All I've Ever Wanted - Adrianne Byrd [28]
She managed to reward him with a wide smile and struggled not to weep. As she passed him in the doorway, she playfully pinched his cheek and went to finish his favorite meal: hot dogs.
When she brought their food to the table, the sports-caster on the Channel Five news caught her attention. She found the remote and turned up the volume.
The day’s baseball scores gave her the beginning of an idea. The Atlanta Braves had just beaten the Houston Astros with the score of eight to two. That meant the series was tied, two to two. The final game would be tomorrow evening at Turner Field.
Turner Field, she thought, a person could easily get lost in such a large crowd. A slow smile curved her lips as she turned toward Tommy. “How would you like to see a baseball game tomorrow night?”
Scardino shook her head. “I don’t know about this one, Collier,” she said, sitting behind her desk. They had just briefed her about their suspicions involving Ms. St. James. “You have no proof that she saw anything.”
“I have a hunch,” Collier answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “Let me and Dossman tail her for twenty-four hours and see what we turn up.”
“Then what?”
“If we come up empty-handed, then we’ll try something else.”
She drew in a deep breath, obviously considering his proposal. “If she was an accidental witness, I don’t see what good tailing her is going to do. By your own admission, you don’t think that she’s a co-conspirator, so I don’t see the point of surveillance. What do you think, Mike?”
Again with the Mike. Max turned amused eyes to his partner.
Dossman shifted uncomfortably. “I’m pretty much just along for the ride. Max says he has a hunch, and I don’t see how it could hurt to just see where it leads.”
“The way I see it—” Max brought the lieutenant’s attention back to him “—I don’t think that we’re the only ones watching her.”
She frowned. “You think The Skulls are watching her?”
“Dossman and I have both crossed paths with Keenan Lawrence before. He strikes me as a very smart man. I’m thinking that, if he’s aware that there’s a witness, he’s going to pull out all stops to find out who it is.”
“And you’re sure that it’s Ms. St. James?”
Max nodded.
Scardino bridged her hands beneath her chin, and then spread them out on her desktop. “All right. You have twenty-four hours.” Her direct gaze centered on Max. “I just hope you’re right about this. I don’t like the idea of wasting time on this case.”
He smiled. “Thanks. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.”
“Let’s hope that you’re right.”
Keenan took a seat across from his boss. Despite the confident air he’d hoped to convey, he looked nervous. He obviously didn’t like the way his boss’s two mesomorphic bodyguards stood behind him.
“Comfortable?” His boss’s hard, clipped voice jerked Keenan’s attention back to awareness of who was more important.
“Uh, yeah.” Keenan adjusted his jacket while wondering why the lights were so dim.
“How about a drink—in celebration of a job well done.”
He hesitated for a moment, knowing that poisoning was a real possibility. Yet, to decline could be equally fatal. “Sure,” he said reluctantly.
“Good, good.”
Almost instantly, two drinks were set on the table.
Keenan stared at the amber liquid for several heartbeats before his boss raised his glass.
“Cheers.”
“Cheers,” Keenan echoed, then tossed his head back, allowing the liquid to slide down his throat. When he returned the glass to the table, his employer was staring at him with steel-gray eyes.
“Tell me, did everything go according to plan?”
Keenan shifted in his chair. He suspected that his boss already knew the answer to that question. “Pretty much.” He refrained from elaborating.
The silence in the room seemed deafening. To Keenan, his heartbeat sounded more like a jackhammer, while his breathing was more like the rush of a tornado.
“Now, why don’t I believe that?”
“You wanted Marion Underwood dead. He’s dead. You left the details up to me.”
His boss smiled. “True. But there has always been an understanding between us. No