“Ouch. Sounds like you won’t be having much fun there, then.”
She replied, “Well…I was hoping maybe you could help me with that.”
“Name it.”
After hesitating for a moment, she asked, “Would you like to come to my mother’s party as my plus one?”
Yikes. She might actually like Pete. If he realized it, too, he was going to have a hard time doing the job he set out to do tonight.
“Uh…Friday?” His voice went up an octave on “Friday.” Yep. He’d figured it out.
She replied, “Yes. At seven at the events plaza downtown.”
My phone started ringing, but I switched it to silent without even glancing at the screen. Nothing was going to keep me from listening to this delicious awkwardness.
“Friday?” Pete repeated. “I don’t know if I’m free or not…”
After a moment, Alexa’s voice said quietly, “It’s no big deal, Jeff. I understand if you’re—”
“Wait, Alexa. Jeff’s not…It’s…my stage name I use sometimes. Call me Pete.”
I gasped out loud. What was he doing? I fumbled to switch on my mic. “What the hell, you idiot? No real names!” I hissed.
Obviously he couldn’t answer me without seeming crazy or suspicious. However, a loud thud came over the speaker at that time, startling me—I assumed it was Pete slyly voicing his displeasure with me by giving his mic a good flick.
Alexa said, “Pete…I like that name.”
“Pete…I like that name,” I parroted mockingly under my breath.
Pete must have heard me, because he gave his mic another thwack. I grudgingly turned off my mic so I could grumble without getting in trouble for it.
“Yeah, it’s much better than Jeff. I don’t look like a Jeff.”
Alexa let out a nerdy little snorty laugh, which only made her seem all the more appealing.
Pete said, “You know, I think I’m free Friday. I’ll be happy to go to your mom’s party with you, if you don’t think she’ll mind. I don’t know that she had much use for me on Saturday. She yelled at me a couple of times.”
Now what was he doing? I didn’t think Pete would be down with leading Alexa on. They descended into some boring small talk, so I decided to find out who had called me a few minutes ago.
When I looked at my phone, I saw that it was Ryder who had called. I sighed. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to help him out with this case. But on the flip side, he would be helping me out, too, which could make all the difference in getting to the bottom of what was going on at Wonder-Gen. Maya trusted him, so she’d be on board with it. Aside from the personal junk that was sure to get in the way, it was the ideal situation. But it would require me to put on a massive pair of big girl panties to get through it.
While I was contemplating my options, my phone rang again. It was him. I scrunched up my face, still not convinced this would work. I went to answer the call, but then in a total chickenshit move, I set my phone aside and went back to listening to Pete schmooze Alexa with some more boring small talk.
My ears perked up when I heard him say, “So what’s up with Brock Flint suing your company? Did your brother hit on him, too?”
She snorted again. “Oh, Pete, you’re so funny.”
I shook my head. This was not the most pleasant way to spend my evening.
She continued, “Brock Flint is an entitled baby. His party was fine, in my opinion. I was there for a while, and it seemed like a lovely event.”
Pete said, “I thought you were in charge of weddings.”
“I am, but I’m a fan of his. Or rather, I was, until he started running my company’s name through the mud.”
“What went so wrong at the party?”
She replied, “They ran low on food and drinks, which happens sometimes if the crowd is full of regular people who’ll actually eat instead of entertainers and models. It wasn’t terribly well attended, and I have to admit it wasn’t as lively as other album release parties I’ve gone to.”
Well, with no drugs, no party babes, and not enough booze, what did she expect?
Pete cleared his throat. “Sounds like it didn’t live up to Leonidas’s usual standards. Did the party planner get canned?”
Alexa was silent for a moment, and when she spoke, it was quiet. “No, she…died.”
“She died? Because of…” He lowered his voice. “Tell me it wasn’t because of the party.” Nice. I had to hand it to Pete—he managed not only to ask a probing question but did it in a way that would make her feel she could confide in him.
My phone buzzed again. This time it was a text from Ryder: Avoiding my calls?
Not in the best mood, I replied: Yes.
Her voice shaky, Alexa said, “I think it might have been. She overdosed on heroin at work only a week later.”
My phone buzzed again. Another text: You need to get over to Wonder-Gen ASAP. Something’s going down, and your boy’s here.
My breath caught in my throat. Stafford was supposed to be on duty tonight, a fact that I’d verified with his buddy Carter, so I thought I could rest knowing he wouldn’t be participating in any illegal activities.
Pete was saying something to Alexa, but I turned on my mic and interrupted him. “Pete, I have to leave. There’s an emergency I have to take care of with my other case. You’ll have to find your own way home. I’m sorry.”
He tapped the mic twice, which I took to mean that he’d heard me. I turned off the surveillance equipment and crawled back into the driver’s seat, pointing the van toward Wonder-Gen, scared to death about what I might see when I got there.
—
I was downtown, so once I got on Nolensville Pike, it only took me about ten minutes to get to Wonder-Gen. Ten nerve-wracking minutes. I parked in the same place I had last night and texted Ryder to let him know I was there. Meanwhile, I got out the camera and used the telephoto lens to zoom in on what was happening at Wonder-Gen’s loading dock. I saw Stafford outside alone holding the same scary-looking semiautomatic rifle and shuddered. There were a few vehicles parked near him, but no box truck this time.
A knock at my window startled me.
I rolled down the window and griped, “Do you have to scare the shit out of me every time?”
Ryder said calmly, “When a person is surveilling an area, it’s wise to be tuned in to the surroundings. What if I’d been a bad guy?”
“You are a bad guy.”
“Come on, now. I invited you to the party, didn’t I?”
I sighed. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing much at the moment. The same crew that was here last night arrived just before I called you, and none of them seem too happy with one another. Stafford’s being the guard dog, evidently, and the rest of them are inside.” He opened my door for me. “Why don’t you ditch this uncomfortable van and come watch with me in my super secret spy headquarters?”
“You mean the poor old lady’s house you commandeered.”
He grinned at me. “Yeah. Hope you like cats. And creepy dolls.”
Chapter 21
Ooh. I did not like cats or creepy dolls. But the vantage point would be much better from inside the house, not to mention that there was rain in the forecast, and if that happened, the van would fog up and I’d be unable to see anything. Grumbling under my breath, I gathered the equipment I needed and followed Ryder up the sidewalk in between all of the myriad yard ornaments.
He walked in the front door like he owned the place. “Hey, Betty. My partner’s here. Betty, this is Juliet. Juliet, Betty.”
His partner. I had to admit, aside from the overwhelming sense of dread and unease, I’d been the slightest bit flattered when he’d said this morning that he wanted us to team up. But it was another feeling altogether when he introduced me to someone else as his partner. I felt like he saw me as a real investigator for the first time.
A little old lady, probably Gertie’s age, tottered out from her kitchen, followed by three cats. “Sham
e on you, Ryder. You didn’t tell me you were bringing me some competition for your attention,” she joked, coming over to shake my hand with both of hers. “Hello, dear.”
I smiled. “Nice to meet you, Betty. Thank you for letting us intrude in your home.”
“It’s my pleasure. It’s not every day I get to have a man around the house. Plus, it never hurts to make nice with the fuzz. Never know when you’re going to need to get out of a few parking tickets.” She gave me an exaggerated wink.
Ryder grinned at her. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. We’ll be in your spare room watching the place across the road. We’ll let ourselves out when we’re done and lock up behind us.”
Betty smiled at us. “You stay as long as you need. Good night.”
Betty and her cats went off to her bedroom, and Ryder showed me to her spare room. I noted that it was similar to any bedroom you’d find at a grandmother’s house, except for the fact that there were several large, handmade Raggedy Ann dolls adorning the bed, complete with button eyes. In my childhood, my Raggedy Ann doll had been one of my favorite toys. But after some recent scary movies depicting them as possessed, evil demon-dolls, they seemed decidedly less sweet and innocent to me.
“How do you stay in here with those things staring at you? Or are you so badass that dead-eyed dolls don’t bother you?” I asked, fixated on the bed full of Raggedy Anns gazing blankly back at me.
Ryder chuckled. “I’m man enough to admit I had to turn them facedown in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, then I don’t feel so bad.” I set my equipment on the floor and made my first order of business to turn the dolls all around. “Anything going on over there yet?”
He walked over and turned the lights out, plunging us into darkness, then lifted the curtain back to peer out the window. “Nope. Same.”
“Oh.” I hated the thought of surveilling Stafford, so I didn’t even bother looking. Instead, I changed the subject. “I thought you said there were like seventeen cats here.”
“I might have exaggerated a little. One cat is too many for me.”
“Agreed.”
Although my eyes hadn’t quite adjusted to the darkness yet, I could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “So we actually agree on something.”
“Yeah, I guess so…”
This being civil to each other thing was incredibly awkward. As was the silence that followed our stilted conversation. I busied myself with getting the camera back out and putting on the long-range lens. I also got out the parabolic mic and set it on the bed next to the camera. In glancing around the room, which I could see fairly well now that we’d been in here in the dark for a while, I realized there was nowhere to sit but on the bed. There was no way we could stand up all night (if this surveillance mission took that long), so we’d either have to take turns or one of us sit on the floor, because even sitting on a bed next to him was something I could not handle under any circumstances.
“So is it just me, or does Betty remind you of Gertie?” he asked.
“Yes, she absolutely does, minus the cussing and uncomfortable sexual references. We should introduce them.”
And more silence. I had assumed we’d argue and fight the whole time. The dead air and wooden exchanges between the two of us was way worse.
Ryder peeked out the window again. “Have you…uh…talked to Stafford today?”
I rubbed my throbbing forehead. I hadn’t been able to face Stafford, so like a coward, I’d purposely left the coffeehouse at any of the times he might have normally tried to come in, giving my staff lame excuses for my sudden absences.
I admitted, “I didn’t see him, but…I did text him a couple of times. I didn’t mention anything about…you know.” And my texts were pretty short and to the point, basically blowing him off from trying to see me anytime in the near future, blaming work schedules and exhaustion.
He turned to face me. “I’m sorry it has to be like this. I really am.”
Shrugging, I said, “Me, too. I’m clinging to the hope that we’ve got this totally wrong and things aren’t as bad as they seem.”
“Yeah…sure,” he muttered uncertainly. “For what it’s worth, and as much as I hate to admit it, Stafford is—present circumstances excluded—a good cop. It’s no secret I have no use for the guy, but at the same time, I don’t want to see his career end like this.”
Tears formed in my eyes. I hadn’t even gotten around to thinking about his career. All his good work would be tarnished by one stupid mistake. There had to be a better explanation for his involvement. The biggest problem was I couldn’t ask him about it, not even in the vaguest of terms. My only option was to treat him like any of my other marks, which meant I had to be skeptical of his every move.
Ryder went over to some of his equipment and began pushing buttons and turning knobs. Suddenly I could hear the sound of crickets and leaves rustling. He said, “I put a mic out in the bushes near the edge of Betty’s property, facing the loading dock. We can keep tabs on them just as well by listening since it’s pretty dead over there. You want to go over some of my case notes while we’re waiting?” he asked.
Not really. I wanted to bury my head in the sand and not hear all the reasons Ryder thought Stafford was guilty. I wanted to be able to keep the nugget of faith I still had in my boyfriend. But it would all come out sooner or later, so I should probably prepare for the worst.
I wiped my eyes. “Okay.”
As Ryder removed a few file folders from a duffel and laid them out on the floor, I began mulling over his offer of partnership and the possible reasons driving it. Even though I was here now and we were staking out Wonder-Gen together tonight, I still hadn’t totally made up my mind to go all-in with him. Historically, when he needed some sort of help from me with a case, he had lied to me or used me to get it. I’d be damned if he was going to do that this time.
“What are you gaining from us working together?” I asked bluntly.
From his kneeling position on the floor, he turned to glance up at me. “I told you already. You have access to people I don’t, which I’m going to need to be able to break this case. And if we work together, I can make sure you don’t start purposely working against me, like you’ve been known to do, and screw something up for me.”
My mouth dropped open. That was painfully truthful. “So you admit you’re using me to get what you need.”
“Yes. I thought that was clear. And in turn, you’re using me to gain information you wouldn’t normally have access to as a PI and to lend credibility to your investigation. Plus with Maya out of town, you could use a hand.”
I was still wary. “You’re being very up front about everything. Are you feeling okay?”
His voice softening a bit, he said, “I know you’re skeptical, but understand that I want you to be my partner in this. Equally. And I want you to know what you’re getting yourself into so you don’t ever feel like I’ve misled you or kept you in the dark.” A warm, almost happy feeling started growing in my chest, but it shriveled instantly when he chuckled and added sarcastically, “Not that I have any reason to be gun-shy about something like that happening between the two of us.”
Scowling, I replied, “Let’s just keep this professional, shall we?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He sat down on the floor and gestured for me to do the same. I sat, and he handed me a file. Switching on a small flashlight, he trained it on the file so I could see it. “Hey, before we start, I wanted to ask you something. I know you were in no mood to talk to me earlier, so I didn’t push you, but what did you find this morning when you went into Wonder-Gen? You were in there a long time.”
“Unfortunately, I found nothing. The loading area inside was crammed with boxes ready to go out to customers this morning, so there was no place in that area for them to have stored whatever they unloaded from the truck last night. Gentry—the other owner—and I went through every nook and cranny in that whole building. If they hid something, which I’
m assuming they did given how long they were there, they did it extremely well…or I didn’t know what the hell I was looking for. At any rate, there wasn’t any contraband of any kind—just metal and metalworking stuff. I’m stumped.”
“Strange. You think the contraband could be the metal itself?”
“Would sheet metal be worth hiring armed guards?”
Shrugging, he said, “Who knows? I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon. But until we know what they’re trafficking over there, I can’t bring in another department to help out. We’re it.”
I wasn’t sure I was up for that kind of pressure.
Ryder continued, “Let’s move on to the stuff we have actual evidence of. Wonder-Gen Fabricators has been on white-collar’s radar for a year now, ever since the IRS looked at them for—”
“Structuring. I know.”
He nodded appreciatively. “Someone’s done her homework. Even though they were never charged, we’ve kept an eye on them just in case. A few weeks ago when Jim Wonderlich decided to beat the shit out of some guy late one night over at Wonder-Gen, we sat up and took notice, and I got assigned to find out if the assault was any indication that they were beginning to cook the books again. Crime tends to snowball quickly.”
“Right. I talked with the lady who made the 911 call, by the way.”
His jaw dropped. “You did? How? The caller refused to give a name. All we know is that the call came from inside Wonder-Gen.”
“Maya and I went there last Wednesday and posed as part of the cleaning crew. The caller is one of them. I managed to get it out of her.”
I could see his eyes sparkling in the glint of the flashlight. He said, “A witness could really help us out. You think you could get me in there to talk to her?”
Blowing out a breath, I replied, “I guess…Tomorrow night is one of the three weekly cleaning shifts, so since Maya is gone, I guess I could bring in a replacement and no one would bat an eye. The other workers think we’re temps.”
Brew or Die Page 18
