Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery Box Set

by Jamie Lee Scott

I nodded. The less said, the better.

  The next question he addressed to Charles. “What would Jackie’s daughter be doing in this house, and why would you assume she was here?”

  Charles looked at me, but I just looked back at him and smiled. “It’s really a very long story, and I’d love to tell you the whole thing, but maybe you want to get a look at the body before you ask us more questions,” he said.

  Nick’s eyes went wide. “Charles, you’re very lucky I like you. I usually don’t take well to being told how to do my job.”

  All innocence, Charles said, “No, I’m not telling you how to do your job. It’s just that this is a very long story, and there is more to it than a dead body. I could go into it in detail for you now if you like.”

  Nick shook his head. “You two stay put. I’ll be back out here in a bit. Then you can bore me with all the details.”

  “I’d just like to say one thing,” Charles called after Nick as he walked away.

  Nick turned.

  “You’ll want to be sure you take his computer and cell phone into evidence,” I said before Charles could speak.

  Charles nodded, “What she said.”

  Nick continued into the house. That was when I noticed his partner as she stepped out from the passenger side of his Crown Vic.

  “Now, that is one tall drink of water.” Charles watched her walk toward the house.

  “So cliché,” I said. But he was right. She was as tall as Nick, if not taller. She wore a black pencil skirt that grazed the skin above her knees, and a black polo shirt with the Salinas Police Department logo. The skin that her uniform exposed was tight, tan, and covered well-defined muscles. This girl was an athlete. I immediately hated her.

  She walked past us and smiled, but didn’t speak.

  We both turned and watched her walk into the house. She looked as good, if not better, from the back. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a neat little bun at the nape of her neck.

  I finally came to my senses and asked Charles, “I forgot to look at her face. Is she cute?”

  “No, cute isn’t a word I’d use to describe her.” Charles still stared.

  I was immediately relieved. No one should have a body like that and be cute, too.

  Charles added, “She’s freaking gorgeous.”

  There went the relief. I hated her more now. I didn’t care if she was the nicest person on Earth. She was sexy as hell, and she was Nick’s partner. Not that I wanted Nick, but I didn’t want him to be partnered with that. But now it was all the more clear why we hadn’t stayed in touch since Esme Bailey’s murder was solved. I felt a little sick.

  “Can we go?” I didn’t want to be here when Nick and his partner came out of the house.

  “Oh, Mimi, she’s not after Nick. Suck it up and wait until they come back out. Besides, Nick told us to stay put.”

  “She could be engaged to Nick, and it wouldn’t be any of my business. I don’t care if she’s a knockout.” Lie, lie, lie. “I just hope she’s a good partner for him, and they work well together.”

  Charles walked to the curb laughing out loud.

  I followed after him. “What?”

  “What a crock of crap. You have it so bad for that boy, you probably have a vibrator named Nick.”

  I nearly choked. But I was afraid to say anything. If I told him I didn’t have a vibrator, he’d say I needed to get one. If I said I didn’t name my vibrators, he’d say I should. There was no good response.

  Charles panted and fanned himself. “Nick, oh, Nick.”

  He sat on the curb just as he said it, and his head was in prime position for me to smack it, so I did.

  “Ouch.” He rubbed his head and laughed. “Just invite him to your house, seduce him, and be done with it.”

  I sat beside him. I didn’t want to seduce anyone; I wanted to be seduced. “I’m going to have lunch with Sebastian.”

  This time Charles nearly choked. “Huh? You can’t be serious.”

  “I am serious. He said he’s been trying to work up the courage to ask me out for months. He didn’t want me to think he was such a creep.”

  “He’s not a creep, but he’s certainly not your type.” Charles pushed up his sleeves to make a point.

  “But something tells me the sex would be so hot. I’m thinking just a one-night stand.” I couldn’t really see myself in bed with Sebastian, but it was fun to get a reaction out of Charles.

  “Mimi, you wouldn’t know what a one-night stand was if you sat on it. Sebastian may be mysterious, but remember, you are having sex with everyone he ever had sex with. Let’s see, that would include not only a murder victim who literally lost her head, but would also include a murderer. Think about that while you are in the throes of passion.”

  “Yup, Charles, once again you’ve ruined it for me. I just wanted a night of being someone other than me for a change, and you tainted it.”

  “If you want a night of being someone else, join a LARP. Don’t have sex with someone you’d never even consider.” Charles’s words sounded light, but his face was dead serious.

  LARP, live action role-playing, was exactly what Sebastian did in his spare time. Not all of his spare time, but he and a few others ran a vampire game played in Santa Cruz.

  Resigned, I said, “I know. It’s not like I’d ever do anything with Sebastian. I can fantasize all I want about being a bad girl, but it’s just not me. Though I would love to have sex with him, and make sure Susan knew about it.”

  “You want to lose your head, too?” Charles reminded me of her modus operandi.

  Susan was psycho, but for the time being, she was behind bars. Somehow, even though she already tried to kill me once, I wanted to flaunt a relationship with her ex-boyfriend. I’d give her a reason to want to kill me this time.

  That sounded vindictive, and I’m not that kind of person. But it’s hard not to want to do bad things to someone who wanted me dead.

  Before I could answer Charles, we heard a commotion behind us. I looked to see “hot and gorgeous” dashing from the house and out to the street. She barely reached the curb before she spewed liquid and chunks like a fire hose. I had to turn away.

  Charles jumped up and pulled off his shirt. She stood with her knees slightly bent, her hands resting on them, and didn’t even look up as Charles offered his shirt for her to wipe her mouth.

  I stared in complete shock. I’d never seen Charles be even remotely chivalrous, not even to another man. What did this woman have that I didn’t? What did she have that other women didn’t? When I’d puked at Nick’s murder scene a few months back, he was livid. He wasn’t even following his partner out of the house to reprimand her.

  Correct that. Nick charged out the door. He looked incensed and made a beeline straight for his partner. I tensed, waiting for the barrage of harsh words.

  He stopped next to her and put his hand on her upper back. “You okay?”

  What? I jumped up, furious. Before I could stop myself, I stomped over to the puking woman. “I puke at your crime scene, and you all but cuss me out. She’s a detective who should know better, and you baby her? What the hell is wrong with this picture?”

  What the hell was wrong with me? I’m not a jealous person, but I could feel a rage bubbling inside me, and I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with vomit. But I didn’t back down.

  Nick glowered at me, then grabbed my arm and escorted me to the driver’s side of his car.

  I went willingly, not sure if I was pissed off, or beyond embarrassed.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you a nut job?”

  “Excuse me?” I decided I was pissed.

  “She’s a cop. She belongs at that crime scene, and this is her first murder. She’s entitled to get a little sick when the victim’s head is bashed in like a ripe pumpkin.”

  I yanked my arm away from him. “Well, I’d say a decapitation is worse than that creepy assed pedophile lying on the floor in his bedroom with his pants down. Too b
ad his dick wasn’t cut off, too.”

  Nick started to berate me again, and then said, “Pedophile? Oh, no, Mimi, what’s going on?”

  I leaned against Nick’s car and told him the whole story about Jackie’s daughter, the text messages, and everything I knew, which wasn’t much at this point.

  “Is that why you were in his house? You were actually looking for Jackie’s daughter?”

  “Jackie went to give Catey back the cell phone she confiscated, but Catey wasn’t in school. Charles didn’t want to delete the text messages because we didn’t want her to know we were able to get into her phone. William had sent Catey a message with his address.” I took a deep breath. “Jackie saw the message, and when Catey wasn’t at the school, she came here looking for her.”

  “Where is Jackie now?” Nick’s face burned with fury.

  I cringed. “I don’t know.”

  “You. Don’t. Know.” Nick spat the words. “You realize Jackie may be our murderer, right? Why is it that you don’t think straight when your friends are involved in bad stuff?”

  “Jackie didn’t kill William. She was never even in the house.” So there, you pompous jerk. “She was still in the truck when we arrived, just staring at the house.”

  “I’m not done with you yet. I’m going back over to talk to Piper and see if she’s okay. I want you to bring Jackie to the police station ASAP.” Nick walked back to Charles and Piper.

  Charles asked her, “You going to be okay?”

  Piper had stopped retching, but she still looked pale. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  I looked around, and noticed that even more neighbors had gathered. The man who was talking to me earlier was animated and gesturing. He had a group of housewives gathered around him.

  Another patrol car arrived, and when the officer got out of the car, Nick said, “Get crime scene tape up around the perimeter of the property, stat.”

  The officer popped the trunk and grabbed the yellow tape.

  When the other uniformed officer walked over, Nick said, “Start canvassing the neighborhood, ask them if they saw or heard anything. Let’s get moving on this.”

  I looked around and saw another neighbor, a woman of about fifty, standing on her porch. She didn’t try to come over to the yard, or get closer; she just stood there. Across the street, a man in his sixties retreated back into the house as soon as he saw the officer approaching him. Several other neighbors stood on the sidewalk and the street.

  Piper seemed to be doing better and handed Charles back his shirt. Charles said, “No, no, you keep it. I have plenty more.”

  Nick approached. “Detective Mason, you ready to go back inside, or would you like to stay out here a bit longer?”

  Detective Piper Mason. I hated her on sight. She was stunning, and vulnerable, and the boys just couldn’t get enough. Funny, Nick had called her Piper when talking to me, but Detective Mason in front of Charles. I’d just bet that they were sleeping together. No, no, I wasn’t going to think like that, it wasn’t my business. I walked back to the trio.

  “Detective Mason, I’m sorry for my outburst. I had a similar incident a few months back, and Detective Christianson wasn’t nearly as respectful. You are lucky he likes having you as a partner.” I started to put my hand out to shake, but thought better of it. “By the way, I’m Mimi Capurro. I own the Gotcha Detective Agency.”

  “Hi Ms. Capurro, I wish we could have met on better terms. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Well, if that didn’t take my breath away. I covered by stammering, “This, uh, this is my associate, the shirtless wonder, Charles Parks.”

  Charles performed a slight bow, nicely contracting his abdominals. “Nice to meet you, Detective Mason. I always enjoy a memorable introduction. Rest assured, I’ll always remember this one.”

  Piper laughed. She seemed to be getting her color back.

  “I’d love to stick around for this cocktail party, but I have a dead body in the house,” Nick said, as he left us standing at the curb. When he reached the front door, he turned back and said, “I’ll be here until the crime scene techs finish processing the scene. Mimi, I want to see you, Charles and Jackie in my office in two hours. Got it?”

  Charles cooed, “He wants to see you.”

  I snapped back. “He wants to see us.”

  Nick disappeared into the house. Piper headed to Nick’s car and sat in the passenger seat.

  Charles called to her, “Nice meeting you. See you around.”

  I nudged him. “What the hell?”

  We started to our car before Charles responded. “I take care of my kind.”

  I looked back at the detective, who had her head in her hands. “Your kind?”

  “Oh, yeah, I know Detective Mason and I will be fast friends.”

  Charles opened the passenger door for me, went around to the driver’s side and got in. He put his Spyder in gear and laid rubber, showing off for his new detective friend.

  “I just know Nick is screwing her.”

  Charles roared with laughter. “Oh, God, now that’s a good one.”

  33

  I was out of options, and we had to be at the police station in 15 minutes. I’d tried Jackie’s house, the YMCA where she took kickboxing, her salon (though who’d go to the salon with this mess at hand?), and even back to Catey and Corey’s school. At a dead end, I did what I always do: I went to Charles.

  Since Gemma had the afternoon off, Charles was manning the reception area. I saw him fiddling with his phone, which he promptly put away when he saw me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked casually, not wanting him to think I was being nosey.

  “Nothing.”

  Way too abrupt an answer for him, so I knew he was up to something. “No, really, what are you doing?”

  Charles got his phone back out. He showed me the screen. “I’m tracking Jackie.”

  “What?” I was amazed and thrilled at the same time. Then I thought about it. “Wait a minute, something about this is a bit disturbing.”

  He sat the phone on the reception desk. “All of the work phones have GPS chips embedded in them. Jackie happens to have her work phone with her.”

  “All of the phones?”

  “Yes, Mimi, even yours. I thought it was the best way to be sure of your safety while out in the field. If you don’t answer for some reason, like Jackie isn’t answering now, I can at least know where you are.”

  This was Charles at his brilliant best. He thought of the techie things that made us a better and safer business. I can’t tell you how many angry spouses I’ve dealt with over the last few years. The women are far worse than the men. I can run at a good clip, I carry a stun gun and, a pistol, and I pack a good punch, but some of the women still scare me.

  Just to play devil’s advocate, I said, “What if we’re separated from our phone?”

  “Hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll probably get you drunk some night and embed a chip in your ass. Then you’ll never lose your ass for anything.” He laughed.

  I grabbed the phone from Charles. “Come on, we have less than fifteen minutes to find Jackie, snatch her up, and get to the cop shop before Nick puts out an APB.”

  Charles dashed past me. “I’m driving.”

  Fine. Driving with Charles in the passenger seat was like being in driver’s ed all over again. I got in the passenger seat of my Land Rover and let Charles play sleuth as we tracked Jackie down. I kept watching to screen on Charles’ phone to make sure the blip didn’t move to another location.

  I’d tried to track Jackie at all of her favorite haunts, but I should have been looking for Catey’s favorite places. She was sitting with Catey, sharing a messy looking sundae at Baskin Robbins. Watching them stuff ice cream in their mouths made me wish we didn’t have to interrupt. It also made me realize I hadn’t eaten since this morning.

  Charles parked right in front of the ice cream shop and waited. “Well?”

  “Well, what?” I knew he wanted m
e to go in and get Jackie.

  “I’ve already been the bad guy enough today. You go in there and tear her away from her daughter.”

  I moved as if I had cement blocks strapped to my ankles. I did not want to go in there. Before I could even drag my butt from the car, Jackie was out the door and jogging toward me.

  My voice went really low. “Don’t you ever take off like that, and not answer calls or texts ever again. If you do, I don’t need you working for me.”

  Jackie stopped dead in her tracks. “You don’t need me as it is. I’m the one who needs you.”

  This broke my heart, and I mentally kicked myself for being harsh. “I’m serious. I’ve been scared to death. I was so worried about you.”

  “I’m sorry, but I found Catey back at the school. She said she was in the nurse’s office when I was there earlier. I gave her back her phone, and now here we are. We’ve been talking everything out. Oh, I have so much to tell you.” Jackie looked ten years younger than she did this morning.

  “It’s going to have to wait. We have to be in Nick’s office,” I looked at my watch, “about five minutes ago.”

  “The police station? Why?” I swear Jackie twitched.

  “He knows you were there earlier today. He wants to talk to all of us.”

  “Nick is a homicide detective. What could he possibly want to talk with us about?”

  Only then did I realize Jackie didn’t know that Charles and I found William’s body in the bedroom. I didn’t say anything about it in the dozen or so voice messages I left her. I didn’t want to spook her. “Jackie, I don’t know how to tell you this, but William Garrison is dead.”

  I said this just as Catey walked up to the car. Her eyes were a bit swollen, and she avoided looking at me. “Mom, I’m going to walk home.”

  “No, I’ll give you a ride, honey. Give me just a minute.” Jackie tossed her car keys to Catey, but she didn’t catch them.

  “Hey, Catey.” It wasn’t like her not to acknowledge me, and I was a bit put off.

  “Hey, Mimi.” She still wouldn’t look at me.

  She bent down and picked up the keys. Handing them back to her mom, she said, “I really need to walk this ice cream off. I’ll see you at the house.”