Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (10 page)

"Good girl. Now, let's get down to business. The people who offed Martin Dean took a report you were working on. Do you have it?"

Adam
Maddox, as I now knew him, answered for me
,
which was just as well because the
“
good girl
”
comment made me twitch. "All her files were remotely deleted from her office computer this morning, sir, before we got a chance to copy them.
But
Lexi has copies on a flash drive."

Miller nodded.
"We'd like a copy. We need to know what you were working on that was so important
someone had to kill
Martin Dean for it."

"Uh, Matt, are
you, um, sure that it was my report that got him killed?" Now that I'd
gotten
the chance to read
my
most recent files, I was still
convinced
that there was nothing in them worth killing Dean over.

"It seems highly
probable
. Do you have the memory stick on you now?"

"No, it's..." I was going to say, it's at home, but something in
side
me told me to keep that quiet.
I didn’t know these people and
they hadn’t shown me
any badges.
Adam
didn't
sa
y
where it was, so neither would I. "It's elsewhere."

"Maddox, Solomon will go with you and
Miss Graves
to get the memory stick."

Adam flicked a glance in Solomon's direction
,
which I wouldn’t describe as
a happy one. "No need for Solomon to
come
, sir. I'll re
trieve it." I followed his gaze.
Solomon returned my stare, his face blank. I made a sincere effort not to flinch, keeping my
eyes
steady and even until Matt spoke again
and I turned back to him
.

"All the same, Solomon go
es
with you. As of this moment, we consider Lexi to be a target. She's the only one who's seen the file."

"Which file is it?" I asked.

Matt's jaw moved about
and his lips
creased together
in a thin line
. "That's the thing, Miss Graves. We hoped you could tell us."

I shook my head.
"I don't know. I've wo
rked on a few reports for
Dean."

Matt nodded, brushing his jaw thoughtfully. "We can't offer you twenty-four
hour protection at this stage."

"Am I in danger?" I asked, beca
u
se
what I
construed
from Miller's comment was
,
you'd better think of something quick before you get shot.
Not
exactly reassuring.

"Possibly. If
Dean's murderers
assume
you know something, they may try to have you erased." And there it
was. The threat of
getting whacked
along with
the
proviso
that the FBI and Montgomery PD could do nothing to stop it
,
if I didn't work with them
.
Not the warm and fuzzy promise that I
was seeking.
As far as coercion went, it wasn't subtle and it wasn't kind.

I gulped. "My name is watermarked on every report."

"Then they'll
conclude
you know something, even if you don't know what it is. We could consider protective custody."

"Sir, if Lexi stops going into work, someone may surmise that she does know something. We don't know how dangerous that would be or how
badly
they
might
want to find her."

I chanced a glance at Maddox as he defended my corner, fully aware that Solomon's eyes
were boring
in
to
my back.
I wondered if he ever spoke.

"What are you getting at, Maddox?"

"Have Lexi go into work as normal, sir.
Let
her do everything that is normal. That
offers
her the best chance
in case
someone,
or anyone
, assume
s
that she knows
something
.
No one
knew
she was in the building that night. I checked
;
there’s no record of her after four p.m.,
which was
hours before Dean was killed.
Plus, she's been at Green Hand for a couple of mont
hs. People like her. N
o one would suspect her."

"Suspect me of what?" I frowned.

"We need eyes and ears in the department. People don't talk to the boss. They'll talk to the pretty temp." Adam leaned
towards his boss and flashed a look at me,
his eyes sparkling like the s
apphires
I hope
d
to wear one day.
But more importantly,
he called me pretty.

"You're talking about swearing her in, Maddox." Matt's tone was
thoughtful
, inviting even, rather than simply
a
warning
,
and my heart gave a little leap. I could go on as normal, maybe I wouldn't even have to testify and my life would stay just that
—
mine.

"She can do it, Miller. Yo
u've read her file. She's smart. Like I said,
people like her.
She has easier access to gossip and co-workers than I do
."

"And what if she stuffs up? Blabs to the press, or her friends? What if
someone offers her a
bribe?"

I coughed,
and
not particularly politely
,
seeing as my reputation was being shredded faster than a duck in China
t
own. "I can't be bribed, sir." I knew I couldn't. It was simple: my price would be way too high. Plus
,
who would believe this? If I told my family
,
the whole
of
Montgomery PD would know. If I told Lily, I
’
d
be
put
ting
her at risk
,
and I’d rather lose my new Kate Spade purse than do that
!

"Do you understand what we
're asking you, Miss Graves? May I call you Lexi?
You
r
surname is..."

"Depressing, I know
. And yes, I think I understand and I can do it
."
How that slipped out of my mouth
,
I’ll never know. It was probably the adrenaline racing through my system. Or stupidity. Hard to tell.

"We're asking you to potentially rat on your colleagues,
snooping
through their desks and mak
ing
notes of your conversations with them. We'll ask you to view everyone you work with as a suspect,
and
to investigate anything
you may find
suspicious.
You might even have to lie
t
o
them."

I remembered the time I lied to Lily
,
saying
the strapless
,
red
,
mini dress she
’d
f
a
ll
en
in love with had just sold out
during a sale
, when I'd actually hid
den
the last one on
the plus
-
size rack
,
where she would never look
. To be fair, it didn't
suit
her
and I was trying to be nice
. "I can do that," I said with absolute confidence.

"Good. Maddox will brief you. I look forward to your first report."

“You’re not seriously putting Blondie on the case?” The voice came from behind me. Cool, disembodied. I resisted the urge to turn around
,
and confront
the hulking presence of Solomon,
while shouting
“
Blondie?
”
indignantly.
Miller’s eyebrows rose in the silence that followed. He refocused on me, clearly waiting for some kind of answer.

"Thank you, sir. I
, uh,
won't let you down,
"
I said, my jaw firm.
The insult sealed it for me. Unnatural blondes were not incapable.

"If you let me down, it's because you're dead," said Matt, and there wasn't a hint of warmth in his voice this time. "Maddox,
get Lexi’s statement
;
then you and Solomon
take Lexi home and retrieve the memory stick. Whatever is in those files, I want to know about it. Yesterday."

Chapter Four

"Where to?" asked Solomon, as we
exited the building
an hour later
. He slid a pair of sunglasses on
, hiding his beautiful brown eyes,
and took the keys from the waiting driver, who nodded
at
us and walked away. Maddox took the front seat
without bending to the time honored tradition of calling shotgun
, so I
slid into the
back
and fought hard not to stick my tongue out at the back of Solomon’s head
.

The
“B
londie
”
comment
still
cut deep. Blondes
were supposed to have more fun;
gentlemen were supposed to
“
lur
ve
”
blondes if Marilyn was right. And here was a Neanderthal who thought my hair color meant I couldn’t
compete
with the
big
boys. We’d soon see about t
hat, I decided resolutely
.

"My place," I mumbled, my head still ringing with the thought that I was now an undercover ope
rative. Just how cool was that?
It almost made up for the heart
-
stopping moment of finding a corpse
, a moment I’d relived in less than glorious detail as I gave my statement
. It was almost as good
as
snuggling up to Adam
…
Maddox
(
what
did I call him now
?
I wondered
)
in a dark c
los
et
.

Solomon, clearly the strong
,
silent type, drove us to my apartment
without a word
. He didn't even ask where to go,
as he
zipped through the traffic,
ultimately
pulling into
my
driveway
and parking
beside my
VW
.

Lily’s
car
was
absent, which was
fine with me.
H
ow
c
ould I explain arriving home with not one, but two hunks? One of whom she already thought I'd spent the night with
!
Even worse, I had no plausible explanation and I couldn't tell her the truth.
I could tell her some brilliant lies though, I thought, mashing my lips together so I didn’t giggle.

I unlocked the door, and both men followed me up. Inside the apartment,
they
slipped past me, Solomon neatly picking me up and placing me to one side, before they fanned out, checking through every room, opening a
nd shutting doors,
their
weapons drawn
. I must have been
sleepwalking
before, because the guns made it
lethally
real
now. Not to mention that they thought it necessary to check through my apartment.

This wasn’t a game.

"All clear," said Maddox.
Solomon nodded in agreement. "Come through, Lexi."

“
What were you doing?" I tossed my keys onto the slim console and followed them into the living room.

"Checking to make sure no one was
waiting in your apartment
," said Maddox.

"Like whom?"
I asked as
Maddox
raised an eyebrow. "Oh, like someone who wants to kill me?" My voice rose a notch. "Oh dea
r God, someone wants to kill me!
"
Perhaps,
I really
di
dn't
consider my
offer to snoop
around
at work
carefully enough
.

"Is she going to get hysterical?" asked Solomon
,
whom
we both ignored, though the timbre of his voice sent a shiver down my spine.
I wasn’t sure what to think of him.

"Adam, Why didn’t you do that last night?” I asked.

“Didn’t need to last night. I got to thinking,” he told me
,
“
w
hoever deleted your files this morning might realize you copied the files. That's why we can't be too careful."
Maddox
walked over to the big bay window and looked out, his head sweeping from side
-
to
-
side as he surveyed the street below. He turned back to us, looking at Solomon
for a moment,
who had settled onto the
couch
and was flic
king though my TV guide. "There are
two men in a car outside
,
watching the apartment. They're ours. Is there any other way in?"

I shook my head. "The only
other
door is
downstairs
in Lily's apartment and her garden backs onto
the
other ga
rdens
,
so there isn't an alley
.
Only an acrobat can get onto the fire escape from below.
"

"Good. That'll make it easier to keep watch. Do you have any plans we should know about?"

"Lily will be home soon
,
then nothing. No, wait..." I rolled my eyes as I remembered
I
did
have
plans. "I forgot. I'm going to my parents
’
tonight for dinner."

"Are they far?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Good. You should keep up with your
usual
routine. Maybe I should go with you," Adam mused.

"I can't really
turn
up at my parents
’
with a strange man." Solomon
laughed at
“
strange
”
then covered it up with a cough.
I glared at him.
"I mean, I'm already bringing Lily. It would be weird to bring a man they've never heard of before. Besides you're PD and undercover
;
and my
whole
family is PD." That statement
was
close to
being
literal.
My father had retired a few years before.
Out of my four siblings, three were currently serving officers.
Even m
y sister-in-law worked dispatch and that was just
my immediate
family. They could smell a rat at a hundred paces,
and
probably shoot it dead at fifty
.

"I suppose so." Adam sat on the armchair across from the sofa and opened the
backpack
he carried with him. He spread a thick stack of slim manila files on the coffee table and asked for my cell phone
,
which I handed over. "I've programmed in our numbers
, mine and Solomon’s
. You can call anytime,” he said, handing it back.
I didn’t think he might
go
for a
“N
o,
you
hang up first
”
type of chat.

"What's all this?" I pointed to the files.

"Our co-workers. There's a short profile on each one
featuring
their backgrounds, families
,
hobbies, and other information
including
their recent bank records. They all seem clean from what
we’ve determined
. No unexplained large transactions, no unexpectedly
lost
family members, or criminal connections. You'll need to read all these and
familiarize
yourself with the
histories
of the people you work with."

I hovered in the doorway, watching Solomon move around the room, allowing me a better look at him. As he checked the view from each window
without
a trace of emotion or interest on his face, I checked out his body.

What? I have a pulse and he was
extremely
nice to look at.

"Why do you need all this information?"
I asked Adam
as I tore my gaze away
.
It was like going from chocolate pudding to chocolate cake; the view was just as
tempting
whichever way I looked
!
Seemingly satisfied,
he
returned to the armchair.

"Like I said before, there's a leak in the department. Someone is involved selling information or part of a fraud ring. Greed is our
best
estimate
for motive. Money or blackmail is the most
common
reason
fo
r the average citizen to
turn
bad, hence the reports on your colleagues.
"

I tried to imagine anyone in the department trading secrets, or being involved in criminal activity, but it was impossible. They were all so
mundanely
dull
.

"And you don't
have any idea
who is involved?" I asked.
“At all?”

Adam shook his head. "We have ideas
,
but now
that
Dean is dead, it's thrown us. It could
have
even be
en
him, in which case
,
we definitely need to catch his killers to get to the
rest of
the ring
. Or maybe Dean uncovered something about someone in the department that got him killed. We don't know what information they are concealing or leaking, who's leaking it
,
or
who’s buying
it. We just can't get close. Everything points to major fraud
,
but we don't have enough evidence to narrow down
any of
our leads just yet."