Weekend Warriors (Sisterhood #1)(43)
“And if I do find out there’s a bug in it, how can I prove Jack did it? I can’t. I’ll call a mechanic I know when I finish my coffee. Anything new?”
Myra sat down with a thump. “I think that depends on what you mean by new.” She recounted the evening’s events up until the moment she fell asleep on the sofa. “Does Jack watch the Larry King show? I rather thought Friday nights he would be out either with his friends or on a date with you. Does he, Nikki?” Myra asked, wringing her hands as she paced the kitchen.
“Sometimes he watches the show. Even if he was home, I doubt he would have stayed tuned once he realized the show was about the paranormal. He doesn’t believe in stuff like that. The answer is, I don’t know.”
Myra continued to pace. “It’s eleven o’clock here, so that means it’s eight in California. Kathryn will be getting ready to visit those…those men. I imagine we’ll hear something from Charles via e-mail in the next few hours. There seems to be a lot of e-mail waiting. The envelopes were twirling all over the place last night. I didn’t want to touch anything. You know how Charles is with his electronic gadgetry.”
Nikki nodded as she tipped her chair back and reached for the phone. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to recall the number for Tony’s Auto Body shop.
“Tony, it’s Nikki Quinn. Listen, I have a tremendous favor to ask of you. No, no, you don’t owe me anything because of your sister Angela. She paid the bill. I’m perfectly willing to pay you for your time. I’m working on this case and I have reason to believe someone bugged my car. It’s parked on the street outside my apartment building. I keep a spare key under the right fender in a magnet box. Can you go there now and check it out? You can. Thanks. Now listen, I want you to write this down. Jack Emery is the person I want you to deliver it to if you do find something. I’ll give you his address. Assuming you find something, when you give it to him make sure he understands it’s from me. I owe you, Tony. You’ll call me right away if you find something?”
“Right away, Miss Quinn.”
Her eyes miserable, Nikki got up to put her cup in the sink. “It should take less than a half hour till Tony calls back. I’m going to scoot upstairs and take a quick shower.”
Her own eyes miserable, Myra said, “I’ll sit by the phone, dear.”
Chapter Ten
Sweat dripped down Jack Emery’s body as he ran at five miles per hour on the treadmill in his apartment. He was breathing hard, his arms swinging at his sides. Ten more minutes and he would have run ten full miles on the machine, a gift from Nikki on his last birthday. He picked up his pace and did the last ten minutes at six miles per hour, the machine quivering under his fast-paced run.
Six minutes flat, he thought in satisfaction when he yanked at the safety cord and hopped off. He wiped the perspiration running down his face with the sweatband on his wrist and headed for the shower. The doorbell rang just as he turned on the hot water. He gave his boxers a hitch and marched out to the door. He looked through the peephole and frowned. The guy looked familiar but he couldn’t immediately place his face. He yanked open the door.
“Are you Jack Emery?”
Jack pointed to his name over the doorbell. “Yeah.”
“Then I guess this is for you. Nikki Quinn said I should hand deliver it to you. Have a nice day.”
Jack looked at the electronic device in his hand. Son of a bitch! He slammed the door shut and marched back into the bathroom. For sure his relationship with Nikki was over. He cursed again, using words he hadn’t used since his days on the street back in the Bronx.
In the shower he lathered up and let the hot, steamy water beat on his naked body. He stared into the steamy mirror as he dried off. If Nikki found the bug, that meant she was searching for it. Which in turn had to mean she had something to hide. His gut told him she was up to her eyeballs in Marie Lewellen’s disappearance. And rich-as-sin Myra Rutledge was probably right there with her, aiding and abetting. “You fucking rich people think you can get away with anything,” he muttered as he stomped his way into the bedroom to get dressed.
Now he had to go to the office so he could get to the bottom of Nikki’s involvement. He had to satisfy himself one way or the other where she was concerned. The ironic thing was, Nikki would have done the same thing if she’d been in his position, even though she wouldn’t admit it.
He was pulling on his socks when the phone rang. He debated a moment before he threw himself across the bed and picked up the phone from the nightstand. “Emery here,” he barked.
“By any chance do you mean asshole Emery?” Nikki asked coldly. “You bugged my goddamn car, Jack. I want to know why.”
Jack clenched his teeth so hard he thought he heard his jaw crack. “Because you’re up to your neck in Lewellen’s disappearance, that’s why, and we both know it. Don’t take that as an admission of guilt, Nik. I’m going to find her. Then I’m going to prove you and Myra are responsible. Yeah, old Myra said the words but she doesn’t care about losing the mil. All she wanted to do that day was to get me the hell out of her house. Do you two think I just fell off the water-melon truck?”
“I’m going to fry your ass for this, Jack.”
Jack looked around his messy apartment, trying to compare it to Nikki’s bright airy apartment that was neat as a pin. It even smelled clean and good, like Nikki herself. His apartment was shabby, dreary and messy with beer bottles, pizza cartons, dirty socks and smelly sneakers all over the place. He closed his eyes. “Not if I fry yours first. Is that what you called to tell me?”