some sort of
Antsy, I got up and went across the little cobblestones to a shop that sold French cheese and wine. As I browsed, I kept an eye on La Creperie, but there was still no sign of Jeff.
Springsteen sang in my bag. I dug around until my fingers touched my cell phone, and I flipped it open.
“Hello?”
“Kavanaugh, you should be arrested for wearing that outfit.”
“Where are you?” I asked. “I’m here, but you’re not.”
“And when you get rid of those cops, I’ll meet you.”
I hesitated a second. “Cops? What cops?”
“Don’t play games, Kavanaugh. I’m not stupid. You never wear shirts like that, although I did like the one you wore on TV.”
He was here somewhere.
“You’re supposed to tell me why Matthew broke into my shop.” I was talking too fast, the words spilling out of my mouth on top of one another. “And why did you meet with Matt Powell at Versailles? What’s up with that?”
“No time for chitchat, Kavanaugh. You’ve got something in your shop they want.”
My chest felt heavy as his words sank in. Tim was right. “But my shop was trashed. Matthew probably got whatever it was.”
“No. He didn’t.”
He sounded so sure.
“How do you know this?” Skepticism seeped into my voice. “I mean, really, how do you know? Do you have something to do with this?”
“I’ve got my ear to the ground, something you should’ve thought of instead of traipsing off and becoming a TV star.”
“I didn’t choose that.”
“Fair enough. But really, there’s something everyone’s looking for, and everyone thinks you’ve got it.”
“What is it?”
Silence for a second, then, “Not sure.”
“Okay, so you’re getting on my case for not keeping my ear to the ground, but that’s all you’ve got?”
He didn’t answer.
“So what about Matt Powell? Why did you meet him? Do you know who did his ink? Was it you?”
“No.”
When he didn’t say anything more, I said, “You don’t know anything, do you? You don’t know what it is Matthew was looking for when he tossed my shop. You don’t know how Kelly got pregnant with your baby.” I was struggling to keep my voice down, but I wasn’t entirely successful. I began walking toward the casino.
“I do know,” he said softly.
“Do know what?” I barked.
“I know how she got pregnant.”
“Well, I think we can figure that out, can’t we?”
“It’s not what you think. Really.” He didn’t sound like himself, and I stopped walking, moving out of the line of foot traffic.
“Then what is it?”
“We had embryos.”
“What?”
“Embryos. For in vitro fertilization. We never used them; she left me before we could. I went to the doctor’s office yesterday. I got one of the nurses to tell me Kelly had three embryos implanted four months ago. One survived.
“The cops were right. She was pregnant with my kid.”
Chapter 49
He sounded so sad, so deflated. So I made an executive decision. I let him go.
I hung up and walked back to La Creperie, putting up my hands in a sign of surrender. Tim was already coming toward me.
I told him what Jeff had said, but he wasn’t as gullible as I was.
“You should’ve reeled him in,” Tim said. “There are still too many questions.”
“He said there’s something in my shop,” I said. “That’s why it got trashed.”
“What is it?”
I shrugged. “He said he didn’t know.”
“He’s pretty clever, feeding you bits of information to get your sympathy but not really telling you much more,” Tim said bitterly. “You should’ve gotten him to meet you.” He put his hand out, and I frowned, not knowing what he wanted. “Your phone. I want to see the number he called you from.”
That was easy enough. I gave it to him, and he gave the number to Nate, who wrote it down.
I knew the number, though. And I knew he wouldn’t get anything out of it.
“It’s Simon Chase’s number,” I said flatly.
Tim and Nate stared at me.
“He’s got Chase’s cell phone,” I said cryptically.
“Why?”
I tried to look nonchalant.
“Why does Jeff Coleman have Simon Chase’s phone, Brett?” I recognized the big-brother voice, but instead of the good “I’ll take care of Zack Turner” big brother, this was the one who always came out before he chased me around the yard threatening to “get” me for something or other.
“He… well, he got his hands on it last night at Viva Las Vegas. He said he’d give it back.” Had he? I wasn’t so sure.
Tim took a deep breath. “You do realize that even if the guy didn’t kill anyone, he is a thief?”
“Oh, yeah, I know that,” I said. “Believe me, I don’t like the guy-never did.”
Tim and Nate rolled their eyes at each other.
“Give us the wire,” Tim said.
“Right here?”
“Find a ladies’ room. We’ll wait.”
It did hurt pulling the tape off, in a different way from getting inked. In a worse way, really, because it left nothing but a big, red, raw patch of skin. The dragon had gotten caught under it, and he looked uncomfortable.
Almost as uncomfortable as I felt in the ridiculous outfit. I couldn’t wait to take off this shirt and change into my tank top.
I handed the wire to Tim as I stepped outside. “I’m done?”
“You weren’t much help,” he said. “I’m going to catch a lot of crap for using this stuff and not having anything to show for it.”
“Sorry,” I said, meaning it. “I didn’t get the cop genes.”
I must have touched a nerve, and it looked for a moment like he wanted to give me a hug, but Nate was hovering. It wouldn’t be macho, so he just said, “Let me know if anything else happens.”
“Sure.” So much had gone on in the last couple days, I wasn’t sure I could cram any more in. I needed to get back to the shop and help Bitsy pick up the pieces. I also needed to call the hospital and Joel and see how Ace was doing.
“I’m on my way back,” I said when I called Bitsy as I waited in line for a crepe. Might as well have lunch first; who knew when I’d get another chance?
“It’s okay. You don’t have to hurry. I’ve got a lot of it done already.”
