Page 28 of The Aura Answer
“Gracie.” She held up her message. “I need to plug this in.”
“Food, phone, and I’ll start looking into Layman and zoning after.” Jax held the front door for her.
In the parlor, Loretta was showing the twins and Aster how to make paper chains. The smell of glue promised ominous surprises. Not having new carpets or pretty floors had advantages with kids around.
Dante was in the breakfast booth on his laptop. Pris, for a change, wasn’t to be seen. Evie plugged in her phone and unloaded food on the counter. She’d missed lunch.
Respecting Dante’s meeting, they filled their plates and headed for the library. Evie remembered Gracie’s texts and took the phone plug with her. While they scarfed down pasta salad, she flipped through the images her sister had sent.
“These are Bertie’s sketches from the gallery. I’m not seeing anyone who looks like a drug dealer. There’s one of you ogling some female.” She shoved the phone over to Jax.
He flipped through. “Not ogling. I’m parking my bike. An unknown female crossed the street. Why would Bertie sketch her?”
“Is that Verity Janus again? I don’t recognize her without the Daisy Duke’s.” She retrieved her notebook computer from the table drawer and did a web search for images of Bertie’s artistfriend. “Looks like it.” She showed him the photo she’d found from a gallery exhibit. “Where was this sketch done, can you tell?”
“If I’m parking my bike, it’s the alley behind the office building. Maybe she’s taking a shortcut.” He flipped through the images again until he found one of two men. “There’s Layman, in the cowboy boots.”
“Is that Judge Rhodes? Is Layman handing himmoney?” Evie opened the image wider to see what was in his hands, but Bertie hadn’t clarified well. She sent the image to her notebook so she could enlarge more.
They studied the sketch together. Jax shook his head. “Judge Satterwhite was handling Block’s case, not Rhodes. And Rhodes ruled in favor of Larraine on zoning, which drove the council crazy, so it can’t be a payoff. Maybe Layman is just reimbursing the judge for lunch.”
“And that’s why Bertie sketched them? Bertie was a flake, but he wasn’t dumb. I should go back to talk with him.” Except she was pretty well drained for the moment. Like a battery, she needed time to recharge.
Jax leaned over to kiss her. “I have to work on Toby’s files. Have Reuben or Roark do a search on Layman. Don’t you have presents to wrap?”
She caught his jaw and kissed him more thoroughly. “I can do three things at once, remember? But the guys are better at searches. Find where Block hid his money and make Toby rich again.”
“Doubt that’s happening.” He tugged a curl. “Set a date and decide where you want to honeymoon and let me take you away from all this.”
Evie’s insides fizzed with happiness, even while her head filled with doubt.Marriage.Honeymoon.Foreverand ever. Scary.
“Some place where we can easily return to every time we want to kill each other?” she suggested.
Jax laughed and picked up their plates. “I’ll just haunt you if you kill me.”
Oh, well, there was that.
Later that afternoon,Jax pondered Evie’s wariness about setting a date as he settled into his desk chair and flipped on his computer. Understanding human nature was part of his job, but Evie... did not operate on normal scales. She liked being seen as fearless and invincible, but he knew she was no such thing. She just hid her fears from herself as well as she did from others.
How did he let her know that he would always be there for her, no matter how weird things got? He was actually starting to enjoy the weirdness. Sitting in on Evie’s chat with Block’s ghost had been more fun than sitting in on a partners’ board meeting, for sure. As long as the ghost wasn’t blowing up things, he was good. There had been times that Evie’s search for justice was as dangerous as he feared.
He ran a general search on Block’s cloud account, hunting for the name Layman. It was unusual enough that he could be confident there would only be one person of that name in there.
Nothing. Not one single mention of a man considering a major franchise within Afterthought’s boundaries. Arthur Block wasn’t the only Realtor in town, but he was the most influential—or had been before his arrest. It didn’t make logical sense that Layman hadn’t at least consulted him.
Did that mean Jax didn’t have all the mayor’s files?
If so, had Block hid others or was Toby hiding them?
Evie was right that a tourist attraction would require a change in liquor laws. He ran another search using the words “liquor” and “alcohol.” That brought up reams of references. Crap.
Evie had said Patel once applied to the council for a liquor option. Jax ran his name through the files and came up with a dozen references in city council minutes. That was a starting place, at least. He copied those to a new file and began reading.
On the last page, he found a notation in red with Block’s edit attached referencing FL and a number. Jax returned to the main file and ran a search on the two together and came up with nothing. But FL by itself produced a lengthy list. With a whistle at some of the notes, he texted R&R to take a look. If they wanted the reward, they could do the scut work.
It looked a damned sight like Block and this FL owned a lot of local mortgages. What had Block been planning on doing with them?
And now that Block was gone...
