“I’m sorry,” Nick offered. He gave JD’s shoulder a squeeze, then released him. “Let’s go inside. See if anything rings that bell again.”
JD nodded and headed woodenly toward the store.
Kelly stepped in front of Nick, glaring at him briefly. “You either believe him or you don’t,” he whispered. “If you do, you can’t pull shit like this. He’s already been through enough trauma, and he trusts you. Only you. You got to live up to that, babe.”
Nick nodded, his jaw jumping. “If he has to hate me to keep him safe, I can live with that.”
Kelly was left standing there, mul ing that over as Nick sidestepped him and followed the others into the store. That was Nick’s major vice, though, wasn’t it? He’d rather have someone hate him than get hurt.
Two of Nick’s four sisters resented him and his distant relationship with his parents because they had no idea he’d been the only thing standing between them and a childhood of being knocked around by their father. And to Kelly’s everlasting annoyance, Nick refused to set them straight. He would rather they hate him and continue in their safe little bubble than learn the truth.
It took Kelly a while to get his temper in check before he could join the others in the shop. They were gathered around the display cabinet, scrutinizing it as if it might somehow provide them with doughnuts.
“I’m telling you, if this is authentic, it has a panel,” JD was saying.
“What’s going on?” Kelly asked. Glass crunched beneath his feet as he approached them.
“I was right about this cabinet,” Julian answered. “It’s Colonial era.”
“Pieces from this era, of this style, often had hidden drawers or panels, places where papers could be hidden from the authorities,” JD told them.
“Why?” Kelly asked.
“The Stamp Act, maybe? Every piece of paper the colonists touched had to be affixed with a stamp. It was very costly.”
Nick snorted derisively. “They didn’t hide their papers because of the Stamp Act. They hid them because they were planning a rebellion. The Stamp Act was one of the Intolerable Acts; it was a series of bullshit handed down from the crown, created a rift that made the atmosphere one of secrecy and paranoia. That professor was right, you are a hack.”
“Shut up!” JD griped. “You watch too much History Channel.”
“I’m sorry, the Stamp Act? What the f**k are we talking about?” Kelly demanded.
Hagan gave the bottom of the case a nudge with his boot.
“The hack believes something could be hidden in the display case.”
“We just need to . . . find it,” JD said, and he reached his fingers out to touch.
Nick grabbed his wrist, making a hissing sound. “Active crime scene,” he grunted, and he extracted a pair of latex gloves from his pocket.
“Sorry,” JD said as he tugged them on. He ran his fingers gingerly over the wood. “It’s in remarkably good condition.
I’m not seeing any obvious spots.”
Julian sighed heavily and shoved his hip against the case, rattling it down to its legs.
“Watch it!” JD shouted, and Nick and Hagan both jerked like they were going for their guns.
The decorative panel on the far right of the case rattled loose and fell. Julian caught it deftly, as if he’d just pulled it from thin air. He was smirking when he glanced up at them.
“I sell antiques,” he quipped.
JD and Nick both glared at him, but Kelly moved forward and peered into the hidden compartment.
“What’s in there?” Nick demanded.
Kelly raised one eyebrow. “Guess.”
“What are they doing in there?” Hagan asked. “How’d they get there? Unless the owner knew he was going to be robbed, what the f**k?”
“I put them there,” JD said, realization dawning. He nodded excitedly and placed his hand on the case, where the outline remained in the dust. He swept across it as if grabbing up the two items, and his motion followed the dust trail perfectly. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.
I was subverting them. That’s why I ran. Has to be.” He glanced around at them all, the hope renewed in his eyes and his half smile.
“It gels,” Hagan said to Nick. “He comes in under duress, they tell him to find this shit, but he’s able to hide it and claim it’s not here. Other guy starts tearing shit up, JD bolts like any sane man would, dead guy comes running out of the place shooting at JD. Then the killing starts.”
Nick was nodding, his eyes unfocused. Then an idea must have hit him; the color drained from his face. “That’s why they came after you again, at the pub,” he said to JD. “They didn’t know you hid this stuff because you went down in the street and they had to get out before they could check either body. They thought you still had it.”
“Why kill him, though?” Kelly asked. “Why not try to grab him and get the items back?”
“So I don’t get there first,” JD said, his eyes on Nick. Nick nodded grimly, eyes darting between JD and Kelly.
“We have to get there first,” Julian said.
Kelly straightened, shaking his shoulders out and clapping his hands together to rattle everyone from the suddenly heavy silence. “Well, let’s get on it! We’ve got until our meeting tonight to look over these letters and figure this shit out, so let’s work it out, bitches.”
Nick chuckled, but held his finger up before Kelly could reach for the papers inside the case. “Crime scene.”
Kelly’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. Nick got out his phone to call the techs in. “Use your badge to have sex in a parked car but won’t let me National Treasure a piece of evidence,” Kelly muttered as he walked away.
“Parked car?” Julian asked as he followed Kelly out.
“He’s more fun when he’s off duty.”
Chapter 7
Elly’s plan to spend the rest of the day going over Kthe bundle of letters they’d found in the display case backfired spectacularly, because Nick apparently had shit to do that didn’t involve trying to decipher Colonial-era penmanship and he refused to help.
He also refused to let Kelly do it, so Kelly was left with nothing to do but watch Nick fill out paperwork. He was so bored he could have cried.
Nick assigned the letters to Julian and Hagan instead, along with the contemporary diary that had been recovered at the scene. Nick and Kelly were sitting at Nick’s desk as Nick finished the report on their visit to the crime scene, and Kelly was still glaring at his lover.