“We've seen enough. Let's get out of here before someone catches us.” Vi swallowed back the bile that was creeping up her throat.
Of course Brooke was like a dog with a bone. “Just a minute. I want to get some more pictures of these notes.”
Vi couldn't wait another moment longer. She turned on her heels and bolted from the room. She was halfway across her front lawn by the time she vomited up her breakfast on her azaleas.
Brooke came charging across the yard. “That's disgusting, Vi. Go lock the door. I put everything back where it was, but I might not have gotten everything perfect.”
Just then a police car came rolling down the street with its lights flashing. Vi’s heart thundered in her chest, then everything went black.
Chapter Nine
Brooke
Brooke pulled her gloves off finger by finger in a slow, seductive fashion. She could flirt her way out of anything, and she would prove it.
Meanwhile Vi sucked in a sharp breath beside her before buckling at the knees and falling to the grass in the Kings’ front yard. Such an amateur.
“Afternoon, ladies.” The officer smiled and craned his neck toward Vi to get a better look. “Say, uh, is she okay?”
“Thank goodness you’re here!” Brooke cried. “Everything was fine. We were just planting some fresh azaleas as a nice housewarming surprise for our new neighbors, when—wham—Vi toppled over headfirst into the garden. Not before losing her lunch first, I’m afraid. You know that danged flu has been making its rounds.” She shrugged and shot a sympathetic look toward her friend.
“My, my, my…” The officer shook his head and looked Brooke over from head to toe before glancing back toward Vi. “It certainly is a good thing I just so happened to get called over to this house. Looks like you could use a pair of strong arms and a sturdy back.”
A practiced smile spread across Brooke’s face. Her charm had become so second nature. She no longer needed to remind herself to smile, to brush her fingers up against the officer’s arm as she talked with him, to add that special lilt to her voice that made her seem all damsely. Men liked that, a fact Brooke knew all too well.
Together they pulled Vi to her feet and walked her over to a lawn chair on the Kings’ front porch.
“Can you stay with her while I go inside and get her a glass of water?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
Brooke felt the officer’s eyes on her as she sashayed straight through the Kings’ front door. She also heard a low moan come from Vi, but thankfully she could peg anything out of sorts on the poor creature’s obvious delirium. Besides, they still didn’t know why the officer had shown up when he did, and she needed to put on a good show, just in case they needed a proper alibi for later.
She handed Vi a bottle of Evian, surprised at Annabeth’s good taste.
The officer smiled at her chest, hooked on her material charms. Time for Brooke to set things straight.
“So what brings a strapping officer of the law to our quiet little neighborhood?”
He inhaled lustily before continuing. Men were so easy, so very easy.
“Seems it was a false alarm. The Kings’ security system picked up an unplanned entry onto the property, but I can see now it was just two kind neighbors giving them a bit of a welcome celebration.”
“Oh no, you didn’t think we’d…?” Brooke let the question linger as she dropped her eyes to the ground then looked up at the officer beneath a veil of thick eyelashes.
“Of course not, uh, ma’am. We just have to make sure is all. No harm done, but still I will have to report our chat. Procedure and all.”
He walked back in the direction of his car while punching numbers into his handheld device.
Was he suspicious? What was the code for breaking and entering?
Brooke ran after him and, when she caught up, pushed the device down to his side, bringing her arm so close to the crotch of his pants she could feel the itchy fabric brush the hairs on her arm.
“Oh, please, officer! Don’t ruin our surprise! Vi and I have worked so hard to make the Kings feel welcome, and this will only worry them. I want them to know how much we—how much everyone in Herald Springs—are truly glad to have them here. Will you help us with our friendly little ruse?”
Back on the porch Vi began to pant like a panicked pooch.
Keep it together, Violeta, she mentally reprimanded her disappointing sidekick.
If this were a superhero movie, Vi would have already been killed by the villain, leaving Brooke to charge forth on her own. Instead, Brooke was always having to think on her feet to make up for Vi’s many shortcomings. Lucky for her, she had catlike reflexes, and—some might also say—nine lives of her own to play around with.
A charged silence passed between Brooke and the officer, Vi’s rhythmic panting something of a metronome backdrop. Tick tock. Tick tock.
Finally the officer gave a friendly chuckle. “Tell you what, I’ll do you this small favor. If you’d do one for me.”
“Oh, you will? Of course, of course. Anything you want, just name it.” Brooke tried to mask her disgust by making her voice extra high pitched and girly.
Please don’t let it be a sexual favor. Please don’t let it be a sexual favor.
“Your number,” he said with a lascivious smile. “If you would.”
“Oh, is that all?” She giggled, then recited Vi’s number for him as he clicked the digits into his cell phone.
A jarring screech cut Brooke short, as a distress call came through on the radio. The officer’s brow furrowed. He repeated the number she’d given him, smiled, and jogged back toward the car.
“Is—is everything all right?” Brooke asked, panic clutching at her throat.
“Gotta skeedaddle to the other side of town. Seems we’ve got a robbery in progress. No time to lose. You ladies have a great afternoon. And don’t worry, I’ll have the alarm company turn off the alarm on their end. Your secret is safe with me.” He pulled away with an exuberant wave back toward the women.
“You’ve got some balls,” Vi said between sips of Evian. “Some balls, all right.”
Brooke shrugged. “You wanna talk about big balls? When I grabbed his computer thingy, my wrist found itself in a rather unfortunate spot. And let’s just say I’m not the only one with some major huevos, my friend.”
Vi frowned, apparently not amused.
“Hey, I got us off, didn’t I?”
“Yeah,” Vi said. “And probably him too. Later tonight, that is. But why’d you have to go and give him my number? A horny cop calling day and night is the last thing I need.”
Brooke bristled. How could Vi be complaining now when Brooke had just single-handedly saved the day?
“Violeta, calm down. Everything’s fine. Besides, that whole ordeal gave us at least one new piece of evidence to add to our dossier.”
“Our dossi-what?” Vi teased.
Brooke answered anyway. “C’mon, Vi. Our case folder. The pictures of all those girls, remember? Those two hardly seem like the type to be into anything that perverted in the bedroom. I bet she just lies there, while—”
“Brooke! Get to the point!” Vi fanned at herself then took another sip of water.
“Well, you’re no fun. My point is people don’t just keep records like that without a reason, and usually a reason like that? Totally sinister. Well, at least that’s my guess anyway. I’ve never run into a real-life criminal mastermind before, at least not that I know of. Although—”
“Brooke!” Vi shouted again. “Seriously, stay focused. Tell me what exactly it is you're suggesting.”
“Well, for starters, that I was right about these new neighbors of ours.”
Vi waited for Brooke to continue. When she didn’t Vi took a slow breath, then said, “Okay, so then what do we do next?”
“We write this all down so we can further study the evidence, figure out what’s really going on here.”
“And?”
“Why do you think there’s an and?”
“With you, there’s always an and. Just tell me what it is already, Brooke.”
Brooke narrowed her eyes at Vi. “And we’re going to have to go deep undercover in order to properly continue this investigation. Meaning we’ve got to make this Anna chick one of our very best friends, get her to invite us in of her own accord, see her and Marcus up close, learn the truth once and for all.”
“I admit we found some strange things in their house, but I bet you there’s a good explanation for everything. If we just asked, I’m sure—”
“Out of the question!” Brooke shouted. “You trust way too easily, Vi, and one of these days that’s going to be your downfall. You can mark my words on that. Luckily, I’ll be here to rescue your butt as per the usual. Now, let’s go inside, make Tiara her lunch, and then get to work. We’ve got a lot to do.”
Chapter Ten
Annabeth
Annabeth stifled a yawn behind the back of her hand.
Oh, my gosh! Will he ever shut up?
For the last twenty minutes, Fernando had been talking nonstop about his dissertation—and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out how someone that good looking could also be so dull. His words ran into each other, long strings of sentences laden with three syllable words that were apparently meant to impress her, but just made her want to close her eyes and fall asleep. It was the kind of act she might have fallen for ten years ago. He was so into himself that he didn’t even notice she was bored to tears. At least he was pleasant to look at.
Fernando’s phone alarm buzzed, stopping him mid-sentence in his impromptu Proustian lecture.
“Crap! I'm late. I've got a meeting with my advisor. He wants to go over my thesis. Very important.”
Fernando pushed back the chair and fumbled for his bag.
“I'm sorry. I hate to run. I guess time just got away from me. I find that happens a lot whenever I am in the company of smart, beautiful women like yourself.” His black, velvet smile made gooseflesh break out on her bare arms.
Fernando pulled out his wallet and tossed a copy of his business card at her. “Call, email, text—heck Snapchat me. I would really like to see you again. Somewhere that they don't serve the drinks out of recycled paper cups.”
Annabeth picked up the card and glanced at it. It was for a sound engineering business. Interesting... She smiled, returning her gaze to him. “I might take you up on that.”
Fernando touched her hand and smiled—though the smile didn't reach his eyes. “Until then, my dear.”
Annabeth was taken aback when he took her hand and raised it to his warm lips.
The sound of her heart’s rapid beat hammered in her ears. She found herself holding her breath. Something behind his coal black eyes gave her pause, though she couldn’t say what.
She let out a slow easy breath and admired his perfectly shaped rear as he walked away.
As much as she didn’t want to deal with Marcus, she shot off a quick text to tell him where to meet up. He was her ride after all.
He surprised her by walking through the coffee bar’s door less than two minutes later. Oh great, she thought, he looks pissed.
Marcus grabbed the chair across from her and plopped down into it. He regarded her with a scowl, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“What’s the matter with you?” And how much did you see earlier?
Marcus wet his lips with a quick sweep of his tongue. “Who’s the guy?”
Jealousy did not become him. The man she had fallen in love with had been strong and confident and never would have worried about competition. What had become of that man?
“A Teaching Assistant in my department. He wanted to fill me in on the ins and outs of the English Department. He also knows a lot of other TAs so he’s kind of important for us to know.” Annabeth couldn’t believe she had to justify her actions, least of all to him.
Marcus leaned in closer to her with his arms resting on the small table—an intimidation tactic that she knew all too well.
“You let him touch you. Kiss you.”
Annabeth let out a slow breath. She didn’t want to fight. “It was my hand. He kissed my hand.”
Were you spying on me the whole time?
Annabeth shook her head in disbelief.
How dare you accuse me of impropriety!
Marcus dropped his voice to a harsh whisper. “That’s how it starts. You don't know men and how they think. He wants to sleep with you and will do everything in his power to make that happen. Trust me on that.”
Annabeth let out a light chuckle. “It doesn't matter what he wants. It only matters what I want. And you gave up your right to have a say in whom I spend my time with.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed as he leaned away from her. He tipped the chair back, balancing on the two back legs. “So I guess it would be okay, then, for me to use the number I got today from Shelley in the Marketing Department?”
Annabeth took short breaths as she tried to temper her hurt feelings. She couldn't let him know how much every second of this exchange was digging the knife in deeper. “Of course. If that’s what you want to do. I have no hold on you.”
Marcus brought the chair back down onto all fours. Annabeth was pleased to see a surprised expression flash across his face. He had been angling for a fight, but had failed to goad her into one.
“Well, now that we got that all straightened out, let's talk business since that’s why we’re here.” Under his breath, he added. “Not to play house.”
The bitterness and guile behind the words he chose were not lost on her. The ever-widening chasm between them was far and deep. She was beginning to give up hope of ever making it back to the other side. It pained her to think that he might never have any desire to get back to where they were before the incident.
“What were you able to find out?” Annabeth straightened her back and avoided his eyes—it was just easier that way.
Marcus reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a notebook. “I looked up all the information I could find. Some of the girls that we identified in our profile have either gone back home or now have family living in the area that we didn't know about, which precludes them from being possible targets.” Marcus pulled out a few sheets of loose leaf paper. “I narrowed the list to two girls. One is working in my department and the other is in the class you taught this morning. Her name is Amy Rangel. She’s nineteen and her family is from Mexico. She's here on a student visa. Her parents are dead. She has a brother and an elderly aunt in Puebla. She has no friends and belongs to no clubs.”
Annabeth nodded as she thought back to all the students in her class—a sea of young, attractive faces. They needed to go forward with this despite the nagging doubt that echoed daily inside her mind about whether or not she was up for the job.
“Do you have a photo?”
Marcus pulled a printed off black and white copy of the young girl's school ID photo. She was beautiful. A slight tremor rippled through her arm as she reached for the photo. Flashes of the other girl—the one they lost—flashed through her mind.
I can’t go through that again, she thought.
“Are you all right?” His voice was laced with concern. When his familiar calloused hand covered hers, she felt a wave of warmth spread up her arm and pool inside her core. It had always been so easy between them, and now, long after they had ended things, it was hard to shut it down. He seemed to sense the shift between them.
His hand slid from hers, and he looked away. “Sorry.”
Annabeth wet her lips. This war between them wore on her daily. With each passing day she realized how much she too was to blame. It was time to step up and be the bigger person.
“Me, too.”
Marcus’s jaw twitched. His downcast eyes seemed to be avoiding hers. “What do you have to feel sorry for? This is all my fault.”
No matter how much he insisted the blame was his alone, Annabeth knew bett
er. Things didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was never just one person's fault when it came to matters of the heart. She had played a part in the destruction of their relationship. Everything had started to unravel between them well before the incident. It just made for an easy scapegoat—blame the incident and each other.
“Marcus…” Annabeth reached across the table for his hand.
He glanced away from her, but not quickly enough to hide his glassy eyes. “Anna, no. Let's just go home. I don't want to get into all this again. Not now.”
He grabbed both their bags and got up to go. “C’mon. It's been a long day. Let's just put it to rest already.”
Sooner or later they were going to have address the elephant in the room. Not tonight, but soon. It wasn’t a conversation she looked forward to having, but she didn’t see how they could move forward if they didn’t. Not talking is what had led to the incident in the first place, after all.
They couldn't afford to relive the past.
Chapter Eleven
Vi
Vi tossed her keys on the counter and slumped into her kitchen chair. Her face still felt hot. The aftertaste of vomit had stuck with her, too.
Why did I let Brooke talk me into another one of her ridiculous schemes?
Self-loathing washed over her as she laid her cheek down on the cool Formica table. She loved Brooke like a sister, but, just like a sister, she sometimes hated her in equal measure.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony ring tone started to play. Her sister, the real one, was calling.
Let it go to voicemail. Joy can wait for once. I’ll just close my eyes, just for a minute.
As her eyes slid closed and she started to doze, a sharp knock at her back door shook her from her reverie. Vi lifted her heavy head to see a friendly pair of eyes looking back at her through the glass. Marcus.
Vi pushed away from the table and stood up on wobbly legs.
Uh… I don’t feel so good.
Walker Texas Wife (The Book Cellar Mysteries 1) Page 6