Fulfilling Promises (Red Starr, Book Five) (10 page)

Where is Joey’s truck?

Where are Joey’s keys?

The second question Devyn had written down had her itching to go downstairs in her office and look at Joey’s belongings that he’d had on him when he’d died. She would do that right after she finished this list.

Where is Joey’s phone? Look at history.

Who gave the police access to the garage or did the Staties have a probable cause warrant issued by a judge?

Find out if Joey told anyone else he was going out of town. Maybe Grace or a customer?

“Did you save me some coffee?” Trigger asked, his tone somewhat raspy from just waking up. Devyn had heard that tenor a few times and she struggled to keep her distance as she set the pen down on the paper. She stood up and turned, finding that he hadn’t even removed his arm from his face. Just how long had he been awake? “Or did you drink it all?”

“There’s a cup or two left,” Devyn replied, walking to the counter to give herself something to do. He’d been inside her apartment numerous times before, but they’d been intimate only with a strict set of guidelines. This…well, this time the air crackled with something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It made her unsure and somewhat uneasy. “It sounds like you didn’t get much sleep.”

“I didn’t, but what I learned from those work orders was well worth it,” Trigger said, startling her when she realized he was right behind her. His bare feet hadn’t made a sound on the carpet. “There are three possible motives that I think we need to speak to the police about.”

Devyn turned at his proximity and confident words, hope spreading through her like butter melting on toast. She handed off his coffee and went directly over to the table, sorting through the work orders he’d left out. She had placed a knee on the chair and then slowly folded her leg underneath her as she recognized the first name.

“Ken Feragon?” Devyn couldn’t be reading the name right. She held up the thin slip of paper. “John, he died several weeks before Joey did.”

“I know that, but look at Joey’s notes in the margin.” Trigger knelt down and gave Diesel some attention before joining her at the table. It provided her time to read what was written and not focus on the fact that he still wasn’t wearing a shirt and smelled of distinctly male pheromones. “Ken had gone in a few days prior to his death, claiming there was a leak coming from underneath his engine. It turns out there was a problem and Joey thought it had been done intentionally. The brake line to the master cylinder had been loosened, but just enough that the brake fluid leaked a sufficient amount when the brakes were applied. Sooner or later the brakes would have failed when enough pressure was applied and the well ran dry.”

“Do you think whoever killed Ken found out that Joey suspected someone of tampering with the brakes?” Devyn couldn’t quite believe it was that simple, but apparently neither did Trigger. He’d taken a drink of his coffee, but then shook his head in response. “What then?”

“I don’t know, but I think we can help the police with Ken’s case.” Trigger set his mug down, his pectoral muscles moving in a manner that made it hard for Devyn to concentrate completely. She stood and walked around the couch, grabbing his shirt, and then tossing it to him without saying a word. “It’s the others that give me pause and deserve to be looked into.”

Devyn ignored Trigger as he pulled on his shirt, refusing to look his way. He would be gone in less than two weeks, regardless if they found the person who killed Joey or not. She would do well to keep that fact in mind.

“You doing okay this morning?”

Trigger’s question was said with such tenderness and compassion that the grief inside of Devyn actually physically hurt. Tears stung her still bloodshot eyes, but she was able to control herself this morning compared to yesterday. She glanced down at her handwriting, giving herself a focal point to drain away the sting.

“Yeah,” Devyn replied softly, laying down Ken’s work order before picking up the pen. She didn’t want to talk about what she was feeling. She didn’t want to dwell on it or she’d end up back in bed underneath the covers crying her eyes out. “I wrote down some questions we need to follow up on.”

Trigger remained quiet, almost as if he were weighing this change in conversation. Devyn didn’t want to get more personal than things had already gotten, so she slid the papers over to him as she stood and decided to get started on the things they needed to do today.

“Feel free to use the shower.” Devyn swiped her coffee cup and then indicated to Diesel that she would take him outside so that he could do his business. “I’ll take Diesel for a short walk and then bring up the manila envelope containing Joey’s things. We can go through it together.”

Devyn’s breath caught in her throat when Trigger’s warm fingers wrapped around her wrist, preventing her from going anywhere quite yet. She immediately sought his gaze, wondering what he thought he was doing. His dark comforting regard brought back the tightness in her chest.

“We’ll need to talk about us at some point, Dev,” Trigger pointed out, the richness of his tone not doing a thing to alleviate the nervousness setting up shop inside of her stomach. Devyn wasn’t sure there was anything left to say, but he continued before she could tell him that. “You were under the assumption I didn’t want anything serious. You were wrong. You were the one that set the boundaries.”

Devyn couldn’t do this now. She was already too emotionally raw.

“The thing of it is?” Trigger really wasn’t expecting her to answer, so she remained quiet because nothing she said now would change what had happened. “The only person who could verify my concern about that is Joey. Did you really think I would get involved with my best friend’s sister and not talk to him about it? I told him exactly how I felt about you from the very beginning. He was the one who warned me not to push your limits.”

Devyn looked away from him as memories of their time together, right here in this very apartment, came back as if it were yesterday. Joey had tried to talk to her once regarding Trigger and she’d told him it wasn’t any of his business. She was a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions. That hadn’t changed, so she straightened her shoulders and slowly disengaged her wrist from Trigger’s hand. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t touching her. The imprint of his fingers still burned and reminded her of just how good it had been with him once upon a time.

“You’re right about this not being the time to rehash the past.” Devyn turned and then walked to the door, sliding her feet into the flip-flops she always kept on the small mat alongside the cowboy boots she usually wore with her jeans when working. She didn’t want to know what Trigger had told Joey. She wasn’t ready to hear it and she wasn’t sure she ever would be. Devyn halted at the door, not quite turning the handle just yet. “Let’s just concentrate on finding out who did this to Joey. Nothing else matters right now.”

*

“I’m sorry to
hear about your hometown pal,” Gunny Taylor said, his booming voice coming over the landline loud and clear. Trigger was still staring at the door where Devyn and Diesel had exited the apartment, wishing she would open up to him. Somewhere along the way, he’d misread everything about her when they’d been together. She was right in a way though. Joey did come first, but he wasn’t the only one who mattered…she did too. “Starr filled me in. Do you need anything from our end? We are just a call away.”

“Are you back in San Diego?” Trigger asked before lifting up his coffee mug and taking a drink. He was going to need all the caffeine he could get today. Maybe he should start another pot. “How did Jade’s meeting go with her dad?”

The rescue the hostage team had conducted in Nigeria had resulted in many discoveries—one of them being Jade Amherst. She wasn’t supposed to have been with the children their unit had been sent in to save. Jade had been the thread that had unraveled the entire criminal case against a corporation registered as Krasken-Mobile. The company was a multi-billion dollar defense contractor that had ties all over the government and had tried to curb Red Starr’s efforts to rescue the schoolgirls and Jade. She was now currently with Gunny and was in the process of moving in with him during this two-week leave that had been extended to the entire team.

“It went as well as could be expected, but they are taking their relationship one step at a time.” The long, drawn-out sound of a ship’s horn could be heard in the background. Gunny must be at Red Starr’s headquarters along the San Diego pier. “We are back in town and I have to say…I missed the hell out of this place. But you didn’t call to talk about the weather, so tell me what you need.”

“I’m not sure what the hell I need,” Trigger admitted, setting his mug back down beside the work orders he’d sifted through last night. He picked up Ken Feragon’s receipt and looked at the notes scribbled in the margin. “I’ve known Joey since we were in diapers, Gunny. He was a good man who had made a couple of poor decisions that screwed up his life. He was the sole reason the garage was even still in business, but he was keeping track of the customers by writing personal notes about them on their work orders.”

“That’s a rather odd thing to do,” Gunny said after a long pause. The background noise became rather quiet and Trigger could picture Gunny walking into the rear entrance of their headquarters through the bay doors of the helicopter hangar. “Have you spoken with the police yet?”

“No, but I plan on doing that later today.” Trigger stretched out his legs in front of him and crossed one arm over his stomach. He wasn’t sure just how much information Starr had given Gunny, so he quickly filled his team leader in on the details. “Joey was killed by a close quarters shotgun blast to the head…the same weapon his sister kept behind the bar. The state police detectives caught the investigation since there aren’t any local authorities with any homicide investigators and they questioned Devyn, but didn’t have enough to arrest her.”

“Are you sure—”

“Devyn had nothing to do with her brother’s murder,” Trigger said firmly, needing Gunny to get that thought out of his head right now. “You know how this goes, though. The authorities aren’t going to be looking too hard at any other suspects and I can’t leave here with her in their crosshairs.”

“What do you need from us? We’ll do whatever we can to help.”

“Starr said she was making a couple of calls to some contacts in this area.” Trigger picked up the pen Devyn had left on the table and jotted down a reminder to touch base with the security company, not only to ask about the garage, but to get a state of the art security system for The Laughing Griffin. “I also need someone to look into Joey’s background, as well as a few people he had some doubts about. There’s also something that doesn’t sit well with me. There was a murder in Corinth of a man both Joey and I went to high school with. The authorities are saying it was a robbery gone bad, but Joey had worked on this subject’s vehicle and mentioned that the brake lines were tampered with.”

“You think the two killings are connected somehow?”

“I don’t know, but I’d like to cross it off the list of possibilities.” Trigger dropped the pen and then grabbed his mug. He drained the contents as he stood up from the chair. “Do we have anyone who can do in-depth background checks of local records or a Bureau contact knowledgeable of any high level players in this area? Anyone that might use professionals to eliminate local problems?”

“Yes, I know some people who can be discreet.” Gunny had run in Agency circles back when he’d been in the service that Trigger hadn’t. “Starr’s still in D.C., but I’m sure she’ll get back to you soon with a contact.”

“She’s on my list to call,” Trigger said, setting his mug into the sink before walking over to the couch where he’d left his go-bag on the floor. “What’s she doing back in D.C. anyway?”

Gunny’s silence said more than if he’d actually spoken. Starr had lost her original team—along with her husband—years ago. It wasn’t until around eighteen months ago that she’d formed another unit and got back into the game of quasi-legal classified government contracting. The thing of it was that she hadn’t been able to bring back the bodies of her husband or his team. Brendan “Red” O’Neill had never had a proper burial or been given a final farewell.

“Starr is likely to think I’ve got too much on my plate if she finds out something about the old team,” Trigger warned as he entered Devyn’s bedroom. Her bed hadn’t been made and the rumpled covers showed exactly how restless her sleep had been. “I want to know, Gunny.”

“I’ll make sure you’re given updates…if there are any to give. In the meantime, give me the names you want me to look into and I’ll get ops started on a situational assessment.”

Trigger set his go-bag by the sink, the bathroom somewhat small because the upstairs of the tavern hadn’t necessarily been meant to be an apartment when it was originally built. It had been constructed as an open floor plan for storage, but Devyn never did like living in the trailer she and Joey had been raised in. This suited her personality much better anyway. He rattled off the names of those on the work orders, specifically focusing on Ken Feragon and any connections he might have to local players. It felt good to finally be able to get something accomplished.