Laced In Lies

by Colleen Helme

  “Hey, Mrs. Nichols. How are you?”

  “Good, thanks. And call me Shelby.”

  “Uh… sure,” he agreed, but knew that would never happen. I was his boss’ wife. Calling me by my first name was just wrong. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I’ve got those files you wanted to go over before your client gets here in fifteen minutes.”

  “Sure,” Chris said. “Bring them in, and I’ll walk Shelby out.”

  “I guess this means we can’t have lunch together?” I asked.

  “Afraid not.” As we walked to the elevator, Chris pulled me close. “I’m glad you came, though.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Whispering, I asked, “Have you figured out what’s going on with Ethan yet?” A week ago, I’d picked up that Ethan had ties to the district attorney’s offices and was interested in Chris because he represented Uncle Joey.

  “Not yet. You might have to help me with that.”

  “Okay, maybe when I get back. In the meantime, be careful. You can’t trust him, remember that.”

  “I know. I’ll be careful.” He thought it ironic that I was telling him to be careful for a change. But he liked it. The elevator doors slid open. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Uh, yeah… see you later.” I hadn’t told him about my visit to the club, but there wasn’t time now. I only hoped he’d take it as well as my trip to New York. He gave me a quick kiss, and I stepped onto the elevator.

  As the doors slid shut, I blurted, “Don’t forget to call the agent.” I caught his nod before he disappeared.

  In the parking lot, I got in my car and checked my phone, finding I’d missed a couple of calls. The first was from Kyle, so I called him back.

  “I talked to my sister,” he began. “She thought we could come to her house after school today and talk to Keola. Will that work for you?”

  “Sure. What time?”

  “Three o’clock.”

  “Okay. Text me her address and I’ll meet you there.”

  The second message was from Dimples, wanting to know if I could stop by the precinct. With everything on my plate, I really didn’t want to go over there, but I could always call first and see how important it was, right? With a sigh, I pushed his number.

  “Hey Shelby, thanks for getting back to me,” he said. “Are you busy?”

  “Actually, yes. I’m pretty busy for the next couple of days. What’s going on? Can it wait?”

  “Uh… not really. This is a big deal, and I need your help. I’ve got a kid here who won’t talk, and I thought maybe you could sit in on the questioning. It shouldn’t take long. His parents are here with him, but I think I can get them to wait for a few more minutes if you say you’ll come. Okay? Please?”

  I checked my watch. It was just a few minutes past one o’clock, so that gave me plenty of time. I was kind of starving to death, but when he asked me like that, how could I turn him down? “Sure. I’m not far from there, so I’ll be right over.”

  “Great. Thanks so much. See you soon.”

  We disconnected and I let out a sigh, then scrounged around in my purse for a granola bar. All I came up with was an empty wrapper. Didn’t they usually have donuts sitting around in police stations? Maybe today would be my lucky day and I could get one with sprinkles.

  After parking, I got my special ID badge out of the glove box and slipped the lanyard over my head. Inside the precinct, I took my time getting to Dimples’ desk, hoping to spy a box of donuts on someone’s work station. My stomach gurgled with anticipation, but I couldn’t even see a box in the garbage. What was wrong with these cops?

  In the detective’s offices, Dimples waved me over. As I approached, he shoved the last of something into his mouth and started chewing.

  “Was that a donut?” I asked.

  “Um… yeah. The family’s waiting in the office, so let me tell you what’s going on.”

  My stomach growled, and I sighed. “Fine, but I want one after.”

  He smiled, and his dimples started doing that crazy dance that always made me smile, so I couldn’t be mad at him for too long.

  “Sure,” he agreed. “First of all, we think the kid might know who sold some drugs to a couple of junior high school students. One of them died, and the other one’s in a coma.”

  “Oh no. That’s terrible. What school was it?” My heart rate jumped at the thought of it happening at Savannah’s junior high school. These could be kids I knew.

  “Jefferson Junior,” he said.

  “Oh.” My breath came out in a relieved whoosh. Not hers after all. Still, that was awful news. “How did you know to question this kid?”

  “He’s best friends with the other two, so we were hoping he’d know something, but so far, he’s not offering anything. This drug is deadly, and we’d like to stop anyone else from taking it.”

  “What do his parents say?”

  “Well, as you can imagine they’re pretty defensive and worried about us questioning him, but I’m sure there’s more that you could pick up… you know?” He was thinking because I was so special like that.

  I smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

  He led the way into the room where the parents sat on the couch, and the boy sat in a chair next to them. His eyes were shut and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and holding his face in his hands.

  His hair was shaved on the sides, but long and hanging over his eyes in the front. His jeans and a ragged hoodie covered his thin frame. He looked about fifteen, and I picked up that he was scared out of his mind.

  “Hello,” Dimples began. “Thanks for waiting. This is Shelby Nichols, a special consultant with the police. We just have a few questions for Owen, and then you can go.”

  The parents nodded, and I picked up panic from them both. They worried that this could be Owen’s fault, but if he confessed, what would happen to him? It had to be an innocent mistake. They couldn’t let him go to jail. He was just a kid.

  I took a seat on the chair across from them and picked up that while they’d waited for us, the father had told Owen not to say anything that might incriminate him. He’d basically told Owen to keep his mouth shut until they got a lawyer, and I knew it was a good thing I’d come.

  Dimples grabbed a folding chair and pulled it closer to Owen, then sat down facing him. “You know that Wyatt died, right?”

  At Owen’s quick nod, Dimples continued. “Well, Cole’s in a coma, and they’re not sure he’s going to make it. I need to know what drug they took, and where they got it. We don’t want anyone else to die. Do you know where the drug came from?”

  “I told you, I don’t know anything.” He was panicking and wondering how this could have happened. Wyatt must have taken them from his backpack and given some to Cole. The stupid idiot. Now he was dead? It couldn’t be true.

  “Who gave you the drug?” I asked.

  He shot a quick glance my way before lowering his gaze, not about to breathe a word about Tory. He knew her old man put her up to it, and she couldn’t say no to her dad without suffering the consequences. Besides, they looked like normal pain pills. They weren’t illegal. That was the only reason he’d agreed to tell some of the kids at his school. But it had all gone wrong. Wyatt couldn’t be dead. It was all a lie.

  “Did they look like regular pain pills?” I asked. His eyes widened, and he sucked in a breath, then nodded his head in surprise. “That’s good to know. Thank you.” I glanced at Dimples, giving him a slight nod.

  Dimples sighed and stood before speaking. “I guess that’s all for now, but if you remember anything that might help us, please give me a call.” He took out his card and handed it to the father, then turned to Owen and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Remember, we don’t want anyone else to die.”

  Owen shuddered and gave a quick nod. He swore in his mind that he’d never be caught dead with anything like that again. Then he thought that if Wyatt hadn’t taken the packet of pills, he might have tried one himself, and he’d be dead. On tha
t frightening thought, he stood, eager to get out of there.

  After they left, Dimples sat down next to me. “So what did you get?”

  “A girl named Tory from his school gave them to him, but he was thinking her old man put her up to it, like she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I also picked up that Owen didn’t actually give the drugs to his friends. He was thinking that they must have taken them out of his backpack after he’d told them about it.”

  “Okay. That’s a great lead. Thanks Shelby.” He was thinking he’d find out who Tory was from the school, and then see if her father had a record. If he did, they could always bring him in for questioning without putting Tory in danger, although they might need me for that too.

  “Sure,” I agreed. “As long as it gets this drug off the street.”

  We wandered back to Dimples’ desk where I noticed the napkin and crumbs from his donut. “So where’s the donuts?”

  “Uh… there’s a box here somewhere.” He glanced around the room, then pointed to a pink box on the breakroom shelf next to the coffee and mugs. “There should be two boxes. If that’s the box with one donut left, don’t eat it.”

  I hurried over and pulled back the lid to find one plain, glazed donut. I turned to ask Dimples why he’d told me not to eat it, but he was talking to one of the other detectives.

  Had someone else called for it? It didn’t look the best, which was probably why it was still there, but I was starving. I grabbed a napkin and picked it up, then took a bite. It might be a little stale, but not too bad. I caught Detective Bates staring at me. He wondered if that was the last donut and I’d just taken a bite.

  I smiled at him and kept chewing. If he’d called for it, I didn’t feel too bad about beating him to it, since he was the one detective in the whole precinct who didn’t like me much. Then I picked up that no one had eaten that donut because they all thought a suspect may have spit on it.

  Gah! I froze, then gagged a little and quickly spit it out into my hand. All the noise I made caught Dimples’ attention, and he rushed over and pounded me on the back.

  “Are you okay?” He checked the box, then swore in his mind. “I told you not to eat that.” He grabbed a paper cup and filled it with water. “Here. Drink this.”

  Instead of drinking it, I swished the water around in my mouth and spit it out into the sink. After doing that a couple of times, I leaned over the sink to catch my breath, and tried not to think about what I’d just done. In that moment, I knew I could never eat another glazed donut again in my life.

  “Hey… look what I found,” Bates said, coming to my side with a similar box. “It was in the garbage.” He opened it, and there was a glazed donut sitting in the corner. Droplets of moisture had soaked into the box in a spraying pattern around it.

  “Eww. You mean… that’s the one? Not the one I was eating?”

  “Yeah. Yours was fine,” he said.

  I slumped against the counter in relief, picking up that Bates was impressed. Now he had to believe that my premonitions really worked, or I wouldn’t have had such a violent reaction to the donut. Somehow, I’d picked up that a donut had been spit on. Too bad it wasn’t until after I’d taken a bite, but at least it had been highly entertaining to watch.

  “Uh… thanks for showing me that,” I said.

  “Sure.” He smiled and threw the box into the garbage, then went back to his desk.

  Dimples handed me another napkin, and I wiped my mouth. “Are you all right now?” he asked.

  “Better, thanks. But that was disgusting.”

  “Sorry about that.” His brows drew down with concern, but he pressed his lips together real hard to hold back his laughter. The look on my face when I’d spit out the donut…

  “Go ahead and laugh,” I said. “I guess it’s funny now.”

  He chuckled and shook his head, thinking only Shelby.

  “Uh… I’m going now. Good luck with those kids. Let me know if you need me again. Uh… I’m not available tomorrow, but maybe the next day.”

  “Oh yeah? What are you doing?”

  “I’m headed to New York.” That sort of came out automatically. Then I realized who I was talking to and knew I couldn’t tell him the truth.

  “Wow, that’s cool. What are you doing there?”

  “Uh,” I said, panicking a little. “Just a little sight-seeing, and then we’re going to a Broadway play. Something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s a real quick trip, but it should be fun.”

  Dimples thought by ‘we’ I meant me and Chris. I wasn’t about to say a word to correct his thinking, since that meant I wasn’t lying to him… exactly. So why did a pang of guilt hit me between the eyes?

  “Nice. Well, have fun.”

  “We will. Thanks!” I hurried out of there, hoping I wouldn’t get struck by lightning for lying, even if it was by omission. Still, could this day get any crazier?

  I made it home and grabbed a cookie, then stuck a piece of bread in the toaster. While it cooked, I searched my closet for my black wig and found it in a box on the bottom shelf. It was mostly intact, but some of the bangs were poking up, so I tried to fix it.

  Of course, without a head to put it on, I didn’t have much luck. So I pulled my hair back into a bun, and put the wig on. Then I had to wet the bangs down and use the hair dryer and a round brush to get it to look right.

  By the time I got it fixed and straight on my head, I figured it would do the job. But would it fool Ramos? He certainly wouldn’t be expecting to see me there, so maybe. Plus, it had been about a year since I last wore the wig, so he wouldn’t put it together even if he saw me from the back, right?

  My stomach growled, and I hurried to the kitchen to find my toast dry and hard. I added some butter and ate it anyway. That’s when I realized that I needed to pack for New York. Since I’d never been to a Broadway play, I had no idea what to wear. Did people dress up?

  I shuffled through my closet and pulled out the short, black, lace dress I’d gotten on a winter clearance sale. It still had on the tags since I’d never worn it, but it might be just the perfect thing to wear to the play. Sophisticated, but sassy and cute at the same time.

  Since it was just overnight, I grabbed my smallest carry-on bag and opened it up. Besides an extra shirt along with the dress and shoes, all I needed was my make-up and a pair of pajamas. That left plenty of room for a souvenir or two, so I hoped I got a chance to do some shopping.

  On the drive over to Keola’s house, it hit me that things were moving along at a breakneck speed, and I sure hoped I could keep up. At least talking to Keola should put an end to helping Shannon and Kyle, so I wouldn’t have that on my plate anymore.

  I parked on the street behind Kyle’s car, grateful he was already there. He answered the door and ushered me inside, then introduced his sister, Lahni.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said. “Keola’s not here yet, but I expect him any minute. Please sit down.” She ushered me to the couch, thinking that her son was the cause of all this trouble and she hoped I could tell him something to straighten him up. She’d done all she could, but it hadn’t helped much and just made her look like a bad mother. She didn’t like that one bit.

  Kyle was hoping I could perform some kind of miracle as well, because he wasn’t too happy about going back to the bar or the gang after finding out Shannon was pregnant. He thought Keola was acting like an idiot, and he hoped it would stop before the kid made any stupid mistakes.

  Lahni sighed, thinking Keola was late and she hoped he hadn’t seen me or Kyle outside and taken off. He was usually home by now, so where was he? Shaking her head, she picked up her phone. “I’ll give him a call and see where he is.”

  I worried that he wouldn’t answer, but was pleasantly surprised to hear Lahni talking to him. From her mind, I picked up that he was at a friend’s house. Lahni told him he needed to come home right this minute, but he argued with her and disconnected before agreeing to anything.

  “I d
on’t think he’s coming home for a while,” Lahni said, discouraged. “Can we set it up for another time?”

  “Sure,” I agreed. “Hey, does he go to Jefferson Jr. High?”

  “No. He’s in high school. Why?”

  “Oh yeah that’s right. But you should know that there were a couple of kids at Jefferson who took some kind of pills. One of them is dead, and the other is in a coma. You should ask him if he’s heard about anyone selling pills, and tell him that they’re lethal. If he knows anything, it might be helpful to call the police.”

  Lahni sucked in a shocked breath. “That’s terrible. You think he might be involved?”

  “No, not at all. I’d just hate for anyone else to, you know… die.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “Of course. I’ll be sure and talk to him about it.”

  “Good. I’d still like to talk to him myself, but I’m busy tomorrow. Maybe the next day?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll set it up and call you and Kyle.”

  “Sounds good. Here’s my card.” I stood, offering her my business card.

  “Thanks.” She took the card, thinking that this was more serious than she realized, and Keola better not be involved with drugs or he was grounded forever.

  Kyle followed me out, wondering if I’d had a premonition that Keola was involved with the pills and that’s why I’d brought it up. How else did I know about it? But that was just freaky. He wanted to ask, but he couldn’t bring himself to admit I could be psychic or something.

  I got to my car and turned toward him. “Was there something you wanted to ask me?”

  “Uh… yeah,” he stammered. “Do your premonitions tell you Keola’s involved with these pills?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but he’s involved in something, so it doesn’t hurt to ask him about it, right?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “Thanks. I think I’ll stick around a little longer and see if I can talk to him.”