The Shop by J. Carson Black

new can’t-miss scheme, and she’d just blow him out of the water. She could be very cruel.”
    Jolie didn’t doubt it. “When was the last time you saw him?”
    “It’s been months.”
    “What did Luke do for a living?”
    “Worked for a landscaper. Blowing leaves, trimming hedges, that kind of stuff.”
    “I take it he didn’t want to be a leaf blower forever.”
    “No kidding. He talked about getting his own tree-trimming business and stealing his boss’s main client.”
    “Main client?”
    “The attorney general of the United States, you believe that? Luke thought he could shut out his employer, offer him a better deal.” He let out a short laugh. “Quintessential Luke. He knew nothing about running a company—totally out of touch with reality.”
    “Did you know about his underage girlfriend?”
    “Riley? That was one of his plans. He said he was going to knock her up and marry into all that money.” He grinned. “If Luke owned a store, it’d be called Schemes ‘R’ Us.”
    Jolie asked him if he was surprised Luke had taken the woman at the motel hostage.
    He thought about it. “I was and I wasn’t. Luke wasn’t the violent type.”
    He scratched his arm. The sleeve of his T-shirt rode up, revealing a peacock tattoo. “One thing I wasn’t surprised about, though—he sure got himself into a shitload of trouble.”

    Jolie was about to run an NCIC search on James Dooley when Skeet came by her desk. “I need to talk to you,” he said.
    “Okay.”
    He had a weird smile on his face. “How about we go to my office?”
    Jolie pushed her chair back to get up. Just then she heard a voice out front and recognized it immediately. Riley Haddox. “I need to do one thing first.”
    Skeet said, “That’s fine.”
    “You sure?” Jolie glanced in the direction of the front room.
    “It’s been waiting all day. It can wait a little bit longer.”
    He had some kind of secret. Jolie knew from experience it didn’t bode well for her.
    “Anytime in the next couple hours.” He rapped his knuckles twice on her desk before walking down the hallway to his office.
    Jolie went out to meet Riley.
    Zoe was with her. Did Riley take Zoe with her everywhere?
    The contrast between the two girls was dramatic. Riley was beautiful. Blonde hair, lithe body, the works. Zoe, on the other hand, was just pretty. There were some people you pegged as likeable before they opened their mouths, and Zoe was one of them. She was shorter than Riley and heavier, but, taken altogether, attractive. Jolie found her attention going to Zoe, which Riley clearly sensed and didn’t like.
    Riley took back the spotlight. “Do you know if the police have the phone? Can you get them to give it back?”
    “Why don’t we go to my desk?” Jolie couldn’t say “go to my office” because she didn’t have one, just the desk pushed face-to-face with Louis’s desk. But since Louis was taking vacation time, they’d have a modicum of privacy.
    Riley clacked behind her.
    Jolie motioned to one chair and pulled another from around Louis’s desk.
    Riley sat down, then Zoe. Riley said, “Why didn’t you call me back?”
    “Because I didn’t have anything until just a while ago.”
    “You were going to call me, weren’t you?”
    This girl needed a good talking to. Through Kay, Jolie knew that Riley’s father was at his wits’ end with her. He couldn’t control her and apparently didn’t even try. At this point, she wasn’t even going to college—any college. “If I’d had anything, I would have.”
    Riley’s eyes narrowed.
    Clutching her purse to her chest, Zoe leaned forward. “It’s been so good of you to help us. Riley’s just so scared—”
    “I can’t imagine if those photos got out!” Riley said. “What would I do? It could hurt us—hurt my family. It would be humiliating!”
    Jolie didn’t think it would be any more humiliating than being forced to resign as head of the DOJ after he was charged with failure to