Stranger Danger (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 4)

“Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could speak to Travis?”

“Sure.” Zeke turns to Travis. “I’m going home early this afternoon. You okay to handle things here at the station?”

“Not a problem, chief.”

Zeke takes a minute to rub the top of Paco’s head. “Hey, little guy. Seen any dead bodies lately?”

Travis shakes his head as if to say, Don’t encourage her.

“You’ll be the first person we call if he comes across one,” I say pleasantly.

“Say hi to Mimi for me,” I call to Zeke on his way out the door. Zeke’s wife, Mimi, is the town’s mayor. She gave birth to twins a couple of months ago. Two babies, a son in middle school, and a daughter in college. I have no idea how they do it.

“I can’t imagine being mayor and the chief of police and taking care of one baby, let alone two,” I say.

“They’re busy, all right.” Travis looks at his watch. “Speaking of busy, it’s not yet two. What are you doing here? Did you close early?”

“Not exactly. I just saw Victor Marino. Guess who’s going to help Victor publish a fictional version of his autobiography?”

Travis’s expression tightens. “J.W. Quicksilver.”

“I told you, he’s not J.W. Quicksilver. By the way, I hear you were on the phone with the FBI.”

“How do you know that?”

Rats. Me and my big mouth. I don’t want to get Cindy in trouble. For one thing, I really like her, and if she finds out I told Travis what I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, she might start clamming up on me. “I, um, overheard you and Zeke down the hallway,” I fudge.

He nods grudgingly, which tells me my wild stab was right on point.

“I was talking to Agent Billings,” says Travis. “You remember her, right? I just sent her the photo. She’s looking into it.”

“What does Zeke think?”

“He thinks it sounds shady.”

“Good. Because it is shady. I couldn’t get Victor to tell me how much money he’s already given to this con man, but you can get it back, right?”

“Let’s not jump to any conclusions. If this guy is running a scam, we have to be able to prove it. Then the victims have to file a complaint. And then there’s the question as to whether this guy is who says he is. There’s a lot of ifs here, Lucy.”

Not really. Which Travis will discover tonight. Just a few more hours to go …

“So, how is Agent Billings?”

“Okay, I guess.”

“Did you two catch up on the Vito Scarlotti case?”

“Not really. I was more interested in seeing what she could find out about this guy from last night.”

“But she has called to update you on the case, right?”

“Lucy, the FBI has more important things to do than call some small-town cop and fill him in on their cases.”

“So you haven’t spoken to her since she left Whispering Bay?”

“Nope.”

Oh boy. The hair on the back of my neck is doing a jig. Travis has just lied to me.