The Negotiator: A Games People Play Christmas Novella Read online

  That was more like the Matthias he knew. But Garrett didn’t buy it. Matthias wasn’t the type to meddle. The uncomfortable talk was his way of saying he cared. That mattered to Garrett and he was close enough to Matthias to accept the advice without mentioning the emotion behind it.

  He dropped the container back on the shelf and closed the door. “But, Garrett? Don’t fuck this up. You likely don’t see it yet, but you guys make sense together.”

  That sounded like decent advice, so Garrett decided to take it. “Okay.”

  “And if you mess it up, Kayla will make me kill you.”

  Lauren and Kayla walked around the office area in the bedroom. Stacks of unfiled paperwork teetered on the edge of her desk. This was her personal information, which she hadn’t looked at or thought about but was pretty sure she was supposed to save. At work, everything was catalogued with bookkeeper perfection. Here she let things slide.

  “You okay?” Kayla asked from the opposite side of the desk chair.

  “I love that you keep asking that and expecting a different answer each time.”

  Kayla shrugged. “I guess I’m an optimist.”

  “What?” Lauren laughed. “You are not.”

  Kayla was incredible and loving, and she had a horrible past that made it hard for her to be anything other than practical and a bit wary. Things had changed a bit now that she was dating Matthias, but people didn’t morph into something new. That was one thing Lauren was pretty clear about. Their general makeup, what mattered to them, stayed static.

  “True, but back to Garrett . . .” Kayla cleared off an edge of the desk and sat there, swinging her leg back and forth.

  Dodge. That advice kept running through Lauren’s head. She didn’t know what she was doing with Garrett, so there was no way she could explain it.

  “He’s great.” That sounded so ridiculous she immediately tried again. “I’m trying not to overanalyze.”

  Kayla’s smile was a bit too happy. “What I’ve learned about Matthias and Garrett and their friends is that you don’t need to overanalyze because they’ll do it for you.”

  Lauren had no idea what that meant. “What?”

  “If you don’t think you’re the main topic of conversation between them each day, you’re wrong.”

  Lauren was pretty sure she swallowed her tongue. “What?”

  Footsteps sounded in the hall, then Matthias and Garrett appeared in the doorway. One after the other, they stepped inside the room. With four adults, the furniture and all the files, it was claustrophobic.

  “How are we doing up here?” Garrett asked as he moved to stand beside her.

  “We have documents and . . .” Kayla grabbed a stack off the bookshelf. “And more documents. Then we have files and what look like old bank documents. Don’t you get that stuff online like everyone else?”

  “Wait.” Lauren reached across the desk and Garrett’s chest and grabbed the file. She held it tight to her as memories of the last thirty months ran through her head.

  Garrett frowned at her. “You okay?”

  A light clicked on inside her. She’d never experienced an aha moment before but now she knew the sensation. It spun through her.

  She turned to Garrett and held the file out to him. “The documents. The bank statements. I’ve kept them.”

  Matthias looked around the desk. “It looks like you keep everything.”

  “No, you don’t understand.” She opened the file and passed it around for them to see. Showed them the top statement. “I realized the money mess Carl dragged us into when the creditors started calling. The police knew about the money issues and asked what felt like a million questions on the topic. But the bank statements, the fraud . . . I didn’t share that with the police.”

  Kayla frowned. “What?”

  “It’s why I went to the divorce attorney right before Carl bolted. I asked questions and Carl wouldn’t answer them, but I knew the statements didn’t make any sense compared to how little money we had left over after expenses and Carl’s credit cards.” Lauren exhaled. “That lie was the one that broke me.”

  Kayla’s head shot up. “But why hide this information from the police?”

  “Because she didn’t want to paint an even bigger target on her chest. She was already a suspect. Her husband cheats on her, runs up debts and lies to her then disappears.” Garrett put a hand on her lower back. “More evidence might have had the police looking in the wrong direction.”

  The tension buzzing in Lauren’s head vanished as Garrett talked. He understood. He wasn’t blaming her or judging. The expression on his face could only be described as pride. “And I needed Carl declared dead. I couldn’t afford—literally—a protracted investigation or more lawyers.”

  “All those months of insisting he was dead.” Kayla said the words slowly, as if the importance of them hit her as she spoke.

  Lauren rushed to explain. “It was the only way to survive.” She looked around the room, willing them all to understand. “Once I knew Carl scammed me I really didn’t care where he was, but I was terrified of being blamed and not being able to defend myself.”

  Matthias nodded. “Smart.”

  “Very,” Garrett said right after. “So we’re dealing with someone who knows—”

  “Bob.” All the pieces slipped together then. She didn’t know why she hadn’t figured it out the second she saw Carl’s body. She pointed to the business’s name listed as a duplicate address for receiving the statements. “That’s Bob’s old company. It’s changed its name, but it’s him. He’s a financial expert. How did he not know these weren’t real? It was his job to manage our finances, to check.”

  Garrett searched through the file. “You said he was the first one to come looking for a loan repayment when Carl disappeared.”

  “And he knew about the scam.” Kayla sighed. “According to Maryanne.”

  “He might want to get his hands on these before you turn them over . . .” Garrett’s voice trailed off then he lifted his head. “You are going to give these to the police this time, right?”

  So few days had passed since they’d found the body. Detective Cryer had called and insisted they talk again. She needed to do it, but she’d barely had time to think. It was as if an endless parade of people filed in and out of her days. Police questions. Alarms. Garrett.

  But she had to concentrate now. She needed her life back and the only way to take control was to grab it. “The police can have them. I actually didn’t think about them until this second. I almost burned them last year.”

  Garrett looked at Matthias over the top of the file. “While we’re burning things, I think we should ask to talk with Bob again.”

  “You can’t kill him.” Lauren tried to phrase it as a joke, but when no one laughed she was pretty sure she’d failed.

  Garrett scoffed. “I’m not promising.”

  Chapter Ten

  Garrett really wanted to kill this guy. The only thing stopping him was Lauren. She made him promise this morning not to lose it. Then Wren made him promise to follow the rules and wait for the detective to arrive. It struck Garrett that a lot of people were worried about his control.

  Matthias stood at the door to Lauren’s office on the pier with some of his guys stationed outside, just in case. Garrett didn’t see Matthias stepping in unless he lost all control, and Garrett had no intention of doing that.

  Bob sat at the small table, flipping one of Lauren’s pamphlets over in his hand, tapping one end then the other against the scarred wood in front of him. “What am I doing here?”

  It was a fair question. Garrett had thought about bringing the police in and letting them handle it. That would have been the easier call, the smart one. But he wanted the satisfaction of seeing Bob’s face when he got caught. “Admitting your guilt would be nice.”

  Bob’s hand froze in midair. “What are you talking about?”

  Garrett glanced at Matthias. He hadn’t moved from his position at the door
. Hadn’t shown one ounce of emotion since they reviewed the evidence less than an hour ago and filled Lauren in.

  “We set up video at Lauren’s house.” Garrett kept his fingers on the laptop keyboard facing him. “You’re on it.”

  “I don’t know—”

  “Shut the fuck up and listen.” Matthias stepped forward as he spoke. He stopped next to Bob, standing there. Looming over him and not doing anything to hide his frustration. It even vibrated on his voice.

  “We know you were in on Carl’s disappearance. You faked the financial documents to scam Lauren. You helped him fake his disappearance,” Garrett said. When Bob leaned forward and his mouth dropped open, Garrett kept going. “No, I’m still talking.”

  Matthias leaned in even closer to Bob. “I’d listen to him.”

  “And then last night you broke into Lauren’s house. Unfortunately for you, we were ready for you.” Wren had cleaned up the video and sent it to Garrett this morning. Bob sneaking over the neighbor’s fence and dropping into Lauren’s yard. He went right to the cracked window as if he’s been checking the place out since the murder.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Matthias let out a long angry exhale as he looked at Garrett. “It’s like he wants you to punch him.”

  “It does feel that way.” Garrett spun the laptop around on the table for Bob to see the image frozen on it. “That’s you, dumbass.”

  Bob was already shaking his head and shifting around in his chair. “You don’t understand.”

  This should be good. “Explain it.”

  Funny how fast the tough-guy façade crumbled. Garrett had seen it a million times, across many cases, and it still fascinated him. Denial would turn to “how dare you” and defensive words, then panic set in. They babbled then.

  Bob spread his hands on the table. He stared at them. Looked at the wall. Even glanced out the window. It took him what felt like forever to start talking again. “This was all Carl. He used me to trick Lauren.”

  So he was playing the role of victim. Interesting but not effective because Garrett did not buy it.

  He leaned back in his chair and studied Bob. Maybe greed made the guy stupid. Garrett didn’t know and didn’t care so long as Lauren was safe. “Come up with a better story.”

  Matthias made a show of glancing at his watch. “And I’d do it fast because Detective Cryer is on his way to arrest you.”

  A screeching sound rang out in the room as Bob jumped up from his seat. The chair fell backward and he was on his feet. The darting eyes and crouched-to-run position made it clear he planned to play this the hard way.

  The dumbass.

  “Sit,” Matthias ordered.

  Garrett was not in the mood for extra drama. He pointed at the fallen chair. “Really, sit.”

  He wanted to fill Lauren in on events and then take her to dinner. After that they could spend the night, or a week or even more, in bed. He’d even celebrate the holiday if it meant being with her.

  “You don’t want to—” But it was too late. In the middle of Garrett’s sentence Bob bolted. He made a run at the door and slammed into Matthias’s chest instead. He hit Matthias hard enough that Garrett could hear a thud. “Did you really think that was going to work?”

  Matthias grabbed Bob’s suit jacket with one hand and picked up the chair with the other. He dropped the man into the seat without raising his voice. “I hope you’re better with money than running, though the evidence you left behind suggests otherwise.”

  Garrett was done. He’d had enough nonsense and lying. It was time the men who committed the initial scam take responsibility. They’d flipped Lauren’s life upside down. Now they could right it. Carl wasn’t there, so the least they could do was wrap his investigation up, too.

  For the first few minutes Bob stayed slumped in the chair. He stared at his hands and fiddled with his watch. Garrett was about to shove the table into his midsection when Bob finally spoke up. “I went to the house to get the documents.”

  The bank documents. It all came down to that initial scam. Garrett would bet Bob had carried out others since. He was trying to bury his tracks. But he’d gone too far and somewhere along the line fraud turned to murder. “This time. The last time you went and ran into Carl, and we know how that ended. Not great for Carl.”

  “No, you’re wrong.” Gone was the fidgeting and lack of eye contact. Bob faced Garrett head-on as he talked. “The money stuff, yes. Carl did it and didn’t give me much of a choice but to help, but it stopped there.”

  “So you’re only a certain type of criminal,” Matthias said.

  “I didn’t kill Carl.” Bob turned around in his chair. He looked from Matthias to Garrett. He pleaded with his voice and with his eyes. “I helped him before, that’s true. Carl had these stories about Lauren and how terrible . . . But that’s it.”

  Bob had convinced himself back then that Lauren deserved to get screwed. He didn’t admit it, but Garrett could hear the excuses now. “You’re trying to say you broke into Lauren’s house once but not twice.”

  “I was looking for the bank statements. So long as Carl was supposedly dead there was no reason for Lauren to study them closely. She made it clear she needed the financial issues to be over. But with Carl being back, well, I thought Lauren might turn them in to the police this time and I couldn’t let that happen.” Bob made a strangled sound. “She’s not under a microscope. Not like the last time, though I don’t know why since the body was found in her house.”

  The guy had started spiraling and Garrett had heard enough. The detective could ferret it all out. “You aren’t very convincing at pretending to be innocent.”

  The door bumped into Matthias’s shoulder as it opened. A very pretty female face peeked inside. Garrett recognized her. The much younger, thoroughly involved Maryanne. Lauren might buy her story but Garrett couldn’t separate out her part in the fraud from everything else.

  She frowned as she looked around the room. “I’m sorry . . .”

  Her entrance had Bob blinking and snapping out of his haze. “Maryanne?”

  When she saw him, her eyes widened and her grip on the edge of the door tightened into a white-knuckle grip. “I’ll come back.”

  “Stop.” Matthias blocked her way, pushing her inside the room without ever touching her. That height did have its benefits.

  Garrett tried to play good cop to Matthias’s pushy cop. “What do you need?”

  “Lauren.” Maryanne’s gaze flicked to Bob but did not linger.

  “You told them.” Anger shook Bob’s voice.

  Her knees seemed to give out as she reached for the closed door. “You know it was me?”

  Matthias caught her before she hit the floor or anything else. “He does. We do.”

  Her vision seemed to come into focus as she looked at Garrett. “I remember you from that night. You were on the lawn with all the other police.”

  “We’re investigating what happened to Carl.” Garrett decided that wasn’t exactly a lie.

  “I left something out the other day.” She inhaled. “Lauren was decent and I . . . I wanted her to know all of it.”

  Garrett had no idea what that meant. “Okay.”

  “Jake also knew. He was in on Carl’s scam from the beginning.” The words rushed out of her so fast that they slurred together.

  It took an extra second for Garrett to separate them and understand what she was saying. “He helped his brother disappear and trick Lauren?”

  “Carl thought it was funny,” Bob said.

  Maryanne nodded. “Carl knew Jake had a thing for Lauren. He used that to get him to play along. With Carl gone, Jake thought he had a chance with her.”

  “That’s creepy as hell.” Matthias shook his head. “I mean, come on.”

  Garrett had bigger worries. Matthias’s people had been tracking all of the interested parties and there was one currently unaccounted for. “Where is Jake now?”

  No one
answered him.

  Lauren didn’t want any part of confronting Bob. He’d messed up so much of her life with his lies and deceit that it exhausted her to think about it. He set her up and then screwed her a second time by calling in those loans. It was a miracle he hadn’t ruined her business for good.

  That’s why she was there, in the boat shed. With the paddles and boats hanging on the wall and the boat slip with the lapping water by her feet, it was one of her favorite places. She came here to think and to work. Waves caused water to splash against the slip and sometimes spill up and over the retaining wall until the enclosed space smelled like dead fish. For other people that might be a problem, not her.

  She’s thought she’d stored the artificial Christmas tree in there among all the other boxes and supplies. If so, she couldn’t find it.

  Giving up on the search, she opened one of the double doors and stepped into the cool December wind. The snow had passed north of them and socked in New York. They’d been lucky. At this time of year, they usually woke to a frozen ground and threats of snow and school closures. Instead, they had gray cloudy skies and a chill, but it was bearable.

  She took one step and stopped suddenly. Her stomach sloshed around from the abruptness of it. Seeing Jake standing there, uncharacteristically disheveled and shaking his head, threw her off. She hadn’t expected him and he hated boats, so he rarely ventured out past the marina to this more secluded, nontouristy spot.

  “What are you doing here?” When he stood there with wild eyes and stiff shoulders, not talking, she tried again. “Jake?”

  “Some business guy from DC?”

  The words sounded clear but they didn’t make any sense. She knew he was grieving, but this was so out of the ordinary that she started to worry he had some sort of health issue.

  She reached out and put her hand on his forearm. “What are you talking about?”

  He glanced down at her fingers. “I’ve given you time. Room. Then I heard about this other guy, but I convinced myself he was a client.”

  She dropped her hand as her heart began to race. “You’re talking about Garrett?”