Chapter 4
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I quicken my pace toward the warehouse, where I was supposed to meet Phineas ten minutes ago. It seems it's my turn to be late.
I tried my best to arrive on time, but Cassie used the car longer than I expected. She dropped me off at the entrance of the warehouse parking lot a few seconds ago. My leg aches. It's feeling the pressure of not using the crutch.
The doctor said I could try walking solo and hope for the best results. If things go well, it will help my leg strength enough to leave the crutch behind for good. As I approach the side door to the warehouse, which is open about half a foot, I hear the low hum of voices. It seems somebody else is already in there with Phineas.
I slow down. I don't have any desire to get myself in hot water with him by interrupting whatever he's got going on. Learning more about who else he’s meeting with couldn't hurt, though, so I want to be as close as possible. By the time I reach the warehouse door, I step inside, far enough away that Phineas doesn't see me yet.
He's talking with a man in the middle of the room, and they're exchanging a briefcase, the type that could hold a lot of money. Chances are the man is one of Phineas’s associates, either working for or hired by him. He wears a suit, the fancy kind like a businessman, and sunglasses. The glasses probably hide his eyes from anyone who might recognize him. His black hair falls over his forehead, and he is turned away, so I can only see half his face.
He doesn’t look familiar, so knowing him is unlikely.
"I'll see you next time," the man says.
"Sure thing, Corey." Phineas grins, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
Interestingly enough, his smiles look genuine when alone with me. I'm unsure whether it’s flattering or something to be worried about.
"I have a couple of things to finish with the paperwork in the back, then I'll be on my way." Corey stuffs his hands into the pockets of his fancy suit. He points at me, and Phineas’s expression changes. "Looks like someone's here for you."
“Thanks. Let me know when you’re done here.” He pats Corey on the shoulder. Every movement is stiff and calculated. Phineas comes my way, a serious look on his face.
"What are you doing here?" he hisses.
“I'm here for our meeting." I hold up my phone with the text he sent me almost an hour ago .
Meet me at the warehouse on Fifth and York Avenue in an hour. Don't be late.
"Oh, I suppose I didn't realize it was time already.” He checks the watch on his wrist, which I’m guessing costs more than everything I own put together.
“You need to get yourself a better watch." I point at his wrist. “I’m not sure that one works.”
"I'm not sure it would make much of a difference. Lorraine says I'm terrible with time." He nods toward the back room where Corey disappeared. "Listen, whatever he asks about or says, you cannot mention under any circumstance that we're looking for Nathan Thornton."
His tone is so low, it’s barely above a whisper. Worry dances in his eyes, which unnerves me. Phineas is never bothered by anything. Then again, I’ve never seen him working for anyone he considers dangerous. Sure, I’ve seen a few clients purchase things like information from him. However, the attitude around this new man is different, and it has me on edge. Phineas is always the top dog. He makes sure of that, so what is going on?
"Why is that?" I lean forward to hear him better. The expression 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' pops into mind. Perhaps this can be something I can take advantage of—the fact that Phineas is actually afraid of someone.
"Don't worry about it. Just listen to me and make sure you don't mention anything about the job I've got you on. Otherwise, our deal is off, understand?”
"Of course. What are friends for?" I say with a smirk.
"Look at that; you're coming around to the idea already.” His demeanor shifts, like he didn’t just threaten to destroy my life a second ago. “Lorraine suggested I find myself a best man. Any chance you’d be interested in the position? "
"Forget it." I shut him down. I didn't mean to be that friendly. It was meant as a joke, which caught even me off guard, joking with Phineas.
Corey comes out of the back room. His presence casts a dampened mood over everything. I put on my best professional face. He stops right in front of Phineas.
"Who's this, a new associate?" he asks, looking me up and down while holding out his hand.
I shake it, noticing the rather strong grip. He means business, and I’m more convinced that he’s the one in charge of their relationship instead of the other way around. What messy business is Phineas involved in?
"You could say he's my partner in crime for a bit." Phineas steps closer to me.
I wince at the term "partner in crime." It’s hard to tell if it’s a simple dig at me because of my disdain for being partners or a warning to remind me of my place. I want nothing to do with crime, especially any Phineas has his hands in, but explaining that to Corey would do little good, especially since he has no qualms about anything similar.
"Ah, I see. It's good to meet you. My name is Corey. Perhaps in the future, we'll cross paths again." It sounds closer to a threat than a friendly prediction.
"I would assume not." Phineas’s tone is tense as he shakes Corey’s hand. "I hope you have a good trip back to the city."
“Of course. It was a pleasure doing business.” Corey steps past us both and keeps on going, leaving the warehouse.
"Come on, we need to take a drive," Phineas says. "I looked at the information you sent me about one of Nathan's potential hideouts. Let's check it out together. "
“You aren’t taking care of it with your men?” The deal was technically for me to find Nathan, nothing more.
“No. You should be there to see if you were right.” Seems Phineas is going to take advantage of this situation as much as he possibly can. Some boundaries need to be clarified.
"Okay, the deal is that we find Nathan, and I'm off the hook, right?"
"Yes, that's the deal. No need to rehash it more than once. You’re making this all about business.”
“That is what this is about.”
Phineas shrugs. “We’ll see.”
He leads the way out of the warehouse, where I stop in my tracks. Corey hasn’t left yet. He is getting into a black SUV. What shakes me is who is behind him—parked just a few feet away is Cassie. She's standing in front of the station wagon, her arms crossed over her chest. She looks between Phineas, Corey, and me with an expression of confusion, then disappointment.
My chest tightens. Seeing her disappointed in me is crushing.
"You'll have to give me a minute," I say to Phineas, holding up my finger, then jogging in Cassie’s direction before he can stop me.
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing with Phineas , of all people? And who is that?" Cassie points to Corey’s black SUV leaving the lot.
"It's no one. It's all kind of complicated. How about you go back to the office, and I'll meet you there in a couple of hours?" I want her far away from Phineas. He’s threatened to use her against me in the past. She can’t be on the line for any of this. If someone’s life is going to get destroyed, it should be mine.
"What are you getting yourself into, Lincoln?" she asks, her eyes narrowing. Her blonde hair blows in the breeze. Her green eyes silently plead with me.
"I know it looks bad, but I’m working an angle to take Phineas down. I'll try to explain more later, but I have to go right now."
I wish I could jump into the station wagon with her and go back to the office right now, but Phineas made it clear he wants me to go with him to check out a potential location for Nathan. If I try to back out, he will only make it harder for me.
"All right. I came back because you left your wallet and glasses in the car." She holds them out to me and drops them into my hand. "I'm going to hold you to explaining this later," she says sternly.
She means business and it has me shaking in my boots just a bit. I head back to where Phineas is waiting by his Charger, watching the exchange between us with an annoying smile. There will be threats on our ride to check out Nathan's hideout. He will want to make sure that I know where I stand in this operation.
The last thing I want is for Cassie to get involved in all this. I intend to keep her away from it, with no prompting needed from Phineas. We drive out of the lot behind Cassie and then take a different direction down the street.
“You should act on her before you lose her for good. It’s obvious she cares for you.” Phineas grins and nods in the direction of Cassie’s car as it disappears from view .
As if I would take advice from Phineas. I choose to ignore his comment on Cassie.
"So, what do you intend to do to Nathan Thornton when you find him? And why do you want to find him so badly in the first place?"
"You ask a lot of questions," Phineas says. "How about we talk about something else? Do you have any recommendations for where to take Lorraine on our honeymoon? It has to be somewhere impressive. A man only gets married once, you know."
I'm about to correct him on that statistic when he takes a sharp turn to the left, sending me flying and reminding me that I'm not wearing my seatbelt.
"No, I don't have any honeymoon recommendations. What are you going to do to Nathan when we find him? I won't be an accomplice to murder."
Keeping Phineas on task is harder than I remember. When we worked together in the past, he was only driven by what he was trying to accomplish. No distractions, he would say.
"You worry too much. Perhaps if you stopped being such a stickler for the rules, you could get Cassie to give you a chance."
"What do you mean by that?" I glare at him.
"I can see you like her, probably as much as I love Lorraine. Why aren't you two together?" As if he knows anything about successful relationships.
"You're one to talk about not being a stickler for the rules. What happened to ‘going on the straight and narrow path?’ Do you think Lorraine would be happy about you advising another man to break the law?"
"Break the law? Nobody said anything about breaking the law." He shakes his head. "I am a changed man. What I mean is loosen up a little bit. There's no need to be in the business mindset all the time."
"I'm not ‘business all the time’ with Cassie. I'm only like that with you."
"Oh, shame. And here I thought we were friends." Phineas shakes his head as he turns down a dirt road with trees on either side.
“Please tell me where you got that idea, so I never do it again. You know exactly why I'm working with you.”
“Because you're invested in my potential success and future?”
I sigh and turn back to the road. Phineas is determined to get on my nerves. We'll be at the cabin soon, and I'm not sure whether to hope Nathan is there and this whole situation can be behind me or that the cabin is empty, and I've averted a disaster with what Phineas might do.
He pulls the Charger to a stop in front of the cabin and steps outside.
"To answer your question, no, I don't intend to kill him, so murder is off the table.” Amusement dances in his eyes. “Lorraine would never forgive me for that."
"So, if it weren't for Lorraine, you would kill him?"
"I can’t answer that. I don't think about a life without Lorraine anymore." He turns toward the cabin door with the same smirk as earlier, making my blood boil as I follow.
Cassie
I swivel on my chair in the office, staring at my computer screen every time I pass it. Once I'm downright dizzy, I stop myself. What on earth is Lincoln doing with Phineas? He said he'd explain it, but Lincoln's track record with explaining things isn't great.
The man at the warehouse looked familiar. I am confident I've seen him before, but I'm also not sure where or who he might be. Knowing everyone in town would be impossible, so maybe I've bumped into him at the laundromat or a diner somewhere.
There are a lot of people in my life, so it's not strange to feel this sense of déjà vu, but placing the man proves impossible. A peculiar feeling settles in my stomach, and I just can’t shake it. The fact he was in the vicinity of Phineas only makes it worse because that means he's most likely tied up in some criminal activity, which I should be calling the police about right now.
Every time there’s the slightest noise outside, I rush to the window to see if it's Lincoln back from whatever mystery job he's on. I can't imagine an explanation that makes sense where he and Phineas are working together. The thought repulses me, and I used to think it would repulse Lincoln, too.
By the time the office door opens and Lincoln struts in, I've worked my nerves up to a tizzy.
"There you are. I was about to call the police and report you missing," I say with a faint hint of hurt.
"I'm fine. I can handle myself." Lincoln smiles and sits down in his chair. He closes his eyes for a split second, showing just how much he's enjoying the new chair, even though he'd never admit it if I asked him.
"All right, so explain,” I demand, crossing my arms and leaning against my desk.
"Explain what?" he says, slower than necessary.
"What you were doing with Phineas; you better have an explanation that makes sense because Quinn will be furious when she finds out."
"Does she have to find out?" he asks.
"Yes, she has to find out. She's our partner in all of this. I'm not going to keep secrets from her. Besides, you said you had a good explanation."
"All right, I mean, I do have a good explanation, but I can't tell you yet. I've been working on it for a while to get some evidence against Phineas. That's all I can say right now, but I promise I'll tell you more when I can."
"That's not an explanation.” I hate how Lincoln has a knack for skirting around the truth and getting people to accept that about him.
"I know it's not an explanation, but I'm asking you to take it as one." His gaze meets mine as if he’s speaking to something inside me.
"Who was the man Phineas was with?"
"I'm not sure," Lincoln says with a shrug. "Nobody important."
"I feel like I've met him before." I shrug, pushing the nagging thought away. I’m being paranoid because of everything we’ve gone through with Phineas.
“Do you and Quinn have plans tonight? We should all hang out, like a company dinner. It’s been a while.” Lincoln intertwines his hands behind his head in a casual manner.
I sigh and walk around my desk, plopping down into my chair. Of course, Lincoln doesn't want to talk about what's important. It's a stark reminder of why things would never work between us, no matter how much I wish they could. Turns out childhood crushes are hard to get rid of.
The office door bursts open, and Quinn walks in. Her cheeks are rosy pink, and she has a surreal smile on her face as if she's found the secret to a happy life. She stops in the middle of the office, looking between us, one eyebrow raising in curiosity.
"What's going on here? Why the chilly atmosphere?" she asks.
I shake my head sheepishly. Maybe I’m making a big deal about what Lincoln was doing because I’m not so good at trusting. Not to mention all the stuff he’s kept from me already.
"There's nothing chilly about the atmosphere." Lincoln leans back so far in his chair that I'm worried he might fall backward.
"There certainly is. The two of you are staring at your computer screens like you had a fight. Did you fight?" She's scolding like a mother who left her children alone for two minutes and returned to find they've destroyed the living room.
"There's nothing to fight about unless you're talking about someone keeping secrets, which you can ask Lincoln about because he's very good at it."
"Lincoln?" Quinn turns to Lincoln. "What did you do now?"
Lincoln holds his hands up as if he's surrendering to her completely.
"Nothing, really. I'm just working on an angle with Phineas, and I can't share all of the details yet, so Cassie's up in arms about it."
"When are you two not up in arms about something?" She takes off her jacket and flops down on the couch. “But Phineas? That man is nothing but bad news. You should stay away from him. He literally kidnapped me. ”
“I know what I’m doing, Quinn,” Lincoln soothes. “If we should be talking about people keeping secrets, how about this guy you keep spending time with?” Lincoln chuckles and shakes his head as Quinn glares.
"How is the new case coming? Please tell me you guys have something to go on." Quinn scrunches up her nose, looking between us and doing her best to change the topic without starting an argument.
"We haven't made a lot of progress. It turns out finding a missing person is harder in real life than it is on TV." I shake my head. I'm reinvigorated by her curiosity and scoop up the file on Anita Silverman, the name Meredith gave us.
“I've organized information and added more details, including a list of things to get started on. You can help me start gathering all the preliminary information. We should find out how she got to town, what she did after she arrived, and everything we can about her blog."
I send a pointed look in Lincoln’s direction. I’m still trying to gauge how he feels about everything.
“Isn't it sweet that Meredith wants us to find this girl just to avoid a court battle? As an entrepreneurial journalist, I doubt Anita would have the resources to defend herself," Lincoln quips.
"I think it's cool that Meredith is looking out for her," Quinn agrees. “I wonder what happened to her that caused her to disappear like that. Do you guys know where we're going to start with this?"
Quinn sits down and starts typing away. She is the best of the three of us at putting together information.
"I haven't really figured out where to start yet. There is the whole fact that Lincoln thinks that it's a bad idea." I’m putting him on the spot, but it’s the only way to figure out what is really bothering him about the case.
"Who's surprised about that? Not me," Quinn says with a laugh. "Remember the whole necklace case? He was against it from the beginning."
"I was not," Lincoln interjects.
"Yes, you were. You were convinced that Phineas was behind it, and then you insisted we leave it alone." Quinn stares him down over her keyboard. It’s clear she can stand on her own against Lincoln, and it makes me see how the two kept the investigative office open before I arrived.
"All right, fine, but I was just worried about the two of you. You can't blame me for being a little overprotective,” Lincoln argues.
“You do know what kind of work we're involved in, right?" Quinn flips a page in the file and keeps typing.
We love the new system and haven't failed to notice how Lincoln avoids it like the plague.
"Yes, I know what sort of work we're involved in, but there's such a thing as dangerous and not-so-dangerous cases. And then there are really safe cases, like finding an old lady's missing cat." Lincoln laughs.
"Are you saying we should take care of all the missing cats and scratched cars while you get the exciting cases?" I cross my arms and shoot daggers at him, my irritation over our disagreement earlier not entirely dissipated.
"That is exactly what I'm saying. You're so good at it, and besides, you love cats." Lincoln laughs harder as I hurl a piece of crumpled-up paper in his direction. He's unable to duck fast enough, and it hits him in the forehead .
"I can't believe you,” I huff.
"You know I'm kidding," Lincoln says. “Right? I couldn't do this without you. Truly and forever, you're a great detective."
Even though I know he's half-joking, his words warm my heart, and I like his praise just a little too much.