Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,67
no damn idea, as he was completely turned around in the mall. But he was already on his way back to the women. The two of them stood in the middle of the mall aisle, talking to each other, when he finally caught sight of them. Kai looked at him, and he grinned ferociously at her.
She laughed. “Seriously, you got him?”
“Tyson did,” he said, and she clapped her hands.
“Perfect.” She looked over at Joy. “Come on. It’s time to go.”
Joy looked down at her bags, nodded, and said, “I’m probably okay for a day or two now.”
He led the two of them back to the corner where he had turned, then out the exit. He called Tyson and said, “We’re standing at the exit he ran from, so where are we heading?”
“Go straight ahead a good hundred yards,” Tyson said. “We can see you.”
With that, Johan and the two women headed in the guys’ direction on foot, weaving their way through the parked vehicles as they came up to the far side. A few seconds later Johan heard a whistle. Turning, he saw where the men were standing. After a minor course correction, they joined the others minutes later.
Kai walked up and gave Tyson a big hug. “I’m so glad you were here to catch him.” She peered into the car to see the guy staring at her, fury evident on his face. She just smiled at him. “Don’t like it when the foot is on the other shoe, huh?”
He looked a little confused by that.
Tyson chuckled. “I think you mean, shoe on the other foot, hon.”
“Whatever,” she said, then turned back to Joy. “We have to collect our car,” she said. “So I want you to stay here with the guys, and we’ll meet you back—” She turned and looked at the others. “Where are we going?”
“Well, the cops want to see this guy, so maybe the police station,” Tyson said.
She wrinkled up her face at that. “We can’t keep him then, can we?”
“No, we can’t. But maybe he’ll have a little talk with us first.”
The guy in the back seat swore and said, “No fucking way.”
Joy looked down at him. “Why do you want me dead?”
He just glared at her.
She shrugged. “He won’t talk anyway. But I’ve seen him at the company. I think he works in shipping.”
“I wonder if he knows two people are already dead over this,” Galen said.
Joy shrugged again.
“We’ll meet again in a few minutes.” Kai gave Joy a quick hug.
Joy looked at Galen and Johan and asked, “Where should I sit?”
“I’m driving,” Galen said. “You sit in the front with me. We’ll leave Johan with your new friend in the back.”
She nodded. “I wouldn’t be at all upset if he got beaten up a little bit on the way,” she said, with half a smirk. She hopped into the front seat and twisted around to see the guy staring at her. The men had secured their prisoner’s wrists, so he couldn’t do too much. “He really should tell me what’s going on,” she said, “unless he had something to do with Barlow’s death. In that case, well, he can just go to jail and rot for all I care,” she said, turning around but keeping an eye on him.
There was something unnerving about having a guy like that behind her. His hands might be tied, and Johan might be beside him, but, damn, it didn’t feel comfortable to her.
The guy never said a word.
Galen drove them straight to the police station. When they got out and walked inside, a detective came out, took one look, then nodded and said, “Interesting.”
Two other officers came and took away the prisoner.
The detective motioned for them to enter the nearby room. He sat down and asked them a dozen questions each, and, when they were finally done, they signed their statements and left.
Chapter 16
As she walked out of the police station, Joy asked, “Anything new on finding Barlow’s murderer?”
Johan shook his head. “Not really. Still relatively early in the investigation.”
She nodded. “After what our mall bully said, this guy’s definitely involved.”
“Well, he might be involved in whatever’s going on that got Barlow killed,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean he killed him.”
She nodded, and, back in the vehicle, she asked, “Whatever happened this morning? Did you guys go and visit those guys who were being blackmailed?”
“Well, that was the plan, but they weren’t home,” he said. “If you’re up for it, we can go now.”