Margot Harris Mystery Series : Box Set 2 (Margot Harris Mystery Series Two - Twisted)

by Nora Kane

  “What good would that do if he still won’t come forward?”

  “I’d know.”

  “What good does that do me?”

  “You need someone on your side because you're innocent and not just because you pay them.”

  Phoebe thought about that for a long second and looked at Radcliff. “He’s a cop.”

  Margot looked at Radcliff, who nodded and left the interrogation room.

  Once he was gone, Phoebe smoked for a bit before she blurted out, “Harry Lee.”

  “The mobster?”

  “He would say misunderstood businessman.”

  “How did you meet Harry Lee?”

  “Tim knew him through work.”

  “Tim worked with Harry Lee?”

  “Not how you're thinking.”

  “What am I thinking?”

  “That Tim was involved in something shady or illegal.”

  “Considering Harry Lee’s involvement, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion.”

  “No, I guess it isn’t, but Tim wasn’t like that. Harry was looking for legitimate businesses to invest in and Tim had one of those.”

  “Harry still an investor?”

  “No, Tim’s and his relationship ended.”

  “The same way Tim and Derek Helms ended their relationship?”

  “Not that I know of and I was sleeping with both of them, so I think I might have heard if they were mad at each other.”

  “Do you mind if I talk to Lee?” Margot asked.

  Phoebe had to think about this for a minute.

  “Are you afraid of him?” Margot pressed.

  “I suppose I am.”

  “Why? I thought he was a misunderstood businessman.”

  “Sure, but I understand him.”

  “And that makes you afraid?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The easiest way for you to get out of this is for him to talk.”

  “Sure, but what do I get into after that? He’s not a guy you want to be on the wrong side of.”

  Margot, who had some experience getting on the wrong side of guys like that, couldn’t tell Phoebe she was wrong with a straight face. Instead, she said, “Maybe we can back door it. Did you go anywhere public?”

  “No, we met at a hotel.”

  “Did you walk through the lobby?”

  “Of course, but…”

  “Then someone could have seen you.”

  Phoebe smiled. “Lee wouldn’t have to come in that way.”

  “It’s possible.”

  I don’t know if anyone saw me though. Part of the deal was keeping a low profile.”

  “It’s worth checking out.”

  “The Palms off Highway One.”

  “That in La Jolla?”

  “Yeah, it’s a nice place. They wouldn’t be happy being known as a gangster’s love nest, so I don’t know how cooperative they’re going to be.”

  “That’s what you pay me for.”

  Chapter 2

  Margot and Radcliff left the county jail together. Radcliff had picked her up and given her a ride from her job. Shaw would be glad to see she had hooked up with not only a high profile case but would be working with a law firm that did a lot of their kind of business. In the private detective game, big law firms were the best kind of clients. Normally, a firm like Browers and Associates wouldn’t give Shaw and Margot the time of day, but thanks to Radcliff’s connection to the case—and his ex’s general distrust of how much her lawyers really had her best interests at heart—Margot was in.

  They noticed a young woman dressed in black filming them as they made their way to Radcliff’s car. She wasn’t being very subtle about it.

  “Excuse me,” Radcliff said to her, “what are you doing?”

  “Just getting some footage for my story,” she replied.

  “Your story?”

  She lowered her phone and reached into a little black purse. Out of habit, both Margot and Radcliff tensed; it wasn’t long ago that dangerous people were looking to harm them. Even though that wasn’t supposed to be the case anymore, it was still in the back of their minds.

  The woman in black pulled out a business card. Margot also had her hand in her purse, but she was not reaching for a card. In fact, she had her hand on the short-barreled S&W .40 she kept in there.

  “Cassandra Cole, Cassandra’s Coastal Crime Alert,” the woman said as she handed Radcliff her card.

  “Coastal Crime Alert? Is that a newspaper?” Radcliff asked.

  “Newspaper? No, it’s a YouTube channel. Are newspapers even a thing anymore?”

  Radcliff didn’t see any reason to further engage, so he just told her, “Have a nice day, Ms. Cole,” and kept moving.

  “You’re not the detective assigned to the Masterson case,” Cassandra said as she followed them.

  “We have a media relations division that will gladly answer all your questions.”

  “Sure they will,” Cassandra replied before saying, “You’re Margot Harris.”

  Margot looked back; she was surprised this girl knew her name.

  “Can I ask a few questions, Ms. Harris?” Cassandra asked. Before Margot could reply one way or the other, she added, “Are you working Mrs. Masterson’s defense? Are you employed by Brower and Associates?”

  “Even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you,” Margot said. “It’s part of the “private” in private detective.”

  “I always thought that just meant you don’t work for the state.”

  “It means that too,” Margot said as they kept walking. Cassandra followed.

  “You shot and killed two men up in Riverside and then later shot and killed a deputy sheriff. You also shot and killed a still unidentified individual. All these men had connections to the Baja cartel.”

  “Is that a question?” Margot replied.

  “You also left the police at the same time a man named Malachi Flynn was kicked off the force. Mr. Flynn was believed to have been muscle for hire for several known underworld figures. It is believed his duties included assassinations. He later worked for you when you were an independent private detective in an unofficial capacity.”

  They were nearly at Radcliff’s car. Cassandra ran a little so she could get in front of Margot before she reached the passenger door. Her phone was up so she could film the encounter.

  “Could you please get out of my way?” Margot asked.

  “You haven’t answered my question.”

  “You haven’t asked one.”

  “Given your involvement in the deaths of four people involved in the Baja cartel and your association with Malachi Flynn, are you working for the Baja Cartel or one of their rivals?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m asking if you’re a hitwoman for the Baja Cartel.”

  “And I’m asking you to get out of my way.”

  “Can you answer the question?”

  “Can you get out of my way?”

  “After I get an answer.”

  “That question is too dumb to bother answering. Now please move. I’m not going to ask again.”

  Cassandra moved aside. As Margot passed, she said, “You look like you want to hit me.”

  “Luckily for you, looks can be deceiving because if I wanted to hit you, there wouldn’t be a damn thing you could do to stop me.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “Nope, just a statement of fact.”

  Margot got in the car and Radcliff drove them out of there.

  “You shouldn’t let her get to you,” Radcliff said as he headed towards the office she shared with Shaw.

  “Who? The YouTube star?”

  “Yeah, though what does that even mean? Anybody can start their own YouTube channel; that doesn’t mean anybody’s watching it.”

  Margot nodded but then added, “Ten viewers or ten thousand, I still don’t like being called a cartel hitwoman.”

  “I get that, but I’m guessing this is the last we’ll see of Cassandra Cole.”


  “Probably.”

  “You say that, but you still look agitated.”

  “Sorry, your old girlfriend didn’t seem to like me either, even while I’m trying to keep her out of prison for the rest of her life.”

  “Yeah, I kind of picked that up.”

  “She makes me question your judgment in women.”

  “I picked you, didn’t I?”

  “Exactly, that’s the part that has me agitated.”

  “You’re not Phoebe. Trust me when I say Phoebe dumping me was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

  “Yet, when she’s in trouble, you still rushed over to help.”

  “Yeah, I guess I did. Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. That whole knight-in-shining-armor thing you have going is one of the things I like about you.”

  “That’s good. I thought you might be mad at me after meeting Phoebe. Do you want to go to dinner with a knight in shining armor tonight?”

  “Do I want to? Yeah, of course. I think I need to get to work though, and if I’m going to run into anyone who saw Phoebe at the Palms two nights ago, I’m going to have to show up at the same time she would have.”

  “So, no dinner?”

  “Sorry.”

  “What about the part where you come over to my place after we eat?”

  “That could probably be arranged.”

  Chapter 3

  As always when interviewing a potential witness, Margot turned on her digital recorder and dropped it in her purse. With the recording up and running, she headed into the Palms.

  “Reservation, ma’am?” asked the man on the other side of the counter, a bald guy with a name tag reading ‘Theodore.’

  Margot smiled at him before she said, “Were you working two nights ago?”

  “That’s an odd question.”

  “Not really, it’s more of a ‘yes or no’ one.”

  “Are you the police?”

  “Kind of weird thing to ask.”

  “Seems a normal ‘yes or no’ type of question to me,” he quipped.

  “No,” Margot conceded as she took out her license and showed it to him. “I’m private. I’ve answered your question, now how about you answer mine?”

  “Perhaps you need to talk to management.”

  “Perhaps, but right now I’m talking to you,” Margot said as she laid a twenty-dollar bill on the counter. It wasn’t much of a bribe, but she wasn’t asking for much either. Even though as far as bribes go it was light, she would still be writing it up in her expense report if he took it.

  The clerk put his hand on the bill and said, “I was.”

  Margot took out a trio of pictures of Phoebe and set them on the counter. “Did you see this woman? Coming in around seven and walking out around eleven?”

  He looked them over. He seemed to be taking this seriously. After a solid minute, he answered, “I don’t think so.”

  Margot took out another twenty, put it on the counter, and said, “Think?”

  “Keep your money; I honestly don’t remember her.”

  “You behind this desk that whole time?”

  “Sure, did she get a room? Maybe you have the wrong night.”

  “She didn’t get a room, but she should have been here.”

  “If I had a customer when she walked through, I never would have seen her. It’s possible she didn’t leave through the lobby or—for that matter, come in this way at all if she was seeing a guest. He could have let her in through the side door.”

  “He?”

  “Or she, or whatever. I’m making an assumption based on your job that she wasn’t here for a business meeting. Am I wrong?”

  “No. Is there anyone else I can talk to?”

  “The bartender might have seen her, maybe the bellhop. Just be discreet. We like to pretend that kind of thing doesn’t happen here.”

  “No problem.”

  Margot made her way across the lobby. She noticed Theodore picking up the phone and turning his back to talk. She couldn’t tell if he was taking a call or making one but decided not to worry about it either way.

  Margot didn’t see a bellhop around, so she took a seat at the bar. The bartender, a tall brunette around Margot’s age, was slow to get over even though Margot was the only customer, but she made it eventually.

  “Maker’s on ice,” Margot told her. Normally she tried not to drink on the job, but bartenders tended to be more cooperative if the person asking questions was buying drinks, so Margot figured she’d have one on Phoebe.

  Margot put a twenty on the bar and told her, “Keep it.”

  “Considering how much we charge for drinks, that's not much of a bribe.”

  “You saw me talking to Theo?”

  “It’s not like I had something better to do.”

  “So, you pay attention. Were you here two nights ago?”

  “I was, but I had customers that night, so I wasn’t keeping tabs on Theo, who hates it when people call him that, by the way.”

  Margot took out her pictures and set them on the bar. “Was she one of them?”

  Like Theo, the bartender gave them a good looking over.

  “What did Theo say?” she asked.

  “Tell me what you saw first.”

  “She wasn’t at the bar. If she came through the lobby, I didn’t see her. Sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry for. If you didn’t see her, you didn’t see her.”

  “She looks familiar though. Should I know her?”

  “No, you shouldn’t,” Margot told her, even though it was possible she’d seen her on the news. “Theodore said something about a bellhop.”

  “Yeah, Dylan. He’s helping a guest. He’ll be down in a bit. You might as well wait and enjoy your drink. It’s a sin to waste good whiskey.”

  Margot sipped her drink and decided she had a point about the whiskey.

  She took her time and finished the tumbler without Dylan showing up. She was considering ordering another, even though that was really breaking her ‘no drinking during work’ rule, when a big man in a suit jacket too small for his massive shoulders sat down next to her.