Joker in the Pack (Romantic Suspense, Completed, Watty Winner)

Chapter 28

"Who's that?" I hissed as we pulled up outside Lilac Cottage.

A blond-haired man stood in the front garden, eyeing up my windows. I say blond—his close-cropped hair was so light it was almost white.

"It's okay," Nye muttered, forgetting to open my door as he got out to greet our mysterious visitor. From the way the guards were sitting in their car, relaxed but alert, I assumed he wasn't my burglar. Could this be the locksmith?

"Aren't you going to introduce me to the lovely lady?" he asked when I got near.

Nye didn't look as if he wanted to, but his manners came to the fore. "Liv, this is Spike. Spike, meet Olivia."

Spike took my hand and kissed it, and Nye glared at him with murder in his eyes.

But Spike only laughed. "Easy, mate. Treading on your toes, am I?"

"No." Nye sounded like a sulky toddler.

"Whatever you say, buddy."

"Can we just talk about the house? Where are the weak spots?"

"Where aren't they?"

"If you were going in, how would you do it?"

"With the Blackwood car out front, it would have to be around the back. That door's practically cardboard. I'll fit a deadbolt, but it could do with being replaced."

"Then replace it. What else?"

"The old tree next to the house is an invitation to any burglar. You might as well hang out a red carpet. It'd take me thirty seconds to climb into the bedroom at the back."

And I'd thought it had so much character. "Really?"

"Yeah. Except I didn't need to today because it only took me fifteen to get in through the kitchen. The place is a nightmare—full of hiding places. What's with all the junk? A thief wouldn't know where to start in that lot. Reckon that's your only saving grace."

"Which is our first problem," Nye said. "My theory is that our culprit's looking for something Olivia's aunt hid before she died."

"Good luck with that. What is it?"

"That's the second problem—we've got no idea. Her husband and son were both known thieves, so possibly cash or an item one of them stole."

"Where are they? Can't you persuade them to tell you?"

The way Spike said that sent shivers down my spine. I looked at Nye, but he wouldn't meet my eyes.

"They're both dead."

"Natural causes?"

"One yes, the other in prison, so not likely."

"Prison? Have you tried finding his cellmate? Mine used to tell me all sorts of shit. Your man might've been the type to talk."

Cellmate? Spike had been in prison? I took a step backwards and eyed up the screwdriver in his hand.

Nye seemed disturbingly unbothered by Spike's revelation.

"Good point. I'll look into it. Any other ideas?"

"Nope, but you'll be the first to hear if I get a brainwave. You really lucked out with this case, didn't you?"

Nye looked at me. "Yeah, I did." There was no hint of sarcasm.

I didn't understand him. Why look at me like that? Why say those words when he'd turned me down?

"So what's your plan?" Spike asked him, waving a hand at my windows and turning the conversation back to Lilac Cottage.

"What do you recommend?"