Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery Box Set

by Jamie Lee Scott

“Where does this lead us?” Nick was thinking aloud.

  “Do you have any suspects?” I needed to know his angle on this investigation.

  “I can’t share that information.” He was adamant.

  “What about Esme’s mom? You talked to her, didn’t you?”

  “Actually, we talked to her mom and her aunt.”

  “So you know she was living with her aunt, not her mom,” I said.

  Nick nodded. “It was a strange set up. Esme’s mom hasn’t seen her in a long time, and the aunt is an invalid. I don’t see either one of them wielding a sword and slicing off Esme’s head. Have you ever lifted one of those things?”

  I had to admit I hadn’t. Swords weren’t really my thing.

  “They’re heavy. The person who did this was strong. Even if Esme was drugged and complacent, the person had to have the strength to lift that thing and swing it hard. A little half-hearted swipe wouldn’t take a head clean off.”

  I saw the image of Esme’s body sitting in the chair. The slice was clean. No one had hacked at the neck. The deadly blow was one solid swipe.

  “What about Sebastian? He said they’d broken up, yet Esme wouldn’t leave him alone. What if she threatened him in some way? He seemed serious about keeping his business and personal lives separate. He even said he didn’t want the people at work to know about his involvement in the Camarilla game thing.”

  “But is that motive to kill the girl?” Nick sounded skeptical.

  “Not so much,” I had to agree.

  “I can’t find an angle I can get my teeth into.” Frustration filled his voice.

  “How close were Esme and Henry? You don’t think maybe she and Henry had a thing, do you?”

  “Didn’t you say she was with Sebastian, left the dinner with him?”

  “Yes, but maybe she flaunted Sebastian in front of him. Henry could be jealous. Maybe he and Esme had gotten close while she lived there. You know Lauren traveled quite a bit over the last few years. And Esme was always home to take care of the correspondence, the blog, email, you know. They could have gotten carried away.”

  Nick thought about it. “There’s a possibility. A very slim possibility. Maybe we’ll have to take another look at Henry. But I really don’t see it.”

  We could banter back and forth all afternoon. I looked at my watch. I had to get back to the office before I headed out for my decoy stint. I got to the point.

  “So look, here’s the deal, do you want to go take a look at the Camarilla game tomorrow night?”

  Nick smiled at the abrupt change of subject. “Sure. Where and what time?”

  That was more like it. “How about we meet at my office, and we can drive over together?” I suggested.

  “Let’s play it by ear. I have more than just this case at the moment, and I’m working alone until I get my permanent partner.”

  “Okay.” I was disappointed. I’d wanted to spend some time getting to know Nick again. At least we were being civil to each other.

  “Then we’ll talk tomorrow. Set it up. Does anyone know we’ll be there?” Nick asked.

  I was excited about seeing the game. I stood to leave. I watched him watching me and I liked the expression on his face.

  “No, we’ll only be watching from the periphery,” I said. I started out of the office.

  “Tell you what. They know us, but they don’t know Charles, right?”

  This sounded promising. I waited, not answering.

  “They want to have a positive profile. So let’s say we have Charles pose as a reporter and go in, take photos, and ask questions. He can throw in a few about Esme and see what kind of reaction he gets.”

  “Nick, you’re brilliant. At least we can get a neutral perspective on their attitudes toward Esme.”

  Now all I had to do was talk Charles into it.

  14

  By the time I got back to the office, Charles and the temps had all of the papers picked up and stacked in piles. Not an inch of the conference table could be seen beneath the weight of paper and folders. He stood with shirt sleeves pushed up past his elbows and was sorting through one of the piles on an extra table for the sorting process.

  “Hey,” I announced myself. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a system.”

  He looked up. If ever Charles looked flustered, it was now. “Since when am I a secretary?”

  I smiled. I could relate to his frustration. Paperwork wasn’t my strong suit, so why did I open a business where every case had reams of reports? At first, I used to put off the reports, but then it became overwhelming. Now I forced myself to write it all down at the end of the day. Just like a lawyer, when you are billing by the hour, keeping track means the difference between a steak dinner and macaroni and cheese. In my first year I probably worked at least a hundred hours for which I never got paid. Having Charles has made a difference. He makes sure I get every penny.

  “How about I give you another task?” I hurried over and kissed him on the cheek. “You know how much I appreciate you, right?”

  “Yeah, you only appreciate me when you need something. I’m a computer forensics tech, not a freaking file clerk.” Boy, he was in a bad mood.

  I handed him Esme’s phone, hoping to mollify him.

  He snatched it from me, turning it over and back. “What’s this?”

  There wasn’t anything special about it. It was a typical thin, Blackberry. “A cell phone,” I said.

  “Really?” Charles’s sarcasm increased with his temper. He really was in a bad mood.

  “Esme’s cell phone.” I beamed.

  Now Charles looked at the phone again with a new appreciation. “How did you get this?”

  “Sebastian gave it to me.”

  “How did he get it? Didn’t the police take it when they searched the house?”

  “Sebastian said he thought she dropped it in his car on Monday night. He was going to give it to the police when they stopped by, but since I got there first, he gave it to me. Lucky me.” I was almost giddy.

  Charles flipped the phone open. “It’s dead.”

  “I know. Do you have a charger that will fit it?”

  “If not, I’ll go buy one. This should be interesting.” He abandoned the papers he’d been sorting and left me standing there to assess the magnitude of the mess we had.

  I walked around to the other side of the conference table and looked closer at the piles. No matter how I tried to process the information, I couldn’t make sense of how he had everything organized. I picked up one set and flipped through one page at a time. There was no rhyme or reason to the stack that I could find.

  Charles came back as I set the papers back on the table. “We’re in luck, I have a charger. We’ll give it about an hour or so and then I’ll take a look. When I get the number, I’ll call the cell phone company and get a copy of the records for the last few months. I’m sure we’ll be able to match every number to those in her PDA.”

  “Good,” I said, and then pointed at the table. “Is there a method to your madness here?”

  “Madness is a good way to put it,” Charles scoffed. “The temp and I just tried to clean things up. It looked bad when clients came in. I wouldn’t give my business to a company with papers strewn across the floor.”

  I had to agree. “So this is just random stacks?”

  Miffed, Charles said, “Yes, Mimi, I can’t work miracles. Every piece of paper we had in this office was on the floor.”

  “I wasn’t criticizing. I was asking. This is a lot to absorb.”

  “This is taking away from our clients, you know.”

  The thought made me sick. We could ill afford to neglect our clients in order to clean this up. When I got my hands on the person who did this, I was going to make a mess of my own on his face.

  I said, “Do you think we should hire a few more temps and have them work with minimal supervision, so we can get back to work?”

  Charles frowned. “That’s all well and good, but we have to h
ire bonded temps. The stuff in these files is confidential. And what happens when we need to have something for a current case, and we can’t get to it?”

  “All the more reason to have extra help putting everything back in order,” I said. My phone rang. “Hold on.”

  I didn’t look at the caller ID. “This is Mimi.”

  “Are you really that stupid? I told you to leave this alone. If you don’t, you’ll be in worse shape than your offices.” It was that voice again.

  Now I was annoyed. “Look you idiot, cell phones can be tracked. I’ll know who you are within minutes.”

  “Throw away phones aren’t traceable.” The line went dead.

  And that’s where the caller was very wrong. The disposable phones that come with prepaid minutes are easily traceable. All I, or rather Charles, needed to do was track the activation time and place. From there, I admit, it was a crap shoot. We’d have to get lucky enough that the seller had video surveillance. Most places with electronics have some sort of camera system in place.

  “Who was that?” Charles asked.

  I sighed. “Not sure. I’ve been getting calls all week telling me to back off. Since the only thing I’ve been working on is Esme’s murder I guess maybe it’s related to that. I haven’t really thought much about it. I mean what coward hides behind stupid cell phone threats?”

  “Maybe the kind that kills people.” Charles looked concerned.

  “I guess I should be worried, especially if someone has my cell phone number. It’s not a number I give out to everyone.”

  “It’s on your business cards, Mimi.” Charles reminded me.

  “That’s right. Hell, it could be anyone.”

  “Does anyone related to this murder have your card?”

  “Lauren, Esme, well, I guess she doesn’t count now, Sebastian, Henry, Lauren’s publicist Pat, and I guess Nick.” I couldn’t remember everyone I’d given my card to.

  * * *

  “Give me your phone. We’ll see if it’s your hot boyfriend or not.” Charles grinned. He thought he was so funny.

  “One, he’s not my boyfriend. Two, what will I do for a phone?”

  He grabbed my phone from by hand before I could react. “It won’t take that long. I’ll have the number traced before you can get through a single pile on this table.”

  I looked at the daunting task. No thanks. “Tell you what. You trace the number and I’ll call Manpower to get two or three temps here in the morning. Until then we’ll forget this pile is here. What they don’t get to we’ll work on this weekend.”

  “I don’t work weekends.” Charles turned on his expensively loafered heel and left the room.

  “Since when?” I yelled after him. He didn’t bother to answer me.

  I went to my office and looked up the number for Manpower temp services. I had the number and was dialing it when Jackie walked in. I looked up and put my hand up for her to wait.

  My call was short and sweet. They’d have three employees at the office in the morning. Yes!

  “How was your day?” I asked Jackie.

  She plopped in the chair across from me. “Long. Sorry I didn’t get to help much with the paperwork. I had three appointments today, and I chose to meet the clients at restaurants instead of here. I’ll pad my expense reports.”

  “Haha.” Thinking about the state of the office, I said, “Smart.”

  “You have a decoy appointment tonight, don’t you?” She raised her brows.

  Even though I appreciated the business, I blew out a breath and complained, “Yes.”

  “You want me to take it?” She sounded like she wanted me to say no.

  “Yes,” I said. Then I added, “No, I need a break from this case. I’ll go. Besides, I had it planned into my schedule today.”

  Jackie relaxed. “Good. I haven’t seen my kids in a few days. I was hoping to have dinner with them tonight.”

  “Jackie, you need to tell me when you’re taking on too much.” Last thing I needed was to lose a good employee from being overworked.

  “You know I’d work any and all hours if you needed it. I don’t get paid for sitting on my butt. We bill by the hour, remember?”

  “I’ve got this tonight. You go home and enjoy your kids.” Her kids were a joy. She was lucky.

  Jackie stood. “Thanks. Have fun tonight.”

  I watched her leave, thinking aloud, “What a sleazy business we’re in.” Then I thought about it. I’d rather stalk cheating spouses than track down murderers any day.

  Charles appeared in the doorway. “How many calls did you say you’ve gotten?”

  I said, “Three, I think.”

  He came all the way into my office. “Are you sure?”

  “Give or take,” I said. I wasn’t absolutely sure. “Why?”

  “I tracked the incoming calls and there are four different numbers with unknown. Did you get your message from Sebastian?”

  “Sebastian? What message?”

  Charles put my cell phone on speaker and dialed my voice mail system. After the prerequisite dialing and passwords Sebastian’s voice came on.

  “I’ve been thinking about you since you left today. I really need to see you again. Call me.” He left his number and repeated that he really needed to see me.

  “How could I have missed that?” I picked up the phone and started to dial.

  “Wait,” Charles closed my phone. “His was one of the unknown numbers.”

  “Do you think he’s making the calls?” I didn’t believe it.

  “I think it’s weird that you got a call, and then immediately after he left this message.”

  “Are they the same number?”

  “No. But he’s an IT guy. I don’t think he’d be dumb enough to call and threaten you, then call back and leave a message from the same phone.”

  Sebastian was no dummy. “Fine. I’ll call and see what he wants.”

  Charles waited.

  I dialed and noticed it wasn’t the number for Deriw. He answered on the second ring.

  “Mimi. Thanks for calling.” He sounded winded.

  I kept my voice neutral. “Hi, Sebastian. What did you need?”

  Not sounding as self-assured as he had earlier in the day, he said, “I need to see you.”

  “What about?” Couldn’t he tell me anything I needed to know over the phone? It’s not like we were talking about National Security here.

  “I just need to see you,” he repeated.

  This line was getting old. “Look, Sebastian, I’m really busy.”

  “Take me off the speaker phone.” He spat the words out.

  I did. I picked up the phone. “What?”

  “Please, I just want to get together and have drinks. Besides, you weren’t straight with me earlier.”

  “Not straight about what?” What could I have possibly lied to him about?

  “It’s not important. Meet with me tonight,” he pleaded.

  Will the real Sebastian please stand up? His tone wasn’t the secure, “I can have any girl I want” one that he’d had while I was there earlier. It sounded childish and desperate.

  “I can’t. I have a previous date tonight.” I did, no matter that my date was a married man that didn’t know he was meeting me.

  “Cancel it,” he demanded.

  “No, Sebastian. Look, I have to go. I have a lot to do before my date tonight.” Then, to ease his impatience, I said, “Maybe we can get together tomorrow after the Camarilla.”

  Eagerly, he said, “That would be great. I can’t wait. I’ll call you.”

  I wanted to say, “I’m sure you will.” But I said, “Okay, bye.”

  I disconnected. Charles stared at me.

  “What was that?”

  Still puzzled about the call, I said, “I don’t know. He wanted to get together with me. He sounded desperate.”

  “How did your meeting go with him?”

  “Well, I told you he gave me the cell phone. He was very open.” I gave Cha
rles the play by play of my conversation with Sebastian, and how it did or didn’t mesh with what Henry told me. I also told him how cocky and flirty Sebastian acted.

  “So you think he’s got the hots for you?” Charles wiggled his brows.

  Oh, brother, he really wanted me to have a man.

  Charles asked, “What’s this about meeting him after the Camarilla?”

  Now I needed to be savvy. I had to get Charles to say yes without a fight. I didn’t have time to beg.

  “It’s this live role-playing game they play in Santa Cruz.”

  “Like Dungeons and Dragons?” He sat on the edge of my desk, curious.

  “Sort of, but it’s vampires. Ever heard of the Masquerade?”

  “No. Vampires, huh?” He was curious.

  “Yeah, Esme was a part of the game, and since our other lead has been wiped out, we’re going to look at the players. Henry and Sebastian are players too. It’s just too good a lead to pass up.”

  “Where is the tie-in with Esme’s murder?” Charles sounded skeptical.

  So was I, to be honest, but it couldn’t hurt to take a look at how the game worked. “I’m not sure. But Lauren’s books, the sword, and the game are tied to vampires. There has to be some sort of connection.”

  Charles raises his brow. “I have to agree.”

  Okay, here we go. “You want to come with Nick and me tomorrow night?”

  Charles popped up. “Sure. What time?”

  “Are you sure?” Charles never wanted to go anywhere. Other than work, he usually stayed home in his cocoon.

  “Yes, and don’t ask why,” Charles said.

  “I won’t. But you can’t change your mind. Nick wants you to go in and act like you’re a reporter. Take pictures, ask questions, you know.” Here was the rub, and I knew he’d change his mind.

  “You want me to bring our digital camera from the office?” His cooperation was really out of character and puzzled me.

  “Okay, what gives? You have never agreed to go out without asking if you’re getting paid for it. And now you just say, ‘Okay, you want me to bring the digital?’”

  “I didn’t say it that way. And if Nick’s going along, why would I argue about it?” Charles winked.