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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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The next thing I knew, it was Tuesday morning and Harvey was banging at my door.

Apparently, he wanted more money for the extra overnight. At least that was what he seemed to be yelling through the door. I will never be certain, since I pulled the pillow over my head, tucked Victor in beside me, and went back to sleep.

Later, Miko joined us for a late breakfast of leftovers. His eyes appeared almost hidden by the dark circles under them, and he had a five o’clock shadow that looked more like two in the morning. And it was still before lunchtime.

“Let me get you coffee, you look terrible.”

He smiled at me in reply.

“Thanks, Vee. For the coffee, if not for the compliment.”

A few minutes later, all the food was gone, and Luci got up to make more coffee. Miko was just inhaling it, and I realized that he must’ve been up all night.

“Are you alright, hun?” I reached over to cover his hand with mine. While I was closer to Miko’s husband, Benoit, I would always be grateful for the support Miko showed when I had been arrested for murder.

He nodded and finished his cup of coffee. “By the way, Jaqi, they found your laptop and camera in Carl’s trailer. They’re in evidence right now, but you can call your lawyer to get a copy of everything on your hard drive. And they’ll be given back to you after the trial.

Jaqi hopped up from her seat and gave him a loud kiss, right on the smacker. Luci looked relieved enough to faint, I guess it was hard living with a writer who’d lost all her writing.

Miko wiped his mouth, laughing. “I have other news, if you want to hear it.”

We all sat down and stared at him like eager children on the first day of school. He chuckled and began listing everything that he knew.

Turns out that the biker gang had been being investigated for the past three years for money laundering, drugs, murder, and human trafficking. Carl had been put there in what they call deep cover, which is dangerous because they can lose themselves in their role.

Which Carl had done, or rather, Officer Charles Gatsby. He’d become Carl, and his loyalties had shifted to the biker gang he was supposed to be investigating.

He’d done just as he told me, killed Keith for stealing money and drugs. That’s what the argument had been about in Keith’s trailer.

But I had more pressing questions than wondering about that no-good, two-faced liar. I was so done with men.

How had Victor come to be in my vardo when we’d gotten home? And why were the Carlisles at the biker hangout?

Turns out it was the same answer. The Carlisles were undercover OPP officers who had been spying on Carl and Keith. They’d had no idea Carl was RCMP. When we arrived at the trailer park, they’d started spying on us, too.

They also had watched me head out with my walker and Victor, so later on, when they found him whining and shivering next to the abandoned walker in the parking lot, they’d known something was very wrong.

They called Phelps and White, who admitted getting calls from me about the girls’ disappearance, and the Carlisles had read Phelps the riot act.

Meanwhile, Miko had been trying to get a hold of us all day and decided to drive up after no one answered his calls.

Which reminded me that all three of us needed new phones, as Carl had smashed ours to kill the GPS.

But the initial reason why Miko had wanted to track us down was to say that Aunt Bee’s best friend had contacted him with a strange story when the papers released her cause of death.

Aunt Bee had had a stalker! Lord Jesus in short pants, who stalks a ninety-four-year-old woman? And did her stalker kill her or see who did?

I would need to get serious about looking into Aunt Bee’s death, and Miko’s police partner owed me big for arresting me on trumped-up murder charges.

So, he was going to help whether he wanted to or not.

Victor let out a contented snore from my lap, and I reached down to rub his ears. Life just might be good again.

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