Chapter 18 – Whitney
WHITNEY
My new phone arrived shortly after lunch on Wednesday. I put the box down and ignored it until Hadley asked me why in the hell I hadn’t activated it yet.
“Because I don’t want to talk to people.”
“You don’t have to talk to anyone.”
“I need to call Lewis at work and let him know that I have a new number.”
“Text him, but tell him not to share it because you won’t have it long.”
Whitney: Hey! It’s Whit. Lost my phone. This is my new number, but it’s temporary, so please don’t share it. I’ll see you Friday.
Lewis: Hey! I’ve been trying to call you.
A detective came by the shop this morning and wanted to talk to you.
I told him you weren’t scheduled to work until Friday.
Then he asked if you’d been out of town.
Said he’d been trying to contact you for a while.
I told him you took last weekend off, so you might’ve been.
Whitney: A detective? Did he say what he wanted to talk about?
Lewis: No, but he left his contact information. I’ll send it to you.
“Lewis said a detective stopped by Ink Therapy wanting to talk to me. He left a phone number for me to call,” I told Hadley.
“Huh,” she said, sounding surprised. “I thought it would be a few more days before they contacted you. Well, it’s nothing to worry about. He just wants to ask you about Glenn.”
“When should I call him back?” I asked.
“You can call him back now. He probably wants to schedule a time to talk to you in person.”
“Should we talk to the guys about it first?”
“Crap,” Hadley groaned and closed her laptop. “Fuck yes, we should! Always ask that question if I start making decisions while we’re under biker rule. I’m not used to having to clear shit with other people.”
“I don’t want the detective to come here to talk to me.” I’d already brought a court reporter and a private investigator into their clubhouse. I did not want to add a detective to the list.
“Let’s see what they say first,” Hadley said, walking toward the door.
“Now?” I asked. “I’m not ready now.”
“You’ll be fine. I’ll go first and do the talking.”
“Promise?” I was a giant weenie and didn’t give a single fuck.
“Promise.” She pointed to my bed. “Bring your phone.”
I grabbed it and followed her into a part of the clubhouse I hadn’t seen before. “Where are we going?” I whispered.
“There’s a second set of stairs at the end of this hall. Tomb’s room is the second-to-last door on the right. I’m gonna bang on his door a couple of times before we run down the stairs.”
“We?”
“Fine. I’ll give you a head start on the stairs, but you better step to the side if you hear me coming. I’ll run you over or take you down with me.”
“Are you trying to annoy him?”
“No, I’m trying to wake him.”
“What? Why?”
“I didn’t judge you for getting your biker husband by jumping out of a casket. Don’t judge me for how I choose to get mine.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am, and this is your only warning. Go.”
And because I was loyal as fuck, I took off, making it halfway down the stairs when I heard Hadley’s booming knocks through the wall.
I reached the bottom seconds before she did.
As she passed, she grabbed my shirt, dragging me down the hall with her and slowing to a normal pace as we entered the common room.
Naomi saw us and raised her hand to wave just as Tomb yelled from upstairs, “All right, motherfucker! You wanna play? Let’s fucking play! ”
“What the fuck did you do?” I whispered.
She shrugged. “Poked the bear. Waved the red flag at the bull.”
“Hey,” Naomi said. “Are y’all finished with work for the day?”
“Not yet. We need to talk to Sin about something. Do you know where we can find him?”
“He’s probably in his office,” she said. “I’ll show you where it is.”
Following her back the way we came, we ran into Tomb as he was stomping down the steps. He stopped when he saw us and pointed an accusatory finger at Hadley. “You!”
“Me, what?” she asked, instead of pissing her pants like I would have if he yelled at me like that.
“Tomb!” Naomi snapped. “They were down here with me when someone banged on your door. It was probably one of the prospects.”
He grumbled something I couldn’t hear and turned around to go back upstairs.
“Maybe try not stepping on the flaming bag of dog shit next time,” Naomi suggested.
He turned back, looking confused. “What?”
“You’re reacting like a psychotic jack-in-the-box. It’s fucking hysterical.”
He held up his middle finger. “Piss off, Gnome.”
“Back at ya, Tom,” she said, motioning for us to follow her.
“His name is Tom?” Hadley asked.
Naomi laughed. “No. We got into a discussion about the way bomb, comb, tomb, and womb are pronounced, and that resulted in me calling him Tom every time he annoys me or pisses me off.”
“I like the way you think.”
“Thank you.” She stopped at a door near the end of the hallway. “This is Sin’s office.” Then she knocked on it once before flinging it open. “Hey brother!” she shouted.
“God damn it, Naomi!” Sin yelled, jumping up from his chair as a tumbler of coffee fell to the floor.
“Who damn it?”
“I told you to stop doing that!”
“Yes, you did. A couple of times.”
Sin glared at her.
“What? You don’t want to yell for Dad in front of our guests?”
Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose and audibly exhaled. “What do you want, Naomi?”
“Hadley and Whitney were looking for your office, and I wanted to annoy you. Mission completed. I’ll see y’all later.”
Sin gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. “Come in and have a seat. I’ll be with you as soon as I clean up the mess my pain-in-the-ass little sister made.”
“I think we could learn some things from her,” Hadley said quietly.
“Fucking hell,” Sin mumbled. “So, why were you two looking for me?”
“Whitney’s new cell phone arrived today. When she texted her boss to give him her new number, he told her a detective had come by and left a number for her to call. How would you like us to proceed?”
“Did they say what it was about?”
“No, but the name on the business card he left is Detective Yates, who happens to be the detective assigned to Glenn’s case.”
Sin sighed. “You need to call him back sooner rather than later. He probably wants to talk to you about your lunch with Glenn and find out where you’ve been.”
“Sorry. I should’ve been clearer. Assuming the detective wants to meet with her, when and where would you like that to happen?”
“I don’t want him to come here,” I blurted.
“I agree with you on that,” Sin said.
“I don’t think you should risk being seen in public talking to the police, so I suggest having him meet you at your house tomorrow afternoon,” Hadley said and looked at Sin. “As long as one of your guys can go with her.”
“I’ll send Stone.”
“Okay,” Hadley said with far too much excitement. “Let’s call the detective. Then we’ll work on your story.”
I looked down at my phone. I hated calling people I didn’t know. Hated it.
“Do you want me to call and pretend to be you?” Hadley asked.
“Yes!” I shouted and tossed my phone to her like a hot potato.
“I’m not calling from your phone and giving him your new number.” She tossed my phone back and turned to Sin. “Do you have a landline I can use?”
“Yeah, right here,” he said, pointing to the phone on his desk.
Hadley got up and walked toward the desk. “Y’all can’t be in here while I call. I’ll start laughing and fuck it all up.”
“We’ll wait in the hall,” Sin said.
“I haven’t had a chance to thank you for your help with this situation. I’m very grateful you didn’t kill me and my friends for all the trouble I’ve brought along with me.”
“I think the word you meant to use was haven’t. I haven’t killed you and your friends.” When he saw the look of horror on my face, he nudged me with his elbow. “I’m just fucking with you.”
“Stevie will know about this,” I nearly whispered, causing Sin to stiffen. Laughing, I bumped him back. “Just fucking with you.”
Hadley swung the office door open, looking unusually annoyed. “When I asked you to leave so I wouldn’t laugh while doing you a favor and impersonating you while talking to an officer of the law, I did not mean stand in the hall and laugh your asses off.”
I immediately pointed at Sin. “He did it.”
Hadley glared at him.
“What did the detective say?” I asked.
“He’ll meet you at your house tomorrow afternoon at four. He wouldn’t tell me anything other than that he needed to speak with you about a case he’s working on. So, let’s go over everything in detail and make sure you know exactly what to say.”
“And what not to say,” Sin added.