Peril for Your Thoughts (Mind Reader Mystery) Page 15

  I climbed out of my car and slipped inside the busy store to scope the situation out. See just how bad things had really gotten. No one noticed me as I stood in the corner, observing. Jaz’s finds were flying off the shelves. It was bittersweet knowing she’d been spot on in her eye for finding bestsellers, yet the sales were going straight into Ana’s cash register.

  I saw Johnny Hogan walk in and head straight for Ana. She pulled him aside, and they got into a heated argument, drawing a few stares. She shot him a menacing look and then promptly ignored him. He balled his fists and then walked off toward the back. Glancing around, he slipped into a room when no one was looking.

  No one except me, that is.

  Guess the honeymoon was over already. And what could he want from that back room? I started to walk in that direction when something made me freeze in my tracks. Max Rolland crossed my line of sight. What on earth was he doing here? We’d been friends for as long as I could remember, but I didn’t ever remember him so much as giving Ana or her shop a second look. He stunned me further when he came to a stop right beside her with a smile I’d only ever seen directed at me before. Ana’s whole face softened as they chatted intimately. I didn’t know what to do, feeling like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar.

  Suddenly Ana’s gaze landed on me, yet she didn’t look surprised to see me. Her lips tipped up ever so slightly, but then she masked all emotion except pure adoration for Max, which he seemed to be eating right up. Until he noticed me, that is. He blinked as though surprised and then excused himself from her side. He walked straight toward me and didn’t stop until he stood directly in front of me.

  “What are you doing here, Kalli?” he asked, his jaw tightening and a muscle in his cheek pulsing.

  “Shopping. I’ve got to say her spring finds are fabulous, yet familiar. Gee, I wonder why.” I crossed my arms over my chest and smirked.

  “Ana told me you were out to get her.”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Nope. I’m dead serious, Ms. Ballas.”

  “Come on, Max. You’ve known me since we were both in diapers.”

  “And yet I feel I don’t know you at all.” He shook his head. “The Kalli I knew didn’t date.”

  “I still don’t.”

  He leaned in, thrusting his face in mine, making me hop back a step. God forbid his spittle made contact with my pores. I might not make it out alive. “You could have fooled me based on what I saw at your parents’ house on Sunday,” he ground out.

  I bobbed and weaved, barely avoiding a drop of saliva and earning an odd look as he asked, “Is that a new quirk? I think they’re getting worse.”

  “I’m fine, just a little crick in my neck,” I said as his words finally registered. I replied, “That wasn’t a date. That was just a kiss.”

  “Which I would have thought was worse. Guess it would only be worse if it had been with me.”

  “Max, I—”

  “You’re armed and dangerous, is what you are, Annie Oakley. I heard the gossip. My mama always told me to avoid situations where I might get hurt.”

  “So you turn to Ana of all people? You honestly think she isn’t playing you for a fool?”

  “Can’t be any worse than what you’ve done since we hit puberty.”

  I rubbed my temples. “I can see this isn’t a good time.”

  “No, Kalli, it isn’t. And something tells me it will never be a good time for you and me.”

  I dropped my hands and stared at him, pleading, “Max, please don’t be like this. You’re one of my closest friends.”

  “That’s the problem. I guess I always thought the issue was with your quirks and being with any man, but now I know it was really about being with me.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on with me. I never meant to hurt you.” I tried hard not to, but my eyes welled up with tears.

  He sighed, and his face softened. “I’ll get over it. I just need some time. And I think it’s time you left.”

  “Okay,” I said, feeling helpless as I watched him walk away, back to Ana—and out of my life for good, I was afraid.

  That also meant spying on Johnny was out.

  Ana kissed Max’s cheek, whispered something in his ear that sent him on an errand for her. I saw Johnny slip out of the room while shoving something in his back pocket, then look around, but no one noticed him again except for me. Ana headed toward him with a suspicious look on her face, but Mrs. Flannigan intercepted her and started up a conversation. Johnny’s expression read total satisfaction as Max walked back in, carrying a cup of coffee for Ana, none the wiser. I would have to find out what Jonny was up to some other way, and soon. Not to mention what kind of game Ana was playing. Max was too important to me, and I was terrified that if I didn’t do something quick, Max would be headed for his biggest heartache yet.

  CHAPTER 17

  * * *

  By the time I got home, it was just before dinner. I walked inside our half of the house and called for Jaz. No answer. She must have gone somewhere. I set my purse down and took off my lavender suit coat, rolling up the sleeves of my white silk blouse. Slipping off my heels, I finally began to relax. I poured myself a glass of white wine and ran into Prissy. She turned up her nose at me and pranced away. Clearly she hadn’t forgiven me for this morning when I’d let the detective inside our sanctuary.

  “Awww, don’t be that way, Prissy,” I said. “Come see me, and I’ll give you some milk.”

  She refused to look at me as she stretched out lazily on the windowsill overlooking the back yard. She purred in the sun that had finally graced us with its presence, shining its rays of hope on a bleak day. Until she looked outside. Then she hissed and turned her back against the window.

  I glanced out into the yard to see the source of her displeasure.

  Wolfgang!

  Earlier today I’d watched the detective let the dog out and then put him back inside before leaving for work. If the dog was outside now, then it meant the detective had come home. Maybe if I got him talking, he would reveal what he’d found out earlier about Johnny and Ana. Carrying my glass of wine and grabbing one of Jaz’s beers, I headed next door under the guise of a peace offering.

  I knocked with my elbow, but no one answered. I knocked again, and this time the door opened. I called out Nik’s name, but he didn’t answer. There’s no way he would have left without locking his door. I studied the doorknob, and it was still locked. Must be he hadn’t closed the door fully. I was no detective, but given that he hadn’t fully closed his door and he’d left his dog outside, I’d deduced he was called away in a hurry.

  I bit my bottom lip with a smile. My day was most definitely getting brighter. I didn’t have to break or enter anything. The beast was outside. And the detective was long gone. Even Jaz wasn’t home to pass judgment on me. I was completely alone, and that never happened to me.

  It was a sign!

  I stepped inside and used my bare foot to close the door fully. Unlike the detective, my mama didn’t raise no fool, and I didn’t like surprises. Taking a fortifying sip of my wine, I wandered around, checking out his place and admittedly looking for clues to what he’d found. The layout of his half of the house was set up exactly the same as Jaz’s and mine, but that’s where the similarity ended. Jaz had put her stylish flair for decorating all over our side of the house. Modern elegance and class. Whereas the detective was a bachelor with a capital B. Bare minimum and nothing matched.

  Walking down the hall, I made my way into the detective’s bedroom. My stomach did a weird little flip when I saw his rumpled king-size bed. I attributed it to indigestion and not the fact that I still longed to do something about my spring fever. Things were just so complicated right now. What was I doing here, anyway? This was crazy.

  I turned away from the bed and was about to sneak back to my place before anyone was the wiser, when Nik’s desk caught my attention. I don’t know why but I
tiptoed over, as though that would somehow make a difference and keep me from being discovered. Or maybe I was just subconsciously worried about the microscopic dirt from his carpet touching my bare feet. I kept Jaz’s half of the house so clean you could eat off the floor, so I didn’t worry about going barefoot over there. This just showed how rattled Nik made me that I’d actually ventured into parts unknown with my feet in the buff.

  I curled my toes and kept moving, refusing to be deterred.

  Stopping at his desk, I looked down and my jaw unhinged. Bingo! I’d struck gold. The security tapes from Ana’s store Vixen on the night of the murder. Beside that sat a file. I set my wine and his beer down on the desk. Glancing around, I spotted a box of tissues and grabbed one. I carefully opened the file and started to read. Johnny Hogan stated that on the night of Darrin aka Scott’s murder, he didn’t actually go home from Flannigan’s Pub. He had been angry at Jaz and had gotten in an argument with Scott, then proceeded to get drunk and walk it off, but he never made it home.

  Ana confessed that she picked him up and took him back to her store. She knew he was in a vulnerable state, and she used that to seduce him. She made him keep the affair secret because she didn’t want Maria to know. She wanted Maria to continue hating Jaz and not her. Meanwhile, she tried to seduce Jaz’s secrets out of him, figuring Jaz had let her spring line slip over pillow talk. But Jaz was smarter than that. She never mixed business with pleasure and certainly wouldn’t let something that important slip. Once Ana realized that, Johnny had become useless to her. She didn’t want Jaz’s sloppy seconds, so she’d tried to break things off with Johnny, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  She’d arranged for Sully to deliver the note for Johnny to meet her at Lakeshore Heights. Other than their first time together in her store the night of the murder, Ana and Johnny had started meeting at the small hotel in Lakeshore. She’d broken things off with Johnny once and for all that night; that’s why they had left separately and the clerk hadn’t thought things went well. And that’s why Johnny was so angry at Sully. He’d thought Ana had dumped him for another man. He hadn’t looked any happier today after obviously finding out she’d only used him.

  Kalli tried to process everything. So Ana had been having the affair with Johnny, not Sully, but Johnny wasn’t the mole. And neither was Sully. Sully said he wasn’t the killer, either, because he was planning his parents’ anniversary party with his sister, but she couldn’t be sure he didn’t sneak out during the night. And Maria was still a suspect because she had no alibi and the Full Disclosure security tapes did show her peeking in the windows. But what about Ana and Johnny? She refused to say who gave her the information about Jaz’s spring collection, but she did confirm she and Johnny were each other’s alibis for the night of the murder, and she could prove it.

  The security tapes had a sticky note taped to them that said, Proof.

  I picked up the tape, played it, and nearly threw up. That could not be good for my esophagus. Gasping for air, I slapped a hand over my eyes and groped about with my other hand until I switched the tape off. The image of Ana and Johnny going at it in her office at Vixen would forever be burned into my retinas. I refused to call it making love because there was nothing lovely about what I’d just seen. I briefly wondered if something like that could ruin a person’s vision and was about to go buy the strongest eye drops I could find, but then I heard the sound of the front door being unlocked.

  There was no way out!

  My burning eyes would have to wait. Nik would be by the front door, and I wasn’t going to attempt the back door with the beast in the yard. So that left hiding somewhere. Footsteps grew louder as he made his way toward the bedroom. Figured, my luck would run out. Had I said my day was getting brighter? That was a joke.

  I had no choice. I quickly closed the file, picked up my wine and his beer, and then hid in his closet. I had barely closed the door when he walked inside while talking on his cell phone.

  “Ma, this is ridiculous.” I peeked out through the slatted door and saw him put his phone on his bed, hit the speaker button, and then pull off his shirt and tie. His bronzed muscles rippled as he moved, and my mouth went dry. Who knew all that had been hidden beneath his clothes? I mean, I could tell he was built through his clothes, but I had no clue he was built like that. Broad shoulders, huge biceps, bulging pecs, and rippled abs, all covered with a thin layer of hair that tapered to a fine line and disappeared into…

  Oh, yeah. I most definitely still had the fever.

  “I told you I’m fine,” he said out loud, and I couldn’t agree more as I tried to focus, realizing he wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to his mother.

  “What’s happening? Did you put the speaker on me?” Chloe said.

  “No, I didn’t put the speaker on you, Ma. I put you on speaker phone.”

  “Well, I don’t like it, Nikos. You sound all hollow. Or maybe that’s your voice, and I’m right. I just knew you were going to get the rabies. I saw how you looked at that girl. I like her, but she’s not full Greek, you know. That makes her susceptible to things like rabies.”

  “She’s not Greek at all, Ma, and I’m not full either.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and then stared up at the ceiling as though he was counting to ten. I couldn’t blame him. His mother sounded exactly like mine, and they’d obviously been talking. “I’m not getting rabies, and Kalli doesn’t have rabies either, and being full Greek wouldn’t make a bit of difference anyway.”

  “She’s got something, I tell you. I’ve seen the way she looks at you too, and I’m not alone. We’ve all seen it.”

  He stopped moving and gaped at his bed. “We? Who’s we?”

  “The mamas, of course. You can’t fool the mamas, you know.”

  He undid his belt, button and zipper, then dropped his pants. Be still my beating heart, I thought, taking a hearty sip of wine. My temperature had risen a few degrees, and I was pretty sure I had a fever of some kind. Pausing at her words, he just stood there in his boxer briefs with his pants pooled around his ankles, staring at his phone like he was processing her words.

  “You’re crazy, you know that? You’re all crazy.” He stepped out of his pants, but left his boxers on, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. He looked around for a minute at the noise, but I’d frozen and held my breath once more. Just when I thought I’d pass out, he grabbed a towel off a hook and started to move, allowing me to quietly breathe once more.

  “You’ve been bitten by the bug,” his mother said through the phone.

  “What bug?”

  “The love bug.” He snorted with laughter, until she added with certainty, “You’ll see. You don’t realize it yet, but you will.”

  “Next time don’t call me while I’m working unless it’s an emergency. I gotta go, Ma.”

  “Enjoy your cold shower,” she said knowingly and then hung up.

  He stared at his towel and then frowned, heading down the hall and out of sight. I heard a commotion and then finally the water in the shower turned on. I downed the rest of my wine, grabbed his beer, and then slid the closet door open to make my escape.

  I’d only crept halfway down the hall when an unmistakable whine pierced my ears. My head snapped up, and I locked eyes with the beast. He stood massive and strong, his tail wagging furiously, as he blocked my path to freedom. I froze, afraid to so much as breathe and clue him in to the fact that I was not just a figment of his imagination or doggy daydreams. I glanced at the front door, then I looked at the back door, then I peeked at the bathroom door. It was just enough movement to send the canine into ecstatic motion. Every ounce of his fur quivered and his entire being wiggled in glee as he launched his body into motion. I screamed to the top of my lungs and started to run to the closest door to me.

  The bathroom door.

  Muscles bunched as they flexed and then lengthened and then flexed once more, over and over as the massive creature lumbered toward me. His hum
ongous pink tongue hung long and loose with doggy drool flinging about nilly willy, splattering everything within a four foot radius. It was like a horror scene being played out in slow motion, and I was his next victim.

  I truly was in jeopardy of dying.

  I did the only thing I could. I whipped open the bathroom door, ran inside, and slammed it shut.

  “What the hell?” Nik said, poking his soaking wet head out from behind the shower curtain, obviously naked as his boxer briefs lay in a wadded up heap at my bare feet.

  I smiled wide, thrust my hand out in front of me as if it was the most natural thing to do, and said the only thing I could think of. “Care for a beer?”

  CHAPTER 18

  * * *

  The bathroom door burst open, and the steam in the room swirled around my head.

  “We heard the scream and came as quickly as we could!” Jaz blurted, then jerked to a stop. “Whoa….” She gaped at the sight of me standing in the bathroom, wrinkled and disheveled. My hair was falling out of its chignon as I held an empty glass of wine in one hand, a full beer in the other, and unattractive beads of perspiration dotted my face.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but my mind proceeded to go blank.

  “You’re a hot mess if ever I saw one.” Her gaze dropped to the boxers on the floor, and her eyebrows arched higher.

  I slid the boxers behind me with my toe and then pressed my lips together before I said or did anything to make me look even guiltier. I hadn’t done anything … well, okay, I guess I had … but certainly not what she was thinking, judging by the expression on her perfectly made-up, non-disheveled face.