by Renee George
“No. I’ve been in there.” Twice. “This isn’t his home office.”
The camera grazed past a window. “Pause it.” Parker pointed to a building. “Isn’t that Davis Auditorium?”
“You’re right.” Davis Auditorium was the college’s gymnasium. “This office is in a building directly across from the front of the gym. What building is that?”
“You’re asking the wrong guy. I’ve been to a couple of games at the auditorium, which is why I recognize it, but I don’t spend much time at Two Hills Community College.”
“We can ask Ryan.”
“Why?”
“He works on campus, and he won’t ask a lot of questions about why we want to know.”
“Or we could just take a drive down to Two Hills.”
“I thought you and Ryan were friends?”
“We are.”
“You sure don’t act like it.”
“I don’t like the way he acts around you.”
“He’s perfectly nice to me.”
“Exactly. Too perfectly nice.”
I laughed. “You know that Ryan Petry has zero interest in me.”
Now Parker laughed…well, it was more like a “hah!” than a laugh. “He flirts with you constantly.”
I shook my head. “Well, I’m not interested in him. That’s all that should matter to you.”
“Ryan has a way of turning a girl’s head.”
I stood up from the desk and put my palm on Parker’s cheek. “You are the only man who turns my head.”
He stared down at me, his blue eyes flickering between uncertainty and relief. “I don’t think I could take it if it weren’t true.”
“It’s true, Parker. I am only interested in you.”
He leaned down and pressed his warm lips against mine. “Now that we’ve settled that, maybe we should call Ryan.”
“Let’s check these other files first.”
“Who are you looking for?”
“I’d rather not say unless it ends up being necessary.” I sat back down and unpaused the office video. Parker put his hand on my shoulder and leaned down to watch with me. We saw Donnie’s face as he placed the camera at a high angle in the room that captured from the door to the desk. Donnie left the room, and the camera, after sixty seconds, turned off.
“That’s weird.” I clicked the next file. The video started with the door opening. Mr. Kirkshaw, the financial aid guy, and Ms. Lovell, my GED instructor, walked into the room. I stifled a gasp.
Parker’s hand tightened on my shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yep.” This wasn’t the moment to tell him that I’d just seen the man this morning, and then spent seven hours with the woman. Besides, nothing was happening at this point except for some small talk about scheduling. “The camera seems to be motion-activated. I don’t know why he’d save this though. It looks pretty harmless.”
And then Ms. Lovell pulled down the shades.
“Uh oh.”
“Things are about to heat up.”
Ms. Lovell, who was such a nice lady, began kissing Mr. Kirkshaw, who was kind of yucky. Ew. “He’s married,” I said, remembering his wedding ring. “The home videos I could write off as something he did for private enjoyment, but this is too much. I think Donnie had to be blackmailing some of these people.”
“Which is why we should stop watching and call Nadine at the very least,” Parker said reasonably.
“Not yet.” I wasn’t turning anything over until I was certain Reggie wasn’t implicated.
The next video made me blanch. “Crap.”
“That’s Lacy Evans.”
“Yes, it is.” I quickly moved on to the next. It was Rachel, the electronics lady from Walmart. As I made my way through more of the videos, I was disturbed by how many people I’d recognized, and I was only halfway through.
Parker squatted next to me. “Lily, you know I’m not going anywhere, so you might as well tell me who you think might be on here. Who are you protecting?”
“I’m hoping you will never have to know.” He lightly pushed his elbow into my ribs. It tickled.
“You have a nice laugh.”
“Thanks.” I smiled as I clicked on the next file.
It was Parker’s turn to say, “Crap.” I paused on the brunette’s face. “That’s Jerry’s wife, Shelly.”
“No way.” I recognized her as well. The woman from the bar who’d confronted Donnie after Rachel. “I saw her having an intense conversation with Donnie at Dally’s. I had no idea she was Jerry’s wife.”
“You think he knows?”
“No, I don’t. He talked about Donnie’s reputation when he took me home last night, but he didn’t act like a man scorned.”
“These files are going to open a whole can of worms.”
“I’d love to delete the entire thing, but someone killed Donnie Doyle, and that someone is probably in these files.”
“Like your friend.”
“She didn’t do it.”
He raised a brow but didn’t say more on the subject.
After glimpsing the rest of the files, which ended up being more make-out movies, none of which were Reggie, I breathed a sigh of relief. I scooted back from the desk as Parker stood up and flexed his knees. “He didn’t have a type, did he?” There were women of all ages, hair color, and build in those files.
“His type was female with a pulse,” Parker said with a heavy dose of disgust. “How someone can do that to all those women, violate their privacy and trust, is beyond me. I’m surprised someone didn’t kill him sooner.” He rubbed his face as if he could scrub away all the awful he’d seen. “Can we call Nadine now?”
“Yes, now we call Nadine.” Before I could take out my phone. Parker put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “What was that for?”
“I’m glad your friend wasn’t on there.”
I looked up at him, my chin resting on his chest. “Thanks. Me too.”
I met Nadine at The Cat’s Meow. Parker stayed home with the dogs on the promise that I would return after with a double-bacon onion ring burger and a large order of steak fries for him.
My stomach dropped when I saw Reggie sitting with her in the corner booth. The diner was busy as Freda worked her way to each table, refilling tea and coffee as she went. She nodded as I passed her on my way to the table. “Lily,” Nadine said enthusiastically. “How are you feeling?”
“Me?” I sat down on the same side as Reggie with my back to the crowded room and across from Nadine. “Why do you ask?” I worked to tune out all the conversations surrounding us so I could be present with my friends.
“You know…” she prodded. “The big day today. You were pretty bummed when you picked up Smooshie.” She looked at Reggie. “She knows, right?”
“Knows what?” Reggie asked.
I waved my hand at Nadine. “I’m regretting telling you.” I turned to Reggie. “I took my GED today at the college.”
Reggie’s frown disappeared. “That’s so great! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’m sure you aced it.”
“I’m not confident. I’ll probably have to take it again. I feel like I really blew the math and history parts. I’m pretty sure I got the year wrong for the War of 1812.”
Nadine’s mouth dropped open. “It’s…”
“1812,” Reggie and I said at the same time. We both laughed.
Nadine grinned and shook her head. “I meant it when I said you’re one of the smartest people I know, but there is no sense worrying about how you did now. When do you get the results?”
“They said we will have the results on Monday.”
“Two days.” Nadine smiled. “That’s not too bad.”
“Two days of torture, you mean.” I winked at her. Truth was, I hadn’t really thought about the test since finding Reggie’s earring. Nothing like a friend crisis to put your problems in perspective.
Freda carried a tray of food to the table. “One chicken salad.” She slid th
at in front of Reggie. “One tenderloin with sweet potato fries.” She slid that plate over to Nadine. I hadn’t ordered yet, so I was surprised when she sat a heaping plate of food in front of me. “A lion special for Lily. A half-pound burger stuffed with pepper jack cheese, topped with double bacon, sharp cheddar, and lettuce, tomato, pickle chips, and jalapeno slices. Fries with the works.” The works included chili, nacho cheese, bacon, and chives.
My stomach growled. “This is a fantasy plate right here.”
“You can thank Buzz,” Nadine said. “I told him you were coming for dinner, so he put it up with my order. He’s been dying to try this one out on you.”
Freda gave me a tight smile. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Sweet tea. Thanks, Freda.”
She tucked her pad away in her pocket. “I’ll be right back.”
“Not that I’m not glad to see you, Lily, but you said you had something for me.” Nadine stuffed a sweet potato fry in her mouth. “So, gimme.”
I stole a glance at Reggie. “Addison and CeCe found this when they took the collar off Doyle’s pup.” I held out the collar.
“Does it have blood on it? Fingerprints? Is it a weapon? Help me out here, Lily. It looks like a small collar.” Nadine took another bite of her fry.
I snapped the collar open, exposing the thumb drive. “It’s more than that.”
Nadine coughed, quickly chewed and swallowed. “Is that what I think it is?”
I leaned in close and lowered my voice. “If you think it’s a storage drive full of incriminating videos, then yes, it’s exactly what you think it is.”
Reggie let out a soft “oh.” I looked at her and shook my head. “I took a look because I wasn’t sure what would be on there. It’s not pretty. I recognized a few people, but nobody I know well.”
Reggie’s thin fingers trembled as she took a drink of her pop.
“Girl, are you okay?” Nadine asked Reggie. “You look like you swallowed a bug.” Her eyes widened. She looked down at her plate then back up to our shaky friend. “You didn’t swallow a bug, did you? Because I love that man in there, but I will not hesitate to shout bloody murder if he is serving insects on the side.”
Reggie laughed nervously and patted her tightly coiffed hair. “No. No bug. But now that Lily has shared some surprising news about Donald Doyle, I guess it’s my turn.”
I held my breath, willing her to stay silent. It wasn’t that I didn’t think Nadine should know. On the contrary, as our friend, the cornerstone of our trio, she had to be told. But I also knew that once Nadine knew, she would have to report it to the sheriff. She had to choose her job. It was the right thing to do, but it didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt Reggie.
“Did you find something when you examined him?” Nadine leaned forward with professional, yet eager curiosity.
Reggie’s cheeks colored. “Not exactly. I’ve given the case to Dr. Azan, a medical examiner I studied under. He’ll be down tomorrow to do the postmortem exam.”
“On a Sunday,” Nadine said. “That’s dedication.”
“He’s a good friend.” Reggie bowed her head.
“But why are you handing off the case?”
When Reggie didn’t answer right away, I reached over and took her hand under the table and gave her a squeeze for courage.
Nadine placed her palms on the table. “Okay, you guys are fah-reak-ing me out. Just spill already.”
“I can’t do Donald Doyle’s exam…” Reggie said, “…because I slept with him.”
“What? How? Never mind how. When?”
Reggie teared up. “Last week on Tuesday, after the bar closed.”
“How very interesting,” a voice said behind me.
I felt my claws tear through the tips of my fingers and had to pull my hand from Reggie’s.
Of all the people in the world to overhear our conversation, why did it have to be Naomi Freaking Wells?
Chapter 13
I gave Nadine a “How could you not notice that my nemesis Naomi Wells had sat down in the booth behind us?” look.
My friend was already moving out of her seat to stand. Her voice was low, firm, and unfriendly. “You cannot report this, Naomi. Doyle’s case is an open investigation.”
Naomi raised her perfectly waxed eyebrow, her expression all cat-that-ate-the-canary. The contemptible woman stepped closer to Nadine, which put her right next to me. She spoke in the same quiet tones Nadine had adopted. “So you do think he was murdered?”
Nadine narrowed a steely gaze on the reporter. “I didn’t say that. We’re waiting for the postmortem.”
“Which hasn’t happened because the town coroner and medical examiner, it seems, is connected to the case...,” she smiled, “...intimately.”
Reggie turned ghost white as Naomi let the accusation drip from her lips like poison.
My predator roared to the surface, but I yanked her back. Luckily, my hands were on my lap and hidden by the table, otherwise everyone would’ve seen my claws. Once I got my temper under control, I put myself between Nadine and Naomi. I had to go up on my tiptoes to get close to her face. “What do you want?”
“You mean in exchange for forgetting this little conversation?” she asked. Triumph lit her mean gaze. “I think you know my price.”
The knot in my stomach enlarged. I’d been warned by the prosecuting attorney not to discuss my witness statement for the Katherine Kapersky murder with anyone, but at this point, I was willing to do whatever it took to keep Reggie from the kind of humiliation a story in the New St. Louis Dispatch would bring. “Fine. I’ll talk to you. And you’ll never open your mouth about what you overheard today?” Or I’ll rip your face off, I silently added.
She stared down at me, her blonde hair spilling over her slim shoulders. She smirked. “The only story I’m interested in is the one standing right in front of me.” Naomi leaned sideways, not that she needed to since she towered over me by six or seven inches, to peek around me at Nadine. “It’s so nice to see you, Deputy Booth.” She nodded to Reggie. “Dr. Crawford.”
Reggie and Nadine left for the sheriff’s station shortly after the Naomi fiasco. Nadine didn’t want to take a chance that Naomi wouldn’t keep her word. Reggie needed to make an official statement before Naomi could break her promise. I wanted to go along, for moral support, but Nadine pointed out that my presence wouldn’t make the sheriff feel any kindlier toward Reg. She wasn’t wrong. The sheriff saw me as an antagonist in the story of his life.
As I left The Cat’s Meow, movement near my truck put me on high alert. I let the paper sack with Parker’s dinner sag next to my thigh. If I needed to drop the meal, doing it from that height would give it the best chance to survive any strange encounters.
I let my cougar slip forward into my eyes and the darkness abated. The figure was a man, medium build, and in his thirties. I didn’t recognize him.
I made my voice a growl as I loudly asked, “Who are you and why are you skulking around my truck?”
The guy stepped off the pavement and onto the sidewalk, effectively blocking my way to the driver’s side door. “Give it to me,” he demanded. He reached out with trembling hands, his heart beating so loud I could hear it with my sensitive ears.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Right now, we can chalk this up to a mistake on your part, but if you don’t leave me alone, I will hurt you.”
He took a step toward me then hesitated. “Your eyes,” he said. “What’s wrong with your—”
A speedy blur crashed into the man and knocked him to the ground.
Uncle Buzz was on top of the man, his knees on the guy’s shoulders, his arm raised and his hand balled up into a fist. Hair had sprouted on my arms during the quick encounter, but Buzz still looked completely human. No fur, no fangs, no claws, and his eyes were one-hundred percent non-feline. I guess it was the difference between living with normals for forty years versus one year. Buzz was a cool customer. Still, he’d moved with Shifter spe
ed. That would be something he wouldn’t want to explain.
I looked around the parking lot. A few people had gathered outside the diner’s door. Goddess in a box, this might get ugly if anyone was taking video. I forced my inner animal to calm down. But seeing a gun next to the man made it a much more difficult task. I sucked in a breath.
“It’s all right, Lils,” Buzz said. He pushed the gun a few feet from the now crying man. What in all the levels of hell was this guy’s problem?”
I turned to the crowd once my mundane night vision returned. “Someone call the police.” I knelt down next to Buzz and the stranger. I looked at the man, who I could see now had light brown hair and hazel eyes.
He blinked up at me. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to hurt you, I swear it.”
“Is that true?” I put a lot of power into my words. “You didn’t plan to hurt me?”
“Only if you wouldn’t give me the flash drive. It was a last resort.”
“Uh huh.” My stomach clenched, and I felt like throwing up. I’d grown up in a dangerous world of magic and werecreatures who liked to fight and kill as much as anyone else, but I’d never even seen a gun until I’d moved to Moonrise, and to date, I’d been shot at three times. Anger overrode my fear. “Who are you, and why did you want the drive?”
“My wife,” the man said. “She told me…she told me what Doyle did to her. He raped her, and he filmed it. I can’t let anyone see what he did to her. It would destroy her.”
More likely it would destroy him. My mojo was in high gear, so I knew the man believed what he was saying. The problem was if his wife was one of the many women on the drive, she’d lied to him. There wasn’t a single woman who hadn’t been a willing bedmate. “What’s your name?”
“Richard O’Reilly,” he said.
“O’Reilly Florist Shop,” Buzz said.
“My mother’s business,” Richard replied. “I work at the bank.” He shook his head. “Give me the drive. Or better yet, destroy it.”
I could hear sirens before I saw the lights.
“I’m sorry, Richard. It’s too late. I already gave the memory stick to a deputy.”