Deceiving Bella: Book Eleven In The Bodyguards Of L.A. County Series

by Beauman, Cate

  “My week’s jam-packed, so I won’t be able to see him again on my own until this next weekend.”

  “I’m making arrangements to come out. I want Vinny thinking about Felice’s murder. And Al’s. Those two specifically since we have IDs. I want to go to the site of their execution and search for trace evidence. I know it’s unlikely we’ll find anything, but we’re checking anyway.”

  “Makes sense. We want this as airtight as possible—no chance for Alfeo getting out of this.”

  “Exactly. I’m going home.”

  He petted Lucy as she walked by on her way up the steps to the door. “Call me if anything else comes in.”

  “You know I will.” She hung up.

  He shook his head, turning off his phone for now. He needed a solid eight hours of shut-eye. Things were moving right along—the pieces were finally falling into place. Bodies were being found. There would be video footage for Vinny to look at shortly. He smiled at Lucy waiting on him. “Ready to go in?” He locked up and they went back upstairs. Getting into bed, he pulled Bella close.

  “Night,” she murmured, already mostly asleep.

  “Good night.” He kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes, planning on sleeping like a rock now that Bella was wrapped in his arms.

  Chapter Forty

  Bella stood on the Cookes’ massive deck, savoring the warm sun on her shoulders and the ocean breeze blowing through her hair. She leaned against the sturdy railing and sipped her cucumber-lemon water, smiling as she watched sweet toddlers and precious babies coexisting on a large blanket while their parents sat in chairs close by. The afternoon was practically perfect—good food, great friends, amazing weather. Now if only Reed were here. She glanced at her watch, then toward the stairs, certain that he would be walking up the steps at any moment. He was running a little behind, but that wasn’t surprising on a Saturday afternoon. The traffic was probably insane.

  She’d been looking forward to Ethan and Sarah’s get-together for the last several days, especially after such a crazy week. Reed had technically been home, but not in quite the way she’d been expecting when he told her he wouldn’t have to travel for a while. Monday he’d been out late working an all-star concert event at the Staples Center with several of his coworkers. Then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, he’d covered Tyson’s overnight shifts. Finally, they’d had a little time together last night, walking the beach and snuggling up on the couch for an episode of The Office, but he’d fallen dead asleep before the theme song ended. He was exhausted—in need of a relaxing day exactly like this one, but this morning he’d been up and at it again, heading downtown to the office, promising to meet her at the Cookes’ no later than one. It was currently one fifteen.

  “Bella,” Kylee called from the blanket, gesturing for Bella to come over.

  Grinning, she waved to both Kylee and Olivia and started their way, always happy to chat with the Cookes’ and Matthews’ oldest daughters. “Hi,” she said, crouching down in front of the pretty blondes.

  Kylee smiled. “Me and Olivia get to come to your house sometime.”

  “I know.” She gave her a gentle poke to the belly, then Olivia. “We’re going to have fun.”

  “We’re going to make a new friend,” Olivia said, tucking her hair back as the wind played with her long golden locks.

  “Yes, you are. Emilia.”

  “She was in a fire that burned her and made her look different, but she’s still a nice girl,” Kylee supplied.

  “She does look different.” Bella pulled her phone from the back pocket of her fitted denim capris and searched through her photos until she found one of Emilia painting Lucy’s nails—a shot Emilia had no idea she’d taken—wanting the girls to understand exactly what that meant. “This is Emilia.”

  The girls blinked at the screen.

  “She looks very different,” Olivia said.

  “She does, but she used to look a lot like you. The fire hurt her skin very badly.”

  “Does it make her cry?” Kylee wanted to know.

  Bella nodded. “Sometimes.”

  The girls still stared.

  “Emilia’s going to be starting back to school soon. She’ll be in your kindergarten class. She’s going to need a lot of help letting your classmates know that even though she doesn’t look quite the same, she’s still a nice girl who wants to have friends just like everyone else.”

  “We’re going to help her,” Kylee said with a brisk nod.

  “We’ll be her friends,” Olivia added.

  Bella blinked as her eyes filled, touched by their easy acceptance and wonderful sense of compassion. “I know you will.” She hugged them and kissed their cheeks. “You two are the best.”

  They grinned.

  Olivia touched Bella’s earring, toying with the simple silver dangle. “Will you play pretend makeup with us so we can be beautiful like you?”

  How could she possibly resist? “Of course I will.”

  Kylee beamed as she bounced on her tiptoes. “We want you to make us look just like you—except we have blue eyes and yours are brown. And your hair’s black.”

  Bella grinned. “I think we should make sure you look just like you. You should be proud of your pretty faces, but you know what’s even better than that?”

  “What?” the girls asked in unison.

  “Your pretty hearts.”

  Kylee frowned. “We have pretty hearts?”

  Bella nodded. “Beautiful hearts.” She stood and held out her hands to them, glancing toward the stairs again. Still no Reed.

  “Over here.” The girls led Bella to the play table where a pink box full of beauty toys waited to be used.

  Bella sat in one of the tiny chairs. “Let’s see what we have here.” She set up her fictitious tools and got to work, starting with their hair before she moved on to makeup. “A nice sweep of blush right here along your cheekbones.” She slid the powder brush over Olivia’s cheeks then Kylee’s. “You girls have beautiful, healthy skin. You must drink lots of water and eat plenty of good food.”

  Olivia nodded. “I eat grapes and bananas, but I don’t like fish.” She wrinkled her nose. “Mommy says I have to try a bite whenever she makes it, but I don’t like it at all.”

  Bella laughed. “Maybe someday you’ll take a bite and decide you love it.”

  Olivia nodded, but doubt lingered in her eyes.

  Bella grinned, completely in love. “Okay. Your hair and makeup are officially finished.” She pressed a gentle hand to the top of Kylee and Olivia’s matching French braids. “I think you’re ready to ride your horses.”

  “Let’s go.” The girls clasped hands and made a beeline for the stairs, unhinging the baby gate and shutting it like pros before they ran to the amazing swing set in the side yard. The girls hopped on the horse-shaped double swing and rode away to wherever it was their imaginations were taking them.

  “It looks like you made two little girls very happy,” Jed said, offering her a hand to help her out of the child-sized chair.

  “Thanks.” She took it and stood, studying Jed’s tough boxer’s build in his olive-green T-shirt and cargo shorts. “I love kids, especially smart munchkins like those two. They always find a way to make me laugh.”

  Jed grinned. “They seem like they have a lot of energy.”

  She watched as the girls sent their horse soaring. “I imagine they sleep well at night.”

  He smiled again. “Is—I haven’t—Reed’s not here today?”

  She looked at her watch, realizing the girls had occupied a huge chunk of her time. It was quarter till. “No. Not yet. He said he was coming, but he might’ve gotten stuck at the office with paperwork. He had a busy week.” She forced a smile. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take care of my glass.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  She grabbed her water off the play table and walked to the kitchen, setting her glass in the dishwasher, tempted to give Reed a call and make sure everything was okay,
but she hesitated. She wasn’t the type to nag or wait around on someone else, especially a man. Even if it was Reed. She was either a priority in his life or she wasn’t. Right now she clearly wasn’t. She frowned, pausing as she started back through the doorway, surprised by the direction her thoughts were taking. Where was this coming from? Reed was stuck at work. He had a demanding career. None of the other women seemed to have a problem with what their partners did for a living, so why did she?

  She glanced around the busy deck, then down toward the lush yard. Hunter had returned from his trip and was currently pushing his son on one of the swings while Morgan caught him on the upswing and kissed his toddler toes. Jackson was back too, holding Owen and Alexa on his lap in one of the chairs. And Collin wrapped his arms around Lyla’s waist, resting his hands on her budding baby belly while they chatted with Hailey and Austin. Everyone was here. Except Reed.

  Her gaze landed on Jed as he helped Emma build a block tower. He wasn’t even employed by Ethan, but he’d made it to the party. She looked over her shoulder at the mostly empty tray of lemon tarts she’d brought along, remembering that Reed had asked her to save him one. Ignoring the latest wave of disappointment, she turned away and walked through the kitchen and down the hall to the front door, stepping out onto the walkway. “Lucy, come on,” she called.

  Lucy came running with the pack of dogs following behind. Everyone had brought their four-legged friends along.

  She couldn’t help but smile as several adorable doggy faces stared back at her. “Sorry, guys. Just Lucy will fit.” She opened the door and waited for Lucy to finagle her way into her spot. “Let’s go to the beach.”

  Lucy whined when Mutt barked.

  “We’ll have fun.” She turned over the ignition and drove down the long lane, stopping and waiting for the huge wrought-iron gate to open. Taking a right, she headed through the pretty neighborhoods on her way to the water and slowed as she approached the small brick and wood house that had been on the market for close to four months. She pulled up to the curb and put the car in park, studying the sweet little two-story in need of some major TLC. New windows, a new front door, paint, someone to come deal with the mountain of overgrown, ugly shrubbery. But there was something about the place that she loved. “Isn’t it great?”

  Lucy panted in her direction.

  “This could be ours. We could—” Her phone rang—once, twice—and she swallowed, staring at Reed’s gorgeous, grinning face filling her screen. She shook her head and set the phone back in the console, not interested in talking to him. He was likely calling to tell her he’d lost track of the time and he was sorry, but she didn’t want to hear his apologies right now. “Come on. Let’s go.” She put the car in drive and eased back onto the street, eager to walk on the sand at her most favorite place.

  ~~~~

  “So, this spot here?” Reed asked, pointing at his laptop screen while they rolled through the footage Skylar had captured earlier in the week.

  Vinny nodded. “There’s something about the rocks and trees that make me want to say yes.”

  “That’s good enough for me.” He paused the video and smoothed out the map as the breeze caught the edges of the page. He circled the area with a blue marker. They’d been scrutinizing the Brooklyn field location for the last three hours on the shaded back porch. Vinny had been in the mood to work outdoors, and Reed hadn’t argued. Later, when he met up with Bella, he wouldn’t have to worry about trying to explain why he smelled like cigarette smoke, especially when he told her he was taking care of paperwork at the office. And Vinny looked like he could use the fresh air, even if he was breathing in oxygen from the portable unit tucked close by his side. His color and energy level were off today.

  “Ready?” Vinny asked, holding the laptop on his stomach while he rested his head on the pillows Reed had brought out and propped up on the cheap lounger.

  “Yeah, go ahead.”

  Vinny tapped the mouse, starting the video again.

  For fifteen minutes, Reed watched Vinny stare at the screen, waiting for something else in the marshy area to catch his attention.

  Vinny shook his head as the final seconds wound down. “I’m not seeing anything.”

  “Okay, that’s it,” Skylar said as her dirt-smudged face filled the screen. “I’ve gotten what I can, which is pretty much everywhere the ATV wasn’t able to go. I hope this helps.”

  Reed x’ed out of the footage and sat back in his plastic chair, lacing his fingers behind his head. “I guess that’s it, then.” They didn’t get nearly as much as he’d been hoping for—just one or two more possible locations for the GPR team to check out—but overall, they’d had a productive few hours. Thanks to Vinny’s memory, Skylar had two abandoned warehouse basements to process for trace evidence in the decades-old murders of Big Felice and Little Al. They’d accomplished their video viewing objective. And Reed still had a solid ten minutes before he needed to hit the road. Not bad.

  Vinny closed the laptop and handed it over. “Things seem like they’re moving right along.”

  Reed nodded, setting the computer on the table. “Better than we could have expected. I have to admit, I wasn’t crazy about taking you back to Bensonhurst, but it’s paying off big-time. We’ve had a hell of a week.” On Tuesday and Wednesday, two more bodies had been brought to the lab—both with severed hands and gunshot wounds to the forehead—but their big break had come Thursday evening, when the forensic anthropologist discovered a bullet lodged in the cracked parietal bone of their second victim. And just this morning, Skylar had called to let him know the GPR team had confirmed another gravesite.

  “What will they do with that bullet they found?” Vinny wanted to know.

  “They’ve sent it over to Firearms Examination. They’ll take a look at it there. If they can link it to Alfeo’s gun, he’s fucked.”

  Vinny lifted his juice off the concrete and set it on his chest, fiddling with his straw instead of taking a drink. “Sounds good to me.”

  Reed glanced at his watch and sat up. “I should probably get ready to head out. Why don’t I give you a hand getting back inside?”

  Vinny struggled some as he sat up. “Sure.”

  It concerned him that Vinny hadn’t given him any grief when he’d helped him get outside shortly after he arrived, nor was he now. “We’ll—” His phone rang as he stood. “Hold on.” He glanced at the screen. “It’s Skylar.”

  Vinny nodded and sagged back against the pillows.

  “Hello?”

  “The lab’s working on our latest John Doe. We’ve got another bullet wound to the forehead.”

  He walked to the edge of the porch and back. “That’s great.”

  “We’ve also got a knife.”

  He frowned. “A knife?”

  “We brought it in a couple hours ago. Evidence Response found it in the dirt after they brought up the body. It has initials engraved on the handle—A.C.”

  He stopped in his tracks and ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re kidding.”

  “Do I ever joke about evidence?”

  He huffed out a laugh. “You don’t joke about much of anything.”

  “I’m a comedian on the inside.”

  He grinned. “This is great.”

  “I want Vinny to take a look. The body has bone trauma to the sternum and a couple of ribs, indicative of several stab wounds. The signatures appear to be a match to the knife’s blade. I’m sending pictures now. I’ve got a couple of artifacts too. I want to see if he can identify them. There’s no ID on this guy.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” His email dinged as he opened his laptop again. He glanced at his watch and winced as he noted that he was out of time. Ten more minutes and then he would have to go. He could make up the time on the interstate.

  “Did you get it?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” He opened the attachment, studying the rusted five-inch blade and slightly rotted wooden handle. “It’s right here. I’ll get back to you.”
He hung up and looked at Vinny lying back with his eyes closed. “Do you have a little more in you? They found a knife Skylar wants you to look at.”

  “A knife? Let’s see it.”

  Reed set the computer on Vinny’s stomach.

  Vinny brought it closer to his face. “They found it in the body?”

  “No. In the dirt close by—part of the dig site.” He crossed his arms, struggling with the frustration of needing to leave, but wanting to stay to get Skylar the information she could potentially use to put another nail in Alfeo’s coffin. “So, what do you think?”

  “It’s Alfie’s. My father gave that to him. There should be initials engraved on one side—an A.C. toward the bottom.”

  Reed sat down in his chair, feeling the rush of triumph as Vinny’s description fit the one Skylar shared. He flipped to the next picture. “Kinda like this?”

  He smiled. “Exactly like that. He loved that thing—got it for his sixteenth birthday. I forgot all about it. He ended up using it on Gerry Pecoraro—one of his best friends.”

  “The body they found this morning has marks on the sternum and ribs. The injuries to the bones match the blade.”

  “I imagine they might.”

  “Did he kill anyone else with it?”

  “No, he lost it after Gerry. We looked around for it some when Alfie realized it was gone, but we weren’t sure where he’d dropped it.”

  Reed grabbed his notepad, writing down the information Vinny shared. “Why did Alfeo kill Gerry?”

  “One night Pops got a call from my uncle. Uncle Sal said he caught Gerry getting fresh with my cousin Christina. Uncle Sal wanted him whacked, so Pop got the okay from the other bosses and gave Alfie the order to take care of it.”

  Reed knew the drill, had heard it several times before, but he still didn’t understand. “Your brother killed one of his best friends because he was fooling around with your cousin?”

  “You don’t mess with a made man’s family. It’s disrespectful.”

  Reed shook his head. “So the poor bastard died because he liked a girl, messed around with her, and therefore disrespected her father?”