signed confession from you.”
“Anything. Just let my boy go. I wasn’t…” His voice broke. “I wasn’t there for him when he was a kid, but I can be now.” Gentry tearfully unloaded everything off his chest. “I stumbled onto one of Jim’s shipments a few weeks ago. I figured it had to be where all the cash was coming from, and I was devastated to think that my company was being run on drug money. I wasn’t thinking straight, and I stupidly took one of the packages of drugs, hoping I could help the police by finding out all I could before going to them with my suspicions. But when Jim noticed some of his precious drugs had gone missing, he blamed Dmitri and beat him senseless. I felt terrible. I knew my son, Josh, unfortunately had ties to drug dealers, so I had him facilitate a meeting with one. I figured the kid could tell me what it was by looking at it, but he opened the package and took some for himself. Then he…he died right in front of us. The stuff must have been lethal. Josh and I ran. I was finished doing my own poking around, so I hired those girls to finish doing my dirty work for me.”
Cromwell snorted. “He got more than he bargained for when he hired ‘those girls,’ eh, Ms. Langley?”
Not sure whether or not that was a compliment, I murmured, “Right.”
Wiping a hand down his pallid, tear-streaked face, Gentry continued, “When they came back telling me the particulars of how Jim was tainting everything I’d worked thirty years to build, I lost it. I decided I was done letting him get away with it, and jail was too good for him. I found out from Dmitri when the next shipment was scheduled to be delivered and went in early to grab another packet of the drugs while no one was watching.”
Damn it. That was the morning I’d called him in to let me look for the contraband Stafford had helped unload and repackage. If I’d only known I should have been keeping an eye on Gentry, too, I could have stopped him.
He went on, “Then I told Dmitri to get out of town after he made his morning deliveries because I didn’t want him getting blamed again for something I did.” He choked out a sob. “I wish he’d listened to me.”
Ryder was going to have to come clean about Dmitri being alive, but the middle of Gentry’s heartfelt confession wasn’t the time to do it.
Shaking his head, Gentry said, “It took me a day to get up my nerve. But once I did, I put the poison that Jim was putting out on the streets in those damn suckers he always has hanging from his mouth.” Giving Ryder an anguished look, he whispered, “I didn’t think anyone else would be hurt. Everyone knows better than to touch Jim’s candy dish. The bastard doesn’t share anything with anyone. Not only that, his office is such a mess, Laura refuses to do anything but vacuum in there because she always says it’s a waste of her time. I never dreamed she’d go and…” He laid his head down on the table, his body wracked with howling sobs.
Ryder nodded at the window, and Cromwell exchanged places with him. Ryder, an expression of relief and triumph evident on his face, joined the captain and me to watch Cromwell wrap up Gentry’s interrogation. Cromwell asked Gentry a few questions about how he put the drugs into the sucker wrappers, mainly to tie up the loose ends of the homicide investigation and verify that he was in fact the one who did the deed. Once Cromwell was finished, he formally put Gentry under arrest and read him his rights. A uniformed officer came in, cuffed Gentry, and led him out the door.
Captain Briggs shook my hand and Ryder’s. “Good work, you two.”
Ryder replied, “Thank you, sir. I couldn’t have done it without Juliet.” When the captain left, he turned to me and smiled. “I say we go celebrate.”
Something Gentry had said wasn’t sitting well with me. I frowned.
He touched my arm. “I know that look. What’s bothering you?”
“Gentry stole those drugs right under my nose, Ryder. He played me from the beginning. If I’d real
ized it, then maybe—”
“Hey, I’m not going to let you shoulder the blame. For anything. Maya accepted the case on behalf of the agency. She was part of the investigation, too, and didn’t see anything wrong with it. As for Gentry playing you…well, I don’t feel like he premeditated the entire thing. I think he got in over his head and went to you and Maya for help, only to cover his ass he didn’t bother telling you the whole story. Also, I don’t think the idea to murder Wonderlich crossed his mind until much later, and of course he was going to hide something like that from you. It sounded to me like he’d already set his mind on coming in early that morning to steal those drugs long before you called him to let you in. He probably saw his opportunity and took it. None of this is on you, okay?”
Still unconvinced, I looked away. “I guess…”
He put his finger under my chin and lifted my face so I’d meet his eyes. “The first rule of investigating is you can never believe that the actions of other people are something you can control or be responsible for. Trust me, you’ll save yourself a lot of grief if you can get that through your head.”
“How long did it take you to get it through yours?”
Smiling, he said, “Too long. Now quit your worrying and let me take you to a party.”
Chapter 31
Ryder dropped me at home while he went to his house to change and let out Max. He and I had called Maya on the way to bring her up to speed on the investigation. She was supposed to be back in two days, and I couldn’t wait to hand the reins back over to her. I didn’t have to do anything more in regard to the case, but I’d feel much better having my friend back.
I found myself standing in the shower again, trying to let the hot water soothe away my emotional pain and my overwhelming fatigue. Having wasted time in an unsuccessful attempt to rid myself of my crankiness, I wasn’t quite ready when Ryder returned. With my makeup still to do and a difficult decision to make about what to wear, I answered the door in a ratty T-shirt and sweatpants.
Ryder looked down at me and made a face. “I thought you were changing into something better than you had on earlier. You can’t go out on the town in give-up pants.”
I glared at him. “Watch it, pal. I’m only going because—” I stopped. Why was I going out when I had zero desire to do so?
He came in and stood in the middle of my living room. “Because I asked you to?”
“That’s not why,” I said, brushing past him to go raid my closet one more time.
He followed me and leaned against my bedroom doorframe. “We’re supposed to be there in one minute. I don’t think we’re going to make it on time.”
I was on my hands and knees, rifling through the pile of shoes at the bottom of my closet. Finding one of the two heels I was looking for, I zinged it across the room in an effort to let off some steam. “Who cares?”
“What do you have against this party? I know for a fact you aren’t sitting around mourning the loss of Stafford. What’s up?”
My answer was chucking another shoe, this one in his direction.
Smirking, he said, “You’re not just uninterested. You’re downright angry about having to go.”
I stood and turned to face him. “Look, for one thing, it’s going to be uncomfortable as hell. Pete was supposed to break up with Brooke this afternoon.”
“On the day of her birthday-slash-back-to-work party? You sure he has the balls to do that?”
“I guess we’ll find out when we get there. He’s been putting it off for a while because he didn’t want to ruin her recovery or some shit like that.” I began tearing through my clothes next, slamming hangers against one another as I went.
Ryder’s expression got wary. “You’re not finished with your rant, are you? You got anything sharp in there you’re planning to throw my way?”
I finally exploded. “Why doesn’t anyone treat me like I’m fragile? Huh? Nobody ever worries about upsetting me or hurting my feelings. My boyfriend and I just broke up, and no one seems to care. All I hear is ‘You two weren’t right for each other, anyway.’ Not to mention I was strangled, too, and I didn’t get a party because of it.”
His jaw dropped, and he started laughing. “Wow. Don’t hold back on telling me how you really feel.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Maybe people don’t treat me with care because I’m a raging bitch.”
“I’m not even going to touch that one.”
“Wise choice.”
He walked over to me and took my hands. “On the bright side, I’m happy you thought you could be that open with me.”
I shrugged. “Strangely enough, you’re one of the few people I feel like I could say that to. Really, you and Stan are probably the only ones.”
“Great company to be in, there,” he said sarcastically.
“Hey, the honor of being one of Juliet’s man friends isn’t something to take lightly.”
“So we’re friends.”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Yeah. What, did you think we were still mortal enemies or something?”
He let go of my hands and took a step back. “No. I didn’t think that. I’ll leave you alone so you can get ready in peace.”
—
After having to stop to answer several “where in the hell are you” texts from both Pete and Mallory, I was finally ready to go. My grandmother had always said it made a girl feel better to look better, and although it was a pretty antifeminist statement, I couldn’t argue with the truth. So I ended up wearing a dress I always thought made me look good and spent an extra couple of minutes on my makeup.
When Ryder and I arrived at Tin Roof Broadway, the band was just finishing setting up. We found the “party,” such as it was, at a couple of tables they had pulled near each other at the back of the room. Pete, Mallory, and a pissed-off–looking Brooke were there, along with a couple of her other friends I knew vaguely but whose names I couldn’t remember.
As we were weaving through the crowd to get to them, Ryder murmured in my ear, “Looks like he manned up and dumped her.”
“Yes, it does. Maybe you can invent some kind of police emergency so we can leave after a few minutes.”
“You’re supposed to be celebrating. I’m your designated driver for the evening, so use me.”
I tugged at the strap of my dress that had begun to dig into my shoulder. “I could just as easily have gotten drunk by myself in the safety and comfort of my own home, in my give-up pants.”
He shook his head. “That’s just sad.”
Pasting on a smile as we arrived at the table, I said, “Happy birthday, Brooke!” as I set my gift down in front of her.
Brooke gave me the evil eye, as did her two friends. “Thanks, Juliet.”
I flashed a glance at Pete, who winced in reply.
Ryder gave her his gift. “And congratulations on your recovery and return to work.”
Brooke smiled sweetly at him. “Thank you, Ryder.”
What was up with that? Brooke and I were friends, albeit not besties, mainly because there was an unspoken tension between us with her being Pete’s girlfriend and me being Pete’s too-close-for-her-comfort best friend. It didn’t take a genius to figure out we were both somewhat jealous of each other, even though I’d initially been the one to help her snag him.
There weren’t two seats left together, so I took one at Mallory and Pete’s table while Ryder sat at the other table with Brooke and her two friends.
Trying to be overly cheerful, Mallory said, “You’ve been too busy for us to get together lately. Work going okay?”
I smiled, happy for a distraction from the tense vibes in the air. “It’s better. I just wrapped up my case this afternoon, so I’m way relieved.”
Pete said quietly, “Good, because we have some work to do on the other thing. I’ll bring you up to speed later.”
Mallory smiled. “Are you two working to solve another mystery together? I thought Pete wasn’t the biggest fan of your new PI job.”
He shrugged. “I’ve kind of come around.”
The band started to play, so we could speak a little more freely without fear of being overheard.
Leaning toward Pete, I said, “Why is Brooke trying to glare me to death?”
He smiled contritely. “Well…I went to talk to her without much of a game plan.”
“The truth needs no game plan.”
“I know, Confucius, but I got flustered and…might have let it slip that the breakup was your idea.”
I groaned. “Pete, seriously. So I guess I’m down a friend now because of you. Way to go.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I panicked at the last minute and tried to give some good reasons why I was dumping her, and…your name came up.”
I stole the beer out of his hand, chugging what was left of it and slamming the empty bottle down on the table. “You are so buying tonight.”
Nodding, he replied, “Yeah. That’s kind of the only reason I’m allowed to be here. Brooke made it clear I’m bankrolling the entire party. I guess I had that one coming. I’ll go get a round for everyone.”
When he left to go to the bar, Mallory scooted closer to me and asked, “You seemed awfully cozy with the handsome detective when you came in. Where’s John?”
“Oh,” I breathed, forgetting Mallory hadn’t heard. I couldn’t tell her anything about Stafford or about salvaging my friendship with Ryder during our marathon session of working together this week. I replied vaguely, “John and I broke up. And Ryder and I have talked a couple of times lately and worked out our differences. He’s just being kind by giving me a ride tonight.”
She regarded me critically. “Nice try, but don’t forget I’ve known you for a long time. You’re not being truthful with me. Or is it that you’re trying to lie to yourself?”
“Mal, come on. It’s crazy complicated. I’ve barely had time to process it all, much less try to explain it to someone else.”
“Well, when you do figure it out, I want to hear all the gory details.”
Brew or Die Page 27