Deep in Death: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (3 page)

What? He was serious, and I knew I’d better pull my act together. I stiffened my spine and looked him straight in the eyes. “Of course I’m sure. And there’s nothing wrong with me.” What did he mean I wasn’t upbeat? Getting shot made me more cautious, but it would do that to anyone. I certainly didn’t need to talk to someone about it, and I didn’t have a syndrome.

“All right,” he said, realizing he’d struck a nerve with me but had no idea how he’d done it. “I’ll have to make up something to get him here. Can you stay a little longer?”

“Of course.” I nodded pleasantly, eager to move on. “Why don’t you tell him we have a new lead on the case and we need him to come in to answer a few questions?”

“Uh…yeah, that’s a great idea,” he answered. “I was just thinking that.”

“Great minds think alike,” I said, tapping my finger to my head.

He nodded and picked up his phone to make the call.

With his focus off me, I slumped back in my chair. Always knowing what people thought of me was stressful, and I wondered if maybe I should have taken a little more time off to recover. I also had a bad habit of answering unspoken thoughts, and the last thing I needed was for Dimples to figure out I could read minds.

My cell phone rang, and since Dimples was busy, I hurried to a quiet corner where I could talk in private. The caller ID said Thrasher Development, and my heart skipped a beat. I wasn’t sure I was ready to go back to work for Uncle Joey, but at the same time, I was happy to hear from him. Did that mean I really did need some kind of counseling like Dimples thought? At least around Uncle Joey I didn’t have to pretend I couldn’t hear his thoughts.

“Shelby!” Uncle Joey said. “How are you doing? How’s the arm?”

“Getting better,” I replied. “How are you?”

“I’m all right…but I find myself in a bit of a quandary. Could you come to the office? I could use your help right now.”

“Um…are there any dead bodies involved?” I asked.

He chuckled. “No…nothing like that. I just need your special ‘touch’ to solve a minor problem. How soon will you be done at the police station?”

I gasped. “How…How did you…? Oh…never mind. It might be about an hour before I can get there, depending on how soon things happen here.”

“That will be fine,” he assured me. “See you soon.”

He disconnected and I sighed. Getting mixed up with Uncle Joey was never a good thing. I should have told him I was busy, but part of me looked forward to seeing him. I really was nuts. It also bothered me that my first day back at work was turning into a lot more than I bargained for. Besides helping the police, I didn’t mind helping Uncle Joey where I could, as long as it wasn’t too bad. But I really should be concentrating on my client and her missing mother. Although from that creepy feeling in the dead files room, I had a pretty good idea she wasn’t just missing, she was dead.

A chill ran up my spine. I’d never experienced anything like that before, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to again. Maybe it was just my imagination getting carried away. After all, the room was pretty creepy and cold to begin with. I’d probably just imagined the brush of coldness on my cheek and the smell of flowers.

My stomach clenched. As comforting as that sounded, I had a feeling it wasn’t the last time something like that would happen with this case, and just thinking about it gave me the shivers.

Chapter 2

I put my phone away and caught Dimples’ curious glance. He’d finished talking a few minutes before me and waited politely for me to finish. I smiled and joined him, hoping he didn’t catch the guilty flush on my face since I’d just finished talking with Joey “The Knife” Manetto.

“We’re in luck,” he began. “The guy isn’t far from here and should arrive in about ten minutes.”

“Oh…that’s great. Did he seem surprised?”

“Actually, yes he did. But he also sounded a little relieved and more than willing to cooperate.”

“Huh,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “That’s interesting.”

“Wait…you think it’s him? It can’t be him. You know that, right? His alibi checks out.”

“I’m not jumping to conclusions. I have no idea, but if what you said is true, who else could it be? Maybe he paid someone to do it. You never know.”

Dimples’ brows drew together and he pursed his lips.

“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “If it’s him…I’ll know…trust me.”

He was thinking that I hadn’t let him down yet, so he might as well go for it. I smiled and nodded at him. He narrowed his eyes, thinking that I’d reacted as if I’d heard his thoughts, just like I’d done earlier with the whole “new lead” explanation. It bothered him a little, but he had to remember that working with me and my premonitions was like that and he just needed to go with the flow and not worry about it.

His gaze met mine and I raised my brows. “Are you okay? You seem a little tense.”

“Nah…I’m fine,” he said. But his eyes narrowed and he thought that if I really could read minds, I’d know what he was thinking right now. “So…what kinds of questions do you want me to ask him?”

“Just the usual,” I answered, a little flustered. “Like, what he argued with his wife about, where he went after he left her, where he stayed the rest of the night… basically anything that will get him focused on his wife.” After I said all that, I realized it was exactly what Dimples was thinking.

He nodded, thinking we were either totally thinking alike, or I was reading his mind. He was going to watch me close and see if it happened again. Then he’d know. He was a detective after all. He should be able to figure it out. Of course, if I really did read minds, it probably wasn’t something I’d want anyone to know. Saying I had premonitions had worked out pretty well for me.

Then another thought hit him like a bolt of lightning. Was that why I worked for Joey “The Knife” Manetto? Did he know my secret and used that leverage to get me to do stuff for him? Reading minds made a lot more sense than the premonition thing. In fact, that was about the only reason he thought I would keep working for a slime-ball like him.

I kept my gaze lowered, but a sudden impulse to defend Uncle Joey raised my ire. I hadn’t thought of him as a slime-ball for a long time, and it kind of got my dander up. Of course, he wasn’t exactly a stellar citizen either. Still, I made up my mind that if Dimples ever figured it out, I’d just have to tell him he was crazy. No way was he ever going to know my secret. Calling my mind-reading abilities premonitions had worked well enough so far, and I wasn’t about to let that change.

“Do you still do any work for Manetto?” he asked.

I huffed out a breath like that was a silly question. “What? Are you kidding? After getting shot in the arm, I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Good to hear.” Dimples smiled with relief.

“I’m going to get me a soda. Do you want one?” I asked.

“Um…no, I’m good.”

I left him with a fake smile plastered on my lips, and took my time at the drinks machine. Right now I didn’t want to worry that I’d just lied to Dimples, or that I’d say something stupid and give away my secret. More than a little flustered, I mostly wished he’d quit thinking so hard about me and concentrate on the case.

By the time I got back to the office, the husband had already arrived and I found Dimples waiting for me outside the interrogation room. To my chagrin, word had spread that I was going to question him. Bates and a few others had already gathered to listen in on the other side of the two-way mirror. If that wasn’t enough, the police chief joined them. My stomach churned. Now, besides trying solve the murder, I’d also have to make it look like I wasn’t reading the man’s mind or Dimples would figure it out. Talk about pressure!

I picked up that Bates was glad he’d been keeping tabs on me. Finding out the husband was coming in so I could question him was the perfect excuse to tell everyone to come and watch the show. He was hoping I’d fail miserably and get kicked out of my so-called ‘consulting’ job. When the chief joined them, he glanced at me with a triumphant grin, and my face flushed with anger.

As Dimples opened the door, I took a quick breath and tried to block my nasty thoughts of kicking that man where it hurt the most, and turned my attention to the husband. If this was going to have a happy ending, I needed to calm down and concentrate.

“Spencer,” Dimples said. “I’d like to introduce you to Shelby Nichols. She’s helping us out on the case.”

Spencer stood and shook my hand with a friendly smile, quickly sizing me up. He was of average height and nice looking with thinning brown hair and an easy smile. He came to the conclusion that I was harmless, mostly because I looked too darn nice to be a threat. But why was I there? Did it have something to do with what the police had found? “Are you a detective?” he asked.

“I have my own consulting agency, and I help the police from time to time,” I replied, mostly for Bates’ benefit.

Spencer’s lips turned down, and he wondered what a consulting agency had to do with a murder investigation. Something seemed a little off, and nervous sweat popped out on his upper lip.

My spidey-senses tingled. He was definitely hiding something. Of course, his face only showed mild curiosity, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was a nice, easy-going guy.

“Thanks for coming in so quickly,” Dimples said. He could tell Spencer was a little confused by my presence, and he didn’t want him to close up before I could question him. “We just need to clarify a few things so we can build the case against our suspect.”

“You have a suspect? Wow, that’s great,” he said. Right after the words left his mouth, he realized that he might have sounded a little too happy about that, and tried to convey a more somber mood with his next words. “This has been a nightmare for me. I miss Stacy every minute of the day. Whoever did this needs to be caught. What I’ve gone through is… horrible… I’d hate for someone else to go through what I have.”

Dimples nodded. “Let’s go over the events of the day. It will help us know if our suspect could have been there at the right time to actually commit the murder.”

“Of course,” he responded. He relaxed just a little, thinking we didn’t know anything.

“Maybe you could fill Shelby in? Just tell her what happened from the time you got home from work until the time you left your house later that night.”

Spencer took a deep breath and began his carefully rehearsed story. He told it with such passion that he was starting to believe it himself, although he still couldn’t keep the image of placing Stacy’s bloody, lifeless body in the freezer. He’d left shortly after that and checked into a hotel, making sure he was seen at the bar. In the early morning hours, he’d snuck back home and put her partially frozen body back where it was when he’d killed her. Then he’d broken a few things to make it look like a robbery.

All of these thoughts came through during his narrative, and I had to work hard to keep my jaw from dropping open. He’d certainly gone to a lot of work to cover up his crime, and I had a hard time believing that this kind-faced man could do something so terrible. What had she ever done to deserve that?

“Did you love your wife?” I asked.

“Very much.” His razor-sharp gaze focused on me, instantly suspicious of why I would ask that.

“What did you argue about?”

“I don’t even remember,” he said. His gaze dropped to his clenched hands. “All I know is that I left her there and now it’s my fault she’s dead. If I hadn’t left, maybe I could have stopped the killer, and she’d still be alive.”

“What did she say that made you so angry?” I asked.

His thoughts went to her confession that she didn’t love him anymore, and she’d found someone else who could take care of her like she deserved. How he was a worthless husband and horrible in bed and she never should have married him in the first place. He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking that if he hadn’t been cutting up vegetables with that knife in his hand, it might not have happened. He still couldn’t believe what he’d done to her.

“You didn’t mean to do it, did you?” I asked. “If that knife hadn’t been in your hand, it never would have happened.”

His gaze jerked to mine and his eyes widened. “How did you…” he realized what he’d said and his breath caught. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do,” I answered softly. “She told you she didn’t love you anymore and there was someone else she’d rather be with. You knew things were bad, but you never expected her to betray you so effortlessly. You just… lost it, and with the knife already in your hand, it was easy to plunge it into her neck. Tell me Spencer… what will the police find when they open your freezer?”

His face paled and he leaned back in his chair as if to put as much distance between us as possible.

“Even if you’ve cleaned it out with bleach, there will still be traces of her blood inside.” I leaned forward, invading his space. “You can’t hide what you’ve done, Spencer. It’s time to come clean and tell us what really happened. Even though she was planning to leave you for another man, I know you didn’t mean to kill her. It was an accident.”

All the bravado left him, and he crumpled, dropping his face into his hands with a wrenching sob. “You’re right! I didn’t mean to kill her.” He sobbed even harder. “It was an accident, I swear. I didn’t mean it…all those things she said…it just happened…I loved her. I don’t know what came over me. But I didn’t mean it!”

Dimples’ surprised gaze jerked to mine. He could hardly believe how fast he’d confessed. Both of us watched as Spencer sobbed with remorse and grief. Finally, Dimples stood and gently pulled Spencer’s arms back to cuff him. Dimples read him his rights, and then led him out of the room where a uniformed officer took him away for processing. He came back inside the room with awe in his eyes. “That was…amazing.”

I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal and stood. “You could tell he was nervous, right? So it only made sense that he was hiding something. You’ll want to check his freezer though, just to make sure. I guess that’s how he fooled everyone with the time-of-death part.”

“Yeah, right,” he answered, still gazing at me like I was from another planet.

The police chief pushed his way past the other detectives and burst into the room. “I don’t know how you do it, but nice work.” He shook my hand like I was a celebrity.

“Thanks,” I answered. “Glad to help.”

“Make sure you turn in your hours. We don’t want to forget to pay you.” With a satisfied smile, he left the room. In the doorway, he shooed the other detectives away with his gruff voice. “Don’t you have work to do?”

I couldn’t help the sly grin I sent to Bates, who turned away with a shake of his head. He thought what I’d done was brilliant… and a little creepy…maybe it was best if he stayed away from me. He didn’t want any bad juju coming his way.

Juju?? Did he think I was a witch or something? That was a first.

“Thanks for your help,” Dimples said, drawing my attention. His eyes held a new respect for me. He didn’t know how I did it, but he didn’t really care when the results were this great. “I don’t know if we would have ever figured it out without you.”

“Oh… you probably would have. He might have given himself away at some point.”

Dimples shrugged. “Maybe, but I doubt it.”

“Well…I’d better get going. Thanks for the file. I need to get to work.”

“Yeah…call me if you need anything else. I think after what you did today, you can pretty much get whatever you want from us.”

“Even Bates?” I asked.

Dimples smiled. “Um…maybe not him.” He glanced in Bates’ direction. “If that guy was smart, he’d try to get on your good side.”

I snorted. “Oh well, you can’t please everyone.” Wanting to change the subject I asked, “So, how’s it going with Billie? You guys still seeing each other?” Billie Jo Payne was the news reporter who had the hots for Dimples. I knew they were together, but I didn’t want Dimples to get any more nervous around me.

His eyes lit up. “Yes.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t and I tried not to roll my eyes. “That’s good. She told me to call her once I was back on the job. Do you know what she’s working on now?”

“Well, she’s still covering the homicide cases for the paper, so that keeps her busy.”

He was thinking she was also doing some snooping into something else, but had kept it from him. Since she wouldn’t tell him what it was, he knew it was dangerous and that made him uneasy. He glanced at me, thinking that maybe I could talk to her and figure out what it was and then tell him, so he could talk her out of it.

“I guess now that you’ve solved this case,” he said. “She’ll want to know we’ve made an arrest. Is it okay if I tell her you helped us with this? She might want to interview you for the paper or something.”