Eye of the Beholder (23 page)

Guy couldn’t help but find the irony in all this. If he’d hired a bodyguard, the thug would never have gotten close enough to hold a knife to his throat and tell him that the price had doubled—and Guy would still believe the fifteen thousand dollars sitting in his trunk was going to save Kinsey’s neck.

His phone rang and he jumped. He took a slow, deep breath.
Please be Kinsey
. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Ellen said. “Did you get moved in to the new apartment?”

Guy glanced at his watch: 4:20. “Uh, the rental company should be delivering furniture about now. The manager said I didn’t have to be there for that.”

“Where are you? I called the office and the girl from the temp agency said you were gone for the afternoon.”

“Yeah, I had some business-related things I needed to take care of. It’s not something I wanted to delegate to Marsha.”

“Did you hire a bodyguard?”

“Ellen, I haven’t had a minute to myself.”

“You’re not going to do it, are you? You’re just humoring me.”

“Honey, I’m really not. I’m just having trouble staying on top of the workload with Kinsey gone.”

“You’ve waited so long now you’ll have to go through the weekend without any protection. I can’t believe you’d even think of doing that.”

After my conversation with Duncan, neither can I
. “You’re right. I’m going over there right now and do it.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you later.”

Guy disconnected the call, backed out of the parking space, and headed for downtown. The bodyguard-for-hire place he had seen listed in the phone book was across from Winkler’s cafeteria.

Guy’s phone rang again and his heart raced. “Hello.”

“Hi, it’s Kinsey.”

“Where have you been?”

“Did you get the money?”

“All fifteen thousand. Where do you want me to meet you?”

“That little corner café on Elm Street we’ve wanted to try. Come alone. I’ll find you.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”

“No. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. Might take longer—the traffic’s getting heavy.”

“All right, hurry. I’m so scared someone might have followed me.”

Guy went up the steps to the Elm Street Café and pushed open the glass door. The place was bigger than it looked from outside,
and quainter—gingham curtains on the windows, hanging plants, hardwood floors. The aroma of something delicious drew him in.

“Dinner for one?” the waitress said.

“I’m meeting a friend. How about a nice quiet spot?”

“Right this way.” The waitress led him to the far corner of the room, away from the windows. “How’s this?”

“Fine, thanks.”

She handed him a menu. “Our special tonight is Yankee pot roast. Best you’ll ever sink your teeth into. All the menu items are available tonight. I’ll be back to take your order when your friend gets here.”

Guy opened the menu and pretended to be reading. He glanced around the café and saw only two other customers—a gray-haired couple sitting near the entrance. It was ten minutes till five.
Come on, Kinsey. Get here before the dinner crowd starts pouring in
.

Guy’s cell phone vibrated. He took it out of his shirt pocket. “Hello.”

“Come out to your car,” Kinsey said. “I don’t have a good feeling about sitting inside.”

“All right.”

Guy got up and walked over to the waitress. “I’m sorry. My plans have changed, and I’m going to have to leave. Sorry for the trouble.”

“That’s quite all right. Please come again.”

“I will.”

Guy walked out the door and down the steps, his eyes searching the parking lot. He didn’t see anyone except a person in a red cap sitting at the bus stop. It looked like the same cap Kinsey had worn when he’d met her at the park. He got in his car and the person in the red cap got up and walked to the passenger door and opened it. “Let’s go,” Kinsey said.

Guy pulled out of the parking lot onto Elm and into a line of traffic.

“Did you bring the money?” she said.

“Yeah, I have the money. What I don’t have is the truth.”

Kinsey turned to him. “What’re you talking about?”

“I don’t want to talk about it while I’m driving around in traffic. Let’s go somewhere where I can eyeball you.”

“Please don’t tell me you changed your mind about giving me the money?” Her lower lip quivered. “Guy, I’m in so much trouble. You can’t do this to me.”

“I didn’t change my mind. Someone changed it for me.”

Guy had driven for blocks without Kinsey or him saying anything. He kept checking his rearview mirror, and it didn’t look as though he was being followed.

“Kinsey, you have to level with me. You pick where you want it to happen, but I’m not letting you out of this car until we agree on that.”

“I told you everything when we met at the park. What else is there to say?”

Guy kept driving until he came to Miller’s Pond Road, then turned right and drove about a mile before the pavement ended. The car bounced along a rutted gravel road, a trail of white dust behind it. Guy pulled over to the side of the road, the motor still running and the air conditioner on high, and turned to Kinsey.

“Just before one this afternoon, I left the office to go to the men’s room. Next thing I know, some guy’s got me in a choke-hold, a knife at my throat. I think you can guess what he said, but let me tell you.” Guy repeated the thug’s words verbatim. “It’s time to shoot straight with me before we both end up at the bottom of the river. You want to tell me who Rob Blakely is?”

Kinsey didn’t respond.

“Okay, then I’ll tell you. Blakely isn’t a loan shark and you don’t have a gambling problem. You’re a drug dealer, Kinsey. And Rob is either your supplier or your mule.”

Her eyes widened.

“I don’t have it all figured out, but our friend Duncan Manning followed you out of the park yesterday and was at the Lamplighter Motel when Blakely came banging on your door. Had you been there, the guy would’ve beaten you to a pulp. You want to fill in the blanks for me?”

“I can’t believe you had Duncan follow me!”

“I was afraid for you, Kinsey. I had to do something. I believed you—to the point of drawing fifteen thousand dollars out of the bank. Oh, yeah, it’s right there in the trunk. Only now Rob wants thirty grand. Even if I had it, I wouldn’t give you a penny to pay a drug debt.”

“I never meant for you to get involved! You have to believe me!”

“Believe you? I don’t even
know
you! Gotta hand it to you, though, you’re good. You had me believing you didn’t know anything about the cocaine in my apartment.”

Kinsey tucked her hair behind her ear. “The stuff in your apartment was a birthday present for a friend. I’d planned to drop it off on my way home from Savvy’s. I was surprised you didn’t see it when you were looking for my driver’s license.”

“Are you kidding? Your cat could be hiding in that purse of yours and nobody would find him.”

“When I got ready to leave your apartment, I realized the coke was missing. I couldn’t find it and thought maybe I’d lost it at Savvy’s. It’s not like I could check the lost and found.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of freak. All I wanted was to make a little money supplying my friends with what they were going to buy anyway.”

“You’re in a whole lot deeper than just supplying snowball to a few friends! How’d you get in this mess?”

“Believe me, you don’t want to know.”

Guy yanked her chin toward him and held it. “Someone trashed my home. My apartment. Threatened me. Scared my
family to death. And then held me at knifepoint and told me to deliver a message to my
girlfriend
? Oh, yeah. I want to know
everything
!”

Mascara-streaked tears streamed down Kinsey’s cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Tell me how I got pulled into this, Kinsey. I have the right to know.”

Kinsey took a shuddering breath and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue that Guy handed her. “Rob Blakely supplies me, and I, in turn, supply a half dozen dealers. Rob got in some really good stuff and I wanted in on it. I was having a cash flow problem, so he gave it to me on credit. That part was fine. Is it hot in here?” Kinsey reached up and adjusted the vent so it would blow on her face.

“So what went wrong?”

“Not what,
who
—some guy I met at a club, Jerry something.” Kinsey wrung her hands. “We hit it off, had a few drinks, and he spent the night at my place. Only when I woke up, he was gone—and so was my cocaine. I panicked! When I told Rob what happened, he said it was a tough break but not his problem, that he wanted his ten grand. How was I supposed to pay back the money without any coke to sell? My credit cards were nearly maxed out. Plus, my dealers were going elsewhere because I couldn’t deliver.”

Kinsey seemed reluctant to continue.

“What’d you do?” Guy asked.

“I went back to Rob and begged him to give me more cocaine on consignment, but he just laughed in my face and upped the price to fifteen thousand. Said if I didn’t pay it, he’d cut my throat.”

“Is he capable?”

“What do you think?”

Guy studied her for a moment, processing everything she’d said. “You still didn’t tell me how I ended up in the middle of this.”

Kinsey buried her face in her hands. “This is so hard.”

Guy gave her a few moments to agonize, then put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t lie to me. I want to know what happened.”

“Rob must’ve been following me or had someone else do it because he knows I spent the night at your apartment … and that you came to my place Monday night and again at noon on Tuesday. He—” Kinsey’s voice cracked. She paused and wiped the tears off her face. “Rob accused me of making up the story about the guy I met in the club. He thinks … he thinks you and I are having an affair and ripped him off.”

“For cryin’ out loud, didn’t you set him straight?”

“I tried, but he doesn’t believe me. I’m sure the man who ransacked your apartment and your house was looking for the missing cocaine.”

“You think it was Blakely?”

“I doubt Rob gets that close to the dirty work. He probably pays someone else to
take care
of problems.” Kinsey started to sob. “I’m so sorry, Guy. Where am I going to get thirty thousand dollars?”

“Forget the money. You’re going to the police and tell them everything. It’s over, Kinsey. The only safe way out of this is to turn yourself in.”

“I can’t do that! I’ll have to go prison. My life will be over!”

“Looks to me like it’s over either way. But if you want to keep breathing, you need to go to the police.”

“No, I can pay this off! I’ll figure out something! I’ll go see a loan shark for real! There has to be way to fix this!”

Guy grabbed her by the arm and shook her. “There isn’t! I’m going to the police and tell them everything. You can either come with me or face the consequences when they catch up to you … or when Blakely does. But I promise you this—Rob Blakely is going down. Duncan already has enough on him to justify a warrant.”

“You would actually turn me in?”

“In a heartbeat. What you did was criminal, Kinsey. Don’t expect me to be a part of it.”

“Please don’t go to the police! Just let me work this out! I promise I’ll think of something! Rob likes me! He’ll listen to reason!”

Guy shook his head. “I’m not turning a blind eye. I can’t believe you exposed me and my family to this.”

Kinsey turned to him, her eyes vacant, her pretty face suddenly haggard. “Then I’ll take my sorry self out of your life. I sure wouldn’t want to put a strain on your storybook family!” She pushed open the passenger door, bolted out of the car, and ran through the tall weeds toward the woods.

Guy got out and started to chase her and realized she was too fast. He stopped, his hands cupped around his mouth. “Kinsey, come back! Don’t do this! You’re going to get yourself killed!”

 23
 

G
uy Jones turned his Mercedes into Brent McAllister’s driveway and sat for a moment, telling himself he had done the right thing by going to the police.