Page 18 of Fallen Creed

“Do you think that was a smart idea?” he asked Shelby with only his eyes flicking over the menu to look at her. He kept his tone calm and casual, as he always did.

“What? It’s nothing. We exchanged some chit-chat the other day. It was nothing. Totally nothing.”

Too many “nothings,” and she wouldn’t look at him.

“She gave him her phone number,” Vanessa said.

“No, I didn’t.”

Without putting the menu down, Ruben reached across the tabletop and held his hand open. Shelby knew better than to argue. She folded up her menu and fumbled the cell phone from the back pocket of her blue jeans. At the last minute, she hesitated, then placed it in Ruben’s hand.

“I wasn’t going to do anything,” she said, like a little girl getting caught, but she was saying this to Vanessa, not to him. “We texted a few times. See for yourself. It wasn’t like I was interested in meeting up with him.”

Ruben scrolled through the texts. Harmless and silly and totally illicit. It broke one of his rules for being in their arrangement. No flirting with boys. When he looked up, he caught the fear in Shelby’s eyes before she tucked it away. These girls thought they were so good at pretending.

He liked that. He counted on it.

He handed back the phone, ignoring her sudden relief.

“After he takes our order, text him to see if he wants to party later.” He said this while still perusing the entrée section.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shelby’s relief transfer into panic. But he also saw Vanessa smile.

—15—

“I don’t trust her,” Maggie told Creed on their drive to the Spencer’s.

He now realized that Maggie hadn’t offered his and Grace’s services at all. Nora Spencer had decided on her own to approach and convince him. Nora telling them Libby might hurt herself was all Creed needed to flash back on the many veterans he knew that had offed themselves. Maybe he and Grace could help find this young woman before she hurt herself.

“You didn’t have to come along,” he reminded her.

Lucy offered Maggie a ride to her hotel when she realized Creed and Maggie didn’t agree about this detour.

“She’s up to something,” Maggie said, referring to Nora Spencer.

“Maybe she’s just worried about Libby.”

“About hurting herself?”

“Right.”

“Don’t you find it odd that if she was seriously concerned about Libby hurting herself, why would she jump to the conclusion that a piece of her had been found in a ditch?”

“Did she know it was only a piece?”

“The first thing Nora asked me was if we’d found the rest of the body.”

“So she already knew about the dismemberment.”

“Exactly,” Maggie said. “But I saw the panic in her eyes. She honestly believed it could have been Libby. Getting murdered and dismembered is a far cry from running off and committing suicide.”

“You’re still thinking all of this has something to do with the traffickers you and Pakula have arrested?”

“Pakula seems to think so, and I can’t say that I disagree. He’s establishing jurisdiction, so his task force will head the investigation. I think that’s really why he called Lucy Coy, instead of letting the county send their coroner.”

Creed noticed her quick check of her cell phone.

“You have to admit, it is strange. This Libby suddenly disappears, and a dismembered body appears.” Now Maggie stared out the passenger window as the sun started to sink into the cornfield. “And it happens just as these human traffickers seem to be turning on each other. Freddie Mason wasn’t even on our list until the car dealer in North Platte gave him up.”