Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  Laurie pressed her lips together and tried to proceed cautiously. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with Josh right now, but whatever it was she needed to tread carefully. “Josh, I’m not actually sure what you’re talking about. I’m only saying that you have been on the clock since eight this morning and it’s already getting near to four. If you’re planning on working until close, then you need to take a break. It’s just common sense. That’s all. Go get some food and some rest and I will see you back here at six.”

  “You’re going to be sorry that you hired that kid,” Josh prophesied. He glared at her for one long moment. “And then you’re going to wish that you hadn’t.”

  Very insightful. Laurie watched her friend and coworker storm out of the office and was glad that Brody had already left in anticipation of having to come back for a second shift tonight. At least there had been nobody to witness the awkwardness between Laurie and Josh.

  She looked outside again. Younger appeared to have disappeared. Laurie hoped he hadn’t gotten turned around somewhere. It wasn’t easy to get lost in the outdoor mall. But she had a feeling Younger wasn’t paying any attention to the stores. He would likely be somewhere else. Maybe looking over the layout of the building or something.

  For some reason, she wished she as with him. He probably wouldn’t have welcomed her interference. He thought she was a slob after all. Maybe he believed she was one of those people who just collected stuff around her. A hoarder. But Laurie wasn’t a hoarder, she was the opposite of a hoarder. Sure, her place was a mess, but that was because she was always in the process of paring down and throwing away her things.

  Hoarder. Ha! Laurie had plenty of experience with that sort of thing. It ran in her family. Sometimes she wondered if that’s what she liked about her job. She was so very close to the retail world and yet completely uninvolved in it. There was no buying. She had the satisfaction of knowing every single day that she had overcome the little purchase demon that had tormented her family for so many generations.

  “Hey, boss.” Laurie turned around to see Seth, one of their regular afternoon guys. “Josh said we were all supposed to come in early. Where would you like me?”

  Laurie wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Usually, it was Josh who handled this sort of thing. Now though, Laurie wondered why she couldn’t just deal with it. “Clock in and then join up with one of the patrols outside. Just pick one. You guys need to get a basic lay of the land.”

  Even as the words were out, Laurie felt a pang of unease. Josh had just told everyone to come in now? Why? If they never saw those skateboarders until at least six o’clock, then why would you have anyone come in two hours earlier? It was going to cost a fortune!

  Laurie watched Seth head outside to meet up with a patrol doing their rounds on the property. This was going to be one of those nights, Laurie thought. A night when she would feel absolutely incompetent and probably depressed.

  She hated to say it, but there were days when she didn’t' think she was suited to her job at all. She felt as though the managers should have hired someone else. Someone like Younger. Someone with a background in the military and the ability to direct a group of men with something approaching efficiency. There were days like today when Laurie was pretty sure she wasn’t actually giving the orders. She was just nodding her head to give them credibility since they were obviously coming from someplace else entirely.

  She headed for her computer. She needed to draft up an email to the corporate partners explaining her plan and promising it was not going to be more than a one-time thing. At least that was what she hoped.

  Chapter Seven

  Younger walked the mall for what seemed like the ten millionth time. He had gotten himself an ice cream about thirty minutes ago so he seemed to sort of fit in but that was really a losing proposition. The truth was Younger stuck out like a sore thumb. Or at least that’s what he felt like. He absolutely could not identify with someone who had the urge to go to a big group of stores and wander about while spending their hard earned money on things they might or might not need.

  Gazing into one of the shop windows, Younger decided he could not imagine a person who needed that. A radio-controlled toy car that you could design yourself to look like any number of popular cars. What on earth would you use that for? Did your kid really need a custom-built radio-controlled car? Were they so bored with the less expensive run of the mill models you could buy at a regular store?

  Another store offered custom made teddy bears and other stuffed toys and a plethora of accessories to dress your toy for every possible wardrobe event. Because all stuffed animals should have a bathing suit in case they needed to go and sunbathe down by the lake.

  Even the sporting goods store was a little too touristy for Younger. The boats parked out front were flashy, but not really practical. And why did anyone need ten dozen different varieties of tubes to pull behind your ski boat? Was it more fun if you spent more money?

  Younger shook his head and moved toward a group of brightly painted Adirondack chairs. They had been made by a local company that advertised their products by letting tourists rest their tired feet and browse a brochure in hopes they would want to purchase one of these chairs to take home with them.

  Sitting down, Younger decided this chair was probably the most practical and valuable item for sale in the entire mall. He could totally see himself purchasing one of these to put down by the old boat ramp he used to launch his flat-bottomed metal fishing boat. A nice chair and an ice chest full of cold beer was Younger Adair’s idea of a relaxing evening well spent. No romantic nonsense for him. No bottles of wine or baskets of rotting fruit and slabs covered in expensive cheese wedges. He just needed some good time on a lake with a bottle of beer in his hand.

  “You look rather comfortable.”

  He looked up to see Laurie Talcott standing above him. At least her expression wasn’t sour. She looked uncertain actually, as though she was off balance and trying very hard not to seem like it. Of course, if he had a guy like Josh Bentley working for him, he might very well feel the same way.

  “I am rather comfortable.” Younger reached for one of the brochures on a nearby table. “I suppose I should call this number and have him make a chair for me. A nice white chair that won’t soak up the sun and would look almost camouflaged sitting next to the boat ramp.”

  “I would think brown then. Or green of some sort.” Laurie looked thoughtful. “I’ve considered getting a set of these myself. They’re very well made, but I think the prices are rather touristy. Don’t you? For a whole set it would be awfully expensive!”

  “Thankfully, I just need the one,” Younger told her flatly. “Nobody but me needs to go down there and sit.”

  Laurie’s gaze swung right back to Younger and seemed to stick there. “You don’t have anyone else that hangs out with you?”

  “No, I don’t. No family or friends.” Younger shrugged his shoulder. “I grew up in Ozark, but my parents died years ago. No siblings. It’s just me now and I think I kind of like it that way. It’s certainly more peaceful.” Younger made a vague gesture to indicate the other tourists milling about. “And the more I watch these families interacting, the more I’m sure I like it that way.”

  “No girlfriend?” she pressed.

  Younger turned to stare up at her. What was this about? “No girlfriend. Sorry to disappoint. I don’t really have time or a place in my life for a woman. Women are high maintenance.” He could not help but grin now. He was actually trying to poke at her without really knowing why. What was the point after all? “You know how it is, they want you to spend time with them and go places they want to go and do things they want to do and before long you find yourself like that poor guy right there.” Younger gestured to a young man pushing a double stroller that was laden down with not only two whiney toddlers, but a good number of packages and bags from various stores at the mall.

  “That’s what fatherhood and having a family is all
about,” Laurie argued. She looked at the family man and then shook her head. “That’s how you achieve that thing in life where you’ve passed on your DNA and your knowledge and you feel… what do they call that? Oh yes, generativity.”

  “Uh huh.” Younger snorted and pursed his lips as he watched the young father try to placate his daughter with a random new toy pulled from one of the shopping bags. “You notice that in all of that crap he’s carrying there is not one bag from a men’s store or the sporting goods store or any store that might cater to a man’s needs?”

  Younger had to give Laurie credit. She actually did look over there as though she was trying to see what he was referring to. Then she made a face. “Good Lord, you’re right. They’re mostly children’s stores. Then there is the lotion shop, the candle shop, and the lingerie store. Maybe that’s for him,” Laurie mused. Then her cheeks turned pink. “I mean, in a manner of speaking. You know?”

  “Right, because that couple totally has a sex life while they have two kids in the house under the age of five,” Younger drawled sarcastically. “I’ve had friends, military friends, who made the mistake of doing the family thing. I don’t know if they would say they regretted it, but they did. At least I would have. Talk about depressing. Sheesh!”

  Laurie started to laugh. She put her hand over her mouth, but she was laughing. Finally, she threw her head back and pressed her fingers beneath her eyes as though she had actually laughed so hard she’d brought herself to tears. “You’re right.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I asked if you had a girlfriend to share your chair—the one you haven’t bought yet—but the only reason I would purchase a set of these chairs and a table is so that my patio would look balanced. It’s not like I have anyone over and I don’t entertain. So, I suppose I have no room to judge you for the same thing.”

  “Your patio would look balanced?” Younger wasn’t even entirely sure what that meant. “Like you can’t have too much weight on one side or the other? Like a boat?”

  “No!” She looked scandalized. “It’s a visual thing. My patio isn’t large. What you put on it has to be matching and it has to look balanced. That was all I was getting at.”

  Then she actually gestured to a third floor condo with a balcony that overlooked the water and the huge courtyard filled with people and the fountains and things. For a moment, Younger thought she must be just using the patio up there as an example. Then he realized there were what appeared to be two chairs and a table behind the black metal railing.

  “Wait. You live up there?” Younger wondered if she could read the horror on his face. “You actually live within viewing distance of your office’s front door?”

  “Yes. I do. I get a great discount on the rent because of my job.” She seemed hesitantly proud about that, as if she weren’t sure he would truly appreciate how apparently convenient that would be.

  Younger didn’t want to be rude, yet he could not imagine a worse way to live—at all. It was possible he would have rather been homeless sleeping in a hollowed-out tree down by the lake than to live in that apartment suspended in the air above a freaking shopping mall promenade.

  “That must provide some really good people watching,” Younger finally managed to say. At least he didn’t feel like he had been negative. Right?

  She laughed. “Yes. It does offer some pretty good people watching. I like it. It’s close to work and that means no commuting and no trying to park in this madhouse place. I have covered parking across the street and I usually just leave my car there until one of those rare occasions I do something like go to the grocery store instead of having my stuff delivered.”

  Younger was absolutely mystified. “You have your stuff delivered? That must be expensive!”

  “Not really.” Laurie looked as though they were getting into a topic she loved to talk about. “You have to look at it in terms of what I don’t buy because I’m not actually going to the store. Zero impulse buying. That’s what ordering online gets me.”

  “I don’t impulse buy,” Younger said in a clipped voice.

  He was still trying to get over the idea of having to get on his laptop to grocery shop. At least in the store he could touch it and read the label and maybe see if it looked any good. It was hard to do that with a two dimensional picture on a computer screen.

  “You know,” Laurie said, her voice filled with amusement. “I think I actually believe that.”

  He was taken aback by her comment. “Why? You think I don’t have impulses?”

  “No. You seem like one of those guys who got all of his impulses under control years ago and now lives a very narrow and simplistic existence by himself only interacting with people when it’s absolutely necessary.”

  She wasn’t wrong, but somehow when she said it, he felt as though he was in the wrong. Like he needed to get out more or something. She was still standing, which meant he had to look up at her. He wondered why she didn’t sit down. Was this all part of her tight control? He almost thought that it might be exactly that.

  “You can sit, you know,” Younger said deliberately.

  She shifted in her tennis shoes. The soles appeared to be very worn, as though she spent a lot of time walking and standing. After a moment or two, she fidgeted a bit and finally sat. She didn’t sit though. She perched on the edge of her chair with both feet flat on the ground and her arms crossed over her middle. She looked even more uncomfortable now.

  Younger thought she was just avoiding looking at him, but after a moment or two he realized she was staring very fixedly at a large group of people exiting a home goods store that appeared to sell the sort of knickknack, throw pillow, bowls of potpourri crap that Younger’s mother had used to fill their house to the brim.

  “Do you ever wonder,” she began slowly, “if any of these people go home and never open their purchases?”

  “What do you mean?” Younger already suspected these folks didn’t actually need what it was they were buying. He had just always figured they went home, opened their bags full of junk and then placed said junk all over their living spaces. “You mean they take those bags of crap home and just leave them in the living room?”

  “Yes. Sort of.” She looked thoughtful. “Like they don’t need what they’re buying anyway. So, they take it home and set it down and say they’ll get to it later, when they need it. But that time never comes so they just leave the bag sitting in their spare bedroom or something until one day they realize there are so many bags of stuff in that spare room that the next bag has to go somewhere else.”

  Younger stared at her for a long moment. How interesting. “You’ve obviously had some experience with hoarders.”

  “Of course.” She made it sound flippant. “Haven’t we all? I just wonder because I’ve seen so many people in my time here buying the most amazing amounts of stuff and I can hardly imagine where they would put it all!”

  He watched her for a moment or two. She was wringing her hands and looking very tense. There was no doubt in his mind that what she was saying was having a deep and profound effect on her. Some memory probably. The control thing made some good sense now. Younger wondered if her house was super neat or the opposite. It was impossible to tell by looking at the very tidy patio up there on the third floor.

  “Josh thinks I’m a bad manager for listening to you,” she said suddenly.

  Younger was thrown by the sudden change in topic. “I’m sorry he thinks that. I’m sure it has plenty to do with the fact that he didn’t feel as though he was ever losing control of the situation to begin with.”

  “You’re probably right,” she admitted.

  They sat there for a good ten minutes without speaking. It was odd. Younger did not particularly like Laurie Talcott, but she was nice to sit by. She knew how to be quiet without making you feel like you were disappointing her with your silence. It was just quiet. The two of them watching the crowd stream by and probably wondering their own and very separate thoughts about what
those people were doing and who they were and what their lives were like.

  “I’m sorry about Josh,” Laurie said after a decent interval had passed. “He means well. He’s just used to getting to do his own thing and pretty much run the show. I know when I’m beyond my own expertise. You know?”

  “I do.” Younger gazed at her for a long moment. “That’s a compliment to you, actually.”

  “It is?”

  “Sure. The hardest thing is admitting that you need help because you don’t have all the answers,” Younger reminded her. Then he applied that to Josh. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that Josh shares that opinion. So, until things go one way or another I would imagine he’s just going to be prickly. That’s okay,” Younger assured her. “I don’t take it personally. It’s all just business. End of story.”

  Chapter Eight

  Seven o’clock. The sun was sinking below the horizon and the fire and water show that had been cycling every hour began again with the “Star Spangled Banner.” Cannons shot streams of fire into the air as bursts of water launched one hundred and twenty feet or more into the air. The carefully choreographed show drew so many oohs and ahhs from the crowd that the people in the audience actually became a bit distracting to Laurie. But she wasn’t looking for anyone in the crowd. She was looking for her cadres of security personnel on their march up and down the promenade.

  Lights flashed as the water and fire danced to the swelling music. Every hour was a different song. But at seven o’clock the fountain show included the national anthem, “Rocky Mountain Way,” and “Moondance.” The show was longer, the crowd was bigger, and this was usually the first time during the evening the skateboarders showed up.

  Deliberately turning away from the fountain, Laurie heard the sound of careful marching in her direction. Josh and a group of six men were headed toward her. When she turned the other way, she found the other six men were marching in the opposite direction. Their passage got almost no notice from the passersby who were too busy with the show. But Laurie could tell her guards were rather enjoying their strut down the promenade.