Chapter Thirty-Seven
Sam took a call about the letters from the lab. There was nothing to lead them to Olive or Albert. Most of what was included with the phone number to the cabin was a grocery list and some doodling. It was another wall. He headed to the PD to run their info through every database available. Olive and Albert couldn’t hide forever.
Jess was sipping the last of her tea when Calvin and Spike wandered back in on a stiff breeze that ruffled the curtains. Man and dog had bonded over their mutual desire to hang out in nature, though for different reasons.
“Thank you for the food,” Calvin said and swiped his long golden locks back from his face. He really was a Greek god, without the Greek part. His jawline alone would make the statue of David weep. “You don’t have to feed me, you know.”
“I know.” She’d rather have him here than walking into local restaurants undressed as he was. Who knew who would follow him home? He was already the neighborhood oddity. Launching him into society could cause mass hysteria. “I like being helpful. After all, you’re watching out for me.”
Oddly, she felt not a twinge of anything when she looked at him. Life with a man like Calvin would be a lot less complicated if she did. Well, if she could get him to wear pants. Having feelings for Sam was like climbing a mountainside without protective gear. One slip and you were toast.
Calvin walked to the cabinet, took out a glass, and went to the sink. “Is Sam here?”
“He’s at work.” She sipped. The two men practiced mutual avoidance. “Can I ask you a question?”
He joined her at the table. His mini-shorts covered just enough to keep her from blushing. “Sure.”
The shadowy man called the Naked Protester had lived in the backyard for days and she knew almost nothing about him. She’d been too busy trying not to get shot with pellets to care. “Why are you really here? You know I don’t need a bodyguard, right?”
Staring at her over the rim of the water glass, he shrugged his big manly shoulders. Then, “I know.” He sat the glass down and cupped his hands together. “I guess I came for Alvin. He thinks I’m a freak. I’d like us to get to know each other again.”
That was sweet. The Ape and Zeus’s offspring bonding over beer and wheatgrass tea. It was a Hallmark moment. “You are polar opposites.”
He smiled. His teeth were whiter than Dodger’s. “If I show him I can help you out, maybe we can reconnect. Maybe I can find a place and live here. I’m getting too old to wander around all the time, and Ann Arbor is the epicenter of thinking minds like mine.”
The city was open-minded about all ideas. Nothing was too out there to get you ostracized. “You’d have to wear clothes. Winters can be brutal.”
The smile flashed again. “One step at a time, Jess. One step at a time.”
* * *
Jess left Spike with Calvin and went to work. She wanted to connect with Summer and Taryn. The latter had a weird tone in her text when she requested a sit down. Jess didn’t need to hear her voice to sense it. If something serious was up, the three of them were in it together.
Summer was waiting in her office dressed in pink capris and a white sleeveless top. Marriage agreed with her. She glowed with contentment.
Jess dropped into a free chair, tamped down an image of a naked Sam pulling her down on top of him, and wondered where in the heck her happily ever after guy was hiding. “Do you know what this meeting is about?”
Her friend shrugged. “Maybe she and Rick had a fight?”
Although they did argue like an old married couple, the pair was solid. “I think it was more than that. I hope Olive didn’t do something to her.”
“Olive isn’t the reason I called you here.” Taryn walked stiffly into the room. It was good to see her back on her feet without crutches. “I have some big news.”
As if on cue, the harsh lighting caught the diamond on her ring finger. She held up her hand and Summer and Jess gasped.
“You’re engaged?” Jess and Summer said simultaneously.
Taryn wiggled her fingers. “That’s usually what this means.” Squealing in the way women cheer for engagements and news of pregnancies, Jess and Summer jumped to their feet and enveloped her in a gentle hug. She was still recovering from her injury and they didn’t want to put her in traction.
The ring was understated, like Taryn, and perfect. She’d never wear anything ostentatious. Rick had done well.
“Tell us what he said,” Jess ordered as the three of them sat. “Every detail.”
There was wine and a meadow and mosquitoes, the unofficial Michigan bird, to witness the event. Rick had gotten down on one knee and proposed after telling her he loved her and wanted to lock her down before she wised up and ditched him for a nice safe doctor. By the time the story ended, all three were dabbing their eyes with tissues.
“I can’t believe I’m getting married again,” Taryn said. She’d been married to a cheating jerk when she was younger and it had ended badly. “Who knew I’d find the one while working a case?”
“That seems to be the theme around here,” Summer said and fingered her wedding ring. She and Taryn looked at Jess.
“What? Uh-uh.” She held up her hands, palms open. “Sam and I are not in a long-term thing. We are having fun. That’s it.”
“Do you believe her?” Taryn said out of the corner of her mouth to Summer.
Summer shook her head. “Nope.”
Now was the time to flee before they got rolling. “Look at the time. I should get home to feed my Naked Protester before his body starts eating his 1 percent body fat.”
Taryn stopped her. “Wait. I have one more piece of big news.” Jess sat. “I heard from my lawyer today. There is finally a conclusion to my lawsuit in the horizon. Willard had decided to settle rather than face me in court.”
“Are you serious?” Jess said. “I thought he vowed that you’d have to pry every penny from his cold dead fingers.”
Summer added, “And Jess offered to make that happen.”
Taryn grinned. “Well, it seems as if being a team owner was more important to him than losing a few million dollars to me. He’ll keep the team but is on probation. The details haven’t been worked out, but we should have a final settlement by the end of the month.”
This news took a second to grasp. “Hold up. Did you say millions?” Jess said with a cough. “As in seven figure millions?”
“O-M-G,” Summer said when Taryn nodded. Squealing began anew. Okay, high-pitched noise wasn’t reserved only for engagements and babies. The noise was so loud that Alvin appeared in the doorway with his hand on his gun with Irving right behind him clutching his decorative cane like a sword.
That set the three women into fits of laughter.
The two men slowly backed out once the threat assessment was determined to be at zero. They didn’t want any part of the female gaggle.
“Poor Irving,” Summer said. “He should have hired male PIs. The sweet guy is out numbered.”
“True, but they wouldn’t be as much fun,” Taryn countered. “Talk of tires and golf shoes all the time. I’d rather eat my own brain.”
Summer made a face. “Ew.”
“Hey, did you know that Alvin is seeing someone from Brash,” Jess interjected. That killed the self-cannibalization topic before it got rolling. Thankfully.
“Who?” Summer said. They both gaped.
“I don’t know, but we should keep an eye out.” Jess expressed a look of horror at the idea of Alvin and, well, anyone, getting it on. “The poor woman needs to be warned to flee while she gets a chance. Clearly, she can’t see his dark soul beyond all his frowning…and hair.”
They fell into PI mode and ran through all the candidates for Alvin’s secret lover. By the time Jess and Taryn left Summer to get back to work, there was no clear winner. But they each promised to keep watch for covert glances and lusty looks at the water cooler. If Alvin had taken a mate, they’d flush her out.
Jess got to her office when her phone rang. It was the vet. They’d discovered that somehow Spike had been drugged with a powerful heart medication that could have killed him.
Shocked, Jess didn’t hear much else as the vet finished and hung up. She texted the news to Sam. He was just as disbelieving as her.
She slumped in her chair. How and when had that happened? Her mind flipped back to that day. She went through every step from waking up to chasing Olive from the hotel, to the sniper shooting Spike. At no time could he have been drugged on her watch. He was with her the entire time.
Wasn’t he?
Deep in the back of her mind where Summer liked to say dust and crazy lived, a niggling of a thought took root, but not enough to form any sort of solid picture.
No matter how hard she focused, she couldn’t get a clear view. Still, she knew somehow that she’d find the answer, the one string that would crochet the TP poodle together. So to speak. And soon.
Olive was going down.