by D. D. Ayres
“How much I get paid?”
“Let’s see what you can do.”
* * *
Carly climbed the stairs to her apartment feeling energized by the morning. Things were back on track with Flawless. It would be weeks, maybe more than a month, before she could reschedule the grand opening. But there seemed a future now, one stronger for the interaction of the women she was trying to help. She should have remembered sooner. Better to teach a person to fish than simply bring them fish.
“Hey there, Ms. Reese. Just the person I want to talk to.”
Carly jolted to a halt with her foot on the top stair. Standing by her door was the CowTown Fire and Water Disaster guy. He wore his usual coveralls, and his cap, twisted around backward, covered his dark blond hair. “Cody, what are you doing here?”
“I come to talk to you. About some business,” he added as she continued to frown. “You got a minute? Because I’d surely like to get busy.”
“Get busy on what?”
He made a gun with his hand, forefinger pointed at his head, and made a loud bang sound as he dropped his thumb like a hammer. “I got so many ideas going in my head I forget to start at the beginning sometime. I was chatting with Mr. Wise earlier and he tells me you’ve decided to redo your boutique on Magnolia, after all.”
“Yes. But I don’t see what that has to do with your company.”
He held his grin. Today his skin looked rougher, or maybe it was that his face was flushed. He certainly seemed agitated. “I just come to tell you I’m available for any kind of jobs and installations you might need in getting your place fixed up again. Besides this day job, I’m quite a handy man. Ask Mr. Wise. I done all kinds of jobs for him.” He pointed to her door. “Why don’t we step inside to discuss it?”
“How did you learn my address, Mr. Cody?”
“Didn’t I say? Mr. Wise give it to me.”
Carly doubted that. When she’d leased the space for Flawless, she was still living at her Aunt Fredda’s. But like the reporters that had flocked around, he found out somehow. But she didn’t like the idea of being accosted at her front door.
She lifted her chin. “We’ll have to talk another time. I have a lot of things to do today. Drop by Flawless after ten a.m. tomorrow. We’ll be assessing the damage.”
She saw his lids flutter down, as if he didn’t want her to look directly into his gaze. “You’re right. I should have waited. But to be honest, I just want your business so bad. You see, I read all about you in the papers. You’re famous.”
His fanboy grin annoyed her. “Not anymore.”
“I mean, a real celebrity.” He didn’t seem to know when he was being shut down. “First you’re a supermodel and now you saved a man’s life. I guess that makes you practically a superheroine, too. Who knows what you might do next? Make a movie, maybe? You sure are pretty enough.”
“That’s very flattering.” She reached for her phone and pulled it out.
“Now, now, I don’t talk to flatter a woman like you. I meant every word.”
“Thank you. But I’m pretty much just living my life like the next person these days.”
“That’s what I was thinking. The day we met, you didn’t say a thing about saving a man’s life. And it was just hours after. Most folk would have been bragging up a storm about what they’d done. But not you. I guess extraordinary things happen to a person like you every day. Too bad the fella you saved didn’t care if he lived.”
“That’s not been proven, Mr. Cody.” Carly heard the chill in her voice but, really, this man had no business here. “How did you get up to my floor?”
“One of your neighbors was kind enough to let me through the security gate. Saw me standing there waiting. Guess he took one look at my van and attire, and figured I’d be pretty easy to pick out if something wasn’t on the up and up.”
The fact that he had a ready answer annoyed Carly. “Like I said, another time.”
He took a step forward. “I won’t take above half a minute of your time.”
“Mr. Cody—”
“Uh-oh. I don’t want to make you mad.” He began backing away. “Not my intention at all. I’m just so damned impressed. I don’t suppose you’d let me take you out to dinner, just to show how much I admire you.”
“I don’t date strangers.”
“Hoo-whee. That look of yours just about froze my privates off. Must be another of your supermodel superpowers. I can see how you might need it. Looking so beautiful and all. You must get hit on more than a nail in a hammer factory.”
Carly’s hauteur expression collapsed into a smile. “Really, Cody, you’re too much.”
He grinned right back at her. “Now see. I made you smile. That just makes my day. I can go back to work a happy man.”
Carly relented. Maybe she was being needlessly rude. “What sort of side work do you do?”
“Almost anything. Electrical, ductwork, paneling, insulation, flooring. You name it. I can even put in a security system for you. I did that for Mr. Wise.”
That caught her attention. “You put in the cameras in the parking lot at Magnolia?”
“I did. And over at some of the other Wise properties.”
“By yourself?”
“It’s not rocket science. Why don’t we make a list of what you need and I’ll give you a good deal? A cut-rate deal for the heroine of the hour. Seems like the least I can do.”
Carly glanced at her phone for the time, mostly as a reason to offer an excuse. “I’m sorry, but I’m expecting a business appointment to arrive in ten minutes.”
“My dinner invitation still stands. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. How about Bonnell’s? The chef’s been on the Food Network and everything.”
“Thank you, but no.”
“Okay. Then at least meet me for a drink after your meeting. Say five o’clock? Six? Seven?” He kept adding times as she shook her head.
Carly took a breath. She was tempted to talk to him, if only to learn more about the things Cody did for Mr. Wise, like those cameras. Mr. Wise had said only he and the person who installed his cameras knew they didn’t work. Maybe Cody had talked to someone about that job, someone who wanted to know more than he should.
“I can spare thirty minutes after seven o’clock.” She thought fast of a place close by where there wouldn’t be a menu to slow them down. “Do you know The Usual?”
“The usual what?”
“It’s the name of a bar on Magnolia, not far from Flawless.”
“That’ll do. You can give me directions when I pick you up.”
“Use your GPS. I’ll meet you there. It’s not a date. I’ll have only have thirty minutes to give you, Cody.”
He grinned. “Yes, ma’am. Best thirty minutes of my year so far, guaranteed.”
Even as she watched him leave, she had the nagging suspicion that she’d made a mistake in encouraging him. Despite his aw shucks act, he didn’t seem like the type of man who would politely take no for an answer. Maybe she could ask Jarius to drop by the bar at seven thirty, just to give her an out.
“Don’t be a wuss, Carly. You’ve dealt with rock stars.” Smiling at a particularly sticky memory, she turned and unlocked her door.
At the very least she might be able to pick up a bit of information from Cody that could help Noah. Maybe Cody knew someone who was a firefighter. Noah said the fires he’d been accused of setting were started by a professional who knew how not to leave personal evidence.
The thought of Noah made her stomach feel funny. The intensity of the man completely destroyed her usually cool facade. He didn’t do calculated, or cunning. He was out there, all relevant emotions present when properly motivated. They didn’t have sex. They burned each other’s guard walls to the ground. What was left was potent, precious, and scary as hell.
She was feeling again. Feeling more than ever before. Arnaud had been affectionate but aloof. Love for him had been a sensory pleasure, like a good wine, or a good
high. Noah was a boots-on-the-ground, ready-for-action male. He didn’t pretend about what he wanted. And he gave back in full, stunningly hard pleasure.
There weren’t words for that. It was rare, but it was real. She knew that now. And wanted more. But she couldn’t depend on it. Not until Noah was free to make his own feelings known.
“You fell for a cowboy, Carly. Who would have guessed?”
She put her things down and looked around her apartment. Absent the stacks of boxes she carted to the church, it looked like home. But suddenly, that wasn’t enough. She needed to do something. Anything. She hadn’t been able to do a thing for Noah since he was arrested. The suspense of not knowing what was going to happen next was killing her. So she was going to have a drink with a restoration guy.
But she wasn’t going to take any chances. She pulled out her phone and called Wise. Two minutes later she felt a little better. Wise confirmed that Cody had done work for him and gave the younger man a glowing endorsement. At least now she felt better meeting a practical stranger. After all, it was just for a drink in a public place.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Beer run. Your turn.” Mike Wayne leaned back out of the refrigerator and waved the last bottle of Blue Moon at Noah, who sat at the kitchen table.
Mike had showed up the evening after Noah made bail, and announced he was spending his four days off with Noah. Noah suspected that Durvan had sent him to keep tabs on his suspect. But Noah was too glad to have company of any kind to turn him down. It was a better offer than dealing with Sandra, who’d offered to do the same. Mike, at least, wouldn’t want to “talk about it.”
Mike had bunked out on the sleeper sofa in the TV room, refusing to mess up a bedroom. He was living out of a duffle bag, neat as the Marine he’d once been.
They’d watched every kind of sport over the last three days while the defense attorney that Sandra had found for Noah went to work, trying to find out what the district attorney had in mind for additional charges. So far, the district attorney’s office was being very closed mouth. Not a good sign.
“You want steak or barbecue tonight?”
Noah looked up from the computer he’d borrowed from his sister. To keep from going stir crazy, he’d been making lists and checking every detail that ran through his mind about the night of the fire. “I don’t care what we eat. As long as it’s hot and there’s plenty of it. You do the beer run.”
Mike hung his hands over the back of a kitchen chair. “The press hasn’t been around all day. Why don’t you hit the shower and we’ll go out for a change?”
Noah scratched his three-day-old growth of beard. “You trying to tell me I stink?”
“Okay. You stink. Going to seed before my eyes. Have some pride, dude. They come to arrest your ass again, you don’t want to look like the Unabomber in your photo shots.”
Gallows humor. They’d traded a lot in that the past few days. One way to manage the eight-hundred-pound gorilla they weren’t discussing.
The doorbell rang. Harley, who’d been dozing at Noah’s feet, sat up and barked, but he didn’t move away from his handler’s side.
“I’ll get it, sweetheart.” Mike’s voice had gone falsetto, mimicking a housewife. He’d been running interference of every kind for Noah—answering the door, answering the phone, picking up take-out, or ordering meals to be delivered. Mike could veg out better than anybody he’d ever known.
Mike was back within a minute with a lumpy padded envelop. “Special delivery. Had to sign for it. You expecting something?”
“No.” Noah took the package. The return address was for A. Gutierrez, his sister Sandra’s private investigator friend.
He tore it open. Inside was a DVD marked: Westside Conservatory Senior Living Center and Well Care Facility security camera.
Noah looked up at Mike, cop face in place. “Are you here as my friend or as Durvan’s watchdog?”
Mike laughed. “I’m offended by the question.”
Noah’s expression didn’t change. “Because if you’re here in an official capacity, I have to ask you to leave the room.”
Mike crossed his beefy arms, a frown furrowing his brow. “If I’m here as a friend?”
“Then I could use another pair of eyes.”
Mike considered Noah’s request, then gave his head a slight shake. “I was tired of earning a regular paycheck anyway.”
As Noah shoved the disc into the computer, Mike pulled up a chair.
The beginning of the footage was the same that Noah had been shown by Durvan during his interrogation. Noah pointed near the top of the screen. “Watch for a truck to pull up here. It’ll be in the parking lot that’s on the next block.”
After two minutes a truck came into view, the same uneven light and slightly out-of-focus images seen from a distance.
“That’s your truck?”
Noah nodded. “Looks like it. Watch closely.”
The truck pulled up before the back of a building, nose-in so that the driver’s door faced the camera. The security lights in the parking lot came on, giving them a better view than expected. Still, the distance made the images indistinct. A man got out on the driver’s side and opened the rear door. Out hopped a German Shepherd, his actions indicating that he might be barking.
“That’s what was bothering me.” Noah looked over at Mike. “You ever see me release Harley from the truck without first putting him on a leash?”
Mike shrugged.
Noah refocused on the computer screen. “See that? Harley doesn’t want to be leashed by that guy.”
“You’re going to have to do better than that.”
After a moment of struggling, Harley was on the leash and following the man around the front end of the truck where they disappeared into the shadows on the other side. The back door to the store where the fire took place was blocked by the way the truck was parked.
Noah sat forward. “This is where the footage I was shown during interrogation stopped. So this is where things should get interesting.”
For a good five minutes the video ran without anything happening but the occasional car driving past on the street between the camera and the faraway parking lot. After a few minutes, the security lights in the parking lot died, leaving the truck little more than a shape in the dark.
Noah wiped a hand down his face. “Damn, I was hoping there’d be more activity around the truck.”
“Like what?”
“Hold on.” Noah touched the image of his truck. “The interior light didn’t come on when the guy got out of the truck on the driver’s side, did it?”
“So?”
Noah ran the video back to the place where the man got out. “There’s no light inside the cabin with the opening of either door. If someone else is in the truck, we can’t tell. I’ll bet a month’s pay I’m in there passed out on the passenger side.”
Mike gave him a strange look. “Dude, admit it. So far, all you’ve got on video is a big yawn.” He yawned for emphasis. “I’m calling in two rib dinner orders at The Railhead.”
“Wait. Look at this.” The security lights had come on again, showing a man climbing into the vehicle. This time the man was wearing what looked like coveralls. “What am I wearing, and where’s Harley? I wouldn’t leave Harley behind in a building.”
Mike looked down at the dog sprawled at Noah’s feet. He’d never seen Harley more than a couple of feet away from his handler at any time. “Maybe you let him in on the other side first. Like you said, we can’t tell squat about what’s happening on the other side.”
Noah paused the video. “Harley and I have a routine. We exit and enter the same way, every time. Driver’s side, both of us. And what about the coveralls? That’s not me, Mike.”
“Then who is it?”
“That’s the million-dollar question.” Noah hit Play. “I need you to pay close attention for the next twenty minutes. It’s vital that you see this for yourself.”
Mike sighed and subsided i
nto his chair. “You’re buying the beer plus two pounds of ribs and a pound of sliced brisket.”
The truck left the lot.
After six more minutes of boring footage, a car pulled up near where the truck had parked, and a woman got out. In the glare of the activated security lights she had no distinct features. But it was plain to see she was young and slim, wearing jeans, heels, and a skintight top.
Mike leaned forward. “Now that’s the first interesting thing on here.”
Noah didn’t respond, just watched intently as Carly unlocked the back door to Flawless. Her timeline said she’d been in her store less than five minutes the first time she thought she heard a dog and gone out the front door to check. That they couldn’t see on this footage. Ten minutes more passed before she exited the rear door of Flawless.
She was carrying an armload of things to her car. They saw her pause and turn her head, as if listening. Then she put her things in the car and closed it. She stood there a few more seconds then crossed back toward the building into the shadowy area where the door to the next-door store was, where Noah lay unconscious inside.
“Did you see that?”
Mike yawned and pulled out his phone to place an order. “Man, I haven’t seen anything interesting, besides the woman, in forever.”
“Exactly. If I drove the truck off to park it somewhere else, how did I get back in the building for Carly to find me?”
It took Mike three seconds to process Noah’s words. Then he leaned forward. “Let me order some food before I die. Then I need you to play that part again. Starting from when the truck leaves.”
Noah played that section three more times, both men watching for images of a shadow or silhouette that could be a figure returning. There weren’t any.
Mike shook his head. “Durvan showed the unit the first part of the video before your arrest. He didn’t say anything about this.”
“That’s because he can’t place me in the building and still explain the truck being driven away. He’s got loose ends.”
“That’s a hell of a loose end.”
The two men stared at each other.