For Old Crime's Sake (Chase Charley Mystery Book 1) (6 page)

The next morning, I woke with the sun shining through the window onto my face. As I stretched and yawned it hit me. I jumped up and looked at the alarm clock. I was already thirty minutes late.

I stumbled over to my closet and attempted to pick out something that matched. Black pants and a white blouse would have to do. Maybe I’d had one too many glasses of wine last night when I’d gotten home.

Marc had called after our dinner. When I asked how he’d gotten my number, he’d remained silent. It wasn’t a shock that he’d found me though. He’d apologized for Officer West showing up. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken off without saying a word, but I hadn’t wanted to get into another confrontation with Officer West. Marc wanted to take me out again to make up for it, but I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea under the circumstances. 

When I stepped out into the apartment building’s hallway something crunched under my feet. Twigs. I knew right away what this was. But why was it in front of my door? Last time it had been in front of my neighbor’s door. If I knew Wanda Perkins, and I thought I did, she would want to know why this kept showing up at my building. I didn’t have answers. Then she would remind me that I was an investigative reporter. But I could only do so much.

I wouldn’t even tell Courtney about this. No way was I going through the ordeal of getting rid of it again. I didn’t have time since I was already late. As long as Courtney didn’t know about it, then it would be no big deal. And she would never know because I would never tell her. It was all just superstition anyway. She would just make a big deal about how I needed to get rid of it properly. She would just worry so I knew that I was making the right decision by not telling her.

The air hadn’t reached the stifling hot level yet, and blue sky stretched as far as my eyes could see, so I considered that another perfect day for walking to work. Although since I was running behind schedule, I probably should have driven. With the traffic at this time of the morning, it probably wouldn’t do me any good though. People strolled the sidewalks, but it wasn’t too crowded yet.

I checked the time on my phone; I didn’t even have time to stop off for coffee. It would make for a long day without caffeine. In the past I had tried to drink the office coffee, but it was nothing more than dirty water. My boss made it, so everyone was afraid to tell him how much it sucked.

As I made my way down the sidewalk, I wondered about the men who had followed Dangerfield—Doug and Russ. I didn’t think they’d give up this easily. I had tried to call Dangerfield last night. It wasn’t my fault that he hadn’t answered. That had probably been for the best, because after a couple glasses of wine I probably would have said something I’d regret.

I supposed I still should try to get in touch with him. He was annoying, but I couldn’t deny he was a little bit charming too. He knew just the right things to say to beguile everyone. If you liked that kind of thing. I wasn’t falling for his charm though. Plenty of people on TV would fall for him, but I wouldn’t be one of them.

I was almost to my office building. It was within sight. My window was visible from the sidewalk. As I neared, something caught my attention. The noise sounded as if it was coming from behind me.

I spun around, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. People walked around me, looking at me like I was crazy. I turned around and continued down the sidewalk. I was daydreaming about solving this mystery and trying to forget about how Oscar would yell at me when a noise sounded behind me again.

After a few more steps I knew that someone was behind me. I whipped around again, clutching my bag in front of my chest for protection. This time I saw that I was right; someone had been following me. Without even thinking, I raised my arms up and punched. At the same time I also gave the man a swift kick to the groin.

Lucky for him, I missed that region. Instead, I just hit him in the thigh. I needed to take that self-defense class again.

Dangerfield clutched his leg and stumbled to the ground. “What did you do that for? Why are you always hurting me?” he asked.

“Because I thought someone was attacking me.” I still held my arms out in a defensive stance.

“Are you always so paranoid?” He rubbed his leg.

I narrowed my eyes. “Do you always attack women on the sidewalk in the morning or do you usually wait for the cover of night?”

He released a half-hearted chuckle. “Okay, we could go on like this for hours.”

“You could go on like this for hours, but I have work to do.” I gestured over my shoulder.

“Oh yeah? What are you working on?” he asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I said with a smirk.

He inspected his leg and at this point I was sure he was faking the injury. “So you aren’t going to tell me. Fair enough.”

“Are you going to stay down there all day? People are staring at us.” I glanced around.

He climbed to his feet. “I need to talk with you.”

“What do you want to talk about? Haven’t you ever heard of a telephone?”

“This was important and I wanted to tell you in person,” he said.

This couldn’t be good. I placed my hands on my hips. “What is it this time?”

His expression turned serious and worry flashed in his eyes. “Okay, try to remain calm, there is no easy way to put this, but I think someone is following you.”

I snorted. Was he serious? “Who would be following me?” Other than the cop and the two men who had followed him. Minor details that I wouldn’t mention to Dangerfield at the moment. Dangerfield knew about Phillip West, but not Doug and Russ. “Was it the cop?”

Dangerfield’s expression didn’t change. I looked around for the cop. Suddenly it wasn’t so funny.

“No, not the cop.”

“Are you being serious? I can never tell with you. Maybe you should have been an actor,” I said.

The spark in his baby blue eyes had now turned to frustration. “You’re not taking me seriously.”

Was I actually irritating Bill Dangerfield? “Is that right? Let me tell you something. Someone is following you.”

He folded his arms across this chest. “Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

“I tried to call you but you didn’t answer my call.”

“I guess I was busy last night,” he said casually.

I waved my hand. “I don’t even want to know what you were doing last night.” Okay, maybe I did a little. After all, I’d had plans last night too. “I had a date last night and I still managed to find time to call you,” I said with a satisfied smile.

“How was your date?” Dangerfield looked over his shoulder. “Don’t answer that. So tell me about the men you claim are following me.” 

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. How would I tell him without letting him know that I had been following him? I didn’t want to tell him that I had been at the coffee shop and that I had followed him. Maybe I could skirt around the issue. I would pretend that I’d just happened to be there at Café Mojo. That was actually the truth.

“There were a couple of men following you yesterday. I watched them and then followed all of you for a little bit.” I shifted my bag, still holding it in front of me as if it would offer some kind of protection from the strangers who might be lurking just outside of my vision.

“Where did this happen?” Dangerfield asked.

“At Café Mojo, the coffee shop around the corner.”

He frowned. “I don’t know these men or why they would be following me. Why didn’t you say hello when you saw me at the coffee shop?”

I shook my head. “That is what you are worried about the most? Not that these strange men were following you?”

“I didn’t say that I didn’t care about that. Maybe they weren’t following me.”

“Oh, they were following you all right,” I said.

“How do you know?” He eyed me up and down.

“That is where it gets tricky. I was contacted by these men yesterday. They wanted me to follow you or something weird like that.”

“They what?” he asked with a little bit of astonishment in his voice.

“Exactly,” I said, shaking my head. “I told them that I wasn’t interested.”

He blew out a deep breath. “What did they look like?”

“Both of them are tall.” I held my arm up to emphasize their height. “Doug has dark hair and Russ blond. Why don’t you come clean with me? You know who they are, right?”

He stared at me with his long-lashed blue eyes. “No, I don’t know them. I’m being honest with you.”

“Okay, so who was following me? Was it the same people I described?”

“No, there was only one man.” He held up one finger.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” I asked.

He rubbed his hand over his jaw as if lost in thought. “I would have, but he left before I had a chance to say anything.”

I looked at Dangerfield suspiciously. “Okay, I guess I have to buy that excuse.” I wondered if the man he’d seen was the cop, Phillip West. Dangerfield would have recognized him though since he’d seen him that night at Michael Hook’s mansion. “What did he look like?”

Dangerfield gestured with his hand. “He was about my height with the same color hair. Dark beady eyes and a mean-looking face.”

“He sounds like a very mean looking man.”

He ran his hand through his sun-streaked hair. “Just rough-looking. I could have taken him down if he tried anything funny.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you would have taken care of him.” I wondered if Dangerfield noticed my sarcasm. “I don’t understand what makes you think that he was following me.”

“When you stopped to fix your shoe back there, he stopped.”

“So then you stopped as well. Sounds like you were doing the same.”

“I was merely curious,” Dangerfield said.

Of course I couldn’t be mad at him. I had done the same thing when Doug and Russ had followed him. Dangerfield and I were more alike than I cared to admit. 

I shook my head. “I can’t deal with this anymore this morning. I have to go to work. I have a big lead I’m working on.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “I guess you aren’t going to share this info with me?”

I snorted. “You have to even ask? Of course I wouldn’t share this with you. Do you think I am crazy?”

“I am hurt that you don’t trust me.” He flashed that gorgeous smile of his.

“Don’t be hurt. I don’t trust anyone.”

“That attitude is not healthy,” he said.

I tried not to look directly at him so that I wouldn’t fall victim to his charm. “See you later, Dangerfield,” I said over my shoulder as I walked toward the building.

I told myself that I wouldn’t turn around and look at him, but I couldn’t stop myself. As I neared the stairs leading up to the front door, I turned and looked over my shoulder. Dangerfield was still back there and watching me. Darn it. Now it looked as if I cared. He waved and I turned around quickly. Just as I placed my first foot on the step, I stumbled. As I tried to right myself, it was within a spilt second that someone had grabbed my arm.

“Are you okay?” Dangerfield asked.

He stood over me with his broad shoulders. His strong hand had a grasp on my arm.

“I’m all right,” I said breathlessly.

He released his hold on me. “You should watch where you’re going.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.” I stared for a moment. “Well, thanks.”

All I wanted at the moment was to escape. I hurried up the stairs, but I was extra cautious this time, and I certainly didn’t turn around to see if Dangerfield was watching me. I didn’t need to because I felt his eyes on me.  

When I stepped into the office, I peered out the window to see if Dangerfield was still standing on the street below. Of course he wasn’t still there. That would have been creepy, like Michael Myers from the
Halloween
movie or something.

Everyone watched me when I stepped into the office. What had I done wrong this time? This was seriously going to give me a complex. I tried to hurry across the floor to my desk, but just as I passed Oscar’s office, he yelled out my name. I slumped my shoulders and made a left turn.

This time Oscar was staring straight at me. He pointed at the chair in front of his desk. Yeah, I knew the routine.

I sat down in front of Oscar’s desk. Today was probably the day that he would fire me. The hair coming out of his ears looked even longer today. Would he be upset if I bought him one of those personal trimmers? 

“Do you know why I asked you in here today?” He studied my face.

“To tell me what a great job I’ve been doing?” The devilish smile on my face couldn’t be avoided.

He tapped his fingers against the top of his desk. “Cute, but no. I asked you in here because I received another call from Officer West. Now I don’t know why you are following this cop, but just stop. He’s trying to be nice to you, but I don’t know how long that will last before he finally arrests you.”

I hadn’t told Oscar about my investigation of the police department, but I knew that wasn’t why this cop was calling. “I am not following him,” I said defensively.

Oscar waved his hands through the air. “I don’t care what you have to say, just stop.”