Hidden Deception: A Shelby Nichols Adventure

by Colleen Helme

  I didn’t think we’d get to repeat that special lunch anytime soon, but it made me all warm and happy to think about it, which was just what I needed. The doors slid open, and right in front of me, a receptionist sat behind a beautiful, long, wooden desk. She glanced at me and frowned, thinking I couldn’t be one of their clients, dressed like I was in jeans and a ratty trench jacket.

  My heart sank that she didn’t remember me, but I didn’t remember seeing her, or that desk yesterday either. Then I glanced at my jacket and frowned. Did she just think it was ratty? That was flat-out rude. I may be wearing jeans and a jacket, but my scarf was from Paris, and I looked darn cute in this outfit. I marched up to her desk and gave her a brittle smile.

  “I don’t think we met yesterday,” I began. “I’m Shelby Nichols, Chris’ wife.”

  “Oh, hi… yeah, I only got a glimpse of you yesterday. It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Joy.” She held out her hand, and I shook it briefly. She was thinking that up close, I was really pretty, and my blue eyes really stood out. Then she thought I was exactly Chris’ type, light and breezy, just what he needed to help with the stress that a high-powered attorney had to carry.

  I smiled and almost thanked her, changing my opinion instantly. “Shall I go on back?” I said instead.

  “Oh… sure. You don’t have to ask me. You’re welcome here anytime. Unless he’s in a meeting or with a client.” She frowned, thinking that she’d better clear that with Chris, since she’d never talked about it with him. Maybe he’d want to be warned if his wife came in unexpectedly. But how was she to know? “Does he know you’re coming?”

  “No. I’m just dropping by. I didn’t even get to talk to him last night because he was here so late. Since I was downtown anyway, I thought I’d say hello. But if he’s busy, I’ll just go home.”

  “No, don’t do that,” she said. “Elisa will know if he’s busy, so you should talk to her first.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  I followed the hall past the other partner’s offices and rounded the corner. I passed the bathrooms and finally got a look at Elisa’s desk. It was empty, and so was Chris’ office. Did that mean they were out together for a late lunch?

  Doubt assailed me. Maybe I should have called or texted him before I came up here. After the day I’d had so far, I didn’t need anything else to go wrong. Before I could find my phone to send Chris a text, the young man I’d met the day before came around the corner carrying a stack of files.

  “Oh, hi Mrs. Nichols,” he said. “Looking for Chris?”

  “Yes. Uh… I’m sorry, but I forgot your name.”

  “It’s Ethan.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right,” I said, sending him a big smile. “Ethan… I won’t forget that again. Chris is so happy you’re helping him. You must be really good.”

  “Oh… uh, thanks. I told Chris I’d bring these files to his office.”

  “Here, let me get the door for you.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  I pushed the glass door open, then followed him inside where he set them on Chris’ desk.

  “Chris should be here any minute. We’ve been in court all morning, but we’re finally done.” He was thinking that the judge had accepted their evidence for an acquittal, and all their work was a huge success.

  “So you won the case?” I asked.

  “Uh… yeah you could say that.”

  “Good for you. I know Chris appreciates all the work you do around here.”

  “Oh… well… I’m glad to work for him, too.” Worry that Chris might find out what he was up to sent shards of guilt crashing over him.

  Huh? What was that all about? “I’m actually here because of a case I’m working on with the police. Maybe you can help me?”

  “Yeah, maybe. What’s it about?” He had no idea I worked for the police, and alarm spiked through him. Still, his face showed nothing but helpful interest.

  Wow, he’d make a great poker player, and now I was more curious than ever about what he was up to. I’d have to ask Chris if he knew anything about it. If he didn’t, I’d better warn him that Ethan was hiding something, and hope I could uncover it at some point. Ethan caught my gaze expectantly, waiting for me to explain.

  “Uh… there was a lawyer that worked here, but he got fired about six months ago. His name was Lincoln Montgomery. Did you know him?”

  “Uh… yeah, sure. He’s the one they found murdered, right? I heard about it. Anyway, he got hired about the same time as me, but they let him go.” He tried not to show his surprise that I was investigating Lincoln’s murder, but could hardly believe it. Did I even have a clue what was going on?

  “Do you know why?”

  He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  “Was he working with anyone here… like you work for Chris?”

  “Not really. He worked in the associate pool like the rest of us, but not for anyone specific.” It reminded him that Lincoln had spent a lot of time on the tax law side of things with Kevin Moore, the head of the tax department. Then it hit him. Was that the connection?

  I wanted to ask, the connection to what, but changed at the last minute. “Do you know why he was fired?”

  “No, nothing for sure.” But he was thinking it was because he’d messed up on an important client’s account, and it had cost the firm a lot of money to fix it. Kevin had fired him on the spot, and he’d cleaned out his desk that day.

  “Okay. Well, thanks for helping me.”

  “Sure,” he said, thinking he hadn’t given me much to go on. Still, he was relieved to be done talking to me. He’d read about me and how I had premonitions. He wasn’t sure he believed it, but the last thing he needed was to take a chance that I’d inadvertently pick up something about him. “Chris should be here soon.”

  “Okay. I’ll just wait here, then.”

  Ethan nodded and left in a hurry, wondering if he should have asked Kevin Moore to be his mentor instead of Chris. Either way, at least knowing Kevin might be involved was another piece of the puzzle.

  What the heck did he mean by that? What puzzle was he trying to solve and for whom?

  Maybe if I talked to Kevin Moore about Lincoln, it would help me know what Ethan was up to. All at once my head started to pound, and I worried that my brain might explode from too much information. I found the pill box in my purse and hurried into the bathroom for some water to swallow down the pain reliever. Then I patted my cheeks and forehead with cold water until I felt better.

  Somewhat fortified, I slipped back into the office and took a seat in Chris’ chair. I glanced around his desk until finding the firm directory, and shuffled through it to find Kevin’s name. His office was listed on the third floor. Since Chris wasn’t back yet, I might as well talk to him now and take care of it. I called his extension to see if he was in.

  His secretary answered, so I told her who I was, and asked if I could come to Kevin’s office and speak to him. She didn’t see a problem with that and told me he’d be there the rest of the day. Letting out a sigh, I stood up and headed to the elevator. Then I waved goodbye to Joy and pushed the call button.

  The doors opened, and there stood Chris, holding a bag of food, with Elisa standing close beside him holding a couple of large sodas. His eyes widened with surprise, then glowed with pleasure. “Hey beautiful. I didn’t expect to see you when the doors opened.”

  My heart did a little flip-flop to find him standing right in front of me. He hurried out, giving me an awkward hug with a sack of food in one hand and his briefcase in the other. I hugged him back, relieved to feel his solid presence surrounding me in a loving embrace. After the morning I’d had, it felt wonderful.

  Then I picked up that Elisa wasn’t happy to see me, mostly because she’d declined Chris’ offer to take the rest of the day off in favor of spending more time in the office with him. And there I was, ruining her plans.

  With startling insight, she realized she had a huge crush on Chris, and her lips turne
d down with irritation. He was off limits, and she couldn’t forget that. Especially since he was so obviously in love with me.

  I tried not to moan, but crap! Why did this always have to happen? Still, since Elisa felt bad about it, I had to hope that she’d get over it at some point and find someone more suitable. She seemed like the sensible type, so maybe it would happen.

  Chris and I stepped apart, and he quirked a questioning eyebrow. “Have you eaten yet? The burrito I got is huge, and I’d be happy to share.”

  “Sure, I could use a bite,” I said, then glanced around him at Elisa. “Hi Elisa. You sure look pretty today. I love your dress.” It was true, she looked lovely, young, and exotic, all at the same time. It kind of made me sick.

  At least my compliment softened her up, and she thanked me with a smile, thinking I was such a nice person to even talk to her after she’d been crushing on my husband. I turned back to Chris with a sigh, deciding not to tell him any of it, knowing it was better that some things stayed hidden.

  As we walked back to his office, he told me about the case they’d been working so hard on. Elisa walked on the other side of Chris and chimed in a few times, sharing a camaraderie with Chris that I’d never have.

  Before I got my mind-reading powers, her closeness to Chris would have made me jealous, but now it didn’t even faze me. Mostly because my confidence levels had gone up, along with the good feelings that came from knowing I had made a difference in people’s lives, even if most of them didn’t know about it.

  On the dark side, it also didn’t hurt that I knew what she thought, and if she ever got out of hand, I could pretty much shut her down. So, even though I might complain about all the trouble reading minds might get me into, in this case I was particularly grateful to have it.

  We stopped at Elisa’s desk to get her lunch out of the sack Chris carried, and I picked up that she’d hoped to eat in a restaurant with Chris, but the thought had never crossed his mind. He’d planned to finish up his work while he ate and then head home early.

  Hearing that brightened my day and made everything Elisa thought shrink in importance. He ushered me inside his office, and closed the door, making me even happier.

  “So what brings you here?” he asked, setting his lunch and drink on the coffee table.

  Before getting into that, I stepped real close and planted a big kiss on his lips. It surprised him, but it didn’t take long before he pulled me tight against him and kissed me back. Breathless, we broke apart and he asked, “What was that for?”

  “Mmm… I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Something just came over me.”

  His lips turned up in a sexy smile. “You just couldn’t resist me, right?”

  “Maybe. I mean… you are ruggedly handsome.”

  “You know it,” he agreed. “Come on, let’s sit down.” He was thinking that as much as he wanted to keep kissing me, he was starving.

  I huffed out a breath, and swatted his arm. “Whatever.”

  He chuckled, then took the burrito out of the bag. “So what’s going on?” he asked, taking a big bite.

  “I met with Dimples this morning about Lincoln and the debt merchant case,” I began, and told him everything we’d learned, but intentionally left out anything to do with Uncle Joey and the Russian mob. Now was not the time to talk about that, even if they had taken pictures of me and our kids.

  I ended by telling him about my little chat with Ethan, and his information about Lincoln’s work with Kevin Moore. “I also think there’s something Ethan’s hiding from you, but I couldn’t pick up what it is. Do you have any ideas?”

  Chris’ brows drew together in puzzlement. “That’s strange. I don’t know what he could be hiding from me, but I’ll look into it.”

  “Okay, well, maybe next time I come, we can have a chat with him so I can figure it out, because it seemed serious.”

  “If you think it’s that serious, I could call him in now.”

  “No, let’s wait on that. I need to check in with Kevin Moore and see if he knows anything on this case first. In fact, I was just on my way to his office when you showed up.”

  “I’m glad I didn’t miss you then,” he said, finishing up his burrito and grabbing his soda. “So let me get this straight. You think Lincoln had a partner who killed him, and you’re wondering if the partner is a lawyer here, in my firm?”

  “Yeah, it looks that way, only Dimples thinks the partner might be Uncle Joey.”

  Chris choked on his soda. “What? That’s not good.”

  “Yeah. He even wants me to spy on him. What do you think about that?”

  “I think that’s a terrible idea.”

  “Me too,” I agreed. Since I’d already done the deed, I hoped I wouldn’t go to hell for acting like I hadn’t, and continued with my scenario. “But I think I should mention it… in a roundabout way of course. Mostly because I don’t think he had anything to do with it. I mean… seriously, if he’d had Lincoln killed, do you think there’d be a dead body lying around, waiting for the police to find?” I snorted. “I don’t think so.”

  “You’ve got a good point,” Chris said, thinking Manetto would definitely hire a cleaner on that one. He glanced at me with widened eyes. “Uh… you didn’t hear that did you?”

  “Did you want me to?”

  “No.”

  “Then no, I didn’t hear a thing.”

  Chris pursed his lips, knowing I had. But at least now, I couldn’t ask him questions about it. Then he sucked in his breath. “Damn! I just realized I didn’t give you any of my burrito. You should have said something.”

  “Oh… that’s okay. I wasn’t really hungry, I just said that to be polite.”

  His brows rose. “You mean… it wasn’t so you could get me alone?”

  “Well… maybe that had something to do with it.” I leaned over to kiss him, but stopped just before our lips touched. “Too bad I’ve got to go now.”

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah, I need to talk to Kevin, remember? But I’ll see you at home. You are coming home soon, right?” I really needed him to come home so we could talk. It was time to tell him everything that was going on, because I couldn’t do this alone anymore.

  He nodded, then moved to close the gap between our lips, I gave him a quick peck before pulling out of his reach and stood, leaving him to fumble forward in astonishment.

  “Great. Well. I’ll see you later.”

  “Shelby.”

  “Bye.” I opened the door and left, letting it swing closed behind me. If that didn’t get him home at a good time tonight, I didn’t know what would. With a small grin on my face, I said goodbye to Elisa. Knowing she’d seen us kiss was a bonus that helped lighten my mood.

  Arriving at the elevators, I punched the call button and sent another friendly wave to the receptionist. She smiled back at me, thinking I was pretty cool, and gave Chris points for marrying me. That brightened my day a little more, and I exited the elevator on the third floor with a spring in my step.

  Since I had no idea where Kevin’s office was, I turned toward the receptionist’s desk on this floor and asked her for directions. Kevin’s office was on the other side of the building. I’d never been there before, but I followed the hall and found it pretty easily.

  The secretary for the tax department sat on the other side of Kevin’s office and told me he was in, so I knocked and entered the room. A well-dressed man in a tailored suit, with salt and pepper hair, stood to greet me. He smiled, but wariness tightened the muscles around his eyes.

  “Hi Kevin. I’m Shelby Nichols, Chris’ wife.”

  “Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking my hand. “Please take a seat.” He indicated a chair in front of his desk and wondered what I could possibly want. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m actually here as a consultant with the police. We’re working on a murder case of someone who used to work for you. His name was Lincoln Montgomery. He was found murdered a couple of weeks ago. Can you tell
me anything about him?”

  His gaze wavered from mine, and he shook his head with remorse. “I was sorry to hear about that. Mostly because I feel like it’s my fault.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I fired him about six months ago over a case he mishandled. Later, I found out there was a good chance it wasn’t his fault, but by then it was too late to do anything about it. When I heard he’d been murdered, I felt terrible.” He was thinking it was worse than that. He was the one who’d hired him to work on the list, but he never expected him to get killed.

  Shock sent a tingle down my spine. “Do you know why he was killed?”

  “No.” His brows drew together in puzzlement. “Why would I know that?”

  “Wasn’t it you who gave him the list?”

  “What list? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He started to sweat and wondered if there was a way I could tie him to the list, then mentally shook his head. No. There wasn’t. Besides, he’d done nothing wrong. He may have put the list together, but it wasn’t his money that had paid for it. It had to be one of the investors, but he didn’t think it was Manetto. If he’d killed Lincoln, there wouldn’t have been a body to find. That left one of the others.

  My breath caught, and the blood drained from my head. Uncle Joey? He was involved in this after all? Holy hell! Kevin narrowed his eyes, wondering if I was going to answer him. Was something wrong with me? I looked upset, like I’d just received some terrible news.

  “Uh…” I swallowed. “The list… yeah. We found out that Lincoln was working as a debt merchant when he was killed. So he had a list that he worked from. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ve heard of that. It’s actually a legitimate thing to do. There’s no law against it.”

  “Oh… that’s good,” I said, mostly for Uncle Joey’s sake.

  “Yeah. Well, if that’s all…”

  “Wait. If someone put a list together like that. Why would his investors kill him?”

  “Why do you think it was an investor?” he asked. “I’d think a more likely scenario would be one of the people he was collecting the debt from. Since that person wouldn’t want to pay it, he’d probably be desperate enough to kill the collector. That makes more sense to me.”