Chapter 8
Gary, IL - Day 3
"Fuck!" Angelique growled flipping the top down on the laptop, she'd been banging away at for over seven hours. She couldn't find a damned thing that could help her. She'd been through the information dozens of times before, always hoping there was a slight possibility that she'd missed something. As it appeared, she hadn't. She was fucked. Royally and truly fucked!
"What's wrong?" Lincoln took his eyes off the road long enough to glance over at her.
Angelique glared back at him, not meaning to take her frustration out on him, but she couldn't help it and, sadly for him, he was the only other person in the car. "Gee, Lincoln, let's see... I'm never going to figure this out. I'm going to jail until I'm too old to be able to wipe my own ass and while I'm there I can almost guarantee my bunkmate will be a huge woman named Bertha who will make me her bitch and force me to eat out her grimy snatch every night after lights out!"
Lincoln snickered, noticed the fire raging in her glare and quickly attempted to cover the chuckling with a series of coughs.
"It's not funny, Lincoln!" She groaned closing her eyes. She let her head fall back against the headrest and tried to calm herself. The feel of his hand taking hers had her opening her eyes back up and attempting to smile. It was a half-assed effort at best.
"Just calm down, Angel. Just think. You've been through it a million times and you said yourself, no one wanted him dead."
"Nope. Not one person," she confirmed.
"You're one hundred percent positive?" he asked.
"One hundred and ten."
"Then you need to think outside the box, Angel. Come on now, you're a reporter. Do your job!"
"I'm trying, Link!" Her voice had taken on a whiney, defeated pitch that she didn't care for in the least. With another groan, she closed her eyes again. "I was a good reporter you know, Link. I really was." She smiled despite herself. "And I loved the job. Loved getting to the truth."
"And I bet you had a lot of enemies," Lincoln mused.
"Nah, not really." She shrugged, her eyes remaining closed. "Maybe a couple," she admitted after a moment of contemplation.
"The murder of a reporter would be big news wouldn't you think?"
Opening her eyes she looked over at him frowning. "Not huge, but yeah it would make people ask questions."
"So aside from killing them, how else would someone get rid of a pain in the ass reporter?"
The pieces of the puzzle began to clink into place and Angelique kicked herself for not seeing it herself. Of course, she'd been busy between trying to mourn Nathan's death and then jumping bail, her mind hadn't been on straight.
She sat back up straight in her seat and a surge of renewed hope shot through her. "You're a genius, Lincoln!"
He gave her a wink and put his focus back onto the road.
She tapped the tip of her fingernail against her teeth. "Whose business was I snooping around in back then...?"
"Can't help you there, sweetie,"
"If I find them, perfect, but even if I don't, this might be enough to provide a reasonable doubt in the jury, worst case scenario."
"Well, you have two days to figure it out, so I suggest you get tapping away at that keyboard again."
A smile touched her lips as she looked over at him, studying his profile. He may have been a jackass when she’d first met him, proud and very arrogant, but seeing the softer side of him and knowing he was looking out for her... that made her feel good. It felt good to be cared for and protected for a change. It had been too long since she'd felt that way.
"Thank you, Link."
"Nah, it was no biggie, you would have thought of it eventually."
She paused, "No, no. I mean for everything. For believing me, trusting me." She held the laptop up, "Buying me this so I could figure it out." She shrugged and blushed slightly, "You're a good man. I'm lucky you found me and I'm sorry for the oil on the kitchen floor and the dumpster and dunking your toothbrush in the toilet bowl"
His head spun round and he glared over at her, "You did what?"
Grinning she touched his arm. "I was kidding about the last one."
A pump and go gas station and quick-mart were coming up on her side of the road so he signalled and pulled the car into the lot.
"What are we stopping for?" Not that she was complaining, they'd been driving all day, she was glad they were finally in Gary, IL so they could find a place to settle in for the night.
He scowled at her once more, before opening his door and slipping out. "I'm not taking any chances on the toothbrush. I'll be right back." He wagged his index finger at her. "And just so you know... You'll be paying for that little stunt when we get settled into the motel."
She watched in amusement as he slammed his door shut and marched across the parking lot, muttering about pain in the ass women, foul tasting toothbrushes and there being a reason why he'd remained single all these years.
The final part of his rant made it seem to her that he felt he was no longer single. The previous night had been very intimate and she'd felt something change between them, but the circumstances of the relationship hadn't changed, despite their time together and the - fingers crossed - breakthrough in her case. It wasn't as though she didn't want it to be different... She felt the connection with him, and wanted more than anything to take things to another level. She smiled at the thought of being someone's 'girlfriend' again.
She sighed. As much as she wanted to open herself up to him, she had to be strong. Until she knew whether she was going to be sent to prison or not, she had to keep her emotional distance, for both of their sakes.
****
"Alright, so I sent the information you gave me about the stories you were working on to a private detective I know," Lincoln announced opening the door to their motel room with their dinner in hand.
Angelique looked up from the laptop, and smiled. She'd decided to stay in the room and continue digging into the stories she'd been working on at the time of Nathan's murder. As it was she had three possible leads on people who may have benefited from having her in prison and no longer snooping around.
Again she kicked herself for not thinking of that angle sooner. She couldn't have expected the police to dig deep, because as far as they were concerned they had the killer and she didn't make enough money to hire a lawyer with the resources to do the digging for her. With no immediate family and few friends in the Denver area, those friends she did have had buggered off when she was arrested and charged for murder. She'd been virtually on her own from the time of Nathan's death... Until now.
"Thank you." She closed the laptop, placed it on the night table and slid from the bed. The aroma of the food was delicious and her stomach grumbled as she took a seat at the two person table and unloaded the contents of the brown paper bag. "And this smells amazing."
She looked up from the foam food container as he approached and caught his gaze. Leaning down he kissed her quickly, in a casual and familiar fashion before grabbing one of the two containers and sitting down across from her.
"So what does he think?" she asked, opening the container containing a quarter chicken dinner and unwrapping the set of plastic utensils.
Flipping open the top to his foam container, Lincoln shrugged and then looked up at her, a frown across his features. "You're expected to be delivered in two days, I can buy us three by claiming car trouble, but..." he reached across the table and took her hand in his, "I just don't know. Jeff is the best and is putting all of his other work on hold as well as pulling together a team to investigate the three potential leads, but it's not much time."
The news both excited and alarmed her. She had no savings, how was she going to pay for it? Even if he worked for virtually nothing as a favour to Lincoln, she had no idea how she'd pay. "How much is it going to cost?"
Pulling his hand from hers he grabbed his fork and focused his attention on the food in front of him. Jabbing a French fry with his fork, he thrust the food into his mouth and shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
Eyes narrowed, she glared over at him. "How much, Link?"
Swallowing his mouthful of food he waved a dismissive hand at her. "Personal favour from him to me. Nothing to be concerned about."
"You're lying and by the way you're avoiding looking at me, I think the cost is going to cause me have a heart attack. How much?"
****
Lincoln sighed and met her gaze. "A lot. But that's nothing for you to be concerned about. I have it covered." He reached over and took her hand in his again. He'd decided the previous night that he'd do whatever it took to make her a free woman. He was a simple man, and his expenses were minimal so he had a sizable nest egg, one that he was willing to pass over to Jeff, if it meant her freedom.
"Link..."
"Look, Angelique, I have a fifteen thousand dollar bounty coming my way for delivering you, which actually makes me sick to my stomach at the thought of taking. As far as I'm concerned that money is yours to pay Jeff."
"What if it ends up costing more?"
Lincoln sighed, brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. "You worry about figuring out anything that can be useful in getting to the truth. Let me worry about everything else." She still didn't appear convinced. "I promise, it's going to be alright."