Be Careful What You Wish For (27 page)

‘I guess Levi’s the only one who can answer that,’ I said as my mobile rang.

‘Hello? Amber?’ Letitia said.

‘Yes. Hi, Letitia. Have you heard from Levi?’ I said with urgency.

‘He’s here.’ Her breath came out in short sharp gasps. ‘He’s saying weird things. He keeps saying he’s going to go to the police and give himself up. He says he killed someone in an accident four years ago. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Have you seen the paper this morning?’

‘Yes! Levi brought it with him, but I don’t understand what’s going on!’

‘Make sure he stays there. Tell him not to go anywhere until I speak to him.’ I yanked the bed covers back and scrambled around for some clothes. ‘He wasn’t having an affair, Letitia.’

‘Oh, thank God for that.’ Her voice cracked with emotion.

‘And Letitita, he didn’t do what he thinks he did. Tell him he didn’t kill her. I’m on my way.’

Chapter 20

I phoned Terry on the way and filled him in on the latest. Screeching my car to a halt outside Levi’s house, I banged on the door. Levi stood in the kitchen, looking like he hadn’t slept for a week. Black bags that could’ve doubled as suitcases hung under his eyes, and his sweatshirt and jogging bottoms looked rumpled.

He bit his thumbnail, staring at me with a haunted look.

I strode towards him. ‘You didn’t do it, Levi.’

He dropped his thumb. ‘What do you know?’ His eyebrows furrowed together. ‘You weren’t even there.’

‘No, but Terry was,’ I said.

Letitia’s questioning eyes darted from Levi to me. ‘What are you talking about, Levi? What happened? You can talk to me. You could always talk to me.’ She reached her hand out to his, but he pulled his away out of reach.

‘I was trying to protect you by going away!’ he shouted, eyes moist with unshed tears. ‘You don’t know what Vinnie is capable of if he doesn’t get his way. I wanted to tell you where I was and that I was safe, but it was for your own good that you didn’t know.’

‘Vinnie can’t hurt anyone now, Levi. And you didn’t kill Lisa Thomas. You weren’t even driving the car that night.’

He wrapped his arms around his stomach, clutching himself tight. ‘Stop playing with my head. You don’t know what it’s been like carrying this around with me for four years. I killed an innocent woman, and I should’ve owned up to it straight away. I’m going crazy with this. I can’t get her face out of my head. She’s haunting me.’

‘It wasn’t you, Levi.’ I shook my head so hard I felt my brain rattling around. I needed to get through to him, but he seemed to be in an unreachable place.

His eyes glazed over and he stared into the distance at something I couldn’t see. Finally, he said, ‘How do you know it wasn’t me? You weren’t even there!’

‘No, but I was,’ Terry said, appearing behind me. ‘Charles was driving your car that night. You’d had so much to drink you couldn’t even walk! They bundled you in the front passenger seat of the car and you were asleep. Unconscious.’

Levi ran both hands over his shaven head. ‘So…what?’ He paced the floor. ‘Let me get this straight. You’re saying it wasn’t me driving? I didn’t run that poor woman over?’

Terry shook his head. ‘You couldn’t even walk that night, let alone drive. It wasn’t you. You were totally incapable of driving that car.’

‘But Vinnie said I passed out at the wheel and ran over that…that poor woman. And what about the photos?’ Levi shouted. ‘Vinnie showed me the photos of what I did the next morning when I woke up on his sofa.’

I shrugged. ‘They were staged by Vinnie so he’d have a hold over you. They must’ve hauled you into the driver’s seat after the accident, thinking it would be a good opportunity to manipulate you into doing what Vinnie wanted.’

‘No.’ Levi shook his head. ‘No, no, no. Vinnie said that I insisted on driving my new car that night. He said he wanted to call us a cab, but I just kept saying I was going to drive it and they couldn’t stop me, so they came with me to make sure I was OK.’ He stopped shaking and stared at me with disbelief. ‘The next morning when I woke up on Vinnie’s sofa they told me what I did and showed me the photos. Vinnie said he had a police officer on his payroll who covered it up.’ He blinked at me with glassy eyes ‘He said she covered it up for me and I owed him big time.’

I felt sorry for Levi. He would’ve been a twenty-year-old guy – still young, vulnerable, and impressionable. He was new to the world of pro boxing, believing what the powerful sports promoter told him. Maybe Vinnie even planned it all from the start. Vinnie would’ve known Levi only drank to celebrate a win, and he would’ve known that Levi suffered blackouts when he drank. What better way to manipulate the next big heavyweight champion than to ply him with alcohol until he can’t remember anything and stage a hit and run?

‘It wasn’t you, Levi. You have to believe me,’ I said.

He stared up at the ceiling, swallowing. ‘I spoke to Vinnie about this so many times over the years. I kept saying I was going to go to the police and come clean about it. He said I’d get sent to prison for at least ten years and would cost him a fortune in lost money. He told me if I didn’t want anything to happen to Letitia and I wanted to live, I’d shut the fuck up. But this time I think Vinnie suspected that I was really serious about coming forward. When he told me to throw the fight, I think he probably knew it was the last straw for me. I think he knew I was going to tell the police I killed her. I had no intention of actually throwing the fight.’

Levi suddenly sank to his knees, hands pressed over his face, making strangled sobbing sounds from deep within his throat as if it was all finally sinking in.

‘It wasn’t you,’ Terry repeated.

Letitia knelt down next to him and cradled his head in her arms. ‘It’s alright.’ She rocked him back and forth. ‘Everything’s going to be alright now. Shush, baby, shush.’

‘Levi,’ Terry said gently, ‘why didn’t you tell me what happened that night? Why didn’t you tell me Vinnie was using those photos to blackmail you?’

Levi glanced up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. ‘I was ashamed. I was scared. I was disgusted with myself. How could I tell you what I’d done? I couldn’t even bring myself to tell Letitia.’

‘But if you’d have told me, all of this heartache could’ve been spared.’ Terry gave Levi an encouraging smile. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong.’

‘Maybe not.’ Levi’s voice cracked. ‘But I thought I had, and I still didn’t do anything about it. So what kind of a person does that make me?’

It was the same question Brad had asked me, and I still didn’t have an answer.

‘You were young,’ Terry said. ‘You made a mistake. We all do.’

There was a knock at the door and I went to answer it.

EJ stood on the doorstep.

‘Is he OK?’ Worry lines formed a frown on his face.

I nodded and beckoned him in.

He hovered on the doorstep. ‘Are you sure it’s OK?’

It was sad to see such a big man shrink with vulnerability before my eyes.

I nodded and led the way to the kitchen. ‘Someone’s here to see you, Levi.’

‘Dad!’ Levi’s mouth hung open, but it was with surprised relief rather than hatred.

‘I called him,’ Letitia said with a nervous frown breaking away from her embrace with Levi and nodding to EJ.

EJ’s eyes glistened with tears as he stepped gingerly towards Levi. EJ threw his arms around him and Levi collapsed onto his chest.

‘Don’t worry, Son,’ EJ said. ‘We’ve taken care of Vinnie and his mate. No one will ever see them again. You don’t need to worry about anything anymore.’

I left them to it. I couldn’t pick up the fragile pieces of their lives and put them back together. Only they could.

Chapter 21

‘Can you meet me? It’s urgent,’ Romeo said over the phone.

‘Yes,’ I whispered.

‘Starbucks. Ten minutes.’

‘Sure.’ I took a deep breath.

****

He was already there when I arrived, sipping coffee and staring out the window with a brooding look. His eyes followed me as I ordered a double chocco hot chocolate with chocolate sprinkles and whipped cream and sat down. I needed the extra sugar to give me some courage, you understand.

‘It was Brad, wasn’t it?’ He leaned forward on his elbows.

‘What was Brad?’ I lifted my mug to my mouth. My hands trembled slightly.

His gaze flew to the ceiling and back to me. ‘Suddenly Vinnie is nowhere to be found. Brad killed him, didn’t he?’

I didn’t say a word. I didn’t have to.

‘The main thing is that you’re alive.’

 ‘I’ll email you all the evidence Hacker has dug up on Edward and Vinnie. I’m sure you’ll find enough to charge Lee and the rest of Vinnie’s cronies with a whole heap of stuff as well. And maybe you should ask Janice why she stuffed up her original investigation of Vinnie and the report of Edward’s traffic accident, and why Lisa Thomas’s hit-and-run was never investigated.’

He understood from the tone of my voice that Janice might’ve had another reason for the lack of evidence against Vinnie. ‘Do you think they paid her off?’

I shrugged. ‘I just have a hunch about it. Janice isn’t my problem anymore, but I think it’s worth you checking into.’

Slowly, he reached over and took my hands in his. I closed my eyes and breathed in his familiar aftershave.

‘Is it over between us? Have I lost you?’ His hands gripped mine tighter.

I opened my damp eyes, tears straining to burst out. A sharp sword of guilt twisted painfully in my stomach. I didn’t trust myself to speak so I just nodded.

He released his grasp and my hands fell onto the table.

‘I’m really sorry, Romeo.’ I swallowed to try and stop my eyes watering.

‘I always knew you were only mine for a short time. I knew you’d go back to him eventually.’ Romeo stood and gazed down at me with hurt clouding his eyes.

‘I’m sorry,’ I repeated.

‘I’m sorry, too.’ He walked away, then stopped suddenly. Glancing back at me over his shoulder for a brief moment, he said, ‘You take care, Amber.’

I couldn’t say anything else. My throat had constricted so much I could hardly even breathe.

****

I turned my phone off and walked. I didn’t have a clue where I was going. I just wanted to clear the fuzzy fog in my head.

It was dark when I let myself into Brad’s with his key. The place was silent. I glanced around, taking it all in. Brad had brought the fluffy cushions from my apartment and scattered them on his sofa. My other knick-knacks were lying around the room as well. Magazines, photos, CDs, books. Brad was trying to make me feel at home with clutter.

Despite everything, that brought a smile to my lips.

Could I really live here with Brad? Would we have a happy ever after?

There was only one way to find out and now was the right time to do it. I felt light headed as the realization smacked me in the face.

Marmalade jumped off the sofa and sat in front of me, yawning.

I scooped him up in my arms and rubbed his head with my chin, feeling his purr vibrating my skin. ‘Hey, boy. What do you think? Should I marry Brad? Meow once for “yes” and twice for “no.”

‘Meow…’

The End

If you enjoyed
Be Careful What You Wish For
read on for an extract of the next Amber Fox mystery,
Voodoo Deadly.
For more details, please visit
http://www.sibelhodge.com/

Voodoo Deadly

Feisty insurance investigator Amber Fox is back in her deadliest case ever…

When Chantal Langton, the daughter of a famous voodoo high priestess, goes missing, is it a simple case of a rich girl running off for some adventure, or is there something far more sinister going on?

Soon Amber’s slap bang in the middle of voodoo curses, a trail of missing women, and a labyrinth of deceit. And, if that wasn’t enough, to add more distraction to the case, her ex-fiancé-turned boss-turned fiancé again is pressing her to set the wedding date.

Can Amber find Chantal and hunt down a cold-blooded killer before her life comes crashing down around her?

Chapter 1

When everything in your life is going amazingly well, do you ever get the feeling that something bad is about to happen? It’s kind of like in the back of your mind you don’t think you deserve to be happy, and something, or someone, is going to turn around and bite you on the ass to spoil everything. Like the world as you know it is going to suddenly go
bang!

That’s the feeling I had that moment as I lay in bed, staring at Brad. Brad who was once my fiancé, then my ex, then my boss, then my fiancé again. Are you confused yet? I know I’d spent a long time being confused over my love life, but now everything felt right, and I was feeling pretty damn good about life, so this feeling I was getting of a doomsday cloud hovering over my head was très bizarre.

I propped myself up on my elbow, my eyes wandering with appreciation over Brad’s face. Closed eyelids with sexy, long lashes hiding his blue-grey eyes that changed colour depending on his mood. A smile that could melt an iceberg. Sensuous lips that could…well, that would be telling! My eyes wandered further, towards abs that Mr Universe would be proud of. Lower. Mmm. I licked my lips. Yep, Brad was Hot with a capital H.

Six months ago, I’d ended up moving in with Brad after Vinnie Dawson delivered a gazillion spiders to my apartment in an attempt to stop me asking questions about him. Call me strange, but there were much better things I wanted as a present. A lifetime’s supply of Chunky Monkey ice cream perhaps, or that sporty Mercedes I’d seen in a car showroom recently. Plus, I had a big phobia of spiders. No, that was putting it mildly. They scared the pants off me, and even though my apartment had been fumigated, I couldn’t bring myself to move back in case one of the little creepy crawlies was still lurking around in there somewhere, waiting to freak me out in the dead of night. Vinnie’s little stunt didn’t shut me up, though. I’ve got a big mouth and I’m not afraid to use it. Anyway, after that, Brad had asked me to marry him (again), and I’d never actually left his three-bed barn conversion since. Everything had been going perfectly. Better than perfectly actually, so why did I have this weird brain-hovering thought that something bad was going to happen?

I pushed back the duvet, padded to the bathroom, and hot-blasted myself in the shower with some lemon shower gel until my skin was pink. When I returned to the bedroom, Brad had his hands laced behind his head, dozing, so I pulled on some black skinny jeans and a black T-shirt, and ran my fingers through my curly mane to try and tame it so I didn’t look like I’d had a bad electric shock reaction in the night.

Downstairs, my ginger cat, Marmalade, greeted me at the kitchen door, meowing and rubbing his head against my leg. I wasn’t the only one who preferred Brad’s place to my old apartment. Marmalade loved it, too. Hell, what wasn’t to prefer? Brad’s house had lots of wooden beams and rustic character. It was spacious; he had constant hot water, and one of those huge fridges that could store more chocolate than Cadburys. It backed onto empty fields and the views were incredible. Since Marmalade was the new boy on the block, he’d been outdoors more than usual, chasing mice and getting lots of extra pussy attention. Actually, since I moved in, so had I, minus the mice, of course.

‘Hey, boy.’ I picked him up and gave him a quick cuddle, then grabbed two mugs from the cupboard along with a French press and switched the kettle on. I was scooping some fresh-roasted coffee into the press when Brad crept up behind me, sliding his arms around my waist.

‘Agh!’ Surprised, I spilled the coffee grains onto the granite worktop.

‘I’ve still got the knack.’ He grinned as I turned around.

‘Stop creeping up on me all the time.’ I playfully swatted his shoulder and looped my arms around his neck. Brad had learned a lot in his days in the SAS, but he’d get ten out of ten for stealth manoeuvres every time.

‘You want breakfast?’ he drawled in his Australian accent, grinning suggestively and kissing me full on the lips.

I raised an eyebrow. ‘What are we talking here? Food or something else?’

‘Food. Otherwise we’ll be late for work. Tia just phoned and said something urgent’s come in.’

When Brad left the SAS he’d started Hi-Tech Insurance. When I wasn’t being sexually harassed by my boss, I was his insurance investigator.

I unlooped my arms and turned my attention to clearing up the coffee as Marmalade growled at me and sat on my foot in protest at the lack of kitty chow heading in his direction. He swished his tail, slapping it on my ankle, telling me to get a move on.

‘I’ll feed him.’ Brad grabbed Marmalade’s bowl and poured the stinky biscuits into it. A side order of milk and Marmalade was in feline heaven.

As I made the coffee, my eyes followed Brad rolling up his shirtsleeves, pulling a frying pan from the cupboard and whisking some eggs for an omelette. He was good with his hands. In the kitchen and
definitely
in the bedroom.

‘So, Tia said on the phone she can’t wait for you to set the wedding date because she’s dying to get her bridesmaid dress,’ Brad said casually as he fried off some mushrooms.

‘Uh huh.’ I took a sip of coffee and gave him a look to show he wasn’t fooling me. ‘You mean
you
can’t wait for me to set the date.’ I was tempted to smile at his not so subtle hint, but I squashed it before he got any more ideas about the wedding.

‘Well, why wait any longer?’ He poured the egg mixture into the pan. It sizzled and bubbled in the olive oil.

‘Marmalade, what do you think? Meow once for “yes” and twice for “no.”’ I glanced down at my ginger fur ball. OK, yes, so I talk to my cat. Sometimes I also ask him to make decisions about my life. But in my defence, before you call me completely nutso, a lot of the time he gave better answers than some humans I’d met.

Marmalade glanced up from his food bowl and meowed once.

‘See,’ Brad grinned. ‘Even Marmalade can’t wait for you to set the date.’

‘OK, OK!’ I leaned my elbow on the breakfast bar, watching him work. He was always calm and relaxed, like his body was a perfectly tuned machine and motion was completely effortless for him.

Since I’d moved in everything had been domestic bliss, but was it all too good to be true? Was it about to come crashing down on me?

There it was again, that horrible, niggling feeling that something bad was about to happen. I shook my head to clear it of negative thoughts and sipped my caffeine fix.

‘What’s the urgent thing at the office?’ I skilfully deflected the conversation away from wedding dates, or the lack of them.

‘Not sure. Tia was babbling on about psychics and voodoo and a missing girl.’ He shrugged. ‘You know Tia. I hope she hasn’t been doing spells at the office again.’ He rolled his eyes.

I hoped so, too. Tia was the office receptionist who was psychic and did weird spells. Usually she made me do them, too, and something always ended up breaking. She was the daughter of American fashion designer Umberto Fandango, and her dress sense could only be described as screamingly loud. She’d ended up working for Hi-Tec after I’d investigated the suspicious disappearance of her dad.

‘Psychics and voodoo and a missing girl?’ I pondered this. Since Tia was going out with Hacker, who also worked at the office, maybe it was something to do with him. He was from Haiti and knew all about voodoo stuff. ‘Has Hacker got himself in trouble with something?’

‘No, Hacker’s fine. Apparently, a woman called Chantal Langton has gone missing.’ Brad handed me a plate with half the omelette on it. I took it, wishing it was a big bowl of Coco Pops. Since I’d moved in, Brad was trying to break my addiction to junk food and wean me onto healthy stuff. Yeah, good luck with that.
I mean, if junk food was really so bad for you, why did it taste so good?

I forked in a mouthful. Brad was a great cook, but a lack of chocolate and sugar in the mornings? Come on! How was a girl supposed to function properly? Oh, well, I’d just sneak in a chocolate bar when he wasn’t looking. Or a whole box, even. The way I saw it, a nice box of chocolates could provide all of your daily calorie intake in one place. How handy is that? Or maybe I’d stop for doughnuts on the way in. Doughnuts! Ooh, I was salivating at the thought. In fact, if I had an apple doughnut and a banana muffin, plus a box of chocolates that included orange creams, lemon creams, and strawberry creams, they’d easily count as my five fruit and veg a day.

‘Who’s Chantal Langton?’ I asked.

‘She’s insured with Hi-Tec, although I don’t remember her name so I’d need to check the file. Tia says Hacker’s got some info for us about the voodoo angle.’

‘Voodoo?’ I shuddered. OK, yes, I had a growing list of people I’d like to do voodoo on, but Hacker wouldn’t oblige. He said if you dished it out, you got it back three times over. Bad karma, and all that. And even though everyone on my voodoo-to-do list totally deserved it, the thought of voodoo dolls, turning people into zombies, and human sacrifices kind of freaked me out. Eeek!

****

An hour later, Brad and I arrived at the plush Hi-Tec office. Tia was on the phone as we entered reception, her blonde ringlets bobbing up and down with animation as she spoke. She caught sight of us and hung up, bounding around the reception desk towards us. Tia had a… how can I put it?...odd dress sense. Today she had on a pair of lilac boot-cut trousers, a clashing, yellow fitted shirt, and an orange tie. Where did I put my sunglasses?

‘Omigod!’ Tia said, her American accent even more pronounced when she got excited. ‘Chantal Langton’s gone missing.’ She handed me a file.

I took it, flicking through.

‘Her mother’s the famous voodoo priestess Nicole Langton and her father’s the big property developer James Langton. All three of them have life insurance with us in excess of £5 million, plus house and vehicle insurance,’ Tia babbled on. ‘Nicole Langton used to have her own TV show a few years ago. Did you ever see it? She’s sooooo psychic, it’s amazing!’ Tia nodded knowingly. ‘I went to see her about five times. She always gets everything right about people. She goes into these trances and connects with the spirit world and then tells people in the audience about friends and relatives trying to get in touch with them. She’s like totally awesome.’

I glanced up, unable to concentrate on both the file and Tia-babble at the same time. I knew what sort of show she was talking about. I’d seen them before, although never with Nicole, but I didn’t believe in all that mumbo-jumbo and thought it was all faked for the cameras. ‘Tia, those shows aren’t real. They’re just staged.’ I handed the file to Brad for him to look at.

Tia gasped, a hand flying to her chest as if she’d been mortally wounded. ‘They are real! I can prove it. Chantal told me things about my mum that she couldn’t have known.’

Sadly, Tia’s mum died when she was young. If Tia wanted to believe it was real, then who was I to burst her bubble? I let it go. ‘OK, I’ve never heard of Chantal or Nicole, but I’ve heard of James Langton.’

‘Langton Developments is one of the biggest development companies in the country,’ Brad said. ‘Shopping plazas, huge housing developments, hospitals – you name it, they’ve built it.’

‘When did Chantal go missing?’ I asked.

‘Five days ago,’ Tia said.

‘Have Nicole and James reported her disappearance to the police?’ Brad asked, skimming the file.

‘Uh huh.’ Tia nodded. ‘But Nicole said the police don’t take adult missing persons seriously until it’s been a week, so they’re not really doing much. And she heard Amber is the best investigator around so she wanted her to get involved in trying to find Chantal.’ Tia grinned proudly at me. ‘She’s offering a big bonus to find her daughter.’

Brad raised an interested eyebrow. ‘What sort of bonus?’