“Listen, you wanted answers, and this is me giving you answers.” I shrugged. “You’ll never believe me unless I show you, and I can’t do that if you aren’t willing to play.”
“You’re a fraud,” Campbell said.
“If you say so,” I answered with a smile.
Nathan Murray slipped a ring off his finger and handed it across the table. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find the person who gave you that ring,” I answered. Within seconds, a vision popped into my mind. A cemetery with weathered headstones and several dimes buried in the ground. I frowned and glanced down at a woman’s platinum ring. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Explain,” he answered.
I gestured to the ring. “The person who gave that to you, or owned it before you, is deceased in a cemetery and surrounded by dimes. To be any more detailed, I’d need my map to pinpoint the location.”
“She’s right.” Nathan Murray’s gaze softened.
Sheriff Harrington opened the door and let Gwen and FBI Agent Fillpot into the room.
“I was sure you’d bring Max instead of him,” I said as I rose.
“Max is in court, or I would have.” Gwen’s gaze landed on my busted lip then lowered to my torn dress. “Who did that to you?”
“It’s nothing,” I said. “The other guy took it worse.”
Fillpot flashed his credentials. “She’s one of mine.”
“No, I’m not,” I protested.
“The entire Bennett family is being watched by my division. Whatever you think she did, she didn’t.”
Gwen took me by the arm and was about to lead me out when I paused and turned back toward Nathan. I handed him his ring. “Thanks for offering to save me. Not that I needed it, but I still appreciate it.”
“Not that you needed it,” Nathan said.
“Wait, we weren’t done here,” Campbell called out.
“Yes, you are,” Fillpot said. “The director is expecting your call.”
We’d made it out into the parking lot before Gwen started in. “Serving subpoenas again?”
“Don’t start,” I said, glancing around and realizing that my car was still at the restaurant. “I was killing two birds with one stone and handling both my client and the papers at the same time. Only my client was late.”
“Why did the FBI pick you up?” Gwen asked as she yanked open the passenger door to her car.
“I don’t know. You didn’t leave me in there long enough to find out.”
Fillpot strolled up before Gwen could shut the door. “One of your clients was murdered.”
“Which one?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
Chapter 3
After a restless sleep, I rose the next morning and showered, taking extra care of my wounds. Overnight, the dark purple bruise under my right eye had turned a yellowish green tint. My lip bore an angry jagged line where it Tanner’s ring had split it open. I looked rough. I lifted my mug and hissed at the sting on with my busted lip. Aggravation seeped down my spine while I tried to drink my coffee using only the left side of my mouth.
I should’ve taken a picture. I should blow it up and add a section on my fridge of things not to do when working. Most times, I knew my mark as well as I knew my sisters. I studied their habits before approaching them. There was nothing ever left to chance. Except for yesterday.
Bill Tanner didn’t even own a gun, much less have a license-to-carry permit.
I stood at the fridge staring at pictures of past clients. They all smiled, holding up objects that I’d helped find. The thought of one of them being dead rattled within my chest like pennies in a Mason jar. Was it my fault they’d gone looking in the first place?
A knock pulled me from my morbid thoughts. I turned and strolled to the door with coffee in hand and pulled it open. FBI Special Agent Nathan Murray stood on my porch.
“Here to put me in handcuffs again, Agent Murray?”
His gaze landed on my busted-up face. He flexed his hand and slid them into his pockets as if to stop reaching for my wounds. “I should have never let it get that far.”
“I shouldn’t have either, especially when there was a glass on the counter within reaching distance.” No way would he have known I would get into a fistfight with a weather man who wore more rings than my grandmother. Unless of course, Agent Murray was prone to premonitions like my sister. “What are you doing here, Agent?”
“Nathan,” he said, sliding his hands out of his pockets. “Can you spare a few minutes?”
“Sure.” I stepped out onto my porch. The delicate floral smell of my rose bushes drifted to my nose on the morning breeze. One neighbor, dressed in a dark blue striped robe, ambled to his mailbox to get his newspaper with his faithful dog jogging happily by his side.
My neighborhood was quiet most days until Sundays when, like clockwork, members of each family would be out working in the gardens or lawn. I wasn’t one of those people, but I’d wave on occasion.
“We didn’t get to finish our questioning yesterday.”
My ego fell like a sack of potatoes. Any hope he’d come to ask me out on a date fizzled and dried up like yesterday’s sun showers over hot coals. The steam was apparently only one-sided. “How can I help?”
I sat on the swing, folding my legs beneath me, and sipped my coffee, waiting for him to find the right words.
“How long had Herbert Guillot been your client?”
“Is he the one who died?” I asked. Him being late made more sense.
“You know?”
“Fillpot told me it was one of them. He just didn’t give me a name.” I swallowed hard. “But to answer your question, I’d guess maybe two months, but I’d have to check to be sure of his first appointment.”
“Do you remember what he was looking for the first time he came to you?”
“Sure, only because it was odd. It wasn’t the typical lost piece of jewelry or missing relative. It was something more unique.”
Nathan pulled a coin out of his pocket and held it between two fingers to show me.
It wasn’t a coin from this century, heck, probably not even the last. It was pure gold and looked like a Spanish doubloon or one from a pirate treasure. I knew it. “Herbert wanted to see if I could locate more gold coins.”
“And did you?” Nathan asked.
“You know the answer to that, Special Agent,” I answered. “It was all over the newspapers. I’m just glad he kept my name out of the equation.”
“It didn’t upset you that he hadn’t told the press that you were the person responsible for giving him the location?”
“Upset me?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee. “He referred to me as his own personal compass. Like I told you yesterday, I don’t mind helping people find things or missing people as long as it’s legal. Herbert was more like an armchair treasure hunter. I just helped nudge him in the right direction. That’s all.”
Nathan sat down beside me on the swing instead of taking one of the other chairs. He slowly rocked us as I sipped.
“The reason we were at the restaurant was because we were following you.”
“Why would you do that? My life is far from exciting.” Most days I took client phone calls from my house. Only on occasion did I have appointments that had me leaving the confines of my walls. Not to mention once-a-week trips to the grocery store. How much fun or interesting could that be?
“Your name was in Herbert’s appointment calendar. You were supposed to meet with him yesterday. We wanted to see if the killer would show in his place.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Did you send Herbert on a quest to New Orleans?” Nathan asked.
“Well, yeah,” I said as my stomach turned to rocks, much like those in my garden. “Herbert has been searching for loot from a bank heist ten years ago. He believed after talking to some psychic that the hundred-dollar bill with the bank dye that he’d recently come in
to possession of was part of the loot the robbers hid before they all died in a plane crash. He hired me to see if I could help him locate the rest. Do you know anything about the bank heist?”
“Yes,” Nathan said tilting his head from side to side as if trying to ease the muscles in his neck.
“You know the story, then?” I asked.
“I know every last detail about that story. My mother was killed by the robbers.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” I glanced down at the ring he was wearing on his pinky finger. “What does this have to do with me, and why would you believe a killer would show up at Herbert’s appointment?”
“Herbert Guillot was found dead in New Orleans. He had the hundred-dollar bill with the dye on it in a hidden suit pocket.”
“You don’t think I sent him there to die, do you?”
The rocking stopped, and Nathan turned to stare at me. His look became serious. “Everything at the crime scene had been wiped. There was no DNA, except for one place. Someone closed his eyes and left a fingerprint behind.”
“That sounds like someone he probably knew or someone who had remorse.”
“We agree.”
“I hope you catch the guy. Did you have the fingerprint in your system?” I asked as dread twisted in my stomach.
“Sort of. We don’t have his name, but it was tied to another case,” he said, clasping his hands together “The print belongs to a dead man, one of the bank robbers.”
“You think one of the bank robbers that killed your mother is still alive?” I understood it now. Why Nathan was sitting on my swing and he hadn’t brought his bald partner from yesterday. This was personal. The stakes on getting answers were just as high for Nathan as they probably were for Herbert’s family.
“Yes, and we believe Herbert’s killer is coming for you next.”
“Why would you think that?” I asked as panic laced my veins. The morning breeze was not so lovely anymore as I tried to process this information.
“Mr. Guillot’s appointment book had a page ripped out for the date of your meeting at the restaurant.”
“If it was ripped out, then how did you know it was in there to begin with?”
“His calendar syncs with his computer and his internet cloud service.”
“Am I in danger?” I asked.
“You’re the only person who stands between a criminal and his freedom to hide in the wind with millions of dollars. I’d say you’re in considerable danger. The question is, if you’re willing to help me track the killer so I can catch him.”
“Of course, I’m willing, ready and able,” I answered.
“Even if it means leaving town with me?”
“Let me pack a quick bag.”
Nathan
Chapter 4
He didn’t know what he expected, but Cassie Bennett wasn’t it. She wasn’t about the money. She could have demanded half of Herbert’s find or even lied and gone to find the money herself.
She wasn’t like that. She wasn’t like that at all.
Unusual, sure. Beautiful, absolutely. But a gold digger? He wasn’t buying it. But that was what his partner, Campbell, believed.
Something had always struck Nathan as odd about the theft and what happened to the robbers. He wasn’t inclined to believe that karma played out. Only three bodies were found in the plane’s wreckage, leaving one suspect unaccounted for. His superiors believed animals ravaged the other body, considering the plane had crashed into the side of a mountain. He was never even convinced the fourth one was on the plane to begin with.
He’d met many women who claimed to be a psychic and she’d offered him a reading. He’d put a few of her kind in jail. Cassie’s reading of the ring had proven she had some type of skills.
There was no insignia or inscription on the ring he wore on his pinky. Nobody knew whom it belonged to, including Campbell. But Nathan knew. He’d visited his mother’s grave once a month. And each time he was there, he promised the same thing. Not to find peace, love, and happiness but to find closure and bring all involved to justice.
Cassie jogged downstairs, pulling a suitcase behind her. “My sisters are going to be upset that I left town before waiting on our important package.”
“What package?” he asked.
“A family heirloom that my relatives need me to tap into to find the rest of us crazy Bennett nuts.”
“Sounds important,” he said, trying to inject sincerity into his tone.
She patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, Nathan. I’ll get one of my sisters to pick it up.”
“Keeping our destination a secret will help keep our location off the grid. The less the killer knows the better.”
Cassie crossed the room and pulled open a filing cabinet. “And you’re sure we need to go to New Orleans?”
“I’m not sure of anything,” he said as he slipped an evidence bag out of his pocket and dangled it from across the room. “Do you believe that’s where the money is?”
She crossed the room and took the evidence bag from Nathan’s hand and examined it front and back. The red dye splatter covered enough of the bill to make it unusable. “May I open it?”
“Sure. You’ve seen that one before. That’s Herbert’s bill. I was surprised that the killer didn’t find it on him.”
“Maybe to throw you off your game. Could be that he wanted you to think Herbert was one of the robbers.”
“Maybe.” He slid his hands into his pocket, hoping she could pinpoint the location just as she had the fact that his mother was in a grave.
The truth was they’d run out of leads years ago, until one of the bills with the stolen serial number resurfaced again. He needed this. He needed her for answers.
“How long is this going to take?” he asked, following her across the room to the dining table where a map was already opened and laid out.
“You’re nervous.” She said it as more of a statement than a question.
Damn right, he was nervous. He gave her a curt nod and folded his arms across his chest.
“Normally I like to do this more than once just to be sure,” she answered, slipping a necklace from around her neck. She held it over the map, closed her eyes, and forced out a sharp exhalation.
Nathan watched, trying to understand her ritual. Trying to make sense of how this might be possible. He drew a blank the longer he waited.
The crystal arced in circles as she moved it back and forth over the map of all fifty states. He had no idea what was going on in her mind, what she might be thinking, but she rubbed her thumb on the tainted money, and the crystal landed with a clank on the table.
She and Nathan both leaned in to read their next destination.
“Well, it looks like your money grew legs and moved, because it’s in Texas now.”
“You’re sure?” he asked.
“The crystal doesn’t lie. Give me a minute, and I’ll try to narrow it down.”
He nodded. This was worse than he thought. Cassie crossed the room and pulled a book off her bookshelf. She walked back over to the table and opened an atlas, flipping until she got to a map of Texas.
“This should point us to our mystery town. I don’t have any detailed Texas town maps that give us streets, but hopefully, wherever we land, we can find one when we get there.”
She did the same thing over again. Her crystal dangled over the map, and Nathan couldn’t watch. He turned his back to her and paced away while rubbing his jaw. When it landed with a thud, he turned around.
“Tell me it isn’t Millville.”
She leaned in to read it and met his gaze. “How did you know?”
“That’s where I grew up and where the robbery occurred.”
Her mouth parted, but she didn’t have to say a word.
“If you’re returning home and the robber is still there, you’re going to spook him.”
“No, I’m not. I return home once a month, and this month is special.”
“Why is that?”
/>
“The annual domestic abuse ball. My mom was a major supporter of the cause, and my sister is competing in a rodeo. Double the reasons for a visit.”
“Okay, just one teeny tiny question,” Cassie said, holding up her pointer finger.
“What’s that?”
“How are you going to show up with me? A complete stranger.”
“That’s easy. You can be a girlfriend.”
“Do you bring many of those home to meet the family?”
He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “No, but that’s the reason everyone in town will buy it.”
“And how do we explain this?” she asked, pointing to her busted lip and black eye.
“The truth. You were serving a subpoena and got hit by accident. We don’t need to alter your life at all. Just include me in it.”
“Are you sure the killer didn’t show up yesterday?”
He shrugged. “We’ve reviewed the footage and didn’t notice anyone familiar or suspicious.”
“If you’re sure he took the appointment information, then he has my name, and it wouldn’t be hard to find out what I look like.”
“You’re right. A hot beautiful blonde wouldn’t be hard to spot in a crowd.”
“You think I’m beautiful.” A smile claimed her lips and lit her eyes. “Don’t answer that.” Cassie rubbed her fingers together. “If we’re going to pull this off, we needed an expert in all things chameleon. My sister Gwen will help.”
Chapter 5
Gwen thought was doing me a favor in trying to talk me out of going to Texas, but she wasn’t successful. I was going whether she liked it or not. That was why Nathan was standing in her living room and I was with her in the bedroom. She kept peeking out the door.
“What the hell were you thinking in bringing him here?” Gwen whispered.
“You’re the only that I trusted to transform me,” I answered over the sound of the hairdryer. My once-blonde tresses were now brown, similar to Gwen’s. “I forgot to ask, have you talked to Grams about Talia?”
Gwen worked as an agent for Fairy Damn Godmother. They were like bodyguards when they needed to be, and Gwen was their resident chameleon. If anyone could change my appearance into something other than my everyday-Jane self, it would be her.
Pay Dirt (Bennett Dynasty Book 2) Page 2