by B A Trimmer
The Laura Black Scottsdale Mysteries
The Laura Black
Scottsdale Mysteries
by B A Trimmer
~~~~
Scottsdale Heat
Scottsdale Squeeze
Scottsdale Sizzle
Scottsdale Scorcher
Scottsdale Sting
Scottsdale Shuffle
Scottsdale Shadow
Scottsdale Secret
Scottsdale Silence
Thanks to
Katie Hilbert for
her wonderful ideas
Thanks also to Bonnie Costilow,
Jeanette Ellmer, Barbara Hackel,
Diana Hepner, Millie Knight,
Judith Rogow, Gail Shillito, and
Tony Tumminello
Table of Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
About the Author
Copyright Page
Author’s Note
Dearest reader, this book contains a fair amount of drinking,
some cussing, talking about sex, and plenty of suspenseful action.
Bullets fly, stun-guns zap, and we always have a happy ending.
If these sorts of things aren’t your cup of tea, it’s best that you know…
Introduction
If you’ve never read a Laura Black Scottsdale mystery, you may want to start with Scottsdale Heat, the first book in the series. If you’d instead like to begin with this book, here are a few of the key people in the story:
Laura Black – A Scottsdale native who has a degree in philosophy from Arizona State University. After working for a few years as a bartender, she now works as an investigator in a Scottsdale law firm. She wants to make the world a better place, but she also has bills to pay.
Sophia Rodriguez – Laura’s best friend, who also works in the law office as the receptionist and paralegal. Sophie’s a former California surfer chick and a free spirit. Although she’s always enjoyed dating multiple men at the same time, she’s currently exploring the concept of only having one boyfriend.
Gina Rondinelli – Laura’s other best friend. She’s a former Scottsdale police detective and the law firm’s senior investigator. She has a strict moral code and likes playing by the rules. She’s recently begun dating a former Navy SEAL named Jet.
Leonard Shapiro – Head of the law firm and Laura’s boss. He’s miserly and always pads his bills. He has few morals, loose ethics, and no people skills, but with the help of Laura, Sophie, and Gina, he usually wins his cases. After several years of halfhearted dating attempts, Lenny is now dating a cougar named Elle.
Maximilian Bettencourt – Laura’s boyfriend and number two man in the local crime family. Before coming to Scottsdale, he was a secret operative for the U.S. government, mainly in Eastern Europe. For Laura’s safety, they need to keep their relationship a secret.
Anthony “Tough Tony” DiCenzo – Head of the local crime family. He likes Laura and almost thinks of her as a daughter. Through various adventures over the past year, he owes Laura several favors.
Gabriella – A former government operative from somewhere in Eastern Europe. She currently works as a bodyguard for Tony and Max. She takes pleasure in hurting and killing men. She’s being hunted by Viktor, the head of an international crime organization.
Danielle Ortega – Laura’s friend and the head of a rival crime organization. Her father is Escobar Salazar, the ruthless leader of an international drug cartel called the Black Death.
Johnny Scarpazzi – A top lieutenant in Tony DiCenzo’s organization.
Milo – Sophie’s boyfriend. Milo works as a mid-level minion for Tough Tony DiCenzo.
Grandma Peckham – Laura’s longtime neighbor, Mary Peckham. She’s about to marry a retired dentist named Bob Henderson.
Andrew “Jet” Kramer – Gina’s current boyfriend. They met at the law office when Jet was a client. He got his nickname back when he was a Navy SEAL.
Suzi Lu – A professor of computer science at Arizona State University who is also the professional dominatrix “Mistress McNasty.” One of her clients is Johnny Scarpazzi.
The Cougars – A group of wealthy, sexy, and fashionable women who like to troll Scottsdale nightclubs looking for athletic younger men for hook-up type relationships. Through a series of adventures, Laura, Sophie, and Gina have become junior members of their group known as “pumas” or cougars in training.
Elle – One of the cougars. She lives in a beautiful house in North Scottsdale and has been dating Lenny for almost two months.
Jackie Wade – Another one of the cougars. She owns and runs the Scottsdale Saguaro Sky golf resort.
Danica Taylor-Sternwood – Danica is a friend of Laura’s and works as a featured stripper at a Scottsdale gentlemen’s club called Jeannie’s Cabaret. She’s married to resort manager Alex Sternwood.
Tio Francisco – Brother of Escobar Salazar and the real power behind the Black Death.
Señor Largo – The brutal and sadistic enforcer for the Black Death cartel. He’s worked with Laura before and once saved her life.
Roberto López – Danielle’s boyfriend and personal bodyguard.
Prologue
“What do you know about Scottsdale General Hospital?” asked the man with the pink stun-gun.
I had awakened to find myself firmly tied to a metal chair in a small cinderblock room with an oil-stained concrete floor. The place had a musty chemical smell.
The face of the man asking the question completely filled my field of view. He was close enough for me to count the pores on his nasty thin face and smell the tuna fish he’d had for lunch.
His long dark hair was slicked back, and his eyes bugged out of his face, giving him an almost cartoon-like appearance. Another man was behind me, holding my head so I couldn’t turn it away.
“I don’t know anything about Scottsdale General,” I said, slurring my words like a drunk. “Other than the guys there have a weakness for skinny blondes.”
My stomach still ached and twitched from the first time he had shocked me. It was making it hard to think clearly.
The man held up the stun-gun for me to look at as he again activated the switch. The smiling cartoon kitty on the front of the bright pink device seemed to be at odds with the pain and torment the weapon was designed to cause.
I watched as an intense white spark popped and flashed between the two electrodes. The man slowly brought the stun-gun to within an inch or two of my face, just below my left eye.
The snapping noise the thick spark produced was deafening and brought a fresh wave of fear. My cheek soon grew uncomfortably warm as I waited for him to shove the device against me.
“Now then,” he calmly said. “Let me ask you again. What do you know about Scottsdale General Hospital?”
At times like this, I wonder why I’ve decided to stay with the law office. Before this, I’d been a bartender at Greasewood Flat. It
was a fun place to work and the worst thing that ever happened was a drunk guy would sometimes throw up on me.
Since I started working as an investigator, I’d been harassed, kidnapped, and tortured. I’ve been knocked unconscious and threatened with harm more times than I could count.
How did this escalate so quickly? I thought. I was only taking pictures of naked people having sex.
Chapter One
I woke up to the sound of a text notification on my phone. I opened one eye, fumbled the phone off my nightstand, and saw a text from Sophie, my best friend, and coworker. She pretty much demanded that I come in right away; Lenny, my boss, wanted to see me.
Crap.
I put the phone down and glanced around. The room was in full daylight, but I had no idea what time it was. Honestly, I really didn’t care. It had been a long couple of weeks since I’d been able to sleep in.
Marlowe, my overly pampered cat, lifted his head and looked at me, annoyed I’d disturbed him. I put my head back on the pillow and was asleep within seconds.
~~~~
Sometime around ten, I went in through the back security door of the law offices of Halftown, Oeding, Shapiro, and Hopkins, my place of employment. I walked past my cubicle in the back and up to the front reception area.
Sophie was working at her desk. She looked up from her tablet as I came in. Her eyes were bright as she smiled at me.
“You sure took your time getting in here today,” she lightly scolded, her smile at odds with her words.
Sophie’s parents came up from Mexico about a year before she was born. Although Spanish is her second language, she only has an accent when she thinks it will get her something.
“You’re lucky I came in at all,” I grumbled. “What are you so happy about?”
“Take a look,” she said as she flipped open a newspaper to the society page and pointed.
About halfway down the page was a picture of a beautiful blonde woman with long curly hair, a light tan, and a huge smile. It had likely been taken as a publicity photo since she was wearing a Cardinals cheerleading outfit.
“Isn’t this the cheerleader who was out with Snake?”
“Yeah, it is,” Sophie said, still smiling. “Would you read the article out loud? I want to hear it one more time.”
“Okay,” I said as I started reading the copy.
“Cardinals release cheerleader Hayley Reynolds for violating the team’s non-fraternization policy.
As we reported last month, Miss Reynolds was seen after the San Francisco game in the VIP room at Nexxus, the popular nightclub in Old Town Scottsdale. She was in the company of several Cardinals players and was seen getting chummy with backup quarterback, Snake McCoy. Sources within the team report this wasn’t the first instance of her violating the policy. Reynolds had been with the team for the last four seasons. In addition to cheerleading, she’s been featured in several local television commercials with Honest George Anson promoting his Phoenix area auto dealerships.”
Sophie started laughing. “I love hearing you read that. It makes me feel warm and happy all over.”
“Wow, I’d always heard cheerleaders were discouraged from dating the players, but I didn’t think you could get fired over that.”
“I wish I could have been there when they told her the news. I would have loved to see her reaction. I wonder if she only sniffled a little, with maybe a single tear?”
Sophie stuck out her lower lip and pretended to wipe her eye.
“You know,” she continued, “I bet she completely lost it and started wailing like a five-year-old. I’m thinking the full waterworks, with big wet sobs, wailing, and lots of snot. It would have been hilarious to watch security escort her from the building.” Clearly, she’d been giving this some thought.
“I wonder how Snake feels about his part in getting her fired?” I asked. “I bet he feels pretty bad about it.”
“It’s his own fault for going out with that nasty bimbo when he could have been with me,” Sophie grumbled.
“Have you talked with him since you found out about the cheerleader?”
“Nope, and I’m not going to. He’s roadkill and can have that skanky-ass ho all to himself. Although, he might not want her anymore, now that she’s back to being an aspiring actress or whatever she was before she became a cheerleader.”
I plopped down on one of the red-leather wing chairs next to her desk.
Sophie looked at me, concerned. “You look beat. You’ve got the dark-circles-under-your-eyes thing going on.”
“I am beat, and I could use a day or two off. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t work since Thanksgiving break. That was like three weeks ago.”
“But you got to spend pretty much that entire weekend with Max.”
“I know. Thanksgiving was great. Max told his housekeeper to take the day off and he cooked me a delicious turkey dinner.”
“I’m still surprised Max can cook.”
“So was I. There’s a lot I don’t know about him, at least not yet.”
“I’m still a little mad at you since you didn’t take any pictures of his house. All you’ve told me is how beautiful it is, but I already guessed that.”
“There isn’t a lot to say about it. It’s not gigantic like Muffy’s. It only has four bedrooms and an office, but everything’s so beautiful. He has a great kitchen that looks out over the living room and the big picture windows.”
“And you said Max has a huge deck?”
“I think I love his deck best of all. It runs the entire length of the house and overlooks the pool, Paradise Valley, and Camelback Mountain. The weekend was warm enough for us to sit on it every night with a couple of drinks and watch the sun go down. It was wonderful.”
“How’d you get along with his housekeeper? Beatrice?”
“She’s nice. There’s a separate apartment in the back where she lives. She came back the day after Thanksgiving and was with us the rest of the weekend. I guess she’s been with Max ever since he bought the house. She told me he never has visitors and it was good to be able to cook for more than him.”
“I’m glad to hear he doesn’t have a lot of women over. It’s always a creepy feeling when you go to some guy’s house and there’s a closet half-full of miscellaneous women’s clothes. It makes you wonder.”
“Does that happen to you a lot?”
“Sometimes,” she said with a shrug. “Hey, when are you getting your new car? I thought it was supposed to be in by now.”
“I’m waiting for the dealer to call. It’s still listed as ‘In Transit’ on the website.”
“It’ll be great for you to ditch your old one. It’s halfway fallen apart. Are you going to sell it to a junkyard, or should we ditch it somewhere?”
“I’m thinking about keeping it.”
“Seriously? Why would you keep that POS?”
“In case I have to do something that could damage my new car. You know, stakeouts and stuff. I don’t want the new one to end up looking like the old one. Or ending up like Tony’s car.”
“Well, good luck with that. I know how you treat your vehicles.”
“How’s Lenny?” I asked as I nodded my head in the direction of his closed office door. “Did he go out with Elle again?”
“Jeez, it’s all I’ve been hearing about,” Sophie said as she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Yeah, they went out Friday night. Elle went out with the girls on Saturday, but then she and Lenny went out again last night.”
“They’ve been seeing each other for almost two months. Do you think it’s turning into a real thing?”
“That’s a good question. I wouldn’t think anyone could have a relationship with Lenny. I mean, yuck.”
“I know. The thought grosses me out as well. I guess we’ll find out if it’s an actual relationship as time goes on.”
“I hope it lasts a while longer. He’s been in a relatively good mood since he started dating her.”
“You said Lenny
wanted to see me? It’s not another assignment, I hope. I just finished the last one yesterday morning. I was hoping for at least two or three days off before the next one.”
“Sorry. You know how crazy busy it gets this time of year.”
“Fine, but please tell me it’s not another cheating spouse.”
“Well, I can tell you it’s not, but it is.”
“Jeez, I need to find another job.”
“I heard the Cardinals have an opening for a new cheerleader.”
“Shut up. Do you have a file for the new one yet?”
“Nope, other than her husband’s a doctor over at Scottsdale General, I don’t know a lot about it. But the wife will be here in about half an hour, so you can hear everything for yourself.”
I sighed and gave Sophie a look.
“Sorry,” she said. “Not all of your assignments are going to let you find a lost gold mine or a treasure chest full of antique jewelry. But look at it this way, a doctor will mean a nice house. You’ll have lots of big closets to hide in.”
“You think you’re being funny. But if I have to hide in one more closet, I really might quit.”
~~~~
My name is Laura Black. I’ve been the junior investigator at the law office for a little over three years.
The firm was started back in the eighties with four partners. Since then, the three senior partners have all left the group. One moved to Pensacola and two of them died.
One met his end in a skiing accident in Colorado. The other one had a heart attack while doing the nasty with a law student intern named Jeanette.
She ended up becoming the publicist for several A-list Hollywood actors, including Stig Stevens. I’ve actually worked with the woman on an assignment. She seems nice.
The remaining partner, Leonard Shapiro, my boss, has remade the firm into one of the most successful boutique law offices in Scottsdale. To maximize his profits, Lenny prefers keeping to high-profile criminal, civil, and family law cases.
The more desperate and hopeless the case looks, the more he likes it. Anxious clients don’t ask up front how much everything will cost.
