Daring Hearts: Fearless Fourteen Boxed Set

by Box Set

  “No kidding,” I said over my shoulder. “And here I was all confused.”

  “What?” Hearst asked.

  “It’s just my brother. Sorry I didn’t call. I was hanging out with Graham for a few minutes.”

  “Well, Liz texted. And Felicity. I had to count to figure out which one used the most emoticons. It turned out to be Liz with twenty seven.”

  I laughed. “I guess she really had fun then.”

  “I didn’t even give them my phone number.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Only you have my number.”

  “Are you mad that they have your number?”

  “No. I guess not. It’s just weird. Did you give it to them?”

  I thought about it for a minute. “They probably got it off my phone. And they’ve probably had it for a while now.”

  He was quiet for a moment.

  “Did you text them back? They might get their feelings hurt if you don’t.”

  “I did,” he said. “But I didn’t use any emoticons.”

  I smiled to myself. As if I thought he would be texting any smiley faces. “That’s okay.”

  “It’s only the first time though, right?”

  “What’s only the first time?”

  “I only have to reply the first time. I don’t have to keep answering their texts.”

  “They texted you more than once?”

  “Yes.”

  “Replying to one is fine unless they ask you a question you need to answer in another text.” Was I really coaching him on the art of texting friends?

  “What if they text me again tomorrow?”

  “Then you should answer them,” I said.

  He sighed.

  “I thought you liked them.”

  “I do like them. It’s just a big commitment to always respond to their texts.”

  “Did you spend all this time in torment over texting me?”

  “No. Of course not. I wanted to text you back.”

  “But you said you like my friends.”

  “I do,” he said. “They’re fine. I just don’t like them like I like you.”

  “Oh,” I said. I had been worried after all the horseplay at his house.

  “You get me, and I get you.”

  “True.” Nobody else had his phone number? Not even those girls? Maybe that was why they were always showing up at his house.

  “Listen, Towns,” he said. “I’m sorry about what happened in the pool.”

  He was?

  “You’re my best friend, and I would never do anything to jeopardize that. I just got swept up in the moment.”

  Oh. “You don’t have to apologize,” I said.

  “I do too. I don’t want things to get weird. There are lots of girls I can kiss, but only one girl who is always there for me.”

  Ouch. Wait. Was that supposed to be a compliment? Lots of girls he can kiss? Suddenly annoyed instead of hurt, I said, “Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. Plenty of guys to kiss. But only one guy is my real friend.”

  “So things are okay with us?” he asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Wait… what guys are you kissing? Are you kissing Noah?”

  “I really don’t kiss and tell,” I said. “Plus, we can talk about a lot of things, but talking about our dates is a little weird.”

  “You went out on a date with Noah?”

  “Good night, Hearst,” I said. “Sweet dreams.”

  I hung up. Then, unable to resist, I sent him a text with as many emoticons as I could manage. They were the new ones I’d found today. The pirate emoticons.

  I grinned as I went back to hang out with my brother.

  Chapter 9

  When I woke up the next morning, I checked to be sure my brother was gone. Then I got started on the next background check. I was making progress really quickly. Then something popped on the intranet that made me stop. This woman was suing the same company for sexual harassment. Graham hadn’t been hired to check on prospective employees. He’d been hired to dig up dirt on the victims in a sexual harassment case.

  Did he know? Surely not. I didn’t think he would have taken this case if he did.

  The harder question was what I should do about it. I was Carol, the new, eager contract worker who was trying to build a relationship with Paxton P.I. And I was also me—a girl who wanted to take some of the weight off her brother’s shoulders. I had to think that Carol would finish the assignment. And wasn’t finishing the assignment helping my brother?

  In my gut, I didn’t think he knew what the background investigations were really about.

  There were two more plaintiffs in the case. I wondered if those investigations had already been completed. Or were they going to be Carol’s next assignments?

  I needed some breakfast if I was going to have to deal with big decisions. I didn’t want to throw away the professional relationship Carol had been building with Graham. On the other hand, it was all fake. I could create another fake persona just as easily.

  I started to call Liz for advice but decided on Hearst instead.

  “Is it morning?” he mumbled into the phone.

  “It’s almost noon,” I said.

  “Why are you wide awake?”

  “I had a lot to do today.”

  “Like go out with Noah?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Quit asking about Noah. You’re getting on my nerves.”

  “What’s going on then?” he asked.

  “I need to talk to you. I need your advice.”

  “About Noah?”

  “NO!”

  “About guys?”

  “Hearst, for the love of God! I don’t want to talk about guys with you. I need your advice about a background check.”

  “Geez. You don’t have to yell in my ear.”

  I was pretty sure yelling had been one-hundred percent necessary.

  “What’s the problem then?”

  “I don’t want to talk on the phone. Pick me up and buy me lunch.”

  “You just yelled at me. I’m not sure I want to buy you lunch.”

  “I know you’re starving already. And the sushi at Tomo’s is calling your name.”

  “You don’t play fair.”

  “Get in the shower,” I said. “And don’t fall back asleep.”

  “I’m too hungry to fall back asleep.”

  “Do you want me to pick up the sushi and bring it over?”

  “No,” he said. “I’d rather get out of here for a while.”

  “So I’m doing you a favor,” I said.

  “No. You’re dragging me out of bed and abusing my friendship. I just don’t mind is all.”

  * * *

  Hearst helped me decide how to handle the background check.

  After we had finished our sushi, Hearst and I pulled out my laptop and drafted the letter from Carol to Graham.

  * * *

  Mr. Paxton,

  * * *

  Please know that I appreciate the work, and I would very much like to continue my relationship with Paxton Investigations. However, I do have some concerns about this second assignment.

  * * *

  It appears that your firm has been hired to uncover derogatory information about the victims in the sexual harassment lawsuit against a prominent businessman. I should have clarified my position on such investigations prior to accepting your first contract. I apologize for any inconvenience I have caused. I find that I cannot justify working on such cases. Thus, in the future, please do not assign me work involving the victims in discrimination suits or in allegations of domestic violence or sex crimes.

  * * *

  I would very much like to continue our business relationship, and I hope you do not find this email to be offensive or judgmental.

  * * *

  Thank you,

  Carol

  * * *

  “Are we sure about this?” I asked Hearst.

  “Yes,” he said.

  I h
it send.

  Well, crud. I thought the email would work. I thought I knew my brother well enough. Worst case scenario, I could create another fake persona. I hesitated, wondering once again if it would be safer to go to Graham myself and claim I’d noticed the issues with the file. To do so would also come with risks. Graham might connect the dots between me and Carol. Or he might decide I was spending too much time poking around in his cases.

  “Thanks,” I said. “You are a great friend. What are you doing tonight?”

  He shrugged. “I was thinking about writing that research paper that’s due next month.”

  “You haven’t asked anybody out for this weekend?” I asked.

  “Have you got a date tonight?” he asked.

  I guess I had been prying. “Sorry. No. Graham is going out and he wanted someone to hang out at the apartment with me. Liz and Felicity’s parents all said no. So if I ask him and he thinks you are better than nothing… would you?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  I shut down my laptop and closed it. “I should go talk to him about it. He doesn’t want me alone with you, but he also doesn’t want me alone in the loft that late.”

  * * *

  Graham was downstairs in his office when I got home.

  “Hey,” I said. “What are you working on?”

  Graham sighed. “A background check that I need to turn in. I sent it out to a contractor, but she didn’t finish.”

  Uh oh. “Why didn’t she finish?” Maybe I had messed up as Carol. Maybe I didn’t know my brother as well as I thought I did.

  “Morals,” he grumbled.

  “Morals? Don’t you have morals, too, Graham?”

  “Yes, I have morals. For crying out loud, Townsey.” He turned to give me a dirty look. “I’m turning in the report because it’s too late for me to turn down the assignment. I sat on it for three weeks and now I can’t refuse the work without putting the client in a bind.”

  “Oh.”

  He sighed and swiped at his hair in frustration. “I should have screened this case out sooner.”

  I knew why, but I had to pretend I didn’t. “Why? What’s wrong with the case?”

  “The four women they’ve asked us to do background checks on are all plaintiffs in a sexual harassment case against a local corporation.”

  “That’s kind of icky.”

  “Exactly. We have always screened out cases that involve victims of criminal charges, but civil cases have to be sorted through almost case by case. We make good money off investigating the often overblown claims of victims of car accidents and work accidents.”

  He was right. I loved when we got footage of them sawing up trees in their yard or hiking up Mount Le Conte. Some people were liars and tried to take advantage of others. “Those are some of my favorites,” I admitted.

  “Our screening process missed this one though.”

  I thought back to the intake paperwork. “We always ask about civil litigation, don’t we?”

  He nodded. “We do, but they don’t always fill it out. From now on, we’ll have to be sure that they do.” He clicked his mouse to attach the reports to the email and pressed send. “I’m glad to get rid of that one.”

  I was dying to ask if he was going to keep using the contractor in question. But I didn’t know anything about the new contractor. It would raise a red flag if I asked him. I struggled to keep the question inside.

  “I guess now is a bad time to tell you that all my friends are busy tonight.”

  Graham groaned. “I don’t want you alone here, but I promised Joe I would go.”

  I waited for a minute and let him envision poor little me all alone in the loft.

  “I won’t go,” he said.

  “No, you should go. You need to get out. Joe will be disappointed.”

  “What about you, Townsey? I don’t want to leave you by yourself that late on a Saturday night.”

  I took a deep breath and said, “Hearst isn’t busy, but I guess you wouldn’t like that option.”

  Graham nodded slowly. “Well played, little sis. Well played.”

  I waited patiently.

  “I should have Joshua come babysit you. That would teach you. But he’s chasing a bounty in Atlanta this weekend.”

  I didn’t have any objections to Joshua as a human being, but I didn’t want a paid babysitter. That would be demoralizing.

  “Fine,” he said, running his hand through his beard stubble. “Hearst can come over. But stay out of your room, and when I get home, I want him asleep on the couch and you asleep in your room.”

  I tried my hardest to avoid smiling. “Thanks, Graham.” I leaned down and kissed him on the top of his head and then dashed for the loft.

  * * *

  I didn’t have to wait too terribly long for word of Carol’s fate. A few hours later, I had an email from Graham to Carol. He apologized for the assignment and explained he would not normally have taken the case. Then he assured her that he planned to keep using her. Thank God.

  Then I started reading about the case.

  “Please let me know if you feel uncomfortable taking this case. I would not normally contract out this type of thing, but this woman could be in danger.”

  Danger! I had dreamed of doing some insurance fraud case, but this was a chance to do something truly meaningful.

  “I would recommend that you have someone accompany you on any surveillance that you conduct in order to increase your safety. Invoice me for their time as well. If you don’t feel comfortable conducting an investigation this involved and with this degree of risk, please let me know.”

  He was really giving Carol room to reject this case.

  “I was contacted yesterday by a woman through our internet contact page. The woman, Sharon West, indicated that she was being watched and that she was in danger. She requested our assistance.

  “Normally, I might have assumed this was some kind of prank, but within the hour I had an email from her husband, Greg, apologizing for his wife and indicating that she had some mental health issues. When I conducted a quick search on the man and his wife, I discovered that the man died six months ago.”

  My blood ran cold as I read that sentence.

  My brother’s email continued, “You are the only option to look into this case immediately. The soonest I can find someone else to make contact with the woman is Thursday. Otherwise, I wouldn’t ask.”

  Thursday? This woman could be in danger.

  “I spoke off-the-record with the police, and there is nothing they can do without more information.”

  How could Graham have something this exciting going on and not even hint about it to me?! I was furious. And where was he keeping this information that I couldn’t see it? I went ahead and logged into our system and searched but there was no mention of yesterday’s contact. He was hiding cases from me!

  I tried to control my outrage because right now, I had an important investigation to conduct. I would have to deal with my brother’s betrayal later. He was trying to keep me out of the business, and maybe he had legitimate reasons… but we had a deal. My father, my brother, and I had already established that I could have full access.

  Maybe I would ask Hearst to search around in our Paxton PI network and see if he could figure out what my brother had done. Hearst had mad skills.

  Meanwhile, I needed to focus. Focus, Townsey!

  “A few quick searches revealed that the deceased husband has an identical twin brother who has filed for custody of the two boys. In addition, he has submitted a will to probate that purports to give him control of the estate, the trusts for the children, and the trust for the wife. I have attached a copy of the document, Carol. You will immediately see the unconventional language in the document. Not one piece of property was in the wife’s name when I did a search. In addition, she has no credit in her name. She has no living relatives. The woman could well have suffered years of abuse under a controlling spouse with no opport
unity for escape. It would appear that her brother-in-law may be attempting to control her and the children now.”

  I pulled up the attachment. My brother was right. I hadn’t seen a lot of wills, but this one talked about the man’s property. And it was pretty clear from the document that he considered his wife to be a piece of property rather than a person. One sentence actually said, “I leave all of my worldly possessions to my brother, Doug, including my beautiful wife.”

  This Greg guy had been a real piece of work.

  I had to help this woman! I had no doubt that she was in serious danger. I had to do this the right way and not make any mistakes.

  I made a quick list of computer searches that I needed to do.

  Criminal histories of Doug, Greg, and wife, Sharon

  Previous marriages for any of the three (possibly contact former spouses)

  Absolutely anything online related to these three individuals, news, obituary, property interests, investments, life insurance policies, employment records

  ER records for Sharon and the children especially but also any medical records on any of these five individuals or former spouses, girlfriends, etc.

  Phone records

  * * *

  It was going to kill me to delay in contacting her directly, but I knew enough to do my homework first.

  The woman was clearly being watched if my brother had gotten an email discrediting her so quickly. Someone could easily monitor her email and her online activity. They could also have cloned her cell phone. Contacting her was going to be difficult if I wanted to speak to her without anyone listening in.

  The controlling husband had likely placed bugs and cameras around the house. If not, the brother could have done so by now. I needed to get a good idea of the challenges we were facing in that arena. I couldn’t simply detect and destroy the monitoring equipment. The brother-in-law would know that someone was trying to help Sharon.

  I’d have to find a way to work around the bugs until we decided on a course of action.