The Killing Game(75)

“I’m in a meeting with a client,” Dallas answered.

“Having an early lunch?”

“Coffee.”

He could tell by Dallas’s careful answers that he couldn’t talk, which was fine. “I’m watching a place, so I’ll be here a while. What time did you want to meet?”

“I’ll call you.”

“Okay.”

He hung up and let his mind wander back to Andi Wren, a wandering that was becoming more and more frequent. The last thing he wanted was a romantic entanglement. He’d been trying to extricate himself from Iris for months and had determined he was bad at breakups. And every new relationship had a breakup waiting for it; Taylor Swift sure had that one right.

But . . . he liked Andi. Her quiet ways. Her ability to understand her own motivations. Her strength in times of terrible loss. She’d been tousled and fuzzy this morning in a thoroughly charming way.

Were the Carreras behind the scare tactics? Brian Carrera had sought her out at her club and threatened her, so it seemed likely. Or was there someone else hiding in the shadows with their own agenda?

The thought brought gooseflesh rising on his skin. A warning. A whisper. He scoffed at all things clairvoyant, but he trusted his own instincts, and the message he was picking up was that he’d missed something. What? He did a quick recap in his mind of the people surrounding Andi and chronicled the events that had taken place both before and after they’d first met.

One: Scott and Mimi Quade come to the Wren Development offices and announce her pregnancy.

Two: Gregory Wren skids off the road to his death in a one-car accident.

Three: Andi learns she’s pregnant.

Four: Brian Carerra threatens her at her club.

Five: Andi comes to see Luke at his office.

No, that wasn’t quite right. Five was that Andi’s cabin was broken into and the note was left on her bed. Six was when she came to his office.

Seven: Andi miscarries.

Eight: A period of inactivity from the Carreras, but in the background Carter Wren is working to form a financial partnership with them.

Nine: Andi goes to see Mimi Quade and determines Mimi is pregnant.

Ten: Scott Quade comes to the Wren Development offices again and wants . . .

Money, Luke determined. His leverage was Wren guilt over philandering Gregory and his baby.

As he considered this, a vehicle left the parking lot of Mimi’s apartment complex and began to turn north on the main street in front of the building, the same direction in which Luke’s car was facing. Luke’s binoculars were already in hand and he lifted them to his eyes in time to determine that the man behind the wheel was Scott Quade. He switched on the engine and was about to follow when a second car came out of the lot. This time it was Mimi behind the wheel. Luke had seen pictures of her on the web site for Nailed It!

He chose to follow her instead and eased in behind her. It was eleven o’clock and traffic was fairly light. She drove directly to Nailed It! and pulled into the lot. Luke turned into the one-level business complex as well and drove past her just as she was climbing out of her car, juggling a Starbucks cup, her purse, and a bag that likely held items she used for work. Her baby bump was clear and he shook his head at Scott’s intimation of an abortion, when suddenly her work bag banged against her stomach and she dropped it with a thud to adjust the bulk in front.

It was a quick move, accompanied by a surreptitious look around to see if anyone noticed. Her eye found Luke’s car, but it passed over him as he drove away. Then she gathered up her items and headed into the salon.

Luke parked at the far end of the lot, looking back. A fake baby bump. Scott and Mimi Quade were pulling an extortion racket. That was why there was all the talk about paying for an abortion. There was no baby.

His mind whirled. But there had been, he concluded, and it had been Gregory Wren’s because Scott had originally demanded a DNA test. Neither Greg nor Carter had wanted to believe Mimi was pregnant. Then Greg had died and Carter had refused to deal with Scott, so he and Mimi had faded into the background.

She must have miscarried, Luke concluded. Otherwise Scott would have been in their faces about the baby regardless. He wasn’t the kind of personality to just let things go, especially if there was money to be made. Luke had picked that up in just one meeting with the man, and it hadn’t taken any kind of mental leap.

Could Scott Quade, after losing one ploy, have embarked on another? Scaring Andi Wren with his little bird messages? To what end?

Luke drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He couldn’t see how that would turn into a money-making scheme, and unless there was another, darker side to Scott Quade, he would bet his own last dollar that money was the man’s prime motivation.

You don’t have enough information yet to draw any conclusions.

But it was something to know Mimi Quade was faking her pregnancy.

He picked up his cell phone to call Andi.

*

Tracy was standing outside her apartment, waiting. She’d driven back home and placed her call. “I’ve got it,” she’d said, hearing how miffed she sounded. She was still in a bad mood from seeing Heidi sitting in her chair.

“Meet me outside. I’ll pick you up in a few minutes.”

“I’m at home,” she told him, though he’d already hung up on her, so obviously he already had that information.