Plymouth Undercover

by Pamela M. Kelley

  “This is probably safer than being a detective, I would think?”

  “Yes. And I’m smart about it.” He was quiet for a moment before saying, “Your father wasn’t always as cautious. He was fearless, but I told him sometimes that he was foolish too. He took unnecessary risks. Stick with me, kid, and I’ll show you the smart, safe way to do this job.”

  Emma wasn’t surprised to hear it. She knew her father was often impulsive and overly enthusiastic, which sometimes led to being careless. He’d never gotten himself into trouble, but from some of his stories, she’d suspected that he’d come close a few times.

  “Smart and safe sounds good to me.” Emma continued scrolling through Sean’s Facebook page. He liked to post pictures of himself and his toys. She saw the fancy car. It was pretty, she had to admit. She groaned at the image of Sean holding two heavy weights, and with no shirt on. He did seem to be in good shape, but the no shirt, gym tan and thick gold chains around his neck made her cringe. But, from all the comments on the picture, many of them from women, she was in the minority.

  Mickey told her stories of his detective days as they sat and waited. When Emma’s stomach rumbled a little before noon, she reached for the bag of donuts and ate a few munchkins. She knew they could be sitting there all day, if Sean didn’t go anywhere at lunchtime.

  But a half-hour later, the front door opened, and Sean stepped out and they watched him walk to his car. The Lamborghini was parked right by the front door. He started the engine, backed up, and then drove out of the lot. A moment later, Emma did the same.

  “Now, slow down a little and stay back. You don’t want him to notice you’re following him.”

  “Okay.” Emma stepped on the brake and slowed until Sean was way ahead, but still visible. They followed him onto Resnik Road and then Commerce Way and then turned onto the highway, Route 3, heading toward Boston.

  Plymouth was so big that it took up five exits along Route 3. They drove along at a good distance for two exits before following Sean off the highway and immediately into the parking lot of Carmella’s restaurant.

  “Oh, good, I love Carmella’s.” Mickey seemed pleased with Sean’s choice.

  Emma parked at the other end of the lot, so they had a good view of the front door. They watched as Sean parked and walked into the restaurant.

  “So, now we just wait for him to come out and see if he walks out with anyone?” Emma asked.

  Mickey was already unbuckling his seatbelt. “Nope. Now we go eat lunch. Come on.”

  “Oh!” Emma grabbed her purse and followed Mickey inside.

  When they reached the hostess stand, Mickey looked around the restaurant. The main dining room was on the left and the bar area on the right, with tables as well. Sean was in the bar area and had just been seated at a table by the window. It looked like he was waiting for someone as the waitress filled the water glass across from him.

  “Would you like the main room or the bar area?” the hostess, a smiling, older woman asked.

  “The bar area please, by a window, if possible,” Mickey said.

  “Right this way.” She led them to a table next to a window and three tables away from where Sean sat. She handed them menus and as she walked away, Mickey lowered his voice.

  “We’ll want to order quickly and pay early. So, if he’s on the move before we finish, we can duck out easily.”

  “No problem. I’m starving anyway.” When their waitress came to the table, she set down a basket of hot, Italian-seasoned focaccia bread and a bowl of dipping oil, with red pepper flakes and a mound of parmesan cheese in the middle. Mickey immediately snapped off a chunk of bread and dipped it in the oil. Emma did the same. And they put their orders in right away. A chicken parmesan sub for Mickey and a stuffed pepper and salad for Emma.

  As their waitress went off to the kitchen, they both noticed a woman walk in and with a big smile, head straight to Sean’s table. She looked to be a little older than Emma, maybe mid-thirties with long, bleached blond hair, tight-fitting jeans and a low-cut sweater that showed off her ample assets.

  “Can you get a picture?” Mickey asked.

  Emma nodded and held her cell phone up as if she was checking messages, and aimed it carefully at Sean and the woman. She snapped several pictures and jumped a little in her chair as she captured the money shot—Sean pulled the woman in for a hug and a kiss hello, on the lips.

  Mickey sensed her excitement.

  “Let me see.”

  She handed him the phone, and he thumbed through the pictures and smiled when he saw the final shot.

  “Good job, Emma. Looks like Sydney’s suspicions were right on.”

  “So, are we done then? Is that all we need?”

  “Not yet. We’ll finish out the day. See where he goes after work. Maybe we can get a few more shots. My back is to them, so you’ll have to keep an eye on their body language during lunch. Are they flirty? Could be they are just friends and haven’t seen each other in a while.”

  Emma raised her eyebrows. “Friends that kiss on the lips? Doubtful.”

  Mickey shrugged. “I’ve seen it all. You never do know.”

  Their lunch came soon after and they both dug in. Emma had been to Carmella’s once before, but had been to their sister restaurants, Mamma Mia’s, many times, and her favorite thing was the stuffed peppers. It was the same recipe in both places—ground beef mixed with breadcrumbs, raisins, pine nuts and parmesan cheese, smothered in red sauce and more cheese.

  Mickey seemed happy with his lunch too. Emma noticed as they ate that Sean and his lunch companion seemed to be having a very good time. He kept reaching for her hand and squeezing it, and she was smiling and laughing the entire time. It looked like a date to Emma and not a first date. It seemed like they knew each other very well.

  Emma filled Mickey in as they ate. “He’s holding her hand again. I’m surprised he met her in public like this.”

  “Most people don’t go out to lunch in the middle of the day, or if they do, they stay close to their office. This is typical behavior for an affair. He went to the next town over, where he’s unlikely to run into anyone this time of day.”

  “Oh, I guess that makes sense.”

  “Lunch is more common than dinner, when you don’t want to be seen,” Mickey said.

  They finished up as Sean’s food was delivered, so they ordered a dessert to split while they waited. Or rather, Mickey ordered dessert and insisted that Emma have a bite. She sipped a black coffee as he ate his cannoli.

  “You’re awfully tiny there, Emma. Stick with me and I’ll fatten you up. Have a bite. You really have to try this.”

  She tried a bite and agreed that it was delicious. But she knew she needed to be careful. It would be very easy to gain weight as everyone she knew in Plymouth seemed to be obsessed with food.

  Mickey tried to pay the bill when the waitress brought it, but Emma was faster. “This is on the house. Or rather, it’s on Sydney—expenses that she’ll be charged.”

  He chuckled at that. “All right, then.”

  They waited until Sean and his date left and then immediately followed them outside. Emma had her phone ready to snap a few shots. They walked slowly to their car and Emma managed to get several good shots of Sean with his date. There was no doubt, by the way he had his arms around her and the very long goodbye kiss that they shared, that they were more than friends.

  They climbed back into Emma’s car and followed Sean back to his office. Emma stayed far back and even went around the block so he wouldn’t see them pull into the lot. Once he was inside, they found a new spot, further away in the lot, but still with an eye on the door.

  Once they were settled, Emma pulled out her phone, and they went through the pictures. She was excited by the shots and glad that they had managed to find some solid evidence for their client. She emailed the photos to her mother, and she called Emma back a moment later.

  “Good job, honey. I spoke briefly with that Belinda Russel
l. She’s going to stop into the office tomorrow morning to meet with us. I’m not sure about this case though.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, it’s not typical. But, it sounds like your father was getting quite the reputation for more difficult investigations. I’m just not sure if this is something we want to take on. Remember the woman that Matt mentioned the other night? The one that went missing?”

  “The lawyer?”

  “Yes. It’s her mother. She thinks the police have given up, and she wants answers.”

  “Oh.”

  “Right. That was my first response, too. I told her we’d meet with her though and then decide if we think we can help.”

  “Okay. We’ll talk more in the morning then.”

  Emma ended the call and glanced at Mickey, who was clearly waiting for her to fill him in. So she did. He listened and then nodded.

  “That’s what I was referring to earlier. Your father was very effective, and more of these types of cases have been coming his way. But he sometimes worked a little too close to the edge.”

  “So, you don’t think we should take on this case, then?”

  Mickey grinned. “I didn’t say that. We just need to be careful.”

  Emma and Mickey took turns reading on their phones for the rest of the afternoon and chatting now and then. One person always kept a close eye on the front door. Emma didn’t expect that they’d see Sean before five, but at a few minutes past four, he surprised her by walking outside and hopping into his car.

  Mickey was chuckling at something he was reading on his phone when she got his attention by starting the engine.

  “Looks like we’re on the move,” she said.

  “Hmm. Interesting. His wife said he’s never home before six or seven.”

  They followed Sean back onto the highway, but this time he headed the opposite way, further south into Plymouth. He exited onto Long Pond Road and they followed as he turned onto Home Depot Drive.

  “Maybe he’s going shopping at Home Depot?” Emma said.

  “I doubt it.”

  Mickey was right. Sean turned as though he was heading to Home Depot and at the last minute took a left into the parking lot for the Hilton Garden Inn.

  “He’s going to a hotel? After having a lunch date?” Emma was surprised.

  They parked and watched Sean walk into the lobby.

  “What now?” Emma asked.

  “Now we wait for him to come out. And we pay attention to who else goes in.”

  Five minutes later, a white Mini Cooper pulled into the lot. They watched as a pretty brunette woman in her mid-thirties got out of the car. She was fashionably dressed in a black suit with a pink silk shirt and kitten heels.

  Emma didn’t pay that close attention once she realized it wasn’t the blond woman from the restaurant. She did like her outfit though and had always admired Mini-Cooper cars.

  “His date is probably already in the hotel, right?” Emma asked.

  “It’s possible. Or maybe that woman was his date,” Mickey said.

  “You really think so? I assumed he’d be meeting the blond woman from earlier.”

  “One thing about this job. You can never assume. People surprise me all the time. It’s true what they say—truth is really stranger than fiction.”

  An hour and a half later, with no signs of Sean, Emma found herself reaching for the bag of donuts again.

  “Pass those over here, if you please,” Mickey said.

  They were both munching on donuts when the front door opened and the brunette woman they’d seen earlier walked out, and a few steps behind her, was Sean. They stopped briefly at her car and he gave her a quick hug, no lingering kiss this time. But still, Emma was shocked. She managed to get quite a few shots with her phone, though. And when Sean drove off, they followed him from a distance and watched as he pulled into his own driveway at a few minutes past six. As if he was just getting home from work.

  “What a jerk!” Emma said as she turned the car to head back to the office.

  “Yep. We have everything we need though.”

  When they reached the office parking lot, Emma dropped Mickey off by his cute convertible.

  “See you tomorrow, Mickey. Oh, the new prospective client, Belinda, is coming in at nine, if you’d like to be there for the meeting.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it. See you in the morning, and good job, Emma. Your father would have been proud.”

  Chapter 4

  By the time Emma got home after her first day at the agency, she was exhausted. Who knew that sitting around in a car all day could be so tiring? She heated up a can of soup, watched TV for a bit, and went to bed early.

  She woke the next day at her normal time of just about six. Since she wasn’t due to be in the office for a few hours and the sun was shining, she decided to make herself a big cup of coffee and head out to the beach for a walk.

  Even at that early hour, there were already a few others out walking. Emma sipped her coffee as she walked along the water’s edge, enjoying the sound of the waves and the feel of the soft morning breeze across her face. She walked the length of the beach, stopping when she reached the river that ran into the ocean. She made her way back to her cottage and had a second cup of coffee on the deck and wondered what the day might bring.

  She’d looked up Belinda Russell and her daughter’s case online and was intrigued. Part of her hoped they’d have a chance to investigate, but the other half agreed with her mother that this type of case might be a bit over their heads. Although, they did have Mickey. Emma knew that he’d been an excellent detective for many years and probably worked on his share of missing person cases, even murders. But did he want to deal with something like that now?

  Emma pulled into the office parking lot at eight thirty and was surprised to see Mickey’s car was already there. When she walked in the office, he waved hello as he pulled a sugar-dusted lemon cruller from a paper bag. Emma smiled as she saw the telltale trail of powdered sugar already on his desk. Mickey had already had at least one donut. She said hello as she settled at the main desk by the window.

  “You’re in early,” she commented as she turned on the computer.

  “I’m interested to hear what this Belinda woman has to say. Looked her up online when I got home last night. It’s a damn shame. Her only daughter.”

  “I know. And the police really haven’t turned up much of anything yet. Not that they’ve shared, anyway.”

  “It’s not usually good news when someone goes missing for this long.” Mickey looked up as the front door opened and Emma’s mother walked in. Emma stood to give her mother her usual spot, but she waved her off. “Go ahead and stay there. I’m going to make a pot of coffee. You can check the email for us.”

  Emma sat back down and scrolled through the email that had come in overnight. It was mostly junk mail and a message from John Simon at Workman’s Insurance asking her mother to give him a call.

  “Who’s John Simon?” Emma asked when her mother returned a few minutes later with a cup of coffee. She settled on a long, brown leather sofa in the middle of the room. There were matching armchairs on either side, and that’s where they usually met with clients.

  “He’s one of our best clients. Your father said that he had work from him pretty steadily. Mostly workman’s comp investigations. People that say they are too injured to work.”

  Mickey laughed. “Wait until you go on one of those. Some of these guys that say their backs are so bad they can barely move—we catch them lifting all kinds of heavy stuff.”

  Her mother smiled. “That’s the kind of case that I’m more comfortable with us handling. I’m not so sure about Belinda Russell’s. If the police can’t find out what happened to her daughter, I’m not sure we’d be able to do any better.”

  Emma nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  Mickey looked at both of them and wasn’t laughing anymore. “Don’t rule it out until after we talk to her. Your father
and I cracked quite a few cases together.” He sat up tall in his chair. “I have done this once or twice, you know. I know my way around a real police investigation.”

  “Well, yes, of course you do,” her mother said quickly. “I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t. But both Emma and I are new at this and well, neither one of us knows the first thing about an actual murder investigation if that’s what this turns out to be. A missing person case is very different.” She bit her lower lip and Emma knew she was worried that she’d offended Mickey and also worried in general about taking on a case that they couldn’t handle.

  But Mickey reminding them about his police background made Emma curious to see what they could do. It might be much more interesting than sitting in a parking lot waiting to catch a cheating spouse.

  “Let’s wait and see what Belinda Russell has to say, Mom, before we decide anything.”

  Her mother nodded. “Fair enough.”

  They all looked up a moment later when the front door opened and an attractive woman with white blond hair stepped into the office. She looked to be in her mid-sixties, which seemed about right as the missing woman was thirty-nine.

  “Mrs. Russell?” Emma asked.

  The older woman smiled. “Yes, I’m Belinda.”

  Emma’s mother stood and welcomed her. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Cindy, this is my daughter, Emma, and this is Mickey. He’s a former detective and has worked with my husband for many years. Please have a seat. Would you like some coffee? I’m going to add a splash to my cup.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you all too. Yes, thank you. I think I will have a cup, just black please, no sugar.” Belinda sat in one of the armchairs. Mickey sat in the other and Emma moved over to the sofa. A moment later, her mother joined them, set Belinda’s coffee mug on the table and sat beside Emma.

  “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” Belinda said. “I’m very sorry about your loss. Fred was good friends with my husband, Joe. He passed just last year as well. So, that’s why I thought to reach out. Joe always said Fred and Mickey could find anyone. He was impressed with Fred’s stories.”