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“So am I. He’s a nice guy. I have to agree with Katherine Farrell. Nyla’s parents never gave him a chance just because of his past,” she said, sitting down at the table.
Locke strolled over to join her with their coffee cups. Over breakfast, he told her about Shogun and Macayle and how they were looking forward to meeting her this weekend. Now that she had decided she would go with him to Atlanta, she was looking forward to meeting them as well. She mentioned everything she needed to do before they flew out on Thursday.
They had finished breakfast and loaded the dishwasher together when they heard the knock at the door, letting them know the detectives had arrived.
***
“Well, I must say, Ms. Calloway, you look a hell of a lot better than your attackers,” Detective Tomlin said as the detectives sat across from her and Locke on the sofa.
“I guess I should take that as a compliment,” she said drily.
Detective Connors grinned. “You should. I don’t know how they looked last night, but those three looked like they’d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler when we talked to them this morning. One guy needed emergency dental treatment after he was booked, and the other has a dislocated jaw. The one you shot is carrying around a pillow in order to sit down.”
“Their problems, and not mine,” Hollis said. “All three better be glad they are alive.”
“That’s what we told them during interrogation. They had no idea you were an ex-FBI agent with so many defense skills. The guy who paid them claimed you were his ex-mistress trying to start trouble with him and his wife.”
“And they were okay with beating her up?” Locke asked angrily.
“Yes, but they know they made a mistake. Now they’ll be spending time in jail. Assault charges can get them quite a few years.”
“So, did you find out anything useful while talking to them?” Locke asked.
“Not really. They couldn’t even describe the guy who hired them. The guy who met with him said he would guess his age was in his mid-or late-thirties, but he couldn’t be certain. They were paid in cash and given your address. This was a few days ago, and he wanted the job done by the weekend.”
“Why by the weekend?” Hollis asked.
“They didn’t know.”
Detective Tomlin then asked. “Did you recognize those guys, Ms. Calloway?”
“Like I told the detectives last night, I’ve never seen them before. But one of them did mention they were sent to beat some sense into my ass.” She shook her head. “Had they been smart, they would have made it look like a robbery that I walked in on instead of a planned assault.”
“You would think so,” Tomlin said. “All three have had minor brushes with the law in the past, but now they’ll probably be looking at five years or more.”
“Again, they won’t get any sympathy from me,” Hollis said.
Detective Connors nodded. “Another reason we wanted to meet was to say you were right. The watch on Nick Underwood’s wrist at the crime scene wasn’t the one returned to him when he posted bail. Another mystery to be solved.”
“And we checked the video recording of Elm Street. That was the same tattoo on his leg. As a private investigator, you’re very thorough, Ms. Calloway,” Detective Tomlin tacked on.
“I would think most are.”
Hollis knew they wanted to ask if she had uncovered anything else they needed to know. Since she wasn’t obligated to reveal anything she suspected but hadn’t confirmed, she wouldn’t mention what she discovered at the warehouse yesterday. “Any further questions, Detectives?”
Detective Connors looked at her, as if he believed she was holding back something, but said, “No. We have no further questions.”
***
“You want to take in a movie?”
Hollis glanced up from the papers on her desk. “A movie?”
Locke smiled. “Yes. We’ve been working all day, and we need to reach a stopping point.”
What he really meant was that he was ready to spend some time with her. Like a date. He figured they had gotten a lot accomplished today. She had stayed in her office and he in his. They had stopped for lunch, and he’d made sandwiches, and now it was dinner time. Or close enough.
He would admit to feeling a little territorial whenever Detective Connors gazed at her longer than necessary. He had a feeling the man had figured out there was more between them than a working relationship, and he would be correct in that assumption. That meant Connors needed to look elsewhere.
