Guarded, page 24
part #2 of Tidewater Series
“This is my fiancée, Juliana Scott,” Seth said, placing an arm around Jules’s shoulders.
Ian didn’t seem at all bothered by Seth’s macho leaning. If anything, the guy smiled wider. “Why, Ms. Scott, how nice to meet you in person.”
Jules glanced to Shelley, explaining, “Ian and I spoke last month when I started the official search for you and Hannah. He was out of town and asked Dev to handle the case for him.”
“Oh.” Shelley wasn’t sure what to say or even feel. So she did what she did best. Pasting her best smile on her face, she extended her hand to Ian and said, “Congratulations. TSS solved that case. Dev found me. Do I get part of the commission because I really found him first?”
Ian laughed and shook her hand. “Nah, I think we’ll call it a draw, considering why we’re here now.”
Right, and thanks so much for the reminder.
As if sensing her discomfort, or maybe he was just tired of the delay, Dev said, “Let’s start with what we know. According to the news, a body was found in the trunk of a car at the Elkridge Zoo. We know that car belongs to Shells.”
Seth’s cell phone buzzed. He glanced at it and tossed it onto the table. “And now we know the name of the victim. He has been identified as Tomás Rodriguez, age twenty-eight.”
Shelley couldn’t help it, she started to cry and hated herself for it. “I mean, I suspected it was Tomás, but he was my friend.” Then it hit her. “What about Beau? He wasn’t hurt was he?”
“Who’s Beau?” Ryan asked at the same time that Ian said, “Why would you think that?”
Ian handed Shelley a white handkerchief. The act was so anachronistic with everything about the man, it momentarily stunned her.
Who carried around a handkerchief these days?
“Thanks,” she told him, then wiped her face. Turning to Ryan, she explained, “Beau is Tomás’s son. At least he would have been legally next week.” Shelley explained the legal entanglements Tomás and Beau had been facing. “The last time I saw Tomás, he and Beau were together. Beau was asleep in Tomás’s office at the zoo’s visitor center when I left them Wednesday night. Don’t you see? If Tomás was killed at the zoo, Beau was there. So where is he now? I need to call Jacob.”
“Why?” Dev asked.
Shelley explained about the morning’s phone call from Jacob. She left out the part about Jacob trying to trick her boss into hiring her back and focused on the pertinent details of the situation. “Wednesday night, Tomás told Beau he could leave the pet at his place. But Beau never picked him up.”
Without warning, the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. A cold wind blew from the vents on the wall. Ian frowned, rubbing at the goose bumps on his arms. “Dev, what’s with the heat in this old house? I thought you had the HVAC replaced last spring?”
“I did,” Dev said, calmly.
“Is she okay?” Ian asked, nodding at Jules.
Jules’s face went blank, as if she’d gone into a trance. Seth had his arm around her. Dev gave Shelley’s hand a quick squeeze, then he released her. All attention was on her sister.
Shelley recognized the look. She’d seen it more than once when they were children and again last night after dinner. Still, it unnerved her every time.
Shelley shivered. Dev moved to drape an arm around her shoulders. She wasn’t sure whether he was comforting her or himself, until he said, “Don’t worry. Seth warned me that she’s done this twice since dinner last night. He said she’s been snapping out of it quicker. Give her a second.”
Just as Dev predicted, Jules blinked and her expression cleared. But she didn’t look happy. No, Jules glanced at Shelley and Dev, past them to the curtained windows, and finally to the ground.
“Is she all right?” Ryan asked, looking at Jules with concern.
“Just a little light-headed. I need a minute—I feel a bit queasy,” Jules answered, pushing to her feet. She wobbled and to Shelley’s surprise, Jules reached for her. “Can you give me a hand? Excuse us, gentlemen.”
“Sure. We’ll be right back.” Shelley looped Jules’s arm around her waist and led her across the hall to the small half bath. Once inside, she grabbed a cloth from the shelf, ran it under cold water and dabbed it on her sister’s forehead and neck. “Better?”
Jules took the cloth with a weak smile and nodded. Several moments passed in silence. Just when Shelley would have suggested returning to the dining room, Jules spoke.
“He’s here.”
“Who?”
“Tomás.”
“Wait, what?” Shelley blinked at her sister’s solemn expression.
Jules swiped the cloth over the back of her neck again, tossed it into the sink and said, “Tomás is here. He’s been dead for a couple of days. The last thing he remembers is seeing you at the visitor center Wednesday night, then going to the security office.”
“Why is he here?” Shelley wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she needed to at the same time.
Jules shrugged. “Same reason most spirits hang around. He has unfinished business. He said he’s been looking for you and Beau but hadn’t been able to find either of you. Not until he heard you calling his name.”
“Oh, my God, he doesn’t know where Beau is? Don’t the dead always know everything after they die?”
Jules shook her head. “From what I can tell, being a ghost is nothing like in the movies. Sometimes they can’t even remember their own names. So I’d say your friend Tomás is doing pretty good for a recently deceased spirit.”
Shelley couldn’t quite see that. Tomás was dead after all. “Jules, do the dead always hear their names? Can they see other ghosts?”
“Not always.” Jules picked up the cloth and dabbed her cheeks. “It’s selective. They see those spirits they seek out. Kind of like how we can walk down the same street every day and never notice the guy with long hair who checks his mail at the same time each afternoon. He’s there, you know it, but you don’t really pay attention. Then one day, he calls to you and you see him. Really see him. Ghosts are the same way.”
“Does that mean that if I call for someone who died a long time ago, she’ll hear me?” Shelley asked, temporarily distracted by the idea of talking to her dead parents.
Jules pursed her lips with an apologetic look. “I’ve only been really trying to learn more about my crift for a short time, but no, I don’t think so. Spirits can only hear their names if they’re on this side of the light. I’ve never heard of anyone crossing back from the other side.”
For an instant, just a brief moment, the room’s temperature dropped. Shelley could almost swear she felt someone touch her cheek with an icy finger. She shivered.
“Shelley, we need to go back out there.” Jules pointed to the door, her eyes wide and her tone urgent. “You need to tell them everything that happened Wednesday night. Tomás says it’s important. That there’s something he’s trying to remember, and it has to do with you. And his murder.”
* * *
DEV HATED KEEPING secrets from his cousins, especially when they were here to help him. But it wasn’t his place to tell them about Jules’s ghost-seeing abilities. Granted, Ian and Ryan probably wouldn’t even flinch at the mention of ghosts or animal whisperers. Lord knew they had their own share of relatives with shiny talents that science couldn’t explain.
But without Jules’s consent, Dev was forced to sit and wait for the women to come back, while dodging his cousins’ probing questions.
“You sure she’s all right?” Ian asked. “She kind of looked like Aunt Marlene at the punch bowl.”
Aunt Marlene owned a crystal punch bowl that she swore, when filled with vodka, gave her glimpses into people’s past lives. Dev suspected it was more because of the vodka she would siphon off when she thought no one was watching than any real shiny talent.
“Juliana’s fine,” Seth said gruffly to Ian, but then rose. “Excuse me.” He disappeared into the bathroom.
Seconds later, Shelley emerged and joined Dev at the table. She sat with her hands folded, arms resting on the cherrywood tabletop. “Where do we start?”
Dev glanced at his cousins, then back to her. “Start at the beginning. If you’re right and you stumbled onto something that someone thinks is worth killing for, then we need to know everything you do.”
She nodded. “You know part of it. I moved to Elkridge last year from Baltimore.”
“Why did you move?” Ryan asked.
Dev wanted to silence his cousin, but understood. Ryan and Ian needed to hear it all too. Before she could answer, the bathroom door opened. Seth and Jules silently rejoined the group.
“I needed a fresh start after my fiancé . . . uh, left me,” Shelley said, staring fixedly at her hands. She quickly highlighted her trek from Baltimore to Elkridge. “When I first moved to town, everything seemed relatively normal. I mean the zoo was a little strange. But it was private, and the smaller zoos get away with more unusual stuff than the larger ones.”
“What sort of stuff?” Seth asked.
Shelley wrinkled her nose, clearly thinking. “Private zoos aren’t monitored as closely as the larger ones. So little things, like overcrowding in the reptile house, or having smaller-than-acceptable cages for the birds or improper feeding of the animals can happen.”
“Did you see all these things?” Ian asked.
She nodded. “And more, but what really bothered me was when the animals in the zoo would change from week to week. One week there’d be four green iguanas, the next none. Rare birds mysteriously flew away. Tortoises escaped and wandered the grounds. Sometimes their cages would not only be cleaned but filled with an animal from another part of the zoo.”
“Shells,” Dev said, placing a hand on her cool ones. “I’m not sure how much time we have, so let’s stay on track. You e-mailed me about missing animals.”
“Right.” Shelley exhaled audibly and explained about the missing snakes, birds, and escaped tortoises. “After I’d started documenting everything, Tomás took me into his confidence. As the groundskeeper and animal caretaker, he’d noticed the strange happenings too. He told me to watch out for the tigers. He explained that before I came to Elkridge, Miah, that’s the female white Bengal tiger I mentioned earlier, allegedly ate her cub. She didn’t. I’m sure of it. He was sure of it too. Now he’s dead, and I have a feeling what’s happening now is related to what happened then.”
When Ian and Ryan just frowned, Shelley glanced at Dev, confusion on her face.
“Shelley, I think maybe you need to tell the tiger part of the story chronologically. Go back to when you first arrived in town.”
She nodded and backtracked. “Okay, by the time I started working in Elkridge, Miah’s mate, Leonardo, had somehow escaped his cage one night. Rumor has it he was put down and the body disposed of. But no one can say for sure who put him down and who disposed of the body.”
“Did you try to find out what happened?” Ryan asked, his impassive face giving nothing away.
“Not really. I was new, and Miah was already pregnant with another litter. She had them at the end of the summer. Tomás called me the night she went into labor. He and I waited and watched her deliver five cubs.”
“How did you watch?” Ian asked.
“At the time, we had a camera working in the tiger house.” She swept her glance around the table. “There’s a security room in the old converted warehouse that serves as the visitor center on the zoo’s grounds. We watched from there. It was pretty amazing.”
“Tigers giving birth.” Ian grimaced. “Yeah, that’s prime-time television, all right.”
“Shut it,” Ryan said out of the corner of his mouth, before Dev could.
Ian winked at Shelley. “Sorry, darlin’. Go on.”
Shells stared at him as if he were some new species of monkey she’d never seen before, then smiled, tentatively. “Um . . . okay. Where was I?” She paused then snapped her fingers. “Right. When Dev and I went to the zoo on Wednesday, there were only three cubs. And Cristos told us the camera feed to the house had stopped functioning, so they don’t know when the cubs disappeared. But I think it happened Tuesday night.”
“What do you think happened to them?” Ian asked at the same time Ryan said, “What makes you think they vanished on Tuesday?”
She glanced from one man to the other then sighed. “I think the cubs were stolen. Like I told Dev, there’s a black market for exotic pets. People pay a lot of money for tiger cubs, especially white Bengals. And to answer your question, Ryan, I’m certain they disappeared on Tuesday, or I’d have heard from Tomás. He checked on them daily and was in charge of Miah’s care and feeding.”
“Any idea who would take them?” Seth asked.
Shelley seemed to deflate. “That’s just it. I have no idea. Everyone in town loves the tigers, well, except for Reyna. She’s the zoo owner’s daughter. And she accused me of stealing them. I just can’t imagine her wanting to risk her manicure by taking the tigers. I can’t figure out who’s sabotaging the zoo and taking the animals. It’s the reason I contacted Dev in the first place.
“If I’d had proof of wrongdoing, I’d have taken it to the authorities right away. Reptiles and birds might not be in a protected class, but tigers are. The USDA would have come in and investigated if I’d had one shred of evidence that anything was wrong.”
Shelley slapped her hands to the table. “Why are we just sitting here? Tomás is dead, two cubs have been stolen, and Beau is missing.”
“Shells, I know this is stressful, but you need to trust us. Ian and Ryan will believe whatever you tell them. Let us work out a plan of action. Together.” Dev covered her hand with his. Although he wasn’t surprised when she withdrew from his touch. He’d sensed her putting up her guard last night, but it didn’t make it suck any less.
“Shelley, you need to remember everything that happened Wednesday night,” Jules said suddenly. Still pale, Jules grabbed Shelley’s hand as if to steady herself. Unlike with Dev, Shelley didn’t withdraw from her sister’s touch. Jules licked her lips nervously and said, “Tomás came to me and said he needs Shelley to remember what happened on that night. It’s tied to his murder.”
“I’m trying to tell them everything.” Color flooded Shelley’s cheeks. “Dev was with me until after three. I typed up my notes. Remembered I needed my flash drive, which was in my car. Walked to the zoo parking lot, where the car had died earlier. Called the mechanic on my way home. Ate dinner, packed, and. . . .” Her voice trailed off. Her red brows knitted together in concentration. “I don’t know. I think someone knocked at the door, maybe? Then nothing. Just a migraine the next morning.” She shoved to her feet. “This is a waste of time. There’s nothing else to remember.”
“This is not a waste of time, we’re gathering information,” Dev said. He wanted to be the one to soothe her, but she refused to listen to him.
“I’ve got to get back to Elkridge. I need to find Beau.” She pushed to her feet.
“Shelley, you cannot just take off. You heard the television report yourself. The sheriff is already looking for you. Going back to town will just land you at the station at best. Or worse, they’ll arrest you on the spot.”
“Seriously?! Aren’t you supposed to be telling me to turn myself in?” she asked, nonplussed. “Couldn’t just talking to me hurt your career?” She glanced at Seth. “And yours?”
“She’s right,” Seth said. Jules gasped her fiancé’s name and glowered at him. “Precious, if they have already issued an arrest warrant, then Jones and I are jeopardizing our futures, hell, our freedom, by not bringing her in. We should be trying to convince her to go to the station.” Seth included Dev in his argument. “You know I’m right, Jones. We need to take her in.”
“That’s not going to happen.” Dev fought the rise of fury burning in his chest. “Seth, you didn’t question Jules for twenty-four hours after she found that body in October. Don’t lecture me about doing the right thing for my career now.”
“I’m not going to allow anyone to risk their futures for me.” Shelley crossed her arms, defiance in her eyes. “I can handle this on my own.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Damn it, why was she being so stubborn?
“I’ll go talk to Deputy Munro. He knows me. He can’t honestly believe I’d hurt anyone.”
Jealousy, ugly and green, pricked Dev in the center of his chest. “Your old boyfriend?”
“It was one date! And who are you to judge me? One night in bed with you doesn’t give you the right to dictate my life. You want to arrest me? Go ahead. Otherwise, get out of my way.”
Christ, she was going to make him crazy. In his head, he had known this was coming, had sensed it from the moment she’d snuck out of his room this morning. She was pushing him away. But he hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.
Perfect! His cousins and partner get to witness his humiliation. Seth, Ian, and Ryan were all staring at the ceiling as if it were the Sistine Chapel.
“I’ve got to go. I rescind my request for help, Dev. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.” She must have seen Jules’s pained expression because she added, “I mean I don’t need anyone else to get hurt. Not because of me. I can handle this. I was wrong to contact Dev. Wrong to come here.” Her face crimson and her eyes swimming blue sapphires, Shelley turned to leave.
“Please wait, Dr. Morgan,” Ryan said, softly. His deep, calm tones reverberated through the room. “I respect your situation and the difficulty we all face, but don’t leave yet. I think you’ve given us more information than you realize. Let me consult with my cousin.”
Dev could only assume Ryan meant Ian because the two men put their heads together and whispered.
Shelley, seemingly placated by Ryan’s quiet demeanor, slowly sank back to her chair. Her face still red, she clasped her hands together until her knuckles were white. She refused to glance at Dev. Instead, she stared at the table. Dev’s gut twisted at the chasm building between them. He had no intention of allowing anyone to arrest Shelley for a crime she couldn’t have committed. But she seemed determined to throw herself under a bus in order to find a missing boy and a pair of tiger cubs she might never be able to locate.
