by Rose Pressey
“When you stopped to fix your shoe back there, he stopped.”
“So then you stopped as well. Sounds like you were doing the same.”
“I was merely curious,” Dangerfield said.
Of course I couldn’t be mad at him. I had done the same thing when Doug and Russ had followed him. Dangerfield and I were more alike than I cared to admit.
I shook my head. “I can’t deal with this anymore this morning. I have to go to work. I have a big lead I’m working on.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “I guess you aren’t going to share this info with me?”
I snorted. “You have to even ask? Of course I wouldn’t share this with you. Do you think I am crazy?”
“I am hurt that you don’t trust me.” He flashed that gorgeous smile of his.
“Don’t be hurt. I don’t trust anyone.”
“That attitude is not healthy,” he said.
I tried not to look directly at him so that I wouldn’t fall victim to his charm. “See you later, Dangerfield,” I said over my shoulder as I walked toward the building.
I told myself that I wouldn’t turn around and look at him, but I couldn’t stop myself. As I neared the stairs leading up to the front door, I turned and looked over my shoulder. Dangerfield was still back there and watching me. Darn it. Now it looked as if I cared. He waved and I turned around quickly. Just as I placed my first foot on the step, I stumbled. As I tried to right myself, it was within a spilt second that someone had grabbed my arm.
“Are you okay?” Dangerfield asked.
He stood over me with his broad shoulders. His strong hand had a grasp on my arm.
“I’m all right,” I said breathlessly.
He released his hold on me. “You should watch where you’re going.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” I stared for a moment. “Well, thanks.”
All I wanted at the moment was to escape. I hurried up the stairs, but I was extra cautious this time, and I certainly didn’t turn around to see if Dangerfield was watching me. I didn’t need to because I felt his eyes on me.
When I stepped into the office, I peered out the window to see if Dangerfield was still standing on the street below. Of course he wasn’t still there. That would have been creepy, like Michael Myers from the Halloween movie or something.
Everyone watched me when I stepped into the office. What had I done wrong this time? This was seriously going to give me a complex. I tried to hurry across the floor to my desk, but just as I passed Oscar’s office, he yelled out my name. I slumped my shoulders and made a left turn.
This time Oscar was staring straight at me. He pointed at the chair in front of his desk. Yeah, I knew the routine.
I sat down in front of Oscar’s desk. Today was probably the day that he would fire me. The hair coming out of his ears looked even longer today. Would he be upset if I bought him one of those personal trimmers?
“Do you know why I asked you in here today?” He studied my face.
“To tell me what a great job I’ve been doing?” The devilish smile on my face couldn’t be avoided.
He tapped his fingers against the top of his desk. “Cute, but no. I asked you in here because I received another call from Officer West. Now I don’t know why you are following this cop, but just stop. He’s trying to be nice to you, but I don’t know how long that will last before he finally arrests you.”
I hadn’t told Oscar about my investigation of the police department, but I knew that wasn’t why this cop was calling. “I am not following him,” I said defensively.
Oscar waved his hands through the air. “I don’t care what you have to say, just stop.”
“So you don’t believe me?”
He looked at me, but remained speechless.
“Fine. Is that all you wanted?” I asked. Now I just wanted to get out of there.
He shuffled a few papers around on his desk. “As a matter of fact, no, that’s not all I wanted. Someone left something for you this morning. Apparently it was by the front door. Normally I would have thrown it away, but since it’s just a paper with a name on it, I thought I would give it to you.”
“Do you normally throw my mail away?” I asked.
He glared at me. “You can get some strange things from strange people. I am just looking out for you.”
“I appreciate that, Oscar. But I can look out for myself. And what kind of strange things?” I’d gotten mail requesting my address or asking for a date often, but how much weirder was the stuff he hadn’t given me? “Plus, I don’t think you’re supposed to go through my mail.”
“Fine, next time you get fan mail requesting a lock of your hair or a pair of your underwear I’ll pass it on.” He handed me the paper. “I’m the boss I can do what I want. Now get out of my office.”
My underwear? I clutched the paper in my hand and headed toward my desk. I looked at the paper and all that was listed was the name Shawn Poole. That name meant nothing to me. It had been written in ink. Had someone forgotten the rest of the note? What had Oscar done with the envelope that it had come in? There was no way I would go back in his office to ask.
Once again everyone stopped everything they were doing so that they could watch me. They really should be used to me being called into Oscar’s office by now. I guessed they were just shocked at the sheer number of times that I was called into his office on a regular basis. One time I would be able to go a whole week without having Oscar yell at me.
I marched to my desk as if I’d been sent to detention. After ignoring Ruth’s staring, I sat at my desk, typed in Shawn Poole’s name, and then looked at the first few links that popped up. I clicked on the first website, but it was a bad link. I went back and clicked on the next website. There was an article with information about an arrest that had been made a couple years ago. What did this have to do with anything? Then I noticed that the arresting officer was Phillip West. Another clue for me to figure out, along with who had sent this to me.
I placed the paper aside and tried to focus on work. It was almost impossible though and I kept glancing over at that paper as if it was talking to me.
I typed in Shawn Poole’s name again. One of the websites had a picture of a building. Did Shawn live there? By some odd coincidence, I recognized the place. I jotted down the address and grabbed my purse. With any luck, I could slip out of the office unnoticed. But since Oscar had eyes in the back of his head that would probably be impossible.
Slipping past Oscar’s office, I hurried toward the door and pretended I didn’t hear him yell at me.
“Chase, where do you think you’re going? Get back over here.”
Everyone was watching me. I wasn’t going to stop just because he was yelling. I would hear about this from him tomorrow.
Shawn Poole’s building was a short distance from my office, so I decided to walk. Of course I looked over my shoulder more than a few times to see if Dangerfield was behind me, or anyone else for that matter. There were plenty of people walking behind me, but no faces that I recognized.
After a few minutes, I arrived at the address. I peered up at the street numbers to confirm I had the right place. It was a brick building that looked a lot like the one I lived in. I’d been almost positive when I’d seen the photo that this was the place. Now that I was here I was sure of it.
The front steps led inside a foyer and the main floor. I opened the door and stepped into the main hallway of the building. Mailboxes lined the far right wall. There were four apartments on this level. I inched over for a closer look at the names on the mailboxes.
Shawn Poole was looking for was listed as apartment one. I turned around and stopped in front of the door. Did I have the nerve to knock on the door? Since no one else was going to do it for me, I’d better find the nerve quickly.
I reached out and rang the doorbell. As I waited, I tapped my foot against the hardwood floor. A few seconds passed and still no one had answered so I rang the bell again. I tapped my foot against the f
loor as I waited. It was looking more and more as if the person wasn’t there.
Obviously the person wasn’t there. But what if they were just sleeping? I had to have answers. I didn’t want to have made this trip for nothing. Reaching out, I grasped the doorknob and twisted. The door opened. That was interesting. Why hadn’t they locked the door if they weren’t home?
I nudged the door open a little with my foot. “Hello? Is anyone home?” No one answered.
Since I was already there that it wouldn’t hurt to step inside and have a little look. I poked my head in and peered around the room. A living room was the first space and there was a hallway down the middle which I assumed led to the kitchen and bedroom. I eased into the room. I was terrified that someone was going to find me. Going in there was a good way to get myself shot. Sometimes I did the dumbest things, but I wanted to break this story so badly, I was willing to try some crazy things. I would just have a quick look around and then get out of there before anyone caught me. That was the plan at least.
There was a table and chairs on the right so I edged over for a closer look. Nothing interesting was on the table. I did spot a cell phone though.
After glancing around one more time, I picked up the phone. Touching the screen, I looked through the contacts to see if there were any names I recognized. Since Mom and Sister weren’t of any significance to me, I almost gave up and put the phone down. But I noticed the name Russ and remembered Russ was one of the men who had talked to me about following Dangerfield. A call had been placed to Russ just fifteen minutes ago. That meant that the owner of this phone couldn’t be far away and I needed to get out of there.
As I scrolled back through the numbers, I accidentally hit the button and dialed Russ’ number. He picked up immediately. His voice was audible even though I didn’t have it to my ear.
“Shawn, are you there?” he asked.
I was almost positive that I recognized Russ’ voice. This had to be the right Shawn.
After I’d placed the phone back where I’d found it, a noise sounded from the hallway. For a moment I froze, unsure of what to do next. Standing there wasn’t an option though. I had to make a move. I looked down the hallway and decided to find a place to hide. Obviously, I didn’t make good decisions under pressure.
On the table lay a slip of paper I hadn’t seen earlier. It had a few phone numbers written on it. There was no time to find out what the numbers were for, so I stuffed the paper into my pocket. Another noise came from the hallway.
I rushed over and peeked out the front door to see if it was safe for me to leave. When I saw Russ and Doug I knew that it wasn’t safe for me to exit through the front door. The men who had followed Dangerfield were walking up the front steps. Had they followed me here? Russ must have been close by when he’d received the call from Shawn’s phone. And where was this Shawn guy? The men had to be connected because why else would they be at this address?
My life now depended on finding a good place to hide. I glanced around the room. There had to be a spot where I could hide without being found. The closet was probably the first place they would look. I could hide behind the shower curtain, but wasn’t that the second place they always looked?
I held my breath, hoping that they wouldn’t find me. The footsteps grew louder and the muffled sounds of their conversation spilled into the room. If they came into the room and found me I would be a goner. I had no option but to get out of this place.
Luckily the apartment had French doors in the living room. I raced over and pulled back the white curtain. There was a small balcony. If I could climb over the railing I could escape to freedom. Climbing over would be possible, but would I fall flat on my face?
I unlocked the doors and raced outside. I didn’t even take the time to close the doors behind me. By the time they noticed that the doors were open I would be long gone.
I had to find out who they were, but how would I accomplish this?
Now that I was outside of the building and down the street a good distance, I paused to catch my breath. That was a too-close brush with death. Well, I didn’t know that they wanted to kill me, but I doubted that they wanted to be my new BFFs either.
Peering over my shoulder, I didn’t see them, so I continued walking down the sidewalk, glancing over my shoulder every few seconds. I stopped for a moment to ease my aching legs. I hadn’t run that much since high school. I hated to ask Officer Marquez for any more information, but I felt this was pretty important. Sure, I’d said I wouldn’t call him, but this couldn’t be avoided.
As I walked I dialed his number. It rang several times, but he didn’t answer. I took the opportunity to hang up. Calling him was probably a bad idea anyway. Lucky for me he hadn’t answered. Now he would never even know that I had tried to call.
I remembered the paper in my pocket and decided I should give the phone numbers a call. My heart sped up as the other end of the line rang. The first couple of numbers took me to generic voice messages. But the third number I called led me to the New Orleans Police Department. Specifically the desk of one Officer Phillip West. I’d gotten a voice message, so hung up right away and prayed that he didn’t call my number back.
How was Officer West connected to this case? Who lived at this address and how did they know the cop? I knew he was up to no good. Of course the dead body he’d dumped into his car had certainly been a pretty big clue. I refused to believe that Officer Marquez didn’t know his partner was bad. This changed things.
As I walked home, I had time to reflect on all that I’d learned. There were more clues, but no answers. If anything, I felt I was even further from finding out what was really happening.
I hurried my steps because now I was definitely paranoid. Going to the police and telling them what was happening wasn’t an option, because honestly there was nothing concrete to even tell them. Plus, look what had happened when I’d met Marc. Officer West had shown up. It wouldn’t be safe for me to tell the police. For all I knew they were on to my investigation of their overtime scam.
Chapter Eleven
The next day, I decided to meet Courtney. We’d have lunch and maybe I could clear my head by talking about everything. Before we met, I bought a coffee. No, I wasn’t expecting to run into Dangerfield. However, I was on the lookout for Doug and Russ.
As I sipped on my coffee, I spotted a woman I knew. She wore her brown hair in big curls that bounced down her shoulders. Her beige slacks and white blouse looked immaculate. She tapped her foot against the tiled floor and her arms were crossed in front of her waist. I wasn’t sure that she’d seen me yet.
When she spotted me, it would turn into a scene right away. If I was wise, I would leave before she noticed me. But I decided to take my chances and confront her.
April Benson had been the target of a recent investigation. It hadn’t ended well for her, but the clients she’d ripped off at least had gotten most of their money returned.
When we made eye contact, she recognized me. Her reaction wasn’t much of a surprise though. After all, I had gone on TV demanding that she right her wrongs. I swallowed the lump in my throat and wondered if I had the nerve to confront her. I had to know if she was the one leaving the voodoo in front of my door.
April hadn’t taken her eyes off me for a second. She stared a hole right through me. I remained strong, trying not to let her intimidate me.
There was only one way to find out if she was behind the voodoo. I had to go over to her. Of course that was a risky move. She would probably want to punch me in the face.
I pushed my shoulders back and headed over to the woman. She placed her arms at her sides and folded her hands into fists as if she was ready for a fight. That was the last thing I wanted. She stared at me as I walked toward her.
“What do you want?” April snapped when I was near.
At least she hadn’t punched me right off the bat. Her red face told me that she wanted to though.
“I have a question to ask you.” I
stood straight in front of her.
“Haven’t you asked enough already?”
“I know you are upset with me, but you wouldn’t actually do anything, right? You said that you would get revenge.”
April glared at me. “You deserve everything that you get. Now if you will please excuse me, I don’t want to talk with you.”
“Well, I’m not having a great time talking to you either,” I said.
She weaved around me and moved closer to the counter. “I don’t want to talk with you. Now will you just leave me alone?” She tapped her foot as she waited for her coffee. “Could you hurry up back there?” she yelled at the barista, who didn’t move any faster after being yelled at.
Once she had her coffee in hand, she stormed around me and rushed toward the door. That hadn’t gone well, but had I really expected a different outcome?
The woman walked out of the shop and didn’t look back. I peeked out the window and saw her marching down the street. It would probably take her a while to calm down after our encounter, but the feeling was mutual.
Now I didn’t know what to think. Her comment about me getting what I deserved made me think she might be behind the voodoo. Why else would she say something like that? It could be a coincidence that she’d started the voodoo right after I’d run into the cop.
Chapter Twelve
Courtney and I had decided to go to a little Cajun place just down the road, so I would meet her at her shop first. She sold all kinds of voodoo items and souvenirs.
It was a short walk to her place at the corner of Royal and Bourbon Street. I passed a few people on the sidewalk, weaving around a street performer. When I arrived, I stepped into her shop. The place was dimly lit. There were a few tourists, but they were walking out as I came in, talking about playing a joke on someone with the doll that they had just purchased.
My cousin was at the back of the shop. She tossed her hand up and headed my way. “I’m glad you made it. I am starving. I just need to finish a few things first.”