Christy Barritt - Squeaky Clean 08 - Foul Play (16 page)

CHAPTER 24

“Gabby!” Garrett
yelled.

In a split second decision, I pulled the wheel hard to the left. The van spun and spun. A blur of
asphalt and cars and blue sky muddled around me.

They said that before death your life flashed before your eyes. Right now, everything played at
fast-forward in my mind. My brother disappearing. My mom dying. Starting my crime scene business. Losing Riley.

All the way up to where I was today.
Stuck in a cyclical cycle of my own doing. Acting at times like my own worst enemy.

Was this it?

Somewhere in the chaos, I screamed. My hands gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles.

I was going to die and what kind of legacy would I leave behind? I
’d solved a few crimes. A few of my friends would miss me. But life would go on. In a few days, it would be like I never existed.

I waited for a crash. For impact. For the van to roll.

Instead, we came to a halt.

M
y head was still spinning, my breathing labored, and sweat dripped across my brow as I sat there in total shock for a minute.

“Are you okay?”
Garret asked.

I glanced over at him. Blood trickled down his forehead, causing another moment of panic in me.
That could have ended horribly.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed, desperately needing human contact at the moment.
“I’m okay. You?”

He
nodded. “I’ll survive. Come on. Let’s get out of here before another car rams us.”

When I stepped on the road, my knees felt too weak to hold me up. Thankfully, a whole army of bystanders surrounded us. Someone grabbed my elbow before I sank to the ground.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened.

My brake lines had been cut. I felt certain of it.

And Paulette had been the one with the most access to do just that.

***

A police officer gave us a ride back to Garrett’s place. After hearing the officers at the scene talk and thinking through things in my own mind, I’d come to the conclusion that my brakes had been cut, just not all the way. That way, whoever had done the deed wouldn’t look as guilty since the accident hadn’t happened immediately.

Back at Garrett’s, h
e’d insisted that, this time, I borrow one of his cars. My van had been hauled away to be examined by forensic techs. Thankfully, Garrett had walked away with only a cut on his forehead and some butterfly bandages. I’d walked away shaken.

But everything in my life seemed to be telling me to stop being chained down by my past. As my life had flashed before my eyes, that thought had only been re-emphasized.

Even in church today, the pastor had something about “the old is gone and the new has come.”

I really needed to get the hint.

Garrett and I walked through the parking garage outside of his apartment building. It was dark outside now, and the light in the garage was dim. The cold air crackled around us.

“You want to come up to my place a minute?” he asked at the elevator. “I’ll try to make sure no SWAT teams interrupt us.”

I appreciated his attempt at humor, but I couldn’t even smile. “I really should get home and return some phone calls that came in today. I’ve got to get my work lined up for the week.”

“You sure?” His gaze seemed to draw me toward him.

Before I could second guess myself, I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips. His hands went to my waist, encircling it, silently asking permission for more.

I expected the whole scenario to feel foreign. I waited to feel like I’d betrayed Riley. But instead of negative emotions, I felt hopeful. For the first time in a long time.

“What was that for?” Garrett asked, keeping his hands firmly planted on my waist.

“It was to say thank you. For everything.
”

“Feel free to say thank you anytime. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you’re grateful.”

My hands slipped around his neck. “You’ve been really good to me, Garrett. I appreciate it. Any normal person would have run from me today.”

He
leaned closer. “It’s a good thing I’m not normal then.”

Our lips connected again, for longer this time.

“I’d invite you up again, but now I’m thinking that would be a bad idea.”

I smiled, my lips still tingling. “Yes, a bad idea. But we’ll catch up later. Lunch maybe?”

“And the play is this weekend. You can’t forget that.”

“Believe me,
whether I want to or not, I can’t block that from my memory.”

His
thumb brushed against my cheek. “You’re going to be safe, right?”

“I will.”

He dropped his hands from my waist and intertwined my fingers with his. “Let me show you to your chariot then.”

***

My brain was still swirling with more than its fair share of dueling thoughts as I headed to my first job the next morning.

I met with the homeowner
first and went over instructions for what we were doing today. She signed a contract that I’d printed out last night, and I began making a list of what needed to be done and the order we should complete it all. This would at least be a two-day job, and I’d probably need to call in Chad and maybe even Braxton.

Clarice
arrived on time to help. I was pulling up some carpet that was officially considered a biohazard. The homeowner had left the house abandoned for the past six months and, in the meantime, it had become a hangout for druggies. There were needles and stains and even a couple of bullet holes. The whole place should have probably been condemned. Here I was instead.

I didn’t waste any time
engaging in small talk with Clarice. I couldn’t forget what Charlie had mentioned at Paulette’s house.

“I heard you went on a date,” I started,
keeping a watchful eye out for needles.

She
pulled her safety goggles on. “I started to tell you the other day but we got interrupted.”

“Don’t forget to wear thick gloves,” I told her. “We have to be really careful with the scene.” The job sometimes required living on the edge.

“Got it.”

“So, how’d the date
go?”

Her
face lit up. “It was great. I think he could be the one.”

I blinked. I’d been trying to
play it cool, but this was going to be much harder than I thought. “Wow. That serious, huh? You’ve got to be careful. You know that, right?”

“You sound like my Aunt Sharon,” she muttered, her smile slipping. She stepped over the carpet. “What can I do?”

“Start patching those walls. Everything you need is in that bucket.” I didn’t want her any closer to these needles than she had to be.

She picked up a patch kit and stared at it a moment. I could tell she wasn’t in a work mindset.

“So, who’s the lucky guy? Someone you met at the coffeehouse maybe?”

I
watched as she stiffened ever so slightly. “No, you were actually with me when I met him.”

“That guy who hit on you at the crime scene last week?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“I know
! That cute police officer who helped us move the furniture right after the scene was cleared at the shooting out in Chesapeake?”

Clarice frowned.
“It was actually … Parker.”

I thought I’d have to fake my surprise and indignation, but
it came back to me easily when I heard the words roll from her lips. “Parker? Have you lost your mind?” I dropped the carpet I’d just rolled, watching as it spread open again.

She shrugged, scooping up some putty.
Suddenly, she was very interested in working. “No, I haven’t lost my mind. Why would you ask that?”

“
You know he just had a baby. With another woman.”

She shrugged again.
“The baby is six months old now.”

“But Parker was still with Charlie up until a month ago.”

“Things were bad between them, though.” Offense stained her voice, but she paused for long enough to glance my way.

I couldn’t see her eyes because of her goggles, but I felt the death rays shooting from them.

“He’s older than you,” I reminded her.

“That’s a plus. Guys my age are total duds.”
She turned back to patching holes in the wall.

I stopped what I was doing, walked over to Clarice, and laid a hand on her arm. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but—”

She shrugged my hand off. “Then don’t. Don’t tell me what to do.”

I pulled back. Clarice had never spoken to me like that before. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Worry about yourself, Gabby. Certainly you have enough going on in your own life that you don’t have to butt into mine.” Derision dripped from her words.

“That’s not fair, Clarice. I know Parker. I know what he’s like.”

“He’s perfectly charming. The first time we met, he gave me advice on getting a degree in criminal justice. We realized there was something there.”

Frustration built inside me. Why couldn’t I get through to her?
“Clarice, he’s no good.”

“Says the woman who’s still
obsessed with a man who has no intentions of moving back to this area.”

My lips gaped open. “I’ve moved on, thank you.”

“You certainly don’t act like it.” She put the putty down. “You know what, I think I’m calling in sick today. I’m just not feeling this.”

“Clarice …”

“Parker warned me that you’d be judgmental.”

I could only imagine how that conversation had gone. “I just want what’s best for you.”

“That’s for me to determine.”

And with that, she left.

I rested my forehead against the wall, trying to figure out how I could have made that go better. Trying to think of what I should have said as opposed to what I did say.

I had no idea. Literally. No idea.

***

“Tonight, you need to practice be
ing on the wire,” Paulette said as I stood center stage during rehearsal.

I
tugged at the harness I’d struggled to both get on and adjust. With a final pull at one of the belts around my hip, I stole a glance at Mrs. Baker, hoping she’d object to this unnecessary torture. She shrugged.

“Don’t worry. We had everything checked out today
,” Paulette continued. “It’s safe. Sharen and Karen filled in for you.”

Sharen and Karen together probably didn’t weigh as much as an empty sack of flour.

The other cast members took steps back, their body language indicating that they were glad it was me and not them. I couldn’t blame them.

I cleared my throat. “How long ago did you check the wire?” All it would take was one minute of the stage being out of sight for someone to sabotage something.

“Just about an hour ago,” Mrs. Baker said. “How’s the harness feel?”

I tugged at it,
dread filling my stomach. “It feels good.”

“You remember the instructions we gave you?” Mrs. Baker continued.

I nodded and mentally ran through the safety precautions. Don’t jerk around. No horse play. Nothing unexpected. “I got it.”

“Let’s give it a whirl then.” Mrs. Baker patted my shoulder.

This was just … awesome.

This was the final scene, where the
Specter tried to take Elsa McGovernness with him to live in the secret confines of the theater because, of course, he’d fallen in love with her. Even though he was really a person and not a phantom, for some reason we still had to ascend into the ceiling—to make it more dramatic, I guessed.

I was all harnessed up, but my throat burned and my neck muscles were knit tighter than my grandmother’s old afghan blankets.
I was willing to take a lot of risks and do a lot of things to solve a mystery. But this one in particular had me seeing my life ending painfully.

“
Hold Jerome’s hand,” Mrs. Baker instructed.

Arie
smiled up at me from her safe little seat in the audience. “Break a leg.”

I scowled.

“What? That means good luck.”

“Hm
hm,” I muttered.

Bennie leaned closer. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “There was only one glitch when we tested it on Sharen and Karen. Everything’s fine now.”

The blood drained from my face.

Before I could argue anymore
, I was hoisted into the air. The sudden motion caused a rush of air to leave my lungs. I gripped Jerome’s hand. At least if my wire had been cut, maybe his hadn’t and I could hold on to him for dear life.