Found and Destroyed: The Second Sarah Martin Mystery

by Danelle Helget

  “Tannya, go get Miss Kitty. I’ll get a cab,” I instructed.

  I hailed a cab waiting in a line just outside the doors. It amazed me that there were still people standing outside, in the freezing cold, waiting to get in. The night was pretty much over.

  We jumped into the cab. I told the cab driver to follow the limo at a distance. We followed it for about an hour. It was going nowhere, just circling. Then it started heading back to Spice. When it pulled into the lot, the door opened, and blue-tank girl stumbled out and wobbled to the curb. The limo drove away. I took a few more pictures of that too. Miss Kitty made a gasping noise, and I looked over and saw her crying.

  I rubbed her back. “Wait here. I’m going to get the girl some help.”

  I got out of the cab and sat down on the curb next to blue-tank girl. I asked her if she was okay. She moaned and her eyes were rolling around when she looked at me. She was wobbling all over just trying to sit up straight.

  “Hey! Get your friend out of here now!”

  The bouncer was pointing at me and was not happy.

  “Okay,” I said to him. Then I turned to the girl. “I know you don’t know me, and I’m not sure you can even hear me, but I’m going to take you to the hospital. I think you’ve been drugged. Come on,” I said and helped her to her feet and into the cab.

  Tannya jumped up front and the girl sat between me and Miss Kitty. I yelled for the cab driver to drive to the hospital, and he whined about the fare being too high. Miss Kitty threw two hundred dollars at him, and he hit the gas.

  The driver pulled right into the ambulance drop-off zone, and we tried our best to get her out of the cab. Tannya ran into the entry way and grabbed a wheelchair that was waiting near the door. We got her seated and two nurses came rushing out and took over.

  “What’s wrong with her?” one of the nurses asked.

  “We think she was drugged,” I said.

  She glared at me and made a tsk sound, “You think?”

  “We assume …” I corrected her, sternly.

  “What’s your friend’s name?” The second nurse asked as she started pushing the chair to the doors.

  “Um, she’s not our friend. We’re just helping her,” I said, following her through the doors.

  Tannya was right behind me, and Miss Kitty was still at the cab. I looked back at her and she yelled that she’d wait there. She did not look happy, which I completely understood.

  “We need a tox screen stat!” Tannya said loudly. We all stopped in our tracks and looked at her. “Seriously! This is Sara Martin. She is a private investigator, and this here woman is part of the investigation. We’re gonna need a tox screen and a rape kit done, and we’ll be waiting here for the results,” she said and stopped short of the Employees Only door.

  The nurses looked at her, wondering if she was serious, and then looked to me.

  “Stat!” I added. “The faster I get the results, the faster I can take this guy down.”

  They frowned and exchanged glances.

  “Seriously, the guy who did this has done it before. We’re trying to catch him and collect evidence. We don’t need your names or anything official from you. If you could just let us know if he did it again, that would be enough. Please.” I begged.

  “Wait here,” one of the nurses said. I told Tannya to wait and went to get Miss Kitty. She didn’t want anything to do with waiting around. She was fighting back tears, so I told her to go back to the hotel and we would get a cab and be right behind her. She said she’d send back the cab we were using. We worked that out with the driver and then I went back in and sat with Tannya.

  Finally seventy minutes later a nurse came out and said that there was evidence of recent sexual intercourse and that she had Rohypnol in her system. They would be collecting DNA and had called the police. We thanked her and walked out to the cab.

  Back at the hotel Miss Kitty was lying in bed with a deep pile of used tissues surrounding her. Tannya and I sat on either side of her while she cried, then Tannya pushed the button and ordered pizza and mixed a few drinks. After we ate, we fell asleep, all of us in a king size bed together with the pizza box and tissue mountain.

  I woke up with a sore neck at 9:00 a.m. I was the first one awake. I went to the bathroom and hopped in the shower. Two hours later we were all up, showered, and once again wearing our matching black outfits. Miss Kitty insisted that we stop one more time for new outfits, her treat. After fifty minutes in Macy’s we walked out in all our own styles.

  In the cab on the way to the airport Miss Kitty used her iPhone to get tickets on the next flight. As we stepped up to security and took our shoes off, I set the shoulder bag with all the electronics on the floor by our feet, then rushed to put my shoes in a bin having left the bag by Tannya.

  I went through the metal detector just as I heard, “Ma’am, you forgot your bag on the floor.” I looked back to see the guard talking to Tannya and pointing at the bag. She looked over and saw it. She looked up and shot her eyes at me. I smiled and gave her a little finger wave. Miss Kitty of course made it through no problem, so I joined her on a bench while we waited for Tannya’s bag search and body pat down and, of course, purse dump. Ahh, the victorious pleasure of payback!

  We were back in Brainerd by 3:00 p.m. After we paid for parking, we stopped for a bite to eat in town. Miss Kitty was really upset, not so much sad anymore, but angry. She didn’t eat much, which concerned me since her weight was about 115.

  “So what are you going to do now? Do you want me to keep going with this,” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” There was a long pause as she stared at the salad in front of her. “Yes, keep going. I want to know what’s going on with Alexa, and what his plans were with that.”

  “Okay, I will. I don’t think he’s seen her. I think it’s been all computer, which is a little strange.”

  “Yeah, I wonder why. She lives close enough that he could go and see her at any time. Maybe he was taking it slow because he likes her. Maybe he was planning on replacing me,” she said and stared at me.

  I could see the hurt in her eyes. I was sad for her. What an awful thing to see. We finished our meals and climbed back into the Jeep.

  “Kick his ASS!” Tannya yelled from the backseat.

  It came out of nowhere and made both Miss Kitty and me jump.

  I turned around in my seat and looked at her.

  “Sorry. It’s just I can’t stop thinking about it, and he’s really pissed me off. Don’t ya just want to kick his ass?”

  “Yes, I do. But what good will that do me, Tannya? I need to be smart about this. The only income I have is his. I have no schooling, so if I don’t get money out of this divorce, what am I going to live off of? I need to make sure I get as much money as possible from this. I don’t want to work the rest of my life.”

  “What’s so wrong with working for a living?” Tannya snapped back.

  There was a moment of silence. I put the Jeep in reverse and backed out of my parking space.

  “Nothing, Tannya. It just isn’t for me. I don’t have any skills. No one would hire me.”

  She put her arm up on the window and rested her head in her hand. She suddenly seemed like a lost little girl.

  “We’ll figure this out, and make sure we have the evidence your lawyer needs to get you a really nice settlement. We’ve already got tape of the conversation with Dave and pictures of last night.” I said trying to reassure her.

  “I still wanna kick some ass! We didn’t do any of that this weekend,” Tannya said.

  The rest of the ride was quiet. When we got into town, I dropped them off at Morning Glory.

  “I’ll do some more digging tomorrow and let you know what I find out,” I told Miss Kitty.

  “I wanna come with!” Tannya yelled. “You call me. Don’t leave me out!”

  I smiled at her and nodded. Miss Kitty looked at the ground.

  “Yeah, let me know if you learn anything new. I’m going to go hom
e and try my best to pretend that it was just another day. He should be home soon. I think he was scheduled for a 5:10 p.m. flight.”

  I gave her a long, tight hug.

  “Hang in there,” I told her.

  I turned right towards home and drove in silence trying to figure things out. It was almost five and dark as night out. When I pulled in the driveway I saw a familiar black Jeep. Derek.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I threw the Jeep in park and jumped out. Derek had been sitting in his Jeep waiting for me. I didn’t know he was coming, and our last couple conversations were very short, and a bit tense. This is going to be awkward

  “Hey,” he said exiting the Jeep.

  “Hey,” I said with a smile.

  “I … uh, wanted to see you. I hope you don’t mind that I’m here.” He looked sad.

  “I love that you’re here. Are you staying the weekend?” I asked.

  “I did pack a bag, but I don’t have to if you have other plans,” he said.

  “I just have to go to the Cities tomorrow to take Faith to her appointment and pick up Pepper.”

  “Pepper?” Derek asked.

  “Yeah, he’s a dog that had surgery today. His mom has an emergency and has to go out of state for a while, so I said I’d help out. He’s going to stay with me for a couple weeks.”

  Derek shook his head and gave me a hug.

  “Come on in,” I said.

  We got our things from our Jeeps and went inside. I told him all about my week. He asked a lot of questions about Miss Kitty and her husband so I showed him the file. He looked it over and said that he looked like a scum bag with a less than legal business and wouldn’t doubt if he was wanted in multiple states on drug and rape charges.

  “Sara, this is big!” He tossed the file on the island counter and sat down on a stool. “What do you plan to do about this?” he asked in his cop voice.

  “I don’t know. I think it’s worse than we expected. What should we do? We have to make sure that Miss Kitty gets a good settlement. I promised I’d help, and she doesn’t want it all over the papers, so I don’t think calling the police is the answer. I think that tomorrow afternoon I’ll go pay Alexa a visit and see if she has anything to say for herself.”

  “Well, I’m coming with you,” Derek said. I shot him a look. “I’ll stay in the Jeep unseen, just in case you need back up.”

  “Tannya’s my back up. I don’t know how she’s going to react to you stepping in on her territory. She’s pretty jacked up about this.”

  “Fine. I’ll wait in my Jeep down the road. I don’t want you going there without me. We don’t have to tell Tannya,” he said standing up and walking towards me.

  I was leaning back against the counter, and he pressed himself up against me.

  “It could be our little secret,” he whispered in my ear and then kissed my ear lobe.

  “Um, okay.” I said trying to keep my focus.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted him in my business and making decisions for me. He licked my neck and then kissed it three more times. His hands were on the move, too. My eyes closed. I tried to will them open and to get my voice to say something about being in charge of my life when he kissed my mouth and untucked my shirt. Oh, screw it! I didn’t care. As it turned out, I did want him all up in my business.

  An hour later, I was craving a cigarette, but I didn’t have any, since I didn’t smoke. I lay in my bed, Derek next to me, trying not to think about my crazy life when I heard Derek. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”

  “Yeah, I’m hungry.”

  “Do you have any food here?”

  I thought about the taco pie still in the fridge. “Yup I do,” I said. “Meet ya in the kitchen.”

  After we ate we curled up by the fire and watched a movie then went to bed. We had to leave really early to get to the Cities by 8:00 a.m.

  Saturday morning we got showered and dressed and out the door with Faith by five. We barely made it there in time with the gas and food stops. Faith checked out great and got her shots. Pepper was drugged on pain meds and lying down in the back. I had to fold down the back seats to fit him in. Thank goodness Derek was there. I wouldn’t have been able to get him in to the Jeep by myself. Faith climbed over to him and curled up between his chin and neck and fell asleep. They both slept the entire way back. As we were coming in to Nisswa, I got a call from Miss Kitty.

  “Where are you?” she asked, her voice still serious and accent still gone.

  “I’m in my Jeep about ten minutes outside of Nisswa. Why?”

  “I need your help. I’ve been doing some digging, and I know some things. I need help to spy on a meeting between Vincent and Dave. Dave called Vincent this morning and said he was coming over to discuss the manufacturing plant paperwork and other stuff,” she told me.

  “Oh, oh. What other stuff?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but I want to hear it, and I don’t trust Dave. I’ve never seen him like that, the other day in his office. He scared me. And he said something about having a plan. I think we should be there, hidden of course, to listen and watch and record.”

  “Um, okay. What time are they meeting?”

  “Dave said he was coming over at three and would have paperwork ready by then. So can you and Tannya be here by two?”

  “Sure, I’ll call Tannya, and we’ll drive together. So this is at your house? You want us to just show up?”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell him I’m having friends over for snacks and girl talk. He won’t care, and he’ll be in the east wing in the office anyway. We will pre-bug and hide video cameras in the room beforehand. Vincent said he has to run to the office in Brainerd in a bit and won’t be back until just before three, so it will be perfect!”

  “Okay, we will be there at two,” I told her and disconnected.

  “Be where at two?” Derek asked.

  I repeated the conversation to him and he, again, said that he would like to follow me from a distance, just in case. I reluctantly agreed to that. He suggested that I wear a wire so he could hear me from his car too. I also agreed to that.

  I called Tannya and told her the plan. She said she would be at my house at 1:30 and said to dress in my black SWAT outfit. Tannya said she knew where Miss Kitty lived, so she’d give me directions if I drove.

  When we got home Pepper was half awake. We carefully carried him in. Man he is huge. This had to be harder than moving a dead body. We put him down by the fireplace. He didn’t seem to care. I put his three-foot bed on the floor next to him and he got up and climbed in it. He looked around the room then put his head down and went back to sleep.

  I made a quick PB and J sandwich for Derek and me. After we ate, I got dressed in my black outfit then changed back out of it thinking it would look suspicious if Vincent walked into his kitchen and saw both of us in the same black outfits. Instead I wore jeans and a long sleeve, black t-shirt and tennis shoes. Derek shook his head at me.

  “You can stay here. You don’t have to come,” I said snobbishly.

  “Sweetness, I’m going. I don’t like the idea of Barbie and the two musketeers doing this alone.”

  When Tannya arrived, she said a quick hi to Derek. We went through the bag of electronics and I put the wire on. Derek tested it and warned me about the distance limits and about the fact that it may not be admissible in court either. I knew this and so did Miss Kitty but it was worth a shot anyway. Derek wasn’t happy about the whole situation, but he knew he couldn’t change my mind.

  I climbed in my red Jeep and Tannya rode shotgun. When Derek got in his black Jeep,Tannya made a comment about his and hers. Tannya gave me directions as I drove. We went about three miles down the county road then made a few turns on roads I’d never been on before. After about five minutes I was lost and had no idea which direction we were even headed in. We came to a long driveway. Tannya told me that was it. I flashed my brakes at Derek and turned in. He kept going farther down the road. I wondered if he could hear us if he
waited on the road.

  The home was on Long Lake. There were other homes but none as big as this. We both made sure the batteries on our phones were fully charged. They were. I wouldn’t be making that mistake twice. We drove up to a huge mansion. It was in a big opening in the middle of the woods and was nicely landscaped. There was an attached garage with four doors. The house was white and black and very sharp.

  The entry door was huge and had side-light windows and a half-circle window over the top. Pillars went up to the second level where a huge window showed a double-curved staircase and a huge chandelier. The house must have been seven-thousand square feet or more. It was strange to see it in such a small town. Tannya said that they had two other homes besides this one. It seemed like a bit much for someone who just passed through once in a while. The asphalt driveway circled around in front of the house, so we parked nice and close to the front door. Miss Kitty met us at the door.

  “Bring the bag of stuff!” she husked. Tannya threw the zebra print bag over her shoulder and we walked in. The house was gorgeous and state of the art. It was like being on Cribs.

  “Dang, girl! I wanna tour,” Tannya said.

  “Sure thing, girls, but quickly because we gotta get set up,” Miss Kitty said.

  She was lit up as she showed us around the home. It had nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, and two pools, one inside and one outside. She ended the tour in the office. Tannya still had the bag on her shoulder so we dumped it out on the desk and dug through it. We hid the pen recorder in with the other pens on his desk, and hid the flower pin video camera on the shelf in a dried flower arrangement. It didn’t match at all but I’d doubted he’d notice. Miss Kitty placed a bug under the lamp shade and another one over by the couch across the room.

  The room was rectangular with two windows on the back wall and a large desk almost against the wall between them. There were two chairs in front of the desk and a full-size couch against the right wall. The left wall had two tall file cabinets. We shut off the lights and went up to Miss Kitty’s spa room. It was pink and blinged out in every way possible. She had a cozy couch and pictures of herself everywhere. It was a woman cave of sorts. We took the rest of the electronics and turned them on. The flower-pin video camera we could watch and hear on a hand-held, four-inch TV screen thingy. The others were recording, but we wouldn’t be able to see or hear those until later. We left it all there and went down to the kitchen. Miss Kitty mixed us three martinis and Tannya shot me a look.