Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  “Jenni…”

  Jenni couldn’t imagine spending an entire week around her family. Especially not all of her family. And on an island? It almost sounded like she’d be trapped there with them. She couldn’t imagine a more horrible situation.

  “Jenni.”

  What would she do with herself on an island for an entire week? She’d go insane – especially around all that family. It would be cruel and inhuman punishment!

  “Jenni!”

  She jumped and turned and found Mister Bosch standing almost right over her. “Yeah?”

  “Where were you?”

  “What do you mean? Right here.”

  “I called you several times and you didn’t answer.”

  “Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking about something.”

  “What?”

  “Oh…nothing.”

  Robbie Bosch perched himself precariously on the edge of the little table. “What’s eating your goat this time?”

  Ugh! Jenni rolled her eyes. “My stupid grandmother.”

  “What about her?”

  “She’s turning seventy-five and throwing a big birthday bash.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding! It’s not nice at all.”

  “Why not?”

  “She’s rented an entire island down in the keys and is…demanding that every last person in the family come for an entire week! I’d die down there!”

  Robbie Bosch chuckled. “It can’t be as bad as all that. You haven’t taken any days off since you started working with us…what…about a year and a half ago? Two years ago? I’m not even sure. Go and enjoy yourself for a week.”

  Jenni’s jaw hung limp as she stared up at him. “Now I know you’re kidding. Me? On a beach? Trapped there with my entire family? Every last one of them hates me. Every last one of them wants to do nothing but condemn me. Do you think I want that? Hell no!”

  Robbie chuckled. “Yeah, I know. Sometimes family can be murder. But are you sure they’d still do that? Trust me Jenni, you don’t look even remotely close to what you did when you first started here.”

  Jenni smiled. “Thanks. I try.”

  “So maybe it won’t be that bad.”

  Jenni shook her head. “Trust me, it will be. None of them understand. They never have, and they never will.”

  “So you’re not going?”

  “Not a chance! It’s just that…”

  “What?”

  “Well…”

  “What?”

  “My grandmother.”

  “Yeah?”

  Jenni sighed. “She told my Aunt Sally that she’s going to give everyone an extra thousand dollars just for showing up. Do you have any idea how badly I need that money? There’s so many things I can’t do for you here because I don’t have a car and I have to take the bus everywhere. And, well, you know how much I want to go to a doctor and finally get started on hormone therapy.”

  Robbie Bosch knew that the money he paid Jenni wasn’t that much. In fact, since she had started working for him, every dollar he had given her had been pretty much under the table. She wasn’t an “official” part of his tiny firm that consisted of just him and his wife. Jenni was just…extra help. Even though since she had started helping out, she had become very good at her job, good enough that his wife was now spending more time at home, or out with her friends instead of coming into the office. But putting Jenni officially on the payroll wasn’t in his business plan.

  “Jenni,” he said, “anyone turning seventy-five, especially your grandmother, is a pretty big deal. She’s lived a good long life.”

  “Huh!” Jenni grunted. “I’m not sure how good it’s been. She’s always been pretty much a miserable person just to be around.”

  “But my point is, you’ve changed an awful lot in the last year. More than Shirley and I ever imagined you could. Maybe things won’t be nearly as bad as you think. And Jenni, I do know you need that money. I’m just sorry I can’t pay you more than I do.”

  Jenni shook her head. “I’m not going, so don’t worry about it. And yeah, I certainly wouldn’t turn down a few extra dollars, but I’m just grateful that you’re paying me what you do. Nobody else would have hired me back then. I know that. I still can’t believe you were that nice to me. And then…well…” she pointed at her computer. “Believe it or not, I discovered that I really love doing this stuff. I don’t really want to do anything else.”

  Robbie Bosch felt even worse about the way he paid her, but he wasn’t going to change that. “I’m glad you enjoy it,” he said. “Most people wouldn’t.”

  “Well I do! It’s all like…one big mystery for me to solve.”

  Robbie smiled. “I guess that’s one way to look at it. And speaking of mysteries, I’ve got another one for you to look into.”

  “Sure,” Jenni replied brightly. “I haven’t quite finished with the Hernandez job yet, but I shouldn’t be too much longer at it. I’m going back to city hall in a little while to finish up.”

  “Good! I’ll be happy to get your findings.” He stood up from the table he had been sitting on. “Come into the office and let me give you the details on this new case.”

  As he led the way into his office, he noticed the disapproving look his wife was giving him. What was eating her now? He sat behind his desk while Jenni stood in front of it. He picked up a file folder and passed it over to her. “Frederick Granger,” he said, letting her know the name of their latest client. “House burgled. Alarm system was still active when they came home. As always, everything I know so far is in there. And Jenni, if you can get to that sooner rather than later, I’d appreciate it. From the way he talked, I think Mr. Granger is rather wealthy.”

  Jenni understood. “Sure Mr. B,” she replied. “I’ll look into it right away.”

  “I still need that Hernandez research finished!” Robbie reminded her.

  “Like I said, I’m almost done.”

  Back at her little table, Jenni read what little information had been in the folder. Basically, Mr. Granger and his wife had been out for the evening having dinner with friends. When they came home, they discovered all the electronics in the house missing, along with all his wife’s jewelry. Mr. Granger claimed he had set the alarm like he always did before leaving, and that the alarm was still active when they got home. The only other thing that was in the file, was that Mr. Granger had come to them because he didn’t feel like the police were going to be much help. She understood that. Especially with something like a simple burglary.

  She put the file folder in her purse and went back to working on the Hernandez case. For the next hour, like she had done every day for the last two weeks, she checked through each and every social media system that she had been able to find for anyone even remotely close to Hernandez and his wife. Hernandez had claimed that his wife was cheating on him. She was almost certain that he was right. And she had already figured out who with. Mr. B now had all that information about the wife’s friends, along with her suspicions as to who his wife was hanging out with. As a private investigator, getting the proof of it was his job. Jenni’s job was to help with all the tedious research that could lead them to that proof.

  She was all but done with it now for that case. The only thing left was to finish going through the maze of records at city hall. She didn’t expect to find anything new today on the case at all, but as Shirley and Mr. B had both taught her, it was important to be thorough. Too many mistakes could be made if you didn’t check all the facts – about everything!

  With her internet check finished, she grabbed her backpack purse and called a cheery goodbye to Shirley as she headed out the door to the bus stop.

  Once she was gone, Shirley got up from her desk and went in to talk to her husband. Robbie had a pretty good idea he was about to find out just what seemed to be irking his wife this time. “You might at least consider paying her a little more,” Shirley told him as she took one of the seats in front of
his desk.

  So that’s what this was about. Robbie shook his head. “She knew the conditions when I first hired her.”

  “That was a long time ago – before she had any experience.”

  “If she wasn’t satisfied, she’d go somewhere else.”

  “You know perfectly well that good researchers like her are worth their weight in gold.”

  “As I said, if she wasn’t happy, she’d go somewhere else.”

  “You bastard!” Shirley said as she got up angrily from her chair. “You know perfectly well that very few places would hire someone like her.”

  Robbie shrugged. “I did.”

  “She does twice the work I do, and to be honest, she a better researcher than I am. How many times has she come up with things neither of us had ever thought of? You’re a bastard Robbie Bosch!” With that, she angrily walked out.

  Robbie chuckled. “If I wasn’t a bastard,” he called behind her, “I wouldn’t be in this business!”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  The connection of three different busses brought Jenni right where she needed to go. Ten minutes later, she pleasantly greeted the woman who watched over the records at city hall. Jenni had been there so often that the woman barely gave her more than a welcoming smile. For the next two hours, she went through the tedious process of finding out everything possible about the few remaining “people of interest” that Mr. B had her looking into.

  When she finally finished with the last one, she started digging into everything she could find about Frederick Granger, their latest client. It took her no time to list all of his properties, as well as some of the tax details about each one. She found nothing in his wife’s name, which meant that he most likely controlled all the money. From there, she started checking birth and marriage records, looking into each and every member of his immediate family that she could dig up, including some not so immediate members she was able to find.

  According to the file Mr. B had given her, the alarm system had been on when they left, and it was still on when they came back. To her, that could only mean just one of three possible things. Either whoever had robbed them had the security codes to turn it off, then turn it back on before they left, or the system had never been on to begin with, or more troubling, Mr. Granger had robbed himself. The only problem with that last theory was that Mr. Granger had come to them, to Bosch Investigating, to get some help with finding out who had done it. But on the other hand, Granger coming to them could possibly be a big help with his insurance claim if he did indeed do it himself. Either way, she figured that Mr. Granger should be getting a good insurance settlement for everything. So that left her with one other question. What else had been stolen that was so much more valuable…and that he didn’t want anyone to know about?

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Jenni,” Sally said as she stood in the doorway of her niece’s bedroom. Inside, she saw Jenni folding some of her laundry.

  “Yeah Aunt Sally?” Jenni replied as she folded a pair of panties.

  “May I come in?”

  “Uh…duh! Of course,” Jenni laughed.

  Oh, that laugh. How the heck did “he” manage to sound so feminine? She just wanted to reach out and squeeze her! In the last two years, Jenni had become the daughter she never had. She had become the child she never had. And that made Jenni all that much more precious to her. She went in and sat in her bed.

  “What’s up?” Jenni asked.

  “Jenni,” Sally started. “Won’t you please reconsider going to your grandmother’s party.”

  “Aunt Sally, you know why I’m not going.”

  “Yes, I know, and to be honest, I agree with you. But this time…this time…please. For me?”

  Jenni saw how serious her aunt was. She went over and sat on the bed next to her. “What’s going on Aunt Sally? You know how much I don’t want to go. I’ve got no good reason to go.”

  Sally sighed. “Yes, I know. And like I said, I don’t blame you. But Jenni, that extra thousand dollars Grandma offered to you and me. Jenni, I really need that money now.”

  “So do I Aunt Sally, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stoop that low to get it.” Something her aunt had just said suddenly hit home. “What do you mean about the money she offered to you and me? You make it sound like Grandma isn’t offering that money to anyone else.”

  “I’m pretty sure she isn’t. I’m betting that she only said she was. She was using that as a bigger bargaining chip to force me to make you go. What she really wanted was for me to throw you out of here.” She quickly put her hand on Jenni’s arm. “Don’t worry dear, there’s not a chance in the world of me doing that. I already dread you going off and leaving me someday.”

  Jenni hugged her. “You know I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Someday!” Sally emphasized.

  “So what’s so bad this time that you need the money?”

  Sally grunted her frustration. “My car broke down again today.”

  “Again?”

  “Again! According to the garage, I’m looking at between seven and eight hundred dollars to fix it this time.”

  “Aunt Sally! What are you going to do?”

  “The same as I do every time. I’ll have to come up with the money and take the bus like you do until I get it back.”

  Jenni’s face turned serious. “Aunt Sally, you’re not trying fool me or anything, just to get me to go, are you?”

  “Oh Jenni, I wish to God that I were. But no, the car broke down again, and we’re going to be out a lot of money – again.”

  Jenni sighed. She did not want to go to that family gathering birthday party for her Grandmother. “Let me think about it, Aunt Sally. I really don’t want to go.”

  Sally pulled Jenni into a hug. “I know dear. But that extra thousand dollars just became more important to me than ever.”

  “And she won’t give it to you if I don’t show up?”

  “You know your grandmother. I’m sure she won’t. All she wants is for every last person in the family to be there for her.”

  Jenni shook her head. “I’ll have to think about it, Aunt Sally. I’ll really have to think about it.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  It was bedtime when Jenni knocked at the open door to her Aunt’s bedroom. “Aunt Sally?”

  “Come in,” Sally replied, always glad to see her niece.

  Jenni walked into the room and sat on her bed. “Okay,” she finally said with a sigh. “I’ll go, but I have two conditions.”

  “What’s that?” Sally asked, hope springing suddenly in her breast.

  “First of all, Grandma has to guarantee both of us somehow that we’re each going to get that extra thousand dollars for showing up. I keep getting this nagging suspicion that she may try to get out of it.”

  “Me too!” Sally agreed. “Okay, I’ll tell her. What else?”

  “That as part of our transportation expenses, Grandma agrees to let us rent a really nice car for the trip.”

  Sally laughed. “Now that’s one I can really get behind.” She held her hand up in the air and let Jenni slap it.

  Jenni knew she had agreed, but she was still having nothing but second thoughts about it. She was doing this for one reason and one reason only – she owed her entire life to her aunt. She’d do anything in the world for her.

  Chapter 2

  “Mr. B!” Jenni called as she stared at the computer screen on her small table in the outer office. When she got no answer, she got up and went to his open door. “Mr. B?”

  “Yeah Jenni?” Mr. Bosch replied when he finally looked up from the file he was working on.

  “Can you come look at this? I think I found something.”

  Robbie Bosch knew that if Jenni thought she found something, then most likely it was worth taking a look. His wife had been right when she insisted that Jenni was a first-rate researcher, and she had been working on the Granger case for almost two weeks now. He go
t up from his desk. “Okay, show me.”

  Jenni led him back to her computer where she sat down and pointed at the screen. “This is the Twitter account of Granger’s nephew Todd. See where he’s bragging about a job well done and making a bunch of money? Mr. B, from everything I’ve looked at so far, he doesn’t have a job. But he does seem to go out to a lot of clubs and bars all the time, which means to me that he’s not exactly hurting for money.”

  If it wasn’t for the last thing she had just added, Bosch would have tossed the Twitter entry off. “So what are you thinking?”

  “I think that Todd knew the code to his Uncle’s alarm system. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Either that, or Granger did it himself as part of an insurance scam.”

  “I saw all that in your initial notes two weeks ago, along with your suspicion that there was something even more valuable missing. I’m not writing that possibility off either.”

  Jenni was always glad when he didn’t dismiss her theories, and once again he seemed to be taking them seriously.

  “So you think I should look closer at his nephew?” Robbie Bosch asked. “Follow him for a while and see where he goes?”

  “It couldn’t hurt,” Jenni replied. “But…I was kind of thinking of something else.”

  “What?”

  “Um…his address is about six blocks from where I live. I could walk there in about two minutes. I’d like to kind of hang around that block a bit and see who he goes out with.”