Shadow Of Suspicion

by Nora Kane

  Margot didn’t reply. Gale wasn’t wrong.

  Gale reached in her purse. “I want to show you something.”

  Both Margot and Mal tensed as Gale reached into her purse even though it was the second time and her driver’s license looked legitimate. Margot already had her hand on the mace sitting in her lap. When Gale retrieved her phone, they both relaxed.

  Gale messed with the screen for a few seconds and then turned it so Margot could see a picture of a pretty young brunette sporting a black eye and a split lip.

  “This is my best friend, Lori.”

  “Are you saying she has her own Randy problem?”

  “Yes, but it’s worse. She lives with him. It’s more like she’s his prisoner and, while it’s always been bad, this is a big step in the wrong direction. He was careful to be discreet before and keep his punching to her body where she could cover it up. I need someone who can help me get her out of there. When Melanie told me what you did to Randy, you seemed perfect for the job.”

  “I can’t force her to leave this guy.”

  “You won’t need to. She’ll go willingly, gladly even.”

  “So, what do you need me for?”

  “She’s a prisoner. He doesn’t let her have a car or a phone. They live out east in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. She could walk away while he’s at work, but there’s nowhere for her to go.”

  “So, she needs a ride?”

  “More or less.”

  “You don’t have a car?”

  Gale smiled. “This is where it gets complicated. Back in the day when I met my husband, I introduced my best friend to his brother.”

  “The abusive boyfriend is your brother-in-law?”

  “Yeah, and while my husband would never do the things to me his brother does to Lori, he has a huge blind spot when it comes to his older brother’s behavior. If I went and got her, he’d be mad at me. He’d probably drive her back himself. Trust me, I’ve talked to him until I’m blue in the face about this. He refuses to see what an abusive asshole his brother is. Which is funny because he thinks he’s an asshole when it comes to just about everything else. Eventually, he’s going to kill Lori and even then my husband will defend him.”

  Margot cringed at Gale’s mention of murder because she knew she was probably right. Margot had seen that first hand growing up. It’s the reason she and her sister were essentially orphans. Her dad would never get to breathe free air again and her mom would never get to breathe at all.

  “So, you just need somebody to pick her up? And then what?”

  “I don’t know, take her to a shelter or something?”

  Margot nodded. Gale might have picked her for the wrong reasons, but Margot was good at this. “I know a good place.”

  “I had a feeling you would.”

  “Okay, this is something I can do.”

  “How do I pay you? I think your website said by the day…”

  “If you live next to my sister, you’re aren’t exactly rich.”

  “No, I’m not, but I think this is only a day’s work, or even a half a day…”

  “If this checks out, I’ll do it for free. What I’m going to need is everything you can tell me about Lori and where she lives.”

  Margot took notes and asked questions while Gale filled her in on Lori and her brother in law. When she was done, they shook hands.

  Before Gale left she said, “It’d be better if you pretended you didn’t know me. As far as my husband or anyone else is concerned, this meeting never happened. Even if it wouldn’t complicate my marriage, Dan isn’t the kind of guy to forgive something like that.”

  “Confidentiality is part of the job. I won’t tell if you don’t.”

  “Thank you. I would like to know how it all turns out though. Is there a way you can tell me about it? I don’t want details. You don’t even have to tell me where you took her. In fact, it might be better if I didn’t know. I just want to know Lori’s safe.”

  “I’ll call you.”

  “It might be better if you didn’t. Dan checks my phone.”

  Hearing this, Margot wondered if Dan Thompkins might not be that much better than his brother Dave. Maybe Dan wasn’t physically abusive like his brother but checking her phone certainly sounded like controlling behavior.

  She didn’t see any purpose in pursuing that though, so she said, “Can you meet me here? Same time tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow? You work fast.”

  “If I can save your friend another black eye, why not?”

  Gale seemed to like the sound of that. She smiled as she agreed, “Yeah, I can do that.”

  While Gale was walking out, Mal made his way to Margot’s table in the back of the small drinking establishment. He carried the beer he was drinking and freshly poured Maker’s Mark over ice for her. As he handed Margot her drink, the sleeve on Mal’s uncharacteristic long sleeve shirt rode up his arm, revealing a nasty bruise on his wrist.

  “What happened to you?” Margot said as she pointed at the purple ring located where a watch would be if Mal ever wore one.

  “Banged it against my weight bench. What did long tall Sally want?”

  “Her name is Gale and she’s married if that is what you were thinking.”

  “I wasn’t not thinking that. Tell me we’re tailing a cheating husband.”

  “Nope,” Margot told him before laying out what they would be doing for Gale.

  “If I was with the cartel, drawing you out to an isolated location would be an ideal way to put a bullet in you, or worse, torture you,” Mal warned her after she finished.

  “Why would they torture me? It’s not like I know anything.”

  “They’re going to assume you do. Even if they didn’t, they’d do it for fun or practice. That’s the way those guys like to roll. Either way, I’d better go along.”

  “So, they torture or put a bullet in you too?” Margot replied after a sip of her whiskey.

  The nice thing about meeting clients in a bar was she was already there when the work was done. Stan, the owner and bartender at Layla’s West, was getting to know her well enough he started pouring before she even asked.

  “I was thinking I’d be the one putting bullets in people.”

  “I did okay without you last time.”

  “You got lucky.”

  Margot couldn’t argue, the shotgun she used to defend herself wasn’t even hers, and if she had figured out the men driving the silver Chevrolet meant her harm a minute later than she did, the shotgun wouldn’t have been enough to save her.

  “She feels wrong,” Mal said.

  “Does she? I didn’t get that vibe. I’m going to check out her story anyway before I do anything.”

  “So, does that mean you’re going to talk to your sister?”

  “No, she wouldn’t talk to me and even if she would, she talks too much to keep it on the down-low.”

  Mal nodded in agreement.

  “Is it weird that Gale and your sister are friends?” Mal asked. “They almost have too much in common.”

  “You mean their love for controlling abusive assholes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s not weird at all. Just like they find the assholes who will mistreat them, they find each other. Is it weird when junkies hang out with other junkies?”

  “I see what you’re saying, but how often do two junkies just happen to live next door to each other?”

  “I guess I’ll have to find out before I drive out to Dave’s trailer. Shouldn’t be too hard, I am a professional investigator.”

  “Yeah, except professional implies you’re getting paid.”

  “It’s a few phone calls and a few hours work for a good cause. Haven’t you ever heard of karma?”

  “Considering some of the things I’ve done, I’d better think that’s all a bunch of bullshit. Otherwise, I’d just sit around worrying when I’m going to get mine.”

  Margot couldn’t argue with him there. While he might not have
done the worst things he’d been accused of, he was certainly no angel.

  Margot looked at her phone, “I need to get going.”

  “Why, you got a date?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  “Not with that choir boy cop I hope?”

  “You mean Rick?”

  “Is that Ames’s partner’s name?”

  “Yep. Looks like your hopes are dashed again. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. If Gale checks out, I’ll take you up on that offer of backup. Even if it’s not a setup, this kind of thing can get volatile.”

  “Okay, but keep in mind I still do this shit for money.”

  “You saying you won’t go?”

  “No, I’ll go. Just don’t make a habit of this pro bono shit, especially while you're dating a cop.”

  Margot didn’t reply to that. Instead, she asked, “Did you see what kind of car Gale was driving?”

  “Of course, Ford pickup, black. I got the license plate too if you want that.”

  “I do.”

  Mal recited the plate from memory.

  Chapter 3

  It was odd to be in her sister’s neighborhood but have no intention of seeing her or talking to her. It felt like she should at least call, but Melanie probably wouldn’t answer the phone. The last couple of times Margot had called or texted, Melanie ignored her. It was probably just as well since what Margot had said to Mal about her sister’s inability to keep quiet was on the money, even in the best of times, and these were not the best of times. She might tell Gale’s husband Dan just to spite Margot over what she did to Randy.

  Ideally, this could be done with a simple drive-by. If Gale didn’t put her truck in the garage, she could confirm that at least her truck resided at the address Gale gave her. If it was in a garage, Margot would have to think of another way to confirm Gale was who she said she was.

  She hated doing this. Gale gave her no reason not to trust her, but after a client set her up to do the leg work for a pair of cartel assassins, she felt like she needed to be overly cautious. The driver’s license should have been enough, but Margot knew those could be faked.

  Unfortunately, Gale had a garage. Margot parked her car and considered her options. She had a friend with the police who could run the plate, but it was unlikely she was still working at this hour and Margot already owed her.

  Margot thought she should just knock on the door, pretend she was a Jehovah's Witness or something if a guy answered the door. She was thinking about how she should play it when she caught some movement in the rearview mirror. She had her hand in her purse wrapping her fingers around the handle to her pistol when she recognized her sister.

  Melanie knocked on the window of the passenger side and Margot rolled down the window.

  “Checking up on me?” Melanie asked.

  “No,” Margot replied. She thought she should add some other reason to be there but couldn’t come up with a lie fast enough.

  “I heard you got Randy arrested. Wasn’t beating on him enough?”

  “Randy got Randy arrested.”

  “You do know he won’t call me because of you. I don’t get why you did that. Especially after I specifically asked you not to.”

  Margot looked at her sister's face. It’d been long enough the black eye he gave her was healed up. She was back to looking like a younger version of Margot with darker eyes and darker hair like their mom. Margot had her father's lighter complexion and was five years older but otherwise they looked like twins.

  “Do you just want me to be alone?” Melanie said, “Are you going to chase off every guy that likes me?”

  “Only the ones that punch you in the face,” Margot told her.

  “I told you that was a misunderstanding. You assume every guy is like dad and that’s not true.”

  “You can do better than Randy.”

  “Oh, like you? You still seeing the dirty cop, the one they say is a murderer? The one who got you kicked out of the police department?”

  “He didn’t get me kicked out. I quit.”

  “Because of him.”

  Margot shrugged, Melanie wasn’t wrong.

  “We’re not a couple,” Margot told her, “we’re still friends, but I’ve been seeing someone else.”

  “You find another crooked cop?”

  “A cop. So far, he seems to be an honest one.”

  Melanie looked like she was going to say something snide, but she swallowed those words and instead asked, “So, if you’re not checking up on me, why are you here?”

  “I just wanted to say hi. You are still my little sister.”

  “I’m not so little anymore. You need to remember that. I don’t need you to look out for me.”

  Margot didn’t agree. Since dropping out of college Melanie seemed to be a bad decision machine. Of course, seeing how Margot threw away a promising career in law enforcement for a guy who was questionable at best, Margot wasn’t exactly a role model in the decision-making department.

  She didn’t argue though. All she said was, “I know. I just don’t like seeing you hurt.”

  Melanie nodded and then said, “You really just came by to say hi?”

  “Yeah,” Margot lied. She immediately felt bad, but she didn’t correct it.

  “I appreciate that. I’m still mad at you, but I do appreciate the effort. I was going to call you so I’m glad you came by.”

  “No problem.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t know what I was going to call you about.”

  “Okay, what did you want to tell me?”

  “Dad wants to talk with us.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “No matter what happened, he’s still our dad.”

  “Okay, but that doesn’t mean I have to talk to him.”

  “I think he's sick. He wouldn’t say it, but I can tell something’s up. He said he had something he needed to tell us face to face.”

  “Like I said before, that’s not going to happen.”

  “What if he really is sick?”

  “Then I hope it’s painful.”

  “However you feel, I feel like I need to go.”

  “Then go. I won’t try to stop you.”

  “That’s not what I meant. Prison is a scary place and while I don’t have the same level of hate for the man you do, I’m not exactly comfortable laying eyes on him. I haven’t seen him since the trial. Have you?”

  “No.”

  “I don’t think I can go alone.”

  Margot wasn’t sure what to say.