Fulfilling Promises (Red Starr, Book Five) (7 page)

“I think you should stay with her,” Katie said softly, setting a glass in the corner of the serving tray. “We were talking while you were in the bedroom earlier. It can’t be easy for her to know her brother’s killer is still out there running around free.”

“I hadn’t planned on leaving,” Trigger said with a half-smile. He pulled Katie in for a quick hug, missing these family get-togethers. He didn’t get home nearly often enough. “Convincing Devyn it’s for the best might take a little while though.”

“If anyone can do it, you can.” Katie pulled away and wrapped her arms around her own waist, leaning back against the counter. A frown marred her features. “Just be careful. The town wasn’t quite the same when we pulled in earlier. I can feel it. Something is in the air.”

“I made some calls from the landline downstairs in the office, seeing as my cell service doesn’t work too well out this way. My boss is now making some calls. The police usually know more than they’re saying, especially in cases like this.” Trigger noticed that Jay was gathering the boys together, while Diesel watched with his tail wagging. Devyn was thanking his parents for the meal, but the small stress lines around her eyes at his declaration earlier were evident. The theft of the files had put them in an awkward situation they needed to discuss. Had Isaac hid them? Had Jenna taken them? Who else knew the files had been in Devyn’s office? “I’ll call you guys if anything comes up.”

“You better,” Katie warned, lifting her cheek for a quick kiss. “Jay goes back to work tomorrow, but I don’t have to be at the salon until next week. Let me know if you need anything or if Devyn wants help with the funeral arrangements.”

Funeral arrangements. Trigger still had a hard time accepting that Joey was gone. Planning out his wake wasn’t going to be easy for Devyn, but she wasn’t the type to want help doing something so personal.

“I’m not sure what Devyn has planned right now,” Trigger said, walking his sister to where the others waited for her. He gave his mother another hug and then shook Jay’s hand. Jack was now holding the door open for everyone. “Thanks for dinner, everyone.”

“Yes,” Devyn agreed, crossing her arms over the front of her white shirt. She was wearing jeans instead of shorts, meaning she intended to go downstairs at some point. The bar was still open and Isaac no doubt had things handled, but Trigger had no doubt that she would still check on things. “Thank you for dinner. I appreciated the company. John, I’ll call you with any details on the case.”

Well, she’d just tried to put him in his place, didn’t she?

“You won’t need to,” Trigger countered, flashing a smile her way. He didn’t bother to elaborate on his statement, but instead placed his hand on the doorknob. He motioned for Diesel to stay where he was. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

Trigger waited for his family to leave and then shut the door behind them before turning around to lean against it. He mimicked her pose and crossed his arms, although his was in determination and not an involuntary self-protected stance. It was time to finally get to the bottom of things.

“Did you give the files to anyone?”

“No.”

“Who knew about them?”

“Isaac and you.”

“No one else?”

“Did I stutter?”

Trigger flashed another smile. This was the Devyn he could handle. He stood and then motioned for Diesel to join them.

“You have security cameras set up, so we should be able to see who went into your office after we came upstairs. Is it hooked up wirelessly to your computer system or is it just recorded to the drive?”

“No,” Devyn replied, walking ahead of both of them. There was something about how she spoke that gave the impression he wasn’t going to like the rest of her answer. “Those aren’t real cameras. You know how Amberton is. There’s never been a need to actually spend the money on feeding a new DVD disc into that set-up every day, especially because I live upstairs.”

“Which is exactly why you should have a working security system.”

Trigger thought of the men in his unit. Gunny was their team leader. Daegan was their sniper, Stick was an expert in explosives, and Doc specialized in comms while filling in as their field medic when needed.

That left Trigger, who could handle close quarters combat with the best of them. His quick and deadly accurate response with handguns had earned him the nickname ‘Trigger’ early on. The name stuck and Joey had gotten a kick out of it, like his friend was some kind of modern day gunfighter. He’d gotten so used to it that it had followed him home and the town had picked up on it as well.

But out of all of his teammates, Trigger was the one with the calm demeanor. Why was it that Devyn was the only one who tested his limits on that? An hour ago he’d been holding her, comforting her. Now? She was testing his patience.

“Do you have security cameras on the garage?” Devyn asked, thinking she knew the answer.

Trigger waited until they’d descended the steps to wrap his fingers around her arm and turn her toward him before she walked down the short hallway to the increasingly loud crowd gathered in the bar. He didn’t want anyone else overhearing their conversation.

“Yes, I do.” The garage might be a little rundown, but that had been slowly changing over time. Trigger wasn’t about to let Mac’s hard earned work go for naught. “I had them installed before I ever left for San Diego. Joey was well aware of the system and made sure it was activated every night. It records on a large solid state hard drive.”

It was then that Trigger realized Devyn had retrieved the boxes after Joey had gone missing. That meant the alarm had been turned off. Why?

“You talk to Isaac and double check that he didn’t hide those files,” Trigger ordered, hurrying past her as he took the keys to the Jeep out of his pocket. Diesel didn’t have to be told anything. He stayed by Trigger’s left side as usual. “I’m heading to the garage to check something out. I’ll be back.”

Trigger scanned the customers as he crossed the main floor to the tavern. Luke Stoddard was still at the bar, along with Micah Kilgore and Dalton Linney. The two additional men raised their hands in greeting, but Trigger didn’t stop to talk to them, although he did nod his acknowledgment. They both looked a little worse for wear, and then it occurred to him that Devyn had suggested he hire one of them to manage the garage. Not a chance in hell.

Cody was sitting at a table with Justin Yeatman, an old classmate who appeared to be doing well for himself judging by the way he was dressed. It was rare to see someone in a suit this time of night. Trigger didn’t want to get trapped in a long conversation, but it was Jenna who caught him right before he made it to the door.

“I have them,” Jenna whispered as she plastered a fake smile on her bright pink lips. The color matched the streaks in her hair, but Trigger’s attention was more on what she was saying. “I have the files.”

“You what?” Devyn asked, coming to a stop beside Trigger. Hadn’t he told her to talk to Isaac? “Why would you do that?”

“Because I didn’t think you’d want the police getting their hands on them.” Jenna glanced around in a manner of excitement that only had Trigger shaking his head in annoyance. Did she think she was some sleuth who could help solve a murder? This wasn’t a cartoon or a television mystery show. This was real life and the man who’d died deserved justice. “You shoved those papers inside those boxes so fast, I thought they might be important.”

“Jenna, those files mean nothing.” Trigger ignored Devyn’s presence. She was considered a suspect in her brother’s murder and the last thing she needed to be doing was giving the police ideas they could be right. “They are from the garage and Devyn was only helping me out by seeing what customers needed to be called about their vehicles. I don’t have anyone over there right now and she was doing me a favor.”

The disappointment written on Jenna’s face was more than evident and she sighed in defeat. She wasn’t the subtlest person in Amberton.

“Oh. I thought I was helping out,” Jenna said with a shrug, her bracelets dangling when she lifted her arm up in exasperation. “Fine. They’re in the trunk of my car.”

Trigger didn’t want to bring attention to them, but he figured it was already too late. At least he covered both his and Devyn’s ass regarding why she would even have the garage files here. Now he just needed to transfer them from Jenna’s vehicle to his Jeep.

“I appreciate you trying to help, Jenna,” Devyn said with more patience than Trigger had known she was capable of and then led the way to the door. She swung open the exit before Trigger could reach it, but he signaled for Diesel to get out in front of them. The German Shepherd took his job seriously and trotted ahead, his nose sniffing out anything that would be presumed a threat. “Which side of the street?”

Jenna motioned to her left and set off another round of clanking with the various bracelets on her wrist. At least she was parked close to where the Jeep was, but that meant listening to her talk about what she’d heard from the other residents. There was nothing new to learn and it wasn’t long before he’d transferred the boxes of manila folders to the back of his vehicle.

“I do appreciate what you were trying to do,” Devyn said, slipping her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Stop into the bar tomorrow night after work and dinner will be on me.”

Trigger let the two women finish saying goodbye as he walked around to the passenger side door. She wasn’t about to go back inside and he’d been foolish to think she would have stayed behind. Diesel remained near Devyn now that he’d been told whom he was protecting and that’s where he would stay for the duration of this visit or until relieved.

“She meant well,” Devyn said once she’d finally said goodbye and walked around the front of the Jeep. Diesel used his two back paws and leapt into the seat before she could, his agile form jumping over the console and into the back. “And before you say anything about those documents, I already told you I would turn them over to the police once I finished going through them.”

“That’s fine,” Trigger replied in total agreement as she situated herself into the passenger seat. He witnessed Devyn’s hesitation at his acquiesce, but he’d decided nothing was going to be said or done until Starr got back to him regarding anything she might have discovered from her contacts. “We’ll go through them together. Right now, I want to go to the garage and see what we can find on the footage of the security cameras.”

“Wouldn’t the police have taken those recordings as evidence? I mean, they were probably the ones who had the security system shut off.”

“That’s what I want to find out,” Trigger said, shutting her safely inside the vehicle before making his way around to the driver’s side. He surveyed the parking lot before opening his door. He saw Jenna’s taillights as she pulled onto the road, turning toward the highway at the other end of town. No one else seemed to be outside and the air weighed heavy with humidity. The smell of the moist dark Mississippi night lingered once the exhaust of Jenna’s vehicle drifted away. He couldn’t help but remember what Katie had said earlier about the shift in their hometown’s ambiance. He could feel it as he settled in behind the wheel. “You see, the police wouldn’t have been able to get on my property without a warrant. I’m the one they would have needed to contact.”

“You mean they searched the property without your knowledge?” Devyn asked, her curiosity matching his. She was shaking her head in disagreement. “They wouldn’t have done that, so that would mean…”

“That would mean either they had a warrant and couldn’t get a hold of me by phone or someone gave them permission to search the garage,” Trigger finished Devyn’s sentence for her in a rather grim tone. He didn’t want to believe someone would have the nerve to kill his friend and then deceive the police into trusting he or she had the power to give consent. “The alarm company never called me either, so does that mean someone other than Joey had the code to the security system at the garage? The question would be—who and why?”

‡

D
evyn wasn’t normally
the type to be afraid. She’d grown up living in a trailer in a poorer part of town, some of the time even spending the night alone if her mother was out working or Joey was at a friend’s—usually Trigger’s house or camping out down by the swamp. She’d been into the swamplands on dares, gone into old abandoned buildings for parties back in the day, and even spent some nights on a pontoon boat out in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t in her nature to be unnerved by the darkness of a typical Mississippi night, but this stillness surrounding Mac’s Auto Repair was severely unnerving. This place was way out by the main highway on a lot all by itself, surrounded by tall southern pine trees.

“I appreciate you letting my family crash your apartment for dinner,” Trigger said, making no move to get out of the Jeep. He was too busy carefully surveying the immediate area, which was when she realized he was making conversation to minimize her anxiety. The garage was on a lone stretch of road, mostly because that’s how Mac wanted it and had chosen this location on purpose. The floodlights on the front were working, but the backside of the building was pitch black and it shouldn’t have been. “They loved Joey very much.”