Carrots: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (25 page)

This wouldn’t last. Maybe a week, tops, and I’d be back to normal, right? I could handle looking like this for a while. Then it would go away. At least I was alive! I glanced at my reflection again and cringed. Maybe it was better if I covered up the mirrors. But what if I had to go out? I couldn’t stand for anyone to see me like this.

There was always the option of wearing dark glasses. That would work. I teetered into the kitchen and opened the drawer where I kept them. With perverse satisfaction, I put them on my face and hurried back into the bathroom. To my great relief, the bruises were mostly hidden. It was a vast improvement. This I could handle.

I couldn’t believe how ironic it was that with all the bullets flying around, the only injury I got was from my husband. How was I supposed to explain that to the kids? What about my mother? I could just imagine her reaction when I told her that Chris accidentally hit me with a door. She’d probably think I made it up.

I took a nice long shower, and threw on my standard t-shirt and jeans. I pulled some hair across my forehead to cover the bump, and with the glasses, I didn’t look too bad. As long as no one took a closer look.

My stomach growled, and I meandered into the kitchen for breakfast. So far, I’d been able to keep my worries at bay, but while I ate, they all came back. I wondered what had happened after Chris and I had left. Had the police made any arrests? I was sure glad Ramos was alive, but I couldn’t say the same about Walter. And what had happened to Kate and Hodges?

My main concern was what I was going to tell Dimples. He’d let me go last night, but I’d have no such luck today. I wondered what story Uncle Joey had told him. Maybe I could blame everything on Kate. That would be nice. But if I did that, I’d have to tell them about the file, and I didn’t think Uncle Joey would like that. So what should I do?

The phone rang and I jumped. I couldn’t talk to Dimples until I knew what to say. I checked the Caller ID and let out a breath. It was Chris.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“Lots better, except I look horrible. The bump is still there, and now I have two black eyes! I look like I’ve been in a fight or something.”

“You got hit pretty hard,” he explained, then seemed to realize it was him who hit me. “Ah…how’s your head? Any headaches?”

“Not right now. Other than how I look, I’m feeling okay. So, what’s going on? Have you heard anything? Is Kate there? Did Dimples arrest anyone?”

“I’m not sure about anything except that Kate didn’t come in this morning, and no one’s been able to find her.”

“That’s strange. Are you sure they didn’t arrest her?”

“I don’t know,” Chris paused. “Shelby, I need to know everything that you’ve been involved in. Everything. You can’t leave anything out. All right?”

“Well, sure. I was going to tell you what was going on anyway, but I never got the chance.”

He paused, clearly contemplating if I was telling the truth. “Well, now the police are involved. Dimples called this morning and he wants to talk to you.”

I took a sharp breath. “He’s not going to arrest me or anything, is he?”

“No. But you’re involved, and I need to know how much before you talk to him. It may not be in your best interests to tell him everything.” He let that sink in for a second before continuing. “It’s something I’ll have to decide when I know the whole story.”

At that moment, I was profoundly grateful he was a lawyer. “Okay. When did Dimples want to talk to me?”

“This afternoon. I’ve got a few things to take care of here, and then I’ll come home and we can talk. After we decide how much you’re going to tell him, I’ll stay for the questioning.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll see you soon.” Chris was serious enough to make me nervous. I hadn’t done anything wrong, had I? For some reason my head started to hurt, and I vaguely remembered that after being hit in the head, I couldn’t hear Chris’ thoughts last night. Had the injury somehow made me lose my powers? Were they still gone today?

I couldn’t decide if I was relieved or not. What was wrong with me? If I couldn’t hear thoughts anymore, that would be great, right? It was the answer to all of my current problems. Uncle Joey couldn’t use me anymore, and I could go back to being normal.

I waited for the surge of relief I should’ve felt over that, but it never came. Part of me had enjoyed knowing other’s thoughts. It gave me an advantage over them, but more than that, it made me unique and different from everyone else. It had also given me insights I never would have had.

Of course, it was better not to know some things. In fact, hearing people’s thoughts had gotten me into more trouble than I cared to admit. Probably more than it was worth.

Who was I trying to kid? It had been a nightmare! I’d nearly been killed! My family had been in jeopardy. My relationship with Chris had suffered. I mean, look at me! I was a wreck!

Still, if it was gone, I would feel bad. How crazy was that?

The phone rang again. This time it was Uncle Joey. “Hello Shelby, I was just calling to see how you’re doing. That was quite a big bump you got.”

“Yeah, you should see it today. Not only is the bump black and blue, but I also have two black eyes. It scares me every time I look in the mirror.”

He chuckled. “Well, if that’s the worst of it, you should feel pretty lucky. For a while there, I thought we were both going to die.”

I sobered instantly. “I know. I was pretty scared too. So what happened after I left?”

“It was quite a mess, but I think we got it mostly straightened out. I told the police that Walter was the one responsible for everything. Have they talked to you yet?”

“No, but Dimples is coming over this afternoon.”

“Dimples?”

Oops. “I think his name is Harris, but I’ve always called him Dimples because of his dimples.”

“Oh…well, I guess that makes sense. I think I remember seeing some dimples.” He was being kind, and it made me feel warm inside. “So you’ve talked to him before?” Uncle Joey sounded suspicious and I knew I had some explaining to do.

“He’s the officer that was involved with the bank robbery that got me into this mess. Anyway, Chris called and told me he’s coming over to question me.”

“Did Chris tell you anything else?”

“Just that he wanted to go over my story with me before I talked to the police. He said it might be a good thing if I didn’t say too much.”

“Good.” Uncle Joey exhaled. “Those are my feelings as well. Why don’t you tell them you do a little part-time office work for me, and you just happened to walk in at the wrong time. Make sure they know you heard Walter confess to Johnny’s murder, and that he was planning on killing us as well.”

“What about Hodges and Kate? What happened to them?”

“That’s kind of a sore spot,” Uncle Joey said. “In the confusion, they both got away.”

“What?” I nearly shouted. “How could that happen?”

“It’s true. They snuck out. None of us saw them go, and I haven’t been able to find them since.” Something about that seemed a little fishy to me. “So let’s leave Kate and Hodges out of it. I want to take care of them myself.” That sounded ominous.

“Okay. I won’t say anything about them. I’ll just concentrate on Walter’s motives to take over your…what should I call it?”

“Company,” he answered.

“Okay.” I wanted to ask him about the file, and if he remembered our bargain, but maybe this wasn’t the best time. “There’s one more thing…” I hesitated, not sure how to continue.

“What?” He sounded cautious.

“Well…ever since I got hit on the head, I haven’t been able to hear anyone’s thoughts. I just wanted you to know…it’s a possibility that my powers are gone.” I waited for him to say something but all I got was silence. “Are you still there?” I asked.

“Are you sure?”

“It looks that way. I mean, since it was an injury to my head that brought it on, I guess it makes sense that an injury could make it stop. I just thought you should know.”

“Do you think it could come back?”

“I don’t have any idea.” I didn’t want to get his hopes up, especially when this could be my one way out.

“Maybe all you need is some rest.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, stay home and get better. If there’s anything you need, anything at all, just let me know and I’ll see that you get it.”

I thanked him and disconnected, relieved I’d told him. He had taken it pretty well, unless he didn’t believe me. What would happen then? It didn’t matter, even if I got my powers back, there was no way I would ever tell him the truth.

I checked the clock, knowing that once Chris got home, I would find out if my powers were really gone. It made me a little anxious, and I hoped I could deal with the answer. No matter what it was.

Chapter 14

I was sitting at the kitchen table when I heard the back door open and Chris walked in. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my pattering heart. This was it, the moment of truth.

“Hi honey,” he said, coming into the kitchen. “What’s with the dark glasses?”

I pulled them off and was surprised when he didn’t flinch. I thought I caught a flare of shock, and my hopes soared. Maybe my powers were coming back.

“Wow, you’ve got the best black eyes I’ve ever seen.” Was that supposed to be a compliment?

“It was either wear the glasses, or go into shock every time I passed a mirror. I went with the glasses.”

“Makes sense to me.” He stared at the swath of hair across my forehead and pursed his lips like he was hiding a smile. “How’s the bump?”

“I think the swelling’s gone down a little, but I’ve still got a bit of a headache.”

“Maybe you’d better lie down.”

“No, that’s okay. There’s something really important I need to tell you.” Despite my best efforts, I hadn’t been able to pick up any thoughts from Chris, and I decided that he needed to know I’d lost my powers. And if they came back? Well, I’d deal with that later.

“What’s going on?” Chris took a chair across from me, his brows wrinkled in concern. I concentrated really hard, but still couldn’t sense anything. My heart plummeted.

“After you clobbered me in the head yesterday, I haven’t been able to read minds. I think the ability I had to do that is gone.” Enormous relief flooded over Chris. Then it seemed like a wall came down, and I realized he’d been blocking his thoughts from me all this time. It wasn’t me at all, it was him! I managed to keep my mouth shut, but it was hard to hide my relief. Now I really had to play along.

“Are you sure?”

“Yup. I haven’t been able to pick up a thing.” The lie came to me so easily it was almost scary. “I guess since a head injury caused it, being hit in the head again took it away. Does that make sense? I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Wow! This is great!”

“Uh-huh.” I smiled, but he could tell it was half-hearted.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy about this?”

“Sure. It’s the best thing that could have happened.”

“But…” he prodded.

“Well, I know I should be happy, and I think I am, but I’m also sad. I mean…it’s stupid to feel that way when it caused so many problems, but…I don’t know. It sort of made me special.”

Chris shook his head and sighed. “Shelby, you don’t need something like that to make you special. You are one of a kind…believe me.”

Did he mean that in a good way? Then it came…and I understood a little of what he felt for me. He thought I was sweet, yet headstrong, exasperating on one hand and completely loyal on the other. He loved the way I expressed myself, but I sometimes made him crazy. I had a zest for life that he’d never found with anyone else, and he’d be devastated without me.

“You think so?”

“Of course. You may miss it, but in the end it’s really the best thing that could have happened.”

“I think you’re right,” I agreed. “After all I’ve put you through, I’m glad it’s gone.” This time it was easy to be enthusiastic, especially since I knew how much it meant to Chris. Did that make lying about it okay?

“Well.” Chris smiled, suddenly in a better mood. “We’d better get started before it gets any later. Harris is coming over in about an hour, and I want to make sure you know what you’re going to tell him.”

“Right.” I was a little nervous about spoiling his good mood, but maybe he’d take it better now that he thought my powers were gone. “Let’s see…I guess it all started when I had lunch with Kate. She was so into you, and looking at me like I was nothing. When I ‘heard’ her thinking about how Uncle Joey had put her through college and law school, I couldn’t help but…well actually…I told her to stay away from you, or I’d tell everyone about Uncle Joey. At the time, I had no idea who Uncle Joey was, or I wouldn’t have said anything.”

Chris was trying not to let anything I say bother him. It was water under the bridge, and there was nothing he could do about it now. “Go on,” he prodded, unconsciously clenching his hands.

“That night when my car got rammed by that crazy bank robber, it was Ramos who killed him before he killed me. You met him yesterday, the one with the Kevlar vest?”

“Yeah, yeah, go on.” Chris didn’t like Ramos.

“Anyway, after Ramos shot the bank robber, he would have disappeared, except that Kate had called Uncle Joey and complained that I knew about him. So Uncle Joey made Ramos bring me to him so he could find out who had leaked the information. After he threatened to kill me, or you and the kids, I finally told him that I could read minds.”

“You told him that?” He was appalled, realizing the position that put me in.

“It was the only way to keep him from killing me. Anyway, you can imagine how he took it. He made me go to all his meetings and listen to people’s thoughts and then tell him what they were really thinking.” As upset as Chris was, I didn’t think he needed to know how I helped Ramos break into Hodges house and take all his jewels, so I left that part out.

“After Johnny was murdered, things got a little tense. Especially after Uncle Joey’s car got blown up.”

“Who planted the bomb in his car?” Chris wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“That was Hodges. He was mad because Ramos had taken the jewels that Hodges had actually stolen from himself, and he wanted them back. Anyway, I saw Kate and Walter at the funeral and I picked up something about Stephen Cohen from them.” I didn’t think he needed to know that I ‘saw’ Uncle Joey kill him. That would be bad.

“When I stopped by your office yesterday and you weren’t there, I thought that since I was already there, I might as well check Kate’s files for anything on Stephen Cohen. I was in her office when you both came back from court, and hid under her desk. That’s when I heard her talk you into going out to lunch with her. That kind of made me mad, so I took the file. I knew Uncle Joey would want to see it, and I thought if he wanted it bad enough, he would let me go.”

“Then…how come you came to the restaurant?”

“I wasn’t planning on going to the restaurant. I was just going to walk past it. But once I got there, I had to peek in. Then you saw me, and I had to come over and talk to you. It would have been rude not to.”

Chris was rolling his eyes. “Did you have the file then?”

“Um…yes. I know I shouldn’t have said anything about Stephen Cohen, but I was so mad.”

Even though Chris had decided not to get angry, he was having a hard time. At least he didn’t have to worry about shielding his thoughts from me. “So what did you do next?”

“I went to Uncle Joey and made a deal with him. He said if I gave him the file, I wouldn’t have to work for him anymore. It would have worked too, except for Kate. When I went down to the parking garage to get the file out of my car, Kate and Walter grabbed me. They taped me up and took me to an interrogation room in the basement. They wanted to know where the file was, so I told them I put it in your office. Kate left to get it, and Walter left to make a phone call. That’s when Ramos came in to free me and Walter shot him. Only he wasn’t dead because of the bullet-proof vest.”

“I gathered that much.” Chris didn’t like it that Ramos had anything to do with me, even if he’d saved my life. In fact, he wondered just what was going on with Ramos. How much time had I spent with him anyhow? The guy seemed to know me pretty well. And he called me “Babe” yesterday. He didn’t like that at all.

“Anyway, Walter took me to Uncle Joey’s office where you found me.”

“But why did Kate have the file, and what did Uncle…I mean Manetto have to do with it?”

“Stephen Cohen was Kate’s father and she thought Uncle Joey had something to do with his death. All the information in the file pointed in that direction. She wanted Uncle Joey to go to jail, but Walter had other plans. He’s the one who killed Johnny, and he was also planning to kill Uncle Joey and pin it on Kate. She had a great motive with the whole revenge thing. Then he was going to take over Uncle Joey’s operation.”

“And while all this was going on, Hodges showed up to get his jewels back?” Chris was thinking this sounded more incredible by the moment.

“Yeah. That’s when Kate realized Walter was going to double-cross her, and she decided to help Hodges if he’d take her with him.” I kind of left out the part where I hinted that I could read minds.

“Is that where she is? I can’t believe Manetto would let them get away.”

“I know, but I think he let her go on purpose.”

“Why?”

“He told me he wanted to find her himself,” I explained.

“You talked to him?”

“Yeah…he called today, right after you did. He wants me to tell the police that I was doing some office work when Walter came in with a gun and threatened me. Kind of like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wants me to tell the police Walter confessed to Johnny’s murder and was threatening to kill both of us.”

Chris took a deep breath, thinking it over. “I didn’t think I’d ever agree with Manetto, but I think that’s what you should do. If it was anyone but him, I’d say to tell it all, but who knows what he might do. It’s better if you’re perceived as an innocent bystander in all of this.” He mulled it over then said, “You also need to tell Uncle Joey that you’ve lost your mind-reading abilities. I don’t want you involved with him anymore.”

“I already did. Sort of…I mean when he called, I told him I couldn’t pick anything up. It seemed like he was hoping it would come back.”

“Do you think it might?” he asked.

“I doubt it, but how should I know?” If I outright denied it, he might think I was lying, and I needed to be as convincing as possible.

“Look Shelby. Even if these powers come back, which I sincerely hope they don’t, you have to make Uncle Joey think they’re lost for good.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not stupid.” He could see he’d hurt my feelings.

“I didn’t mean that you were. It’s just that this is a big deal. I mean, look what’s happened. Look at this mess. Your involvement with Uncle Joey and that Ramos guy is…is…terrible. He had complete control over your life, and I don’t think for one minute, he ever meant to let you go, even with all that bargaining you did. Then there’s the rest of it. I mean, look at you. Your face is all black and blue. You’ve been shot at and practically run down. The truth of it is…you’re lucky you didn’t get killed.” He was starting to get angry. He knew it wasn’t my fault, but he wasn’t sure I was completely blameless.

“I know.” I agreed, wanting to calm him. “But we can work this out. Just tell me what I should tell the police.”

We worked for several minutes on my story. Both of us thought it would be best to leave Kate and Stephen Cohen out of it, and just go with the basics. Then Chris questioned me as if he were a detective. “When they come, I want them to see your eyes and forehead, so make sure you take off your sunglasses, and comb your hair back.”

“Okay.” I thought that wasn’t so smart, since he was the one who had caused my injuries, but he seemed to have forgotten that part. “You want them to take pity on me, right?”

Chris nodded. “Yeah, they’ll definitely be more sympathetic when they see how you look today.”

He didn’t have to sound so enthusiastic did he? Besides, Dimples knew that my injury was Chris’ fault. “I hope so,” I said instead, wanting to be agreeable.

It wasn’t long before Dimples arrived with Detective Williams. As they entered, I took off my dark glasses, and was amply rewarded with the barely concealed expressions of horror on their faces.

It kind of made me feel bad, since I wasn’t used to having people cringe when they looked at me. The hurt must have shown in my face because Dimples blurted out, “Those are like…the best black eyes I’ve ever seen.”

“Um…thanks, I guess.”

“Are you feeling better today?” he asked.

“Lots. I just look bad. How long do bruises like this last anyway?”

“Just a week…or two, tops.” He really thought it would take four when they were that bad, but he didn’t want to depress me, especially when I looked like… “Well, shall we get started?”

“Sure.” I was real glad he hadn’t finished that thought. I launched into the story Chris and I had gone over. Everything was going smoothly until he asked about Stephen Cohen. I realized it was something I had neglected to tell Chris, but I couldn’t play dumb and act like I’d never told Dimples about him.

“Remember?” Dimples prompted. “He’s the one you told me about. You thought he was connected to Johnny’s death.”

“Oh, right.” I nodded. Chris closed his eyes. He wondered if there was anything else I had forgotten to tell him.

“Well,” Dimples continued. “I looked up the case, but I didn’t find a connection. Did you?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I found out when Walter was threatening us. It turns out Walter is related to the man convicted of murdering Stephen Cohen. He was Walter’s uncle.”

“Oh.” Dimples was surprised, but didn’t know how that could possibly make a difference.

“So there was a connection,” I reminded him. “I just don’t know what it means.”