Mary had a little scam, p.1
Mary Had A Little Scam, page 1
part #8 of Gotcha Detective Agency Series
MARY HAD A LITTLE SCAM
A Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery, Book 8
JAMIE LEE SCOTT
LBB Company
Contents
Copyright
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
About the Author
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MARY HAD A LITTLE SCAM Copyright © 2017 by Jamie Lee Scott
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
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Chapter One
I needed a vacation. I mean, a real vacation. Not like the kind of vacation Charles had been on for the last three months, two weeks and four days. Sometimes, I thought about him and got mad, thinking how he was able to leave the real world behind. Then I got smart and realized my life was a thousand times easier than his. A day didn’t go by that I thought I heard his voice and almost jumped up, thinking he was back. But I hadn’t heard from him since he left, so I just hoped he was still out there. Still alive.
I always knew he had a life that I didn’t understand, could never understand, and that he could never share. I guess I was just lucky to have him as my business partner and my friend for as long as I did.
I stuffed my mouth with a spoonful of Raisin Bran and chewed thoughtfully, while gazing out into the yard where Lola lay stretched out, basking in the sun. She had the life.
“So, nothing from Charles, huh?” Nick Christianson, my boyfriend, asked.
“Nothing’s changed since the last time you asked me that question,” I snapped.
Nick slammed the spoon into his empty cereal bowl and got up from the table. “Aren’t you in a mood this morning?”
I finished chewing. “Sorry, you know it’s a sore subject with me. I keep hoping Max will call and tell me he’s heard something. Or maybe I’ll get a cryptic postcard postmarked from Salinas, except that it isn’t really from Salinas. You know how Charles can do things like that. But nothing.”
Nick put his bowl in the sink, rinsed it, then placed it in the dishwasher before coming back and putting his hands on my shoulders. He kneaded and rubbed, then pressed his thumbs into the knots to loosen them.
“I keep thinking that no news is good news, you know? That if he’s really gone, we’d have heard from…I don’t know…his attorney, his mother, definitely Max.” Nick dug in a little harder with his thumbs as he spoke.
I shrugged Nick’s hands away and stood. I turned around, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him in for a kiss.
“That’s a really good way to look at it. But here’s the thing: his attorney made an appointment to see me this afternoon.” My stomach lurched as I said the words out loud for the first time.
Nick grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back to arm’s length, his head cocked to the side and his brows furrowed. “When did this happen?”
I tried to step away, but Nick held me firm. “Uta made the appointment on Monday. She put it into my calendar, and then made sure to put a Post-it note on my desk, so I didn’t see that until Friday. I really wished I hadn’t known until the last minute. My stomach has been in knots.”
Nick stepped away and strapped on his shoulder holster. He was a homicide detective with the Salinas Police Department.
Before Charles left on his “mission,” he’d schooled Nick in the ways of men’s fashion. Nick had to be the best dressed homicide cop in the country. He wore charcoal gray slacks with a periwinkle pinpoint cotton dress shirt, matching socks and two-tone gray and black Oxfords. When he strapped the weathered holster over his shirt, I fell in love with him all over again.
I adjusted the fabric just outside his underarm, then stood on my tip toes and kissed him on the cheek.
“Now that Gabe and Cortnie are back from their little vacation, maybe my workload will lighten up, and we can plan a trip somewhere. Maybe even just a few days in San Francisco,” Nick said.
My employee, Cortnie Criss, and homicide detective Gabriel Garcia had surprised everyone by jetting off to Vegas and getting married. I guess I should now call her Cortnie Garcia. I’d have to get used to it. Cortnie didn’t even have a ring on her finger when they left for the weekend, and came back with a gorgeous diamond solitaire and a wedding band.
Cortnie stepped back into work on a Tuesday, never missing a beat, and never mentioning the rock on her finger. But she did have a permanent grin, and a skip in her step. Once I heard the wonderful news, I had a grin and a lightness to my step, too. I couldn’t have been happier for them. Nick and I always thought they were the perfect couple.
I was so glad that Nick mentioned San Francisco, and not Vegas, since I did not want to be the next couple jetting off to elope. Marriage was still not what I saw in my future. Nick and I had a pretty good thing, and I was terrified that a piece of paper would ruin it. But once in a while the pang hit me. I’d shake it off and think of something else.
I looked down at my bowl of Raisin Bran and decided I wasn’t hungry anymore. Still in my pajamas, I debated going for a run or going back to bed. Going for a run was a feasible choice; going back to bed was not. I’d compromise and just go take a shower.
Nick leaned down, kissed me on the lips, and said, “My dear, I love you to the end of the earth. Let’s see what we can do to get some time off together. It’s been too long.”
I looked at him with my brows raised nearly to my hairline. “Excuse me? Too long? You realize that as long as we’ve been together, we’ve been working. We’re lucky if we get the weekend together.”
Nick winked. “Every time I get to spend twenty-four hours with you, completely uninterrupted, I consider that a vacation.” The light wrinkles at the corners of his gray eyes made his smile so much more endearing. They were new, or maybe I just hadn’t noticed them before now. But I loved that we were changing together, getting older and still enjoying each other.
We both laughed.
“I’m just happy we get to have breakfast together once in a while.”
Lola stood at the sliding door, whining. Nick opened the door to let her in, then turned back to me and said, “I hope you have an uneventful day. Love you.”
I ogled his ass as he walked out into the yard, and off to work. And I noticed the sun had gotten caught in the clouds, and the temperatures had maybe chilled a bit. This sudden change always made me think something terrible had just happened, and the universe knew it. Our jobs made us cynical.
Between his job as a homicide detective and my job as a private detective, we had the weirdest hours. But it’s not like we both didn’t know what we were getting into.
As the owner of the Gotcha Detective Agency, I spent almost as much time on the business end of things as I did actually working as a private detective. But I loved my work, as did Nick. Except when our worlds collided on a case, then things got a little tense.
It had been a few months since our careers had collided, and I hoped for a few more months, even years. Things were really good right now. Thinking about how good they were made me blush.
On that thought, I dumped my cereal down the sink and put my bowl in the dishwasher. Lola followed me into the bathroom, and blocked the doorway by laying down right in front of it. I turned on the water to heat it up, and stripped down to enjoy a long, hot shower.
Before leaving for work, I enjoyed one last cup of coffee while I checked the GPS on all of our work cars to see where my detectives were working. It looked like my mom, Lydia, my newest junior detective, was sitting outside an apartment complex in North Salinas. Cortnie’s car was on the move, headed back toward the office. If I remembered correctly, she had a long morning of running errands.
I had a few errands of my own to run, then planned to be in the office by ten. I sent my mom a text message, asking if she’d like to have lunch around eleven. Lydia was never one to turn down food, so she texted back that she thought it was a great idea and wanted Mexican.
Lola and Lydia weren’t the best of friends, so I left Lola at the office while I lunched with Mom. Best not to antagonize either one of them.
Little did I know that when I invited her to lunch, I’d barely have time to eat that day. What had been planned as a catch up on paperwork and errand day turned into a full-fledged investigation.
Chapter Two
Lydia had fallen in love with her job as an investigator. She’d taken to wearing only black, but in a much more stylish manner than me. And she’d started running. My mom, a runner, who’da thunk it? Sure as hell not me. She wore black leggings with a short A-line skirt, and a button up black shirt with no collar. She accessorized with black and ivory glass beads on her neck and wrist.
Not only had she taken up running, she’d decided it was best to learn to run in combat boots. And she wore said black combat boots with her ensemble for work. Too cute.
“Love the boots, Mom,” I teased.
“You never know what kind of freak you’ll encounter,” she said. “I need to be able to run, or kick them in the balls and run.”
I’m pretty sure I peed myself when she said it. Charles had left her a handbook with his tips and tricks, and had passed her off to Nick, who took her to regular weekly shooting practice. We always talked about a shooting contest at the range, but life and work kept getting in the way. And since I had to pay her to work for me, but not for the lessons at the range, she always opted for the next stakeout job.
I kept waiting for her to get tired of the stakeouts, but she jumped at the chance to do them. She’d always been nosey, so now she had a legit excuse to meddle in the business of others. She’d turned out to be a great employee, who insisted I call her Lydia at work. Absolutely no nepotism.
Even though we worked together full-time, I enjoyed having lunch with my mother. It wasn’t as if we sat in the same office. Mostly, we weren’t in the building at the same time. But we kept in touch hourly via phone and text. I worried about her, even though I was sure she’d be able to whoop me soon, if she kept running and training.
We sat in the drive thru at Taco Bell, and I confessed what had been on my mind.
“I’m thinking of selling the agency. Of course, I’ll have to talk to Charles’ attorney about it at the meeting this afternoon.”
She put her hand on my forearm and gave me a light squeeze. “You’re kidding, right? You love this career.”
I couldn’t look her in the eyes. “Not so much anymore. I mean, look at what we do. Eighty percent of our time is spent snooping on the worst people. The liars and the cheats. People too lazy to work, so they screw the system. Makes my heart hurt. I want to like mankind again.”
She laughed hard. “Yeah, like that’s going to happen. Baby, once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it. It’s like a dead body. You’ll always have that image branded on your brain. Remember that Esme girl?”
As soon as she said the name, the image of her murder became a movie in my head. I squeezed my eyes shut to get rid of the thought. “That’s not a good one. And she’s not the only one, either. There has to be something else in-between all of the cheating spouses, the scammers, the lazy assholes and the dead bodies. I want to do something more positive.”
She squeezed my arm again.
“What? You think I’m on the right track with this?” I asked.
“No,” she pointed. “You need to drive up and order before the cars behind us start honking.”
I eased my car forward. “Maybe it’s because I’m starving that I’m having negative thoughts.”
“Or maybe because you miss Charles. You two are like siblings. You can’t get along, but you can’t be without each other.” She said this as she leaned across the front seat to order from the menu.
The subject was dropped as we ordered. While we waited for the food at the pickup window, my mom changed the subject to her and Luke. Her way of telling me I was being stupid.
I wasn’t so sure I was being stupid. This was no career for a mom. Sure, Jackie did it, but she was a super mom. I barely made it through my day with the responsibility of a dog. And lately, Lola hadn’t even been riding with me in the car. She preferred to stay at the office. Pretty soon, she’d be going home with Uta, too. Such a fickle dog. I think she blamed me for Charles being gone.
Since the morning hadn’t gone as planned, I decided to eat at my desk after we got back from Taco Bell. I could eat and fill out my reports at the same time. Thank God I’d wolfed down a taco while we were still in the car, because Uta had called to tell me I had a client waiting.
“Want me to put this in the fridge for you?” Mom asked as we got out of the car.
“If I tell you not to put it in the fridge, this meeting will last forever. If I tell you to put it in the fridge, it will be a quickie. I’d like for it to be a quickie, but I need the business.”
“Fridge it is.” She snatched the bag from my hand. “Thank God for microwaves.”
I parked in front of the Gotcha house and we walked up the stairs together. Lydia scooted past Uta and Lola toward the kitchen. Lola didn’t even bother to come over and sniff the bag. She stood watch over the reception area, staring at something. I stopped to talk to Uta about the possible client.
Sometimes I think I catch a glimpse of Charles, either in the hallway, or on the streets. I just wait, hoping the next phone call or text message is from him. Or even better, that he’ll walk through the door. But as the days go on, my hopes of ever hearing from or seeing him again get slimmer and slimmer. The conversation with Nick this morning made me miss him even more. And I swear I thought I saw him on at least three occasions already today. Once in a Volkswagen, but then I came to my senses, realizing Charles would never be caught dead or alive in a Volkswagen. Then I saw a reflection at the pharmacy. But when I turned around, no one was there. And again, I thought I saw him in the lobby when I entered the office. My mind was working overtime.
I’d had him to myself for so long that when his other obligations came calling, I wasn’t prepared. At this point, it was like another death in the family, and I’d already had enough of those. The increase in sightings made me wonder if there was an energy causing me to see him. And I’m not talking about a good kind of energy.
Uta, my receptionist, stood and I could see she wore a camel-colored pencil skirt that fell just below the knees, and a figure-hugging beige silk T-shirt. As she stepped out from behind the reception desk, I also saw her gorgeous three-inch nude patent leather pumps. She wore her freshly colored hair up in a French twist, and her makeup was subtle and tasteful. In the months that she had been with us, she’d become a major asset. I’ve never asked her exact age, but I know she’s somewhere between sixty and seventy years old, yet has the brains, ability, and fashion sense of someone decades younger.
“Mr. Jeb Bexley is here to see you. He doesn’t have an appointment. Sorry to interrupt your lunch. He’s been waiting about twenty minutes and seems quite agitated.” Uta spoke so quietly I thought the client was right behind me. He was in the reception area though, not the lobby.
“What’s going on?” I looked toward the reception area, but didn’t see anyone.
“Apparently his wife is missing.” Uta lowered one eyebrow.
I mirrored her expression. “I have a few minutes before my lunch gets cold. Why don’t you show him into my office?”
Uta nodded and headed to get the client.
I hightailed it to my office and pulled a compact out of my purse to check my face and make sure I didn’t have any residual taco, lettuce, or cheese hanging out in places it didn’t belong.
I barely got the compact back in my purse when Uta ushered a tall man dressed in blue jeans and a cotton shirt into my office. I tried not to be rude, but I couldn’t stop staring. The man stood about six feet tall. He had olive skin and watery blue eyes. His smile was huge, though I could see it was put on for show. Even with the vacant look in his eyes, this man was drop dead gorgeous.
