Caliber Detective Agency Box Set 2

by Remington Kane

  Velma pointed at it.

  “The tattoo has the name, Rayne. Is it possible that Rayne Carver could know this man?”

  Chris looked doubtful.

  “It’s an unusual name, but what are the odds?”

  “Who is this Rayne Carver you’re speaking of?” Alvera said.

  The old man answered.

  “She works for Gail as an insurance investigator, and she’s topnotch from what I hear.”

  Jake took out his phone.

  “I don’t like coincidences. I’m going to call Kelli and get Rayne’s number.”

  Chris brought out his phone.

  “Don’t bother, I have her number.”

  “You do?” Velma said.

  “Yes, we worked a case together, remember?”

  “And also had dinner, if I recall,” Velma said.

  Chris opened his mouth to reply, but then heard Rayne’s voice in his ear.

  “The answer is yes,” Rayne said.

  “What?” Chris said.

  “I said the answer is yes, you’re calling for a date, right?”

  “No, I wish it was that pleasant a call, but I’m investigating my mother’s disappearance.”

  “Disappearance? I thought that she just took a day off for once.”

  “No, Rayne, we can’t find her, but listen, I need to ask you a question.”

  “Ask away, anything to help.”

  “Do you know a man named Javier Bahena?”

  “Javier? Yes, we dated in high school, why?”

  “I think you’d better come to my mother’s house as soon as you can.”

  CHAPTER 3

  HOURS EARLIER

  Gail lay on her kitchen floor, shaking, and splattered with blood.

  Lying before her was the body of Javier Bahena. He was face down and blood was pouring from a ragged hole in his throat.

  When Jim Tate stepped through the door holding a gun, Gail gazed up at him with wide eyes.

  “What’s going on?”

  “You stumbled across something in the park that you weren’t meant to see.”

  She looked back at Javier.

  “He was sent here to kill me?”

  “Yes.”

  “You saved me.”

  Tate hung his head.

  “And by doing so I doomed myself... and my daughter.”

  “Your daughter?”

  “Never mind that, stand up.”

  Gail rose up on shaky legs and Tate took her by the wrist and slapped one end of a pair of handcuffs on her, afterwards, he attached the other end to the handle on the refrigerator door.

  “Give me your phone,” Tate said.

  Gail stared at the cuffs and then up at Tate.

  “You’re a cop, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, now give me your phone.”

  “I don’t have anything on me now; it’s all upstairs.” Gail said, and watched Javier’s gun disappear into Tate’s pocket, along with a cell phone.

  With a heave and a grunt, Tate lifted Javier up and carried him out through the open kitchen door.

  Gail heard the sound of a car trunk opening and closing before the Mustang’s engine caught and drove away.

  “Help!” Gail shouted repeatedly, while doubting that anyone would hear her. She knew that her neighbor on the left was off visiting relatives, while the one on the right had been backing out of his driveway when she left to go jogging.

  She opened the door on the refrigerator to extend her range and stretched for the phone on the wall, but found that it was still out of reach, and the heavy refrigerator was wedged in an alcove and wouldn’t budge.

  Then came the sound of another car, a heavier vehicle backing up near the door, and moments later, Tate reappeared and began uncuffing her from the refrigerator, only to then cuff her hands behind her back.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  Tate looked confused by the question.

  “I... I don’t know. I need time to think.”

  “People will be looking for me, and they’re people who won’t give up.”

  “You have family on the job?”

  “I’m Gail Caliber. Jake Caliber is my father-in-law.”

  Tate’s face paled a shade.

  “Oh Christ... I still need time to think, and I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  “Let me call, Jake. I’m sure he can help you.”

  Tate sighed with despair.

  “Nothing can help me now.”

  Then, they were out the door and driving away.

  CHAPTER 4

  “My prints? Why do you want to take my fingerprints?” Rayne said. She was in her mid-twenties, with long dark hair and dark eyes. A shapely five-foot-four and trim, she was also highly skilled in karate and firearms.

  She had joined them on the scene and verified that it was really Bahena, even as she wiped away tears.

  They were all standing together on the porch now, waiting for word about Gail.

  Detective Alvera asked Rayne if she knew why Bahena would be in Gail’s house, and Rayne told her that she had no idea and hadn’t seen or spoken to him in years. When she stated that she had never been to the house before, Velma suggested that she be fingerprinted, so that her prints could be compared with those at the scene. The prints would also be checked against those found in Javier’s car.

  “If you’ve never been here before then you shouldn’t have a problem with the police checking them against the prints they find,” Velma said.

  “I’m not a liar, Mrs. Channing.”

  “If that’s true, well then you have nothing to fear, and my name is Miss Parker now.”

  Rayne looked over at the old man.

  “Mr. Caliber, I have no problem with being fingerprinted, but I had nothing to do with Mrs. Caliber’s disappearance.”

  The old man nodded.

  “I trust you, kid; Chris says you’re all right.”

  Rayne smiled at Chris.

  “Thanks for being in my corner.”

  “Miss Carver, would you know who Mr. Bahena’s associates are?” Alvera asked.

  “No, Detective, when I knew Javier his known associates were high school kids. It’s been that long since I’ve seen him.”

  “I have a portable fingerprint scanner over there in that patrol car, would you object to having your prints taken?”

  “Am I a suspect?”

  “Not at all,” Alvera said, but her eyes said differently.

  Rayne looked at everyone.

  “I can’t believe you would think I’d hurt Mrs. Caliber.”

  “No one has accused you of anything,” Velma said. “But you are the only one here who knows both Gail and the dead man.”

  “Fine, take my prints, the sooner you stop looking at me, the faster you’ll look in the right direction.”

  Rayne and Alvera walked off towards the police car.

  “She’s not involved in this; she’d have no reason to be,” Chris said.

  “We don’t even know what this is yet,” Velma said.

  “Velma’s right,” the old man said, “We don’t know what this is, but we’ll sure as hell find out. Jakey, hook up with Tommy and see if this Javier Bahena has a record, then go pay a visit to any known associates. Chris, you and Velma go back to the office and go through customer complaints. I know that Caliber Investigations has received threatening letters, but find out if any of them were directed specifically at your mother, and if so, check them out. Meanwhile, I’ll approach this from your mother’s end, her friends, boyfriends, that sort of thing.”

  “Mother has a boyfriend?” Jake said.

  “I don’t know, do you?” The old man said.

  Chris shook his head.

  “Mom’s been all about growing the business since Dad died; I think it’s been her way of coping with the loss.”

  “She must have a best friend, who is it?”

  “Here, no one that I know of, but back in L.A. she was good friends with an investigator
named Maggie Keegan. Maggie still works for us in L.A.”

  “All right, I’ll get in touch with her.”

  “Mr. Caliber, not to accuse her of anything, but shouldn’t one of us begin looking into Rayne Carver?”

  The old man hesitated, but then nodded,

  “Discreetly, Velma, be discreet, that girl is one of us.”

  “I’ll be discreet.”

  “All right, let’s get to it, but Jakey?”

  “Yes sir?”

  “Try to keep a handle on things, boy; I know that you inherited my temper.”

  “I’ll be calm, cool, and collected.”

  “Right, now everyone get going. Wherever your mother is, we’ll find her, count on it.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Jake reached across the desk and took the sheet of paper that Tommy Delaney had just written on. They were in Delaney’s office, a small windowless room at One Police Plaza.

  “There are only three names here.”

  “Along with home and work addresses, and I’m not even supposed to give you those.”

  “I’m not complaining, Tommy, I’m just surprised. Javier Bahena is a young guy, guys like that usually run with a crew.”

  “You’re right, but those are his only known associates, they were the ones with him when he got busted for that jewelry store heist years ago.”

  Jake stood and Tommy stared up at him.

  “You’re going to check out those names now?”

  “The sooner I do, the quicker I find my mother.”

  Delaney made a face of disgust as he looked at the pile of folders on his desk.

  “Damn, I wish that I could go with you, but there’s no way I can shake free right now.”

  Jake held up the list of names.

  “You’ve already helped.”

  “I’m worried about her too, buddy, but at least you know that the blood in her kitchen wasn’t hers.”

  “Yeah, that was likely Bahena’s, but who shot him? And why grab my mother afterwards?”

  “You’ll find her, Jake, you or the old man, between the two of you, you’ll find her.”

  Jake winked.

  “See ya around, Tommy.”

  He left the building and walked back towards his car. When he was halfway there, a young woman fell in step beside him. She had shoulder-length dark hair and a dark complexion, and her name was Shea O’Reilly.

  “What are you doing here?”

  O’Reilly answered in her strong Brooklyn accent.

  “I heard about your ma, saw you leaving the building and thought I’d tag along.”

  Jake looked down at her and saw that she was dressed in jeans and a leather jacket.

  “Why aren’t you in uniform?”

  “It’s my day off, but I came in to have lunch with a friend in Narcotics.”

  “I might be doing some very uncop-like things today, you sure you want to be around for that?”

  “What’s that mean, you’re going to kick some ass?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Then count me in, I haven’t busted anyone’s head in a while, and I like your ma.”

  Jake grinned.

  “You’re a trip, O’Reilly, a real trip.”

  ***

  “You two better settle in if you’re going to read all of these complaint letters,” Kelli said.

  She was talking to Chris and Velma. They had called on their way back to the office and asked her to have all of the complaints and hate mail sent up to the Detective Agency, mail that went back years.

  There were over a hundred letters.

  Most of them had to do with the B-Girls.

  The B in B-Girls stood for bait. One of the courtesies provided by Caliber was a service called Fidelity Check, wherein a suspicious wife or girlfriend could send out a B-Girl to tempt their husband or significant other.

  The B-Girl feigned interest in the suspected cheater and offered to exchange phone numbers or even to meet at a later time. If the man took the bait and said yes to the offer, the wife had her suspicions verified. If the man declined, the wife could be assured that her mate was likely faithful. It was a rare man who wasn’t tempted by a B-Girl.

  Their success rate at unearthing cheaters was over eighty percent; what that percentage didn’t reveal however, was that nearly half of those men had never cheated on their partners before, and many, after having weakened and succumbed to their charms, were not very happy.

  It’s one thing to be tempted and satisfied, quite another to be tempted and left not only frustrated, but also facing the wrath of your spouse, and sometimes, your spouse’s lawyer.

  “The majority of the complaints involve the B-Girl service,” Kelli said, “While the rest are mostly insurance cheats who we’ve busted. Rayne Carver is so good at catching them that she has her own file. She’s been personally threatened more than anyone.”

  “I can understand the sentiment,” Velma said.

  Kelli smiled at that and left them alone to work. The letters had already been separated into three categories, the thinnest of which was marked, Disturbing, next there was, Profane, and finally, Simple Complaints.

  Before they began scanning over them while looking for specific references to Gail, they crossed checked them to make certain that none had been placed in the wrong category.

  “How come we don’t have any B-Boys?” Velma asked.

  Chris laughed.

  “We actually do, it’s Gregory in the accounts department.”

  “Oh, yeah I could see that, Gregory is very handsome, but he’s the only B-Boy?”

  “There’s not the same demand for a B-Boy service as there is for the B-Girls. Either men are more trusting or more naïve than women are.”

  “More like clueless, and I find the whole idea behind the service... I don’t know... icky?”

  “My mom and granddad had one of their biggest fights ever over the B-Girl service when Mom first implemented it. Granddad said it was ‘low-rent.’”

  “I agree with him, but it must be profitable, no?”

  “It’s very profitable, and the women get paid well for doing what is essentially part-time work. Being a B-Girl was actually Kelli’s first job at Caliber.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, but then your Aunt Velma took her on as a protégé.”

  They went to work scrutinizing the complaint letters, but took a break when Kelli brought in coffee. After Kelli returned to her desk, Velma tucked an errant strand of her blond hair back behind an ear and asked Chris a question that had been on her mind.

  “What was Rayne’s reaction when you called her?”

  “She was helpful, you know that.”

  “That was her response; I’m asking you what she said when she answered the phone.”

  Chris sighed.

  “She thought I was calling to ask her out.”

  “And why would she think that?”

  “Velma, she was being playful.”

  “I’d bet she’d like to be your plaything.”

  Chris laughed.

  “You really don’t like her, do you?”

  “I don’t like the way she looks at you.”

  “Don’t be jealous, Rayne is just a friend, and you two are a lot alike you know? She’s a great investigator.”

  Velma made a sound of disagreement and they returned to searching the files.

  “Some of these threats against the B-Girls are frightening,” Chris said, “So much so that I see a notation here that Mom had the police investigating them, but nothing came of it.”

  “How recent are they?”

  “Very recent, but there’s no reference to Mom in them, however, there is a reference to Selina Clayton, you know, the blonde with the... um, obvious assets.”

  “You mean big breasts?” Velma said, while smiling.

  “Yes, and whoever wrote this letter has it out for her, here, read this.”

  Chris passed over the letter and saw Velma grimace at the vitriol contained in
it.

  “That’s disturbing, does Selina know about this?”

  “I’m sure she does, and the girls are protected while they’re working. There’s a bodyguard that watches out for them.”

  They finished looking over the letters and found no direct mention of Gail, other than references made to her in letters sent by law firms on behalf of their clients, and all of those seemed civil and professional letters of complaint.

  Their next step was to search Gail’s office, and as they rode down in the elevator, Chris began nuzzling Velma’s neck, as his hands roamed over her.

  Velma giggled.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Exploring your ‘obvious assets.”

  The elevator chimed and Velma kissed him.

  “We’ll continue this later.”

  As they stepped off the elevator and headed for Gail’s office, Velma pointed at the restrooms.

  “Give me a moment?”

  After Chris nodded and entered his mother’s office, Velma walked over to the right. When she found the desk that belonged to Rayne, she began searching through it.

  CHAPTER 6

  The old man arrived back at the office and Kelli greeted him with a hug.

  “You’ll find her, sir, don’t worry.”

  “Thanks kid, but I need your help right now. I have to get in touch with a Maggie Keegan in the L.A. office, do you know her?”

  “Maggie? Sure, in fact, I Skype her every week for updates.”

  “Skype?”

  Kelli smiled at the old man.

  “It’s a way to make video phone calls.”

  “You mean I’ll actually be able to see her?”

  “Yes, should I set it up?”

  “Yeah, and then give me a few moments to talk to her alone.”

  As Kelli typed on the keyboard, she asked a question.

  “You want to speak to Maggie about Mrs. Caliber?”

  “Yeah, I need to know if there’s anything in her personal life that might be behind her disappearance.”

  “Well, despite the distance apart, she and Maggie are still very close, so if anyone would know it would be her.”

  Minutes later the connection was established and Jake saw the image of an attractive brunette appear. Maggie Keegan was sixty, but looked younger and vibrant.