Chapter 8
After she’d watched Del drive away with Dane in the back seat of his standard-issue ATF Grand Prix, Shana paced around thinking about what Del might do with Dane. In particular, whether or not he’d throw him in jail, whether Del could get away with it.
It should have never come to this. She’d failed at her assignment miserably. She not only hadn’t set up a relationship with Del that she could work, but she’d ended up creating more animosity than they’d started with.
Quelling her need to do something besides pace, Shana called Penny Lake.
“Let’s meet.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Not yet. Can you get away?”
Penny agreed to meet her at a small coffee shop next door to her favorite dress shop in Vineyard Haven.
Maybe Shana could find out something more about Del.
The man had to have an Achilles heel and if anyone knew about it, it would be his sister.
She’d need to give her some motivation to talk.
Shana wasn’t sure what the hell she ought to tell her.
It horrified her to realize she’d need to play it by ear.
Go with her instincts. She thought of Dane.
Give me something, lover-boy. I need your inspiration now.
Shana parked the Jeep around back and waited in the car until Penny arrived. Catching up with her at the door, she led the older woman to a table in the back of the busy shop.
“Aren’t we going to get something?” Penny hesitated before sitting down. Shana resisted pushing her into the chair.
It was the kind of coffee shop where you went to the counter to buy your drink and dessert of choice. All the better to avoid being interrupted by a server.
“Later. I have to fill you in on a few things.”
“Did you find Harvey’s murderer?”
“No.” She lied. She wasn’t prepared to accuse Del of murdering this woman’s husband. She’d need to ease into the possibility. It might not happen in this conversation.
“What is it?”
“Del took Dane away in cuffs and threw him in jail for interfering in the case.” It was a useful compromise with the truth.
“No—he can’t do that. Why? I thought—”
“There was an altercation.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Shana.” Penny shook her head and bit her lip and Shana willed her over the edge to spill it.
“Del can be so… so competitive. And overbearing.”
“I’m sure Captain Lynch will straighten it all out.” She wasn’t sure, but she was hopeful. Cap had serious mediation skills.
Penny bowed her head forward and put her head in her hands.
“It’s okay, Penny. Really.”
“It’s just that….” She looked up at Shana. “Never mind.”
Shit.
“Tell me. Is it about Del?”
“Harvey always thought he was trouble on a stick. That’s what he called him. Thought he was no good. I would stick up for Del and remind Harvey that he was a big-time ATF agent doing well for himself, and Harvey would shake his head. He had other choice words for Del.”
“So they didn’t get along, then?”
Penny gave a sad shake of her head.
“Let me get you something.” Shana felt for the woman. She’d clearly been stuck under the thumb of a couple of dominating men.
“A hot chocolate would be terrific.”
Shana smiled and rose to go to the counter, thinking it would be great with a shot of brandy in it. Or maybe whiskey. She needed the minute to think of what kind of information she needed from Penny and what she needed Penny to know about her brother.
Would it be possible to turn Penny against her brother to help them get the goods on Del?
More importantly, would Del trust and confide in his sister?
That would be the difficulty. She returned to the table with two hot chocolates and two giant chocolate chip cookies.
Exactly what Shana needed to keep her mind off Dane and do her job.
“Can you answer a few questions for me?” Shana blew on the cup.
Penny nodded and sipped.
“What did Harvey have in that safety deposit box here on Martha’s Vineyard?”
“I honestly have no idea. I didn’t even know he had one on Martha’s Vineyard. Seems crazy since we have one of those giant vaults in our bank up in Boston to keep things.”
The cup slipped from Shana’s hands, but she managed not to spill the hot liquid.
“A vault? Does Del know about it?
“I don’t know. We never talked about it. Everything happened so fast with Harvey getting killed and then Del showing up and now—”
“Can you take me to the vault? It could be important.”
“You think there could be a clue in there?’ Penny straightened in her chair. “You could be right. He kept all kinds of important papers in there.”
Sensing Penny’s excitement and unable to contain her own, Shana stood.
“Let’s go.”
Penny grabbed the cookie and the hot cocoa and followed Shana out the door.
*****
She vowed to talk to Cap later and see if he could trace the drugs somehow through the bag they were in, back to an evidence lock up somewhere.
All law enforcement agencies used special bags, marked and numbered for security.
But Del wouldn’t have been stupid enough to use drugs from his evidence lock up and wouldn’t have been doubly stupid to keep it in the same bag.
She’d ask Cap to go through the exercise anyway.
Shana didn’t want to make the mistake of letting the Gables know where they were going. She parked on the street a few houses away from the Gables’ property.
She told Penny to leave her handbag home.
“I don’t want Del to know you’re going anywhere for long. Get in the back door and out as quickly as you can with the key to the vault.”
“What about money?” Penny hesitated with her hand on the Jeep’s door handle.
“I’ve got you covered.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?” Penny got out and Shana watched her dart around the back of the house with surprising speed.
She opened her bag and took out her phone. She ought to call Dane to let him know what she was doing. But she couldn’t do that.
For all she knew, Del had his cell phone. If she risked calling Cap, Del would know since they were probably together. Hopefully negotiating Dane’s release. She called Acer, but there was no answer. She left a message.
Once Penny returned she drove them back to the beach shack.
She decided to leave her phone home and took one of their throwaways.
They had a supply of them for this kind of occasion.
She took her grab-and-go bag from the closet.
She didn’t even dare to leave a note. They left the shack and Shana pulled the door closed with a bubble of anxiety rippling through her.
Shana got them an Uber ride to the ferry and they took the ferry to Woods Hole.
From there she’d rent them a car to drive to Boston.
It would be a long haul. She bit her lip as she stood against the rail of the ferry watching the shoreline disappear, remembering that she’d told Dane she wasn’t going anywhere.
And knowing she couldn’t call him. He could be in jail right now.
She’d call Cap later. After they’d visited the bank.
She looked at her watch. They’d never make it to the bank before five.
“I hope you don’t mind an overnight guest.” She said to Penny.
“No. It’ll be fun. It’s been kind of lonely without Harvey, to tell you the truth.”
Shana nodded and put an arm around the woman’s shoulder.
“We’ll go to the bank first thing in the morning. Then I’ll head back to the island.”
“What about me?”
“It depends.” Shana didn’t know what to tell her. She hadn’t thought things through. Had no idea what she’d find in the vault.
“On what?”
“On what we find in the vault.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I want to go back with you and stay close by until the case is solved.”
There was no way Shana wanted Penny back at the Gables’ house with her brother.
Especially not if they didn’t find enough evidence for an arrest or at least a warrant.
She had no idea what she might find but she hoped to hell it mirrored whatever he’d kept in the box at the bank on the Vineyard.
Whatever that was had been enough motivation for Del Parrish to kill his own brother-in-law.
Shana figured it had been blackmail bait that got Harvey killed.
If they didn’t find something, they were back to square one. No evidence except a picture hidden away on a microchip in a hotel room. Flimsy at best.
The only way they’d get Del with the kind of evidence they had—none—was if he decided to confess.
*****
Dane stepped inside the back door of the beach shack and found the unmistakable feeling of emptiness.
Shana was gone. Controlling the blip of adrenaline, he flipped out his phone and tapped in her number.
When he heard the ringing, not on the other end of his line but in the house, he walked to their room and pushed the door open.
Shana’s phone vibrated on the end table next to their bed.
The ball of lead sunk in his gut at the same time as the bile of fear rose in his throat.
A sizzle of panic shot through him in a dizzying flash of hot pain.
He strode back down the hall with purposeful steps and shoved out the back door.
Holding himself together, he took deep breaths of the bracing ocean air as he surveyed the harbor, reassuring himself that she hadn’t left the island. Hadn’t left him.
He called Acer once he knew he could handle his phone again without shaking fingers.
“Pull out all the stops.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Be prepared to break every rule to get this bastard. Illegal surveillance, listening devices, illegal hacking into ATF and into Del’s personal accounts—the works.”