Shadow Of Pretense

by Nora Kane

  As she got on the freeway Doreen Gomes called.

  “I hope you’re bringing some good news,” Margot told her.

  “I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I tracked down the plate you gave me. If you were hoping it belonged to a rental car then I guess it’s good.”

  “That wasn’t what I was hoping for, but it is kind of what I expected. I don’t suppose you ran who was leasing it as of yesterday?”

  “As of last night, no one. They turned it in around five o’clock yesterday afternoon. Before that? Still no one. This no one had a name and a driver's license, but they were both bogus.”

  Margot was disappointed but not surprised. It sounded like whoever leased the blue sedan drove it straight back to the rental company and turned it in. It looked like their play in the parking lot may have backfired. Margot doubted they turned in the car and went home. They were probably still after her only now she didn’t know what they were driving.

  “I don’t suppose you checked to see if your bogus name and driver’s license rented another vehicle?”

  “I did. The answer is no. I flagged the license, so if they used the same one somewhere else, it would come up. This kind of thing actually falls under my job description but so far no dice.”

  “Bummer.”

  “Yeah, bummer. You mind telling me what you’ve gotten yourself into this time?”

  “I don’t exactly know, but they’ve been tailing me the last couple days, maybe longer. When Mal and I tried to confront them, they drove off, apparently straight to the rental car company to turn it in and probably start over in a different car.”

  “What do you think they want?”

  “Well, I did get in the middle of a cartel hit on an informant. I considered it might be the feds since they weren’t happy about my involvement either, but they wouldn’t do it this way.”

  “This isn’t good. Lucky for you, this favor crosses over into my real job. I’ll see if I can track down another rental using that same license so you have some idea what to look for and I can put out a BOLO and ideally get them picked up.”

  “That would be nice.”

  “Yeah, but if they’re smart, they won’t use the same I.D. twice. Do you think they know you got the plate number?”

  “They knew we were looking at them and the plate was visible, so yeah, probably.”

  “That doesn’t bode well for you. They have to consider the idea that the I.D. they used was burned when you got the plate.”

  “They couldn’t know I have a person to run it.”

  “They’d better not since I’m that person, but if they’re smart, they’re going to play it safe and assume you do. You need to play it smart and assume they’re still out there.”

  Margot checked her mirrors, wondering if they were behind her now.

  “I’ll keep looking for another rental that I.D.,” Doreen continued. “If I find one, I’ll call with the make and model A.S.A.P. I’ll see if the fake license they used left a trail as well. In the meantime, maybe you should stay inside.”

  “Too late for that. I’m on my way to Riverside.”

  “Well, watch you back then. I need you to stay alive long enough to repay all these favors I’ve been doing for you.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  As soon as Doreen ended the call, Margot called Mal and filled him in.

  “You should stay home and lie low,” Mal told her. “Maybe I should come over.”

  “That’s what Doreen said, minus the part about you coming. That ship has sailed, at least for today. I’m almost to Riverside to talk to Danielle Dandridge.”

  “That’s a long way to go for someone who probably doesn’t know anything.”

  “You’re the one that said ‘Running down leads you know are bullshit is half the job’ and I needed to do my ‘due diligence’.”

  “That was when you’re talking to a kid not driving up to Riverside with a couple of cartel hitmen on your tail. Give me the address and I’ll meet you up there.”

  “I’m over an hour ahead of you. Most likely I’ll be on my way home before you get here.”

  “You could wait.”

  “And standing still for an hour or more would help me stay alive? If they are on me, I’m better off on the move.”

  “Maybe, I still don’t feel good about it.”

  “We can’t be together twenty-four seven.”

  “We can’t? I’ve been thinking about it and it wouldn’t bother me. We were good together, Margot.”

  “Until we weren’t. You seemed fine with us just being friends until Radcliff asked me out.”

  “I just think you could do better.”

  “And you’re better?”

  “Yeah, I think I am.”

  “Maybe you are but come on, we’ve already tried it and it didn’t work.”

  “Maybe that’s in our favor. Maybe we learned from our mistakes.”

  “Maybe, or maybe it’s like…those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

  “Maybe, but think about it, especially now when we both need someone to watch our backs. We might never make a nice married couple, but I can’t think of anyone I’d want by my side when the shit goes down.”

  When Margot didn’t answer right away, Mal added, “Would you really rather have Radcliff in a gunfight?”

  “I’d rather not get in a gunfight at all. It’s not a competition between you two anyway. You're still my friend and partner, Radcliff just asked me to dinner once.”

  “And you accepted.”

  “Yeah, I like dinner. It didn’t work out anyway.”

  “So, next time he asks you’re going to say no?”

  “I didn’t say that. It doesn’t really matter to you or it shouldn’t.”

  “Because we’re just friends.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “Because I’ve been thinking we should go back to being more.”

  “Sorry Mal, but I haven’t been thinking that.”

  “Okay, but promise me you’ll think about it? Or at least think about one of us moving in with the other until we know no one is trying to kill us, even if we’re just roommates with some history?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  After Mal hung up Margot spent the rest of the drive trying not to think about her and Mal’s past or future relationship and instead concentrated on trying to spot a tail.

  Chapter 11

  When she pulled up to the address Ms. Caldwell gave her, a broad-shouldered man in a stained white wife-beater t-shirt was waiting for her on his small but immaculate lawn.

  “I take it from the car and my exes description you’re Margot the detective,” he said to her as she got out of her car.

  “Private detective.”

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  “Ms. Caldwell called you?”

  “No, she called our daughter. I overheard some stuff and got her to fill me in on the rest.”

  “Then you know I’m not here to cause either of you any trouble.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve found that people who want to cause me trouble say the same damn thing.”

  “I just want to know about her friend Chrissie.”

  “Well, lucky for you, I already asked. Danielle doesn’t know shit. Sorry you made the drive for nothing.”

  “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask her myself.”

  “I’m sure you would, but that ain’t going to happen.”

  “I know you don’t trust me…”

  “Damn right I don’t. I’ve told you what my daughter knows and she’d tell you the same thing, so I’m going to ask you nicely to leave.”

  “Please, Mr. Dandridge, it will only be a few minutes of her time…”

  “Alright, I asked nicely.”

  Dandridge turned around and reached inside his front door. He came out with a fistful of pump-action shotgun.

  “Get the hell off my property.”

  “You’re b
eing a bit hostile considering the circumstances,” Margot replied.

  “Given how I feel about detectives, even private ones, I think I’m being pretty damn reasonable.”

  “Suit yourself,” Margot told him. She figured she could try calling Danielle herself or at worst wait until she was back with her mom to talk to her in person. She was probably a dead-end anyway.

  Margot was driving out of Mr. Dandridge's neighborhood when a cherry red Pontiac Fiero followed by a silver Chevy Impala passed her going the other way. She didn’t think too much about the Chevy; it was the Fiero that got her attention. If she wasn’t being hyper-aware of the cars around her, she might not have noticed Mick driving with the top down towards Mr. Dandridge's house.

  Chapter 12

  She spun around and followed Mick. Just as she’d figured, he stopped at Dandridge’s place. Chrissie met him on the lawn just like Mr. Dandridge had met Margot, only she greeted him with a kiss instead of a shotgun. They were still kissing when Margot pulled up and got out of her car.

  “I thought you two broke up,” she said.

  They both turned around.

  “I’ve been looking for you, Chrissie,” Margot said.

  Chrissie regarded her for a second and then said, “Congrats, you’ve found me. Tell my Aunt I’m alive and well and tell her to mind her own damn business.”

  “It’s not that simple. There’s a dead man in your house and your mother’s missing as well.”

  Mr. Dandridge came out of the house. He was holding the shotgun by the barrel. He gave Mick and Chrissie a dirty look and then he looked at Margot.

  “I thought I told you to leave.”

  Margot drew her pistol and leveled it at Dandridge who was still holding the shotgun by the barrel.

  “Drop it,” she told him.

  “You want to put that peashooter up against my shotgun?”

  “Since I’m the only one of us with my finger on the trigger? Yeah, I do.”

  Before Dandridge could do anything one way or another, a male voice behind him said, “Put it down, you idiot. She’ll kill you where you stand.”

  Dean Stone stepped out of the house and added, “How do you think you getting killed is going to keep the cops and who knows what else from showing up? Everybody get inside.”

  Dandridge put down the shotgun and went inside. Chrissie and Mick followed. Margot picked up the shotgun and did the same. Inside, she saw Jennifer standing with her hand on her hip, giving her daughter the cold stare.

  “I told you not to call that loser,” she said.

  Chrissie didn’t answer.

  Stone looked at Margot and said, “You and I need to talk.”

  He motioned to the living room and then said, “The rest of you leave us alone. Margot’s alright.”

  “Can I have my shotgun back?” Dandridge asked.

  “No,” Margot and Stone said at once.

  “I’m going to still want the money you promised me,” he said to Stone. “I did my part. It’s not my fault your girlfriend’s daughter couldn’t stay quiet.”

  “I never said it was your fault. Right now, Margot and I have to talk.”

  “I’m taking orders in my own house now?”

  “You are if you want to get paid. Now go.”

  Dandridge took his time about it, but he eventually sauntered off to another room.

  Stone sat down on the couch and Margot sat on the chair across from him. When he sat down, she saw a bandage on his shoulder.

  “You were the one shot in Jennifer’s house.”

  “Yeah, a mere flesh wound, nice through and through without hitting anything major. Hurts like a mother, but you should have seen the other guy.”

  “I did. Nice shot.”

  “At that range, I couldn’t miss, but thanks.”

  “I thought you were dead,” she told him.

  ‘Yeah, well, that was the idea. It looked like everyone except the people who needed to think I was dead thought so.”

  “Is that how you got shot?”

  “Yeah, the guy tracked me to Jennifer’s place—or he was watching her place. Either way, he was there. I was being extra careful or he would have taken me out. I’m guessing he’d done the same to Jennifer and Chrissie if he had the chance.”

  “Good thing you’re extra careful then, but wouldn’t it have been better and more careful not to show up at her place at all? You had to know that’s the first place they’d look.”

  “Yeah, well hindsight being 20/20, I can’t argue with you on that. I’d have to say though, when Chrissie suggested her best friend's dad’s place in Riverside, I thought this would qualify as the last place they’d look. I figured we’d all be safe here.”

  “Did it occur to you that Chrissie and Jennifer might be safer with the police? You too, for that matter.”

  “If I really thought it was safer, I might have considered it.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be safer? It sounds like your colleagues are hunting you down for being a rat whether you actually rat or not.”

  “You’re missing the point.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “The point is, someone on that side of the fence already tried to kill me. I’m not going to walk in the front door and give them another chance.”

  “By ‘that side of the fence’ you mean the police?”

  “Could be, but it’s more likely the Feds. How do you think they got to Katrina so fast? How do you think the cartel knew before I did?”

  “Could be because Lefty was ratting you out. Karina never should have met that guy at Lefty’s.”

  “I agree, but that’s not what got me in trouble. I have no doubt that the old fat piece of shit Lefty would call both the cops and cartel, but I hardly expect anyone would listen to him. He’s a joke.”

  “He was trying to take over your business.”

  “Try is probably too strong a word. Lefty might be a decent bartender but in my world? He was a joke. Lucky for him, he failed in his little coup, Those youngsters would have eaten him alive within a week. No, I think this was an inside job.”

  “Inside from who?”

  “The feds.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “They were already inside my business. How do you think I avoided arrest all those years? Sure, I was good at that shit, but some of them are good too and eventually, no matter how smart you think you are, you run out of luck.”