Ivy gripped Jack’s hand and pressed it to her cheek. “I know you want me, Jack. I feel it. Don’t worry yourself about that.”
“I can’t help but worry. I love you so much it hurts.”
“I don’t want anything to hurt, Jack.” Ivy forced a smile as she heaved out a sigh. “I don’t want to spend the night doing this either. It’s almost Christmas. We’re close. Can’t we have fun tonight?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I thought after we finished our dinner that we could take a bath together,” Ivy suggested. “I got gingerbread-scented bubble bath.”
Jack snorted. “I will smell like a cookie for you anytime.”
“After that, I thought maybe we could go on a trip together while we sleep.” Ivy was hesitant to bring up the subject. “We wouldn’t have to go mushroom hunting or anything. It’s just … could we go someplace else for a little bit?”
“Yes.” Jack answered without hesitation. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care. You can pick. I just want to be someplace else.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do.” Jack leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll take you on an adventure. We’ll save the fight for what you’re going to do with your day tomorrow until the morning.”
“I’ve already figured that out,” Ivy said. “Max has a back room at his lumber office. I can take a load of lotion and make it there. That way I’ll be close if you’re going back and forth between town and the tree lot.”
“I see you’ve thought his out. Are you really willing to do that?”
Ivy nodded. “I can’t stay cooped up here. We both know it. Plus, well, I’m isolated here and they know where I live. I figure that’s the best possible compromise since I can’t go to my nursery or anything.”
“I can live with that. I’ll help you load up the lotion stuff in the morning.”
Ivy nodded. “Okay.” She turned back to her dinner. “This is good. I’m glad you went with comfort food. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”
“It is good,” Jack agreed. “Everything is … good.”
Ivy smiled. “It will be even better when I get my ring.”
Jack knew she was putting in the effort to make him smile so he rewarded her with a laugh. “You might get it sooner than you think.”
“Christmas?” Ivy was hopeful.
“No, you ruined Christmas. It won’t be that soon.”
“New Year’s Eve?”
Jack shrugged. “I think it depends on if you’re naughty or nice during the Christmas season.”
“Oh, so never?” Ivy’s grin was mischievous. “I wonder if I can change your mind on that front when we go on our dream vacation tonight.”
“I don’t know,” Jack replied, wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “If anyone could change my mind, though, it would be you.”
“Good to know.”
“Isn’t it, though? So, do you want to eat your pie in here or in the bathtub?”
“Ugh. Do you even have to ask?”
“Bathtub it is. Let’s get a move on. I’m dying to smell this gingerbread bubble bath.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“Oh, if only it were that easy.”
“HOW DID I know you would pick a place where I would have to wear a bikini?”
Ivy laughed as she took in the sandy beach Jack picked for their dreamscape, doing her best to ignore the skimpy bathing suit he picked for their special time together.
“I guess I’m just a typical man that way,” Jack teased, sinking to the sand and patting the ground next to him as he stared out at the blissful waves rolling into shore. “I don’t know if this is a real place, but we’ve been here so many times I feel as if it is.”
“I feel it, too.” Ivy sat next to him, her shoulder brushing against his. “We should go to a real beach one day.”
“Like for a honeymoon?” Jack’s eyes twinkled as he flicked his eyes to Ivy.
“Ugh. I wasn’t fishing for anything like that.”
“No, probably not.” Jack rested his hand on top of Ivy’s as she played with the sand. “How are you really feeling?”
“Jack, don’t get worked up about this,” Ivy warned. “I don’t feel sick. I simply feel … tired.”
“That’s often a precursor to getting sick.”
“It is, but that’s not exactly how I feel.”
“How do you feel?”
“I don’t know how to put it into words.” Ivy licked her lips as she rested her head against Jack’s shoulder. “If I tell you something, though, do you promise not to laugh?”
“In this instance? Yes.”
“Is that because you’re so worried about me falling apart?”
“Honey, you’re the strongest person I know,” Jack countered. “Sometimes I look at you and wonder why your shoulders aren’t broader because you’re so very strong.”
“I think your shoulders are broad enough for both of us.” Ivy turned so she could press her hand to the spot on Jack’s chest, covering the wounds left when he was shot. “Your scars always look lighter when we’re in the dreamscape. Why do you think that is?”
Jack shrugged. He honestly had no idea. “Maybe because you’ve fixed what is broken. Even though my body can never reflect that, my heart does and my head recognizes that.”
“Oh, that was very sweet.” Ivy pressed a kiss to the spot next to the scarred wounds. “I think someone believes I know something I don’t know.”
Jack cocked an eyebrow. “Because Dorian Jackson spoke to you before he died?”
Ivy nodded. “I can’t help but wonder if the police played up that angle because they were hoping to cause someone to screw up. You know, if the other person at the mall that day believed that I knew something important, they might scramble to try and shut me up.”
Jack wanted to put Ivy at ease but he’d already come to that conclusion himself. “I’m going to call the detective tomorrow. If he did that … .” He broke off, unsure how to finish the sentence. There wasn’t much he could do after the fact.
“We have to find who it is on our own,” Ivy supplied. “We’re stronger when we work together.”
Jack’s heart dinged at her earnest expression. “I feel unbeatable when I’m with you.”
Ivy grinned. “You’re on a romantic streak tonight, huh?”
Jack shrugged. “I love you so much I can’t help but be romantic.”
“I love you, too, but I don’t want to turn this dream into a melancholy soap opera.” Ivy rolled to her knees and kissed him. “Do you want to make a sandcastle with me? I promise it will be big and ornate. I also promise I won’t bother you about the ring if you play along.”
Jack slipped a strand of Ivy’s hair behind her ear. “I’ll do whatever you want. If that’s a sandcastle, then let’s do it.”
“After we’re finished, I figured we could have a From Here to Eternity moment in the waves.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“We can get naked and roll around in the water,” Ivy clarified.
“Oh.” Jack brightened. “All you had to say was ‘naked’ and I was going to be in regardless.”
Ivy giggled, the sound lightening Jack’s worried soul. “You’re such a man.”
“And you’re my favorite woman.” Jack smacked a playful kiss on the corner of Ivy’s mouth. “Come on. Let’s make the sandcastle. The sooner we’re done, the sooner we’ll get to the nudity.”
“And that will relax both of us.”
“I certainly hope so.”
Seventeen
“Sorry I’m late. I had to follow Ivy to Max’s lumberyard to make sure she made it there safely.”
Jack stomped his feet against the mat at the entry point to the office he shared with Brian the next morning, kicking off fresh ice and snow as he offered his partner a rueful smile.
“That’s okay.” Brian glanced up from his compu
ter, his expression unreadable. “How is Ivy? Did she get sick?”
“She’s fine.” Jack said the words, but he wasn’t entirely sure he meant them. “I don’t think she’s getting sick. I think she’s feeling something else.”
Jack set a fresh coffee cup on Brian’s desk as he moved to his own. He figured if he was going to be late the least he could do was reward his partner with his favorite blend.
Brian accepted the coffee with a happy sigh and deeply inhaled the rich aroma. “I think this is what Heaven smells like.”
“Really? I think it smells like gingerbread.”
The look on Jack’s face told Brian his partner had gone somewhere dirty. “You’re a pig. That girl is still ten and wearing pigtails when I look at her.”
Jack balked. “How do you know I was even talking about her?”
“Because you have very Ivy-specific expressions,” Brian replied. “If you go there, I’m going to punch you.”
“It still might be worth the pain,” Jack teased, flicking his eyes to Brian’s monitor. “Have you got anything?”
“I sent a uniform over to pick up Ricky Hughes. I’m not sure if that’s what you meant, but I didn’t want to dilly-dally today.”
Jack couldn’t help being surprised. “Seriously?”
“He followed Ivy yesterday. I’m not giving him a pass on that.”
“I don’t want to give him a pass on that either, but I’m not sure we can prove that he followed her,” Jack pointed out. “He’s going to claim it was an accident.”
“Of course he is. That’s the only sensible thing to do. From our perspective, the only sensible thing to do is explain to him that we know it wasn’t an accident and we’re watching him.”
Jack rolled his neck and stared at the ceiling as he considered what Brian suggested. “Ivy thinks that Detective Crawford – he’s the one who questioned her after the shooting – let it slip that Dorian Jackson told her more than he did in an effort to shake up whoever Dorian was working with.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it makes sense.” Jack extended his long legs next to his desk. “I think it’s something you and I would do if we were trying to shake something loose in an investigation.”
“But?”
“But what he’s shaken loose is terror for my girlfriend,” Jack replied. “She’s afraid. I’m not sure she even realizes it, but she is. I think that’s what’s making her sick.”
Brian was well aware of the odd things that popped up from time to time since Ivy and Jack fell in love. He recognized there was something special about their relationship even before Jack wanted to admit it. He couldn’t put a name to what was happening to Ivy – whether it was magic or something else entirely – but he believed the woman had a sixth sense that put her ahead of the normal population. He also believed that sense was somehow directly tied to her relationship with Jack. Beyond that, he had no idea what to think.
“You think something bad is going to happen to her, don’t you?”
“I won’t let anything bad happen to her,” Jack answered, his temper flaring. “I won’t lose her. I won’t … she’ll be fine.”
Brian held up his hands in a placating manner. “Let me rephrase that,” he suggested. “You believe that someone might try to hurt Ivy. That’s why you took her to the lumberyard before coming here.”
“Max will keep her safe.”
“Max will keep her safe,” Brian agreed. “We’ll keep her safe, too. That’s why our first step is to question Ricky Hughes.”
“And after that?”
Brian shrugged. “We can only take it one step at a time. Ricky is first. We’ll make a decision after we talk to him.”
RICKY HUGHES was all bluster and bravado when he sat at a conference room table across from Jack and Brian an hour later. He pasted an innocent expression on his face as he pretended he didn’t have a care in the world.
Jack saw right through that, and it made him inexplicably angry.
“Do you want to explain why you were following Ivy Morgan yesterday?” Brian asked right out of the gate. By tacit agreement, he and Jack decided he would ask the questions in case Jack lost his temper and made things worse.
“I wasn’t following Ivy Morgan,” Ricky answered, attempting a bewildered expression that almost made him look cross-eyed. “I don’t understand why she would think that.”
“Yes, well, she seemed fairly adamant,” Brian said. “It does strike me as odd that you would end up in the magic shop owned and operated by Ivy’s aunt at the same time she was there for a visit.”
“I was shopping for my girlfriend.”
“And what’s her name?” Brian asked the question with the same cool detachment he saved for people he regarded as irksome rather than important. Jack didn’t miss the flash in Ricky’s eye at the surprise question, though.
“Why does that matter?”
“We’re trying to plug holes in our case,” Brian answered, not missing a beat. “If you’re making up a girlfriend, that would be an instance of one of those pesky holes.”
“I’m not making up a girlfriend!” Ricky was affronted, or at least he did a good job pretending the dig upset him. “My girlfriend is real.”
“Then that means she should have a real name,” Brian said. “What is it?”
“I … don’t have to tell you that,” Ricky spat. “I agreed to come here to answer questions because the officer who came to my door said it was necessary. If you’re going to insult me, you can do it through my lawyer.”
“If you want a lawyer, that will force us to move things along at a more expedited pace,” Brian countered. “Is that what you want?”
The look on Ricky’s face told Jack that the man wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. He knew it wasn’t good, though.
“I don’t see why this is such a big thing,” Ricky protested. “I accidentally ran into Ivy Morgan at a store yesterday. It’s not the end of the world.”
“Then you should try looking at it from my perspective,” Jack suggested.
“Yes, from Jack’s perspective, things aren’t funny at all,” Brian said. “Why do you think that is?”
Ricky turned his hands palms up as his shoulders hopped. “Perhaps he’s strung a little tight.”
“Where Ivy is concerned, he’s strung incredibly tight,” Brian agreed. “I am, too. The thing is, your appearance at the store is a little too coincidental given the circumstances.”
Ricky grew more flustered by the minute, but he wasn’t quite ready to back down. “And what circumstances are those?”
“The ones where you had a co-worker attempt to rob a busy mall a few days before Christmas and end up dead within feet of Ms. Morgan,” Brian answered. “That’s on top of the fact that she happened to stop at the tree lot where you all worked the other night and the day after she made her visit, the owner of the tree lot was found murdered.”
“Murdered?” Ricky’s eyebrow winged up. “I thought it was an accident due to the fire.”
“How would there be an accident due to the fire?”
Ricky’s blasé expression was back. “I just figured that Norman decided to set the trees on fire because he’d been complaining they weren’t making enough of a profit. He probably planned to take the insurance money and run.”
“That’s an interesting theory,” Brian said.
“Except he’s dead,” Jack added.
“He probably accidentally got trapped in his own fire. It’s tragic and sad but … nothing more.”
“Huh.” Brian rubbed his chin as he exchanged a quick look with Jack. “If that’s the case, how did the bullet end up in the back of Norman’s head?”
For the first time since entering the office, Ricky’s annoying posturing came to an end. He openly gaped at Brian. “What?”
Jack couldn’t decide if Ricky was surprised by the manner of Norman’s death or the fact that the police had figured it out. It was a tough call.
; “Norman was shot in the head,” Brian said calmly. “He was murdered. We’re checking the ballistics right now against the slug pulled out of Dorian Jackson. What do you think the odds are that they’ll match?”
Ricky’s face drained of color. “You can’t possibly think I had anything to do with this.”
“I don’t know,” Brian countered. “You did work for Norman and with Dorian. You did follow Ivy Morgan yesterday, and she’s the one who was with Dorian when he died.”
“I wasn’t following her!” Ricky erupted. “It wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
“I … .” Ricky worked his jaw, panic setting in. “It has to be Corbin.”
“Corbin Dancy?” Jack asked.
Ricky nodded. “They’ve been acting weird.”
“Who is they?”
“Corbin and his brother.”
“I don’t remember seeing a brother in Corbin’s file,” Brian said, flicking through one of the folders on the table in front of him. “There’s no brother listed.”
“That’s because it’s a foster brother,” Ricky explained. “They grew up in the same foster home and they call each other ‘brother’ even though they’re not really brothers. I swear I had nothing to do with this. It has to be Corbin. He’s always looking for an easy bit of money and his brother is even worse.”
“And what is the brother’s name?”
“Mitchell Anderson.”
Jack’s stomach twisted and he couldn’t stop himself from eagerly leaning forward. “Are you sure that’s his name?”
“Absolutely. If you’re looking for murderers, it’s Corbin and Mitchell. I promise you that.”
Jack’s smile was slow and triumphant as he relaxed in his chair, some of the worry and doubt stalking him over the past few days escaping in a long sigh. They finally had a name. Now they had to find the man who belonged to the name.
“WHAT DO you have?”
Jack and Brian met Detective Crawford in front of a ramshackle house on Traverse City’s east side. Since Corbin Dancy lived out of their jurisdiction they had to coordinate with other cops. Since the Traverse City Police Department was looking for a murderer of their own, they insisted on being the department to arrest the two men living inside when Jack called explaining what information they’d been able to glean.
Wicked Fun: An Ivy Morgan Mystery Books 7-9 Page 33