Fulfilling Promises (Red Starr, Book Five) (8 page)

Devyn remained quiet, really having nothing to add and just wanting to get this over with. Joey had once been very close to the Dixon family, though that had faded somewhat over the years. That didn’t mean Jack and Gail had written her brother off. Quite the contrary. They made a point to talk to him every time they ran into him, but Joey had made a life of his own without Trigger. And he’d made it here, at the garage. Had she missed something when she’d been here earlier this morning?

“I’m going to have a quick look around.” Trigger leaned over Devyn’s legs, opening up the glove compartment. He pulled out a rather large knife, one that didn’t appear to have come from some five and dime shop. Her best guess was that it was military issued, but he was no longer in the service. To her surprise, he didn’t hand her the black-bladed knife. He withdrew the handgun from his holster and held it out to her. “Take this. Stay here until I clear the area. If you need to shoot, make sure you identify your target clearly…aim in and squeeze.”

“You’re going to need it more than I am if there’s somebody lurking around,” Devyn argued, trying to give it back. She had a vast knowledge of weapons considering her Southern upbringing, especially since Joey had taken her out to the range quite often back in the day. She could handle her own, but she wasn’t the one about to venture around a closed, isolated building in the middle of the night where they thought the person responsible for killing Joey had been recently. “Give me the knife instead. I’ll be fine.”

“Your choice of weapons is not up for debate.” Trigger opened his door and then stepped out, giving an order for Diesel to stay with Devyn. “A knife can work just as well as a firearm in close-up fighting—sometimes even better.”

Trigger closed the door without saying another word. Devyn wasn’t sure she would agree with him, but she laid her index finger alongside the barrel while resting the others on top of her thigh. She could see Trigger’s movements through the windshield. He didn’t enter the garage through the door, but instead went around the side of the building and disappeared into the darkness.

Devyn hadn’t really thought much about the two of them being together. How could she after everything that had happened? Spending an hour with his family hadn’t been as bad as she thought it would be. She’d been in their company a lot over the years, but that had been when she thought they hadn’t known about her and John being together…intimately. It changed the dynamics somewhat. Yes, Joey had known about it, but he understood that it had just been casual. She’d been the one to make those stipulations and she’d been absolutely right.

It hadn’t been long before John had gotten an offer to join some hostage rescue team running all around the globe. She wasn’t even quite sure what he did for a living, but she figured it was enough to give him the adrenaline rush he’d grown accustomed too. He wasn’t meant to live the quiet life here in Amberton among the sheep. He was a wolf in every way it counted. She would do well to remember that.

Diesel’s ear tilted slightly as he looked for his best friend, only Trigger had yet to come back from his search of the property. Devyn was getting antsy. Losing him to something he loved doing was one thing. Losing him in the same fashion as Joey wasn’t acceptable to her idea of how things should go. She’d give him thirty more seconds and if he didn’t come out soon, she’d go looking for him.

Devyn mentally kicked herself for having left her purse back at the tavern. Cell phone service was spotty out here, usually better to the east of town or up closer to the highway north of where they were now, but there was always an area or two where a person could get a couple of bars.

Where was he?

Headlights could be seen coming from town. Devyn wasn’t too thrilled that someone would know they were here, but it was Trigger’s garage anyway. They would most likely assume he was just here to check on the place. It crossed her mind that it might be the sheriff or the police monitoring the area, and though she wasn’t so fond of them right now, a law enforcement presence might not be such a bad idea given the circumstances.

The bright headlights moved closer, but it was Diesel who startled her when he jumped into the driver’s seat. He stared intently at the upcoming vehicle, but it never stopped. Devyn tried to see if she recognized the car, but it ended up being a truck…and one she couldn’t really make out. She turned to see if she could get a glimpse of the license plate, but the driver had been going by too fast.

Devyn let out a few chosen curse words when Trigger rapped his knuckle on the window. She spun around, but realized at the same moment that Diesel hadn’t reacted to whom it was…meaning it could only be John. She unlocked the door and stepped out when he opened it for her.

“You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you for scaring me, you idiot,” Devyn muttered, cringing afterward at the use of her words. It was a common phrase, but she’d have to come up with another one after what had happened to Joey. Even the small things in her life had changed. “Did you find anything?”

“Tracks around back, but I figure most of them are from the police investigators. I’ll have to call them tomorrow and get details of who authorized them to search the premises. Most likely they had a warrant, although I’m still curious as to why they didn’t call me.” Trigger carefully took his gun out of her hand and holstered it, though Devyn noticed he put the knife in the back of his belt. “Let’s get inside. I want to see what is on the video footage of the security system.”

Diesel hopped into the passenger seat and then jumped down to the graveled lot before Trigger closed the Jeep’s door. She stayed beside them both as they walked to the main door that led to Mac’s old office, ignoring the large garage door off to the side. She really should be calling it John’s place, but this auto shop would always be known as Mac’s.

“The door was jimmied, but again I’m assuming the police did that in order to gain access. I know this is hard for you, but do you know what happened to Joey’s personal effects?” Trigger asked, the weight of his stare rather heavy. Did he expect her to break down? “I never thought to ask Isaac.”

“Isaac left a large manila envelope on my desk, but I haven’t looked inside of it yet,” Devyn admitted, not ready to go there quite yet. She glanced behind her, making sure no one was sneaking up on them. She found Diesel watching them intently. It was nice to have the extra set of eyes. “Why? What do you think will be in there?”

“This place is locked up tight with the exception of the front door. I’m just wondering if that means the police couldn’t locate Joey’s keys.” Trigger finally opened the door, the strong odor of grease and oil hitting her hard. He flipped the light switch and the entire garage lit up. “Joey said he was going to have that repaired.”

Trigger had spoken more to himself than to her. He was referring to the diagonal crack in the top window of the tattered door with the peeling black paint. She bit the side of her mouth so that she didn’t immediately come to Joey’s defense. He should have replaced the window, along with giving the door a fresh coat of paint. Instead, he filled his days with making sure the business kept up with the townsfolk who didn’t like going into Corinth. Her brother had been just as good with his hands as Trigger was.

“Do you know where Joey’s truck is?” Trigger asked, shutting the door behind them.

“Um, no,” Devyn replied, kicking herself for not having asked that question. She’d been rather busy with the police, but she should have thought to ask. “I’ll find out though.”

“Mac didn’t like having anything fancy, but I was able to get a decent computer system up and running for Joey before I left,” Trigger said, closing the short distance to the office used for paperwork. It was just as she’d left it, which was a hell of a lot more organized than when Trigger had been here. Joey was a neat freak, although he hadn’t bothered to clean the smoke stains off of the walls. Diesel stayed in the doorway. “Do you know if the police were able to log in and have a look inside at Joey’s emails or anything else he might have kept on the CPU hard drive?”

Devyn had already thought of that, but there was nothing on the computer other than the program Joey had used to maintain the work orders. She wasn’t quite sure why the system was even installed when her brother wrote them out anyway and used a filing system based on the customers’ last names.

Trigger had looked around before leaving her standing there with Diesel. He then proceeded to walk the outer perimeter of the large empty stall. She really didn’t see a place where someone could hide, but he still managed to sweep the place securely. It wasn’t long before he was walking back her way and she finally answered his question.

“The police didn’t tell me if they found anything, but then again, the Staties were expecting me to talk to them and not the other way around.” Devyn didn’t add on that she was smart enough not to say anything, but she hadn’t wanted to break down and ask for a lawyer. In these parts, had she done that, it would have been considered an admission of guilt. “Joey’s password is Alligator with a capital A, the number sign, and then his birthday month in two digits. He wasn’t very original.”

Trigger smiled fondly as he took a seat in the chair and powered up the computer, looking to access the network drive. He quickly searched the desktop, but he wouldn’t find anything. She’d already looked this place over top to bottom when the police had released her this morning. She wasn’t expecting him to sit back though and slow the momentum of what they’d come to do.

“Talk to me. Tell me what really happened over the last few days that I should know about, Devyn.”

‡

T
rigger set the
k-bar Marine Corps fighting knife on the desk in front of him, not wanting it far out of his reach. He’d used it to pry open the locked bottom drawer of the desk for absolutely no return. He could only imagine that the key was part of a set inside the envelope back in Devyn’s office. There wasn’t anything of note in the drawer but a jug of old Uncle Jamey’s finest homebrewed cherry brandy. He wasn’t really anyone’s uncle, not that Trigger knew of. Jamey just ran the pick of the litter when it came to the local stills.

Trigger had cleared the area and no one had been here recently that he could tell. Devyn had been quite tense on the drive over here and he hadn’t wanted to broach the subject. She’d been strung too tight, but she appeared more at ease now that they were away from the stares and accusing eyes of Amberton’s residents.

“I need to know, Dev.” Trigger rested an elbow on the arm of the desk chair, so many questions running through his mind about Joey and the garage. Joey hadn’t fixed the place up like he’d said he would. Why? “I left Joey in charge of this place and yet nothing was done that we’d agreed upon. He would text me at least once a week and sometimes we’d even talk on the phone. Never once did he give me an indication something was wrong.”

“Joey was doing a really nice business here, John,” Devyn said, pulling her hair around to one side so that she could twist a strand around her finger. She’d done that when she was in deep thought for as long as he could remember. “The customers were happy and he felt useful for once in his life. No one was here to micromanage him and he talked all the time about how he was making money for the business. This job kept him busy and away from all the bad things that had plagued him most of his adult life. He just didn’t see the need to spend money on a place where only he worked. It didn’t bother him that the glass was cracked over the office door.”

“I didn’t plan on having him work in a pigsty either,” Trigger countered, not appreciating the conditions Joey thought he had to work in. “I could care less about the money it would take to fix this place up. This is Mac’s legacy and while he didn’t care about anything other than working on the next car he was going to restore…Joey didn’t have to come in here day in and day out to an office that had seen much better days—like in the 1970s, maybe. He could have hired some local folks to do the work and paid for it out of the profits.”

“I don’t know what to tell you other than he was happy here the way it was.”

Devyn gave a small shrug as she looked around the grungy office. Trigger remembered clearly this area was exactly how it appeared when Starr had come to offer him a position on her team. He was lucky she had even gone through with the proposition. He’d just inherited the garage and he hadn’t had time to do anything with it, but Joey had all the time in the world. Devyn said he was happy. Trigger wondered if Joey hadn’t repainted the place because it would have wiped away the memories. Guilt started to form where there’d been none.

“Joey and I have dinner every Thursday.” Devyn continued to play with the ends of her hair as she recounted the last steps Joey had taken. “I save us the same table at the tavern and he usually arrives around seven o’clock. He didn’t. I called and left a rather terse message on his voicemail. I called him irresponsible.”

Trigger had no doubt that Devyn had rattled off several descriptions about Joey because that was her nature. The police wouldn’t have had a lot to go on because of something like that. He rubbed his chin as he listened to her recount what took place afterward.