DANIEL AWOKE THE NEXT MORNING TIRED AND RESTLESS. Though he had done a good job of hiding his reaction, meeting Bertice at the cancer walk had shaken him. Bertice was the woman who had unknowingly captured Phil’s heart. Phil said she was innocent, but how innocent could she be? And what about Destiny? Did she know her friend was involved with Phil? Was she involved herself? She didn’t strike him as the kind of woman to fall for something like this. But Natalie had hinted that her friend’s financial situation was shaky. Destiny was involved with Phil’s scam. He knew it in his gut. What was he going to do? He couldn’t talk to Gavin or Natalie because of the promise of secrecy he’d made to William and George before agreeing to take on the case. There was no point in calling them either since he knew they would tell him to keep quiet and let the situation play itself out. He just wasn’t sure he could sit by and let the women get themselves in deeper. That’s why he was seated at this Waffle House waiting for Phil. He had a plan.
“Hey, man,” Phil said when he joined him at the table. “What’s so urgent that we had to meet this morning? Nobody’s up for breakfast this early on Sunday except preachers, lovers, and truck drivers.”
Daniel didn’t even smile at Phil’s teasing words. “Thanks for meeting me,” he said.
“No problem,” Phil said, taking a seat. Almost immediately, the waitress came over, poured him coffee, and took his order. Unlike him, Phil didn’t settle for coffee. No, he also ordered the Hungry Man breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage.
“That’s a heavy breakfast,” Daniel said.
Phil took a long swallow from his cup of coffee. “I’m sure you didn’t get me down here this early in the morning to discuss my breakfast caloric intake.”
“No, I didn’t,” Daniel said. “Did you sign up a Destiny Madison in the last few days?”
Phil nodded. “Bertice brought her in. She’s one of her friends. I didn’t want to do it but you told me I had no choice. I had to keep doing things the way I’d always done them.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Daniel said. “But we have a problem, so we have to make some adjustments.”
“What kind of problem?” Phil asked.
“I know Destiny. She’s a close friend of close friends of mine and so is Bertice.”
Phil sat back in his chair. “You’re joking, right?”
Daniel shook his head. “I wish I was but I’m not.”
“So are you going to tell them what’s going on?”
“You know I can’t,” Daniel said. “If they knew what they’d gotten themselves into, they’d want out and right now they can’t get out. If we’re going to catch these guys, we need to keep the status quo.”
The waitress brought Phil’s food and then returned to the table and refreshed both their coffees. After nodding his thanks to her, Daniel said, “We’re going to have to keep a close eye on them. If they find themselves in trouble because they were victims of the identity theft part of the scam or some other scam that we don’t know about, I need to know.”
“And how do you propose we keep an eye on them?”
Daniel met his eyes and smiled. “You’re going to ask Bertice out.”
Phil’s eyes widened. “No I’m not. I can’t.”
Daniel nodded. “Yes you can.”
Phil shook his head. “I can’t date her while I’m lying to her. I’d been holding out some hope of us getting together once your team gets to the bottom of all of this.”
“It’s not ideal, I know,” Daniel said, understanding the man’s reluctance, “but it’s our only option right now. We have to watch out for them.”
“You may be right,” Phil said. “But my asking Bertice out after all this time is going to seem odd.”
“Not if she knows you’ve been interested in her for a long time.”
Phil’s eyes widened. “And how’s she going to know that? I’m not going to tell her.”
“I’ll mention it to Destiny,” Daniel said. “I’ll suggest that the four of us do something together. My friend and his wife have been trying to fix me and Destiny up since I arrived in town, so she won’t suspect anything out of the ordinary.”
Phil forked some pancakes into his mouth. “What makes you think she wants to go out with you?”
Daniel smiled to himself. “I feel pretty sure she will. We hit it off when we met. But if she won’t do it for me, she’ll do it for you and Bertice. I’ll tell her that you’re trying to find a way to get to know Bertice better and you need her help. She’ll go for it. Women like that kind of stuff.”
Phil’s lips curved into a frown. “You realize we’re not teenagers, right? Your plan is sounding very high school to me.”
Daniel agreed that the idea wasn’t particularly sophisticated, but it was the best he could come up with on such short notice. Besides, just because it was a simple idea didn’t mean it wasn’t a good one. “The matchmaking my friends are doing with me and Destiny is straight from high school and it hasn’t stopped them. Besides, like I said before, women go for this kind of thing. Believe me, it will work.”
Phil took another swallow of coffee. “I’m not so sure it would work with the women I know.”
“Let’s hope Destiny and Bertice are not like the other women you know,” Daniel said, thinking of Margo, who had initially gotten Phil involved in this scam, but deliberately not throwing her name in the man’s face.
Phil gave a wry smile. “Good point, well stated.”
Daniel finished off his coffee. “I’ll be meeting with Destiny sometime this week on another matter. I’ll lay the groundwork then. I’ll also tell her that I’m trying to get you to come to church. You and Bertice both. That might work even better than a traditional date. Don’t make any plans for Sunday. If things work out the way I hope they will, you and Bertice will be joining me and Destiny at church.”
“Church?”
“Yes, church,” Daniel said. “You do know what that is, right?”
“Funny,” Phil said. “It’s just been a while since I’ve been to one. You sure did get hooked up with one quickly. You’ve been in town only a minute.”
Daniel realized he hadn’t told Phil much about what he was doing in Atlanta, other than this case. “I’m one of the associate pastors at the church.”
Phil’s eyes widened. “You’re a pastor? When did that happen? You weren’t a pastor the first time our paths crossed, were you?”
Daniel shook his head. “A lot’s happened since then.”
“A whole lot. So you’re a pastor and an investigator. What a combination.”
“I’ve given up the investigator title. I’m just helping out on this one last case. I was reluctant at first, but I can see now why I was chosen to work on it. I needed to be here to protect Destiny and Bertice. And you, of course.”
“I hear you,” Phil said. “But this whole thing gives me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Forgetting about Bertice for a minute, how do you think Destiny is going to feel when she finds out you’ve been lying to her? Heck, you’re a minister. How can you lie to either of them?”
“I’m not lying to them,” Daniel said, though he knew technically he would be lying by omission. “Besides, I’m doing it for their own good. They got themselves into this mess. We’re only trying to get them through it with the least amount of scarring.”
Phil laughed. “You haven’t dealt much with women lately, have you?”
Daniel’s thoughts naturally went to Gloria. “No, not much.”
“It doesn’t sound like you have. This plan of yours could really blow up in our faces.”
“Stop being so negative,” Daniel said. “You wanted to get closer to Bertice and now you get the chance. Don’t think it to death.”