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

by Nora Kane

  “Maybe you should look at it as a chance to finish it all. Right now, all we know is there are bodies stacking up. We don’t know why and until we do, people are going to keep getting killed.”

  “And if you drag me into this again, one of those people getting killed is probably going to be me, and I kind of like living right now.”

  “What does Cassandra Cole think?” Stafford asked. “Is she happy staying stashed at some women's shelter? Are you going to keep her there the rest of her life?”

  “Who says she’s at a women’s shelter?”

  Stafford shrugged. “It makes sense since your boss has an agreement with one. Are you saying she isn’t?”

  “I’m not saying either way.”

  “I know you’ve had some bad experiences with cops lately, Margot, but you can trust us.”

  “Sure I can, until I can’t.”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know who killed Ames? Who almost killed Radcliff?”

  Margot was quiet again.

  “Okay, here’s the deal,” Margot told them after a long silence. “If Harry will talk to me, I’ll talk to him. I’m not offering to solve Tommy’s murder or anything like that. Even if he asks, I'm going to say no. Nothing good comes from working for mobsters, and I’m serious about wanting out of this game. If I was a cat, I’d be on life eleven, and like I said, I like being alive right now.”

  “Would you wear a wire?” Stafford asks.

  “No, but if he tells me anything useful, I’ll pass it on.”

  “I feel like you're doing the minimum for us.”

  “No, I’m going above and beyond.”

  “When do you think you’ll talk to him?”

  “I don’t know, I still have a day job. And there’s no guarantee he’ll even talk to me at all.”

  “Maybe you could call him now,” Stafford suggested.

  “With you here? No way. In fact, the sooner you leave, the sooner I can finish filling out insurance fraud reports and then the sooner I can try to reach Harry.”

  Myers put his business card on her desk and then stood up. “Thanks for doing this, Margot. We appreciate it.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “Before I leave—you still looking for Mal?”

  “No.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’ve got your number. If he shows up at my place, you’ll be the first person I call.”

  Myers and Stafford left.

  Margot looked at her phone. Harry Lee’s number was in her contacts. Even if Myers and his friend from the Feds weren't trying to strongarm her into being their informant, she wanted to talk to him anyway. Tommy was a thug who’d once hit her hard enough in the stomach to have her curled up in the fetal position on the sidewalk, but she kind of liked him. He’d helped her when she was working the Masterson Hot Tub Massacre. She felt like she should be offering her condolences.

  There was, however, a ton of paperwork to do and due to Myers and Stafford showing up, she was way behind. Margot put down the phone and started typing reports.

  Chapter 2

  “I tried to stop her, but she became rather belligerent.”

  “Stop who?” Margot asked Shaw’s long-time secretary, Ms. Collins, as she came into the office after lunch. She was feeling pretty good having caught up on her paperwork and was thinking she had time to not only call but meet Harry Lee.

  “Miss Dithers.”

  “It’s Miss now? It used to be Mrs.”

  “And was briefly Ms., if I remember correctly, but she was very insistent I call her Miss this time around.”

  “Did she say what she wanted?”

  “Other than to talk to you? No. Even though I told her under no certain terms, she’s waiting in your office. Sorry.”

  “There’s nothing to apologize for. It’s not your fault Miss Dithers has difficulty listening. I’ll take care of it.”

  Instead of going straight to her office, Margot knocked on Shaw’s door. As she’d suspected, he was still at lunch. She stepped inside his office and called Harry. She wasn’t surprised he didn’t answer; he never did. She left a message and then went to deal with Miss Dithers.

  Margot walked into her office and saw Miss Dithers was sitting in one of the chairs Margot kept for potential clients. Not long ago, Dithers was a client herself. At the time, she was Mrs. Dithers and she’d told Margot her husband was cheating on her. She’d wanted Margot to catch him in the act. Instead, Margot had caught him performing duties for some local mobster. Margot found out later that Mrs. Dithers had known all about her husband’s illegal activities and just wanted a witness to gain leverage in a divorce settlement. Margot had her own problems with organized crime even before Stafford and Myers showed up this morning and didn’t need Mrs. Dithers bringing her anymore. She’d made it clear that not only she wasn’t going to help her in the divorce, but she would no longer be working for her in any capacity.

  “I’m going to ask you nicely to leave, one time,” Margot announced as she went over and sat behind her desk.

  “And if I refuse?”

  “Then I’m going to do something we’re both going to regret. Me, because I’ll feel a little guilty; you, because you’ll feel a great deal of pain.”

  “You’re threatening me?”

  “I’m just telling you how it’s going to go. Would you please leave my office, Ms. Dithers?”

  “It’s Miss now.”

  “I don’t really care. I’ve asked nicely. What’s next is up to you.”

  “They killed him.”

  Margot knew she should be twisting Miss Dithers’ arm behind her back and dragging her out of the office, but she couldn’t help herself. “Who killed who?”

  “My husband, or rather ex-husband.”

  “Okay, I take it he was the victim?”

  “Yes, I believe you know his killer as well.”

  “I do?”

  “You saw him.”

  “The man I saw is dead and has been for several months. I was there for his death.”

  “Then it was one of his associates.”

  “Okay, that’s certainly possible. Things like that happen when you get involved with professional criminals. Why are you telling me? This seems like a matter for the police.”

  “I want you to find his killer.”

  “Like I said, this seems like a matter for the police.”

  “They don’t believe me.”

  “Murder isn’t usually a matter of belief. There’s either a dead body or there isn’t.”

  “No one’s found a body.”

  “Then are you sure he’s dead? You’re going by Miss now, so the marriage is over. Did you consider he just went somewhere without telling you where? It’s what single people do.”

  “He wouldn’t be gone this long, and it’s not just me. No one has seen him.”

  “How long has he been missing?”

  “A week. I went to the police, but they dismissed me like you just tried to.”

  “Okay, but this is not my problem.”

  “It could be if I hire you.”

  “Let me be clear, I don’t want you as a client. If you’d like, I can make some recommendations, but that is as far as I’m going to help you.”

  “That doesn't seem like a very good business model.”

  “I guess that’s more my problem than yours. So, since I’ve already asked you nicely to leave…”

  “It needs to be you.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Yes, it does. It was your fault. You should fix it.”

  “How was it my fault?”

  “He let you see him make the drop. That must have made them mad. Why would they kill him otherwise?”

  “Lots of reasons. They wouldn’t even need a good one. It’s kind of what they do. Even if his disappearance has something to do with my surveillance, you need to ask yourself why I was there?”

  Miss Dithers decided she didn’t want to answer that one since that would plac
e the blame back on her.

  “Remember what I said earlier about how you’re going to leave if asking nicely didn’t work?”

  “I didn’t want to be married to him any longer, but he didn’t deserve this.”

  “You should have thought about that before you had me follow him.”

  “You know if they got him over that, they’ll come for you next.”

  “Is that supposed to make me want to help you?”

  “Maybe if you got them first. You wouldn’t be helping me, you’d be helping yourself.”

  Margot stood up. “I think I’ve given you more warning than you deserve.”

  “The man you saw already came after you, from what I understand.”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “I pay attention.”

  “Apparently not as well as you think because I thought I’d made it pretty clear what’s going to happen if you don’t leave.”

  Miss Dithers put her hands up. “Fine, if you don’t want to help I’ll go elsewhere.”

  Margot went around the desk, and Miss Dithers stood up and started for the door.

  “Apologize to Ms. Collins on your way out. She doesn’t deserve your abuse.”

  “Who said I was abusive?”

  “I did.”

  Miss Dithers left Margot’s office.

  Margot considered sitting down and checking her email but instead followed Miss Dithers out to make sure she told Ms. Collins she was sorry.

  She was already out of the office by the time Margot reached Ms. Collins’s desk.

  “Did she apologize?”

  “She didn’t say a word.”

  Margot started for the door.

  “You don’t have to make her. It wouldn’t be sincere anyway.”

  “I know, but I told her to.”

  Margot stepped out and saw Miss Dithers on her phone. She didn’t notice Margot come out of the office and didn’t turn around. Margot was about to say something to her, but since she was on the phone, out of general courtesy, she held her tongue.

  “She wouldn’t do it. She was very insistent,” Miss Dithers told the person on the other end of the line. After a bit of silence, she said, “Damn it, this isn’t fair, I did my best.”

  Miss Dithers put her phone back in her purse.

  Instead of admonishing her about her lack of an apology, Margot asked, “Who wouldn’t do what?”

  “I think you know the answer to that.”

  “What isn’t fair? Did someone ask you to hire me?”

  “Have you changed your mind?”

  “No.”

  “Then we have nothing to talk about.”

  Margot let her go. A decision she would soon regret.

  Chapter 3

  “Hey, you got a minute?” she asked Radcliff who was back to work after recovering from his wounds from the drive-by shooting. Though he would say he was ready to get back to being a homicide detective, they had him confined to desk duty. Since she was nearly caught up on the paperwork and Harry hadn’t returned her call, Margot had decided to give her favorite homicide detective a call instead.

  “Is this business? Or pleasure?”

  “Business.”

  “Bummer.”

  “Sorry, we can do the pleasure part tonight.”

  “I'm going to consider that a promise.”

  “Okay, it’s a promise.”

  “What’s the business?”

  “First, Myers and an F.B.I. agent came by wanting me to help them get dirt on Harry Lee.”

  “I suppose they told you about his guy Tommy.”

  “Some.”

  “Then you know more than I do. The O.C. Task Force took it before any of our guys got a chance.”

  “They think it’s the same shooter as the guy who shot you and Ames, had the same M.O.”

  “I was hoping that guy was already dead.”

  “You weren’t the only one. Speaking of that guy, has anybody learned anything else? Last we talked, he was still kind of a mystery.”

  “If they had I would have already told you, but so far, just like everybody else that’s tried to kill you lately, there are more questions than answers. All we’ve figured out was he went by Tito but no Titos we have records of, match his description. That wasn’t the name on his driver’s license, but his I.D. was bogus. As you know, it turns out he’s not immune to bullets either. They found where he was staying by the key he had on him, but there wasn’t anything there to indicate who he was or who he worked for.”

  “So, nothing new at all.”

  “Nope, not a thing. Trust me, they’re working it hard; at least until Tommy got shot, he was as close as we’ve got to a suspect in the murder of Ames and Burke.”

  “Not to mention almost killing you.”

  “Yeah, that’s why I wasn’t going to mention it.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to call and bring up a bad memory.”

  “That’s okay. You’re going to make it up to me later.”

  “I certainly am. One more bit of business, if you don’t mind.”

  “Okay.”

  “I had a visit from an old client. Miss Dithers. She thinks her husband, or ex-husband, has been murdered. She thinks an associate of our dead scumbag is the killer.”

  “You know when we found out the guy dead on the beach was the same guy you saw with Dithers, they grilled him pretty hard.”

  “I figured they did, but I never heard what came of it.”

  “That’s because there was nothing to hear. Dithers was as hard as an ex-con when it came to being interrogated. He never acknowledged having met the guy. I think if he ended up dead, I would have heard about it. A witness in a cop killing—even one six degrees from the actual crime like Dithers—ending up dead is going to get our attention.”

  “What about if he ends up on a missing person report?”

  “That too. Did she report him missing?”

  “She says no one believed her but said she filed a report.”