Nickel: A Romantic Suspense Novel (Blackwood Elements Book 9)

by Elise Noble

  I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even breathe. Did Logan Barnes just talk about getting married? My mind stuttered like a car on its last drop of gas.

  “Five months,” I managed to get out.

  “What?”

  “My lease is up in five months.”

  He squeezed my hand, then started the engine. “So you’ll move into my place permanently in five months.”

  “Okay.”

  Logan flashed me a grin. “You’re agreeing?”

  “You didn’t sound as if you were giving me a choice.”

  “I’m not. I’ll kidnap you otherwise.”

  “What, and tie me to your bed?”

  “Sure, if you like that kind of thing.”

  “Stop being an asshole, Logan.” But being tied up? Hmm… That might be kinda hot. “Do you have rope?”

  Five months couldn’t pass fast enough.

  CHAPTER 25 - SLOANE

  I’D JUST GOTTEN my first cup of coffee when Agatha waved me over to her desk. Logan and Dan were already there, staring at the screen.

  “We’re tracking access to each account, but whoever it is hasn’t been online all week. This newest one hasn’t been accessed for nine days. Our catfisher’s working the sympathy angle here. This time, her house got flooded due to a faulty washing machine, and she’s having to work overtime, which means she can’t fly out to meet our victim. But get this; she knows how to talk dirty.”

  I skimmed over the passages, and they would have made a porn star blush. But one of them seemed oddly familiar.

  “Uh, I think she copied that one from a romance novel.”

  “Really? Which one?” Agatha asked.

  “My Secret Commando. Or maybe The SEAL and the Secretary.”

  “How do you know?”

  My cheeks burned. “I might have read them.”

  Logan’s hand brushed over my ass, and he leaned down to murmur in my ear. “Want me to wear my fatigues this evening?”

  Thanks to our talk in the truck, I was feeling a little more secure now.

  “Would you mind?” I whispered back, then focused on the screen again as I tried not to grin like an idiot. Imagining Logan in his uniform would have to wait. “Hold on, go back a bit.” Agatha scrolled up, and I peered closer. “Where the hell did that picture come from?”

  There I was, lying out in a frilly pink bikini, wearing the Gucci sunglasses Bradley had given me for my twenty-seventh birthday.

  “Thought you said you hated swimsuits, kitten?”

  “I do. I’ve never worn that one anywhere but in the privacy of my own backyard, and always alone. That’s my freaking lounge chair!”

  “Who took the photo?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Kenneth?”

  “I wasn’t with Kenneth then.”

  “Someone else?”

  “Lyndon. I was dating Lyndon. But he doesn’t even have a cell phone, let alone a camera.”

  Agatha looked incredulous. “What kind of person doesn’t have a cell phone?”

  “He’s a vegan who wears pleather shoes and eschews all modern technology. We broke up when he moved to Venezuela to live in the jungle.”

  “How tall is your fence?” Dan asked.

  “Why does that matter?”

  “Because from the way the shadows are falling, your house is on the right-hand side of that photo. And you live in a duplex, right?”

  “Right.”

  “So your garden’s narrow. Whoever took that shot was either up against your fence or in the garden next door.”

  “In Edna’s garden?”

  “The fence is about four feet high,” Logan said.

  “But Edna hardly ever has visitors. Just the occasional tradesman and one or two people from the senior centre.”

  “Well, either one of them must have taken that picture,” Dan said, “or Edna herself did.”

  “Edna? You think Edna’s behind this? She barely knew how to turn on a computer until…” A groan escaped my lips. “Until I taught her. Then she started taking programming classes at the senior centre. And I might have passed some of my romance novels on to her as well.”

  “I think we need to take a look at her computer. Does she go out much?”

  I sagged back against Logan, scarcely believing what I was hearing. There had to be another explanation. Edna was a friend. She baked me cakes and watched my house when I was out. She wouldn’t betray me like that. Would she?

  “Sloane?” Logan said. “Does Edna leave the house much?”

  “She often goes to the senior centre.”

  “What about tonight? Where will she be?”

  “Uh, what day is it? Monday? She goes to the potluck supper at the senior centre on Mondays. Six thirty until nine.”

  “Then we’ll take a look tonight.” Dan gave my arm a squeeze. “Don’t be upset—we could be wrong.”

  But her tone said she didn’t think so.

  “This is gonna be the easiest sneak ’n’ peek I’ve ever done,” Dan said.

  We were sitting in my kitchen—me, Dan, and Agatha—and Logan was trailing Edna to the senior centre to make sure she didn’t come back unexpectedly. Her friend William had picked her up at a quarter past six, which gave us plenty of time to check things out. We didn’t even need to break in because I had a key.

  “This still feels wrong,” I told them as we went through the narrow gate between our two backyards. “Why would she need to scam people? She gets rent from me every month, and I know her husband left her some insurance money.”

  “Who knows? I once tracked down a multimillionaire who used to steal from his hosts at parties for kicks. He had this room in his house filled with everything from salt shakers to diamond necklaces. Said buying things wasn’t fun anymore because he could afford anything he wanted.”

  “Edna’s not exactly loaded.”

  Dan turned the key in the lock, and the back door swung open. “Let’s just take a look, shall we?”

  Inside, Agatha headed straight for Edna’s laptop, which she’d left open on the little desk in one corner of the dining room, next to the bookcase. I followed Dan as she meandered around the house, opening and closing cupboards and rifling through papers with her gloved hands. She even checked in the toilet tank and flipped over each mattress before carefully smoothing out the bedclothes again. It obviously wasn’t her first rodeo.

  “I feel like the criminal here,” I whispered.

  She patted me on the hand, also gloved. “Oh, sweetie. Compared to most of my jobs, we were practically invited. Hey, look at this.” Dan thumbed through a folder full of bank statements she’d found in the guest room’s closet. “She’s blown through all the insurance money, and now she’s overdrawn.”

  “Guys,” Agatha called from downstairs. “I’ve got in.”

  By the time we skidded to a halt beside her, Agatha was scrolling through Edna’s browsing history. DateMe, Buster’s Bingo, Plenty of Fish, Lucky Ladies Bingo, Hearts ’n’ Minds, Fantasy Bingo.

  “Reckon we’ve got our motive,” she said. “Dating sites and online bingo. Fifty bucks says she’s addicted to gambling.”

  “Edna?” I scoffed. “She only goes to seniors’ bingo for the free crab cakes.”

  “She told you that?”

  “Just a couple of months ago.”

  Dan nodded. “Makes sense. Covering her tracks.”

  I didn’t want to believe it, but Edna’s passwords were stored for one-click access, and when Agatha began checking her accounts, the horrible truth was revealed. All the conversations Edna had participated in pretending to be me. The thousands she’d lost to online gambling sites. The emails from her bank demanding she clear her overdraft. I might not have wanted to believe it, but the evidence was laid out in front of me. I’d been betrayed by one of the few people I considered a friend.

  Dan checked her watch. “We’d better leave.”

  “Two minutes,” Agatha said. “The hard drive’s almost copied. I
can finish analysing it back in the office.”

  What was the point? I’d seen enough of Edna’s secrets already, and I felt quite sick.

  “What happens now?” I asked.

  Dan steered me in the direction of the back door. “Now, we go home.”

  They stayed with me until Logan got back, and he took one look at my face and hugged me tight. “I’m so sorry, kitten. It sucks when people we care about hurt us.”

  “What should we do about it?” I asked.

  Dan shrugged. “Depends on your goal. Restitution? Revenge?”

  “Revenge? Edna’s seventy-four years old!”

  “So she should know right from wrong by now.”

  “Logan, help me out here.”

  “Why is everyone looking at me? I’m no good at shaking down old ladies.” Logan clenched his fists. Unclenched them again. “Even if I am so fucking pissed about what she did to you.”

  “I think she needs help rather than prison,” Agatha said, the voice of reason. “If she’s got an addictive personality, she probably can’t help herself any more than a drug abuser can.”

  My emotions battled it out in my head—anger, disbelief, pity. But I also remembered Edna’s kind side. The way she fed Nickel when I worked late. The cookies she baked for me. All the board games we’d played to take my mind off Lyndon when he left.

  “I feel sorry for her more than anything. Does anyone offer rehab for bingo addicts? Is that a thing?”

  Dan shrugged. “Probably. Did you know one of Nick’s celebrity clients is undergoing treatment for a Facebook addiction? If there’s a therapist for that, I bet there’s one for bingo.”

  “Want me to look it up?” Agatha asked.

  “Yes, please. I should talk to her. Explain why what she’s doing can’t carry on and offer to help. What do you think? Logan?”

  “I think you’re too fucking sweet, kitten, but I’ll back you up with whatever you want to do.”

  “Will you come with me to see her?”

  “Just don’t expect me to talk about knitting patterns and crochet.”

  CHAPTER 26 - SLOANE

  WE WENT BACK to Logan’s place that night, partly because Nickel needed dinner but mainly because I wanted to get away from my house and think. Edna’s betrayal stung ten times worse than Kenneth’s. Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of girl code, no matter the age difference?

  “Still fretting?” Logan asked after I’d lain awake in his arms for an hour.

  “It just hurts. Why does everyone I get close to outside of work stab me in the back?”

  “I’m not gonna stab you in the back, kitten,” he mumbled, seemingly half-asleep. “I love you.”

  I went rigid. Did those three words just leave Logan’s mouth? Or was I dreaming?

  “Sorry?”

  He kissed me on the forehead. “Don’t make me say it again. I’ve never said that to anyone else, and I’m trying not to panic right now.”

  Panic? I was trying not to pass out.

  “Why would you panic?”

  “In case you don’t feel the same way.”

  “I love you.”

  Logan grinned, teeth white in the moonlight, and I burrowed against his chest, feeling his heartbeat against my cheek. When I was sad, he made me happy. When I felt weak, he gave me strength. When I felt fear, he gave me love.

  Now I could finally fall asleep.

  “Would you rather visit Edna this evening?” Logan asked the next morning. “A few hours won’t make much difference.”

  “I just want to get it over with.”

  My zipper stuck as I tried to do up my dress, and he swept my hair to one side and fixed it for me, finishing with a soft kiss on the nape of my neck.

  “Have you thought about what you’re going to say?”

  “Yes. No. Sort of. I want to tell her that what she’s been doing isn’t okay. That to her, it might just be a little game on the computer, but there are real people being affected by her deception. Did Agatha send over that info on Gamblers Anonymous?”

  “Yes, and I’ve printed it all out.”

  “And you’re sure you don’t mind coming with me?”

  “I’ll always have your back.”

  After “I love you,” those were the best words I’d ever heard come out of somebody’s mouth. For so long, I’d sought out company because I didn’t like being alone, but I’d never truly understood what it was like to be one half of a whole. Now I did.

  “Then let’s do this. I feel so sick, I can’t even eat breakfast at the moment.”

  Several times on the drive to Edna’s, I almost asked Logan to turn around. I didn’t so much have butterflies, more caterpillars eating at me from the inside out. People said Emmy thrived on confrontation, but if I had to do this every day, I’d wither and die.

  Logan turned the corner, and Edna’s house came into view. An ordinary day on our quiet street, except for…

  “Why is there a police car parked outside Edna’s place? Did somebody call the cops? I thought Blackwood was handling this?”

  He looked as confused as I felt. “None of us called them, I swear.”

  “Then why are they here?”

  “We’ll have to ask them that.”

  A bead of sweat trickled down the back of my neck as Logan parked in my driveway, and when he helped me out of the truck, I looped my arm through his so my knees wouldn’t buckle. Had somebody else found out about Edna’s little secret? I didn’t want her to go to jail. I just wanted her to get the help she needed.

  A cop climbed out of the car, unfolding his lanky frame from behind the wheel before he walked over. There was no swagger in his step, and he didn’t look particularly happy to be there. That made two of us.

  “Sloane Mullins?”

  “Yes?”

  “You live next door to Edna Burrows?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Mrs. Burrows passed away last night.”

  “She what?”

  At first, I thought I’d misheard, but the cop’s sombre face hammered his words home. Edna was dead? But…but…she’d seemed so sprightly for her age. So healthy.

  “According to the folks at the senior centre, she put you down as her next of kin.”

  Logan held me up as I tried to process the news. Edna was dead? No, she couldn’t be. I’d just talked to her the day before yesterday, and she’d looked healthy as anything.

  “What happened?” Logan asked.

  “She went to bingo yesterday and won the jackpot. Twenty thousand dollars. From what I understand, she was celebrating when her heart gave out.” He shook his head, incredulous. “Talk about bad luck.”

  “More like karma,” Logan muttered, and I elbowed him in the ribs.

  The news left me numb. Of all the ways I’d imagined this going, burying Edna wasn’t one of them.

  “What do I do now? We weren’t related, but she doesn’t have anyone else.”

  “There were no suspicious circumstances, so you’ll just need to claim the body and arrange a funeral if you choose to hold one.”

  “Of course she needs a funeral.” I felt my eyes start to prickle. “How do I even claim a body?”

  Logan wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me up. “I’ll deal with all that.”

  The cop backed away, no doubt relieved to escape as the first tear rolled down my cheek. “Have a good day, ma’am.”

  A good day. Right.

  He drove off, leaving me shell-shocked on the sidewalk. Edna was gone. This whole sorry episode had ended in the most horrible way imaginable, and now I couldn’t talk things out with her or help her through her problems. I’d had enough of the rabbit hole now. I wanted to get back to the real world.

  “Want me to drive you home, kitten?”

  I nearly pointed out that I lived right next door, but then I realised he was right. Home was with Logan now. My heart lived in a sprawling ranch house in the middle of a forest. But today, I didn
’t want to be there alone.

  “Can we just go to the office?” I asked.

  “The office? You don’t want to take the day off? Emmy would understand.”

  “Work helps me to feel normal, and I really, really need that this morning.”

  Logan bent to kiss me on the forehead, and I knew he understood.

  “Then let’s go to Blackwood.”

  At Edna’s wake, I stood in one corner with Logan, watching the clusters of people dotted around the room. This gathering gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “fifty shades of grey.” Apart from one lady who’d dyed her hair an adventurous shade of pink, the only colour in the room came from the bright red bingo machine in the far corner.

  Emmy had volunteered Bradley’s services to plan the send-off—payback, she said, for the time he’d organised her funeral and given her a shiny black casket decorated with diamantés. I’d suggested a low-key affair, but he’d consulted with her friends at the senior centre and apparently they’d disagreed.

  And now he clambered onto the makeshift stage by the buffet.

  “Ladies, gents, do you all have your bingo cards? It’s time to put the fun in funeral!”

  “This has got to be the most tasteless get-together I’ve ever been to,” Logan whispered. “And I once went to a cremation where the dead dude’s wife and mistress got into a catfight over who got to keep the floral arrangements.”

  “Maybe we could sneak out?”

  “Good plan.”

  Logan shuffled sideways, but we only got halfway to the fire exit before Bradley spotted us. “Sloane, do you have a card? Somebody give her a card.”

  An octogenarian with perfect pin curls passed me a bingo card and pen, and a man with a comb-over waved us into two empty seats. After much clomping of walking frames and creaking of false hips, Bradley tapped on a glass with a knife.