I got out of the car and came around to hear what else Charles had to say.
With forced calm, Nick said, “Charles, I’ve been doing this a long time. I know how to run a murder investigation.”
By now, Cortnie had joined us.
It was time to take charge. I’d taken charge of my personal life, now my business life.
“Cortnie, you’re going to take us back to the office, and you’re going back to work on our paying cases. We can’t bleed money while working on a case for the police department.”
Cortnie started to protest, but I held my hand up. The look on my face was enough to keep her mouth shut.
“Charles, you and I will go from there to the cell phone place and get Lena’s records.”
Nick pulled his phone from his pocket. “Hold up.” He checked his phone. “No need. They emailed the records to my office.”
I looked at Charles, then Nick. “Fine. You can forward the email to my office, and Charles and I can go through them from there. That will free you up to take a look into the Minneapolis thing, and also that thing with Vice.” Look at me taking charge.
The scariest part was everyone was listening. Even Charles didn’t interrupt.
“The Minneapolis thing?” Charles asked.
“I’ll fill you in on the way to the office.” I stood on my tip toes and kissed Nick on the lips before we headed to the van.
The collective gasp behind me was audible.
Once we were in the van, the chattering started immediately. They talked over each other, and I could barely understand them. One thing was clear: they were not asking about Lena’s case.
“Stop!” I said, not raising my voice. The new me was calm and collected. Ha!
Silence.
“Nick and I are back together.” Then I thought about it. We hadn’t really officially said we were a couple again. “I think.”
Cortnie started the van. “That kiss looked like the real deal.”
“That kiss looked like maybe there was more going on than we know.” Charles winked at me before settling in the back seat and pulling out his phone.
“Enough about me. How did things go on your end?”
Charles didn’t hear me, too distracted by his texting.
“Nothing much, other than something I stole from Lena’s desk.” Cortnie reached in her pocket and pulled out a small box.
I read the note. “Oh, fun, sex in the car. Maybe at sixteen, but as an adult?”
“Well, whoever he is, he’s a married man. I wonder what was in the box with the note.”
I turned the box around, and over and looked for a hot stamp to indicate what jewelry store it may have come from. “Walmart? There’s no stamp.”
“I didn’t see anything to indicate where it might have come from, either. And I don’t remember her wearing any necklace, bracelet or ring. But then she wouldn’t for a decoy job.”
Cortnie drove us back to the office, relaying what little they’d learned about Lena from Richard, and as she got out of the van she asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to continue on this case? I feel like it’s my fault she’s dead.”
Charles, who’d been quiet in the van said, “I think it was timing. Unless the mayor’s husband did it, I don’t think Lena’s death had anything to do with the decoy program.”
This surprised me. “Really? And what exactly do you think is going on?”
Charles pocketed his phone and said, “I have a few more things I want to look into, but I want to talk to you about something else first, Mimi.”
102
Charles
Cortnie went her way, and I followed Mimi into her office. This chick had some serious explaining to do. The last time we talked, Nick was history, vaya con Dios, there’s the gate. Hell, she had another date set up for the night.
She didn’t even stop in the kitchen for coffee. She made a beeline to her office, where she sat in her chair and kicked her pretty little feet out of her shoes and onto her desk.
Lola looked up from her bed, decided we didn’t have any food, then promptly went back to sleep.
“Mother, fu... you got laid.”
The grin on her face answered the question for her.
“So are you an item again?” I pulled a chair up to the desk and sat.
Leaning forward, I had my elbows on the table. This was good stuff.
“I think we are.” Her cheeks had to hurt, she was grinning so wide.
I sat back. A part of me knew this was coming. I’d told Nick they needed to spend time together. He asked, I answered.
“You can thank me for your orgasm.”
Her feet dropped off the desk with a thud. “What orgasm?”
I may have a bruise on my chin from when it hit the floor.
“And you weren’t even there, so you can’t take credit for anything.” She leaned toward me, ready to dish more gossip. “I nearly ripped his head off. You should have been there.”
I shoved myself way back, putting my hand out in front of me. “Now that was TMI, even for me.”
“Too much information? How?” Her face got all screwy.
“Honey, there isn’t a woman on earth can rip a head off like that.” I gagged.
Mimi dropped her head onto her hands and laughed so hard I thought she was crying. When she finally regained control she said, “No, you dirty bastard, I wasn’t talking about the sex. The sex was terrible. Well, not terrible, but, um, yep, I’m not going there.”
“Good,” I was relieved. Some things are better left to the imagination. And I never wanted to imagine Nick in bed with Mimi, ever! “What are you talking about?”
“I let him have it. Right there on the sidewalk at Wilma’s place. I told him everything I’d been holding back since college.”
No way in hell. “The training camp?”
“Yep.” She nodded for emphasis.
“The shooting?”
“Yep.”
“The scholarship.”
She slammed her hand on the desk. “Damn right.”
“You can still thank me. Nick wanted the chance to get back together, and I told him you two needed to be alone, so you could talk, and work things out. Not a date, but two people alone in a room or a car, and just to talk.” I was right, again.
“Yeah, whatever. So, I ripped into him. I told him everything that had been building up over the years, and by the time I was done, I’d decided I was going to sell my half of the agency to you and move out of Salinas.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. She’d never move from Salinas, unless her mom moved. There was an invisible string that had kept them attached ever since Mimi left the Secret Service. I decided to play a game. “So how much do you want?”
She frowned at me. “Want for what?”
I pulled a check out of my wallet. “Your half of the agency.”
Now she slammed her other hand on the desk. “Just like that, you’d buy me out and let me leave?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
She shoved herself away from the desk, and me. “Asshole.”
“Dumbass, I’m kidding.” I put the check away. “You don’t still want to sell, do you?” I wasn’t eager, just asking.
“No, I’d changed my mind by the time I got dressed.” She grinned and blushed.
“What changed your mind?” I had something on my mind, but Mimi needed to talk this out, or she’d never listen to my problem.
“We had the worst sex ever.” She held up her hand to stop me from responding. “And it was okay. We both knew it was because Nick hadn’t had sex in months, and it was crazy, impromptu, and fast. And when it was over, we laughed. No uncomfortable silence, no avoiding eye contact, we were okay.” The smile reached her eyes this time. It was the first time I’d seen her smile like this since Dominic died. She was truly happy. “That’s what changed my mind.”
I wish I could say the same. The confusion in my head must have shown on my face because she moved her chair forward a
gain.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I don’t discuss my personal life, or my feelings with anyone, least of all Mimi. Yes, Mimi is one of my bestest besties, but she’s a blabbermouth, and she’s had enough problems of her own the last few years. I’ve been so blissfully happy, I hated to gloat. Seemed the tables were turning.
“Anthony is in Dallas at a trade show. I mean, he was. His plane supposedly got in last night, but he didn’t come home.” I stared at a pattern in the wood on the desk.
“He usually calls you from the airport.” The concern in her voice matched the concern in my heart. “Is he okay?”
“He must be; he reads my texts.” I traced the pattern now.
“Have you been fighting?”
She knew better than that. I’m not a fighter. I don’t let things fester enough to reach the point of fighting. It’s all on the table with me.
“We’ve been growing apart. He’s been traveling so much now that he’s repping his own line, and I’m diving head first into the agency. The only contact we’ve had lately is via text or phone.” My heart hurt as I said the words aloud.
“This is my fault.” Mimi leaned back and pulled her phone from her pocket. “I’m going to call him. I can fix this.”
I jumped up and leaned across the desk, grabbing at her phone. “No, this isn’t your fault. We all make choices in our lives. If I chose to spend more time at the office, it was for a reason. I could have passed it off to Jackie, who is blissfully in love with her new guy, or Cortnie, who may or may not even have a boyfriend, or even Uta, but I chose to work the hours. And Anthony, he made his choices. We’re very different people, and maybe we needed a break from each other.” I gave her back her phone.
“I feel like you’ve been picking up the slack for so long that I’m at least partially responsible.” She put the phone down.
“We have a lot of work to do. Bring up the phone logs, and let’s get cracking.” I’d let her into my personal space for a little bit. That was all I could handle for the moment.
“Why don’t you try calling Anthony again while I print out the file from the email?” Mimi booted up her computer.
I stood and walked out of the office while pushing the speed dial button for Anthony.
Uta sat at her desk in the reception area, wearing her headset and talking. I put my finger up to ask her to wait a moment when I realized she wasn’t talking to me. God, I hate that. It’s always embarrassing when you think they’re talking to you and they’re talking to someone on the phone.
Speaking of phones: with cell phones, it either rings through, or goes straight to voice mail, right? So if it rings twice, or maybe even three times, you know you’ve been “ignored.” That’s what happened. The phone rang three times and went to voice mail. I didn’t bother leaving a message. I got the hint. He didn’t want to talk to me. I looked at my watch. I wondered how long it would take us to go through the phone logs and track down Lena’s contacts.
I put my phone away and went back into the office. Looking toward the printer, I didn’t see any paper. There wasn’t any on the desk either. “The report?”
Mimi hunched over her desk, close to the computer, a scowl on her face. “I can’t get the file to open.”
I rolled my eyes, went around the desk, rolled her chair out of the way, tapped a few buttons, and within seconds, the printer whirred.
Mimi sat back in her chair, defeated, as she should be. I’d schooled her once again. I am the computer genius in the office, but please, it’s not rocket science to open a file in an email, unzip the file, and then print the contents.
The file wasn’t big. The phone company, which is being deliberately left unnamed, even provided texting content.
I’d printed off two copies of the file and handed one to Mimi before I sat down.
“Did you get a hold of Anthony?” Mimi looked through the papers as she asked.
“He ignored the call, same as he has for the last three days.” I looked through the pages, too. Interesting.
She stopped and looked at me. “How could you possibly know he’s ignoring your calls?”
“If a call goes directly to voicemail, the phone is either turned off, or on do not disturb. If it rings and rings, then goes to voicemail, someone is on the phone, or they didn’t hear it ring. If it rings, one, two, maybe three times, then goes to voicemail, the person hit the dismiss or ignore button. The phone rang three times.”
“Ouch.”
“Yes, ouch, the first twenty or so times. This time, it was expected and didn’t sting nearly as much,” I lied.
“Liar. I’ve been there. Besides, I’ve known you way too long. This is killing you, and you aren’t going to let it show because you’re Charles.” She reached across the desk to touch my hand.
I wanted to pull away, but that would be rude, so I let her console me. She needed to feel needed after all this time when she’s been the one getting dumped on. I think it felt good for her to be the one with the hand on top.
“So, how do you want to find the names that go with these phone numbers?” Best way to change the subject was to get back to work.
“We pay through the nose for a service. We’ll use that.”
Where was my head? Usually I was the one answering the stupid questions, not asking them.
“You’re at the computer. Bring up the program. I’ll read off the numbers and you can key them in. It’ll be faster than you trying to read them.”
“Good idea.”
I read them to her. There were the usual numbers, bank, cell phone company, restaurant take out, doctor, pharmacy, hair salon, manicurist, Richard Jimenez (a lot recently), Mom (a lot always), Cortnie, several names that didn’t ring a bell, and then there was Gabriel Garcia.
“So, Jimenez just told me and Cortnie he didn’t know much about Lena, and here he’s been talking with her how many minutes in the last month?”
Mimi’s fingers flew across the adding machine on her desk. “Fourteen hundred and sixty-seven minutes last month alone.”
“What about texts?”
Mimi went through her files. I went through mine.
“I don’t see any from Richard, but look at the ones from Gabe.”
“You mean the cryptic stuff from Gabe?”
The texts from Gabe read like two teenage kids trying to text without their parents being able to figure it out. I was beyond giving a damn what they were trying to communicate.
“Do you think this had anything to do with the decoy program?”
“Mimi, are you really that dense?”
I knew she wasn’t; she only wanted to hear it from someone else. Gabe was bonking our decoy. I wondered if that’s how she ended up on the program to begin with.
Mimi’s office door was open, so I yelled, “Uta, can you call Cortnie and ask her to come into Mimi’s office please?”
I swear I heard Lola growl. She stood, stretched in downward dog, walked over to Mimi and put her paw on Mimi’s leg, then shoved her nose in Mimi’s armpit.
“Hey, baby doll, gotta pee pee?” She stood. “I’m going to take her out while we wait for Cortnie to get here.”
Mimi walked out with Lola and I picked up my phone to see if I had any texts or messages. Nope.
Cortnie walked in texting, and looked up right before she tripped over the floor trim at the door. Her arms flew forward, phone sailing into the air, and her mouth could have been a Venus fly trap the way it went from wide open to snapping shut in an instant. I reached up, snatched her phone out of the air, and watched as her left foot slid across the floor and came up under her just in time to catch her body weight before she plummeted into a pile at my feet.
“Nice save.” I applauded with her cell phone in the palm of my hand. “I give that an eight point nine.”
She pushed herself up with her hands and said, “That’s not how they score the Olympics anymore.” She ripped her ph
one from my hand.
“This is why we don’t walk and text, Mimi.”
“Stop calling me that,” Cortnie screeched.
“Calling her what?” Mimi and Lola were back in the room.
I started to tell her, but Cortnie said, “Nothing.”
“Did you ask her?” Mimi sat down.
“Ask me what?”
“How did Lena get the job on the decoy program?” I asked.
Cortnie sat in the chair across from me. “I don’t know. She came in, filled out the application and passed the background check.”
“But how did she know about it? It’s not like we advertised,” Mimi said.
“All of the referrals came from the police department.” Cortnie screwed up her face. “Lena was recommended by Gabe. Why?”
Mimi and I shared “the look.”
“What?” Cortnie hated “the look.”
“Were they pretty close?”
“Just tell me what’s going on.”
I handed the cell phone report to Cortnie. Looking it over, her eyes went wide, her brows creased, her mouth opened, and last, but not least, her nostrils flared. She handed the report back to me. The text messages and photos said it all. “They’re doing it? How did I not see this?”
Mimi leaned forward, her boobs smashing on the desk. “Remember the demo they did for the chief? Now that I know, gag.” She shoved her finger in her mouth.
Cortnie shook her head to get rid of the image. She turned green. Then I remembered the winks and looks Gabe and Cortnie had been exchanging that night.
“Are you two seeing each other?”
“Not really.” I could smell that lie from a mile away.
Mimi asked, “What does ‘not really’ mean?”
“We have a good time together, but business and pleasure don’t mix, you know?” I could see the color work its way up her neck to her face, like a hot flash.
I couldn’t believe it. “You’re having sex with him, too?”
Coming to her defense, Mimi said, “Have you seen him?”
I roared with laughter. “Yes, and if he’d have me, and I was a cheating whore, I’d be doing him, too.”
“I feel sick,” Cortnie said. “Not because I wasn’t the only one he’d been seeing, but because it was Lena.”
Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery Box Set Page 76