Good Gracie

by Ines Saint

  After asking the owner if he could keep the footage for a few weeks, Josh left. He was meeting Jamar soon, and he needed to talk to Gracie alone, for the last time, before the day was through. When he arrived at the judge’s house, Jamar was already waiting, talking to both Gracie and Alex.

  “Hey.” Josh shook his hand. “I see you’ve met Alex and Gracie.” Jamar looked annoyed. “I did—but Agent Hooke here was waiting for you to get here before sharing what he found, so I decided to wait, too.”

  Josh sent them both a pointed look. “We’re all on the same side here—the side where we’re trying to figure out who recorded us.”

  Alex shrugged. “I wanted to make sure he was with you.”

  Josh drew in a breath before facing Gracie. She looked pale, tired, and just about done for the day. “What are you doing out here?” he demanded.

  That put some fire in her cheeks. “Not that I owe you any explanations, but I came to see who he was and what he was doing here.” She gestured to Jamar. “I’ve never seen him here before, and obviously I’m being watchful. Alex followed me out and badges started flashing.”

  “Sorry. That came out wrong. You just look like you could use some rest. Maybe you should go back to your apartment.” In truth, the possibility of anyone being out there watching Gracie was making him feel on edge.

  “Are you seriously thinking about keeping me from information that pertains to me?” It was an accusation, not a question. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw both Alex and Jamar slowly shaking their heads at him, as if he didn’t know the first thing about women.

  Josh stifled a sigh. “Of course not. But let’s go inside before we talk, okay?”

  Once they were inside, Josh flipped the lights on and saw that Hope had indeed managed to get the power back up. Jamar took a quick look around before turning to him with both eyebrows raised.

  Josh shrugged. “It’ll be great, you’ll see.”

  “So.” Gracie crossed her arms and faced them. “What have you learned?”

  After a quick look at Josh to make sure it was all right to tell her what he knew, Jamar spoke first. “Alex figured out that whoever recorded you did so from across the river. Josh watched security footage from a nearby business and narrowed the car down to a silver Buick Encore. He sent me stills, and I had a friend run the tags. The Buick belongs to Lester Shelton of Shelton Private Investigations.”

  Gracie’s jaw dropped and she turned to Josh. “A private investigator? As in, someone was hired to follow one of us?”

  The information hit Josh like a ton of bricks. Lester Shelton. It made a few suspicions quickly come to mind, but he set them aside. First things first. To Gracie, he said, “The Buick was following me, not you, and they’ve been spying from across the river every time I’ve been here. I’m sorry, Gracie.” He met her eyes and tried to convey just how sorry he was.

  Gracie’s eyes widened. “Every time? How do you know? And how do you know it’s you they’re following?”

  “Because of the dates and times. My theory is they already knew you lived here and when they saw where I was heading that first evening, they turned around and made their way to the other side of the river, where they could watch without being easily detected.”

  “How far back did the footage go?” Alex asked.

  “Two weeks, but the Buick shows up for the first time the first evening I was here.”

  “Did you keep the footage?” Jamar asked next.

  Josh nodded and agreed to let both Jamar and Alex review it before he turned to Gracie again, to try to gauge her state of mind. It was as if he could see the wheels turning in her head.

  “A private investigator . . .” she repeated, her eyes far away.

  “That’s how they knew I’d changed my name and who I worked for. They were hired to find me and follow you.” She looked at him and shook her head. “All that trouble to make sure you don’t win? But you didn’t even announce your candidacy until after I was back.”

  Josh met her eyes. “And that’s exactly what worries me most. It was never a secret that Helen was going to retire and that I was going to run, but for someone to have laid this all out several months ago—it points to someone having a powerful motive to either get me to lose the race or Bosco or Rachel to win. Frosting mirrors and posting comments online is one thing but hiring a PI and having him try to either dig up or create dirt? That’s a whole other ball game.”

  “Do you have anyone in mind?” Alex asked.

  “No one specific. But I have a few cases coming up—cases both Helen and I agree should be prosecuted—but that Rachel and Bosco would most likely either drop or resolve through a plea bargain. That could be a powerful enough motive to go through all this effort. It also still could be politically motivated by a supporter of Rachel or Bosco. I’m not ruling anything out, not until we know more.”

  Gracie nodded mechanically, looking dazed. “It’s as if chess pieces were moved to get us to this point, where you could be accused of something ugly enough to make you unfit for the office of prosecutor in people’s minds.” She looked out the window and toward the river, discomfort evident in her eyes. “And it worked better than they could’ve hoped for because we ended up reconnecting. . . .”

  Josh knew how she felt. Everything that had happened between them up to that point felt scripted. As if they’d been unwitting puppets in someone else’s play. In the end, though, Gracie had gone off the puppet master’s script to forcefully and powerfully deny any wrongdoing. “You’re wrong,” he said. “It didn’t work. Because you went on live TV and spoiled their ending.”

  Gracie looked surprised. “You sound as if you think that was a bad thing.”

  Josh met her eyes again, steadily, hoping to make his meaning clear. “I didn’t say that, but I’m worried about how they’ll react after the plan they clearly spent a lot of time and money on backfired.” He actually had to work to control his reaction, which was a first. Fear wasn’t something he was familiar with. But he was afraid for Gracie and it made him irrational, thinking about things like being her constant personal bodyguard until they found out what was going on. And that was a bad idea because he had already proven he couldn’t keep a clear head when she was near. Case in point: he had been followed and watched every day he’d been with her and he hadn’t had a damn clue. His right hand fisted and he looked away.

  Alex set a hand on his shoulder. “I know how you feel.”

  Josh looked back and slowly nodded. He probably did. Gracie had told him that Alex had been shot while protecting Paige from her ex father-in-law’s shaky hold on an old gun. He shook his head and asked, “Did you guys find out anything else?”

  “No. I gathered the same information Jamar did and came to the same conclusions you all did,” Alex replied. “But Paige came up with a great idea—”

  “No! Absolutely not,” Gracie interrupted. “I don’t want Paige anywhere near this. It’s enough she participated in the press conference.”

  Alex looked insulted. “It was Paige’s idea, but it doesn’t involve her. It involves me. I’m closing a difficult case on Wednesday, but I’m off this Friday because of Thanksgiving. Paige suggested I use Friday and the weekend to follow this Lester guy to see if I can catch him meeting the person who hired him to watch Josh and find you. If not, I’ll take off next week, too.”

  “You can’t use your vacation time over this!” Gracie pleaded with him.

  Alex looked her in the eye. “Yes, I can. Not only will it make me feel better but it will ease your sister’s mind.”

  Gracie didn’t seem to have an argument for that, but she didn’t look pleased. For Josh, it was the first ray of light he’d caught that day. “If you truly can take the time off, that’s an excellent idea.” He didn’t relish the idea of feeling beholden to someone he barely knew, but it was for Gracie’s sake that he wanted the help, not for his. And Josh couldn’t very well tail the person who was tailing him.

  Jamar shook his head
at Alex and said, “I can’t believe you shared the information about Lester Shelton with Gracie’s sister.”

  Alex shot him a look. “Reluctantly, trust me. She happened to be with me when I got the call. But I agree we shouldn’t share this with anyone else. Only Hope and Sherry.”

  Jamar released a frustrated sigh. “I agree it’s a good plan, but why tell Hope and Sherry, too? This will only work if the PI doesn’t know we’re on to him. We need to keep this to ourselves.”

  “Hope lives in the apartment in front of Gracie and Sherry visits often,” Josh explained. “They’re two more sets of eyes and ears and they’re invested in figuring this all out. They won’t say a word to anybody. I’ll talk to them myself.”

  Alex smiled a little, then. “And don’t forget—Hope has a stun gun and stilettos.”

  Jamar gave them a look but shrugged reluctantly and said, “Fine.” He dug out two cards and gave one to Gracie. “I know you don’t know me, but Josh and Helen Sacket will vouch for me. I’m here if you need anything, okay?” he said with a smile. Gracie took the card and smiled back. To Alex, he said, “I’ve got a heavy caseload, but I can probably tag team with you early mornings or evenings if this moves into next week. I’m also going to talk to law enforcement buddies in the area to see what anyone knows about Shelton Investigations. I know they’re used by a few area law firms; maybe we can make a connection that way.”

  That was exactly what Josh wanted to explore with Jamar. But it would have to wait. There were things only the two of them knew, and he didn’t think it was wise to involve Alex or Gracie in his suspicions until they knew more.

  Alex took the card. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Jamar left to find something to eat and Josh asked if he could walk back with Alex and Gracie so he could have a word alone with Gracie without it being on the evening news. Alex understood, and when they got to the mansion turned apartment building, he went upstairs.

  When they were finally alone, Gracie sat on the steps and studied Josh. The sleeves of his fitted dress shirt were rolled up, highlighting his strong forearms and wide shoulders, and all she could think of was that she was missing out on burying her head in his shoulder and breathing him in while he wrapped her in a strong, satisfying embrace, all because someone had violated their privacy. “Don’t worry. We’ll get ’em,” she said to lighten the mood.

  “About that,” he began, not taking her cue. “I wanted to ask you why you left out that someone had called your boss and impersonated me when you spoke at the press conference.”

  She blew out a breath. There would be no hug. “Alex told me to leave out one small detail, something that few people knew. He explained that we could use it to trip someone up. I wanted to call you first, to see if you had told anyone about it, but it all happened so fast and I’d misplaced my phone so there wasn’t time anyway.”

  “He’s right. We do that all the time, too. And that was a smart choice. I haven’t told anyone about that, only because so much has been going on. But be careful, okay? If you suspect someone of being behind all this, stay away. Let me, Jamar, or Alex know, and don’t let them know you’re on to them. Even if it’s someone who works at the courts building. Seemingly normal people can go pretty far when they feel their image or reputation is on the line.”

  Gracie nodded her agreement and Josh sat down beside her, to look her in the eye. “I hope you know I’m sorry about this, Gracie. I know you can handle anything, but I also know that rehashing the past so publicly was the very last thing you wanted to do.”

  An old platitude slipped into her thoughts, as if from nowhere. “The truth shall set you free,” she said, shaking her head. “I never thought it applied to me because I didn’t think I was lying, but the being set free part always sounded good.” She looked down and allowed herself to explore her feelings. It had been a long day of action and she hadn’t had time to reflect. “I’m not happy about the attention and the drama and the rehashing of the past, but I’m also strangely relieved. In a way, I feel set free. I have nothing to hide anymore, Josh. It’s all out there. And I’m feeling a little defiant, too. Like I don’t care what anyone thinks or says. I’ve given all that too much power already. I’m done. To use one of Grandma Sherry’s analogies, I guess it was like I was trapped in the Land of Oz.”

  For the first time he smiled a little. “I heard about Mrs. Wolf being the Wicked Witch. Were you Dorothy?”

  She bit her lip. “Uh, no. Grandma says I was the Cowardly Lion, who thought he’d lost his courage. Hope was the Tin Woodman and Paige was the Scarecrow. I guess I found my courage again.”

  “I don’t think you ever lost it. Courage is acting despite fear, and you’ve always done that. You built a life for yourself, exactly the way you needed it, but you came back here when you had to, even though it couldn’t have been easy. You also went to see Mrs. Wolf and you held the press conference.”

  She smiled. “But I wasn’t alone at the press conference. I brought my Scarecrow, my Tin Woodman, Aunt Em, the Good Witches of the North and South, and Alex.”

  Josh shook his head and smiled as he pushed up to stand in front of her. “Well, Jamar’s coming back soon, and he and I have a few things we need to go over. I, uh, I’ll be staying next door, but we probably won’t be seeing much of each other these coming weeks. I’m sure you fell behind today, and between court cases, the owner pressuring me to close on the house, the campaign, and figuring all this out, I might not even see the light of day.”

  Gracie didn’t know what to say or how to act. What she felt was a little like grieving. Something had been taken away from them, and deep inside, where her hopes and fears fluttered, she knew what it was, but she was afraid to name it, afraid she once again lacked the ability to separate the emotional from the physical. “Not so much fun anymore, is it?” she said for lack of anything else to say.

  Josh couldn’t find it in him to smile back. The word fun floated down and settled. It had never been about just flirting or having fun for him. That was her word. Her definition. At least it had been, until they’d admitted their feelings were becoming too intense and they’d both backed down.

  What was his definition? he wondered, as his gaze roamed over her face and he thought about every feeling he’d had since running into her again. Was it even worth finding out at this point, when her fun was no longer safe? When he got to her clear, sky-blue eyes, the mixture of sweetness and strength that was so much a part of her pierced him so deeply and painfully, he knew both answers.

  “No,” he finally answered her. “Good-bye, Gracie.” He bent to kiss the top of her head and, without meaning to, hovered for a moment, catching the fresh scent of her hair. She wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her forehead on his. Her lips were so close . . .

  “Do you want to know who you are?” she asked, her soft, minty breath fanning his face.

  “Who I am?” he asked, too tempted by her mouth to think clearly.

  “From The Wizard of Oz.” She smiled and looked into his eyes. “You’re Dorothy. She’s determined. Like you.”

  Josh kissed the tip of her nose once and forced himself to step away from her loose embrace. “I still think you’re Dorothy. She was resilient. And I’d rather be Toto—he blows the lid off the Wizard’s identity.” He turned abruptly and left, afraid that if he stayed any longer, he’d pull her up and kiss her until he was too senseless to remember that he’d hurt her when he’d promised her he wouldn’t, and that being close to him could hurt her still.

  * * *

  When Jamar got back, they went over to the study and sat down on two sturdy old chairs that faced the fireplace. Jamar got right down to business. “Why didn’t you mention Linda’s visit to Alex or Gracie? You said you thought something about it felt off.”

  “Because Alex doesn’t sound like he has a whole lot of free time and I’d rather have him focus on Lester while I follow up on Linda myself because it’s just a gut feeling on my part. I’d hate to wa
ste his time.” Josh stared at the dirty carpet for a moment to get his thoughts in order. “Linda and her husband, William Konitz, were at that dinner my parents held for me last week, but they left minutes after I said I wouldn’t be accepting donations from lawyers. They weren’t the only ones who left, but still . . . Then she showed up at my door, acting strange and talking about how she needed me to know that she didn’t have anything to do with the comments that were popping up online.” He looked up. “When you mentioned Shelton Investigations, one of the people I thought of was her husband. His law firm uses Lester all the time. But William mostly specializes in defending people accused of consumer fraud and white-collar crimes at the federal level, and I’ve never gone up against him, nor do I expect to, so I can’t see why he would concern himself with the prosecutor’s race. So linking Linda’s visit to this is just conjecture.”

  Jamar nodded slowly. “Could be. But you said you have a gut feeling about it, so follow up on it, even if it’s just to rule it out. But tread carefully. Linda’s loyalty lies with her husband, obviously. You don’t want to tip him off if he has anything to do this.”

  “Right,” Josh agreed. “So what I need to do now is figure out how to get in touch with Linda without anyone knowing. She was already at my building alone and I don’t want to be accused of having an affair with my ex. I thought about a throwaway phone, but I don’t have her cell phone number. What would you do?” Josh’s job required him to argue cases in his head and to see where it was he needed more evidence. It was Jamar’s job to go about the best way of finding that evidence. Whenever their cases overlapped and they had to work together, they made a good team. It was how they’d become friends.

  “Buy the throwaway phone; or better yet, I’ll buy it, and then you can call her at the station using a voice changer. We don’t know who or what we’re up against, so let’s be extra careful. You can tell the station that someone wants to pitch a juicy story but only wants to talk to her.” Jamar paused. “Did she have a special nickname for you? Because she’ll be more likely to call back if she knows it’s you. And if she really means no harm, she’ll be less likely to try to record the conversation or have someone else overhear. Start with the fact that she came over to your apartment, so she’s more likely to keep it private, but be careful not to identify yourself.”