Ninja Soccer Moms Read online

  His right hand stopped at the fake pager clipped to my skirt. “What’s this?”

  God, this only gets worse. I didn’t dare tell him that it was actually defense spray after he’d found the can of defense spray at Chad’s house. “It’s just a pager.”

  Vance slid it off and set it on the counter.

  I struggled to think rationally. Vance was pissed. Tired of his case being fucked with. Things started clicking into place. The front door unlocked, Vance hanging out here in the dark. “You were staking out Chad’s office.”

  “Little late now to figure that out.”

  Did Gabe know that? Had he sent me here on purpose to get me arrested and out of his way? The thought made me sick.

  Vance put his hands back on my hips to continue his pat down.

  “Look, you gotta believe me. I really thought Gabe was in here. I came in because I needed his help.” The raw truth hurt, but being arrested would hurt more. “Vance, I had a phone message. A threat.” I hadn’t admitted it to myself, but I was running to Gabe. Who probably set me up to be arrested. When would I learn not to rely on a man?

  His hands stopped and lifted off my butt. “When?”

  “Let me turn around.” I was thinking fast. Okay, the truth was out, or some of it. I had to bargain with Vance.

  He stepped back.

  I turned, leaning against the fridge. The handle bit into a sore spot behind my hip. That was where I slammed into the counter when Vance grabbed me. Sucking up a breath, I told him about getting home earlier today and finding the message.

  “Did you recognize the voice?”

  “No, it sounded fake. Like muffled and lowered.” My breathing started returning to normal.

  He looked at me. “What did you stir up to get threats?”

  I summed up my day. “I sort of ran into Sophie Muffley and Rick Mesa and talked to them about Chad. That’s it. Otherwise I was at work, went by the nursery, and, uh, the grocery store.”

  He pulled his little red notebook out of his shirt pocket and flipped through it. “What did Sophie and Rick tell you?”

  It didn’t surprise me that Vance knew who Sophie and Rick were. I knew from experience that he did his homework. “They didn’t tell me anything, except to stay out of it.” I left out the part about Rick being in Chad’s house, probably looking for something.

  Vance ran a hand over his face and tucked the notebook away. “Shaw, you broke into a crime scene, a dead man’s house, and now you are probably investigating without a license since your boyfriend looks to be protecting the interests and assets of one Dara Reed. How do you get yourself into so much trouble?”

  Hormones? But the real question was how did I get myself out of so much trouble? “Are you going to let me go?”

  Vance put a hand on the fridge over my head and leaned down. “I think we can work something out.”

  Suspicion splashed over my brain. Quickly I tried to figure out Vance’s angle. He had people breaking into his crime scenes—that was evident from his little trap. His quick arrest of me showed his anger. But was the anger from something more than crime-scene tampering? I was getting the runaround, and apparently threats, about investigating Chad. If everyone involved in soccer had closed ranks against me, then that probably meant . . . “You want me to spy for you?” I worked hard to summon up indignation. “You want me to talk to the people in town to find out information they won’t tell you, the outsider cop?”

  He raised both eyebrows and looked down into my face. “Your outrage would have more impact if you hadn’t bugged your boyfriend’s truck. And need I remind you that he put that bug on my car? If that’s the truth, of course—something that I will find out shortly.”

  I really didn’t like hearing the facts from him. “Look Vance, I don’t have a license to investigate—”

  “I’m not asking you to investigate. Besides, we use informants all the time.”

  I wanted to scream no, but I was handcuffed and Vance might be able to make a case to arrest me. I stared up at him and tried to keep my priorities straight, which meant I needed to know what Vance thought about Janie. “Do you think Janie Tuggle killed Chad?”

  “I go where the facts take me. Janie Tuggle had reason to be pissed at her ex-husband. He got everything out of the divorce and stiffed her on payments for the house. Then there’s the fact that she paid up his life insurance. The evidence shows a struggle took place behind Chad’s desk by the paper shredder. It’s possible that Janie and Chad had an argument and it got out of hand.”

  I tried to process all of that. “You think Chad’s death was an accident? But why would the person leave?”

  “Could have been a lot of things. According to your story, you got your shirt caught in that paper shredder. How did that happen?”

  A thread of deep fear coiled in my stomach. “I told you, it was an accident! Chad was getting me some hot chocolate here in the kitchen, and the bottom of my shirt hit the automatic mechanism on the shredder. Chad had to use scissors to cut me loose. It was just an accident.”

  His brown eyes studied me. “You are an accident, Shaw. Look at you now, caught red-handed breaking into a crime scene with a lame story. Hell, if I find a bug on my car, how do I know you didn’t put it there?”

  Shit. He had me in a corner. “What do you want from me, Vance?”

  “First, I want to know what you saw on Chad’s computer yesterday morning here in his office.”

  I was in a really tight situation here. I had never admitted to Vance that I had a disk of the SCOLE files, so to tell Vance about that now would probably piss him off more. “Uh, can you take the cuffs off first?”

  He looked down at me. “No.”

  An involuntary shiver rolled between my shoulder blades and sank into my belly. “First Chad showed me his program for the insurance business. Then he showed me his SCOLE files.”

  “Soccer Club of Lake Elsinore?” Vance asked.

  I wished he’d move back. “Yes.”

  “What was on there?”

  Okay, time to come clean. “Actually, I sort of have a copy of those files on a disk.”

  His gaze flattened. “I want that copy.”

  Which meant he didn’t have the files on Chad’s computer. I thought of the computer at Chad’s house. “The computer files—they are all gone, aren’t they?” So whoever killed him wiped out the files. That must mean the murder had something to do with the missing soccer money.

  “I want that disk, Shaw.”

  “Fine, I’ll get it for you.” Right after I ask Grandpa to make us a copy of it.

  “Do you know who might have had the skills to delete files from the hard drive, Shaw?”

  “No.” Maybe. Janie was the one who taught Chad how to use the bookkeeping system, but why would Janie delete the files? For one thing, she knew I had a copy, and secondly, they were her proof that Chad was embezzling. Janie had Chad where she wanted him, so killing him made no sense. Who else could it be? Sophie? She worked with Chad part-time, so she might know how to wipe the computer clean. Rick? I’d seen a side of him I hadn’t seen before at Chad’s house today. I didn’t really know.

  “I don’t think you get the rules here, Shaw. You are going to start helping me or you are going to jail. Which is it going to be?”

  My head throbbed. The fact that I stood here with my hands cuffed behind my back indicated just how serious Vance was about blackmailing me into helping him. The fact that I once used Vance’s secret life as an author of romance novels to blackmail him into helping me prove a man innocent of killing his wife proved that Vance held a grudge. I didn’t see any choice since I couldn’t do a thing for Janie from jail. “Fine. I’ll be your narc. Just get me out of these handcuffs and get away from me.”

  “I want the disk, too. First thing tomorrow morning, you drop that disk off at the station, got it? If it’s not there by nine in the morning, I’ll find you.”

  Oh, just great. I was now at war with Gabe Pulizzi and
working against my will with Detective Logan Vance.

  Gabe wasn’t home and didn’t answer his cell phone. Ali watched me silently as I drove home and slinked through the front door. It took all my willpower not to take the tracking device Vance took off his car out of my purse and put it through the food processor. Then I could force-feed it to Gabe.

  I pulled up short in the living room when I spotted Grandpa and the boys looking over several computer-generated greeting cards laid out on the coffee table. The TV blared a cop show. Ali raced over to check in with TJ and Joel.

  TJ petted Ali, then picked up a card. “Mom, I think we should give Coach’s family this card.”

  The red haze of fury blurring my vision made it hard to see. “Tell you what, TJ, let me make a phone call, then I’ll look.” I stormed to the kitchen and yanked the phone off the hook. I punched in Gabe’s pager unit.

  I watched the boys rolling on the floor with Ali while listening to Gabe’s taped voice explaining my options for leaving a message. “You are a dead man, do you hear me, Gabe Pulizzi? Vance damn near arrested me tonight. He handcuffed me and—” I sucked in a breath, fighting down the sensation of sick anger. Of betrayal. I’d let Gabe into my life. I trusted him. “Don’t call me!” I slammed the phone down.

  Don’t call me? I groaned at my weak finish. I wanted to bang my head against the wall, but my forehead wasn’t up to the abuse. Maybe I should call him back and say something clever.

  I was too mad to think of something clever.

  Grandpa walked into the kitchen. “Vance almost arrested you?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” I went to the pantry and pulled out a bag of food for Ali and headed for her dish by the sliding glass door. Ali beat me there and stuck her nose into the dog food bag. “Back up, Ali.”

  She stepped back and sat down to watch me pour her food. I smiled at my awesome dog. Husbands and boyfriends should be so well trained.

  Grandpa filled up her water dish at the sink and set it down by her food. “I couldn’t find much on Dara Reed. Found her son registered at high school. But nothing about her except a driver’s license. Couldn’t even find a credit card.”

  I put the dog food away in the pantry, and then leaned back against the stove. Oh, boy, I was going to have a bruise on the back of my hip from Vance whipping me around in Chad’s office kitchen. Thinking about Dara, I said, “Are you sure? No credit cards?” What kind of self-respecting woman didn’t have credit cards? It was unnatural.

  “No history before she moved to Lake Elsinore.”

  Idly rubbing the back of my hip, I met Grandpa’s gaze. “What do you think it means?”

  “I think Dara Reed doesn’t want a lot of info floating around the Internet about her. I suspect she came to Lake Elsinore from out of state, which means I’d have to dig a little deeper. I put out some discreet feelers through my Triple M group.”

  That caught my attention. I looked across the narrow kitchen to where he was leaning against the sink. “Discreet?”

  Grandpa went to the refrigerator and took out a of couple of beers. “Well, it looks to me like Dara might not want to be found. I don’t want to send up red flags if she has a good reason.”

  That never occurred to me. A good reason? As in hiding? Dara showed up in town with a son and no man. The first thing that popped into my head was, “Like hiding from an abusive husband?”

  “Crossed my mind.” He handed me a beer.

  I twisted off the top and took a drink. “This whole case is just weird. Like a huge puzzle with missing pieces.”

  Grandpa studied me with his crafty blue eyes. “Who do you think might have some of those missing pieces?”

  I ran through my thoughts out loud. “Everyone seems to have secrets. And I think those secrets led to Chad’s murder. There’s the missing soccer money, which may or may not be what everyone is looking for. Everyone being Gabe, Dara, Rick, Sophie . . . ” I trailed off. Ali barked and gave me her pleading look. Big eyes, ears laid back. I went over and dumped some beer into her licked-clean food dish and added, “You know Vance isn’t getting any answers, either.” I gave him the short version of Vance’s demand that I help him and turn over the copy of the SCOLE disk.

  Grandpa’s blue eyes turned speculative and he lifted his beer bottle up to examine it. “He’s not asking at the right time. Like, say, at a lingerie party when the alcohol is flowing.”

  I looked at my own beer bottle and thought of the margarita mix I’d stocked up on for Angel’s Tempt-an-Angel lingerie party the next night. Sophie had already told Angel she was coming to the party. I shifted my gaze back to Grandpa. “You’re a genius. I’ll ply Sophie with margaritas and get some answers.”

  Grandpa beamed at me. “Always good to get your audience in a cooperating state of mind before you trick them.”

  I laughed, then went over and hugged Grandpa. “I love you, Grandpa. And not just because you are clever and devious. Now let’s go look at the cards the boys made on the computer.”

  The boys and I spent an hour and a half picking a card, then chatting and watching TV. They talked me into eating an ice cream sandwich. Once they went off to bed, I pulled out my Rolodex phone tree. The phone tree began life as my soccer mom tool, then segued into a rich source of information when I moonlighted as a private investigator.

  I’d been toying with the idea of calling a few people and asking what they might know about Chad and Dara. But something held me back.

  I wasn’t sure what Dara Reed’s secret was. What if she was hiding from an abusive husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend, and my snooping through my phone tree contacts somehow led the guy right to her?

  I didn’t know what questions to ask yet. Though protecting TJ and Joel was uppermost in my mind since the telephone message threat, I couldn’t risk exposing Dara until I knew her story.

  I set the phone tree back in the kitchen. I walked through the house and made sure all the doors and windows were locked. I double-checked to make sure the alarm system was on.

  Then I looked in on the boys. TJ slept in the bottom bunk. He was on his side facing the door, his blanket tucked carefully around him. He looked so much like his handsome father that it made me pause. But TJ was more of a man at fourteen than Trent had ever been. He had the sensitivity to spot a quiet sadness in Dara Reed’s son, Josh. And to worry that Chad had somehow used the boy. I smiled in the night, looking at TJ. He had a good heart to go with his father’s good looks.

  I shifted my gaze to Joel sprawled out on the top bunk, with his covers tangled around his legs. He looked more like me than his dad. He had inherited Trent’s charm, along with his grandfather’s craftiness. Watching Joel just beginning to cross over into manhood made my heart swell and ache at the same time. I felt nostalgia for the happy, chubby baby that lingered in my memory, and pride at the young man he was becoming.

  Lord, I must be getting old.

  I glanced at Ali on the floor, spread out on her side. She opened one eye to assure me that she was on the job looking out for my two sons, then closed it again. I pulled the door halfway shut so Ali could get out if she wanted to and continued down the hallway to my room. Grandpa’s light was still on, so he was reading in bed.

  Which is exactly what I planned to do. I had started a really hot romance novel yesterday morning when Janie came into my office. I couldn’t wait to finish it and get started on the review. It was a fabulous book, funny and sensual at the same time. Once in my room, I shut the door almost all the way. I got undressed, washed the makeup off my face, put on my “Romance Rocks” T-shirt and socks, then climbed into bed. I opened the book and slipped away from murders, crying clients, blackmailing detectives, and annoying boyfriends.

  I don’t know how long I had been reading when the book was suddenly ripped from my hand.

  Adrenaline and confusion slammed into me. I opened my mouth to scream while trying to figure out what was going on.

  “Don’t scream.” Gabe stood over me
in his black T-shirt and jeans, holding my romance novel.

  Finally, my terrified lungs relaxed and I demanded, “Give me that! They were just going to do it!”

  Gabe’s face changed. Male interest practically oozed from his eyes. He dropped his gaze to the page I was on. “Damn, that’s not the reading I had to do in high school.” He looked at me.

  I refused to be embarrassed. I loved romance novels. I loved the heroines, and right now, that was more than I could say for Gabe. “What are you doing here?”

  He dropped his gaze to my breasts.

  Uh-oh. That romance novel had me so into the characters, I was practically a walking sex act waiting to happen. Definitely a five-star rating for sexual tension. To Gabe, I said, “It’s late and I’m going to sleep. You obviously know your way out. And give me my book.”

  He tossed the book across the room so that it landed on my desk.

  Okay, we weren’t going to do this the easy way. I threw back the covers, swung my legs out of bed, and stood up. My right hip balked at that. Boy, it was going to hurt tomorrow. I ignored the pain and turned to Gabe. “Okay, you broke into my house, bypassed my guard dog, and appeared in my bedroom at—” I glanced at the green dials of my bedside clock—“almost midnight. I’m impressed as hell. So what do you want?”

  “Let’s start with why Vance almost arrested you.”

  I glared at him. “First tell me how you found the tracking device on your truck.” I’d been so sure we’d gotten away with it.

  “My mom told me she saw Angel skulking around my truck.” He crossed his arms, waiting.

  Gabe’s mom was too smart, just like her son. I took a deep breath. “Your little stunt of moving the tracking device led me right to Chad’s office. I thought you were in there. Turns out Vance was in there waiting for someone to break in. He had me handcuffed before I could talk him out of it.”

  The ends of Gabe’s mouth twitched. “It looks like you talked your way out of it eventually.”

  “Once he blackmailed me into spying for him.” I had to swallow that down.