“Nothin’.”
Piper snorted. “Fine. Information?”
“I’m heading to West Memphis. Southland Park.”
“The dog races?” Piper scrunched her nose. “We can find Boone at the tracks?”
“McKnight says Boone has a bookie there. Which reminds me—I need to call Eric to meet me.” He pulled out his phone.
“Us. Meet us.”
“No. Not us. This is police business, Piper.”
“Fine, but if I just happen to feel like watching greyhounds grace the tracks, don’t be surprised to see me.”
Luke should have taken stock in Rolaids. Better to have eyes on her than let her go rogue. “Fine.” He scrolled to Eric’s name. “And wipe the smug smile off your face. You didn’t win. I’m going with the lesser of two evils.” Besides, she was ridiculously cute with it plastered across her face.
Eric answered. “I’ll take a double pepperoni and a two liter of Coke. The real thing. No diet.”
Luke grinned. “How about dog racing instead?”
“Ah. Information. So what does my egomaniac friend have to say about Boone?”
“You are talking about McKnight, right?” Eric knew Holt from the Academy days.
“Yes. You’re just a maniac. Is our little ninja playing nice today?”
“I’m with her now.”
“So she is. Or...do you need me to call an ambulance for you?” He chuckled. “Okay, dog races. Southland Park? Why?”
“Boone’s a gambling man. We could find him, or maybe Smoky the bookie has some info.”
“I’m sorry—did you just say ‘Smoky the bookie’? What are we? In a Marlon Brando film?”
Luke grunted. “He even wears a fedora and has a gold tooth.”
“Count me in. I love dogs and fedoras.”
“Meet you there in forty-five minutes.”
* * *
Luke threw the Durango in Park and texted Eric. Piper waited impatiently. Every second that leaked by was a second longer Harmony was gone and Piper was a sitting duck.
“He’s already inside. Keep your eyes open for Boone, too. Just in case.” Luke grabbed his phone and scrolled through the camera roll. “This is Willis Fitzgerald, aka Smoky.”
Piper studied the face. Smooth skin, bushy eyebrows. Beady eyes and a big gold tooth. “Okay, got it.”
“Let’s do this, then.”
They exited the Durango and made their way inside. Gambling machines dinged as patrons dropped quarters hoping for a line of cherries. Coins clinked into metal slots, and laughter hung in the air almost as thick as the cigarette smoke.
Eric waved and lightly punched Piper’s arm. “How you feeling?”
“Sore.” Inside out.
“Should we sweep the gambling hall or go to Winner’s Edge?” Eric asked.
“The kind of gambling he does probably wouldn’t go on in that room. Race just started. Let’s search the Main Mezzanine first.” Luke stalked past the poker and blackjack tables, straight through the slot-machine area lining the wall and to the section with theater-style and free table seating. Piper and Eric trailed along.
The smell of greyhound and dwindling paychecks hung in the air. Luke stood over the brass railing scanning the small wooden tables with red tops and private televisions keeping up with the race. The wall of windows opened to greyhounds sprinting around an oval track.
Eric strolled through the tables.
“Where’s he going? Dinner?”
Luke grinned. “He’s taking the south end. Lot of tables to cover.”
“Should I go that way?” She pointed to the far end. They could cut Smoky off, make sure he didn’t slip from their grasp.
“Are you a police officer? Screaming ‘Freeze! Police!’ doesn’t make you official.”
She sighed. “It slowed him down, didn’t it?”
Luke grunted and kept his focus on the faces. Piper spotted a black leather fedora. Short, portly man. “I see him.”
He better have some answers.
They weaved in and out through the clusters of gamblers. “Stay with me.”
Piper and Luke neared Smoky. He raised his head, held Luke’s eye contact, then glanced behind him. Farther in the distance, Eric was coming his way.
“He’s gonna pull a greyhound,” Piper whispered.
“Yep,” Luke muttered.
Smoky and the big dude with him lit out of the corner and rushed through the tables, knocking over a trash can and zipping from the Main Mezzanine. Piper hurdled the can and made like a cheetah.
Luke growled something between his teeth, but Piper didn’t have time to listen.
He edged up beside her. “I’ve got this, Piper!”
“Yeah, I see that.” She blew past him and made a sharp right.
Smoky had lost the fedora but kept running. He jerked right, the other guy left, and blasted through the doors into the casino. Piper stayed on Smoky’s tail, bobbing between casino-goers, Luke right behind her.
“Yell it or I will, Luke!” This guy wasn’t going to get away.
Luke hollered, “Freeze! Police!”
Smoky darted around one cocktail waitress and smashed into another; a round tray of drinks clattered to the floor before she did.
They were going to lose him unless she cut the jerk off. Piper zipped left.
“I said stop!” Luke growled. A collision overpowered the dinging of slot machines. Piper glanced back. The big guy had come out of nowhere and belted Luke in the chin. Luke returned the punch and tackled him.
Should she help him? Smoky would get away. Luke was a big boy. She had to take down Smoky. An elderly man shuffled across the floor with a pile of chips, and Piper nearly careened into him.
Smoky appeared at the end of a nickel-slot-machine row, a grin on his face as he looked back at Luke cuffing the big guy. You just wish you were home free, Willis Fitzgerald.
Piper erupted from the side and tackled Smoky to the floor, his head nailing the carpet with a thud. She pressed his cheek into the floor. He deserved the carpet burn.
An older woman squealed and onlookers surrounded her like a SWAT team.
Luke split the crowd and stared down at her, the big guy in front of him with a scowl on his face.
Piper wasn’t sure if Luke was appalled or amazed. Either way, this punk was hers. She craned her neck at Luke. “Don’t worry. I didn’t put him under arrest for ya.”
“Well, it’s the little things that bring me pleasure.”
“Get off me!” Smoky’s foul words bounced off Piper as if she wore an invisible shield.
“Shut up!” she countered.
“This is po-lice brutality.”
Eric jogged up, took in the sight on the floor and cocked his head, a mischievous grin quirking. “I don’t even know why we come to work.” He removed his cuffs from his belt and held up his shield.
Most of the crowd scattered. Folks in this place didn’t want to get too nosy about police business.
Eric held out the cuffs to Piper. “You wanna do the honors?”
Luke dropped his jaw. “Are you serious?”
“Nah.” Eric chuckled. “Smoky, you have the right to run from a girl. You have the right to be pummeled by a girl.” He hauled him up and leaned toward Piper and whispered, “No offense on the whole girl thing.”
“None taken.” She frowned. She’d yet to figure out Eric Hale.
“Smoky, you even have the right to holler ‘police brutality.’ Had a police officer shoved you to the ground and smashed your face into the carpet.”
Luke shot Piper a glare.
She didn’t have the decency to blush for going overboard.
“You also have the right to tell us what you know about Boone Wiley.”
>
Smoky shrugged out of Eric’s grasp and brushed his hands on his jeans. “I don’t know no Boone Wiley.”
Luke shot forward, venom in his eyes. “You do, and if you don’t tell us what we want—”
“We’ll sic her on you again,” Eric interjected and pointed at Piper.
Luke rolled his eyes. “I’ll haul your boy here in and take a closer look at your activity today. How would you like that?”
Smoky shifted his sight to Piper. Yeah, I dare you to even try it.
“You’ll let him go?”
Luke worked his jaw. Under normal circumstances, she guessed he wouldn’t.
“Against my better judgment.”
Smoky nodded at his giant friend. “Whatcha wanna know?”
Wise decision.
Luke uncuffed the guy. He rubbed his wrists, mumbled a few choice words and disappeared. “When was the last time you saw Boone?”
Smoky squared his shoulders. Probably trying to get back the dignity Piper had yanked from him. “He was here two weeks ago. Owes me six large, so when you find him tell him he better pay up.”
Strong motive to hunt down something valuable. Maybe Sly told him about something he thought Piper or Harmony had taken in the past. She looked at Luke. His eyes said he was thinking the same thing.
“How often does he come to the track?” Luke cracked his middle knuckle and studied Smoky’s face as he answered.
“Depends on how much he owes. Right now he better not show until he has my money. You feel me?”
“I’d rather not.” Luke sniffed. “He come in here alone or with friends? A girl?”
Smoky jutted his lips forward. “Mostly alone. But I seen him stroll in a time or two with a big dude. Drove a pimped-out Cadillac.”
“Derone Johnson,” Piper said.
Luke nodded. “You know where he lives?”
“I ain’t his mama.”
Luke raised his eyebrows at Eric. Eric handed Smoky his card. “You see or hear anything else, call us. We’ll make sure he knows you want your money.”
Smoky glared at Piper. “You really not the po-po?”
“No.”
He rubbed his back and grumbled, “A’ight, man. We done here?”
“For now.”
Smoky was a dead end, but they had a few more trails to sniff down.
* * *
Piper kneaded the back of her neck as Luke and Eric chatted over dinner. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, leaving the night windy and starless.
After the chase at Southland Park, Luke had dropped her at the rehab center to visit with Mama Jean while he and Eric tracked a few leads on Derone.
Piper’s stomach had growled like an angry bear, but as Luke and Eric brought up Ellen Strosbergen, her appetite had gone to pot.
A server brought another round of sweet tea and made googly eyes at Luke. Another emotion rumbled in her stomach. Luke wasn’t hers. No right for jealousy over an overflirtatious server.
“We could at least try to talk to Strosbergen,” Eric said. “Maybe something went missing that wasn’t reported.”
Piper’s face heated. Luke’s eyes were on her. She pushed a baby tomato around her giant sirloin strip salad.
“You weren’t there, Eric. When Kerr and I interviewed her, she’d already forgotten about the attack. Couldn’t even figure out why she was in the hospital. But hey, she did remember her great-aunt Lily was a lovely quilter.” Luke paused as if Piper had something to offer.
She didn’t. “When I said I didn’t know anything about what happened in that house that night, I meant it. I’d tell you if I knew.”
Luke shoved his plate away, ignored her and looked at Eric. “Even if she could remember, her mind’s fragile. And nothing she said would hold up in court.”
“Then let’s talk to the great-grandson. His report was given.”
“He lived with Strosbergen. Came up clean as a whistle, and his alibi checked out. And the great-granddaughter was out of the country at the time. She was just as clean.”
“Okay,” Eric said and wiped his mouth, “they didn’t steal anything and can’t be connected to anyone who did. That doesn’t mean that something wasn’t taken they didn’t report. People hide things all the time. What if the old lady had valuables they didn’t even know about? Maybe over the years, she mentioned it to them, and they thought she was talking out of her head.”
Piper cleared her throat. “Anything is worth a shot. Ask them.”
“That’s that, then.” Luke paid the check, and they slid from their booth.
Eric left a generous tip. “I’m going home to get some sleep. Start fresh tomorrow.”
“See you then.” Luke stood on the curb as Eric headed for his car. “Piper, I need to run home, change and grab a few things before tonight. You mind coming by the house?”
“You mean before you sleep in your car all night? How can you start fresh when you have a crick in your neck? I’ll be fine.” She kept saying that. He kept ignoring her, because it wasn’t true. But she’d fake it until it was.
“I’ll feel better. So running by my house? That okay?”
No. She didn’t want to see where he lived. Didn’t want the memory of it—of wondering if they could have made a home together. “Yeah, sure.”
Luke opened the car door for her, then rounded the Durango and eased into the driver’s side. “Running like that earlier tortured my leg.”
“I resemble that remark. Only my side and neck.” She yawned and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were turning into a fairly new subdivision.
A park with a yellow slide came into view near a wooded area. A place children could play while moms and dads chatted. Piper should have said no.
Luke stayed as silent as the neighborhood.
“How long have you lived here?”
“About five years.” He pulled into the drive and rested his finger on the garage-door-opener button. “You...you want to come in?”
Did she? Yeah. But she wasn’t going to. While everything about her neighborhood was old, this home and community was all new. As if he didn’t want to be reminded of anything old—in the past. Of her.
“I’ll wait. I’m tired.”
Luke touched Piper’s hand, then drew away. “Okay. But I’d feel better if you were inside, where it’s safe.”
“Your garage isn’t safe?”
“Guess I just want you close.”
Why couldn’t he have said that years ago? Luke shut the door, and Piper closed her eyes, then opened them when the hairs on her neck sprang up. A chill ran down her arms.
Something didn’t feel right.
TWELVE
Entering the mudroom, Luke removed his holster and laid it on a table with his badge. He stepped into the kitchen.
What in the world?
It was torn apart. He turned to go for his gun when a hulking man in a ski mask and black hoodie came from nowhere, shoving him into the fridge.
Luke lost his balance but regained it quickly, wounds throbbing. He collared the attacker by the shoulders, putting distance between him and Luke’s gun, calling like a beacon from the mudroom table.
The man elbowed Luke’s nose. Warm blood dripped into his mouth. The taste of iron coated his tongue. Luke yanked his hoodie and caused the intruder to stumble backward. He turned and swung at Luke.
Luke ducked and rammed his shoulder into the assailant’s gut, sending him into the breakfast area and over a kitchen chair. The man grunted and jumped up, darting through the living room.
Luke hurled himself on top of him and wrestled with the ski mask. The man punched him in the wounded leg. A blinding pain ran up his side into his skull.
The creep lunged forwa
rd, but Luke remembered the trick Piper had taught him. He thrust the side of his hand toward the man’s carotid artery, making impact. He shook his head and Luke jumped on top of him, grunting and panting. “You are under—”
Something sharp sliced the top of his arm. He drew back. A serrated knife glinted.
Luke held his hands out, bracing himself for another attack. He watched the man’s eyes but kept the blade in his sight. The intruder swung the blade like a grizzly bear slicing at prey. Luke bounced back.
A brass bookend sat on the table next to him. He grabbed it, and as the attacker lunged again, he railed his arm with it, sending the knife skittering across the hardwood floor.
“Luke. I changed my mind. Maybe we do need to...” Piper’s voice trailed off.
“Get out, Piper!”
The attacker made like a linebacker and smashed into Luke, knocking him onto the love seat. Piper came at the attacker full force, nailing him in the gut.
Luke dived, knocking him to the floor, but he caught Luke on his already-sore jaw. Luke connected a jab to the ribs. Hoped he cracked a few.
Piper moved in, but the intruder must have caught her coming. He pivoted and rocketed into her with his full weight, sending her sprawling over the coffee table. Her feet flipped over her head, and she fell into Luke’s bookcase, several novels toppling onto her.
No!
The attacker reared back to pound her face.
Luke ignored the exhaustion and pain, channeling the fury at seeing Piper lying deathly still in a heap of books. He rushed him from the side, grabbing his fist.
Throw the cop out the door; this was personal. This was Piper. A guttural cry rose from his throat, and he threw the scum across the room into the wooden stair railing.
Grabbing on to the banister, the man stood and drew back, but Luke landed a left hook and a solid right uppercut. He toppled over at the edge of the stairs. “You think hurting women makes you a man.” Luke stalked toward him, ready to yank off the mask and pulverize some flesh.
He brought his fist down, but Boone, Chaz, whoever, rolled to the side and scrambled to his feet, fleeing for the back door. Luke ripped through the living room but froze when Piper moaned again. She might need an ambulance. He growled and balled a fist. Next time. He so hoped for a next time. This wasn’t finished.
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