Marked for Murder

by Colleen Helme

  “So there is a connection to Manetto,” Chris said. “But how does that fit with you?”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure it does. I told you about the divorce, right? And how Jameson lost everything?” At Chris’s nod, I continued, “I’m sure that’s why he’s been stalking me.”

  “Yeah, I got that. So did you go to the building?”

  “Yes. When I told Uncle Joey about it, he sent me there with Ramos.” I knew Chris wouldn’t like that part, but he should be grateful I hadn’t gone alone, right?

  Chris’s jaw tightened and he nodded, thinking I was supposed to take Dimples. He knew Ramos was part of the equation when it came to Manetto, but that didn’t mean he liked how much time I spent with him. Good thing he’d had that conversation with him a few days ago.

  “What? You talked to Ramos?”

  Chris swore in his mind. He’d wanted to keep that from me and, now that I’d picked it up, he’d have to explain. It wasn’t something he wanted to do. Shaking his head, he let out a breath. “Shelby, you know I love you and… well, you’ve spent a lot of time with Ramos. He’s an attractive guy… not as great a catch as me, but still. I just needed to make sure we had an understanding between us.”

  He caught my gaze and held it. “I know he cares about you. It’s as plain as day. So I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”

  “Were you checking up on me?” I could hardly believe he thought I’d cheat on him.

  “Honey, I know you’d never cheat on me, but sometimes there are circumstances that test us. You can’t tell me you haven’t been tempted.”

  I twisted my lips and shook my head. He was right about that, but I didn’t want to admit it. “So what did you talk about?”

  “I just told him how much you mean to me and that I appreciated all the times he’s been there for you. You might not believe this, but I thanked him for risking his life for you. I told him that if he ever needed anything from me— except for you of course—I’d do whatever I could to make it happen.”

  Whoa. That had to be uncomfortable. I was glad I wasn’t there. “Okay. So how did he take it?”

  “Fine, I guess. He said it was all part of his job, but we both knew it was more than that.” Chris shrugged. “I’m sorry Shelby, but I needed to talk to him. This isn’t easy for me, but I’m trying to accept that he’s part of our lives. If I didn’t know you loved me and were committed to me and our family, I don’t think I could handle this.”

  “Oh Chris. I do love you. I’m sorry this is hard for you. It’s hard for everyone. I’m doing my best, but I can’t help it when things happen to me.”

  “I know. I get it. So what happened at the building? Did you find Beal?”

  “Not exactly.” I explained the room in the basement with all the pictures and articles about me. I grabbed my phone and showed him the photos I’d taken. “See that one? With us on the deck swing?”

  “Holy hell.” Hot anger filled Chris’s chest. “Wasn’t that just yesterday?”

  “The day before, but yes, it’s recent. Now you know why I didn’t want to go out there.”

  Chris could hardly believe Beal had gotten so close. “He must have a telephoto lens. From the angle, it looks like he was in our neighbor’s back yard.” Chris jumped to his feet and looked out the window, trying to figure out where the shot had been taken.

  “There’s a break through the trees there,” he said, pointing. “He could have been in his car, watching.” Chris turned back to me, his eyes blazing with anger. “So what happened after you found the pictures?”

  I told him how the door had been booby-trapped, and that Beal had thrown a Molotov cocktail through the window. I skipped over the part where Ramos took off his shirt, since Chris wouldn’t appreciate it, and explained how I’d been burned putting out the fire.

  “I called Dimples, and he dropped everything to come. But before he got there, Beal stood outside the basement window. At least I think it was him. All I saw were his shoes and pants. Anyway, Ramos drew his gun to shoot him, but he took off.”

  Chris wished Ramos could have shot him, and I had to agree. I continued, explaining that we’d talked to Jerry and had found the link to the condo because Beal’s son had a place there. “After we left the condo, I got a phone call. It was from Beal.”

  Dread washed over Chris. “What did he say?”

  “He said he was through holding back, and that someone would die at the wedding. I went straight to the precinct to tell Dimples to cancel the wedding, but he refused.”

  I continued, telling Chris that Dimples insisted on letting the chief and his fellow officers at the precinct know of the threat, concluding with my second visit to Beal’s son with Dimples that was a dead end.

  “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Chris asked.

  “Dimples has Beal’s computer. He’s going to look through it and see if he can find anything. In the meantime, the chief is taking charge of the wedding venue. I don’t think Dimples and Billie will cancel the wedding, so we’ll have to make sure nothing happens.”

  “That’s for sure,” Chris agreed, knowing Saturday was going to be a long day.

  “Ramos told me he’d be looking for Beal, too, but he didn’t tell me how.”

  “That’s probably for the best.” Chris squeezed me against his side. “Let’s hope he finds him. This is one time we can be grateful to have a hitman on our side.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. “There’s something else that’s bothering me. Beal got close enough to take a picture of us on the deck. Do you think he might target the kids?”

  “Who knows?” Chris considered it. “But I don’t want to take any chances. What’s going on tomorrow? Does Josh have to work?”

  “No, it’s his day off.”

  “How about this—if you aren’t home, why don’t we make sure they’re at a friend’s house? Do you think they’d be okay with that?”

  “Of course. Savannah spent most of the day at Ash’s, so she might be planning on going back tomorrow. Let’s go talk to them.”

  “Okay, but first, you never told me about Ethan,” Chris said. “What’s going on there?”

  “Oh yeah. I left a note in your desk drawer at work explaining it, but I forgot to tell you it was there.”

  Chris’s brows rose. “I’d better make sure no one finds it. So what did it say?”

  “It’s worse than we thought. When Ethan interned with the prosecuting attorney’s office, he tried to doctor a police report for a friend so he wouldn’t go to jail. This was after he’d received an offer to work for your firm. Strickland caught him and threatened him with disbarment if Ethan didn’t agree to spy on you. He didn’t have much of a choice, so he agreed.

  “Now it sounds like Ethan has a recording of you that he turned over to Strickland. I don’t know what you said on it, but Ethan was thinking that Strickland doctored the recording to make it sound like you gave Uncle Joey advice that’s incriminating to you.

  “I guess the plan was to use that recording to pressure you to turn on Uncle Joey. After Ethan got that midnight visit from Ramos, he had a change of heart. He told Strickland he wouldn’t go through with it. He also told Strickland that if he used that recording to come after you, Ethan would make sure everyone knew Strickland had falsified it.”

  “Wow,” Chris said. “I’ll bet Strickland didn’t like that much.”

  “No. Ethan thinks Strickland is going to “find” the falsified police report and submit it as evidence to get him disbarred. He thinks Strickland will probably go through with it tomorrow. Is there anything you can do to help him?”

  “There might be,” Chris said. “I need to see the police report in question. Without specific proof that Ethan falsified it, I could put forward the claim that the report could have been falsified by anyone in the department, especially after all this time. If Strickland knew about it a few months ago, he should have done something about it then. Why did he wait?”

 
“I like it. You’ll have to talk to Ethan first thing in the morning. He was pretty depressed about it today.”

  “I can do that.”

  I smiled, grateful that at least something was going right. “Well, let’s go talk to the kids about tomorrow.”

  After explaining the situation, they didn’t mind spending the day with friends, especially since Savannah already had plans to help Ash again. Josh normally hung out with his friends anyway, so that wasn’t a problem.

  “It’s probably not necessary,” I added, not wanting them to be worried. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  Savannah remembered opening the door to an escaped convict, who’d pointed a gun at her, and she didn’t want to experience anything like that again. “Is it okay if I get a stun flashlight like yours?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said. “We’ll order it tomorrow.”

  “Sweet.” With a big grin on her face, she picked up her phone to call Ash.

  With that settled, Chris took my hand and studied the blisters. “I think we should put some salve on that, and maybe a Band-aid or two. Then you should take some pain killers and get into bed.” Besides the pain killers, he thought of something else that would take my mind off my troubles.

  My eyes widened. “Reading a book? Really? That’s the best you can do?”

  He chuckled. “Just testing the waters.”

  He led me into the bathroom, but I opted to take a nice, long bubble bath before I did anything else. Later, once we’d gone to bed, I even got a good foot rub before Chris handed me the book I’d been reading. Somewhat disappointed, I opened it, but I didn’t get much further than the first paragraph.

  Let me just say… Chris is a master at distracting me in all the right ways.

  “Oh baby, oh baby.”

  I woke up refreshed from a good night’s sleep. The early morning light drifted through my window, and I stretched with contentment. Closing my eyes, I tried to stay in my little cocoon of happiness, but thoughts of the previous day rushed into my mind and spoiled it.

  Sitting up, I checked the time, finding it just after eight-thirty. Getting out of bed, I padded down to the kitchen and found a note from Chris. He told me that he loved me and asked me to keep him informed if I heard anything about Beal.

  I smiled, grateful for the note, and decided that I wasn’t going to think about any of that until after I’d had a scrambled egg for breakfast. Decidedly cheerful, I cooked enough for Josh and Savannah, along with some sausage links and toast. They always responded eagerly to the smell of cooking sausage and eggs, and it was easy to rouse them from their beds.

  We were just finishing up when my phone rang. After a pang of fear, I relaxed to see that it was Chris. With a smile, I quickly answered. “Hi honey. Thanks for the note. How’s it going?”

  “Shelby… honey… I… I’m sorry to tell you this, but… something bad has happened.”

  Dread ran like ice water through my veins. “What? What is it?”

  “It’s Ethan. He’s… he’s… dead.”

  I gasped. “No.”

  “It must have happened sometime last night,” Chris continued. “He didn’t come into work this morning, and he didn’t answer his phone when I called. Because we’re due in court this afternoon, we had planned to go over everything early this morning; so I knew something wasn’t right.” He paused, unable to continue, and I heard him swallow a few times.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m here. At Ethan’s place. I came over to see what was wrong, and I … I … found him.”

  “Did you call the police?” I asked.

  He let out a troubled sigh. “I was checking him for a pulse when a neighbor walked by. She called the police, but it freaked her out. She thought I’d killed him. The police are here now, but they won’t let me leave. It looks like they think I had something to do with this.”

  “Is Dimples there?”

  “No. I think one of the detectives is Bates, but I don’t know anyone else.”

  My heart sank. “Okay. I’m calling Dimples, and I’m coming right over. Don’t say anything else until I get there. I’ll be there as fast as I can.” I disconnected before he could say another word, and put my call through to Dimples.

  “Hey Shelby, did you find something on Beal?” he asked.

  “Drew, it’s not… it’s about Chris. He’s in trouble. He went to his junior partner’s apartment and found him dead. Bates is there with another detective, but they’re not letting him leave. Chris didn’t do it. I’m going over right now. Can you meet me there?”

  He swore under his breath before responding. “Okay. I’ll head over. What’s the address?”

  “I’ll text it to you.” My fingers shook so bad that it took me longer than normal to find the information. After sending the text, I glanced at my kids, realizing that they’d heard my side of the conversation and were freaking out.

  I quickly explained what had happened, and that Chris was fine but he needed me. I told them not to worry and that everything would be fine. Before I rushed off to get dressed, I picked up that they were worried, but they believed in me and my abilities to solve this.

  I also picked up that this might be one of those times when knowing a mob boss could come in handy. That thought came from Josh, and I tried not to let it worry me, mostly because I’d been thinking the same thing.

  “Should I still go over to Ash’s house?” Savannah asked.

  “Yes. That’s a good idea. Text me when you get there.” I glanced at Josh. “You too. Make sure you lock the back door when you leave.”

  “I will,” Josh answered. “Go. We’ll be fine.”

  I nodded, grateful for such wonderful kids. “I’ll text you in a little while with an update.”

  On the way to the apartment, I focused on my driving skills and tried not to think too hard about Ethan. But it was a struggle. How could he be dead? I’d just spoken with him yesterday. I’d promised that I’d help him figure this out. How had this happened? Who had done this to him?

  I made it to Ethan’s apartment in one piece, but my stomach swirled with anxiety. Part of me didn’t believe it could possibly be real. Another part of me dreaded what came next. I just needed to focus on Chris and being there for him. That kept me going.

  As the elevator doors opened on the fifth floor, a police officer told me it was a crime scene and I couldn’t exit the elevator. I showed him my ID badge. After a moment’s hesitation, he let me through. Hurrying down the hall, I spotted Dimples talking to Bates and let out a relieved breath.

  Bates scowled to see me, thinking that I shouldn’t be there. He moved to block me from entering Ethan’s apartment, but I pushed under his arm, needing to get to Chris.

  “Hey, you can’t go in there.”

  Inside, I jerked to a stop. Ethan’s body lay sprawled and broken on the floor. I hardly noticed the wreckage in the room. All I could see was the spray of red blood everywhere I looked. The coppery smell turned my stomach, and I swallowed to keep my breakfast down. I stood frozen at the sight of Ethan’s battered face. Was he really dead?

  “Ethan?” I stepped toward him, but strong arms held me back. Voices spoke, but I couldn’t understand the words. A loud buzzing filled my ears, and my knees buckled. Someone grabbed me around the waist, holding me up and pulling me from the room.

  Everything tilted as I sank to the floor in the hall. Dimples sat beside me, urging me to lower my head to my knees. I followed his directions and closed my eyes against the darkness. A few moments later, my vision began to clear, and the buzzing sound left my ears. I sat up and took several deep breaths.

  I glanced at Dimples, then lowered my head to his shoulder and swallowed. Every time I closed my eyes, the sight of Ethan’s broken body and battered face filled my mind. Even with my eyes opened, all I could see was how terrible he’d looked on the floor.

  I didn’t even realize I was crying until Dimples handed me a tissue. As I wiped my eyes, it sudden
ly dawned on me that Chris wasn’t there. “Where’s Chris?” I moved to stand up, but Dimples stopped me.

  “He’s not here. You need to—”

  “What? I told him I was coming.” I tried to get my feet under me. This time, Dimples helped me up, even though he thought I could still faint. As I stood, the hallway tilted just a bit, and I leaned against him until everything came into focus.

  “Maybe you’d better sit back down.”

  “No. I’m fine. Where’s Chris?”

  Dimples pursed his lips, thinking I wasn’t going to like it. “He went to the station with a police officer. Bates didn’t give him much of a choice.”

  “Why?”

  “For questioning… that’s all. He’s not under arrest, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

  I let out a breath, suddenly overcome with remorse. I should have picked up the danger Ethan was in and offered him some kind of protection. Maybe if I’d told Chris earlier yesterday, he could have helped Ethan and stopped this from happening.

  Now it was too late. Ethan was dead. I glanced at Dimples. “I might know who did this.”

  Dimples’s brows rose in surprise. Did I think it was Manetto? With Chris’s life on the line, maybe it was the one thing that would turn me against the mob boss.

  “What?” I couldn’t hide my astonishment. “What does he have to do with this?”

  “Come with me,” Dimples said, worried that someone was listening to our one-sided conversation. He also didn’t want Bates to know he was telling me things he shouldn’t.

  He took my arm to lead me away, then slid his arm around my shoulders to steady me. We didn’t speak until we had taken the elevator to the first floor and had walked outside into the sunshine. It took me that long to realize that Dimples wasn’t in his regular suit and tie. Instead, he wore jeans and a polo shirt.

  Today was his day off, and I’d called him to help me with this. Tomorrow was his wedding day, and a crazy madman was planning to stage a trap that could kill someone at his wedding. Yet, here he was, holding me up. I stumbled with the realization.