Dirty Rotten Scoundrel (Romantic Mystery) (J.J. Graves Mysteries)

by Liliana Hart

  Jack and I watched as Mark drove away, and my gaze went to the white panel van parked across the street at the Laundromat. A gray Honda was parked on the side street so there was a visual of the back of the funeral home. Both cars had undercover agents in them assigned to guard duty for the day. We would all be traveling to Fairfax to pay Jane Elliott a visit.

  We’d left the cruiser and my Suburban back at the house and instead driven in Jack’s forest green Jeep. It rarely got used, but it was good for longer trips, rough back roads, and snow. We made a quick stop through a drive-thru coffee shop just outside of Bloody Mary and I got a bagel as well, since the special sexual favors had made me miss breakfast.

  “Do you ever think about death?” I asked. “About what happens after, I mean?”

  “I don’t think you can do what we do and not think about it. You’re thinking of Mark Mosely,” he said.

  “It just makes you think, you know? They were a solid unit. They loved each other. It was plain to see anytime they were together. And now he’ll never be the same. How is he going to wake up every morning knowing she won’t be there beside him?” Jack took my hand and I held it like a lifeline.

  “I wish I had an easy answer for you. I think you and I are at a disadvantage. Death is the norm for us. And because it is, we understand how precious living a good life can be. How important it is to not take for granted that person you wake up next to every morning, or those who are closest to us. And because of that, we’re more selective in who we choose to allow to get close to us.”

  “Do you think this is it? That the life we have here on earth is all we’ll have together?”

  He looked at me with a half smile on his face. “I believe that true love exists. And I believe there are souls in this world that are meant to be together in this life and anything that comes after. After all this time, I’ve finally got you where I want you. There’s nothing in heaven or hell that could keep us apart.”

  I felt some of the sadness I’d been carrying around since meeting with Mark Mosely seep from my bones.

  “Think of how good I’ll be at the special sexual favors by the time we get to our next life.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing I’ll be dead so it doesn’t kill me.”

  We drove the rest of the way to Fairfax in comfortable silence. Jane Elliott lived in a middle class neighborhood of brick row houses. They all had shutters and low rooflines, and paint color was the only thing to differentiate between them. The lawns were neat and well kept with hedges lined like square green boxes across the front. The street was deserted, with only the occasional car parked in a driveway since it was a workday.

  Jack parked behind an older model white sedan, and I noticed the panel van with our FBI tag kept driving and parked at the end of the street in front of another house.

  A woman came to the screen door and watched as Jack and I got out of the car and made our way to the house. I didn’t know Jane Elliott from Adam, but I could only imagine what she was going through right now. She’d spent the last six years learning how to go on with her life and raise her children without her husband. Nursing a child who’d just lost her father through cancer treatments on top of it all. I’d always admired women who had strength, and Jane Elliott had to be up there at the top of the list.

  She opened the screen door as we drew closer—a tall, willowy woman who was almost too thin in her capri pants and oversize work shirt. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her face was void of makeup. The raw grief on her face when she looked at Jack made my throat close with emotion.

  “Jack,” she said. And then he folded her into his arms, his embrace gentle as she cried against him. I stood awkwardly to the side, an intruder on the moment, because the grief on Jack’s face was there as well and I knew they shared a common pain for the man they’d thought they’d known.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, swiping at her eyes. “The FBI was here yesterday. They’re saying awful things about John. I don’t understand.”

  “Let’s go inside,” Jack said. “We’ll talk it out. Just remember that you and the girls will be okay through all of this. I’m here for whatever you guys need. Whatever is said about John won’t change our friendship.”

  She nodded a couple of times and wiped her eyes again and then seemed to see me for the first time. “I’m sorry.” Her face shone with embarrassment as she opened the door for us. “I don’t normally fall apart like that. I’m Jane Elliott.” She held out her hand to me and I shook it.

  “I’m J.J. Graves. Jack’s really good at letting women fall apart on him. He gives good hugs.”

  Her smile was brief, but in it I saw the attractive woman she’d been before life had leeched the color from her skin and put the dark circles beneath her eyes.

  We followed her into a well-kept house that smelled like lemons and whatever she had cooking in the Crock Pot on the kitchen counter.

  “I sent the girls to stay with my mother for a few days until I can get a handle on all of this. They don’t know yet. And honestly I’m not sure how I can tell them.” She gestured to the sitting area and Jack and I took a seat on a neutral colored sofa piled with colorful pillows.

  “How’s Katie doing?” Jack asked.

  “She’s good. A normal ten year old. She’s been cancer free for three years now, and all of her check ups have been good news. An Agent Greer is the one who came to see me,” she said, changing the topic. “Is what he said about John true? Was he a traitor?”

  Jack sighed and looked straight at Jane when he answered. “Whatever John did, you know he did it for Katie. I know that and you know that. And I don’t blame him for it. You shouldn’t either.”

  A tear escaped and she ruthlessly wiped it away. “He never said anything to me. That he was working with those other men. Agent Greer kept asking if I remembered anything, but I don’t, Jack. I swear. We were so busy with Katie at the time. One hospital stay after another. And we thought we were going to lose her. I didn’t pay attention whether or not John was getting phone calls at odd hours or if I’d ever seen him meeting with someone unusual. I barely remembered my name during that time.”

  “It’s okay, Jane. Just take a deep breath. If I can do it, I’m going to try to see if the FBI will keep John’s name out of the media. You and the girls shouldn’t have to deal with that. And I can only imagine what it was like for you, but I need you to try hard and think of anything that maybe stuck out as unusual during that time. Names you might have overheard or phone calls. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important. The whole squad is dead except for me and Sam Wolfe, and he’s been missing for a few days.”

  Her lip trembled and she bit down on it. “Agent Greer told me. He told me you were in danger. That we all could be. It’s part of the reason I sent the girls away. You need to get away from all this, Jack. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you too.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m protected. John talked about an experimental treatment for Katie, but he said insurance didn’t cover it. Did Katie ever get that treatment?”

  Her brow furrowed for a minute. “Of course. It’s one of the reasons she’s still here with us. There’s an organization—Kids With Cancer—and they raise money to donate it to families who need the kind of treatment Katie did. They covered it all.”

  “Who did John hang out with in his off time?”

  “He was at the hospital whenever he wasn’t at work, but if he took personal time he hung out with someone from the team. Or he just spent it reading a book or something. You remember how much he liked to get lost in a book.”

  “There wasn’t anyone you didn’t know hanging around? Maybe a couple of phone calls that were hangups?”

  “I’m sorry.” She lifted her hands and let them fall back to her knees again. “I just don’t remember anything. All I know is that John’s dead, and we can’t ask him to his face why he did all this. I don’t know what to tell you, Jack.”
>
  Jack sighed and patted Jane’s hand as she quietly wept.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  We left Jane and her tidy row house a short time later to make the drive back to Bloody Mary. I watched the scenery pass by in a blur as thoughts rattled around in my head like marbles.

  “We’ve got a tail,” Jack said, flicking on his blinker and moving over a lane. “Just keep looking straight ahead. We don’t want to spook him until our federal friends can get a license plate and a description.”

  I looked in the side mirror and tried to see the cars behind. The van was easy to spot a couple of lanes over and a few cars back. I didn’t see the grey Honda anywhere. “Which one?”

  He moved over another lane and I saw a black Jeep with oversized tires and tinted windows follow us over. He stayed back several cars in length. Jack’s cell phone rang and he put it on speaker.

  “You’ve got a tail,” one of the agents following us said.

  “I see him. Can you get a license plate?”

  “Negative. He’s keeping a car between us and the windows are too dark to get a visual on the driver. I’m about to get off at the exit and Agent Carlson will move in. I’ll pick you up about a mile down the road.”

  “Let me see if I can help you out some.” Jack disconnected and sped up, putting distance between our tail and us. I had a white knuckled grip on the door with my right hand, and my left reached out and slapped the dash as we squeezed between a semi and a minivan. He slammed on the brakes and I jerked against my seatbelt, while the semi laid on the horn.

  “There we go,” he said. “What are you going to do now?”

  Jack somehow managed to watch the road, the car in front of us that was so close our bumpers were almost touching, the black Jeep, and Agent Carlson, who’d just made an appearance coming up from the access road and closing in to the right of the Jeep.

  My heart slammed in my chest and I watched out of the side mirror as Agent Carlson moved the grey Honda over another lane so he rode parallel with the black Jeep.

  “That ought to do it,” Jack said. He zipped out from between the semi and the minivan and then got off at the last second at the next off ramp.

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” I said.

  “Nah, you’re fine. You just got the wind knocked out of you when you hit the seatbelt.”

  The phone rang again. “Did you get it?” Jack asked by way of greeting.

  “Got the license plate number, but we lost the car. When Agent Braddock came up to get in position again the driver did some maneuvering of his own and did a u-turn across the median. We decided to stick with you in case it was a diversionary tactic for someone wanting to take a shot at you.”

  “Did you run the plates?”

  “They’re registered to Walter and Megan Cockrill in McClean. The plates are supposed to be on a 2010 Range Rover. We’ve alerted Agent Greer. He’d like you to meet him at your office.”

  “Will do.”

  “Do you think he was right? That the driver was trying to cause a diversion so someone else could move in?” I looked in the mirror nervously and at the cars scattered around us.

  “I didn’t see anyone else trying to maneuver into position. Carlson and Braddock have us flanked for the rest of the trip home. Don’t worry.”

  By the time we rode into King George County and parked in front of the sheriff’s office, I was just ready to be out of the car and indoors somewhere safe. Jack was taking too many chances being out like he was, and if these killers were as professional as everyone said they were, then two FBI agents and a mortician weren’t going to be enough to stop them if they really wanted to get to Jack.

  We made it inside and all of the cops that were on duty stopped what they were doing and stared. A few called out hellos and then everyone went back to whatever it is they were doing. There weren’t a lot of high profile crimes that happened in this area, unless you counted the last six months or so where we had a serial killer and a shutdown of the largest hate crime organization in the state.

  But there were other matters that kept Jack’s cops busy, and he was understaffed, which was one of his frustrations with the political side of things. This was a high drug traffic area, especially for meth, since there was so much wooded land that could hide cooking labs easily. The good news was Jack didn’t have to worry about funding for equipment and weapons. Every time they made a drug bust the money funded the sheriff’s department.

  Virginia also had the distinction of having some of the highest income areas in the nation dispersed amongst some of the lowest. They dealt with a lot of domestic disputes from both ends of the spectrum, as well as burglaries and car theft. The men who worked under Jack never had idle hands.

  We turned toward Jack’s office and I could see Agent Greer, Lauren Rhodes, and several other agents, along with boards similar to the ones we were using at home to lay out the crime scenes and any pertinent information.

  Jack’s office was a three-sided square of windows on the far side of the room. There were blinds available if he needed privacy for some reason, but he almost always had them open so his men knew they were welcome to stop in and run something by him if they needed to. His desk was metal and dented in the front and the carpet was threadbare. There were two visitors’ chairs, file cabinets made of the same metal as his desk, and a plant that had seen better days on top of the file cabinet. It was stark and meant as a place to work, and his men respected him more for it.

  “They’re making themselves right at home, aren’t they?” I said.

  “I gave them permission to use it as a home base, but I’m not going to let the feds knock me off my turf and take over completely. Greer’s pissed that Carver has come in to help me, and this is his way of poking back a little.”

  “Speaking of Carver, where is he?”

  “He’s taking care of reinterviewing friends and family of those involved in the heist. We’ll see if he can find any connections that were missed before. Carver’s been working on this new computer program. I told you he was a genius, right?”

  “You mentioned it. And he likes to mention it to me whenever you’re not in the room while he gives me the spiel about how he and I should ditch you and his wife and take off for the tropics. He’s under the impression the impressiveness of his brains will sway me.”

  “What’d you tell him?”

  “I told him I was shallow and more impressed by—” I looked down below his belt and then back up at Jack in time to catch his smile. “The size of a man’s ego.”

  His grin spread and he tossed an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “That’s harsh. But funny.”

  “Carver’s got a weird sense of humor. He said he knew first hand he’d lose that battle every time and that I’m supposed to ask you about the Sophia Landon case the two of you worked together.”

  I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Jack blush before, but his cheeks turned ruddy even as his grin went a bit sheepish. “Never in a million years. Maybe I need to have a little talk with Carver.”

  Detective Colburn intercepted us before we made it to Jack’s office. “I didn’t know you’d appointed the feds to take over while you were on vacation. I thought Lewis’s eyes were going to bug out of his head when one of the agents leaned over his shoulder this morning and started reading a report he was typing up.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed and he nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “They’re letting me sit in on the investigation. Giving me busy work for the most part, but I don’t mind. I want to see it through. The vic was mine.”

  “Then let’s go see what they have to say.”

  No one really paid attention when we went in the office. One of the other agents had made himself comfortable behind Jack’s desk, the coffee mug I’d given Jack for Christmas one year, sitting at his elbow.

  Jack pulled Greer aside, giving him no choice but to talk with him over in the corner. I could see Jack’s face. It was calm as he explained s
omething in great detail, but Greer’s shoulders stiffened and his fingers tapped against his thigh. Jack might have hated politics, but he was a natural at it. He was good at keeping the peace and negotiating to get exactly what he wanted. I had a feeling Greer had just been expertly negotiated.

  Greer nodded and the two men shook hands before Jack went to the center of the room to look at the updated boards. I decided it was probably a good time to head to the coffee pot, and took one of the little Styrofoam cups someone had set out.

  Lauren Rhodes had been on her phone on the opposite side of the room. As soon as she hung up, she focused in on Jack and started in his direction. I wasn’t about to be left out, so I moved in and stood just behind her. She didn’t notice me there, but Jack did and he shook his head a little in warning.

  “I heard about the tail.” She laid her hand on Jack’s shoulder and it was everything I could do not to bare my teeth. “You need to be more careful. Even with the added protection you don’t need to be going out unnecessarily, and surely you don’t need to endanger a civilian by letting her tag along.”

  I assumed the civilian she was speaking of was me, and I took a fortifying sip of coffee so my mouth would be full and I wouldn’t say anything.

  “I don’t want to see anything happen to you, Jack. You need to lay low for a while until this blows over. Maybe take a trip to the beach house for a few weeks.”

  “Yeah, Jack,” I said, widening my eyes dramatically and batting my eyelashes. “Maybe Lauren’s right. You don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. And a trip to the beach house sounds nice.”

  Lauren turned in surprise and almost bumped my coffee cup, and I saw Jack roll his eyes while her back was turned and mouth the words behave yourself.

  No way in hell, I mouthed as soon as Lauren turned back to Jack. And dammit, her hand went right to his arm again. I narrowed my eyes and looked between where she was touching and the annoyance on Jack’s face, and nodded in approval when he took a step back out of her reach.