Double Trouble (Dev Haskell - Private Investigator Book 10) (10 page)

“Ahem,” Royal cleared his throat to get things back on track. “Do you have a suggestion, Dev?”

“Along with being able to post these images, whoever is involved obviously has access to Ashley’s appointment calendar. I have two suggestions, the first would be for you to establish some other method for Ashley to get appointments. It could be as simple as a phone call confirming.”

“That’s gonna screw me royally. I might as well go back to just stripping for tips.”

“The second thing I would recommend is setting up a fake appointment, using your normal procedure, and see if we can’t set a trap and capture this person.”

“I like that,” Royal said and looked to Ashley for approval.

Ashley gave a bored shrug and said, “Whatever. I just want this all to stop. It’s hitting me right in the damn pocketbook.”

Royal gave an understanding nod then flashed a smile in my direction and stood as he said, “Give us a little time here, Dev and we’ll be in touch.” He walked over to the door and opened it, then summoned Marilynn to escort me down to the lobby.

Once he closed the door I heard him ask Ashley, “Are you all right?” but couldn’t hear anything beyond that.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I had some time
and apparently my headache wasn’t bad enough, so I swung past Andy’s to see if he had anymore information.

“No, I guess the good news is everything seems to be back to normal, at least for the past forty-eight hours. Took your advice, Milo is getting everything double checked as it’s going out the door. I’m still at a loss, it’s not like you can slip one of those coffins in your pocket and just walk out of here. And, I really don’t want to contemplate one of our staff being involved, we’ve got a great team back there. They’ve all been with us for quite awhile.”

“You aware of any out of the workplace difficulty someone might be having, divorce, mortgage, a sick child or spouse and there’s medical bills, something like that, maybe college tuition?”

“No, nothing that I’m aware of, you might want to check with Milo, but I haven’t heard of anything.”

“I already asked him, he wasn’t aware of anything either. What about access to the warehouse? Can anyone just walk back there?”

“You mean anyone in the company, yeah, sure. Just for starters, the bathrooms and the break room are back there. But, if you’re suggesting could anyone just wander around out there, not really. You got a taste of how busy it is back there the other day, and it’s like that every day. Not only would someone sort of stick out who didn’t belong, but frankly they’d be in the way.”

I didn’t want to mention it, but I had to. “I ran into Tommy Flaherty when I was wandering around back there.”

“Really,” Andy said then gave a sort of puzzled look.

“Yeah, he said a customer was in the lobby and had placed an order and he was pulling some items. He had an invoice in his hand.”

“Oh yeah, of course, that makes sense. Cathy has to stay chained to the receptionist desk and Tommy would be the logical choice to fill the order, especially something that’s just a few items. Anything larger and Cathy might generate an invoice, but then she’d send the person around to the loading dock for pickup. Do you think there’s a problem?”

“With Tommy? No, I’m just trying to cover all the bases. You haven’t been out there unattended, have you?”

“Me wandering out there unattended would create a problem,” Andy said and smiled.

“Mind if I pop my head into Milo’s office? I just want to thank him for his time yesterday and touch base.”

“Be my guest.”

“I’ll just be a minute or two, then I’ll head out. I want to check some online areas.”

“Online?” Andy said as I was getting up.

“You know eBay, a couple places like that, maybe someone’s stupid enough to put a unique item like that carved coffin up for sale.”

Andy nodded then said, “Keep me posted.”

The warehouse area was just as busy as the last time I was back there. I stuck my head into the office. “Milo.”

He looked up from some sort of printout and a cloud seemed to pass over his face the moment he recognized me.

“Just wanted to say thanks for your time yesterday. Andy said you drew a blank on those security tapes.”

“About six wasted hours of time I didn’t have,” he said.

“Thanks all the same for going over them.”

He seemed to relax a bit then asked, “You learn anything?”

“Yeah, look out for forklifts.”

That earned a momentary smile.

“Still working it, we’ll see what develops. You learn anything or something doesn’t look right, let Andy know,” I said.

“That’s what I planned on doing,” he said.

“Thanks again, Milo I’m out of your hair.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

On the way home
from Andy’s, I stopped and picked up some Prosecco from Solo Vino. I put the three bottles in the fridge to chill and decided it might be a good idea to do some laundry so I could show up at Heidi’s with a clean shirt.

I was stuffing the laundry into the washer, filling it once again to over capacity when I pulled out a shirt from the bottom of my laundry basket. It was a white golf shirt with a logo that read Copper Mountain Golf Course, Copper Mountain, Colorado. The last time I’d done laundry was two weeks ago, and even I could remember that far back. I hadn’t worn this shirt, but I knew who had. The question was how did Tommy Flaherty get it in the first place and then how did he get the shirt into my laundry.

I remembered thinking I smelled food earlier, just before I drove over to Royal’s Office. Was Tommy able to get in my house anytime he wanted? I turned the washer on, then went around and checked all the basement windows. They were locked and probably hadn’t been opened in years. The first floor windows were all secure. In my mind that left only one option, unfortunately Tommy had a set of keys.

The couple of nights he stayed with me he could have taken my keys and had copies made. I lived close enough to the hardware store it wouldn’t have taken more than fifteen minutes.

I started thinking back to the missing food, the sport coat I thought I’d left at some woman’s house. The shirts I couldn’t find and then just by chance the golf shirt I saw him wearing yesterday.

The moment Heidi answered her door I forgot about Tommy Flaherty. She was wearing very tight white shorts, a silky white top, apparently no bra, and white sandals with little colored flowers on the strap. I gave the sandals a peripheral glance and returned to the blouse.

“We’re eating Thai, with Dim Sum,” she said.

“That’ll be a nice change,” I said.

She looked at me strangely as she closed the door behind us, “I think it’s what we had the last time, in fact you brought it. Remember?”

“I was kidding. Here, let me put these in your fridge, Prosecco. How did your conference call go?” I asked and headed for her kitchen.

“Oh, thanks. The call? About what I expected, no surprises, just some hand holding. The way the market is right now everyone has the jitters, the best thing to do is just stay put. They just need to hear that, and they did. They’ll be fine until the next media-induced panic attack.”

“Maybe you should free up one of those hedge funds and the two of us could fly out to Vegas, double the money over the weekend and make everyone happy.”

“Occasionally, some fool tries that and guess what? It never, ever works. So, how’d things go with Royal?” she asked, then seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time bending over and placing two of the prosecco bottles in her almost empty fridge. Her very small black thong was visible through the white shorts. I just stood there and took in the view.

“Did you hear me?” she said standing up. “How did things go with Royal?”

“Well, I didn’t quit if that’s what you’re asking. How’d they go? I guess okay. He’s going to alter some procedure with his client having all the problems and we’ll see where it goes from there. How well do you know him?” I said then pushed a glass of Prosecco across the counter toward her as she sat down on a kitchen stool. There were a half dozen white takeout food containers with wire handles sitting on the end of the counter surrounded by about three dozen little plastic envelopes of soy sauce.

“How well do I know him? Not very, I mean I’ve studied his company, they’re very profitable. They do programming, websites, that sort of thing,” Heidi said.

“Yeah.”

“Personally, I mean I recognize him, we’ve talked, but largely about general business matters. I forget who introduced us at some fundraiser thing a year or two ago, might even be three by now. Why do you ask?” She said and took a healthy sip. “Oh, God, does that ever hit the spot. Thanks,” she said and blew me a little kiss.

I was beginning to wonder who needed tonight’s possibilities more, me or Heidi? “Why do I ask? Just trying to get a handle on the guy. He’s got a very difficult client, actually I’d say she’s a pain in the ass, but he’s smooth, I’ll give him that much, very smooth. I’m wondering if they maybe have some sort of relationship.”

“You mean like sex?” Heidi said and took another sip.

“Is there another kind?”

“God,” she groaned. “If I recall, he’s married and I think he told me his wife was super religious, some sort of born-again thingy,” she said, then drained her glass and pushed the empty toward me for a refill. I hadn’t touched mine, yet.

“I wouldn’t peg him as born again,” I said. Images of naked women from around the world and the vetting Royal’s various sites did before you could make an “appointment” with one of his clients flashed through my mind.

“I’ve never met her. I think they worked together at one point, she’s a techy, that was their common bond, at least initially.”

“Maybe I should give her my name and have her put me on her prayer list.”

“She’s probably not into doing the impossible, Dev.”

“Too bad,” I said.

“I guessing she’s pretty private. He’s at all sorts of functions, fundraisers, political events from both sides of the aisle, city, county, and even state, but I’ve never seen her with him.”

“I bet that was the photo on his desk, short hair, maybe kind of dull, certainly not what you’d call exciting.”

“And you can tell that from just one picture?”

“Well, he looked like he was having a good time and she sort of looked like the type who wanted to stop anyone and everyone from enjoying themselves.”

“Interesting, not. Hungry?”

“Yeah, let’s eat and let me give you a refill.”

Heidi snuggled up against me and gave me a kiss without waking up. I was content to stay just where I was. The sun was up and the digital on her dressing table said it was almost ten. Her empty Prosecco glass was next to the clock. She was going to need aspirin at some point and I figured I would be dispatched for caramel rolls or pastry while she showered. But, that was all somewhere in the future, for now Royal, Tony the jerk, and pain in the ass, Ashley were all far away. Then there was Tommy Flaherty….

Chapter Twenty-Six

Tommy Flaherty was going
to have some explaining to do in the near future. On my way home from Heidi’s I called Leo, my locksmith and told him I needed new front and backdoor locks.

“Again? Dev, didn’t we just replace those things about six months ago?”

“Was it that long ago?”

“You know, if you stopped handing out house keys to every woman who let you buy her a drink you could maybe cut down on this. I ought to put you on some sort of monthly plan and just change the damn things every thirty days.”

“You have a monthly plan?”

“I was kidding, Dev. I suppose you expect this today?”

“That would be nice. Can you do it?”

“No, to answer your question.”

“No?”

“I’m up north, fishing and forgetting all about my pain in the butt clients, well until you called. Anyway, I’m out of town until tomorrow.”

“Just tell me a time, Leo, and I’ll be home.”

“I can’t be there until the end of the day, I won’t be getting back in town until around four.”

“I’ll call you back with the lock manufacture so you can….”

“They’re Schlage, I’ve changed your locks so many times I’m probably their top customer in the five-state area.”

“I’ll be waiting for you, Leo.”

“Oh good,” he said not sounding all that sincere and hung up.

After leaving Heidi’s, I did a complete walk through my place, everything seemed fine. I couldn’t detect any signs that Tommy had been in this morning. Then again, until the golf shirt incident, I’d been completely clueless. Just to be on the safe side I figured I would work from home. I fired up my computer and went online to search for deals on coffins with carved lids. I could have better spent my time looking at nude beach sites, after almost two hours I hadn’t found anything resembling Andy’s missing coffin.