Chapter 6
M atthieu stared after the strange woman until she disappeared around the corner.
What was that all about?
He wasn’t sure . . . but he found himself worried about her. Was she all right? Why could she barely speak? She’d looked at him strangely.
What had she been doing standing on the stairs just staring at the door? Had she wanted to go inside?
Merde . Had he scared her off? Maybe he should go after her?
But she was probably long gone and he was due at a meeting. Pushing her out of his head, he turned and walked inside.
“Welcome to Callahan Security,” Sable chirped from behind the desk. “How can I help you?”
Matthieu sighed. “Sable.”
The woman jumped and blinked up at him. “Do I know you? I’m so sorry, I seem to have misplaced my glasses.”
“They’re on your head,” he told her patiently.
She patted around the top of her head and found them, putting them on her nose. Then she smiled at him brightly. “Matthieu! Hi!”
“Hello, Sable,” he said quietly.
“Sorry I didn’t recognize you when you first came in. Ink is waiting for you in the meeting room.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Sable hadn’t been working here that long, but he’d met her a few times. She was sweet and cheerful but also slightly forgetful. Without her glasses on, she could barely see anything.
And she was constantly leaving her glasses places. Mostly on her head.
He was tempted to ask her if she’d thought of corrective surgery or even contacts.
But that wasn’t any of his business.
Her smile grew bigger as she glanced behind him. “Betsy! Zippy!”
“Hi, Sable,” Betsy said, walking in holding her daughter’s hand. “Matthieu.”
Matthieu placed his hand on Betsy’s shoulder as he leaned in to kiss her right cheek, then her left.
Betsy blushed slightly. Then he felt a punch against his thigh and glanced down at Zippy who attempted to push him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Don’t kiss my mama!” Zippy told him with a fierce frown. “She has a husband!”
Ahh.
“Oh, Zippy, it’s all right,” Betsy said. “He’s French. They greet people like that.”
He’d only met Zippy once. Maybe no one had mentioned that to her.
“He don’t sound French,” Zippy said, still glaring up at him. “And I don’t care. Don’t kiss my mama.”
“Who is kissing your mama?” Ink asked as he stepped into the room. “Good, Matthieu, you’re here. What are you doing out here, though?”
“He’s kissing Mama!” Zippy complained.
Ink stilled and stared at Matthieu, then Betsy. “Someone want to explain?”
“On the cheek!” Sable said quickly. “The way the French do.”
“Could be a dinosaur kiss, but a kiss is a kiss,” Zippy said, crossing her arms over her chest as Matthieu took several steps away from her.
“Ahh, right.” Ink shook his head and walked forward, hugging Betsy to him and kissing her gently. Then he crouched and spoke quietly to Zippy for a moment.
When he stood, Zippy was no longer glaring at Matthieu. But she was giving him suspicious looks.
He winked at her and she huffed.
“What are you guys doing here?” Ink asked.
“Zippy has a teacher-only day, so we’re going to go to the movies. But you forgot your lunch so we brought it in for you.” Betsy held up the bag and Ink smiled at her.
“You didn’t have to do that, Brown Eyes,” he said.
“I know. I wanted to. We’ll see you at home.”
A soft sigh filled the air and he glanced down at Sable. She was staring up at Ink and Betsy with longing. Which confused him. Didn’t she have a husband? He stared at her ring finger. Yep, she was married. So why did she look so sad and envious?
Ink walked back to the meeting room and he followed after saying goodbye to the two women and Zippy.
When he walked in, he nodded at Ethan Stone who was sitting at the table. Stone had worked for Ink for a long time. Brody was also there, but as usual, he had his head in a laptop and didn’t see him walk in.
The other man wasn’t one that Matthieu knew. But he could guess who he was. He seemed impatient, he had his fingers tapping against the table and he shifted around impatiently as Matthieu and Ink sat.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t have much time. I can’t afford to sit around, waiting.”
“You’ve been here five minutes,” Stone said dryly.
The other man glared at him.
“Matthieu, meet Detective Clayton Reeves with the Billings PD,” Ink said.
“Detective,” Matthieu said with a nod. “Sorry to keep you waiting, I’m not normally late but there were extenuating circumstances.”
Ink shot him a look. But he ignored him. For some reason, he didn’t want to tell him about the girl. He had no idea why.
“He works for you too?” Detective Reeves asked Ink, nodding at Matthieu.
“From time to time,” Ink replied vaguely.
Detective Reeves leaned forward, giving Ink an angry look. “Do I need to remind you that I’m putting my neck out here. I need to know that everyone in this room is trustworthy.”
“And might I remind you that you came to me,” Ink replied sharply. “Not the other way round.”
Even Brody looked up at that exchange, glancing around in shock as though he couldn’t work out how he’d come to be there.
“Matthieu, hi,” he said cheerfully. “How are you?”
“I’m good, Brody. And you?”
“Same old, same old,” Brody replied, adjusting his glasses as he stared at the other man. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
Ink sighed. “Brody, I introduced you before. This is Detective Clayton Reeves.”
“I don’t know if this was a smart idea.” Detective Reeves got to his feet. “Clearly, I should go elsewhere.”
“Good luck,” Ink told him casually. “If you want a recommendation for another security firm, I can give you some but none of them are located in Billings.”
Reeves scowled, but Matthieu could see that he wasn’t stupid. Instead of leaving, he sat. Matthieu expected him to remain angry, but he surprised him. Instead, Reeves ran his hand down his face tiredly. “Fuck. Look, I’m sorry I’m acting like an asshole. I’m just under some pressure.”
“So tell us how we can help you,” Ink said.
Reeves glanced around at them all again.
“I promise you that everyone here knows how to keep their mouth shut,” Ink added.
“Yeah?” Reeves gave Brody a skeptical look.
“Yes,” Ink replied firmly.
“All right. Look, what I’m here to say . . . I shouldn’t be telling anyone this, right? But there’s shit going down with the Billings PD that isn’t right and it’s downright scary and illegal.”
“So why come to us?” Stone asked with a frown. “Shouldn’t you be going to the Chief of Police with this?”
Surely the Chief knew what was going on in his force?
“Or IA,” Ink added.
“Hard to go to the Chief when you’re pretty sure that all of the problems stem from him.”
Well.
That wasn’t good.
But it also wasn’t surprising. Either the Chief had to be turning a blind eye to everything going on, was blind, or he was the problem.
Seemed like it was the latter.
Stone glanced over at Ink, then at him. “And is there a reason you don’t want to go to Internal Affairs?”
“Last year, we think one of the beat cops went to IA. Three weeks later, he was shot dead during a routine traffic stop. His wife packed up her two kids and left that day. No one has heard from her since.”
Ink’s face tightened and Matthieu felt his hands curling into fists. So the wife knew why he’d been shot. She likely knew he’d gone to IA. Had someone threatened her? Or had the people who’d gotten to her husband taken her out?
“There were clothes missing, toys, we think she definitely left. Whether she wanted to go or not, I can’t be sure.
The lead detective on that case is a guy that I wouldn’t trust as far as I can throw him and considering he weighs two hundred and fifty pounds, that’s not far.
He appeared to do everything by the book, but he didn’t seem all that interested considering a cop lost his life.
Kids lost their father. That poor woman lost her husband. ” Reeves looked disgusted.
Matthieu felt his respect for the other man growing. He obviously cared about justice.
“So you decided not to go to IA because you didn’t want to risk ending up like that cop,” Ink said. “Kind of a dangerous move to come here, then.”
Reeves shook his head. “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t work with IA. I just have to be careful.”
What was he trying to say without saying it?
“They expect people to go to IA. They won’t expect anyone to talk to someone in the private sector.”
Matthieu thought that was likely true. This was a ballsy move, for sure.
“Probably because there’s a cost to going to the private sector,” Brody said.
The detective’s face tightened. “Obviously. But I have a way of working around that.”
Hmm. Was he going to ask Ink to work for free? Would Ink do that?
“So you think they have someone that they’ve paid off in IA?” Ink asked.
If so, that was bad.
Really bad.
“I’m guessing so.” Reeves shook his head, looking exhausted. “I don’t know, but I have to do something.”
“And how is it that you think we can help?” Stone asked. “We’re not cops. You want us to start investigating people on the force? That’s not going to be easy. In fact, it will be dangerous if they’re willing to kill one of their own to keep their secret.”
“You must see how bad things have become,” Reeves said. “There are a number of corrupt assholes who are out there demanding protection money from people. They’re pulling over women on trumped up charges and then demanding ‘favors’ so they can avoid being arrested. It’s messed up.”
“And you believe that the Chief of Police has something to do with this corruption?” Matthieu asked.
“Yes. I believe he is the corruption.”
Merde.
This was insane.
“Have you got anything to back that up?” Ink asked.