The secrets they keep, p.18
The Secrets They Keep, page 18
“Hi there,” Mac said, smiling and turning his back to her. “That’s right. Sure, repeat my last order, but could you add a medium veggie deluxe?”
Grace turned back to the recording and pressed play as Blaze walked back toward the blackjack table with all of the chips Cory had intended to play with.
Maybe to win back the money he owed. Maybe because his addiction wouldn’t let him stop, driving him to go to the place where he might run into the man he owes a debt to.
Blaze sat at the table once again with a small grin as he nodded to the dealer. She paused the tape and studied his face.
What did you loan Cory money for?
And what would it take to make a man like Blaze kill?
Probably not much.
The man Luke called Blaze laughed along with the man beside him before parting ways and walking with his gym bag over his shoulder, back to his SUV.
I’ve never seen him. But he’s the right size.
She leaned forward, studying him as he tossed his bag into the back seat with ease.
“He boxes,” Luke said, turning the key in the ignition, “and works out for two hours every day. Never misses.”
He’ll be here every day before dinner… The man who attacked me was strong.
I need to hear his voice.
“Where does he go next?”
“It all depends,” Luke said, shifting into reverse. “He’s not entirely predictable, but we’re going to find out.”
His car rolled slowly toward the opening of the lot, and he waited until Blaze reached the street, turning left without signalling, causing another car to screech to a stop before him and lay on his horn. Letting one car pass, they followed him down Main Street.
“When you’re following someone, I find it’s best to really get in the mindset that you’re doing something important,” Luke said as Blaze switched lanes and sped up. “If you tell yourself you’re on your own mission, you blend in better. You don’t follow so close, because you’re just out, doing your own thing.”
Madigan cast a glance his way before keeping her eyes glued to Blaze.
“You don’t want to lose them, but if you hang back a bit, you can see what move they’re going to make. You don’t have to guess.”
Blaze turned right down a side street without signalling again.
“See? Like that. If we’d been right behind him, turning could have been too obvious.” Luke made the same turn, and she spotted the black SUV speeding down the road toward a red light.
“If that light had been a stale green, we’d have sped up just then,” he said.
“Stale green?”
He nodded. “If we don’t see it turn green, we assume it’s stale.”
Blaze sailed through the intersection, and they followed behind, just as the traffic light turned amber above them.
“You never want them to feel like they’re being followed,” he said as Blaze ran a stop sign.
“I knew when you were following me the other night.”
Luke pushed on the brakes before the stop sign, craning his neck to look ahead. “You didn’t know until I wanted you to. If you thought you were being followed before then, it’s because you’re paranoid. Maybe for good reason.”
They rolled through the four-way stop and picked up the pace, closing the gap between them once more.
“Where is he going?” she muttered under her breath.
Luke turned left, following Blaze toward another main road. Just before, his SUV turned into another small strip plaza, and Luke kept driving to the intersection.
“Hey, wait, where are we going? He’s back there.”
“We’re getting a better view.” He rolled past the lights and drove into the parking lot diagonal to the plaza. “Last time we were straight across. This time we have to make it different. We can’t give them a reason to suspect they—”
“Are being followed,” she said. “I got it.”
As they pulled into a spot out front of a bowling alley, Blaze got out of his vehicle and grabbed his gym bag, walking with swagger into the laundry mat.
“He’s doing his laundry?” she asked.
“Just wait.”
Blaze slipped inside and turned around immediately, locking the door behind him. Another older man walked to the front of the store.
Maybe the owner?
The older man drew the blinds out front and turned off the glowing open sign. The lights stayed on inside, and she could vaguely make out two figures walking across the room, disappearing toward the back of the store.
“Now what?” she asked.
“Now we wait.”
I need to know where he lives. Where he lets his guard down. If he ever does—it’s there.
Luke handed her a bottle of water, and she took it, nodding to him as he pulled a bag of grapes up to the front and held them out to her.
“No thanks.”
“Suit yourself.” He popped a grape in his mouth and crunched down on it loudly.
“You came prepared for a stakeout.”
“It’s what I used to do before a deal. I had to make sure any new customers were who they said they were.”
“So you’ve been doing this whole thing for a while.”
“Used to.” He popped another grape in his mouth.
“You didn’t answer my question before,” she said. “John got you out, but how? And why?”
He scratched his head and let the bag rest on his lap. “My mom got sick.”
“Oh.” She glanced back at the angel again. “I’m sorry.”
“She needed to see special surgeons and, we had to move closer to the hospital she had her treatments at.”
Everything in past tense. Maybe she died.
“And how did she…”
“She’s hanging in there,” he said with a small smile. “Treatments didn’t work. We moved back. But she’s not giving up and neither am I.”
“So you’re taking care of her now?”
He nodded and popped another grape into his mouth, stuffing it in his cheek.
“She’s the most important thing in my life,” he said and then bit down on the grape, a bit of it squirting out before he could close his mouth. “We moved back here to a cheaper place, and I’m working at the scrapyard…saving to hopefully have the option to try a different treatment in the future. It’s a totally different life, and being back here’s not ideal, but I’ll do anything for my mom.”
“Well… I’m glad you got out.”
He cleared his throat and put the bag back in the back seat. “This could take a while. I’d say get out and stretch your legs or get us a coffee, but you never know when we’ll need to move again.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. The streetlights flickered on, and the shadows from inside the laundromat re-emerged at about the same time. The larger shadow walked ahead, holding something.
That must be Blaze.
The front door opened, and Blaze stepped out with his gym bag, holding the door open as he spoke to the older man. As Blaze turned back to his SUV, letting the door swing shut slowly on its own, she watched the man limping out of sight, back behind the drawn blinds.
He wasn’t limping before, was he?
Blaze tossed his bag into the SUV again, this time with more of an effort, and Luke turned the key in the ignition again.
“He’ll go back home now,” Luke said.
“You know where he lives?”
“Uh huh. Gated community in Amherst.”
Great. Never broken into one of those.
Blaze drove out of the lot and turned right, back the way they came. Luke drove out to the edge of the lot and turned right on the main road.
“Okay, I don’t need to be a stalking expert to know we’re going the wrong way,” she said.
“No, we’re not.” Luke drove at the speed limit, staring at the road ahead as the sky’s pink and orange streaks faded fast, replaced with a darker blue.
“I don’t understand. Are you doing this so he doesn’t suspect we’re following him?”
Luke nodded and made a left.
Maybe we’re turning around.
He made another turn, and Madigan sat up in her seat, craning her neck to see around the cars ahead.
“I don’t see him.”
“The point is to make sure he doesn’t see us.”
As he made another turn off of Main Street, an unsettling feeling arose within her gut.
“Hey, where are we going?”
Luke stared ahead, his jaw clenched.
“Luke?” She turned to him. “Where are you taking me?”
He pursed his lips and made another turn toward the bad part of the city.
I’ve made a mistake.
She reached for her phone, but he turned to her, and she grabbed on tightly to her purse.
“What are you doing?”
“That can’t be it.” Grace pushed her coffee cup aside and pulled the laptop closer.
Mac sighed and let his lips vibrate together as he stood, grabbing his empty pizza box and putting it into the recycling crate by the door.
“Just those two?” she said, turning over her shoulder and staring up at Mac.
“I’m sure there was nothing on the ones I checked.” He pulled out the rolling chair beside her and took a seat. “Let’s see that second one again.”
Grace opened a folder and clicked on the media file with the timestamp corresponding with her notes. The footage came up on the big screen, and they both sat back in the dark room, watching.
Julie, the customer experience manager they met that day, accompanied Blaze and another man to the roulette table. She let go of Blaze’s arm and patted the chest of the other man with a shaved head before taking a step back as they set a stack of chips down at the table. Gamblers huddled around each of the surrounding tables, with people weaving through the crowds, including Julie, leaving the view of that camera.
“That’s why we didn’t notice when she left the first time we watched,” Grace said. “Saturday night at the casino.”
Mac nodded. “And here she comes in three, two…” Julie walked back into the picture with Cory Boyd following closely behind.
She’s not holding his arm like she did Blaze and the other man. Not as close with him, maybe.
Blaze organized his chips at the roulette table as the surrounding gamblers applauded him. Then Julie tapped him on the shoulder and stepped aside, waving Cory over. Blaze extended his hand, shaking Cory’s, and after the other man collected their chips, all four of them walked over toward the bar area, out of the picture.
“Okay, next tape,” Grace said, clicking on it. “So Julie wasn’t showing Cory where Blaze was as much as making an introduction then.”
“I guess not.”
This is their first meeting.
She clicked play, and the three men sat down at a table by the bar.
Julie brought them each back a drink on a tray, and the man with the shaved head winked to her, holding out a bill that she took and put on her tray before bending down and kissing his cheek. She swayed away from the table with a nod toward Cory before she left the frame.
“That tip might not have just been for the drinks,” Grace said.
“A finder’s fee of sorts, you think? For making the introduction?”
The other man with Blaze seemed to scan the room quite often, but Blaze and Cory focused on each other during the brief conversation. Cory stood first, and Blaze stood up next to him, shaking his hand.
“He said something there.” Mac reached over across Grace, grazing her arm as he stopped the tape. “Sorry.”
She turned to him, caught in his gaze as they made eye contact. She cleared her throat, and Mac pulled his arm away. “Just, can you rewind there?”
She rewound the tape, pressing play as Cory extended his hand.
“He said ‘Don’t,’” Mac said. “Don’t what? What did that look like to you?”
“Should we get a lip reading analyst in?”
He waved her off. “That could take a week.”
“I think he said ‘Don’t disappoint me,’” Grace said, rewinding the tape and playing it again.
“You could be right. The handshakes, they were obviously about the money, but it doesn’t give us any clues as to what the money is for.”
“His man there would know,” Grace said. “Let’s find out his identity.”
“And we should look into talking to Julie again.”
“I had a feeling about her and the manager. I think they told us all they are willing to…”
He shrugged. “Worth a shot.”
“She could go back to Blaze and tell him we’re asking about it. Give us away.”
Mac licked his lips and leaned back in the chair. “We’ve got to approach him at some point. We could go to see her and then go to him right after. Or separately at the same time even, so she has no chance to warn him.”
“I still think we need more,” she said, swiveling around in her chair and tossing her cup into the garbage.
“Nice one,” Mac said, sitting up. “I bet she’s in charge of bringing gamblers in debt to see him. People desperate for money. Maybe Blaze has a system for it—looking for a certain type of person, young and able—to do things for them.”
“Or maybe it was a high interest loan, taking advantage of Cory’s desperation.”
“Yeah, but your theory doesn’t make sense, because there’d be no reason to kill him.”
She swiveled her chair back a bit, stopping as she came face to face with him.
“So we go with yours, then,” she said. “We speak to Marie and find out where Cory went when he left the house. If he was going anywhere new in his last month alive. If she’s found anything suspicious, financial or otherwise, like receipts for gas in weird places, since.”
“Nice idea. After the funeral, then.”
Her heart pounded in her ears. “We can go through what we have now. Bank statements. See where he’s been and what he’s been spending his money on.”
We might finally get ahead.
He nodded, but neither of them moved. Her knee rested against his leg, and they didn’t take their eyes off each other. Something about being in the dark with him alone had been intimate, and she didn’t want it to end when the lights came back on and broke the connection.
“Would you want to go for a drink after this?” Mac asked.
He’s asking me out. Straight up. Just steer this back to our work.
“This could take all night.”
“I wouldn’t mind that either,” he said with a smirk.
He’s flirting with me. He’s definitely flirting.
Her heart beat increased, feeling his eyes on her as she bowed her head, brushing her hair back.
And I like it.
“You’re not sick of me yet?” she asked, swaying back and forth in her chair.
He shook his head and licked his lips again, with his charming grin, leaning in toward her.
I want to. I can’t. I can’t let this be anything more than professional. There’s too much at stake.
She pushed her chair back and stood in one smooth motion, reaching for the light switch and flicking it on. Mac folded his hands in front of him, lacing his fingers together, but he didn’t take his eyes off her. He stared with a twinkle in his eye as she tried to catch her breath.
She pressed her lips together, smiling, and took an awkward step back toward her chair, resting her hand on the back of it.
“What?” she muttered.
He sat up straight and grinned.
That grin. It’s irresistible. If I don’t stop this now, I won’t be able to.
She turned away from him and pushed a few binders over across the desk, searching for Tarek’s financial reports.
What am I doing? Looking for inconsistencies in Cory’s life.
After spotting the right folder, a click from behind her made her turn around. Mac stood a foot behind her, one hand leaning on the back of her chair beside hers.
“I’d like to take you out for dinner,” he said, his eyes searching hers. “I’d like to get to know you better—you know—outside of work.”
He’s so sweet. Nervous even. I’ve never seen him so vulnerable, and I want to, but…
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He frowned. “No?”
“I’d like to keep things professional.”
“Well, I agree.”
“You do?” She smiled up at him.
“That’s why I said outside of work. I try not to let my personal life interfere with my work around here, and I respect you for wanting to as well. This would be after work. Off the clock.”
She shook her head and folded her hands in front of her.
“Just one meal.”
I’ll lose all respect from the people I work with if they find out. Banning will never take me seriously.
“No, Mac.”
“Okay,” he took a step back, and she wished she could close the distance between them. “I’m sorry. I guess I got confused. I thought the attraction was mutual…”
It is.
“My job is my priority,” she said as he avoided eye contact with her, staring down at the table instead. “And regardless of what’s going on between us, I don’t want things to get weird. We’ve finally developed some good communication, and if anything changed that—”
“It’s fine,” he said, holding his hand up and looking at her again. “You don’t have to explain anymore.”
She bit her lip and stood there in front of him, awkward and vulnerable herself.
I hate this. I hate being this person who always has to say no.
But it will be worth it once I work my way up the ranks again, back to the big city. Making a big difference. This is the right thing to do.
“It’s not personal…” she said.
“Clearly. You don’t like anything to get too personal. Don’t worry. I hear you loud and clear.”
“Hey, don’t make judgements like that—”
“Grace, let’s drop it.”
She picked up the financial binder. “Fine. I’ll look over Cory’s financial transactions on my own tonight.” She grabbed her coat and purse, walking to the door with an armful.
Mac did a double take before rushing to the door. “See you at the funeral tomorrow.” He pulled the door open for her, and she nodded.
