A Killer Cup of Joe Read online

  After finishing law school with high honors, she announced she wanted to go to the academy to follow in her father’s footsteps. Her dad beamed with pride, and her mother spent two days binge drinking, foolishly thinking her histrionics would somehow talk Ellie out of her plans. When it became apparent nothing was going to stand in her way, Janice eventually came around. At least, she appeared to. In reality, she took it upon herself to try to get a husband for her daughter in the hope that if Ellie got married, she would give up this idiotic plan to follow in her father’s footsteps. After three months of random men being invited to dinner anytime Ellie was home, she announced she would have nothing more to do with matchmaking. Janice chose to hear the edict as her daughter wanting to finish the academy first and patiently waited for the right time to begin again.

  Ellie had been to her first crime scene when she was fifteen. She’d learned to read a crime scene tech report right after she finished high school chemistry. It may not have been Elliot’s plan, but his daughter was quickly following in his footsteps and doing it in a way that people around her were taking notice. The time they’d spent together was obviously paying off, as she had a natural way of putting clues together and picking up on the subtle things that other people missed.

  When Ellie started at the academy, she attempted to do everything on her own and not allow the fame of her father’s career to help her. Her fears were completely unfounded, as her own abilities spoke for themselves. It was hard work, but it was fulfilling, and she never backed down, getting more than one of her instructors to recommend her for field agent status.

  By the time Ellie graduated, her dad was embroiled in a case he couldn’t talk about. But each time they met for dinner on the weekend, she could see the stress was taking a toll on him. Admittedly, he was getting older, but Ellie was convinced it was the case he was currently working on that was aging him. He promised her all would be well once it was over, and he hoped it would finish soon. She was a grunt in a field office when he called her to say he was going undercover briefly and would be out of contact. He hoped that in a couple of weeks, he would finally have this case wrapped up, and then they could get together and relax just like old times.

  It was impossible for her to remember that conversation without thinking about the odd way he’d ended the call. Just before hanging up, Elliot had said, “You’ll remember everything I taught you, right?”

  “Of course, Daddy,” she’d assured him, wondering why he was being so uncharacteristically pushy that night. After saying she loved him, they’d hung up, and that was the last conversation she’d had with her father.

  Three weeks later, the regional director called her into his office. She knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, but couldn’t help but think she was in trouble. It didn’t help that the office shrink was there, too. Technically, he was a profiler, but everybody knew that when one of the agents was getting stressed and at their breaking point, they were required to pay a few visits to the good doctor before they could resume their regular duties.

  Luckily, her director got right to the point. “Ellie, I’ve gotten word from your father’s supervisor. He was involved in an undercover sting operation, when things went to hell. He was killed in the line of duty, and as you are his recorded next of kin, I wanted to be the first one to offer my condolences. You will, of course, be given a leave of absence to grieve and deal with the passing of such a great man. Whenever you are ready to resume your duties, let me know, and I’ll come up with a gradual reentry plan.”

  Most likely, he meant well and thought what he was offering was in her best interest. But all Ellie could hear was “your dad is dead, and the FBI is trying to push you out because you aren’t him.” She decided this was one of those times when you had to act tougher than you felt, so she lifted her chin and replied, “I appreciate your condolences and will definitely need a week off to deal with the arrangements from his passing. But I will return to my job exactly as it is after my time off.” When her director tried to disagree, she held her hands up to stop him. “I loved my father, but he lost his life doing what he loved. This is the life I’ve been preparing for since I was little. To become the best agent possible would be honoring him in the most noble way I can.”

  Perhaps it was the earnest tone in her voice that swayed him to agree. Most likely, it was the unshed tears that were visible in her eyes. Her director hated the idea of a crying woman and probably would have agreed to just about anything to keep her from breaking down in his office. The shrink wasn’t looking at Ellie, but he knew her father and judged her words based on what he knew of her family. It was the exact thing Elliot would have done, so he approved on the principle alone.

  Janice proved herself capable of planning the perfect funeral to honor Elliot in the way Ellie thought would have pleased him. One might be able to say many negative things about Janice, but at the end of the day, she understood social dynamics and knew how to plan a party, no matter the occasion.

  Ellie’s first day back in the office was mainly desk duty. Not the most exciting way to clock in her hours, but she didn’t mind it as much as most of the guys seemed to. The next day, one of the cases they’d been working on caught a lucky break and gave her the first opportunity to be a part of a sting. She was pumped full of emotions and adrenaline, which didn’t seem to work well together.

  A loud knock at the door jolted her from her memories and kept her from reliving more of that night. Ellie realized it didn’t matter who was at the door; she was going to be glad to see them. She hated it when that memory bubbled up and was willing to deal with anyone, to tighten the door on that vault of history.

  She jerked the door open without checking the peephole, a risk her father definitely wouldn’t agree with, but at the moment, she wasn’t as afraid of her visitor as she was of where her mind had been about to go. Seeing Phillips standing there with two cups from Mocha Joe’s and an overnight envelope under his arm, she attempted to plaster a smile on her face that might convince him it was sincere.

  He smiled, but seemed to be assessing her anyway because his instincts told him something was off. “Your face is flushed,” he announced, as though that were an appropriate way to say hello.

  There was no way she was going to spill where her mind had been. “Is one of those for me, or are you resorting to drinking with both hands now?”

  Phillips handed her a cup—the larger of the two, she quickly noted. “Joe said this one was yours. He also told me tell you that it wasn’t the same thing he made for you the other night. Apparently, if you want another one of those, you’ll have to go in yourself.” That comment was accompanied with a slight eye roll. “Something about it only tasting right if you shared it with a good friend.”

  Ellie smiled at the memory, wondering if she could count Joe as a friend. She took the cup and turned it so that she could drink from the opening in the lid. Once she’d spun it around, she noticed that a note had been written on the front: Just because it isn’t one of my specials doesn’t mean you should have a cup of plain coffee. Let me know if this one works for you.

  “Dang,” Phillips said, interrupting her reflection on the message on her cup. “If I knew introducing you two was going to make you go all gooey on me, I wouldn’t have bothered.” His words implied irritation, but the grin on his face and tone of his voice was anything but. If she had to guess, Ellie would say he was pleased.

  In a move that would have made Janice proud, Ellie stepped aside, fully opened the door, and used her coffee cup to gesture to her apartment as an invitation for Phillips to come in. He raised an eyebrow, giving her a chance to reconsider letting the wolf in the sheep’s pen, but when she didn’t back down, he stepped in and looked around.

  The box she’d been going through was still sitting on the coffee table, but the letter and receipt from the storage company were out of sight. The folders were all marked with the FBI seal, so there was no way to cover up what they were. Phillips sat on the sofa
and glanced down. She watched him size up the large files and then let out a whistle.

  “What was that for?”

  “Who pulled you into an old internal review?” he asked, pointing to the folders, which were all yellow—a color she’d never seen on any of the cases she’d handled before. “They used to only use that color and the slightly modified seal on the front if they were investigating someone within the Bureau. And that many files, if it’s all one connected case, would be a huge housecleaning.”

  This was a new situation for Ellie. She didn’t know the circumstances of her father pulling these files out and having them sent to her. Was this what he was working on when he died? If so, did he send these to her in the hopes she could finish what he started, or as a way to warn her how to stay safe? Until she knew, she wasn’t sure how much she should share with anyone. But a little voice in the back of her head was practically screaming that she needed to let someone trustworthy know that her father had given these to her in case there was some danger associated with her now having the information.

  “Always have a donkey blanket,” her father had warned her for years. It wasn’t until she was twenty-one that she’d asked what on earth that meant. He laughed and affectionately pulled a piece of hair that had worked its way out of her ponytail before interpreting, “You know, always have a way to cover your ass. There’s no secret so classified that you can’t at least hint at what you’re doing to someone you trust in order to be sure there’s someone that could come looking for you if something goes wrong.”

  There was no way to know how Phillips would react to being her donkey blanket, but she knew he was a good agent, and even though their relationship was more surface than battle-tested, she still felt that if everything blew up around her, she could probably trust him. “These files came from my father.”

  A few blinks was the initial response from the man sitting in front of her. “I thought he was dead.”

  “He is,” she assured him, not wanting Phillips to get the wrong impression that she’d finally given into the stress of working out of the sunlight for days on end and had invented a ghost for a parent. “He put these in storage right before he left to go undercover when he was killed. He left instructions for them to be sent to me in five years’ time if he hadn’t returned to claim them first.”

  “That’s the package I brought over a couple of nights ago?” he asked, looking in awe of what might be contained in the folders.

  “Yep,” she confirmed, “The trouble is, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with it. Did he expect me to finish what he started, or did he complete it before he died? The details I’ve gotten over the years have been sketchy at best, and trying to get the whole story about how he died has been impossible.”

  “Have you looked at the files yet?” Phillips asked.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t have time. You arrived just as I was figuring out what they were and why they’d come to me.”

  Phillips was leaning forward, looking at the yellow paper, as though willing the cover to open on one of the cases so he could get a look without touching them. Ellie saw the overnight package on the sofa beside him and decided that even though she trusted the man with her, she still didn’t want to share the first glimpse into her father’s work with anyone else. She would go through every single page, but she wanted to do it her way, completely by herself.

  “Is that package for me, too?” She pointed to the envelope and hoped it would be enough to let Phillips know she wasn’t going to discuss the files anymore.

  “Oh, yeah,” he answered, picking it up and holding it out to her. “It was sitting against your door this morning before I left.”

  The label was from an attorney’s office in the same town where the storage unit had been located. It wasn’t coincidental that she was getting two unexpected deliveries from the same town. She took a slow swallow of the drink Phillips had brought and realized it was delicious. The coffee wasn’t as strong as the espresso Joe had made her previously, but the chocolate flavor was just as rich. Whatever this was, it was an ideal beverage to drink on the go.

  “All right,” Phillips stated, interrupting her admiration of her coffee. “I’ll let Joe know that he definitely succeeded in finding something you would like. And I’ll be going now, too, because from the look of things, you’ve got more than enough company here.”

  There was no way to disagree with what he’d said, and she really did want to be alone, “Thanks for bringing the package and for being the coffee delivery guy.”

  “Don’t thank me,” he replied with a laugh. “Joe told me if I didn’t get it to you while it was still hot, he’d tell my devoutly Catholic grandmother about my weekend activities.”

  “Tell me again why you said he was your favorite relative?” Ellie teased.

  “I’m starting to wonder that myself,” Phillips agreed, making his way to the door.

  Just before stepping out into the hallway, he spun back and said, “I know my nose doesn’t belong anywhere near your business, but if you need any help, you know all you have to do is ask, right?”

  Ellie nodded, which must have encouraged him to keep talking.

  “If you’ve had trouble finding out what went down when he died and these cases just mysteriously appeared on your doorstep, then it’s probably a good idea to keep it quiet. Until you know what it is or why he wanted you to have it, you need to be sure that nobody else at the office catches wind of it.”

  “This isn’t my first day at the rodeo, Phillips,” she reminded him.

  “I understand, and I know you don’t need anything from me, but I had to be sure you knew that if you call, I’ll come.”

  “You’re a good neighbor,” she replied, knowing it wasn’t the answer he deserved for what he’d said.

  He looked at her briefly, as though giving her a chance to say something else. Once he figured she was done talking, he shocked her by reaching out and tugging on a loose piece of hair. The gesture was so foreign to how they related to each other, yet so familiar in its intimacy, she was speechless to respond. Fortunately, he turned and walked away before her silence became apparent.

  She shut her door and engaged both locks before walking back to the mess now covering her coffee table. She wanted to ignore everything her neighbor had said, but the last time he’d warned her of something, it had turned out to be what happened.

  It wasn’t like she’d planned on walking into the office anytime soon and announcing she’d gotten files from her dead father, but knowing that Phillips seemed to be thinking along the same lines had her convinced that keeping this special delivery a complete secret was important.

  If her dad had died investigating some dirty agents, then she had no way of knowing who to trust until she read it all. Carefully, she replaced each of the folders into the box they’d come in and went to her linen closet to find a spot to hide them. Something told her the information from the attorney’s office would be helpful, and she didn’t want to risk any prying eyes.

  A mystery was what she’d asked for, but this had the potential for being a lot more than just that. This could be the first real adventure she’d been on since her father had been killed. And if it turned out to be what she thought it might be, then this journey would be with him, too.

  Chapter Six

  Dear Miss Michaels, Some time ago, I was hired to represent your father and was entrusted with two documents, which he wanted to be sure made it into your hands five years after the date of his death. Having marked the passing of that anniversary this week, I’ve retrieved the items and am sending them to you now. First is a letter, which he put in the envelope you now have, witnessing as I sealed it in front of him. I can attest that the seal hasn’t been tampered with in any way and that the letter is exactly as he prepared it for your eyes only. Second is the key to a safety deposit box in the savings and loan in our town. I don’t know what’s stored there, but he felt that, after this amount of time had passed, y
ou should have the items he placed there for safekeeping. To the best of my knowledge, there is no catalogue of what the box holds, so I cannot attest to the contents being complete if and when you elect to come to town and retrieve them. I’m enclosing my business card and hope that if you decide to drive the forty-five minutes southwest, you’ll call upon me so that I can meet you and answer any questions you may have. Sincerely, Mr. Alfred Beaucoup, Esq.

  Ellie had read the letter at least a dozen times, but still couldn’t get her mind around the fact that her father had obviously put a great deal of effort into protecting something for her to have. Not only had he secured it a good distance away from the city they both lived in, but he’d chosen a town so small that she’d never even heard of it. She was also intrigued by the idea that he had to be dead for five years before any of the contents or documentation could come to her. After that amount of time, she would assume whatever case he’d been working on was closed, so it wasn’t as if he wanted her to finish what he couldn’t.

  She knew from the cases she reviewed now that it was best to work through information systematically instead of jumping quickly from item to item. If you were too hasty, you tended to overlook things, and there was no way to duplicate the experience of seeing something for the first time when fresh eyes were more likely to see important details.