* * *
I was overjoyed the next morning when Kale left for work and told me to make myself at home. He said to help myself to anything in the refrigerator and to watch TV if I wanted. True, he said all of that in a flat tone, expressionless, without looking me in the eye, but the important point was that I had run of the house.
He might not be interested in me sexually, but I’d still managed to get into the house and get a chance to look around. Hopefully, I’d find the necklace this morning, and that would be the end of that. If it turned out there was a safe or something, I might need to come back with some tools, but I had a few things with me, so that might not even be necessary.
I set to work at once, sure that my worry last night had been unfounded. This was going to be an easy job, and I was going to be rolling in cash by tomorrow night at the latest.
But within an hour, I was discouraged again.
There was nothing in this house.
Kale had taken the idea of spartan living to new heights. He seemed to have nothing in his house except the bare minimum of what he needed. His dresser was full of clothes and nothing but clothes. His closet was the same. No storage boxes on the floor or on the upper shelf. His bathroom had a lot of male grooming products—shaving cream, aftershave, razors, shampoo, deodorant, etc.—but nothing else. The other bedroom in the house was completely bare and empty except for an unmade bed and an empty dresser, similar to the ones in the bedroom downstairs.
I did find a locked file cabinet. I was able to jimmy it open with my tools. Inside, he had information from his business. Lots of statements and receipts and tax returns. The only personal thing was in the bottom drawer. There were sonogram photos in there, and a framed picture of Kale with a woman, who was wearing an antique necklace. They were both smiling. Lila. Had to be. And I thought I remembered something about her being pregnant, now that I thought about it. However, her family hadn’t been real thrilled about that, and it hadn’t been the main focus of our conversation.
The necklace, though?
The necklace was not there. It was not anywhere in the stupid house, and I had looked everywhere.
The picture of her wearing it mocked me. Gah. Where was it?
Frustrated, I went to look in the refrigerator for some food. When I looked inside, I just got angrier. Help yourself, huh? To what? There’s nothing but condiments and milk in here.
I slammed the refrigerator closed and began going through the cabinets.
My cell phone rang.
I’d charged it the night before. It actually had been out of battery, because I’d wanted my story to check out if necessary. But now it was up and running again. I answered it.
“May I speak to Piper?” said a man’s voice on the other end. He had a little bit of a rustic drawl, understated but smooth.
“This is Piper.” I didn’t recognize this man’s voice. No one should have this number that I didn’t know.
“It’s Hudson Slade, with Tony’s Auto Repair,” he said.
Oh, right. I had given my number to the tow truck guy the night before. He’d promised to pass it along to the auto shop. “Hi there,” I said.
“Well,” said Hudson, “you’ve got an issue here with this car. We can fix it, but we’re going to have to order a part. You authorize it, and I’ll call it in. We’ll have the part tomorrow, and you back on the road the next day at the latest.”
“What?” I said. I had damaged the car in a precise way. One that was ridiculously easy to fix. There was no reason to order anything. All he should have to do was hook a few things back up, add some power steering fluid, and send me on my way. “That can’t be right.”
“Well, your power steering isn’t working, ma’am, and that’s because one of the parts has broken. It’s a simple metal piece that attaches on two sides in the front of your car, so it’s not a difficult fix, but we don’t have the part here.”
“It’s not broken,” I said. “Just reattach it.” This guy was trying to scam me.
“Oh, trust me.” He laughed. “It’s broken. We can’t reattach it. We only have half of it.”
What? Could it really have broken? “Well… how much is it going to be?”
“The part’s the big expense. The labor should be quick and cheap. So, let’s see how much this part is going to run you…” He whistled low, under his breath.
“What?” I said.
“Well, I gotta tell you, these imported cars, stuff sure is expensive.”
“How much?”
He told me.
“What?! That’s ridiculous. It’s a three-foot-long metal tube.”
He chuckled. “Sounds like you have some experience with this.”
Damn it. I was not doing a very good job keeping up my cover. Luckily, Kale wasn’t anywhere around. Fuck it, if I was this deep in, I might as well go the whole hog. “Damned right I do. So, don’t think that I’m some idiot girl that you can snow, telling me a zillion things are wrong with my car. There’s no way that part costs that much. You’re making it up. You’re trying to extort me. You think I’m an idiot.”
He laughed. “That’s how much it costs, ma’am.”
This was amusing him? “I don’t even believe that part’s broken.” It had been fully intact when I’d detached one side of it the night before to drain out the power steering fluid.
“Come down here, then. I’ll show you the part. I’ll show you how broken it is.”
“I can’t come down there. I don’t have a car. You have it.”
Another laugh. “Oh, right. Well, then how about I come get you?”
I sucked in breath. That was unusual, wasn’t it? “Um…”
“I don’t want you to feel as if we’re taking advantage of you, considering you’re from out of town and all, ma’am. I want to reassure you that we’re doing good work. So, tell me your address there, and I’ll come pick you up.”
Under a Raging Moon: Part One Page 3