Drop Dead Crime: Mystery and Suspense from the Leading Ladies of Murder

by Lisa Regan

  Dimples pulled the door open and ushered me inside. The body lay on a cold metal slab, and the smell of death hit me like a ton of bricks. I quickly covered my mouth and nose and hoped my stomach didn’t rebel. I’d never smelled anything so awful in my life.

  “We need to take a look at the watch,” Dimples said. “Have you bagged it yet?”

  The medical examiner pulled down his face mask. “Yeah. It’s on the desk over there.” He pointed to a desk in the corner, and we both headed straight to it. Dimples didn’t want to linger, thinking it smelled worse than normal, and he felt bad for bringing me there.

  At least that was a plus. We found the bag with the watch fairly quick, because it was on top. “Can I pick it up?”

  “Yeah, sure. But it has to stay in the bag.”

  I wanted to tell him I wasn’t a moron but just nodded instead.

  Holding one hand over my mouth, I picked up the bag. Under the pretense of examining it closely, I shook it just a little. Hearing nothing, I turned it over and read the inscription. It was engraved with the name “Nicholas Drake” on the back with the year and date it was made.

  The medical examiner pulled off his gloves and hurried over. “It’s a nice watch,” he said. “You might be interested to know that it opens.” He took the bag from me and showed us the catch. Then he pushed the release mechanism and it popped open, revealing the inner workings of the watch, along with a hollowed out portion that circled the outer edge.

  “See that?” he asked us, pointing to the hollow part. “You could probably put something in there for safekeeping if you wanted to.”

  “Was there anything inside?” Dimples asked.

  “No,” he answered, clearly disappointed.

  I let out a relieved breath. At least Drake’s secret was safe, but that meant the killer knew about the diamonds and had taken them. I inhaled and nearly gagged. “I’ve got to go,” I said and turned to leave before I threw up.

  Outside in the hall, I took a few deep breaths, grateful the room was sealed tight and the smell didn’t follow me. That was awful. How could anyone be an ME?

  Looking through the glass, I watched Dimples and the ME speak for another minute before Dimples joined me. He understood why I had to leave so quickly and agreed that the smell was really bad. He thought, from the green tinge on my face, I’d probably never go to the morgue with him again.

  I wanted to tell him he was right about that but kept my mouth shut this time. We headed back to Dimples’s desk, where I sat down heavily on the chair beside him.

  “Did you pick up anything?” Dimples asked, eager to know what I’d found.

  “Uh… not really.” At his crestfallen expression, I continued. “But I got the distinct impression that she knew her killer, so we need to look into her background. Is that what you were doing when I showed up?” I already knew the answer, but I had to play along. At his nod, I continued. “Great. Did you find anything?”

  “Yeah. I did a background search and found something interesting.” He brought the computer back to life. “We have a file on her. See that?” He pointed to the “aka” beside her picture and clicked. The link took us to another file with a mug shot of a much younger Lily.

  “She served time.” Dimples pointed to the record. “A few years after she got out, the court granted her a petition to change her name. Her real name is Sara Coleman. It looks like she was charged with a misdemeanor for drug possession and did six months in jail.”

  “Wow. Does it say any more about it?”

  “Yeah.” He scrolled through the file. “It looks like she was at a party in college where someone died of a drug overdose. She and five others were arrested, and she served time because of her failure to call for help to save the girl’s life.”

  “Oh wow. How awful. I wonder if they were good friends. Something like that would haunt you forever. No wonder she wanted to change her name. Does it say anything else?”

  “No. Since then, she’s been a model citizen.” He glanced at me with narrowed eyes. “Are you getting anything?”

  Of course I wasn’t, but I did get an idea. “Uh… do you think she might still be friends with some of the other people involved at the party?”

  Dimples wondered the same thing and thought I was starting to get the hang of what detective work was all about, which was good because it didn’t look like I could always count on my premonitions. “Let’s take a look.”

  It didn’t take long to search the other names, but none of them lived nearby, so it was probably a dead end. Still, Dimples compiled a list and decided to call each of them.

  He was about to enlist my help, but my phone rang, and I stepped away to take the call. “Hello?”

  “Shelby,” Drake said. “I think I found something. Can you come back to the office?”

  “Sure. I’ll be right there.” I hurried past Dimples’s desk and gave him a little wave. “I’ve got to go. I’ll keep in touch.”

  He opened his mouth to ask me where I was going, but I rushed away too fast. As the door closed behind me, I let my breath out, grateful I’d gotten away. I had no idea what Drake had found, but I hoped that, combined with the new information I had about Lily, it would lead us to the killer.

  Chapter 3

  For the third time that day, I exited the elevator on Drake’s floor. The receptionist didn’t even bother to greet me and just motioned with her head toward Drake’s office. I thought that was an improvement.

  I knocked on his door, then opened it and stepped inside. Drake’s ice blue gaze warmed, and he let out a relieved breath. “Good. You’re here.” His excitement over what he’d found was tinged with uneasiness, and he wanted to know what my premonitions would tell him.

  “You’re uneasy,” I said, playing my part. “And it has something to do with your security system.”

  “That’s right,” he agreed, happy I’d picked that up. “After we spoke about the things Lily took, I knew I’d missed something. So I decided to check the security on my house.” He lowered his voice. “I found a breach.”

  “In your own system?” He nodded, and I picked up more. “You think it’s someone in your company? How could that happen?”

  “Using the servers here, it’s easy if you know what you’re doing. That’s why I run thorough background checks on everyone on my tech team. Running security for big corporations comes with the risk of someone hacking into the system and getting information they shouldn’t.

  “Knowing that, I designed a special program that alerts me personally if someone manages to break through the firewall, and I run the code every day to check for a breach in the system. But I haven’t checked my own home’s security system for a while. I didn’t think about it because all the important stuff is here.”

  “So you just ran the program on your home security system and found the breach?” At his nod, I continued. “That means someone hacked into your home computer, which is linked to all your home’s security cameras?”

  “Yes, and I traced the hack back here. That’s how I know it’s someone in my company. But we need to keep this quiet until I find the bastard.”

  I nodded. “I can help you with that.”

  His right brow lifted with skepticism. “How?”

  “I just need to talk with the techs.”

  He studied me, wondering how it could be so easy. Sure I had premonitions, but how did talking to someone lead to their guilt? Of course, I’d been helpful so far. And what did he have to lose? Absolutely nothing, especially if it led to Lily’s killer. But why would Lily agree to work with a hacker in the first place? It didn’t make sense.

  “I think there’s a reason…” I began, then realized he hadn’t spoken that last bit out loud and quickly continued, “that she might have been working with a hacker. I think she was being blackmailed.”

  Drake sucked in a breath. That was the first thing in this mess that made any sense. She was hiding something, and the hacker had found out. “Tell me.”
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  “She has a record.” I explained what I’d found at the precinct, and told him she’d changed her name to get away from her past. “You can’t blame her for changing her name after what happened at the party.”

  Drake closed his eyes, searching his conscience and wondering if he would he have dropped her flat if he’d known. He didn’t know. But he wished more than anything that she’d told him the truth instead of giving in to blackmail. At least she’d still be alive.

  “I don’t think she knew about the diamonds,” I said.

  “I don’t either, but this hacker’s been busy. He knew about the diamonds from my personal files. Then he must have found out about her past and used her secret to blackmail her to get the diamonds. But why did he have to kill her?”

  Sadness engulfed him. Now he knew that she hadn’t been using him after all. Her love was genuine, and it broke his heart.

  “Uh… I got a good look at your watch when I was at the precinct.” His brows rose, and I continued, “Yeah. The diamonds were gone.”

  He bowed his head in regret. He would have given the bastard the diamonds to have Lily back. They hardly mattered to him anymore. They were nothing but cold stones.

  “Do you think Uncle Joey… I mean Manetto… might know if the hacker tried to sell them? I can talk to him if you’d like.”

  He raised his gaze to mine, thinking, Uncle Joey? Now it all makes sense.

  I twisted my lips and tried not to respond. It was hard, but I managed.

  “That’s a good idea, but I think we need to check out my tech guys first. If the hacker’s still here, I doubt he will be for long. I’ll say you’re a new client and you might have a few questions for them.”

  “Okay, that should work, but what kind of questions should I ask? I’m not much of a techie.”

  His brows rose. “Uh… just ask questions about how the system works. You might even ask about hacking.”

  “Oh, yeah, right.” I nodded and followed him out of his office, a little mortified that I hadn’t figured out the obvious questions, especially about hacking. Why didn’t I think of that?

  We passed the receptionist’s desk, turned down another hall, and walked through a door to an open room. Workstations with several computer screens lined the side wall, each occupied by a person wearing headphones. It resembled a war room. I counted five people in all, and knew these were the coders who kept track of the security systems.

  One of them was a traitor.

  I picked up from Drake that he planned on introducing me to one person at a time, something he’d done before with new clients, and some of the tension left my shoulders.

  The first computer tech was a woman. I knew immediately it wasn’t her, which was a big relief, mostly because she was the only woman in the whole department, and I was proud of her for that.

  We continued down the line and, by the last person, my hopes had dwindled. After questioning the only one left, I realized that not one of them was the hacker. All were devoted to Drake and the company. I thanked them all again and walked silently with Drake back to his office where we could talk.

  Closing the door behind us, Drake turned to me expectantly. “Who is it?”

  “Well… I guess the news is both good and bad,” I began, hating to disappoint him. “The good news is that’s it’s not any of them, which I guess is also the bad news.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  “Hey, I’m disappointed too, but they’re all devoted to you and the company. Is there anyone else who might have access to your servers?”

  Drake rubbed a hand through his hair, leaving it a little ruffled, but in a good way. “I guess it could be anyone in the office, but I’m pretty sure none of them have the experience to know how to breach my system. This hacker has serious computer skills. If they hacked into my home system, they were good enough to hack the police records and find out about Lily.”

  “Okay. Do you know anyone in the hacker community who could do that?”

  Drake froze and his eyes widened. “I might.” He was thinking of a guy he’d tangled with before. They’d been pitted against each other a few times, but Drake had always managed to outmaneuver him. Could he be the one behind this?

  He rushed to his computer and began typing furiously. With new insight, he reviewed the code the hacker had used and saw a familiar pattern. A few key strokes later, he found the hacker’s signature, 5H4D3, which stood for Shade: simple, but unmistakable.

  He’d never met the guy in person. But after what he’d done, that was all about to change. Drake had tracked him down before. He could do it again.

  “Does this mean he’s not someone here in your office?” I asked.

  “He could have been at some point, but he’s long gone now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He might have come in as a repair person, or a janitor, or any number of people in the last few weeks. That’s how he infiltrated my home system. After that, he could hack into my files remotely. I need to alert my team.”

  Drake rushed from his office, leaving me to sort things out. I didn’t know a thing about writing code or hacking, so I wasn’t much help, but there might be something else I could do. I strode to the receptionist’s desk, remembering the beautiful logbook I’d signed that morning.

  As I approached, the receptionist raised her brow, wondering what was going on. I proceeded to tell her that the company had been hacked. “His hacker name is Shade. Drake thinks he must have come in sometime in the last few weeks as a worker, and I thought we could look through the logbook.”

  “Of course,” she said, grateful to be of use. She opened the logbook on her desk, and I stepped to her side to help with the search. We glanced through each day, going back a few weeks until we came to a signature that brought me up short.

  “Lucas Shade. That’s him. It says he arrived at noon to check the air vents. Do you remember him?”

  “No, I’m sorry, I don’t. But it doesn’t matter. He should be on the security cameras for that date and time.” She moved to her computer and toggled into the security system, then clicked through the links until coming to the time and date stamp.

  Pulling up the footage, we both held our breath. A man in a one-piece cleaning uniform wearing a ball cap entered the lobby. He kept his gaze lowered, and it was impossible to see what he looked like.

  Then Drake entered the room, and the man straightened with alarm. As the receptionist spoke to Drake, the man turned his body away, and his head slanted in the perfect position to get a clear look at him. He wore heavy-rimmed glasses, with short-cropped, brown hair and a beard. With a quick tap on the keyboard, the receptionist stopped the tape. She zoomed in until his face took up most of the screen.

  His features were fuzzy, but something about him seemed familiar. Had I seen him before?

  “I’ll send this to the tech team. Drake’s still in there. They can sharpen the image.”

  “I’ll tell him,” I said and rushed to the work area.

  I found Drake sitting in one of the tech’s chairs, typing on the keyboard. “Your receptionist found him on the security video. She’s sending his image now.”

  Drake found the file and opened it. With a few keystrokes, he brought the face into focus and froze. He knew this man from his stint in the National Security Agency. They’d been competitors from the beginning, but after Drake left, he’d never thought about the guy again. He could hardly remember his name.

  Alarm filled my stomach, and my mouth went dry. “I saw that guy yesterday.”

  “Where?” Drake asked.

  “Can we talk in your office?” I asked him, knowing this was a conversation that needed some privacy.

  Drake pursed his lips and nodded. He followed me to his office with tightly controlled dread. From what he knew about me, it probably had something to do with Manetto or the police. Either way, it wasn’t going to be pleasant, and he hoped I wouldn’t try to pull something over on him.

  As th
e door shut behind Drake, I sank into a chair. “He was at Thrasher Development yesterday afternoon, waiting to speak with Uncle Joey, probably about the diamonds.”

  “But that was before he got them from Lily. He must have been pretty sure of himself. Do you think they’ve already made the trade?”

  “I’ll call Uncle Joey and ask. Do you remember the guy’s name? On the log it was Lucas Shade. Does that sound familiar?” As Drake shook his head, I pushed Uncle Joey’s number on my cell phone.

  He picked right up. “Shelby. What a surprise. What can I do for you?”

  “Hi, Uncle Joey. This might sound strange, but you know Alex Drake, right?”

  “Yes, I do. Why?”

  “Well, I’ve been helping him with something, and it looks like you might be involved. Did someone by the name of Lucas Shade come by yesterday… wanting to sell some diamonds?”

  “What’s this about?” I didn’t blame him for being cautious, so I quickly explained the situation, not leaving anything out, including Lily’s blackmail and murder.

  “I see,” Uncle Joey responded. “Well, you’re in luck. He called me this morning to tell me he had the diamonds, but I haven’t set up the exchange yet. I like to run a thorough background check first. His real name is Jeremy Mack, and he has ties to the NSA. I wasn’t going to do business with him, but now I’ve changed my mind. Why don’t you and Drake come to my office, and we’ll figure this out?”

  “Okay. I’ll let Drake know.” We disconnected, and I quickly explained the conversation to Drake. “So, are you okay to go over there?”

  “Yes,” he answered, thinking that this was one of those times it was good to know a mob boss. He wasn’t sure what Manetto had in mind, but if it ended up with Shade dead, it wouldn’t bother him in the least.

  While I could certainly understand his feelings, I did not want to be a part of someone’s murder, even if that someone was a murderer. There had to be some way to get Dimples involved so he could just arrest him, but how was I going to do that?