“Various codes programmed by the entrances that only Tempest and I know. It’s pretty adaptable if we want to include someone or exclude someone. Easy enough,” She opened the back door, “but as you see there are doorknobs on the back doors.”
“Someone could come over the back wall, no?” he said as Otter started shaking her head. “Don’t tell me you have tigers living in the back yard.”
Otter laughed. “Don’t be silly, that would be against the law.” And not half as fun as what happened if the wall detected an intruder. She went to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. “Can I offer you some ice tea or soda, detective?”
“Sure, ice tea would be great.”
“We’re two women living alone, Detective Addison,” Otter said as she handed him the tea. “We’d rather not have intruders if we can help it.”
“Makes sense,” he shrugged. He wasn’t buying her explanation, but he left it alone for the time being. Most women he knew got a decent system and had it monitored by a company. This system looked like it could take care of itself, no monitor needed.
“Susan said you found a code in the blackmail list,” He said, and took a drink of the tea, “That’s some tasty tea.”
“A potential new client of Tempest’s,” Otter said with a smile. “She has custom blends we found intriguing.”
“It’s very good,” he said taking another drink. “Now what was this code that you found?”
Otter described the code as best she could, she even brought out the cards for a demonstration, but she could see that Chris Addison wasn’t catching on.
“I was never big on science,” he confessed, “And I hated chemistry. I’m sorry, but this isn’t making sense to me.”
“Would it be possible for me to get the appointment book back?” Otter asked, “I’d like to see what he had in there now that I’ve figured out his code. There might be a lot more information.”
“The book is in an evidence locker at the station.”
“What if I went through it with you there?” Otter asked. “Or with you and Joel there--would that be ok?”
“Let me think about that.”
Otter was disappointed, but she answered his questions and told him as much as she knew. She didn’t elaborate on anything she wasn’t absolutely sure of, including the trap her boss was setting for a thief.
“Don’t worry, Otter, it will turn out all right,” Tempest said after the detective left. “He doesn’t know you’re one of the good guys.”
“I’m a lousy investigator,” Otter said, picking up Spooky and giving him a cuddle. “I made assumptions about the list and even Clark’s appointment calendar.”
“There’s no way you could have known all this,” Tempest said soothingly.
“No, but I’m supposed to be a critical thinker.”
“You are. Stop beating yourself up,”
“I saw Joseph leave here yesterday morning,” Otter said casually, “he didn’t mind that you left him all tied up and naked while you went out to a big meeting?”
“Well, he was a little unhappy at first,” Tempest said with a smile, “but I helped him change his mind.”
“I’ll bet you did. So are you two back together?”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”
“You know, I wonder if I can get Joel to get me that book.”
“Speaking of Joel, what’s going on with you two?”
“I have no idea. I think we’re dating. He’s making noises about being in my life and all that.”
“But you haven’t slept with him yet. You don’t like him?”
“Of course I do, I’m just not ready yet.”
“C’mon who do you think you’re talking to?”
“I don’t want to spend the night with him just to find out he’s only dating me for information,” Otter said slowly, “I’ll be damned if I’ll let someone use me like that.”
“Make sense, why don’t you just kick him to the curb until this is all fixed?”
“Because I do like him, and to be honest he and his merry men are useful right now and a lot of fun.”
“OK, I can buy that.”
“But I saw something, Tempest, I don’t know what I saw, but it’s in the back of my brain. I saw something while I was dancing with Graham, just a flash and my brain can’t make sense of it.”
“Is it something to do with the murders or the list?”
“I don’t know. It’s just bugging me that I can’t remember what it was, but I know I saw something.”
“It will come to the surface if you let it alone.” Tempest said. “I know how your brain works. You will see two unrelated things and suddenly they will make sense to you and your brain will stop picking at it.”
“You’re probably right, but it’s frustrating all the same.”
“You’ll figure it out, you always do.”
“So where are the puppies?”
“Oh, I’m picking them up tomorrow. They’ll be here the rest of the week.”
“That should be fun. Isn’t your mother coming back to town this week too?”
“You bet. Chaos will reign.”
“It will be nice to see your mom again. I’ve kind of missed her.”
“Me too, kind of,” Tempest said, “she will enjoy hearing about what we’ve been up to.”
“And she will have all kinds of new dinner napkins to show you,” Otter laughed as Tempest gave her an evil look. “Hey, some mothers collect other weird things, yours collects napkins. It could be way worse.”
“It could,” Tempest agreed. “And you should be feeling excited that someone is going to test your security system again.”
“He’s an officer of the law. He wouldn’t mess with the home of a private citizen.” Otter said with a grin.
“I don’t think he’ll do anything illegal, but he won’t be able to resist checking it all out.”
“I hope he has fun,” Otter said.
“I hope so too,” Tempest said, “The last guy sure didn’t.”
Much later that night, a woman carried a light weight ladder through an alley. Otter had told people that she had a gas stove and water heater, which was useful information to have. So far, Otter had given no indication that she was messing around where she shouldn’t be, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. The front of the house was very secure, you couldn’t open any of the doors and all the windows had some nasty plants under them. Not worth messing with, she thought. Most people locked up the front and forgot the back, figuring the wall would protect them. She knew that from experience.
This was just reconnaissance, she told herself. Just to see where the gas hook up was and how easily she could make the house blow up if she needed to. She looked up the brick wall behind Otter’s house. It was eight feet tall, not the six feet it should have been. Tsk, tsk, Otter was breaking the law. She giggled a little at that. The Otter she knew probably had some kind of grandfather clause that said it was ok to have an oversized back fence.
She placed the ladder against the wall and climbed to the top and looked over into the back yard. It was really lovely the way Otter had it landscaped, she had to admit. The woman was certainly talented.
Something strange caught the corner of her eye, some kind of movement. She looked down at her hands and they were covered in spiders. Great big wolf spiders were crawling up her arms and more were swarming over the ladder. She felt them creeping over her skin and some had gotten in her clothes. Shuddering and slapping at the creatures she quickly slid back down the ladder. She brushed off her arms and all her clothes until she was convinced all the spiders were gone. Another shiver went through her as she imagined she could feel all those little hairy legs creeping over her body.
Checking to make sure there were no more creatures on the ladder, she pulled it away from the wall and carried it back down the alley. She checked every few steps to make sure none of those ugly critters had hitched a ride. With another shudder, she continued on. It would take he
r weeks to stop having the heebie jeebies. Ewww. She would have to come back another time.
The following day, driving down the I-10 and listening to the Mac and Gaydos show on the radio, they were joking about a spider falling on someone’s shoulder while they were driving. She couldn’t stop shuddering for several miles.
“It’s not him,” Otter said as the three of them watched the monitor. “That isn’t Ron Defray.”
“But he’s wearing Defray’s uniform and whoever is wearing the uniform is built like him,” Michael said, “Why don’t you think it’s him?”
“He’s a pain in the ass, but he’s not stupid. Defray wouldn’t wear his uniform with his name on it and wear a rubber gorilla mask to hide his face.”
“It’s definitely Defray’s uniform,” Greg said. Ron Defray had insisted that his uniform be different from everyone else’s. He had a lighter colored shirt than the shop guys and it had stripes on it.
“I’m not saying that isn’t the uniform,” Otter said, “I’m just saying it’s not him.”
“Look, he’s even wearing the bullet casing around his neck,” Greg said.
They watched the figure break into Greg’s office and pick up the boxes of security hardware that he had left on his desk.
“What’s in the boxes?” Michael asked.
“Some scrap parts,” Greg said. “I raided the hold area.”
The footage showed the figure, who looked a lot like Ron Defray, walking away from the camera. He shut Greg’s office door behind him. Greg tapped a couple of keys and they watched him walk out through the welding area and out into the parking lot. They lost track of him as he went through the gate and out into the street.
“Something about that guy tends to make me agree with Mackenzie,” Michael said slowly.
“He doesn’t walk like Ron Defray,” Otter said. “You know how his feet hurt. He walks like a stumbling buffalo.”
“Whoever was pretending to be him, imitated him pretty well in Greg’s office, but once he got out into the open he stopped limping.” Michael said.
“Too bad, I didn’t have a tracking device of some kind to put in those boxes,” Greg said with regret. “We could have tracked it to where this guy was taking it.”
“Still you didn’t do too badly for the spur of the moment,” Otter said, patting Greg on the hand.
“Run the tape backward Greg, I want to check something,” Michael said.
They looked at the tape again.
“He’s not wearing Defray’s shoes. Defray had special work boots made for his gout. They gave him room and support.” Michael said. “I remembered when he bought them; he showed me the special construction.”
“No, the guy on camera is wearing some black boots, looks like what everyone here wears.” Otter said.
“Whoever set this up wants me to think Ron Defray is stealing from the company.” Michael said.
“When was the last time anyone has seen Defray?” Otter asked. “I don’t think he was at the ball and I don’t remember seeing him yesterday.”
“The last time I saw him was on Friday,” Michael said. “He said he would see me at the ball.”
“But I don’t think he went to the party,” Otter said. “We should call him and make sure he’s ok.”
“It’s really sad,” Michael said, “that he’s been missing for days and we just realized it.”
“I think most of us were just happy he was leaving us alone,” Greg said.
“His phone goes right to voice mail.” Otter said holding up her phone. “I’ll go get his emergency contact number and see if I can get hold of his wife.”
She was gone about 20 minutes and came back at a run.
“His wife hasn’t seen him since Saturday morning. She assumed he was just working and sleeping upstairs here. Apparently he did that when they had a disagreement.”
“Even his wife didn’t miss him,” Greg said, watching the footage again.
“So he’s disappeared and someone took his clothes.” Otter said. “And nobody realized he was gone. Someone dresses up like him to steal from the company. Apparently the criminal didn’t realize that we would figure out Defray was missing once we saw the tape.”
“Maybe he didn’t care,” Greg said. “He could have planned for us to think this way and to also think that Defray was planning to steal from the company and then leave.”
“That’s kind of sloppy,” Otter said. “Takes too many chances, did he know he was being filmed or did he just assume that someone might get a glimpse of him as he was walking through the shop. Greg’s office doesn’t usually have a camera in it.”
“And Ron Defray doesn’t usually wear a gorilla mask.”
“If he’s caught, he could just say he’s imitating the Phoenix Sun’s mascot. The guys would get a kick out of that.” Otter said.
“But at eleven at night?” Michael asked.
“I know,” Otter said, “This is making no sense. Someone is screwing with us.”
“We’d better call the police, Otter, and report the break in—although since the person who took the parts already had a key, it may just be theft.”
“What about Defray,” Otter asked.
Michael sighed. “We will have to report his disappearance as well. Hopefully he’ll just turn up to work and it will all be a big misunderstanding.”
“But you don’t think so,”
“No, I think Ron Defray is missing.” Michael said heavily. “I just hope he’s not dead as well.”
Chapter 13
“So you repair cell phones?” Tempest asked the exuberant young man sitting across the table from her. He might be 30, she decided, but certainly not any older than that.
“Yes! My business has done so well, I want to open another repair shop. I will need an advertising promotion announcing our new location.”
“OK, that sounds reasonable,” Tempest said, “We could do some flyers around the business offices and do some signs. Unless you want something else--what exactly do you have in mind?”
“I’d like you to do some research and find the five top radio stations that people listen to during morning rush hour. I’d like to put a short commercial on each of them.”
“Really,” Tempest raised her eyebrows, “What else?”
“I’d like to do three different ones that cycle between the five stations.”
“Do you know what you want to say?”
“Oh absolutely,” He grinned at her, “The first one should say ‘Did Bobby break the glass on your phone this morning? We can fix it today.’ And then the name of my store and both locations.”
“Straight and to the point,” Tempest said.
“Of course, the second one should say, ‘The dog chewed your phone and now it won’t take a charge? We can fix that today.’”
“And can you?”
“Of course, I have six technicians all specially trained by me. We can take it in that morning; have it done that afternoon--for the simple repairs anyway, some you can even wait for. The more difficult repairs where I have to order parts takes a little longer, but we do it faster and cheaper than anyone.”
“Sounds like a great service,”
“I think so, and since I have enough business to open a second store, I think people agree with me.”
“So where are you located?”
“My first store is in Gilbert; my second one is going to be in Chandler.”
“Gee, that’s too bad,” Tempest said and meant it, “You are on the other side of the valley from us.”
“Not to worry,” The happy repairman said, “If this one does well, I plan to open another one in Glendale.”
“Then we have to hope you do well,” Tempest said. “I’ll bet you meet all kinds of people. You must have some good stories.”
“Oh, I do. You couldn’t imagine all the ways people find to destroy their phones.”
“Tell me one of your favorites,” Tempest invited.
“OK,” He thought for
a moment, “Two families have an annual event up at Lake Powell where they rent a houseboat for a few days and race around on jet skis.”
“I’ve done that, it’s a lot of fun.”
“Yeah, me too, and they’ve done this for years. They imbibe a lot of alcohol as you can imagine.”
“Yes, I can imagine.” She agreed.
“So they pull up to the dock to turn the boat in and everyone is pretty tipsy except the designated driver.”
“At least they were smart about it.”
“That’s true. And then one of the very drunk family members stumbled into the man piloting the boat and they hit a pier. It rocked the boat a little.”
“Yeah, but they all have rubber around them just for that reason.”
“I know, but the one extremely tipsy wife thought the ship was sinking for some reason, so she grabbed the waterproof bag that all the cell phones were in and took them out to hold them so they would be safe. Then she jumped over the side into the water.”
“I’ll bet they weren’t happy with her.”
“No, especially since the only one she didn’t manage to take belonged to her.”
“I think it sad that someone could not come to work for several days and nobody missed him,” Otter said while they were waiting for Detective Addison to finish talking to Michael.
“Like I said before, everyone was glad he wasn’t messing with them.” Greg said, fiddling with a lap top.
“And Michael put him in an office away from everyone,” Annie said, “He could slip in and out without too many people seeing him if he wanted.”
“But he didn’t,” Greg said, “I checked all the cameras around the shop and his parking space. He hasn’t been here.”
“Except for the night of the theft,” Otter said.
“Yeah, except for then.”
“How did you guys know that someone was going to take the stuff out of Greg’s office that particular night?’ Annie asked.
“Because I mentioned in several gathering spots about the shop that I had accidentally gotten some equipment that wasn’t ours and I was sending it back the next day. I just had it on my desk and was going to take it to shipping the next morning. Whoever wanted it would know they had to get it that night.”
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