Free Trapped by Revenge: A Shelby Nichols Adventure by Colleen Helme Page B

did I have a lead from Billie, but Uncle Joey had something as well. Things were looking up. Maybe this would work out after all.
    I made it to Thrasher Development in record time. Jackie greeted me with a sad smile, thinking how hard this must be on me. She could tell I’d been crying, and all the color in my cheeks and lips was gone. My eyes looked haunted with dark circles under them, and even my hair had lost its usual bounce. Feeling sorry for me, she wished she could give me a hug, but patted me on the shoulder instead and told me to go straight to Uncle Joey’s office.
    Wow, I must really look bad. As I walked down the hall, I pinched my cheeks and found my lip gloss. I quickly applied it, and then ran my fingers through my hair. Hoping I looked better, I knocked on the door and pushed it open. Uncle Joey sat behind his desk with the phone held to his ear. He motioned me in and finished up the call, while I took a seat in front of his desk. He set the phone down and looked me over, thinking I looked pretty good for a murder suspect.
    I opened my mouth to protest, but caught the gleam in his eyes and smiled instead.
    “That’s better,” he said. “I’m glad you could come in. I’m sure this has been a tough day for you, but I think I know where to start.” He rubbed his palms together like he was getting ready to do a job. “I’ve narrowed my search down to three judges. All you have to do is talk to them, and we’ll know who the right one is. Then we can go from there.”
    “What?” I couldn’t believe it. Three judges? This was worse than I thought. He really didn’t know who Killpack was reporting to. “How am I supposed to talk to them?”
    “I’m already working on that. It might take a few days to meet with them all, but I have a plan.” His plan involved playing a game of golf with one judge, and maybe a game of poker if he could arrange it with another. But the third judge was still up in the air. He knew the third judge was the church going type, so maybe I could catch him after a Sunday meeting.
    “But why would a judge kill Killpack?”
    “I don’t know,” he answered. “All I know is this: Killpack works for a judge, he spies on me, he’s dead. Somehow, you get framed for it. Why? I don’t know, but I do know that a judge is involved. So that’s where we’re going to start.”
    In a twisted way it certainly made sense. But why would they frame me if Uncle Joey was bribing them? “Are you bribing all three of them?”
    “Hell no,” Uncle Joey said, offended. “I haven’t bribed any of them. That’s not how I do business.”
    He was telling the truth. “So how does it work then?” I asked. “Because I certainly don’t understand how it could be related to setting me up for murder otherwise.”
    He could see my point and was grasping at straws. “The relationship I have with them is a simple matter of helping each other out now and then. I scratch their back, they scratch mine. But there must be something going on that I don’t know about, and the best way to find out what it is, is for you to spy on them. See? It makes sense now.”
    “Um… yeah. I suppose so.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s better than nothing.”
    “Exactly,” he agreed. He was thinking that it was the only thing he could come up with, and it bothered him that he couldn’t be more helpful, especially when this had to be his fault. He didn’t know exactly how it was his fault, but what other explanation was there? He would be the first to admit he had enemies, but going after me didn’t make sense. Hell, hardly any of them even knew about me, and he’d kept his distance for long enough that it didn’t make sense anyone would think I was still involved with him. Just thinking about it was starting to give him a headache. He was getting too old for this. Too bad he’d sworn off alcohol. He could sure use a drink right now. Maybe a beer would be okay though. Ramos probably had one in his