by Marc Jedel
“You got a problem?” Mace’s rumble prevented Brody from responding out loud. Brody’s broad smile and hand caressing Mace’s shoulder answered anyway.
“No. I just …” My voice trailed off. I’ve heard that opposites attracted, but this blew my gaskets. “I’m surprised is all.” Minor understatement of the year.
“Okay, well, now you know.” Mace shifted back into policeman mode. “Unless you have something useful to say, we’ll be on our way.”
I had nothing.
After they walked away, I picked up the stool, and Meghan and I headed back to her car. Still stunned by the revelation, I asked, “Did you know?”
Meghan’s eyes sparkled. “Of course. It was obvious. Didn’t you notice how they acted around each other at that Starbucks? You went kayaking with Brody, right? I’m surprised he didn’t mention it.”
How long had this been going on? I’d have to ask Brody. I glanced sideways at Meghan. Opposites attract? She was good-looking, intelligent, and had a good sense of humor. What did that imply about me? I had no answer for that either and wasn’t about to bring it up to Meghan, so I put my arm around her waist as we walked.
After we got into the car, I called Raj to give him an update. “I’ll get to Rover as soon as I can, but probably an hour at least. Don’t leave before I get there.”
15
Saturday Afternoon
It took nearly two hours before Meghan dropped me off at the Rover building. The only saving grace was the classic rock we listened to the whole ride back. Hours of singing classic rock songs had left us both in a good mood, even if a little hoarse. She went home to drop off her purchases. I’d pick her up later to go to Laney’s house for trick-or-treating, and we’d get my costume on the way.
I walked through an empty hallway to my desk. The floor lights were off and the place was quiet. Raj had left a large suitcase sitting in the aisle between our cubicles. He was sitting at his desk illuminated by the light of his computer display.
Raj spoke as soon as he noticed me approaching. “I have to leave very soon.”
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot your flight home to India is tonight.”
“Yes. I am very excited to visit my family. I beg pardon, how was Meghan?” Even under a time crunch, Raj was polite.
“Great. It was good to see her after she’d been gone all week. I wish she didn’t have to travel so much for this new client of hers …” My voice trailed off. Meghan’s last project hadn’t ended smoothly, so she was happy to find another gig so quickly. She wasn’t a fan of all the travel either. Business travel wasn’t anyone’s idea of fun.
“She has a lot of luggage,” Raj said with a smirk.
“What? She only took one suitcase to New York,” I said, confused by his comment.
“Oh, I mean she has a lot of baggage. That is the right saying, I think?” He seemed uncertain now.
“What do you mean? What’s wrong with her? She seems normal to me.” I’d enjoyed spending time with Meghan. Had Raj discovered something in her background that she hadn’t shared with me?
Raj looked panicked at my reaction. “No, sorry. I meant only that she has a lot of experience in her job. Is that not what having a lot of baggage means?”
I laughed. Raj didn’t often screw up his American idioms. “No, it doesn’t mean that. But I’ll let you look it up yourself.” I sat down in Raj’s guest chair. “Why don’t you tell me what you’ve done so far?”
Raj spent the next few minutes updating me on his progress with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s search warrant.
After he finished, I perched on the edge of his cube wall and summarized. “Okay, so Larry was a Rover customer.” Good to know he supported my company. I resolved yet again to figure out how he had died and if someone had killed him. He’d have done the same for me.
Raj checked his watch and started fidgeting. Before he had to leave for the airport, I wrapped up. “But otherwise, he doesn’t seem to have used Rover in the last few days before he died. He had no changes in his profile, no signs of stolen identity, etc.”
“Precisely.” Raj shut off his computer.
“Okay. You get to the airport. I’ve got it from here.” I grew a little sad as I realized I’d miss Raj over the next few weeks. I liked him, enjoyed working near him, and looked forward to working together on our new project. I decided to tell him how I felt. “I’m glad it will finally be quiet around here while you’re gone.”
I continued teasing him as he packed up. “Hey, last chance for me to buy you a wedding present before you leave.” This had been an ongoing topic of discussion for us over the last month. So many single Indian men working in Silicon Valley seemed to travel back home on an extended vacation and return married.
“Ha.” Raj had told me he found this pattern funny as well. “Feel free to buy me a present, but no wedding for me.” He picked up a little squishy ball bearing the logo of some long-forgotten software company and placed it on my desk. “Okay, now the ball is in your court.” He grinned, pleased to sneak in one last idiom.
I nodded with appreciation. “That one cut the mustard. Now get out of here. I’ll write the report for the police after I check out a few more things.”
“Be careful,” warned Raj. “Sometimes you do things that maybe you should not.” On that cautionary note, he swung his backpack over his shoulder and pulled his suitcase along behind him down the empty corridor to the elevators.
No harm could come from double-checking a few comments I’d heard earlier this week. It wouldn’t bring Larry back, but I would learn more about the people who would soon take over Rover. Besides, I was practically deputized as a law enforcement officer today, so it was the perfect opportunity for a little research.
I pulled up the Santa Clara County government website, then got frustrated upon learning that California privacy laws had eliminated online searching of governmental websites for most personal records, such as birth and death certificates, social security numbers, and marriage licenses. In general, I approved of stronger privacy laws, except when they hampered my own investigations.
Noticing a sentence on the bottom of the webpage that said summaries of civil court filings and results were still searchable online, I typed in a name and hit enter. The results didn’t surprise me. To make sure the database was accurate, I tried my name. Again, no surprise. I tried the names of some of the folks I’d met recently, and, this time, one of the results did surprise me.
I leaned back in my chair, resting my lips against my steepled fingers. The pose was wasted, as no one was around to notice how much I resembled a detective engaged in deductive thinking. Despite my impressive appearance, I hadn’t figured out anything except that people sometimes lied. Big surprise there.
In any case, posing like a detective didn’t help me finish the report for the police. I began writing it but got confused trying to explain one of the details retained in our Rover customer ride database, so I logged in. Unlike the last time I used our database, I now had official permission. In fact, the search warrant practically meant I was legally obligated to access it. Almost giddy with power, I repeated one of the searches for Larry that Raj must have done, taking notes as I went. I pulled up Larry’s address on our ride map. Our system zoomed in to his neighborhood and displayed the timestamp of the last ride from his house, which had taken place over two weeks ago. Raj had also confirmed that Larry had not used Rover anywhere else around the time of his death. I wrote a few more sentences in the report.
I stopped typing as a new idea struck me. To check it out, I extended the search of our ride map, snapping my fingers when something popped up on the screen that would help Larry’s case. Mace would want to hear about this. And I would tell him … right after I picked up something I needed from Larry’s house. I smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile, but again, no one was there to see me.
I wrapped up the report and sent it off before hurrying down the hallway. I was running late to pick up Meghan
. We’d swing by Larry’s house on our way to Laney’s. If traffic wasn’t too bad, we’d make it there well before the girls decided to leave for trick-or-treating without me. In the elevator, I ordered a Rover car and texted Meghan that I was on my way.
As I waited outside the lobby door, my phone rang.
“Hey, Cuz. It’s me. Sam.”
As if anyone else called me that. “What’s up? Are you at Laney’s?” It was hard to hear anything other than the roar of street noise in the background. Convertibles had many appealing aspects, but a quiet ride wasn’t one of them.
“Nah. I’m stuck in this godawful traffic. No one in this city can drive. It’s like trying to park your car in Harvard Yard.” Samantha enjoyed trying to develop her Boston accent. Whenever possible, she seemed to drop all her R’s and lose other random consonants. All I heard was “pahk yuh cahr in hahvuhd yahd.”
I yelled, “How late will you be?”
“Well, you don’t have to holla. If I can make it through the next few blocks, hopefully we’ll get moving and I’ll get there soon. Tell Laney I’ll be a little late.”
I said okay and hung up. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the highway wouldn’t get much faster until she’d cleared more of San Francisco, if she was lucky.
As I stepped into the Rover car, I was happy I didn’t have to fight the San Francisco traffic every day. Living in the South Bay might not be as exciting, but I preferred the better weather, slightly better traffic, and …
I stopped trying to come up with more reasons why the South Bay was better than San Francisco and smiled as I remembered my own cleverness with the search warrant. Once he heard my report to the Santa Cruz deputies, Mace would be proud of me. Or at least he would be as soon as I grabbed what they needed from Larry’s house.
*****
“Do you think I’m the reason they got together?” I blurted out as soon as Meghan joined me in the Rover car. I couldn’t get the idea of Mace and Brody dating out of my head. They were so different.
She set down a plastic shopping bag, leaned over, and kissed me. “Hello and good to see you too.” She laughed and then answered, “No, silly. Remember, Mace was already in that Starbucks store when we met him there that crazy night. He told us to come there, not the other way around.”
I sat back in relief. She was right. They must have been a couple before I became a Starbucks regular. Otherwise, what would happen if both Brody and Mace wanted me to be their best man? That would be awkward. I didn’t want to be part of either wedding party. Organizing bachelor parties would be too much work. Would they have separate bachelor parties? This was all too confusing for me. Of course, I would go to any potential wedding. Wedding cakes were extra good.
“Where are we going?” Meghan looked confused when the car didn’t make the turn to Laney’s house.
“I need to stop at Larry’s house for a couple of minutes first to pick something up. It’s not far out of the way.”
“Your friend who died?”
“He was murdered. I’m helping the police figure out who did it.”
“Marty …” Meghan dragged out my name, her voice filled with a combination of doubt and disapproval.
“It’s true. I was helping on the search warrant in the office when you dropped me off.” I didn’t explain that the search warrant was for Rover and not Larry’s house. It was all part of the same investigation, wasn’t it?
She either believed that I was part of the investigation … or she accepted that this side trip meant only a short delay. Maybe she was getting used to me. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
When we pulled up to Larry’s house, the Rover app told me the “Stay” feature was not available tonight. With the combination of Halloween parties and Saturday night, our cars were in high demand. Financially, that felt good, but it meant we would have to call for another Rover and Meghan couldn’t leave her costume in the car.
The street was quiet, as if holding its breath before sunset and the official start of trick-or-treating. I breathed a sigh of relief that Gloria’s car was missing from her driveway so she wouldn’t catch me sneaking around the back. I stayed away from the front of Carmela’s house to avoid her notice also. When I turned down the side path to Larry’s backyard, Meghan stopped. “We’re not going in the front?”
“Nope. You’ll see.” I snickered to myself.
When I grabbed the fake rock from the back porch and pulled out the key, Meghan stopped again and crossed her arms in concern. “Are you sure this is legal? You’re sneaking in the back door with a key hidden inside a fake rock?”
“It’s okay. Besides, I knew where his key was, didn’t I?” Thank you, Carmela.
My knowledge and confidence must have convinced Meghan that I was legitimate. She uncrossed her arms and walked into the house while I held the door for her.
I smiled in anticipation of her reaction. Like the first time I went into Larry’s house, she paused in the entrance as the impact hit her. “Oh, that poor man.” Meghan grabbed my forearm. “Was he getting help?”
“Uh … I don’t know. I don’t think so.” I had focused on how Meghan would react to the surprise rather than consider how my friend had hidden a big issue from his friends. That wasn’t cool. There had to be a support group for this sort of thing. I committed to making a donation to them in Larry’s honor.
I took Meghan’s hand and walked her through the maze until we reached the stacks of Sirius Innovation materials. Unlike me during my first visit, Meghan wasn’t motivated to pick up old articles along the way and start reading.
I found the most recent folder lying on top of the second stack. Picking it up, I started flipping through it, searching for the item that had tickled my memory.
The front door rattled, startling a gasp out of Meghan and causing me to drop the folder.
Meghan started toward the door and yelled, “Coming,” before noticing the piles blockading access to it.
I quickly shushed her with a hiss.
Her eyebrows knitted together as she took a step back toward me. In a whisper, she asked, “So the truth is, you’re not supposed to be in here?”
“Not exactly,” I admitted, starting to sweat.
She frowned at my admission before we heard more noises from the porch. I heard keys rattling outside as something pushed against the old door. But Larry was dead. Had his ghost returned to haunt his old house on Halloween? Why would a ghost need keys?
I shook my head and hurriedly bent over to gather the papers back into the folder. A few pieces had fallen in the aisle on the other side. Getting to them took us around two more bends in the maze.
Crouching on the ground, Meghan grabbed one of the papers while I picked up the other and stuffed them both back into the manila folder.
The ghost turned the key to unbolt the front door.
Somehow neither Meghan nor I screamed. I might have gasped aloud, though, so I didn’t hear if Meghan did the same.
“We gotta get out of here,” I said. I wasn’t interested in meeting whatever was at the front door. I’d call the police when we got away.
Still in a crouch, Meghan scrambled away in the wrong direction. I whispered her name, but she didn’t hear me.
Remaining hunched over, I hurried to follow her.
The maze led us away from both the front and kitchen doors. Meghan tripped as she ran into the stairs but broke her fall with her hands.
We could hear the creak of the front door as it opened for the first time in a while. It opened only a few inches before running into the piles of junk.
On hands and knees, we scrambled up the stairs.
No rational thoughts went through my mind. I only knew I wanted to be away from here, from the ghost. What kind of idiots went into the dark, overstuffed house of a dead man? On Halloween. This was how horror movies started. Before people started dying.
Meghan reached the top of the stairs and turned down the hall.
The front door
flew open as the ghost’s mighty shove pushed over stacks of junk.
My back couldn’t take all this hunching over and scrambling, so I straightened up as I followed Meghan. I looked over my shoulder right before turning the corner.
I caught a glimpse of something, or someone, dressed all in black with a black mask covering their face and head. I sucked in my breath and, in my surprise, almost ran into the wall. My brief glimpse of the intruder had revealed what looked like a ninja climbing over the piles by the front door.
My panic grew.
Ninjas were chasing us. Those were worse than ghosts. We might only have minutes left to live. Ninjas had throwing stars and were crazy fast. In feudal Japan, ninjas had been the world’s best assassins and spies.
Now one was after us. Didn’t they travel in packs?
Meghan located a bedroom and jumped inside.
I followed and locked the door behind me. How long would a simple lock hold off ninjas who were after us? “Ninjas!” I said to Meghan, trying to catch my breath.
“What?” Looking up from her exploration of the window seat, she shook her head, confused.
“We have to get out of here.”
“Ya think?” Meghan’s sarcastic tone was new. It was her only outward sign of nervousness as she glanced around the room, undoubtedly searching for a ninjatō, a ninja sword.
I opened the closet, looking for any suitable weapons.
“Marty, stop fooling around and come help.” Meghan leaned against the wall, trying to jimmy open the stuck window.
More piles of junk crashed downstairs. I double-checked that the door was locked on my way over to Meghan.
When I turned around, Meghan was standing outside the window on the slanted roof. She waved urgently for me to follow her.
Despite the last few chaotic minutes, Meghan had managed to hold onto her plastic costume bag. She was good in a crisis. Handing her the folder, which she put into the bag, I clambered out onto the roof. Heights were not my thing. Plus, there were slippery leaves that could lead to my death or dismemberment. I took a deep breath to steady myself and get my bearings. A few feet away from the house and right below us, Larry’s pool glimmered in the darkening sky.
