by Kira Reese
“I don’t feel so good, either,” I said. “Do you know if he died right away or were there any last words?”
“You’ll have to ask your employees about any last words. We’re waiting for the coroner to get here. He’s definitely dead.”
Suddenly, a young woman dashed through the door. “I tried to keep her away,” said the young cop to Ben. “She’s his daughter.”
I looked through the door past the girl and noted an empty taxi parked at the curb. So the victim was a taxi driver. Ben took two long strides toward the man’s daughter.
“I’m Jenny Douglas. I told my father to wait until I got here and we could see Miss McCauley together.” She stopped and looked around. “What’s going on?”
Detective Jones took her arm and gently pulled her to the side away from the scene on the floor. He told her about her father. She has willpower, I thought. Her hand flew to her mouth in disbelief but all other emotion was kept at bay. I went toward her and took her outside just as the coroner pulled up.
“Let’s go around to the back where we can talk,” I said. “I’m sure you will be allowed to see your father as soon as possible.” I expressed my deep sympathy and led her around the office. I then explained that I was ill with the flu and had not been there when her father arrived. “Can you tell me why your father wanted to see me?”
Jenny sniffed loudly. Her pale blue eyes filled with unshed tears and she flipped long dull blond hair from her face. Then she looked directly at me. I could see her countenance was plain and unmarred with blemishes of any kind.
“It’s a long story, Miss McCauley,” she said. “My father had an unusual experience the other day when he took two passengers to their destination. He told me it was a couple in their forties or so. They asked him to take them approximately four miles out of town to a country road. At first he thought they were going to rob him, but instead they asked to be let out along the road. My father said there was no one in sight and no cars passed.”
Natalie opened the door and interrupted us. She motioned for me to come to her. She told me the man was pronounced dead by the coroner, and, at first glance, it seemed he dropped dead of a heart attack. “The detective wants to speak with the daughter.”
I returned to Jenny Douglas and gave her the message. I left her with Ben and noted the body being taken to the hearse. Jenny was allowed to see his face and she lovingly brushed it with her hand before turning away. Ben asked if she wanted the young cop, whose name was Michael O’Neil, to take her home. She shook her head and pointed to her compact car parked behind her father’s taxi.
“I have to go home and tell my mother what has happened. She’ll be devastated at this news.” She sniffed loudly again and stumbled to her car.
My head pounded with all the activity, but I drew Natalie and Evelyn to my office. We left Officer O’Neil and his partner, Bill Whitten, to search for clues in my foyer. Twice I noticed the younger cop’s eyes follow Natalie.
“I think you have an admirer out there, Natalie,” I said. She looked at me in surprise and then followed my gaze to rest on Officer Michael O’Neil. She smiled and said he didn’t look so bad. When my employees sat down I told them what Jenny had told me about her father’s purpose in being here in the first place.
“That doesn’t sound so mysterious,” said Evelyn. “I suppose the only odd thing is that his passengers wanted to be taken out in the country and left in isolation.”
“She didn’t tell me everything,” I said. “She was telling the story when Natalie came in and said that Ben wanted to speak with her.” I looked at Natalie. “You will have to get on this case and do some preliminary work on it. I can’t focus right now with the way I’m feeling.”
Natalie’s eyes lit up. She was ready to take on any case I gave her. We had discussed her getting her license as a private investigator so she could take cases on her own. I was willing to work out a deal with her as an associate in my company.
“You should go back to bed, Candy,” said Evelyn. “Until you get over this illness, you’ll let it hang on longer by being up.”
Evelyn mothered Natalie and me at times like this. She had a fifteen-year-old son and was divorced. I handed it to her when it came to efficiency in the office. Now her concern spilled over to me. Suddenly, it felt good being coddled a little. I smiled at her and agreed. Then I gave Natalie instructions.
“Find out names of the passengers that the driver took to the country,” I told her. “Then, no later than tomorrow, call the Douglas home and offer condolences. If Jenny will come back in, perhaps she can give you more details and then we can determine how far we should go with this. In case you didn’t get it, the victim’s name was Robert Douglas. He worked for City Cab Company.”
I left as the taxi was being towed away to the police compound for inspection. The two cops in the front part of the office were folding up the preliminary investigation. Officer O’Neil approached Natalie and told her they may have to come back, if necessary.
“I doubt we’ll have to be back,” said Officer Whitten. He was of moderate build and fiftyish. I don’t think he missed the intent of his younger partner. It was hard to overlook the beauty of my assistant.
As I turned the ignition in my car, my cell phone rang. It was Detective Ben Jones.
“Candy, I hate to bother you since you aren’t feeling so well. Are you still at the office?”
“I’m on my way home now. What’s up?”
“Robert Douglas may not have died of a heart attack. There is a small wound on the back of his head. It could be some kind of bullet puncture, but it is too early to be determined at this point. It is possible he was hit someplace close to your office. Again, nothing in stone yet.”
“I did see blood on the floor but thought it was possibly from his fall. His daughter told me she and her father were coming to see me about something strange her father experienced a day or so ago.” I told the detective all Jenny had told me. “I’m sure there is more to her story, but she didn’t have time to say much.”
Ben told me to let him know. “For now we are investigating this as a murder.” Then he repeated himself. “Of course, we don’t have the full autopsy report this early.”
After we ended the call, I dialed Natalie. “Ask Jenny if her father had any heart issues when you talk to her.” My next intention was to crash in my bed.
As I pulled into the driveway, I saw Nick’s car. He came home earlier than usual. When I walked in the door, he looked at me with one of his rare stern looks.
“Where have you been?” he asked me.
I explained what had happened. “Don’t worry. I’m on my way back to bed right now.”
He folded me in his arms and told me to stay awake long enough for some of his homemade chicken noodle soup. I promised I would do that. Once back in bed I fought to keep my eyes open until he appeared with thick soup and a mug of hot tea. I surprised myself with how hungry I was at that point.
“I must be getting better. This is delicious, Nick.”
“Don’t think this one-time bowl of soup and mug of tea means you’ll be up again tomorrow. Promise me you will take one more day, at least, before going back to the office.”
I promised him. In reality, the next day would be Thursday and I thought waiting until Monday would be best. I wanted to get back to work, but when I was hit with the flu I knew from experience it took several days to be back to optimal health. I probably should have listened to my aunt Leticia who called me a month ago, I thought. She advised me to get a flu shot before the season was in full force. Now I wished I had done that.
The next morning I rolled over in bed and felt the empty spot that belonged to Nick. It was still warm and the smell of coffee wafted up the stairs. For the first time in a few days it smelled enticing to me. Nick’s footsteps on the stairs told me I would have breakfast in bed. He came in the room with a tray that he set on my lap and leaned over to kiss me.
“You will be catching this st
uff if you aren’t careful,” I told him.
He laughed and said, “I’m strong enough to withstand your diseases.” He dumped the antibiotic and two vitamin C tablets into my hand. The water had a convenient straw in the glass and I swallowed my pills. I asked him how his real-estate sales were going. He told me he hoped to close a deal soon on a shop downtown that had an apartment above it for owners.
We chatted a while and I assured him I was fine. “Go make that sale,” I said. “One of us has to keep working.” He leaned in to kiss me again and removed the tray. I heard the back door close and the house became quiet.
Curiosity took over as I wondered what more Jenny Douglas had to tell me. I definitely wanted to go to her father’s funeral when the date was set. It helped to observe mourners. I pulled my laptop to my bed and clicked on Robert Douglas. The information was sparse. I found the Robert Douglas who was a taxi driver. He worked for City Cab Company for twenty-five years. He was married to his wife, Dora, and had had two children, Jennifer and Robert, Jr. His son died as a result of a boating accident when he was twelve. There were no details of his death, other than the statement alone.
Who would want to kill a taxi driver? Maybe a disgruntled customer held a grudge. I waited patiently for Natalie to tell me all she had discovered from Jenny Douglas. It would be a long day for me, a sure sign I was getting better.
Chapter 2
Strange Encounter
“Jenny Douglas prefers to give you the full story of why her father wanted to see you,” said Natalie.
Natalie’s disappointment was evident in her tone of voice on the phone.
“I’ll call her and talk with her,” I said. “I’ll also let her know we are working on this together and that she can tell you anything that pertains to the case.” I paused to sneeze. “I’m better, but just not up to coming back in yet.”
This appeased my assistant, who agreed to let me handle the first call. “I hope you are feeling better soon, Candy,” she said.
Natalie was open and honest with me. She spoke what she thought and I knew her wishes for me were sincere. I dialed the number Natalie gave me. A woman’s voice quivered when she answered.
“Is this Mrs. Douglas?” I asked. When she affirmed she was, I offered my condolences to her after explaining who I was.
“I don’t know why Robert wanted to see you,” she said. “I asked Jenny if she knew, and she just tells me she will explain later.” The gasp that followed told me she was trying to control her emotions. “In all the years he drove a cab, he never had problems with customers. In fact, he usually got good tips from most of them.”
“Did he tell you about anyone who may have caused him any problems recently?”
“He rarely brought work problems home with him over the years. I do believe if there had been anyone who upset him, he wouldn’t have spoken of it to me. He and Jenny were close. I think he talked with her on occasion about customers who were unusual in some way. They had a comradeship that I never resented. I was happy they were close. She is our only child since our son’s accident quite a while back.”
Again, I offered condolences and asked if Jenny was home.
“She’s still at school. She is a senior in high school and then she takes lessons several times a week for nursing. She is trying to get her certified nursing assistant license.”
“I’m sure you are very proud of her,” I said. “Can you have her call me when she gets home? She may know more of why her father wanted to see me.”
Dora Douglas agreed she would tell her daughter to call me. She thanked me for my sympathy. I didn’t ask her the date of her husband’s funeral. I planned to get that information from Ben. I drifted off to sleep again after drinking the large glass of orange juice Nick left in the refrigerator for me. He was a big believer in vitamin C. I awoke to my phone ringing and glanced at the clock that read four-thirty. I cleared my throat and answered the call.
“Miss McCauley, my mother told me you wanted me to call you.”
“I wanted to hear what else your father told you about why he wanted to see me. Have you told your mother yet?”
“I just told her the whole story. She thinks I should hire you to get to the bottom of it all. We just found out my father had a possible gunshot wound in his head. I know the cops said he probably died of a heart attack, but his last physical didn’t say anything about heart issues. He had to have a yearly physical for work.”
I was glad her mother knew everything. With both of them on board, it would be easier to deal with them without having to skirt around in regard to what was known and unknown between them. I told her it was not certain yet what the wound on her father’s head was.
“I won’t be back in the office until Monday,” I told her. “In the meantime, my assistant Natalie Carpenter is taking over some of the cases. I want you to know you can tell her anything she asks. I told her to get more information so we can see how to proceed.”
“I’ll do that as long as it is all right with you, Miss McCauley. I can wait until you feel better to tell you more.”
“I’m fine on the phone, and the sooner we know what was going on, the sooner we can get into the case.”
Jenny told me the story her father related to her. In her words, he expressed he had a bizarre experience with two passengers in his cab. The couple appeared to be in their forties and asked him to transport them to a spot outside the city. He called the request to his boss so he would approve it. He then drove three miles or so to Cowherd Road and then off onto the graveled road. After a few yards on this road, the man asked him to stop. Robert thought they were going to rob him on the isolated road. Instead, the man paid him and tipped him generously before both got out of the cab and started walking farther down the road.
“Did he tell you how they acted in the taxi?” I asked.
“He just said they were silent and very tense. When they walked away they held hands tightly. After a few yards, they turned around and watched my father drive away until out of sight.”
“I don’t understand yet why this would cause your father to hire a private investigator,” I said.
“There’s more,” said Jenny. “My father had the next day off work. He told my mother he wanted to run some errands and then planned to spend the rest of the day with her. He really didn’t have errands to run. He was curious and he drove back out to the spot where he left the couple and followed their steps to a small grove of trees across the ditch from the road. The trees were clustered together by themselves, as he put it, in the middle of farmland.” Jenny paused to gather her thoughts. “He parked on the road by the grove and got out. There was a lot of brush and it looked like it needed a good clearing. Those were his words. Once in the grove, he spotted a newly dug grave. Some loose brush was over the fresh dirt. He was puzzled about it all.”
“Did he report this to the police? And was there any marking on the grave?”
“He said he didn’t want to look foolish, since even though it looked like a grave, he didn’t know if a body was there or what the meaning was.” I allowed silence from Jenny and waited for her to continue. “He said it could have been a family grave and maybe the couple was grieving and wanted privacy. Do you think my father was foolish in thinking it was something you should look into?”
“I don’t think your father was foolish at all.” I wondered why the couple didn’t have him wait for them to take them back to town, but the recent death of her father prevented questions like that. Besides, I doubted Jenny had an answer to that. “I’ll see what we can find out and then get back to you. Again, I am so sorry for your loss, Jenny.”
Her reply was inaudible and she whispered her good-bye.
I called Natalie and told her everything Jenny said to me. “Have you found out who the passengers were in the cab?”
“It took some doing, but I found out their names were Polly and Bill Pearson. I have to admit, Officer O’Neil found that out for me. The cab company told me they coul
dn’t give out any information about Robert Douglas since the police told his boss to keep things private during the investigation.”
“It sounds as if you will be able to get your Officer O’Neil to do anything for you,” I teased.
Natalie was a romantic at heart. She had had one serious relationship that ended badly. She avidly read romance novels and, more than once, had voiced hopes for a passionate connection with the right person.
“I hope you are right. He asked me to go out and have a drink with him tomorrow night after work. I took him up on it.”
I told her maybe this was the one for her and then I got back to our business at hand. “Find out where the Pearsons live and a phone number for them. In the meantime, spend tomorrow delving into this matter. We still have to find out if someone shot Robert Douglas and why. It may or may not be related to the couple he took to the country.” Natalie reminded me that a gunshot had not been proven yet. I told her touché.
Before we hung up, Natalie brought me up to date on two cases that were just about wrapped up. She did a good job, and I figured when she got her license it was better to make her an associate in my business than to have her as my competition. She was studying hard to get the license and should have it in a few months.
In the meantime, I wanted to know when Robert Douglas’s funeral would be. I knew his body would have to be released first. I dialed Ben.
“We’ll be releasing his body Monday or Tuesday,” Ben told me. “Once that is done, then the funeral home will know details of the funeral.”
I thanked him and told him I would be back in the office no later than Monday.
Chapter 3
Amateur’s Mistake
Natalie Carpenter was elated that her boss gave her the go-ahead on the most recent case. She had discovered who the couple was that the victim had given a ride out to the lonely country road. She suddenly had the impulse to see for herself just where that spot was. It may give her clues as to why Robert Douglas dropped dead in the office foyer the day he came to seek help from Candy.