Chapter 11
Acer crowded into the back seat of the Jeep.
“Do you want to sit in the front?” Shana turned and asked.
“No.” Dane said before Acer could answer.
She laughed at him. His jaw ticked.
“You’ll need to keep out of sight when we arrive,” Dane told Acer in the rearview mirror. “Easier to do in the back seat. Sorry you won’t be coming inside with us, but we need you to monitor the surveillance. Cap would be too obvious for the job.”
“I don’t know why I bothered dressing up in this monkey suit.”
Acer wasn’t complaining. Dane knew that Acer knew very well why he’d dressed up.
“If we’re lucky you won’t need to come inside.”
Dane turned to Shana, pretending not to be enticed with her slinky sea-green dress and the remarkable cleavage it showed off. But he couldn’t pretend not to be enticed by her volatile green eyes.
“You good with your assignment? Get her into the ladies’ room or some other private place. I’ll stay close.”
“Do we have a plan B? I don’t give us great odds on convincing her to confront Del about Harvey’s death.”
“Have her ask him about his evidence. Then show her the picture of Del with Nate Beaumont and tell her where you found it. She’ll see he’s been lying to her.”
“She doesn’t know who Nate Beaumont is and if I tell her, she’ll automatically assume it’s Del doing his job.”
“Make sure she knows Beaumont is into drugs and that Del’s job at ATF doesn’t include drugs. He investigates firearms dealers.”
“Say she goes along but Del doesn’t confide in her and he suspects—”
“We’ll be there to protect her.”
He got out of the car. Shana didn’t wait for him and got out before he could come around and open her door. This was the same thing she always did, but the bead of annoyance pinged around in his head without regard to reason.
Dane schooled himself to see Shana through his partner eyes, as someone he was counting on, someone who could count on him to do his job.
Even so, as he escorted her through the door into the enormous tiled hallway of the Gables’ home-turned-party-mansion, the vision of her as his lover stayed with him.
A small orchestra played from the far side of the room near the oceanside terrace.
Surveying the guests spread around the ballroom, he returned his eyes to her and was struck.
“You’re the most glamorous woman in the room.” He leaned toward her ear in one last gesture of intimacy, promising he’d let her go then. He felt her shiver, but she said nothing, barely smiling. She was an unholy distraction.
He lowered his arm from her shoulder and moved a fraction away from her side, enough to feel the strain of separation, the cooling distance.
“I don’t see Del,” she said. “But there’s Penny.” She walked in that direction and he went with her, maintaining the invisible gap of necessary distance.
His phone rang and, slipping it from his pocket, he saw that it was Cap. He reached out and took her arm by the elbow, stopping her.
“This is the call we’ve been waiting for.” He led them to the left wall near a potted plant and relative privacy as he put the phone to his ear.
“What do you have?” Shana watched him. She was close enough to listen. Close enough for him to breathe in her scent.
“I heard from my man at ATF. Del is officially on personal leave for the death of his brother-in-law.”
“What about Deputy Agent Pratt?”
“That’s the really interesting part,” Cap said. “He has no deputy assistant named Pratt.”
That was all Dane needed to condemn Del, but he knew the courts would need more.
“That begs the question, then, who the hell is Pratt?” He watched the surprise morph into dismay on Shana’s irresistible face.
“I’ll have the governor run his picture through a facial recognition database.”
“Have him use a back door. I don’t want the damn Boston FBI office in on this. You have a picture?”
“No. Send me one. He’s bound to be at the party.”
Dane scanned the growing crowd and there he was. He spotted Pratt on the far side of the room near a terrace door talking to Laura Gable. He wore an ill-fitting navy suit and was sipping something from a champagne flute.
“I’m on it.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Shana took his arm and they meandered with purpose in the direction of the fake ATF Agent Michael Pratt. The large room buzzed and warmed with the fuel of partygoers.
“I thought this was a dinner party.” Dane hadn’t expected so many people. But that would work to their advantage.
“Who do you suppose Pratt really is? This can’t be good.”
Dane heard a faint note of concern in Shana’s voice. This was progress. She didn’t usually like to show him her worry. She usually shared that with Cap. Maybe it was progress, but maybe it was circumstantial since Cap wasn’t with them tonight.
He tightened the arm he had wrapped around her and whispered.
“I put my money on him being an associate of Mr. Nate Beaumont.”
She shivered as they reached their target and smiled. “Hey you two. Great party, Laura.”
“Stay sober for the dinner. I have something special planned.” Laura gave Shana a hug from her shorter height, making her look like a kid sister.
Pratt stood silent and sipped his drink. Dane had a feeling it was water. He looked sharp. There was a reason Del kept the man around and it wasn’t his muscle power or fists in a fight. He was quiet. Quiet was always a red-alarm for Dane.
“You ladies look gorgeous. Let me take a picture.” Dane whipped his phone from his pocket and held it up as Shana swung around to stand on the opposite side of Pratt from Laura, effectively jailing him.
Dane snapped several pictures without appearing to before Pratt could extract himself from his situation.
Pratt telegraphed his discomfort with a teeth-gritting smile.
“You don’t need me in this shot.” Pratt pulled away while Dane pretended to fuss with the phone.
“Have it your way. I don’t need your ugly mask on my phone anyway.” Dane made sure the flash was on and snapped a few pictures of the two most beautiful ladies at this shindig. He watched Pratt make his escape, striding quickly toward the entry hall.
“Guess he’s camera shy,” Shana said.
“Where’s Del?” Dane asked Laura.
She shrugged and frowned. “That’s an odd fellow. Penny puts up with a lot from her brother.” Then she smiled at Dane. “He may be in law enforcement but you two are far more exciting and fun than Agent Delbert—that’s what Bill and I are calling him behind his back.”
Dane excused him and Shana when he caught a glimpse of Del on the terrace just outside a nearby doorway.
He leaned in to nibble Shana’s earlobe and whispered.
“Talk to Penny now and I’ll go talk to Del.”
*****
She spotted Penny speaking with a couple she didn’t know although she recognized them from previous parties at the Gables’. Although she’d need more than a deep breath, that was all she had, so she took it then marched over.
“What’s the matter?” Penny said as she approached.
Shana took care to smile and nod at the couple before speaking.
“Can we talk in private?”
“Yes. Excuse us. It’s this business about Harvey’s murder.”
Shana wished Penny hadn’t said that to the now very interested and curious couple. But she took Penny’s arm and determined to find the most private spot she could where curious couples wouldn’t follow. And not on the terrace where Dane was occupying Del’s attention.
She took Penny upstairs.
“Let’s go to your room.” What were the chances that Del had his sister’s guest room in someone else’s home bugged? She was getting as paranoid as Dane.
“It must be something terrible—have you found the murderer?” Penny led her inside a comfortable room done in turquoise-by-the-sea décor and rushed to close the door behind them.
Neither of them sat. Shana wished she could answer her question truthfully, but telling her that, yes they had found the murderer would necessitate telling Penny her brother was guilty. Besides, they had no real proof yet. They needed a confession.
“It’s not that, but I do have something I want to show you.” Shana took a copy of the picture they’d found on the microchip hidden behind the mirror in Harvey’s motel room bathroom from her bag and unfolded it for Penny to see.
Penny scrunched her brows together and studied the picture a few beats longer than she should have needed to. Shana let her. Let her mind wander and her instincts run with this reality check to see if Penny would come to the right conclusions about her brother.
Penny looked up and handed the picture back to Shana, shaking her head.
“It’s Del. On someone’s yacht. But I don’t get it. Why are you showing me this? Who’s that man with him?”
“You don’t recognize him?”
She shook her head and bit her lip, then rubbed her arms as if they were outside in a blizzard. Nerves. Progress.
“We found this picture hidden in Harvey’s motel room—the one where he was murdered.”
Penny’s eyes went wide.
“That feels bad, but I’m not sure what it means. Why would he be hiding a picture of…” She stopped talking and shook her head again “Who is the man in that picture? He’s the one who killed Del.”
“Possibly. He’s a notorious drug trafficker.”
“Why would he want to kill Harvey? What would Harvey have to do with him?”
“Exactly. The only thing they seem to have in common is your brother.”
The intake of breath from Penny was so loud Shana thought she might have sucked all the air out of the room. She was definitely making progress.
But Penny shook her head again. “Del does undercover work with creeps like this all the time. Do you suppose one of them—this man—found out who Del was and…”
“And what? Killed Harvey?” She let her incredulity show.
“As a warning maybe?”
“That’s not how it works, Penny. Besides, your brother is ATF and he specifically works firearms cases, not drugs.” It wasn’t time to tell her yet that her brother was palling around with a fake ATF agent pretending to be on a case now while he was actually on leave.