Snoops in the City (A Romantic Comedy) (32 page)

"Then she must not have told you how she sent Melanie away, allegedly to boarding school. Or how she pressured her not to have anything else to do with the father of the baby."

"She told me some of it," Grady said, then paused. "I'm wrestling with how much I should believe."

"All of it," Richardson said. "It's all true."

His stare was direct, his eyes honest. Doubt still niggled in the back of Grady's mind. "We should take a DNA test to find out for certain.”

"I don't need a test but I'll provide a sample if you want. I'll do anything if it means you and I can have a relationship."

"Why?" Grady asked suspiciously.

"Believe this, too. I was happy about Margo's news. After I got over the shock, of course." Richardson smiled a little. "I always wanted a son or a daughter. Betty and I couldn't have children of our own. Hearing about you was like a miracle."

Grady swallowed, because the other man — his
father
— seemed sincere. It seemed incredible that, up until a few days ago when he'd mended his relationship with the parents who raised him, he felt as though he had no fathers. Now he had two. However, skeptical habits died hard.

"About that relationship," Grady said, forcing himself to take things slowly, "I'd like to hold off until we know for sure."

Richardson's mouth drooped and his eyes grew sad before he nodded. "I've waited twenty-nine years. I can wait a couple more weeks."

The phone rang. Grady ignored it, knowing Lorelei or his other secretary would pick it up.

"It's been a crazy day," Grady said.

"I heard."

Even though his response held no censure, Grady felt compelled to explain. "I know some are saying I'm as guilty as the people who were indicted today. I want you to know that's not true."

"I know that," Richardson said mildly.

Grady blinked, because he hadn't expected the response. "How do you know that?"

"You're my son," he said simply and walked out of the office.

Grady was still puzzling over Richardson's reply a few hours later after he dropped a protesting Gordo off at home and arrived in West Palm Beach.

He checked the address to make sure he was at the right place — a branch office of the Southern District of Florida's United States Attorney's office — then paid scant attention to his surroundings as he entered the building.

After Grady's vocal support of Honoria Black for mayor, Forest Richardson could have been excused for believing Grady was a guilty player in Operation Citygate.

Instead Richardson had taken that leap of faith and believed. Just like Lorelei had when Grady wrongly accused Wade Morrison of accepting kickbacks. Just like Grady hadn't when Tori asked him to trust her.

"Grady, my man." FBI Special Agent Hector Rodriquez appeared to shake Grady's hand. Their face-to-face meetings had been infrequent over their nine months of working together. Hector, though, was much more than a voice on the phone. Because nobody else had known about Grady's part in the sting operation, Hector had become confidant and friend. "The shit has done hit the fan, and we couldn't have made it fly without you."

Grady smiled at the other man's giddiness. The agent wasn't anything like the serious, dour-faced FBI agents portrayed in film and fiction.

"That's an image I could have done without," Grady said.

"As long as you can't do without some celebratory alcohol, I'm cool with it.” Hector referred to his invitation for Grady to join him for a drink, the reason Grady had stopped by. "Give me a couple minutes to finish up and then we can go get happy."

"I'd be happier if we’d managed to get the goods on Mayor Black," Grady said. "Any indication yet whether one of the others will turn on her?"

"We don't need anyone to rat on her," Hector said.

"Why not?"

Hector's face broke into a huge grin. "You haven't heard, have you?"

"Heard what?"

"I could fill you in but it'll be more fun to let Honoria tell you."

Grady glanced around the emptying office building. He saw no sign of the mayor. "You're not making sense, Hector."

The agent nodded to an empty office at the back of the room. "Sit in that office and give me a minute. It'll make wonderful sense soon enough."

Grady didn't have to wait more than five minutes before Hector appeared with an audio tape and a tape recorder.

"This is a copy.” He waved the audio tape at Grady. "The U.S. Attorney needed the original to present as evidence tomorrow when he convenes a special session of the federal Grand Jury."

"I thought that happened today,” Wade said.

"It did, but he wants one more indictment."

Hector cracked his gum and popped the tape into the recorder, obviously enjoying himself.

"Ready for this?" he asked, his finger on the play button.

"Would you play it already?" Grady said impatiently.

"Gladly," Hector said and hit play.

"City Hall doesn't have any openings. As I told you before, that’s not a problem.” Honoria Black's deep, almost masculine voice was instantly recognizable. “I can create a job for you and call it temporary. When a permanent position becomes available, I'll move you into it."

Grady wondered if he were listening to a jobs-for-cash scheme. He'd heard of other corrupt administrations that fattened their coffers that way. He wondered how Hector had gotten this tape.

"Did you bug the mayor's office?" Grady asked.

Hector put a finger to his lips. "Shut up or you'll miss the good part."

"I'm the mayor," Honoria Black said on the tape, probably in response to a question Grady had missed by interrupting. "I can do anything I want."

"You must want something in return," came the reply.

Grady recognized the second voice, too. It belonged to Tori. He gripped his thigh with the hand that rested on it so hard that his knuckles whitened. He scarcely breathed as he listened to their exchange.

"That's the way of the world," the mayor said. "I scratch your back, you scratch mine. What I want you to do isn't so hard. I'll even bump your salary up a grade or two if you're successful."

"What exactly is it that you want me to do?" Tori asked as though she were eager —
eager
— to comply.

"You're probably aware that some of my top people were indicted today," the mayor said. "Grady bribed all three of them. We believe he's planning to testify against them. And that, my dear, is where you come in."

"I don't understand."

"I know you and Grady had a bad breakup. Here's your chance to get back at him."

The tape contained only a few seconds of silence after her declaration. To Grady, it felt like an eternity.

"Get back at him how?" Tori asked.

"I need you to say that Grady threatened the members of my administration if they wouldn't take the money and give him the contract he wanted."

"Threatened? How?"

"The usual way. Exposure. My City Clerk is cheating on his girlfriend. My Planning Director has a drug problem. And my Chief of Staff doesn't want anyone to know he's gay."

"You're saying Grady found out these things and used them to pressure your employees to give him what he wanted?"

"You catch on fast," the mayor said. "What do you say? Will you do it?"

"Yes," Tori said.

Hector switched off the tape, oblivious to its effect on Grady. Shock had rendered his body immobile but his mind whirled.

"What do you think of that?" Hector asked with undisguised glee.

"I don't believe it," Grady said.

"It's legit. We got the mayor on tape, soliciting false testimony in exchange for employment." He pointed his index finger in the air and then shot it to the floor. “She’s going down.”

"I meant I don't believe Tori sold me out," Grady said slowly, choosing his words carefully, meaning every one.

"What are you talking about, man?
"The things Tori said on the tape, about agreeing to lie about me, there has to be an explanation." Grady's conviction grew stronger as he talked. "Tori must have known you'd bugged the mayor’s office. She must have been playing an angle."

"Back up a minute." Hector's black eyebrows drew together to form a line that reminded Grady vaguely of a caterpillar. "Didn't you learn anything in all these months of working with me? No judge would allow us to put a bug in the mayor's office. Hell, that conversation didn't even take place at City Hall. They were in the lobby of some hotel."

"Then where was the bug?"

"In Tori's purse," Hector said. "The minute the mayor called and asked her to meet, she phoned our office and offered to tape the conversation. She said she had a feeling the mayor was up to no good."

"It was just like I said," Grady said, his voice thick with emotion and wonder. "Tori didn't betray me."

"Damn right she didn't," Hector said. "That girl of yours is no traitor. She's a hero. She's the one who brought down the mayor."

"Okay, disco ball. The last time I came to you for advice, I had to ask the question three times before you got the answer right. Let's shoot for a better percentage than that."

Crossing the index and middle fingers of her left hand for luck, Tori held the tiny silver ball from the key chain with her right hand and shook.

"Should I go after Grady and make him believe I love him?"

Her breath was in her throat when she turned over the ball and read,
No way, Jose
.

"What?" The word exploded from her. "What kind of rotten answer is that?"

Shaking her head in disgust, she manipulated the silver ball until it came free of the key chain.

"You know what, dude, you're not hip anymore.” She tossed the ball in a perfect arc so it fell in her kitchen trash can. "With the answers you've been giving lately, I don't need you."

She didn't care what the ball advised. She'd make Grady listen to her, even if she had to tie him to a chair first.

So she'd messed up. Everybody did. That didn't mean she didn't love him. Or that he couldn't trust her.

She emerged from her apartment into the gathering dusk, spotting Mrs. Grumley about to enter her own place.

"You better not have that rat in there," Mrs. Grumley called. "All I need is one more reason and you're out of here."

Tori's spine straightened. She tramped up to the older woman.

"I don't care what you do. You know why?" Tori didn't wait for Mrs. Grumley's reply. "Because I know what I want and it's not to live here. Do you hear that? I don't
want
to live here anymore."

"Yes, you do," Mrs. Grumley said. "You're terrified at the thought of me throwing you out."

"Not anymore. I'm tired of dealing with you. So there," she said, barely resisting the urge to stick out her tongue.

Mrs. Grumley's lower lip trembled. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say."

"You haven't been nice to me."

"That's different. I'm an old lady. I'm allowed to be mean. You're young. You need to respect your elders. Besides, if you leave, who will I pick on?"

"You enjoy picking on me?"

"Picking on people is what I do," Mrs. Grumley said. "You're an easy target, because you never stick up for yourself."

"That stops now," Tori said defiantly. "From now on, I'm going after what I want."

She'd been a ditherer all her life but this time she was absolutely certain of what she wanted.

She wanted Grady.

She couldn't pinpoint the exact time she'd realized it, perhaps because the knowledge had come to her gradually. Or possibly because she'd wanted him from the start.

But she'd been aware of how she felt when Mayor Black had tried to get her to sully his reputation. She'd smiled and nodded, all the while wanting to throttle the mayor for daring to try to hurt him.

She'd silently vowed then and there that she'd make Grady believe she loved him. She'd teach him how to trust. Asking the disco ball its advice had been a formality.

Thirty minutes later, she stood at Grady's front door repeatedly ringing the doorbell. Nobody answered even though signs indicated that Grady was home. A light shone in the back of the house, and she heard voices. Loud, raised voices.

Her stomach flip flopped, and her blood ran as cold as chilled water from a refrigerator dispenser.

The FBI had handed out indictments in Operation Citygate earlier today. The indicted parties had until tomorrow to surrender.

One of them could be inside Grady's house right now, trying to carry out a vendetta.

Her heart hammered in concert with her fruitless bangs on the door. She strained to hear what was going on inside the house. The voices seemed to grow in volume but she couldn't make out what they were saying.