Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,53

the guy.”

“Why? What’s he up to?”

“It appears he’s trying to meddle in a US senatorial election.”

Judd gave a low whistle. “That porn thing? It was on the news last night.”

“He works for one of the other candidates, and she’s bad news.”

“I’ll get what I can, but I have to take Nada out to buy baby stuff first. Turns out those things need a lot of kit.”

Although Alaric was annoyed that Judd was collecting women again, he couldn’t deny that he’d have helped both Hevrin and Gemma in the same way if he’d been in London. He just had to hope that Judd didn’t screw either of them, either physically or metaphorically.

“How’s Hevrin holding up?”

“Hard to say. She’s the quietest girl I’ve ever met. Gem’s pretty freaked out by the whole dismembered women thing, though. She was crying again last night. But don’t worry—a little of the old Judd magic soon changed that.”

“Tell me you didn’t…”

“Relax, I just made hot chocolate and watched a chick flick with her. Hmm… I think that might actually be the longest I’ve kept my clothes on around a woman. Which reminds me, how’s our lovely new assistant?”

“Off limits,” Alaric said through gritted teeth.

Judd guffawed. “To me or to you?”

“To both of us.”

“You should consider changing your policy. If you got laid, maybe you wouldn’t be so uptight all the time.”

“Do some work, Judd.”

Alaric hung up and let out an audible groan. Judd was good at his job—when he did it—but his personal life was a different story. He’d left a string of broken hearts from Tahiti to Timbuktu, and if he caused any more problems, Sirius’s next hire would be a three-hundred-pound heavily tattooed babysitter named Butch.

“What’s up?” Beth asked, walking in from the yard. “We’re done with the animals, and Harriet said she’d look after Barkley while we’re out asking questions.”

Alaric rose halfway to pick a piece of straw out of Beth’s hair. She smelled like the barn, but he didn’t care. Horses were a part of her.

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

“You realise when you say that, I only worry more?”

“Judd’s just running Curzon Place like a halfway house. Hevrin’s staying there as well.”

“Oh, that’s nice. She can keep Gemma company. How’s her arm?”

The least of her problems if Mr. Millais-Scott got his teeth into her, or worse, his dick. But Alaric really didn’t want to make Beth anxious.

“She’s feeling better by all accounts. Ready to hit the road?”

Dan had spoken to Piper’s grandma earlier. Barb Simms was the single mother of a single mother, and she still lived alone in the same trailer she’d shared with Piper after Piper’s mom upped and disappeared. Runs in the family, she’d said. Never found a trace of either of them.

“What about the letter?” Alaric had asked Dan. “She didn’t believe Piper sent it?”

“That was the only time Barb got angry. Said it was a low-down dirty hoax because Piper wanted to be a scientist, not a singer, and she only went to karaoke nights at the Tumbleweed Tavern because she wanted to fit in.”

“Fit in with who? Kyla’s crowd?”

“There were half a dozen girls she hung out with, and Kyla was one of them. Although it was a love-hate relationship, apparently. Piper didn’t like Kyla as a person, but she enjoyed perks that came with being her ‘friend.’ Cast-off designer togs, invites to the Devane family mansion, and latterly, boys.”

“What did Grandma Simms think of Kyla?”

“She barely knew her. Piper never invited her to the trailer—probably embarrassed to—and the Devanes didn’t exactly run in the same circles as Barb and her cronies,” Dan said. “One of her pals turned up just as I was leaving, and he reeked of weed. An entire rock band could get high by sniffing his sweater.”

“Did she give you anything useful?”

“Not much more than was in the file. Piper disappeared in broad daylight the Wednesday before homecoming. She felt ill in the morning and decided to stay home from school—just a cold, but she wanted to try and sleep it off before the dance. Barb went to work at the grocery store, and when she came back, Piper and her car had gone. At first, Barb thought maybe she’d gone to the pharmacy, but then it got dark, and she began to worry. The cops started canvassing the next morning.”

“And we already know the rest of the story.”

“Yes. Apart from her grandma, the last person to see her was a kid who watched her drive out of the school parking