Love is a Many Splintered Thing

by Jamie Lee Scott

  LOVE IS A MANY SPLINTERED THING

  A GOTCHA DETECTIVE AGENCY MYSTERY, BOOK 12

  JAMIE LEE SCOTT

  LOVE IS A MANY SPLINTERED THING

  Copyright © 2019 by Jamie Lee Scott

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Novels & Coffee, 1106 Hwy 69 N, Forest City, IA 50436.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2019 Jamie Lee Scott, All Rights Reserved

  CONTENTS

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Other Books by Jamie Lee Scott

  Willa Friday Culinary Cozy Mystery Series

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  1

  Mimi

  I don’t think you can truly appreciate the weather in Salinas until you’ve lived somewhere else. There’s rarely a morning too hot to take a nice, long run. Lately, I’ve felt like I’m always running, whether it’s from my past, my present, or just my thoughts. I say this as I’m running the amazing trails behind the home Nick bought for us.

  Selling my little house and moving in with Nick felt like I was running from my past. Selling Nick’s house and moving to this amazing acreage with a fragrant English garden in the front and a romantic wraparound porch somehow felt like I was running from something, too. I wasn’t sure what, but in the last month or so, right around the time Nick showed me this surprise, I felt uneasy, like I’d been waiting for something to rock the boat.

  As I ran, Lola by my side, sweat soaking my shirt, I still couldn’t shake the feeling. Luckily, these trails on the property behind our house gave me hills to climb and landscape to explore, and I could get outside myself. I’d begun to enjoy running again and found myself adding more and more miles each week.

  I looked at my watch. “Time to head home, sweetie,” I said to Lola.

  I swear I heard her whimper. She loved running. She seemed younger and happier in our country home. Most days, she didn’t race me to the car, which I had to admit made me sad. She preferred to lay around on the porch and chase squirrels up trees to coming to the office.

  By the time I got back to the house, I barely had time to shower and grab a cup of coffee for the drive. That was another thing I hadn’t gotten used to. It took fifteen to twenty minutes to get to the office, where it had only taken five when we lived in Nick’s house near Hartnell College.

  How ungrateful I sounded. Marrying Nick and becoming Mimi Christianson had been the best thing to happen to me since getting Lola. Nick treated me like a queen, even when he was frustrated with me for pushing his buttons. He bought me the house of my dreams so we’d have a place to call ours when we started this marriage journey. I loved our new house, but I’d never been much good at change.

  So many things had changed at the office, too. No more Cortnie, whom I’d grown to love as a best friend. A new agent, Piper Mason, Nick’s old homicide partner, stepped in to cover the position vacated by Cortnie, and she was good. But she wasn’t my friend just yet. We’re working on that.

  I pulled my wet hair into a ponytail after getting dressed, then walked into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee for the drive. My new kitchen came equipped with the best appliances, including a top of the line espresso machine. Alas, I’d taken too much time in the shower and had to settle for brewed coffee. I scooped grounds out of the container and put it in the coffee maker, then poured in enough water for a sixteen-ounce cup and put my travel mug under the drip spout. While the coffee poured into my cup, I sat down at the kitchen table and pulled on my shoes. By the time I had them laced, my coffee was done. I grabbed the white chocolate creamer from the fridge, poured it into the travel mug, then twisted the cap tight.

  “You coming with me?”

  Lola looked up at me, a soulful look in her eyes. I had no idea what it meant, but when she didn’t try to knock me over to get to the car first, I understood. She planned to stay home and guard our house.

  Is it really arriving late when you own the business and don’t have set hours? I arrived at 9:05 and felt guilty. I felt even more guilty when I saw the parking lot was full. Busy morning for a Thursday at Gotcha Detective Agency. But I had an incredible staff, and I saw my partner’s car in the lot too, so I knew all was in good hands.

  “No Lola this morning?” Uta, our office assistant, asked as she stood at the kitchen counter pouring coffee from the pot into a carafe.

  Dressed in a red Ann Taylor dress, at sixty-something she made me look out of date. She represented us well as the first person a potential client usually saw when walking through the front doors of our agency.

  “She’s guarding the house against renegade squirrels today.” I put my briefcase on the table and reached out for the coffee pot before she emptied it. “Got some for me?”

  I twisted the lid off my cup and Uta poured the final ounces of coffee into it, barely filling it halfway. “I’ll make another pot.”

  I waved her off. “I’ve got it.”

  She shook her head. “No, you don’t have time. There are people in your office waiting for you.”

  I frowned at her. “I don’t have any appointments this morning.”

  “I don’t think these gentlemen had an appointment. Max Daniels is with them.”

  “Max? Is Charles here?”

  Max Daniels, Charles’ partner, worked for the FBI, and it wasn’t unusual for him to be in the office if he was in town, so I didn’t think much of it.

  “You might want to head in there. Charles is with them now.” Uta’s tone put me on edge.

  I set my travel mug on the table and picked up my briefcase, touching the Glock in my holster to make myself feel better. Not sure why, because what was I going to do, take down a couple of FBI agents? Or Max, for goodness sakes?

  The back entry into our office building entered directly into the kitchen. Two doors off the kitchen led into the main part of the Victorian home which housed my private detective agency. One door opened into the hallway and nearly always stood open. The other opened into my office. Whether that door was open depended on what I happened to be working on, but I usually left it open at the end of the day when I left. It was closed.


  I hesitated for only a second, feeling the sense of dread I’d been running from that morning overwhelm me. Shaking it off, I entered my office.

  The three men sitting in front of my desk all stood. Max nodded; he’d already been standing. Charles glanced over at me, then back to the men. He sat in my chair and didn’t look like he planned to relinquish it to me any time soon. I nodded at the men, walking over to stand by Charles, putting my briefcase down on the floor next to my desk.

  “Good morning, gentleman, Max. To what do we owe the pleasure?” I knew my smile looked forced. It was.

  “Charles, may we have a moment?” Max said.

  Charles stood. “Sit. You’re going to want to sit for this,” he told me.

  My heart raced and coffee churned in my stomach. “Stay.”

  “It’s best if I leave you to it,” Charles said as he walked out the door to the foyer, closing it behind him.

  I sat. I couldn’t force any words from my throat, which had gone dry.

  “Mimi Christianson, this is Special Agent Fowler, head of RICO division. And this is Special Agent Holmes. He works closely with DEA and U.S. Marshals.”

  I nodded, not able to say anything.

  “And this is U.S. Marshal Jared Williams. Have you two met?”

  I looked at the marshal, who looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. “We haven’t.” I swallowed hard. “What’s this about?”

  The men sat down, but Max continued standing. “I’m here as a liaison, since I have a relationship with you and Charles. This isn’t my case, and I can’t answer questions.” He looked at Jared. “Why don’t you start?”

  Jared leaned forward. Unruly blonde hair curled around his ears, and his blue eyes sparkled. “I don’t know where to start to make this more palatable, so I’m just going to tell you what I know and how I know it. Feel free to stop me at any time with questions.”

  “Okay,” I said, irritation flooding me.

  I hated to be ambushed, even though Charles did it to me regularly. This seemed like overkill.

  “I used to work with the WITSEC program for the U.S. Marshals.”

  “Witness protection.” I had an overwhelming desire to vomit.

  “I inherited a witness in the program from a marshal who retired. His name was Michael Ricci.”

  The air felt thick and I couldn’t breathe. “Michael Ricci is the retired marshal. What would he have to do with me?”

  “No, I’m sorry for the confusion. The witness I took over was Michael Ricci.” Jared opened the manila folder he held and pulled out an eight-by-ten sheet of paper. “Do you know this man?”

  I reached across my desk to take the sheet, which turned out to be a photo. Bile rose, and I threw up in my mouth. I swallowed. “I do. But what does he have to do with, what did you say his name was?”

  I knew the answer before he said it. “Michael Ricci. Mrs. Christianson, this is Michael Ricci.”

  The room began to spin. “No, this is my dead husband, Dominic Capurro.”

  Jared’s face went out of focus, and I barely heard his next words. “Yes, I knew Dominic Capurro as Michael Ricci.”

  Tears flooded my eyes. I couldn’t breathe, could barely speak. I croaked out in a whisper, “Dominic’s alive?”

  The three men looked at one another, then at Max, before looking back at me. I reached into my right top desk drawer and pulled a tissue from the box I kept there. I dabbed at my eyes.

  “Ma’am, he was. Until seventeen days ago.”

  Not even bothering to stand up, I turned in my chair and reached for the trash bin, thankful our cleaning service used liners, and puked up the coffee I drank that morning. I didn’t even care these men watched as I heaved my guts into the bin.

  “Mimi, do you want me to call Charles back in here?” Max asked.

  Grabbing another tissue from the drawer, I wiped my mouth and turned my chair back to face them. I shook my head in answer to Max’s question.

  “Okay, that sucked,” I said. “Somehow I knew this day would come. I knew he didn’t die in that crash. But I didn’t expect it to be like this. Please go on.”

  “Are you sure?” Jared asked.

  “I think the worst of what you have to tell me has been said. Let’s get this over with.” My heart raced, and I wanted to go home and pretend I’d never come to the office. I was here, and my life coming at me full circle. Some people just aren’t allowed to be happy.

  “Michael…”

  “Call him by his name, please.”

  Jared started again. “Dominic was looking at life in prison for his part in a drug and human trafficking business. He’d been transporting both drugs and people in eighteen-wheelers through his produce brokerage business. He had a legit business too, which made it easier for him to perpetrate his crimes.”

  “That’s not possible. Dominic worked with his dad…” My words trailed off. It all came into clear focus.

  Dominic’s parents never liked me. We didn’t spend holidays with them. I’d been Secret Service, but that wouldn’t affect them. I stared at Jared, waiting for him to continue.

  “Dominic worked for his family. His father moved him to California to expand the business. So much product came from and went to Mexico, so a location in California worked out perfect for them.”

  “But the Capurro family worked out of the Chicago terminal market,” I said.

  “Yes, that’s true. They did run a legitimate produce business, but it was a cover for the more lucrative drug and human trafficking.”

  Max added, “They laundered money through the produce business on the terminal market.”

  I could feel nausea working its way up my throat again. “Like sex trafficking?” I didn’t want to hear the answer, but I had to know. What kind of man was I married to? How could I have been so stupid and blind?

  “Not on Mi—Dominic’s side. He smuggled people over the border. What happened to them from there was on his dad. And his dad was not a nice man.”

  It had been years, and I’d already dealt with the FBI when Dominic’s cousin had been in town. Why was this all coming up now? “So you were Dominic’s handler?”

  “Not at first. Like I said before, I acquired him. But I knew his history. He had agreed to turn state’s evidence against his family to save himself. I can’t go into all the details now, but about three weeks ago, Dominic’s father died. He wanted to go to the funeral and contacted me. I explained what would happen if he did, but he wanted to go.”

  “What would happen? He’d be gunned down?”

  “He’d be removed from witness protection. But he insisted. So I accompanied him, along with a small team. It was the last effort by WITSEC. After that he was on his own.”

  “So he wasn’t killed at his father’s funeral? What happened?”

  Special Agent Fowler, a brawny man with a military haircut that made it difficult to determine the color, spoke softly. I had to lean forward to hear him. “Ma’am, Dominic Capurro chose to come back to Salinas. From our investigation so far, he’d been interviewing for jobs in the produce industry.”

  I slumped back in my chair. “Dominic came back? He was here?”

  He’d been in Salinas. I turned again, and this time dry heaved into the bin. My whole body was covered in sweat, and I couldn’t think straight.

  “He planned to come back to Salinas and get his old life back,” the slighter built Agent Holmes said, the lights of the room shining off his bald pate.

  I stared at the light, trying to gather my thoughts, willing myself not to heave again. “He came back for me? When?”

  “Right after the funeral, ma’am. Roughly seventeen days ago. But he wasn’t here long. He was killed in his car on Romie Lane.”

  “How?”

  Holmes cleared his throat before answering. “He’d been at a job interview, and afterward he had a conversation with…”

  “With an unknown man,” Jared interrupted. “After that conversation, he got into his rental car, and
when he started it, the car exploded. With him in it.”

  My chest tightened. I needed to take a deep breath, but I couldn’t. I took short breaths like a woman in labor was taught to do. “Another explosion with no body?” No way could this be happening again.

  “I don’t think you want the details,” Max said.

  I turned on Max. “How do you know what I want?” I screamed, losing all control. To Jared, I said, “Tell me!

  2

  Charles

  I hated leaving Mimi alone. I didn’t know how much the FBI, other than Max, knew about my involvement in Dominic’s last days. I knew Nick had been brought in shortly after the explosion and had been working with the FBI. And yet, I’d wiped my hands clean of the situation.

  As for me talking to Dominic outside the produce company before the “accident,” I’d taken care of that remotely. Anyone who thinks their home security system is full-proof, it’s not. Any hacker can get into the database and delete camera footage. And a good hacker can delete it from the cloud, too.

  I leaned against the counter, doing my best to not listen, but when I heard Mimi yell “Tell me!”, I knew things weren’t going well.

  Max already told the FBI what he knew. And he told them Mimi couldn’t know his involvement with escorting Dominic to his dad’s funeral. They agreed, as long as it wasn’t pertinent to the case, that information would be kept between us.

  It killed me to keep secrets from Mimi. She was one of my best friends, maybe my very best friend. But this omission was for her sanity, not mine. And if I’m being honest with myself, I was glad Dominic was dead for real. He was a stain on humanity, even when he was “dead”, hogging taxpayer dollars to investigate his murder.

  Good riddance. At least I could say that in my line of work. Something this big wouldn’t go away by itself. On the plus side, there was no way the FBI could think Mimi was involved in any way.

  The door to the kitchen flew open and slammed against the wall as Mimi stormed in.

  “You could have warned me. A text. A phone call. How much did you know, Charles?” She shoved me hard. “How much did you know?”