by Kate Bell
When we were done, I turned to Alec. “Now to your office?”
“Let’s take a drive by Stanton Industries first,” he said and we headed back toward the kitchen.
“Stanton Industries?” I asked. “Why?”
“That’s where my client said her husband works. I just want to take a look around,” he said.
“Do you know what Stanton Industries is?” I asked. “What kind of business, I mean?”
He nodded his head and held the back door open for me. I loved a gentleman.
“His wife said it was a software development company. Her husband’s an IT person.”
“I don’t think they’ve been in town long,” I said. “I haven’t really heard much about them.”
Alec locked the door and we headed to his car. Alec had finally bought himself a vehicle to replace the police issue black SUV that he had to give up when he retired. And surprise, what did he buy? A black SUV. He wasn’t much on variety, but it was nice for hauling baked goods in.
It was a cold, crisp morning without a cloud in sight. I laid my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes as Alec drove. The early mornings were rough on me.
We pulled into the parking lot of Stanton Industries and Alec parked in a far corner. The building was a stand alone near the edge of town. The nearest building was about a quarter mile away. The part of the parking lot nearest the building was filled with cars. If I had to guess, I would say there were around fifty of them. I wondered if these were all local people or if people commuted from nearby towns.
Alec pulled out his notebook and pen. I noticed he had bought a new notebook. It was black leather-bound with lined pages. Fancy. It made me smile. A new notebook for a new chapter in his life.
He scanned the cars in the parking lot, and made some notes. I opened my purse and took out the binoculars I had brought and started doing the same.
“What kind of car does he drive?” I asked.
“A gray Buick. 2012,” he said, still looking at the cars.
“Gray Buick? That doesn’t sound very sexy. How old is this guy?” I asked, searching for the car.
“Forty-three,” he answered.
“Wow,” I said. “He’s driving a grandma car.”
“He’s IT. They don’t usually do sexy.” He turned toward me. “Where did you get those?”
“Sporting goods department at Walmart,” I said.
“Seriously?” he asked.
“What?” I asked, putting the binoculars down.
“May I?” he said, holding his hand out for them.
“Aren’t you glad you have me here? You didn’t even think about binoculars,” I said smugly and handed them to him.
He sighed and put the binoculars to his eyes and scanned the cars. “I don’t think he’s here. Let’s head over to an address on Cherry Avenue. 1201 to be exact,” he said. “I want to see what’s going on there and then we can head over to my new office and get to work.”
“What’s at that address?” I asked.
“Possibly a who,” he said, handing me the binoculars.
“Husband’s girlfriend?”
“That’s what the wife says,” he said and started the car.
“Cherry Avenue is a nice, middle class neighborhood,” I mused as we pulled away.
“All sorts of things happen in nice, middle class neighborhoods,” Alec countered.
“That’s true,” I said and chuckled. I was pretty sure there were lots of middle class neighborhoods in this world where things happened. Some of which would eventually require police intervention at some point in time.
The address we were looking for was across the street from Cherry Avenue Park. The park was small, with a play area that consisted of a swing set, slide, and one of those old fashioned merry go rounds that you pushed by holding onto the bars and running alongside. I used to love those things when I was a kid. Alec parked on the corner of the park on the cross street so we had a clear view of the supposed girlfriend’s house.
“If the wife knows there’s a girlfriend, why doesn’t she confront him?”
“She wants definitive proof.”
The house was white and was a smaller, 1950’s build with green shuttered windows and neat flower boxes. It was cute and well kept. There was a little bit of melting snow in the browned front yard, but I was sure that come spring, the grass would be green and flowers would be planted in those boxes. It was just one of those kind of houses.
Alec asked for my binoculars and trained them on the house. The front window blinds were open.
“Can you see inside?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
“What’s going on?” I asked excitedly. “Let me have those back!”
He put the binoculars down and looked at me. “Seriously? That’s an invasion of privacy.”
“You’re doing it,” I pointed out. Mr. Everything-By-The-Book got on my nerves sometimes.
“I’m a trained professional,” he said with a smirk.
I sighed and leaned back in my seat. He always got to have all the fun. “I don’t even think anyone’s home.”
“Maybe not,” he said.
Alec stared at the house for what seemed like forever. I was bored and wanted to go take a look at his office. Meg Cranston was probably just paranoid about her husband, anyway.
My eyes trailed the park. It was empty except for a couple of stray dogs running across it. The weather was still too cold for kids to be out playing and the melting snow had made a muddy mess. We would have more snow before winter was over. This was just a temporary reprieve from the frozen stuff.
My eyes landed on a car parked at the far end of the park. It was gray, but I couldn’t tell what model it was.
“Hey, Alec, what’s that?” I asked, pointing at the car.
He pulled the binoculars away and looked in the direction I was pointing, then put the binoculars back up and trained them on the car.
“That, my beautiful, red-haired friend, is a gray Buick,” he said.
I squealed and he pulled the binoculars away from his eyes again and looked at me. “What are you doing? Do you want someone to know we’re here?”
“Sorry,” I said. “I just got excited that we had spotted out first perp.”
He sighed loudly and brought the binoculars back up to his eyes. “Let’s try and keep a low profile.”
“Let’s also not forget that I was the one that spotted him,” I said, squinting my eyes at the car. “Let me see those binoculars.”
“No,” he said.
“They’re mine,” I reminded him.
“Sure are,” he said, without handing them back.
“Well, is he in there or not?” I asked.
“It looks like I can see the back of his head. I don’t know what he’s doing,” he said. “He doesn’t seem to be moving.”
“You think he’s waiting on her?” I asked.
“Maybe. But you would think she would have given him a key so he could just slip in.”
“That makes sense, unless she’s married, too,” I said. “Can I see?”
Reluctantly, Alec handed over the binoculars. I trained them on the car to see what I could see. There was definitely a person in the car, but after a couple of minutes of watching him, I decided Alec was right in that the guy wasn’t moving. Maybe he had fallen asleep waiting for his girlfriend.
“No movement,” I finally said.
“Maybe it’s the wrong guy,” Alec said.
I handed him the binoculars. “We should take a stroll.”
Chapter Three
“We need to be careful,” Alec said, still not moving.
“He doesn’t know who we are. We’re just two people in love, taking a stroll around the park. Nothing to be suspicious of,” I said.
“Let’s go,” Alec finally agreed, and we got out of the car.
Alec took my hand and we headed in the direction of the parked car. My breath came out of my mouth in puffs of white
and I pulled my coat closer with my free hand.
“I wonder where his employer thinks he is?” I asked, glancing in the direction of his girlfriend’s house. “You would think he would be at work at this hour.”
“Maybe he took the day off,” Alec said.
“Maybe he got stood up, too,” I said. We were speaking in lowered tones and trying not to look suspicious. Alec was probably doing a better job of it than I was. He had experience after all, and I kept looking around to see if anyone was watching.
“Quit looking around like that. It makes you look like you’re up to something,” Alec said.
“I can’t help it. I don’t want someone sneaking up behind us and surprising us,” I said.
“No one is going to do that. After all, we’re just lovers out for a stroll,” he countered with a smile.
As we got closer to the car, it looked like the man was leaning over, searching for something. Maybe changing the radio station or maybe he had dropped something on the floor. Only he still wasn’t moving.
“What do you think he’s doing?” I whispered.
“We’re about to find out,” Alec whispered back as we approached the car. We walked past and looked into the front seat. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel. When we had completely passed the car, we stopped and Alec looked around. No one was outside on this cold morning. He released my hand and walked over to the driver side of the car, and peered in at the driver.
“Is he passed out?” I whispered.
Alec knocked on the window. The driver remained motionless. Alec knocked again. When the driver still didn’t respond, he reached for the door and opened it.
“Are you okay?” he said to the man. When he didn’t move, Alec reached for his neck, feeling for a pulse. “He’s dead.”
“What?” I hissed and moved closer to him. “What do you mean, dead?”
I glanced around at all the silent houses.
Alec reached for his phone and called the police. I stood motionless and stared at the man. His skin was pasty white and drool had slipped from his mouth, freezing in midair. I shuddered and looked away. Finding dead bodies was beginning to happen all too often for my tastes.
I listened to Alec explain the situation to Stuart South on the phone. I didn’t want to look at the dead man, but my eyes were drawn to him. Maybe he had come to see his girlfriend and waited until her husband left the house, freezing to death in the meantime. No, that made no sense. He would have turned his heater on. But maybe he had had a heart attack while he waited in the cold. I shuddered. This was news that his suspicious wife wasn’t going to be expecting.
Alec ended his phone call and knelt beside the man. He began taking pictures with his phone, placing it underneath where the man slumped over the steering wheel, then from the side.
“I bet he had a heart attack,” I said hopefully.
“Maybe.” Alec continued with his picture taking. “I really need to invest in a better camera.”
“What else could it be?” I asked. I knew it was a dumb question, but I needed to distract my thoughts. I didn’t think I would ever get used to seeing dead people.
“Allie, you know as well as I do there’s no way to tell that right now. I don’t see anything obvious yet,” he said. His tone was kind, but I thought it must irritate him when I asked these sorts of things.
“I know,” I mumbled.
He reached out and squeezed my hand as I stood next to him. “Why don’t you take my car and go home? I’ll call you when I’m ready to be picked up, or I can have Stuart or George give me a ride home.”
“No, it’s okay,” I said, lifting my chin. I could be brave. I was an assistant PI, after all. Or at least, I was trying to be one.
Alec turned back to the man and gently pushed his body back against the seat. His head rolled back and there were deep red marks on his neck. I looked away and steeled myself against the urge to vomit.
“Well, doesn’t look like a heart attack,” Alec concluded softly.
“What is that? What happened to him?” I asked, not looking.
“Looks like someone strangled him with something,” Alec said. I heard his camera go off and I knew he was taking more pictures.
“Do you think Sam Bailey will have you assist in the investigation?” I asked, digging the toe of my shoe into a small pile of gray snow on the ground. Alec had assisted the police department last month with a murder investigation.
“Maybe,” he said absently.
We heard sirens approaching and I stepped back from the car. Sam didn’t like me much and would be irritated I was there. There wasn’t any reason for his dislike as far as I could tell, but the chief of police was a jerk.
Yancey Tucker was driving the first police cruiser that arrived. He parked in front of the victim’s car and got out.
“Allie,” he nodded at me.
“Hey, Yancey,” I returned without much enthusiasm.
He went directly over to Alec and peered into the car. Alec explained to him what he knew. Another police car drove up and the fire truck was hot on his heels. In a small town, you usually got the entire police, fire, and EMT crews on emergencies if there was nothing else for them to do. I retreated to the sidewalk and waited as more police showed up.
Sam Bailey showed up last, and got out of his cruiser. He turned and looked at me, adjusted his gun belt, then spit on the ground. “Allie,” he acknowledged.
“Sam,” I said with a nod. I forced myself to smile. Alec didn’t work for him anymore. Even if he didn’t want Alec’s help on the investigation into the man’s murder, it didn’t matter. Alec would get another case somewhere else. I didn’t need to worry about offending Sam, I told myself.
A gust of wind blew and I pulled my coat tighter. I would have been happier anyplace else but here.
I looked over at the supposed girlfriend’s house and thought I saw a white lace curtain move. I watched it for a few minutes, but it remained still. I glanced back at Alec’s car and contemplated getting the binoculars. That would be a hard one to explain with all the police around, so I decided against it.
Alec was speaking to Sam, his face grim. A picture of the wounds on the man’s neck flashed across my mind and I shuddered, trying to push them away. What an awful way to go.
I took a few steps forward and kept an eye on the house. I was sure it wasn’t my imagination. The curtain had moved.
After a while an ambulance came, without sirens, closely followed by Brant Olney, the coroner.
Alec stepped away from the car and came to stand beside me. “It’s cold out here. You should take my car and go home,” he said, putting his hands on my arms and rubbing them up and down. The sky had begun to cloud over, making it even colder than it had been when we first got there. I wished I had worn a knit hat to keep myself warm, but I hadn’t intended on standing out in the cold when I had dressed that morning. My curly red hair was long and thick and helped keep me warm most of the time.
“I think someone’s home at the house we were watching,” I whispered.
He looked over at it.
“I swear I saw a curtain move,” I explained.
“Really?” he said, still watching the house.
“What did Sam Bailey say?” I asked.
“He’d like my help,” he replied, turning back to me. “As long as I don’t bring you along. It’s a safety issue, you understand.” He gave me a lopsided grin.
“What?” I gasped. “He can’t dictate to you how you run your business! You don’t work for him!”
“Relax. I told him that you had come in handy on past investigations, and while I couldn’t guarantee that you wouldn’t assist me at times, I would do my best to make sure you stayed safely out of harm’s way.”
I put my hands on my hips and jutted my chin out. “Are you serious? A safety issue? Why, I’ll give him a safety issue,” I hissed.
Alec chuckled. “You are the sensitive one, aren’t you? Don’t worry about it.”
“I think I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling.
“Shall we, then?” I asked.
“Let’s do,” he said and he held his arm out for me to take.
Before we could take two steps, the front door to the little white house swung open and a pretty young blond woman stepped out onto the step. She turned and looked in the direction of the ambulance and police cars.
I turned to Alec.
“Well, that’s helpful,” he said, and started across the street with me in tow.
Chapter Four
The woman stood on her front step watching us approach. I put a smile on my face that I hoped said I was friendly, but not overly friendly. In reality, I probably looked like a grinning idiot. Alec put on his detective face. I really needed to work on that one.
I took a deep breath when we got to her and decided to let Alec do the talking.
“Good morning,” Alec addressed her. “I’m Alec Blanchard and this is Allie McSwain. We were wondering if you saw anything unusual going on across the street this morning?”
The woman looked at him, then to the police cars and back. “What happened?”
“A man died in his vehicle,” Alec said without emotion. “I didn’t get your name.”
“Oh?” she gasped with surprise. “Someone died? Who?”
“We haven’t identified him yet,” Alec said, and waited.
The vehicle was clearly visible and if Spencer Cranston was her lover, she would have recognized it. I searched her face for some trace of recognition or grief. She merely gazed blankly at the gray car.
“How sad. How did he die?” she asked.
“It’s still under investigation,” Alec said. “What was your name?”
“Oh, Jenna Maples. Sorry,” she apologized, and flashed him a smile. She was beauty queen pretty with amazingly straight white teeth.
“Do you recognize the car across the street, or have you seen it in the neighborhood?” Alec asked.
