“What are you looking at?”
“Something is very wrong here.” He pointed to his computer screen.
I could see a blip. It moved, stopped, and then moved again.
“If Jackie had given Catey back her phone, it would be pretty much stationary. The phone was at the school for less than ten minutes, and then it started moving. It’s been following a weird pattern for over an hour.”
“What does this mean?”
“Well, I think that either Catey left school right after her mom gave her back her phone, or Jackie never gave the phone to Catey at all.” Charles pushed his blonde locks back with his fingers.
“Oh, shit,” I said. Then Charles jumped up.
“Oh shit, is right. Fuck, I let her read the text messages. Remember what one of the last messages was?” Charles was now pacing in front of his computer screen.
“Come on. We gotta go.” I grabbed Charles by the arm and he didn’t resist.
CHAPTER 4
I could see Jackie sitting in the front seat of the Toyota pickup that Gotcha owned. She sat completely still, staring at the house. She didn’t even move when Charles drove up behind the truck. I got out of the car before he shifted into park.
I walked up to the window of the Toyota and tapped. Jackie turned slowly to look at me, but she didn’t roll down the window or make any move to get out of the car. I grabbed the door handle and opened the driver’s door.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
She looked at me as if in a daze. “I had to know.” She looked back at the house.
“I went to give her back her phone, but she had left school.” Jackie tried to stay calm, but her voice cracked. “She wasn’t there.” She burst into tears.
I leaned into the cramped space and held her. She wrapped her arms around me and sobbed. I hugged her back. “She’s fine, honey. Have you called home?”
Jackie’s body shook. “My baby. She’s not my baby anymore.”
“Yes, she’s still your baby.” I reassured her.
Charles walked up. “I hate to interrupt this sob-fest, but what the hell is going on?”
I broke away from Jackie. “Asshole.”
“Yes, I’m an asshole, that’s been long established, but this crying jag isn’t going to help us catch this creep.” Charles walked off toward William’s house. “I’m going to check things out.”
I called after him, “Hey, wait up.” To Jackie I said, “Stay right here.”
She wiped her eyes and nodded.
I ran after Charles, who didn’t wait for me. Think it was because of that asshole remark? When I caught up to him, he was opening the gate to the backyard. I followed him. In for a dime, in for a dollar.
We walked around to the sliding glass door. Charles stopped up short.
“This curtain was wide open when I was back here before. Someone has been home.”
“Check the door,” I said. But being impatient, I checked it myself. Locked.
“Give me a minute.” Charles pulled out his phone and walked away.
I did my best to listen in, but Charles had his back to me. I walked up behind him just as he was dialing a number. “What’s going on?”
“I had my friend researching William. I called him to see if he found out where he worked.” Charles put the phone to his ear and stopped talking.
“Where does he work?”
Before Charles could answer me, someone on the other line picked up. “Hi, may I speak with William Garrison?”
I waited while he listened. He tapped his phone and put it back in his pocket. “William left work early today. They asked if I wanted his voice mail.”
“Give me a sec. Stay put.” I ran back to my car and pulled out my lock picks. I was getting into this house, I didn’t care what laws I was breaking. When I got back, I knelt down on my knees and started fiddling with the picks. This was a two-handed operation, and I was concentrating hard because I was a bit rusty.
“This is breaking and entering, Mimi.” Charles stood over me like my protector.
“Not if I don’t get caught.” I kept at it until I heard a click. I had to turn hard because a sliding glass door had a different kind of lock, one that flipped over like a hook. “And we’re in.”
“Stay out here. I’m going in, not you. I’ll take the rap on this.” Charles helped me to my feet.
“Oh, no, it was my picking skills that got us this far. Either we go together, or you stay out here.” I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
I looked back to see what Charles’s decision was, and I saw him looking around. A second later, he was inside the Garrison house with me. Oh, what fun this was going to be. I loved snooping. I just hoped our snooping uncovered something we could use. Mostly, I hoped we didn’t see Catey here.
Charles tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around, expecting something bad. He whispered, “Let’s look around out here, then make our way down the hallway. Very quietly.”
Right, like he needed to tell me to be quiet.
I looked at the room in front of us. The interior looked just like I expected, a tract home layout. We had entered a family room, with tan shag carpet and what looked like a hide-a-bed couch, just a shade darker than the carpet. There was a flat screen TV on the wall of dark paneling, the TV being the only thing updating this room from the 1970s.
Straight ahead was the counter Charles had mentioned earlier that day, but there was no backpack on it. The counter separated the family room from the kitchen, which was neat and tidy, no dishes in the sink, and the dish towels folded next to the stove. Not so much as a magnet or picture on the refrigerator. How long had this guy lived here?
There was a set of double doors that were wide open and led to the living room. This room had more formal furniture. There was a matching three-piece set of a sofa, love seat and a club chair all centered around a burl wood coffee table. The pictures on the wall were seascapes, originals from what I could see. A stone fireplace graced the wall facing the backyard, a small basket of firewood sat on the floor next to it, and there were pictures in frames on the mantel. This is when Charles’ reminder to be quiet came in handy. He must have seen the pictures at the same time I did. He put his hand over my mouth just as I inhaled deep and loud.
“Oh, shit,” I said quietly under his fingers.
He turned me around to face him before removing his hands. He put a finger to his lips.
I looked back to the mantel and pointed. Charles looked, too. The framed pictures on the mantel were of Catey, with her best friend, Anna. In another photo, Anna was standing with a younger girl, and William sat on a picnic table between them. This photo looked to be a few years older than the one with Catey and Anna. I had to turn away.
Charles pointed down the hall, and I let him lead this time. We stopped at the first door, which was open, and saw a small bedroom. It was sparsely furnished with a bed and dresser. There was a lamp on top of the dresser, but nothing personal in the room. I didn’t bother to walk in and look in the closet. We moved on down the hall.
The second bedroom looked much like the first, only it seemed brighter. I’m not sure if it was the curtains, the walls, or the position of the room, but it seemed happier. I know it sounds weird, but the room did seem to have a better aura.
At the end of the hall was a bathroom. The orange wallpaper on the walls and the cream linoleum were dead giveaways as to the last time this room was redecorated. Everything in this house screamed rental, and this was the only room not model home tidy.
The toilet seat was up, and there seemed to be brownish red fluid speckling the bowl. The towels had been pulled from the rack, and were strewn on the floor. I saw this as the first sign something was amiss. I know, brilliant deduction.
Charles stepped in front of me and held me back by putting his hand up. I wanted to push into him, and even past him, heading for what I was sure was the master bedroom. I tempered myself and stayed behind him. I even stepped back as Char
les pushed the bedroom door open.
He stepped into the room, and since I didn’t hear him gasp, or the voices of anyone else, I followed him into the room. This room looked worse than the bathroom. The paisley bed cover was on the floor, and the white sheets were askew. I only saw one pillow on the bed, but assumed there were more on the floor. Usually a king size bed has more than one small pillow.
From my vantage point by the door, the bed was centered on the wall to my left, and there was an antique dresser directly in front of me. The top of the dresser was empty, but that was because the contents had been strewn across the floor. The drapes on the window were closed, but they were sheer, so plenty of light entered the space. I thought I saw movement, but it had to be my imagination because only Charles and I were in the room. I saw movement again, and realized it was birds flying in the backyard, fully visible through the sheers. When I looked down at the floor, I also saw men’s shoes and a pair of pants on the far side of the bed.
When Charles walked to the far side of the room, I decided to follow, but I was looking at the items on the floor and slammed into him when he abruptly stopped.
Charles turned to me. “Get out of here now.”
I looked past Charles to the shoes and pants on the floor. They appeared to be lying at a weird angle for being tossed on the carpet, but I didn’t see anything to make Charles send me away.
“Why?” I couldn’t just do what Charles said.
“Don’t argue with me for once. Leave now. Please, Mimi, leave now!” Charles was no longer speaking in low tones, he was shouting at me.
Taken back, I did exactly the opposite of what he asked. I stepped around him to the far side of the bed. At that very moment I wished, for once in my life, I’d taken orders without question. As I bolted from the room, I saw Charles dialing a number on his cell phone.
CHAPTER 5
I swear I barely made it to the front door before the police arrived. I went back to where Charles had parked to tell Jackie to go home. It was a needless trek as Jackie had already left. I know it shouldn’t have, but her leaving made me suspicious.
When the police arrived and entered William Garrison’s residence, Charles exited. I walked back to see why he stood in the yard instead of coming back to his car. Personally, I wanted to be as far from this house as I could get.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Don’t think so.” Charles looked down the street. “Be warned, the homicide unit is on the way.”
“Great.” The homicide unit could possibly be Nick Christianson. I hoped it was anyone but him. Okay, in truth, I wanted to see him, as it’d been months since we last talked, but I didn’t want to see him at a crime scene.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky, and Nick will be the detective in charge.” Charles gave me a little nudge.
“Or not.”
There were at least half a dozen cops in the homicide unit, so the chances of it being Nick shouldn’t be an issue. But those chances diminished to zilch as I saw the plain cop car skid to a stop in front of the Garrison house. I turned my back to the street and stared at the house.
About this time, the neighbors came out of their houses to gawk. The neighbor to the right of the Garrison house, walked up to me.
“What’s going on?” He was an older man, I’d guess in his fifties, but still quite handsome. He wasn’t much taller than my 5’7”, but he seemed to tower over me. Maybe it was his build. It looked like his second job might be working out at the gym, and I liked the way his biceps bulged against the fabric of his polo shirt.
“Probably not my place to say.” I didn’t know this guy, so I didn’t want to say anything I shouldn’t.
“Well, something is going on. And since this is my next door neighbor, I think I should know.”
Charles said, “There was a death.”
“A death?” The neighbor sounded surprised, but seemed more curious.
“I probably shouldn’t say anything more.” Charles walked off and left me.
I thought about William’s body on the floor next to the bed. Okay, I’m going to assume it was William, because the head was so bashed in the face wasn’t recognizable. It may have had some identifying features to someone who knew him. And to someone who knew the man very personally, his privates were exposed for identification. William still wore his socks, but his pants and boxer shorts were mere inches from his body.
As more neighbors gathered around the handsome guy, I headed toward the driveway, and them there to speculate.
I thought about the last time Nick and I met at a crime scene. In that case, the victim was very recognizable. It’s just that her head was no longer attached to her body. I finally got the courage to turn and face the detectives as they approached.
Charles strode up to Nick and put his hand out. “Nick, wow, so good to see you. It’s been a long time.”
Nick, at a loss, shook Charles’s hand. “It has been a while.” Then he looked at me, and back to Charles. “Why are you at my crime scene?”
Still jovial, Charles said, “Well, about that. You see, Mimi and I were here to visit with Mr. Garrison. Only when we arrived, Mr. Garrison wasn’t in a position to accept visitors.”
Nick aimed his next question at me. “So if he wasn’t in a position to accept visitors, how is it you were in his house and found him dead on the floor in his bedroom?”
I looked at Charles, expecting him to give a calculated answer. Imagine my dismay when he just looked back at me like, “Well?”
Oh sure, when I want Charles to talk, he doesn’t, but get in a tight spot, he leaves it up to me. I hadn’t planned on admitting we were in the house unless specifically asked. “We were looking for Jackie’s daughter.” The truth is always best in these situations, and this was a close to the truth as I could figure.
“Jackie? Would this be your friend and employee, Jackie?”
I nodded. The less said, the better.
The next question he addressed to Charles. “What would Jackie’s daughter be doing in this house, and why would you assume she was here?”
Charles looked at me, but I just looked back at him and smiled. “It’s really a very long story, and I’d love to tell you the whole thing, but maybe you want to get a look at the body before you ask us more questions,” he said.
Nick’s eyes went wide. “Charles, you’re very lucky I like you. I usually don’t take well to being told how to do my job.”
All innocence, Charles said, “No, I’m not telling you how to do your job. It’s just that this is a very long story, and there is more to it than a dead body. I could go into it in detail for you now if you like.”
Nick shook his head. “You two stay put. I’ll be back out here in a bit. Then you can bore me with all the details.”
“I’d just like to say one thing,” Charles called after Nick as he walked away.
Nick turned.
“You’ll want to be sure you take his computer and cell phone into evidence,” I said before Charles could speak.
Charles nodded, “What she said.”
Nick continued into the house. That was when I noticed his partner as she stepped out from the passenger side of his Crown Vic.
“Now, that is one tall drink of water.” Charles watched her walk toward the house.
“So cliché,” I said. But he was right. She was as tall as Nick, if not taller. She wore a black pencil skirt that grazed the skin above her knees, and a black polo shirt with the Salinas Police Department logo. The skin that her uniform exposed was tight, tan, and covered well-defined muscles. This girl was an athlete. I immediately hated her.
She walked past us and smiled, but didn’t speak.
We both turned and watched her walk into the house. She looked as good, if not better, from the back. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a neat little bun at the nape of her neck.
I finally came to my senses and asked Charles, “I forgot to look at her face. Is she cute?”
“No, cute is
n’t a word I’d use to describe her.” Charles still stared.
I was immediately relieved. No one should have a body like that and be cute, too.
Charles added, “She’s freaking gorgeous.”
There went the relief. I hated her more now. I didn’t care if she was the nicest person on Earth. She was sexy as hell, and she was Nick’s partner. Not that I wanted Nick, but I didn’t want him to be partnered with that. But now it was all the more clear why we hadn’t stayed in touch since Esme Bailey’s murder was solved. I felt a little sick.
“Can we go?” I didn’t want to be here when Nick and his partner came out of the house.
“Oh, Mimi, she’s not after Nick. Suck it up and wait until they come back out. Besides, Nick told us to stay put.”
“She could be engaged to Nick, and it wouldn’t be any of my business. I don’t care if she’s a knockout.” Lie, lie, lie. “I just hope she’s a good partner for him, and they work well together.”
Charles walked to the curb laughing out loud.
I followed after him. “What?”
“What a crock of crap. You have it so bad for that boy, you probably have a vibrator named Nick.”
I nearly choked. But I was afraid to say anything. If I told him I didn’t have a vibrator, he’d say I needed to get one. If I said I didn’t name my vibrators, he’d say I should. There was no good response.
Charles panted and fanned himself. “Nick, oh, Nick.”
He sat on the curb just as he said it, and his head was in prime position for me to smack it, so I did.
“Ouch.” He rubbed his head and laughed. “Just invite him to your house, seduce him, and be done with it.”
I sat beside him. I didn’t want to seduce anyone; I wanted to be seduced. “I’m going to have lunch with Sebastian.”
This time Charles nearly choked. “Huh? You can’t be serious.”
Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries Boxed Set (3 Books) Page 25
