CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“It’s like this,” Dixie started to say, but Luke held up his hand in warning.
“I want Summer to explain this one, Ms. Smooth Talker.”
I glanced from Dixie to Bill and then finally back to Luke, whose eyebrows had risen in anticipation of my answer.
Double shit.
My brain was still addled, and that’s probably what he was counting on. But then he’d known we were out at the lake looking for information about Otto—he didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on.
Dammit.
Nevertheless, I gave him a saucy look and said, “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“Really?” he asked, looking amused. “I know you’re off your game, but I expected something better than that.”
I blew out a breath. “I’m not sure we should talk about it here.”
“If you weren’t gonna talk about it here, what were you goin’ to do?”
“Interview someone.”
“Summer!” Dixie protested.
Bill hadn’t finished his approach to our table, and he looked liable to turn and run back out the door.
“Have a seat, Bill,” Luke said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Bill set his case on the floor and slid into the seat, shooting Dixie an irritated look. “Officer Montgomery, I . . .”
Luke leaned over the table and lowered his voice. “I’m not dressed in my uniform, so call me Luke.”
Bill looked no less wary.
Luke glanced around before turning back to the table. “I know what you’re up to.”
Dixie and Bill glanced at each other.
“Look,” Luke said, still speaking quietly enough that no one else could hear him, “as much as I hate to admit this, I approve of this”—he held up a hand and gave us a warning look—“within reason.”
Dixie narrowed her eyes. “Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?”
“I know you all were out at the lake because Summer was trying to figure out what had happened to Otto, and part of the reason was that y’all want to actually solve a case. So now you have a chance to do that and help Summer in the process.”
They stared at him like he’d just proclaimed the second coming of Jesus was tonight.
“I can’t take part. After our trip to the church this afternoon, I was reprimanded by the sheriff for interfering with their investigation. But a private investigator isn’t bound by their rules. You can investigate anything you want. All you need is a license . . . which you happen to have hanging on your office wall.” Despite having given me his blessing, he didn’t sound very happy about the aforementioned license.
Dixie was the first one to speak, and she summed up my feelings quite well. “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me. This is a joke, right?”
“I wish it were, and under any other circumstances, I would flat-out be against this. But Summer’s life is on the line. However . . .” He paused to make sure we were listening. “The key is that only a PI can do this or it could be construed as interfering. Since Summer’s the one who has the license, she has to take the lead on all the investigating.”
“So?” Dixie asked.
“So? She’s about to pass out at the table from head trauma. We’re talking about working eight-to ten-hour days for the show and then investigatin’ on the side. I’m not sure she’s up to it.”
“Excuse me?” I demanded.
A grim smile twisted his lips. “Let me rephrase that. Just because she’s stubborn enough to find the stamina to do this, it doesn’t mean she should. She’s only prolonging her recovery.” He sighed. “But unfortunately, you’re racing a ticking clock. You’ve only got a few days, to the end of the week, tops.”
“No pressure,” Bill finally said.
Rachel brought the food out, and when Bill started to order, I pushed my plate toward him. “Here, I’m not gonna eat this.”
“Summer,” Dixie scolded.
“I’m fine.”
Luke glanced up at the young waitress. “Rachel, can I trouble you to bring a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy? And another set of silverware.”
“Sure thing, Luke.”
“So you have some leads?” Luke asked. “You said you were about to interview someone.”
None of us answered.
“No offense, Luke,” Dixie said. “But we don’t trust you for shit.”
He sat up. “Hey. I’ve been nothing but supportive.”
“Yeah, and it’s freakin’ me out.”
Rachel took that exact moment to show up with the mashed potatoes.
“Thanks, Rachel,” Luke said, taking the small bowl from her and sliding it in front of me. “You need to eat something other than bread if you’re gonna do this. But you need to eat some protein, so if you think of something you want, I’ll order it for you.”
“Thank you, Dr. Montgomery,” I said, picking up the spoon the waitress had left.
“There’s only one doctor in my family.”
“Hey, how is Levi, by the way?” Dixie asked. “I haven’t seen him in ages. I bet he looks great in his lab coat. Does he have his name embroidered on it?”
“Fine. He’s still in residency at LSU,” Luke said. “And y’all are good at this distraction game, but not good enough. Who are you interviewin’?”
I glanced at my two cohorts and then said to Luke, “I think we need to do this on our own.”
“Why?” He leaned forward again. “I can help.”
“But you just said you can’t,” Dixie said. “And I think we all agree that it’s safer if you stay out of it.”
“Two people are dead, Dixie,” he said in frustration. “Someone nearly killed Summer after purposely sending her into the woods, and last night they tried to break into her room. None of this is safe.” He sat back in his seat, looking like he wanted to take a couple of moments, then said, “Look, I get that you don’t trust me because of my job, but I’m here as Summer’s friend, and y’all are gonna be in over your heads.”
“You just said we should do it!” Dixie protested.
“With my supervision!” he bellowed.
Dixie shot him a glare, and he cringed when he realized several people were looking over at us. “Sorry. I just want to know what you’re doin’ and when you’re doin’ it so I can come after you if things go south.” He set down his fork and shook his head. “On second thought, this is a bad idea. No. I can’t let you do it.”
Dixie gasped. “Let us?”
All of this arguing was adding to my headache. “Maybelline. We’re gonna talk to Maybelline.”
“Summer!” Dixie snapped, and Bill gave me a disapproving frown.
“What? He’s right. We’re about to start diggin’ deeper, and we don’t know what we’ll find. Besides, you know she’ll end up putting whatever she tells us on her page. We’ll be lucky to get a twenty-four-hour head start.”
Dixie stabbed the food on her plate like it was Luke’s head. Or mine.
“So just to be clear,” I said to him, holding his gaze, “we tell you what we’re doing, and you don’t interfere at all.”
“Unless I think it’s too dangerous.”
I wasn’t planning to rush into danger, but I suspected Luke’s threshold would be lower than ours. “We’ll decide whether to tell you on a clue-by-clue basis.”
He didn’t look happy with that answer. “I can help you, Summer.”
“And yet you can’t help us. See our dilemma?”
I took his nonresponse as agreement.
“We’ll let you watch us interview Maybelline,” I said, ignoring the death stares from my partners in crime. “That’s all I can promise.”
He stared to answer, stopped, then said, “Fine.”
“Good.”
We all finished eating with little conversation, and when we were done, Dixie pushed Bill out of the way and headed back to the kitchen.
Bill was busy avoiding Luke’s gaze.
But I understood Bill’s hesitation, and I worried he was about to back out of the deal, especially since, according to Dixie, this had been his master plan.
Dixie hurried back and told us that Maybelline was ready whenever we were, and Bill picked up his camera case and followed.
“Bill doesn’t trust me,” Luke said, watching him head into the kitchen.
“In all fairness to him, I’m having a hard time trusting you.”
“Summer.”
I shook my head. “Look, my distrust over this is different than his. I think he’s worried you’re gonna arrest us for investigating. I know you’re not stupid enough to face the wrath of two Baumgartner women, and there’s no telling what Teddy would do to you. My concern is that you’re setting us up to do this just to pull the rug out from underneath us. But I’m trusting you for now.”
His mouth pursed, but he gave a slight nod. “I can live with that.”
Rachel brought the check, and after Luke handed her some cash, we followed Bill and Dixie to the kitchen. Bill had brought two mikes, and he hooked one up on Maybelline and one on me. He told Dixie to stay close to me so he could pick her up on my mike. Five minutes later, we were filming. Luke stood behind Bill, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Maybelline,” I said, “Dixie says you may have information about Otto.”
“A few weeks ago, Otto was talkin’ about gettin’ a job. Said he had a friend who was gonna help him be rollin’ in money.”
“Really?” Dixie asked. “I’ve known Otto for several years now, and I never once heard him talk about money. Or having a job.”
Maybelline didn’t seem offended by Dixie’s contradiction. “That was the thing. He never had before, so it struck me as odd too.”
“Did he mention how he was going to get rich? Or anything about his friend?” I asked.
“Supposedly, his friend—who told him to keep the whole thing secret—wanted to hire Otto for some kind of courier service, and he was gonna pay him good money. I’d never seen Otto so excited . . . well, not since what happened to his family. He told me not to tell anyone, so I didn’t.” She gave Dixie an indignant look. “What? I can keep a secret.”
Dixie’s eyebrows shot high enough to almost touch her hairline.
Maybelline ignored her. “In any case, Otto never mentioned it again, so I figured nothing had come of it. But then last week I took out the trash, and I saw Otto by the dumpster. That didn’t necessarily mean anything—sometimes Otto would dumpster dive, and I never told no one.”
She shot a sly grin at Dixie. “You’d be surprised by all the secrets I keep stored in my head.” She tapped her temple. “Anyway, I didn’t think much of Otto digging through the trash, but he was talkin’ to someone while he did it. More like havin’ an argument. I couldn’t tell what it was about, but I sure tried.”
Dixie gave me a sly glance. “I bet you did.”
“Did you know who he was talking to?”
Her grin fell. “Teddy.”
“My brother Teddy?” Dixie asked in disbelief.
I shot Dixie a worried look, then turned back to Maybelline. “And you’re sure you didn’t hear what they were talking about?”
“No, but I did hear mention of a bike. Teddy tried to hand Otto a piece of paper, but when he saw me, he said goodbye to us and took off. Otto seemed shaken up, so I asked him if everything was okay. He said yep, right as rain. I remember him sayin’ it clear as day. Then he said he needed to go think for a spell.” She sniffed and dug a tissue out of her pocket. “That’s the last thing he ever said to me.”
“Do you remember what day this was?” I asked, trying to ignore that Dixie had gone stock-still.
“A week ago Friday.”
“Have you ever seen Teddy and Otto talk before?” I asked. “Even in a friendlier manner?”
“No. Can’t say I have.”
“And Otto never mentioned bein’ friends with Teddy?”
“Nope. Other than Gretchen, I never heard him talk about no one other than his mystery guy. Not even those two old farts he usually hangs out with . . . I guess that should be past tense, huh?” She paused as tears filled her eyes. Then she sniffed and gave a nod. “And I saw Otto every Monday unless he was at his thinking place. Monday’s meat-loaf day, and I always gave him a meal in exchange for moppin’ my floors after closin’. Only he never came in this past Monday.”
I could tell terrible things were racing through Dixie’s head—they were sure running through mine—but I needed to stay professional. “Is there anything else you can think of to add?”
Maybelline shook her head. “Nope. Nothing, but I sure hope you find out what happened to Otto. He was a good man, despite what people say.”
I waited a couple of seconds and called out “Cut.” Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Luke had his gaze pinned on me. The look in his eyes worried me, and I regretted letting him sit in on this. “Is there something else I should ask?”
Surprise washed over his face, and he dropped his arms to his sides. “Me?”
“You’re standin’ there watching, so I might as well utilize you.”
“No. I can’t think of anything.”
“Thanks.”
I unhooked Maybelline’s mike. “We’d like to keep the fact that Luke was here a secret.”
“Say no more, sugar. I can keep my mouth shut.”
After we packed everything up, we went out to my truck, none of us saying anything. Dixie climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door, and I finally broke the silence. “Just because he was talkin’ to Teddy . . .” I glanced up at Luke. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
He watched me with solemn eyes.
I grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the building. “Luke. You have to say something to reassure Dixie. She’s freaking out.”
He gave me a sympathetic look. “Summer, I can’t.”
Anger rushed through me. “You can’t or you won’t?”
He remained silent.
The truth hit me like a sucker punch. “Are you investigatin’ Teddy?”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “Summer . . .”
I jerked away from him. “You lied to me! You said you weren’t investigatin’ Otto’s death.”
He pushed out a heavy sigh as he glanced over at the truck. “I’m not. I swear to you. Boy Wonder is handling it. But I was investigatin’ something else before all of this went down, only I had no idea Otto had anything to do with it.”
“What is it?”
“Drugs.”
“But hearin’ Teddy’s name wasn’t a shock?”
His mouth turned down.
I gasped, then shook my head. “No. I can’t believe Teddy has anything to do with drugs.” But Teddy had known Ryker was wrapped up in them. How would he have known that if Dixie really hadn’t known?
“Summer, I want to tell you what’s goin’ on, but I can’t. He’s your cousin, and he’s Dixie’s brother. Do you know why Dixie broke up with Ryker?”
I opened my mouth to tell him, then immediately clamped it shut. “I’m not telling you anything, Luke Montgomery. You totally misrepresented why you wanted to tag along, and now you’re plannin’ on usin’ what you found out against my cousin.”
“No. Not entirely. I’m worried about you, and whatever’s going on is wrapped up in the sheriff’s investigation. You know I can’t touch that part of it. But if you keep me apprised of what you’re doin’, I can at least help keep you safe.”
“So any information about Teddy is a bonus?”
When he didn’t deny it, my anger ratcheted up several notches. “Stay away from me! Stay away from my family!”
His eyes hardened. “I can’t do that, Summer.”
“Why? Because you want to spy on me more? Well, fool me once, shame on you, but there won’t be a fool me twice.”
I started to walk to the truck, but Luke grabbed my arm and tugged me back hard enough for my chest to hit his. He snaked an arm around my back and held me in place. “You’re still in danger, Summer Baumgartner, whether you want to believe it or not, and I aim to make sure you’re protected.”
“From my own cousin?” I hissed, trying to break out of his grasp. “Are you insane?”
“I suspect Teddy would sooner sacrifice himself rather than hurt you, but let’s not forget someone sent you into the woods to find Otto’s body. I don’t believe for one second that was Teddy. There’s more than one force in play here, and you need to be careful.” I tried to break free, but his hold tightened. “Summer. Will you stop fightin’ and listen to me?”
Stop fighting? He was fooling himself if he thought I was just going to play the good girl and do what he told me. That was something I was very happy to have left behind with seventeen-year-old Summer. I’d only just begun to fight for my family, and I wasn’t about to stop.
Luke’s arms were like bands of steel, holding me against him, and in any other situation, I probably would have melted right into him, but right now I was filled up with righteous indignation. I lifted my foot and stomped on the inside of his ankle with as much force as I could muster—which wasn’t much. I’d exerted most of my energy trying to look alert for Maybelline’s interview. But it must have been enough because Luke grunted in pain and dropped his arms.
I leaped back as though I was on fire and said in a shaky voice, “I meant what I said. Stay away from me and my family, Luke.” Then I spun around and nearly passed out from the onslaught of dizziness. I blinked to push away the black edges of my vision and stumbled toward the passenger door of the truck.
“Drive,” I said once I was inside.
“What happened?” Dixie asked as she pulled away from the curb. “What did Luke say?”
What should I tell her? She had enough troubles without knowing that Luke suspected Teddy of something. But I’d sure keep that in mind while we continued with our investigation, if for no other reason than to prove Luke wrong.
“Nothing. Same old I’m-a-weak-woman-and-need-a-big-strong-man-to-protect-me bullshit.”
“What did he say about Teddy?”
“Nothing.” Which was pretty much true. But what he hadn’t said spoke volumes. “I didn’t see Bill leave.”
“He took the equipment back to the office. He could tell that you and Luke were about to have a knock-down, drag-out fight and wanted to get far away from Ground Zero. Besides, that guy standing down the street was giving us the creeps.”
“What guy down the street?”
“Just some guy. He was watching you talk to Luke. He had a camera.”
I shuddered. “Damn paparazzi. I’m surprised it’s taken ’em so long to show up, given all the crap on those gossip sites. Investigatin’ Otto’s disappearance will be next to impossible if they start following me around.” And Lord only knew how many photographs he’d snapped of me and Luke. Dammit.
“Lauren will probably love it,” she said.
“True. More buzz, better ratings.” I really hadn’t missed this part of the showbiz life.
Dixie was quiet for several seconds. “Teddy would never hurt anyone.”
“Dixie, I know that. No need to convince me.”
“But what about Luke?”
“If he doesn’t see the truth for the trees, then he’s an idiot. I’m sure there’s an explanation for why Teddy was talkin’ to Otto. We’ll just ask him.”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “So what’s our plan next?”
We needed to find out what Otto was up to before he died, and I picked the most logical place to find out.
“Otto’s apartment.”