Peril for Your Thoughts (Mind Reader Mystery) by Kari Lee Townsend Page B

Sit in my own dirt? Never.” I shuddered.
    “Fine, then. You’d be showering. Whatever.” He swiped his hand through the air. “The point is you wouldn’t be stuck in here with me.”
    “Don’t say the word stuck.” I wailed, seriously feeling claustrophobic. “There has to be something we can do.”
    “There is.” He unclenched his fists and rolled his head on his shoulders, visibly gaining control over his emotions. “We can talk. You can start by answering my question for real this time.” Nik sat down on a box and settled in.
    Taking a deep breath, I found the cleanest spot I could, laid my coat over it, and gingerly sat, careful not to touch anything more than I had to. Maybe if we talked things through, we could figure out a way to escape. There was no way I could handle an entire night in this place.
    “Fine,” I finally said. “I went to Vixen to speak with Anastasia Stewart.”
    “I know,” he said, not sounding the least bit surprised. “I tailed you.”
    I gasped. “That is a complete invasion of my privacy.”
    “Turnabout is fair play.” He shrugged. “Keep invading my case, and everything’s fair game, including your privacy. Now, you were saying?”
    You’re a big buffoon , is what I wanted to say, but growing up in my family had taught me to bite my tongue more than once. “I’m just trying to help, Detective. You were already looking into Johnny Hogan, and you knew I talked to Maria Danza.” I wasn’t about to tell him our suspicions regarding his partner, Boomer Matheson, but I could share the only other suspect we could think of. “Jaz and I both agreed that other than a jilted ex-lover or angry other woman, the person in town who would most want to see her locked up and out of the way would be her main competition in the business world, Anastasia Stewart.”
    “Agreed.”
    I blinked. “Wait, you agree with me?”
    “Like I said, if you would have a little patience and let me do my job, you would realize I’m not completely incompetent.”
    “I never said that.”
    He arched a thick black eyebrow. “You didn’t have to. Your actions speak volumes.”
    I bit my bottom lip and tried not to look guilty. “Okay, you go first, and I promise I’ll share what I know.”
    He studied me for what felt like forever, then seemed to make up his mind about something.
    “Deal,” he finally said. “Maria Danza didn’t just see Jaz and Wilcox from her shop across the street. Her pastry flour fingerprints were on the front window of Full Disclosure, and we have surveillance footage of her crossing the street just before Jaz shut off her cameras. Maria claims she went over to see if she could get a look at Jaz’s latest conquest, but she couldn’t see anything because they had already gone upstairs.”
    “I knew there was more to her story,” I said. “And with the cameras off, there’s no proof that she wasn’t the one who went back in.”
    “Exactly,” he continued. “I also looked into Ms. Stewart’s finances and phone records. She made several transactions lately to the same anonymous account, and there were a number of phone calls to the same unlisted number. Whomever she was dealing with did not want to be found out. The question is why.”
    “The fashion world is very competitive.”
    “I’m beginning to see that.”
    “Jaz and Ana have been competing for customers for years. At one time, Ana’s store was the number one place to shop for high-end clothes in Clearview. As you know, Connecticut isn’t that far from New York City. We have a number of wealthy residents who love nothing more than to spend their money on fashion, but making the trek into the city on a regular basis isn’t always convenient. Having access to the latest trends in fashion right here in town is priceless to them, but they want to know they are getting the best. Once Jaz added my Kalli Originals, she started edging out Ana. Ana didn’t take that lightly, and she’s been trying to find