I packed my meager belongings back in the J.C. Penny’s and CVS bags I’d carried them here in—thankfully the maid who’d clearly already been in the room since the bed was made hadn’t thrown out the bags. I still wasn’t crazy about the idea of staying at Lady’s mansion on the hill, but it was free and given the short time frame to recover the necklace, it made sense.
I grabbed the room key and headed downstairs to check out. Unfortunately my friend wasn’t on duty—there went my hope for a discount on the room. I put the full fare on my credit card and made a mental note to ask Lady when payday was.
7
Last year had been a good one for me financially and I’d made a modest pile of money. I’d spent a good portion of it on a new car, a silver Honda Clarity, which at the moment was low on both battery for the electric motor and on gas. I swung into a station on Prairie Avenue on my way to Gardena to talk to Erin, the girlfriend. The fight with the sister/witch had dried my throat. Fortunately, the gas station had a little convenience store attached to it and I went inside to buy a bottle of water. It irked me to pay two dollars plus tax for a bottle of water I could buy at the grocery store for sixty-seven cents, but thirst will make me spend my money now rather than fifteen minutes later when I could find a regular market.
I opened my wallet and saw no green paper at all and only three quarters and four pennies in the change pocket. No problem. That’s why I carry a credit card, right? I was pulling out my card when a male voice behind me said, “Allow me.” A hand shot forward and put two dollars and change on the counter by the cash register.
We’re a friendly, helpful bunch here in the South Bay. It’s not unusual for a stranger to pony up if someone is short on cash for a small purchase. I turned to thank my benefactor. He was tall, thin, and nice looking, with the muscles and build of a dedicated runner. His brown eyes sparkled, betraying the intelligence of his mind, and his smile was wide and infectious.
“Thank you,” I said.
“My pleasure,” he said with a nod, and stepped up to put his purchases—a bag of chips and a larger bottle of water than I’d bought—on the counter.
I walked out smiling, happy over the brief encounter and bit of unexpected kindness that came with no expectations.
I got into my fully gassed-up car, popped the lid on the bottled water and took a deep swallow, then headed for Gardena. I’d programmed the address into the phone earlier. It didn’t take long for the voice to say, “Arrived. Your destination is on the right.”
The girlfriend’s apartment complex looked like a lot of apartment buildings in the area—two stories, yellow stucco walls, brown trim on the windows and fascia board, with black, wrought iron fencing around the grounds. Thankfully the gate didn’t need a code to open. I found a parking spot out front and went through the gate, oriented myself and found her door.
There was no answer to my repeated knock.
“She’s probably at work,” a voice behind me said.
I turned to see a middle-aged man dressed all in tan with grass stains on the knees of his pants and a trowel in his right hand.
I smiled and tried to look like I might be an acquaintance of Erin the girlfriend. “Do you know where she works?”
He shook his head. “No idea, but a lot of times she wears scrubs when she leaves in the morning.”
Doctors, nurses, and physician’s assistants in hospitals and in private practice wore scrubs. So did dental hygienists and students studying to be everything from medical assistants to chiropractors. I’d even been in a foot massage place once where the workers wore scrubs. Erin’s attire was less than useless in trying to ferret out where she worked.
“Okay. Thanks,” I said and started walking back toward the street.
I stopped and turned back to the gardener. “Does a man—” I fumbled inside my purse for the photo of Michael that Lady had given me, found it and pulled it out. “Have you seen this man around? Visiting Erin?”
The gardener looked at it and shook his head. “Not for a while, I think. He could have come around when I wasn’t here.”
I was about to thank him for his help when he reached out and touched my arm. He glanced over my head and dropped his voice low. “That’s her.”
I turned and put a wide smile on my face.
“Erin,” I called, making my voice sound like I knew her and giving a little wave.
She turned, an expectant look on her face until she realized she didn’t know me. I walked up to her.
“Hi. I’m Shay Greene. I’m looking for Michael Rawlings.”
I might as well have said I was the devil come to claim her soul, that’s how fast she turned and ran toward her apartment. I followed at a walk. I must have really spooked her because she was fumbling with her key at the door, unable to fit it into the slot.
I reached out and gently took the keys from her hand. “Here, let me help.”
Erin’s eyes were wide with fear. The moment the door was unlocked, she shoved it open, jammed inside, and tried to slam the door shut in my face.
I sighed. Two slammed-in-my-face doors in one day. I could start feeling like it was personal.
I leaned forward putting my shoulder against the door and pushing so she couldn’t shut it all the way.
“You don’t have to invite me in,” I said into the slim crack between the door and the jambs. “Just come outside where—“ I turned slightly and gestured at a mom and her two kids splashing in the building’s pool. “—you have witnesses. Come outside and talk to me for a minute. I promise it won’t take long.”
Erin warily stepped back outside. “What do you want?”
“As I said, I’m trying to find Michael Rawlings. Do you have any idea where he is?”
Erin spat on the little patch of grass next to the concrete in front of her door. “That cheatin’ bastard. No. I don’t. And don’t want to.”
“Cheating?”
Erin’s head jiggled like a bobble-head dog in a car on a rough road. “He comes to my house one night. Takes off his coat, gets comfortable, like always. When he gets up to take a leak, I notice a small white box in his coat pocket. Well, you can’t blame a girl for looking. Inside was a pearl necklace! I know pearls. I come from a line of pearl divers. These were aubergine, perfectly matched, and very, very valuable. I’m thinking they’re a gift for me. Michael knows I love and value pearls. He comes back out, sees me looking at them, grabs me around the throat and says ‘Put that down.’”
“Yikes,” I said sympathetically. “He doesn’t seem like a very good boyfriend.”
Erin shifted from foot to foot. “Up until that moment, I thought he was. He’d never laid a hand on me. Treated me with respect. But he got this wild look in his eyes when he saw me with the pearls. I dropped the necklace right onto the couch. He snatched it up, shoved it in his coat pocket and was out the door faster than you could say ‘mermaid’s tears.’ Mermaid’s tears, that’s what some people call pearls. Anyway. That was the last time I saw him. I phoned him the next day, but his phone was disconnected.”
I kept the sympathetic look on my face as I reached into my purse and pulled out one of my cards. “If you happen to see or hear from him, would you let me know?”
She took the card and tucked it into her pocket. “Sure, if you promise something terrible will happen to him when you get hold of the bastard.”
I smiled. “I can’t promise, but I think my boss is pretty unhappy with him and she’s not a nice person.”
Erin tapped the pocket where she’d stowed the card. “Good. I’ll definitely call you.”
I walked back to my car thinking it takes all kinds to make up a world.
Including, evidently, the man who’d paid for my water at the gas station. He was leaning against a black Ford Explorer and looking down at his phone.
I stepped in front of him. “Are you following me?”
He looked up from his phone and nodded.
Stalkers creep me out. I readied air to knock
him back if he lunged for me or tried to touch me in any way. I was glad I’d be going back to Lady’s house on the hill from here and not to my house.
“Well,” he said, flashing that wide, innocent-seeming grin, “not actually following. By coincidence we were coming to the same place.”
“Uh huh,” I said, my voice laden with sarcasm. I shifted to the left and walked past him.
“Did Erin Sakai have anything interesting to say?” he called after me.
I turned back and stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“Michael Rawling’s girlfriend. One of them at least. Seems he was quite the player.”
I stopped and turned to face him. “And you were coming to see her why?”
He shrugged. “We have the same boss and are looking for the same thing.”
That took me aback.
“Ms. Califia is big on redundancy,” he said.
I’d check on the truth of that when I got back to the house on the hill.
He eyed me up and down. “So, I take it you’re the ‘last ditch effort?’”
“The what?”
“I’ve been on this case for a couple of weeks now. The boss is getting nervous, with the deadline coming up. I knew she was interviewing. You’re the new face, so—”
Did competition make him angry? More determined to be the one to find the necklace? Did it matter who found it since we—I assumed it was the same for both of us—were on salary?
“Michael had more than one girlfriend?” I said.
The man nodded.
“Have you spoken to all of them? All except Erin, I mean.”
“Some.”
“And?”
“And I’m not sharing information,” he said. “There’s a hefty bonus for whoever returns the necklace.”
Except that he’d just shared two pieces of information: that there was more than one hunter looking for the necklace, and that Lady Califia had offered him a bonus for being the finder but hadn’t offered one to me. I’d have to speak with her about that.
“Good luck to you. Even with two of us hunting, my chances are at least fifty percent of finding it first.” I paused as if a thought had only just suddenly struck me. “If we shared information, that percentage could go to one hundred for both of us.”
He barked a laugh. “It’s clear you’re the new hire. Redundancy for Ms. Califia doesn’t mean one and a back up. There are five looking for the necklace that I know of, though two are partners, so four. There could even be more.”
The number took me aback. Why did Lady go through that elaborate dance to hire me if she already had people trying to retrieve the necklace? Did she really think I brought something extra to the table, or was it just a matter of throwing bodies at the problem until someone solved it?
But then, my specialty was rescue and recovery, not simply discovery of the pearls’ location. It was one thing to know where something was, another to secure and return it.
“Still five,” I said. “The partners may have to share the bonus, but they have twice the brains and eyes of those working alone. If I don’t find it first, my money’s on them to bring in the prize.”
“Because they are two,” he said.
“Exactly.”
He leaned back against the car and regarded me. “You’re suggesting we should partner as well.”
I shook my head. “I work alone. I’m suggesting we share information to save us both time and,” I paused, “redundancy. If you discover where the necklace is, you’re welcome to the bonus. My job is to recover the thing and bring it to Lady. The hunt is merely prelude.”
“The dangerous part.”
“Sometimes,” I said.
“What if I find and return the necklace?” the man said.
“Then you will have done the dangerous as well as the tedious part.”
He laughed and held out his hand. “Drew Miller. Do you like pho? There’s a great little place not far from here.”
I’d heard of him. The magic community wasn’t so large that you wouldn’t hear about others who did work similar to yours, but we hadn’t met. I clasped his hand and shook it. “Shay Greene, and I do, as a matter of fact.”
His eyebrows rose slightly, which I took to mean that he’d heard of me, too.
I followed him to a little hole-in-the-wall called Pho Eva in Your Heart. He waited while I finished parking my car and when we walked up to the restaurant together he held the door for me. I do appreciate a gentleman, even if he’s a rival.
It was a ‘seat yourself’ place. We picked a table and a college-aged waiter who I guessed to be Vietnamese trotted right over to take our order. I chose vegetarian pho chay. Drew opted for chow chow soup.
“Tit for tat,” he said after the waiter had gone. “You tell me what you’ve learned and I’ll tell you what I’ve learned.”
He’d worked for Lady before and would know the ins and outs of her habits and peculiarities—which all employers had—better than I would. And he was eyeing a big, fat bonus if he came in with the goods.
“You first,” I said.
He flashed a grin. “You don’t trust me?”
I hiked one shoulder in a shrug that gave my answer.
“Okay,” he said. “Michael Rawlings took the item two and a half weeks ago. He was seen making off with it, so there’s no doubt of his guilt. The item’s owner chased him herself, or rather her agents did, and saw him go to Lady Califia’s house.” He grinned. “Have you been there? It’s spectacular. Amazing view.”
I nodded, the barest acknowledgement. I didn’t want him distracting me with a tangent and then giving me no more information that I already knew.
“Ms. Califia didn’t see him that day. Edwin—have you met Edwin?”
“The big guy who lives there?”
Drew nodded. “Edwin said Michael came up to the door but then slunk around to the side of the house. I suspect he knew Calypso’s agents were on his tail and he wanted to throw them off, make them think he’d gone in the house. He’d be protected there. None of Calypso’s agents would dare invade Ms. Califia’s sanctum.”
Our meals arrived and we put off talking long enough to sample the fare. The pho was delicious. After three or four bites, I wanted Drew to get back on track.
“So Michael never went into the house?”
Drew shook his head. “Like I said, slunk around the side, according to Edwin, and then, after a while, just left.”
“Edwin didn’t find that odd or unusual?”
“He probably did, but he’s not one to invite people in when the boss isn’t there.”
“Or go outside and question Michael?”
Drew shrugged. “You have to ask him about that. He says he didn’t. He says he was more interested in and concerned about Calypso’s henchmen who never came on to the property but did hang around out front for a while.”
This was all vaguely interesting, but it wasn’t getting me any closer to retrieving the necklace.
“What led you to Erin Sakai’s apartment today?” I asked.
Drew put down his spoon. “I’ve been visiting his girlfriends one by one. Erin was next on the list.”
“How did you know about these women?”
“Lady gave me a list. She’d had Michael thoroughly checked out when he started trying to court her. They’d met at some charity function. He’s a trust fund baby and his fund is huge. Charities are his thing. This was some ‘Save the Seven Seas’ do. Calypso was there, wearing the pearls. Lady admired them. I suppose that’s why Rawlings stole them and tried to gift them to Lady. Or maybe he just liked the danger of trying. From what I know of him, Rawlings is easily bored and a fan of danger. Breaks up the monotony of being insufferably rich, I suppose.”
I laughed under my breath without humor.
Drew seized the moment. “Your turn.”
“I doubt I have much to offer. This is my first day on the job.”
“Time’s running out,” Drew said. “Ms. Califia’s hed
ging her bets bringing on one more. It’s Hail Mary pass time.”
That seemed right. Funny that she’d go through the whole interview process, complete with fake demon abductions. Though maybe Miranda was right when she said the godly get bored. As long as I got paid, I didn’t much care what she did for entertainment providing it didn’t inconvenience me.
“My first stop was Michael’s sister,” I said, “and if the family is rich, it only barely shows in her case.”
Drew held up a finger to stop me. “Michael is rich. The sister hardly got anything when the last parent died.”
“Why was that?”
Drew shrugged. “Daddy was a bastard. Very old school. He thought women should marry rich, not be independently wealthy themselves. He thought Miranda’s job in life was specifically to marry well and produce heirs for the Rawlings empire.”
“That wasn’t Michael’s job, too?”
“Michael’s job is to sow his wild oats until he’s forty, then take the reins. Heirs were a bonus, but that job was primarily handed to Miranda.”
I seriously disliked Michael Rawlings’s father.
“Michael’s sister sent me to Erin.” I had a thought. “Did you know that his sister’s a witch? A rather powerful one.”
He spooned up a healthy bit of soup. “I did. And it’s an interesting fact about her.”
“Because?”
“Because Daddy died under mysterious circumstances and I’ve wondered if the witch-daughter had anything to do with it.”
“What sort of mysterious circumstances?”
“His racing yacht, which he was sailing solo that day, sunk for no reason that anyone can ascertain, and he drowned. He definitely wasn’t suicidal.”
I pondered that. Miranda had a temper and her flight or fight instinct skewed to fight. Had Daddy told her what was in his will and it’d pissed her off enough to sink his boat?
If she had or hadn’t killed her father wasn’t any of my concern. My concern was finding and returning Calypso’s necklace. Still, it was something to keep in mind in case I came up against her again.
The Mermaid's Lament Page 5
