by B A Trimmer
After about ten minutes, I called Sophie.
“How was golf with Tough Tony?” she asked.
“It wasn’t bad. My game is terrible, but it was nice to be able to talk with him. I also got a chance to talk with Gabriella.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s good. But that’s what I wanted to ask you about. Would you use the secret software to do a deep dive on someone?”
She let out a long sigh. “Fine. Who is it?”
“The name is Viktor Pyotrovich Glazkov.”
“Jeez, you’ll have to send me a text. There’re too many consonants for me to spell it correctly. Isn’t this the assassin guy who’s after Gabriella?”
“Yes, and before you ask, I’m definitely not getting involved with someone as crazy as that. Still, I thought maybe we could give her any information the secret software has on him.”
“There’s a white van parked down the street, filled with government agents, and you want me to start running searches on terrorists?”
“Is he any worse than Carlos the Butcher? We did a search on him and it didn’t seem to stress you out.”
“Not worse, but maybe different.”
“I think you’re worrying too much. If they don’t want you to know about stuff like this, I'm pretty sure they’ll just pull your access.”
“Well, maybe. I’ll punch it in and hope for the best. I’ll let you know if anything comes back.”
~~~~
I sat outside the townhouse and continued to wait. At one-thirty, the blonde was still a no-show. At two o’clock, she still hadn’t arrived.
As long as I wasn’t doing anything, I decided to take Gina’s advice and call Kristy’s husband. I figured if anyone would know what was going on, it would probably be him.
I didn’t want to talk with him at the house, since Kristy might be there. I knew I couldn’t get honest answers if she was with us. I looked up Andrew Darby’s office number and called to make an appointment.
I was connected with Julie, a pleasant-sounding woman who was his admin. She apparently knew who I was and connected me right away.
“Mr. Darby? I’m Laura Black and I’ve been looking into the mishaps with your wife’s business. Would you mind if I stopped by your office and spoke with you about it?”
“Not at all,” he said. “Kristine’s been telling me about you. I’m glad she has someone to help straighten things out. Would tomorrow morning at ten-thirty work?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.”
I disconnected, then punched in the number for Suzi Lu. The phone rolled over to voicemail. This didn’t surprise me since I knew she split her time between being a professor of computer science at ASU and being the professional dominatrix, Mistress McNasty. I left a message for her to call me.
~~~~
A little before three, Doctor Palmer came out the front door, then turned and locked it. He quickly got into his car and pulled out of the driveway. I was a little too far away to know for sure, but I think he looked annoyed.
I pulled out of my space and followed at a discrete distance. I didn’t think he’d be looking for a tail, but I tried not to be too obvious about it.
I’d been hoping Michael and the blonde might have some alternate place where they would meet for the afternoon. If they did, I’d see if I could plant cameras there as well. But he only drove north on Hayden Road and headed straight to the hospital.
I sat in my car and looked out over the parking lot. The place was a constant buzz of activity, but Doctor Palmer stayed in the hospital.
Chapter Six
I sat in the parking lot for another twenty minutes, but it soon became obvious Michael Palmer wasn’t going to be meeting with anyone for sex. I drove back to the office and logged into my computer. I quickly scanned the video files that had accumulated since the day before.
I first established that no one had used the bedroom the previous night to sleep in. This confirmed my belief that the townhouse was nothing more than a meeting place for the blonde.
When I scanned the files from earlier in the morning, I saw the blond had been there again, with yet another man. They arrived a little after nine and were gone by eleven forty-five.
This man liked to take a more active role than Doctor Elmaghrabi had. They must have changed to a new love position at least a dozen times during the forty-five minutes they were active on the bed. It was like watching a sex instruction video.
Damn.
I took a couple of non-compromising screenshots of the new guy, but he didn’t look familiar. I deleted the videos of the new guy with the blonde and made my notation in the logbook. I then went through the videos of Michael Palmer.
He’d spent most of his time sitting on the bed playing with his phone. After about half an hour had passed, he disappeared, only to reappear five minutes later, holding a glass of wine.
After a second glass of wine, he started to get annoyed and began to pace around the room, often stopping to glance out the window. After two hours, he took off.
Feeling a little discouraged and annoyed, I went up to reception. Gina was already gone for the evening, but Sophie was sitting at her desk, typing something into her computer.
“How’s Lenny been?” I asked.
“About an hour ago, he came out. I think he’d been in his office crying. He bitched at me for about ten minutes, then went back into his office. But he was out here again a few minutes ago, and he’s back to being his usual cranky self.”
“I left a message for Suzi to call me. Hopefully, she can give us a referral or at least some advice. Lenny is pretty easily distracted, and I think something like that would help smooth things over.”
“What did you find out about the mix-up on the time last night?”
“I talked to Maggie, the scheduler at the Barrington. She all but came out and said Kristy was the one who made the change.”
“Did she say if it was a phone call or email?”
“She didn’t remember, but she thinks it must have been a phone call. It would have helped to know which it was.”
“Do you think it was the scheduler who did it to sabotage the wedding? Maybe she’s pissed off at Kristy about something?”
“I don’t think so. It would only make her job harder. Besides, the Barrington isn’t the only place where Kristy’s weddings have gotten messed up.”
“Well, what do you think? Did our client do it, then forget? If that’s the case, there isn’t a lot we can do to fix that. Maybe she should start taking Ginkgo Biloba? My grandmother took that for years, and she always said it helped her remember our names.”
“I don’t know what the problem is. At least not yet. I’ll need to get some more information.”
“Wouldn’t it be hilarious if Kristy scheduled two weddings at the same place at the same time?”
“How would that be funny?”
“Oh, for the brides, it would be a disaster. But if you were going as a guest, it would be a lot of fun to watch everyone run around and try to straighten things out. It’s always entertaining to watch as a bride completely loses it.”
“Remind me not to let you plan any of my parties.”
“That’s probably a good idea. I’d be too tempted to have fun with the arrangements. When’s the next wedding?”
“It’s Saturday night over at the Tropical Paradise. There’s a break for Christmas, then the next one is Tuesday at the Saguaro Sky.”
“Well, you’d better figure out what’s happening soon. Otherwise, your neighbor’s wedding is going to be a disaster.”
“You don’t want to see Grandma Peckham lose it?”
“No, I like her. My fingers are crossed you can solve this before things go completely to hell.” She then looked at me. Is anything else wrong? It looks like someone kicked your puppy.”
“The blonde didn’t make it to her appointment with Michael Palmer this afternoon,” I said. “He came to the townhouse right on time, but she w
as a no-show.”
“That’s not good. If they don’t get together again, we don’t have any evidence. Has she been over there with anyone else since yesterday afternoon?”
“Yeah, she was with a new one this morning.”
“Any idea who it was?”
“Not a clue,” I said as I handed her the screenshot.
Sophie looked at it for a few seconds before shaking her head and handing it back. “No idea,” she said.
“Next time I’m there, I’ll install a camera outside the house. Then we can keep track of who comes and goes.”
“If she was already with someone this morning, maybe she didn’t want anyone else this afternoon?” Sophie mused. “Or maybe she was too tired and couldn’t keep the appointment? After all of the men she’s had, I bet she’s starting to get sore.”
“She didn’t look tired or sore in the video,” I said. “Plus, for an operation like hers to work, she’d need to keep to a strict schedule. Michael Palmer has her on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Doctor Montoya has her Wednesday mornings and Doctor Elmaghrabi seems to be Wednesday afternoons. Now we have a new guy on Thursday mornings.”
“I can’t even try to say Elmaghrabi,” Sophie said, again fumbling the name. “I’ll just call him Doctor Sloppy Seconds.”
“That’s so gross,” I groaned. “And we still don’t know how many men she has over during the week.”
“Well, she’s had five sessions over there since Tuesday morning. And you said it looked like she was supposed to have one more today with Michael. It wouldn’t surprise me if she also has men over on Monday and Friday. Who knows, maybe there’s a big gang bang on the weekend.”
“I was thinking, all the other guys she’s been with are doctors at the hospital. Maybe this new one is too? Do they have any sort of listing of who works there, maybe with pictures?”
“The website only has pictures of the top people, but if she keeps to her habit of only being with senior management, we might get lucky.”
Sophie typed into her computer for a few seconds and the executive management page for the hospital popped up. A dozen men and a handful of women were listed. Everyone was wearing a suit or something equally as nice.
“There’s Doctor Montoya. He’s near the top, and here’s Sloppy Seconds,” Sophie said as she pointed to the monitor.
“Where’s Michael Palmer?”
“He’s at the bottom,” Sophie said as she scrolled down. “He’s only the head of surgery. That sounds pretty impressive, but in the big scheme of the hospital, I guess he’s only a cog in the machine.”
“Hold on,” I said as something caught my eye. “Scroll back up.”
As Sophie moved halfway up the page, we both saw the picture of a smiling man in a navy suit with a red tie.
“What do you think?” I asked as I handed the screenshot picture to Sophie again.
She looked at the man on the computer screen, then back at the picture in her hand.
“It sure does look like him.”
I looked at the caption below the picture on the monitor. “Henry Burnham, Chief Financial Officer.”
“He’s not a doctor?” Sophie asked as she looked at his qualifications.
“I guess you don’t have to be if you’re the one in charge of the money.”
“Damn, it looks like our blonde girl is nailing about half of the executive staff over there. I wonder if the men know about each other?”
“You’d think it would be pretty obvious,” I said. “But men can be pretty dense when it comes to things like that. If she tells each one the townhouse is her private sex crib, and she’s only using it for them, how would they know the difference?”
“And so far, we only know about the men she has Tuesday through Thursday.”
“Yes, and it doesn’t seem right. I mean, the whole thing seems creepy, but it’s weird how she keeps the top guys from the hospital rotating through her bedroom.”
The door to Lenny’s office opened and I saw Sophie tense. Lenny came out and dropped several files on her desk.
“I’m done with these,” he said. “Make sure to put them away this time. The place is still a mess.”
“Hey,” she said, “do you see how much cleaner the office has been over the past month? I’ve gotten a lot of the files put away. What we need is someone to come in here and take care of stuff like this.”
Lenny sniffed, ignoring Sophie’s comments. “Since Christmas Eve is on Saturday and Christmas is on Sunday, that shouldn’t affect either tomorrow or Monday, right? I hope you’re both planning on being here and not wanting any extra time off.”
I envisioned Lenny as Ebenezer Scrooge, telling Bob Cratchit not to waste money on coal to heat the office.
Sophie shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere this year. I’ll be here tomorrow, Monday too.”
Lenny looked at me. “I’ll be in town,” I said. “I have a wedding to go to on Christmas Eve for the Kristy Darby assignment. That’s about it.”
“Good,” he said. “This is our busy time of year. I want everyone to be available. Make sure Gina knows as well.”
“Jeez, who schedules a wedding on Christmas Eve?” Sophie asked. “It would serve her right if no one showed up.”
“Where are you with getting the video for the Jessica Palmer assignment?” Lenny asked, still ignoring Sophie. “Other cases are starting to come in and I’m going to need you to wrap this one up as soon as possible.”
“The blonde is sleeping with half of the executive staff over at Scottsdale General,” I said. “I can’t see that as something random. What with the other cameras in the room, she may be blackmailing them.”
“I don’t care,” Lenny said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But if all of these doctors are being blackmailed, it has to mean something.”
“We aren’t getting paid to look into a blackmail ring. Don’t waste your time on it.”
“You don’t care that it looks like someone’s running a major sex and blackmail operation against the top people at one of the largest hospitals in the city?”
“I could care less. Maybe if you happen to come across something concrete, we can use it in the divorce trial. It could explain why Michael Palmer has been so moody the past few months. But don’t make this into anything bigger than gathering evidence of our client’s husband’s infidelity. Got it?”
Lenny then turned and went back to his office, firmly closing the door behind him.
Sophie looked up at me. “We’ve got to find Lenny a new girlfriend. I don’t know how much longer I can stand being in the office with him like this.”
“I’m waiting for a call back from Suzi,” I said. “I’m hoping she can help. Are you planning on doing anything tonight?”
“A couple of the girls are planning on going out later. I might tag along for a couple of hours. After the week I’ve had dealing with Lenny, I could use some handsome men buying me drinks and telling me how amazing I am.”
“Do you want to grab dinner first? Down the street for tacos would work for me.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said. “Let me turn off the computer.”
~~~~
I woke up early the following day and stretched. As soon as Marlowe heard me stir, he got up and began to purr, nudging me with his soft face.
Knowing I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, I went into the kitchen and fed my starving cat. I then made myself a pot of coffee and found I still had half a bag of little powdered donuts sitting on the counter.
Bag in hand, I went to the couch and flipped on the local news. Marlowe quickly finished his breakfast and came over to watch me eat.
His head swiveled back and forth as I took each donut out of the bag and ate it. In less than an hour, both the bag and the pot were empty.
I got dressed but didn’t feel like doing anything with my hair, so I put it up in a ponytail. Looking at myself in the mirror, I’d decided to swipe on some eye makeup.
~~~~
I made it to the office a little before eight and walked to the front. Lenny wasn’t in yet, but Gina was in reception, talking with Sophie.
“Good morning,” I said.
“What’s so good about it?” Sophie moaned. Judging by the circles under her eyes, it looked like she was nursing a hangover.
“How late were you out last night?” I asked.
“Only until about twelve-thirty. But I used an Uber, so I wasn’t too worried about how many drinks I was having. It’s going to take me a couple of hours to feel like myself again.”
“Sophie was telling me about your assignment,” Gina said. “It’s strange how the blonde disappeared. From what I understand, she seems to be a rather highly paid escort.”
“If she’s the one who’s arranged everything, she must be making a mint,” Sophie said, sipping a big doughnut-shop coffee. “Even if there’s some sort of middleman involved, I bet she still takes home three or four thousand a week.”
“You’re probably right,” I pondered. “I really need to find a better job.”
“Could she be the one blackmailing the doctors?” Sophie asked. “If those are her cameras, she’d have plenty of evidence by now. Maybe she’s done and decided to move on?”
“If they’re being blackmailed,” Gina said, “I don’t think she’s the one doing it. She may not even know about it.”
“If she doesn’t know about it, what is she doing there?” Sophie asked. “Well, other than making a ton of money.”
“The people in charge may only be gathering evidence to keep the men quiet about something,” Gina said. “As in, ‘behave, or we’ll release the evidence we have on you.’ But I would guess they haven’t sprung the blackmail threat yet.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Once blackmail is threatened, the men will usually stop voluntarily providing additional evidence. Going to the townhouse to visit the blonde wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if you knew several people were watching you.”
“Why are you here today?” Sophie asked me. “I thought you’d be back at the townhouse before the first guy showed up.”
“I’m heading over there in a few minutes,” I said. “I’m also meeting with Kristy’s husband at ten-thirty. But I first wanted to review the video files to see if anyone was using the townhouse last night.”