Gray listened to the whole story. When she’d finished telling him about Jumbo, he said, “No prizes for guessing what that dream was about.”
After she’d told him about Marcie and the case, without mentioning Marcie’s real name, Gray seemed troubled. “Ugh, that’s the worst. Anyone I work with these days, or date for that matter, I get them to sign an NDA.”
An NDA was a non-disclosure agreement. It meant people couldn’t openly share what they knew about someone, what they’d been told, or conversations they’d had. Or, rather, they could, but they’d be sued to within an inch of their life. Certain celebrities had a stack of them by their front door, ready for people to sign. Not all for the same reason Gray did. Some because they had stuff to hide.
In this case Marcie could have saved herself a world of trouble if she’d had Python sign an NDA. But she’d been drunk, as well as blinded by his rippling muscles.
“You know I was in a male revue show for about five minutes when I was starting out,” Gray volunteered.
“No way.” She hadn’t known that. But young actors did all kinds of crazy jobs.
“It was a nightmare. All those women pawing at me? I felt like a piece of meat. Y’know, chicks are way worse than guys when it comes to stuff like that.”
Sofia wouldn’t have believed that before last night, but he had a point.
“So how are you going to deal with this Python character?” Gray asked her.
“I’m still figuring that out. First of all I need to find out his real name. I have his number now so it shouldn’t be that difficult. Then I’m going to meet with Brendan, see what he thinks.”
“Be careful, Half Pint,” Gray said, referencing her old TV show. “Blackmailers can be pretty nasty characters. Especially if they’re cornered.”
“You’ve been blackmailed?”
He shrugged. “Couple of times.”
“That sucks. What did you do?”
“I paid ’em off. Or my agents did.”
“And how did they make sure the sleazeball didn’t keep coming back?”
“The lawyers had them sign something,” said Gray.
“You didn’t go to the cops?” asked Sofia.
“With my profile? All it takes is someone looking over someone else’s shoulder and it would be all over the internet in less time than it takes to say ‘flaming gay movie star.’”
“That sucks.”
“Tell me about it. But, hey, I get to live like this,” he said, looking back out to the blue Pacific Ocean. “Everything in life comes with a price, Sofia.”
“Well, I don’t think Marcie has the money to pay it. Even if she wanted to.”
Gray gave her a reassuring smile. “Which is where you ride in to save the day.”
21
On the short drive to the Maloney Investigations office, Sofia’s phone lit up with a call from Marcie. She immediately tapped the answer icon on her car’s touchscreen.
Because Marcie’s husband, Wade, didn’t know what was going on, and she wanted to keep it that way, they’d agreed that Marcie call Sofia and not the other way around.
“Morning, Marcie,” Sofia said, doing her best to sound upbeat.
Brendan had told her when she’d joined the agency that part of their job was to reassure clients, regardless of how things were going: “The idea is to keep them on an even keel. This isn’t like regular police work where someone else might be dealing with the victim, and you just have to worry about the bad guys. We help keep the clients calm, too. A client who’s all over the place emotionally can make the job impossible.”
From her years as an actress, she knew how true that was. Agents and managers might spend ten percent of their time actually doing deals and the rest of the time holding their client’s hand. Agents always said, when there wasn’t an actual drama going on, you could usually rely upon an actor to create one. Clients were like actors that way.
“Hey, Sofia, Wade’s gone to work so I thought I’d check in with you. Any news?”
“Yeah, things are moving forward nicely,” said Sofia, as the stoplight turned red and she stopped moving forward nicely herself. “By the look of it you’re not the first person Python’s done this to, but at Maloney Investigations we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure you’re the last. And that you don’t have to pay him anything,” she added quickly.
“Oh, thank goodness. I barely slept a wink last night. Wade keeps asking me what’s wrong.”
“Listen, I know it’s difficult, but try to relax and let us handle this for you.”
“I’ll try, but it’s not easy.”
“I know it’s not, Marcie.”
“Is there anything I can do from my end?”
Sofia thought about it for a second. “Just sit tight, and don’t worry too much. I’m meeting with Brendan today. I should know after that how we plan on moving forward.”
“You’re a good person.” Marcie sounded tearful.
“I’m just doing my job, but thank you. Call me this afternoon.”
“I will.”
Sofia let out a big breath as the call finished. She wished she’d had something more concrete to tell Marcie. But the only way to resolve this quickly would involve calling in law enforcement and Marcie didn’t want that.
Traffic was clearing on Pacific Coast Highway. The stoplight next to Duke’s flipped to green. Sofia accelerated. The Tesla rocketed forward. Five minutes later she pulled into a parking spot outside the office. She grabbed her bag from the front seat and headed inside.
Sofia settled herself behind her desk. Aidan wasn’t at his. That was a relief. She needed peace and quiet to concentrate. She wouldn’t get that with him buzzing around, asking her what she was working on.
Sofia logged in to her computer. She pulled out her phone and opened her contact list. She scrolled down to the number Python had given her mom. Opening a browser on her computer, she clicked on a website the agency used to perform reverse phone searches.
Usually you’d type in someone’s name to find their number. This website allowed you to put in a number and, hopefully, get the name of the person it was registered to.
She hit the return key. Milliseconds later, a result came back. The phone was registered to a Jared Chadwick. She made a note of it on the file, and began to dig deeper.
An initial name search showed up twelve Jared Chadwicks in the United States, only one with a recent or current address in Los Angeles. Thank heaven for uncommon names.
In less than five minutes she had an address, his date of birth, his credit rating, and a bunch of other personal details, including his criminal history or, rather, lack of one. She searched again, this time using a different database. Jared still came up clean.
That was weird. He was thirty-six years old. At that age, most people involved in criminal activity had already racked up a couple of arrests, convictions, and oftentimes a prison sentence or two. If someone was going to break the law, the tendency usually showed up fairly early on. But Jared’s record was showing nothing.
There were only two possibilities. Either this whole blackmail scam was new to him. Or, and this was more worrying, he was really good at not getting caught. Blackmail was one of those crimes where, Sofia guessed, someone could avoid coming to the attention of the cops if the victims were scared enough.
The main door into the office opened and Aidan walked in. He went to his desk, set down his coffee and briefcase, and wandered over to where she was sitting. “What you got there?” he said, doing his best to read the notes she’d been making.
“The new case.”
“Oh, yeah? Want me to take a look?
Classic Aidan. He guarded his cases like a pit bull. But as soon as he thought Sofia was working on something interesting he was all over it. Before she knew it, it was Aidan’s case and she got the boring or embarrassing tasks.
Well, not this time, Buster, she told herself. “No, I’m making pretty good progress on my own.
”
“Never hurts to have a fresh pair of eyes.”
Sofia smiled up at him. “Thanks, but it’s fine. I got it.”
Now Aidan looked ticked off. “What’s the problem? Is it top secret or something?”
“Not top secret, no,” said Sofia, enjoying his annoyance. “More sensitive in nature. It’s a female client, and she wanted me to work on it.”
“Sounds kind of sexist to me.”
That was typical of Aidan. Playing the equality card, but only when it suited him. He leaned in a little closer. Sofia clicked to close the window she had open with the search details. “Sorry you feel like that,” she said.
“Come on. Spill. What’s the case?”
“Don’t you have your own work to be getting on with?”
“I’m not that busy. In fact, I have lots of time to help out. If you’ll let me.”
“I would. But, like I said, it’s sensitive, and the client’s eager that as few people know the details as possible.”
“Okay, now I really want to know what the deal is.”
Sofia shot Aidan a broad smile. “I know you do. But I can’t tell you. Now, if you don’t mind, you may not have work to be getting on with, but I do.”
Aidan started to object. Brendan’s office door opened suddenly. He walked out, putting on his jacket as he headed to the door. “Sofia,” he said, “I need to head to Century City for a meeting, but let’s grab a coffee at Marmalade first. I want you to bring me up to speed on the new case.”
“Sure.”
“We were just discussing it,” said Aidan. “I think it could maybe use a more experienced investigator.”
“Great minds,” said Brendan.
Aidan shot Sofia a smirk. Sofia’s heart sank. Brendan was going to invite Aidan along and put him on the case.
“That’s exactly why I’m taking Sofia for coffee,” Brendan added. “Give her the benefit of my wisdom.”
Aidan’s face fell. Sofia grabbed her bag and raced to catch up with Brendan. At the door she stopped and turned back to Aidan. “If you’re not busy . . .?”
“Yeah?”
“That plant needs some water, and you could maybe run the vacuum over the carpet.”
22
A new waitress brought them coffee. Brendan was drinking decaffeinated as his doctor had warned him about his blood pressure. High blood pressure seemed to come with the job. Sofia had already accepted that. The way she looked at it, the job was stressful because it was important. They were dealing with people’s real lives. Their work mattered. That was why she’d wanted to do it rather than acting, even though everyone thought she was nuts for making that choice.
Once the waitress had left, Brendan took a sip of his coffee and made a face.
“Coffee no good?”
“It’s decaf.” He shrugged. “So what’s the matter with Aidan this morning?”
This was going to be awkward. Brendan wouldn’t approve of her shutting Aidan out of the loop. She already knew that. The only thing worse than doing that, though, was lying about it.
“I wouldn’t tell him what I’m working on,” Sofia said, ’fessing up. “I’m sorry. I know I should have. But it’s kind of sensitive, the client is really jumpy, and I wanted to get a real handle on it first.”
“And you thought it would drive him crazy?” Brendan asked, although it was probably a rhetorical question, at least as far as Brendan was concerned.
Brendan didn’t ask too many questions he didn’t already know, or could guess, the answer to.
Again, Sofia told herself, there was no point in fibbing. “Pretty much.”
Brendan smiled. “That’s fair. He is pretty funny when he gets riled up.”
“But I should tell him?”
Brendan didn’t say anything. His look said it all.
“Okay, I’ll bring him up to speed when I get back to the office. But if he makes any of his stupid jokes . . .”
“You’ll tell me, and I’ll deal with it. Now, what do you have so far?”
Sofia spent the next fifteen minutes bringing Brendan up to speed. She told him about going to the Beef Cake Boyz with her mom and sister. She’d worried that he’d not be happy she’d involved people outside the agency. In fact, he was pretty relaxed about it for the same reasons Sofia had been. Her mom already knew, and it was good cover.
“A single woman on her own would stand out, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Then that was some smart thinking.”
She told him about the interest Python had shown in married women rather than single ones.
“Makes sense,” said Brendan. “This guy’s obviously an operator. In fact, he’s pretty smart, either by design or accident.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Say you want to blackmail married women. First you have to find them, then you have to work out which ones are liable to stray. That would be pretty time-consuming. But not if you’re doing what he does. Think of the stage show like a big sweep net.”
Brendan was right. It was genius. Rather than Python having to locate potential victims, they came to him, and paid for the privilege.
“I think it’s by accident, though,” said Sofia. “I don’t think he went into it for that reason. He’s an opportunist.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he gave my mom his number. I ran it, got his name, and ran a criminal check. Apart from some traffic stuff, he’s clean.”
Brendan beamed. “Now that’s good detective work.”
Sofia took a sip of her coffee, and tried not to look too pleased. Inside, though, she was doing cartwheels. Brendan was encouraging, and a great mentor, but he didn’t hand out compliments for the sake of it.
“If he doesn’t have a record, especially not for something like this, then you’re almost certainly right that he’s an opportunist. But from what you’ve also told me about his not leaving too much of a trail, he’s also being cagey, which makes our life more difficult,” Brendan continued. “Beginners and veterans are usually the most cautious.”
“Yeah, if we had a text from him to Marcie that would be pretty damning. We could close him down with that.”
“I thought you told me she won’t go to the cops.”
“She wouldn’t have to,” Sofia said. “We could let him know we know, and that if he wants to stay out of prison he has to leave her alone.”
“That would be one way to do it, but be careful. We corner a guy like this, and he could be dangerous. It’s better if we also work on convincing Marcie that getting law enforcement involved isn’t the end of the world.”
“That’ll be tough,” said Sofia. “She’s been pretty adamant.”
“Okay, so what’s the plan in the meantime?” Brendan asked.
“We need something we can use against him, right? Something concrete. Something that he’ll know would send him to prison if we went to the cops.”
“That would be good.”
“Then I have an idea,” said Sofia.
Brendan had gone on to his meeting so Sofia walked back to the office by herself. Aidan was sitting in front of his wall of monitors with his headphones on. Sofia went over to him. “Do you have a second?”
He pulled off one of his headphones. “Not really.”
“It’s about the case I’m working on. I thought I could bring you up to speed.”
“Maybe later. I’m busy right now. On my own case.”
Classic Aidan. Less than an hour ago he’d been desperate to know what she was doing. Now, because she hadn’t shared, he was in a sulk. Well, she wasn’t going to beg him.
“Okay. Later.”
Sofia went to her desk, pulled her cell phone out of her bag and called her mom. As she waited for her to answer, she noticed the volume bar on one of Aidan’s monitors go all the way down to mute, presumably so he could listen in.
“You’ll hear me better if you take the headphones off,” she called over to him.
He snapped them off for a second. “Sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m listening to music.”
“Whatever!”
“Sofia?”
“Hey, Mom, I wondered if you could call Marcie and see if she can come to you in about an hour. I’m going to drive over and I’d like to speak with her.”
“Sure, of course. Have there been any new developments on the case?”
Her mom had barely taken an interest in Sofia’s new job before this one. But today, she’d already texted her twice that morning asking the same question.
“Nope, just need to speak with her.”
“I can invite her over.”
“Great. I’ll see you in an hour.”
Sofia glanced at Aidan who was pretending to be absorbed in his work. She got up from her desk and walked to one of the cabinets. She opened it.
“What you looking for?” Aidan asked.
“I thought you were busy.”
“I was. So what is it you’re looking for?”
“A surveillance kit.”
“You’re using it on this new case?”
“Yup.”
“So you want to tell me about it?”
“It’ll have to wait,” said Sofia. “I need to be somewhere in an hour and it’s going to take me at least that to get there.”
“But you were going to tell me about it two minutes ago.”
“And you were busy.”
Aidan made a noise of pure disgust. “Ugh. You’re so childish at times. You know that?”
Sofia ignored him. She found the kit at the back of the cabinet. It consisted of a tiny video and audio recorder that transmitted back to a cell phone, where the recording could be captured.
“You want some help with setting that up?” Aidan asked.
“No, I’m good. I’ve used it before.”
“Yeah, but I’m pretty much the expert when it comes to this stuff.”
E is for Exposed Page 6
