“Whoa!” Younger Davis put up his hand, palm out, and stood up behind his desk. “Stop right there, lady. Who do you think you are and where do you think you’re going?”
“Ha, ha Younger.” Ellie limped to her desk and flopped into her cozy, comfy chair. She looked around at the lovely organized desktop and the familiar array of pencils, pens, and pads of sticky notes. “You’re not funny. Did I tell you that lately?”
Younger just cackled like the rogue he was. Then he winked at Caroline, which made her blush like some imbecilic teenager. “Do you see this stranger sitting at our Ellie’s desk, Caroline?”
“Why, yes I do!” Caroline said between giggles.
Younger made a gesture, presumably to indicate Ellie’s choice of clothing for the day. “This can’t be Ellie Pierce. Ellie Pierce doesn’t own a pair of sweatpants.”
“They’re yoga pants,” Ellie mumbled as she turned on her computer. “Caroline waxed the freaking skin off my legs after work yesterday. I’m pretty sure that it will take a week’s worth of healing for my skin to grow back enough to tolerate a pair of actual pants in this heat.”
Now both Caroline and Younger were laughing together as though she was the greatest joke ever. Ellie sighed and fiddled with the hem of her workout top. She didn’t own a selection of casual dress down clothing. She had work clothes and workout clothes. That was it.
Of course, that was the moment Titus and Duke Dunbar walked into the office deep in a conversation that seemed to stop cold the second they both laid eyes on Ellie. Perfect. The only one now missing was Ash. He was presumably still on his vacation, or he had decided he was tired of the shenanigans in this office and had quit to go work somewhere a little more mature.
“Wow.” Duke let out a low whistle.
Younger nodded and waggled his eyebrows. “Right? Did someone take a picture to send to Ash? He should really see this. It’s pretty amazing.”
Titus cleared his throat. “Can we tone down the middle school behavior, my friends? I think we should all cut Ellie some slack considering she went out on a limb in the line of duty last night.”
“Out on a limb?” Caroline scoffed and turned back to her online surfing. “That’s just ridiculous. It’s not like she even let me near those caterpillars she calls eyebrows…” Caroline’s voice suddenly trailed off. She was glued to her screen.
Ellie figured that Caroline had become so immersed in an online shoe sale that she actually forgot that she’d been ranting. But that was before Caroline stood abruptly in front of her desk and reached out to wrench her computer screen around to face the rest of them. “Look!” she demanded. “Look at this! Ellie, something bad happened last night after we left!”
Ellie did not have time to be shocked that Caroline addressed her by name, she was too busy staring at the grisly photograph on the computer screen. “Is that…?”
“Yes!” Caroline yelped. “It’s Aston Ryan! It says there was an altercation during the club’s closing and that a young man got knifed. The police are trying to follow some leads on the case and are asking for the public’s help.”
Ellie groaned and smacked the heel of her hand against her palm. “Dammit! We have to go and talk to them.”
“What?” Caroline’s bark of alarm was about the same volume and pitch of a chihuahua’s. “No. No way. I’m not going to talk to the police!”
But Titus was already on it. He pursed his lips and held up both hands to stop anyone else from making a comment. “Let me think about this for a moment. There are several ways to go about it. What did you guys actually do last night?”
Ellie gave Titus a quick rundown of the adventures of Caroline and Ellie and the club scene. It earned a few raised brows from Duke and Younger, but Titus seemed totally calm and chill about it. Finally, Ellie just quit talking. She had carefully avoided the connection of a possible business deal between Aston Ryan and Kari Jo Mounds. None of that was confirmed anyway.
“So, you left your client in the care of her manager at the Ozark Star theater?” Titus seemed to be trying to make certain the parties involved were at least safe.
Ellie nodded and then thought to add. “Her manager and a medical professional. Adam Cathcart called a guy that does house calls. He called him Dr. All Saints.”
“Ah,” Titus said with a very pointed smirk. “Yes. Cal Tarkington. He’s fairly well known among the people in Branson who will pay a pretty penny to avoid going to a real hospital emergency room with regular folk to witness their medical situations.”
“So, you know this guy?” Ellie sometimes wondered how it was that Titus always seemed to be so far ahead of them on this stuff. “I’ve never heard of him.”
“I have,” Younger admitted. “I did that security detail for what’s his face? That big name country star who came into town for a holiday special. Remember? He got fall-down-drunk one night and that’s who Titus had me call.”
“Exactly,” Titus said with a firm nod. “So, we need to go to the police and we need to explain exactly what you guys just told me. Let them know their dead body was alive and well when you left, that your client was the one who got drugged by some club-goer, and that we don’t believe there’s a connection between their case and ours.”
Ellie bit her lip. “I’m sorry, sir, but are we sure there’s no connection?”
“Yeah, Ellie’s got a point,” Caroline agreed. “I know, I’m just a stupid secretary and I hate Ellie and why would I have anything intelligent to say, but if some psycho stalker guy really did drug Kari Jo Mounds, then why wouldn’t he have gotten pissed off at Aston Ryan when he managed to get in the way?”
Ellie was trying not to fall over in absolute shock at the way Caroline had not only backed her up but had actually said something truly helpful to the case. “Caroline has a point, boss. Think about it. The stalker drugged Kari Jo and expected her to wind up passed out at the bar where he could then pick her up and exit the club without anyone really knowing what was happening since Kari Jo is such a confirmed slut anyway.”
“That sounds awful,” Duke murmured. “What a horrible reputation! To be thought of so badly that nobody would even think you needed help?”
Ellie pointed at Duke. “But that’s where we come in! Caroline and I escorted Kari Jo out of the club and took her to safety. I bet whoever drugged her was pretty pissed off about it. Don’t you think? What if they tried to get the information from Aston Ryan?”
“And if he’s actually into Kari Jo like he claims,” Caroline said, getting excited. “Then he might have tried to keep that information to himself and they killed him for it!”
Titus held up both hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, ladies. That’s getting a little elaborate. Right? KISS principle, remember?”
“Keep it simple stupid?” Caroline looked annoyed. “Not everything is simple, Titus. Not in Kari Jo’s world. It might be in yours, but not when you add in the thought that this guy had already committed a pretty big crime by drugging her. Maybe he’d waited a really long time to get up the guts or to have the opportunity.”
“She’s right,” Ellie told Titus. Then she looked at Caroline. “That’s like the second or third time I’ve said that in the last few days. It’s starting to make me feel like I’ve entered an alternate universe.”
“You think?” Caroline gave a derisive sniff down her narrow nose. “I actually went out with you last night. To a club. Do you have any idea what that could do to my social status?”
Ellie might have rolled her eyes at that before, but after spending one night out with Caroline, her entire outlook on that whole scene had changed. “Why do you bother? Really? It’s so fake! You were laughing behind your hand at most of those people. Admit it!”
“Fine!” Caroline rolled her eyes. “I was laughing. They’re idiots. But they’re cool. And there is nothing worse than not being cool.”
Titus cleared his throat—loudly. “Not to interrupt this beautiful existential conversation between you two, but we still
need to contact the police and at least offer what little information we do have.”
“How about you ask them to come here?” Caroline suddenly suggested.
Now they were all staring at her. This was quite possibly the most engaged that Caroline had ever been in anything in the office. Even the stuff she was paid to care about.
“What?” Caroline looked aggravated now. “It makes perfect sense. I can’t believe I’m the stupid one and none of you can see that it would be better to ask those idiotic police officers to come here so you can deal with them on your home turf with an office full of backup.”
“She makes a good point,” Ellie mused. She looked to Titus. “You know who is going to show up.”
Dunbar smacked his right fist against his left palm. “Sellers and Caprico.”
“No doubt,” Ellie agreed. “And when they do, it’s far better for us to just say what needs to be said here in our office on our own turf and with our own resources to back up our story. Then there is no need to make a statement and play by all of their legal bullshit rules. This is just our professional courtesy offering them a bit of insider information.”
There was a long pause. Caroline glanced at Ellie and for once there was no malice, irritation, rudeness, or insolence in it. It was so odd. Ellie actually felt a certain camaraderie with the blonde secretarial bimbo.
“Okay.” Titus finally gave a nod of his head. “Let’s do it. We’ll call the police, ask for Detective Sellers, and then say we need to speak with him here at our office at his earliest convenience. We’ll make it seem like a routine courtesy call.”
“Because it is,” Caroline piped in.
Titus bobbed his head. “Yes, Caroline, it’s routine. And we’ll just hope they don’t wait a million years before they come to take our statements.”
“In the meantime, I need to call and check on Adam and Kari Jo,” Ellie told Titus. “Adam was going to call if there was any major change, but he hasn’t and I would like to know how things are going.”
“Go ahead then. Call him,” Titus suggested. “You should have plenty of time before the cops show up.”
Ellie went back to her desk and dialed Adam’s number. It went to voicemail. She dialed it again and it also went to voicemail. She checked her texts. She hadn’t missed anything from Adam. Why would he be unable to answer the phone this morning? Had he slept in thanks to the rough night on a cot in Kari Jo’s dressing room? Had something else happened?
Ellie found herself very worried about Adam’s safety. She needed to know that he was all right. Standing up, she reached for her keys.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Titus called out as Ellie headed for the door.
Ellie did not pause. “Adam’s not answering. That’s bad. I don’t know why, but I know that it is. Bad. Really bad. I need to go back to the Star and make sure he’s all right, especially considering the murder happened last night.” She pointed to the computer. “If they somehow managed to finger him for the murder, I want to make sure I’m there to cast as much doubt as possible.”
“Why would they think he’s the murderer?” Titus suddenly wanted to know.
Ellie bit her lower lip. She hadn’t told anyone else about the strange angle of what to do about Adam Cathcart and this possible rumor that Kari Jo was getting a new manager and firing him. It gave Adam a motive, too. But it especially gave Adam a motive to get rid of someone like DJ Aston Ryan. After all, Ellie was the one who told Adam the DJ was trying to help Kari Jo get a new agent and a better deal.
“This is a bad idea,” Titus told Ellie. “You need to be here when the police come to interview us.”
“Caroline was there. She can say whatever needs to be said,” Ellie told Titus. “Weirdly enough, I trust her.”
“Yeah,” Caroline snorted, “that is weird.”
Ellie ignored the jibe. “I need to find out what happened overnight at the Star. I need to know if they had to take Kari Jo to the emergency room and I have to find out if she told Adam anything about what she was planning with her supposed boyfriend.”
“All right then. Go,” Titus urged. “But get your ass back here soon. Within an hour.”
“An hour?” Ellie was already heading for the door. “It takes longer than an hour to navigate the traffic and that’s using every shortcut on the map!”
“Then you’d better keep it short!” Titus barked.
Ellie glared at him. “I won’t need to come back here to have an interview with the cops. I’ll just take care of it when they pull me over for speeding!”
But Ellie was already heading for the door and knew she would do her best to be back as soon as humanly possible. Titus was right, she did need to be there. Not being around would be some kind of signal to the cops that she needed to be talked to, as though she was hiding some huge secret. She didn’t think she was hiding anything. At least not intentionally.
Chapter Fourteen
Adam Cathcart blearily opened his eyes. Something was beeping. The alarm clock perhaps? He wasn’t traveling so his clock radio should have been playing the oldies on the only local radio station he found tolerable. Adam didn’t actually like country music. In the past, it had made living in Branson, Missouri a bit of a stretch. Lately at least, there had been a lot more pop and rock acts coming into town. Music was diversifying as people’s tastes got bigger and they were exposed by modern technology and social media to a much larger variety of material.
But this wasn’t even techno music or pop or anything. It was just beeping. Then Adam rolled his head and managed to focus on the wall just a few inches from his face where there should have been no wall at all. Why was he sleeping on the floor of his bedroom?
It took Adam a moment to realize that he wasn’t in his bedroom. He was in Kari Jo’s dressing room. The entire evening came flooding back. The way that Ellie and Caroline had brought Kari Jo back to the theater passed out almost to the point of being comatose. The drugs. Dr. All Saints.
Adam abruptly forced himself to sit up. Cal. The doctor was there all night. What had happened? Adam didn’t even remember laying down to sleep. Spinning around on the narrow cot, he searched the room for Cal and found him kneeling over Kari Jo.
“Is she awake?” Adam asked in a hoarse whisper. It felt as though he had swallowed a mouthful of gravel. His throat felt raw.
Cal gazed thoughtfully at Adam and then turned back to Kari Jo. “She’s certainly conscious. But I think now she’s sleeping off her hangover. Her pulse and respiration are good though. She just needs rest.”
Adam knew the tone in the doctor’s voice meant he was ready to leave. Adam almost wanted to beg the man to stay. Not that Adam didn’t believe his prognosis. Cal was a very good doctor. But Adam didn’t want to be alone with Kari Jo, didn’t know who else to call, and wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know what the young woman had to say for herself when she woke up. What if she really was firing him?
“I’ll leave her in your capable hands, Adam,” Cal said absently as he gathered his supplies and put them into his hulking black bag. “Just give her some aspirin when she wakes up and make sure she eats. That’s what she needs. Rest and good food and to take care of herself. She’s losing weight, Adam. This cannot go on forever. The young woman won’t be young anymore if she wears out her body before its due time.”
Yes, because that was going to really strike home with a spoiled twenty-two year old who honestly believed she was going to live forever and fame would always be hers. “I’ll tell her.”
The doctor’s gaze was sympathetic as he turned to leave. As Cal was slipping out of the dressing room, Adam spotted someone else trying to slip inside. He was hoping that it was Ellie, but the bright copper red hair suggested otherwise.
“Sorry, Hilary.” Adam stepped out of the dressing room behind Cal and slammed the door shut behind him. “No interviews at this ungodly time of morning. That’s just not fair and you know it.”
“Why are you here?” Hilary deman
ded. She had her tape recorder and seemed intent on getting a quote from Adam for some reason that he had yet to fathom. “Why did you stay here last night?”
“Who says that I did?” Adam wasn’t quite sure where this was going. “You’re awfully pushy this morning. Why?”
Hilary gaped at him. It was really a rather comical expression made more so by the fact that she was just so pale and her lips were bloodless and her freckles seemed to stand out so violently that the entire picture became almost macabre.
“What?” Adam prodded. He had evidently missed something vital. Perhaps there was some piece of celebrity news that Hilary thought he should know about so that she could see how Kari Jo reacted to it. That had happened once or twice before, but usually later in the day.
Hilary wasted no time. “There was a murder here in Branson last night. The young man who was killed has been linked to Kari Jo Mounds.”
Adam blinked. It was a lot of information while simultaneously being not nearly enough, but then he had a feeling that Hilary had delivered it that way on purpose. “I’m sorry, who is this young man and how was he linked to Kari Jo?”
“He’s a DJ at a club called the Pioneer. His name is Aston Ryan. Or rather, his name is Mark Bob Smith, but he called himself Aston Ryan.”
Mark Bob Smith. The name meant nothing to Adam, but the name Aston Ryan did in the most passing way only because of the conversation he had with Ellie and Caroline the previous night. That conversation was a bit spotty and blurry right now. He was tired. He’d only woken up a few moments before and Adam was almost certain he actually looked as though he had just rolled out of bed.
He had the abrupt and final thought that he was too old for this shit.
“Oh come on now!” Hilary chided. “Are you expecting me to believe that you don’t know the police are even now trying to bring Kari Jo Mounds in for questioning about the death of her boyfriend?”
“First off, Aston Ryan was not Kari Jo Mounds’ boyfriend,” Adam said in a raspy tone. He glared at Hilary. “You’re trying to stir the shit pot Hilary and you can totally quote me on that.”
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 34