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And it also begged the question. If it wasn’t my father or brother, then who the hell was it?
The thoughts kept me up the whole night, which affected my focus while working this morning. I sighed as I made myself my third cup of coffee. The phone rang while it was brewing, and I headed back to my work table to grab it.
“Hello.”
“Hi, babe.” Nick sounded worried. “How are you?”
“Good. Getting some work in. And your men are doing their job well.”
“That’s good. The PI is on his way to you. He’s going to check out the place, and I want you to tell him your entire history, including any possible conflicts you’ve had in the past. I’m talking about anything you can remember, an argument in the grocery store or an unpleasant interaction with a client. Whoever did this is unhinged, and it might have been something seemingly small that set them off.”
“So you no longer think it’s the mayor?” I asked.
He sighed. “I don’t know. But we can’t afford to focus on one lead. We’re leaving no stone unturned here, so anything you can remember, let him know, alright?”
“Okay,” I said, but I was getting a little nervous. There was no way I could remember every negative interaction I’d ever had. Not that I’d had that many, but I wasn’t the type to hold grudges, and I usually forgot about them after they happened. Regardless, I needed to try.
I decided to multitask and think about it while crafting the new UX design, but pretty soon, my brain refused to cooperate with me. So when the knock came about thirty minutes later, I eagerly jumped up from my seat and went to open the door.
The PI turned out to be a stocky man with a bushy beard, glasses, and hair tied at the nape of his neck. “Hi, I’m Robbie, the PI that your fiancé sent over. How are you doing?”
“Um, good.” I saw Taylor off to the side, eyeing the man quizzically, and I understood why. The man looked more like an insurance salesman than a PI, but I couldn’t judge a book by its cover. Robbie walked in and immediately scanned the entire apartment. He walked to the windows, testing them as if attempting to jimmy them open. And then he felt along the wall. His eyebrows furrowed in thought.
“What?” I asked, wanting to know what he was thinking.
“Your walls are thin. Easy to hear a conversation from the outside. Plus, someone could break through these windows if they needed to get in. You should get them fortified. I assume it’s the same upstairs?”
“Um, yeah. The layout is similar, except that they’re bedrooms.”
He nodded. “Yeah, there’s a lot of work to do. But why don’t you start by telling me your story?”
“Alright.” I gestured for him to sit and then began speaking about everything I could remember, starting with the parking lot incident. The man listened attentively, and unlike the police officers, he didn’t make me feel like I was crazy or overreacting. He was very thorough with his questions and took every single word I said seriously, asking for clarification on all the points. He also asked what I thought about the incident, which made me dig deep, uncovering every single hidden memory back to high school.
“Any enemies there?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“No. I wasn’t popular by any means, but I didn’t have enemies either.”
“Did you have friends? Bullies?”
I smiled. The only enemy I had in high school was my now ‘fiancé.’ “I had a few friends from the chess and computer club, but we weren’t extremely close. And we eventually lost touch after high school anyway.”
“What are their names?” he asked, and I gave them. “Also, give me the name of every teacher you’ve ever had.”
By the time we finished, my brain was exhausted, but I was grateful for how thorough he was.
As he packed up, I asked, “So what happens now?”
“Now I start my job.” He flashed me a quick smile. “In the meantime, don’t go out by yourself and remain on high alert. The first assassin he sent was incompetent, but the next one might not be.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
NICK
“Excuse me, Mr. Walker,” Hannah’s voice came clear over the phone line. “There’s a Robbie Gallagher here to see you.”
“Send him in,” I said and finished reading Simon’s report just in time for Robbie to step into my office.
He smiled once he did. “Well, if it isn’t my friend, the big shot.” Robbie was an old friend from college, one of the few I could say was genuine. We’d both been on the football team around the same time, and he got his injury a few months after I did. We were never close before that, but somehow, after both of us were benched, we started seeing more of each other, and an easy friendship started. We also took the same business classes and started studying together as a result. He went on to the military for a few years before starting his security agency. And meanwhile, I dove right into starting my business.
