Stone Cold

Chapter 5

My heart leapt to my throat when my cell started chirping early the next morning. I flipped it open, not bothering to look at the ID. "Hello?" I croaked, my eyes still glued shut.

"Melissa." As soon as she said my name I knew exactly who it was and why she was calling. "Did you forget about our meeting?"

"Shit, Bethany, I am so sorry. I got caught up with a case last night, and the police had to get involved. I didn't get home until one o'clock this morning."

I knew she was upset, but the moment I said "police" her demeanor completely changed. "Oh my god, are you okay? Listen, just get back to me this afternoon and we'll set another appointment, alright?"

"Thank you. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

I heard my phone clatter to the floor as I missed my nightstand, and I heaved out a relaxing sigh. From behind my eyelids I could tell that the sun was up and shining through my window.

My phone started going off again and I groaned. I reached as far down as I could without moving, hoping my searching fingers would hit plastic, but came up empty. Eyes still closed I wiggled my hips to inch myself forward, but it wasn't until my entire upper body was hanging off the bed that I felt the phone vibrate under my hand. I flipped onto my back on the floor with a painful oof! as I answered. The sheets tangled around my feet still on the mattress and my arms and legs broke out in goosebumps. I missed my warm blanket. I knew I shouldn't have gone to bed in just underwear.

"Hello?"

"Ms. Kennedy. Did I wake you, girl?"

I cleared my throat. "No, Mr. Lummick, it's okay. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to see what you found out yesterday."

"I thought I sent you an email."

"Yeah, you did, but I don't have access to a computer."

Don't you have a smartphone? "Alright, well, it just said that I got a chance to talk to your brother a little bit, and it didn't really sound like he was trying to take over the company. Something is definitely up, though, so I'm going to pay him another visit tomorrow. I was planning on stopping by your site later today to talk to your guys as well."

"Why?"

I hesitated, put off by his abruptness. "To...to see if anyone else is using your account."

"But I told you, he and I are the only ones with access to it."

"I understand, but in order to be thorough, I can't leave anyone out."

There was a pause on the other end. "Alright," he huffed, followed by a dial tone.

"Goodbye to you, too," I grumbled, letting my arm flop to the floor. I stretched it out, easing the crick in my elbow that had developed when I was talking. It seemed as though he was dead set on his brother being the bad guy in all of this. I rolled that thought around in my head. Was Bill trying to frame his brother? It was a definite possibility. Considering his attitude, I sure as hell wasn't going to rule it out. I seemed to have lucked out with my cases, though. Both involved the same people, and I could use the same disguise to get information for both at one time. I highly doubted this would ever happen again.

"Anne," I croaked. "You should make me coffee."

When she didn't answer I opened my eyes and craned my neck to peer out into the living room through my open door. "Anne!" I whined. "Coffeeeeeeeeee!" I checked the time on my cell. 7:30. What time was she going to work today? Fuck. Her schedule was as awry as mine. Daniel didn't want me over until the afternoon, which meant I had an entire morning to kill. If I slept in any longer I wouldn't be able to do any of the research I wanted to do, and curiosity was gnawing at the back of my head anyway.