Dirty Rotten Scoundrel (Romantic Mystery) (J.J. Graves Mysteries) Read online

  “And I’m the goddamned Sheriff. I had a right to know. And it doesn’t matter that he’s your father. I have a duty to bring him in. The law is the law.”

  “Easy how quickly you become the sheriff instead of my partner,” I said, going cold inside. “And I’m not trying to break the law. I just needed a few fucking hours to wrap my head around the fact that the man I buried two years ago is alive and well. So fuck you and the law. Really, I appreciate you taking the time to ask how well I’m dealing with all this instead of jumping straight into telling me you’re going to hunt him down and arrest him.”

  My face was hot with anger and my hands shook. Short breaths made my lungs heave and I wanted nothing more than to throw the coffee cup across the room and watch it smash into a million pieces.

  “Jaye—” he growled and rubbed his hands through his hair like he always did when he was agitated. “Fine. You’ve had your few hours to get used to it. I’ll even put the law aside for the moment. But you should have trusted me enough to tell me the minute I drove up to the house.”

  “Why, so you could pull your high and mighty sheriff routine?”

  “Don’t push me right now. I need you to fill me in on the details so we can start a search in the area.” He grabbed a notepad and pen from his bag, and the notepad slapped against the table where he dropped it. “It looks like I won’t be taking that vacation after all.”

  I jerked back against the counter and my shoulders stiffened with pride. I guessed if he wasn’t taking a vacation then that meant that we weren’t getting married either. Too many emotions were pounding away inside of me, and I knew I was only seconds from not being able to function at all. Blood pounded in my ears, my breath caught in my throat, and I was blinded by gathering tears.

  I turned my back on Jack and sat the coffee cup down with more control than I knew I had. And then walked out of the room to the sound of Jack’s voice calling at my back.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The mid-afternoon sunlight beat down through the windows in the upstairs bedroom Jack and I shared—the same bedroom we’d made love in only hours before.

  I stripped out of my clothes and tossed them into the hamper. The cloying smell of death and my lab still clung to them, though I hardly noticed. My movements were mechanical as I got into the shower and turned on the hot water. I stood with my hands braced against the wall and let the spray hit me in the face.

  Something horrible built and built inside of me until there was no choice but for it to break free. The sound that escaped my throat wasn’t human and I pounded my fist against the wall in frustration. I couldn’t even scream right. Choked sobs took me to my knees and I curled into a ball, letting the hot water pulse against my back.

  I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I’d never had to deal with this loss of control before. I’d always been the type of person to know exactly what I wanted and then I went for it. I didn’t let emotions get in the way of my personal goals. I had friends and lovers, a career I’d worked hard for, and a family I didn’t understand—but I assumed that was normal for everyone. It didn’t mean I didn’t love them or wouldn’t give them a kidney if they’d asked for one. They were my family.

  But there were all types of families. Jack, Vaughn, Dickie, and Eddie had been both my family and my friends. Things had changed between us over the years—as marriages, divorces, relationships, and children had taken root. But we were still family. Only now I didn’t feel as if I really belonged anymore. Didn’t feel as if I belonged anywhere really.

  I don’t know how long I stayed on the shower floor, but the water turned cold and I shivered beneath the icy spray. I reached up blindly to turn the faucet off and dragged myself to a standing position by using the towel bar to support myself.

  I halfheartedly dried my hair and wrapped the towel around me, and then I stumbled into the bedroom and fell face first onto the bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

  ***

  “Wake up, Jaye. We’ve got to move.”

  Jack’s exact words barely cut through my sluggish brain, but I heard the urgency in them. I’d spent too many years as an ER doctor to not be able to spring out of bed and pull on clothes before my brain was fully functional. In fact, as I did so now I was reminded of those days.

  I had on clean jeans and a lightweight black sweater before I asked Jack what the emergency was.

  “What’s wrong?” My voice was hoarse—barely discernable—from the crying jag I’d had earlier and Jack looked at me sharply. My eyes were probably puffy too so I kept my gaze averted and slipped on black boots. I headed down the stairs and grabbed my medical bag, and I heard Jack’s footsteps behind me.

  “We’ve got a mess on our hands. Ben Carver just called me.” Jack took the keys from my hand and he instead led me to his police cruiser. Whatever was going on he wanted to have an official presence.

  “If there’s a body I need the Suburban. I can follow you to the scene.”

  “There’s no body.” He didn’t say anything else until I was seated in the passenger seat of his cruiser and belted in. He hit the sirens, did a U-turn, and sped out of the long driveway and onto the main road. There was still tension between us and my hands were clasped on the handle of my medical bag so my knuckles were white with strain.

  “What did Ben want?”

  “Colburn ran the prints we took today, and when they went through the system they sent up all kinds of red flags. Carver was giving us a courtesy call to let us know we’re going to have the FBI breathing down our neck in the next few minutes.”

  I jerked in my seat and had the urge to jump out of the car and run back to the house so I could hide the boxes we’d left out on the table.

  “I put them in the safe,” Jack said, and I relaxed a little. “I warned Colburn to be ready for them and to cooperate, but I thought you’d want to be there when they serve the warrant to retrieve the body from your lab.”

  “Warrant? Are they going to search the whole premises?”

  “No, it’s specific to the body and any information, materials, or samples taken from the body in the course of our initial investigation.”

  “You’re not telling me something.” I watched his jaw clench as he pressed on the brake a little. We were getting closer to town and the traffic was heavier. Most people in cities learned to get out of the way when emergency vehicles had their lights on. The people in Bloody Mary slowed their pace and gawked as much as possible while whispering speculation.

  “The prints belonged to Dean Wallace. He was a SWAT officer out of DC and transferred six years ago to join the Capitol Police. He was a sergeant there and had a good record.”

  “Six years ago. He was one of yours?”

  “Yeah. He was one of mine.” Jack hit his hand against the steering wheel in a rare showing of temper.

  The late afternoon sun was a flaming ball of orange in the sky and it glared through the windshield as we turned onto Catherine of Aragon. Jack turned the sirens off but left his lights flashing as he parked the cruiser at an angle in the driveway.

  “Tell Carver I owe him one,” I said, looking at the fleet of black SUVs that pulled up seconds after us.

  “You can tell him yourself. He’ll be here a little later to check on things.”

  “What exactly does Carver do at the FBI?”

  “Nobody knows. But he’s a good friend to have in our corner. Let’s go get this over with. The easier we make things for them the less complicated it will be.”

  “They’ll have run my background before they got here.” I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and reached for the door handle.

  “Yeah. They’ll have done a full background. We’ll deal with that too.” His voice was strained and he didn’t reach out to soothe me like he normally would have. He was still angry. Still hurt I hadn’t confided in him.

  I hadn’t realized how much I’d gotten used to his touch—a squeeze of the hand or the way he always ran his hand down the back o
f my hair. I felt the absence of it now.

  I stepped out of the car and my boots scraped across the driveway as I moved to stand next to Jack. A squat rectangular building sat across the street. It had once housed a variety of businesses, but the economy had hit the area hard and the only thing left was a Laundromat. I recognized Molly Beamis and Lena Rodriguez as they lost interest in their laundry and came out to stand on the sidewalk to watch.

  I felt their gazes boring into me, and when they started whispering to each other behind their hands, I knew they were thinking the FBI was back for me. If that rumor got out it would be bad for business, and business was already bad enough as it was. I sighed as I watched Molly dig her cell phone out of her pocket and make a phone call. The whole town would be out watching the show before too long.

  We waited as the doors of the black SUVs seemed to open in tandem. A man in a black suit with a thin black tie took the lead and headed in our direction. He pulled off his sunglasses and hooked them in the front pocket of his jacket.

  “You must be Sheriff Lawson,” he said, extending a hand. “I’m Special Agent Greer. You have good contacts. We’ve barely had the warrant for an hour, and it took us about that long to get here.”

  Greer was probably late forties with thinning brown hair and intelligent hazel eyes. He was trim and was a couple of inches taller than me.

  “An hour’s a long time in this business,” Jack said. “This is Doctor Graves.”

  I shook hands with Agent Greer.

  “If you’ll go ahead and open up for us we’ll be out of your way sooner rather than later,” he said.

  “Are you just retrieving or are we going to be here a while?” Jack asked before I could answer Greer.

  Greer’s eyes were shrewd as he stared hard at Jack. “You’ve got an impressive record, Lawson. Good experience and leadership qualities. What are you doing wasting your time here?”

  “I take it that’s the non-answer way of saying we’re going to be here a while.”

  “After you, Doctor Graves,” Greer said.

  “Sure.” I started to move away from Jack and let the team assembled at the door inside, but Jack stopped me with a touch on the arm and then he immediately dropped his hand back to his side.

  “Just so we keep everything nice and tidy, I need to see the warrant.”

  “Of course.” Greer turned and gestured to the SUV he’d gotten out of and the passenger door opened. The first thing I saw was bronze heels attached to an endless amount of legs.

  I felt Jack stiffen beside me and turned to look at him, but his face was impassive as ever. I looked back at the woman and had one of those moments of utter and complete jealousy. Not because of the way all of the men in the vicinity had stopped and directed their attention solely at her, but because she was just one of those naturally beautiful women who commanded her sexuality and used it to get exactly what she wanted.

  Blond hair shimmered under the setting sun, and it fell in waves around her shoulders. Her cheekbones were high and her skin pale and flawless. Her lips were crimson and she smiled smugly as she walked over the uneven ground with a smooth glide that should have been impossible. As she drew closer I saw the tiny mole just above the corner of her lip and caught myself before I rolled my eyes.

  Her suit was the same tasteful bronze as her shoes. The pencil skirt fitted so it showed off those million dollar legs. The matching jacket was buttoned, showcasing a tiny waist and just a hint of cleavage.

  When she reached us she handed the warrant over to Agent Greer and then he handed it to me. I didn’t look at it because the woman hadn’t taken her eyes off Jack during the entire spectacle.

  “It’s been a long time, Jack,” she said, pouting prettily. “Aren’t you going to say hello?”

  I felt more than heard Jack’s sigh.

  “Hello, Lauren.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “This is Lauren Rhodes,” Agent Greer said, since it was obvious introductions weren’t needed for anyone but me. “She’s an attorney with the Department of Justice. Lauren, this is Doctor Graves.”

  Lauren’s clear blue eyes met mine and she gave a professional nod. “If you’ll look over the warrant and make sure everything is in order we can get to the bottom of this.”

  I opened the folded sheaf of papers with surprisingly steady hands, but I didn’t really see the words on the page. The tension between Jack and Lauren was palpable and I had nothing but questions that I knew I didn’t want the answers to.

  “It looks good,” I said, folding it back up. “Let me unlock the door for you.” I turned my back on Jack and Lauren and walked swiftly up the sidewalk where the team was waiting to get in. Agent Greer stayed at my side.

  I unlocked the kitchen door and tried not to panic as the team crowded in behind me. I stood in front of the keypad, blocking the view of the code that would let us into the basement. The door opened with a soft click and the cold air rushed over us.

  “You’re welcome to come down and observe while we remove the remains,” Greer said. “We have no intention of inconveniencing you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The lights came on automatically as we stepped over the threshold and I led them down the staircase instead of using the elevator. I showed them the freezer where I was keeping the body, the bag of clothing, and the sealed bag with his finger and the removed skin I’d had to take for the fingerprint.

  I stood off in the corner as they searched every inch of the lab and every file cabinet drawer to make sure there wasn’t further information I was keeping somewhere. I don’t know if it was divine intervention or something else at play that had made me take the boxes belonging to my parents, but I was glad we’d moved them to Jack’s.

  Jack and Lauren came down through the elevator—probably in deference to the heels that brought the top of her head even with Jack’s chin—and my gaze passed over them briefly, even though I could feel Jack’s eyes. He broke away from Lauren and came to stand beside me, leaning back against the wall in a casual pose. I crossed my arms over my chest and scooted farther back into the corner. I answered questions when they were directed at me, but mostly I was just numb.

  “You don’t have to stay here the whole time,” Jack finally said. “This could take hours. We could wait up in the kitchen and make some coffee.” Jack’s hand came up and rested on the back of my neck and he kissed my temple, but I was still stiff under his touch.

  “I’m sorry for earlier.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was referring to our argument or how he’d reacted to seeing Lauren, so I didn’t say anything.

  “I understand why you waited to tell me, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less that your first reaction wasn’t to confide in me but to deal with it yourself.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “I don’t think I can talk about this now, Jack. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but the way you reacted says a lot, and you’ve made your position perfectly clear. I probably should have told you sooner. I’ll apologize for that. I’m still getting used to having someone to go to.”

  “The thing is, Jaye, you’ve always come to me with personal things before. I’ve been your friend longer than I’ve been your lover. The friendship part shouldn’t change now that we’re sleeping together.”

  I pressed my lips together and pushed away from the wall. “I could use some coffee. Maybe with a shot of the whiskey I keep under the counter.”

  Jack said a few words to Agent Greer and then we headed back up to the kitchen. I felt Lauren’s eyes follow us up, but I didn’t turn to look at her. She was an element of this mess I couldn’t deal with just yet.

  The kitchen was surprisingly empty considering the chaos happening below, and I went automatically to the cabinet and pulled out the coffee grounds. Jack took the bag from my hands out of self-preservation because I always made shitty coffee no matter how precisely I followed the instructions.

  “I need to explain about Lauren.” Jack’s voice was
soft, but I looked around to make sure no one was standing nearby so they could overhear us.

  “No, really you don’t, Jack. We both had a past before this thing with us started. She isn’t the first of your lovers I’ve met, and she probably won’t be the last. Just like I’m sure you’ve run into mine. It’s a small world.”

  Jack scowled and took mugs down from the cabinet at the mention of previous lovers. “I know you’re angry at me, but there’s no reason to take cheap shots. Lauren and I were together a long time ago.”

  He poured the coffee, and then bent down to the bottom cabinet to pull the bottle of Jameson’s I kept there in case of emergency. He poured a healthy dollop into each coffee mug and then handed me one.

  “And like I said, I don’t need to hear the details, but it was obvious to everyone standing outside that there was something between the two of you, and neither of you bothered to try and hide it. Just drop it, Jack. I can only deal with one fight at a time. You’re the one who called off your “vacation.”

  We sat side by side on the stools that pulled up to the large square butcher block island that sat in the middle of the kitchen, and the tension roiled off both of us in waves. We weren’t there very long before heavy footsteps echoed on the stairway and Agent Greer came through the door.

  “They’re finishing up and are ready to transport,” he said, eyeing the coffee.

  “Would you like a cup?” I asked.

  “If you don’t mind. There are a few things we need to talk about, Sheriff Lawson. Doctor Graves can stay if you wish, otherwise we can take this to your office and handle this there.”

  I looked back and forth between Jack and Agent Greer and I couldn’t interpret whatever silent communication was happening between them.

  “I don’t understand.” I put Greer’s cup in front of him and took my seat beside Jack. “What does any of this have to do with Jack?”

  “Because Dean Wallace was one of mine. And I’m going to assume there’s more to this than just collecting his body and getting out of our way.”