The Misadventures of the Laundry Hag - #2 Swept under the Rug

by Jennifer L. Hart

  Wisely, Penny and Marty shuffled into the dining room to assist Kenny and Josh with table duty. I’d just emptied the bucket into the kitchen sink when the doorbell rang. Grumbling, I slouched down the hall. “Neil, did you forget your key…?” I trailed off when I saw Leo on the other side of the door. He looked pale and shivery, understandable since he stood in the cold, coatless, but the stricken look on his face told me more than the weather was to blame for his haggard appearance.

  “Come in here before you freeze.” I hauled him inside. “Where’s your coat? Lord above, it must be in the single digits out there.”

  “Maggie, I’m so sorry.”

  “Not your fault I’m nosy and got in over my head, Leo.” I snatched a blanket off the air mattress and wrapped him up. “Let’s go in the kitchen, the oven is on and you’ll warm up faster.”

  Obediently, Leo shuffled after me. “I have to talk to you, in private.” He cut his gaze toward the dining room where Marty had dropped some silverware.

  “Can it wait until after dinner? We’re just about to sit down and Neil should be back with Sylvia any time now. You’re welcome to stay and—”

  “Now, Maggie.” Though his tone was forceful, I worried he might start to cry if I refused.

  “Let’s go in my bedroom.” I led the way; calling out to the assembled family members that I would be back shortly.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as soon as he shut the door. “I can’t remember ever seeing you this upset.”

  “It’s Richard.”

  Concerned, I rubbed his arm. “Is he all right? Was he in an accident?”

  “No, he’s fine, just a real dickhead.” Leo snorted. “Dick Head, the dickhead, why didn’t I see it?”

  Ignoring the unmade bed, I pulled Leo over and sat down. “Wanna tell me what happened?”

  Leo nodded, misery incarnate. “He stole files from Valentino’s office.”

  “Excuse me?” I was sure I hadn’t processed his words correctly.

  “When he went cleaning with you. I didn’t know, until I went to his house this afternoon. His mother let me in, you see. She’s so sweet, if a bit demanding and Richard didn’t know I was there. He was in the shower and I decided to wait for him in his bedroom. The computer was on and I must have nudged the keyboard or something because this file opened up. It had Valentino’s corporate logo on the header, so I knew it wasn’t his. From what I could tell it was quarterly stock reports for Safari and a list of shareholders. So I started, you know, scrolling through the files. And I found this status report for something called falcon, as well as a bunch of bank statements. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence.”

  I closed my eyes. “Damn it all to hell and back.”

  “There’s more. I searched through his room and found this.”

  Where he pulled the manila file folder from, I had no idea, but my curiosity subsided as I leafed through its contents. Pictures, all of Valentino and Candie, some cut from magazine or newspaper articles, others paparazzi-style candid shots of one or both subjects walking, talking to someone. Dozens of clippings pertaining to Falcon, Safari Power Solutions, and Candie’s disappearance.

  “This is bad, Leo.”

  Leo lost the battle and his face crumpled. “I’m so sorry Maggie, I confronted him about it. He claimed he had a source who fed him the information online, that he was just monitoring the project, the company. I knew he was B.S.-ing me though. I mean, where does he get the money for the rent, if he’s not working? His mother’s a retired kindergarten teacher for God’s sake. He has to be some sort of corporate spy.” A tear slid down his cheek.

  My brain was on a tilt-a-whirl. “Leo, listen to me. This is not your fault, you hear me? You had no way of knowing what Dick Head was up to. I didn’t know and I was right there with him. But now that you are aware of what he’s been doing, you need to tell the police. He might be involved in the kidnapping.” If so, he was probably half way to Zimbabwe by now. I looked back to the file, my heart like a hunk of granite in my chest. I really didn’t want to have another run in with the law today.

  Leo nodded. “I’ll go right now. I should have gone there first, but I wasn’t thinking.” I offered him the file; sorry my fingerprints were on it, but in his distress he fumbled and papers fluttered to the carpet.

  “Sorry Maggie, I’m so sorry….” Leo droned on but I tuned him out while I restacked the clippings. “No freaking way,” I said as one headline caught my eye. “What is it?” Leo stoppered his verbal diarrhea of apology and leaned over my

  shoulder.

  “Maybe nothing. Go now, ask for Detective Capri. I’ll have Marty drive you.”

  Too upset to even make a joke, Leo jumped up. He opened the door to Neil, fist aloft, poised for knocking.

  “Neil, go get Marty. He’s going to go to the police station with Leo.”

  Neil cocked his head, studied me. “You don’t want me to ride with him?”

  “Not this time, slick. We need to have a chat.”

  * * *

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Son of a bitch.” Neil said as he accessed Safari’s corporate website. “Here it is in black and white. Why didn’t I pick up on this sooner?”

  I leaned over his shoulder, kissed his cheek. “You’ve been busy. Why would you notice?” I couldn’t suppress my grin. It wasn’t often I figured something out before Neil.

  Candie Valentino, not Markus, was the owner of Safari Power Solutions. True, Markus was the business tycoon, the man behind cutting-edge advances, but fifty-one percent of the company’s stock was held by his wife. She came from money, a true Dallas socialite and sole heir to her father’s oil fortune.

  “Okay, let’s assume the feds know all this. Chances are, Candie’s WASP parents, not Markus Valentino, called in the FBI. Valentino’s under the gun because he’s late bringing his new project, falcon, to fruition. He’s made big promises and backed them up with smoke. Meanwhile, his existing customers are all sorts of pissed off, because he’s not paying as much attention to them. The market is shaky right now and he can’t afford his stocks to tank when he’s invested so much in falcon. What better way to gain a little sympathy than a stalking threat, followed by his wife’s disappearance? The question is, was it a voluntary disappearance?”

  Neil looked stunned, then a slow grin broke across his face. “You think she’s just hiding, faking the kidnapping for her husband’s sake?”

  “I’m not sure. I’d like to believe Candie is incapable of this sort of duplicity, but there is a possibility she’s part of it. But like I said, the feds probably know all this. And Valentino’s under a microscope. What better way to divert attention from him, than to set me up as blackmailer?”

  Neil’s fists clenched on the arms of the desk chair. “If this is true, you were arrested as a red herring, so Valentino would feel confident enough to make his next move. Then, the feds could close in. You really should sue, Uncle Scrooge. Or at least let me beat the snot out of them all.”

  Not the most romantic offer, but it filled in the cold pit in my stomach with light and warmth. “Never mind that now. There are still pieces missing. First, we don’t know if Candie is involved or not. If not, then Markus has an accomplice. While he may have sent those faxes and the dead bird, he didn’t bash himself over the back of the head then set fire to his own house. My money is on Dick Head. It’s too coincidental that he hooks up with Leo right after I started cleaning for the Valentinos. Look at the facts. He uses Leo to get to me and the guise of the cleaning gig to nose around Valentino’s private office. He has a stalker-esqe file on them, for Pete’s sake.”

  Neil mulled that over, absently stroking my arm. “Then again, he could be just some whacked-out groupie. Valentino might’ve hired some random thug. You can buy anything on Craigslist.”

  “Or it could be the guy who was driving us around. Or possibly Sierra. As his personal assistant, she could cover for him at any point when he was out doing something unscrupulous. The
n too, there’s Lucas Sloan. Lord knows that guy has so much financial trouble, he’d get in bed with the devil for a few coins to rub together.” I looked Neil in the eye. “Whoever it is, they’ve decided to take Valentino out. Chances are, the police have a guard posted at his hospital room

  door in case the perp has another go at him.”

  The corner of Neil’s mouth kicked up. “Perp? You’re really getting into this.”

  “Not like I had much of a choice.” But he was right, I realized. While running my own business had been kind of cool, it didn’t occupy my mind the way the CI position did. I turned to my husband. “With cleaning, there was always going to be a need to do it again and the effort is often overlooked. Helping out Capri made me feel as if I was making a real difference, not just a temporary one.”

  Neil reached out, pulled me onto his lap. “You make me absolutely crazy, you know that?” He said as his hand stroked lazily through my hair. “All I want in this world is to protect you and the boys and to see that you’re all happy. Figures that the only way for you to be happy is pasting a giant bull’s eye on your forehead.”

  “That’s not true, I’m happy doing stuff with you and the boys.”

  His hand stilled and dropped to the arm of the chair once more. “Are you? Is that why you went out of your way to invite Leo to come skiing with us?”

  My mouth dropped open. “Was that why you were in such a snit this morning? Neil, Leo gets like two days off every six months, otherwise your mother keeps him chained to a radiator. I thought he’d like a change of pace. Besides, you know darn well that I wasn’t going to ski and I know you needed a little physical action.”

  “Speaking of which…” Neil mumbled, before claiming my lips.

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “Go away,” We shouted in tandum.

  “Maggie, I need to talk to you.” Sylvia’s meek plea seemed even more pathetic filtered through the door.

  I rested my forehead against Neil’s. “Cripes, I should hang up a shingle next to Dr. Bob’s.”

  “Come on in, Sylvia,” Neil called out as I scrambled off his lap.

  “Hey, you guys. Sorry to interrupt.”

  “We’re use to it.” Neil said easily. “I’m going to see what’s left from dinner.”

  “Save me something,” I pleaded as he shut the door. On a sigh, I turned to face my friend.

  “What’s up, Sylvie?” My heart broke as I watched her wring her hands. Sylvia had changed so much in the last week. Her usual confidence in tatters, she looked like a little girl who’d been abandoned in a foreign city.

  “Well, first, I wanted you to know how grateful I am that you’ve been here for me. I know I’m weird and out there and you don’t get all my new age hocus pocus, but you’re still here for me.” Her hands gestured wildly. “And I wanted to tell you, I’ve decided to sell the house.”

  I dropped back into the padded chair. Crap. “When?”

  “As soon as possible. Eric promised I could have the house, since he’s the one who still has a job, but of course I can’t pay for it on my own.”

  “Where are you going to live?” Please don’t move away. I kept the selfish plea to myself. Being on the outs with Hudson society, I needed the one true friend I had here.

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’ll stay in the house until it sells, then I guess we’ll leave it up to fate.”

  Fuck fate. “Have you thought about looking for a job in Boston? You could find a small apartment.”

  “I really don’t want to live by myself in the city,”

  “Then you could commute. Whatever you have to do, I’ll be here to help.”

  Her smile was small, but genuine. I know you will Maggie. And look, I’m sorry about your cleaning business.

  “All good things must come to an end.” The sage words sounded hollow in my ears.

  “No, no, I mean, pushing you into it in the first place. I can’t help but feel that if it wasn’t for me, all these awful things wouldn’t have happened.”

  “It wasn’t all bad. I met some interesting people and I have excellent stories to tell at social functions.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Really Sylvia, you didn’t dupe me into this and I guess being self-employed wasn’t in the cards. Come on, let’s go have some dinner.”

  * * * *

  Neil was snoring on the air mattress next to me when Marty returned. I eased to the floor and signaled to him to meet me in the kitchen. “How did it go? Where’s Leo?”

  Marty ignored my questions and poked his head in the refrigerator. “Any food left?”

  “Marty, I’m dying here.”

  “Mind fixing me something to eat before you expire?”

  Grumbling, I shoved him aside and withdrew the plate I’d saved for him. Popping it in the microwave, I fetched a beer out of Neil’s hidden stash in the garage. “If you want this, you’d better dish.” I waved the bottle under his nose.

  “You’re a shrewd negotiator, Laundry Hag.” He snatched the bottle and twisted off the cap. “Leo’s fine, a little shaken, but he’ll be all right. I offered to drive him back to your in-laws, but he insisted on driving himself.”

  “Are the police going to question Richard?”

  “How the hell would I know? I’m just your lousy errand boy.”

  “Oh quit that poor, poor, pitiful me act. Wait until your kid is born. Being a dad will redefine you understanding of put-upon.”

  Marty shuffled his feet, his gaze focused over my shoulder. “The baby’s not mine, Maggie.”

  I blinked stupidly. “Pardon?”

  “I met Penny at a restaurant outside of Charleston. I was working on a road crew and me and the guys would stop in every day for lunch. Penny was real nice to all of us, bringing us free fries or slices of pie. Anyway, I stopped in late one night, and saw her walking through the parking lot. She was with this guy and I could see through the window they were yelling. So when I saw the guy hit her, I got in the middle of it. I mean, I couldn’t just let some asshole pound a pregnant girl, ya know?”

  “Wait, wait, slow down. What guy?”

  “Penny’s high school boyfriend; the father of her baby.”

  Behind me, the microwave dinged. We both ignored it, lost in the gaping chasm of words unsaid. I wanted to yell at him, but seeing the bags under his eyes and the hangdog lines around his face, I didn’t have the heart for a verbal flogging.

  “How did she end up with you?”

  My words jolted Marty out of whatever he’d been brooding over. “She was living with the guy and after I beat the piss out of him, I convinced her to press charges. But his Dad was the local sheriff and she was convinced he’d be out in no time and come after both of us. So, I sold my car and bought the RV.”

  I needed to sit down. “Jesus, Marty. Does he know your name?”

  My brother shook his head. “We’ve never been properly introduced, other than my fist to his face.”

  “You’re damn lucky you weren’t slapped with an assault charge.” His gaze skittered away and I groaned. “Oh, shit, don’t tell me…”

  “I don’t guess I need to.”

  Cripes, what a frigging disaster. “He’ll be looking for her, Marty. She’s carrying his child. You need to go to the police, get a lawyer.”

  “I can’t do that Maggie! Penny’s so stressed out, I’m afraid she’ll lose the baby. This house isn’t exactly the sea of tranquility, you know?”

  I slapped my hands on the counter. “How can you dump this on me, Marty? How can you be so selfish as to drag my family into your problems this way? Again! Just what exactly is wrong with you, that you screw up every frigging thing you touch?”

  “That’s enough, Uncle Scrooge.” Neil said from the doorway.

  “Oh, we’re not even in the same dimension as enough! I’m just warming up here and—”

  “Marty, go to bed. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Neil’s tone was hard and unyielding. “Maggie,
come outside with me a second.”

  I took one last look at my brother’s devastated face, before closing my eyes. “I’m sorry Marty, I didn’t mean—”

  “Save it, Laundry Hag.” Marty nodded to Neil, then stormed down the hall. At least he had enough sense not to slam the door. I launched myself from the barstool and flung the microwave door open.

  “God, can you believe him?” I asked as I scraped the food into the trash. “Running from a damn assault charge with a pregnant stranger riding shotgun. Un-frigging-believable”

  “Maggie, come outside.” Neil repeated the command.

  “I don’t want to go outside, it’s too cold. Hey!” I shouted as the fleece comforter from our makeshift bed was tossed over my head. Neil spun me until I was swaddled like a mummy and lifted me off the ground in a fireman’s carry.

  “What the hell are you doing, you’ll hurt your shoulder.” My words must have been muffled by the blanket because he patted my backside once and didn’t respond.

  A lock clicked and I hissed as the freezing air stung my bare feet. Neil must have put on boots because I heard the distinct crunching of snow as I jounced along like a tuna in a net.

  “Seriously Neil, how much did you like dinner, ‘cause we might experience it again if you keep bouncing me around.”

  “Quit your bellyaching, we’re almost there.” Another light slap on the butt. He was having way too much fun with this.

  “Almost where?” I asked at the same time a door squeaked open. The world came back into view as Neil set me down and the comforter fell away from my head. Me feet were planted on the steps to the RV.

  “Are you out of your ever-loving mind? The heater isn’t on, we’ll freeze to death.”

  Pushing past me, Neil kicked off his boots and flicked the space heater on. “See, no popsicles in here. Besides, you needed to cool off. Come in and shut the door before you let the heat out.”

  “Wiseass,” I grumbled, hopping over the small puddles of snow his boots had left behind. Tempted though I was to hog the blanket, I sat down next to him, so close that our thighs touched, and flung one corner over his shoulder.