Seeing Is Believing Page 2

  "Sort of seasonal work, huh?" He smiled at her, gratified when she smiled back. She really was very pretty, and if he wasn't careful, it could end up being very distracting.

  "I suppose you could say that. We have good months and bad months, like all businesses, but Tandi's come up with a new idea that might bring in more cash."

  Oh really, like offering to take in a drug shipment? Reed cleared his throat. "Really? Who's Tandi, and what did she come up with?"

  "Sorry," Leslie said with a laugh. "I forgot you didn't know her. She's my assistant, and she's fabulous. We're going to start selling Halloween favors, decorations and little souvenirs that fit in with the month, and hopefully with the town. We just got the first shipment today. Want to see? You guys will be the first, and you can tell me if you think they'll sell or not."

  Reed felt as if Lady Luck had just smiled at him and then pushed the perfect opening into his lap. "Sure."

  "Definitely," Chester said, nodding. Reed had almost forgotten the man was there he'd been so quiet.

  They all got up and trooped to the back room. The first thing Reed noticed was the open back door. The screen door was closed, but it still was an open invitation for anyone to come inside. He walked over and looked into the alley. A quick glance at the screen showed him it wasn't locked.

  "Nothing there but the trash cans," Leslie said. "I leave it open on nice days like today so we have a little bit of wind moving through the store. In the mornings it's especially nice, after the ovens have been on for a while."

  Reed was sure she was right. He turned toward her as she put her hand on the box sitting on the table. The box moved and the startled look on her face made him frown.

  "Something wrong?"

  "Yeah," she pushed at the box again and her frown deepened. "When I put this box up here earlier today it was so heavy I could hardly lift it. Now it seems light as a feather. How odd."

  Reed and Chester exchanged glances, but before Chester could open his mouth, Reed shook his head. Better to wait until they'd had a chance to talk to her before they brought up the subject of the possibility the box contained things other than what she'd ordered.

  He walked to her and peered into the box. It was half full, with exactly what she'd said would be inside: Halloween novelties.

  "There's some missing, too." The agitation in her voice made him wince. She rummaged through the box, then turned to the open door. He could tell exactly what she was thinking, that someone had come inside while they were in the other room and taken part of her favors. Of course he knew it wasn't favors they had taken.

  It was risky, really, shipping drugs in someone else's containers. The chances of being seen while recovering them were pretty high. Of course if someone detected the illegal substances there was no way they could be tied to the person really shipping them, that was a plus for them, and a huge negative for the person receiving the shipment.

  He wasn't sure why he did what came next. Maybe it was her pretty eyes, or the sad way she looked at the box, wondering why someone had taken part of her shipment.

  "If you check the invoice, I'm sure you'll discover everything's there," Reed said with a frown.

  "What do you mean?" She shook her head and glared at him.

  "I mean, somebody hijacked your box at the shipping center and added something illegal to it. Then, while you were in the other room, they came back here and got it."

  Her look of horror made him want to take her in his arms. She turned to Chester, who nodded. Then she turned back to Reed.

  "Are you a cop?"

  "No." He pulled out his wallet, wincing when she took a step back. "I'm a private investigator. And if you'll help me this week, we'll figure out who's done this, and make sure they get arrested."

  A look of disbelief, and wariness, crossed her face. She turned back to Chester who gave her a sad smile.

  "It's true, Leslie. I've had him checked out and he's clean. Somebody's using the shipping business, and they're using you, too. Will you help us bring him, or her, or them, in?"

  Reed was happy that it took her absolutely no time to nod. "You bet I will. How dare they."

  "Good," Reed said. "The first thing I want is to check any invoices or packing slips that came with this crate. Did the delivery guy give you any?"

  "Yes, and the packing slip was in the box. I put it down here." She put her hand on the counter, then sighed heavily and turned to Reed. "It's gone."

  They searched the table, and the floor around it, and then she let out a cry of dismay. "I hope this doesn't make me look guilty."

  "Not at all," Reed said. "In fact, it reinforces your claim. They took the slip so you couldn't prove exactly what was in the box. I bet if we let a drug dog in here it would hit on the box. I think we need more coffee, and we need to sit down and decide what to do next."

  Chapter Two

  Leslie felt as if her stomach would collapse inside her. She sat at a table in the front while Reed went behind the counter and retrieved the coffeepot, bringing it over to refill their mugs. She quickly put in a packet of sugar, then stirred it absentmindedly.

  When he'd sat back down, she glanced up, alternating her gaze between Reed and Chester. "Someone was in the back room, taking their illegal contraband, weren't they? They were back there while I was up here, working, or while we were sitting here, eating and drinking and talking."

  "Yes." Reed nodded at her. "I'm really sorry, truly I am."

  "You're not interested in the ghost town, you're here to see if I'm a drug smuggler." She sneered at him, but the look quickly disappeared. He was being very nice, really he was. That didn't mean she liked him, though. She was pretty upset about the fact Chester might have thought she was a drug smuggler.

  "How did you know to target the boxes coming to my shop?" She glanced at Reed.

  "We had an informant," Reed replied. "Drugs let the warehouse in Dallas Thursday night going in three different directions. It's the luck of the draw that I was assigned to your store."

  Leslie took a packet of sugar, wiggled it around, then tore it open, turning it over and slowly letting it drip into her coffee cup. "Who took them, that's what I want to know."

  "Me too," Reed said. "The fact they got to them so quickly means they were waiting nearby, ready to take the items the first chance they got. And it didn't take long, did it? Who was that woman who was here earlier?"

  "Betty Whitehouse? She lives just over the border, in Tres Leches. She comes in about twice a month to buy a pie."

  "Do you trust her?"

  "Trust her? She's a sweet little old lady who drives fifty miles to buy her husband a pie, of course I trust her. She and her husband own a ranch, complete with cattle and horses and lots of hired hands. They provide a great economic boom to our area, and they make lots of money. They don't need to smuggle drugs."

  "Or, she's a sweet little old lady who drives fifty miles to distract the clerk after drugs have been delivered to her store, so someone can slip into the back and take stuff from the box. Maybe they're not doing as well as you think they are."

  She narrowed her eyes at Reed. "I don't like your tone of voice. Don't you dare blame Mrs. Whitehouse for anything."

  "You say she comes in twice a month? When was the last time she was here before today?" He was staring at her now, with those green eyes that seemed to go straight to her soul. She wanted to reach across the table and slap the smile from his face.

  "She was here last week."

  "Really? And what is today, the six, seventh? And she's already been here twice this month, when she only comes in twice a month usually?"

  The hairs on the back of Leslie's neck bristled. She couldn't, wouldn't, believe Mrs. Whitehouse had anything to do with drug smuggling. After all, she'd been coming into Leslie's shop since it opened two years ago. Surely she hadn't been doing this all along.

  "You're full of it." She stirred a packet of sugar into her coffee, took a sip and grimaced. "Yuck."

  "I
would say so," Chester said. "That's about the third packet of sugar you've put in there."

  "Something's got to be done." She banged her fist on the table. "Shouldn't you be back there taking fingerprints or something?"

  "Fingerprints of a box that's already been handled by at least ten people?" Reed shook his head. "It wouldn't do us any good. Neither would fingerprinting the door. Someone would just say they'd been in the alley at some point in time and touched the screen."

  "That's just dandy," Leslie said. "So they just get away with it? What are you going to do?"

  Reed leaned toward her and she gazed into his eyes. His presence was calming, and him moving a little closer made her feel better about what was happening. Surely he had a plan. Surely he could make things right? Couldn't he? She still couldn't quite believe this was happening at all.

  "I have a plan," he said softly, glancing between her and Chester. "But you may not like it. You have two other shipments coming in, don't you?"

  Her eyes widened. "And just how do you know that?"

  "Best you don't have any idea how I know," he said softly. "Suffice it to say when we think someone is receiving illegal drugs, we have them checked out. The company says they've already received shipping information about two more delivers here, one tomorrow, and one next week."

  "That's right." Leslie tried not to be too upset about the fact someone had been looking at information about her, probably both about her private life and her personal life. "They were supposed to be Halloween treats, to bring more people into the store, to make things festive for the holiday."

  "Well, your treats have turned into tricks, but I'm going to help you figure out who did it, and we'll take care of it together."

  She narrowed her eyes, studying him. He was a handsome man, that was for sure: right at six feet tall, two hundred pounds; he had wavy dark hair and those gorgeous green eyes that made her feel as if she could melt on the spot. She pursed her lips, then sighed.

  She didn't know the man from Adam, that much was true. But she'd known Chester since she was a little girl, and if he said things were going to be all right, then they would be. She looked at the deputy in question and he nodded, giving her a look that let her know that, no matter what, he'd also be there, helping her cope with this.

  Leslie looked back at Reed. "All right. Tell me your plan."

  *****

  "Is this your subtle way of telling me I'm fired?" Leslie glanced at Tambi, who stood in the doorway, gently bouncing Josh on her hip.

  "What? No!"

  "Well, when I come in for work and see a man wearing an apron and doing what I normally do, I get a little nervous."

  Leslie put the faxed papers she held on her desk, then turned to her friend. "I told you yesterday, he's just a friend of Chester's who's down on his luck. I offered him a part-time job to work in the mornings, while you're not here."

  Tambi didn't look convinced, though, and Leslie felt a twinge of guilt for lying to her friend. She'd wanted to tell her the truth, but Reed had insisted it was a bad idea.

  "If she's not in on it, giving her that type of information could make things dangerous for her, if the person, or persons, responsible start asking questions. Best to let her think I'm just a new co-worker. Only you, Chester and myself will know the truth."

  At the time he'd said the words she'd been convinced. But now, staring at Tambi's worried face, she wasn't so sure. She had to shore up her friend's sense of belonging at Spice is Nice.

  "I'm not firing you, and you can take that to the bank. I just did this as a favor to Chester."

  Tambi nodded, although she still seemed a little less sure of herself. Leslie knew Tambi needed the money from both her jobs to make ends meet, and that seeing Reed behind the counter only made her think bad things.

  "Why don't you go and tell him he's relieved," Leslie said with a smile. "Then you can work the after-school rush. You can leave Josh here with me, if you want."

  "That's okay, my mom's coming by for him. She says she doesn't get to see him enough."

  Leslie wondered if that was the reason for Carol's sudden interest in her grandson, or if Tambi asked her to come by because she thought Leslie didn't want Josh in the store anymore. She decided not to push the issue, though, and nodded.

  "Fine. When you relieve Reed, would you send him back here, please?"

  Tambi nodded, and about ten minutes later Reed came through the door, still wearing his apron. The sight made Leslie smile. The white garment meant to protect his clothing did nothing to detract from his masculinity. He was absolutely gorgeous.

  "You rang, boss?" He winked and her heart beat just a little faster.

  "Here are the tracking papers they faxed to me. According to them the box weighed forty pounds when it shipped."

  He took the papers and frowned. "Would you say that's how much it weighed? After all, you lifted it."

  "Yes, when it first got here that's how much it weighed. But you know as well as I do that when we picked it up yesterday afternoon and put it on the scale it weighed fourteen pounds."

  He nodded. "Sorta smart on their part, I think. A forty pound box is heavy, yeah, but not over the top. Don't make it so heavy that someone will want to investigate, or charge more for it."

  He sat down on the edge of her desk. "How many boxes are coming in today?"

  "Three." She walked to her desk and picked up a sheet of paper. "Then, next week, the shipment with the T-shirts has five boxes."

  Leslie watched him consider the information. "If I were them, I wouldn't put anything in the today's box; that would throw you off, or so they would think. I would wait until next week, with the T-shirts."

  She felt as if her world was crashing down on her. "Of course, they may not do it at all anymore. Yesterday could have been a one shot thing, not that we really believe that."

  "Obviously you don't, since you're still hanging around."

  "Gee thanks, nothing hurts my ego like a woman who says I'm still hanging around like I'm three-week old garbage."

  She smiled at him, her mood lightening just a little. "I didn't mean it that way." She shuffled around just a little, then cleared her throat. "The truck should be here with my delivery in less than ah hour. I'm going to make the driver wait while I check out the box."

  "No, you're not."

  "Yes, I am." She gave a low grunt. "This is my business we're talking about."

  "And finding out what's going on is my business. Don't make me regret telling you what's happening."

  Leslie turned so fast she felt lightheaded. She put her hand on the desk to steady herself. "Listen to me, while I repeat myself very slowly. I agreed to act as if you worked here to help you investigate, but this is my business that's on the line, and if I want to make the driver stick around while I check things out, then I will."

  "If you do that, you're jeopardizing everything. They can't know we're on to them. We have absolutely no evidence from yesterday."

  "Exactly, which is why we need to catch them in the act today." She nodded approval at her reasoning.

  "Yes, we do, but we don't want them to know. I doubt very seriously the driver is in on this, but if you open the box, and find drugs inside, the first thing he's going to do is go back and tell his superiors, then they shut things down and we're out of luck."

  "That won't happen."

  "Watch and see. You'll follow my rules on this." He stood up, and Leslie was reminded of his size, his strength.

  "Listen, this is my store..." She jerked her head toward the knock at the back door. "There he is now. The point is mute. I'm doing it."

  She hurried toward the door, pushing it open so the deliveryman could wheel his dolly inside. There were five boxes and she frowned.

  "Hey Frank. I'm only supposed to get three."

  He pulled out his machine and punched some numbers. "They all have your name on them," he said, shrugging. "Maybe you've got a surprise here."

  "Well, let's ope..." Leslie's
words stopped when Reed grabbed her. He twirled her around, then slapped her behind. Her outraged cry filled the back room and he slapped her behind again. Pain from the sharp slap radiated through her buttocks and she gasped in outrage, putting her hands on her hips and backing away from Reed.

  Then he turned to the deliveryman and winked. "Sorry, just a little game we're playing."

  Frank grinned, trying to hide his obvious laughter. Leslie glared at Reed, then turned back to Frank. "I'm going to...ouch!"

  This time she stepped away from Reed, who had swatted her behind twice more. And this time Frank laughed out loud.

  "Listen, I can take the hint if you two wanna be alone to play naughty girl gets a spanking." He thrust the machine toward Reed, who took it and signed. "Have a good time."

  Frank rushed out the door and Leslie crossed toward Reed, her arms raised to slap his face. He grabbed her wrist, turned her and delivered five more swats, the sound of it filling the back room. Leslie prayed that Tambi, or any customers, didn't hear the spanking. She struggled as he pulled her against him.

  "Behave, and calm down."

  "You're fired! Get out." She continued to struggle but he held her body close to his. Anger soared through her, making her want to scream. Instead she silently fumed. Who the hell did this man think he was? "Let go of me."

  "Not yet, not until you're calmer." She detested the humor she heard in his voice. "Besides, you can't fire me from my fake job. And that's exactly what it is, remember? Fake."

  "Calmer? You just spanked me. How dare you?" She pushed out with her arms, trying to break free from him but it was useless. He held her close, his eyes alight with humor. Was he laughing at her? How dare he!

  "I didn't really spank you," he replied. "It was a few taps. If you want a spanking I'll give you one. It was the only way I could think of to distract you and keep you from opening the boxes in front of the deliveryman."