Sarah Woods Mystery Series (1-6) Boxed Set

by Jennifer L. Jennings

  “Things haven’t been good for years. He’s a good dad, you know, but when it comes to me, it always feels like he’s got better things to do.”

  “He doesn’t appreciate you?”

  “That’s how I feel, but maybe I expect too much.”

  “What do you expect?”

  It was the same question I’d asked myself for years.

  “I need friendship and mutual respect, at least. I just want us to be silly and laugh together. I don’t need flowers or even hot sex, just someone I can really relate to.” Having said much more than I intended, I took another sip of wine, listened to see if I could hear Brian still talking to his dad.

  “I imagine you want to talk with him,” Max said quietly. “I don’t mind waiting.” He extended a hand as if to say go ahead.

  Sighing audibly, I nodded and went into the living room. Finding Brian sitting on the couch, I gestured to him and he said good-bye to his dad and handed me the phone.

  “Hey, there. How’s Miami?” I asked.

  “Busy,” he said. “You know how it is. Jerry is being a royal pain in the ass. I might have to stay a few days longer than expected.”

  “I understand.” I wondered if he detected my lack of disappointment, or lack of interest in his lack of any real explanation.

  “It’s not too late for you to come down. It’s eighty degrees. How can you pass that up?” I heard an earnestness in his voice that nearly broke my heart. Maybe he really was starting to make an effort with us.

  “I have to go back to work tomorrow, and I have a lot to catch up on at the office,” I said, trying to think of another excuse, but Daniel saved me the effort.

  “I figured as much. But you can’t fault me for trying, right?”

  “I’m glad you understand, Dan. Maybe Brian and I can tag along on your next business trip,” I said, knowing full well how nearly impossible it would be to pry Brian away from his friends for even one day.

  “Okay, then, I’ll let you go for now. Goodnight.”

  In typical Daniel fashion, he neglected to ask how my life was going. Hadn’t even waited for my goodnight. I wondered if he even remembered Beth’s service. Then again, who was I to complain? Hadn’t I just conveniently neglected to mention that I had a charming, handsome, young guest at the house for dinner?

  I returned to the kitchen just in time to see Max polishing off what was left of the wine. He seemed to be doing a good job of drowning his sorrows. I knew I had a quick decision to make. Was I going to encourage his progress down the path he was on or gather him up and send him on his way?

  “So, Max, what do you think?” I asked, looking down at the empty glass in his hand.

  “I think we need more wine,” he said, smiling up at me.

  Chapter 14

  Wednesday, November 10

  I reached over and silenced the snooze alarm, then sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes, a throbbing pain at the base of my skull. I tried to recall the night before, how much wine I’d consumed. What had I been thinking? Had Max and I killed another bottle after the first? Had he driven home drunk?

  I wandered out of the bedroom to check on Brian, realizing he must have already left for school, and saw Max lying on the couch, fast asleep by the sound of his snoring. He was supine, clothed, uncovered. I stood there watching him breathe, and for some reason could not take my eyes off him. He looked peaceful, curly hair flattened on one side. Was the urge I fought to lean over and run my fingers through it a sweet, maternal one, I wondered, or something more?

  Fortitude won out this time and I went into the kitchen and poured water into the coffee maker, adding a few extra tablespoons of grounds to the filter. As the coffee percolated, I chased three Advil with a large glass of water. Max walked in as I was pouring the first cup of java.

  “Morning,” I said, with all the cheerfulness I could muster. “Need some of this stuff?” I held up my mug.

  “Bless you,” he said, taking it from my hands. “And thanks for letting me crash on your couch.”

  “I’m so glad you didn’t attempt to drive last night,” I said, filling another mug for myself.

  “Yeah. I was pretty out of it.”

  “My memory of last night is a little fuzzy, especially after we commenced on the second bottle. What’d we talk about?”

  “What didn’t we talk about?” he replied, laughing. “You were quite the jabber mouth. Wine for you is like truth serum.” His laughter revealed dimples.

  “Did I make a complete fool of myself?”

  “You were adorable.”

  Adorable. What did he mean by that, I wondered?

  “Do you have to work today?” I inquired.

  “I’m between jobs at the moment. I sold my company a few months ago and I’m taking some time off.”

  “Really? I’ve been thinking of making a career change as well. It just seems easier to stay with what I know than to risk everything to try something new. But the choice could be out of my hands,” I added, “if the two women I overheard at the gym alleging that I was selling hand jobs spread their gossip. It would ruin my business.”

  “Or help it,” Max said with a straight face.

  I punched him in the shoulder. “Seriously,” I mock pouted, “it’s not good.”

  “Sorry. It’s just that you look so cute when you’re angry.”

  I didn’t respond to that, and he must have sensed my discomfort because his demeanor changed.

  “So, are you working today?” he asked, looking down into his mug.

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, I need to get ready. My first appointment is at nine.” I took another gulp of coffee and deposited my mug in the sink.

  “Thanks again for dinner last night. And ... thanks for your friendship.” He set his mug down, pushed his chair away from the table, and stood up. Then he stepped towards me, wrapped his arms around my shoulders, and pulled me in close. As his warm breath on my neck sent chills down my back, it occurred to me that I had known him for less than a week.

  “Keep in touch,” I said, realizing how lame I sounded. I was at a loss for words.

  “Sure,” he said, nodding, as he slowly released me, then turned to leave.

  Watching him walk to my door, I felt a tightness in my heart that moved up into my throat and blocked the words that never came out. I just waved as he opened the door and stepped outside.

  Chapter 15

  When my last client had left, I walked into the bathroom to wash my hands. I found myself settling back into the warm, familiar feeling of my old life. There was comfort to be found in the mundane details of day-to-day life. I had dried my hands on the towel and was making my way out to the reception area when I noticed someone sitting in the adjacent waiting room. Peeking around the corner, I saw that it was Detective Flynn. He must have sensed me standing there, and stood up.

  “Good afternoon, Sarah. Is this a bad time?” he asked, looking around to see if I was alone.

  “I’m done working. What’s up?”

  “I’ve got some information about Lindy.” He withdrew his notebook from his bag and motioned for me to sit.

  “Lindy Brightman,” he said, taking a seat opposite me and clearing his throat. “Jacob had a restraining order issued against her over a year ago.”

  “A restraining order?”

  “It was around the same time he started seeing Beth.”

  “Why?”

  “According to the report, she’d been stalking him. Showed up at his work a few times and made a hell of a scene. He filed the restraining order last September, but never renewed it.”

  “And yet he’s defending her now. Why?”

  “That’s the question I’ll be asking him when he comes back to the station later today.”

  “So where is Lindy? Aren’t you going to question her, too?”

  “Ah. Yes. We’ve been trying to locate her. She’s on vacation.”

  “How convenient. This makes her look guiltier than ever,” I said, realizin
g that I was wringing my hands.

  “We’ll see if Jacob changes his story. But like I told you before, their alibi checks out. According to the bartender at Barney’s, Jacob and Lindy were there together until ten that night.” He returned his notebook to his bag, stood, and walked towards the door. “We went through her phone records,” he added, turning back. “Nothing suspicious. If Lindy did hire someone to kill Beth, she covered her tracks well.”

  “What about evidence from the crime scene?” I asked, getting up and crossing the room. “Did you find any fingerprints or hair fibers?”

  “The prints we lifted were all from your clients and employees. We’re not closing the case by any means; we just have to wait for something to come to light.”

  “I see,” I said, extending my hand.

  “Thanks for your time, Sarah.” He shook it and walked out.

  Minutes later, as I was getting ready to leave, Gabby walked in.

  “I’m so glad to see you back in action,” she said. “How’d work go today?”

  “Fine. Although I was pretty hung over this morning.”

  “What’d you do last night?”

  “Max came over for dinner. We shared two bottles of wine,” I offered, matter-of-factly.

  “Two bottles? I’m surprised you were able to function today. Anything interesting happen?”

  “No. Brian was there. Max slept on the couch and left this morning after coffee.”

  “Sounds like you have a crush,” Gabby said, squeezing my cheek like a child’s and shaking her head.

  “Yeah, right. He’s ten years younger than me. Like he would even find me attractive. Give me a break, Gabby.” I swatted her hand away playfully.

  “What difference does that make? You’re a sexy, experienced, older woman. Younger guys love that shit,” Gabby said, and I started to laugh.

  “Okay, but there is one minor detail you’re forgetting. I’m married,” I said a little louder than necessary.

  “And younger guys love that shit even more.”

  Chapter 16

  When Gabby left to prepare for her first client, I sat at Beth’s desk reflecting on the conversation with Detective Flynn. He didn’t seem particularly interested in Lindy, or Jacob, for that matter. I rummaged around looking for the application Beth had filled out when she’d applied for the receptionist job. I found her home address, and plugged it into the GPS in my cell phone. I decided I was going to pay Beth’s housemate, Melissa, a visit.

  Several minutes later, I was parking on the street in a quaint little residential neighborhood composed of small, well-kept houses. I double-checked the address, 28 Luther Street, to be sure I was at the right house, then locked the car, walked up to the front door, and casually looked around. The neighborhood was quiet, no one milling around. I knocked on the door and waited.

  Moments later I heard a sound, and the door opened very slowly. I instantly recognized the woman behind the door as the young, attractive girl with the short stylish hair Max had introduced me to at Beth’s service.

  “Your Beth’s roommate, Melissa, right?” I asked. She hesitated, then opened the door a little wider.

  “Yes,” she said, her eyes darting around.

  “I’m Sarah. Remember, we met yesterday? Sorry to drop by unannounced. It’s just that, well, I’d like to talk to you about Beth.”

  She grabbed a card from a table near the door, quickly scribbled something down, handed it to me, then closed the door in my face.

  I stood there, dumfounded, then looked down at the card. Meet me at Billy’s Burgers in one hour. As I slipped the card into my purse and walked back to the car, I had a feeling that my afternoon was going to get very interesting.

  Chapter 17

  Billy’s Burgers being only a few minutes from where I was, an hour afforded ample time to gnaw down nearly all my fingernails. It was practically dark by 4:30 when Melissa pulled into a lot adjacent to the restaurant, parked, and emerged from her car carrying only a shoulder bag. I locked my car and followed her into the burger joint.

  I’d never been to Billy’s Burgers. The place had subdued lighting and several flat screen TVs on the walls broadcasting some sports channel I wouldn’t know anything about. A perfect environment for private conversation, neither too quiet, nor too loud. She sat at a booth, and I slid in opposite her.

  “You’ve got my full attention,” I said, looking directly at her.

  “Sorry about all that drama back at the house,” she said, brushing a stray hair from her forehead and looking around. “It was very rude of me, but I had to do it for our protection.”

  “Protection from what?”

  The waitress stopped at the booth and we ordered two pints of beer. When she left, Melissa leaned across the table and looked at me.

  “I know this is going to sound really strange, so please bear with me,” she said, her hands trembling slightly. “Beth wasn’t exactly the person you thought she was.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Beth was working for a guy.”

  “Working for what guy?”

  “She was doing jobs that may not have been legal,” she said, lowering her head and staring at her hands.

  “You’re being vague. What are you trying to tell me? Was she working for an escort service or something?”

  “God, no,” she said, and laughed nervously. She glanced around the room again, then continued. “Nothing like that. Other kinds of jobs. Snooping around. Taking photographs. Apparently, the private eye she worked with hired her because she was young and innocent looking. She could get people to trust her.”

  I was confused. “I still don’t see where you’re going with this. Why all the cloak and dagger?”

  Just then, the waitress returned with our beers. When she left, Melissa sipped hers, tapped her fingers on the rim of the glass, and glanced around again. “Well, this one time she was hired to befriend a woman who was supposedly cheating on her husband. Beth got close to her and eventually the woman confided in her about the affair and Beth was able to get evidence to incriminate her.”

  “So she was a spy?”

  “Well, it wasn’t as if she was selling government secrets, but ... yes.”

  “And she got paid to do these jobs?”

  “He made it worth her while.”

  “So what kind of guy hires a young woman to spy and put herself in potentially dangerous situations?”

  “I’m not sure if it’s his real name, but she called him Carter. He would contact her, give her instructions, and when the job was complete, he’d pay her, in cash, at a location he would choose.”

  “What kind of compensation are we talking?”

  “It depends. For the job I told you about, with the cheating wife, she got three hundred dollars.”

  “Holy shit. How many jobs would she do in a month?”

  “It varied, but, on average, one or two a month.”

  “Do you know if Beth was doing a job for this guy at the time of her death?”

  Melissa shook her head. “She usually didn’t fill me in on details, but I had a feeling she was working on something at the time. She was out very late some nights. Jacob would call wanting to know where she was, and I’d have to cover for her.”

  “So Jacob didn’t know about these extracurricular activities?”

  “No. Beth was afraid to tell him, thought he’d get pissed. She’d planned to quit before they got married. I guess she just wanted to finish up her last assignment.”

  “Is it possible her cover was blown? Maybe whoever she was spying on found out and decided to put a stop to it?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible.”

  “Have you looked through Beth’s things to see if you could find out what she was working on?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t find anything. I thought about telling the police when they questioned me about Beth a few days ago. But I’m scared, Sarah. What if Carter found out that I talked to the police about him? I
don’t even know who he is. He could be watching me right now.” She looked around quickly, then covered her face with her hands.

  “How in the world did Beth get mixed up in this kind of business?”

  Melissa lowered her hands and looked at me.

  “A year or so ago, Beth’s brother, Max, owned a company called Luke Enterprises. He sold surveillance equipment. Security cameras, tracking devices, and such. It was a completely legit business. He even sold stuff to police and government agencies. Well, he had connections with all sorts of different people, and he knew this Carter.”

  “Wait a minute. Are you telling me Max is the one who set her up with him?”

  “Indirectly, I guess. Carter didn’t work for Max. He was a customer. He bought equipment from Max.”

  “And?”

  “Beth was the receptionist for Max’s company. She met Carter one day at work. Apparently, he recruited her for a small job, just to see how she’d do. A trial run. Turned out she had a knack for the kind of work he needed done.”

  “Did Max know about this?”

  “Not at first. But when Beth finally did acknowledge that she was working with Carter, Max pitched quite a fit.”

  “What’d he do about it?”

  “He confronted Carter, told him he no longer wanted his business.”

  “But Beth continued to work for Carter anyway?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And Max had no idea?”

  “Who knows? He decided to sell the company a few months later, and I guess he figured it was over.”

  “How wrong he was,” I mumbled, biting my lip. My head was beginning to spin. We sat quietly for a few moments, sipping from our respective glass mugs. I looked back at Melissa. Her expression was blank, devoid of emotion. Maybe she was numb. I couldn’t blame her for being scared. “Let’s go to the police, Melissa,” I finally suggested, “and let them locate this Carter guy and question him.”

  “I don’t know. I need to think about it, Sarah.”