by R A Wallace
“Yeah.” She pulled up Mack’s notes and skimmed through them.
“We’ve spoken to all of the Indigo employees.” Mack leaned back in his chair.
Jo could hear Mack’s chair groan. “And the son.”
“Also an employee.” Mack stared at the banana peel to see if it moved.
“What do you think?” Jo leaned back in her chair and swiveled around to face Mack.
“He could have done it.” Mack shifted his gaze to Jo.
Jo was staring at the large yellow spider balancing on the rim of the trash can. “For the competition between the two aluminum and roofing businesses?”
“Many have killed for less,” Mack said. His eyes went back to the banana peel. He would have sworn it moved.
“True.” Jo reached for her keys. “C’mon.”
“Where are we going?” Mack pushed himself up from his chair.
“To question everyone again.” Jo made a wide berth around the trash can.
Wade followed her to the other side of the main office area. When he looked back, the banana peel was gone.
***
The man on the roof didn’t look happy. The scowl on his weathered face left no room for doubt. “You shouldn’t be up here.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time on roofs.” Callie easily moved from the ladder to the shingled roof. “Still looks pretty good. Are you just going to go over it with another layer?”
“Lady.” Sam stood straight and shook his head. “You can’t stay up here.”
Callie raised one hand, palm side out. “I just have a few questions.” She pointed down at her shoes. “Look. No heels.”
He looked down at her well-worn work boots and frowned. He reached up and adjusted the hat on his head.
“I understand that you worked for Guy Gallagher for a long time,” Callie said. “I’d like to hear about that.”
Sam looked down at the crew on the ground. One was staring up at him near the base of the ladder. The other two were standing near his pickup truck talking to each other and pointing at him.
“Lady.” Sam shook his head again.
“Please? I’ll leave as soon as you talk to me.” Callie closed the distance between them so she wouldn’t have to talk as loud.
Sam let out a loud sigh when Callie reached him. “Fifteen. I worked for him for fifteen years.”
Callie motioned to the other men in the crew. “Your crew?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah. Guy gave me my own crew pretty early on.”
“He must have trusted you.” Callie knew from experience that the position was earned, not given. “What about Jesse?”
Sam scowled. “What about him?”
“He seems to have taken over the whole business. Guy must have trusted him too.”
Sam looked away for a moment. “I don’t pay him no never mind.”
Callie translated that in her head. “A man with your experience shouldn’t have any problems finding a new job.”
“Here’s hoping,” Sam agreed. “I’ll finish up the job contracts Guy assigned me to first. Only right.” He glanced over at the crew by the truck.
Callie could hear someone climbing the ladder. “Why is Jesse running the business and not you?”
“I have no idea why he thinks it’s his place.” Sam looked over her shoulder.
Callie turned to see the other worker on the roof. He was staring at her curiously.
She returned her focus to Sam. “One more question. Do you know anything about Guy’s watch? Did it have some special sentimental value?”
“Not that I know of. I remember when he got it.”
“He bought it himself?”
Sam glanced over her shoulder again. “Yeah. When the one he had before that broke.”
“Thanks.” Callie turned and faced the other man. She flashed him a smile as she passed him on the way to the ladder. Without pause, she swung her leg around and began descending the ladder.
***
Callie spent her lunch driving. The hour-long trip seemed to take longer than it was. She knew that was because her mind was still on the Gallagher case. She wanted to get back to it and find some way to clear her father. As she neared the location given to her by Sierra and Michael, she slowed her speed. She took the long way around the block to check out the neighborhood. It wasn’t difficult to tell when she’d reached her final destination. The shiny red sports car proudly pictured on the social media pages sat in the driveway under a carport. Callie had officially found her catfish.
She thought about the description given by her catfish on his social media pages. Her dream man, Karl Kane, was four inches taller than she was. He was in his early forties and liked to work out both in the gym and outdoors. He travelled a lot for his various business ventures and was fluent in both English and Spanish.
Her eyes shifted to the house. It was in a nice neighborhood but looked as though it needed some work. One gutter was hanging precariously. Given the rains they got in Florida, Callie doubted it would last much longer. The trim around the windows needed painted.
She glanced at the other houses around her. They were all in much better shape and the yards were well maintained. No doubt, the neighbors weren’t happy to have the catfish in their midst. The few remaining shrubs meant to be landscaping looked near death. There were gaps near them implying that others suffering the same fate had already been removed with no attempt to replace them.
The garage door opened. The person that stepped out was carrying a bucket and some chamois cloths. Callie watched as a female she guessed to be around sixty bent over to pick up her water hose. She was wearing spandex leggings and a tight knit shirt with flip flops on her feet. Her spiky short hair was gray. Callie lifted her camera and began snapping pictures. After checking the pictures to make sure they came out okay, she lowered her camera.
She knew from past experience that she wasn’t done yet. Even when confronted with the photos of her catfish, Jamie Rucker wasn’t going to believe that the sixty-something female was her Jason Runyon, the man of her dreams that she’d met online. And she was also not going to believe that the same woman was Callie’s catfish, Karl Kane. She pulled out her phone and found the audio app then opened her car door, slipping her phone into her purse as she did.
She crossed the street quickly and walked up the driveway. The sixty something woman stood with her hose in her hand and stared at her.
“Mind if we talk?” Callie asked politely.
“I’m not buying.”
“Stella Sacco?”
Stella scratched her back with her free hand. “Who’s asking?”
“I’m Callie Indigo. I’m a private investigator.”
“Oh, another one.” Stella began spraying the hose again.
“I take it you’ve been found out before?” Callie wasn’t surprised.
“Price of doing business,” Stella said.
“You’re saying it hasn’t stopped you from luring people online into believing you’re the man of their dreams?”
Stella turned the hose off and began soaping the car. “Man of their dreams, woman of their dreams. I can be anything they want, as long as they keep sending me money.”
“I guess it could be kind of fun. Some days you get to be Jason Runyon. Other days, you’re Karl Kane.”
Stella stopped moving and looked at Callie. “Who? Oh, Karl.” She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re Kelly Kaminski. I knew there was something fishy about you. Should have trusted my instincts.” She picked up a dry chamois and began wiping the car.
“Funny you should mention fishy. Assuming a false identity and luring people online into a relationship is referred to as catfishing. But then, I’m guessing you already knew that.” Callie pulled her phone out of her purse. “For the record, you don’t mind that I’m recording this conversation, do you?”
Stella returned to drying her car. “Why would I care? No one will believe what you tell them anyway. They only believe what they rea
d online.”
“What is it with keeping the same initials as your mark?” Callie asked. “You choose names like Karl Kane or Jason Runyon. Why do you do that?”
“Why do you care?” Stella stopped drying and stood facing Callie. “I didn’t hurt you. I don’t hurt any of them. If they want to send me money to help me with my business or my problems, that’s their right. There’s no law against helping out a friend.”
“You aren’t my friend.” Callie turned off the audio app as she walked away.
Chapter Seventeen
Callie sat in her car with the list of current permits she had pulled for the Gallagher Aluminum and Roofing company as she waited for the crew to take a break. She’d limited her search to Pomelo Cove. Given the number of jobs the company was completing, it gave her a large enough pool of employees to speak with about the former owner, Guy Gallagher. She wondered how long that pool would last. No doubt, many of the crew members were already searching for new jobs.
Perhaps she should speak with her father about it. It was possible that some of Gallagher’s crew had put in applications with Indigo Aluminum and Roofing. As she waited for the crew to take their next break, she went through the permit applications looking for any other jobs sites close to where she was now. She needed information. So far, what she had found from Guy Gallagher’s employees wasn’t amounting to much.
She glanced up from the paperwork and saw the first crew member headed for a pickup truck in front of the house. She knew what that meant. The others would soon follow looking for whatever cold drink they’d brought to work with them for the day. Callie quickly got out of her car and walked over to the sweaty man reaching into the first pickup truck. There were two other trucks parked behind it. All of them had some sort of equipment, toolbox, or building material in the bed of the truck.
She could hear the music blasting from the radio one of the workers had plugged into the electrical outlet on the outside of the house. A couple of the other workers were milling around the house with a cold drink already in their hands. They must have kept a cooler close to the house. The young man in blue jeans and a tee with a long-sleeved shirt over the top of it pulled a large bottle of iced tea from a cooler in the first truck and began drinking. He eyed Callie curiously as he did.
“Hi, I’m Callie Indigo with Indigo Investigations. Mind if I ask a few questions?”
The young man glugged down more tea before lowering his bottle. “What kind of questions?” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Let’s start with your name,” Callie said.
“Derek.” He lifted the glass bottle again.
Callie glanced at the house. “Looks like you just got started on this one?”
Derek turned to look at the house. “Yeah. One of the last contracts my crew was assigned to before the owner was killed.”
“Did you work for him long?”
Derek turned back to Callie. “Not really. Couple of years maybe.”
“What kind of boss was he?”
“He was okay. I never actually worked with him at a job site. He just assigned the jobs.” Derek reached back into his cooler and pulled out a packaged cupcake.
Callie was familiar with the routine. Many of her father’s employees didn’t work directly with him day-to-day either. “Did he seem fair enough?”
Derek shrugged as he removed the wrapper from the cupcake. “Fair enough.”
“You ever spend any time with him outside of work?”
Derek made a face indicating the answer was no then bit off half of the cupcake and began chewing. His eyes narrowed as he chewed.
“What?” Callie asked.
Derek swallowed. “I did see him not long ago.”
“Outside of work?”
“Yeah.” The rest of the cupcake disappeared.
Callie waited for him to chew.
Derek washed the cupcake down with more tea. “At the cemetery at the edge of town.”
“Really?” That wasn’t what she was expecting to hear. “What was he doing there?”
“Same as anyone,” Derek said as he put the lid back on his tea. “Leaving flowers.”
“For who?” Callie thought she might know but asked anyway.
Derek shrugged. “No clue. It was right by the road though. That’s how I saw him. I was just driving by.”
***
She had to admit, he was kind of cute. It had taken a while for her to find some of the students that she was expected to speak with. The one she was looking at now had signed up for so many events that he was almost always competing. Finally, he’d taken a break. She’d first followed him to the cafeteria. She’d expected him to find a seat there after buying his food but instead he left the cafeteria and found a cluster of tables and chairs in an alcove near a wall of windows overlooking a lake behind the conference building.
Ariana glanced at the camera in the corner. Ever since Michael and Sierra had mentioned that she was on video at all times, she’d become more aware of their existence. It had been the one requirement Callie had made in order for Ariana to be involved in the case. It was a trade-off she was willing to make. No matter where she went, she was usually on camera anyway. Knowing that she was being monitored by the in-house security team didn’t bother her either.
“Mind if I sit here?” Ariana stopped next to the guy she’d been following.
He quickly pulled his food closer to give her more space on the table. “No, go for it.”
She smiled as she took a seat. “Taking a break?”
He let out a short laugh. “Yeah. You?”
“Yeah, me too.” Ariana looked outside. “It’s nice here.”
“It is. One of my favorite places to compete.” He picked up his drink.
“Where else have you been?” Ariana leaned back in her chair as she focused on him.
“All over. A lot of the qualifying competitions are actually handled online. It’s only the ones who progress to the next level that get invited to the on-site competitions, like this one.” He looked at her curiously. “What are you competing in?”
“I’m not. Not yet,” she said quickly. “I’m still trying to decide which major I want to focus on.”
“Oh.” He looked down at his food.
“I’m Ariana, by the way.”
“Aiden.” He picked up a fry. “Want to share?”
She smiled as she reached for a fry. “Thanks. “What are you competing in?”
“Cybersecurity.” He pushed the fries closer to her.
“What do you like most about it?”
“The challenge. I like that the scenarios they give us can really happen.” He picked up another fry. “Have happened, in some cases.”
“I guess that means you know a lot about hacking?”
Aiden gave a half shrug. “Everyone needs to know about hacking. It’s the only way to stay safe or keep a network safe.”
“White hat?” She’d heard Sierra and Michael use the term. It meant he had the same level of skills as a black hat hacker, but he used his knowledge for good and not evil.
He laughed again. “I’d rather be one of the good guys, yes.”
Ariana looked around. “Do you think there are any black hats here?”
Aiden’s hand paused for a moment as he reached for another fry. “Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “No reason. Just curious.”
A brief frown passed his face. “I hope not. Truth is, they’re probably everywhere.” He glanced at his phone. “I need to go. I signed up for another event.”
Ariana watched him gather his things as he stood. He left the fries in front of her.
“Hey, you forgot your fries,” she said as he began walking away.
He turned and walked backwards. “You keep them. That way, you’ll feel obligated to talk with me again.” He grinned before turning around again.
She shook her head but felt herself grinning back.
***
By the time
she got to the next work site, they were finishing up for the day. Three of the guys climbed into a pickup truck and drove away just as Callie pulled up to the modular home. A fourth guy was walking around the house picking up debris and caulking some of the seams in the sunroom they’d been working on. Callie doubted that the fourth guy would hang around much longer. She quickly moved to join him on the back side of the house.
“Looks like you got the short straw,” she said after introducing herself. She’d managed to get him to tell her that his name was Randy.
He grunted a reply and bent to apply more caulking.
“Have you worked for this company long?” Callie watched as a glob of caulking fell near his feet.
“About a year.” He ignored the caulking glob on the ground and moved over to another corner.
“I hear a lot of the employees are looking for new jobs already.” She watched him start at the bottom and work his way up with the caulking gun.
“Don’t blame them.” The gun made a noise as a large gob came out at once halfway up the seam. He tried to get more out but the tube was empty.
“What about you? Are you looking?”
He used the pointy end of the tube to smear the caulk as far up the seam as possible. “I started looking before the owner was killed.”
“Why’s that?”
Randy frowned at the caulk gun in his hand then looked up at the two feet or so of seam he hadn’t caulked. “Can’t stand some of the workers.”
“Any in particular?” She watched him bend down to the gob of caulk on the ground that had fallen earlier. He scooped it up with the tip of the tube.
“You don’t know him.” Randy started smearing the gob on the remaining seam.
“Is his name Jesse?” She watched him throw her a surprised look. She shrugged. “You aren’t the first to mention it.”
He tossed the caulking gun down and used his finger to smear the gob of caulking into a thin layer over the remaining seam. Callie knew it would crack before it even dried.
“Time to go.” He bent to retrieve the caulking gun but left smaller debris around it on the ground.
Callie watched him pull away before getting back into her own car.