Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Oh! It’s perfect, perfect! I have one, but this is better! This came from her! It did, it did! I know it.” Westin spun around and looked straight at Adam. “Did she send you? Be honest. You’re her manager. I’ve seen you talking to her. I knew she would find out how much I love her and the two of us would finally get the chance to know each other and to have coffee together. She just doesn’t know, but I’m the perfect man for her. She’s been looking for someone like me.”

  Well, he certainly had all of the enthusiasm of a stalker. And he had a good deal of the crazy that you’d expect from a stalker. He was intelligent, articulate, perfectly capable of fabricating and sending those letters, but he didn’t actually act like a guy whose heart had been broken.

  “Mr. Bainbridge?” Ellie spoke in a mild voice that made it seem like she was very deliberately trying to put Westin at ease. “Have you ever met Ms. Mounds?”

  “What? Oh no. Never! I’ve wanted to. I love her. I mean, she’s so talented!” Westin sounded a bit like a groupie. “She’s so sweet and kind. She just needs the right man. You know?” Westin turned and pointed to Adam. “He knows. He knows that Kari Jo just needs the right guy to take her in hand and love her and make her happy.”

  Take her in hand? Adam could not quite keep the smirk off his face. Kari Jo would have bitten that potential hand off if anyone had tried to clamp down on her with it. “How many times have you been to see the show, Westin?” Adam deliberately steered the conversation to another thought. “We’ve only been tracking things for the last four weeks for this contest, but I’m betting that you’ve been Kari Jo’s most loyal fan since well before then?”

  “Oh yes.” Westin drew their attention to a shadowbox hanging on the wall above the fireplace. “I’ve seen her show about eighty times now. Tonight will be eighty-one!”

  Adam felt as though someone had doused him with ice cold water and it had nothing to do with the fact that Westin Bainbridge had his A/C cranked to unbelievable levels of frigid. The house felt as though it might be perfect for housing penguins and polar bears.

  “Why is it so cold in here?” Ellie wondered out loud.

  Westin seemed to come down from Kari Jo Mounds Cloud Nine. “It’s the computers. I work in IT and I host several server units here in my home. They have to be in a cool environment to run properly. They can’t overheat and since they’re running all the time, it’s imperative that I keep the house cool enough to make sure they don’t burn up.”

  “Wow. That’s amazing!” It was Ellie’s turn to gush. Adam could not help but stare. He wanted to laugh. Her manner was so unlike Ellie that it was obviously fake, yet Westin was eating it up. She wagged her finger at him. “I bet you’re dressed in ten layers in here in the wintertime! What, with all of the ice storms we get here, you must be wrapped in blankets all winter long.”

  “It’s a good life,” Westin said with a shrug. “I make good money too. I could offer Kari Jo the life she’s always wanted.”

  Adam could not help it. He was totally confused. “What life is that?”

  “Come on now, Mr. Cathcart, you know what I mean.” Westin reached for that glossy issue of the Branson Tourism magazine. “She talks about it at great length here in the magazine. She was interviewed and the writer says she was almost teary-eyed when Kari Jo talked about how she just wanted a down home place to call her own with a man to love her and children playing at her feet. She wants that Ozark life, you know?” Westin had stars in his eyes now. Literally. Adam had never seen anything like it. “I could give that to her, Mr. Cathcart. I wish you would introduce me. You would see.”

  Adam almost choked on the words, and so would you. The poor kid had no idea what he was asking. Kari Jo might have said a lot of things in an interview to appeal to the readers and to sell tickets and to get people to see her in concert where she sang about cheating hearts and down home love and country cooking and all kinds of nonsense she honestly didn’t know much about.

  “She’s a local girl.” Westin’s grave tone of voice made it seem as though he was talking about a very serious personality trait, maybe even a flaw. What was he getting at? “And I know that I’m not a local boy. I didn’t grow up here. But I’m Ozark County where it counts. Right here.” Westin actually put his hand over his heart. “This is my adopted hometown. I love this place. I love the friendliness of the people and the warmth of the local community and the shows and the museums and all of the history this area has that can teach us about our past and how to make our future better.”

  Adam wasn’t entirely sure where this guy had come from and he really didn’t get the stalker vibe from him. “If you’re not from here, where are you from?”

  Oddly enough that had been rather hazy in his background information. There were dozens upon dozens of previous addresses, as if he had job- and city-hopped nearly every six months for a while. Adam could see Ellie was just as interested in what Westin was going to say in response to this strangely important question.

  “Oh, I’m from Chicago,” Westin said in an offhanded way. “I was raised there in the city. Went to a dozen different schools. We moved a lot. Then I graduated early and really got into IT. I was always good with computers. They can tell you everything, you know?”

  Adam blinked. That was rather pointed. “Everything?”

  “Everything.” Westin gave a creepy nod. “If I wanted to, I could probably hack into your email and get all of Kari Jo’s personal information. See, you’d have it on your hard drive, like you’ve saved a copy or a scan of the contract and all of that sort of stuff. I can access that remotely via a satellite link. It’s all very simple.” Then Westin flashed them a smile. “But I don’t do that. It’s illegal, of course, and a horrible invasion of privacy.”

  “Right.” Adam looked at Ellie and knew she was thinking the same thing.

  Adam was going to go home and put all of his personal information and documents and such on one of those little flash drives that could be sitting in a desk drawer totally unable to be hooked up to the Internet. Except as soon as you put it into the computer, a guy like Westin Bainbridge could probably suck up all the information it contained before you could even pop it back out again.

  “Could I meet Kari Jo tonight?” Westin sounded like a little kid begging to meet their favorite super hero.

  Adam didn’t know what to say. He pulled out his phone. “I don’t know if the schedule will permit, Mr. Bainbridge. But I am going to take a picture of you with your prize and I’ll give that to her. All right?”

  “Oh yes!” Westin preened like a beauty queen and then threw the Garth Brooks Tribute T-shirt over his left shoulder, the Ron Skaggs shirt over his right, and held that Kari Jo Mounds T-shirt up in front of him as though he was strutting his stuff on the runway. “Snap away!”

  Odd phrase. At least that’s what Adam thought as he took a few photos with his camera of their beauty queen. Unfortunately for Adam and Ellie, this prize patrol trip had created more questions than it had provided answers.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “No. No way. Eww!” Kari Jo Mounds’ face went through so many different incarnations of the word no that there was absolutely not a doubt in Ellie’s mind she had never seen or heard of Westin Bainbridge.

  The other thing that was glaringly obvious was that Adam Cathcart was getting heartily sick and tired of Kari Jo and her dramatic behavior. Each and every time Kari Jo shook her head, Adam looked as though he was breaking out in hives on another part of his body. His expression was so tight that the ropy sinews in his neck were standing out. His fists clenched at his side and he had the look of a parent on their last bit of nerve with a recalcitrant and spoiled child. That was actually a pretty apt description in Ellie’s opinion. Kari Jo was a spoiled brat to say the least.

  “You know what, Adam?” Kari shoved Adam’s phone back into his hands and gave him an icy look of disdain. “I find it totally insulting that you think this is the sort of man I attract. I mean, come on! What am
I, her?” Now Kari Jo turned toward Ellie and managed to look down her nose at Ellie even though Ellie was at least an inch taller. “Now he would be a great catch for someone like her.”

  Ellie found this amusing and wasn’t entirely sure why. “Oh, so you think I should jump at the chance to marry a twenty-five year old man who has a crush on an adolescent-looking, adolescent-acting little snob like you?”

  Kari Jo straightened up and gave a little shriek of outrage, but Ellie didn’t give her time for a verbal retort.

  “You think I need a man? You think I would look at a boy your age? Seriously? Why in the hell would I do that?” Elie shook her head. “Oh, little girl you have so much to learn about life and yet I feel like you’re not learning a damned thing!”

  “How dare you?” Kari Jo spun around and sputtered at Adam. “Get her out of here. Fire her! Make her go away. Now!”

  “Kari Jo, please!” Adam pinched the bridge of his nose.

  But Ellie wasn’t finished. “Adam was showing you that photograph because we are trying to figure out who it is that might be sending you the letters cut from magazines. Remember that? The stalker letters?”

  “Oh, those.” Kari Jo sniffed and managed to contort her features to both dismissiveness and sarcasm at the same time. “That’s just some disappointed nerd.” She pointed to Adam’s phone. “Like that guy. Some idiot who masturbates every night because he’s got a spank bank full of my images and doesn’t know what else to do about it.”

  “You do realize that’s where serial killers come from, right?” Ellie waited and wondered if Kari Jo was ever going to give this situation the importance it deserved.

  For just a second, it looked like Kari Jo’s brain might actually be going to an intelligent place where they could sit down and have a rational discussion about something other than how awesome she was. Then the moment passed and Kari Jo plastered a big, fat frown on her face.

  “You know what this is? You know who is sending me those letters?” Kari Jo crowed.

  Adam looked even more tired than ever. “Who?”

  “You are!”

  If Adam looked taken aback, Ellie was irate. She narrowed her gaze at Kari Jo and snarled like a pissed off cat. “You need to knock that shit off you little brat,” Ellie snapped. “How dare you try to lay something like that at Adam’s feet!”

  But Adam was already taking it in stride. “Let me guess. You think I’m sending you those letters to try to scare you because I’m afraid you’re going to find a new manager and somehow leave me behind?”

  “Exactly!” Kari Jo was now jumping up and down on her bare feet and pointing at Adam. “You’re afraid of losing me. I’m your best client and…”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “What?” Kari Jo stopped all of a sudden. “Of course I am. I’m your biggest client. The one who will get you all the way to Nashville.”

  “First of all,” Adam said irritably. “You and your mother seem to forget that I told you both in the beginning that I don’t do Nashville. I don’t do Los Angeles or Music City or the big club circuit in some city like Dallas or Houston. I don’t do that. I like it here in Branson and here is where I stay.”

  Kari Jo’s wide-mouthed shocked expression was actually hilarious to see. The girl really didn’t get it. She sputtered. She backpedaled. And finally she shook her head and did what everyone in her position does—she called him a liar.

  “That’s not true,” Kari Jo argued. “You just said that because none of your two bit acts ever go anywhere!”

  “I’m meeting this evening with a trio of young ladies who play the violin and dance and tumble at the same time.” Adam spoke very clearly and concisely. “I’m planning to offer them your spot in the evening lineup here at the Star. You tell me if I’m really sorry to see you go.”

  “You can’t offer them my spot!” Kari Jo shouted. Her face was turning red. So red that the fake red streaks in her hair looked a little less crimson. “You can’t do that! It’s my spot!”

  Adam narrowed his gaze at her. “But you’re trying so hard to break your contract and run off with someone else. When if you would just wait, in four months I have an honest to goodness country music business manager who is willing to take you on and help you get to Nashville. You’ll have to do what he says of course, but if you do, you will get a recording contract by the end of next year.”

  “Next year!” The wailing note in Kari Jo’s voice made Ellie’s ears crackle in protest. “I don’t want to wait until next year!”

  “Then go on. I will release you from your contract with me, you can break the one with Harvey Lightman and then you can happily take whatever offer Aston Ryan made to you.”

  Adam’s expression twisted and he looked angry and mean. It was a shocking way to see him and Ellie wasn’t sure she liked it. He looked so… She could not put a name on it, but Ellie knew deep down this couldn’t be what the real Adam was like. Did Kari Jo Mounds turn everyone into a raving lunatic? What was it about her that drove people out of their minds?

  “Fine!” Kari Jo said as she spun around and folded her arms over her chest like a four-year-old. “I will!”

  Ellie raised her hand. “I’m sorry, but Kari Jo realizes he’s dead, right?”

  “What?”

  “Aston Ryan is dead.” Adam frowned as he repeated the words again. It was like Kari Jo wasn’t getting them. “The man is dead, Kari Jo. We talked about this. This morning when you woke up. I told you he was murdered at the club last night and the police were looking for clues and leads on the case. In case you knew anything. Remember?”

  “Wait. You told me that Aston Ryan is dead?” Kari Jo burst into tears. She wailed at the top of her lungs and her range was sure to destroy her voice.

  Ellie glanced at Adam and rolled her eyes. “We should get her to shut up or she won’t be in any shape to do the concert tonight now that we have our stalker suspect promising to attend!”

  “Kari Jo,” Adam said firmly. “You must stop this. You’re going to hurt your voice.”

  But Kari Jo wasn’t listening. She was too busy blubbering about how she and Aston Ryan were lovers and they had known each other in a past life. Something about loving him forever and he was the only one who understood her and how she couldn’t go on without him. It was all very dramatic and moving. Or rather, it would have been if Ellie had been willing to buy a single word of it.

  The noise was horrible. All that shrieking and gasping and nearly passing out with the drama of it all. Marching right up to Kari Jo’s face, Ellie hauled back and open hand slapped her hard across her left cheek. The sound reverberated around the room in the wake of the abrupt silence when Kari Jo finally shut up and stopped fake crying.

  “Neither of us buy your bullshit, so why don’t you just stop?” Ellie muttered. “And are you really going to tell me you’re stupid enough to believe Aston Ryan could somehow force your manager to pay for your decision to break your contract with Harvey Lightman?”

  “What?” Kari Jo said in a confused voice. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your contract with Lightman. Adam negotiated it, but you signed it. Did Aston Ryan honestly tell you that you could break that without having to pay the penalties?” Ellie wasn’t sure why this was important, but there was a possibility that Aston Ryan had been killed because he was dabbling in the manager business.

  “Aston Ryan knows—he knew—Harvey Lightman,” Kari Jo said in a shaky voice thick with tears. “He was going to make it happen. He said so.”

  Ellie glanced at Adam. Who would have made Aston Ryan think he could somehow make that kind of deal with Harvey Lightman? Ellie thought of Harvey. The man was a no nonsense businessman, but he certainly knew a good deal when he spotted one. There had to be an incentive. And if there wasn’t, had that lack of follow-through been the reason Aston Ryan was killed? Maybe he tried to double deal a few too many times.

  Ellie cut a look at the door with her eyes and then glanced back at
Adam. He nodded. Without another word to the spoiled little country singing brat, Ellie stepped out of the dressing room and headed for the front of the theater. She needed to find Lightman. It was getting late in the day. The man wouldn’t be at the Ozark Star Restaurant anymore. That meant the best way to find him was to talk to the lovely and ever helpful Margo at the front desk of the Star.

  As Ellie exited the back of the house for the front foyer, she could see the front desk area was empty. It was late afternoon, when plenty of walk-in ticket purchases would be trying to secure last minute plans for their evening entertainment. In fact, Ellie could see a few of them wandering about the lobby as though they didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. It was odd that there was nobody up here. There were usually at least three to four ticket sales agents lurking about somewhere behind the counter.

  “No!” There was a voice coming from a place behind the counter out of view, as though two people were arguing back there. “I already told you what I know and I’m not giving you any more information. You’re going to get me in trouble if you keep pushing like this!”

  The voice belonged to Margo but whomever she was talking to, arguing with, they weren’t talking loud enough to be heard. Ellie stepped closer, figuring if anyone popped out and asked, she could just say she was looking for a ticket agent.

  “Just go. Go away right now and don’t contact me again. All right?” A pause, as though Margo was really trying to push someone away. “I don’t care. I thought you loved me. I didn’t know you were such a liar. I didn’t realize you were just using me like this!”

  And finally, Margo stormed back into the front part of the ticket desk area, to the spot where she usually sat in front of a computer with a stack of papers in front of her and a smug look of derision on her face.

  “Oh. It’s—ah—it’s you.” Margo cleared her throat and sat down.