“This is an invoice with your name on it, but it doesn’t have the client’s name anywhere. We think it might be connected to Sam’s murder. Do you know who the client is?” I handed her the invoice and after a quick glance, she shook her head.
“No. Sam always kept the names confidential. He usually met with the high profile cases in the evening when I wasn’t there, but see this number right here?” She pointed to a five-digit number where the name should have been. “He kept a ledger with these numbers that corresponded to the names. That way only he would know who these ‘special’ clients were.”
“So if we find the ledger, then we’ll find out their names?”
“Right,” she said.
“Do you know where the ledger is? We didn’t find it in his office or in any of his files.”
She pursed her lips. “I think he kept it in his safe at home.” She was thinking that he didn’t live too far away from her, but it would probably take a court order to get inside his house…unless she gave us the key he’d given her for emergencies. It wouldn’t help us get into the safe, but she could tell us the ledger might be in his desk. Then we’d have to come back with the key and she could spend a little more time getting her fill of the hottest guy she had ever seen in her life.
I tried not to roll my eyes while she debated with herself over it. I glanced at Ramos and motioned him closer with my head. He frowned, but came right over. I motioned toward Jordan with my eyes, and taking the hint, he bent down to look at her leg. “Looks like you’ve got quite a collection of names on your cast,” he said, his voice velvety smooth. “Those all friends of yours?”
“Yeah,” she said, her eyes devouring him. She was wishing he’d write his name on there too, then every time she looked at it she could picture him standing close enough to her that she caught a whiff of his fresh, clean scent.
“Nice.” Ramos smiled, then glanced at me with a raised brow, wondering what in the world was going on.
“Well, thanks so much for your time Jordan. I hope you feel better soon.” I nodded at Ramos. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Jordan said. “I have a key to Sam’s place if you want to go check it out. Just make sure you bring it back…the key I mean…as soon as you’re done…like today.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “We can do that. Right Alejandro?”
Ramos nearly busted a gut, but managed to clear his throat instead. “Sure.” He glanced at Jordan. “I’ll get the key if you tell me where it is.”
“It’s on my key ring on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen. Bring it here and I’ll show you which one it is. The kitchen is right through there.” She pointed to a doorway and admired him as he walked away. “Is his name really Alejandro? That’s so romantic.”
“Yes,” I said.
“What?” she asked, confused.
Oops. With my attention on Ramos, I thought she’d said that last part out loud. Damn.
Ramos came back into the room, saving me from having to explain. “Is this it?” he asked, coming beside her and handing her a huge ring of keys.
“Yes,” Jordan said. “Let’s see…it’s this one right here.” She took her time pointing it out just to keep him close to her as long as she could.
“Mind if I take it off? I don’t want to worry about losing all of your keys.”
“Oh, no, not at all,” she gushed, although a part of her thought she’d just made a big mistake since he might not bring it back.
As Ramos disentangled the key, I managed to get Sam’s address out of her and wrote it down. We left with a promise to come back with the key.
“What was that all about?” Ramos asked. He didn’t mind that I’d used him to get the key, but if I had anything else in mind, there was no way…
“Oh…no,” I said, hoping to calm him. “I’d never ask you to do anything like that. She just has a little crush on you that’s all. Just be nice to her when we get back…you might have to sign her cast…and maybe… kiss her hand or something.”
Ramos grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. “Babe,” his voice was low and dangerous. “You want to give her something to remember, we can do that right here, right now, while she’s watching from the window.”
Holding me by the shoulders, he lowered his face close to mine and my breath caught. He was going to kiss me? That was his idea of a show? “Hold it right there!”
He stopped, his lips hovering inches above mine. “You sure?”
I swallowed and my breath came fast. He was so close and for a moment, I admit I was tempted, but then it passed, and I punched him hard in the stomach. His breath came out in a soft ‘oof,’ but I think it hurt my hand more. Surprised, he pulled away, thinking no woman had ever punched him like that before. Then he chuckled good-naturedly, thinking he probably deserved that.
It was on the tip of my tongue to apologize, since I didn’t normally punch people in the stomach, but since he thought that last part, I decided not to. “Well…I think she got her show. You ready to go or what?”
He rubbed his stomach. “Yeah,” he said, but he was thinking, remind me never to try that again. But then he ruined that thought by adding, without your permission.
I groaned at his audacity, even as a wave of warmth rushed through me. A smile formed on my lips and I glanced up at the window. Jordan had her hands over her mouth in astonishment. It was probably the most excitement she’d had all day. I smiled at her, and wished that there was some sign for ‘girl power’ I could have given her, instead, I slipped on my helmet and straddled the bike behind Ramos. He took the address from me, and after figuring out which direction to go, we were off.
Sam’s house was only a few minutes away from Jordan’s, nestled in a quiet neighborhood, but closer to the highway. Lucky for us, the street was lined with cars, so parking the bike out front was no big deal. “Keep your helmet on,” Ramos told me. “Until we get inside.” He was thinking that if anyone did see us, at least they wouldn’t get a good look at our faces.
“Good idea.” I followed Ramos right to the front door, where he inserted the key and we were in. “Wow. That was easy,” I said, pulling off my helmet.
“Yeah, amazing how useful a key can be,” Ramos replied, tucking his helmet under his arm. He scanned the walls, looking for signs of a safe.
“Do you think the police have been here to look around yet?” I asked. My nerves had gone on high alert at the prospect of getting caught snooping.
“Yeah, I’m sure they have,” he said. “But you should still be careful what you touch.”
I jerked my hand away from the wall, noting that Ramos had kept his leather gloves on. “Do you think they might have already found the ledger?”
“Hmm…no. Our contact at the police department would have told us.”
“So what exactly can I touch?”
“Clothes are fine, just not hard surfaces.”
With my insides cringing, we started down the hall. One door opened into a bedroom and the other into a home office. “I’ll take the office,” Ramos said. “You take the bedroom.”
“Okay.” Nervous, I hurried straight to the walk-in closet. Since that’s where we kept our safe, I figured it was a good place to start, and I wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. The doors were closed, so after setting down my helmet, I pulled down the sleeves of Ramos’ jacket and tried turning the knob. It was like trying to open the door with a couple of hot pot holders on my hands, and I couldn’t get any traction. I sighed heavily, then finally got the knob to turn and yanked the door open.
Inside, I found the typical hangers full of clothes, and shelves with an assortment of shoes and various sports equipment. I searched in all the corners, and besides a spider that scared me to death, there wasn’t even a shoe box with old stuff in it. I quickly closed the doors and checked under the bed. Nothing. That left the bureau drawers, and I rifled through them, hoping to come up with something, but of course, the only things I found were underwear, socks, and
gym clothes.
“I found it,” Ramos called.
Relieved, I grabbed my helmet and hurried into the study. Ramos stood in front of a book case, and several books were lying on the floor. Nestled in the wall, hidden behind the books, was a small safe. “I don’t think the police realized it was here,” Ramos said, excitement in his voice. “So the ledger should still be inside.”
He reached for the combination lock, but before touching it, his hand froze and his body stiffened. “What the hell?”
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s open.”
“Huh?”
Ramos hesitated. He was thinking opening it could be a bad thing and if it were booby-trapped, cause all sorts of nasty problems. “Someone beat us here, and it wasn’t just anyone. Only a person with serious skills could have opened this safe.”
“You mean, like you?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Unless they already had the combination. But even then, once I was done, I would have closed it. It’s almost like someone wanted us to know they beat us to the punch.” He glanced around the room, worried that he’d missed something, then made his decision. “I’m going to open it.”
“Wait! You think there might be a bomb in there?” I’d heard ‘bomb’ in his thoughts and chills ran up my spine. If Ramos sensed some kind of danger, that meant it was probably true.
“No, not a bomb…exactly.” He glanced at me and frowned. “I’m going to open it. You can stand back if you want, but I have to take a look.”
“Okay.” I quickly left the room and ducked around the edge of the doorway.
Ramos blinked in surprise. He really hadn’t thought I’d chicken out on him.
“I have kids,” I said.
He shook his head and reached for the handle. As he pulled it open, I cringed and ducked behind the wall. Nothing happened. I sighed with relief and hurried back to his side. “See anything?”
“No. It’s empty…except for this piece of notepaper.”
I glanced inside as Ramos pulled the paper off the bottom of the safe. It was stuck on tight, and he had to pull harder than normal to get it off. As the paper came loose, a wire popped up and a sudden blaring sound pierced the air. I cringed and immediately clapped my hands over my ears.
“Shit! It was set to an alarm!” Ramos yelled. “Quick, put on your helmet and let’s get out of here.”
We rushed through the house and out the front door. The wailing sound of the alarm filled the air and my heart nearly shot out of my chest. A neighbor across the street glanced out her front window. Pure panic sent me in a mad dash to the bike. Ramos jumped on. As he inserted the key, I scrambled on behind him. In one quick motion, he started the bike and we took off like we were guilty as hell.
We raced down the street and made a right turn. Ramos headed toward a busy street and quickly merged into traffic. He kept up with traffic and followed the road, then slowed to make a right turn. We made it through the intersection and kept going west until we came to the freeway. Ramos pulled onto the freeway entrance, and soon we were headed out of town. After we put several miles behind us, I was finally able to breathe normally.
Instead of turning around and heading back into the city, Ramos took the exit for a highway heading east, and soon we were following the winding road into the hills on the outskirts of town. I knew we were getting further away from home, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Right now, it felt good to leave it all behind. I found myself relaxing from the tension of nearly getting caught, and began to enjoy the ride.
Taking another turn to the north-east route, we headed deeper into the woods. What seemed like only minutes later, I was surprised to arrive at the little town outside the lake. We’d gone much further than I realized. The lake was a natural destination for those who lived in the city, and it was a quiet place where lots of people had cabins and boats.
Ramos pulled into the local diner in town and cut the engine. I got off to find my legs a little stiff from sitting for so long. Ramos headed for the door and pulled it open for me. He was thinking he’d brought me out here without asking first, but figured I would have said something if I wasn’t okay with it. Then he was thinking he was starved, and figured I could use something to eat too.
I nodded my agreement, deciding I could communicate without words too. That worked until a waitress came to our table and asked what we wanted to drink. “I’ll have a Diet Coke,” I said before Ramos beat me to it.
“Make that two,” he added, smiling at me. The waitress handed us our menus and left.
“What happened back there?” I asked, not able to hold it in any longer.
Ramos scowled and pursed his lips. “I think we were set up.”
For some reason, that hadn’t occurred to me. “What? You think the secretary had something to do with it?”
“No, not her. I don’t think she had a clue. But someone knew we’d be there.”
“How did they know that?” I asked. “We didn’t even know we’d be there until Jordan told us about the ledger. So how did they know?”
“I don’t know, but somehow they knew about the ledger, and had to get to it first because it has the judge’s name in it. Then they set up the alarm to go off just for us.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
Ramos pulled the note out of his pocket, “Because of this.” He handed it to me and as I read the words, a chill went down my spine. It said, ‘Better Run!’ I glanced at Ramos, feeling the blood drain from my head.
“Does that mean they’ve been watching us?” I whispered.
“I don’t know, but it’s possible.”
The waitress brought our drinks and asked if we were ready to order. Just the thought of food made me sick to my stomach. Ramos took one look at me and ordered a burger and fries for both of us. “You’ll feel better if you can eat something,” he said.
I shook my head. “I’ll never be able to eat again,” I answered. “This is awful. Instead of making some progress on the identity of the judge, it’s just one more nail in my coffin.”
“It’s not that bad,” Ramos said.
“Yes it is,” I disagreed. “The police probably showed up at the house after we left, right?”
“Um…yeah, I’m sure the police are all over it.”
“Do you think they’ll make a connection to the secretary?” My breath hitched. “Because if they do, she’ll tell them she gave us the key, and they’ll know we were there after the ledger. Once they find out I was there, it will be the motive they need to arrest me for murder. Everyone will think I went there to get the ledger to hide the reason I killed Killpack.”
“But you didn’t kill him,” Ramos said.
“That won’t matter! I’ll be stuck in prison awaiting my death, just like that poor guy on death row!”
Ramos didn’t know what I was talking about, but from the rising panic in my voice, he knew I was about to lose it, and reached over to cover my hands with his. “Shelby, calm down. It’s not as bad as you think. I’ve got some ideas about what to do next.”
“Really? Like what?” I hadn’t picked up anything from his mind, so this surprised me.
“Well first off, I just want you to know that if things get to that point, I’d be happy to take you somewhere safe.” He was thinking South America, since he spoke Spanish. My mouth dropped open in astonishment since I’d been daydreaming about South America too. Then he was thinking he might have to leave me there while he hunted down the bastard that set me up.
“No,” I said. “I mean, thanks, but I couldn’t do that.”
“It’s not negotiable,” he growled. I began to protest, but he wouldn’t hear of it. “If for some reason it looks like you’re going to prison,” he said, “I will get you out of here.” He didn’t think it would come to that, so he was confident of his offer.
“Really? You think we’ll find out who is doing this to me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” I
asked. I wasn’t sure about anything anymore. How did he hope to figure it out?
Ramos was thinking that the note had changed everything, and no one messed with him and came out on top. No one. “Because,” he answered. “We have more to go on now. We knew someone set you up from the beginning and planned this whole thing. But now the pieces are starting to fall together.”
“How?”
“The killer likes to leave notes. The first time was the note with your name on it at Killpack’s office, and now this note from the safe. He is also good at cracking a safe, and that narrows the field down. And most important, this killer, or thief, is tied to a judge. The thief is probably under the judge’s thumb. Think about it. The thief wants to stay out of jail, and the judge wants certain things taken care of. A perfect deal for both of them.”
“Wow.” I was impressed. “So how will you track him down?” Ramos glanced out the window and I inhaled sharply. “Do you think he’s been watching me? Is he out there right now?”
“No.” Ramos shook his head, but he thought it was a possibility.
“So you’re thinking that if you watched me, you might find the other person watching me?”
Ramos smiled. “Maybe.”
“That would never work, because whoever is watching me knows you. They’d spot you before you ever spotted them.”
“They might spot me.” Ramos’ eyes narrowed, “But I’m not the only one who can watch someone.” He was thinking this was Manetto’s city, and he had lots of resources the thief could only dream of.
“That might be true,” I said. “But this thief might have friends he works with too you know.”
“I hope so,” Ramos said. “It’s always easier to track down a group of people than it is just one person.” He was thinking about spreading the word to everyone in Uncle Joey’s organization, then talking to all the shotcallers in the gangs and all of his contacts in the city. Someone was bound to know of a good thief in town. He could even put out an offer for a job to crack a safe and see who took the bait. From there he was sure to get a lead on this guy one way or the other, and once he had him, the judge didn’t stand a chance.
Trapped By Revenge: A Shelby Nichols Adventure Page 16
