Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,70

think he did it more for revenge and because he knew he could get away with it.”

“A power play,” Galen said. “He could smile at you and know what he was doing, confident he had your votes and your money, and you would know what he was thinking, but you couldn’t do anything about it.”

She nodded. “I only met him once, but he seemed slimy.”

“Good assessment,” said the second man and then smiled.

She asked them, “Do you have any idea why he doesn’t have any relationships himself? I wondered if he was gay too.”

Both men looked at her, surprised.

She shrugged. “It doesn’t really pertain to anything. I was just wondering.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think he was gay though. He was quite homophobic.”

She frowned and nodded. “It just seems strange that somebody who put so much stock in blackmailing other people’s sex lives didn’t have a very good one himself.”

The first man looked at her with a frown and said, “Well, he had what seemed like a permanent relationship a long time ago,” he said. “I don’t know why that broke up.”

“Yes, you do,” the second man said, laughing. “She got pregnant, remember? And he wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”

The two men looked at each other and started talking more. “That’s right. I forgot about that. Who the hell was that anyway? It was a weird name.”

“Yeah, like a city or something.”

She turned and looked at him. “Philly?”

Both men turned at her in surprise. “Yes. That’s exactly who it was.”

She stood ever-so-slowly and walked to the front door, as if her mind had completely locked on to something.

Johan called out, “Joy, what’s the matter?”

“She never once mentioned a child,” she said, turning. “Are you guys aware that Phyllis, who works in the basement with me, is Philly?”

Mike frowned. “Seriously? She was like a partner or something back then. There was this big foofaraw about it, and then she was gone.”

“She was gone for five years, but she’s back now. And has been for like nineteen years.”

“Why would she do that?” the first man asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said, “but maybe that’s something we need to figure out. Although in truth could simply be the games she played with Barlow. Or she was part of the blackmailing. She had access to the computer system and was quite talented. Maybe she was keeping track of everyone. Nothing makes sense in their relationship.”

“Do you know anything else about her pregnancy?” Johan asked them.

“No. I don’t even know if she had the child,” he said. “You know what rumors are like. Somebody starts them, and everybody hangs on to them. We are the byproduct of the same problem. We spent a lot of time and effort trying to keep under the radar so people don’t talk about us.”

She nodded. “If you think of anything else, will you give us a call?” She pulled out a piece of paper, wrote down Johan’s number and her own, and placed it on the table. “It could be important.”

“But it’s not likely we’ll come up with anything.”

“No,” Johan said, as he walked over to Joy, putting an arm around her shoulder, tucking her up close. “The thing is, one man’s dead already, and she’s been threatened, so we’re doing our best to keep her alive and to solve this before something happens to her.”

Understanding lit their faces. “Right.”

Galen suggested something that made everybody freeze. “You also might want to consider that, now that one blackmailer is gone, you might hear from a second one.”

The men stared at him in shock. “What do you mean?”

“Barlow had stacks of money for some reason,” he said. “We just don’t know why. Maybe he didn’t care and didn’t need it, but what if somebody else knew what he was doing? And what if they also had copies of the photos? For all you know, somebody else is likely to call you.”

Just then one of the men’s phones buzzed. He looked down at it, picked it up, and swiped his finger across the top to unlock it, then frowned at the email. “I really wish you hadn’t just said that.” He held up his phone. “I just got an email saying the payments will continue.” He shook his head. “This shouldn’t be happening,” he cried out. “It should be over with.”

Johan was at his side in seconds. “May I see it?” Sure enough, there was a nondescript email.

The payments will continue. Same time, same place. Just because one’s dead