In Too Deep

by Rose Pressey

  “Looking for someone?” the female voice asked.

  My heart rate went from normal to the max in a split second. I spun around and found Dorothy right behind me.

  “What the heck are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.

  “It’s not what I’m doing but what are you doing?” Dorothy eyed me up and down.

  “I’m looking for a murderer, but that’s neither here nor there.”

  “Just as I suspected.”

  I couldn’t believe someone had slipped up on me like that. And I thought I was so ninja-like. I had to do better than this. My life depended on it. I could get myself killed if I wasn’t careful. Dorothy would kill me if I got myself killed.

  “How did you find out I was here?” I asked.

  “I have my ways.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  Okay, she had to have put a tracker on my car. Wait. Dorothy had just recently learned to use her smartphone. There was no way she would know how to do something like that without help.

  “Who is in on this with you?” I demanded. “Did Jake help you?”

  “Aren’t you paranoid?” she asked.

  “Not paranoid, just wise to you all,” I said.

  “I don’t have a tracker thingy on your car if that’s what you think. I just had a gut feeling.”

  I raised an eyebrow. I suppose I believed her. She did have a knack for those kind of things.

  “Why are you lurking around this building?” Dorothy asked.

  “Some guy was watching me so I came after him. I thought it might be the killer.”

  “So naturally you decided to come after him,” Dorothy said.

  “It’s my job,” I said.

  “Where is he now?” she asked, peeking around the side of the building.

  “He took off.” I guessed.

  “Well, that’s probably for the best. You out here by yourself probably would have gotten yourself killed and if you get yourself killed then I’ll have to kill you.”

  I laughed. I knew Dorothy so well. Movement caught my attention. I glanced over and out of the corner of my eye spotted the guy.

  “There he is,” I said. “You stay here, Dorothy.”

  Telling her to stay put was like telling a puppy to stay when I had a treat in my pocket. I took off in a sprint after the guy and Dorothy shuffled along right behind me.

  “Dorothy, you stay back there,” I said.

  “No way,” she called out as she chased me.

  The guy had ducked behind one of the Dumpsters. My heart pumped harder from the adrenaline. What would I do if I caught the guy? Maybe I should invest in a pair of handcuffs. All I’d be able to do was hold him at gunpoint until the police arrived. This was another one of those dangerous situations that Jake warned me about. I pulled out my gun and aimed it so that I’d be ready. Would I ever really be prepared for something like this? What if he had a gun and shot me first? That was a real possibility.

  “Stay back, Dorothy.”

  The more I talked the more the guy would know I was coming for him. I reached the Dumpster now and paused with my back pressed against it. I held my hand out motioning for Dorothy to stop in her tracks. I just hoped she listened. I had my gun in my other hand and ready. My heart beat fast and I could barely breathe from the anxiety. I knew that I had to make a move soon. I couldn’t stand here like this forever. There was no sound coming from the other side. Was he still there? In one fluid motion, I moved around the side of the Dumpster.

  “Stop right there,” I said, pointing my gun at the man.

  He dropped the trash bag and held his hands up. He looked as if he might lose his lunch at any moment, His eyes were wide with fear.

  “I don’t have any cash on me,” he said.

  Oh, no. What had I done?

  I lowered the gun. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else. A criminal.”

  He just stood there and stared at me, speechless. I hurried around this out of the Dumpster.

  “Come on, Dorothy, let’s get out of here.”

  “What have you done, Maggie?” she asked.

  “That was the wrong guy. Oopsie,” I said.

  “Whoops is right. You almost gave him a heart attack, I suppose,” Dorothy said.

  “Well, let’s get out of here before he calls the police and tells them that I tried to rob him.”

  “Jake wouldn’t like that,” Dorothy said with a shake of her head.

  “No, he would not,” I said.

  I glanced back and saw that the guy was peeking out from around the Dumpster. At least it was a good sign that he didn’t have his phone up to his ear. Maybe he wouldn’t call the police after all. I was just thankful to get out of there. I suppose I had been so hyped to find the killer that I wasn’t truly paying attention to who had been behind the building. This hadn’t been the same guy that I had seen before.

  I spotted Morty’s large gold Cadillac parked beside my car. I was surprised he hadn’t come along with Dorothy when she’d tracked me down beside the building.

  Morty got out of the car. “There you are, Maggie.”

  “What do you have going on there, Morty?” I pointed at his head.

  “Oh, this?” He chuckled and touched the head full of coffee-colored hair.

  “Thought I’d see how I looked with hair again.”

  Dorothy rolled her eyes from her position behind him. Morty had apparently acquired a toupee. Maybe Dorothy and I could work together and hide that thing so Morty wouldn’t find it. Morty had quite the collection of Hawaiian print shirts. Today’s was blue and white. Not as loud as some of the others. Blue shorts, white socks, and sandals completed his outfit of the day.

  “Is everything okay? You look a bit flustered.” Morty asked.

  “Just peachy, Morty,” I said. “How are you?”

  “I have a spring in my step,” he said with a smile.

  “Good to hear, Morty.”

  “What are you doing now, Maggie?” Dorothy asked, placing her hands on her hips.

  “I suppose I’ll go back to the office,” I said.

  It was as if she was the boss. Who was I kidding? Dorothy was the boss of everyone.

  “I have to pick up a few things and then I’ll be right there,” Dorothy said.

  “Take your time,” I said with a smile.

  She raised an eyebrow. I smiled even wider. She was suspicious. However, without another word, Dorothy and Morty got in the Cadillac and pulled away.

  I sat there for a moment longer and scanned the area. No sign of the men—the one who had been watching me and the one I’d almost scared to death. Plus, the police hadn’t arrived. Maybe I’d better get out of here before they showed up. I pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward my office. I kept my eye out for any signs of someone following me. Thank goodness I saw nothing out of the ordinary. It was oddly peaceful. Almost like the calm before the storm. Sitting at the red light, my phone alerted me to a text message.

  Just thinking of you.

  Now I felt bad for not telling Jake what I’d been up to. I was doing this for him though.

  I typed back. Miss you. See you soon?

  As long as you stay out of trouble and don’t point your gun at innocent people.

  “Dorothy!” I said.

  I should have deleted Jake’s number from her phone. I couldn’t believe she had ratted me out already. She’d probably called him right after leaving the parking lot. Oh, who was I kidding? She’d probably dialed the number before she’d even gotten out of the parking lot.

  It was totally an accident.

  You have a lot of accidents.

  I suppose I’m accident-prone.

  I chuckled out loud at my own joke. No response from Jake. He obviously wasn’t in the mood for my jokes.

  His response: See you later. Be careful.

  Always.

  A car honked from behind me and I took off through the green light. I glanced in the rearview mirror. A red Mustang had been the one right b
ehind me. The top was up on the convertible so I couldn’t see who was behind the wheel. Seeing a red convertible Mustang around here wasn’t unusual. There were a lot of those cars in Miami. Though I’d seen a lot of them lately.

  Chapter 19

  I sat alone in my office, tapping a pencil against my desk. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing. Perhaps trying to think of a good plan for how to solve this case. I stared at the metal file cabinets. Of course all the mess had been cleaned up now and there had been no sign of another break-in. I had no idea why anyone would want to break in and just take papers from the folder.

  There had to be something significant in that folder for them to want to take it, but what? I was frustrated that I couldn’t think of anything. And Dorothy couldn’t either. I supposed it would always be a mystery. I tapped the pencil faster. Soon I tapped it so fast that the thing flipped out of my hand.

  The pencil rolled across the floor and landed against the file cabinet. I contemplated leaving it there but since I had nothing else to do, I pushed to my feet, and with slumped shoulders, I marched over to the file cabinet. Snap out of it and quit being so mopey, Dorothy would have said. What did she expect though when I had this huge case over my head? I reached down to pick up the pencil.

  That was when I noticed paper under the file cabinet. It was just a little edge that was visible. Since there was a small space under there, I knew that somehow one of the pages had fallen under there. It had to have been lost when the office was broken into.

  I reached down to retrieve the paper but couldn’t quite get my hand on it. Getting down on the floor on my stomach, I stretched to grab it. Finally I had my fingers on it and pulled. Just as I had suspected, it was one of the pages from a file. I climbed up from the floor and stood there staring at the page. I was a bit shocked at what I was looking at. Was this for real? Had I really found a stolen page from that file? The most important one? There were still pages missing obviously, but this was another significant part of the puzzle. And I felt lucky to have found it. I stood there and reviewed the page to see if anything jumped out at me.

  A name on the page jumped out at me right away. Vivian. What was going on? I couldn’t believe my eyes. Her name was involved in a case from way back then? Unnamed witnesses said Vivian Klein and Allen Cisco had been on the scene the night a man had been hit by a car. My uncle had been hired to find out who had hit the man and killed him. Was the killer’s info on the missing page from the file?

  I’d known it. I’d known it had to be related. Whoever had killed her had taken the file from this office. She could have known information about the case from way back then.

  The person had obviously been trying to cover their tracks. That was probably why they had killed Vivian now. My uncle had been a great detective, but he hadn’t been perfect. Obviously, this had been one of the cases that had gone unsolved. Maybe now it was time for me to pick up where he had left off. But obviously it was dangerous if a woman had been murdered because of it.

  I was frozen there, unable to move. This was astonishing news. All of a sudden, a noise came at the door and I jumped. The paper fell from my hands and fell to the floor. I spun around, clutching my chest, and tried to calm myself.

  Dorothy stared at me. “For heaven’s sake, what is wrong with you? You’re so jumpy, like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

  “Don’t you knock on the door?” I asked.

  “Since when do I have to knock? I work here. Would you prefer I knock?” She placed her hands on her hips.

  “No, Dorothy, I was just a little on edge. You’re not going to believe what I found.” I waved the paper.

  “Oh, I’d believe anything at this point. I just hope it’s not too bad.” She placed her new big purse on top of the desk.

  “I don’t know what to think of it. It could be bad, or it could be good.”

  “That sounds about right, you never know if you’re coming or going,” she said with a wave of her hand.

  I handed the paper to her. “Does any of this information look familiar to you?”

  Dorothy pulled out her reading glasses and then examined the page. “Well, let me think about this for a moment.”

  “Can you believe Vivian’s name is in this case? That’s not a coincidence. It has to be connected. Don’t you think?” I asked.

  “Oh, I think most certainly you’re right about that.”

  “So that’s why I said it could be good or bad. Obviously, this is a dangerous situation.”

  “But what would stealing my purse have to do with this file?”

  “What if the person just wanted to get your keys so that they could get into this office easier?”

  “They could have just broken a window,” Dorothy said.

  “Yeah, but getting your keys would certainly make it easier,” I said.

  “How would they know that I had the keys?” she asked.

  “Maybe they’d been watching us for quite some time,” I said.

  Dorothy stood there staring at the page. “I remember this case now. Your uncle tried for a long time and then finally it just went into the unsolved file.”

  “Is there anything you can tell me about it?”

  “Sorry, Maggie, not at the moment, but I’ll try to think of something. Don’t you worry, it’ll come to me eventually.”

  “Well, not to rush you or anything, but this is kind of important, so the faster you think of it the better off we’ll be,” I said.

  “You can’t rush a genius,” she said. “I will think of it eventually.”

  I had no comment for that. “There’s another name here on the page. Allen Cisco.”

  Dorothy looked at the page. “Yes, now that you say the name, I remember he was one of the suspects. But your uncle could never quite figure out if it was him or not and there was no proof.”

  “And he was just a suspect?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Maybe I should look up more information about this case online,” I said. “There may be something new that’s developed after all these years.”

  “I suppose there’s no harm in trying,” she said, handing me the paper back.

  I rushed over to my desk and pulled out my laptop. After turning it on I did a quick search. Unfortunately, there was no news on the case. At least not anything that was online. But I supposed I hadn’t expected anything drastic anyway. It wasn’t like this case would solve itself and clues would fall right into my lap. There was that name though that I had to track down more information about. Allen Cisco.

  “Well, at least you’re on to something,” Dorothy said.

  Just then a knock came at the door and we both froze on the spot. I didn’t think we should be that startled over just a knock, but after everything that had happened it wasn’t a shock that we felt this way.

  “I suppose one of us should open the door,” Dorothy said.

  “Yes, I suppose one of us should,” I said.

  Yet we both stood there and stared at the door, neither making an effort to move. I knew I couldn’t let Dorothy open the door though. I had to do it. After all, it was my business. If anyone was going to come into harm’s way it should be me and not Dorothy. She didn’t get paid enough for that. I stood from my desk, pushed my shoulders back, and tried to muster up as much courage as I could. A second later, I moved over to the door. I felt a presence behind me. When I glanced over my shoulder, I realized Dorothy was following right behind me like a shadow.

  “Check the window first,” she whispered.

  “Good idea,” I said.

  We eased over to the window and I looked out one of the blinds’ slats just ever so gently, as if the slightest little noise would alert the person at the door that we were watching them.

  “Who is it?” Dorothy asked.

  “No one there,” I said.

  Dorothy leaned close to peek out the window. “Someone has to be there. I heard the knock.”

  Chapter 20

 
“I’ll go check it out,” I said.

  Thank goodness I had my gun with me. It was completely necessary now. Apparently people were constantly after me. Dorothy followed me over to the door. I paused and motioned for her to stay back just a bit and to remain quiet. She nodded as if she agreed, but I wasn’t convinced she would actually be quiet. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob and released a deep breath. On the count of three I eased the door open just a bit. My other hand was on the gun. No one was there.

  “Who is it?” Dorothy asked again.

  “Still no one there. I’m stepping outside for a look around,” I said.

  “Just be careful,” she said.

  What? Dorothy wasn’t coming with me? She always followed me like a shadow. Dorothy must really be freaked out if she wasn’t following me. I stepped outside and stood on the sidewalk. I still didn’t see anyone. Something had made that noise, but what? Now I had to walk all the way around the building again looking for someone who had knocked on the door. This was just silliness. Nevertheless, I needed to check.

  “Dorothy, you go inside and lock the door.” I motioned.

  I didn’t want someone coming back around when I was at the back of the building and getting her. She stared at me as if I’d lost my mind, but then ultimately closed the door. When I heard the click of the lock, I moved around the side of the building, looking everywhere for any sign of someone who might have knocked. When I turned the corner of the building, I bumped right into someone’s chest.

  I looked up into the man’s widened dark eyes.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  “Who are you?” I demanded.

  At that moment I realized he had something in his hands.

  “A box of flowers?” I asked.

  “I’m just trying to deliver them to a Maggie Thomas,” he said.

  “I’m Maggie Thomas,” I said.

  “Well, these are for you,” he said with a bit of a terrified look on his face.

  “Thank you,” I said. “But what are you doing behind the building?”