Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (46 page)

"I'm glad you told me
,” Lily continued
.
“
I had no idea your life had turned into
S
cary
S
hitsville.
Plus
,
that would have been scary
even
without
a
ll
the other
facts.
"

"I'm glad I told you
everything
too. Shitsville was getting lonely."

"If you disappear, or turn up dead, I promise I won't rest until your murderer is caught
and convicted
."

"Um, thanks."

"No problem."

Maddox was waiting for us on the doorstep by the time I
drove
the beat
-
up Mini into Lily's parking space. Solomon pulled his motor
cycle
in
behind
us, kick
ing
out the stand a
s he
dismounted.

Lily paused with her hand on the door handle. "I gotta say, Lexi, this
was not my favo
rite way to end the day."

"Sorry," I muttered
,
getting
out.
I slammed the door and the bumper fell off.
“We still have Chinese though.”

“Is it possible to panic eat egg rolls?” Lily asked, opening the bag.

"Glad you're okay," said Adam, his face
filled with
concern as he approached us, ushering us inside. Lily dropped her bag inside the door of her apartment and followed us upstairs
with the sack of food
.

"Did you get the guys? The people who rammed us, shot at us and tried to bump us off the road?" Well, I tried not to let my slightly resentful tone make its way through
,
but
failed miserably
. It was there, loaded and angry. Four murders were bad enough, but I didn't want someone to find Lily's
and my
bodies
,
boost
ing
the
corpse
count to six. I imagined my parents' heartbroken faces
again
, my
coffin covered in white lilies—my
vision
becoming
more soli
d the
longer
I thought about it—and
the anger
mounting
a bit more. I breathed in and out through my nose, trying to calm down.

"No. They were gone b
y the time our team got to them,
"
Maddox told us.

"Were they really going to kill us?" I asked.

"Yes, I think so."
His spoke gently, despite the harsh reality of his words.

"You warned me."

"I did."

"They're going to keep trying
,
aren't they?" I huffed an annoyed sound.

"Probably."

"We'd better find out what the connection is between the fraud, Tanya Henderson and the Finklesteins then," I said.

Lily adde
d, "She's your best hope of cracking this case."

"Dear Lord," said Solomon, behind her. I hadn't
realized
he followed us in
,
but Maddox just smiled in his gentle way and
escorted all of
us into my apartment.

Lily, who seemed to have recovered fr
om our ordeal remarkably fast—
though it could
have had
something to do with two handsome men in close proximity
—
fussed around us
. She
ma
de
drinks and raid
ed
my cookie jar while I sat down
.
T
hen
I
keeled forwards
,
my head in my hands
,
until I stopped feeling sick. My only other option was to curl up
in
fetal
position
and start bawling
.
Knowing
how unproductive that would be, and the likelihood of Maddox drugging me again, I decided I might as well get to know my potential enemies better. I would freak out, privately, later.

Then I'd get a gun.

~

For the second night in a row, I had a car
parked outside
my door
,
and
again
,
Maddox pi
cked me up in the morning
. To avoid gossip, I
decided
to walk in ahead of Maddox, saying my hellos to my colleagues as I
made
my way towards my desk.

When Maddox arrived five minutes later, he gathered us all together.

"You may have noticed that Martin hasn't been at his desk this week," he began, his eyes scanning the small assembly. "I'm sure this will come as a shock to
all of
you, as it did to me, and there's no easy way to
say this
. Martin was found dead at his home over the weekend. I'm afraid I don't have anymore details
,
but I will keep you informed. For now, let's just keep working."

"Probably a heart attack," said Anne, next to me. "He wasn't exactly a healthy eater."

"Mmm," I said, noncommittal
ly
.

"Mind you, my first husband was as fit as you like and he had a heart attack too."

"It could happen to any of us
,
"
I replied.
Last night, for example, I could have died in a car crash
,
but I decided not to mention that. On the way in
,
Maddox told me the SUV was
reported
stolen and
found
clean of prints. As the driver left the scene, he was alive,
although
possibly injured, and definitely pissed off.

Anne nodded. "Certainly could. I wonder what happens to Green Hand now? Maybe we'll get a new boss
,
and you know how new bosses are, they always want to shake things up. I'm three years away from retirement. No one will hire me now," she finished, gloomily.

"
Sure they will,
" I
said
, trying not to think how many years away from retirement I was and whether that whole time would be filled temping. Perhaps it was time to get my
résumé
in order.

"Maybe. I don't think the company was doing
that
well." Anne turned to walk away and I followed her to her desk. She didn't seem to mind.

"Why do you think that?" I asked.

"I think Green Hand were paying out on more policies than they anticipated. I heard
Dominic
mention to Martin
and Vincent
that it was unusual." Anne had worked here almost as long as Dean, so they had been on first name terms. I still didn't know what Anne did
,
and it seemed impolite to ask, especially when she made an effort to look busy
,
and I’d been here a while and really should have known by now
.

"What was so unusual about that?"

"Just a lot of the policies
that
hadn't been open long and were already paying out, especially when it came to damage. The ratio between theft and damage usually stays the same, but over the last quarter
,
the ratio was skewed."

"Odd," I said.

"I know. It's probably just one of those things."

"Probably," I agreed
, returning
to my desk
. I
opened a file, ruffled some papers over my desk and went internet surfing.

At lunch, Lily stopped by and we walked over to the
café where I
’d
had lunch with Maddox
. We
bought sandwiches
and
grabb
ed
a couple of tall stools by the window.

"Insurance will cover the Mini's damage," she told me. "It got picked up at nine. And I filed a police report this morning. They want your statement too."

It struck me that I
was spending
far too much time
at
or with
the Montgomery Police Department lately. "Sure. When do they want me in?"

"Anytime in the next couple of days," she said. "Are you sure it's okay to use your car? I wouldn't ask
,
but I have so much stuff to do today
,
and I'm on the door at eight."

"Yeah. Just replace whatever gas you use. Maddox is giving me a ride home."

"Is he staying for dinner?" Lily winked.

"I don't know. Maybe." I shrugged
, taking
a bite of my chicken sandwich.
"He told everyone Dean was dead."

"No way. Anyone wig out?"

"No, but Anne mentioned something odd. She said the ratio between theft and damage was skewed."

"I don't follow."

"I don't so much either, but Dominic,
Dean
's assistant, apparen
tly thought it was odd that there
were more claims for damage than
usual
and the policies hadn't been open long."

"What kind of damage?"

"I don't know.
This office handles the policies for
all kinds of stuff. Not cars though, that's the Boston office."

Lily sipped her coffee and looked thoughtful. "I guess theft has to have a police report, and damage doesn't."