by Jennie Marts
Mac checked his watch. It was past ten. “Isn’t that kind of unusual for an employee to be this late and not even call in?”
Sal shrugged again. “How the hell would I know? Do I look like the HR department? I deal with the clients and their money. I don’t have time in my day to worry about whether some accountant shows up on time.” He pointedly glanced at his watch. “And speaking of time—if’s there’s nothing else—I need to get back to work.”
“Just one last thing.” Mac drew out his phone, pulled up the picture of Jimmy Two-Fingers, and held it out for Sal. “This is the stiff we found in Ms. Allen’s apartment. You ever seen this guy before? Maybe he works for you?”
Sal leaned forward to peer at the picture, then shook his head. “Nope. I don’t know him.”
“You sure? Maybe take another glance. You sure you didn’t send this guy out to take care of your little problem of a nosy accountant? Maybe you just told him to threaten her a little and things got out of hand?”
“Look, I’ve never seen that guy in my life. Does he really look like he works here? Listen—I’m a frickin’ financial advisor. The most danger I see is dodging falling interest rates. I don’t know anything about any threats. I barely know those employees in accounting and whatever connections you think I have—you’re wrong. The only way I know how to ‘take care’ of anyone is to take care of their stock portfolio. And I resent the implication. You’re treating me like an inner-city mob boss or something.”
“If the bad suit fits—”
“Hey, this suit costs more than you make in a month.”
“Then maybe I need to invest some of my salary here, ‘cause I didn’t think the stock market was paying that much lately.”
“Listen, how about you go do your job and find these guys that are supposedly threatening my employee and let me get back to doing my job.” Sal waved a hand dismissively at them. “We’re done here.”
“Oh, we’re far from done here.”
Pat circled his hand, gesturing for him to wrap it up and Mac nodded. “But I guess we’re done for today. You’ll be sure to let us know if you hear from Mr. Grimes?”
“You’ll be the first one I call.”
“You do that.” Satisfied he got the last word, Mac followed Pat out of the office. “Well, what do you think? Do you feel like he knew the guy?”
Pat shrugged as they headed for the elevator. “I don’t think so. But he got awful testy after you started questioning him.” Pat offered him a sideways grin. “You probably shouldn’t have insulted the guy’s suit.”
Mac laughed as they stepped in to the elevator.
“Hold the door, please.” The pretty receptionist called to them and hurried toward the elevator car. She stepped in and waited for the doors to close before she turned to Mac. “Listen, I probably shouldn’t say anything, but I’m worried about Teddy. He never calls in sick, and he’s rarely ever late.” She looked down at her hands. “He’s been bringing me coffee for the last month and we’ve texted—you know—a little. He’s a sweet guy, and he makes me laugh.”
Mac raised an eyebrow, remembering the photos he saw of the big shaggy-haired man he saw at Teddy’s house. Right on, Teddy. “Have you heard from him today? Or last night?”
She shook her head and bit down gently on her bottom lip. “I heard you asking Sal—Mr. Cavelli—about him. Do you think he’s okay?”
Mac handed her a card from his wallet. “I’m sure he’s fine. But I’d really like to talk to him. He’s not in trouble or anything. I just want to ask him some questions. I’d appreciate it if you’d get ahold of me if you hear from him. Or give him my number, and ask him to give me a call.”
She took the card and pressed it into her palm. “Okay. I just hope he’s okay. He’s a good guy.”
Mac nodded. He hoped Teddy was okay too. But he had a bad feeling about this whole thing.
Teddy might have been the accountant, but even he knew something about Cavelli Commerce wasn’t ‘adding’ up.
Chapter Six
Zoey looked around the table at the Pleasant Valley Page Turners book club. She held Teddy’s poodle in her lap. It peered its head over the edge of the table, sniffing for spare crumbs.
And there were crumbs. Coffee cake crumbs. Cinnamon roll crumbs. Cookie crumbs. Because one thing you could count on with the Page Turners book club was that there would be food. And usually the delicious calorie-laden rich dessert kind of food.
Zoey stabbed another bite of coffee cake with her fork. The last thing she was thinking about now was calories. She felt like her heart had been racing since two o’clock that morning and that had to be similar to cardio. Right?
By the time she, Edna, and Maggie got back from Denver, the remaining members of the book club had arrived at Edna’s with a full lunch spread.
Cassie Bennett, the mom of the group, had prepared sandwiches and whipped up a homemade macaroni salad. She loved to bake and had the coffee cake on hand. Her seventeen year old niece, Piper, the youngest member of the book club, had offered to call in sick to her summer job, but Cassie had assured her they could handle this one on their own.
Maggie, Cassie, and Sunny Vale had been friends since college. When they decided to form a book club, it seemed natural to invite Sunny’s neighbor, Edna. They’d been doing the club for years, choosing a new book each month, but meeting every Wednesday. When Piper had moved in with Cassie earlier that year, it was easy to include her in the club as well.
They were an odd bunch. Plus-size, cardigan-wearing Cassie’s cheery demeanor was the opposite of slender and stylish Maggie’s sarcastic personality. Like her name, Sunny’s personality was happy and positive. And Edna provided the comic relief with her often dirty mind and harebrained schemes.
They seemed different, but they loved each other and depended on the friendship of each. Especially the last summer when they’d found themselves turning from average book club readers into amateur sleuths.
That summer had been more than steamy, with hot men and murder plots invading the sleepy town of Pleasant Valley. And the Page Turners had found themselves in the middle of it all.
Eager to help, the Page Turners had rallied that morning when Edna had called to tell them Zoey was in trouble.
They now sat around Edna’s large kitchen table, eating lunch and planning their next move. Cassie may have brought lunch, but Sunny, the school teacher, had brought office supplies. Notebooks and different colored pens littered the table, and an easel with a large pad of paper stood in the corner.
Edna set down her fork and let out a small burp. “Well, Zoey, what’s our plan?
“How should I know? You’re the amateur detective. Or at least you watch more crime television than I do. I’m just a boring accountant.”
She liked numbers and charts. Things that made sense and could be calculated. All this drama and mayhem was sending her blood pressure through the roof. Although she had to admit that having a pencil and paper in her hand did seem to calm her down.
“All right. Settle down. I know this is probably hard for you since you like things neat and orderly. And there’s nothing neat about murder.” Edna winked at her. She did know her granddaughter well. “But there is order in solving a crime. Let’s take what we do know, then figure out what we need to still find out in order to crack this caper.”
Her grandmother was enjoying this way too much.
“We’re not ‘cracking a caper,’” Maggie said. “This isn’t an episode of Murder She Wrote. A guy is dead. But I do agree that we should start with what we know.”
Sunny grabbed a marker from the center of the table and wrote ‘Zoey’s Murder’ across the top of the big pad of paper.
The color drained from Zoey’s face.
Realizing her error, Sunny quickly added the word ‘Case’ to the end of her title. She shrugged at Zoey. “Sorry.”
Cassie gave Zoey a reassuring nod. “All right, now tell us everything you remember about last night. Sunny
will keep track of the most important facts. You just tell us what happened.”
Zoey looked around the room at the faces of the women she had known for years. She may not have been an official member of the book club, but they’d always included her when she was visiting Edna, and she knew she was loved by them.
And she knew she could trust them.
She took a deep breath and told them what happened the night before. Talking about Teddy got her choked up.
Cassie slid an arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “That must have been terrible for you.” She lowered her voice for only Zoey to hear. “And the stains that blood is going to leave will be atrocious. You’ll never get it out of your bedding if you didn’t pretreat it.”
This is why she loved Cassie. And for her hugs. Cassie was a great hugger.
Maggie rolled her eyes. “Who cares about the bedding? Buy some new stuff. Even if she could get the flippin’ stain out, who wants to cuddle up in a comforter that someone bled all over. Let’s focus on the facts.”
Sunny studied her paper. “It seems the three most important things here are to find Teddy and make sure he’s okay, to find the evidence on the flash drive that he was talking about, and to figure out why this guy wants to kill you.”
“The ‘why’ seems obvious,” Cassie said. “She’s the key witness in a big case against some really powerful people. The ‘why’ would be to silence her to keep her from testifying.”
Zoey shook her head. “That’s not the why. I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, but Mac texted me a little while ago to say that the dead guy’s name is James Louchenza, otherwise known as Jimmy Two-Fingers, and he has no known connection to the Cavelli brothers.”
“What? How can that be?” Edna asked. “He has to be connected to the Cavellis somehow. Otherwise, what in the world could he possibly have against you?”
Zoey shrugged. “I have no idea. That’s why this whole thing is such a mystery to me.”
“Okay, so the best way to solve a mystery is to focus on the evidence,” Maggie said. “Teddy told you the evidence is on a flash drive. We need to find that drive. Did he give you any kind of clue as to where he hid it?”
Zoey shook her head. “No, he didn’t have time. All he said was that it was in his office.”
“Okay, that narrows it down. Do you think he meant his home office or his work office?”
“I assume he meant at work. If the flash drive were at his house, then he would have just grabbed it before he left.”
“Unless he didn’t have time,” Cassie said. “He had just been stabbed and was fleeing for his life.”
Zoey twisted the end of her napkin, trying to think through Teddy’s actions. “You might be right. But he knocked the guy out. I think if he had the evidence at home, he would have just grabbed it and had it with him. And if he had it with him, he would have just given it to me last night. I think my best guess is that it’s still at his work office.”
“Okay,” Sunny said. “So we just run downtown and nonchalantly check out his office.”
“Except for one tiny nonchalant problem,” Zoey replied. “I don’t work there anymore. And they won’t let me in. I tried to go back to get something from my desk that I had forgotten and the receptionist wouldn’t let me past her desk.”
“Good point.” Sunny tapped the page with her marker. “So that means we need to find another way in.”
“You know what that means?” Edna asked.
Zoey did not like the gleam that’d just lit Edna’s eye.
“We’re going undercover.”
“Gram, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. What if we get caught?”
Edna shrugged. “What if we do? What are they going to do—fire you?”
“No, but they could call the police. Since I was fired, I would be trespassing.”
“Well, then—we need to make sure that we don’t get caught.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?”
Her grandmother wiggled her eyebrows. “We go in disguises.”
“Oh, Lord help us,” Maggie said. “What kind of disguise is going to get us all four through the door and allow Zoey to search Teddy’s desk.”
“Give me a minute. I’m thinking.” Edna wiggled her mouth from side to side then slammed her palm on to the table. “I got it. Maggie and I will go in as a wealthy mother and daughter looking for advice on my portfolio. We can cause a distraction and you three can sneak in as cleaning ladies. Nobody really pays attention to the cleaning people.”
Maggie looked doubtful. “You realize I could get in trouble for this.”
Edna waved away her concerns. “You don’t really have to even do anything. I’ll do the talking. I just need you to be part of the distraction. So you just have to put on a short skirt, some high heels, and show a lot of cleavage.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “Oh, well, if that’s all.”
“I’m not much for going undercover,” Cassie said. “But I can drive us down in the minivan, and I can supply the cleaning products for Sunny and Zoey’s disguises.”
“Good.” Edna turned to Zoey. “What do the cleaning people at your firm usually wear?”
Zoey shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed.”
“Ha,” Edna cackled. “My point exactly. No one notices the cleaning people. Especially if they are dressed in drab clothes and don’t bother anyone.”
Cassie snapped her fingers. “Oh, I know. I have some tan colored scrubs from years ago when I worked at the dentist’s office. Those would be drab. But I don’t know if they would fit. Even then, I was still quite a bit bigger than both of you are, but they have a drawstring.”
“That’ll be perfect,” Edna said. “We can give them some padding to make them look even dumpier.”
“Thanks a lot,” Cassie mumbled.
“Oh stop it,” Edna said. “You know what I mean.”
“I don’t think some extra padding and tan scrubs are going to be enough of a disguise,” Zoey said. “I’ve worked there for years. My coworkers know me.”
Edna tapped her finger against her chin and narrowed her eyes at her granddaughter. “No, we’re going to need a little more. Like a wig and some makeup. Maybe create a big juicy zit on the end of your nose. When people see a pimple, they usually turn away and avoid looking at your face.”
Zoey laughed. “You’re terrible, Gram. Besides that being sort of disgusting, I don’t have a wig or makeup. And I don’t have time to grow a big juicy pimple on the end of my nose.”
“You don’t have to,” Edna said. “We’ll do it with stage makeup.” She waved her arms with a flourish. “We’ll use my connections with the theatre.”
“What connections?” Maggie asked, skeptically.
“I’m a member of the Pleasant Valley Community Theatre. Remember last year when you all came to see me in the local production of The Sound of Music?”
Maggie dropped her forehead into her hand. “I have tried to forget that night. That was two hours of my life I will never get back.”
“Oh, stop it,” Edna told her. “That was a wonderful production. And I personally thought I did a stirring rendition of the Baroness and of Nun #7. I still know all the words to The Morning Hymn. And I can prove it.”
Maggie held up her hands before Edna could start to sing. “I believe you. And you were fabulous as Nun #7. But how is your stint in community theatre going to help us get into Cavelli Commerce?”
“Because I know the makeup guy. He’s very sweet. And I’m sure I could call him, and he could help with our disguises. We could probably even ‘borrow’ some of the costumes.”
“You think this guy is just going to let us waltz into the community theatre and help ourselves to costumes? I think you may be overestimating your connections.”
Edna winked. “You haven’t met my connection. He’s pretty relaxed, and he’s a bit of a rule-breaker himself.” Edna looked around the table. “All right. Who’s
in for Operation Flash Drive Retrieval?”
Zoey and the rest of the Page Turners raised their hands. Even Maggie grudgingly held up her hand.
“Okay, I’ll call my guy and tell him to meet us at the Community Theatre in an hour. Everyone go home and get whatever you need for the operation, and we’ll meet back here in forty-five minutes to ride over together. Cassie, you grab the cleaning supplies and the scrubs. Maggie, try to find something to wear that will attract attention. Go for classy yet still a little slutty with a lot of cleavage and bring some high heels.”
“Is this an undercover operation or a date?” Maggie asked.
Sunny laughed. “What can I bring?”
“Can you ask Jake if we can borrow some of those fancy earpiece walkie-talkie thingies that he uses so we can communicate with each other?”
Sunny had met Jake earlier that summer when he had mysteriously shown up in the middle of the night and taken over the house that sat between hers and Edna’s. Even though he was gorgeous and had abs you could crack an egg on, the Page Turners had questioned if he was a good match for Sunny or if he was possibly a murderer.
He turned out to not only be a good match, but an undercover FBI agent who had since retired and now worked as a private investigator.
He was also a pretty good neighbor and got along well with Edna and Johnny. He had offered to take Johnny to the doctor today when Edna had to race to Denver. They were hoping Johnny’s x-rays would look good, and he’d be able to get the cast off his leg. Or at least be able to switch to a boot.
“I’ll ask him,” Sunny said. “But then he’ll probably want to come along.”
Edna nodded. “That’s okay. We could use the muscle.”
Chapter Seven
Forty minutes later, the Page Turners reconvened in Edna’s living room.
Zoey’s phone rang and a warm tingle ran through her when she saw Mac’s name on the caller ID screen. She slipped down the hall to talk in private. “Hello.”
