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“Why’s that?”
“Let’s just say your presence here could jeopardize a lot of work. Interference with a police investigation is something we take seriously.”
“By sitting here I’m interfering?”
“Possibly.”
“Are you going to give me any details?”
“No, ma’am.”
Merlene sighed, knowing she had to do as he asked. Her boss’s number-one rule was to stay out of the way of the police. She snapped the cover over the camera lens. “Sure, Detective, whatever you say.”
He nodded. “Good.”
Merlene stared through the windshield at the doctor’s house. “What did you do, you bad boy?” she asked softly, then picked up her notebook and entered the time.
The detective planted one foot on the grass, preparing to exit, then paused. “Did you get anybody on tape tonight?”
Merlene shook her head. “Nobody went in or out after I followed him home.”
“All right. The sooner you leave, the better.”
She smiled at his profile and tapped the pen against her cheek. “I’ll bet you’re worried that if he sees me following him, he’ll know you guys are onto him. Am I right?”
Without answering, the detective pulled himself from the car and walked around to the driver’s window. He held out a business card. “If you get anything you think might be helpful, I’d appreciate a call. My cell’s on the back. It’s always on.”
Merlene accepted the card. “If you won’t tell me what’s going on, how will I know what’s helpful?”
His steely gaze bored into her. “I think you’ll know. Thanks for your cooperation, ma’am.”
“Oh, sure. No problem.” She flipped the card against her thigh as he moved away. Why were the police always telling her what to do? As a child, they’d hassled her family with threats of family services and foster homes but never offered a bit of help.
Merlene tossed the card onto her front seat and started the car. She knew better than to get in the way of the police. Besides, she had other methods to keep track of Doc Johnson.
* * *
SOMETHING WAS WRONG. Dead wrong.
Cody couldn’t shake a gnawing feeling in his gut that he’d missed something important. Where was Dr. Richard Johnson?
Months of work to make this case, to put away a dirty doctor who didn’t care who he prescribed narcotics to or what bogus diagnosis he made—not as long as he got a big check from an insurance company—and now the whole damn thing threatened to fall apart.
Waiting for a traffic light to change, he wondered what hole Dr. Johnson had vanished into. Could his disappearance have anything to do with the Saunders woman’s surveillance? An image of the intriguing female private eye he’d encountered the night before flashed through his head. How could a woman who dug for dirt to pay the bills manage to look all wide-eyed and innocent?
The check he’d run on her came back clean. No outstanding wants or warrants, and he wished his credit report looked as solid. She worked for D. J. Cooke Investigations, the man and the firm both reputable, and no one had ever lodged a complaint against her license. The licensing board promised to double check with Cooke and get back to him.
Yeah, maybe her activities had nothing to do with Johnson’s vanishing act, but he didn’t believe in coincidences. A P.I. is on Johnson’s trail one day, and he disappears the next? Had to be a connection. He’d warned his lieutenant they needed twenty-four-hour surveillance to always keep track of the doc’s whereabouts. Damn budget cuts were undermining a lot of investigations these days.
“What the...” He swore under his breath as he turned the corner, spotting the P.I.’s vehicle secreted behind a tree across from Nurse Cole’s apartment building. Merlene Saunders had inserted herself square in the middle of his case again. This time he’d question her more thoroughly.
“Detective Warren,” Merlene said when he leaned in the passenger window. “We have to quit meeting like this.”
He jerked open the door. “You and I need to talk.”
“Have a seat,” she murmured.
Feeling as if he were squeezing into a bulletproof vest, Cody eased into the small car.
“You know,” she said, “it’s hard for me to blend into the surroundings when you’re always hanging around my stakeout.”
He slammed the door. “Who are you working for?”
She shook her head. “That’s confidential information.”
“Must be the wife. She’s worried about the doc and Nurse Linda Cole, whose apartment you’re watching.”
He studied Merlene’s face but wasn’t sure if he’d nailed her game.
“So what can you tell me about Nurse Cole?” Merlene asked.
He shrugged. “I’d rather hear what you can tell me about Dr. Johnson.”
“Truth is...nothing. Yet.” She lifted a video camera from the backseat and aimed it at the apartment. A large emerald-cut diamond glittered on her right ring finger. “Haven’t got anything but test footage to prove I’ve been watching their sorry butts. Never have caught them together.”
“How long have you been on them?” he asked.
“How long do you think?” Merlene lowered the camera. A faint red mark encircled her eye where the camera had pressed into her pale skin, and Cody resisted an urge to touch the spot, wondering why he wanted to smooth away the distrust shimmering in her eyes.
“Five days,” he guessed. “I’ll bet Mrs. Johnson hired you before she flew to Blowing Rock. She thinks the doc is fooling around and wants you to prove it, right?”
Merlene smiled, and the curve of her lips brought a curious sparkle into smoky-gray eyes. Damn but she had a beautiful smile. Shining, almost-black hair fell to her shoulders.
“Am I interfering with a police investigation again?”
Yes, and he needed to get his mind back on business. “If you’re spotted, you could blow months of work. Cooperation would be greatly appreciated.”
She glanced at him sideways, looking doubtful.
“I already showed you my badge,” he said.
“Cooperate how?”
“We’ll trade information.”
“Trade? Yeah, right. Cops just love to trade.” She raised the video camera again and pressed the record button.
“What are you recording?”
“I make a video record of all my activities to substantiate my bill.”
“Good plan,” he said. Hell, she talked like a pro. Time to throw her off balance—find out if she actually was one.
“So what does your husband think of your line of work?”
“I don’t have a husband.”
“Divorced?”
“You know,” she said, placing the camera in her lap, “you are absolutely the rudest man. First it’s my diet and now my marital status?”
He caught her gaze and held it. Beneath delicate brows, her eyes had darkened to an opaque, deeper gray.
She looked away, glancing toward the apartment. Cody admired her flushed cheeks as he chose his next words. Too bad if she didn’t like his probing. It was his job to stir things up and see what kind of reaction he got.
“Guess what,” she whispered in a husky voice. “Linda is on the move.”
He shifted his gaze. Nurse Cole hid behind large, white sunglasses and a floppy straw hat, but there was no mistaking the woman climbing into a white BMW.
Merlene started the car and shoved it into gear.
CHAPTER TWO
“HEY!” CODY SHOUTED as the car lurched forward.
“I’ve been hired to watch her, remember?” Merlene shot a sideways glance at the detective as she accelerated and found him staring at her, mouth open. Yeah, maybe she shouldn’t have taken off with him in the car, but if she’d waited to get rid of him, she’d have lost her subject. No way was she losing her subject. Linda Cole could be on her way to meet Dr. Johnson.
“You are unbelievable,” he said, fumbling the seat belt across his lap.
“Just cooperating with your investigation.”
“Then don’t follow so closely,” he said.
“Thank you, Detective, for your professional advice, but I’ve never been made on a tail.” She kept her gaze fixed on the road, but the heat of his scrutiny made her squirm. At least the car’s movement created a rush of cooling air.
“And how many tails have you been on?”
“Probably less than you,” she admitted as she stepped harder on the gas. “So Nurse Cole is involved with whatever the doc’s into?”
“You know I can’t answer that.” Cody peered at the speedometer.
“What happened to trading information?”
“Don’t speed,” he said.
“I’m not speeding.” Okay. So she was—but only a little.
Merlene stayed well behind the BMW as she followed the nurse toward Miller Drive, holding out her right hand to test the blessedly cold air blasting from AC vents.
“She’s probably just going to the grocery store,” Merlene muttered. “Won’t even have time to cool the car down.”
Warren loosened his tie. “Glamorous work.”
Suppressing a laugh, she thought of the khaki shorts and sleeveless cotton blouse she wore, her usual surveillance uniform. Some glamour. In case she needed to follow a subject to a more formal atmosphere, she always kept a skirt and jacket hanging in the backseat. A good investigator was always prepared.
“I hope she is going to meet Johnson,” Warren said.
With both vehicles caught by a red light, Merlene scribbled the time and mileage in her notebook. “Why?”
“Because he didn’t show up at his office today.”
She raised her head. “Are you saying you don’t know where he is?”
He rubbed a hand over his chin. “Not at the moment.”
“Why don’t you have him under surveillance?”
“Good question,” Warren said.
“Well, well. I guess you should have let me stay last night,” she said, not even trying to keep satisfied amusement out of her voice. She couldn’t help but enjoy this turn of events. “I’d know his location if you hadn’t run me off.”
Warren answered with a strangled noise.
The BMW turned south on Galloway Road, and Merlene stayed with it.
“How long have you been a private investigator?” he asked.
“Two years. I work with D. J. Cooke Investigations.”
Warren nodded as if he knew where she worked, which she didn’t like one bit. But of course he’d probably verified her license was current and she’d paid all her fees. Fortunately her boss was a stickler for those kinds of details.
“I didn’t know D.J. was still around,” the detective said. “Tell him I said hello.”
Was that a note of respect in Warren’s usually overbearing tone? “You know D.J.?”
“He’s a good man.”
“He is, isn’t he?” She adored her boss, a distant relative from Missouri. He’d taught her how to follow a subject and not get nailed. D.J. was semiretired now, bothered by too many medical problems, but she’d heard tall tales of his exciting career, first as a cop and then a P.I. “Did you ever work together?” She’d love to hear another war story about D.J.’s time on the job.
“My dad knew him,” Warren said in a flat voice.
She threw him a look, but he stared out the windshield, his eyes fixed on the vehicle in front of them.
“Linda is turning into Norman Brothers,” he said.
“Shoot.” Merlene drove slowly past the gourmet grocery, confirmed that her subject had parked in its lot, then turned around at the next intersection.
“I don’t see Johnson’s car,” Merlene said as she drove through the jammed parking lot.
