fifteen

“Wow! I thought you said this guy ran a small business,” Lainey said as they waited outside the townhouse.

“He did.” Maddy looked around. “He contracted with several businesses in the area and did their payroll.” She whistled. “I’m in the wrong business, for sure.”

Hundred bucks says he was making book or doing something illegal to supplement his income. Tessa moved closer to the door and looked into the peephole.

“Do you see anything?” Maddy asked, anxious to get this over with and head back home. Then she remembered that Jessie was at the aquarium and wouldn’t be back until after five. She took a deep breath to relax. Staying calm was key if they were going to pull this off.

Everyone knows you can’t see through these from the outside, Maddy. Tessa laughed. Unfortunately, being dead doesn’t give me superpowers.

Just then the door opened, and they got their first look at Chrissy Rockford. Standing about five-feet eight, she was wearing tight black leggings and an oversized sweatshirt. The mysterious bar girl, who in all probability earned her keep by taking money for her sexual services, could have passed for the girl next-door. Her long blond hair was pulled back and secured with a clip, a style that highlighted her high cheekbones and green-blue eyes.

Damn! No wonder men paid to tickle her fancy and have her tickle theirs back. Tessa slipped past her and went inside.

“Ms. Rockford, we’re from the insurance company,” Lainey said, extending her hand. “May we come in?”

Maddy coughed to cover her surprise. She had no idea her sister was going to try something like this, but it was a great ploy. No doubt the woman would slam the door in their faces if she knew Maddy was the one accused of killing her boyfriend.

Well I’ll be damned! Goody-two-shoes Lainey knows how to lie. I am so proud at this moment.

Chrissy opened the door wider and motioned for them to come in. Once the door shut behind her, Maddy surveyed the living room to the left. Furnished with a humongous gold and brown couch that had probably seen a lot of action, the room reeked of bad taste, right down to the semi-pornographic, 3-D picture of two women and a man covering half of one wall. A large flat-screen TV hung on the opposite one.

“Please, have a seat,” Chrissy said. “Pardon the mess. This is my boyfriend’s house and he’s been overseas on a trip this past week.”

Yeah, right. More like in a drawer at the morgue. Tessa plopped down on the brown couch. Most men prefer the rustic look. This dude went for ugly.

“No problem,” Maddy said, picking up a newspaper from an identically upholstered chair opposite the couch, and sitting down.

“I’m surprised to see two women show up,” Chrissy said, settling in nearly on top of Tessa, who scooted away in the nick of time.

“Why’s that?” Lainey asked.

“Well, when I got the call about the necklace, the man said he would be stopping by.”

At the mention of the necklace both Maddy and Lainey shot up straighter. Was this the necklace Mrs. Witherspoon had told them about? The one that Chrissy said would change her life?

“He’s our supervisor,” Maddy lied. “Something came up at the office, and since we’re all familiar with the case, he sent us to do the preliminary paperwork.” She reached in the bag with all her police files and pulled one out, opening it and pretending to read it. She glanced back up at Chrissy. “Now tell us again about the necklace.”

Chrissy narrowed her eyes, and for a minute, Maddy worried that she was on to them. Then she slid farther back on the couch and took a deep breath. “All I know is what Gino told me.”

“Gino?” Maddy decided to play dumb.

“He was …” She caught herself and smiled up at them before continuing, “He is my boyfriend. He’s out of the country on business, remember?” Chrissy shifted uncomfortably. “Your boss assured me that I would collect a finder’s fee. Nothing’s changed, has it?”

“Absolutely not,” Lainey assured her. “And what was the last amount our representative quoted you?”

“Two hundred thousand.”

Maddy caught herself before she gasped. It must be some kind of necklace to rake in that kind of finder’s fee. Somebody obviously really wanted it back. She wondered if that was reason enough to kill for it.

“We’ve been authorized to raise that amount another fifty thousand dollars,” Lainey said, smiling so sweetly at Chrissy that Maddy thought her face would crack.

Chrissy beamed at the mention of more money and nodded her approval.

I almost feel sorry for this broad with both of you working her like a tag team. Tessa stood up. I’m going to do my sneaking around while you guys continue to lie like hell. She disappeared down the hallway in the obvious direction of the bedroom.

“All we have to do is work out the details,” Maddy said fueling Lainey’s lie.

“Like I told your boss, I’m pretty sure Gino has it in a safety deposit box, and as soon as I get my hands on it, I’ll give your office a call. I don’t expect that to take long.”

“Does Gino know about you getting the finder’s fee?”

A frightened look crossed Chrissy’s face. “No. That’s why I want to get this over with quickly before he gets back from his trip. I found the key hidden in the freezer, and as I said, I’m confident I’ll find the necklace when I go to the bank tomorrow morning.”

“Have you personally seen this necklace?” Maddy asked, thinking it would be a lot easier to run a trace on a stolen piece of jewelry if they had a description.

Chrissy shook her head. “Gino guarded it like a pit bull in a junkyard. He only mentioned it to me when I heard him talking about it one night on the phone. Said he was going overseas to sell it, and when he got back, he’d be able to live the high life like he used to.”

“Aren’t you worried about what he’ll do when he finds out what you’ve done?” Maddy asked, wishing she could tell her to cut the bull—that they all knew the only trip Gino would be taking anytime soon was down south, and she wasn’t referring to Mexico.

“That’s really none of your business,” Chrissy said. For a minute Maddy was sure she’d blown it before the woman’s face softened and she continued, “Like I told your boss, Gino has already made contact with a French jeweler as well as one in Saudi Arabia. Both are itching to get their hands on the necklace. He was supposedly going to meet the Saudi one day this week before he …” She stopped suddenly, and Maddy knew she’d been this close to saying before he was killed.

Bingo! Tessa said, running into the room, excitement all over her face. Her purse is on the bed with half the contents thrown around as if she was digging for something before we arrived. There are pictures of her with other men and a book opened to a page with the names of some high-profile Dallas politicians that you have to see, Maddy. Our Chrissy is not Little Miss Innocence Personified as she’s trying to make us believe.

Maddy made eye contact with Lainey and nodded. The plan was if Tessa found anything, she’d check it out while Lainey kept Chrissy talking in the living room. Maddy hoped it would work. Standing, she asked, “Do you mind if I use the restroom? I’ve had way too much coffee today.”

“Down the hall. First door on the left.” Chrissy pointed in that direction.

“So, as soon as you have the necklace in your possession, we’ll be by with the check,” Lainey said, doing her part keeping Chrissy occupied. “Both our boss and the client will be very happy to hear this.”

“The sooner I can put this all behind me, the better,” Chrissy said. Then as if she suddenly remembered her manners, she said, “There’s cold beer and bottled water in the fridge. Can I get you something?” She started to get up before Lainey thrust out her arm and stopped her.

“Oh gosh, no, but thanks. I would like to ask you about what kind of moisturizer you use, though. Your skin is absolutely amazing.”

Maddy stopped in her tracks halfway to the bedroom when she realized that Chrissy was about to get up and go to the kitchen for beverages. But after hearing her sister’s excellent maneuver to keep the woman talking, she breathed a sigh of relief and continued to the bedroom. The minute she walked in she spotted Tessa sanding beside the biggest circular bed she’d ever seen, elevated on a platform under a mirrored ceiling.

Jeez! Bernardi really was a sleaze.

Look at the pictures, Tessa said excitedly. If we weren’t sure before, we are now. This girl was definitely turning tricks.

Maddy moved to the bed and stared at the photos. Her hand was shaking as she reached for one and stared down at the picture of Chrissy in bed with an unknown man in a very compromising position. A closer look showed the guy with his eyes closed, just lying there while Chrissy performed for the camera.

“Oh my God!” she whispered, flipping through the other pictures. “Why would Chrissy have pictures of her with all these guys? And who was operating the camera? Could she and Bernardi have been running a blackmail scam on married men?”

You have to admit it would make a damn good motive for killing the bastard, Tessa said, obviously proud of herself for finding the pictures.

Maddy spread the photos around on the bed and leaned closer. There were five pictures in all and every one of them was basically the same pose—Chrissy performing oral sex on each one. And in every photo, the guys looked like they were asleep. Probably drugged. Maddy pulled out her phone and snapped a shot of all five.

Then she grabbed one and brought it closer to her face for a better look. Something was very familiar about the guy in the last photo. What was it?

What do you see, sis? Tessa asked, moving closer. ’Cause all I see is a dude with the smallest piece of equipment in the history of blow jobs. This is one sailor who learned the hard way about the three knots.

“Three knots?”

Knot hard, knot in, and knot getting his money back.

Maddy started to grin before she gasped and her eyes widened. “Holy crap!”

What?

“It’s Alan Foxworthy,” Maddy said, unable to contain the excitement in her voice. “He’s the guy who was in the cell next to Bernardi and who positively identified me as her killer. The guy who was probably murdered just today while he lay in his hospital bed.”

So?

“Don’t you get it? All along we’ve assumed the bar fight was between two strangers and now this proves they knew each other. Or at least Chrissy and Foxworthy did. And although Foxworthy may have not known Bernardi per se, I’ll bet Bernardi was behind the camera when these were taken and recognized him that night at the bar. That may explain why fists were flying. If Foxworthy was being blackmailed it stands to reason he might have confronted Chrissy and Bernardi at the bar.”

So why’d he grab Chrissy’s ass?

“I have no idea.” Maddy snapped one more shot of Chrissy and Foxworthy before she arranged the pictures back on the bed just the way she’d found them. “Come on.” She motioned for Tessa to follow. “We’ve got to sit down and figure out what this all means.”

Wait.

Maddy stopped in her tracks and pivoted to face her sister again. “What?”

Look at this. You won’t believe it.

Maddy focused her attention on the small black notebook that Tessa was pointing to and immediately spotted the name of a congressman from Westgate, a wealthy suburb north of Dallas. She grabbed it and flipped to a random page and gasped.

Tell me it’s something that will help you, Tessa said, inching closer until she was nearly on top of Maddy.

“I see the names of a lot of pretty powerful men in here.” She turned the page. “Holy cow! Here’s the current deputy mayor of Dallas.” She whistled under her breath. “What if Bernardi and Chrissy were blackmailing more than just the out-of-towners who cheated on their wives? What if they had a slew of politicians and influential people contributing to their payroll every month?”

That would be one helluva motive to kill the SOB, don’t ya think? Tessa jumped up and squealed, visibly excited that she’d been the one to find the book.

Maddy thought she heard a sound in the hallway and quickly stuck the book down her bra. “Colt will kill me, but I’m taking this for now,” she said when Tessa scrunched her eyebrows. “Come on. We need to get out of here before Chrissy gets suspicious and comes looking for us.”

After walking back into the living room, she meandered over to the door, signaling with a swipe across her neck for Lainey to wrap things up and end the conversation.

“Well, Chrissy, we’ll be in touch,” Lainey said rising from the couch. “Call the office as soon as you have the necklace in your possession.” She headed for the door, talking over her shoulder. “Don’t get up. We’ll see ourselves out.”

When they were settled in the car, Maddy turned to her. “You won’t believe what Tessa found!” She pulled out her phone and showed Lainey the pictures.

“Other than proof that Chrissy gives head, probably for money, so what? Didn’t we already suspect that?”

“Yeah, but we had no idea one of her johns was Alan Foxworthy.” She enlarged the picture before shoving it toward Lainey.

“So they did know each other. Should we tell Colt about this?”

A look of panic crossed Maddy’s face. “And how are we going to explain how we found out?” She shook her head. “My instincts tell me that Colt already knows. We need to organize another sister meeting to figure out what this all means and what we should do next.”

“What about the necklace? How does that fit in?”

“I have no idea, Lainey, and right now I’m too excited to even think straight.” Maddy took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “And there’s more.” Quickly, she filled her sister in about the black book they’d found in Chrissy’s purse.

“What’s it all mean?”

“I don’t know, but it’s looking more and more like I might be able to get off on a reasonable doubt defense.”

She couldn’t wait to tell her lawyer. Thinking about Tony Pirelli reminded her that she still didn’t have the full retainer he was expecting when he came to Vineyard on Friday.

Taking the money from Jake Matthews was looking more and more likely every minute, especially with this new evidence that could have her back at her old job soon.

An idea suddenly popped into her head. “What are you doing tomorrow morning?”

Lainey shrugged. “Nothing exciting. Why?” She narrowed her eyes. “I know that look, Maddy, and I have to say I’m pretty freaking excited about hearing what you have up your sleeve.”

“Stop by Mickey D’s in the morning after Colt leaves for the station and Gracie is on her way to school. Pick up a couple of Egg McMuffins and some coffee, then come and get me.”

“This is getting good,” Lainey said, rubbing her hands together. “Where are we going?”

“On a stakeout to see why this necklace is causing such a fuss.”

_____

He parked close enough to watch as the two women walked up to a townhouse in a really nice neighborhood that was a far cry from the one they’d just left. Reaching for the binoculars for a better look, he focused first on the cop’s backside and was about to check out the second woman’s ass when he caught a glimpse of the blonde standing inside the house.

There was something familiar about her, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He waited about fifteen minutes after the women went into the house before deciding there was nothing more to see. Pulling away from the curb, he headed for the Interstate. Halfway to Dallas, it hit him.

He knew exactly why the blonde had looked so familiar.