Checkered Thief (A Laurel London Mystery Book 3) Read online

  My eyes slid up to meet Derek’s. There was a fear in his eyes that I had never seen before. When I found myself in trouble before, I could always count on Derek to feel better. He always had the right words and his eyes always told me everything was going to be fine. I drew peace and strength from him. Not today. Today there was bitterness and anger that told me I was in deep shit.

  “You call Brittany and tell her that I need to see her right now,” I demanded. “Right now.” I could see him ponder what I was asking. “If you care any little piece about me, you will call her. And he is my lawyer. I don’t have time to explain to you why he is my lawyer at this moment, but I will.”

  It was then and there that I knew I was in real trouble.

  “No funny stuff.” Derek uncuffed me and pointed to the bench outside of the station. “Sit there and don’t move.”

  “Thank you.” Ben took off his bolero hat and tucked it under his arm, standing over me when I sat down on the bench.

  I rubbed my wrists where the cuffs had been clamped around them.

  “Tell me what is going on.” Ben didn’t play around. He was in the business of getting things done.

  I looked around to make sure no one was around and began my sordid tale about everything.

  “A couple of years ago, I was helping Derek celebrate his graduation from the police academy.” I wasn’t sure why I told him all the details of the passionate night with Derek, but I started there and took him clear to today. “Now I want him to be happy. So I agreed to help Bethany save Brittany. I thought I would give her the money from my grandfather but then the kidnappers said they wouldn’t turn her over without the money and the tapes from the parking garage.”

  “Why didn’t you turn it over to the police?” Ben asked a question I’m sure several people wondered.

  “Like you, I’m in the business of keeping my family close. The kidnappers said no cops or they would kill Derek too. I’ve seen pictures of Brittany in their hands and it’s not pretty.” Tears formed on my eyes. I hated when I got emotional. But Derek did that to me. “I figured if they got my money, it was not like Bethany had to steal any more from the casinos like she was doing. That is why they took Brittany. They wanted Bethany to do one last heist for them and she refused because it was Glitz and Glam. They knew Brittany was her twin and they figured it would be easy for them to get in one big pay day.”

  “If Derek is so much in love with this Brittany, wouldn’t he know the difference between the two somehow?” Ben asked.

  “Bethany has had open heart surgery and Brittany has not. She showed me all the documentation from the surgery for me to check out. She’s not going to sleep with Derek so he wouldn’t see the scar.” The thought of Derek and Brittany together really did a number on me. But I had to keep reminding myself the reason I was in this position was because I wanted him to be happy. Completely happy and if that meant with Brittany, I was going to do whatever I needed to do.

  “The only crime I am guilty of here is going into the security room with Brittany’s pass. I didn’t take the SIM card nor did I take that money.” I only stated the facts. “I don’t need that money. I have money. Or did you forget that?”

  “No, but the money came up missing today. Then someone saw you go into the security camera room and reported it to the guards. Someone besides Bethany has their eye on you and now you are being framed for this.” Slowly he put the cigar back in the corner of his mouth. He looked up to the sky and took a long draw before letting it out in one big puff. “In order to help you, I might have to give your true identity.”

  “But I never wanted anyone to find out who I am. I mean…” I picked at my fingernails. “Other people could be out there to seek revenge on a family I never knew.”

  From the little research and information I had gotten on my family history, The Gorilla offed a lot of people, including members of the Cardozza family when they were trying to take over my family’s territory in New York. My parents got in the line of fire leaving a restaurant one night while I was at my grandfather’s. They were shot and killed. It was my grandfather’s big idea to put a “fake” orphanage in the middle of nowhere, Walnut Grove, Kentucky, and send me there to be raised by Trixie Turner. In order for the orphanage to seem legit, my grandfather opened it up to homeless children he handpicked to be around me. It wasn’t until recently that I found out where my DNA truly came from and the truth behind it when a member of the Cardozza family had come looking for me. Let’s say the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree in my lineage. Like my grandfather, I was just as passionate about my orphan family, including Derek. That was why I was willing to do anything for him growing up and still now.

  “You are going to have to go in there, get booked and I’m going to have to see if I can get any of this sorted out before it’s too late.” The cigar, flicked from his fingers, fell to the ground. Ben used the toe of his shoe to snuff it out. “And see if you can get Brittany to talk to you. Bethany.” He waved his hand in the air. “Whoever she is.”

  The door to the station opened and Derek’s head popped out. “I’ve gotten word the news media was contacted. I’d say you better get inside before they get here.”

  “Okay.” Ben waved his hand toward the door for me to go. “I’ll be in contact. Is there anything I can get you to make you more comfortable?”

  “No.” I shook my head. Derek was there. Surely, he’d believe me.

  I walked into the station and through the door. The receptionist sat at the desk behind the glass window and just stared at me. Derek did the whole booking process with the fingerprints and kept the silence between us until he got me into the only cell there was, which was next to his desk. He kept the bar door open but didn’t come in.

  I sat on the thin mattress on top of the concrete structure that was supposed to be a bed and Derek sat in his office chair.

  “Sorry about how hard it is. We really never have overnight guests that aren’t drunk. We are really just a holding facility for criminals that get transported to Lexington.” He sucked in a deep breath. “You might get transferred by the end of the night.”

  “What?” My mouth dropped. “Listen. This is all a big mistake. Brittany can tell you.”

  “Tell you what?” Bethany conveniently stood inside the door.

  “Thank God you are here!” I threw my hands in the air. “Now we can clear this entire thing up. Go on and tell Derek about the money.”

  Derek jumped up and slammed the cell door shut.

  “Don’t worry.” I snarled. “I’m not going to attack her.”

  Jax Jackson walked in and stood behind her.

  “Well?” Jax didn’t look me in the eye. “Is that the woman you saw in the room with the money in her hands?”

  “Yes.” Bethany’s voice was stern and to the point.

  I looked between the three of them.

  “Are you sure?” Jax asked her again.

  “Yes I am but there is a reason I was in there. Jax! Brittany! Bethany!” I screamed.

  Her eyes flew over to me with a “shut the hell up” look in them.

  “I’m going to be in deep shit here if you don’t straighten this out,” I grabbed the bars. I felt like a caged animal. Playing nicey-nice was over. Bethany walked out. “Do you hear me?” I gripped the bars and stuck my nose through them.

  All of the sudden, I burst out laughing, jerking the bars, trying to move them. It was as if the crazies were not going to stay inside any longer.

  “Laurel?” Derek kept a safe distance from me as though getting closer would break the barrier of his tough guy act. “Are you sure you are okay?”

  “Oh my God,” I blurted out, releasing the bars and falling down on the hard bed, with my face looking at the ceiling. “Did I just look like that crazy guy from the Shining? You know the movie you and I used to watch all the time?”

  “Jack Nicholson?” Derek laughed, his dimples, though not deep, did appear. “Here’s Johnny.” He did his bes
t crazy impression. “Yeah, you did.” He laughed again.

  I folded my hands on my stomach and continued to look up. It was time to come clean.

  “So I’m rich. I’m really rich. As in millionaire rich.” Saying it out loud was something I never let myself do. “You see I’m from a mob family in New Jersey. My mom’s name was Veronica and well. . .” None of that mattered. “Anyway, my grandfather, The Gorilla called a meeting at Sal’s Pizza when the Cardozza family was trying to take over, I was a baby.” My sentences continued to run together. “I was with my mob grandfather and my parents got killed in the line of duty, leaving me an orphan. The Gorilla stuck the orphanage here to hide me and hired Trixie. That was why I was never adopted. Long story short, Trigger Finger Tony was right.”

  When Trigger Finger Tony came looking for me a few months ago, I did a good job of making him look crazy when he told everyone who I was when his ass was being hauled off to jail after I uncovered who he really was and his arms smuggling ring. None of that mattered now. The only thing that mattered was that Derek knew I wasn’t lying.

  “But that’s not the end of it. Oh nooo. . .” I sat up and looked at Derek. He was looking at me in disbelief. “Ben Bassman the lawyer you met, he is my family lawyer. Trixie knew about all of this and The Gorilla left me millions of dollars. I’m not even sure how much. That was how I got the orphanage because I already owned it. Then this casino came to town, Brittany got kidnapped because her twin Bethany is in on casino heists and refused to do her last job, which is the Glitz and Glam. So they threatened to kill you and Brittany if they didn’t get the money and the video footage of them kidnapping her from the casino the other night after the bowling alley.” I snapped. “They lured Brittany back to the casino after my big scene. That was when they kidnapped her and you found her, only it was Bethany, walking back.” I stopped talking because I could see he was trying to process everything I was saying.

  “You just don’t stop do you?” Jax spit from the door. “You just can’t handle Derek and her together. You have become so obsessed with this that you have gone as far as trying to make it look like Brittany did all of this.” He shook his head. “Once a criminal always a criminal. I’m done, Laurel. Good luck with all this.”

  He turned and walked out.

  “Derek, I don’t care if he doesn’t believe me,” I pleaded at the edge of the hard bed. “As long as you do. You are in danger. Do you understand?”

  “All I understand is that this has made you lose your mind. And I really do think you need help, Laurel.” He gave me one last look before he headed out the door too.

  “That bitch better get this straightened out.” I closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was being violently shaken by none other than Willie Ray Bowman.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Well, well, well.” He let go of my arms and took a couple of steps back. “The shoe is on the other foot.”

  He looked good. Willie Ray always looked good. A James Dean type. He even was a bad boy that was hard to resist. Willie Ray was my first love and my fiancé who left me at the altar. The altar was a little chapel in Nashville, Tennessee and Gia, Derek and I had skipped school to go get hitched. School had called Mr. Chiconi to tell him Gia was not at school and all hell broke loose. I had never seen Trixie drunk but that night she got shit-faced. It wasn’t pretty.

  Granted, Willie Ray didn’t show up because he was in federal prison for robbing a bank and accused of killing a police officer, but he could’ve at least made the one phone call to me. Instead, he called Sally Bent and Bo and Curly Dean for help. I had never heard from him again until a few months ago when he escaped prison and returned right here on my doorstep begging me to help him and asking for forgiveness. I could forget, but forgiveness was not in my sight.

  Gia and Derek were sworn to never speak his name again and when he showed up a few months ago, Willie Ray did convince me he didn’t rob the bank nor did he kill the officer. Out of the goodness of my heart, I helped him figure out what happened and now he was free. Free as a bird to fly wherever he wanted.

  Obviously, he landed here, ready to shit on my shoulder because his grin was as snide as the tone in his voice. Images of me standing in that run down chapel proud as a peacock in my secondhand wedding dress with yellow staining around the edges appeared in my head as I looked at him through the bars.

  “I should probably take a picture of this.” He grinned. His voice was courteous yet patronizing at the same time. If I could reach him through the bars, I would have smacked the smirk off that handsome face of his.

  Willie was a rebel in every sense of the word. He stood there on the other side of the cell with his hands plunged deep into the front pockets of his blue jeans. His white t-shirt was barely visible underneath his black leather jacket. His black hair was neatly gelled with the perfect amount and his dark eyes hooded like a hawk with deep-set amusement. He was enjoying every bit of seeing me locked up.

  After Willie Ray left me, I had sworn off men. He had not only stolen my virginity, he stole my heart. . . that was until the night Derek and I. . .well, I couldn’t think about that night. It was over and Derek had Brittany.

  “Don’t be an ass and get me out of this godforsaken place.” I gripped the bars and shook them like I had the strength of The Hulk. “You know and I know I didn’t rob the damn casino. I was framed because someone knew I was snooping around.”

  “Snooping, huh?” Willie Ray pulled his hands out of his pockets and rubbed them together. He knew me so well and knew that I was always sticking my nose in places I totally shouldn’t be. “Something I need to be involved in?”

  “How did you get in here?” I asked. Derek had left for the night hours ago and the only person here had to be the dispatcher up front who had checked on me a couple of times.

  By checking, I mean sticking his head around the corner to make sure I was there or hadn’t hung myself with the thread-barren sheet. Derek didn’t know I heard him, but he told the dispatcher before he left to check on me and make sure I wasn’t in there hurting myself.

  “I have my ways.” He tilted his head toward a door on the far side of the room. “Breaking and entering is a gift. Or have you forgotten what a good team we are?”

  “Leave,” I whispered through gritted teeth. “I don’t feel like you rubbing this in my face. Or risk Derek finding you.”

  “Derek,” Willie Ray scoffed with his oh-so-cool smirk on his face. His worn black leather jacket groaned as he crossed his arms and leaned up against the bars. “He’s wussy. Trixie called me.” His eyes hooded. “You know when Trixie calls me, she’s serious.”

  Derek hated Willie Ray for what he did to me. He told me that Willie Ray was going to break my heart and he was right. Willie Ray hated Derek because of how close Derek and I were when I was inches away from becoming Mrs. Willie Ray Bowman.

  But Trixie. She kicked Willie Ray out of the orphanage so many times, I’d lost count. As always, Trixie loved him like her own and welcomed him with open arms a few months ago. Luckily for me, he has stayed out of my way. Until now.

  “Even if she hadn’t called me and I found out from someone else that you were here, I’d have still come.” He clenched his chiseled jaw and stared deep into my soul with those deep brown eyes.

  I tried to keep my eyes focused on his, but they had their own mind and roamed to the t-shirt underneath his leather coat and down to his Wranglers. Even after all of these years, Willie Ray still had a great body and I knew exactly what was under there.

  “Now.” He uncurled his arms and pushed off the bars. He held his finger in the air. There was a key dangling from it. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

  “With you?” I shook my head. “No way. I’ll wait for Ben Bassman.”

  “The evidence is all pointing to you. You were holding the cash and trying to steal the security footage of you doing it. It’s all there and running all over the news.” He held the key through the bars. “It’s your ticke
t to freedom so you and I can find the real robbers.”

  “I know who the real robber is.” I grabbed the key from his finger and didn’t dare look at his face because I knew he’d have a huge smile there and I hated for him to think he was right.

  “Then let’s go find him.” Willie Ray stood back and watched as I broke myself out of the cell by sticking the key into the lock and turning it so slow that it didn’t make any noise.

  Without a word between us, I followed Willie Ray to the back door of the police station.

  “What are you doing?” Willie Ray asked, confusion showing in his eyes.

  I had stopped at the door and looked back at Derek’s desk. There was a framed picture of the two of us from when we were kids. He was holding a fishing pole I had given to him for his birthday a long time ago. Those days were long behind us. Behind me. I had to save myself. I had to let him and those memories go forever.

  “Let’s go.” Willie Ray grabbed my hand and jerked me out the door to freedom.

  The night air should’ve felt good on my face, but it only made me realize I had just kissed my entire friendship with Derek Smitherman goodbye.

  “What was that back there?” Willie Ray asked once we made it through the wooded back area and to the road.

  “What’s that?” I asked looking at the motorcycle that was hidden behind a tree and ignored his question. He didn’t need to know that I had just given up my relationship with Derek. Willie would revel in it and it was something I didn’t need.

  “Our ride out of here.” He cleared the brush, unsnapped a helmet from the back and handed it to me. “Put it on.”

  “Where’s yours?” I asked plunking it over my head.

  “I don’t use one.” He stood over me and snapped the strap for me. His hand lingered a little too long on the strap and his big brown eyes stared down at me. “I know there is no future for us. I can tell by the way you look at me that you don’t see me that way anymore, but I’d never leave you in there. I know you are innocent. You are a lot of things, Laurel London and yes, a small town criminal, but not a federal nut job.”