by Alec Peche
They approached the boat owner, and Jill asked, “Did anyone show up here looking for us?”
“Yes, ma'am. They said they had emergency information for you and needed to find you. I told them approximately where I thought you might be located. Did they find you?”
“Yeah. Did you rent them a boat?”
“No they arrived with their own boat on that trailer over there,” he said pointing to an SUV with a trailer.
“They must still be enjoying the swamp,” Jill said.
They said their goodbyes and Jill grabbed her purse out of the trunk where they had locked it and brought it into the front seat. Nathan started the car but paused momentarily for Jill to take a few pictures of the vehicle. Then she checked her text to see if it had been sent and it was, so seeing that she had cell phone reception she called the detectives in case they were planning to come to her aide.
“Jill, where are you?” Heyer asked.
“We escaped the men inside the swamp and are on our way back to New Orleans. I just wanted to notify you in case you might be coming to our rescue and to put a stop to that.”
“Are you sure you don't want an escort back to the city?”
“The men still have not come back to their trailer, so we have a good head start on them. Are you close?”
“We're about twenty minutes away from the boat rental business.”
“I guess since you're part of the way out here we would appreciate the escort,” Jill said giving them a description of the rental car. Then she added, "I forgot to check my purse earlier to see if it contained any tracking devices. I don't understand how they found us here without some kind of tracking device. Let me call you back as soon as I finish an examination.”
“You forgot to check your purse earlier for tracking devices?" Nathan asked. “I wondered how they found us and why they couldn't find us inside the swamp. I didn't think of your purse.”
Jill felt a little sheepish for forgetting the small detail and went to work searching her purse.
Two minutes later after dumping the contents out on her lap, she found what looked like a button. Knowing she had no loose buttons in her purse, she figured this was the surveillance device.
She called Heyer back and said, “Found it. Should I toss it out the window or save it for you folks?”
“There might be fingerprints on it so I would save it.”
“It's too small to have fingerprints. I'll text you a picture of it.”
Thirty seconds later Heyer came back on the phone and said, “Toss it out a window. I agree we won't find anything useful on it.”
Jill flung it out into the waterways alongside the road they were traveling. Nathan had been monitoring his rearview mirror but saw no activity. They continued for another five minutes and saw the approaching car containing the two detectives. They stopped in the middle of the road exchanged a few words and then waited while the detectives made a U-turn and they continued back into the city.
Jill said to Nathan, “I feel like we should move our hotel as they obviously know where we have a room.”
“I was thinking the same thing. Should we move to another big hotel or stay in a charming bed and breakfast?”
“Let me see if there's a hotel closer to a police station.”
She did some quick research and found the hotel with the carousel bar was a block away from the French Quarter police station, and so she booked them a room. She sent the detectives' her pictures of the SUV including the VIN under the windshield. She also notified them that they were going to be moving their hotel room as soon as they got back and they liked that plan.
Nathan looked over at Jill and grinned, “Babe, it's never a dull day with you. Even a peaceful swamp cruise becomes a story to add to my memoir.”
Jill had never heard of Nathan writing a memoir and asked, “Are you keeping a running list of our adventures?”
“No, I guess I should, but I wasn't planning on doing the writing for several decades. When the time comes, I'll ask to borrow your case files, and the memories will come flooding back.”
She debated her response and decided to just smile smugly at him.
Chapter 21
They made their hotel switch under the watchful eyes of the detectives and then walked over to their building after depositing their luggage in the new hotel room.
“We ran the plates on that vehicle and they came back as belonging to a corporation that we've been unable to trace. Likewise the VIN.”
“Has it come up before in your vehicle searches?” Nathan asked curiously. Mostly he was silent during Jill's investigations as it was far from his area of expertise, but the occasional question popped out.
“Yes, on a rare occasion. Usually, it's because someone's re-engineered the VIN and they have stolen plates. This time the plates are not stolen, but the company that owns them seems to be nonexistent,” replied Heyer.
“I wonder if it's that same company that owns land near the marijuana field. Let me search through my emails from my friend Jo Pringle. I'm sure she mentioned the name of the company. Nathan and I are supposed to meet her for dinner in a couple of hours, and I'll see if she's found any more information on the company she was searching for which may be the one that owns the vehicle that followed us to the marina. I also have two other team members that I might call on for additional information. One of them is a social media maven and perhaps, she'll find information about the company.”
Jill found the email from Jo and compared the name to the one of the car registration, but it was different.
“The companies are different, rats! Tell me how does car registration work in Louisiana. Do you have to provide a social security number? Do corporations have to provide any special kind of identification since they wouldn’t have a social security number?”
“Yes, they have to submit an employer tax paying ID number. I’ll check with the Internal Revenue Service and see if they can find a reason for the discrepancy,” Heyer said. “I doubt I’ll have an answer for a few days.”
Jill couldn’t think of anything else to say about the case and so said, “Detectives, this might be our last face to face meeting as Nathan and I return to California tomorrow. I’ll keep working on this case remotely from California until it gets solved or I pick up a new case of my own. I’ll keep you posted if any of my team members find out anything new about these two mysterious companies.”
The detectives stood up and they shook hands adding, “I’m surprised to say that it’s been a pleasure to work with you. I’m surprised because I thought at best you’d be in our way, and at worst you would contaminate a crime scene and harm our case, but you made the discovery that this was a homicide and you’ve contributed to our evidence and you’ve attracted what we presume is the killer which further confirms that something big is going on behind this homicide.”
Jill and Nathan said their goodbyes and were shortly out on the street window shopping. They had another three hours before they were meeting Jo for dinner. So they visited a few distilleries so Nathan could get a feel for his new client’s competition. While they sipped rum at the first distillery, Jill sent a summary email to Angela and Marie bringing them up to speed on the case with a request that they investigate the two mysterious companies if they had time over the next few days; Marie through social media, and Angela connecting photos to them.
They joined Jo for dinner at a fantastic seafood restaurant in the area west of the French Quarter. They started with grilled chicken in a white BBQ sauce and fish sticks in beer batter. They moved on to main courses of smothered catfish, jumbo shrimp, and grilled tuna with sides of creamed corn, fried brussels sprouts, and white beans and bacon. Jo and Nathan were adventurous with their food choices while Jill was conservative. Still, they shared their fish entrees confirming for Jill that she still didn't like shrimp or catfish no matter who the chef was.
They lingered, wanting dessert, but needing some time to digest the excellent meal. If dessert
was anything like the main courses, they were in for a scrumptious time.
“How was the seminar this afternoon? Less boring than the morning?”
“Well nobody shot at me in the ballroom, so yes it was rather tame!” Jo said with a grin. “The discussion was more interesting as it was an analysis of the recent tax bill's impact on our business and some strategies to mitigate or take advantage of those changes.”
“Personally, I think I'd rather dodge bullets than listen to that topic. Kudos to you for finding it interesting,” Nathan said.
“You two would find the topic interesting if all of a sudden the government applied a creativity tax to every product you created Nathan and an alcohol abuse education tax for every liter of wine you produce.”
“Ouch,” said Jill and Nathan simultaneously.
“Personally, I'd be out of business probably as I don't produce enough wine to offset a new expense.”
“Exactly why I find the topic interesting. It appeals to my financial mind to figure out how to minimize the tax and maximize the deductions related to any new legislation.”
“On that terrifying scenario of new taxes, did you find out anything new about that corporation that we've been unable to identify or the new one I forwarded you the name of today.”
“As a matter of fact, I did. In between strategizing tax policies, I was running through the Paradise Papers to get a sense of the secret world of tax havens in hopes of finding our company there. The company was good, but I'm better. The company's incorporation and name changes moved from the Caymans to Hong Kong, and on to Switzerland which are all highly secret countries. Did you know there are one-hundred-forty-seven international banks on that tiny island of about fifty-thousand people?”
“So did you figure it out?” Jill asked following Jo's incorporation journey around the world.
“Of course, but once I tell you, you'll want to call your detective friends and high tail it out of this state so let's have dessert first.”
“And of course you've known of this problem for a few hours and felt no need to tell the story until dessert,” Nathan said with a grin. “I like your kicked-back attitude about the investigation.”
“A girl has got to have her priorities; besides helping Jill with her detective cases, I admit on occasion, I'll put a great meal and an excellent dessert before my contributions to a case.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” said Jill pretending sangfroid. Then she leaned forward and whispered urgently, “Spill the beans, who or what is this corporation?”
“Seriously Jill, I won't say anything inside this restaurant as we don't know who's listening and this corporation ratcheted-up the stakes this morning with the rifle shots. Of course that's assuming they're behind it, but until I know otherwise, it's safer to assume they're at the root of it.”
“Then let's leave now,” Jill said wanting to know Jo's information.
“Jill, thirty minutes won't make a difference in the scheme of things. You're just going to have to wait until I finish my salted caramel cake.”
“Com'on Jill, when have you turned down key lime pie?” Nathan asked. “Besides I want to try their magic cake. Let's have patience and finish our meal. You have the rest of the evening to hear Jo's news.”
Jill heaved a sigh and surrendered to their wishes. She felt the urge to gobble her dessert both because it was delicious and she wanted to hear Jo's news, but she'd never been good at fast eating. Jo on the other hand had been raised in a large family and experience had taught her to eat fast or lose out. She knew she could always count on Jo to clean her plate quickly.
Finally, they finished their dessert, settled the bill, and made to depart the restaurant. Nathan paused at the door and asked Jill and Jo, “Do we walk or call a car service?”
Jo replied, “Normally, I'd say, let's walk, but tonight, given today's incident at the cemetery, we should call a car service to take us. In fact, I'm so paranoid, I would say we should split up and take two or three separate cars.”
Jill's eyes went bug-eyed with thoughts of who the mysterious client was. It really had Jo rattled. She said, “Okay, how about if you and I take one car and Nathan can take another. We'll have the restaurant call a taxi company and we'll use my car service app. That should be as random as we can make it.”
They did as planned with Nathan's taxi showing up before their car service, but they could see the car in the distance heading their way and so they convinced Nathan to get into his car.
Less than a minute later, Jo and Jill were getting into the back seat of a silver SUV. As the drive was so short, Jill had sweetened the pot with the promise of a ten dollar tip. Once she did their car was routed their way and they left for the short journey to Jo's hotel. When they got there, they found Nathan waiting for them. They decided to have their discussion in the hotel's exercise room figuring there wouldn't be many customers at this time of the night and they lucked out as there were none.
“Okay I find all this secrecy to be weird. Who's the person behind the corporation that has you so spooked?” Jill asked.
“I won't bore you with the chain of documents I ran through until I reached the end, but the person that owns that marijuana field is the husband of United States Senator Stephanie Harris.”
“Really?” Jill said, turning that information over in her mind. “Why are you so convinced that she represents a clear and present danger?”
“Because there were so many deceptions in the incorporation documents. I had to hunt through countless documents and I can't remember how many incorporations to find the owner and guess what? He's dead. Why would a single pot field need that much secrecy? There's something more there. Perhaps Marie can check her sources.”
“I asked for her and Angela's help earlier and I'll forward this name to them. What do you mean he's dead?”
“The senator was married just after college and her husband died in a car accident over twenty years ago. The document listing him as the owner was filed in the last year. That's a very long time to be using your dead husband's name especially since you remarried and had kids with another man before divorcing him. His last name is not Harris, it's Carter and I spent a long time figuring out how he was related. I'm heading home early tomorrow morning and I can't wait to get out of town. No offense Nathan and Jill, but this case is becoming hot, and I don't want to be attached to it.”
“This is turning out to have more layers than I thought when I took this case on. Even when Alicia and I determined that this was a homicide by nutmeg, I thought I just had a smart murderer, perhaps there was an angry woman in his background since nutmeg poisoning would point to that. I didn't think I'd have an angry female senator. Do you have the documents or the steps that you went through to arrive at your conclusion? I'll need to recreate it for the detectives. They would blow me off without evidence.”
“I'll spend some time creating a flow chart for you tonight and I'll email it to you.”
“Do you feel safe in your hotel room,” Nathan asked. “I could get us a suite at my hotel or perhaps one here that we can share.”
“As Jill said I'm overly spooked and after I email you the flow chart, I'm sure I'll crash into sleep after that wonderful dinner and the tedious work of documenting my research. I'll be fine.”
“Okay then, do me a favor and put together your flowchart in the business center of the hotel. That way if there's anyone watching our departure from this hotel with plans to search your hotel room, they will find it empty,” Nathan said.
“Okay now you're scaring me with the offer of the joint room and suggesting I work in the business center.”
“We're both scaring each other with our thoughts,” Nathan acknowledged. “You have our cell phones, call us if you need us.”
“Will do and I do like your idea of the business center,” Jo said giving Jill and Nathan goodbye hugs. “I don't know when I'll see you guys again, but I'm sure it won't be long before you try to get us involved in a new
case.”
“Always looking to pad our vacation fund,” Jill said in reply and they walked to the business center and left Jo inside and exited the hotel.
“Do you think she's safe there alone?” Jill asked Nathan.
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“If she's been associated with you and this case, then I don't think she's safe. If you're the sole target, then she's safer by herself than with us.”
“That's my thinking. I'm going to hope there was no way to identify who the person was who was with me in the cemetery and no attacks have been made on Alicia.”
They left the hotel and walked the two blocks to their own hotel without incident. Nathan said to Jill, “I really should have checked with you before I booked this hotel. If I had I would have booked us into her hotel.”
“Not to worry. After you booked into this hotel, I looked into moving us to Jo's hotel, but it sold out with the convention she's attending.”
They settled in to do work, Nathan playing with some design sketches for his new client and Jill checking in with Angela and Marie to see if they would have time to contribute to the case. Then she saw the email come through from Jo on her investigation. She was reading the email when her cell phone rang.
Surprised that anyone would be calling her at this late hour, she was immediately worried. Checking the caller ID, she saw it was Jo. She said to Nathan as she hit the connect button, “It's Jo.”
“Hey Jo, what's up? I was just going over your email.”
“I just returned to my room and someone's ransacked it and I can't stay here. Can you send Nathan to come get me?”