Chris’s lips twisted with the irony. He could hardly believe he was the one who’d messed up this time. It was usually me.
I sucked in a breath. “I heard that.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, it’s true. You’ve answered their thoughts more than once, but somehow you’ve always managed to get away with it. To be honest, I’m surprised they haven’t figured it out yet.”
I frowned. He was right. Did that mean I was fighting a losing battle, and it was only a matter of time before they’d know the whole, horrible truth? I didn’t want that to happen. Ever.
Chris wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “Maybe it won’t be so bad if they find out. At least it would make things easier for you.”
“You can’t believe that. It would make them worse. Just think about how much you hate it. In fact, you were just complaining about how hard it was. Remember?”
His teasing grin turned into a grimace. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.”
“Promise me you’ll be more careful, and if they figure it out, we can just deny it.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “So, when Josh asks about it, what should we tell him?”
“We tell him that part of having premonitions is like reading minds, because I can sense if someone’s lying to me, and I can pick up what they’re feeling. How about that? That would be better than the truth, don’t you think?”
“Yeah… that should work.” It sounded like a simple solution, and he hoped Josh bought it.
I nodded, hopeful it would work, but it was just one more thing to worry about, and right now my nightmares were bad enough. Maybe I should talk to Bob about that, too? It seemed that the things I needed to mention to Bob were getting longer by the minute. I should probably make a list before my next visit.
But right now, I just wanted to go to sleep and forget all about it. Too bad I had nightmares to look forward to. Remembering the meditation app Bob had suggested, I took out my phone and downloaded it.
After explaining the app to Chris, I got started. Curious, he watched me sit cross-legged on the bed, with my hands palm up on my knees. As I tried to concentrate on my breathing, I kept hearing his thoughts about me, and how tempting it was to poke me in the side. Or tickle my neck while my eyes were shut. I’d probably jump right out of my skin.
“Would you stop that?”
“You mean this?” He began to tickle me, and I fought back. With his arms around me, it turned into a wrestling match, ending up with me on top of him, pinning him down. Score one for me. Not wanting to be bested, he took advantage of my inattention and rolled me onto my back. With a glint in his eyes, he soundly kissed away my protests.
I have to say… even though it wasn’t meditation therapy, his kind of therapy worked pretty well, and I went to sleep exhausted, but with a smile on my face.
CHAPTER 4
The next morning, Coco was up early wanting to be let out. With Josh and Savannah still asleep, I fed Coco and decided to take him for a walk. Chris left for work at the same time. “See you at ten.” He gave me a quick kiss and hurried out the door.
After attaching Coco’s leash, we started up the street, and my thoughts turned to the meeting with Chris and Uncle Joey today. What exactly did Uncle Joey want, anyway? Making me a beneficiary might not be so bad, but executor of his estate? How big was his estate? From what I already knew, it could be huge. That seemed like more responsibility than I wanted.
I gave Coco free rein and we wandered out of our neighborhood and into another subdivision that I didn’t know as well. I didn’t mind the diversion and enjoyed the walk. After forty-five minutes, it was time to get back.
“Let’s go home,” I said to Coco. He glanced up at me, but whined and kept pulling forward. That’s when I realized he’d been leading me along the last few blocks. “What is it?” He whined again and pulled harder. “Is there something you want to show me?”
He barked. Yup.
“Okay, but I don’t have a lot of time. I’ve got to get back home.”
This time he barked with urgency. Come. We go.
Wow. That was almost like a complete sentence. “Okay, okay. I’m coming.”
He led the way down a small side street that I hadn’t seen before. It rounded a bend into another subdivision, with homes a little older than those in my neighborhood. I could feel Coco’s excitement, and I began to jog along to keep up with him.
Halfway down the street, he turned a corner into another street that wound nearly back to the first street we’d been walking along. Another street crisscrossed this one, and Coco pulled against his leash so hard that I nearly lost hold.
I pulled back, but couldn’t get him to slow down, and it worried me that he was so frantic. Then he let out a bark and pulled hard enough that the leash jerked right out of my grasp. “Coco, stop!”
He bolted to a house a short distance away, running right up to the door and scratching on it with his front paws. What the heck? Did he know this place? My heart sank. Was this his owner’s house? Had someone stolen him and he wasn’t really ours, and now we’d have to give him back?
I kept running after him, finally making my way onto the property. Before I could reach the porch, someone pulled the door open, and Coco barreled past him and ran inside the house. “Coco? What are you doing here? What’s going on?” He glanced my way and his gaze narrowed. “Did you bring him here?”
His unfriendly tone put me on the defense. “No. We were just out on a walk.”
Confused, he hurried inside to find the dog, leaving the door wide open. I followed behind, wanting to make sure Coco didn’t get into trouble. I passed through the living room, finding it cluttered with stacked boxes, and the furniture in disarray.
I continued toward a back bedroom, finding Coco sniffing the boxes in the stripped-down room. He circled the room several times, like he was looking for something. Then he sat down on his haunches in the middle of the floor and howled. He kept it up, and it got more and more mournful, like he was in pain, or crying, and it broke my heart.
The man stood just inside the room and watched Coco with dismay. Soon, tears began to run unchecked down his cheeks. He couldn’t believe Coco was back. He thought he’d done the right thing by leaving him at the shelter, but it hadn’t worked. Now what was he going to do? The man’s grief echoed Coco’s, and tears filled my eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, wiping them from my cheeks. “I adopted Coco from the shelter yesterday. We were out on a walk, and somehow we ended up here.”
Lost in his grief, the man didn’t answer, so I hurried to Coco and began to speak while I ran my hands over his head and around his neck. “It’s okay buddy, I know you’re sad, but I’m here. We’ll figure it out, okay? You and me. We’ll do it together. All right?”
He stopped howling and snuffled my face, licking my cheek. “That’s right. It’s going to be all right. I promise.” He let out a small yip, and I heard help. “Yes. Of course. I’ll help you.” With that, he lay down on the carpet and rested his head on his paws. His mournful gaze locked on the man who stood in the doorway.
The man’s brows rose, and he turned my way. “That was… you calmed him down. I couldn’t… I tried so hard… but there wasn’t anything I could do for him. But you… you helped him.”
I smiled and held out my hand. “I’m Shelby Nichols.”
“Oh. I’m Austin… Austin Haywood.”
I nodded. “So was Coco your dog?”
“No… no he’s not. He’s my dad’s… he… was… my dad’s dog.” Austin swallowed and shook his head. “A little over a week ago, my dad was… killed. He was murdered. Right here in this house.”
“Oh no. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah. It was… a huge shock. I guess someone hit him in the head pretty hard from behind. More than once. The blows killed him. From what the police told me, it wasn’t a break-in, so they think he was killed by someone he knew. The funeral was yesterday, and now I’m
just trying to sort things out.”
He glanced at Coco. “That poor dog… you must think I’m heartless to take him to the shelter, but… he was… it was just too hard, you know?”
“Sure, I get it.”
Austin was thinking it was too much. His own grief was so raw, and Coco just wouldn’t stop whining. He couldn’t take it anymore, so he’d put him in the shelter. Underneath that, I picked up his disappointment that the dog hadn’t saved his dad. That sort of shocked me. From what I knew of Coco, he would have died trying to save his master.
“So Coco was here? When it happened?”
“Yeah.” He wiped his eyes. “I guess my dad put Coco in the back room and closed the door. He must have been trying to keep the dog safe or something.” He couldn’t get over the fact that his dad was more concerned for his dog’s life than his own.
Now I understood why having Coco around was so difficult for Austin. He held the dog partly responsible for his father’s death. But there had to be more to it.
“Have the police made any progress in finding the killer?”
He sucked in a breath, then shook his head. “Not that they’ve told me.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry we barged in on you like this, but now that I know why Coco dragged me here, I’d like to help. I’m a special consultant for the police, and I have my own consulting agency. Would you mind if I looked into the case? At no charge to you, of course. I think Coco… well… let’s just say, I kind of promised him that I’d help.”
We both glanced at the dog, and he sat up with his ears forward and barked. Yup. He came to my side and nuzzled my hand until I patted him on the head. He sat down and looked at Austin with a steady gaze of expectance.
Austin caved and shrugged. “Sure. Between you and the dog, how can I say no?”
I nodded. “I’ll do everything I can to find out what happened here, but, right now, I have to go. Can we exchange numbers?”
“Yeah, sure.” We both pulled out our phones and exchanged texts with our numbers and addresses. “What is your dad’s name?”
“I’ll text it to you, along with the address to this house.”
A second later, the name, Mack Haywood, along with the address to the house, appeared on my screen. “Got it. Thanks.” I slipped my phone into my pocket. “By the way… did your dad train Coco? He’s pretty amazing.”
“Yes, he did. After he retired, he volunteered for a search-and-rescue group. He got Coco and trained him for that group. He’s always loved the outdoors, so it was like a second career for him. Coco’s just two years old, but he’s been involved in several searches already.”
“It sounds rewarding.”
“Yeah, at least my dad thought so, but there were times it didn’t turn out right.” An unbidden memory of heartbreak surfaced, but he abruptly shoved it away. “Anyway… it’s good to know that Coco ended up with someone like you. I knew he’d be happier in a new home.”
Guilt that he’d dropped Coco off at the shelter still gnawed at him, especially since the dog meant so much to his dad. But he just couldn’t handle the fact that the dog was alive and his father wasn’t.
“My kids love him, so I think you made the right choice. We’ll take good care of him; you can count on it.”
Relief washed over him. “Thanks.”
“You bet. I’ll get started on my investigation, and I’ll keep you in the loop.” At his nod, I glanced at Coco. “All right, buddy. Let’s go home.” Coco yipped home and followed me out the door. Grateful that he followed so easily after his earlier agitation, I told him what a sweet, wonderful dog he was. He barked yup, and I grinned, totally convinced he knew he belonged with me now.
We backtracked out of the neighborhood and began the long trek home. It surprised me that we’d gone so far, but at least now I understood why. Had Coco known where he was going all along, or was it just a coincidence? Whatever it was, this dog seemed to have freaky skills. Maybe that’s why we got along so well. Of course, if he was a search-and-rescue dog, it made sense.
By the time we got home, I’d already texted Chris to tell him I’d be late. We rescheduled for eleven, which gave me enough time to take a shower and get ready. The kids were eating breakfast when I got home, so I told them all about Coco and his previous owner.
“Poor Coco,” Savannah said, smothering him with all kinds of affection. He seemed to enjoy it with his tail thumping so hard.
“So, do you think he saw the killer?” Josh asked, thinking Coco was smart enough to identify the killer if he got close enough.
“It doesn’t sound like it,” I said. “Austin said his dad put Coco in a room and shut the door, but I wouldn’t rule it out. Who knows? He might have seen the killer first, or, at the very least, heard him. Anyways, I told Austin that I’m a private investigator and I’m going to look into it.”
“Cool. Was he okay with that?” Savannah asked. At my nod, she continued. “Then I’m sure you’ll figure it out, and maybe Coco can help you. Right Coco?”
He woofed yup, and Savannah grinned. “See—he’s ready to help. Maybe we could help you, too?” she widened her eyes with a hopeful look.
I chuckled. “We’ll see. Right now I’ve got a meeting with Uncle Joey, and I’m already late.”
We discussed all our schedules for the day, and I hurried upstairs to get ready. With any luck, the meeting would be quick, and I could head over to the precinct and take a look at the case files for Mack Haywood.
My outing with Coco, and finding out his former owner had been murdered, helped put my worry about the meeting with Uncle Joey into perspective. Meeting with him wasn’t a life-or-death situation, and being the executor of his estate wasn’t anything to worry about. I could handle it.
I pulled into the parking garage at Thrasher Development and rushed to the elevator with only five minutes to spare. Jackie waved me toward Uncle Joey’s office, telling me Chris was already there. I stepped inside, and Chris let out a relieved breath.
“There she is,” Uncle Joey said, standing to greet me. “Come in and sit down; we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
At his no-nonsense tone, my stomach twisted, sending unease down my spine. His mind was shuttered up tight, so I couldn’t get a read on him, but I could tell it was a grave matter.
Chris was an open book, but the pages were empty, since he had no idea what Uncle Joey ultimately wanted with us either. I sat beside him and glanced at Uncle Joey.
“I’m sure you’re wondering what’s going on,” Uncle Joey began. “But I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and I think it’s the right thing to do.”
His gaze caught mine. “A lot of things have happened in the past year, and I’ve done some… soul-searching. I’ve decided that I need to make some changes in my organization. After evaluating several of my operations, I’ve seen that I can still come out ahead without some of the… shall we say… shadier aspects of the business.
“To that end, I’m working to consolidate my business dealings into a more legal, but still highly profitable organization. It might take some time, but I have some serious plans to make it happen. That’s where you come in, Shelby.”
He clasped his fingers together before catching my gaze. “I want to make you my successor.”
My eyes widened in horror, and I felt the blood drain from my head. “What?” Similar panic came from Chris, but Uncle Joey just waved his hand and smiled.
“It’s not as bad as you think. It’s generally in name only.” He frowned, thinking that most people would jump up and down with excitement for such an honor, but then, we weren’t most people. That’s why it only made sense to put me in that position.
“What brought this on?” I asked, hoping to stall for time before I had to give him an answer.
He shrugged. “I suppose after the last few months, I realized that I needed to get my affairs in order… so to speak. You both know that Miguel has chosen a different path, and you’re part of the family now. I know I’m no
t going to live forever, so if anything were to happen to me, I need to plan for the future.
“More important, I need someone on the inside I can trust. And that’s you, Shelby. With your special talents, you’ll be in a perfect position to know the truth about people and make the best decisions about the direction I want the company to take.” He thought it would also take care of me and my family financially.
I swallowed and tried to smile, but couldn’t seem to get my face to cooperate. “Oh… yeah… I can see that… it makes sense that you’d want to name someone… but… are you sure you want it to be me? I mean… I know you’ve had some close calls lately, but I have too. In fact… with all the trouble I get into, you could still outlive me.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he scoffed. “We have both survived because of your mind-reading ability. That gives you an edge, and also makes you the perfect choice as my successor.”
I nodded, but I just didn’t have it in me to accept, no matter what he wanted. What about what I wanted? I kind of liked my life the way it was. “I get that, but I’m not sure it’s something I can do. I have no experience running a business. I’d probably make a mess of it and lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. Maybe you should consider someone else… someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Uncle Joey’s lips thinned. He’d figured I’d hesitate, but this wasn’t something he’d taken lightly. Hadn’t he just told me he was going straight? He thought I’d be pleased.
Oops. “But… I applaud the changes you’re making with the business. I mean… that’s huge, right Chris?” I elbowed my husband, who still sat there in shock.
“Uh… yes. Yes, of course.”
“This isn’t going quite how I expected.” Uncle Joey sighed. “There’s something you both need to understand. I’m not turning the company over to Shelby anytime soon. I just want to have it in place for later, that’s all.”
Dying Wishes: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Shelby Nichols Adventure Book 14) Page 6
