Caliber Detective Agency Box Set 2

by Remington Kane

  Rayne sighed.

  “I know you love Velma, and I only want to see you happy. If it makes you happy to be with her, then, I won’t cause trouble. She’ll only know about us if you tell her.”

  “If? I feel like she’ll know the second she looks at me.”

  “She won’t, didn’t you tell me last night that she’d been keeping secrets from you, and that you had no idea?”

  “Yes, it’s why we argued, and why I wound up in that bar... and in your bed.”

  Rayne placed her hand on his cheek and kissed him.

  “I’ve wanted you for a long time, and I think it’s been mutual, no?”

  Chris stared into her dark eyes, and then gazed downward, where a gap in the kimono exposed her cleavage.

  “Yes, I’ve thought of you, I’ve even dreamed of you.”

  Rayne kissed him again, and this time he returned it, then gasped, as he felt her hand take hold of him beneath the covers.

  And in the midst of the gasp, Rayne slipped her tongue into his mouth, and once more, the fantasy came to life.

  ***

  Down the hall, Velma sat at the small desk in her suite making travel plans.

  She was going back to Texas. She had told Chris that she wanted to go back there to see her family, and that would be the reason she’d give for the trip, but she was actually going to track down her ex-husband, Peter Gates, who she learned had checked out of his motel. If she had to, she would beat the truth out of Gates.

  She was certain of one thing, that his reappearance in her life was not a coincidence. Someone wanted her and Christopher to break up and Velma had little trouble thinking of a candidate. There was only one name on her list of suspects, and that name was Rayne Carver.

  ***

  At that moment, in the West Texas town of Pachaw, Peter Gates’ current wife, Emmy, was cursing her husband’s name as she tripped over one of his metal detectors. She was a cute blonde of twenty-three and Gates’ fifth wife.

  “Stupid things,” Emmy mumbled, as she went about cleaning up the trailer. In one of Peter’s shirt pockets she found a folded letter that had been written by a man in New York City. The man was a private detective named Trace Pruitt, and in the letter, Pruitt gave Gates a number to call, stating that it would be worth $500.00 to him if he visited New York City for a few days, but that everything would be explained once Gates had called.

  Emmy kicked the metal detector. Gates had told her that he was visiting his grandmother because she had fallen and hurt her back.

  Emmy grabbed her cell phone, and a few moments later, she heard the voice of Trace Pruitt.

  “Pruitt Investigations.”

  “Hey, my name is Emmy Gates and I want to know just what you’ve been up to with my husband.”

  There was a pause, and then Pruitt spoke.

  “Why don’t you ask your husband, lady? He should be back there soon.”

  “If it’s illegal, I’ll put the law on you. Peter doesn’t need to be involved in anything shady.”

  “Shady, like what?”

  “Never mind, just stay away from my husband. He doesn’t know anything.”

  “He doesn’t know anything about what?” Pruitt said, and heard the line disconnect. He was in his van, as was usual, since it also doubled as his office.

  He had been driving along the Garden State Parkway while headed back to New York City, but now he decided to pull off the highway and do a little research.

  After visiting the restroom of a convenience store, and grabbing a soft drink, Pruitt opened his laptop and researched the name, Peter Gates. He found a surprising amount about the Gates’ family in the Pachaw, Texas, local newspaper, and discovered that at one time, the Gates family had been wealthy. Twenty minutes into his search, he found Gates mentioned in the account of a home invasion robbery in which he was suspected of being a member of the home invasion team, although the police later described him as simply a person of interest.

  Four home invaders robbed a mid-level drug lord in Houston, and also killed the man and his crew. A neighbor alerted the police, and the robbers were stopped on the highway atop a bridge by a roadblock. Two of them were captured in a shootout, while two others escaped by diving into the fast flowing river below the bridge.

  One of the men was later discovered near the riverbank amid loose bills and an empty satchel. He had drowned and it was believed that the rest of the money was lost to the river. As police searched for the fourth man and possibly more of the money, they came upon a sinkhole in a stream that led down into a collapsed mineshaft. They then surmised that the fourth man had been sucked down the narrow vortex and drowned in an underground stream.

  However, the alleged fourth man was fatally wounded in a separate shootout a day later in El Paso, and most of the money they’d stolen, as much as one million, according to various sources, was never recovered. The fourth man was named Randy Gates, and judging by the strong resemblance Pruitt saw, he had likely been a brother of Peter Gates.

  Pruitt looked at the number on his laptop’s screen, one million, and then recalled Emmy Gates words, saying that Peter Gates didn’t need to be involved in anything shady again, suggesting that he had been in the past, such as a robbery, even if it was a robbery of a drug dealer.

  Pruitt shook his head. If Peter Gates had even half that money, he wouldn’t have traveled back and forth from Texas for a measly $500.00.

  Still, that little voice in his head was talking, whispering, and that little voice had rarely been wrong.

  Pruitt typed in the name of a travel site and made a plane reservation for Texas, and then began dreaming of what he would do with a million dollars.

  CHAPTER 3

  Chris had just enough time to return to his room and get dressed before it was time to check out of the hotel. As he was hefting his overnight bag onto his shoulder, Velma knocked on the door.

  Chris opened the door and stared at her, as a sickening certainty gripped his mind that she could tell he had been unfaithful.

  “Hi,” Velma said.

  “Good morning.”

  “I didn’t sleep very well last night, did you?”

  “No, I barely slept at all,” Chris said, as memories of his night with Rayne flashed through his mind.

  Velma gestured with her head to the left, at Rayne’s room.

  “Have you seen her?”

  “Yes.”

  “When?”

  “Um, last night, she got here late and I spotted her as she was waiting for the elevator.”

  “You were in the lobby?”

  “I was in the bar.”

  “Did she see you?”

  “She had her back to me,” Chris answered, telling the truth while also lying through omission.

  “Listen, Chris, about last night, I—”

  Rayne’s door opened and she stepped into the hall with her overnight bag. She was wearing designer jeans along with a green, long-sleeved blouse, and her hair was worn long and loose.

  “Good morning, you two.”

  Velma answered her with a chilly good morning that Rayne couldn’t decipher, but when she glanced at Chris, she saw him shake his head slightly.

  Rayne closed her door and sighed.

  “I have to report in with the police about my part in the Carter Hollie case, and so I guess I’ll see you two back in New York later.”

  Velma stared at her.

  “When do we get to meet this new love of your life, you know, the guy in the sports car?”

  “Actually, that ended, I found out that he was married.”

  “Really? I’m surprised that he was able to hide that fact from a trained observer like yourself.”

  “Yes, well, life would be so much easier if people just didn’t lie about who they really were, don’t you think, Velma?”

  Velma’s eyes narrowed slightly.

  “Some people are more devious than others, but I’ve found that their type rarely gets what they want.”

  Ra
yne shrugged.

  “You may be right, but anyway, that relationship is over. You two drive safely, and if I don’t see you later at Caliber, have a great weekend, bye bye.”

  As Rayne walked off, Chris felt a sense of relief, even as a part of him ached to go with her. He took his head in his hands. What the hell was wrong with him? He loved Velma, and Rayne was a friend, just a friend.

  “You have a headache, don’t you,” Velma asked.

  “A little, and I think I’ll skip breakfast.”

  “I’ve already had room service, but just toast and coffee. Give me your keys and I’ll drive while you catch some sleep on the way back.”

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  Velma took the keys and they headed to the elevators.

  “Chris?”

  “Yes?”

  “Um, remember I mentioned about going back to Texas to see my family? Well, I’ve decided to go.”

  “When?”

  “I’m flying out tonight, and, I think I want to go alone.”

  “Oh,”

  “You don’t mind do you?”

  “No, I guess not, but when are you coming back?”

  “I’ll be back Sunday afternoon.”

  “That’s a quick trip. I’m sure my grandfather would let you have more time off.”

  “That’s all right,” Velma said, as the elevator doors opened, and the faint scent of Rayne’s perfume still lingered inside the metal box. “I don’t want to leave you alone for too long.”

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, they were driving along the Atlantic City Expressway as the guilt became too much for Chris to take. He told Velma to pull over onto the shoulder. She did so, and then turned to look at him with a worried face.

  “What is it, are you ill?”

  “No, I need to tell you about last night.”

  Velma wiped at tears.

  “I’m sorry, Chris.”

  “What?”

  “About last night, the things I said. I was wrong. You had every reason to be hurt that I’d hidden things from you, but I swear to you, I never slept with Peter. I simply went to his motel room to find out what he was up to.”

  “I believe you, but listen, Velma, what I need to say is, last night at the bar I—”

  “I want to start over.”

  “What?”

  “I want to put Peter Gates behind us and start over. Can you do that? Can we just pretend that the last two days never happened?”

  “Start over?”

  “Yes, please baby, I love you, Chris, and I never want to lose you.”

  Chris stared at her.

  “I love you, and I don’t want to lose you either, so... yes, we’ll pretend that the last two days never happened.”

  They embraced amid kisses, and soon, Velma pulled back onto the road.

  “Chris.”

  “Yes?”

  “About Rayne, I’ve a feeling that she may still want you.”

  Chris had to steady his breathing before he could ask the question.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “It’s just a hunch, so let me know if she shows any signs of that from here on, and I’ll straighten her out.”

  “Yes, I’ll let you know.”

  Chris closed his eyes, and soon slept, and once more Rayne Carver invaded his dreams.

  CHAPTER 4

  Pachaw, Texas

  Peter Gates managed to duck just in time to avoid being brained by the boot thrown at him by his wife, Emmy.

  “I know you went to New York City, you liar, and I want that five-hundred dollars too.”

  “Calm down, Emmy, and who the hell told you about New York?”

  Emmy held out the letter from Trace Pruitt.

  “I found this.”

  Gates hung his head.

  “Shit, I thought I’d lost that while I was out digging.”

  “What were you doing in New York? I told you that if you ever did anything illegal like your brother did that we would be through, and I meant it.”

  “Calm down, what I did wasn’t illegal. I just had to show up in New York, and then Atlantic City, so that I could speak to an old friend.”

  “Why would somebody pay you to do that?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care, but I promise, I didn’t do anything illegal.”

  “Where’s the money?”

  “I spent it already.”

  “Five-hundred dollars? On what?”

  “A new metal detector,”

  “Peter, are you stupid or something, you’ve already got three of them.”

  “Yeah, but two of them don’t work and this new one is twice as good as the one I got.”

  “Why can’t you have a hobby that brings in money, like selling stuff on the Internet or something. You’ve been out in that desert for over a year and haven’t found a thing.”

  Peter smiled.

  “I’ll find something soon, don’t you worry.”

  “I know, you think that money from the robbery is hidden here, but baby, I think you would have found it by now, you’ve covered almost every bit of the land your brother could have buried it on.”

  Peter rushed over to a map on the trailer wall.

  “One more grid, Emmy, just one more grid is left to search and so that must be where it is.”

  “How long will that take you to search?”

  “Oh, another month or so.”

  Emmy smirked.

  “You’ve run out of time.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Roxana was released from prison yesterday. I bet you that she’s on her way back here and won’t be too happy that you’ve been looking for that money on your own.”

  Peter headed for the door, and Emmy rushed after him, calling to him as he ran down the trailer’s steps.

  “Where are you going?”

  Peter was at the car and removing a new metal detector from the back seat.

  “I’m going out to look for that strongbox again, hell, maybe I can find it before Roxana gets here.”

  “You’re crazy, but listen, I’m going into town to shop for food, so give me some money.”

  “There was sixty dollars left from the five-hundred, it’s in my jacket pocket. The jacket is in the car.”

  “Weren’t you supposed to work this weekend? Don’t wear yourself out in that desert.”

  “I’m not going in tonight, and I’m going to stay out here until I find that money.”

  “Peter, that money ain’t here or you would have found it by now. And damn it, don’t get fired from another job or I’ll have to go back to cleaning out the cages at Dr. Penn’s place, and I hate cleaning out cages.”

  “I’ll find it, you’ll see.”

  Emmy scowled as she watched Gates stride out towards the hills that bordered the property, and then afterwards, she went back inside to change and grab her shopping list.

  When she got in the car, she found the promised sixty dollars inside Peter’s jacket, along with something else, his cell phone.

  Emmy scrolled through the call log and found several calls from Trace Pruitt, including one that had attachments, photos. More searching brought up the photos of Gates with Velma, photos that made it appear as if they had slept together.

  “An old friend,” Emmy muttered, as her hand gripped the phone tightly.

  Emmy wiped at tears while studying Velma’s face, and made a vow to herself that she would not only pay back Peter for cheating, but given the chance, she would repay his lover as well.

  A swipe at one last tear, and then Emmy Gates turned from the emotion of betrayal, and began forming plans for revenge.

  CHAPTER 5

  The old man grabbed his fedora and headed for the elevator.

  Lauren stood and smiled at him.

  “Stepping out, Mr. Caliber?”

  “Yeah, doll, I tend to take a walk most days, plus, I’m almost out of cigars.”

  “Ms. Ross called and asked me to make certain th
at you carried your phone with you if you left the premises, sir. Is it on your person?”

  “It is,” the old man said, and then he studied her.

  “Is something wrong, sir?”

  “No, but you were an army brat, weren’t you?”

  Lauren grinned.

  “How did you know that?”

  “It’s something about your demeanor, so where did you grow up?”

  “Oh, my father moved us about quite a bit. I’ve lived in Europe, Japan, Africa, and even a year in South America, although, we never settled in one place for very long while there.”

  “It sounds interesting, but I hope you’ll stay put for a while; I know that Gail could use your help.”

  “I plan to, sir. I like New York City a great deal.”

  “It’s the best, and I’ll see you later, doll.”

  ***

  Once outside, the old man lit his last cigar and then had a thought.

  He smiled when he figured out how to find a name and number in the phone’s address book, and soon Maggie’s voice filled his ear.

  “Hi handsome, what’s up?”

  “Can you break free for a little while?”

  “Yes, and I was actually about to come up and visit you.”

  “I’m out in front of the building. I usually take a walk around this time of day.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  After putting away his phone, the old man looked across the street, where a new, glass tower stood. He had liked the old brick building that once sat there, and in his younger days had dated many secretaries and assistants who had worked in the insurance offices and medical practices the old building housed. The new tower didn’t match anything else on the block, and looked to the old man like a shiny dime among pennies.

  Maggie appeared two minutes later with a smile on her face.

  “This is something else we have in common; I normally take a walk on my lunch hour.”

  “It’ll be good to have company. Jakey used to tag along when he was a kid, but now he just goes to the gym and works out.”

  “I asked Gail to join me, but she prefers to run in the mornings.”

  The old man offered her his arm.

  “I guess it’s just you and me, kid.”

  Maggie linked her arm through his.

  “You won’t hear me complain.”