Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery Box Set

by Jamie Lee Scott

  Max, looking more casual in faded jeans, an army green polo shirt, and athletic shoes, turned toward us. When he smiled, he beamed. “Do you mind if we talk for a minute?”

  “No, not at all. Come on in, and I’ll introduce you to my business partner and friends.” I so didn’t want to introduce him. Damn it.

  I walked up to meet him, and touched his elbow. Mimi and Cortnie had been strangely silent. When I turned to look at them, I saw why. The fools were drooling. Literally drooling. How humiliating.

  Just for fun, I said, “Swallow, ladies.”

  Both of them glared at me. That made it all worth it.

  Max chuckled. He was obviously used to the attention.

  “Max Daniels, this is my business partner, Mimi Capurro.” I looked at him as I made the introduction and I swore I saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes. But it had to be my imagination, because there was no way these two could ever have met.

  Mimi finally came to her manners. “Max, my pleasure.”

  When I introduced Cortnie, I didn’t see the same flicker, but the introductions were over, and I could be done with the ladies. Or at least I thought.

  “Are you a coffee drinker?” Mimi asked. “I was just about to pour a couple of iced white mochas.”

  Max sat down and said, “I’d love one.”

  Mimi got up and sashayed into the kitchen, as if this guy was going to give her a second look. Cortnie knew better, and she just smiled as she followed Mimi out of the room, so they could go into the kitchen and do whatever it is girls do when they get into a room alone together. Giggle, fan themselves, who knows?

  Sit down, meet the family. Would you like me to call my mom, you can meet her, too? Not!

  Could this day get any better? Wait, what on earth was I complaining about? The car salesman I met this morning had looked me up and come to my place of business, unprompted. Does it get any better than this? He’s hot. I’m hotter. Oh yes!

  “I’m really sorry to barge in on you like this. I should have called, but I was in Salinas, and I thought I’d take a chance. I wanted to talk to you about the 911 E you drove this morning.”

  My heart sank. “It’s been sold.”

  Max sighed, then finally said, “You’re going to think I’m a creepy guy, but I looked you up after you left.”

  Creepy, but yeah, baby, he was interested. “Okay.”

  “Look, it’s not like you think.”

  Strike one.

  “I ran your driver’s license, and I looked up your history. I don’t want you to get caught up in something you can't get out of.”

  I wasn’t so smitten with this guy at the moment. “Cut to the chase. I’m not good with beating around the bush.”

  “I’m part of an FBI sting operation.” He pulled out a leather wallet and showed me his FBI credentials. “Marriotto Imports has been under surveillance for some time. We think they’re importing stolen cars. It’s quite an elaborate operation, and I can’t give you the details, but the car you’re looking at was stolen. If you purchase it, and the operation busts open, you’ll be out your money and your car.” Max frowned, looking sincere, but worried.

  “So just who exactly are you then?” This is the part I hated about being single. All of the lies you had to wade through to find the truth, and to find a decent individual.

  “I’m really Max Daniels. I’m working under my real name. I really do work for the FBI.” He shoved the credentials at me again. “I’ve been cleared to come talk to you. I’m not about to put my job, or the operation, in jeopardy for some good looking guy who came in to buy an expensive car.” The edges of his lips turned up a smidgen.

  “I’m not your average good looking guy, but that’s beside the point. If you looked me up, you know my history, I take it?” If he was FBI, he already knew more about me than most people.

  “Right,” Max admitted. “And so I had to contact you without calling you, to tell you not to buy that car.”

  I blew out a breath. “Now what? I wanted that car.”

  Max laughed. “Believe me, you don’t want that car. I know your car was trashed, but this situation would make that look like a day at circus.”

  “This is looking like a three-ring circus. So now what?”

  Mimi came back in with the iced mochas, and Cortnie followed her with a tray of muffins.

  Max accepted the mocha, but said, “Oh, you shouldn’t have, I’m watching my figure.”

  Mimi responded, “That’s good, I’m watching your figure, too.” Then blushed.

  Max frowned at me, making it clear the previous conversation was over. “But I do have another car I’d love to show you. If you aren’t busy tonight, maybe we can go for a test drive.”

  My heart definitely went pitter patter. I was acting like a girl, all hormonal and shit. I was too old for this childish stuff. I felt like I was going on a date, and it felt really cool.

  “Test drive it is. I’m so sorry the car I drove this morning didn’t work out.”

  Mimi sat down on the couch across from Max, I’m sure to get a better view as she conversed. “What happened to the car you looked at this morning?”

  “It’s no longer on the market,” I said. I put on my best disappointed face.

  “How does that work? Did someone buy it?” Mimi asked, acting like she was an idiot.

  “Something like that.” Max chugged his mocha to avoid having to say more.

  “Okay.” Mimi caught the gist, at least I think.

  “What did I miss?” Jackie came barreling into the reception room. She’d dressed down a bit from the morning’s funeral attire, too. Only Jackie never really dressed down.

  She wore brick red skinny jeans, with black sandals, and a tight purple shirt topped with a nicely tailored black jacket. The jacket hung past her hips, and covered her thighs, because no matter how thin and fit Jackie was, I think she still saw the fat girl in the mirror. This was an outfit that would look like a clown on a lesser woman, but looked like it had come straight off the runway on Jackie.

  When she’d been bigger, she had worked hard to dress well, and dress for her size. No one would accuse her of too short, too tight, or even remotely inappropriate. Professional, almost too professional, to the point where she’d forgotten the difference between work and leisure. But over the years, she’s relaxed a bit. She was lucky she had me, or she’d be wearing all black everyday, just like Mimi. I really needed to teach Mimi some fashion sense, or maybe Jackie needed to. Someone, anyone. Mimi needed help.

  “Miss about what?” I asked, all the while assessing her outfit.

  “Skinner?” She sounded annoyed.

  Mimi stood, then put her arm out to gesture toward Max. “Jackie, we have company. Charles’ friend Max stopped by.”

  This was Mimi’s way of telling Jackie to shut up.

  Jackie frowned, continuing into the room at a more delicate pace. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know we had guests.”

  Introductions were made all around, and now Max had yet another woman drooling over him.

  “I can catch her up to speed. I need to get to work anyway. I have some things I want to look up.” Cortnie stood. “Nice meeting you, Max. I hope to see more of you.”

  Mimi glared at Cortnie.

  Cortnie said, “Not like that kind of ‘more of him’. Jeez, Mimi.”

  Jackie looked Max up and down for good measure. He probably felt good and raped by now. She said, “Too bad all the good ones are married or gay.” Then she winked and followed Cortnie out of the room.

  Max laughed and called after her, “That’s so cliche.”

  I liked him. He had a sense of humor. I needed someone with a sense of humor after so many years with a fun hater. I needed a distraction from the losses in my life.

  “She’s cliche.” I didn’t know what else to say. We were done with our business.

  Mimi picked at the top of a muffin, eating bites the size of peas. Not sure what she was thinking, but I’d wanted her to d
o it somewhere else.

  Max put his glass on the table and stood. “Thanks for the hospitality. I’d better get back to Monterey.” Our eyes met. “Tonight, say around eight?”

  I did my best to remain neutral. “Sounds good. Eight it is. Do you want me to meet you in Monterey?”

  “Actually, if it’s okay with you, I’ll pick you up here, or at your house?” Max had already turned to walk away.

  Good thing he did, because little Chas got a tad excited about that prospect. “I’ll walk you to the car and give you my address.”

  “I already have your address, but I’d gladly have you walk me to my car.” I couldn’t see his face, because he didn’t turn back as he said the words.

  I’m glad, because I was probably grinning like a little boy.

  We left Mimi standing in the reception room, wondering what had just happened.

  When I returned, she was standing in the doorway of her office. “What was that all about? Who is he? And…Oh. My. God.” She fanned herself.

  I grabbed her by the arm, looked behind me to be sure Max hadn’t come back into the building, then escorted her into her office and shut the door.

  “Isn’t he incredible?” I flopped down on the chair in front of her desk.

  Mimi sat in the chair next to mine. “So spill it.”

  I told her about Marriotto Imports, the test drive, and the car I wouldn’t be buying. Then I told her why Max had stopped by.

  “How much does he know?” No longer giddy, she looked scared.

  “As much as I let them know about me.” I was confident in my hacking skills.

  “But he knows your work history.” She reminded me.

  “He knows what they know. Not all of it.”

  Mimi knew more about me than anyone in the world, including, and especially, my mom. We had similar government backgrounds, only hers was a piece of cake, mine not so much. For all the bitching and griping we do at each other, I trust no one else with my secrets, only her.

  “And if they find out?”

  I wasn’t so comfy in my chair now. “They’d have to be better than I am. And that’s just not possible.”

  Mimi shoved me. “You’re the best, but there is always a younger and cockier sharpshooter out there. Someone who can dig deeper, and knows where the bodies are buried.”

  Speaking of buried bodies, Lola chose that moment to grace us with her appearance. She had a bone in her mouth that looked to be the size of a human femur. We both turned to look.

  “What the hell is that?” Mimi asked.

  “I think Uta has fallen for Lola’s charms. Have you seen the other stuff she’s bought that spoiled girl?”

  Lola looked in our direction, then went to her bed in the corner. She dropped the bone on the floor, and pushed at her covers with her nose. When that wasn’t enough, she started scratching. Then she stopped. She looked at us, and we pretended not to be looking at her. Satisfied, she again scratched at the covers, and with her mouth, she picked them up and moved them. Back to the bone, she picked it up and placed it on her bed. Looking back again, to be sure she hadn’t been followed or watched, she shook her head, and pulled the cover over the bone. Once the bone was fully covered, she again used her nose to push everything into place, nice and neat, then strolled out the door, completely ignoring us as she left.

  “I guess she thinks if she ignores us, we aren’t really here,” Mimi said.

  “Right.” I watched her leave the room. “Now where were we?”

  “We were distracted by a dog.”

  “Oh, that’s right. And we were talking about where the bodies are buried.”

  “What about Bucky’s body?” Mimi leaned back, her head against the back of the cushioned chair, staring at the ceiling.

  “Not our problem.” I wasn’t ready to butt heads with Nick on another murder case.

  “But it is. Skinner is our client, and he may be a suspect.” She still stared at the ceiling.

  I looked up to see what she was looking at. Nothing stood out. “Again, not our problem.”

  “We can help him. And he did pay me quite a bit of money in cash. We should earn it.” It was like she was prodding me.

  “Give it back.” Now I knew my judgement was clouded by my thoughts of Max. Never give back the money. Work for it and earn it somehow. “Never mind. We can look into it. But I’m not going to have you and Nick in a fight when this is all done.”

  “We won’t. Besides, I don’t want to solve the case. I just want to make sure our client is innocent.” She sat up and looked at me. “Are you in?”

  I was in. She knew I couldn’t say no. The puzzle was the best part. “So what do we know so far?”

  “Let’s get everyone in here. We can work this as a team.” Mimi reached across her desk and dialed Uta’s phone. “Can you ask everyone to come to my office, please? Now?”

  “You know that’s wasting her time and talent? You could just get off your ass and go tell them to meet with us.”

  “There’s a lot of things I could do, but that’s what I did. And Uta is a super woman, so I’m sure she can handle it and still do her job just fine.”

  Laughing and smiling, Cortnie and Jackie arrived through the door from the kitchen. Lola tailing behind them. She made a beeline to her bed to plop down over her freshly buried bone.

  “Ladies!” Mimi and I were apparently not their first priority at that moment.

  They shut up and stared at me.

  “Mimi and I have been discussing Skinner, and we’ve decided he’s a prime suspect in the murder of Bucky Cox. The money he paid us to this point is mute, so in order to earn it, it’s our job to prove his innocence.”

  Jackie looked at me. “What if he’s guilty? Then what?”

  “Then we turn what evidence we have over to the police, and that’s that,” Mimi said.

  I wasn’t so sure that’s how it would work. I mean, we’d use the man’s own money to convict him? Somehow, that didn’t seem right. I didn’t correct her, because now wasn’t the time to hash that ending out. I let the answer pass.

  “That’s bullshit,” Jackie responded. “He hired us to look into the fraud, and the theft charges, not murder. We did our job, and now we wash our hands of it. I see things haven’t changed since I’ve been gone.”

  What had gotten up her ass? And since when did she have a say in what went on at our agency? Not to mention what cases we took. I wanted to stay out of the way on this, but being told what to do is not in my nature. At least not by my employees.

  “Excuse me? Who is the employee here? And who are the owners?”

  Jackie’s glare turned on me. “Oh, no, excuse me. Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?”

  What the hell? Jackie had always been a little outspoken, but never insubordinate. I gave Mimi two seconds to get a grip on her friend, before I had my say and then fired her ass. But Mimi said nothing.

  “Jackie, I’m talking to my employee. I don’t give a rat’s ass how long you’ve been Mimi’s friend, or how long you’ve been with the agency. This is now my company, too, and if you don’t like the way things are run, then you know where the door is. I’d be happy to have Uta pack your things and deliver them to your house for you.”

  Jackie pulled her company phone from her pocket and threw it at me. “Fuck you, Charles. I quit. And I can pack my own shit.”

  I caught her phone mid air. “Well, isn’t that nice? But no, you’ll be leaving out the back door as soon as you grab your purse. The rest of your belongings will be delivered to you. Please give me your keys.” I looked at Cortnie, who was standing with her mouth open. “You have something to say?”

  Cortnie closed her mouth.

  “Mimi?” Jackie screamed.

  Mimi had been strangely quiet. “You heard him, Jackie. You quit, so you’ll need to leave the property immediately. Leave your keys.” To me, she said, “We’ll have to have Uta call the locksmith and change the locks.”

  “What the
hell?”

  “Cortnie, can you give us a minute?” Mimi said.

  Cortnie didn’t even answer. She just turned and left the room, and headed toward the front desk, not toward the kitchen, which would be the door Jackie would be using when she left.

  When the door closed behind Cortnie, Mimi said, “I’m sorry, Jackie, but you’ve been difficult to get along with since you returned. You’ve questioned Charles at every turn. I don’t know what else to say. If you aren’t happy, then quit. But it’s true, if you quit, you leave with your handbag. The rest of your belongings will be returned to you. It’s in the company contract you signed when you returned from your hiatus.”

  “Mimi, we’re best friends, and this is all you have to say to me? You’re just going to let him do this?”

  Mimi gave me the look. I wanted to ignore it, but it was a girl thing. I would be able to hear them through the walls, so I left the room. I’d still know exactly what was going on. I would never not be in the know.

  112

  Mimi

  I walked over to Jackie and stood right in front of her. We’d been friends too long to just let this go. The last time she’d gotten married, she’d acted weird, and we didn’t talked for twelve years. I was too old to let another twelve years pass.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Since you’ve come back from your vacation, you’ve been snide, snappy, and difficult. This isn’t the Jackie I know and love. You haven’t picked up a single case, and you judge and criticize every move everyone makes, including Uta. And we all know Uta can run circles around all of us, especially for her age.”

  Uta was a sixty-something who had gotten back into the workforce when coming to work for Gotcha. She’d been a life force for the business, and done everything possible to get herself up to date with current technology and events, so she could be the best employee for us. Cortnie had hired her, and she had done the right thing. No twenty-something would have put the time and energy into the position of receptionist that Uta had put in, and yet Jackie had done nothing but chastise her since returning.