Marked for Murder Read online

  Billie grabbed my arm and pulled me toward a small conference room. I waved at Michael and hurried inside. The door shut, and I sank into a chair, grateful to have the door silence all those thoughts about me.

  “So what’s going on?” Billie asked. She perched on the edge of the table, and her brows rose expectantly. She didn’t think for one minute it was about her wedding.

  “You’d better sit down,” I said. “This might take a while.” Totally intrigued, she slid into the chair beside mine and waited.

  “After all the publicity directed my way from the shooting, I got a phone call from a man who wanted to hire me. But since then, I’ve discovered that there’s more to it. It’s turned into some sick game, and now he’s stalking me.

  “I don’t know if it’s because he’s trying to prove I don’t have premonitions, or that if I do, he wants to know if they’re real. Either way, he knows details about my life that make me nervous. Like where I work and who my friends are.”

  I explained that I’d tried to meet him and what had happened in the food court. I also told her about the flowers that had been sent everywhere. “Then there was the restaurant business today.”

  “You were there?” She’d heard all about it and could hardly believe it was all about me. “What else has happened?”

  “So far, that’s it. He’s been calling me, but the number is always blocked. Anyway, the main reason I’m telling you this is because, last time he called, he mentioned your wedding.” Her brows rose with shock. “Yeah. And he made a threat that something bad might happen if I’m not there to stop it.”

  “Oh my gosh! He knows about my wedding?”

  “Yeah. I told Dimples about the threat, and he thought it was something you should know too. That’s why I’m here. I’m really sorry about this. I don’t mean to ruin your wedding. I’m not even sure anything will happen, but, after the stunt he pulled today at the restaurant, I can’t take that chance. I hope you’re not too upset with me.”

  After the initial shock, she shook her head. “If he’s targeting you, what does he get out of it?”

  “I don’t know. Making me squirm? Proving my premonitions are bogus?”

  “It’s got to be a former client or someone you and Drew put away.”

  “Yeah, that’s what we thought, so we began looking through all the cases we’ve worked on together. We only found one lead, and that turned out to be a dead end. With your wedding so close, I thought you should know.”

  “Thanks,” she said. Her brows creased together. She wasn’t too worried, mostly because she was convinced my premonitions were real. I’d know if something was going to happen before it did. “Wow. This is crazy. A stalker who wants to prove you’re a phony. What a story.”

  In her mind, she was already making up the headline. “Stalker - No Match for Psychic,” or “Stalker Jailed Before Committing Crime.” Maybe not that one, but something like it could work.

  “I don’t want you to be worried about this on your wedding day,” I said. “You should be focused on Dimples and your vows.”

  She glanced at me and smiled. “I know, but I’m not really worried. It was just a threat, and you’ll be there. You have to admit, it’s a great story. What did Drew think we should do? He didn’t want to cancel the wedding did he?”

  “Oh no. That thought didn’t even cross his mind.” Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. “Uh… he’s going to tell the chief, and all the cops who are coming, about it. That way, they can watch for the stupid jerk and be on the lookout for anything unusual.”

  “That’s a great idea. Would it be all right if I told Michael? He’s going to be coming, along with a few of my co-workers.” She was thinking that he’d be excited to watch me in action, and since he’d spoken with her about doing an exclusive on me, this would be a great way to start the story on a personal note.

  Damn. Could this get any worse? I couldn’t exactly tell her no, since it was my fault her wedding could become a circus, but a story about me? No, and hell no.

  “Uh… I guess if he’s coming it might be helpful if he knew about the threat.”

  “Great.” She jumped up to get him. I opened my mouth to stop her, but shut it again. How could I object? At least I had some time before she actually asked me for an exclusive interview, and I could think up an excuse. Then it hit me that she could always say I’d ruined her wedding, so I owed her. Crap.

  She brought Michael into the conference room, and I had to explain the whole thing again. A spark of fascination filled his eyes. He didn’t like going to weddings much, but now he could hardly wait.

  “You both realize this could be dangerous, right?” I reminded them. “It’s not a game.”

  Michael glanced at Billie, surprised at my tone, and nodded his agreement.

  “And if nothing happens, you’re okay with that too?” I had to ask.

  Michael’s brows rose. “Of course.”

  Billie huffed out a breath. “Nothing is going to happen.” She didn’t add because you’ll be there, but that’s what she was thinking.

  “We need to find the story behind the story,” Michael said, in full editor-in-chief mode. “I think if we do that, you’ll come closer to knowing who he is. It will tell you what motivates him.”

  He began to pace. “Just off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons he’s doing this. One, he believes you’re a fake and he wants to expose you. Or two, it’s much more personal. You may have worked on a case he was involved in, and he’s fixated on you because he believes you’ve ruined his life.” He smiled widely. “That’s a good place to start.”

  Before he could tell me how to begin my investigation, I held up my hand. “I’ve already been doing that.”

  “Oh. Good, good,” he said, realizing that he’d overstepped a little. I was a private investigator, much like a reporter, and he needed to remember that. “I’m sure you have. Well, if I can help you in any way, I’m happy to offer my services.”

  “Thanks. That’s nice of you to offer.” I wasn’t about to accept his offer with all the strings attached.

  “What should we watch for at the wedding?” Billie asked.

  “You are not going to watch for anything,” I said forcefully. “That’s my job. I just wanted you to know, in case there’s a sudden change of plans. Like—if someone offers you a drink that you didn’t ask for, or some stranger tells you that you need to get in a car with them and go for a ride, you know—something crazy like that.”

  She chuckled. “All right. I get it.” Then it hit her that this was a real threat, and maybe it wasn’t so glamorous after all. Her family and friends would be there, and she didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

  “It will be okay,” I said, glancing at Michael to include him. “We’ll all be watching for anything out of the ordinary. He’d be a fool to try anything with all the cops there in the first place. So I don’t think you need to worry.”

  At her nod, I continued. “Maybe tomorrow you can give me a rough outline of when everything is scheduled to take place, so I’ll know what’s going on.”

  “Oh, I can do that now.” She pulled out a pen and paper and wrote down the approximate times of the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, toasts and dancing.

  “Thanks. This will help.” I took the schedule, realizing that it was going to be a long night. “I’m going to work on finding this guy. Who knows? Maybe I’ll figure out who it is before the wedding, and you won’t have to worry about it.”

  “That’s right,” she agreed.

  “Well, I guess that’s it. If I don’t see you before the wedding, I’ll see you then.”

  “Sounds good. Be sure to let me know if you find him beforehand.”

  “I will.” I gave her a quick hug, and we said our goodbyes.

  On the way to my car, I fervently hoped I could solve this before the wedding. I didn’t want anything bad to happen, and the pressure was starting to get to me. Thank goodness I had some time before the
big day to figure it out; otherwise, I might go crazy.

  CHAPTER 8

  In my car, I laid my head back on the seat and wondered what to do next. I’d totally missed talking to Ethan, so I should head back to Chris’s office. Then there was Uncle Joey. I hadn’t spoken to him all day, and I should probably stop by to tell him about the restaurant fiasco.

  On the other hand, it was nearly four, and I really wanted to go home. I could just give Uncle Joey a call and talk to Ethan tomorrow. Besides, with school out, I needed to check on my kids. I’d neglected them the past couple of days, and guilt, plus the fact that I needed a Diet Coke something fierce, decided the matter.

  As I pulled into my driveway, I waved at Josh and his friends who were outside playing basketball. They quickly moved out of my way while I parked in the garage. Inside, I dropped my purse on the kitchen counter and opened the refrigerator.

  Soon, I had a glass filled with crushed ice and fizzing soda. As I took my first swallow, Savannah popped into the kitchen, and we spoke about her day. Just being home with her relieved some of my stress. I opened the container of brownies we’d made on Sunday, and set them out on a plate for her, Josh and his friends.

  After nibbling on the crumbs, I worried that they’d all get eaten before I could have one. While Savannah told Josh and his friends to come in for brownies, I snuck one into a napkin and hid it in the cupboard behind the chips.

  It didn’t take long for the brownies to disappear, along with several glasses of milk, and I was glad I’d saved one. After the boys went back outside, Savannah reminded me that we had an Aikido class to attend.

  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by so much on my plate, it gave me something to look forward to. Throwing people around was sure to do wonders for my stress levels. Plus, in my line of work, knowing how to defend myself had come in handy more than once, so how could I pass that up?

  Since that didn’t give me much time to look through my files, I hurried into my home office, determined to go over everything, paying attention to each little detail. The link to my stalker had to be there somewhere. I just needed to find the connection.

  A few minutes after I got started, my phone rang. My heart picked up speed, and I took a deep breath to confront my stalker. I’d read up on tracing phone calls, and I was ready to push star-five-seven when the call ended so I could track his number.

  But it was all for nothing, and the tension left my shoulders. It used to be that a call from Uncle Joey sent my blood pressure to record highs. That wasn’t the case anymore, and I hoped that was a good thing. “Hi Uncle Joey. How are you?”

  I guess he didn’t think I’d be so perky, because he took a moment to respond. “Did something happen to you today?”

  “Oh crap! I was going to call you. Sorry. How did you know?”

  “Jim called me after the police left. Ramos is over there right now looking through the security tapes.”

  Oops. “Oh… that’s great. I had to get home to make sure my kids were all right, but I should have called you before now. Sorry.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  I quickly explained the whole story at the restaurant, but left out the lead I’d followed with Dimples since it didn’t pan out. Uncle Joey didn’t like that I worked with a cop, so the less I talked about him the better.

  “JB Sizemore must be the key to this,” I continued. “But so far, I haven’t been able to link that name to any of the cases I’ve worked on.”

  “I might be able to help you with that,” Uncle Joey said. “I did a little digging into the building records of the Randolph Tower. That name, JB Sizemore, is listed as the owner of the building. But I just found out that it’s not a person’s name. It’s the name of a shell company.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “A shell company is a business that’s created to hold funds and manage another entity’s financial transactions. It’s like a shield for security reasons, which could include hiding money from an ex, or as a tax haven… that sort of thing.”

  “Right,” I agreed, knowing I’d heard of them before. “And other activities, like money laundering, right?” Silence greeted me, so I quickly continued. “Uh… not that you’d know anything about that.”

  Uncle Joey huffed with annoyance, but continued. “I found out who owns the shell company. It’s part of the Patton family conglomerate. Have you heard of them? They made their first millions with a chemical company and branched out to other businesses after that. ”

  “That name sounds familiar.”

  “The Patton Family Foundation has contributed a lot of money to the arts and several charities.”

  “Oh yeah, sure. I know who they are.”

  “So I take it you haven’t done any work for them?”

  My brows rose. “No. I think I’d remember if I had.”

  Uncle Joey sighed, like I’d let him down. “It wouldn’t necessarily be for the foundation, but someone in the family.”

  “Right. I should look up the names of the family members and see if one of them matches someone in my files.”

  “I think that’s a good place to start. Let me know if you find anything.”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  “And Shelby,” Uncle Joey said sharply, “that means call me right away.”

  From his tone of voice, I knew he wasn’t happy I’d forgotten to call him about the restaurant. But this seemed more serious. Was there more to it?

  “Sure. I’ll let you know.”

  “Good. I’ll be expecting to hear from you.” He disconnected before I had a chance to question him further, and I swore under my breath. If I’d gone to his office like I should have, I’d know more about his connection to the Pattons. Now, I worried that this had more to do with Uncle Joey than I realized.

  Was that possible? My stomach twisted with dread. This whole thing suddenly got about ten times worse. If it involved a mob boss, how deep did it go? My stalker had already threatened innocent people, and he’d targeted the wedding of my friends. What else did he have planned? I needed to figure this out before someone got killed.

  I woke up my computer and googled the Patton family. Along with the foundation website, I found the names of the family members. Charles and Meredith Patton were the founders and had both died fifteen years ago. They had six children.

  I found all of their names, but got lost when it came to their children’s names. There were just too many of them and not as much information available. I wrote down what I could find, and hoped that I could look them up on the police database tomorrow.

  That brought a smile to my lips. Having my own computer at the precinct was a major boon for me. And, after everything else that had happened lately, I needed something to be happy about.

  I had to take a break for dinner and Aikido, but I got back to my search around nine that evening. Chris had stayed late at work and came in after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Uncle Joey found a lead.” I quickly explained what he’d told me. “So now I’m looking through my files for anyone related to the Patton family or their chemical company.”

  Chris nodded, but he’d gone a little pale. He was thinking that there was a connection to his firm through his partners, John Larsen and Gary Pratt.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Larsen and Pratt have the account for the Patton Foundation. I don’t know if they do work for the individual family members, but it’s likely that they do.”

  “So?” I asked. “How is that bad?”

  He shrugged. “If there’s bad blood between the Pattons and Manetto, it could be another reason you were targeted, since I’m Manetto’s lawyer.”

  “Oh… right. Maybe that’s why Uncle Joey sounded a little tense when he suggested I look into them.”

  Chris pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. I stood up and gave him a hug. His arms snaked around me, pulling me close, and I leaned into h
im, breathing in the light, woodsy scent of his cologne that I loved. Savoring the moment, I caught his amazement that a simple hug from me somehow made him stronger.

  I smiled, pulling away to look into his eyes. “I agree. That felt wonderful.” Our lips met, and I tasted chocolate. My eyes flew open. I thought the brownies were all gone. “Did you just eat a brownie?”

  His eyes got big. “Maybe.”

  “You found it?”

  His lips quirked sideways, and he knew he’d been caught, especially since he was sure I’d hear in his mind that he’d found my hiding place a long time ago. Damn! He couldn’t keep anything a secret from me.

  “So you knew I was hiding it, and you ate it anyway? I didn’t even get one earlier.”

  “Hey, I didn’t get one either.” He figured that was a good excuse since I hadn’t saved him one. Didn’t I know those brownies were too good to pass up? Too bad he’d been caught. He’d hoped I’d think it was Josh who’d taken it instead of him. Knowing I’d just heard that, he took a deep breath and pulled me close. “I’ll make it up to you.”

  “You’d better,” I said, narrowing my eyes.

  He smiled with relief, glad he was off the hook. “I will. And you’ll love it.”

  I huffed at his smug smile, but let him pull me into his arms for another kiss. Breathless, I pulled away. “I’d love to get started on that, but right now I need to get busy, or I might be up all night.”

  Chris nodded and, after another kiss full of promise, he left me to get back to work, hoping I’d be motivated to get done quickly.

  I plunged into my search with zeal, but two hours later, I only had one file left and nothing to show for it. What was I missing? It had to be here somewhere. I opened the last file, remembering the case clearly. It was a woman named Olivia Beal who’d hired me to find out if her husband was cheating on her.

  I checked the name of the company, but it was different from the Patton family company. Still, I remembered Olivia mentioning that she owned the company with her husband, and it wasn’t hard to see that she and her husband were extremely wealthy.