alive. Now to get that sweatshirt, maybe drive to Virginia City, have a little fun, maybe even do a little gambling herself.
She raised the top, was about to get out of the car, when her cell rang. She checked the display.
“ Hello, Mansfield.”
“ I just got off the phone with one of the cops on the scene.” Mansfield sounded like a horny eighteen year old with a hard on trying to bust his zipper. “She killed three people. What are you going to do about it?”
“ Who killed three people? Amy, the kid who goes to UNR, or her mysterious brown-eyed cousin?” She sighed into the phone. “It doesn’t matter. This is too high profile for me. I’m out of it.”
“ We had a deal.”
“ You know, Mansfield, I’m getting the impression you’re keeping something from me.”
“ Lila-”
“ Think carefully, Mansfield. Because if you lie to me now, you’ll never see me again.” She smiled. “Oh heck, go ahead and lie, you’re never going to see me again anyway.”
“ You don’t want to make an enemy of me, Lila.”
“ Hanging up now.”
“ I’ll give you five million dollars.”
“ Whoa!” That was a shocker. “You’ve got my attention.”
“ Bring me the girl and the money’s yours.” No beating around the bush now. “I’ll transfer it to whatever bank you want.”
“ Just alive, not drugged?”
“ You know, don’t you?”
“ I do.”
“ It’s like a death glitch,” Mansfield said.
“ Say again.”
“ You know, like when your computer screws up, you call it a computer glitch. I’m calling this a death glitch, because it looks like Mr. Death screwed up with Dr. Eisenhower.”
“ Okay, I don’t need to know anymore.” She closed her eyes, fisted a hand on the wheel, gripped it tight. She was going back to work. That had to be the shortest retirement on record. “What about Amy?”
“ Forget about Amy. I could give a shit. Just get me Isadora Eisenhower. Can you find her?”
“ I think so.”
“ You wouldn’t double cross me, would you? That wouldn’t be good.”
“ Mansfield, I’m a behind the scenes girl, not the sell to the highest bidder kind. I’ll get you your girl, you have my word and you know once I give it, I don’t break it.”
“ I knew I could count on you.”
“ I’ll get back to you when I have her.” She clicked her phone closed and sighed, because it wasn’t exactly true what she’d told him about keeping her word. She’d given it to Isadora Eisenhower, promised her she’d leave her be and now she’d just broken that promise. She’d just sold the one bit of integrity she’d allowed herself, but she’d done it for a whole lot of money.
“ Sorry, Dr. Eisenhower.” She had to go home now and get her laptop, because the GPS tracker she’d put on Amy Eisenhower’s car wasn’t the only one she had. She kept one on both her cars, in case they got stolen. And that was unfortunate for Isadora Eisenhower.
Although the dead in the house, who had been identified as Eric Ackerman and Niles Lundgren, security guards at St. Catherine’s, had been shot to death, Dr. Shaffer didn’t have a mark on him. The whack job neighbor said a dog had attacked him and Shaffer’s coat had been ripped, but the dog hadn’t broken skin. Heart attack was what first came to mind.
Mouledoux had no doubt about who’d killed these men. Dr. Isadora Eisenhower, but how could he go to the chief with that? He’d need a copy of that DVD and he’d need Doctors Romero and Jordan to back him up. That sleazeball Drake, too. The chief was a lawyer himself, he’d believe Drake. Hell, maybe he wouldn’t. Mouledoux was having a hard time believing it himself.
Back at the station, he logged onto his desktop, found Simon Drake listed in the white pages; convenient. Romero and Jordan were as well; very convenient. He didn’t want to wake the doctors before the sun came up, but he might enjoy getting that Drake character out of bed.
He looked around for Peeps. But the man had gone home. Couldn’t blame him, they’d been on the job for seventeen straight. Peeps had a wife and kids who needed to see him at the breakfast table on occasion. Mouledoux didn’t need his partner for this. Besides, Peeps was a go by the book, don’t rock the boat kind of cop. He wouldn’t enjoy rousting Drake like Mississippi Bob Mouledoux would. Truth be told, Peeps would argue against it.
Mouledoux grabbed his coat and ten minutes later he was ringing the lawyer’s bell, but the man didn’t answer. Either he wasn’t home or he was deaf. He was about to leave when his spine felt like an icicle was sliding up it.
Shaffer was dead.
The icicle got colder.
Mouledoux went to the front window, peeked in, saw nothing untoward. He went around to the side of the house, busted a pane in one of the dining room windows, unlocked it and climbed through. If he was wrong about this, they’d have his badge, but the coppery smell of blood coming from the kitchen told him he wasn’t wrong.
Chapter Ten
Lila knew she’d have to dump the car, but dammit, it was growing on her. She’d sort of thought of it as a symbol of her new life, one where she wouldn’t have to remain in the shadows. But she was going to have to keep on being low key, at least until she delivered Dr. Eisenhower to Mansfield Wayne.
Five million dollars! Manny must really believe there could be a death glitch, like the grim reaper could fuck up. Okay, he did screw up with Dr. Eisenhower, because she was alive and very young. That was a fact. She’d seen her with her own eyes, talked to her. Now where was she?
She pulled into her driveway, instinctively reached for the glove box and the garage door opener, which wasn’t there. Dammit, she’d left it in the Crown Vic. She hadn’t been thinking, but in her defense the situation had been a bit stressful; a bit unusual too.
She got out of the car, was at her door when the idiot Harvey Weinstein from next door called out from his front porch. He was approaching Alzheimer’s, but until he got there, he was and would remain the unofficial neighborhood watch.
“ Hey, you got a new car.”
“ Yeah.” She hated neighbors, especially Harvey, couldn’t understand why they couldn’t mind their own business.
“ Nice.”
“ Thanks.”
“ You gonna come over Friday for the potluck?”
“ No, Harvey, I’m going to be out of town.” She gave him a glare. He invited her to some neighborhood function at least once month. She always declined, but he never stopped inviting.
“ Maybe next time,” he said as she keyed the door.
“ Maybe.” She went in, closed the door after herself, but dammit she wasn’t closing Harvey out, because she was going to have to face him when she opened the garage to move the car in. In the garage, she hit the button for the garage door, went out to the car and there he was, standing next to it, leaning on his cane as he ran run a hand over the hood.
“ Harvey!” This was a violation of her space and she didn’t like it. He belonged over on his porch, not in her driveway.
“ There was a time I’d’ve loved a car like this. One like your Jag, too. That’s quite a car.”
