Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Thank you,” Laurie said weakly. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or pissed. Why were they keeping her if Dwayne had already been released? Surely, he’d had a more dangerous condition than hers? “They didn’t just send him to a bigger hospital, did they?”

  “No. The note by his name said release and not transfer. We try to be pretty sure about that stuff.”

  “Of course.” That as a big duh. But still. Laurie thought of one more question before the girl made it out the door with her cart. “Hey, did they tell you if they thought I would still be here for dinner?”

  The girl only shrugged. “Sorry, ma’am. I can get the duty nurse if you want to talk to her about it.”

  “No, thank you,” Laurie said quickly. She needed to get her mind together and figure out what was really going on before she decided on a course of action.

  Lunch was some kind of chicken breast on a plate with mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans. It really didn’t look too bad. It was kind of bland. Laurie had to use the packets of salt and pepper to give the food some real taste. But she supposed that when you were attempting to make meals for people in the hospital, you couldn’t exactly go with lots of spice and pizzazz. People in hospitals were supposed to be sick after all.

  “Did you want today’s paper?” Someone else in scrubs stuck their head through the door of Laurie’s room. “I’ve got a few options. I don’t know where you’re from. We get a lot of tourists in here and the sometimes prefer The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, so we have those. But I’ve got the Branson Register too.”

  The mashed potatoes on Laurie’s tongue turned to sawdust. She reached for the bottle of water that had come with her lunch tray and took a drink in order to swallow. “I’ll take the Register, please?”

  “Here you go.”

  The paper was put on the end of her bed and Laurie just stared at it for a moment. It wasn’t a particularly large newspaper. It was folded in half and she could only see a few things on the one side of the lower half of the front page. It didn’t look too bad. She was kind of afraid to pick it up. But that just made it more like ripping off a bandage. She needed to just pick up the stupid paper and have a look at it for herself.

  Laurie watched her own hand reaching for the paper as though she was having a sudden out of body experience. Then she pulled it closer and smoothed out the front page. The headline hit her with enough force to make her want to crawl back under the covers and never come out.

  “Oh, God.”

  “Security Manager at Branson Landing Goes Ballistic on Tourists.”

  The low male voice was inexplicably filled with warmth. Laurie looked up to see Younger Adair standing in the doorway with a sympathetic expression on his face. Laurie bit her lip and ignored him for a moment as she scanned the story. What she read made her too sick to continue eating. It made her too sick to ever think of eating again. She didn’t know what to do.

  “He really threw you under the bus on this one,” Younger murmured as he sat on the end of her bed.

  Laurie wished she at last had some decent clothing This hanging out in a hospital gown was not cool. She wanted to go home. She wanted to go home right now. And then she wanted to find Josh Bentley and string him up from the nearest tree.

  “How could he say this about me?” Laurie whispered as she read the words. She cleared her throat and read out loud. “According to former military security expert Colonel Joshua Bentley—United States Army Retired—Ms. Laurie Talcott has no experience with security at all and even less in the way of people skills. Colonel Bentley admits to a recent concern that the stress of the busy tourist season has been too much for Ms. Talcott’s fragile mental condition.” Laurie looked up at Younger. “Fragile mental condition? Really? Do I strike you as being all that fragile?”

  Younger didn’t answer right away. He pursed his lips and lounged back against the foot of her hospital bed. He was so graceful and sure of himself. If Laurie had tried to do that she would have either fallen overboard or hit one of the millions of little electrical buttons on the stupid bed, making it shoot to the ceiling. She probably would have given herself a concussion and wound up increasing her hospital stay into the bargain. But Younger had this way about him that defied what people might think of as normal. What Laurie thought of as normal. Every move he made was careful and yet natural. He didn’t have to worry about being clumsy because he just wasn’t. He was nimble and athletic and when he did anything, so help her, Laurie just wanted to watch.

  “I would really appreciate it if you answered a couple of questions for me and just heard me out before you get upset and throw the rest of your mashed potatoes at my head,” Younger began in a perfectly calm tone of voice. His face was absolutely serious.

  Laurie nodded. She didn’t really have anything to say anyway. What was the point?

  “Did you know Hilary Allenwood came here last night?”

  Laurie blinked. Her gut tightened and she glanced down at the story that Hilary had written. The conclusion was on some other page of the paper that Laurie had not read yet. “No. I didn’t know that.”

  “You’d fallen asleep by the time I came back in here last night. So, Titus and I left the hospital and gave the security guard strict orders not to let anyone in, especially Ms. Allenwood. He was to call us if she tried to slip back inside your room.” Younger paused for a moment. “Titus had already spoken to Josh last night before he came here to the hospital with me. Briefly. It didn’t go well. We just wanted his version of what happened last night.”

  “Oh? And what was his version?” Even after reading a tiny portion of the newspaper story, Laurie could well imagine what Josh’s version of events was.

  Younger made a face. “Let’s just say he was very sure if he had been in charge the entire incident would not have happened. He didn’t understand why you seemed to lose your mind. There was some stuff in there about him being very concerned over your mental state. He made a point of telling Titus he’s very concerned for your health and your well-being and that he’s worried this just isn’t the job for you.”

  Laurie suddenly burst into tears.

  She was horrified. Of course, probably not as horrified as Younger Adair. The man looked as though she had just scared him silly. His face paled. He half turned to look out the window as though he couldn’t watch. It would have been comical if she hadn’t been struggling so hard to get herself back under control. What was wrong with her?

  “I’m sorry,” Laurie said tearfully. “I don’t usually bawl like this. I don’t do the whole girl-in-tears deal. I’m just so mad about this stuff.”

  “You cry when you’re mad?”

  “Sometimes.” She started to laugh through the tears running down her cheeks. “It’s just a relief, I think, for the pressure.”

  “Oh.” Now he looked relieved. “That actually makes some sense. Like a pressure relief valve or something so your head doesn’t explode.”

  Now she was really laughing. He was so adorable with his brow furrowed in deep thought over the idea that someone could cry because she was so angry. Sometimes Younger acted as though he was completely naïve when it came to the fairer sex. She had the urge to ask him if that was true. Had he never been in a serious relationship before? He obviously wasn’t married. No ring. No talk of a wife. And if men were married, they typically got used to tears even if they didn’t like them.

  “Yes,” Laurie told him with a smile. “So that my head doesn’t explode. Even though I would really like to make Josh’s head explode right about now. I can’t believe he said all that stuff about me!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “Well, I feel like it is.” He pursed his lips and looked chagrined. Then he scratched the back of his neck and sat up a little straighter on the end of her bed. “It’s possible that by allowing Hilary to interview you last night, we might have been able to avoid her going to Josh, which she obviously did.”
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  Laurie drew back, feeling miffed. “You mean that you sort of let her get this crap from Josh just to see what he’d say?”

  “Kind of.”

  For just a moment she felt as though she was going to be really angry. She felt it building inside her head like a volcano about to blow its top. But then, just when she thought she might burst open, she realized even though she had just been shredded in public by a man she had once thought of as her friend and most valuable coworker, she now knew where he truly stood.

  “Maybe he really is concerned,” Laurie mused softly. She stared at the words Josh had said about her and tried to see it in a different light. “Maybe I really am incompetent. I know that I haven’t had a lot of security experience, per se. Most of my background is business and public relations. But you’re not supposed to be some commando when you’re managing mall security. It’s not a military installation or some government building.”

  “Exactly,” Younger agreed. He nodded his head. “That’s what Josh seems to have difficulty understanding. He wants to lock it down like a military base. That way you could keep all bad elements out of the place for good. But where does that end? Checking bags at the entrance? Metal detectors? Making people empty their purses? Not allowing strollers? Where do you stop and when does it become so unfriendly for a customer just to pop in to check on a sale or to stop by for a meal at a restaurant that people eventually just go elsewhere?”

  It was a startling speech, mostly because it was right on the mark. Younger was a security consultant. And yet he could see how things needed to be run there at the Landing. Why couldn’t Josh do the same? Why did he think they needed more personnel and more equipment and bigger and better and just more?

  “Josh is a former military colonel,” Younger began in a murmur. The way he looked at her! She felt the urge to reach out and just touch his hand. “I can’t even begin to tell you what it’s like for someone in Josh’s position. They have all of these resources at their fingertips and they use them. That’s how it works. End of story.”

  “But we are a corporate-run outdoor mall,” Laurie said almost to herself. She stared down at the photograph accompanying the newspaper story. It showed the courtyard at Branson Landing where the fire and water show took place. There were people and flashing lights and they’d driven an ambulance down as close as possible. “We can’t afford to waste a bunch of overhead on bigger security. We need to go with higher quality and more efficient methods.”

  “Right. But that’s not what Josh knows and it isn’t what he’s good at,” Younger argued. “Believe me. I’m not defending his position. I’m just suggesting that’s how he thinks.”

  “And he thinks anyone who doesn’t think like he does is an idiot,” Laurie added wryly.

  Younger gave her knee a gentle punch with his fist. Even through the layers of hospital blankets, she felt the warmth of his touch. Her mind wandered for a moment. It wandered to the reality of what it might be like to have a man like this in her life. Someone she could go to when she was feeling like she just wanted a big hug. A warm presence in the bed at night. Someone to hold her close and laugh and whisper ridiculous things to in the darkness. She had never been one to want a relationship, but at the moment she was starting to wonder if she had denied herself some really beautiful experiences into the bargain.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Younger didn’t like Laurie Talcott. At least that’s what he’d been telling himself since the moment she had walked into the office at Rock Wolf Investigations. She was pushy, except when she suddenly acted timid. She appeared like she knew everything until she unexpectedly didn’t know anything at all, or at least it seemed. She was totally inconsistent and never seemed to know her own mind. Yet he was beginning to get the feeling there was a reason for her incongruent personality.

  The way she stared up at him made him feel strange inside. Squishy was the word that came to mind. He felt soft and very strange. Her bemused expression became more dramatic with the tears still glistening on her dark lashes. Her big blue eyes were bright and she looked adorably bedraggled in her hospital gown. She had been through hell in the last twenty-four hours, that much was sure. Nevertheless, she could sit there and have a lucid conversation with him even when she had no idea if she was going to leave this hospital and go home or be escorted to the police station to be charged with a crime she hadn’t committed.

  “Josh has always been so helpful to me,” Laurie told him after a moment or two. “He’s always acknowledged that I don’t have nearly the experience that he does in the security field and so he’s freely offered me what information he can, you know?”

  “Is that right?” Younger had his doubts. “And he’s done this in a way that makes you feel good about the information he’s offering? He’s made it a collaborative effort where he acknowledges that you have more experience in retail and in retail situations and dealing with the general public and their wants and needs when it comes to buying and selling goods and services? He’s done that?”

  “Well, no.” She looked mildly confused. “I think it’s more complicated than that.”

  “Is it?” Younger wondered if she even realized the guy was gaslighting her. At least, that’s what Younger suspected was going on. “So, he makes it seem like he has all of this knowledge about security and how to handle it and how to manage personnel and what it takes to be a good field agent. Is that right?”

  “Well, yes. He’s a retired Army colonel remember?” Her voice was firm.

  Younger pursed his lips. “Laurie, Josh was a colonel. As far as I know anyway. But the guy was a colonel in the motor pool.”

  “What?”

  “He was in charge of vehicles. When they got their maintenance done, who was driving them, which ones needed to be replaced, where they were going, purchasing, that sort of thing. He was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood a few hours north of here. And he never saw any overseas action. We are not talking about guarding high-risk areas or anything of the sort. He had a work force of mechanics and lackeys who could change a tire or fill out a rental form. That’s it.”

  The shock on her face was palpable. “But that’s not what he said!”

  “Are you sure?” Again, he had to be gaslighting her. Josh was making himself sound far more grandiose than he actually was. He oversold his own abilities and then belittled not only her abilities but her qualifications in order to make himself look like the superior person.

  Laurie looked confused. Her brow knit in deep thought and she kept opening her mouth as though she was going to try to say something only to close it once again. She was still doing this when the doctor walked into the room with Sergeant Caprico by his side. Younger had to really work to keep his face impassive and his temper under control. Mathias Caprico was a first rate loser by Rock Wolf Investigations standards.

  “Ms. Talcott,” Dr. Williams droned. “I wanted to come and chat with you for a moment about your blood work.” Dr. Williams’s gaze flickered toward Younger and then cut quickly away.

  “All right,” Laurie said with a nod. “What did you need to say about it? Did you find anything strange in my bloodstream?”

  Sergeant Caprico was quick to respond. “Yeah, we wanted to know how long you’ve been using cocaine.”

  “Excuse me?” Laurie drew back in shock. “Cocaine? I don’t use drugs. Period. Not recreationally. I don’t even take much in the way of supplements. Some melatonin when I can’t sleep, but that’s it. And I use plain aspirin for headaches.”

  “Well, you had a significant amount of cocaine in your bloodstream last night,” Dr. Williams informed Laurie. “It had to have gotten there somehow.”

  Younger stirred from his spot on the bed. He unfolded himself and noted with satisfaction that he towered over both Dr. Williams and Sergeant Caprico. Good. He was not about to let them just steamroll right over poor Laurie with this bit of information.

  “Hang on just a second, gentlemen. The reason I requested the full
tox screen last night was because Ms. Talcott was describing a situation last night in which she nearly lost consciousness, was having issues with her vision and nervous system, and might have possibly been drugged.”

  “Yeah, but who drugged her?” Caprico said with a sneer. “It sounds like Ms. Talcott has been so stressed at work that she started using drugs to cope and wound up sending herself off the rails.”

  “And who told you Ms. Talcott has been stressed? Hilary Allenwood? Sergeant Caprico, I would have thought that in the last few months you’ve learned to be cautious of what that woman reports in the Register.”

  “Oh really, why is that?” Caprico stuck his jaw out aggressively, but Younger wasn’t about to back down.

  “Seriously? Do I really need to remind you about that murder at the dance club or Kari Jo Mounds’ stalker? The police department and Hilary Allenwood have been awfully chummy lately. Just because she thinks this is a good story doesn’t make it true.”

  “I don’t do drugs,” Laurie said again. Her blue eyes were huge and it was easy to see that she was starting to worry she had been set up to take a fall. “I don’t know how that got into my bloodstream. I felt awful. It was like I was fine one second and then… We were standing on the steps watching the start of the show. He handed me an iced coffee.”

  “Who?” Younger asked sharply. “Who handed you the coffee?”

  Laurie turned and looked at Younger. “Josh. Josh was drinking an iced coffee and he handed one to me. It was right before the skateboarders appeared with the water guns.”

  “What water guns?” Caprico scoffed. “You’re just making this stuff up as you go along! What? Were you really that high?”

  Younger shot Caprico a dirty look. “You’re kidding, right? Did you guys do any interviews of the crowd last night?”

  “Well, of course, but uh… we were more concerned with getting the man that Ms. Talcott beat up to the emergency room.”