Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Whew!” Duke whistled and shifted his weight with enough force that he just about flipped her chair over backwards thanks to the fact it was resting against his midsection. “Look at that! You’re really taking advantage of that unlimited subscription to the background investigation company Titus sprang for. I think you’ve got a full background ordered on just about everyone you’ve talked to in the last few hours. Should I be worried?”

  Ellie frowned as she flipped through thirty-six pages of Adam Cathcart’s background information. There was nothing that he hadn’t already told her himself. He hadn’t specified that he had also been charged with possession of an illegal substance the night his wife overdosed, but maybe that was personal enough to keep to yourself. It wasn’t like Ellie had grilled him. Perhaps if she did, he would cop to the drug use.

  “That guy was born in California?” Duke mused as he continued to look over her shoulder.

  Ellie glared at him. “Would you stop? Don’t you have anything to keep you busy?”

  “No. I’m between cases.”

  Ellie suddenly thought of something that Adam had said that morning. “Duke, I need you to do me a favor. Well, you and Olivia.”

  Duke’s suspicion meter went on high alert as it always did when anyone mentioned Olivia’s involvement in anything. You could probably say that Olivia was so pretty that she could fart rainbows and ride a unicorn to work and Duke would get defensive.

  “What about Olivia?” Duke growled. “I’m not going to have her upset. You know that she’s still pretty torn up after that business with her uncle.”

  “I know that,” Ellie said calmly. She needed Duke to help her and really it was probably for Olivia’s benefit too. “Adam Cathcart seems to know Olivia since they both managed shows at one of Harvey Lightman’s theaters. Adam is an agent. He was very interested in what Olivia is going to do now that Lightman wants to shut the Moonrise down. I just want you to take Olivia and go talk to him. That’s all. He asked to be remembered to her.” In a manner of speaking of course, but still. “Just go and have a casual chat. I want to get your opinion on him. I felt like I couldn’t decide. He seems nice, almost too nice.”

  “Right.” Duke thankfully moved away from her and sat down in his seat once again. He turned right and then left and then back to the right. “So, you just want what? My opinion or Olivia’s?”

  “Both.” Sometimes Duke was so thick that you really had to spell it out for him. “I just want to know if my instincts were off or on. That’s all.”

  Duke was starting to look at least less belligerent about the whole idea. That had to be a move in the right direction at least. He was starting to have less of that stressed out, brow furrowed expression on his face. “Your instincts are almost never off, Ellie.”

  Right. Ellie wasn’t entirely comfortable with his observation. “That doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally want to check up on some things. I just… hey, do you know a comedian named Ron Skaggs?”

  “Only by name,” Duke said, not even blinking at the change in topic. “Why?”

  “Ron asked me to give Titus a message,” Ellie admitted.

  The front door swung open and Titus walked into the cool interior of the office. He had an expectant look on his face. “What did Ron Skaggs want you to say to me?”

  Ellie frowned at Titus. “How could you possibly know what I just said? Were you actually eavesdropping with the door cracked or something? Because I’ll tell you that if you could hear me, then we are wasting money trying to air condition this place. We need to work on the door instead. We have to get something thicker because it’s apparently not even soundproof.”

  Duke started laughing. “Come on, Ellie, this is Titus we’re talking about! The man has the hearing of a wolf. Didn’t you know? That’s why he called this place Rock Wolf Investigations. Because he’s got senses like some kind of wolf hybrid or something. The man goes into a restaurant and can tell you what the special is just by sniffing.”

  “Knock it off, Dunbar,” Titus growled. He looked absolutely irritated. Then he gave Ellie a pointed stare. “Ron Skaggs and I go back a few years, to when I was first in town. He was a witness in one of my first cases.”

  “Is that the case that he says you keep an eye on?” Ellie felt odd saying that. It was like they were openly acknowledging there were secrets in the office, but that wasn’t really surprising. Right? Of course an office had secrets. Not everyone was in the know about everything.

  “Ron says you need to go find him. He has to tell you something that he saw when he was out and about. I swear he was referring to being out and about at night though, which is weird.”

  “Not for Ron,” Titus mused. He looked very thoughtful. “Ron is an old guy, Ellie. I would have thought you know all about old people’s hours. Isn’t all of that psychology and human development part of your curriculum at Quantico?”

  “Yeah.” Ellie waved the background report on Ron Skaggs in Titus’s face. “I did take the course on why your background reports are important and you should never do a case without running one on everyone you talk to.”

  “So,” Titus prodded, “is that supposed to impress me?”

  Ellie thrust the report in front of Titus’s nose. “For a guy with superhuman senses, you can sure be prehistorically thick in the head. Ron Skaggs is a good, old-fashioned felon. He was convicted of embezzlement when he was the head bookkeeper at the Gold Dust & Diamond Theater.”

  “That old place burned to the ground years ago,” Duke supplied with a nod. Now he was craning his neck to see over Titus’s shoulder, which was probably the way things rolled when you were head and shoulders taller than everyone else. “Ron used to work there, huh?”

  “Yes.” Titus did not look surprised. Ellie was a bit disappointed. Titus seemed very circumspect about Ron Skaggs. “He did his time and came home to retire. End of story. He’s a comedian now and I think it’s only fair we let him move on. He was rehabilitated. Come on. We should all be celebrating. Think about the statistical probability of that happening.”

  Ellie frowned. “So, the former embezzler suggests I go talk to a DJ named Aston Martin at a club somewhere in Branson that does not have live music.”

  Caroline finally seemed to emerge from the haze of whatever it was she was focusing on in front of her computer. “You’re talking about Aston Ryan, not Aston Martin. Aston Martin is a car Ellie.” Caroline made a scoffing noise. “Really. You’d think you had never been out in your life. Aston Ryan is a very good DJ. He works at the Pioneer Club over near the Landing.”

  “Thank you, Caroline.” Titus actually smiled, as in the man looked absolutely thrilled that Caroline had contributed anything to any part of their investigations. It would be almost the same reaction if Caroline actually answered a phone on the second or third ring or bothered to answer it at all. “We appreciate your input,” Titus continued. “Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about the Pioneer?”

  Caroline gave Titus a droll stare and then waved her hand in Ellie’s direction. “Just don’t expect her to fit in. Ellie reeks of cop, even though she isn’t one. It’s like she got stamped with the FED label during that stint in the FBI and the words never wore off.”

  “Thank you,” Ellie said stiffly. “I consider that a compliment coming from you. Especially since I consider you the complete opposite.”

  “Good,” Caroline snorted. “I wouldn’t want to be you. Your underpants must be so far up your butt that they crease your forehead.”

  Duke Dunbar’s chin was officially on the floor. Titus made a low, warning sound, but Caroline didn’t seem to care. Younger wasn’t there. He was the only one whose opinion Caroline cared about. The rest of them were just warm bodies occupying her general vicinity.

  “That’s okay, Caroline, I just can’t begin to imagine trying to empty my brain of anything approaching intelligence in order to pretend to be you for five minutes either.” Ellie curved her lips into a smile that wasn’t a
smile. Sometimes Caroline became absolutely insufferable. “I suppose I’ll have to chock it up to brain freeze. You know. You spend so much time indoors doing nothing that your brain has just hibernated and frozen with the constant contact with air conditioning.”

  “Ellie, that’s enough,” Titus growled low in his throat.

  Ellie glared at Titus. “Me? Why me? Why not tell her to watch it?”

  “Because…” Titus could not actually seem to come up with a reason for that. He looked more than a little chagrined.

  “Exactly,” Ellie snapped. But then she looked at Caroline and groaned. “Dammit! She’s actually right! The twit is right.”

  “I’m sorry. Excuse me?” Caroline looked confused. “I’m right about what?”

  Ellie glared at Caroline. The young twiggy blonde was dressed in a brightly-colored halter top sundress made of some bizarre fabric that seemed to slip and slide against itself in a whisper every time she moved. Caroline had on a pair of Grecian sandals that laced up to a point just below her shapely knees. Ellie was solid, athletic, and she was in stellar condition if you were talking about a readiness to do a cross-fit challenge, but not so much if you were talking about clubbing.

  Caroline swiped delicately at a hank of her long hair. It was piled atop her head and she looked like some escaped Aphrodite impersonator with her swinging silver earrings and gobs of delicately applied makeup. If Ellie really wanted to get this DJ named Aston Whoever to talk, she needed to send a star and not the understudy.

  “No.” Titus actually said the word before Ellie even asked the question. Maybe mind reading was part of his preternatural senses or something. “That’s just not a good idea.”

  “What’s a bad idea?” Caroline looked confused.

  Titus gave her a patient eye roll, if there was such a thing. “Ellie wants you to go with her to question this DJ at the Pioneer Club.”

  “Oh ick, no way. That’s a horrible idea.” Caroline made a face. “I don’t want to be seen in public with that. I do have a reputation to maintain you know. I’m a very popular person on the club scene. If someone thinks I’ve started taking on charity cases, I’ll be totally bombarded with that shit and girlfriend ain’t got time for that!”

  Ellie stared at Caroline for a long moment. “I’m sorry. Did you just speak English? Because I don’t think I understand a word you said.”

  Duke was sniggering and trying to hide it without managing to hide it at all. “You know what would be better?”

  “Duke, I will put my fist in your mouth,” Ellie growled.

  But Duke wasn’t listening. “Hey, you wanted me to take Olivia to talk to this Adam Cathcart guy. Fine, but then you should let Caroline dress you up like a little doll and take you to the club tonight.”

  “Tonight? When?” Ellie demanded. “Like at five o’clock?”

  Caroline looked scandalized. “Oh my God! Are you kidding me? You don’t show up before ten unless you’re a total loser.”

  “Where do you hang out before ten o’clock then?” Ellie wondered off-handedly. That seemed like a stupid rule in her book. “Do you just stay at home or something?”

  “Yes. Whatever it takes. Sometimes you go out and you see someone or you make sure that you’re seen. You know, at a particular restaurant or with a particular person. It’s all very relaxed here in Branson,” Caroline admitted. Then she gave Ellie a once over. “I could probably make her a passable human female if I really tried. Is that what you want me to do?”

  “Yes. I think it’s a good idea,” Titus told them both. “Ellie, make it happen.”

  “Hey!” Ellie had a sneaking suspicion that Titus just wanted Ellie out of the way so he could go contact Ron Skaggs. “This is bullshit! I’m just asking the guy a few questions. Why are we making this such a big deal? It’s not like he’s our suspect or something.”

  Even as the words were out of Ellie’s mouth, she remembered what Ron Skaggs had told her about Kari Jo Mounds’ romantic habits. She ditched boys regularly and this guy was her on-again, off-again boyfriend.

  “Come on, Ellie,” Duke chided. “You know as well as we do that this could totally be your suspect.”

  “Yeah,” Caroline said in a way that made her sound as though she were chewing her face off. “Even I can figure that out, Ellie. Gee. Where have you been?”

  Ellie glared at Caroline. “One more word and I will find a way to wrap that halter dress up between your legs and over your head like some fab new headdress.”

  “Ohmigod!” Caroline pointed to Titus. “Did you hear that? She’s going all violent on me! I want hazard pay for this job tonight.”

  “Hazard pay?” Duke laughed out loud. “I think Ellie’s the one who deserves hazard pay if she’s got to let you play dress up with her tonight.”

  “Yeah,” Ellie muttered irritably. “What he said.”

  Chapter Ten

  Adam was officially getting nothing done all day today. The audit had turned out to be completely useless. Adam was in his office with a huge pile of paperwork on his desk. Apparently, Westin Bainbridge wasn’t the only weirdo who liked to see the same show over and over again. Adam had found six names altogether of people who were repeat visitors to the theater in the last six weeks. Four of them had come three times each. Who did that? Adam had been in the business for a long time. They talked about repeat customers and loyal followings and that sort of thing all the time, but he had never really sat down to just think about how many times a fan might show up to see a show if they were a local and were getting the local discount price on their ticket.

  The phone on Adam’s desk began to chatter and ring. It was a house phone. Adam nearly jumped out of his skin at the noise since the thing almost never rang. Ever. Who in-house would be calling him at his desk?

  He reached out to pick it up, feeling almost like he was about to set off a bomb. “Hello?”

  “Yeah, Adam?” Margo sounded impatient. “Sorry to bother you but there’s an Olivia”—Margo sounded as though she’d leaned away from the phone for a moment— “What did you say your name was again?” A pause and then Margo came back on. “Right. So, it’s Olivia Houghton. I think she’s that chick who ran the show at the Moonrise Theater until last week.”

  “Olivia Houghton?” Adam wasn’t sure what to feel about Olivia’s sudden appearance. It seemed odd, except that Adam had told Ellie to remember him to Olivia. Maybe that was good news. Right? “I’ll be up in just a moment. Ask her to wait.”

  “Yeah. She’s got a bodyguard with her,” Margo said, her voice suddenly dropping to a whisper. “He’s super huge. Seriously. You’re going to want to hire him to guard that tramp you call a client.”

  “Thanks, Margo, I’ll be right there.” Adam slammed the phone down into the cradle and sighed.

  Margo was the bookkeeper, except she wasn’t really the bookkeeper. She was supposed to be more than that. Administrative assistant was her actual position. Adam was reminded once again of the incident he’d witnessed this morning at Rock Wolf Investigations. It was nice to at least know his own issues dealing with horrible administrative support staff did not seem to be isolated in the least.

  It didn’t take long to walk to the front of the theater. Olivia Houghton was indeed waiting for him and the man who was with her wasn’t a bodyguard. He was one of the Rock Wolf Employees that Adam had met earlier that day.

  “Mr. Dunbar, isn’t it?” Adam asked, extending his hand after he’d greeted Olivia with a casual handshake as well. “I’m so glad you remembered me to Olivia after our discussion this morning.”

  Olivia didn’t waste a single second, but then she’d always been a more no nonsense sort of person with a knack for driving right to the point of any given situation. “I’m sorry to bother you, Adam, but when Duke and Ellie mentioned you, I realized you might be able to help me.”

  “Help you?” Adam felt a wave of uncertainty. “What sort of help did you have in mind?”

  “Nothing all that earth shatte
ring,” Olivia said with a quick wave of her hand. Then she turned to the small conversation area off the main lobby where guests often sat when they were waiting for their friends and family to finish up in the gift shop. “Can we have a short discussion? I won’t take much of your time. I know you’re busy.”

  “Certainly.” Adam gestured to the seats and took one for himself.

  Olivia sat as well. Duke decided to stand. It made him a bit like a looming mountain, but Adam ignored it. Olivia bit her lower lip for a moment, as though she was trying to figure out a way to begin. “I’m sure you know that Riley is dead.”

  “I think everyone in Branson is aware of that,” Adam said slowly. He didn’t want to just stomp all over the girl’s thoughts here, but the death had been rather public. “I’m sorry about what this has done to your prospects.”

  “Oh, well I’m concerned first for the group of young women who used to open for Riley. They’re very talented. A local act. Violin-playing tumblers.”

  “Tumblers?” Adam felt his mouth pop open. “You mean they dance and jump around and stuff while they play?”

  “Yes. It’s really quite amazing,” Olivia told Adam. “I was pretty careful with them. They’re young and they don’t have representation, if you get what I mean?”

  Adam did get what she meant. Olivia was a warm-hearted, kind woman. She had dealt with her asinine Uncle Riley for a good deal longer than anyone else would have tolerated him. But she’d done a lot of other good for people, too.

  “I would be happy to find them something else. Maybe right here at the Star in a few months when Kari Jo moves on.” Adam fished in the pocket of his slacks. Then he handed Olivia a few of his cards. “Give one to them and keep one for yourself, just in case.”

  “Thank you, Adam. I really appreciate it.” Olivia did look very relieved. “After everything fell apart, I sort of forgot the poor girls. And now I feel so bad that they totally lost their ride after finally making it onto the stage.”