“No, I’ll see that you’re all guarded until they catch the monster that killed Selina.”
“But what if they never do?”
“Jake Caliber is involved in the manhunt, trust me, the man will not escape justice.”
“When you say, Jake Caliber, are you talking about the old man or your son?” Leslie asked.
Gail smiled with a sigh.
“My dear, it doesn’t matter, they’re two of a kind.”
After further clarification and assurances, the meeting ended, but Gail asked one of the girls to stay. It was Marla, the young black woman with the exotic features.
“Yes ma’am?”
“Do you still work days at the temp agency?”
“I do, why? Do you need me to come in for a few days?”
“Actually, I was thinking of something more permanent, a position as my assistant.”
“Really? Well I’m definitely interested, I learned a lot by working at different offices as a temp, but I would love to settle in somewhere, and I like it here.”
“Great, if you have time, we can discuss the responsibilities and salary right now.”
“I can do that, but the temp agency already set me up with a one-day job for tomorrow, and so I wouldn’t be able to start until I handle that obligation.”
“I understand, and it’s good to see that you’re responsible.”
“Mrs. Caliber.”
“Yes, dear?”
“Why are you offering this position to me and not Leslie or Karen? They know more about business than I do.”
“That’s true, but you have something they don’t.”
“What’s that?”
“You possess a degree of empathy that they lack. It’s why you could understand the reasons behind why I would end a profitable service, while Leslie only saw the lost dollars. In other words, you have heart.”
Marla grinned.
“I think I’m going to like working with you.”
“Same here,” Gail said.
CHAPTER 10
The new clients were escorted into the office by Kelli, but both men froze when they saw Jake sitting on the sofa. They then spotted the old man behind his desk, and sent each other an amused chuckle.
The men were both dressed in conservative three-piece suits and they also possessed manes of white hair that rivaled the old man’s, while the taller of the two wore a well-trimmed beard.
Kelli introduced the distinguished-looking gentlemen as Mr. Ross Merriweather and Mr. Lincoln Chancellor, and then asked them to take seats before the old man’s desk.
The old man grinned at them.
“Skeeter and Bones, it’s been a long time, fellas.”
Merriweather, or Skeeter, as the old man called him, ran a hand over his beard and let out a curse.
“How the heck did you recognize us, Caliber? Hell, we ain’t seen you in forty years.”
The old man pointed over at Jake.
“For just a second, you thought he was me, didn’t you?”
Chancellor let out a laugh.
“We sure did, but can you blame us, the boy looks like you spit him out.”
“You two look prosperous, and I take it you’ve mended your ways?”
“We did,” Merriweather said. “Not long after we saw you last, we got busted for possession and did six months in the county jail. We both found Jesus there and were born again. Once we got out of jail, we worked at car washes and crap jobs like that, but when they opened the casinos in Atlantic City, we traveled there and got jobs, good jobs, and today we own our own restaurant there.”
“But you’ve got trouble and so you came here.”
“Yeah, you remember a dude named Carter Hollie, a real redneck?” Merriweather asked.
The old man searched his memory and nodded.
“He worked as a bodyguard for a pimp named Cougar, but didn’t he go away on a murder rap?”
“He did, but he did his time and he’s been out for years now.”
“Has he threatened you?”
“Yeah, he got word to us; it was me, Bones, and another guy that testified against him. We saw him whack one of Cougar’s runaway girls, he only hit her with his fists, but hell, she was a little thing, broke her neck he did.”
“That court case was decades ago, why are you afraid of him now?”
“Maybe you don’t remember, but Carter Hollie is a genuine nutcase. There was a cop named Rusch that loved to hassle him over petty crap like parking too close to a hydrant. One day Carter Hollie gets enough of it and tells Officer Rusch that he’s going to kill him, but he was going to wait a year and a day to do it. Rusch blew that off and just wrote him another ticket, but a year and a day later, Officer Rusch was found dead in an alley.”
“How did you remember the date?”
‘The threat happened on my birthday, and Rusch was killed the day after it a year later.”
The old man blew cigar smoke into the air.
“You tell this to the cops?”
“Not back then, because they found Jones’ gun and badge in a junkie’s crib a day later, and so we thought it was just a coincidence.”
“What’s changed your mind?”
Merriweather looked over at Chancellor.
“Let him see the letter, Bones.”
Chancellor took a folded piece of paper from an inside pocket and passed it across the desk, and as he did so, Jake, Chris, Velma, and Rayne, came over to stand near the old man and see what the letter said.
It was a yellowing piece of lined notebook paper and the threatening words written on it were in block-like letters.
I WILL KILL YOU BOTH
However, it was the numbers that caught everyone’s attention, for the numbers matched tomorrow’s date.
“Carter Hollie sent this to you?”
“He did,” Merriweather said. “He had been in prison for less than a week when that skinny sister of his dropped by our corner and said that her brother told her to give that to us.”
“And you’ve been worried this whole time?”
“Heck yeah, Carter Hollie doesn’t make threats, he makes appointments, and then he keeps them.”
“Did you go to the police with this?”
“We did, and they looked at us like we were nuts. They said that Carter Hollie has been out of prison for years and that if he held a grudge he would have acted on it by now.”
“They have a point, but you said that a third man testified against him, what was his name?”
“He was the dude that sold the German sausage out of that pushcart on 39th, a guy named Johansson, Frederick Johansson, and he got a note too, with a date that was a week earlier than ours, that would make it six days ago, but he threw his away and said he wasn’t scared of Hollie.”
“Do you know where Johansson can be found?”
“Heck no, Caliber, the dude could have gone back to Germany for all we know.”
The old man pressed a button on his desk, and a moment later, Kelli walked into the office.
“Yes sir?”
“Do me a favor, doll, and see if you can find anything recent on a man named Frederick Johansson.”
“How far back would you like me to go?”
“A week should do it.”
“Okay, just give me a few minutes.”
“Thank you, Kelli.”
Merriweather and Chancellor turned around in their seats and watched her all the way out the door, and then turned back around and looked up at Velma and Rayne standing behind the old man’s chair.
“I’ll say this for you, Caliber, you always had an eye for the ladies,” Merriweather said.
The old man laughed and tossed a thumb over his shoulder.
“Either one of these women could have kicked your asses on your best day, just because they’re lookers don’t mean they ain’t tough.”
Merriweather laughed.
“Like that girl of yours, Velma, was it? Now that was a good-looking woman, and to
ugh as nails.”
“She was my aunt,” Velma said, “And I was also named after her.”
Chancellor sent her a smile.
“Yeah, I think you got her eyes, didn’t you?”
“And her toughness,” Velma said.
Kelli came back in and passed a folder to the old man.
“That’s a printout of a news story about a man named Frederick Johansson. It says the poor man was killed when he surprised a burglar in his home in Arizona.”
“When did that happen?”
“Six days ago.”
The old man stared across at Merriweather and Chancellor.
“It sounds like Carter Hollie is a man of his word.”
CHAPTER 11
After meeting the new clients, Jake left for his meeting with Tommy Delaney, but as he left the building, he saw Kelli’s mother exit a taxi.
Claire Ross handed the driver cash as she spoke to him.
“Please wait for me; this shouldn’t take long.”
Jake walked up to her and smiled.
“Mrs. Ross, how are you?”
“I’d like to speak with you about my daughter.”
“Kelli mentioned that you don’t approve of me, but I promise you that I won’t hurt her.”
“You mean that you won’t hurt her again, right? Because you do realize that you already broke her heart once before.”
“I understand that, and I’m sorry it happened, but it wasn’t intentional. I love Kelli, Mrs. Ross.”
“What wasn’t intentional?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said that breaking my daughter’s heart wasn’t intentional, but you deliberately slept with one of her friends.”
Jake took a deep breath and cleared his throat.
“I regret sleeping with Amanda, but I’ve matured since then and Kelli has forgiven me. I hope someday that you will too.”
Claire shook her head.
“You devastated my daughter with your betrayal and now you’re looking to do it again. No, I’ll never forgive you and I won’t stop trying to get Kelli to leave you.”
Jake spread his hands.
“I don’t know what else to say, except to tell you that you’re wrong, and that Kelli is the only girl for me.”
“You’re a bastard, Jake Caliber. You may have fooled my daughter, but you’ll never fool me.”
Claire climbed back into the cab and slammed the door in Jake’s face. He let out a great sigh and then headed off for his meeting with Delaney.
***
Maggie Keegan felt the blood drain from her face as she read the results of the DNA test. The dead woman in question was in 99.999% probability Sarah Willoughby and the mother of Anne Willoughby.
The results had been faxed to her along with a letter from the insurance company stating that they would be requesting that Caliber Investigations reconsider her appointment as head insurance investigator. They also stated that they were ending their alliance with Caliber when their contract expired. In addition, they made it clear that while the contract was in effect, that Maggie was not to be assigned to work on their cases.
Maggie knew that the letter was an overreaction drafted by an empty suit. She still felt like a failure, and worse yet, she felt as if she had let not only Gail’s faith in her be proven false, but also felt like she had failed Jake Caliber.
When she looked up, she saw that Gail was not in her office, and wondered if she were avoiding her. Maggie crumbled up the faxed message, tossed it in the can, and then started looking over the file of a new case that had come in that morning. In the back of her mind was the nagging feeling that she would fail once again.
***
The old man had assigned Rayne to track down Carter Hollie, while Chris and Velma were given the task of protecting Merriweather and Chancellor.
Rayne couldn’t find a trace of Carter Hollie, but was able to locate his sister, Sally Hollie, who was fifty-nine and living in Newark, New Jersey.
Sally Hollie lived on Irvine Turner Boulevard in one of a row of garden apartments that looked to be nearly new, with their small but manicured lawns, and wide sidewalks.
Ross Merriweather had said that Sally Hollie was skinny forty years ago, and she had not thickened with age, as the woman that answered the door was all but cadaverous, with sunken cheeks and twig-like arms.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
The woman’s voice startled Rayne as much as her appearance, because the voice was a contrast, and was nearly the deep voice of a man. She also had a southern accent.
“Hi, are you Sally Hollie?”
“Yeah, so?”
“My name is Rayne Carver and I’m looking to get in touch with your brother, Carter.”
“Ain’t seen him in years, anything else?”
Rayne handed her a card.
“If you do make contact, please call, or have him call me.”
“Sure, goodbye.”
When the door slammed in her face, Rayne smiled, because as Sally Hollie moved back to shut it, Rayne got a glimpse into the apartment. She had spotted two things near the foot of a bed. One was a suitcase, while the other was a pair of men’s shoes.
Carter Hollie was staying there and Rayne intended to follow him wherever he went.
***
Merriweather and Chancellor owned a steakhouse inside the Royale Casino and the glass wall at the rear offered a fine view of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Royale was one of the oldest Casinos and was also the one built nearest to the water.
Velma admired the view, but paid more attention to the exits and entrances. Merriweather and Chancellor planned to spend the next day hunkered down inside their restaurant, as they sweated out the day Carter Hollie had chosen for them to die on.
Chris nodded in agreement at their decision.
“You were smart to close the restaurant tomorrow, and by holing up in here, you’ll make it nearly impossible for Hollie to get to you. Not only does he have to get by us, but he would have to make it past the casino security as well.”
“That’s why we’re staying here,” Merriweather said. “There’s plenty of food and we figure once he makes his move, he’ll be cut down.
***
They ate dinner inside the restaurant, and then Merriweather and Chancellor took Chris and Velma on a tour of the casino.
The two men seemed to know every employee by name and received smiles and warm greetings.
“You two seem to be well-liked here,” Chris said.
“Bones and I have been working in this place since it opened. We love it here, and we ain’t leaving until they carry us out feet first,” Merriweather said.
Chancellor stopped walking and stared at Chris and Velma.
“Are you two as good as Jake Caliber says you are?”
Chris looked both men in the eye before speaking.
“We’ll keep you safe. You have my word as a Caliber.”
“Well, all right then,” Chancellor said.
Chris and Velma escorted the men to the business offices where there were armed guards to watch over them, and since they had a few minutes of respite from their protection duties, they decided to play the slots while they waited for the men to return from their meeting.
“Velma? Hey, honey, is that you?”
Those words came from a tall, thin man with stringy blond hair. He was in his mid-thirties and dressed in well-worn jeans and a red, long-sleeved T-shirt. The T-shirt had the words, EAT, SLEEP, and DIG on it, along with a drawing of a metal detector. When Velma swiveled around and looked at him, her eyes went wide and her face turned white.
“Peter?”
“Hell yeah, baby,” the man said, and then he kissed Velma on the mouth.
Chris stood up and gawked at the two of them.
“Velma, who the hell is this guy?”
The man sent Chris a bright smile as he extended a hand.
“Hey there, bro, I’m Peter Gates, Velma’s husband.�
��
CHAPTER 12
Jake was in Tommy Delaney’s office, and the two of them were looking through the belongings of the late Selina Clayton, while searching for a clue to the identity of her murderer.
Delaney grinned.
“The fact that you’re here and doing this, it shows you how much pull the old man has.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hell, Jake, when I told my captain that I wanted to bring you in to help he never even blinked, you think that would be the case if I said I wanted to bring in some other P.I., say like Trace Pruitt?”
“Trace Pruitt is a dirt bag, and he’s only been in business for a few years, my family has been doing this for five generations now, and yeah, thanks to my granddad, the name Caliber means something in this city, but so does the name, Delaney. We both have generations of men who have paved the way for us.”
“True,” Delaney said.
They worked in silence for a time, as both men sorted through a voluminous amount of text messages, emails and business correspondence while searching for anything out of the ordinary.
After a time, they stopped for coffee, and Delaney asked a question.
“Selina Clayton, were you and she ever close?”
“You mean did I ever sleep with her? Yeah, but it was years ago.”
Delaney grinned.
“Are there any good looking women at Caliber that you haven’t slept with?”
Jake’s face turned serious.
“Do you ever regret getting married so young, Tommy?”
“No, and I wouldn’t trade my family for anything.”
“Your kids are great, and so is Jenny. Don’t get me wrong, but is it hard, just you and Jenny, year after year, with no variety, and being with only one woman?”
Delaney cocked his head.
“Are you thinking about marrying Kelli?”
“I am. I love her to death and I can’t imagine not having her with me, it’s just that... I sometimes wonder if I’ll be able to do it, stay faithful to one woman, I mean.”
“That’s not a question I can answer for you, Jake, but I can tell you this, if the two of you are really the right fit, then you won’t ever be tempted again. I mean you’ll lust after women, what man doesn’t, but the thought of actually doing something about it won’t be there, because you’ll be too busy loving your wife.”
Caliber Detective Agency Box Set 2 Page 11
