Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (47 page)

I nodded. "It would be easier to file a fake damage claim." Something niggled at me, something was missing
,
but I couldn't
squeeze
the thought into fruition.

"You have any idea which claims were fake and which weren't?"

"No. And if Maddox does, he hasn't told me." As far as I knew
,
they were no closer to breaking the case.

"Maybe you could have a look in the files? See if anything raises a red flag?"

"I guess. Did I mention Anne said a lot of the newer policies had paid out too? Some policies can run for years without a payout."

"Sounds like a place to start."

No one was in the office when I got back, except Vincent
,
who gave me a che
ery wave and offered me a donut. H
is lips
were
covered in
confectioner’s sugar
. I declined and he shrugged a
s he
went back to work. I switched my monitor on and clicked through to the shared server, calling up some of the recent payouts files.

Using a pen, I scribbled the names, dates, addresses, account numbers and length of policy on the payouts. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I was interested to see if a pattern
emerged
. I
continued
until
my
hand cramp
ed
and
made a
possib
i
l
iti
e
s
list of one hundred policies, all of which had paid out in
less than six months of
their
opening
date
. I
exited
the files and called up an internet browser, typing a fe
w of the
local
addresses into Google M
aps
,
just out of curiosity. Most of the addresses were average family homes or apartment buildings, nothing out of the ordinary.

I went down the list,
ticking
off the ones on my way home,
and
came up with twelve and the crazy idea that
I was on
to something.

Chapter Fifteen

Picking up my cell phone
,
I
checked to see if anyone was nearby
,
but the desks were
empty
, my colleagues still out to lunch. Only Vincent was there
, wearing
his headphones. I
called Lily
. She was in
my car
when she answered
. "Hey, I got the weirdest idea. Are you doing anything right now?"

"I was going to go to the gym. I want to punch the crap out of something
,
"
she replied.

I knew what she meant. "Can you check on something for me instead? You'll need a pen." I heard shuffling noises
,
then Lily said, "Shoot."

I reeled off the twelve addresses while she
j
o
t
ted them down. "Can you just drive by these places and tell me if anything stands out?" I said.

"Sure. What am I looking for?"

"I
really don’t know
. It was just a hunch."

"I feel like a private detective. Should I go home and get a disguise?"
Hopefulness
was hanging
in her voice.

"No. Just drive by. Call me if you see anything odd."

I hung up and slipped my notepad and cell phone into my purse
, before closing
the browser
. I
jump
ed
when I felt a presence
suddenly
behind me.

"Only guilty people jump," said Vincent, hitching one cheek onto my desk with
utter
disregard for any of the papers I had strewn about. The papers didn't mean anything
;
I just wanted to look busy, but that wasn't the point.

"I didn't hear you sneak up on me."

"I wasn't sneaking. I have light feet. How would you feel about dinner tonight? You. Me. A little wine."

"That sounds like a date to me."

"Call it how you see it, babe." Vincent winked at me and my stomach
churned
.
The niceness would have to stop, clearly.

"I don't think we're allowed to date colleagues," I said as
gent
ly as I could.

"The boss is dead. Who cares? Let's live a little."

Wow. Cold. I backtracked
, scrambling for an excuse
that Vincent could actually take without wanting to screw up my
timecard
s
.
"I mean temps. We're not allowed to date people we work with. It gives us a bad reputation."

"I don't think you can get a bad reputation dating an accountant."

He
was probably
right
and it would also make my mother very happy. Unfortunately
,
the Vincent
-
shaped package didn't strike a chord with me. "Vincent, you're a great guy..."

"I feel a 'but' coming on."

I nodded. "But we can't date while we're colleagues."

"So you would date me if we weren't colleagues?"

"Absolutely," I lied.

"Maybe I should have you fired."

My mouth dropped open as my
gentle
let
-
down
backfired. "No! Don't do that! I need this job
,
"
I
replied,
flash
ing
indignant eyes at him.

"If we were dating, you wouldn't need to work. I would support you. You could be a lady who lunches
, g
o
es
shopping, get
s
he
r nails done."

My mother would be planning the wedding at this point, but still, Vincent was just not appealing. He was
a lowly
cheeseburger, and twice this past week
,
I'd been tempted by
filet mignon
. "I like working. Besides, I'm very expensive." And there it was
;
I sounded like a prostitute.

"We're all going to be out of a job soon anyway
,
so maybe
you should think about my offer,
"
Vincent said
solemnly.

"Seriously?" My squeaked question seemed to cover both his points nicely.

"Yes. Be my girlfriend and I'll make sure you have anything you want."

I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth and pulled an apologetic face. "Thanks, but no."

"I have a lot of money."

"How come?"

"What?"

"How come you have a lot of money?" I knew the concert tickets cost a lot, because the only ones left were the ones Lily and I couldn't afford.
(I was seriously reconsidering accepting the ticket.)
The car Vincent had se
t his heart on was easily a six-
figure model. You didn't grow up with
three motor-minded
brothers and not know that. And the offer of being a kept woman? Priceless.

Vincent shifted so he was fully perched on my desk, his feet not quite making contact with the carpeted floor. "I made some good investments this year and they're about to pay o
ff
," he said, his nostrils flaring slightly.

"Oh, well, good for you. Hey, there's our current boss. I don't want to get in trouble chatting when I'm supposed to be working."

I could see the words
,
“
it's never stopped you before
”
forming in Vincent's mind, but he seemed to think better of it. Instead, he said
, very matter-of-a-fact
ly
, "Maddox will look a lot less appealing when he's unemployed." And with that
,
he stalked off, leaving me frozen at his menacing tone. I saw Maddox glance
at
me, then
at
Vincent as he
stomped
away
with
his shoulders set backwards.
I swear Vincent had developed a swagger.

Maddox looked back
at
me and raised his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes and shrugged,
re
turning to the pile of filing that
was
dumped on my desk while I was
at
lunch. I locked my purse in the desk drawer, remembering to take my cell phone with me
,
in case Lily called
, and lugged the foot
-
high pile to the filing room. Forty sheets of paper later
,
and my phone rang.

"Hey
,
Jord."

"Hi, sis. I heard you and Lily had some car trouble last night."
Clearly, he knew. At least, he knew enough to know that we hadn’t blown a tire.

"Some asshole tried to run us off the road. I'm fine, thanks for calling."

"When we get him, I'll break his knees anyway."

"You're the perfect big brother. Tell me you're not using a phone at the station."

"No, I'm at home.
No witnesses.
How's Lily? She okay?"

"She's fine."

"Not injured?"

His casual tone didn’t fool me one bit.
"You could have called her
,
you know."

"Oh, I don't know about..."

"Chicken," I interrupted and made clucking noises.

"Maybe I'll call her just to see if she's okay."

"She might need help with the insurance forms. You'd be doing her a favor. And then she wouldn't have to call the desk sergeant who gave her his number this morning."

"Who the fu..." Jord spluttered and I held back a giggle. Teasing him was fun. "What's his name?" he asked calmly.

"I don't know, but I'd call her soon."

"Maybe I'll call her up, take her to dinner, take her home and make very loud love to her all night," threatened Jord. He knew my bedroom was right over hers
; but
I also knew what jealous sounded like.

"Do it," I said. "Lily will probably pay me to stay at a hotel. I'll get room service."

"I gotta go."

"Need to take a cold shower?"

"Need to glue a desk sergeant to his chair. Not that I care," Jord added quickly. "Lily can date who
mever
she likes."

"Sure. Whatever. Thanks for checking
that
I'm alive." Just as I slid my phone back into my pocket, it rang again, Lily's picture flashing onto the screen. "Hey," I said. "Jord just called."

"Did he ask
about
me?"
was the first thing she wanted to know.

"Yeah. I told him you got the desk sergeant's phone number and he got all pissy."

"I didn't get his number!
"

"Jord doesn't know that. He said he'll call you later. Ask him to help you on your insurance forms. He likes being needed."

"Awesome. So, I drove past those addresses and I did see something odd."

"What?"

"Seven of the addresses are just average houses, but they were all in foreclosure. On the others, three were rentals and two
were
empty."

"I knew it!
"

"You want me to check anything else out?"

"No, that's it. Thanks."

I clicked off and rested against the filing cabinet for a moment
, wondering if it was
a very good
idea to let Lily use my car
.
On the other hand, there was no way she could be mistaken for me. I mused over our conversation as I
began
filing.