Born Under a Blond Sign

by V. J. Chambers

  “What kind of a relationship did Gilbert have with your father?” I said. “Miles has indicated that it was, um, difficult.”

  “You could say that.” Cal turned back around, and there was a smile on his face again. “Really, though, does Miles want to blame this on Father? Because I don’t think that’s quite fair. Gil did this himself.”

  “I’m not casting blame,” I said. “Really, I’m just trying to understand where Gilbert’s head was at the time of the shooting. He came home for the weekend before it happened, and I understand that was rare. I just don’t know if it was connected or not.”

  “What do you want me to say?” said Cal. “Yes, my father is a giant jackass.” He spread his hands, giving me that mischievous smile of his again. “He’s manipulative and demanding, and nothing’s ever good enough for him. You’d think that he’d appreciate the fact that I followed in his footsteps and work here at Quikslim, when neither of his other sons did that. But does he? Not in the slightest. Whenever he talks to me, he criticizes me and makes me feel about two inches tall. Thing is, Ivy, I’ve never shot anyone.”

  “Like I said, I’m not casting blame.”

  “We’ll probably never know what was going on in Gil’s head that afternoon,” he said. “Miles is going to have to come to terms with that.”

  “Oh, undoubtedly,” I said. “And there’s no excuse for murdering five people in cold blood. No matter what his reasoning for doing so, nothing will wipe that slate clean. But I do think if I could try to understand a little bit of what he was thinking, then maybe that would be helpful to Miles. To you too. To your whole family.”

  He shook his head, still smiling at me. “I don’t think it’s possible to know that, I’m afraid. But I can see why Miles is so taken with you. You’re very convincing.”

  “Would you say that it was important to Gilbert to get your father’s approval?”

  “Not really,” said Cal. “He and Miles were the same that way. Just jumped ship and did their own thing.”

  “And your father was angry about that?”

  “In the case of Miles, he was livid. Miles was the oldest. His heir, you know? His golden boy. So, when Miles wouldn’t take the keys to the kingdom, my father was frothing at the mouth. But with Gil, I don’t think my father thought it would last. He thought it was a passing phase. You know Miles. He’s so serious. Everything he wants, he goes after with a single purpose. Gil wasn’t that way. He was a fun loving kid. He liked to take risks and live on the wild side. I think he got a charge out of making Father angry, but he liked the money too much to turn his back on it completely.”

  “Fun loving?” I said. “A guy who kills five other people doesn’t sound fun loving.”

  “Well, he had a dark side we didn’t know about.”

  “Right,” I said.

  “What, don’t you think he had a dark side?” said Cal.

  “I didn’t know him.”

  Cal narrowed his eyes. “Is this about something else? Why are you really here, asking me questions?”

  “It’s not about anything other than your opinion of your father’s character. What do you think your father values more than anything on earth? Was it his sons? His family?”

  Cal snorted. “Oh, no way. Father cares way more about his status than anything else.”

  * * *

  Talking to Cal had gotten me inside the Quikslim building, no mean feat. The place had a lot of security, and I couldn’t have just walked in. I’d needed the invite from Cal to get up into the main offices. But once I was in, there wasn’t anyone watching my every move, so I thought that I’d try to snoop around a little bit, maybe even talk to Gilbert’s father myself.

  I asked someone in the hallway where the CEO’s office was, and, after being pointing in the right direction, headed up the elevator. The top floor was apparently all relegated to Louis Pike and his parter. Both the CEOs had an office there—Miles’s father, and his partner Julius Milton.

  There was a secretary sitting behind a long, long desk. She had a phone headset with a microphone and was chattering into it as I emerged from the elevator.

  In situations like this, it’s always best to act as if you know what you’re doing. Confidence in yourself means other people will have confidence in you. So, instead of waiting to talk to her, I just turned and strolled down the hallway as if I knew exactly where I was going.

  I got to a door marked Louis Pike, CEO, and I opened it.

  It opened into a small antechamber. There was another secretary there, furiously typing at her computer. She looked up. “Can I help you?”

  “Are you Mr. Pike’s secretary?” I said.

  “Administrative assistant,” she said.

  Right, I was always forgetting that. I’d hired Brigit to be my administrative assistant, not my secretary, after all. You’d think I’d be familiar with the term. It did sound nicer than secretary, of course, but that was only because people associated the word secretary with all kinds of stupid things. They thought that secretaries were young attractive women who slept with their bosses. No one thought that about administrative assistants.

  It was like changing the title of stewardess to flight attendant.

  It worked for a while, made flight attendants sound so much more official. But after a while, people just started associating that term with all the negative stereotypes of flight attendants. So, in the end, it really didn’t do anything. Renaming stuff was a vain attempt to change the ugliness in the world, if you asked me.

  But it was an attempt, and that was better than nothing,

  So, administrative assistant it was. “I’m so sorry, of course,” I said. “You’re Mr. Pike’s assistant, then.”

  “That’s right. Do you have an appointment?”

  I decided to try to be tricky here and pretend that I did without being overly committal. I wasn’t sure if it would work. “Am I early or something? Can you check the schedule?”

  She picked up a cell phone and clicked around on the screen. “He actually doesn’t have anyone on his schedule this afternoon. Since the death of his son, he’s been really dialing down his workload, I’m sure you understand. Most everything has been kicked over to Mr. Milton. Maybe your appointment was rescheduled with him?”

  Well, that was better than nothing. “It’s really important that I talk directly to Mr. Pike,” I said. “Is he in?”

  “Actually, he’s not,” she said. “He’s having a long lunch. He may be back in a hour or so, or he might not come back at all. Like I said, he’s still reeling from a terrible loss.”

  “I see,” I said.

  “Why don’t you go see Mr. Milton?” she said.

  “The thing is—”

  “Don’t ask me to call Mr. Pike,” she said. “He left me his cell.” She waved the phone at me.

  That was his phone? Damn it, what I wouldn’t give to look at that. But I was running out of excuses to stay in this room, and it didn’t look like I was going to get a chance to talk to Louis Pike today.

  “How about I page Mr. Milton’s assistant to come and get you?” she said. “Even if you didn’t wind up on his schedule, I’m sure they’ll squeeze you in. We’re used to the chaos around here right now.”

  “That’s not necessary,” I said, but she was already doing it.

  Before I knew it, another administrative assistant was escorting me back down the hallway to Julius Milton’s office.

  * * *

  “Well, of course Louis values his reputation,” said Julius Milton. “But I think you’ll find that his foremost priority is his family, and it always has been. That’s why he’s not in the office today. I’m sorry, who did you say you were?”

  “I’m Ivy Stern,” I said, scribbling on my notepad.

  “And what are these questions pertaining to?”

  “The Gilbert Pike incident, of course,” I said.

  “Yes, but are you with law enforcement? Why are you asking these questions?”

  �
��I’m looking into the matter privately,” I said. “What about the energy shakes you sell here? The ones that contain dangerous, illegal ingredients?”

  “What?” Julius got up out of his desk. “What are you talking about?”

  “The energy shakes. You make energy shakes here, don’t you?”

  “Yes, it’s a new product line, but that doesn’t mean that what you’re saying about it is true. It’s not.” He looked nervous.

  “Not true,” I said. “I see.” I waited. Something about the way he was standing there, his jaw twitching made me think that waiting was the right strategy.

  “Even if something like that had been true,” said Julius, “when it was brought to our attention, to Louis’s and mine, we dealt with it. So there’s nothing like that happening anymore, are we clear?”

  “So, there were illegal ingredients in the shakes?”

  “I think it’s time for you to leave,” said Julius.

  * * *

  I went to the Pike mansion after that. If Louis Pike wasn’t at work, maybe he was at home.

  I arrived at the house unannounced, which clearly made the maid nervous. “Um, can I take your coat?” she said.

  “I don’t have a coat,” I said. “I’m here to see Louis Pike.”

  “He’s at work,” she said.

  “No, I was just there, and he’s not there.”

  But just then, Miles entered the room, striding toward the door while scrolling through his phone. When he saw me, he did a double take. “Ivy? What are you doing here?”

  “Um, what are you doing here?”

  “This is my family’s house,” he said. “And you’re working for me. So, tell me what’s going on.”

  “I want to talk to your father.”

  He took me by the arm and walked me back out of the house. Once the door was closed behind us, he said, “What’s going on?”

  I took a deep breath. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

  “Yes, I hired you to get to the bottom of what was going on with Gil. I want to know everything.”

  “Well, Gilbert knew that your father and his company were putting an illegal ingredient in their new line of energy shakes. We found a letter on his computer to your father, saying that he was going to tell the world what Quikslim was up to.”

  Miles drew back. “You’re not saying…”

  I spread my hands. “I want to talk to him.”

  “Ivy, he’s my father. He’s Gilbert’s father. He would never—” Miles broke off. He studied his hands. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “Well, you know, I don’t know what he would have done.”

  “Is he at home?”

  “No, he’s not.” Miles sighed. “My father started this company years ago, when he was a young man. He had money from his father to invest, but he turned a profit on Quikslim the first year. Doubled his money. And the company kept growing, year after year. My grandfather was a self-made man, and he put a lot of pressure on my father to make sure that he didn’t feel as if everything was handed to him. My grandfather believed in hard work, and my father is obsessed with the idea of proving that he deserves what he got, that he didn’t have help to get him where he was. Of everything in his life, the thing that he’s most proud of is that company. He would do anything to protect it. And I honestly don’t know if he values his children more than he values Quikslim. I wish I could say that I knew that he loved me, and I knew that he loved Gil, and that he would never…” He pressed a fist to his lips.

  I reached out to comfort him but stopped myself just in time. One would think, after all the time I’d known him, that I wouldn’t even bother to think about touching him anymore. But apparently, my impulses ran deep, making it hard to stop what I would do with any other person. “I’m sorry,” I said instead.

  He nodded.

  “Well, if your father isn’t at work, and he isn’t at home, do you know where he is?” I said.

  “I’m sorry, I have no idea,” said Miles. “But he does reliably show up at the office, I swear. So, your best bet would probably be to try to catch him there at some point.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  We were quiet for a minute.

  Miles rocked back and forth on his heels.

  I fingered my keys in my pocket.

  “Well,” I said, “I guess there’s no reason for me to stay here.”

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” he said. “I was on my way out too.”

  We took off together, and we both walked over to where my car was parked.

  I put my hand on the door handle. “Well, thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”

  He put his hand against the side of the car and leaned there. “Listen, Ivy, about that apology I tried to give you that got so botched.”

  I waved it away. “Don’t worry about it. I think I overreacted. You’re right when you say that things would never work out between us. I think we both know that.”

  He took his hand off the car and backed up a step. “Oh,” he said. “Right. Of course.”

  “It’s not easy,” I said. “We still have feelings for each other, of course, but that doesn’t mean that we would make a good couple. We know that we wouldn’t.”

  He nodded brusquely, backing away. “Yeah. Okay, never mind.”

  “Miles, don’t be like that,” I said. “I didn’t mean—”

  He turned his back on me, raising a hand. “I’ll talk to you later, when you’ve got some update on the case for me.”

  * * *

  “I can’t believe you went to Quikslim without me,” said Brigit.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, “but it just seemed like something I needed to do on my own. I didn’t know how easy it would be to get into the building, and I wasn’t sure how Cal Pike would have taken two people instead of one. You know I don’t leave you behind very often.”

  “But that’s what I wanted to tell you,” she said. “I have a way in to that building. I know Louis Pike’s assistant.”

  “You do?” I said.

  “Yeah. Before I got the job with you, I took a class on skills for being an administrative assistant, and she was in the class too. We kept in touch a little on Facebook and stuff, and I knew when she got that job. I know she would have let us both in, probably gotten us on the schedule to see Mr. Pike too.”

  “Hmm…” I said.

  “That’s all you have to say? ‘Hmm?’ You don’t want to say, ‘Brigit, I’m sorry that I didn’t include you,’ or ‘As usual, Brigit, I’d be lost without you, and I’m so sorry that I treated you without respect.’”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Well, I would be lost without you, that’s a fact. But I don’t see how not taking you along was disrespectful.”

  She sniffed. “You wouldn’t see that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Brigit, seriously, I’m sorry I didn’t take you along. But this is good. Now, we can get in to see Louis.”

  “Oh, so now you want me to use my connections to help you out?”

  “Or maybe,” I said, considering, “maybe you should do something completely different.” I remembered the assistant. She was tough to forget, the way she’d sort of forced me into a meeting with Julius Milton. But I also remembered that she’d had Louis Pike’s cell phone.

  “Oh, fine,” said Brigit. “So now you don’t even want my connection? You think that I’m useless, don’t you?”

  “How well do you know this assistant?”

  “I told you, we’re friends from that class. What are you even talking about now?”

  “Are you good enough friends that you could convince her to break the rules for you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, she had Louis’s cell phone. She said that he left it with her a lot with he was out of the office, and that she put his schedule into it. But if Louis contracted someone—like Bix Coltrane—to kill his son, then he might have called him on that phone. So, if we could get our hands on it, we might find some evidence.”


  “Oh,” said Brigit.

  I studied her expression. “What’s that mean?”

  “Well…” She tucked her hair behind one of her ears. “I don’t know if she’d go for that or not. I mean, it would probably depend on her relationship with Mr. Pike, right? Either she’d be loyal to the boss that she loved, or she’d hate him because he’s an ass to her, in which case she’d be willing to turn on him. I’d have to feel her out to be sure.”

  “Hmm,” I said.

  “No, listen,” she said. “Here’s what I’d do. I’d get in touch with her and ask her to come to dinner with me or something, and I’d feel her out on whether I think she’d be likely to help. If she would, great, then I ask her to let me look at the phone. If not, then I figure out some way to look at the phone myself.”

  “How would you do that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe I go through her purse while she’s in the bathroom.”

  “That’s assuming she’s got it on her.”

  “Well, maybe I invite her for another meeting, and I get the phone at the office somehow. I could figure out a way. I watch you. I know what I’m doing.”

  I considered.

  “I’d have to do this solo, though,” she said. “You understand that?”

  I did. And that was what was giving me pause. Not because I thought Brigit couldn’t handle it, but because I didn’t like being on the sidelines. If I didn’t know what was going on with something important to me, it drove me pretty nuts. If I sent Brigit out to do this, I’d be stuck waiting for the outcome. I’d have no control over it at all. I took a deep breath. “You’ve got to do it.”

  “I do? Seriously? You’re going to let me do this on my own?”

  “Absolutely. And you’re going to do a fabulous job.” But it was going to kill me waiting around. Kill me.

  * * *

  As I predicted, the night that Brigit went out to feel out Louis’s assistant, it was rough on me. I peppered her with a zillion questions before she left. I asked her if she was sure she could handle it. I reminded her that she could call me if she needed me or if she had any questions.

  I was pretty annoying.

  Brigit, for her part, was pretty patient with me. I guess she’d expected that I’d behave the way that I was behaving. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to be a horrible, annoying, nagging person, but I didn’t seem to be able to control myself.