Marked for Murder

by Colleen Helme

  With that in mind, I made my way to his office.

  “Hi Shelby.” Elisa greeted me with a smile, thinking that I looked good for a change. I’d actually made an effort with my clothes and make-up, and what a difference it made. She couldn’t understand why older women let themselves go. Didn’t they know their husbands, and men in general, would get bored with them, especially with all the younger, sexier girls they had to choose from? It was a disgrace to all females everywhere.

  Holy hell! I wanted to strangle her. The nice greeting I’d been ready to speak died on my lips. “Is Chris back?”

  “No. He’s still in court.” She checked her watch. “But he shouldn’t be long. Do you want to wait?”

  “Sure. I’ll wait in his office.” Without giving her another glance, I opened the door to his office and stepped inside. The lights came on automatically, and I sat down behind his desk, in his comfortable chair, and made myself at home.

  I didn’t have a lot of time before I needed to leave for my appointment with Olivia, so I found a legal pad and began writing down what I’d picked up about Ethan. He’d altered a police report, got caught by the prosecuting attorney, who’d then coerced him into spying on Chris to bring down Uncle Joey.

  Those tactics sounded more like something a mob boss would do, not the law-enforcing, prosecuting attorney.

  I wasn’t sure what Ethan meant about a recording, but Chris might know. Still, how would someone go about altering it? That seemed risky. I mean… wasn’t it just as illegal as altering a police report? Maybe that was a good angle to use against Strickland.

  I wrote all of that down, along with a few question marks since I had no idea what to do about it. Then I wrote a more intimate note, with lots of XO’s, and signed my name. With a few minutes to spare, I took advantage of his personal bathroom and freshened up.

  When he still hadn’t arrived, I folded the paper on which I’d written everything and tucked it into his top desk drawer. Having Elisa come in and read it was the last thing I wanted. On a sticky note, I told him I’d been there, and to call me when he had a minute.

  I left, giving Elisa a friendly smile, even if she didn’t deserve it.

  “I’ll tell Chris you were here,” she said.

  “Thanks,” I answered. “See you later.”

  CHAPTER 9

  The drive to BioTech took close to twenty minutes, and I arrived a few minutes before one o’clock. After signing in for security purposes, the receptionist took me to Olivia’s office.

  Olivia stood with a smile to greet me, wondering what I wanted. It had been several months since I’d helped her, and she’d just read about me in the paper. Did I have a premonition about her that I wanted to share?

  “Thanks for seeing me on such short notice,” I said, hoping to put her at ease. “I’m here because I’m looking for Jameson, and I hoped you could help. Do you know where I can find him?”

  Her face lost that sparkle, and her lips turned down. “What’s he done this time?”

  “Oh. It’s nothing for you to worry about. I need to find him for a client.” Sure it was a lie, but not if I was the client.

  She nodded, thinking that he’d probably fleeced someone out of their money, and they’d hired me to get to the bottom of it. “I haven’t kept in touch with him. When he left, he stayed with his lab assistant for a while. But I know she kicked him out.”

  “Is he still here in the city?”

  “Oh yes. I don’t know where he’s living, but, in the divorce settlement, he did manage to get one of our properties. The building’s not worth much, but I think he rents out the office space to a couple of businesses. He might even be living there in the back offices, or maybe the basement, but I’m not sure.”

  “Thanks. That’s a good place for me to start. Can I get the address?”

  “Of course.” She pulled out a pen and paper and wrote it down. “It’s a brick building on Main Street, number six-forty-four. I think one of the businesses is an insurance company, so you might look for that.”

  “Thank you so much.” I smiled and took the paper from her.

  She nodded. “I hope you find him.”

  We said our goodbyes, and I left the building, bursting with hope that the search for my stalker would soon be over. I drove straight to Thrasher Development. Chris may have wanted me to take Dimples as my backup, but, since Uncle Joey was involved, Ramos was the better choice.

  Besides, Dimples was getting married, and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him before the wedding. I sighed, knowing that was an excuse. When it came right down to it, Ramos was my first choice. What did that say about me?

  Not wanting to think too hard about that, I flipped on my play list and listened to Jodie McAllister sing “Devil Rider.” Since I’d recently met her, and this song was all about Ramos, it always made me smile. It also reminded me that I hadn’t sent Ramos’s brother, Javier, an email about the two of them finally meeting up. How could I let that slip from my mind?

  Of course, it had been a pretty busy week. I’d stopped a mass shooting, found out I had a stalker who’d tried to kill me, helped Billie with a client who could be her own twin, and… what else? Oh yeah, now I had to figure out a way to help Ethan, because he’d been coerced into getting Chris arrested so the prosecuting attorney would have leverage to go after Uncle Joey.

  Yeah… my plate was kind of full. Today, I hoped to solve at least one of those problems. If I could stop Beal now, my life would be a whole lot easier, and I could concentrate on all those other things. Of course, I didn’t know if it was Beal for sure, but who else could it be?

  I grabbed my gym bag with my extra clothes, and added my motorcycle jacket to the mix before heading upstairs to Thrasher Development. Sure, Elisa had approved of my outfit… and I looked hot, but I’d learned from experience that, when going after a crazy person, it was best to wear suitable shoes in case I had to run. Plus, I couldn’t ride a motorcycle in this tight skirt.

  Jackie greeted me with a smile, and we exchanged pleasantries before she told me Uncle Joey was waiting for me in his office.

  “Thanks,” I replied. “I’ll put my stuff in my office and head down.” Opening my office door, I breezed inside, somewhat amazed that this space was actually mine. After depositing my gym bag and jacket behind my desk, I slipped my purse into a desk drawer and sat down for a minute, happy to have a chair that didn’t try to throw me out.

  The beautiful painting on the wall reminded me that, although there were times when Uncle Joey seemed a little gruff around the edges, he still cared for me. That was pretty amazing coming from a mob boss.

  I needed to tell him what I knew about Ethan’s problem. He’d know how to help Ethan better than I could. Besides, if Strickland was using Chris to get to Uncle Joey, it was Uncle Joey’s problem, too. It bothered me that Strickland wasn’t any better than the criminals he put away. What was up with that? He was supposed to be a good guy.

  With a sigh, I left my office and knocked on Uncle Joey’s door before entering. Ramos sat in front of Uncle Joey’s desk and stood to greet me. He was dressed in full hitman mode, with dark jeans, black t-shirt, and a black, leather motorcycle jacket and boots.

  His brows drew together at my outfit. Then he thought that I’d have to hike my skirt up a lot to sit on the back of his motorcycle. It would be downright indecent.

  “I brought a change of clothes,” I said, wanting to set him straight, but he just grinned, pleased that he’d rattled me. Again.

  “Come in Shelby,” Uncle Joey said, thinking Ramos and I sometimes acted like a couple of kids. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t my fault, but that would just validate his opinion. “Did you find anything?”

  “Yes. I found a connection to a past client of mine. But, before I get started on that, I need to update you on the Ethan situation.”

  I sat down and proceeded to tell him everything that I’d found out, including the recording that was now in Strickland’s possessio
n. “Apparently, Strickland has doctored it to make Chris sound guilty. I guess, at some point, I’m going to have to talk to Strickland and see if I can pick up where that recording is.”

  Uncle Joey nodded. “Yes. Getting that recording would solve all our troubles. I’ll see what I can do about that. In the meantime, let’s get back to this client of yours. Who is it?”

  His quick change of topic made me realize he had something up his sleeve that he didn’t want me to know about. “Right… uh… do you know who Olivia Beal is? She owns a company called BioTech.”

  Uncle Joey’s brows rose. He knew Olivia well. She was a granddaughter in the Patten family. Could this have something to do with his investment in BioTech? “What about her?”

  “A couple of months ago, she asked me to find out if her husband was cheating on her.”

  “And was he?”

  “Yes.”

  Uncle Joey sat back in his chair, finally understanding the reason for BioTech’s recent problems. “What happened to him?”

  “She told him he was done and to clear out. I think he signed a pre-nup, so he basically lost everything. He had to leave all his research and patents behind. It was something about intellectual property belonging to the company.”

  “Now it makes sense,” Uncle Joey said, thinking that, with Beal gone, plans for releasing the pills had stagnated. That’s why putting pressure on the company to show results for his investment had gone unanswered. “Do you think he’s the one targeting you?”

  “It makes sense. He probably blames me for losing everything. I asked Olivia if she knew where I could find him, and she gave me an address to a building that Jameson got in the settlement. If he’s there, we can ask him all about it. Want to check it out?”

  A pleased smile curved Uncle Joey’s lips, and he glanced at Ramos. “Take Shelby, and make sure you don’t leave until you’ve had a nice, long chat with him.”

  Ramos nodded and glanced my way, looking me up and down. “You’ll have to change if you want to take the bike.”

  “I’m planning on it. What about you? Did you find anything useful from Jim at the restaurant?”

  “I went over the tapes from the surveillance cameras with him, but the guy must have known about the cameras, because he wore a hat and always kept his face down. The police couldn’t come up with a positive ID. But you were right about the balloons. The popping wasn’t from a gun.”

  “Well, at least he wasn’t trying to kill anyone.”

  “True,” Uncle Joey said. “And now maybe we can find him and put an end to this.”

  I smiled, inordinately pleased to have a mob boss on my side. “I’ll go change.” I hurried out and returned to my office. Locking the door behind me, I figured this was a good place to change. It was lots roomier than the bathroom, and it was private. I kicked off my shoes and pulled my shirt out from the waistband of my skirt.

  My neck prickled, and I froze. It was private, right? I hadn’t bothered to glance at the ceiling and corners of my office for a surveillance camera, and I jerked my gaze upward. There was nothing that I could see, but it would be just my luck if a camera was hidden somewhere.

  Before I changed my mind, I went back to Uncle Joey’s office and stepped inside. Uncle Joey glanced at me with raised brows. Ramos sat in the same chair as when I’d left. They both took in my bare feet and untucked shirt and wondered what was going on.

  “Uh… there’s not a surveillance camera in my office is there?”

  Uncle Joey glanced at Ramos, since that was his department. Ramos shook his head. “No.” He was thinking he might like giving me a hard time, but he would never spy on me like that. It offended him that I’d think so.

  “Oh… no… I’m sure you wouldn’t… it was just… I didn’t mean… uh… sorry. I’ll be ready in a minute.” I backed out the door, my face flaming red with embarrassment. Great. I’d just insulted Ramos.

  It took a few minutes to change my clothes, but longer to get over my mistake. I knew Ramos wouldn’t have put a surveillance camera in my office to spy on me, but putting one there for security purposes wasn’t a stretch. So I wasn’t that far off, and I didn’t need to apologize for that.

  After slipping on my motorcycle jacket, I slung my purse over my shoulder and left my office with my head held high. Uncle Joey’s door was open, and Ramos stood inside, waiting for me. He caught sight of me and told Uncle Joey I was ready and we’d be back soon, then he joined me in the hall.

  He sent me a smile, thinking that, as much as I rocked the dressy outfit, he liked me best in jeans and a motorcycle jacket.

  “So you’re not mad?” I asked. “About the cameras?”

  He chuckled. “No. I take it as a sign that you’re getting better at this. A year ago, it wouldn’t have crossed your mind.”

  “Well, you’re probably right, although, if it had crossed yours, I would have known.”

  “No doubt. You’re a force to be reckoned with.”

  My response was cut short by the ringing of my phone, sending panic into my heart. Since I hadn’t heard from my stalker after the restaurant business, I’d been expecting him to call. I pulled my phone from my purse, but found a number on the caller ID.

  “It’s not him,” I told Ramos, relieved. “Hello?”

  “Hi Shelby. This is Stacey Sherwood again from Good Morning America. I hope you’ve had a chance to talk to your husband about coming to New York to appear on our show. We’d like to schedule you next week if possible. What day works best for you?”

  “Oh… actually… I don’t think that will work for me. I have a friend’s wedding going on, and I need to help out with that.”

  I heard a sigh, signaling that she finally seemed to get the picture. “Well, I’m sure you’re busy. Why don’t I put you on the list for a later time? I’ll call back in a month or so, and we’ll see if we can work something out.”

  “That would be better for me. Thanks.” We said our goodbyes and disconnected. I let out a big sigh and slipped my phone back into my purse. Since we stood by Jackie’s desk, she’d heard my part of the conversation and wondered what the call was about.

  “Oh, that was Good Morning America. They want me to come on their show because of the shooting. I’ve told them no every time, but they keep calling me back.”

  “Really? Are you serious?” Jackie asked. “Wow. What an honor. Why don’t you want to go on the show?”

  “Oh… you know… who wants all that attention? Not me! They just don’t like taking no for an answer.”

  Ramos arched a brow and twisted his lips, thinking that I hadn’t said no this time.

  “Well, I can see your point,” Jackie continued. “But, it’s not that big of a deal, I mean… they have people on all the time, but I usually don’t remember their names the next day. They always have someone new, you know? Hey, maybe you can go on the show when we’re in New York for Miguel’s opening night. That would work.”

  “Yeah… maybe,” I said, hating to let her down. “But I’m sure by then they will have forgotten all about my story, like you said, and moved on to more current things. Uh… we’ll be back.”

  She nodded, thinking I was just making excuses. How could anyone forget that I’d stopped a shooting spree? That was huge. In fact, it might be worthy of receiving a medal of some sort from the president of the United States or, at the least, the governor. On the other hand, Joe wouldn’t like it much, so it was probably better to forget about it. He’d hate all the—

  The elevator doors slid shut, blocking out the rest of her thoughts, and I slumped against the side of the elevator. Ramos took pity on me and kept his thoughts to himself, but it didn’t take a mind reader to know he didn’t approve.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to do it.”

  He just nodded, and I caught his thoughts that it had to be hard to be me sometimes. He appreciated that I did my best, and I usually did more than I should to help people, but I didn’t have to help everyone. He didn’t like
that I let people walk all over me.

  That cracked me up, and I let out a huff. “You mean like Uncle Joey?”

  That brought a smile to his lips, and he shook his head. He thought that we’d both reached the point of no return with Manetto. Hell, I was even posing as his niece. What was I going to do in New York when I took my family to meet the New York Manettos? I’d have to tell my kids the truth at some point.

  “I already did,” I said. “They know Uncle Joey is a mob boss and that I work for him. But they don’t know I can read minds, and I hope they never find out.”

  “You shouldn’t count on it. At some point, they’ll figure it out. You just need to decide what you’ll do about it when the time comes.”

  On that cryptic note, the doors slid open into the parking garage, and we headed toward his bike. He was right, I did need to plan for the future, but, right now, I only wanted to think about how great it would be to catch Jameson Beal and put an end to this awful game of his.

  The ride to Jameson’s building went by way too fast. Ramos parked the bike out of sight on a side street. We locked our helmets on the bike and walked toward the building. “Let’s cross through here,” Ramos said, indicating the alley along the back and thinking that we didn’t want to give ourselves away by going in the front doors.

  A few cars were parked behind the buildings, along with some garbage bins and various unwanted items. The building we wanted was at the end of the alley next to another street. Ramos studied the back entrance, looking for a surveillance camera, but couldn’t see one.

  We approached the glass door and found it open for business. Entering, we stood inside a long hallway that separated a couple of offices. A staircase going both up and down was to our left. Ramos tilted his head toward the stairs, thinking that we should look in the basement first, and I nodded my agreement.

  Heading down to the shadowy basement, my chest tightened. What if he was down there? What were we going to do then? At the bottom of the stairs, we found a couple of steel doors on either side of the hall close to the front of the building that looked like the entrance to some storage space.