by Ali Franklin
“Didn’t you just have lunch?”
“Yes I did.”
Chapter 18
Ryan’s workout had the desired effect of clearing her head. She was her normal, effective self during both her committee meeting and the full-cast rehearsal that afternoon.
After the rehearsal, she drove to Nicki’s house, nuked a frozen dinner, and drank a glass of wine. She went to bed early and was asleep by the time Nicki came home.
Thursday morning, Ryan and Nicki went through their morning routine as though they’d been doing it for years: Ryan made coffee, Nicki made oatmeal, and they sat at the little kitchen table watching the news until it was time to go to work. They talked a little about what they had planned for the day. Everything seemed normal. But every time Ryan looked at Nicki, she realized Nicki was looking at her.
They parted ways on campus with a wave. Midway through the morning, Ryan realized she hadn’t canceled the dinner-dance yet. She called the hotel manager and gave him the news.
“I understand Emma’s gone, Dean McCabe, but it’ll be a helluva blow to our staff. I mean, we’ve got all the food in the freezer already, and I’ve hired extra people. We don’t actually need Emma to make it happen.” He paused for a moment, then added, “You could even have the event in her name.”
“There’s nothing else you’d need from the committee?”
“Just our paycheck at the end of the night.”
Ryan considered her options. She could refund all the money for the tickets, which would be a tremendous pain in the neck, or she could let the event continue. With the second option, the committee could give the proceeds to the nonprofits. It wasn’t a difficult decision to make.
“Okay, then. I guess we’re on for Saturday night.”
The manager gave a whoop on the other end of the line and thanked her. “We’ll make this the best dinner and dance you’ve ever had. I promise.”
Ryan knew he meant it, but she wondered if the patrons would even attend. Having two possibly-related murders might be a deterrent. On the other hand, no one had called asking for a refund. Ryan decided to put some positive vibes out there.
“It’s going to be a great event,” she said aloud.
Then she remembered the silent auction. It was supposed to conclude at the dinner-dance. The auction could continue, as it was all being done online. But Ryan didn’t have the password to access the auction site. That meant she wouldn’t be able to announce the winners that evening. She spoke aloud again. “If that’s the worst thing that happens Saturday night, I’ll take it.”
She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. All things considered, the FLH was shaping up to be a success. Who would have imagined that?
Her cell phone rang, interrupting her celebration. She picked it up and saw Jack Prieto’s face on the screen.
“Hey, Jack. What’s up?”
“I need to talk to you about something. Can you get away for coffee?”
“I can, but I don’t have a car. Can you pick me up?”
“Why don’t you have a car?” Ryan guessed he was remembering the previous semester, when a murderer had smashed her car with a truck.
“I’ve been staying at Nicki’s just to be safe. We’ve been driving to campus together in the mornings.”
“So you weren’t at home last night?”
Ryan’s heart fell. Don’t tell me something else happened last night, the one night I’ve been alone. “No, I was at Nicki’s.”
“Then I think Nicki should hear this, too,” said Jack. “Can you get her and meet me at your house?”
Ryan’s heart sank. “What is it?”
“Someone broke into your house. The only damage I can see is a broken pane of glass in the back door, but I’ll need you to come take a look and make a report.”
Ryan said goodbye to Jack and called Nicki.
“I’ll meet you at the car,” said the chief.
Ten minutes later, they pulled into Ryan’s driveway. Jack came out the front door to greet them.
Nicki spoke first. “Have you cleared the house?”
The detective frowned. “Of course.” He put his arm around Ryan’s shoulders. “I’d like you to walk through the house, room by room, and tell me if anything is missing or out of place.”
They took their time walking through the house, and Ryan found her spirits lifting with each room they surveyed. It seemed the intruder hadn’t touched a thing. The TVs in the living room and the spare bedroom were untouched, Ryan’s jewelry still sat in the box in her closet, and her laptop was in its usual place on her office desk.
Jack and Ryan met Nicki in the kitchen, where Nicki had brewed a pot of coffee. The three friends sat and watched the fingerprint technician move through the kitchen and living room
“Ryan,” said Jack, “how long have you been staying at Nicki’s?”
“Just a few days. Since the night I found the rat at Danielle’s.”
He nodded. “That’s good. How many people know you’re staying there?”
“I told Teddy,” said Ryan, “so I assume Summer knows as well. Helen might have figured it out when Nicki dropped off her keys yesterday.”
“I haven’t told anyone except Becky, the girl I’m seeing,” said Nicki.
Seeing? thought Ryan.
Jack pulled his little notebook from his blazer pocket. “I’ve asked our patrol units to keep an eye on your house ever since the incident at Danielle’s.”
“Oh,” said Ryan. “I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t tell you because I figured you’d say no. It’s a good thing they came by, or this break-in might have gone unnoticed until the next time you came by.”
Nicki spoke up. “Do we know when it happened?”
“A deputy did a full walk-around at approximately five p.m. yesterday. Another unit came by around midnight, but they didn’t go around back. So the best we can say is that it happened between five yesterday and ten-thirty this morning.”
“That’s a lot of time,” said Nicki.
“I’m just glad they didn’t take anything,” said Ryan. She looked at Nicki. “Do you mind if I stay with you a little while longer?”
“Of course not. Stay as long as you like.” She looked into her friend’s eyes. “I mean it.”
Jack looked at Ryan. “Have you received any threats? Has anything else strange happened?”
“No. Nothing else has happened.” She paused. “Well, there was that weird thing that happened yesterday. The thing I told Gus about.”
“What?” said Nicki and Jack in unison.
Jack looked at Nicki, then back at Ryan. “When did you talk to Gus?”
“He came to my office again yesterday. That’s the second time this week. I told him I saw Chase arguing with a loan shark at the homeless shelter.”
“What?” asked Nicki and Jack in unison.
“When were you at the homeless shelter?” asked Nicki.
“Yesterday morning. I went down there to talk to Father Paul about the FLH.”
“How did you get there?” asked Nicki.
“I borrowed Helen’s car.”
Jack was writing in his notebook. “And you told Gus about this?”
Ryan nodded.
“How do you know the guy is a loan shark?” asked Jack.
“Father Paul knows him. His name is Bennie something.”
Jack looked up. “Benny Harmon?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“Who’s Benny Harmon?” asked Nicki.
“He’s a lowlife, and he is a loan shark,” said Jack. “He makes high-dollar loans and has a reputation for hurting people when they can’t pay.”
Jack looked at Ryan and Nicki. “Ryan, this thing just came to your doorstep.” He jerked his head toward the back door. “I want you to keep staying with Nicki for a while. Keep this under your hat, and make sure your friends don’t talk about it.”
Ryan and Nicki nodded. He continued.
�
�We’re gonna get this guy, but you need to be careful. I don’t want you going anywhere by yourself. It doesn’t have to be Nicki, but you need to have somebody with you at all times.”
“I understand.”
Jack reached across the table and grasped both of her hands. “Ryan, someone is trying to send you a message. This is as serious as it gets. We’ve had this conversation before, and you ran off and tried to fix things on your own.”
Ryan was shaking her head. “I won’t do it this time, Jack. I’m going to stay out of it. I promise I won’t go anywhere alone.”
Jack squeezed her hands and nodded. “You can call me at any time, day or night, if you feel you’re in danger.”
“I will. I promise.”
Nicki stood and walked into the living room to talk with the fingerprint technician. She wanted to make sure he was looking at all the surfaces, not just the most common ones.
Jack watched her with a smile. “I guess she can’t get being a detective out of her blood. I’ll go see if my tech needs saving. Excuse me.” He got up and walked toward the fingerprint tech. Ryan watched as Jack and Nicki pointed at walls and windows and walked toward the back of the house.
Once they were out of earshot of the kitchen, Nicki turned to Jack. “What have you got?”
“Nothing yet. My guess is the intruder broke in to hurt her or scare her. If he broke in to hurt her and she wasn’t here, it makes sense that he’d leave without making a mess. But if he came into scare her and she wasn’t here, I think he would have ransacked the place. You know, to send her a message.”
“So you think she’s in danger?” asked Nicki.
“I do. I’m tempted to suggest she leave town for a while.”
“What you think about the involvement of this loan shark?”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with Ryan, unless Benny connects Ryan to Chase. I’ll talk to Gus, see what Ryan told him.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “You think we should send her to her mom’s for a while?”
Nicki made a face. “We should, but she’s got the FLH this weekend. She’s the only thing holding it together, and it may be the only thing holding her together. She’d be crushed if she had to leave and cancel it.” Nicki rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers. “I’ll stay with her, Jack. If anything else happens—anything at all—I’ll put her on a plane myself.”
Jack nodded. “Okay. She’s all yours.”
Once Ryan had given Jack her statement and walked through the house again, Nicki offered to take her to lunch. “It’ll give you a chance to decompress.”
They checked in with Jack, who said his crew was almost done. “One of the deputies is going to cover this window for the time being. You’ll need to call and get it replaced as soon as possible.” Ryan nodded. He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll lock up tight when we leave, and I’ll make sure the patrol cars come by more often each day until this is over.”
Ryan thanked him and turned to Nicki. “I guess we can go.”
“Why don’t we go somewhere we don’t go very often, like Theodorou’s?” asked Nicki.
“No, I want to go somewhere familiar. Let’s go to O’Leary’s.”
Nicki agreed and the two women got back into the Jeep. They drove to the pub, where they gave Jamie the short-story version of the day’s events. They sat at the short arm of the L-shaped bar and looked over the rest of the room.
“Iced tea?” asked Jamie. Both women nodded and the owner disappeared into the kitchen.
They sat in silence for a few minutes until Jamie brought their drinks and took their orders. When they were alone again, Nicki spoke.
“How are you feeling?”
“Violated. Scared. Like this can’t be real.”
“We’re dealing with a messed-up person. He—or she—has already killed two people. Maybe you should go visit your mom until this is over.”
Ryan nodded, looking down at the bar. She thought about her mom, then thought about her dad. As usual, the memories flooded back in an instant. Ryan and her father driving down Highway One, Ryan coming out of the convenience store to see her father with a gun held to his face, Ryan waking up in the hospital to find out he’d been killed. She rubbed the uneven bridge of her nose, the daily reminder that she’d failed in that life-or-death situation.
“There’s no sense in you being a target,” said Nicki.
Ryan kept nodding
“So you’ll go?” Nicki sounded incredulous. “You’ll go stay with your mother?”
Ryan looked up. “Huh? Sorry. I was thinking about something.”
Nicki laid a hand on top of Ryan’s. “Your dad?”
“Yeah. It would kill Mom if I got hurt, too.”
“I’m glad you’re taking this seriously.” Nicki patted Ryan’s hand. “I’ll take you back to your house after lunch so you can pack.”
Jamie brought the food and they turned their attention to it. After a few minutes, Ryan looked up, a puzzled expression on her face.
“What did you think about Jack’s reaction when I told him about Chase and that loan shark?”
“He seemed surprised. It was obvious Gus hadn’t said anything about it.”
“Maybe Gus already followed up on it and determined it didn’t have anything to do with the case.”
“Could be,” said Nicki. “But I can’t think of any good reason why Gus wouldn’t have told Jack about it. I saw Jack’s face. He didn’t look happy that you knew something he didn’t know about one of his suspects.”
“But Gus told me Chase isn’t a suspect. He has airtight alibis for both murderers.”
Nicki didn’t answer. The women ate in silence for a few more minutes, then Ryan pulled out her phone.
“I’m going to look up flights.”
“Great,” said Nicki. “The sooner we get you out of here, the better.”
Ryan looked up from her phone, her brow furrowed. “You seem in an awful hurry for me to go.” She meant for the comment to sound light, but some of her real feelings crept in.
“I just want you to be safe,” said Nicki.
“And it won’t hurt anything if I’m out of your way. You can finally spend some quality time with Becky.” It came out sounding whiny, but Ryan didn’t care.
Nicki took a deep breath. “Ry—”
WHAM!
The front door of the pub flew open and banged against the wall, allowing a bright shaft of sunlight to penetrate the dark room. All six lunch patrons and Jamie looked over at the sound and the sight. Ryan had to crane her neck to see around Nicki, who had jumped off of her stool and placed herself in front of Ryan.
“Who the heck is that?” asked Ryan.
Nicki narrowed her eyes as she attempted to make out the newcomer silhouetted in the bright light. “I think it’s Chase.”
Ryan’s heart missed a beat. “What’s he doing here?”
The man took a few unsteady steps into the room and looked around. He smiled when he spotted the long oak bar, then stumbled until he made contact with one of the stools. With some effort, he managed to perch atop it.
“Barkeeper,” he called, “your finest whiskey.”
Jamie stared, then grabbed a bottle. Setting a glass on the bar, she said, “You look familiar.”
He stared as she poured two fingers into the glass and pushed it toward him. He held a hand over the bar. “Dexter Arrington.”
“Arrington?” asked Jamie, ignoring the hand. “Are you related to Chase Arrington?”
The man nodded so hard that he almost lost his balance on the stool. “I’m his baby brother. I’ve come to help him in his time of—” he burped. “—Grief.”
Nicki’s eyes never left the man as she returned to her seat.
“Wow,” said Ryan, taking in the blond hair, blue eyes, and perfect teeth. “They could almost be twins.”
“Except for the extra forty pounds on this one,” said Nicki.
Arrington finished his drink and point
ed out to the empty glass to Jamie, who nodded. She poured the drink, then started the coffeemaker.
The newcomer looked around the pub. His eyes brightened when he saw the two women around the corner of the bar. He picked up his drink and slid off the stool, landing with a thud. Then he made his way over to them.
“Dexter Arrington, ladies. Enchanted, I’m sure.” He made a mock bow and almost didn’t make it back up. He reached out for the stool next to Nicki and leaned against it.
Nicki had tensed, but Ryan was curious.
“You’re Chase’s brother? I think I saw a few pictures of the two of you the last time I was at Chase and Veronica’s house.”
Arrington smiled. “And you are…?”
“I’m Ryan McCabe. I’m a friend of Chase’s.” She pointed to Nicki. “This is Nicki Statton.”
The man looked down at Nicki’s gun belt. “You a cop?”
“I might be. You said you’re here to help your brother?”
“Yep. I had a few things to take care of before I could leave Boston, but I made it. I called when I landed and he told me to meet him here.”
Nicki’s phone rang. She picked it up. “It’s the station.” She pointed toward the booths near the back wall. “I’ll just be over there.” Ryan nodded. Nicki walked toward the booths, her eyes never leaving Arrington.
Ryan looked back to Arrington, who had pulled the phone from his pocket and was texting his brother.
“Chase is always late,” he said. Then he looked at her. “You said you’ve seen pictures of me?”
“Yes. I was at Chase’s house right before Veronica’s...before it happened. We all mentioned how similar the two of you are.”
“Always have been.” He lifted his phone. “You want to see pictures? I got pictures.”
Ryan glanced back at Nicki. The chief held up a finger, signaling she’d be back in a minute.
Ryan looked back to see Arrington scrolling through the camera roll on his phone. Many of his pictures were photos of snapshots in an album. Some were blurry, but it was clear that the brothers had experienced a busy upper-class childhood. There were pictures of the boys on horseback, pictures with lacrosse gear, pictures of Halloween costumes, and pictures at various school functions.
