Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(74)

“Yeah, I heard you were asked about him, and that you said you haven’t seen him.”

“And I haven’t,” she answered, puffing out a line of smoke. “I wouldn’t lie to the cops, or . . . who was that guy who called to talk to me?”

“A friend,” Alec answered.

“Yeah, another friend.” She leaned back in her chair and eyed Raegan as if she wanted to claw Raegan’s eyes out. “You got all kinds a friends now, don’tcha, son?”

“Look.” The bite to Alec’s voice told Raegan he was heading quickly past his patience limit. “We both know you and my father have a sick sort of relationship. You’re the first person he turns to when he’s in trouble.”

“What kinda trouble he in this time?” she asked, drawing the cigarette between her lips as if she were completely clueless, which they all knew she wasn’t.

Alec stepped toward her. “Don’t play games with me, Charlene. I know he came to see you after he got out the other day. I want to know what he wanted.”

She stared up at him like a cat stares at a goldfish, waiting for the moment it accidentally jumps out of the bowl and into the cat’s mouth. Long, tense moments passed that made the hair on Raegan’s nape stand straight. Finally, Charlie tapped her cigarette on the edge of the ashtray and said, “Let’s just say, for argument sake, that I heard . . . somethin’. What’s in it for me?”

Alec’s jaw clenched down hard. Reaching back for his wallet, he pulled a ten free and laid it in front of her. Her grayish-blue eyes went wide, and she licked her lips, but her gaze flicked back up to the wallet in his hand.

This was clearly a familiar game. Raegan watched with wide eyes as Alec laid another ten on the table.

Charlie scooped up both bills and stuffed them into her shirt. “He just wanted a place to stay for a few days. He left yesterday. I ain’t seen him since.”

“So you lied to the police.”

She shrugged. “I omitted. Ain’t the same thing. ’Sides, what ’r’ you gonna do? Tell ’em? I know you won’t ’cause you want my help.”

“Where was he going?”

She shrugged and puffed on her cigarette.

Alec stared at her, then laid another ten on the table.

Charlie swiped it away to join the first two and grinned. “Don’t know. He didn’t say.”

A muscle in Alec’s jaw ticked as he laid another ten on the table. “He say anything about me?”

She giggled and grasped the money. “He said you was messin’ things up for his job. You and some girl.” She nodded Raegan’s way. “Must a meant that one there. She’s pretty enough.” She leaned around Alec. “He give you that shiner, honey? I know good ol’ John Gilbert’s work when I see it. He got ya good, didn’t he?”

Raegan’s spine tingled, and she glanced at Alec, willing him not to break.

Alec stared at Charlie for several seconds, then pulled a twenty out of his wallet and held it up. “Who’s he working for, Charlene?”

“Hell if I know.”

He extracted another twenty and fingered the money in front of her. She reached for it, but before her grubby fingers could clasp it, he tugged the bills back.

Frustration lines creased Charlie’s forehead and around her eyes as she glared up at him. “Some rich bitch in the city, okay?”

“What does he do for her?”

She sighed, her eyes never once leaving the cash in his hand. “I don’t know.”

When he didn’t hand over the money, she glared up at him. “I’m tellin’ ya the truth. I know what he used to do for her, ’fore he got sent up. By you. But that’s it.”

“And what was that?” Alec asked, waving the money in front of her.

Her gaze followed the cash. “Truckin’ stuff. He moved stuff from place to place.”

“What kind of stuff?”

The lines on her face deepened. Raegan could see she was struggling between her need for cash and her desire to stay quiet.

Alec must have seen it too, because he pulled out a hundred-dollar bill to join the twenties. “What kind of stuff was he moving, Charlene?”

She pursed her lips. Stared at the money. Her face turned as red as a tomato just before she jumped out of her chair. “Nothin’. He wasn’t movin’ nothing. I’m done with this.” She twisted for the trailer’s door. “You can show yerselves out.”

Alec caught her by the bony arm before she could close her fingers around the door handle. She grunted as he jerked her back around and closed his other hand around her throat.

“Alec,” Raegan jumped forward when she realized what he was doing and grabbed for his arm. “Oh my God, let go of her.”

Alec didn’t move. Didn’t release the woman. “Tell me what he was moving, Charlene.”

Charlie’s eyes turned to hard black coals. “You’re just like yer daddy.”

“Yeah, I’m exactly like him. I learned everything from the master.” He slammed her up against the side of the trailer, his voice turning to ice. “Tell me.”

“I don’t—” Her words died with a gasp. Wide-eyed, she struggled against his hold, but all it did was make her face turn redder and her eyes bulge even more.