by Jane Hinchey
Was I scared of him? Of course I was, I wasn’t an idiot. But I also knew how to defend myself and the last time a man had raised his fist to me I’d left him curled up on the floor nursing bruised balls. Crude but effective. Thor jumped off the sofa and disappeared.
“Smart cat.” Lee sneered, “at least one of you has some brains.” Then he launched at me. I ducked, avoiding the fist gunning for my face, then hooked one foot behind his ankle, planted my weight and swung around, sweeping my other foot out wide as I put myself behind him.
“What the?” He swung around, searching for me, only I was ready for him, right up in his face, or more importantly, my knee was right up in his business. The crunching noise took us both by surprise. I froze, knee in his groin, eyes on his face, while his own eyes widened then went cross-eyed. He made a strange noise but other than that, didn’t move. I wasn’t even sure he was breathing.
I could hear Thor talking in the background, meowing to God only knows who, but ever since he’d learned the trick of operating my phone, he’d taken to calling people randomly. Usually he managed to pull up my last call and simply hit re-dial with his paw. But the trick Ben had taught him had saved my hide, so I had zero complaints that my cat was running up my data plan.
Standing on one foot was not a skill I could sustain for any amount of time, so I removed my knee from Lee’s nether regions and stepped back, far enough that I was out of punching distance, but close enough I could jump in and give him another taste of Fitzgerald medicine if he made any sudden moves.
He didn’t. He toppled and there was nothing graceful about it. Over he went, sideways, hitting the floor with a crash, his skull bouncing so hard I flinched. Thor was still chatting away, and I spared him a glance. He’d pulled my phone out of my bag that I’d tossed onto the dresser in the hallway and was now sitting next to it, giving whoever was on the other end a blow by blow account of what was happening. At least that was what I assumed, but as I skirted around Lee and got closer, I heard what Thor was actually saying.
“I mean,” he flicked his tail, “I don’t think it’s too much to ask to keep my bowl fully stocked, right? But you’re right, it probably won’t be an issue now she’s finally moved in. Living here part time just wasn’t working for me, I need round-the-clock care.”
“Thor!”
He jumped in surprise, leaped into the air and landed on the floor gracefully. “All taken care of?” He asked, craning his head around to get a look at Lee, who still hadn’t moved or uttered a sound. I was starting to feel concerned.
“I thought you were calling for help?” Picking up my phone, I held it to my ear. “Hello?”
“As much as I enjoy my chats with your cat,” Galloway drawled in my ear, “you probably should lock your screen so he can’t use your phone.”
Yeah, but then he couldn’t call for help when I needed it. Not that he’d been as much help this time around, but still.
“Yeah, yeah.” I carried the phone back into the living room to keep an eye on Lee. “You remember that time when a guy came to my house and tried to punch me and I kneed him in the nuts?”
“Yeeeees. Why?”
“It’s kinda happened again. Well, not kinda. It has. It has happened again.”
A full three second’s of silence. “What am I going to do with you?” He sighed.
“Well, not arrest me would be good. But if you could come arrest Lee Noble, that’d be great.”
“It’s Noble? You should have led with that!” A flurry of activity in the background, Galloway barking out orders. “We’ve just issued an arrest warrant for him.”
“For Myra’s murder?”
“For the bank robbery. We found the van.”
“Where?”
“In the garage of Eli Duffy.” Galloway said. “Eli, it seems, is not the smartest tool in the shed. Noble had told him to hide the van. So he did. In his own garage. Correction. His mom’s garage ‘cos he still lives at home. When she asked him to take some garbage to the tip, he used the van. A patrol recognized it, and with it not sporting plates, pulled him over.”
“Nice.” I grinned.
“It gets better.”
“Oh?”
“Eli hid his share of the loot in the van. It wasn’t much—we already knew that—so he stashed it in the glove box.”
I snorted. “Smart.”
“Right? Anyway, he’s young and stupid and was scared witless when we arrested him. He rolled on Noble straight away, said it was all his idea, he’d arranged the whole thing.”
“Well, he’s here whenever you’re ready.” I offered. Lee was starting to stir, rolling to his side and curling into a ball. I cocked my head and watched as he groaned, long and loud, then pushed up onto his hands and knees. “Actually, he’s starting to shake it off I think,” I told Galloway, “so the sooner the better might be best.”
“Patrols already on the way. Go lock yourself in the bathroom.”
Holding the phone away from my ear, I looked at it in shock. Lock myself in the bathroom? Was he nuts? It was like he didn’t know me at all.
“Pft.” I hung up, then pulled up my voice recorder app and hit record.
“Help’s on the way.” I said to Lee. He lifted his head to shoot me a glare, started to crawl but then stopped on a hiss of pain. I walked around him, into the kitchen, opened the freezer and took out the bag of frozen peas I’d used on my shoulder. I tossed them at him, winced as they smacked him in the side of the head. I couldn’t have aimed better if I’d tried.
“Try those.” I offered. “Might help.”
“Bitch.” He ground out, grabbing the peas and shoving them down the front of his pants. Gross. Those peas were going in the bin after this.
“It was you, wasn’t it, who shot at me down at the docks?”
“Too bad we missed.” He spat. “Would have saved all this trouble now.”
“I’m not sorry at all.” I grinned, plopping myself on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island and placing my phone on the bench. “For one, I wouldn’t have missed this. This,” I waved at him on the floor, “is priceless.” Then I sobered. “But you made me roll my best friend’s car. That wasn’t cool.”
“I heard you had an accident.” He sneered.
“Accident my ass. You were chasing me. Shooting at me. Trying to kill me.” It was sobering, saying it out loud. I wished Ben were here, for despite all my bravado with Galloway, the reality of having Lee Noble force his way into my house and threaten me was, quite simply, horrifying.
“Was Myra with you?”
“Not at the docks.”
“But she was earlier. She was your getaway driver, wasn’t she?”
Lee looked at me, not saying a word. “Oh, don’t worry, you can tell me. The police were on the way to arrest you, anyway. Some guy called Eli told them the whole thing.” I couldn’t keep the glee out of my voice.
“That snitch.” Lee growled. “He’ll pay for this.”
“I’m sure he already told the cops who your little gang is. Face it, Lee. You’re busted. But tell me something… Ashley Baker. Is she involved in this? After all, you and your pal Rhys setup her sister to take the fall for drug smuggling.”
Lee snorted, then with one hand clutching the peas down his pants, he hobble crawled, pulling himself to his feet using the sofa as leverage. I watched him carefully. I’d be ready if he decided to launch himself at me.
“Quite a surprise seeing Ash here.” Lee said, breathing deeply. I could see sweat beading on his forehead. Good. Pain was still high, which meant movement would be slow. I was safe. Blow me down with a feather when he pulled a gun from the back of his waistband and aimed it at me.
21
“Shit.” I whispered. I hadn’t counted on a weapon. Hadn’t thought to search him for one either. Gonna lose even more PI points. Slowly, I raised both hands.
“You going to shoot me now, Lee?” I asked.
“Pretty much.” He agreed.
“
Before you do, one thing?”
“What?”
“Myra? I can’t go to my grave not knowing…”
He studied me, gun aimed at my heart, considering his options I assumed. I mean, he could pull the trigger and leave my curiosity unsatisfied. But then he could gloat. Be proud of the murder he’d gotten away with. For I was sure he’d killed her, I just couldn’t understand why. And I had no proof. For the longest time I’d thought it was Jacob, that his quirky, obsessive nature had been the impetuous behind Myra’s murder.
“Okay sure, why not?”
I blinked. He’d fallen for it. My ploy to buy time. Didn’t he believe me when I said the cops were on their way? Maybe he thought he had enough time to gloat, then kill me, then get away? But I’d take this, I’d take his ego over dying.
“So you’re saying, just to be clear, that you did kill Myra?” Once more for the recording please Lee.
The hand holding the gun waved in the air as he spoke and it was all I could do not to duck. “Yeah, I did it. Silly cow didn’t even see it coming.”
“Well no, I wouldn’t have thought so considering you stabbed her in the back.”
He chuckled. He actually chuckled. “Good one.”
I frowned. “What?”
“I said, she didn’t see it coming. Cos she was a psychic.” Oh. He was laughing at his own joke! Pathetic creature he was.
“What I’m not understanding is why? Weren’t the two of you in love, getting married?”
“You like that? That was a little seed I planted with young Ash. Despite what happened to her sister, she’s so naïve.”
“I’m really not following.”
“Lemme dumb it down for you.” Lee sighed, adjusting the frozen peas. I refused to lower my eyes to his crotch, instead kept them glued to his face. “Myra and I are two of a kind.”
“Thieves? Frauds?”
Lee shrugged, “Doesn’t matter what label you give us. We were the same, me and her. Always thinking, always scheming. Only I was one step ahead of her.”
“How?” I asked.
“She thought we were in it together.” He shrugged.
The penny dropped. “Ohhhhh. You were intending to rip her off? Take her share of the spoils? Or trick her into giving it to you. Was the plan always to kill her?”
“I know she can be a vindictive bitch, I wasn’t taking any chances with her. We’d do the job, get the cash, leave town.”
“Leave town?”
He glanced around, as if checking no-one could overhear us. “The plan was to rob the bank, announce I had a new job in La Tireno and that Myra was moving with me. Only she wouldn’t make it to the new destination. No one would miss her. Everyone we left behind in Firefly Bay would assume she was with me. And no one in La Tireno would have been expecting her. She’d simply disappear.”
“But her business? Her clients?”
“I have all her logins and someone lined up to take care of her website. A nice little side earner.”
“And she didn’t know any of this? That you were planning to cut her out?”
“How would she? She’s not a psychic! She’s just damn good at reading people’s body language. Smart too. Just not smart enough for me.”
Oh, the irony. Myra Hansen had been duping and deceiving her clients only to be deceived herself by the one person closest to her. I wonder if she knew when she woke up dead? Did she figure it out, that it was Lee who killed her, and that’s why she was so upset? That the player had been played, and she’d had no clue?
“What happened to change your plans then? Why did you kill her in Nether & Void? No way you can write off a knife in the back as an accidental death. No way that was going unnoticed.”
“Yeah,” He grinned sheepishly, “my temper got the better of me I’m afraid.”
“Because of the money?”
“We were meant to get hundreds of thousands. What we got was a pittance. And we’d blown it. No way we could hit the bank again. But Myra had convinced herself that she could work the bank guy angle harder, had a plan to slip a trojan into his laptop, but she needed to get access to it first.” He snorted. “I told her the guy wasn’t stupid, that with the police asking questions he’d start to put two and two together.” Lee Noble was right. Jacob had figured out he’d accidentally leaked classified information to Myra.
“So you got angry… and killed her?”
“We were fighting. In her shop. She said she’d ask the cards what to do, that she’d do a reading, and was sitting at her table shuffling the stupid things like it was real!” His voice went up. “There was a knife she used for cutting up fruit. It was laying there. I picked it up and stabbed her.”
Then he leveled his gaze on me, along with the gun. “And now it’s your turn.”
I held out my hands. “Wait?”
“What now,” He sighed, “because I really need to get outta here and you’re just slowing me down.”
“For this!” Thor ran up the back of Lee’s body and attached himself to Lee’s bald head, all four paws gripped tight, claws embedded.
“Argh!” Lee tried to pry Thor off with one hand, staggering and crashing around, the hand with the gun waving wildly. I lunged for it, sending up a silent prayer it wouldn’t go off and accidentally shoot me, because that would really suck.
“Hold on, Thor.” I grunted, two hands gripping Lee’s wrist and trying to pry the gun from his grip.
“Oh, I am. Watch this!” Thor sounded like he was having way too much fun. As the three of us staggered around the living room, Thor scratched and clawed, maneuvering himself so his butt was in Lee’s face.
“Classy.” I puffed, finally wrenching the gun free.
“Police! Freeze!”
I shuffled backward, out of Lee’s reach, and held up my hands, the gun aloft in my left hand. Officer Walsh, gun drawn and aimed at Lee who was still trying to dislodge Thor, glanced at me. “You okay?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m just going to put this down, okay?” I jerked my head at the gun in my hand. I was making myself nervous holding it. What if I accidentally shot someone, myself included?
Officer Walsh skirted around Lee, not taking his eyes off him, “I’ll take it.” As he eased the gun out of my hand Thor suddenly howled in pain.
“Don’t you hurt my cat!” I screamed, launching myself at Lee who had punched Thor in the side. Oh, my poor kitty. I was raising my knee for another jab to his jewels when Galloway’s shout startled us all.
“For the love of God, FREEZE!”
We did. Even Thor. Slowly, I lowered my leg before I fell over. “Can I get my cat?” I whispered.
“Can she please get her cat!” Lee echoed.
“Affirmative.” Galloway said, appearing in my line of sight, gun drawn.
“Thor? Good boy, but you can come down now. Come here.” I coaxed.
“You’re sure? Cos I’m happy to stay here and scratch him up some more. There are some spots not bleeding.”
“Gracious offer, but no, we’re done. Come here, I’ll catch you.” Thor retracted his claws and leaped into my waiting arms. I cuddled him close, running a hand over his fur. “You okay? Are you hurt?”
Thor snuggled in under my chin. “He winded me, that’s all. Who hits a cat? Asshole.”
Lee, who was standing with both hands in the air, a pack of frozen peas shoved down his pants, and a bald head that was now scratched up and bleeding profusely, looked at us in utter astonishment. “Are they… talking to each other?”
Officer Walsh whipped out his handcuffs, securing Lee’s hands behind his back. “Lee Noble, you’re under the arrest for armed robbery.”
“And murder.” I interjected. I grabbed my phone off the counter and stopped the recording. “I have it all here. He admitted to killing Myra.”
“You recorded it! You bitch!” Lee twisted and turned in Officer Walsh’s grasp, trying to lunge for me.
Galloway holstered his gun. “Get him out of here.”
/> “Yes, Sir!” Officer Walsh jerked Lee, pushing him toward the front door.
“Easy, man.” Lee groaned. “She’s ruptured a bloody ball. I can barely stand, let alone walk.”
“Oh yeah, he may need medical attention.” I called after them.
Galloway turned to me, mouth open as if to speak, then slowly closed it and just looked at me.
“What?” Oh good grief, don’t tell me I had pizza sauce down my shirt? I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me, but I’d been extra vigilant while eating pizza earlier this evening. I checked. Nope, no sauce stain. Because I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I’d belatedly forgotten I was wearing nothing but a bathrobe. Galloway’s eyes darkened to a stormy gray as he looked me up and down before his eyes came back to mine. The heat in them was unmistakable.
An answering spark curled through me, heating me from top to bottom, curling into my abdomen. I could feel the flush of it in my cheeks. Galloway could too, for he lifted one hand and slid his palm over my cheek, cupping my face. I instinctively nestled further into his touch. That spark soon turned into a flame and I was pretty sure I was melting, for now my legs were incapable of holding my weight.
Seeing me wobble, Galloway slid his hands beneath my arms and lifted me onto the kitchen island, leaning into me. My legs locked around the back of his thighs of their own volition—I swear they have a mind of their own!
With our faces inches apart, his breath hot on my lips, he looked deeply into my eyes. So deep I swooned, and I’m not a swooner, but by hell, Captain Cowboy Hot Pants had some real serious seductive juju going on.
“The first time I kissed you, you kinda freaked out. The second time I kissed you, we were interrupted.” He said in a voice that made my knees weak.
“Third times the charm.” I replied, my voice all breathy and unfamiliar to my own ears.
“And I promised you I could wait.”
I nodded. “That you did.” I remembered, after our first kiss.
“And the next move would be up to you. When you were ready.”
