Twisted Innocence Read online

  She clicked Lily’s car seat out of the cab and took her inside. Juliet sat at Michael’s desk, papers covering it. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she said without looking up. “Got in three new clients this afternoon. Easy stuff, I think. We can pull them off in a couple hours each. I’m trying to bill for the stuff we did last week, and I don’t feel like I’m ever gonna catch up.”

  When Holly didn’t answer, Juliet looked up at her.

  “Wait. Your hair! That’s not your wig, is it?”

  “No, it’s me.” Holly struck a pose. “What do you think?”

  “Pretty! I like it a lot, but your face looks awful.”

  Holly had almost forgotten the cuts and bruises. “Yeah, well. What else is new?”

  “Have the police found the people who mugged you?”

  “Haven’t heard from them about it, but I doubt it.”

  “Why did you do it? The hair thing?”

  Holly shrugged. “Tired of it. And the wigs get hot when I’m doing surveillance.”

  Juliet just grinned—she had always hated the pink tips—but she had the grace not to say anything else.

  Holly went to the computer in the other room, sat down, and typed in “Creed Kershaw Southport Florida.” A few things came up, and she studied them. He had a possession of marijuana charge three years ago but had gotten a deferment in favor of drug treatment. He didn’t have any charges for drug dealing. She did a newspaper search on Southport murders, found one article: “Police Search for Clues into Southport Murder.” She read over it. At the writing of the article, the reporter hadn’t known much about the case other than the fact that a man named Emilio Juarez had been found dead in an abandoned parking lot, shot through the back of his head. Police speculated that it had to do with a drug deal. There were no suspects listed.

  She searched the newspaper again, looking for any other murders, but none had occurred in the last month. This had to be the one. She wrote down the name of the dead person and did a quick search on him. Juarez did have a rap sheet. He’d spent a year in prison for drug distribution and had been arrested twice more. Someone had hired him a high-powered attorney—Jack Humphrey, who was renowned for representing sleazeballs—and he’d gotten off both times.

  She jumped when Juliet came into the room. “What’re you doing?”

  Holly shook her head. “Nothing. Just trying to get a few things done.”

  “That one of our jobs?” Juliet asked, looking at the screen.

  Holly closed out the window she was looking at. “Yeah, the Simon case.”

  “Oh. Nothing resolved yet?”

  “No,” Holly said. “Still working on it.”

  Juliet put three files down on a folding table that functioned as a desk. “Can you take these? They’re pretty easy background searches for employment. You can probably knock them out pretty fast.”

  “Sure,” Holly said.

  Juliet disappeared back into Michael’s office. “I have to go soon,” she said. “I have to pick the kids up. I’ve got a neighbor looking after Robbie, but I promised her I’d only be gone a couple of hours.” She came back out with her purse under her arm. “So when do you want to do our interviews?”

  Holly glanced back at her. “Interviews for what?”

  “Our nanny.”

  Holly sighed and looked down at Lily, still content in her infant seat. “I don’t know. I’m not really ready yet. She’s so little.”

  “But we talked about this. We both need sitters. Let’s choose someone together. Someone we trust and like. Even if you don’t go full-time here, you’ll need somebody when you drive.”

  “You go ahead and interview them,” Holly said. “When you narrow it down, I’ll meet them.”

  When Juliet left, Holly went into Michael’s office and sat at the desk. She used his computer to go through his deeper databases looking for information on Creed Kershaw and Emilio Juarez.

  When the front door creaked open, she jumped, then peered through Michael’s office doorway. His brother Max, a detective in the major crimes unit at the Panama City Police Department, stood just inside the front door. “Max, I didn’t see you drive up.”

  “Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “You looked deep in thought.” He stared at her for a moment. “Hey, what happened to you?”

  “Mugged this morning in my cab. I filed a report. Two meth heads. They got three hundred bucks.”

  Max lowered himself into a chair. “Did you know them?”

  “No. I’ve driven the girl before, but I don’t remember her name. She called the guy Stevie.” She looked up at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I had some time off and I thought maybe I could come and give you guys a hand. I think it’s pretty cool that you’re trying to keep Michael’s business going. He said business is actually good and that you’re a little overwhelmed.”

  “True story,” she said. “It doesn’t help that I just had a baby and Juliet’s dealing with a new one of her own.”

  “Yeah, I heard about her adoption. That’s really something. Takes a special kind of person to adopt the baby her husband had with his mistress.”

  “That’s what she is,” Holly said. “A special kind of person. But these babies kind of tug at your heartstrings, you know?”

  When she looked down at her own sleeping child, Max moved out of his chair and squatted down next to Lily. She was asleep, but he gently touched her hair. “She looks like you, Holly,” he said. “At least like the left side of your face.”

  She grinned. “Poor kid.”

  Max grinned back. “I like your hair, by the way. Kind of takes the focus off your black eye and busted lip.”

  “Really? So you were a hater of the pink tips too?”

  “Didn’t hate them,” he said. “I just didn’t quite understand what you were going for.”

  She shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “So what made you get rid of the pink?”

  She sat back, stared at Max, wondering if she should tell him what was going on. He was a detective, after all, and he had access to more information than she could get here. Maybe he could tell her something about Creed Kershaw’s case, find out if she had anything to fear. “I’ve really been thinking about dyeing my hair for a while now,” she said. “Pink hair gives people the wrong idea about me. I’d rather be taken seriously.”

  “I understand.”

  She set her chin on her palm. “Listen, I’m glad you’re here. Something happened today.”

  “Besides the mugging?”

  “Yeah, something else.” She leaned forward on the desk. “If I tell you this, would you promise not to tell anybody else?”

  Max frowned. “I don’t know if I can promise that, Holly.”

  “Nothing illegal,” she said. “I mean, nothing I’ve done. I just don’t want my sisters or my brother finding out. Not even Michael.”

  “What does it have to do with?”

  She hesitated, glanced at her daughter, then looked back at Max. “Lily’s father.”

  Max sat straighter. “Oh yeah?”

  “I don’t want anybody to know who he is. I’m ashamed of the whole situation.”

  Max had nothing to say to that.

  “I haven’t told my sisters or anybody who he is. I thought I could just forget about him, but today the police came to my house—”

  “The police?”

  “The Southport police.” She told him what they’d said about Creed Kershaw and her phone call with Rio. “It makes me sick,” she said. “It scares me to death—first of all that he’s a killer. Of course that’s the kind of guy I would be attracted to. It’s just like me.”

  Max chuckled. “You’re being hard on yourself.”

  “Somebody’s gotta do it,” she said. “The other thing is . . . now that he knows about Lily . . . the idea that he might come in and want to get involved in her life scares me to death. I can’t stand the thought of him having anything to d
o with her, especially now that I know he could be a criminal.”

  “So what do you want me to do?”

  “I was just wondering . . . could you look him up and find out about this murder? Find out what they have on him, what the chances are that he’s really the one? I just want to know who I’m dealing with.”

  “If he winds up in prison, you don’t have much to worry about.”

  “Yeah, but even if he’s in prison, his family could try to get involved with Lily.”

  “Doubtful,” he said. “I’m no lawyer—Cathy could tell you for sure—but if his name’s not on the birth certificate and he hasn’t been part of her life—that family might not have any rights to her.”

  “Still, it could turn into some big hairy deal if they decided to get a lawyer and paternity tests and all, and I hate the thought of it. Will you help me?”

  Max shrugged. “Sure, I’ll see what I can find out for you.”

  “Thank you.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s kind of urgent.”

  “I’ll work fast,” he said. “But in the meantime, do you have any cases I could help resolve with my resources, just to help my brother out a little bit and keep you guys going?”

  “That would be great,” Holly said. “Juliet and Cathy would really appreciate it. We’re all in over our heads right now.” She looked closely at Max, watching for a reaction as she said, “I’m glad you and Michael are getting along better now.”

  He rubbed his mouth. “Let’s just say his incarceration has made me reevaluate things. The least I can do is what you guys are doing.”

  Holly was surprised. She had never been close to Max. He had seemed all business, a little arrogant, and she’d hated the way he and his parents had treated Michael, as if he were responsible for Joe’s killer walking free. But Max had made mistakes too. Maybe they’d made him humble.

  “So whatcha got?” he said again.

  She handed him the three cases that Juliet had just given her. “If you could get these off my desk, I’d appreciate it. Routine employment background searches for our biggest corporate account.”

  “Seems doable. I can probably knock these out tonight, then you can bill them tomorrow.”

  “You can talk to Juliet about compensation.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want any. I’ve got a job. I just want to help my brother.”

  Lily started to cry, and Holly jumped up and got her out of the car seat. She needed to nurse, but she wouldn’t do it in front of Max.

  As if on cue, he got to his feet. “Guess I’ll go get started on these at home so you can do your mom thing.”

  She smiled, felt a blush on her cheeks. “Yeah, thanks.”

  He stepped to the door, looked out at her taxi. “Still gonna be driving a cab after the mugging?”

  “Some,” she said, “but I sure would like it if I could transition to full-time with Michael. I like this gig a whole lot better. Especially today.”

  “If business is as good as he says, that might work.” He motioned to her face. “Might want to put some ice on that eye.” He opened the door.

  “Hey, Max?”

  He turned back.

  “Thanks for helping me on that Creed Kershaw thing. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate the secrecy.”

  He nodded. “No problem.”

  “I just want you to know I’m not really like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’m not the kind of girl who just goes home with a random guy. I don’t know what got into me that night. Too much alcohol, probably, but it was a rare thing.” She looked down at Lily. “I just want you to know that.”

  “I’m not judging you,” he said. “Everybody makes mistakes. You’re no different.”

  He strode out to his car, got in. Holly stood looking through the window. No different? That was the last thing she wanted to hear.

  She went to the bathroom mirror, bouncing her baby. Her face looked ridiculous. Her right eye had swollen shut, and the stitches across her eyebrow were Frankensteinish. The purple and black gash on her fat lip was lovely. She studied her hair again, longing for her pink tips. They made her different, didn’t they? At the very least, they would distract from her face.

  Sighing, she decided to stick with her plan to stay a blonde for now. She could always change her mind later.

  CHAPTER 10

  Max talked to the cops who’d taken Holly’s complaint and learned they had no leads on the two who’d mugged her. Holly’s abusers had gotten away with it.

  He knocked out the cases that Holly had given him in less than an hour, e-mailed her the results, then got to work on Creed Kershaw. The first thing he found was Kershaw’s picture on his driver’s license. He studied it for a moment, trying to think like Holly. What had she seen in this guy the night she met him that made her go home with him? She probably saw him as good looking. He was six feet tall, had dark brown hair and blue eyes that girls probably found dreamy, and he teetered on the edge between clean-cut and thug. One part jock with one part bad boy. Enough for Holly to be snowed.

  Max pulled up Kershaw’s rap sheet and looked it over. A possession charge and a probation violation.

  The charges were from three years ago. Kershaw had been fairly clean since, except for a few driving violations.

  There hadn’t been a warrant issued for his arrest for this recent murder. They must just want to question him. The dead guy—Emilio Juarez—was a drug dealer who had lived in Southport but was known on the streets of Panama City too. He’d been known in the drug community as Loco, an interesting distinction, considering so many in the drug culture were crazy.

  Max did a quick search on Loco and found the report the first responders had filed after discovering his body. He’d been murdered execution style—shot in the back of the head—and his body had been left in a parking lot behind a shopping center.

  Max picked up the phone and called Holly.

  “You got something already?” she asked him.

  “Yeah, listen to this.” He told her what he’d found. “There’s no warrant for his arrest yet. He’s just a person of interest, but his DNA was all over the crime scene.”

  “So do you think he killed him?”

  “Don’t know, but his sudden disappearance after the murder raised suspicion.”

  “How do they know he isn’t dead too?”

  “It says he called his family once after the murder, babbling something about how he was sorry he’d disappointed them. They were afraid of suicide, so they reported it to the police, but he’s used his credit card around town and made phone calls, so they believe he’s still alive and in the area. Looks like he’s in hiding.”

  “So they think this was a drug deal gone bad?” Holly asked.

  “Looks like it. Loco was well-known around here. Sold a lot of dope. If Kershaw wound up doing an execution, that would mean he works for someone higher up, the one who ordered the hit. You know how these things work.”

  Holly’s silence told him she did. She’d done enough work on Miller’s drug ring that he didn’t have to explain things to her.

  “Do I have good taste in men or what?”

  He chuckled. “Hey, it’s not like the guy looks like a killer.” He pulled up Kershaw’s mug shot from his arrest. “He doesn’t look so bad. I can see how you’d be fooled. He came from a middle-class family in Southport. Has a high school diploma, couple years of college. He probably seemed like a decent guy.”

  “That doesn’t help a lot, but thanks for trying. How stupid is it that women go home with strangers they’ve never even held hands with? It doesn’t make any logical sense if you think about it when you’re sober. As Juliet always says, everything has a consequence. I just wish this didn’t have to be Lily’s consequence too.”

  “Frankly, I think he’s probably got too much on his mind to even be thinking about you.”

  “But I can’t be sure, can I?”

  “No, I guess not.”

>   “Guess I’ll have to find him and make sure.”

  Max sat straighter. “Holly, that’s not a good idea. Don’t go looking for trouble.”

  “If he’s worried about his own life or going to prison for the rest of it, how do I know he won’t try to see his child before he gets caught? I know the power these little lives have over parents. If he has any normal instincts, that feeling could be pretty intense. He could have been watching us already. I just want to stop worrying about it and make sure he doesn’t show up. Do you have a last-known address for him?”

  Max frowned. “Yeah, but I don’t think I should give it to you. I don’t want you showing up at his house.”

  “I have one already, Max. I just want to confirm it. Is it 366 Bay Drive?”

  He sighed. “Yep, that’s what I have. Holly, I’m sure they’ll locate him soon and take him in. You don’t have to worry.”

  “I wish I could be sure of that. But thanks for your help. I appreciate your looking him up.”

  “You sure you don’t want to tell your sisters? I mean, they would have your back.”

  “No. I know it wouldn’t surprise them—none of it. But I’ve been doing better for the last few months. That’s what I want them to think of when they think of me—the good things, and my being a good mom, instead of dredging up memories of all my old choices.”

  Max smiled. “I get it. I won’t say anything.”

  “Thank you, Max.”

  “Well, I’ll see what else I can find out and let you know. Take care, okay? Don’t do anything stupid.”

  When she hung up, he held the phone under his chin, thinking about this girl who had put herself in harm’s way for her family on several occasions in the last year. Yet she had so much fear over her family finding out the details of her past.