Coffee & Crime

by Anita Rodgers

  Zelda mopped up a her spilled soda with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. "Damn it, Scotti. Where have you been?" Surrounded by stacks of paper, she sat cross-legged on the floor. "I've been calling you for hours."

  I tossed my bag on the floor and frowned at the place. "This is worse than I remember it."

  Zelda got up on her tippy-toes, careful not to disturb her stacks and stepped out of the circle of papers. "Maybe if we had more help, it wouldn't look so bad to you."

  Crouching, I scooped up folders from the floor. "Where do these go?" I looked for a place to put them, but there were stacks everywhere I looked.

  Zelda waved an arm. "Wherever. We still haven't figured out the right starting point." She blew a strand of stray hair out of her eyes. "What's with you? You look weird. What happened?"

  I continued to scan the room for a place to put the files. "Where do you want these?"

  Zelda took the stack out of my hands and set it on Joe's desk. "You just asked that question." She nudged me into a chair, then leaned her butt on the desk. "Scotti tell Zelda what's wrong."

  I rubbed my face and groaned. "So, guess who the other buyer is? It’s Maggie Manston."

  Zelda slid off the desk and dropped to her knees. "What?"

  I nodded. "That’s right, you heard me."

  Joe dropped his stack of papers on the desk. "And you know this on account of what exactly?"

  I slouched in my seat. "On account of I went for a drive and sort of ended up at Maggie Manston's."

  Zelda sighed and dropped her head to her chest. "Why did you go there?"

  I turned to Joe. "I went over there to talk to her. Woman to woman? Just explain things?" I shrugged. "What could it hurt, right? So, as I'm walking up to the house, I see Manny pulling out of her drive!" I groaned. "Son-of-a-bitch!"

  Zelda wrinkled her nose. "Are you sure? Why would Manny be there?"

  I flailed my arms at her. "Well, he's not giving her salsa lessons."

  "Still…"

  I barked at her, "Still, nothing! No, it all makes sense now. Remember that envelope I found from Sessions law firm in Manny’s garbage? And how Manny looked at Lily when she was in the diner, then acted like he didn't know her? She's the go-between." I shook my fists. "No wonder she's been hanging around. The little spy."

  Zelda punched a fist in the air. "That bitch!"

  Joe shook his head. "That don't work."

  I frowned at him. "Yes it does. Why not?"

  Joe plopped in his chair and pulled a legal pad and a pen toward him. "When did Manny tell you there was a another buyer?"

  "The day we found out George was dead," Zelda said.

  Joe wrote that down. "And after that you went to see Maggie, right?"

  I nodded. Joe wrote that down. "And she didn't know you from Adam? Thought you were the help?"

  I nodded again. Joe wrote that down. "And the lawyer told you George left you that money when?"

  I shrugged. "A few days after that."

  He tapped the notepad with his pen. "So why would Maggie want to buy your diner? Be honest now, what reason could she have?"

  I looked at Zelda then back at him and shrugged. "Spite?"

  Joe nodded. "Uh-huh. For what? She never met you 'til a few days ago."

  I waved a hand at him. "Because George left me all that money and she’s pissed about it." Joe looked at me and waited. "What?"

  Joe sighed and stroked his chin. "If Manny had a buyer before you ever set eyes on Maggie and she ever set eyes on you — how could she be the other buyer?"

  I slumped in my chair. "Right because she didn’t know about the will until after that." I thought for a minute. "Except we don’t know that she didn’t know about the will. She was George’s wife, she could’ve known long before me. That has to be it, right?" I looked at them for agreement. "It’s the only thing that explains Manny being at her house."

  Joe stared at his legal pad and frowned. "Maggie ain't the only one that lives in that house is she?"

  I raised my head. "Lily and Lauren live there too. So?"

  Joe held out his hand and shrugged. "So maybe he went to see one of them."

  Zelda shook her head and grunted. "Lauren is clueless and Lily doesn't have any money of her own."

  Joe laughed and his belly shook. "Her daddy was a wealthy man. You mean to tell me that he didn't set her up with a trust fund or a big old bank account?" I rubbed my neck and sighed a lot but said nothing. He rocked in his chair. "Truth is, we don't know what Miss Lily's got up her sleeve or bank account, as the case may be." He picked up his legal pad and tapped it against the desk. "Dang good thing I got somebody running a background check on her though."

  Zelda moved some files off a chair and sat down. "How’d you do that? Don’t you need her social to do that?"

  Joe waved a pocket notepad at her. "Well, Lily's lab report had plenty of information. And before it conveniently disappeared, I took down a few notes."

  Zelda leaned her elbows on her knees. "She could’ve lied on that too."

  Joe squeaked forward in his chair. "Thing is, even when folks are lying they put some truth in there anyways. I got a friend in Michigan where she's from looking into things."

  I raised my head and my eyebrows. "Michigan?"

  Joe chuckled. "Now see, y'all didn't know she was from Michigan did you?" He slapped the desk with his palm. "If woulda read your own files, y’all would've known that. And that's what detecting is all about ladies — the details."

  Chapter Forty

  We spent the rest of the afternoon putting Joe's office back together. Eventually files found homes in cabinet drawers, papers were filed in their rightful folders, and a list of missing items was compiled. Most of our notes and copies had been stolen as well as

  the hard drives to Joe's and Eric's computers. Joe was most concerned about missing data from cases that had nothing to do with George. The burglar did the equivalent of a smash and grab — taking more than he probably needed.

  Fortunately, Eric had the flash-drive and George's phone with him during the break-in. He’d also installed a self destruct program on the hard drives so if anyone tried to get into them, they’d come up empty. But a program is only as good as the hacker who creates it, so we didn't know how much data was compromised. After the break-in, Eric installed new hard drives and restored their data from the network backups, but the paper files didn't have such an efficient system.

  Meanwhile, I ruminated on Joe's timeline theory. We met Lily several days after we met Maggie, so why would Lily be a more likely buyer? George had told Lily about me and the diner, so it didn't make sense that he wouldn't have also told Maggie and Lauren. I believed they all knew who I was the moment they saw me. And as to the spite angle, Maggie could be buying the diner to spite George. What better way to pay back an unfaithful spouse? Buying the thing that represented his fresh start away from her? That was classic revenge.

  By early evening, the office was back to normal. The backup copies I'd given to Marge could replace the originals, and our notes could be reconstructed, but the real problem was that the thief knew what we had, and therefore could anticipate our next moves. And we didn't know who the thief was – Lily? Maggie? Jake? For all we knew it could've been Daniels and Davis acting on the Mayor's orders.

  Zelda and I slouched in the visitor chairs while Joe surveyed his kingdom proudly. "Place looks shiny as a new penny. And I thank you."

  "Thank us? It's our fault this happened to you."

  Joe flapped a hand at me. "Oh pish."

  I flapped my hand right back at him. "Don't pish me. You could've been killed, Joe."

  Joe grinned at Zelda, made a yapping motion with his hand and pointed at me. Zelda laughed and snorted. Those two slayed me. Just the day before Joe'd lectured us for treating it like a game. Yet he and Zelda yucked it up like we'd won a tournament at a paintball convention.

  I squinted at Zelda. "By the way, when the hell did you get your window fixed?"

  Z
elda and Joe stopped talking and swapped a look. I sat up in my chair. "What?"

  Zelda fluttered her wrist. "Nothing. I took it to a place." She stammered. "This morning while you were pretending to be asleep."

  I sneered at her. "Is that right? What place might that be?"

  Zelda threw up her arms. "What difference does it make? It’s fixed. End of story. Why are you making a big deal out of nothing?"

  I sighed, leaned my head back and closed my eyes — too weary to argue. I was pretty sure the place was Ted's shop but she'd never admit it. They yakked while I listened to the crickets outside, joyous over the rainless night.

  Joe said it was time to strap on the feedbag, and Zelda thought that was a good idea because she always thinks food is a good idea. But my plans were to stay exactly where I was — if they wanted my company, they'd have to carry me.

  Someone knocked at the door and Joe yelled for them to come in. I expected it was Eric and I hoped he brought a pizza, but when I opened my eyes I saw Peggy enter with a banker box in her hands. I sat up in my chair. "Peggy?"

  Peggy gasped and giggled. "Scotti. Zelda. How are you?" She walked into the room and set the box on Joe's desk. "These are the files Dan wanted you to have."

  Joe smiled and nodded his head as if to some inner music. "So, Dan took you on? Well ain't that a little ray of sunshine?"

  Zelda was all ears. "Who's Dan?"

  Peggy had taken my advice and called Joe. He referred her to a lawyer friend, who hired her on the spot. It explained her cheerful mood and why she seemed happy to see us.

  "What's in the box?" I asked.

  Joe tossed me a sidelong glance. "A case I'm working on for Dan. You ain't the only game in town." Joe clapped his hands together. "Time for vittles."

  Peggy couldn't thank us enough for leading her to a new job and promised to take us all out for lobster with her first paycheck, but in the meantime, we ordered Chinese and she picked up the tab. We gathered around the banquette, eating like starving orphans.

  I eyed the banker box on Joe's desk. "Who is this Dan guy?"

  Joe looked up from his chop suey. "Daniel J. Parker, Esquire. Criminal lawyer extraordinaire." He wiped his greasy hands with a napkin. "I knew him back in my cop days. When he retired, he came out here, got himself admitted to the California courts and hung out his shingle."

  "No problem with the references?" I asked Peggy.

  Peggy shrugged. "Joe vouched for me and that was good enough for Dan. And since Dan knows Jake, a recommendation from him wouldn't have worked in my favor anyway."

  That got my attention. "Why's that?"

  Peggy's cheerfulness faded and she took a sip of wine. "Never mind, I shouldn't have mentioned it."

  I nudged her with a chopstick. "Oh come on Peggy, we’re all friends here, right?"

  Peggy picked up her fortune cookie and broke it into little pieces, then wiped up the crumbs with her hand. "Dan doesn’t like him." She twitched – just a little. "Which is fine with me, that means he’s out of my life. Frankly, it’s a relief."

  Zelda laughed. "Why, is Jake a psycho?"

  Peggy's look cut Zelda's laugh short. "I don't know if I’d go that far. But he’s not the kind of man you want to cross. He's connected."

  A flutter rose from my gut. "Like how? Could he get the cops to follow somebody? Or to detain them?"

  Peggy went pale and lowered her chopsticks. "Are the cops following you?" She refilled her wine glass and took a healthy gulp. "You're not kidding me, are you?"

  I was tired of walking on egg shells with her and said, "Peggy what's the deal? Should we be afraid of him? Come on, out with it. What aren't you telling us?"

  Peggy drained her wine glass then refilled it again. "I’d stay clear of him if I were you."

  Three sets of eyes and ears watched and waited. She took another sip of wine, blotted her lips with a napkin and sighed. "We had a client a few years ago who owed us money and he refused to pay. Next thing we hear is that his son was arrested on drug charges. Then the County Assessor slapped him with a huge fine for outstanding property taxes..."

  I knitted my brows and shook my head. "You’re not saying Jake made that happen?"

  Peggy shrugged. "Suddenly the client had no problem paying his bill." She snapped her fingers. "Then poof, all the man's troubles went away."

  Zelda gave her a surly look. "Why didn't you tell us this the other day?"

  Peggy squirmed and her eyes darted to the door. "I didn't know whose side you were on then." Her voice cracked. "You were so focused on that stupid video with the brownies...and I was in a bad place."

  I reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "Peggy, if you know something, you need to tell us."

  She trembled and the blood drained from her face. "If Jake ever discovered that I told you anything, I don't know what he'd do." She whispered, "He really scares me, Scotti."

  Considering what we'd been through the last couple of days I didn’t feel particularly sympathetic and shrugged. Finally Peggy said, "They fought the day George died." Tears welled in her eyes. "Funds were missing from the client trust fund — again."

  Zelda smirked and pointed a chopstick at me. "And no scapegoat around like Sally Goss to blame it on this time, eh?"

  Peggy nodded. "George always knew who took the money.” She grimaced. "He knew when they blamed it on Sally. All of us knew Jake was skimming from the trust fund."

  My mouth dropped open. "A few hundred thousand is more than skimming. Why didn't George report him or fire him?"

  Peggy daubed her eyes with a paper napkin. "Because it wouldn't have done any good. Jake is tight with the Police Commissioner and half the cops in town. That's what I mean by connected. Why do you think George partnered with Jake? It wasn't because they were friends or even liked each other."

  Zelda and I swapped a look. "Was George afraid of Jake?"

  Peggy stared at her plate of food. "George knew that if he confronted Jake, he'd have to be absolutely sure and have solid proof. And he didn't have the proof he needed." She looked up at us. "That's why we set up the nanny cam. George hoped he could catch Jake in the act."

  Zelda slammed the table, sloshing everybody's wine. "You knew about the nanny cam? So your freak-out about that video was all bullshit?"

  I kicked Zelda under the table and frowned her into silence.

  Peggy pursed her lips then shrugged. "We looked for an IT guy who we could trust, who could get into his records." She threw up her hands. "Anyway, it was a mess. We could never catch Jake. George decided the solution was to leave the firm and start his own practice."

  I cocked my head, sure she was still holding back. "Why didn't he use the guy who did all the security stuff for his phone and computers?"

  "George didn't want to use anyone Jake might know."

  Zelda frowned and shook her head. “But you said you didn’t even know the guy, how would Jake know him?”

  Peggy bit her lip. "I don’t know…"

  "Who knew that George was planning to start up his own firm?" Joe asked.

  "No one. Me and George. I don't think he even told Maggie or Lauren."

  "Is that what the fight was about?" Zelda asked. "George told Jake he wanted out?"

  Peggy shrugged and shook her head. "I never got the chance to talk to George afterwards. What I told you about prepping for the trial was true — we were all crazed trying to everything done. By the time the dust settled, George had left the office."

  Joe stroked his chin. "But George died in his office."

  Peggy puckered her lips and nodded. "I know. And that bothered me too. Everything was ready and there was nothing in his calendar, so I don’t why he went back to the office." But she avoided looking at me or Zelda and smiled weakly at Joe. "Maybe he forgot something?"

  Joe opened his notebook. "This evidence that George was trying to get on Jake — who was he planning on giving it to?"

  She shrugged and again avoided my eyes. "The feds?"

&nbs
p; Joe's pen poised over his pad. "FBI?"

  Peggy shrugged. "He never named the agency."

  I squeezed her hand and made her look at me. "Who was his contact? Did he ever tell you a name?"

  Peggy shook her head slowly. "That's all I can tell you." She lowered her voice like she was afraid someone might hear her. "Except, be very careful when dealing with Jake, he never let's go of a grudge."

  Chapter Forty-One

  Five days after Joe was released from the hospital, he was back to his cheerful ornery self, and we treated him to pie and coffee at Manny's. When Manny was in the back, we idled at the counter and whispered about the case. When Manny came out front, we pretended to do side work.