Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  “You want to do surveillance again? But on your own this time?”

  She shrugged. “I live right there. I’m known in the neighborhood. I wouldn’t stand out that much.”

  “How about the fact that they know you work for me?”

  She shook her head. “Even my own aunt doesn’t know what I do or who I’m working for.”

  “Why not?”

  “They already condemn me for what I am. I don’t need their disapproval over my choice of jobs too.”

  “What’s wrong with private investigation? And Jenni, you’re just a researcher.”

  “I still don’t want any of them getting the wrong idea about me…or the job. I just think it’s better this way.”

  Bosch shook his head. “Whatever,” he said. “It’s your life.” He considered the situation. “Okay,” he said. “Give it a shot, but don’t put much effort into it. I don’t want you hanging out there and causing too much attention to yourself. That could bring up a lot of suspicions as to what you’re doing there. And whatever you do, be careful! At the first sign of trouble, run! And call me! Got that?”

  “Yeah, sure, Mr. B,” Jenni replied happily. “I can handle it. No problem.”

  Robbie Bosch was already having second thoughts about it, but… “Go ahead then. But like I said, just be careful! You never know when the most seemingly normal situations can turn dangerous.”

  “Don’t worry, Mr. B,” Jenni replied confidently. “I’ve got this.”

  Bosch was worried that he had already made a mistake with this. But the girl did live right in the neighborhood, so it only made sense.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Her feet hurt. This was dumb. This was a big mistake. Why had she thought she could learn something useful about the Granger case by standing on the sidewalk a few blocks from her house and watching – the entire world go by. Just because Todd Granger lived in the building across the street from where she was standing, didn’t mean he was going to come out and announce to the world that he was a big-time thief. What had she been thinking?

  It was a little after nine-thirty at night, and she was just considering going home and calling it quits, when a small truck pulled up to the curb in front of the building where Granger lived. She watched as two men got out and hurried up to Todd Grainger’s door. She pulled her cellphone from her backpack purse and started taking pictures – pictures of the truck, the license tag, and she even tried to zoom in on the guys who had gotten out of the truck. Leaning against the building wall behind her, she pretended to be playing a game on her phone, while in reality she was taking more pictures.

  She saw Todd Granger come out, and she recorded several pictures of him slapping hands with the two guys. She switched her phone to movie mode and recorded him getting into the truck with the other guys. Where were they going? Her eyes caught sight of a possibility. Before she could think better of the idea, she ran up right behind the truck, jumped up on the back bumper, and was holding desperately onto one of the handles at the back end of the truck. She knew it was a bad idea when she did it, but when the truck started moving, she knew it was an even worse idea.

  Several times the truck stopped at traffic lights or at stop signs, and she tried to convince herself to jump off. She passed a lot of people on the sidewalks who saw her hanging onto the back of the truck. What if a cop saw her? She’d be in big trouble for sure! She’d never be able to explain it. But it wasn’t until the truck started moving faster, and she saw it entering the interstate, that she got really terrified. Of course by then, if she tried to jump off, she’d kill herself for sure. Terrified out of her wits, she had no choice but to hang on for dear life.

  Fortunately, the truck pulled off of the interstate a few exits up, and she breathed a sigh of relief that she was still alive. But the truck kept going. Where? At the slower speeds, it was still really dangerous, but at least it was easier to hang on.

  And then the truck stopped. Traffic light maybe? She didn’t know. She wasn’t even sure where in the world they were. Only that it was next to a big fence. The truck started moving again, slowly, and she realized they were going through some kind of security gate. The gate closed after them. She could see the keypad where they must have entered a code to get in. Thirty seconds later, she realized the truck was diving through a maze of storage units.

  When the truck slowed down to make a turn, she jumped off. Where was she? She had no idea, but now on foot, she continued to follow the truck while trying to stay as much out of sight as she could. It was easy enough in the rows and blocks of big garage doors. She saw the truck finally pull to a stop. She stopped at the corner of a block of units and pulled her phone out again. She wasn’t very far from the back of the truck so she did her best to stay around the corner and as out of sight as possible.

  Aiming just her phone, she took pictures and videos, especially of when they opened the back of the truck and then opened the big garage door to the storage unit. Both the inside of the truck and the storage unit appeared to be filled with stuff. She watched as the three guys unloaded TVs, computers, and boxes of all sorts from the back of the truck and put them all into that storage unit. She even got good close-up pictures of the numbers on the doors of the neighboring units so it would be easy to tell which number unit they were working in.

  When she thought she had enough, she quietly headed back the way they had come. Now she just had to figure out what storage place she was at. While she walked, she started uploading some of the photos and videos to Bosch Investigating’s Dropbox account on the web. Mr. Bosch had had her do that before when she had gone with him on some simple surveillance jobs. If anything happened to the camera they were using, then the photos wouldn’t be lost. But this time, Jenni realized she had too many pictures to upload that quickly.

  When she finally reached the front of the storage company, she took more pictures showing the office and particularly the name of the company. With that information, she figured it was time she got herself out of there. She turned toward the gate and realized she couldn’t go anywhere. The gate was closed, and it appeared that the only way to open it was by putting a code into another keypad. She studied the gate carefully. It was too high to climb, and besides, there was barbed wire strung all along the top of it. Security! Darn it! How the heck was she supposed to get out?

  Finally, with a sigh of frustration, she pulled her phone out again and phoned Mr. Bosch. “Hi, Mr. B.”

  “Jenni,” Robbie Bosch’s voice came. “Did you learn anything from watching Todd Granger’s apartment?”

  “Um…yeah. A lot. But…well…now I’ve kind of got a problem.”

  “What?” Bosch replied, his voice now full of concern.

  “Well, I’m kind of stuck in a storage place somewhere and I can’t get through the front gate to get out. It needs a code for the keypad.”

  “You what? Jenni, where the hell are you?”

  “I’m not really sure. We went up a couple of exits on I-75 and then…”

  “You what? How? You don’t have a car.”

  “Um…can you ask me about that later? But the name of the place is Gainesville Secure Storage. I know it’s not far from the interstate, but I don’t know what exit exactly. Just that we went up a couple of exits before turning off.”

  “We? Who’s we?”

  “Um…ask me that later too.”

  “Jenni. Just hang tight. I’m on my way.”

  “Oh, and Mr. B. I’m uploading a bunch of pictures and videos to your Dropbox account. It looks like Todd Granger has been working with a couple of other guys, ripping places off. There’s a storage unit here with a ton of stolen stuff in it.”

  “Are they still there with you?”

  “They’re back at their storage garage. I’m out front.”

  “Stay out of sight. Don’t let them see you!”

  “Don’t worry Mr. B, I just need a way home.”

  “I’m on my way Jenni.”

  R
obbie Bosch hung up the phone. “Damn girl!” he muttered.

  “What’s wrong?” his wife asked.

  “Jenni! Somehow she’s bitten off more than she can chew and now she’s stuck inside some storage facility somewhere.”

  “She what? How the heck did she do that?”

  “Heaven only knows!”

  While she waited, Jenni continued to upload the photos and videos from her phone to the Dropbox account. While she did that, she stood back by the office door. When she saw the truck approaching the gate, she ran out and followed it. The truck stopped at the gate, then after a few moments, it began moving again. She walked out right behind it. She didn’t even glance at the gate as it closed. The truck turned to the left, she turned to the right. She was out. Now all she needed was a ride home. Hopefully, Mr. B would be along soon.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “You did what?” Robbie Bosch roared as he and his wife stood in front of Jenni out in front of the storage company.

  “I hitched a ride on the back of their truck. How was I supposed to know where they were going?”

  “You shouldn’t have tried following them in the first place!”

  “You could have been killed dear,” Shirley Bosch added.

  Jenni rolled her eyes. “Yeah! Tell me about it. I was scared to death!”

  “You are so fired for this!” Robbie Bosch told her.

  “Robbie!” Shirley Bosch exclaimed.

  Jenni was shocked. “But Mr. B, I was just trying to do my job.”

  “Your job was supposed to stay in your own neighborhood. Not hitch a ride on the back of a truck where you could have been killed.”

  “So you’re firing me for that?”

  “I’m firing you for not having the common sense to stay safe!”

  “Robbie, don’t!” his wife pleaded.

  “Get in the car,” he told both of them. “Let’s get her home.”

  Jenni was heartbroken. She had been stupid and had lost her job. But she was just trying to continue the investigation. And not only had she continued it, she had solved it! But she had been reckless in the process, and so she was now out of a job. What was she going to do? She was never going to get the money for her transition.

  Fifteen minutes later, Bosch pulled the car up in front of the cheap apartment building where she lived. “Jenni,” he said before she could get out. “Don’t come into the office for a few days. If what you told me is true and you’ve documented all that in pictures, then it would be better if you stayed away until I tell you it’s safe to come back.”

  Jenni was surprised, and elated. “You mean I’m not fired?”

  “No. Not this time. But heaven knows, I should fire you. Just…don’t come near the office till I let you know it’s safe.”

  “Safe? Why wouldn’t it be safe?”

  “Because if what you told me is true, and those pictures you uploaded prove that, then I’m going to go around our client and directly to the police. I don’t want your name and what you did to get those pictures to come out. Understand? Riding on the back of a truck on the interstate? Do you really want to answer questions about that to the police?”

  “No. Not really.”

  “Good. Don’t worry. It should just be a day or two. I’ll let you know. When is your trip to the keys?”

  “Not for two more weeks.”

  “Then go do some shopping for your trip or something. Enjoy yourself for a few days. Just stay away from the office.”

  Shopping? Jenni didn’t have money for shopping. Not until Mr. B paid her for her help. But at least she still had a job. “Thanks Mr. B,” she said as she opened the car door.

  “Jenni,” Shirley Bosch stopped her before she could get out. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “Yeah. Me too! Thanks.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Five days later, as Jenni often did, she went into her Aunt’s bedroom while her aunt was watching TV. From her pocket, she pulled two hundred dollars and set the money on her aunt’s night table where she would find it. Her aunt had never asked for a dime from her for staying with her, but Jenni always gave her what money she could, saving the rest of what little she made to keep herself in clothes and anything else she needed to appear feminine to the rest of the world.

  Mr. B had waited five days before he called her back into the office. He had paid her twice as much as he ever had before. He had set five hundred dollars in cash down on her little table and said, “Good job on the Granger case. Now get out of here again and don’t come back till I say it’s okay. Stay away from here Jenni. Got that?”

  “Why?” she had asked.

  Mr. B had just shaken his head and said, “I’m worried about something and I don’t want you involved.”

  “What?”

  “Hopefully, nothing. Now go. Stay away…maybe until after your trip. Just don’t come near here. Understand?” Without another word of explanation, he walked back into his office.

  To Jenni, his mood had seemed odd. Troubled. She looked down at the money he had just given her. Five hundred dollars. A lot more than he had ever given her before. As far as she could remember, it was the most money she had ever held in her hand in her life. Still puzzled by it all, she had left the office and gone home.

  So now she was quietly leaving twice as much money for her aunt as she ever had before. When she gave her aunt money, she never told her she was leaving it. She always just set it on her night table where she could easily find it. Only once had her aunt said anything about it, the very first time she had done it. Her aunt had hugged and kissed her and thanked her. Since then, it had been her quiet way of saying thank you to her aunt, and her way of trying to help out with everything for being able to stay in the apartment with her.

  As she walked back out of the bedroom to join her aunt in front of the TV, one of the biggest thoughts that had been on her mind for the last two years came back to her again. Why couldn’t her aunt have been her mother instead? She didn’t know when she had started thinking of her aunt more like her real mother, but it had been that way for some time now. She imagined that the way they were together, was the way every mother and daughter relationship should be. Why couldn’t her aunt have been her real mother? How wonderful would her life have been? And for that matter, why couldn’t she have been born with the right body – and have her aunt for her real mother. That was the one fantasy she thought about and wished for the most. How great would her life have been then?

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “What’s the word?” the voice on the phone asked.

  “Huh! Granger’s nephew never gave up anything or anyone at all. So basically, the police still don’t know squat!”

  “Good! Hopefully, it will stay that way. Now that his uncle has bailed him out of jail, we should be able to move forward again. And I’m afraid that there’s a loose end that I think should be taken care of as well. No use inviting trouble.”

  “Best not to let me know about it.”

  “No. Of course not.”

  Chapter 3

  “Love that dress on you Jenni,” Sally said as Jenni came into her bedroom.

  “Thanks, Aunt Sally,” Jenni replied as she held the full skirt of her new dress out with one hand and twirled around to show it off. She just loved the light colorful pattern of the dress she had gotten just for this trip, one of two she had splurged on along with a few new pairs of long loose comfortable shorts. “All set?” she asked.

  “Just about,” Sally replied as she gathered the last few things on her bed and stuffed them into her small suitcase. She struggled to close it and struggled even more to zip it shut. “There!” she exclaimed as if she was out of breath from the effort. “Where’s your bags?”

  “Already by the door,” Jenni replied.

  Sally walked over to her niece and grabbed her lightly by her shoulders. “You’re acting much better about going. Have you had a change of heart?”

  Je
nni’s face went from smiling and happy, to one of reluctant resignation. “Not at all! No…way! I’m just looking forward to a little vacation in the car with you. And I figure that nice vacation is going to end just as soon as we get there. So drive slow Aunt Sally, for my sake!”

  Sally laughed. “Let’s get out of here. It’s still a long drive.”

  “And I already can’t wait to get home again,” Jenni replied.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  According to Jenni’s computer, it was an eight-hour drive from Gainesville down to the town of Islamorada in the middle of the Florida Keys. But thanks to an extra-long lunch, they made it in a little over nine hours instead. Plus, another ten minutes for them to find where the boat launched from to take them out to the island where the hotel was.

  “Can we turn around and go back now?” Jenni asked as Sally parked their rental car.

  Sally looked skeptically at her, but she also silently agreed. Together, they lugged their bags from the car to the covered pavilion where they guessed they would have to wait for the boat. But even before they got out of the car, they could see they weren’t the only ones waiting.

  “Hi Greg. Hi Lili,” Sally greeted her oldest brother and his wife. “Hey Ashley,” Sally greeted their teenage daughter as she went over and gave Ashley a brief hug.

  “Hey Aunt Sally,” Ashley replied as she hugged her aunt, but her eyes remained fully focused on Jenni.

  Jenni held back at the entrance to the pavilion area. It was just her Uncle Greg and his family…minus their two older sons who were married and had families of their own. And Ashley was only two years younger than she was. She saw the way each of them was staring at her. Going back to the car and just going home seemed even more like a good idea than ever. Why had she given in and agreed to come? For her aunt of course. That was the only reason she was here.

  “Kyle?” Lili asked questioningly. “Is that really you?”

  Ugh! Jenni absolutely hated it when anyone called her Kyle. Couldn’t they see that she wasn’t Kyle anymore? Couldn’t they get that in their heads. Back when she had first moved in with Aunt Sally, she had sent everyone in the family an email telling them all about what she was doing with her life – and about her new name! “It’s not Kyle anymore. It’s Jenni!” she said angrily. “Jenni! Get used to it. If you’ve got a problem with that, then tough! That’s your problem. Get over it. But it’s Jenni now. Jenni…with an i.” She saw the angry scowls each of them were giving her. Let them gawk. Let them hate her. But she wasn’t going to be known as Kyle anymore. Kyle was gone. She was Jenni now. Forever!