Page 83 of The Aura Answer
“It’s the holidays. Not soon.” Jax scowled as he jotted notes.
Nick could almost taste that money. Gracie looked as if she would keel over in longing. They had to keep adding one andone and one and finding an answer. “If Rhodes’ gun is matched to the one that shot Sammy... The two may have argued over blackmailandthe eviction notice. It might have become heated.”
Gracie watched him with stars in her eyes, as if he might have the answers. “Why would Sammy believe a judge did anything more than sign a legal paper that Judge Satterwhite authorized as the owner?”
Nick prayed he was on the right track. “On the day I bought Bertie’s sketches...” He scrolled back through the pictures on his phone. “I showed Sammy the other work of Bertie’s that we’d found, including the one with Layman paying Rhodes, and the one with all the men in the barbershop. That was the third Monday of the month,the day Rhodes always came in,”Nick added, excitement building as he worked it out.
“More circumstantial evidence,” Jax added, not sounding as dubious as before. “We’d need proof that Rhodes always came in at thathourevery month. We’d need to know Rhodes whereabouts that day.”
R&R dived into their computers.
“Could Sammy have threatened Rhodes with anything in those sketches?” Nick asked, flipping through his photos, anxious to find something, anything, useful.
Judge Satterwhite took the phone and scrolled through the images of Bertie’s sketches. “Town council, both Turlocks, Rhodes, Layman... shouts conspiracy to the paranoid. Although I suppose Sammy had good reason to be paranoid by then. Bertie’s death, an eviction notice... A simple man like Sammy was probably beyond furious and running on scared seeing all these powerful people lined up against him, especially if he was blackmailing one of them. But I don’t see any evidence.”
Evie screwed up her nose and looked as if she meant to pull straws from thin air. “Remember—Sammy’s ghost claimed he bought his brother’s unsold sketches after he learned Bertiewas following theturds. He was looking forevidence. And he specifically said he was blackmailing his killer and the proof is in his books. High school cheating just doesn’t make sense. Sammy had to have more.”
Bollocks. Believing specters or not, Nick had to agree. “Blackmail ought to involve an actual crime. Bertie’s sketches are recent. Sammy had been blackmailing his killer for years... possibly since high school since their ways would have parted afterward.”
Gracie gave an excited whoop and hurriedly scattered all the memorabilia she’d just stacked in order. “Look at this!” She handed him a scribbled note with initials and dollar amounts. “This dates back to the year Larraine and Rhodes didn’t graduate—an IOU signed by Bertie to RR for a bunch of strange letters.”
“Not us,” Reuben called from where he was bent over his laptop.
Evie patted the big guy’s knee as if he were a dog.
Ignoring the puzzling byplay in his excitement, Nick read the note and whistled, then passed it over to Jax, who passed it around. The others studied the note and initials in puzzlement. They didn’t have his criminal background.
“Sammy kept a handful of those old notes.” Gracie handed him more. “I don’t know what most of the letters mean, but RR might stand for Ralph Rhodes? If we’re tracing a crime back to high school? The dollar amounts don’t seem like much.”
“For a kid back then, probably about right. THC and MSIR mean marijuana and morphine sulfate, don’t ask me how I know,” Nick explained, feeling a little uncomfortable when everyone stared at him. But the idea of a reward to help Gracie pay off her house was worth any scorn. “I’d say Bertie gave these IOUs for drugs to someone with the initials of RR.”
“Looking at this yearbook, Ralph Rhodes is the only RR in the entire class,” Pris called, waving the yellowed magazine.
Silently shaking his head, Judge Satterwhite took the yearbook and handed it to his mother, who flipped sadly through the pages.
Studying the notes, Jax whistled. “To heck with high school rifle competitions. If Rhodes knew Sammy had these... It would take a strong offensive DA to pin them on Rhodes, but with the right argument, these are a powerful motivation for murdering his blackmailer. But why now? He’d been paying him for years.”
Evie didn’t look at the notes but shook her head. “Motivation for killing Sammy if they argued, and like Nick said, Rhodes was feeling pressured, maybe. But we still have no reason for Rhodes to kill Block or Larraine. Rhodes seemed to inferLarraineblackmailed him. Maybe to keep her zoning laws? What was she hanging over his head?”
The mayor’s bodyguard looked grim beneath his man bun as he hit his phone contacts. Nick gathered he was calling the mayor. Everyone waited as he furiously questioned the fashion queen. From the look on his face...
“We haveproofRalph Rhodes sold drugs,” Reuben shouted at the phone. “Just tell us what you’re hiding!”
Could they really have solved a crime? Nick squeezed Gracie’s hand. She squeezed back. “Red herring,” she whispered, inexplicably.
Looking as if he’d like to chew nails, Reuben clicked off. “Yup, the drama queen blackmailed Rhodes, not for money, but into upholding her damned zoning law. She has better proof than old IOUs that Rhodes financed his education by selling drugs. She kept the evidence close until she needed it. If we promise to keep the judge locked behind bars, she’ll happily hand it over.”
Jax glared at Reuben. “I can see why people want to kill your girlfriend—that’s motivation for Rhodes and everyone else involved to murder her. Tell her to take the evidence to the sheriff right now... along with any other blackmail material in her possession!”
Gracie flung her arms around Nick’s neck. “The Tale of Two Blackmailers,” she murmured happily.
He had no idea what she was talking about but any attempt at thought evaporated with all her lush curves pressed against him.
Thirty-One
“Aster,settle down and tell Mr. Gladwell thank you.” A trifle rattled at the perfect gifts Nick had chosen for the children, Gracie pushed her hair behind her ear and wished she’d bought more clever presents than socks.
She was fortunate to have any brains at all after last night’s make-out session—he’d called it snogging. Honestly, if two grown adults couldn’t come up with better words... Every part of her tingled just remembering.
