Chapter 2 #2
Cap raised his brows and watched him. Dane was the one Cap should be concerned about withholding information.
Dane was always cagey. She waited, or tried to wait patiently for an explanation from Dane about his seemingly off-hand comment as he stalked around the office. But patience wasn’t a virtue of hers.
“Okay—Mr. Clairvoyant One, who has never met the woman, nor talked to her, nor knows anything about her, why do you think she’s innocent?”
He stopped his prowling of the office and stood with his back to the window, facing the door. She knew it was no random spot. He wanted to watch their client come in. He smiled at her. She steeled herself against the melting, tried holding onto her annoyance.
He shrugged. “A hunch.” Then he looked past her at the doorway as she heard the distinctive click-clacking of heels on tile floor approaching.
*****
The presumed Penny Lake showed up in the doorway and Dane couldn’t help noting that she was a showstopper. He flicked a glance at Cap as Shana rose to welcome their client and introduce her around.
Under the slick and expensive designer outfit that had probably been sewn together while she wore it, she looked like a slightly past her shelf-life Vegas show girl. Long legs, big curves, long lashes, and big hat.
She took a seat and played at being demure. Tough to do while dangling one red five-inch spike heel over her knee.
Cap cut to the chase. “What brought you to the island, Ms. Lake? You were here before I notified you of your husband’s murder.”
Penny flinched. Dane figured it was real. Nevertheless, he was more than interested to hear her answer to this question.
““I hired Beachcomber Investigations to … watch Harvey.” She spread a hand in their direction and gave Dane a smile and a nod. “I came to meet with Dane Blaise and Shana George.”
Cap asked Shana, “Is this true?”
“Yes.” Dane was amazed at how well Shana lied.
There had been no meeting planned. Just for that, she deserved for him to go along with that whopper.
Shana had apparently decided to believe in their client’s innocence in spite of Dane’s pronouncement—definitely not because of Dane’s belief in her innocence.
There was no need for the imperceptible pinch, but that didn’t stop Shana from emphasizing her desire for Dane’s compliance with her story.
Truthfully, he didn’t like going against Cap, but it was clear the second their client’s husband ended up dead that this would be one of those cases where they were on opposite sides.
Maybe.
“Am I a person of interest?” Penny asked.
“Yes.” No sugar coating by Cap.
She turned to Dane and Shana, but mostly to Dane, and said, “I’m changing your assignment since I don’t care anymore if Harvey was having an affair. I want you to find his murderer. I’ll double your fee.” She smiled. “Naturally.”
Shana jumped in before he could react—and Dane should have known better, but he reminded himself he was trying to be more agreeable, to let her have her way.
“I—we’d be happy to do that, Ms. Lake. We can start right now. We’ll accompany you to the morgue to identify your husband’s body.”
****
In spite of Penny’s disappointment at not riding with them, Dane and Shana followed her and Cap in the Jeep to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs.
Although the place looked more like a hotel, Dane could attest personally to the fact that it wasn’t run like one.
They drove around back where the morgue was located.
He was glad Shana had given him permission to be disagreeable because his answer to her request to drive had been an unqualified hell no.
“Sometimes you’re a dick. You know that?”
He tried not to smile.
“It’s a gift.”
After pulling open the unmarked gray door, they walked down another sterile tiled hallway, only shorter this time and ending in swinging doors to a cold room. Cap and Penny were already there and waiting. Dr. Wall, the medical examiner, was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Dr. Wall?” Shana asked.
“We don’t need him for this.” Cap led them to an occupied gurney covered by a sheet at the center of the room. He eyed Penny.
“Are you ready for this?” Shana asked her, standing close.
Penny nodded and leaned into Dane. He stopped himself from putting a comforting arm around her and left that to Shana. She was the consummate mother earth protector in moments like these. It always caused a tightening in his chest when he witnessed it.
Cap pulled the sheet down, revealing the man to his shoulders. Penny gasped and covered her mouth. Shana held onto her.
Cap said, “Is this your husband, Harvey Lake?”
Penny nodded. “Yes.”
She didn’t look so much like the estranged wife now, more like a shocked and dismayed widow. Shana rubbed Penny’s back and murmured reassurance of some kind, but Penny turned to him.
“You two need to help me find who did this to him.”
He nodded and stole a glance at Cap to see how he was taking the news that she didn’t figure the State Police could do the job.
Cap took the vote of no confidence in his usual stride, with one arched brow that would have passed for an eye-roll on someone else.
Although Dane did detect a slight tic in his friend’s jaw.
“Personal effects?” Dane asked Cap.
“We’ll get them to Ms. Lake when we’ve concluded our investigation.”
Dane would have asked what those effects were, but he had the distinct feeling Cap wasn’t going to tell him.
“Shana and I want to go with you to the crime scene and take a look. You have a problem with that?”
Cap paused a beat and shook his head.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Shana said to Penny.
Dane pushed through the door with Penny plastered to his side and hanging onto his arm as if she’d suddenly turned into an invalid. Cap stayed behind with the body.
He wanted to talk to the ME to find out what he could about the cause of death and any special circumstances. There was nothing obvious from Harvey’s shoulders up aside from a bruised jaw. Dane could tell from his own experience the pop to the man’s jaw had been what killed him.
Cap was being tight-lipped. And Dane was certain he’d shown them the body without the ME on purpose.
They walked down the hall to Dr. Wall’s office. The door stood open. Wall was a forty-something man who had a crush on Shana like every male over fourteen and under eighty on the island—either that or they’d never laid eyes on her.
Dane touched Shana’s shoulder and nodded in the ME’s direction. She didn’t pretend to not know what he was about. Shana was sharp and when it came to the job she was cooperative.
“Excuse me a minute,” Shana said. “I’m going to stop in and say hello to Dr. Wall. You two go ahead on outside without me.”
“Sure.” Penny smiled and pressed closer to his side. She had his vote for Miss Obvious of the Year.
Dane escaped through the door where they’d come in and strolled outside with Penny hanging onto him.
“Any idea who killed your husband, Ms. Lake?”
“Call me Penny. I have no idea at all. That’s why I’m hiring you.”
“Do you have any idea who he was meeting here on the island?”
“No. I assumed it was a woman, but I don’t know who. Maybe someone he worked with? A client?”
“Where did he keep his personal computer?”
“He had it with him. He took it everywhere. It was his thing, you know?” She smiled, looking younger than her years even in the bright sunshine. Or maybe it was that she acted younger than her years. She had the role of ingénue down pat. Must be all the years she’d had to practice.
“Tell me, Dane—I can call you Dane?”
He nodded and couldn’t wait to hear what she wanted him to tell her. This would be the perfect time for Shana to come out that door. He’d settle for Cap coming outside about now.
“Are you and Shana… romantically involved?”
“Would it make a difference to you?” His natural caginess never rested.
She smiled and wagged a finger at him.
“You are a naughty boy, aren’t you?” She wasn’t asking. A naughty smile slid over her face like she wanted to join his club. He thought she might lick her lips next.
Shana and Cap both chose that moment to exit the building together. Almost in the nick of time.
“Let’s meet back at the station at ten a.m.” Cap wore his usual personable smile. “That’ll give you a chance to get Ms. Lake back to her hotel.”
“I’m not staying at a hotel. I’m staying with the Gables.”
Of course she was. The Gables were past clients of his and Shana’s who’d become ardent followers.
He’d call them fans, but they weren’t in a fan-making business.
They must have recommended Dane and Shana to Penny, because Beachcomber Investigations didn’t advertise—and they were especially not known for divorce cases.
“We’ll buy you lunch after we take a look at the scene of the crime,” Shana said to Cap.
Penny elbowed Dane and gave him a surreptitious raised brow. He gave her what he thought of as his neutral look. If he were a shark it might have been a neutral look. She eased up on her clinging to his side and looked away.
Hell. The last thing he wanted to do was alienate her. Shana would murder him in his sleep—because that would be the only way she’d be able to get to him and then only if he were passed out on tequila—if they lost this client and her pay-dirt case.
He took Penny by the arm.
“We know where the Gables live. Let’s take you there now.”
He wanted to make sure Penny Lake stayed put where he could find her—and he didn’t want her going with them to the scene of the crime.
He’d have a short word with Bill Gable and his wife Laura to make sure they kept her busy.
Dane was confident they’d do whatever he asked.
Ever since he and Shana had gotten their stolen jewels back, the Gables had been more infatuated than grateful.
The excitement of being involved with the capture of an international jewel thief had won them over.
They’d become intrigue junkies and Dane and Shana were their suppliers.