“Sure, I’d love to see it.”
“You don’t like this sort of stuff, Grant.”
“Lacey, I love it.”
She looked at me for a second, when I said the word love, and it made my heart pound in my chest. She turned and pushed through the heavy brass doors of the jewelry store. Inside, the place was really beautiful. I noticed four security cameras, a few detectors, probably for motion, possibly for temperature, humidity and other things.
“Stop it,” Lacey said, scolding me.
“What?”
“You’re casing the place out for a job.”
“No I’m not.”
“Just stop, okay. Promise me you’ll never do a job here. This is a nice place.”
I smiled. “All right,” I said, “but promise me you won’t ever pay for your own engagement ring.”
“He wouldn’t make me do that,” she said, sadly.
“He won’t if you don’t let him,” I said.
Lacey went up to a clerk and asked her to show me the ring she’d selected.
“Is this the lucky guy?” the clerk said, eyeing me up like a piece of meat at the butcher shop.
“Oh, no, this is Grant. He’s my …”
I finished her sentence for her. “Brother,” I said.
Chapter 33
Grant
AN HOUR LATER I WAS back in the surveillance van. I watched as two security guards clocked out and left the loan company. I wrote down the time in my notebook. I had everything I needed. All that was left was to actually do the job. I was trying to decide what night would be best to do it, but I kept getting distracted. I couldn’t get Rob Crawford out of my mind. What kind of a guy sent his fiancée out by herself to choose her own engagement ring? It just didn’t sit right. I’d overheard the proposal too. None of it sat right. Something more was going on with Rob, and I needed to find out what it was.
I knew where Rob’s plastic surgery clinic was and I headed out that way. It was a long drive and I listened to some old classic rock tunes on the way. When I got to the clinic I parked outside the gates and directed my surveillance equipment toward his building. It was no good, the building was built too well. I couldn’t make out anything but the digital clicking of cell phones, computers and the security system.
I’d have to try at his house. It wouldn’t take too much to find out where he lived. I had his name. I was about to start a search when a sporty Mercedes approached the security gate and drove through. I recognized the car as Rob’s and started tailing him. I was careful to keep a good distance between him and the van, but he was easy to follow. He didn’t know I was there so he wasn’t trying to lose me.
I followed him all the way back downtown, toward the area I’d been earlier in the day, and I figured he was going to meet up with Lacey. Probably so that she could show him the ring she’d picked out. I let him get some space, figuring I knew where he was going, but as I watched, I saw that he turned left instead of making the right I’d expected.
When he pulled up outside the loan company, I was really confused. What the hell was he doing there? Had he been following me too?
He parked and walked across the street, dressed to kill. I hopped into the back of the van and fired up the surveillance equipment. I put on the headphones and started twisting knobs and dials.
“I just need another five grand to hold me over.”
It was Rob’s voice. He was trying to borrow money.
“I’m not giving your broke ass another penny, you piece of shit.”
That was the loan-clerk’s voice. I knew it well. I’d spent hours listening to it.
“Come on.”
“You’re so far into a hole, I just can’t throw any more money at you, Rob.”
“You know I’m good for it.”
“Yeah, if I repossess your business or something. You know how many lawyers that would take? I ain’t giving you another penny.”
“I’ve got a big job running,” Rob said. “This broad, she’s rich as heck, thinks I’m in love with her. I’m going to get serious money out of her.”
“Sure you are,” the clerk said. “If she’s so rich, why the hell would she want to get hitched to a dirtbag like you?”
“Hey,” Rob said, getting angry. “Don’t you talk to me like that, you piece of shit. I’m one of the most respected doctors in the city. You’re a dirty loan shark.”
“All I’m saying is that I ain’t giving you any more money until you clear some of the debt you already have on the book, Rob. You know how it works. If you don’t give ten grand to my guys by the end of the month, they’re going to start roughing you up for it.”
“Yeah, I know how it works, you piece of shit. You’ve been waiting to get the collectors on me since you met me.”