Random Acts of Fraud (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries Book 5)

by Christy Barritt

  “I thought the cameras didn’t work?” I looked at Frankie point-blank.

  His eyes narrowed and his jaw set. “I only use that for my own purposes. Not for the police.”

  “I’m not the police.”

  “No one’s going to want to do business with me if I’m a nark.”

  His mom swatted him on the arm. “You don’t do business with people like that, Frankie. Didn’t I teach you better? Now go get that footage.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  He disappeared into the back, walking like a dog that had just been beaten. I couldn’t even feel sorry for him, though.

  “He’s a nice boy. He really is.” Her eyes lit. “And he’s single . . .”

  I realized her implications and took a step back. “I’m seeing someone.”

  I’d been on the fence about Drew, but this decided it. We were seeing each other, even if it was just temporarily.

  “That’s too bad, but I should have figured.” Her gaze went to Jamie.

  My friend shook her head and took a step back. “Oh, no. My family . . . they don’t believe in pawnshops. They’d disown me.”

  Ms. Gladys squinted but seemed to accept Jamie’s answer.

  Just then, Frankie came back in, carrying a small laptop computer. He placed it on the counter, his lips still snarled in a scowl.

  “Here’s the person who sold this,” he said, turning the screen toward us.

  I held my breath, waiting to see if this was the clue I needed to push this case over the edge.

  I watched the footage. It was grainy, but I hoped I’d be able to make out enough of what I saw.

  A moment later, a figure came onto the screen.

  I sucked in a deep breath.

  It was a woman, and she had auburn hair that was long with a gentle curl.

  She looked like me.

  Or should I say, she looked like Blake.

  I dreaded going back to my place. Mostly because I knew I’d run into Blake and, when I ran into her, that we needed to have an uncomfortable conversation. I hated uncomfortable conversations like some people hated eating brussels sprouts.

  But I did have some questions for Blake that had to be addressed. First of all, I wanted to know about her timing. Was it a coincidence that she showed up here right as all of this was happening? I also wanted to know about her hair. Had she purposefully changed it to look like mine?

  I asked Frankie about the driver’s license the woman had given him when dropping off the jewelry. Though he no longer had a copy of it, he said that the woman’s hair was different in that photo. She’d told him she decided to try a new hair style recently.

  When I pulled into my driveway, I saw Blake’s car parked on the street and two lights on in the windows of the house. She was here. There was no turning back now.

  Before I could slip out of the car and begin the dreaded trek toward the House of Confrontation, my phone rang. It was Drew. I welcomed the chance to procrastinate, so I answered. But Raul jumped to the forefront of my thoughts. Did Drew know his brother had talked to me? If not, should I mention it?

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey, Holly. How’s it going?”

  My knotted stomach loosened a bit when I heard his voice.

  We shared a few minutes of chitchat.

  I didn’t share much about Travis. I wasn’t ready to.

  “Listen, can I tempt you into going to dinner again tomorrow night?” Drew asked. “I mean, you’ve got to eat, right? Why not eat with me?”

  I leaned back and smiled again. He was persistent, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I wanted a guy in my life who would fight to be with me, who wasn’t afraid to go after what he wanted.

  After all, Chase had walked away.

  That realization caused my gut to twist again.

  “Dinner? Really?” It wasn’t the most intelligent thing I could have said.

  “I think modern dating etiquette would tell me I should wait a few more days before I called and asked you, but I decided I didn’t care.”

  A man who knew the rules of etiquette? That was amazing.

  I could see where it would be very easy for Drew to edge his way into my life . . . and into my heart. That was a fact I needed to be very mindful of. “Let’s do dinner then. It would be nice.”

  “Excellent. There’s this little hole-in-the-wall—”

  “I love hole-in-the-wall places.”

  “I was hoping you might.” He rattled off the address, and we said goodbye with a promise to see each other the next day.

  Twice in one week? I was surprising even myself. But I offered myself another stark reminder to be careful. Sometimes when people seemed too good to be true, it was because they were.

  I had to carefully consider whether or not Drew could be a part of this. I didn’t want to believe it, but I didn’t want to be stupid, either.

  With that conversation done, I had no excuse to stay in the car. I had to go inside and have an honest conversation with Blake. I couldn’t put it off any longer.

  I clutched my keys in my hands as I walked across the cracked sidewalk leading to my front door. Dear Lord, please help me to find the right words to say. If Blake is the real deal, I don’t want to scare her off or offend her.

  When I climbed the three steps leading to my stoop, I was surprised to find the door unlocked.

  I needed to have a conversation with Blake about the crime rate in this area. Certainly she should have realized that it wasn’t very safe. Though I believed in living by faith not fear, unlocked doors were just asking for trouble.

  I stepped inside, locked the door, and glanced around. Blake wasn’t at her normal place on the couch, although her laptop and textbooks were sprawled there, almost as if she’d just left. Maybe she’d run to the bathroom.

  “Hello?” I called, placing my purse and keys on the table by the entryway. “Blake, I’m home.”

  I still didn’t hear anything. I walked deeper into the house, expecting to hear a hairdryer or flushing toilet.

  I heard nothing.

  I paced down the hallway. I checked each room. I didn’t see her anywhere.

  Maybe she was in the backyard. The evening was nice and temperate, so maybe she’d stepped outside for a breather during a study break.

  I pushed open the old metal screen door, one that I wanted to replace sometime soon. I stepped onto the deck. “Blake?”

  Silence.

  I scanned my surroundings. Everything was in place. The little table in the corner with two wicker chairs. A small grill with a tight-fitting cover. A small expanse of grass with a pink dogwood tree in the corner, one that just happened to be flowering right now.

  Where had she gone?

  As I considered the possibilities, an ice-cold feeling settled in my gut.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I paced my house, giving Blake the chance to magically reappear. All the possible excuses as to where she might be raced through my mind.

  Maybe she’d stepped outside for a walk. Maybe a friend had come by and picked her up. Maybe . . . I had a million other reasons why she could be gone right now.

  But none of them quite rang true, not when I added all the facts together.

  What if she’d figured out I was onto her, and she’d left before I could ask more questions? But, if that was the case, she would have taken her purse. Her phone. Her car.

  All those things were still here.

  And that fact disturbed me.

  On the other hand, there was no sign of forced entry. There was nothing to indicate a struggle had taken place here. It almost looked like she’d just upped and left.

  Finally, I grabbed my phone from my purse and stopped my insane stepping. Enough was enough. I needed to call Chase.

  He showed up ten minutes later, and my heart did that familiar tugging and tingling dance that always threw me off-balance. And when I saw that familiar worry in his eyes, the dance happened again.

  Chase just
had that effect on me. But that didn’t mean we were meant to be. Slowly, that was starting to sink in.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  I opened my mouth to respond. I tried to answer him. I wanted to. I really did.

  But he was wearing a white button-up shirt, and he looked like he’d just come from a nice dinner. And there was lipstick on his collar.

  My eyes wouldn’t leave it. Had I interrupted him from a date?

  “Everything okay, Holly?” he asked.

  I wanted to ask questions. To demand answers. But that wasn’t my right. And I had no room to talk or complain. I’d gone out with Drew.

  Despite my logic, a small part of my heart felt battered.

  I cleared my throat, pulled my gaze away from that lipstick stain, and pushed those thoughts aside. Tried to at least. And then I told Chase what I knew.

  “Have you tried to call Blake?” Chase asked.

  “Yes, but her phone is here.”

  He grunted in thought. A hand went to his hip, and he glanced around. “You said the front door was unlocked?”

  I nodded. “But nothing seems disturbed. I just don’t understand.”

  “Okay, let’s sit down and talk this through.”

  A few minutes later, I’d made coffee, and Chase and I sat at the kitchen table. He had his pad and paper out to take notes.

  He asked me tons of questions about Blake, and I felt as if I’d repeated the information over and over without sharing anything new. I knew he had to go through this process in order to find her, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating.

  With every passing minute, I was more and more convinced that something had happened to her. Something bad.

  Was Blake somehow connected with this whole ordeal? What about the pawnshop? Why had she been there?

  “Holly, you look like you’re beside yourself,” Chase said.

  I shook my head and realized I’d stood and begun pacing. “I just keep thinking that I’ve got my act together, and then everything falls apart.”

  “You’re the most together person I know.”

  “I don’t feel together.” I especially didn’t feel that way lately. “I feel like trouble is following me everywhere I go. I have no idea what to do about it. Not to even mention the fact that I have no clue as to why Blake would be snatched. I mean, she checks out. She is who she said she was. My brother and sister looked into it.”

  “But that doesn’t mean she’s related. You won’t know that until you do a DNA test.”

  “But why would she lie?” Chase started to answer when I shook my head. “Never mind. I already know. Alex and Ralph also went over that with me. There are numerous reasons.”

  “One of the things I’ve always loved about you is that you think the best of people, Holly.”

  “Thinking the best of people is going to get me killed, isn’t it?”

  “Not if I have anything to do with it.”

  “But, Chase, you can’t always be around me.” My eyes went to that lipstick stain again.

  I didn’t care. That’s what I tried to tell myself. It was no big deal, and it was none of my business.

  But deep inside, I cared. I really cared.

  Oh, Holly, get a grip.

  Finally, Chase stood. “I’ve got the information I need, and I’ll see what I can do. With no evidence of foul play, it’s going to be a little harder to get things moving in a timely manner.”

  I followed him to the door, where he paused.

  Great. Another awkward goodbye.

  “Holly, there’s one other thing that I think is worth mentioning,” Chase started.

  I nodded and waited for him to continue. I didn’t like the tone of his words. Something about the way he said them made my spine tighten and squeeze.

  “We need to consider the idea that someone snatched Blake, thinking she was you.”

  The blood drained from my face. “What? No, that’s ridiculous.”

  Chase shook his head, his eyes narrowing with a mix of compassion and austerity. “Holly, from behind, the two of you look alike. She’s staying in your house. There’s a good chance you were the target tonight.”

  “Oh, girlfriend. It’s been a long time since we’ve done a road trip together,” Jamie said.

  I’d taken off work, and Jamie and I were visiting Hillsboro.

  I needed to learn more about Blake. If she was my cousin, I wanted to meet her family. If she wasn’t my cousin, I wanted to talk to her family about her disappearance and find out why she might have made this up.

  Doing this was the next logical step in finding answers.

  I gripped my steering wheel. It may be cliché, but I’d tied a pretty pink scarf around my hair. We were driving with the windows open, and my hair was flying like crazy. I’d also slipped on some oversized sunglasses.

  Along the country road, spring bloomed and green surrounded us. Rolling hills beckoned exploration or pictures. Maybe even some stargazing at night.

  We were in my Mustang, and, for Jamie’s sake, I’d switched from Bing Crosby to Harry Connick Jr. He worked in a pinch. I needed a day off and I needed some answers. Time was of the essence.

  We were almost to Hillsboro, which was a little more than an hour away from home, and my nerves wanted to get the best of me. It was a small town. Jamie and I, most likely, would stand out. If we asked too many questions, people would get suspicious. But I desperately wanted some answers, and I had no idea where to start in my quest for finding Blake back in Cincinnati.

  Part of me didn’t want to meet Blake’s family. I wanted to pretend they didn’t exist. I didn’t want to see the heartbreak in their eyes. See the possible suspicion when I told them about everything that had transpired.

  But I was here. And I needed to do this.

  We pulled up to a farm thirty minutes later. It really was beautiful. There were more rolling hills. A lovely white farmhouse. Two big barns and several long white buildings—chicken houses, maybe?—in the background. Fields of some sort that were just beginning to sprout.

  A dog ran up the lane to greet us, barking merrily, and, before I’d even cut the engine, a man and woman were standing on the porch, watching us. I wasn’t sure if they were the welcoming committee or the firing squad. I guessed I’d figure it out in a minute.

  I waved as I stepped from my car and gently shut the door. I smoothed my dress and stole a glance at Jamie. She nodded toward them, indicating she’d follow my lead.

  “Hello,” I called as I came up the walk. “I’m sorry to stop by so unexpectedly. I’m Holly Paladin.”

  They didn’t show any recognition of my name, so either they hadn’t heard it from Blake or they were great actors.

  “How can we help you?” the woman asked.

  “I’m here from Cincinnati, and I have a couple of questions.”

  “You’re here about Blake?” Mr. Hallowell stared at me, waiting for a response.

  I had to admit that I was surprised he didn’t have a more emotional response. Most people in a situation like this would be nearly devastated or at least beside themselves with worry.

  I nodded. “That’s right.”

  “The sheriff just came by and told us,” Mrs. Hallowell said.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

  They didn’t say anything.

  Could these people actually be my relatives? It was a strange thought.

  “Why don’t you have a seat?” the woman said. “Can I get you some lemonade?”

  “I’d actually love some.” I paused at the base of the wooden steps leading to the gorgeous wraparound porch.

  A moment later, Jamie and I were situated on the peeling metal chairs and the Hallowells sat on a cheerful yellow swing. Introductions went around. The woman was Regina and her husband was Lloyd. Regina had a pleasant but plain face with salt-and-pepper hair that had been pulled back in a harsh pony tail. Lloyd had white hair that was slightly frizzy
on the edges around his neck. He had a middle-aged pouch and watchful eyes.

  “Blake talked about how much she loved it here,” I started, gripping my sweaty glass and praying I could find the right words. I didn’t know what was going on with Blake, but I feared she might be in trouble right now. Because of me.

  “Did she?” Mr. Hallowell rocked back and forth on a squeaky-chained swing.

  “And about all the different egg dishes you would make,” I continued.

  “Farm living.” Regina smiled sadly.

  Something about their reactions weren’t jiving with me, but I reminded myself that everyone handled trauma differently. Just because I couldn’t relate to their actions didn’t mean they were wrong.

  I licked my lips. “I’m so sorry about everything that’s happened.”

  “How did you say you knew Blake?” Lloyd shifted, his drink still untouched.

  “She came to find me,” I said. “She told me that we could be related. That her grandmother had given a baby up for adoption nearly sixty years ago.”

  Regina stared at me, her expression unreadable. “Is that right?”

  “I hope I’m not springing this on you. You did already know, didn’t you?”

  They exchanged a glance.

  “It’s a long story,” Regina said.

  Something was wrong here. They weren’t reacting like a normal person might. These were big revelations to be sharing, and they seemed unaffected beyond reason.

  I was suddenly more than a little uncomfortable.

  “We should go.” I stood, unable to ignore my unease any longer. “Thanks for the lemonade.”

  “Wait!” Lloyd said. “Please.”

  I paused halfway down the steps.

  “Please forgive us for letting you go through all these questions,” Regina said. “I wanted to know more, however.”

  “More about Blake’s disappearance?” She wasn’t making sense to me.

  “You could say that.” Regina exchanged a glance with her husband. “There’s something you should know.”

  “What’s that?” I braced myself, sensing the revelation would be big.

  “Blake, come out here,” she called.

  I held my breath. Had Blake been here the whole time? I didn’t know whether to be relieved or angry.