12. Chapter 12
When they arrived at Melanie’s office the next morning, Scarlett was standing there with a cup of coffee in one hand and her phone in the other. She glanced up at them. “Tim Klein is dead,” she said with no greeting or preamble.
“Well, good morning to you too,” Melanie said and put the key in her door. It was one of the few offices in the building that actually used a key and not a code to access it.
“Yeah, good morning,” Scarlett said and followed her inside.
Levi closed the door behind them all. “How’d he die?”
“We found him with a bullet in his head at home. It’s not self-inflicted.”
Melanie put her stuff down on the desk then sat in her chair. It was only seven in the fucking morning. She didn’t really want to be hearing all of this.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Levi said. “Are you saying the stalker used him to deliver the pig to Nacho and then killed him?”
“At this point I don’t know what to think.” Scarlett sat down in the chair across from Melanie. “If he was just trying to gain your attention and love then there would be no reason to kill anyone involved other than you maybe. So we need to figure out if it’s just you he wants or something that you have access to.”
“I’ve read through all the letters and seen the gifts he’s sent. None of them suggest he wants information,” Levi said, sounding frustrated. “In my opinion, he just wants her.”
Scarlett nodded and took a sip of her coffee. “Well then, Superstar, I suggest you pull some of your voodoo magic and wrap this up quickly because this whole thing is pissing me off.”
“I don’t have voodoo magic,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Well,” she stood up and moved in front of him, “According to Andrea you’ve got something special. So figure it out because it’s pulling focus.”
“I’m working on it.”
Scarlett pulled open the door. “Oh, our contact at the crime lab said the wine was spiked, so be careful with what you drink from now on.” Then she left.
Levi was still staring at the door.
“Don’t let her get to you,” she whispered. “Scarlett, likes drama.”
“I know.” He shifted on his feet and looked over at her. “Can I kiss you before I go?”
He really was sweet. “Yes.”
She spent the morning finishing the budget proposal for Andrea, emailing it to her for review. No doubt it was going to get approved. This was just a formality. With the Intelligence stuff settled until they told her which personnel were being transferred over, she turned to get busy on all the other stuff. She had a couple of meetings today too. One of which was supposed to be over at the new shop with Declan. Maybe it would be best to bring him here for now? She could see the space next week or something. With a sigh, she picked up the phone and dialed him.
Coming back from the bathroom, she found Declan leaning against the wall beside her door. “Hey, DC, sorry to keep you waiting,” she said and stuck the key in the door.
“Not a problem at all. I just got here.” He followed her into the office. “I thought you wanted to see the new space?”
She sat down and instantly regretted not going downstairs to get something to drink from the kitchen. The water on her desk just wasn’t doing it for her today. “I want to see it,” she said with a smile. “I especially want to understand your vision for it. All I’ve seen are pictures, and you’ve put in a big request list.”
He laughed and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “About that. I’ve got one more thing to add to the list.”
Taking the offered paper, she straightened it out, unable to contain her smile. “Aren’t the customer’s supposed to bring the cars?” It was an internet ad for an old car. Definitely a cool car—even though it had seen better days, but she didn’t understand.
“They are, but this car’s special.” He sat forward and pointed at it. “We can’t put it on the approval list as a car though. It’s a gift.”
“A gift?” As much as she liked him, he wasn’t making a lot of sense right now. “I’m going to need more information, DC.”
He unzipped his jacket, pulling a picture out of the inside breast pocket. “Take a look at this.” He pointed at the man who was sitting in the driver’s seat of a much nicer version of the car in the ad. “Do you know who that is?”
She leaned down to look closer. “No.” Maybe she had seen him somewhere. It was an old picture though, so she doubted it.
“What about the little girl in his lap?”
Her patience was growing thin. “Please, just tell me.”
“It’s Anthony DeLaney and the Boss.” Then he pointed to the ad. “That’s his car. Alexander sold it when Anthony died. Whoever bought it wrecked it, and it’s been sitting in a junkyard ever since. Took me three years to track it down.”
Now it was making sense. “You want to restore it?”
He smacked his hand down on the desk. “Yes! It’s perfect, right?”
“Perfect for what?”
DC sat back down. “When I originally started looking, I thought a late wedding present, but it took me this long to find it.” He sighed and shrugged. “Now, I don’t know. We gotta do this though. It’s in awful shape and it’s probably gonna take me forever to track down the parts so who knows what occasion will be here by the time I get it done.”
That was probably true. She looked down at the picture and then at the ad. Usually she would be absolutely against manipulating line items on the budget, but maybe in this case she could make an exception. Realistically he could have just priced something that was just as much and done this all on his own. Instead, he was bringing her in on it. Something about that made her feel good. “Ok, this is what I think. Instead of rolling it into the cost of the new shop and tools, let’s find the money from the fleet vehicles we’re phasing out and selling.”
The smile on his face made her heart happy. With everything else going on, this was something positive she could be a part of. “This is why you’re the best!”