Cowboy Daddy

by Hannah McBride

  “Can you think of anyone who might match that description?” She continued. “Who were his enemies?”

  “Well that’s just the thing, he didn’t have any,” replied Michael with a small frown. “Trent was a nice guy. Sure, he was a businessman, but he wasn’t ruthless and he didn’t stab people in the back or anything like that. He was determined, but fair. He had rivals, but that was all they were…business rivals. And I doubt any of them would go so far as to want him dead.”

  “Well someone clearly did, Michael, sweetie,” said Sal. “Was he ever involved in the Mafia, gangs, any of that stuff?”

  “Oh no…” Michael chuckled at the thought of it and shook his head. “Never…never.”

  “Has he ever been broken into, or had anything stolen from him?”

  Michael frowned and sat in silence for a moment as he considered it, then after a short pause, he answered, “Yes actually, about ten or twelve years ago there was a break in at the family home, and after that he spent a lot of money increasing security and setting up loads of alarm systems and cameras and such, and we never had a problem after that.”

  “Hmm…” Sal shook her head. “I think we can rule that one out then. Has he ever been instrumental in bringing injustice or corruption in the business world to light? I know there’s a lot of it goes on and he must have seen some of it at some point. How many people has he fired over the years?”

  “A good number, I suppose. He’s let them go for various reasons. I couldn’t say exactly how many but…I can get you the figures.”

  “And the names?”

  “Yes, yes,” Michael nodded. “They’ll all be on record.”

  “That would be very helpful. If you could get that for me by say…this time tomorrow?”

  “That wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Great. Thanks sweetie.” Sal smiled and scribbled a few more things down, then closed her notebook and stood up. “I’d better get going. Sorry to call so late but I just wanted a quick chat with you and I was passing the building so…thought I might as well get it done.”

  “Certainly. No problem,” Michael smiled and stood up too, to show her out. “It was worth it just to find that hair.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Do you think there’s anything else the forensics team missed?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so. I did a thorough look just then and I couldn’t see anything.” She held up her little pocket magnifier. “They’re pretty good with these things.”

  “They seem it. Maybe I should get one.”

  “Fancy yourself as a bit of a detective, do you?” She smiled.

  “Well, I’d like to help out on the investigation as much as I can.”

  “You’re certainly doing that.” The pair of them started to walk out as Michael led her to the elevator and down to the ground floor. “The best way you can help out is by getting those names for me, and having a good think…about anyone else who might have held a grudge against Mr. Preston for some reason, anyone else who might have considered themselves an enemy of his.”

  “I will do,” Michael replied enthusiastically, offering out his hand and giving hers a shake as he bid her goodbye. “See you tomorrow!”

  “See you tomorrow,” she nodded curtly and disappeared into the night.

  Michael turned and headed straight back upstairs, into the ‘murder room’. His imagination had been fueled by her visit, and he was now more determined than ever to help catch the killer. He gritted his teeth and fought against his desire to puke as he slowly got down onto his knees by the pool of blood and began to examine it in more detail, looking for anything the cops may have missed. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be in there without a cop present but hell, it was his goddamn building; he owned the place now and surely he could go where he pleased.

  But as Sal had already said, there wasn’t anything else. Either that or he was just incapable of seeing it. He slowly got back to his feet, feeling slightly stiff. He was getting a bit too old to be scrambling down on his hands and knees. Maybe he should get one of those magnifier things. Maybe he should leave the investigating to the cops and just help out where he could. He could at least do some online rooting around.

  He headed back to his own office and sat down at his computer. Even though it was late now and hardly anyone was still in the building, Michael didn’t feel like going home, and he didn’t feel like sleeping. He wanted to get this done, now, so he could rest easy that night knowing he had done something to help get justice for his friend.

  He searched through the business records and found the list of fired employees over the years, which included a small note or statement on the reason they were fired. He printed them all out and put them in a little folder ready to give over to Sal the following evening, then remained in his chair and sat and read through them. Some of the previous employees he remembered very well; others less so. He couldn’t imagine any of them becoming so angry over losing their job that they came and did that to Trent though, especially since the last person fired was over a year ago. Surely they would have done it a bit sooner if they were so angry? Besides, PII had always been a happy company. Trent had prided himself on running a ‘happy ship’ as he liked to call it, and Michael was determined to do the same.

  As for rivals, there was really only one insurance company worth its weight that could ever even come close to PII, and that was Frank Morgan Industries.

  Michael had met Frank a few times and he’d always seemed like a nice enough guy. Certainly, there was a rivalry between them, but it was a friendly rivalry as far as he could tell, and there was nothing wrong with a bit of friendly rivalry in business. Both companies had been doing really well lately anyway.

  Still, Sal had asked him to think of rivals or enemies, and Frank was the only one who sprang to mind.

  He picked up his phone and painstakingly sent a text to Sal. He’d never been very good at phones, although his typing on a computer was pretty shit-hot.

  Got that list of fired employees for you. Don’t think it’s any of them though. Last time anyone was fired was over a year ago. Only rival or ‘enemy’ I can think of is Frank Morgan, owner of Frank Morgan Industries. They’re a rival insurance company and there’s always been a lot of competition between us. Thanks and see you tomorrow!

  ***

  Sal had gone straight to the lab to run a little test when she left PII, and was there waiting for the results when she got Michael’s message. She read it and frowned slightly, mulling things over to herself.

  Then the lab technician came out.

  “It’s a match.”

  This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

  Chapter Six

  It was admittedly pretty difficult to arrange further dates with Jamia due to her incredibly hectic and tight work schedule, or indeed, to arrange any kind of meet ups with her at all, not even just dates.

  Their Sunday night meal out had gone really well; so well that Tyler was excited about their next one and wanted to sort something out for it immediately, and so well that he hadn’t even tried to get her into his bed at the end of the night. He’d been the perfect gentleman the whole evening, and he got the impression Jamia was rather pleasantly surprised by it.

  After they’d finished their meal, which of course he paid for, they’d got in a taxi and he’d asked her for her address. He dropped her off at her home first, before asking the driver to go on to his place. Before she got out, he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and murmured, “I want to see you soon.”

  She blushed and mumbled back, “I want to see you, too. Goodnight, Tyler.”

  He’d had to fight the urge to text her immediately. He didn’t want to seem too keen. But by the next morning, he could fight it no longer.

  “I really enjoyed last night. Hope we can do it again soon.”

  He yawned and got up out of bed. It was half past eleven, his usual wake up time. He wandered downstairs and had a look in the fridge f
or something to eat. He hated making food for himself. He generally just ate out all the time or ordered delivery.

  There was some leftover pizza from his Saturday night delivery, so he warmed that up in the microwave and ate it for his breakfast/lunch.

  By the time he’d done that, Jamia had responded.

  “I hope so too. I enjoyed myself.”

  Tyler chewed his lip a little, thinking about Jamia’s three jobs and how annoying they were.

  “Do you ever get any time off?” he texted back.

  “Not really, haha, that’s the problem.”

  “What about vacations? Surely they must give you vacation time.”

  “Yeah, I’m entitled to two weeks a year.”

  He smirked. Good. Now he saw an opportunity. “I bet you’re the type who never takes it.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I know you so well already. They probably owe you like two months’ vacation now.”

  “I don’t think it works like that, somehow.”

  “Can you take them in random days or does it have to be two weeks in a block?”

  “I can take them however I like.”

  “Then take a goddamn day off this week and come hang out with me. A whole day. Or hell, maybe even two days. You don’t need the money, I’ll pay for everything.”

  “I don’t like being a kept woman. I’m independent.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes, stuffing some pizza in his mouth as he replied again. “Alright fine, I’ll pay for some things and make you pay for others. Sound better?”

  “Sounds much fairer, yep!”

  “Is that a date then? Are you gonna do it?”

  “Am I gonna take two days off?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  “Great! We’re gonna have an awesome time! You deserve a break, god damnit.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “When will it be?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll need to speak to my bosses today.”

  “All three of them. Lol.”

  “Yep!”

  “Will you let me know?”

  “Yeah, duh.”

  Tyler bit his lip and blushed. He was acting like an excited, giddy teenager all over some stupid two days off that some playing hard to get girl was taking. Maybe he needed to take a step back. And yet, he didn’t want to. This was fun.

  “Alright. Talk later!” He sent off his final text.

  He was already thinking about the cool things they could do together on her day off. She’d told him she hadn’t had a day at home playing video games for ages, and had been jealous of his lazy weekend, so that was definitely something they could do. It would be no biggie for him, but for her it would probably be awesome. Actually, he thought to himself, it was pretty awesome anyway just to find a hot girl that was also into video games. Jamia was quite the catch, and he couldn’t wait to see her again.

  It wasn’t till around four o’clock that afternoon that he got another message from her, confirming her two days off as Thursday and Friday.

  For Tyler, every day was a holiday but now, now he really had something to look forward to.

  “Can I call you?” He text her back in reply.

  “Not yet, I’m at work.”

  “When do you go to the bar?”

  “6.”

  “I’m gonna come in for a drink, if that’s OK.”

  “It’s a free country, can’t stop you.”

  “Well, you could ban me or something.”

  “I could, yeah. Might do that.”

  He smirked to himself and shook his head, then got ready to go out. He arrived at the bar around seven, when Jamia had already started her shift, deciding to actually eat his dinner there seeing as she’d told him how good the food was. He took it up at the counter, so that he could chat to her occasionally in between her serving customers. The place was pretty busy with people eating and Tyler was surprised; it seemed like an entirely different clientele to the 10pm onwards crowd he’d experienced the other night. Thankfully though, Jamia was serving behind the bar as usual, and not serving food, so she didn’t have a massive amount to do, and for the most part, just leant over on her elbows chatting to him and watching him eat.

  “So what are we actually gonna do?” she asked him with a smile and a sparkle in her eyes. She was actually pretty excited. She hadn’t had a day off in ages, and it was definitely a bonus to be able to spend it with Tyler. She was starting to kind of like him.

  “Well, I’ve been planning that all day actually,” Tyler grinned, chomping on some fries and then washing them down with a swig of beer. “On Thursday morning, I’m gonna come pick you up and bring you round to my place.”

  “Are you indeed?” she raised an eyebrow. “You’re just determined, aren’t you?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “I assure you my intentions are entirely honorable.”

  “Oh yeah, I bet,” she snorted softly. “So go on then…let’s imagine I agree to this. You’re gonna pick me up from my place, take me back to yours. Then what?”

  “Then, we’re gonna – oh wait, I should have mentioned at this point that you need to bring some overnight clothes. Pajamas or something.”

  Her eyebrows shot up again. “What if I don’t want to spend the night round at your place, hmm?”

  “Look, you’re just gonna have to trust me on this, okay?” Tyler sucked some ketchup off his index finger then dabbed at his lips with the napkin. “You’re really gonna enjoy it.”

  “OK, carry on.”

  “So, when we get to mine, we’ll get changed into our pajamas straight away, and spend the whole day on the couch playing video games. And when we get bored of that or our thumbs get too tired, or if you don’t like the games I have, we can watch movies instead. And we can order pizza, or Chinese – “

  “You mean Thai,” Jamia interrupted straight away, causing Tyler to burst into giggles.

  “No,” he chuckled. “Definitely Chinese.”

  “Or maybe Chinese AND Thai.”

  “Well, that’s definitely a compromise. But yeah, we’ll just spend the whole day relaxing doing fun stuff. And you won’t have to worry about work, or money, or anything. How’s that sound?”

  Jamia smiled. She was honestly impressed. She’d been expecting him to pull out something fancy; to want to wine and dine her again, or whisk her off on some private jet or try and impress her with his fancy cars. It wouldn’t have worked, of course, but that was what she was expecting, so for him to suggest a good old fashioned simple lazy day at home was actually really refreshing, and nice.

  “It sounds amazing,” she smiled, and she wasn’t lying.

  Tyler practically beamed with satisfaction, genuinely pleased that he’d got something right by her book. “Great. And you’re right, the food here is pretty damn good, by the way.” He pushed his plate aside.

  “Told you.” She took it away for him and delivered it to the kitchen, stopping on her way back to serve a customer some drinks before returning to talk to Tyler. “So that’s Thursday sorted. And how about Friday? Got anything planned for that?”

  “As a matter of fact I do,” he gave her a little grin and leaned forward.

  “Don’t I have a say in any of this? You’re literally planning my days off for me.”

  “Well, feel free to tell me if you don’t like any of my suggestions, but honestly, I think they’re amazing.”

  “You would,” she scoffed.

  He giggled. He just loved the way she didn’t take any of his bullshit. “OK so Friday, we sleep in, get up late, go out for breakfast. I know this amazing place.”

  “Okay…”

  “Then, I’m gonna take you to the offices so you can meet Michael. He’s been dealing with the detective assigned to our case so that I don’t have to, answering her questions and shit like that so uh…if anyone can let you in on how things are going, what evidence they picked up from the scene, what kind of direction they’re p
ursuing, it’s probably him. He was one of the first people there, he identified my father’s body and all that.”

  Jamia nodded, frowning a little. “Didn’t it freak you out?”

  “Well yeah…” He shrugged, looking uncomfortable for a moment. “It’s just…messed up. But it’s life.”

  “You don’t have to be brave for me,” she murmured softly, then reached out, placing her hand over his wrist and giving a gentle squeeze.

  He blushed, not really knowing how to deal with that.

  “Uh…thanks…I guess.” Then Jamia retreated her hand back and he cleared his throat, carrying on speaking as if nothing had happened. “So yeah, you can talk to him for a bit, get your cop work experience in, see the business I...well…kind of own but don’t run…and then after all that boring stuff we’ll go out and do something fun.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “I dunno. We can go on my yacht or something.”

  She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “You really do have a yacht?”

  “Yep. I uh…I really do have a yacht.”

  “Typical.”

  He held his hands up and laughed a little. “Sorry, sorry!”

  “Drink up and go back to your mansion, posh boy,” she grinned. “If I stand around all night talking to you, my boss is gonna freak.”

  ***

  Tyler couldn’t believe she was so good at video games. After having his ass handed to him three times in a row, he was just about ready to give up.

  “Hey, maybe we should watch a movie or something,” he suggested lightly, stretching and putting the controller down.

  “Just because you’re losing,” she laughed and gently slapped his arm. “Alright though…we can always play some more later.”

  “Yeah…” He smiled and looked at her. They’d been having the best day so far, and it was only just beginning.

  “I’m really enjoying this,” said Jamia, expressing his thoughts.

  They gazed in each other’s eyes for a moment. “Me too,” Tyler replied dreamily.

  Jamia looked away first, turning off the game. “Shall we order something to eat?”

  “Yeah! Good plan,” Tyler grinned and jumped up, going to get some menus. It was coming up to two in the afternoon already, so it was a good enough time to order food. “You choose a movie.”