Laugh or Death (Lexi Graves Mysteries Book 6) (17 page)

"It's good enough. This is everyone? Bar staff? Wait staff? Cooks?"

"Everyone I've hired except the cleaners. We get them from an agency. Magic Cleaners downtown."

"Not the same agency I use," replied Lily.

"Let's see if you recognize anyone," I told Lily, turning over the top sheet. The three of us were quiet but for the sound of rustling paper as I turned over resume after resume. Finally, she slammed her hand on the open file.

"That's him! That's Kyle! I knew it! We've got him now!"

"Who?" King leaned forwards, his eyes bright and hopeful.

"We have someone who also worked at Lily's bar until recently," I said, plucking the resume from under Lily's hand.

"This is good? Or bad?" King asked.

"Good
, I hope," I answered as my cell phone began to trill. I plucked it from my pocket, glancing at the screen before I swallowed.

Maddox wanted to talk.

Chapter Fourteen

"It's not enough," I heard Jord say
on speakerphone as Lily rang him with the good news. We were sitting in the car with the windows wound down. The sun finally decided to come out of hiding and bathed Montgomery in a haze of warmth. "How many bars have you worked in, Lily?"

She started to count on her fingers. "I don't have enough fingers," she said. "Dozens?"

"Exactly. I could probably count you as a suspect."

She paused, then asked, "Would that involve an interrogation? Do you want to play naughty cop and..."

I made a loud vomiting sound and looked at Lily to see if she got my point. She stuck her tongue out, but to my relief, didn't go into anymore details. Hearing my brother enthusiastically agree was scarring enough.

"Jord was not as a happy as I thought he would be," she told me after they made a few more mushy noises and hung up. "I really thought this would be enough probable cause to get a warrant and search Kyle's house for the stolen cash. How do the cops ever get anything done? All that paperwork!"

"Probable cause? Who sounds professional now?"

"I know! I love this!" Lily clapped her hands and I had a brief moment of wishing I could throw a ball and see if she would catch it and make sea lion noises.

"He's right though. To seriously point the finger at Kyle, we need more evidence. Better evidence. I hope Lucas comes through with the cell phone records. All we can do is call Ruby and see what moves he's made since we swapped over surveillance."

"Okay, but don't think I haven't realized
making all these phone calls is an excellent way to keep busy and not return Maddox's call."

"You noticed that?" I hadn't made much noise about Maddox's phone call
. Usually, Lily and I would have analyzed the simple missed call several times by now. Today though... nothing. We were being incredibly mature about it.

"I'm not an ace detective's sidekick for nothing."

"Aww, Watson."

"Who's Watson?"

"Never mind. I'll call Ruby."

"Call Maddox!"

"Ruby."

"Maddox," said Lily, taking my phone and scrolling to the missed call list. She tapped Maddox's name and the phone began to ring out.

"Hello?" said his voice before I could hang up.

"Hi!" yelled Lily
, pushing the phone to my ear as I squeaked and batted her hands.

"Lexi?" he said, sounding puzzled.

I pulled together my composure while pulling a face at Lily. "Hi, yes, it's me."

"I know. Thanks for returning my call."

"No problem. What's up?"

"I was just thinking about your missing person case and wondered if you'd like to take a look over mine. Might give us both
a better perspective."

"Take a look at his what?" mouthed Lily as I waved her quiet.

"That would be great, actually. I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure if I'm looking at a missing person now, or a case of stolen identity."

"I've worked a few stolen identity cases. We can update each other on our cases and see if anything springs to mind."

"Thanks, I'd like that... and Maddox, did you send me flowers?"

"No. Why?"

"Are you sure?"

Maddox hesitated. "Absolutely sure. Should I send flowers? Did I miss something? I know it's not your birthday."

"No, but thanks anyway."

"Okay, well, I'm back and in the office all day. Call or come by when
ever you can."

I
promised I would and hung up, turning to Lily. "Maddox didn't send the flowers."

"People should really sign cards," she replied. I had to agree. It would make my day a lot less embarrassing if I could stop asking men if they
bought me flowers for no apparent reason. "I'm gonna call Ruby. I hope Kyle hasn't made a move."

"I thought we were hoping he had."

"Yeah, but I don't want to miss it."

"Fair point."

Ruby didn't have much to report when we called. Instead, she simply said he returned to his house, went inside and she hadn't seen a single movement since. Just as Lily was about to hang up, Ruby yelled, "Wait! He's got a visitor. He just pulled up in a car."

"Who? Who is it?" asked Lily.

"Get the license plate," I whispered.

"Get the license plate," Lily yelled and I heard Ruby's muffled voice replying something about quieting down. "She got the plate,"
Lily said to me. "What are they doing now? They're going inside. What's he wearing? He's wearing jeans and a black jacket. Is he the right height and build for our robbers? He's the right height and build! Do you recognize him? You don't. It's not the same guy he went to the bar with? No? Uh-huh. Okay. Can you watch them? See what they do, if anything? You will? Great. Call me later." Lily hung up. "So, Ruby said..."

"That she got the plate, he's wearing jeans and a jacket, he could be one of the robbers and Ruby doesn't recognize him."

Lily's mouth opened and she blinked. "Wow, you have got good hearing. Do you think it's too soon to rejoin the surveillance? What about if I wore a wig? I have seven in the trunk."

"Do I want to know why?"

"Probably not, no. I also have three hats. I have old lady, gangster and a cap you could wear forwards, backwards, or to the side, depending on how you feel."

"What does the gangster hat look like?"

"Badass."

"Can you take me back to my car? I should probably pack before I meet up with Maddox. I need to be ready as soon as Solomon calls."

"When he does call, remember to tell him Lexi Graves waits around for no man."

"Except today
, because he's busy and he volunteered to drive," I pointed out.

"We can make an exception for that."

Lily deposited me at my car outside Kyle's house, which I didn't like leaving. I returned to find it untouched, and promised to call her later with an update. She wished us well on our forthcoming trip. I longed to have as much confidence in solving the fake Nancy case within the next few days as she did, but was quietly cautious. Once we were there, I hoped a discovery would follow swiftly. Someone had to recognize fake Nancy. All I had to do was find that person.

Naturally, since my conversation with Abigail Harris at Greenacre Books, I
was more than curious about the real Nancy who apparently died months earlier. If fake Nancy stole her identity, she must have known of the real Nancy's death. I knew from my search engine results that Nancy's name never came up, which indicated the real Nancy's death didn't make national news. Did that mean fake Nancy was a local resident? Or someone passing through town? It made sense to me that fake Nancy and real Nancy could have known each other.

As I entered my house, I grabbed some notepaper from my desk and began to make a list of exactly what I wanted to achieve when we visited Greenacre.
At the top of the list I wrote:
1. graveyard
. Then,
2. real Nancy's family
. I wanted to know what happened to Nancy. How did she die? Who were the people in her life? Who did she live with?

Finding my mouth dry, I dropped the notepad on my coffee table and walked
into the kitchen searching for a large glass of something cold. Before I could do that though, I found something large, four-legged and furry sprawled in front of my refrigerator.

"Barney, how did you get in here?" I asked, stooping down to rub my neighbor's dog between the ears, right where he liked it. Barney responded
by lolling his tongue out of his mouth and giving me a dopey look. "You are the world's best dog burglar, and a persistent nuisance. Let's take you home."

Barney dropped his head to the floor and gave me a sad look.

"I'm not buying it," I told him. "Plus, you're a working dog and you should be on duty. Otherwise, who's going to help Aidan hear stuff? Hmmm? Let's go. Barney, I mean it," I added sternly when he let out a deep breath. Slowly, he got to his feet and trotted past the torn and empty tray of sausages that he was lying on top of. "I'll pretend I didn't see that," I told him as he followed me out the kitchen door and around the side of the house. We paused for a moment by the mailbox so I could grab the waiting envelopes, dropping onto his belly again while I shuffled through them.

"Lexi, hey. Hi! I didn't know you had a dog." A man sto
pped in front of me and stooped down to pat Barney on the head, squinting as he eyed me. The haircut was familiar, and so was the face when he looked up.

"Leo! What are you doing here?"

"I began to walk and got tired of central Montgomery so I started heading further and further out and kind of ended up here. This is a nice neighborhood. Do you live here?"

"Uh
, yeah, this is my bungalow," I said, gesturing to the house behind me.

"Wow, it's so pretty. Very you. I imagined you'd live in something whimsical."

"You imagined?" I frowned.

"Well, I feel like a cabin man and I live in a cabin. Except for right now
, while I live in a hotel," he said, "but my cabin is where my heart is. I guess... you don't look like a townhouse kind of person. This is you. I like that."

"Thank you. Barney, stop it," I added as Barney growled and Leo pulled his hand away, standing
up. "Sorry, he's not normally such a jerk. He just stole a tray of sausages and I guess he got stomach ache."

Leo laughed. "What a character. How long have you owned him?"

"I don't," I replied, pointing to my neighbor's house. "He belongs to my neighbor, but he likes to visit."

"You're not an animal lover?"

"I love animals, but I don't have time for one. My job keeps me pretty busy."

"That's good to know," said Leo, giving me a one
-shouldered shrug. He made it seem casual, but I knew he could be anything but, given how angry he became the last time I saw him. "Listen, I feel I should apologize for the other day. I didn't mean to get so angry. I was an ass and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I just get so low, you know, and I miss Nancy, and all I can think about is her alone and not knowing the way home... I sincerely apologize. Forgive me?"

"There's nothing to be sorry for," I assured him. "It's part of the job and we know how frustrating it can be to not have any answers. We're still working the case and we have new leads."

"What kind of new leads?"

"I'd rather tell you about it when I know something solid. I don't want to give you any
more false hope."

"I understand
, but I'd really like to know. It would mean a lot to me to be able to read the case file. Perhaps I'd see something you missed?"

"
That's against company policy, we do not allow clients to read case files. I'm sorry. Besides, they're at the office."

"Maybe we could get together later. Put our heads together over dinner?"

"That's a nice offer, but I'm leaving town tonight."

"The leads?"

"The leads," I confirmed.

"I hope you've got someone going with you? Your boss slash boyfriend? Does he live here too? I can't imagine him as a bungalow man."

"No, he has a house elsewhere."

"So it's just you? I hope this is as nice a neighborhood as it looks?"

"It is, and I have first class security," I assured him as Barney pressed himself against my legs. "And that doesn't include this lump of a guard dog."

"Well
, that is good to know. I guess I better get on with my walk and leave you to follow your leads. You'll keep me updated?"

"Of course."

"And sorry, again. I really appreciate you doing this. I hope you find Nancy soon."

"Me too," I agreed, feeling
sad that I would probably be giving him very bad news in the next few days. It was bad enough that the poor guy had been searching for Nancy for months. Soon, I would have to tell him he was searching for a ghost. Nancy didn't exist and he'd been taken for a ride. As I waved goodbye to Leo, he took off down the street, and I had to wonder about fake Nancy's motivation for having a relationship with Leo. Was it for companionship? Or was she working some unknown end game that finally came to fruition?

I nudged Barney's belly with my knee and he took off for home. I watched him from the mailbox as he nudged his way through the front door
before disappearing inside. Perhaps Nancy was exposed somehow, I decided. Perhaps her angle on Leo wasn't working out and she had to make a run for it. Leo didn't report anything missing or reveal any serious misgivings about the nature of their relationship. Of course, it could have been a lot more simple than that. Even criminals needed affection. Maybe she fell for Leo and someone else spooked her? Someone from her dark past?

I shook my head as I rounded the bungalow and stepped through the kitchen door, securing it behind me.
After sweeping up the debris left over from Barney's feast and putting it into the trash can, I got the long, cold glass of water I sought before being distracted. Taking my glass into the living room, I picked up my notepad and added a few more notes. Most of it was obviously conjecture, but brainstorming that way could help me work out what happened. It would certainly help me when I questioned people from fake Nancy's past, and while picking Maddox's brain, I decided, as I checked my watch. Grabbing my cell phone, I called him, telling him I was on my way. I stuffed my notepad and cell phone into my purse, grabbed my car keys, locked up and headed for the FBI office.