by Rose Pressey
It was nice that he had acknowledged that I was a good private investigator in spite of my few mishaps. I rattled off the license plate number.
“I’ll get back with you,” Jake said. “Where are you now?”
I wouldn’t bother telling him about my next plan.
“Just running some errands,” I said.
He paused, probably trying to decide if he believed me. “Okay, I’ll call you soon. Stay out of trouble.”
“Always.” The light turned green and I took off.
With no sign of the Mustang, Dorothy and I headed on our way to the address.
“How sure are you that this address is correct?” Dorothy asked.
“Well, it was the most current one they had for his arrest record which was just from a few days ago.”
“What were the charges?”
“Um, terroristic threatening.” I kept my stare on the road in front of me.
“Oh, great. So he threatened to kill someone?” she said.
“Perhaps, but we don’t know what that threat was specifically. It could have just been great bodily harm.”
Dorothy shook her head. “Obviously this is a dangerous bunch of people.”
A few minutes later, I turned onto Ocean Ridge Drive and counted down to the houses’ numbers. One twenty-five sat on the left, a small light blue clapboard-style house with a white picket fence. Such a cute house for such a dangerous situation.
Chapter 16
“This is it,” I said as I pulled along the curb across from the house.
“Yes, here we are,” Dorothy said.
“Yes, here we are.” I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel.
Dorothy gave me a warning glare, so I stopped. Repetitive noises drove her crazy. Dorothy and I stared at the house. This was always the hard part. Now we had to go look for information about this guy. A guy who had just been murdered.
“I guess we can assume that no one will answer the door,” Dorothy said.
“Unless of course he lived with someone else.”
“That’s always a possibility,” Dorothy said. “It looks like he might have lived with his grandmother. Someone has been watering those ferns on the porch.”
“Let’s go see what we can find out.” I unbuckled my seatbelt.
“I get nervous doing this stuff, but it’s thrilling at the same time,” Dorothy said.
I knew exactly what she meant. It was scary, but exhilarating too. Like being on a rollercoaster or walking through a haunted house. Not to mention the satisfaction of capturing a bad guy.
Dorothy and I got out of the car and headed along the sidewalk. The bright sunshine warmed my skin and the smell of the nearby rose bush carried across the wind. We’d almost reached the driveway when someone called out.
“If you’re looking for anyone there, no one’s home,” the female voice called out.
I turned around and saw a short, dark-haired woman standing at the end of a driveway across the street. She waved us over. Dorothy and I exchanged a look and then we crossed the street over toward the woman.
“Do you know Justin Cisco?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Yes, I know the guy. He lives right there in the house you’re headed toward.”
“He was murdered last night,” I said.
“Are you with the police?” She frowned as she looked me up and down before turning her attention to Dorothy.
“I’m a private investigator looking into a murder,” I said.
The woman looked around as if someone might be watching or overhear us. “You know, something is odd.”
“What’s that?” I asked, leaning closer.
Of course I was extremely interested in what she had to say now. She seemed more than willing to share these details too, luckily for me.
“Justin knew the woman who was murdered recently,” she said.
My eyes widened. “Are you serious? How do you know he knew the woman?”
Were we talking about Vivian? Who else could she be talking about? This couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Yes, I believe they were having an affair. She came over to his house at all times of the night. I saw them holding hands too.”
“Vivian Klein?”
“Yes, that’s her,” the neighbor said.
Interesting. So there was a connection between the guy who had asked me to meet him, the one who had been murdered, and Jake’s boss’s wife. Now I just had to figure out how they were all connected. How did all of this fit together?
“Is there anything else you can tell me about him?” I asked.
“He was friends with this other guy named David Calloway. David could probably tell you a lot more about Justin. People he hung out with and places he went, etc.”
“Where can I find him?” I asked.
“He does a tour of South Beach.” She looked at her watch. “If you leave right now you can catch him before he starts.”
“Thank you for the information,” I said.
“You’re welcome. I hope they find what you need.” She smiled.
Dorothy and I hurried back to the car, anxious to get over to South Beach. As I started the car I glanced over at the woman. She still watched us. For a split second I wondered if I could trust her. Had she given us the correct information? She’d been awfully quick to offer help. Nevertheless, I had to check it out.
“I hope we can catch him before he starts his tour. I don’t want to have to wait.”
“What kind of tour do you think this is?” Dorothy asked.
“My guess is a walking tour where he shows the buildings, art deco, etc.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Dorothy said.
I headed off away from the house, surprised that I had learned this new detail. But I just couldn’t imagine how all of this was connected. The fact that Vivian was having an affair with this guy Justin was a big clue that maybe it was some kind of love triangle. Who was the other guy though? Billy, the one the spa employee had told me about? I still hadn’t been able to track him down. Had she been wrong about his name? Maybe Billy and Justin were the same person. Where I fit into all of this, I had no idea. And why had someone had broken into my office? Plus, the fact that Dorothy’s purse had been found at the boss’s house. None of this made any sense.
As I sat at the red light, my phone rang.
“It’s Jake calling,” I said. “Maybe he has the info on the car.”
“What are you going to tell him about what we’re doing right now?” Dorothy asked.
“Well, I suppose I have to tell him what I’m doing.”
“There’s no reason why he can’t be involved with helping you on this case, since he’s not looking into Vivian’s case in an official police capacity. I mean, after all, they think he could be a suspect.”
I released a deep breath and answered the call. “Did you get them already?”
“Sorry, Maggie, the plate comes back to a black 2014 Lexus. Not a Mustang.”
I sighed. “So the plate is stolen?”
“Looks that way.”
“Another dead end. I won’t give up though,” I said.
“I suppose,” Jake said.
Lately Jake’s voice had certainly seemed downcast. I wasn’t used to hearing Jake this way.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I thought I would go for some coffee.”
“Are you still worried that we’ll be arrested?”
“The thought had crossed my mind,” he said.
“Well, don’t worry about that, I’m on the case.”
“What are you up to?” he asked.
“Just going to talk to someone I have a lead on.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked.
“I’m almost there now. I’ll call and let you know what I find out.”
“Where is almost there?” he asked.
That meant he was probably going to try and track me down. I’d said I’
d tell him what I was doing, but now I was having second thoughts. Sometimes what I did required risky things and Jake wouldn’t want me to do those risky things.
“Were you going to tell me about any of this?” Jake asked.
“Of course I was going to tell you,” I said in a sweet voice.
I still hadn’t told him where we were headed.
“Yeah, right,” he said.
“Okay, we’re pulling up now. I’ll call you soon.”
“We? You have Dorothy with you and not me?”
“She is my assistant,” I said. “Plus, she gets pouty when I don’t take her.”
“I do not,” Dorothy said in a pouty voice.
“Jake, a Lexus was the getaway car. You might want to track the owner of that stolen plate down. It could be the killer.”
“I’ll look into it,” he said.
Would he? Or had he given up?
“I’ll call you soon, Jake.” With that, I ended the call.
I parked the car along the street.
“It says here that the tour starts at the corner of Eleventh Street and Ocean Drive. That’s right up there,” I said. “We’ll park here since we probably won’t find a spot down there.”
Dorothy and I got out of the car and headed in that direction. I was anxious to get there and hoped that I would find good information. A group of people had gathered in the area and I worried that we were too late.
“It looks like they’re getting ready to start,” I said.
“Well, worst case is we could go on the tour and then talk to him afterward,” Dorothy said. “I suppose that wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”
True. I liked all the buildings and I’d like to know more about them. I’d lived here all this time and still didn’t know the history. “Okay, sounds like a good idea, so we’ll do it.”
When Dorothy and I arrived at the group, I noticed something that I hadn’t been expecting. Everyone stood on a Segway.
“Why are they on those things?” Dorothy asked.
“They ride them,” I whispered. “I guess that’s how the tour is given.”
“Are we supposed to ride those things?” Dorothy asked.
“Yes, but I don’t think it’s such a good idea that we do this. We’ll just wait until he’s finished.”
“No way,” Dorothy said. “I think we should do this. It would be fun. Besides, if we don’t go on the tour, we might miss this guy.”
This would not end well.
Chapter 17
“Excuse me, are you here for the tour?” a young, lean, and athletic man asked.
Dorothy and I exchanged a panicked look. I assumed this was the friend who we needed to speak with, but I wasn’t sure. I supposed the only way to find out was to just ask.
“Are you David Calloway, the tour guide for South Beach Tours?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m David. Listen, we really need to get going. So if you two will get on the Segway, then we’ll get started.”
Wasn’t he going to ask me for a ticket? It seemed like the first question to ask, but that was none of my business. Everyone in the group of people gathered around for the tour stared at us. I felt the pressure. It looked as if we were going on the tour. How in the world would I manage to guide this thing and not fall off? Not to mention Dorothy. I couldn’t steer my Segway and hers at the same time.
“Come on, Maggie, we can do this,” Dorothy said. “It’ll be fun.”
She said that a lot and rarely did it ever turn out to be fun. Usually it ended in some kind of disaster. Nevertheless, I wanted to talk to this guy, so I supposed I had to go through with it.
I pointed at the contraption. “These right here?”
“Yes,” he said with irritation.
Everyone still stood around staring at us. I had to get on with this before everyone got mad. Mostly I just wanted everyone to stop staring at us.
I watched as Dorothy stood on the thing. She didn’t even wobble.
Now that she was standing upright on it, she looked over at me. “Well, Maggie, what are you waiting on? Let’s go.”
“Go ahead, get on,” the woman beside me said.
It looked as if I had better do this right or else Dorothy would never let me live that down. I couldn’t believe how easily she’d gotten on the thing. I stepped over to the Segway and paused before putting my foot on it. Finally, I lifted my leg and wobbled a bit as I stood on the thing. This wasn’t as easy to balance as I’d thought it would be. I was on it though and that was all that mattered.
“All right. Let’s get started,” David said. “Just follow me.”
Luckily, we were moving slowly along the sidewalk. The beautiful view of the ocean was on the right and the art deco buildings were to our left.
“This is great,” Dorothy said.
The woman in front of me quickly swerved. Unfortunately I didn’t realize something in front of her had made her move to avoid it. Somehow at the last minute I managed to turn to miss the debris on the sidewalk. I lost my balance though and tumbled off of the thing. No one stopped, not even Dorothy. They didn’t even realize I wasn’t with them. How would I catch up now?
I managed to pick myself up off the ground and get back on the thing. Did the thing have a faster speed? I pushed it to the max so that I could catch up. Once I was beside Dorothy again, she glanced over and saw me.
She smiled. “Lovely, isn’t it?”
“Just peachy,” I said.
“Oh, Maggie, you’d better have fun now. You’ll regret it later in life if you don’t,” Dorothy said.
I rolled my eyes. She had no idea that I’d almost broken my leg back there.
David alternated between telling us about the buildings on our left and then talking about the water on the right. I could have taken off with this contraption and he never would have noticed. I wasn’t sure that he was going to be all that keen about talking about his friend though. Surely he wanted to find the killer. He didn’t seem all that friendly for a tour guide. I hoped this was the right guy. He’d said his name was David.
I was mostly daydreaming as I looked around, not really paying attention to what this guy was saying. However, when I glanced back, everything changed. The guy from bingo and the park last night was sitting at an outdoor café. The murderer! This was my lucky day. Or perhaps unlucky depending on the outcome when I confronted this guy. Was he following me? Why did he just happen to be in South Beach? No one else seemed to notice that the killer was there.
“Dorothy,” I called out.
She didn’t respond.
“Dorothy,” I snapped again.
“What?” she asked with a frown.
“He’s back there.” I pointed over my shoulder. “The killer is sitting at that café.”
I had slowed down now, but thank goodness so had Dorothy. She looked back over her shoulder.
“It is him,” she said.
The guy was sitting at a table down the way. Enjoying his lunch, I supposed, as if nothing had happened. A cold-blooded killer right there with not a care in the world. Now what would I do? I had to go after him. Thank goodness the group had stopped for something to drink.
“I have to go after this guy. It’s much more important than talking to the tour guide,” I said.
“I agree,” Dorothy said.
“They’re not paying attention, It’ll be faster if we drive these things over to the café.”
“What if they notice we’re gone from the group?” Dorothy asked.
“We’ll take these things back once we catch the guy. I can call Jake. It’ll be fine,” I said, motioning for Dorothy to follow me.
Dorothy and I turned around while the group had gone inside a restaurant. We hurried down the sidewalk toward the café. Thank goodness the group had stopped for a drink. This gave us time to catch the killer. They’d never even know we were gone from the tour.
I had no idea what I was going to say to the guy once I approached him. I needed to call Jake right aw
ay and tell him to get over here with the police so they could arrest him. But I couldn’t drive this thing and pull out my phone and make a phone call at the same time. Before we reached the café, the guy got up.
“Oh, no, he’s leaving,” I said. “We can’t let him get away.”
“Hey! Get back here with those,” a male voice yelled from over our shoulders.
I glanced back and saw the tour guide David coming after us. Oh, no, now he thought we had taken these on purpose. Well, I guessed we had taken them on purpose, but it was for a good reason, not something bad. Should I yell for him to stop? He walked around the corner of the building. Now that he was out of sight, I hoped that I didn’t lose him. The tour guide was still yelling for us to stop.
“What should we do, Maggie?” Dorothy asked.
“Just keep going, or better yet, you stop and talk to that guy and tell him what we’re doing. I’ll go after the killer,” I said.
“Okay, I’ll give it my best shot,” she said.
Dorothy stopped and I continued on my way toward the café. The killer was nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, I was going to have to admit defeat. I arrived at the café on the Segway, stopping on the sidewalk. A lot of people were looking at me with confused faces.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
A man peeked over the top of his newspaper.
“Did you see a guy wearing blue shorts and a white T-shirt? He was sitting at a table right there.”
The man frowned. “There are a lot of people with that description. But no, I didn’t see anyone.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said.
I probably sounded unpleasant. He immediately held the newspaper up again, covering his face.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Jake’s number. Unfortunately, he didn’t answer.
“Jake, it’s me, Maggie,” I said breathlessly as if he wouldn’t know it was me. I was a bit confused at the moment. The adrenaline was still pumping. “I just saw the killer, but he got away unfortunately. I’m in SoBe. Maybe you can have the cops come and look around for him? I’ll look for him more, but I really don’t know what else to do. Call me,” I said.
I ended the call and then realized I needed to get back and help Dorothy. This guy was probably confronting her and might have called the police on us since he thought we had stolen the Segway. I spun around on the thing. At least I was getting the hang of the thing now. I maneuvered it around and headed around the side of the building, where I hoped to find Dorothy having a pleasant conversation with the tour guide.
