Dancing with Detective Danger (2 page)

“So you two just went in anyway.”

His tone of voice made her bridle. “I told you, we were on assignment. We rang the doorbell, we knocked, no one answered, and in fact, the door stood slightly ajar. We went in. We looked around. When we walked into the bathroom we found the woman and the dog.”

“That’s when you saw the body submerged in the bathtub.”

“Bingo! I think you’re finally getting the picture,” Sterling exclaimed. She didn’t attempt to hide her impatience.

“You know I could book you on breaking and entering. What kind of an assignment were you working on?”

Sterling squared her shoulders and narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s confidential.”

“Are you saying you’re not willing to cooperate with the police?”

“Is there some point to all of this interrogation?” Sterling hedged, for no other reason than this guy’s superior attitude was making her skin crawl. Normally, cooperating with the local law enforcement was standard operating procedure, a logical and necessary SOP. But she was having a bad day and this guy needed to be taken down a notch. “Do you think I’m lying? Maybe you’d like to frisk me to make sure I’m not withholding a murder weapon or something.” She heard footsteps coming up behind her but kept her glare pointed at the officer.

“Don’t bluster at the officer, Sterling. He’s just doing his job.”

The deep voice at her shoulder startled her so intensely her breath froze in her chest, but she squelched her reaction. Deliberately, she turned to face the man. “Hello, Ben. What are you doing here?” She’d forgotten how much taller he stood above her. His dark hair was shorter than two years ago, making his cobalt blue eyes more vivid and his strong jaw more imposing.

“I work investigations now.” His smile reached out effortlessly and grabbed her unwilling heart, but Ben seemed unaware.

“Really? That explains the suit.” Sterling turned back to the officer, struggling to keep her voice steady, emotionless, despite the seismic quakes coursing through her body. “Do you have any other questions?”

“Well — ”

“We won’t be needing you any further right now, Sterling,” interrupted Ben, clearly the detective in charge. “But if we need to get in touch with you, where would we find you?”

As if he doesn’t know.
“Our detective agency’s number is in the book.” While it was true that Ben hadn’t ever actually stepped through her agency’s door, she knew he would have kept tabs on her office location if nothing else. That was just the kind of cop he was.

“You and your sister are still in the private investigating business?” Innocence dripped from Ben’s richly masculine voice.

“Ben Kirby!” Lacey stepped up and warmly wrapped her arms around him.

“Hi, Lacey.”

It was so “Lacey” to walk right up to Ben as though no time had passed and nothing had changed. But Sterling stifled a grin at Ben’s obvious discomfort with the display of affection in front of his fellow officers, his arms stiff at his sides. “Ben’s working investigations now, Lacey.”

“Well, that’s good, Ben, if it’s what you want. You’re not living on that edge anymore, rubbing arms with drug dealers? Do you miss it?”

“No, I’ve changed.” He tucked his head for just a moment, but Sterling still cringed, suspecting his comment was actually aimed at her.

“It’s nice to see you. It’s a wonder we haven’t bumped into you before. But then, Sterling and I don’t usually run across dead bodies in the course of our work. Our cases tend to be more like backgrounds and investigating insurance and disability claims and — ”

“Ben was just asking about our work,” Sterling interrupted.
Leave it to Lacey to lay out all the boring details in the first four seconds.

“How nice.” Lacey shot Sterling a quizzical look.

“And I was just telling him that Aegar Investigating is thriving. So we’d better get to the office, Lacey. We have work to do.” With one parting look up into Ben’s face, Sterling led her sister outside.

“Geez, sis, what was your hurry? Feeling a little uncomfortable? I can see why. Ben looks great. And the electricity between the two of you — wow! It was unmistakable.”

Sterling took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, letting her sister ramble on as they walked to the car. “Don’t start with me, Lacey. You know there’s nothing between Ben and me.”

“Okay, okay. Don’t get all edgy. I just think it’s interesting that after all this time we run into him.” Lacey smiled a whisper of a smile, suggesting she wasn’t giving up at all.

“I don’t think it’s one bit interesting.” Sterling climbed into the passenger seat of Lacey’s car and deliberately avoided looking at the condo as her sister started the engine. “What is interesting is the fact that we stumbled into a murder scene. It’s the first really exciting case we’ve come across in a long time.”

“Work. That’s all you want to talk about.” Lacey rolled her eyes. “It’s in the hands of the police now.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Sterling sighed. “But it doesn’t hurt to wish, does it?”

“I know you miss police work. You can’t help but resonate with the thrill of the edge. It’s in your blood.” Lacey eyed Sterling with sisterly understanding.

“I don’t miss police work.” Sterling was quick to stomp on the suggestion. “I just wish for a little more action at our agency. A little more righting of wrongs. With what we do, it’s not always a clear line between the good guys and the bad guys. I wish — ”

“Listen, if you’re going to wish for something, make it something good and definitely doable, like a vente white chocolate café mocha. Mmm … I can taste it now.”

Sterling shook her head. “You really know how to dream big.”

• • •

Ben stood behind the richly embroidered drapes at the condo’s living room window and discreetly watched Sterling walk to the car as he shuffled paperwork through his fingers. Her petite frame, dressed in a slim gray suit, pulled his attention as though he had no control.

That’s the way it was with her. He hadn’t seen her for two years, but all during that time he’d been unable to will her out of his thoughts for very long. Seeing her up close and feeling her presence today had stirred up old feelings inside him. After they’d gotten together, the terrible aloneness he’d grown to live with had vanished. It hadn’t mattered that before she’d come along he’d had no one, no family, because she’d completely filled the emptiness in his gut. Then when she left, he’d felt all the more alone for having known but lost her.

Sterling’s straight, chestnut-colored hair had grown longer, brushing gently against her slim shoulders. He liked it. And the two years apart had worn beautifully on her fine-boned face. She looked even lovelier than he remembered. In the brief moments he’d stood next to her, he’d taken in everything: her shapely curves, her intense, blue-green eyes, her sensuously curved lips the color of a rich Merlot wine.

Ben’s stomach tightened. It had to happen sooner or later, he thought to himself. Even though Sterling had left his life, it seemed inevitable that they’d run into each other sometime while working a case. He’d like to think it meant their destinies were intimately intertwined. That even though their paths might occasionally diverge and meander, they were actually headed in the same direction. She’d been emphatic at their breakup that there was no future for the two of them — that they wanted different things in life — but he just didn’t believe it. He believed in possibilities, and though in the interim he’d given Sterling her space, the hope remained strong in him that eventually, along the way, they would come together again, perhaps even stronger than before.

Ben watched Sterling drive away and couldn’t help himself. Was it too much to hope maybe this time it could be different?

“Ben, you’ve got to look at this,” called one of the officers. “It looks like the PIs who just left have a connection to the deceased.”

A hesitant knock sounded on the interior private office door.

“Come in,” Lacey called through the door.

“Where’s Michelle?” Sterling glanced quizzically at her sister. “Don’t tell me you gave our secretary the day off again.”

“Her cat started labor this morning,” Lacey said, getting up to greet the woman who pushed the door open a crack. “Hi, Sara.”

Sterling continued, amazed. “Again?”

“I thought it was a familiar excuse, but what could I say?”

“How about no?”

“You know Michelle.” Lacey winced guiltily. “She had a feeling about the labor.”

“Premonition? You mean the cat wasn’t even in labor?”

“It’s hard to argue with Michelle’s psychic feelings.”

“Lacey?” The small, very polished woman in a gray suit stood uncomfortably in the doorway.

“Sorry, Sara. Our secretary is off today. We didn’t hear you come in,” Lacey said. “Have a seat.”

Sterling nodded her acknowledgment, but Sara didn’t seem to notice.

Sara continued to stand. “You left a message on my machine saying you needed to see me right away.”

“Yes. We have some news about your case.”

A look of distress clouded Sara’s eyes. “Is there a problem?”

Sterling motioned to a chair. “Please, won’t you sit down?”

Sara stiffly lowered herself to the chair, perching rigidly on the edge as Lacey opened a drawer and pulled out photos. Sterling heard Sara draw in a sharp breath and saw panic flame in her eyes.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” Lacey said. “You hired us to find out if your husband, Jerry, was involved with another woman.”

Sterling sat motionless, as though doing so could somehow soften the blow. This part of the job never got easier. Lacey would be gentle, but hearing the truth had to hurt, and this middle-aged woman looked quite vulnerable, sitting there fingering the strap of her purse.

“Your suspicions proved correct.” Lacey’s words brought no reaction. She went on. “This picture was taken of him entering her condo. And this one is of the two of them in his car. We followed them to this restaurant.”

Sterling watched Sara’s expressionless reaction and thought she’d seen it all. Upon officially learning of a spouse’s infidelity, clients had been known to rage, cry, or even burst out laughing. But this blankness, this complete lack of emotion, seemed incredibly weird.

Lacey pressed on. “We traced phone records and there is every indication that Jerry and this woman, Pamela Witt, had been engaged in an affair for months. He has a bank account you probably don’t know about. Jerry has been paying the mortgage for the condo. Apparently Pamela worked as an investment counselor at the bank where your husband is vice president.” Lacey eyed the woman, then reached over to take her hand. “I’m sorry, Sara.”

Lacey’s move to console her client might not be SOP for most professional PIs, but it was very true to her big heart, and something that Sterling admired.

Sara took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, this is not surprising,” she said. “There have been clues. You know, the usual. Coming home late with the scent of perfume on his clothes, awkward phone calls, stuff like that. Still, I wanted it to be just my imagination.” Her voice trailed off like a toy whose battery had run low, and she stared at the floor.

“We understand, Sara,” Sterling said. “Can I get you a glass of water?”

“No. I’ll just be going. I have to think.” Sara started to rise.

Lacey glanced at Sterling and back at Sara. “I’m afraid there’s more.”

Sara stopped in her chair. “More?”

“Pamela is dead.” Lacey’s words came out gently.

Sterling noted Sara’s expression barely changed.

“Dead?”

“Murdered,” Sterling added.

“When? How do you know?”

“We know because we found her body this morning.” Lacey walked around to perch on the top of her desk and face Sara directly. “The police think she was murdered this morning about nine o’clock, two hours before we found her.”

“You found her?”

“We planned to sit surveillance at her condo but noticed her front door was open, so we went inside. We found her body in the bathtub. We won’t know the actual cause of death until after we see the coroner’s report.”

“Have you seen Jerry today?” Sterling had to ask the obvious question.

Finally, tears began rolling down Sara’s perfectly made-up face. “No. He had already left for work this morning when I got up. His secretary called me to tell me he had to take a trip to Chicago for a meeting at the bank’s corporate headquarters, but she overheard talk that he’s not at a meeting. That’s what she said.”

“You know this doesn’t look good for Jerry.” Lacey offered the woman a tissue.

“What do you mean?” Sara wiped her nose and dabbed carefully at her eyes.

“It’s too soon to say, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the police look to him as a prime suspect once they make the connection. If he’s missing, that only strengthens the possibility that he’s involved in her death,” Lacey said.

“Why would he kill her?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.” Lacey stood and motioned toward the door. “Why don’t you go home? The police will handle it from here.”

“I don’t know what to do.” Sara stood but remained planted in the spot, the look of a lost doe on her face. “Will you find him, please, before the police do?”

“Do you mean you want us to stay on the case?” Sterling asked.

“You have to. What if something terrible has happened to him? Something’s wrong, I’m sure. Will you find him?” Sara pleaded.

Sterling could hardly believe her ears. This woman seemed genuinely concerned for her husband — her cheating husband.

“Of course we will.” Lacey exchanged a look with Sterling.

“Oh, thank you. I don’t know what to do.” Sara looked more and more lost by the second.

Sterling felt sickened by the thought that apparently even a worthless husband could provide a woman with an element of definition. Or was it a template? At any rate, Sara seemed like a ship that had just lost its mooring. The feeling echoed menacingly inside Sterling, calling up barely conscious defenses from the swamps of her soul. She moved into action.

“Just go home and do what you normally do,” Sterling said, walking her out to the door and wishing she could do more to help the woman. It seemed like Sara’s life was rapidly disintegrating. “Call us if you need something, okay?”