Lowell shoved his fingers restlessly through his hair and watched his men dragging big trunks out of the apartment. It was hard to believe that all of that stuff had been crowded into the bedroom. “At least it makes a little more sense why Kevin Eads came here when he should have run. He knew this stuff was here.”
“Detective,” Mindy said quickly. “I hope you’ve worked out that Kevin killed my brother. He kept going on and on about how Caprico told him I was trying to frame him for the murder. I couldn’t figure out why that was even on his mind when it hadn’t been on ours. And then I realized it was his conscience talking.”
“Caprico killed your brother,” Lowell insisted. He was now frowning again. “I know he did. He’s the one who had the laced stuff that the coroner’s office finally was able to identify in Darren’s body.”
“Caprico provided the drugs,” Mindy agreed. “But Kevin had a key to my apartment. Caprico had a lot on Kevin. All of those women. It’s going to take forever to find them. But Kevin would have done anything to keep all of that a secret and putting a bunch of pills laced with something deadly in my brother’s possession wasn’t going to bother Kevin. He hated Darren. Always had.”
Lowell cast a sideways glance at Titus. “Have you ever thought about hiring this woman to work at your firm? She’s got a great mind for it.”
Titus tilted his head and gave Mindy a long, apprising look. “You know, I hadn’t particularly thought about it until now. But you might be onto something.”
“Mindy has a career at the mirror maze,” Ash reminded Lowell and Titus. He glanced at Mindy and winked. “She’s next up to run the place now that there’s a manager position open.”
Titus looked thoughtful. “You know, I bet general managers don’t work nearly the insanely crazy hours that overworked shift managers do.”
“You’re right,” Mindy agreed. Then she pursed her lips. “Although, I’m not entirely sure how many hours I’ll need to work until I go in there and look. Providing they offer me the job. I’ve been absent a lot lately.”
“Yes. All of these personal family tragedies,” Ash reminded her. “I’m sure this will count against you as they look for someone to pick up the pieces of that business.”
Mindy gently elbowed him and laughed. Then she gazed at Titus. “What does my work schedule have to do with you and your business?”
“I’m in need of a secretary.”
It was Ash’s turn to be dumbfounded. He thought his jaw might actually fall straight to the ground. “What about Caroline?”
“Well,” Titus scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t know if either of you have seen this morning’s paper…”
Both Titus and Mindy groaned out loud. Mindy covered her face with her hands and gave a few muffled curse words. “Don’t tell me. I’m some insane woman who tried to jump out the window.”
Lowell actually looked amused. “Yep. It’s true. But only after the Rock Wolf Investigations performed an illegal act of entrapment to force you into helping them with one of their nefarious investigations.” Lowell looked over at Titus. “Is that about right?”
“I think so.”
“Caroline told them that?” Ash was aghast. Then he tried to imagine the scene in the office when Titus showed her the paper. “Did you fire her already?”
“No. Not yet.” Titus looked thoughtful. Then he offered Mindy a warm and very genuine smile. “But I am pretty sure Ms. Hall here could do Caroline’s entire job in a few hours. Just return phone messages, set up appointments, take a few emergency calls and forward them to the right people. That sort of thing.”
“Oh.” Mindy looked thoughtful. Ash could see the wheels turning in her head. She’d lived a life so close to financial disaster for so long that he could tell the thought of additional income appealed to her a lot. “Hourly or salary?”
Titus laughed. “How about salary. And no hurry. You find out what you can about a new possible position at the mirror maze and I will take care of the problem currently sitting at her desk shopping online. You can stop by in a week or two and tell me what you think. By then, I should at least have a job description and a salary offer ready to go.”
“Yes!” Mindy said hastily. Then she seemed to decided she needed to tone it down. Her cheeks grew red. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be overeager. That does sound like a really great opportunity and I would be happy to meet with you as soon as I know a little more about my current job situation.”
“Thank you, Ms. Hall.” Titus winked and then he and Lowell headed off toward the small army of unmarked DEA cars still taking apart Mindy’s apartment.
“I’m thinking that my kitchen stuff and my clothes are about all I’m going to need,” Mindy observed after a few more moments had passed and the DEA guys dragged her sofa bed into the front yard where they proceeded to take it apart just in case there might be something hidden in it.”
“Do you want me to intervene?” Ash wondered.
She glanced up at him. “I could yell at them myself too, you know?”
“I know. But I like doing things for you,” Ash admitted.
She looked thoughtful. “This is going to sound stupid.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“When I was in there with Kevin, the only thing I could think about was that I had totally screwed up with you. There I was in yet another shitty situation that could have been avoided by not being so damned stubborn about doing things on my own. If I had been smarter and not so determined to be out there like some survivor on a deserted island, you would have been with me and a lot of the bruises and drama could have been avoided.”
“That’s not really a fair assessment,” he chided. There was no way Ash was going to say the words I told you so. They were pointless. Besides. He respected her for wanting that independence.
“I’m not trying to be fair. I’m not worried about fair,” she whispered. She was gazing up at him with such a look of love on her face that Ash felt his mouth run dry. “I was just saying that I love you. And, if the offer is still open, I would be grateful and happy to move in with you. You’re the person I want to see first thing every morning and last thing before bed. I know this whole thing has been crazy and absolutely ridiculous and I realize everyone would say I’m rushing things, that you’re rushing things because we don’t know each other, but I know your character.”
“And I know yours,” he whispered softly. He cupped her cheek and kissed her lips and pressed his forehead to hers. “I want to marry you, Mindy. Right now. I don’t care about the rest of that stuff. I don’t care about any of it. I want to share everything that I have with you because you are a giver and I do not want to take a single thing from you without giving something back tenfold.”
Her blue eyes widened for a moment and then she smiled. “Really?”
“Yes!” How could she even be surprised? “Yes, yes, yes.”
“I would love to marry you,” Mindy told him softly. There were tears in those great big eyes now. Beautiful tears. Beautiful woman. His woman. “I would be honored. I can’t even imagine how I can tell you what a fairy tale all of this is. You’re like Prince Charming. My Prince Charming.”
“Should I show up at the mirror maze castle on a white horse?”
“If you can find one, that would be really cool.” She giggled and it sounded as lighthearted as he’d ever heard her. He hoped to hear that more. To hear more of her being less worried and tense and always assuming the worst.
“White horse. Check. I’ll talk to Duke. His family has a farm. Maybe they have white horses. Or horses. I don’t know.” Ash was feeling giddy and silly. “I haven’t ridden since I was a kid in Oklahoma though. That might mean you have to rescue me when the horse bucks me off and runs away.”
“Now that is my kind of fairy tale,” she told him. “And a really great start for our happily ever after too.”
He wasn’t sure about that, but he liked the sound of happily ever after for sure.
Ch
apter Thirty-One
“Are you sure?” Ash felt like he’d asked Mindy this at least ten thousand times by now.
Mindy sat in the passenger side of his truck and fiddled with the simple gold wedding band. She exhaled a big sigh and then looked up at him with that smile that melted his heart. It always melted his heart. They had been married for two weeks now. The August heat was finally started to melt into the slightly more tolerable temperatures of fall and Ash was pretty sure he was living a life he’d never dreamed possible.
“Ash,” Mindy began in what he’d quickly identified as her reasonable tone. “If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have said I was. I told you. They’ve already offered me the promotion at the mirror maze and I’ve already accepted. This is the perfect time. My hours at the maze are going to be decreasing. I’ve been filling in, doing the general managing gig for the last several weeks anyway. It’s not like anyone else wanted the job.”
Ash smirked. There had been no love lost between Kevin and his employees, but none of the other regular full-timers were interested in the general manager position. They were happy enough as shift managers and Mindy had years on them as far as seniority. She had worked there since she’d turned fifteen. Talk about a long term commitment sort of girl.
“So?” Mindy prompted him.
Ash smiled and held up his hands. “All right. I know when I’ve been out logicked. I’ll let you lead. But I’m warning you right now, we are talking about some super heavy fireworks incoming. This is bigger than Fourth of July at Branson Landing with the fire and water show. Big balls of fire belching into the sky. That sort of thing.”
She was laughing. He loved her laugh. He loved her. He knew that they would not always be this happy. They would not always be happy. They would fight. There would be conflict and other bad things that happened. But he still could not imagine wanting to be with anyone else. Ever. He would never regret choosing to spend his life with Mindy Hall. Or rather, Mindy Forbes.
Ash parked his truck in the usual spot at the Rock Wolf Investigations office and got out. Mindy was already climbing down. She waited for him behind the tailgate though and he loved that. He loved the way her hand automatically slipped into his as though just that little bit of contact was enough for now.
They walked into the office together. Of course, even though Ash had just predicted fireworks he still wasn’t quite prepared to duck for cover the minute he walked in.
“You bastard!” Caroline shrieked as she lobbed a paperweight at the front door. “You can’t fire me!”
Titus was actually not standing anywhere near the front door, which meant it was Ash and Mindy who had to duck for cover when the little ball of colored glass hit with a pronounced thud against the metal door and then bounced off. It caught Ash’s shoulder on the rebound and he winced. It was still sore after the dislocation incident. But honestly, he was glad he hadn’t caught a bullet because if Caroline had had access to a gun, she would have been using it.
“Caroline, you are selling information from this office to that muckraking troll, Hilary Allenwood.” Titus actually sounded reasonable, other than referring to Hilary as a troll of course. “You cannot expect me to continue to employ someone who is going to turn around and tattle everything she hears to the newspaper for money!”
Caroline wasn’t actually putting up a fuss. Ash noticed she was gathering up her stuff and cramming it into a box. But of course, she was trying to gather up stuff that wasn’t really hers. Files and such. It was like she had been taken totally off guard and was now trying to make up for it.
All the while she was glaring daggers at Titus. “You don’t get to talk to me this way! After all the stuff I’ve helped you with.” She turned her attention to Ellie. “You wouldn’t have solved that stupid stalker case without me! You’re just going to let me get fired and not say a word?”
“Caroline,” Ellie said stiffly. “You’re right. Every once in a while, you do something that makes you seem almost human. Then you turn right around and screw it up by ignoring all of our calls or refusing to take messages because you’re talking to your girlfriends on the phone or shopping online and don’t want to miss the end of an auction. Surely, you can see how this is an issue?”
“That’s only after my work is done,” Caroline sniffed. “He pays me on salary. Not by the hour anyway. And I’m just here to answer phones. So, I’m doing everything he asked me to do.”
Duke cleared his throat. “And the whole taking our personnel files home because you want to copy them and give them to Hilary is what? Just an extra task you took on for yourself? I have to say, Caroline, that’s all bullshit.”
There was a woman standing behind Duke with a cool expression on her face. One hand rested on Duke’s shoulder and her curly black hair was pulled neatly into a clip and her brilliant blue eyes seemed to be taking in everything that went on in the room. This was Olivia Houghton, Duke’s fiancée and a talented dancer who was now running a dance school out of one of the older theaters on the strip.
“You shut up, Duke,” Caroline snarled. Then she pointed at Olivia. “And don’t you dare talk to me, you snide bitch. Hilary told me all about how you manipulated your way into getting Adam Cathcart to help Harvey Lightman save the Moonrise Theater just so you could use it like some toy dance stage.”
“Right,” Ellie said irritably. Adam Cathcart was her boyfriend and Ash knew she was sensitive when it came to people insulting him and his intentions. “Because Adam didn’t encourage Harvey to do something positive for the community. I mean, the grants from the state historical committees don’t suggest that at all.”
Adam cleared his throat. He was sitting beside Ellie in Younger Adair’s desk chair. “That’s all right, Ellie. I’m sure Caroline here suffered quite a lot of backlash when she wasn’t able to provide enough dirt on me and Harvey Lightman to give Hilary Allenwood the juicy story she wanted.”
“Shut up!” Caroline shrieked again. She began chanting it. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”
“Caroline,” Younger said gently. “Stop acting like a twit. You’re better than this. Just pack up your stuff, and leave those files that don’t belong to you by the way, and head on out. It doesn’t do you or anyone else any good to behave like this. You’re just embarrassing yourself.”
Laurie Talcott stood beside Younger with her arms folded and an icy look on her face. Since Ms. Talcott worked in security and management, Ash could only imagine what her gut reaction to this little scene must be. Her arm was pressed up against Younger’s and her lips were in a tight line as though she was having a whole lot of trouble reining in her need to speak out. Ash couldn’t help but wonder what she would say.
He started to take a breath to ask, but Mindy stopped him. Mindy marched right up to Caroline’s desk and glared up at her. Compared to Caroline’s willowy, tall, and elegant body, Mindy was tiny. But Mindy didn’t seem to care. She gave Caroline a hard look and then jammed her hands on her hips.
“Look, you know you’re done. You know you’ve been caught. Don’t make it worse by behaving like some spoiled brat. Honestly.” Mindy reached out and snagged a file from the box that Caroline was stuffing with unopened cans of energy drinks and a package of coffee singles. “And taking the coffee maker? Seriously? That’s just ridiculous.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Your replacement,” Mindy fired off. “And don’t look at me that way. You’re the one who got yourself into trouble with Hilary Allenwood. And believe me, I’ve been around. I know exactly how that works and what you had to do to get yourself in that deep. So don’t try to play innocent victim with me. You got me?”
Caroline’s face had turned pale. It was odd. She looked as though she really wanted to let Mindy have it but was afraid to. “Who are you?”
“Mindy Forbes.”
Caroline’s gaze sought out Ash. “You got married? You didn’t even tell me? I wasn’t invited?”
Mindy was the one to answer back. “We
didn’t want someone blabbing about our private ceremony to Hilary. And right now? You can consider what Titus has done for you as a favor and you know it. Now, you don’t have anything Hilary wants. You might have a prayer of her getting bored with you and just letting you off the hook.”
“That’s not how it works,” Caroline said hoarsely. “And if you claim you know so much then you know I’m telling the truth.”
Something flickered behind Mindy’s eyes. She turned her head and she looked at Ash. He tried to look encouraging, but how did you do that when the situation was so weird? Then Mindy looked back at Caroline. “What you need to do is to tell Hilary that you have one more piece of information for her and that you’ll trade it, but you want immunity.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Tell her that Titus Holbrook knows all about her game,” Mindy said in a hard voice. Ash had never heard her sound like this before. “Remind her that the DEA is all over Caprico and that Sellers is singing like a bird. Remind her. And then tell her that Holbrook knows everything. And then you might want to suggest she go ahead and leave the state and start over somewhere else.”
Caroline gave a nervous laugh. Her expression was more than a little shocked. “You’re kidding. You must be kidding.”
“Nope. Just try it.” Now Mindy sounded flippant. She pulled a few more files out of the box that Caroline was trying to steal. “And then take your purse and leave because it’s the only thing in this collection of stuff you’re attempting to steal that is yours. If I find something that belongs to you, you know, like a pen labeled with your name on it, I’ll send it on. I promise.”
Caroline might have argued but something in Mindy’s expression shut her up. Ash was in awe of his fierce little wife. She might be younger but what she lacked in years she made up for in sheer experience and grit.
Ash was more than a little shocked when Caroline snatched up her purse and started to leave. But Mindy stopped Caroline at the last second with a snap of her fingers. “Hey! Key to the office, please.” It was not a question. It was a request that was basically an order. End of story.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 94
