Found and Destroyed: The Second Sarah Martin Mystery

by Danelle Helget

  “About three weeks. Around the same time I found information about an Alexa on my husband’s computer. Thing is, that’s not a picture of Alexa.”

  I was confused. “So there are two women?”

  “Who knows? That’s why I’m hiring you. You can figure all this out for me. It’s all too much! I have to get to the gym, and salon, and shop. I don’t have time to figure all this out. There’s information on Alexa in the file too.”

  I paged ahead. There was a printout of a computer screen. The set up was very similar to Facebook, but at the top it said, “Gold Digger Prospects.” Seriously?

  There was a picture of Alexa and a short bio under her name: Likes martinis dry, and skin wet. Loves to have fun—lots of it! Eww. She was blonde, skinny, pretty, and had fat red lips. Her boobs were the size of cantaloupes, and the tight tank over them was stretched so tight it looked painted on. In the picture she was leaning toward the camera. Her arms were pushing her cleavage together and she was pouting her lips, with one finger in her mouth. She looked a bit older than I was, but who knew if she’d had work done. The bio stats said she was five-foot-eleven, 120 pounds, twenty-five years old.

  “So she wants to marry a millionaire, and your husband has an account with Gold Digger Prospects? Is this like a millionaire matchmaker dating service thing?”

  “Yes and he has 300 friends, all girls. This is the one he messages with the most. I’ve read the messages. I don’t think they’ve done anything yet, but it sounds like they plan to soon. She’s from the Brainerd area, not too far from here. The messages alone are cheating in my book!” She looked hurt again.

  I paged through the rest of the papers. Most were daily schedules, contact info for her, and daily routines for Vincent. There was also a copy of his planner for the next two months with appointments, lunch dates, and anything else I might need.

  “I’ll see what I can find out, but I’m not promising anything. I have a business to run too, so if you’re on a time line I can’t promise when either.”

  “No, I don’t care about how long it takes. I’ll just keep collecting money and acting like I don’t know anything. Just keep in touch every couple days or so, okay?” she asked.

  “Okay.”

  “Well, I have to run. Smoochy Poo has a play date tonight. Thank you, darling, for helping me with this. If you could be discrete about it, I’d appreciate that.” She stood and put a fifty on the table. “Have some dessert too before you leave! Bye, bye, darling!” she sang and blew me a kiss.

  I watched her walk away and wondered what the hell I was thinking! She got to the door, and it swung open and was held for her. She smiled and stopped to talk. She looked like she was flirting with someone, but I couldn’t see who it was because of the reflection on the glass door and the fact it was already dark out. Then she walked away and in came Rex.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lord help me! Rex was just as gorgeous as the last time I saw him, and he was in uniform.

  “Hey there, handsome!” I heard Tannya yell. “Take a seat I’ll be right with you.”

  “Hey, Tannya. Thanks,” he said.

  He scanned the room and caught my eye. I realized my mouth was hanging open, so I shut it quickly and smiled as he approached my booth.

  “Hi, Rex,” I managed.

  “Hey, you! Glad to see you’re back and doing well. I caught some of the buzz at the police station about you and your … little incident. You had me … ah us, pretty worried,” he told me.

  “Oh, the kidnapping? Ah, that was nothing. All in a day’s work!” I said with a hand flip.

  “Seriously, I have to hear the story,” he said with a serious look.

  “All right. Well, what are you doing now? Did you eat dinner? This special is amazing. You can join me if you’d like,” I offered.

  “Yeah sure,” he said and sat down.

  Tannya came over with a coffee and a pop. She sat them down in front of him. “Your usual I assume?” she asked.

  “Yes, thanks,” he told her.

  “Do ya know what ya want, hun?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll have the special,” Rex replied.

  “What? Oh, yeah, I already knew that! I was talking to Sara,” she said with a wink. “You wanna pass some time, tell her to fill you in on the details of this past weekend.”

  She walked away with a smirk. Rex looked at me and smiled.

  “So what do you want?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

  I smiled and squirmed in my seat a little.

  “I’m not sure I follow you. I think she meant which dessert, but I haven’t decided yet. Anyway, I do have a good story for you,” I said changing the subject. Tannya arrived with his order and set it in front of him. While he ate I told him about my weekend. Although he was impressed, he also got a bit parenty. “Aren’t girls supposed to go to the bathroom together in places like that?” he asked.

  Oh geez, we’re all the way back there? “Um, only in middle school. Although somehow I don’t think that would’ve prevented those guys from getting to me. Their plan wasn’t exactly … well thought out. Idiot one and two were kinda flying by the seat of their pants,” I said referring to Cory and Kyle.

  “Well that’s quite the story, Sara. I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Thanks. Did I miss anything here while I was gone?” I asked.

  “Nope, same old, same old. Which is nice most of the time, but once in a while I’d like some action. Nothing too awful, I’d just like to use my skills someday,” he told me with a half grin.

  “Sounds to me like you need to move to Chicago or New York. Somewhere that actually has crime. This town is too little for you.”

  “Nah, I like the small town feel, just need to wake up from the mundane routine is all. That being said, did I see you sitting with Miss Kitty when I parked?”

  “Yes.” That’s all I offered.

  “Well?” he said, waiting.

  “Well, what?”

  “Well I don’t want to pry … are you two friends now?” he asked.

  “Not really. She just wanted me to check on a couple things for her.”

  “Like her husband?” he pressed.

  I wondered if there was more to the story that I didn’t know.

  “Yes.”

  He finished his last bite and pushed his plate aside.

  “I’m going to go get some salad. Do you want anything else?” he asked me.

  “No thanks. I’m full.” I watched him fill up his plate, studying his perfectly chiseled face.

  He must have felt me staring because he looked up and winked at me. Great, now I’m blushing! When he’d finished, he walked back over and sat down.

  “Well, just be careful with her. With money comes power, and with power comes stupid decisions. Rich people don’t respect laws, and they don’t think past what they’re doing,” he paused and took a bite. “Just be careful, okay? And you have my number. You can call me if you ever need anything. Day or night, I’ll pick up.”

  “Okay,” I said. All I could think about was what I might need him for at night. Tannya came over to check on us and left two bills. I grabbed for both right away. “My treat!” I said.

  “Thanks but it’s my turn.”

  “No, it’s not. I owe you a lot. And you can consider it payment on my future needs,” I said with a giggle. “Ya just never know what kind of trouble will find me. And when it does I know I can call you, ’cause now you owe me.”

  We slipped on our jackets and walked to the front. After I paid the bills with Miss Kitty’s fifty, we headed to the door together.

  “Call me, Sara!” Tannya demanded with a wave from the back of the room.

  I nodded and waved. Rex walked with me to the Jeep. He thanked me for dinner and then there was an awkward moment … and a pause that I finally broke. “Well it was nice to see you again,” and loaded myself into the Jeep.

  He smiled and winked.

  “You, too,” he said slowly and ret
urned to his truck.

  I was exhausted by the time I pulled into my driveway. It was 9:00 p.m. but it felt later. It had been a very long day. When I got home I fed and medicated Faith. After that I put on lounge wear and fluffy socks and climbed into bed. Faith decided to join me. She circled three times and plopped down on the pillow next to mine. Carefully I reached past her for the remote and turned on the TV, but fell asleep before the second commercial was over.

  I bolted awake! Shit! I didn’t set the alarm. What time is it? I looked at the clock, and it said 5:17 a.m. Phew! I needed to open Lost and Found and get some office stuff done. I got up and jumped in the shower. While I was in the middle of rinsing my hair I remembered that I had ten thousand dollars cash in an envelope in my purse. Not too smart. I made a mental note to stop by the bank and make a deposit into a new account. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the money yet, so I’d just put in there for now and let it grow.

  I got to the store at 7:30, which gave me plenty of time to get my paper work done and do a bit of cleaning before I opened. One of the things I was going to do was look at the hours I was open and shorten them. The owner before me had much shorter hours in the fall and winter and I knew now there was a reason for that. Our traffic was way down.

  I had left a note for Ginger and Maureen last week to let me know what they thought would be good hours and when they wanted to work. After going over what they wrote down I decided that starting next week we would be open Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturday’s 9:00 a.m. to noon. They must have talked and said they’d split the hours and had it all planned out, so I didn’t need to work at all, but I’d just come in to do filing and paperwork. That works for me! I’d just be backup in case either of them was ever sick. At 11:00 a.m., when Ginger arrived, I left for the bank. I opened a new account and deposited the money.

  When I was finished, I climbed back up in my Jeep and looked through the file on Vincent. He was sixty-eight years old and looked it. His picture looked like a real estate photo, which, from what I understood, was his official title. He was a white man with hair that was obviously dyed black with it being a bit too dark for his gray eyebrows. He was in a black business suit and smiling. He was a nice-looking man. He seemed to be in good shape at six-foot-three and 200 pounds. He didn’t have a belly but he had a bigger frame.

  I flipped ahead to Alexa, from Brainerd. I thought I would start with her. She was only a twenty-minute drive, and I had nothing else to do. A quick stop at the gas station for gas, coffee, and a couple donuts and I was on my way. I called Kat and told her what I was up to.

  “Are you kidding me? I want in! Dang, girl, I’ll take the money and come and help you, then I could get out of this office! It’s just not the same here without you.”

  “Oh, I don’t think you’ll be missing much. But I’ll keep ya up to date. We’ll go out again soon, since our last night was cut short,” I told her.

  “Okay girl. Keep me posted, I’ll talk to ya soon,” she said and disconnected.

  By the time I’d gotten off the phone with her, I was just blocks from Alexa’s listed address. I had expected an apartment, but was in a residential area. I slowly followed the commands of my GPS and stopped in front of the house. There was a Buick Park Avenue in the driveway and some white swans that served as flower planters in the middle of the postage-stamp-sized front yard. The swans were full of dirt. The homes were all one levels and all looked almost the same. It was a low-to middle-income area and the houses showed their age. Most still had wood siding and the window paint was peeling on most. The landscaping was minimal and curb appeal non-existent. They were very plain.

  I saw someone move inside the house and decided to jump into the back seat. I had tinted windows and no one would be able to see me in there from the outside. I saw an older woman through the large picture window in the front. Inside I could see a couch and TV and a few other pieces of furniture. The woman stood from the couch. I could tell she was in her fifties. She was chubby with short curly hair, and dressed in oversized sweat pants and a sweatshirt. From where I was she looked bad. I couldn’t tell if she had makeup on or not, but she wasn’t what I would’ve called pretty.

  She bent over and picked something up off the coffee table and walked towards the door next to the window. She opened the inside door, stuck her foot out the screen door, and lit a cigarette. She stood there smoking it and staring back into the living room, I assumed at the TV. She didn’t seem to notice my Jeep, or if she did, she didn’t give it a second thought. When her cigarette was done, she tossed it on the ground, pressed it out with her slipper, and kicked it off the front step into a large pile of butts below the front step. Classy. She shut the door and plopped herself back on the couch.

  It has to be her mom, I thought. I got on my iPhone and logged onto Alexa’s page. She didn’t have a job listed, so maybe she lived with mama. I looked up her contact page and phone number. I dialed and continued watching through the window while it rang. After the second ring, I saw the woman sit upright, grab the TV remote, and point it at the TV. Then she picked up the cordless phone that was lying on the coffee table.

  “Hello?” she said in a surprisingly sweet voice.

  I would never have put the face and voice together.

  “Hello?” she said again.

  “Hi, is Alexa there?” I asked.

  Maybe I should’ve thought this through more. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to say.

  “This is Alexa. Who’s this?” she said. Wait … what?

  “Um, this is Alexa?” I asked

  “Yes, honey. I’m Alexa,”

  I watched her speak into the phone.

  “Um, hi. My name’s Jill, and I’m calling for my boss Gerard. He saw your picture on “Gold Digger Prospects” and wanted me to call you and touch base. He’s very busy and would like to know if it’s okay for me to set up a date for you and him.”

  “Oh, well, um usually I like to chat for a bit on the site before I meet anyone—ya know to make sure we have a connection. So, tell him I’d love to chat and I’m on all the time night or day. Then we’ll see how it goes, okay?” she told me.

  “Okay, Alexa. I’ll let him know. I’m sure he’ll be in touch. Thanks. Bye.”

  I hung up, leaned forward, and pressed my head against the back of the passenger seat in front of me. So she’s a player. She’s using a fake picture and probably a fake name too. I sat up and noticed her mailbox next to my Jeep. I should peek in it and see what name is on the mail. It’s a federal offense, but I’m not stealing. I’m just looking, right? I watched her for another fifteen minutes then she grabbed an empty glass and walked out of the room. Refill!

  I quickly opened my door took two steps, pulled the door on the mailbox down and slid out an envelope. Eva Jennings. I slammed it shut and leaped back into the Jeep, quietly closing the door so I wouldn’t alert the neighbors. I wrote down that name on her page in the file. What the heck? I punched in the number on my phone again and stored it as Alexa/Eva, in case she had caller ID and tried to call me back. Then I could ignore it. After it saved, I hit call and watched through the window. She came back into the room on the second ring, set down her full glass, and picked up the remote and muted the TV again. She answered in the same young, sweet voice. “Hello?”

  I changed my voice hoping to throw her off.

  “Hi, is this Eva Jennings?” I asked.

  “You got her,” I watched her say into the phone. I panicked and hung up. That’s all I really needed anyway. I looked again and saw her shake her head and set the phone down. She didn’t look at the phone so she must not have caller ID. I wrote down the make, model, color, and license plate of the car in the driveway on her page in the folder.

  A few minutes later, when I saw Eva lie down on the couch and pull a blanket over herself, I climbed back into the driver’s seat and drove away. I watched the road ahead as a black Porsche turned down the street coming towards me. Stran
ge neighborhood for a Porsche. I took a right and headed towards home. It was 1:30 p.m. and a nap on the couch sounded really good. I should go home and do that too, I thought.

  Driving along and thinking about Alexa, her motives, and how she was going to get any rich guy to marry her was puzzling me. If she lied about her looks and put up someone else’s picture, how would that ever work? She’d eventually have to meet the guy right? I was pondering that when another thought occurred.

  The Porsche! I recognized the driver! I know that face! I veered my Jeep on to the side of the next road and stopped. After I threw it into park, I paged through the folder Miss Kitty had given me. It was Dave Stone! I drove right past him! What was he doing on Eva’s street? I threw the folder down and whipped a U-turn. After a few minutes I was back in front of Eva’s, or should I say Alexa’s, house again.

  I slowly pulled closer and noticed the Porsche parked in the driveway behind the Buick. The living room blinds were pulled down now. What the heck? Are they sleeping together? What does all of this have to do with Vincent? I backed up and turned around. I don’t really need to see more, do I?

  I thought about calling Miss Kitty, but I didn’t really have any proof of anything and I didn’t know what was going on yet either. So there wasn’t much to report yet and I was tired. I drove home, made a few notes on some loose paper, put them in the folder, and took a nap instead.

  I woke up about 4:00 p.m. Faith was pouncing around on the bed chasing shadows the setting sun cast through tree branches. I sat up and grabbed her and tried to cuddle but she wasn’t having it. She went back to hopping about so I got up to eat. I was hungry. I had forgotten to eat lunch. I seemed to be tired a lot still. I wondered when that would go away. I knew I had been through trauma, but I thought I should be recovered by now. It already was Tuesday night.

  Then I remembered Morning Glory’s Taco Tuesday. That sounded really good and I just loved how the whole place turned in to a Mexican restaurant, if only for a night. I didn’t know if I felt like going into town again though. Standing there staring into an empty fridge pretty much settled it. I’d go to Morning Glory to eat, then I’d go get groceries so I didn’t have to eat every meal there. I was beginning to look like a regular. I fed Faith, hiked my purse up on my shoulder grabbed a coat and locked the door behind me. My cell phone rang as soon as I got into the car.