No Good Deed: A Small-Town Romantic Suspense Novel

15. Team Planning

Asharp whistle prevented Troy from kissing Piper’s smile. He turned and saw Sam and Tansy approaching from the woods. They were jogging, as usual, and he suspected they were coming in from Tansy’s fort, the cabin where the inventor conducted her experiments.

They were smiling as they approached and neither was breathing hard from the run. Troy squeezed Piper’s hand. “Piper, I’d like you to meet Sam Young and Tansy Cheveyo. Guys, this is Piper Keenan.”

Tansy smiled and shook her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you. I love that you’re helping Phail. They refuse to change the name, but it’s a great place.”

Piper laughed. “Maybe that should be the slogan.”

Sam grinned and shook her hand as well. “Nice. That would totally work. We were just going to make some lunch for the group. Why don’t you join us?”

Troy turned to show them the backpack he wore. “I wanted to introduce Piper to everyone, so I had Manuel fix up a bunch of tacos before we came out.” Both their eyes lit up. Manuel knew exactly what everyone liked and always packed their favorites.

It wasn’t long before they were all seated around the dining room table with tacos being passed around. Nico, Josie, Graham, Aisling, Flynn, Tessa, Joe, and Lia were on the property. Mitch and Bella were in town, but he’d introduce them another time.

During lunch, Piper mostly watched and listened, but he didn’t sense any tension from her at all. They all talked about what they liked about the town and bandied about a few ideas for attracting more people. When he mentioned some of her suggestions, they were enthusiastic about her ideas.

After they finished, Graham produced some vegan brownies he’d been experimenting with. As they passed them around, Nico studied Piper. “Tell us more about the guy who’s been harassing you. Have you figured out what he wants? We know Troy has great security at his place, but if you ever need to feel more secure, you’re welcome to stay here as well.”

Tansy nodded. “You’re both welcome. Always. How can we help?”

Piper’s eyes widened at the words, and she looked around the table and then back to Troy. He grinned. “Everyone in town knows about the attempted break-in at your car. I didn’t spill anything private.”

She nodded, and he assumed she believed him. Then her gaze roamed the table again. “Okay. We actually found what the guy was looking for by accident this morning. At my old office, I had given out USBs to anyone who wanted one. They’d misprinted the Cloud Gate as Cloud Goat, so I got them for free.”

Josie laughed. “That’s an awesome misprint.”

Piper smiled. “This morning, we put one in Marcus’s laptop to show him some of my ideas for the town, but it wasn’t the right USB. This one had several files. All spreadsheets, with what looks like coded data on them. Potentially encrypted financials or blackmail codes from my vast experience watching TV.”

Tessa and Tansy exchanged a happy look, and Flynn laughed. “Well, Piper, if you wanted to find a way into the hearts of those two, you couldn’t have found a better way. Spreadsheets with secret codes? Better than ice cream.”

Tessa patted Flynn’s arm. “You’re right. Far better.” Then she smiled at Piper. “Did you bring a copy?”

She nodded. “But I don’t want to bother anyone. The police can figure it out.”

Tessa smiled. “Probably. But we might be able to do it more quickly. And if this guy has tried to break into your car, it seems time is important.”

Piper swallowed visibly. “If Marcus and Troy are right, he’s also broken into my apartment and office.”

Troy chimed in. “As well as mugged her, and crashed into her car.”

Everyone at the table straightened, their attention entirely focused on Piper. When she leaned his way, he tucked his arm around her. “We think he’s still in the neighborhood, waiting for Piper to be alone.”

Graham spoke up. “Not going to happen. Why don’t we all head over to the Midnight Security cabin and put up Tansy’s magic shield? That way we can devise a plan, and the ladies can work their other magic.”

Everyone nodded and rose except for Piper. “Magic shield?”

Tansy turned back with a laugh. “I keep telling them it’s not magic and it’s technically not a shield. If you’re curious I can explain?—“

When the entire group cut her off with shouts of No!, Tansy laughed with a shrug. “And this is why I’ve given up trying to convince them it’s not a magic shield. Basically we can talk freely over there. Let me just activate Benson and Alice for cleanup duty.”

Tansy clicked on her phone and two mechanical devices rolled into the room. As the people moved away from the table, the robots moved in and picked up the dishes.

Troy grinned at Piper’s expression of awe. “You don’t ever get used to it. Come and have a peek in the kitchen.” Pennyworth, another of Tansy’s CleanySaur collection moved from his charging station to the sink and began to sort the plates.

“I think I’ve landed in another dimension.”

Troy laughed and spun his arm over her shoulder. “Welcome to Midnight Lake, Piper.”

The entire group walked over to the Midnight Security cabin. Jetson trotted alongside Piper as if encouraging her to relax. Once they were there, they settled around the long conference table.

Sam sat at one end. “It’s probably best if you tell us the story from the beginning, Piper. Then we can figure out how best to help.”

When Piper’s eyes widened again and she didn’t answer immediately, Tessa spoke up. “You might as well give in, and give them the entire story. I went through this a while back, and they insisted on helping even though I was pretty sure it was putting them all in danger.”

Josie nodded. “Me too.”

Tansy smiled. “Me too. One day, we’ll share all our stories, but for now, believe me when I say that not only is this group full of smart people, but these people spend their lives trying to make the world better. We all want to help. Please let us.”

* * *

Piper was overwhelmed. Flummoxed times two, maybe three. She’d gone through her story quickly, but after she was done, the group asked her a ton of questions. Very similar to the way Marcus had questioned her to get more details than she imagined she knew.

While they’d been talking, Tansy and Tessa huddled over a laptop on a couch on the other side of the room. When she was done, they waved her over to them.

“You said Marcus had you write out names of the men you’d worked with. Can you help us fill in this spreadsheet with their info?”

Piper smiled. They’d already set up a template for her. The columns included timelines of when she’d worked with the men, their position, and the vibe Piper got from them. Tessa smiled. “Give me an adjective or two to give us the type of man he is.”

When they’d finished, Tessa sorted the spreadsheet to put the list in order by the adjectives. Then she smiled. “I want to take the ones with the negative attributes and put them in a new list to work with.”

“But that’s just my impression of them. They could be decent men outside of the office.”

Tessa shrugged. “Doubtful. People tend to be who they are most of the time. The men you’ve described as honest, kind, family-men, respectful, and considerate could probably be taken off the suspect list. At least until we eliminate the others.”

That was true. Piper couldn’t imagine any of those men trying to hurt her or break into her space. “Okay. How many does that leave us with?”

After a quick sort, Tessa smiled. “Nine. It seems like you’ve worked with mostly good people.”

That made Piper feel better. She’d enjoyed her job over the years, and it was easy to overlook the creeps and the users. Focusing on them made sense, but it didn’t make it fun.

Tansy pointed at the list. “You’ve used obnoxious three times, creepy four times, and superior twice. I’m going to guess you could use all three of those adjectives to describe some of these men.”

Piper nodded slowly as she looked over the list. Looking at the smaller sample was easier than suspecting everyone. It also made it easier to eliminate a couple. “These two obnoxious guys can be ruled out. They’ve moved out of the state. And this one was fired over some harassment issues about a year ago.”

“That leaves us with six candidates. Much better than the hundred we started with.”

John Hopewell, Adam Bedlow, Jeremy Mattick, Ethan Westerlake, Kyle Hamilton, and Duane Greenwood.

Piper studied the list, thinking about each man in turn. Trying to put his face and voice to the man who’d mugged her and the man who bothered her outside the BB the other day. She tried to imagine each one deliberately crashing her car.

Tansy asked. “What about body size? Can you eliminate any of them from the mugging or the recent attack?”

Piper frowned and pictured the men and the attackers. “I never saw the mugger, and his voice was a gruff whisper. Probably an attempt to disguise it. Which worked.” He’d done the same thing at the BB where she’d seen him, but he’d stayed in the shadows.

She tapped on the screen. “Both John and Duane would be too short to be the man at the BB. The rest are all a lot taller than me. Stronger too.”

Four names. Adam. Jeremy. Ethan. Kyle.

Just thinking about them had her tension rising. As if he’d felt it, Troy appeared behind the couch and reached over to rub her shoulders. “How’s it going over here?”

She shrugged but reached up to squeeze his hand. “I’m not sure.”

Tansy laughed. “It’s not that bad. We’re chasing a theory Tessa had and have narrowed it down to four potential names.”

Piper shrugged again. “But it’s not based on much other than my gut feelings.”

Troy kissed her hair. “Gut feelings are generally pretty trustworthy.”

“Maybe for other people.” Oops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Made her sound pathetic.

But the three people with her all laughed softly. Tansy patted her knee. “We’ve all been fooled before. My biggest one caused more than a bit of a fuss.”

Sam appeared and tugged Tansy up into a hug. “She calls being kidnapped and tortured a bit of a fuss.” He sat in another chair and swung Tansy into his lap.

Piper’s blood froze. Kidnapped and tortured? Piper had enough trouble dealing with a mugging.

Sam ran his hand over Tansy’s arm and cuddled her into him, showing how much the memory had upset him. “Let’s hear the theory.”

Tansy looked at Tessa with a smile. “It’s your theory.”

Tessa flushed but also smiled. The rest of the group gathered around while Troy moved to sit with Piper. He tucked her under his shoulder. She was already craving his touches and she leaned in.

While her family had been loving, they hadn’t been demonstrative. Troy and this entire group touched easily and often. She liked it far more than she would have expected.

It wasn’t like the way some men at work tried to touch. Which brought her back to the list.

Tessa spoke softly to the group. “With a situation like the one Piper is experiencing, we thought it would be interesting to approach it from an emotional viewpoint to narrow the focus. Piper’s subconscious might already have a sense of who is targeting her. This didn’t take much time and if it doesn’t work, we have more traditional ways to check the data.”

Flynn sat on the arm of the couch beside her. “Because your gut worked for you growing up. You learned who to stay away from. Smart. How did that theory work out here?”

Nico picked up a remote and a screen lowered from the ceiling against one wall. Tessa clicked a couple of keys and the spreadsheet appeared on the screen. “We’ve got four men to focus on first. Can you tell us about them, Piper?”

Being the center of attention sucked. Her heart rate increased, and Troy leaned in. “It’s just us. A circle of friends. Or just talk to me. Forget everyone else.”

Piper nodded and squeezed her hands together. “Okay. The first guy is Adam Bedlow. He’s a courier who does deliveries in our building, not only for our office, but for most of the local businesses. He brings blueprints and plans to clients who need hard copies. He’ll go for coffee or food for lunches.”

Troy rubbed his hand on her shoulder. “And why is he on the list?”

“He’s one of those guys who never looks you in the eye. He’s always looking past you. Searching your computer screen, looking at the items on your desk, pictures. Things like that.”

Troy grunted. “Sounds like possible blackmailer behavior.”

She nodded. “Next is Jeremy Mattick. He and I were hired at the same time. He’s full of himself and is always winking at women.”

A chorus of Eww from the other women in the room had her smiling. “Exactly. He’s a creep and believes every woman secretly thinks he’s hot. He’s not.”

Troy’s fingers kept soothing her. “The third guy?”

“Ethan Westerlake is exactly as pompous as he sounds. He’s a senior level planner and has been with the company for a long time. He’s entitled and refuses to work on projects that aren’t high profile or for wealthy clients. I think he gets the people working in his area to do most of the work for him, and then he claims all the credit. He prefers to schmooze with the clients.”

“Charming.”

She nodded at Graham’s sarcastic comment. “Kyle Hamilton works at the accounting firm down the hall. He’s another creep who thinks all women should be attracted to him.”

“Is he in your office a lot?”

Piper nodded. “More than he should be. He seems to have a radar for when the bosses are in meetings. He likes to sit on the edges of our desks and lean in.”

Another chorus of Eww.

“This makes it sound like urban planners are creepy. They’re not. Most men I’ve worked with are respectful, hard-working, and smart. Normal, nice people. These guys are the exception.”

Troy kissed her hair again. “So all four of them would have had relatively easy access to your Cloud Gate USB tin?”

She nodded. “It sat on my desk all the time. It’s a fun object, and tons of people have picked it up. Everyone knew it was full of USBs that they were allowed to take.”

Sam spoke up. “Have any of these men changed how they behaved toward you recently? Any of them pay you more attention than usual? Or less? Anyone try to chase you out of your space or crowd you in more than normal?”

All good questions but just thinking about it was upsetting. She closed her eyes to try to focus. Finally, she said. “Maybe Ethan. He’s the type to ignore a junior planner unless he wants something. But he did stop at my desk a few times in the last few weeks to discuss some projects.”

“Do you remember him touching the Cloud Gate or paying it any extra attention?”

She sighed. “Maybe? A lot of people pick it up while we’re talking. I think he did, but it’s hard to remember.”

Josie smiled. “Don’t try. Sometimes, the memories pop up more easily when you shove them to the back of your head.”

Tessa nodded. “I agree. We’ll check out these four and see where that leads us. Social media, photos, anything online. Most people don’t realize how much they reveal about themselves with their online presence. We might find something there.”

Nico nodded. “This is what we do. Let’s divide and conquer. We’re going to find this asshole.”