“Company’s doing well without me, Mum.”
“But what will happen when your dad retires? We want you and Natasha to take over soon. You and your sister are keeping your dad from fulfilling his wish of early retirement.”
“Dad’s far from wanting to retire,” he said dryly as he opened the fridge and inspected the contents.
“Are you hungry? What do you want? I’ll cook something for you.”
“Omelette, maybe?” he said, spotting some eggs and sliced ham.
“Sit down and relax, then,” Lorraine said authoritatively.
Carter obeyed, sitting on a stool by the breakfast nook. His mother loved preparing food for him during his unexpected visits. He hoped that it would distract her enough from talking about his work.
His folks hadn’t stopped hounding him about quitting the police force. And their primary motive wasn’t their desire for him to work full-time in the electrical services company his parents had started seventeen years ago. They simply worried about him working as a detective. Constantly.
But he loved his job. Since that time ten years ago, when the police had helped catch the swindler who could have taken everything his parents had worked hard for, he’d known this was what he wanted to do.
“So what can you tell me about your new case?” Lorraine asked as she moved efficiently in the kitchen.
“Not much, except that it’s about money.”
“The more money that’s involved, the more trigger-happy some people can be,” his mother warned.
He rolled his eyes and kept his mouth shut.
“How’s Gavin?” Lorraine asked quietly, glancing at him with worried eyes.
“He’s still in a coma.”
Gosh, he hated that he couldn’t let his mum know that Gavin was doing well after his surgery. Gavin was practically family, since the two of them had been best friends since they were five years old. But for Gavin’s sake, and to aid the police in finding out who’d shot him, they needed to maintain the front that Gavin was still unconscious and couldn’t give information to the authorities.
“I’d like to visit him again, Carter.”
“Maybe in a few days, Mum. Hopefully, he’ll wake up soon.”
Lorraine sighed loudly and continued to beat some eggs.
Carter rubbed his face, the hair on his arms and neck standing up as memories of that terrifying afternoon filled him.
Gavin had called and made funny noises over the phone. At first he’d thought Gavin was joking around, until he’d realised that Gavin was choking out several words, as if he couldn’t breathe. With his heart in his throat, he’d asked Gavin to repeat what he’d said.
“Shot...” Gavin had responded, before gasping out a location.
He’d shouted Gavin’s name when his friend had stopped talking, but he’d only heard silence.
He’d called for an ambulance to get to the place Gavin had told him. Then he’d raced there himself, all the while praying that he wouldn’t find his friend, who was as close to him as a brother, dead. He’d arrived at the quiet alleyway just as the ambulance pulled up next to Gavin’s sprawled form.
He couldn’t remember being more scared than he’d been when he saw so much of Gavin’s blood on the pavement, and being more relieved than at any other time in his life when the paramedics found a pulse.
Thank God Gavin’s shooter hadn’t done a thorough enough job. The perp had left Gavin lying on the ground, bleeding, instead of lifeless.
Carter exhaled, still grateful that Gavin had managed to call him before passing out.
“So, Carter, what do you think of Cassie?”
Carter jerked his head towards his mother in surprise. “What?”
“What do you think of Cassie, your sister’s flatmate?” Lorraine repeated as she folded the omelette in the pan.
He shrugged. “She’s cool. Tash loves living with her.”
“I think you should tell Cassie what you really do for a living.”
“Why?”
“Well, she and Tash have grown close, and it looks to me like your sister will be staying with her for a while longer. Besides, your father and I like her too. It’s awkward that we all keep lying to her about your job, don’t you think? Of course you don’t need to tell her details of your undercover cases—just the fact that you work for the police. I’m sure she can be trusted with that.”
He smiled. He had no doubts that Cassie would be discreet and trustworthy. And yes, he didn’t want to lie to her anymore about his job, either. “I think you’re right,” he answered.
“Good!” Lorraine said, pleased. “Tash said that the two of you get along really well.”
He smirked, knowing where this conversation was heading. “Yes, Mum. We get along famously. Why shouldn’t we? We love each other.”
Lorraine gasped, turning to him with a combination of shock and thrill he’d never seen on her face before.
He stifled his laughter. “We’re brother and sister, after all.”
Lorraine groaned in frustration—or sheer disappointment. “I meant you and Cassie.”
“Ohh, me and Cassie,” he said mockingly. “Well, doesn’t our whole family get along well with her?”
“Don’t you want to ask her out?”
He sighed. No amount of joking would derail his mother from her intended topic. “I’m not after a girlfriend, Mum.”
“And when would you want something more serious, Carter? Don’t put it off before it’s too late.”
“Fortunately for us men, we don’t have the kind of biological clock women have.”
Lorraine walked over to him with his plate of omelette. “Don’t you want to find someone special?” she asked with consternation.
“Sure, Mum. But not yet.”
He had to go undercover for Gavin’s case, and making his move on Cassie now would make it impossible for him to perform his job effectively.
But perhaps he could start paving the way for something beyond friendship by telling her he was really a detective. Then when the case was wrapped up, maybe he could take her out on a date.
He perked up, excited at the thought.
*****
“How’s it going, bro?”
“I should be asking you that,” Carter said with a grin, tempted to give Gavin a tight squeeze. But he settled for patting his buddy on the shoulder instead.
“Well, apart from my ribs hurting when I laugh, I’m... perfectly... fine...” Gavin said, distracted at the sight of the attractive woman who had followed Carter inside Gavin’s penthouse.
“Detective Vera Timms, Gav,” Carter said as he introduced his companion. “She’s my partner while David is on his honeymoon.”
“Pleased to meet you, Detective Timms,” Gavin said as he shook hands with Vera, a charming smile on his face.
Carter chuckled to himself despite the gravity of the situation. Yes, his friend was well on his way to recovery. It was great to see.
“We have some information for you regarding your case,” he said as they settled on the sofa. “But first, since Vera wasn’t with me when I first interviewed you, could you repeat everything you said for Vera’s sake? Also, you were quite groggy then, so you might recall something new that you missed telling me before.”
“Sure. Can’t wait till you catch the bitch.”
“But you didn’t see your shooter, right?” Vera said.
“No, I didn’t. But if it wasn’t Emma, the woman I met at that singles’ party, it would have been someone connected to her.”
Carter nodded. Gavin used to be his partner when his friend was still a detective with the New South Wales Police Force. Now, Gavin ran his own private investigation firm. The guy knew what he was talking about.
“Carter told me that you went to this singles’ party to investigate someone else.” Vera said.
Gavin nodded. “I was there to gather evidence for one of my cases. But, being in a room full of singles, I was having women come up to me and chat
me up. To shoo away the interested ladies, I acted slightly drunk and obnoxious. I prodded them about their work, where they lived and how much money they earned. Then I kind of let it slip that I was in deep financial trouble. Basically, I made myself appear like I was someone desperate for a rich girlfriend who could support me.”
“Worked like a charm, I bet,” Vera said with a chuckle.
“It worked perfectly! All the girls excused themselves in no time flat and avoided me like the plague for the rest of the night. Except for one—Emma.”
“So what makes you think this Emma has something to do with your shooting?” Vera asked.
Gavin’s brows furrowed in contemplation. “My act, which repelled the other girls, had the opposite effect on Emma. She started comforting me, telling me that someone like me deserved something better. My bullshit antenna immediately went haywire, and I laid it on real thick to see what game she was playing. I flirted with her big time, all along suggesting that if she saves me from my financial hell, I’ll be forever in her debt. You’d think that any self-respecting woman would run away as fast as she could. Well, she did leave me after that. But to my surprise, she came back again about half an hour later. She wanted to know if I was really prepared to do whatever it takes to get out of my problem. I got intrigued, so I said I was. I told her I wouldn’t be able to stand the humiliation if people learned about my state of affairs. You should have seen me, Carter. I even had a tear in my eye.”
Carter snorted. “Very proud of you, buddy. You’ve always been the better actor.”
Gavin started to laugh, then winced, holding his right side where he’d been shot. “Anyway, a couple of days after the party, Emma rang me on the number I gave her—the one I usually give when I’m incognito. She wanted to meet me at the Royal National Park. I was too curious to ignore it, so I went.”
“And that was just plain stupid,” Carter muttered.
Gavin lifted his brows at him. “Would you have left something that suspicious alone, bro?”
He sighed. No, he wouldn’t have. He would have done exactly what Gavin had done.
“So what happened next?” Vera asked.
“I met up with Emma as planned. She tried to suss me out further and I continued to play dumb, flirty and desperate. My acting was obviously up to scratch, because she told me her plans. She said she knew of a wealthy married woman we could get money from. Her plan was for me to seduce the woman and take hidden videos of us in compromising situations. Then when the time was right, we’d blackmail her.”
Carter looked at Vera. “Sound familiar?”
Vera nodded.
“What do you mean?” Gavin asked.
“Did Emma mention Tellman Galleries to you at all?” Carter quizzed.
“Tellman Galleries? No. How are they connected to Emma?”
“Finish your story and we’ll tell you.”
“Well, everything was going dandy and Emma was trusting me. She even gave me the name and address of our first would-be victim. She wanted my phone so she could enter her number in it so I gave her my cheap one attached to the number I gave her. Unfortunately, as I handed it to her, my other phone—my personal one—rang. She pulled it out of my pocket herself. The screen said Dad—Gary Redford. I got nervous because I’d told her my surname was Johns. I gave the excuse that Gary was my stepfather, and that I had two phones because it was my mother’s gift to me and I couldn’t sell it even if I wanted to. She seemed satisfied with my explanation and told me to meet her again in three hours at an address she gave me.”
“I don’t even know why you went, Gavin,” Carter said, glaring at his friend. “You should have reported it straight to the police.”
“Sure. But I had no idea where she lives and she didn’t end up giving me her phone number. Plus she got me to drive her out of the park and drop her off near the shops, so I didn’t even have a car’s number plates to check. I had nothing that would help the police find her, so I figured I had to see her again and get you guys a good lead.”
“And then you got yourself shot.”
“And then I got myself shot,” Gavin said with a heavy sigh. “So what have you found out so far?”
“Vera and her previous partner Mark were working on a case with a similar MO over six months ago. Mark was killed while he was investigating.”
“Killed?”
Vera nodded. “The case involved a prominent surgeon in her early forties who was well known for her community service and charity work. She was tied up at home and her house robbed. But she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—give any information to the police. But a nosy neighbour had been seeing a handsome man visit the surgeon’s house when the husband was away. Suspecting something juicy happening, this nosy neighbour took a video of the man. Well, the man on the video was Al Jackson, who had a police record for shoplifting. A couple of days later, Mark and I followed a lead that pointed to Jackson hiding out in one of the unused tunnels underneath the city. We saw two men at the location, and they ran away in different directions. I chased after one, and Mark after the other. Turns out my guy was just a homeless man. When I went to look for Mark I found him dead, along with Jackson. Whoever had shot them used a silencer and was gone when I got there.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Gavin murmured.
“The surgeon decided to talk after that,” Vera continued. “She told us that she was having an affair with Jackson. He’d pursued her and she’d fallen for his charms. During the robbery, Jackson had apparently blackmailed her while he tied her up to a chair. He’d said that she wouldn’t have to go through the humiliation of being outed as a cheating wife if she told the story that she was robbed by an unidentified man. But if she did tell the police, he’d release videos of her having sex with him, which he’d taken without her knowledge.”
“You’re right. Sounds like the same thing that Emma was trying to rope me into,” Gavin said.
“Yes. We haven’t had any breakthrough in this case until your experience. Now it looks like whoever killed Mark and Jackson is planning a new job.”
“So do you have any other leads?”
Carter pulled out his work phone and showed Gavin pictures of several women. “Do you recognise any of them?”
Gavin looked closely but shook his head.
Carter sighed. “Dave and I spoke to the surgeon again to go over everything she remembered about Jackson. She mentioned something new that wasn’t in the police files. She said she told Mark about it over the phone because it was something she’d just remembered at the time. Unfortunately, Mark was shot that night, and either he didn’t write the conversation down or whoever killed Mark knew he had evidence on him and took it. Anyway, the surgeon said that the day before Jackson robbed and blackmailed her, she overhead him on the phone. He said something like, ‘Tomorrow’s our big day’ and ‘I can’t believe you’ll give me all that money’. She didn’t think any of it at the time. She thought Jackson was joking with a friend. But the next day, he was back, tying her up on a chair, robbing her house and blackmailing her.”
“Wow,” Gavin said. “So who was Jackson talking to?”
“We got the surgeon to give us the exact time she’d overheard Jackson talking to someone, and we checked Jackson’s mobile, which was part of our evidence. The number is a prepaid mobile phone that’s no longer connected. But the name Jackson had entered in the phone for that number was Tellman Galleries.”
“I see.”
“But no one at the gallery admits to owning or knowing about that number. Vera did an exhaustive investigation and can’t link it to anyone there.”
“Maybe it was an old employee?” Gavin said.
Vera shook her head. “I checked that too.”
“So what’s our next step?”
“Our?” Carter said dryly. “You’re not working this case, bro. The police are taking over.”
“But—”
“You’re still supposed to be in a coma, remember? It’s better if th
ey think you can’t talk to give any information.”
“So I’m housebound? How boring.”
“You’ll live,” Carter said with a grin.
“So you’re going undercover at Tellman Galleries, I take it?”
Carter nodded. “From what we’ve gathered so far, the syndicate’s MO seems to be to carefully pick a financially desperate Lothario with criminal predilections and make that guy their stooge. So I’ll be acting like one.”
“How will you infiltrate?”
“As luck would have it, they’re building an upstairs extension on the back part of their premises. We’ve organised it so I’ll be working there as an electrician.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“Are you ready to have lunch, Cassie? It’s one thirty.”
Cassie looked up in surprise and smiled back at Bronwyn. “Already? Gosh, I didn’t even notice.”
Bronwyn chuckled. “I don’t want you to faint from hunger on your first day. Come and have lunch with me. We’ll go to the café next door.”
“Okay, thanks,” she said, grabbing her handbag and standing up. She’d been so focused on getting herself familiar with the gallery’s systems and being up to date with the company’s financials that she hadn’t even noticed the time. Now that she had, she realised how hungry she was.
They walked out the glass doors by the front entrance and into the sunshine just as a small truck filled with construction materials headed for the parking area at the back of the premises.
“How long before the extension is finished?” Cassie asked.
“About a month and a half,” Bronwyn said. “It’s such an inconvenience, but I want that big function room. Holding big events, and not just exhibits, would help the gallery make more money.”
“I’ve been going through the financials of the gallery,” Cassie said. “I’m really impressed with how you’ve grown it so quickly.”
“It’s all about connections,” Bronwyn said with a laugh. “And having the right people work with you.”
“There are some accounting entries that I have questions on and the other guys aren’t sure of the answer. Since my predecessor is uncontactable, who can I ask about them?”
The Undercover Playboy (Captured by Love Book 3) Page 3
