Found and Destroyed: The Second Sarah Martin Mystery

by Danelle Helget

  “I don’t do private investigating,” I said, incredulous at the idea. “I simply helped out on a case that involved me. I got lucky. I don’t have any training or skills in that kind of work. Sorry, but I’m not interested, or qualified for that matter.”

  “All right, well it doesn’t hurt to ask,” she said as she set a piece of paper and the bill on the table, then sashayed back to the counter.

  I looked at the paper. On it was Tannya’s name and cell number, and Miss Kitty’s name and cell number, and the words: Just in case you change your mind. After I read it, I looked up at Tannya. She was trying her best to appear busy behind the counter and didn’t look back at me. I put the paper in my purse and money on the table and walked out.

  All the way home I thought about the conversation, and my curiosity was churning at full speed. I wondered about Miss Kitty. Who is she, and what does she want me to do? I wondered about Tannya, and who she really was. She’s a hoot, and very down to earth. Her energy is contagious. I also wondered about Rex, the cop, then remembered what Tannya said about trying not to thinking about him, and here I’m thinking about him again. Dang it.

  When I pulled into the driveway I tried to refocus. I walked out to the end of the dock and sat in the chair. I inhaled the fresh air and tipped my head up towards the sun. A moment later, I got up and went inside, it was getting too chilly to sit outside. It was a nice thought, but I couldn’t do it without shivering. It did make me think about winter prep for the yard and dock though. I knew that the dock had to come out before winter, and that I needed a pontoon trailer. Reggie, the previous owner, never had one. He had paid a service for the moving and storage of the pontoon. I needed to figure that out soon, so I went inside and called my dad.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said when he picked up.

  “Hey, Sara. What’s up?” he answered. There was no small talk with him, he was a straight-to-the-point kind of man.

  “I need your help. I have a pontoon and dock out here, and I don’t know what to do with it this winter. When do I need to take them out, and how do I do that?” I asked in a sweet voice.

  “Well, the dock needs to come out soon. Someone’s going to have to get into the water to do that, and the water’s getting colder, so the sooner the better. But, before you do that, you need to get the pontoon out. I’d suggest buying a pontoon trailer. You’ll want one if you ever want to take the boat to another lake, or if you go camping, or it needs repair anyways.”

  “That’s kind of what I was thinking too.”

  “You should shop for one now. The stores will be trying to get rid of their inventory before winter. You’ll also need to build a large shed out there for your pontoon and Jeep to fit in. This is Minnesota. It’s gonna be a long, hard winter,” he added.

  “I’ve thought about that too.” I said, mentally adding that to my list of things to do.

  “When can you get Derek out there to help us?” he asked.

  “How about this weekend?”

  “That’s fine here. Check with him, and I’ll tell your mom.”

  “Okay, great! Thanks, Dad. I’ll get some beer in the fridge, and we can grill one last time before it gets too cold.”

  It was Wednesday. I hadn’t heard from Derek yet and wondered if I should call him, but I didn’t want to seem too clingy. We were in a strange stage of the relationship. I knew he liked me, but I didn’t want to be too needy and scare him away. I did want to keep him close at hand though. I decided to call. He picked up on first ring.

  “Detective Richards.”

  “Hey, detective,” I said with an instant smile at the sound of his voice.

  “Hey, sweetness, how are you? It feels like forever since I’ve seen you,” he said with a sigh.

  Aww, he melted my heart. “So how did the dinner with the fam go?” I asked.

  “Ugh, don’t ask. It’s a bigger issue than I thought. I’ll fill you in when I see you … When am I going to see you?” he asked. “Can you come to dinner with me tonight?”

  “Ah, maybe … I need to check with Ginger and Maureen to see if they can cover my shifts for me. I’ll call you back in a bit okay?” I said.

  “Okay. Talk to ya soon,” he said and disconnected.

  I called Lost and Found. Ginger and Maureen were both there, so we changed the schedule. They were both happy to get more hours, and I got the rest of the week off. I called Derek back and told him that he had me for the rest of the week. He seemed happy, and said that we had reservations at Fogo De Chao, a Brazilian Steak House, downtown at 7:30. Man he works fast!

  I disconnected and jumped into the shower. It was two. By the time I showered, shaved, got ready for the hot date, and drove almost three hours to get there, I’d be right on time. I told him I’d meet him at the restaurant. I cleaned the cat box and packed Faith’s stuff into the Jeep, hooked up Kat’s dad’s trailer, then got ready.

  At 4:15 p.m. I was out the door and programing my GPS for the restaurant. I knew the Cities pretty well, but the one-ways downtown could turn me around in a heartbeat. Best to trust the machine. I dropped the trailer off at Kat’s parents’ home, quickly thanked them, and headed to the restaurant.

  Chapter Three

  At 7:35 p.m. I walked in and saw Derek at the bar, tall beer in hand. He looked gorgeous. Even from the back.

  “Hey, handsome,” I said sliding onto the stool next to him.

  He turned to look at me and gave me a quick kiss, then scanned me head to toe. I was wearing a dark-blue, satin shirt with long sleeves and a high-waisted black mini-skirt. My black heels were strappy all the way up the top of my foot and high on the ankle. My legs were bare except for the tan-in-a-bottle I sprayed on them before dressing.

  “Wow! You look amazing. You clean up fast.” He looked into my eyes. I could see him relax when he exhaled. “Ah, it’s good to have you here. I missed you,” he said and kissed me again, this time a second longer.

  When I’d finally caught my breath, I asked, “Tough week so far?”

  “Yeah. Work’s busy, and the family is crazy and falling apart.”

  We both looked down at the bar and noticed the table pager blinking and buzzing. He picked it up and put his hand out and motioned for me to go first. We walked to the hostess podium, and he handed her the pager.

  “Right this way,” she said and led us to a table.

  “So, tell me about the family,” I said after we were seated and my wine was delivered.

  “Oh, gosh. Where do I start?”

  “We don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to,” I offered.

  “No, it’s fine. It just bothers me. I know when to trust my gut, and this is one of those times I feel I need to trust it.” He took a drink and continued. “Okay, so I have two sisters Kelly and Kendall. Kelly is twenty-one, and Kendall is twenty-three. They are really close and are both going to school in Morris. Kelly’s in nursing, and Kendall’s in teaching. They live in an apartment together and both waitress at Applebee’s. So, I get a call from my mom on Sunday night, after I left your place. She’s in tears. She’s all upset and telling me that Kelly’s engaged and going to ruin her life and on and on.”

  “Ah, nice, just what you need—more drama queens in your life,” I said with a wink.

  “I know!” he said with a huge grin. He took a big gulp of his drink and a deep breath, then continued. “So the story goes that Kelly just met this guy, Cory, at Applebee’s two months ago. She was his waitress and they exchanged numbers. The next night they went out together and she hasn’t been back to the apartment since. Kendall said that the guy’s a creep and she doesn’t approve. Kelly won’t even return Kendall’s calls anymore. She’s completely heartbroken and hurt, and just when she thought it was bad, it got worse. Kelly came back to the apartment on Friday night at about midnight with Cory on her arm. Kendall was asleep and heard her come in. She came out into the living room to find Kelly loading up a bag with a few of her things. Kendall asked Kelly what she was doing. K
elly told her that she was just getting a few things and then she was leaving. Kendall said that both of them were drunk and high. She could smell pot on them. Kelly had never touched the stuff until then. Kendall tried to get her to talk, but Kelly wouldn’t even make eye contact with her. When Kelly went into the bedroom to get her clothes, Kendall went into the kitchen to introduce herself to Cory. She extended her hand, but he just looked at her and said, ‘Hey,’ and kept rooting through the cupboards.”

  “What?”

  “She said he was in his thirties, had a three-day-old beard, and was dirty. His clothes were old and tattered and looked ‘kinda like a sexy, drug addict’—her words, not mine,” Derek said and took another big drink. “He grabbed a bunch of snacks, a can of corn, and the three beers that were left in the fridge and shouted at Kelly that they were leaving. Kelly said she’d be right there. Then he yelled, ‘Now Kelly! Let’s go!’ She apparently came running out of the bedroom still stuffing clothes into the bag.”

  “Oh, geez,” I said with a wrinkled brow.

  “Yeah. So, they just walked out. Cory looked at Kendall, gave her a creepy body scan, licked his lips, and winked, then said, ‘Later,’ and shut the door. Kendall called my mom right away and told her what happened. Later that day, Kelly called my mom to announce her engagement. Then I got the call from Mom.”

  “Wow, Derek, I’m so sorry.”

  “My sisters are both beautiful, smart, and morally grounded women. I think that Kelly has herself in a really bad situation right now, and I think that drugs and alcohol are big players in it. The worst part is that Kelly said she doesn’t want a big wedding. She just wants my mom and dad to give her money to elope.”

  “Your folks said no, right?” I asked.

  “They didn’t say anything yet. They just said that we should all get together and meet Cory and his parents and talk about the details and dates.”

  “Did she agree?”

  “She hung up. So my mom and dad had me, Kendall, and my brother, Travis, over instead. We ate and spent the night talking to Kendall about what she knew. We tried to call Kelly, but she wouldn’t respond to any of us. No one has talked to her in over a week, except for Kendall briefly that night at the apartment.”

  “So now what?” I asked taking a sip of wine.

  “I don’t know. I ran a check on him and there’s nothing on record, criminally anyway.”

  “Does he have a job?”

  “We don’t know. Kendall doesn’t know him, and Kelly never talked about him. She just left for a date and never came back.” I tried to absorb what I’d just heard.

  “What about his place? She must be with him somewhere.”

  “His address is listed as Morris. That’s all I have right now. It’s an apartment. I’m thinking maybe this weekend I pop in for a visit.”

  “Has Kelly been attending classes?”

  “No. Kendall checked with a couple of her professors, and they haven’t seen her in a week, and she’s not turning in her work either. She’s shown up for work when scheduled, which was a few nights last week, so money is important enough, I guess.”

  “Great, so she still needs money, but is dropping out of school?” I asked, now even more concerned.

  I started thinking that this was a bad conversation to have at a Brazilian steak house. My stomach was sensitive to stress. An hour ago I really wanted a big slab of red meat, now … not so much.

  After the first mouthwatering bite, I got over it. After we ate our dinner, I followed Derek back to his apartment. I got Faith all settled in and showed her where I’d put the litter box. We put on an HBO movie and curled up together on the couch in pajamas. We drank some water to help the meat settle. When the movie was over, Derek got up and went to the linen closet. He said I could sleep in his room and he’d take the couch. He didn’t seem like he wanted to discuss it, so I agreed and thanked him. He seemed tired and stressed, and had to be into the office by 8:00 a.m. He gave me a short, but sweet, kiss and padded over to the couch with a pillow and blanket in tow. I closed the door halfway and climbed into his bed. It was amazing. The sheets were soft and fresh, but still had his cologne scent in them. I inhaled deeply and sank deeper into the plush, pillow top mattress and fell right to sleep.

  I heard a door close quietly in the distance. I opened my eyes. It took me a second to remember that I was at Derek’s. I stretched and sauntered sleepily into the living room. The couch was empty with the blanket and pillow Derek had used neatly stacked on the floor next to the coffee table. I looked around the apartment and didn’t find Derek, but saw a half-folded piece of paper propped up on the counter with my name on it: Good morning, beautiful. Off to work … didn’t want to disturb you. Please make yourself at home. Call ya later. Derek

  Sweet. I checked the coffee pot. It was programmed to start in an hour, so I figured that was a sign to go back to bed. I dragged my feet to the bedroom and slid back in bed. It was so awesome, so soft and still warm. I closed my eyes for a second and opened them when I smelled coffee. I have to get up now. I padded into the kitchen and a poured a cup, and prayed that he had a good flavored creamer. Inside the fridge I found Hazelnut and Fat Free French Vanilla. Yummo! I took a few sips then sat in front of the TV and watched Good Morning America.

  At nine, when Live with Kelly started, I headed to the shower. It was weird taking a shower in Derek’s apartment. I could smell his products in the steam. It filled the room and made me miss him. My tummy got butterflies. It’s funny, no matter how old you get, love makes you feel like a kid again. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself all day. After I was all prepped and ready, I called Derek and thanked him for the coffee.

  “You’re welcome. Did you sleep well?” he asked.

  “Like a baby. I love your bed! I took a shower too, and now I’m bored. What time are you off?”

  “Not ‘til five.”

  “Okay … I’ll make sure to be here then. I think I might see if I can meet Kat for lunch. Maybe visit my parents for a bit too.”

  “Have a fun day. I’ll bring home something for supper, okay?”

  “Sounds great. See ya later,” I said.

  “Bye, sweetness,” he said and disconnected.

  I called Kat and we agreed on Applebee’s in Bloomington, near the law office, at noon. Noon was a ways off, so I popped two slices of bread in the toaster and searched for some peanut butter and honey. I couldn’t find honey, so I sliced up a banana instead. Faith was bounding around the place like a lion on the hunt. She had been quiet last night, which was a surprise since she had been in the car while we ate. I picked her up and let her lick the peanut butter off my finger. After she finished, and wiggled down, I led her to her bowl and poured some kibble into it. She squatted down and ate. I peeked in her litter box and noticed that she’d used it a couple of times. That’s a relief. It’s nice that she traveled well and adjusted to her surroundings quickly. I didn’t realize how crazy my life was going to be when I first got her.

  I drove over to my mom and dad’s and shared a fruit platter with them. Dad asked if I had bought a trailer for the pontoon yet and I told him no, but that I would get one before the weekend. I made a mental note to do that. Mom and I agreed on a menu for the barbeque, and I invited them to stay overnight if they wanted to. They said that was fine, that they’d be there sometime Sunday afternoon and stay ’til Monday morning. I wasn’t on the schedule at Lost and Found for next week, and was going to try to cut down my hours so that the staff could get the hours they wanted. I liked the work, but I wanted to keep it very part time.

  After I gave Mom and Dad a hug and kiss goodbye, I headed over to Applebee’s. Kat was in a booth, diet coke in hand, when I walked in.

  “Hey, girl!” she said standing up to give me a big hug. “Oh, I miss you, country girl! Look at you, the rural life is good to you,” she said.

  I laughed, “Yeah, all two weeks of it? Puhlease. I miss you too, though. It does seem like we’re in different count
ries sometimes.”

  The waitress stopped by and asked, “Can I get you a drink?”

  “A beer is fine,” I said.

  “So what brings you to town today?” Kat asked as we took our seats. I smiled.

  “Derek. We had dinner last night at Fogo De Chao.”

  “Really? And then you … slept over?” she pried.

  “Yes. Me in his bed, him on the couch.”

  “Girl, you’re killing me! You two are really taking this ‘let’s take it slow’ thing to the extreme!” she said, frustrated.

  “I know, but it’s good. I really like him. We’ve been through a lot of stressful stuff together, and I like this pace. It’s nice that he’s such a gentleman and not just after one thing. I know he really likes me since he’s taking his time to really get to know me.”

  “So, are you exclusive?” she asked, putting her elbows up on the table and resting her chin on her folded hands.

  “Umm, good question. I don’t know. We never really discussed it, I guess. I don’t know that I want to be though. I mean I am newly single and I’m not sure I should shack up with the first guy I meet, ya know?” I said, wondering what Derek’s answer would be to that question.

  We talked a while longer and ate our lunch. Kat had to get back to work, and I needed to go trailer shopping. We parted ways with a hug and a promise to get together soon.

  I googled pontoon trailers on my phone and found a dealership named Boats Trailers and More nearby. I drove over and parked in the lot. The trailers were all outside. I reached in the back seat, grabbed my winter coat, and put it on. The sun was peeking out, but it was breezy and only forty-two degrees. The lot was filled with all different kinds of trailers, so I decided that it would be best to head inside and get someone to help.

  I opened the door and went straight ahead to reception. The young woman said that she would page someone to help me. While I waited, I scanned the small building’s inventory. They had five really nice boats with steps and platforms next to them. I was tempted to go over and look at them when I heard steps coming my way.