For Old Crime's Sake (Chase Charley Mystery Book 1) (9 page)

Once on the road, I tried to calm down. I leaned my head back against the seat and tried not to worry about Russ and Doug. Of course I kept looking in the rear-view mirror to see if they had followed us.

The drive to Courtney’s friend’s home wasn’t long. Finally we arrived and turned into the driveway. Courtney steered the car down the pebble driveway. Oak trees shaded the drive.

“As far as I know this home has been in my friend’s family for quite some time. They weren’t the original owners, but bought it sometime in the forties,” Courtney said.

She parked the car and we climbed out. I followed her up the porch stairs and to the front door.

“What is your friend’s name?” I asked.

“Melanie Gray. You’d better call her Ms. Gray though.” Courtney rang the doorbell.  

“I’m coming. Don’t ring that damn bell one more time,” Ms. Gray called to us from inside the home. She opened the massive door. “Well, come on in. Don’t just stand there.”

Courtney motioned and I followed her inside the dark space. I peered around as the woman led us deeper into the old house. It looked like it was in need of some repairs as the walls had quite a few cracks.

Courtney must have noticed me looking around because she said, “Melanie insists that she is going to fix the place up but she won’t let anyone help. I’m going to do it soon whether she likes it or not.”

“I heard that,” Ms. Gray said. “Over my dead body.”

Courtney looked at me and shrugged. We stepped into the parlor to the right.

“Please have a seat.” She pointed toward the old velvet wing-backed chair. “I am so glad you came all this way to see me.” She acted as if we had traveled all the way from California. Nevertheless, it was cute how excited she was to see Courtney. “Would you all like some iced tea?”

It would be rude to turn it down. “Yes, that would be lovely. Thank you.”

“I’ll be right back,” she said with a smile. Ms. Gray shuffled off toward the back of the house.

After a few moments, she returned with the glasses of iced tea. I reached out and took a glass from the tray and then leaned back in the chair. We sat in silence as we each took sips from the frosty glasses.

Ms. Gray placed her glass on the small table beside her chair. “What can I do for you, Ms. Charley?” she asked Courtney.

At least she got right to the point.

“You mentioned that you knew the owners of the home over on Royal Street. My friend here is interested.” Courtney pointed at me.

Ms. Gray looked me up and down. “Do you like my tea?”

I glanced at my glass. “Yes, it’s delicious.”

“The woman and her husband bought the home just a few months ago from that actor. I don’t remember his name, but Ms. Hook lives there with her husband. I don’t know what her husband does, but if you ask me it’s shady. He’s a shady character.”

“Why do you say that?” Courtney asked.

Ms. Gray shrugged. “Just a feeling, I guess. A lot of people went in and out of the house when I was there.”

“You were at the house?” I asked.

She eyed me up and down. “Yes, I consulted with Ms. Hook a few times.”

Before I could ask her more, a car door slammed outside. I’d had no idea the woman could move that quickly. She ran over to the cabinet and pulled out a shotgun.

My eyes widened. What had she seen out the front windows? I exchanged a look with Courtney. I hoped that the men hadn’t followed us to the house, but I was almost willing to bet that was what had happened.

I jumped up and so did Courtney. Her friend was already headed for the door. This wasn’t going to end well. I was almost sure Ms. Gray would shoot someone if she felt she had to.

Ms. Gray flew out the front door. I followed but stopped in my tracks at the front door.

Dangerfield held his hands up in the air. “Please don’t shoot.”

She pointed the gun at him. “What are you doing on my property?”

He stepped closer and she fired a shot into the air. Dangerfield stumbled backward, but managed to right himself before falling.

“I’m just here to see Chase Charley.” He didn’t move closer this time. He needed to stop moving before she really did shoot him. “Like I said, I am here to see Ms. Charley.”

“Is that right?” she asked without taking her eyes off him.

I stepped out on the porch. “What the hell are you doing?”

“It’s okay, Ms. Gray, he’s a friend of ours,” Courtney said.

I exchanged a look with my cousin. I would let it slide that she had called Dangerfield a friend.

Ms. Gray looked from me to my cousin and then at Dangerfield. “Well, I suppose if he is a friend of yours then it is okay.” She lowered the gun and he released a deep breath.

“Is it okay if I come closer now?” he asked with his hands still in the air.

Ms. Gray lowered the gun. “Come on up here.” She looked at me. “He is a handsome man. Where have I seen him before?”

“Again, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Can you come down here so I can talk to you?” Dangerfield asked.

“We can talk here.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

“Fine.” He raked his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe I am saying this, but you’re right. The men are following me, but they aren’t just following me. They’re following you too.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “How do you know that they are following me unless you are following me too?”

“This is crazy. I am not following you,” he said. “Okay, I did follow you just a couple of times, but that isn’t the point.”

“I think it’s a very important point,” I said.

“We can talk about that later.”

That was exactly what I was afraid of, more talking with Bill Dangerfield. “What do you really want, Dangerfield?” I looked over his shoulder at the long driveway. “Did they follow you here?”

He shrugged. “No, I don’t think so.”

He didn’t sound so confident. It was time for me to get out of there.

“Thanks for coming all this way to warn me, but I think it’s time for me to go. Ms. Gray would probably like it if you left too,” I said. “She doesn’t seem to be all that taken with you.”

“She smiled at me.” He gestured. “And she didn’t shoot me.”

Actually, she
had
smiled when Courtney had told her who he was. “Okay, if this is all true, you need to tell me what you know. I don’t want to be left in the dark. If you are into something shady, then you need to let me know.”

“Do I look like I would be involved in something shady?” He flashed his dazzling smile that had won him such a wide audience on TV.

“Looks can be deceiving. I would be willing to bet that you have some unsavory dealings.”

“I won’t even respond to that,” he said. “I’m being truthful. When I say I don’t know, I don’t know.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I don’t believe you.”

He stared at me for a moment. “Okay, okay. I think it has something to do with drugs.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

“I can’t reveal my source. You know that.”

I shrugged. “You can if you want me to help you.”

“We’ll talk about this later.”

“I don’t know if there will be a later,” I said.

He looked over his shoulder. He didn’t look all that confident in what he was saying.

“You need to come with me,” he said.

I snorted. “Why on earth would I do something like that?”

“Because we are in on this together.”

“How did we get in this together?” The only way was if they were following us because of the cop Dangerfield and I had both seen. But I didn’t think Officer West had even seen Dangerfield.

When I looked over my shoulder, Courtney was standing behind me. “You should go with him. Maybe you two can figure out what is going on. I will be fine here. I’ll head home soon.”

I stared at her for a moment and she smiled again. I really did want to get to the bottom of what was going on. I supposed that I had to say yes. “Okay, I will go with you,” I said to Dangerfield. “But you’d better not try any funny stunts.”

“Never.” He looked me right in the eye. A look that could melt any woman’s heart.

I released a deep breath and walked down the front steps. Dangerfield held the car door open for me. I would probably regret this later. I slid into the passenger seat and he shut the door. When I looked back at my cousin, she smiled and winked. This was what she had wanted all along. For some reason, she wanted to push me together with a boyfriend. Courtney had set her eyes on either Marc or Dangerfield. But Dangerfield and I were like oil and water. It just wouldn’t work.

As we rode along, this heavy silence hung in the air like an electricity storm waiting to break loose. I stared out the window, hoping we could avoid conversation. I felt his eyes on me though. He wanted to say something. Being this close to him made me notice the little things that I normally wouldn’t see.

“I bet there are more than a few people who would laugh if they saw us together,” he said.

I snorted. ”Yes, I guess it would look funny. They’d think I was showing you a thing or two.”

He glanced at me and smiled. “Would they now?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“Oh, get your mind out of the gutter.”

“What? I didn’t say anything.”

“But you were thinking it.”

I looked out the window as we passed the trees. Bayou was on the left and, well, more swamps on the right. The sky was clear and it was a beautiful day. How had I ended up in the car with Dangerfield? Why did I allow this to happen? I should have stayed with my cousin and her aunt back at the plantation.

“That last case you did was great,” he said.

It had been a disaster and he was probably just trying to remind me of that fact. “You don’t have to rub it in,” I said.

“What? Why do you think I would do that? I am being serious.”

“Oh, we both know it was a body in the trunk. What we have to find out is who was it and why did the cop kill him.”

“Uh-oh,” he said.

I glanced over at him. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “What’s wrong?”

He motioned with a tilt of his head. “We’ve got company.”

I figured he was talking about the men who had followed us, Russ and Doug. When I looked back, I noticed police lights. “What does Officer West want?” I didn’t have a good feeling about this.

Dangerfield steered the car over to the side of the road. For a moment, I wondered if he was going to try to outrun the cop. The cop car stopped right behind us. After a couple seconds, the door opened and Phillip West stepped out. My stomach dropped and dread fell over me.

My heart sped up as I watched him approach the car. There was no way that this would end well. The look on his face said that he wanted to shoot first and ask questions later.

“What did you do?” I asked Dangerfield. “Is this car stolen?”

“No, it’s not stolen. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

I stared at him.

“Okay, don’t answer that. I just want to know what kind of trouble I’m going to get in, that’s all.”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

“Get out of the car,” the cop barked as soon as Dangerfield lowered the window.

Dangerfield opened the car door and held his hands up. That was probably a wise decision. I swallowed hard as he stepped around to the front of the car.

The cop immediately fixed his gaze on me. I had hoped to go unnoticed. “That goes for you too, princess.”

That made my blood boil. Who did this creep think he was? I opened the car door and decided to hold my hands up too. I didn’t want to get shot over something as stupid as this.

I stepped around to the front of the car and stood beside Dangerfield. We didn’t look at each other. I didn’t know what to do.

We stood there on the side of the road. The one good thing was that no other cars were passing. Then again, maybe that wasn’t such a good thing. Phillip West could shoot us and no one would know—or at the very least they would think that we had deserved it.

“Do you mind if I take a look in your car?” the cop asked.

Dangerfield shrugged. “I don’t care.”

The cop nodded and then moved to the back of the car.

He had a smug look on his face when he returned. Well, even smugger than usual.

“Are you looking for something, officer?” Dangerfield asked.

If he got us killed I would make his time in eternity miserable.

“I didn’t know you two were friends.” Phillip West crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“We are business associates,” I said.

Dangerfield glanced over at me. If he said something stupid I would let him have it right there.

Phillip West looked off into the distance for a few seconds, and then he finally turned his gaze to us again. “I am really tired of seeing you two around. There are ways of getting rid of you. How would you like to spend some time in prison? I can have an officer find something in your apartment. Maybe you’ve been involved with selling drugs,” he said.

My mouth dropped open. I hadn’t seen this turn of events coming. “You can’t do that.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, no? I think it would be easy.”

Well, he had that part right. It would have been very easy for him. But why would he do that? What did he think I knew? He knew that I had seen him with the body, so I was a witness. Maybe I should tell him that I hadn’t seen anything, just get him to leave me alone.

“You can’t get away with that,” I said.

“Watch me.” He smiled and I wondered how we would get out of this. In all reality, he could get away with what he was proposing. What kind of defense would I have against that? Dangerfield wasn’t being much help either.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” I said. That sounded kind of stupid since I was with Dangerfield. Of course I would have trouble with him.

We watched the cop walk away.

“That doesn’t sound promising for us,” Dangerfield said.

“You think?” I leaned my head back against the seat.

“Well, technically it doesn’t sound promising for you. I don’t think he mentioned finding anything in my place.”

I frowned. “I will make sure to show him where to find your place. I’m not going down alone.”

We climbed back into the car. I figured the cop was going to follow us.

“Aren’t you going to leave now?” I asked.

Dangerfield tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “I want to wait and see what he does next.”

“I think he’s going to shoot us next, that’s what he’s going to do. We’ll just get out of here and back to civilization so we have witnesses.”

Dangerfield started the ignition. “Maybe we can stop off for a bite to eat.”

“What? I can’t eat at a time like this.”

The cop pulled around us. When his car was even with ours, he stopped. He glared at us and then laughed. Slowly he pulled away.

“That guy is crazy,” Dangerfield said.

“You’re just now figuring this out?” I asked. “I knew that the first night when we saw him putting the dead body into his car. He just wants to get us out of the way.”

“Then why didn’t he kill us back there?” Dangerfield asked.

I shook my head. “Too messy. He probably hadn’t planned it out yet.”

He chuckled. “Your mind works in mysterious ways.”

Once the cop’s taillights were far enough away, Dangerfield pulled the car out onto the road. We rode in silence for a moment.

“What are you going to do now?” he asked.

“I don’t know where you were taking me, but I don’t think we should go there right away. Not until we are sure that cop isn’t around.”

“Maybe we should go back to your place,” Dangerfield said.

“Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, I’m just trying to figure out what to do next.”

I tapped my fingers against the car seat. Dangerfield glanced over at me. “Oh, is this bothering you?”

“Slightly, yes.”

“You really made him mad. What did you do to him?” Dangerfield asked as he glanced in the rear-view mirror.

“Nothing different from what you did, only apparently he didn’t see you snooping around while he was getting rid of the dead guy.”

I looked over my shoulder to make sure that the cop wasn’t back there again. I had almost forgotten about the other goons we’d been on the run from.

“What do you think was really in the trunk?” Dangerfield asked.

“I think it was a body. How else would he get rid of the person he just killed?”

“Good point. I guess I never thought about how I would remove a dead body.”

“I have. I should call the cop I know.”

“You know a cop?” he asked in a mocking tone.

“As matter of fact, it isn’t just any cop.” I grabbed my purse and started fishing around for Marc’s number. I would call him and ask him what to do.

I suddenly felt that maybe Marc was in danger being around his partner. Especially if Phillip West found out Marc was talking to me. I pulled his card out of my purse.

“Let me see that.” Dangerfield motioned for me to give him the card.

I shook my head. “No way. You don’t need to see it.”

“Why not? I just want to see if I know him.”

“You don’t,” I said.

“How do you know?” Dangerfield asked.

“Because he is new to the force.”

“Oh, a rookie.”

“Don’t say it like that. He is a very good cop. He’s been a cop for a while, he just recently came here to take a job.”

“So then let me see the card. What’s the big deal?”

I covered the phone with my hand. “Quiet. I’m on the phone.”