Page 7 of Seductive Secrets

James flipped the trophy around again, tapping at the base, the top, and the middle, as if trying to find the hollow part. But everywhere he tapped seemed to be hollow. That’s the thing about cheap, plastic toys. They were cheap – and hollow!

Finally, he was rubbing his thumb against the base when the bottom slid open. Angela snorted, then placed a hand over her mouth in a failed attempt to hide her laughter.

He mock-glared at her. “Okay, you can say it.”

“Told ya so!” she teased.

He carefully slid the plastic cover off the base. They both leaned forward, trying to peer inside. He flipped the trophy right side up, holding out his hand. A small glass tube tumbled onto his open palm.

“What the hell is this?” he asked, holding the glass tube up to the light and shaking it. “Looks like some sort of blue powder.”

“Cocaine?” she offered.

He shook his head, adding in a shrug. “Probably not. Coke isn’t generally blue.”

She tilted her head teasingly. “Not into recreational drugs?” she teased.

He grunted. “Never. I never understood the allure of clouding one’s brain and frying brain cells.”

Angela nodded her agreement. “Same.” She watched as he shook the vial again. “So, how do we figure out what’s in it?”

He peered at it for another moment and said, “I know of a lab that can analyze the stuff and find out what it is.” He glanced at her. “But should we turn this over to the police?”

She bit her lip, not answering for a long moment. “We probably should.”

He grinned. “But we’re not going to, are we?”

Angela felt her excitement stir. A mystery! She loved mysteries almost as much as she loved beating the competition at any sort of legal issue.

“Why don’t we figure it out for ourselves? If there’s anything nefarious going on, then we can turn it over to the police with all of the information we’ve collected.” She eyed theblue powder. “If this is just antacid, then the police won’t have an open investigation started. We could protect your friend as well as my company’s reputation.”

His blue eyes glanced down at her. “Do you trust me about the lab? Or is there one that you’d prefer to use?”

Angela considered her options for a long moment. She should probably go to the security office at Hazelton and tell them that one of their employees might be doing illegal drugs. But then she remembered the red flag yesterday when she’d looked up DuBreck’s contact information in the company directory. Her instincts were screaming to her to keep this away from the security office until she knew more.

“Yesterday, when I did a search on DuBreck, I saw that an alert was created.”

His eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

Angela hesitated briefly, then said, “We’re going to trust each other on this going forward, right? No more secrets, like a mysterious key showing up in the mail?”

He didn’t hesitate. “No more secrets. Everything I find out, you’ll know about too. In fact, we can investigate together.” He reached out and dumped the vial into her purse. “Will your company think it odd that you’re out for a few days?”

Her lips twisted and she nodded. “Yes, but I don’t have anything urgent on my agenda right now, so I can call in and tell them that I need some time off.”

“Will they let you?” he asked as they walked out of the apartment. “Are you allowed to take time off without notice?”

“The last time I took time off was last fall, when I took a few days off to help Kasim down at your place in Virginia.” She looked up at him as they tugged the door closed, then he twistedthe door to make sure that it locked behind them. “How are Fox and Bessie doing, by the way?”

He groaned. “Those two are insatiable! Bessie won’t leave his side either. It’s actually…pretty damn sweet.” Fox was his former neighbor’s gelding that had fallen in love with his mare, Bessie. The two had always spent their days on opposite sides of the fence line until last fall when someone had tried to kill Angela’s friend, Kasim. Kasim was actually His Highness, Sheik el Fotima, Ruler of Alistar and a powerful world leader. During the few weeks he and their friend Dash, had spent trying to find out who had tried to kill him, Kasim had fallen in love with James’ neighbor, Rosalee Sedmund. Rosalee was now Her Highness, Queen Rosalee el Fotima and loving life with Kasim. They were ridiculously happy together.

She grinned as they headed for the elevator. “I bet Ruppert isn’t happy about that.”

“Ruppert,” he leaned forward to press the call button, “hovers over Bessie constantly. He allows Fox to stand next to Bessie, but no one else is allowed to get close except for me, Rosalee, Kasim, and the vet that comes to check on the herd. But Ruppert has to be close by even when the vet comes near her.”

She laughed fondly. “Poor guy!” she said, referring to the donkey.

James grunted. “Ruppert is a very protective donkey. But when Rosalee moved to Alistar with Kasim, I seemed to have adopted her chickens, cats, and,” he paused to shake his head, looking stunned, “apparently some annoying furballs that Rosalee used to care for. I didn’t realize that the woods around our area had chinchillas.” He looked down at Angela. “I didn’t even know that chinchillas lived in the Virginia area. They usedto sleep with Kasim when he was hiding in Rosalee’s barn. Now they sleep with Ruppert!”