Something to Dye For (Curl Up and Dye Mysteries, #2)

by Aimee Nicole Walker

  It was something that never occurred to me. I knew nothing about Nate’s personal life or criminal activities so I couldn’t possibly see how I would be in danger. “No, sir.”

  “Keep an eye out and report anything odd to me, Gabe.” He nodded his head and returned his attention back to the paperwork on his desk. I had effectively been dismissed.

  I found Adrian sitting at my desk with two cups of coffee. “You’re looking rough, partner.”

  I gratefully accepted the coffee he made for me and tried not to wince over how sweet it was. Only Josh seemed to be able to make my coffee to my exact specifications. The baristas at The Brew came close, but I’d prefer Josh’s coffee any day of the week. Of course, if I was getting Josh’s coffee then that meant I was probably getting a piece of him too.

  “Must be some good coffee,” Adrian said. “You went from half dead to alert in just one sip.”

  “It’s great, Adrian. Thank you.” I let him believe his coffee, and not thoughts of Josh, breathed new life into me. “Hey, I need to tell you something that I should’ve told you sooner. I just never thought it would add up to anything.”

  Adrian listened raptly until I finished telling him about my early morning phone call and subsequent trip to the sheriff’s office. “That’s un-fucking-believable.”

  “It feels like a weird dream.” But I knew the gruesome sight I saw earlier was real. I leaned toward Adrian and lowered my voice. “What does the captain have against Sheriff Tucker?” I told Adrian about how angry he became and even referred to Tucker as the “fat bastard.”

  Adrian threw his head back and laughed hard for several long moments. “Cap is married to the sheriff’s only daughter.”

  “How’d I not know that?” I asked rhetorically. I wasn’t one for gossip and the captain was a very private man, but I thought I would’ve at least known that much about him. “Damn, that must make for some interesting holidays.”

  “You know it.” Adrian’s desk phone rang and he answered it. “Whoa,” he said after listening for a few minutes. “We’re on our way.” Adrian nodded to my cup of coffee and said, “Bring it with you. The high school asked Officer Wen to bring Rocket for a random search and the dog alerted Wen to possible drugs in a locker. The principal opened the locker and found a huge cache of drugs.”

  “Pot?” I asked as I put my coat back on.

  “He said it looked like a little bit of everything. Wen thinks the street value is around twenty thousand dollars.”

  I let out a low whistle. “Where does a high school kid get their hands on drugs like that?”

  “I don’t know, but you can bet your ass we’re going to find out. There’s no way we’re going to let our town be destroyed by drugs,” Adrian replied.

  Blissville High School was a newly constructed two-story, brick building on the edge of town. Approximately six hundred kids in grades nine through twelve attended the school. The school district had a few controversial policies in place, but the biggest one was their search and seizure policy. The policy simply stated that the school had the right to bring in the K-9 unit to conduct random searches. If the dogs indicated to their handlers that contraband was found, the locker, or even a car in the parking lot, was opened and searched.

  During my time in Blissville, the only thing confiscated had been small amounts of pot and sometimes alcohol. Nothing had prepared us for the number of drugs found in the locker that day. I had seen smaller busts in the homes of drug dealers in Miami.

  “Holy shit,” I said softly in the school hallway.

  “Indeed,” Principal Mary Rogers said. “I can’t believe it.” She closed her eyes then reopened them, as if she hoped to wake up from a bad dream.

  “Still there,” I told her.

  “Indeed,” she echoed her words from earlier.

  “What can you tell me about the owner of the locker?” I asked her.

  “Well, technically the school owns the locker, Detective, and the kids are permitted to use them.” She tilted her head to the side and lightly tugged on her ear. “This particular locker hasn’t been assigned this year. It’s one of the few unassigned in this hallway.”

  “Someone knew the locker combination,” Adrian said. “Do you have record of who was assigned to this locker last year?”

  “He or she would’ve graduated,” Principal Rogers said. “All these lockers in this hallway belong to the freshman class. They’ll keep the same locker for their four years of high school. Before the seniors graduate, we check their lockers to make sure they’re not damaged. Then we assign the lockers to the next group of incoming freshmen. We don’t keep lists of previous assignments. We’ve never needed to do so.”

  “Someone knew this locker wasn’t being used and they knew the combination.” I looked back at the locker and watched as our team dusted for prints inside and out. “Anything we can use?” I asked.

  “No, sir,” Officer Kasey answered.

  “Video footage?” I asked.

  “The assistant principal is looking through it now with an officer, but we have no idea how long the drugs have been in the locker. We haven’t had the K-9 unit in for several months so it’s hard to say. The videos are only saved for thirty days before they’re recorded over to save space in the mainframe.” Principal Rogers ran her fingers over her pearl necklace nervously. “I don’t like this, Detectives. This isn’t a joint or two a kid has tried to sneak in. That,” she pointed to the stash of drugs that officers were photographing and documenting before it was taken to the evidence room at the station, “was brought in with the intent to deal. I do not want dealers setting up shop inside my high school.”

  “Neither do we,” I told her. “We need to interview any staff members that have access to the video equipment, the locker assignments, locker combinations, or have master keys to open any locker.”

  A small woman came running down the hallway toward us. “Mrs. Rogers, news vans from Cincinnati and Dayton just pulled into the school parking lot.”

  “I will make them available to you later today,” the principal told us, “but right now I need to do damage control.” She turned away and started walking back toward the school office. “Don’t buzz them in,” I heard her say. “They can stay outside until I’ve had a chance to speak to the superintendent.” I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about the vultures being locked out in the cold.

  “Well, I guess there’s nothing left for us to do now except to help them bag and tag the evidence. Then we can get some lunch,” Adrian said.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I have lunch plans with Josh,” I told Adrian.

  “Does he know this?” Adrian asked.

  He had me there. Josh had no clue I was coming. He was regimented about his day and might not like me dropping in the salon during business hours, even with delicious food, but I felt like I needed to try. Something in the way he reacted to Billy Sampson’s name struck me. It was almost like he folded in on himself rather than standing proud like I was used to seeing him. I didn’t want to wait until after work to talk to him because it would allow him too much time to bury his emotions.

  “It’s a surprise,” I told Adrian. “I’m hoping it’s a good one.”

  I sat at the counter and drank a cup of coffee while I waited for Emma to cook mine and Josh’s food. I had no idea what Josh might be in the mood for so I just picked something and hoped he liked it. If not, I’d take it home and reheat it for dinner.

  “Long time, no see,” said a familiar voice on my right.

  I turned and looked into the bright blue eyes of the man I used to share a home with. His eyes used to make my heart race when we first got together, but any romantic feelings I felt for him had been gone for more than a year–even longer if I thought hard enough about it. Instead, I saw a handsome guy with a great personality who passionately loved his job as the town veterinarian. I also saw a guy who deserved to find the man who was meant for him.

  “Yeah, I haven’t talked
to you since before Christmas,” I replied. I had run into Kyle at The Brew when I showed up hoping to run into a certain platinum blond with hazel eyes. Josh and I had been split up for over two weeks at the time, although I guess we weren’t a couple at the time, and I was dying to see him again. Josh saw me having coffee with Kyle and got the wrong idea. I chased him out of the coffee shop and we took the first steps at amending our fragmented… something, as we both called it.

  “I’m glad things worked out for you and Josh.” His soft words reminded me that he had been nursing some frustrations that morning also.

  “No luck with gamer dude?” I asked. I was shocked to hear that Kyle had started playing video games to pass the time once we broke up. Some guy he talked to online grabbed his attention and Kyle couldn’t get him out of his system. Kyle wanted to meet the guy in person, but the guy disappeared before Kyle could mention it.

  “Not yet, but I’m not giving up.” Kyle smiled, but I noticed that his normal twinkle wasn’t present in his eyes.

  The waitress, Daniella, brought over the carryout bag with my order in it. After I paid her, I turned back to Kyle and patted him on the shoulder. “I hope everything works out for you.” And I meant it. He was a good man who deserved to find happiness.

  “See you around,” Kyle told me before he placed his order with Daniella.

  Josh was nowhere in sight when I walked into the salon. I noticed that his two partners in crime were also missing, so I suspected there was a pow wow of some sort going on. I didn’t think they’d go upstairs in the middle of the day, which left the small kitchenette in the rear of the salon. As I approached the room, I picked up a piece of their conversation.

  “Babe, we would’ve told you if we knew that asshole had returned to town. We’d never let you get caught off guard like that. How in the hell did we not know he was back?” Meredith asked. “Are you okay, Jazz?”

  “I…”

  “Fucknugget! Fucknugget! Fucknugget!” Josh’s blue macaw squawked at the top of his lungs. I thought it was funny when I first taught him that word while I was recuperating at Josh’s house from my concussion. Then Savage started to squawk it nearly every time he saw me and it wasn’t so funny, especially when I was trying to spy. I decided to start working with him on new words.

  Josh poked his head around the corner of the kitchen. “Surprise!” I held up the brown sack of food. “Hungry?”

  Josh chewed on his bottom lip while his eyes raked up and down my body. “Starved.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the food or me.

  DAMN GABRIEL WYATT AND all his manly yumminess. He distracted me to the point of insanity. I was more addicted to him than Andrew Christian underwear and that was saying a lot. Hell, it had only been a few hours since his dick had been inside me and I was already jonesing for more.

  “I’m out of here.” Chaz grabbed Meredith’s elbow and tugged her behind him.

  “You never let me have any fun,” I heard her tell Chaz, which was opposite of how it really was. Meredith was usually the one pulling Chaz out the door so that Gabe and I could have alone time.

  “Mmmm, that smells good.” I finally got a whiff of the food inside the carryout bag and my brain focused on something besides sex. “What did you get me?” I held up my hand to stop Gabe when he started to answer. “Let me guess.” I sucked air into my nose dramatically and said, “I smell beef and mashed potatoes. That could be several items from the menu.” I took another sniff and thought I caught a hint of honey glazed carrots. “Mmmm. You ordered me the pot roast dinner.” I smiled at him triumphantly.

  “You’re good,” Gabe said. He pulled me by the back of the neck and dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “So damn good.”

  I snatched the bag from him and set it on the table. “None of that or I’ll lose my focus. Don’t force me to ban you from the salon during business hours.”

  Gabe snorted as he took a seat. “Feed me and then I’ll get out of your hair.” Gabe smiled widely at his pun before continuing. “I won’t even act like I want to take you up the stairs and peel off your clothes so I can kiss every inch of you. Nope, that’s the furthest thing on my mind when you stare at my lips like that.”

  I was so close to saying “take me right now,” but my growling stomach beat me to the punch. I unpacked and distributed our food then dug into the heaping pile of roast beef, gravy, and mashed potato heaven. “You didn’t get country fried steak?” I asked.

  “You’ve ruined me,” he replied. His answer brought a smile to my face just like it did every time I asked the question and he answered in the same way. My country fried steak is the bomb! “Had an interesting morning, but I’m sure you’ve already heard all about it at the Come In and Gossip.”

  It was a good thing I hadn’t taken a bite of food because it would’ve fallen out when my mouth gaped open. Did he just mock my salon? “Oh, no you didn’t!” I clutched my chest with one hand and tried to look affronted.

  “Oh, yes I did.” Gabe didn’t look a bit guilty for slandering my precious business. I would’ve been pissed if it hadn’t been the God’s honest truth.

  “Yeah, I heard about the bust before you were even on the scene,” I confessed.

  “Jesus,” Gabe mumbled around a bite of his buttery roll.

  I pointed my fork at Gabe and said, “Leave him out of this.” He smiled because it was the same exchange we had after sex the first time. “How big is big?” I asked. The leering smile on his face said his brain was still back in his bedroom on that cold, fall morning when I rode him like a bronco. “The drug bust,” I prompted.

  Gabe pinned me with a stern look. “What I tell you stays confidential.”

  “Goes without saying,” I replied saucily. My clients might be full of gossip and chatter, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t keep a secret. I was damn good at keeping secrets. Besides, Gabe wasn’t telling me that Mrs. Jenkins switched laundry detergent or Mr. Hopkins stared a little too long at Mrs. Mayweather’s ass in the Sac-N-Save parking lot. He was trusting me with something that could jeopardize his career. “Wait.” I held up my finger when he started to talk. I got up and looked to see who might be lounging in the sitting room while waiting for their appointment. I had clients with hearing so acute they’d make the CIA envious. The sitting room was empty, but I shut the door in between the rooms for good measure.

  “Huge!” Gabe said once I returned to my chair.

  “Yes, babe, but what about the drugs?” I couldn’t resist teasing him.

  I thought Gabe was going to get up and strut like a peacock from my praise. “Almost as huge,” he replied with a grin. Then he leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Seriously, we’re talking a street value of a hundred thousand dollars or more. At first we thought maybe ten or twenty thousand, but it came back with a much higher value once we logged the evidence into the system.”

  “In a high school locker?” It was staggering to think that a kid in the school had the connections to gain access to a drug stash that size. “Whose locker was it?” I asked, even though I knew he wouldn’t tell me.

  “I don’t know and I wouldn’t tell you if I did.” Gabe said exactly what I thought he would. “I’ll let your three o’clock appointment tell you. I’m sure they’ll know before I do.” I was too hungry to comment on that snarkfabulous remark.

  Who the hell was I trying to fool? “Just for that, I refuse to be your confidential informant.” My response was met with a snort that I did choose to ignore.

  I looked at my watch and saw that I didn’t have much time before my next appointment arrived. I buckled down and ate the delicious lunch Gabe bought me. The small gestures of his affection meant more to me than if he bought me a fancy Michael Kors watch.

  “That was so good, but now I need a nap.” I rubbed my belly and said, “Carb City.”

  “I have an idea of how you can work some of it off later,” Gabe said, reaching for me. “I still haven’t seen your attic studio.”

  I wa
sn’t sure why I hadn’t shown him my pole dancing studio yet. I didn’t think it was performance anxiety because I had competed in competitions, but then again, none of the spectators were Gabe. They were faceless people where he was my… something. What he thought mattered to me more than I ever thought I’d allow again.

  “Soon.”

  Before he left, Gabe pulled me to him and pressed his forehead to mine. “You can trust me too, Josh.” At first I wasn’t sure what he was talking about then I realized that he probably caught part of what Meredith said to me. I figured he probably caught onto the shock I felt when I heard Billy’s name in the shower. Hadn’t he told me that my face gave away my thoughts?

  “Soon,” I repeated. I owed him the truth of my past, especially since it was still a minefield he tiptoed through. I worried that he would think less of me for allowing myself to be treated the way I had.

  “Fair enough,” he whispered before he dropped a sweet kiss on my lips. “Just so you know, nothing you say will make me like you any less.”

  “Thank you for lunch. It was very sweet of you,” I told him when I walked with him back out to the salon.

  “It’s your late night and I don’t want you hangry.” Gabe stopped when he reached the door. “I thought Buddy and I might stop over around eight with pizza. I might even throw in a foot rub afterward.”

  I nearly moaned out loud because his foot rubs were fucking amazing. I sprung wood every time he dug his thumbs into my arches. Just thinking about it was enough to make me uncomfortable in a room full of clients. “Go, go now.” There wasn’t any venom in my words, only laughter.

  I gave him a quick kiss on his cheek before I shooed him out the door. When I turned around to go to my station, I saw that every eye in the salon was focused on me. “Y’all go about your business before I add extra onto your bill today for the free show we just gave you.”