Motto for Murder (Merry Wrath Mysteries Book 6)

by Leslie Langtry

  On insurance claims, or espionage? My lie-dar went into overdrive.

  "Why are you up at night, Merry?" Pam asked pointedly.

  "Me? Oh, I have insomnia. Lately all this wedding planning is stressing me out. I had no idea how many things the bride is responsible for."

  Pam relaxed a bit. "That makes sense."

  Rex joined us. "I'm afraid there's been an incident I need to look after. I apologize, but we must be going." He pulled out my chair for me.

  "I'll get the bill." Mark waved us off.

  Rex shook his hand. "I already paid it. You can get it next time."

  We said our goodbyes and made our way to Rex's car.

  "What's going on? Is it another fire? The missing woman?" I was vibrating with anticipation. Or maybe it was the coffee.

  My fiancé opened my door for me. "No. I just figured I'd get you out of there before Pam stabbed you with a fork."

  I nodded as he got in on his side. "She was rather tense, wasn't she?"

  Rex turned to me. "Probably from the third degree you gave her."

  "I was just being friendly." I pouted.

  "Listen, Merry, I know you suspect them of…whatever you saw the other night. But people are innocent until proven guilty. If there's something wrong with them, I'll investigate it."

  Should I tell him about my suspicions? How could I do that without implicating myself? Rex had no idea about my break-in at Kate Becks' house. He hated it when I meddled. Something in the back of my mind told me to play nice.

  "Got it."

  He pulled into my driveway and leaned over and kissed me. All the tension of the evening kind of faded away. He really was an excellent kisser.

  "Just try to get some sleep for once," he said. "Okay?"

  I nodded and got out of the car. Rex waited in the driveway until I was inside my house before pulling into his own driveway across the street.

  I decided to keep any further theories to myself until it was time to show him I was right. And I had an idea where to start next.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "What, exactly, is wrong with Philby?" Dr. Alvarez stared at the cat, who in turn looked at me as if to ask the same question.

  "She's not eating," I lied.

  That might not have been the right excuse, as the vet poked and prodded my obese pet. To be fair, I hadn't slept much the night before. I know, I sound like a broken record. And this broken record wasn't thinking straight if she just told the vet her cat was starving.

  "Really? She looks like she's been doubling up on the meals lately."

  The previous night I'd decided that in order to find out more about Kate Becks, I needed to do my own investigating. And what seemed like a brilliant idea kind of dimmed in the morning light as I realized it looked like I was guilty of Munchausen by proxy.

  "Oh! Sorry!" I smacked my forehead for good measure. "I mean, she's eating too much. Sorry about that."

  Dr. Alvarez smiled. "I understand that. Since we're shorthanded around here, even the vets are washing cages and closing up shop each night." She stifled a yawn.

  What a perfect opportunity! "Right, I forgot you said you had a staff member who hasn't shown up for work. Did my fiancé call you about that?"

  The vet yawned again. "He did. Thank you for that. I honestly don't know which end is up. I can't even remember what Kate did around here, but it must have been a lot, because we're swamped."

  "Kate…" I tapped my chin. "Do you mean Kate Becks?"

  Dr. A looked down over the top of her glasses at me. "Yes. That's right. How did you know?"

  "She's an acquaintance. A friend of a friend, you could say. I know lots of people who've said she just up and vanished."

  The vet nodded. "That's right. That's exactly it."

  "So, she did a good job here? That's why you're so busy?"

  There was the briefest hesitation. "She did. She would've loved Philby. She was crazy for cats."

  That part I already knew.

  "How long did she work here?" I tried to keep the conversation casual so as not to raise suspicion.

  "Not long. Maybe six months? I'm not sure. My business manager, Sally, she would know." Dr. Alvarez was so tired, she didn't notice my questioning.

  She took Philby away to weigh her, and I sat there in the exam room, thinking. I hadn't really learned that much about Kate here. Except that she hasn't been here long. I'd need a little more to go on. I could pump the receptionist on my way out.

  Dr. Alvarez returned. "Philby is seriously overweight. Like the size of three cats combined."

  Philby looked annoyed. But then, she always looked like that.

  The vet handed me some samples. "You need to start feeding her this. The way she looks, I'd almost say you're giving her tuna every day. But that would be ridiculous, right?"

  "Right!" I did give her tuna every day. "Who would do something like that?"

  Dr. A frowned. "You'd be surprised, really."

  She told me to make an appointment in a month to check on Philby's progress. I headed out to the receptionist. The kid behind the counter must've been no older than twenty. The nameplate said MacKenzee.

  "Doc wants to see you again in a month." She rolled her eyes and cracked her gum loudly. "Now I gotta turn on the computer."

  "That's right. I'm free most of the time, so just about any day will work."

  This kid should be easy to pump intel out of.

  "Whatever," MacKenzee said.

  I adjusted Philby under my arm. She was too big for the cat carrier. "Have I seen you here before, or are you new?"

  MacKenzee shrugged. "Depends on how you define new. Mom works here. They said some airhead ran off and they needed help."

  "You didn't know the woman who disappeared, then?"

  The computer screen came on, and the girl sighed like a martyr. "No, but from what I've heard, she sounds like a total loser."

  "What have you heard?" I leaned forward conspiratorially.

  MacKenzee poked a few buttons on the keyboard before scowling at the screen. "She's a weirdo, she's obsessed with cats, had no friends, and wasn't friendly here. Mom called her paranoid."

  Paranoid—that's what I was looking for.

  "Oh?" Sometimes one-syllable words are all you need.

  "Yeah. Like she was always looking over her shoulder. People suck. That's what I was telling Bob."

  Philby hissed so hard she shot backwards out of my arms onto the counter. She just lay there, legs wiggling, like an obese jellybean.

  "I'm sorry. That name's a trigger for her. Bad memories from a former owner." I righted my cat.

  "What? You mean Bob?" MacKenzee said again.

  Philby hissed loudly, rolling onto her back and kicking like a fat tick in an attempt to get up.

  "Man!" the girl said. "Neat trick." For a brief sliver of a second, the kid almost smiled. Almost.

  I lifted my cat back onto her feet. "Please don't say it again."

  MacKenzee sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. I'd taken her fun away.

  She turned her attention to the computer monitor and frowned. "Looks like I can fit you in any day. What do you want?" She made the question sound like I was making an outrageous demand.

  We picked a time and date, and the teenager handed me an appointment card. I ran out the door, hoping to make it out before we had another episode.

  As we drove home, I thought about what she'd said. No friends, always paranoid, obsessed with her cat… Kate Becks sounded like a spy to me. Albeit, a bad one. The idea was to blend in, not stand out. And she stood out enough to get noticed.

  I had to find a photo of her. All I'd found in her house and on her computer were pictures of Mr. Pickles. That seemed like a rookie spy move too. Everybody has family pictures or something like that in their house. I had a picture of my parents on my nightstand, and a photo of Rex and me at a Girl Scout carnival fundraiser. I also have a huge portrait of Kelly and me with our troop after wallowing in a mud pit.

>   See? I lived alone and kind of off the grid, and I had lots of mementos.

  Kate Becks, had none.

  Kate Becks had to be a spy. And for some reason, Mark and Pam Fontana were involved. I just couldn't get over how many spies were in Who's There. This had to be some sort of record. Was there a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for how many international spooks you could fit into a small town?

  Of course, Rex didn't think there were any spies here…other than me. And I fit more into the former-spy category. Would Riley know about the Fontanas? He was a spy. He could probably spot one a mile away.

  Next time I saw him, I was going to tie him to a chair and make him talk. Did I still have that blowtorch and tongs? I'd have to look because I hadn't seen them in a while. Oh well. An ordinary toothpick would work instead. You wouldn't believe the intel I've uncovered using just one toothpick.

  I dropped Philby off at home, where she went right to her food dish. When I poured the new diet dry food onto her plate, she looked at me, then the plate, then me, then the plate. Instead of explaining it to her, I raced out the door to my appointment with Susan.

  I'd been able to get in a little early. Getting information from her would be much harder, since she had patient confidentiality and all that. Somehow, I'd have to get information without seeming to get it at all.

  "Merry!" Susan greeted me warmly and motioned to a chair.

  I sat. "Thanks for seeing me. I just felt like we made some progress last time. I needed to talk about this more."

  The counselor waved me off. "Not a problem. My workload is a little lighter right now."

  Nice segue! Maybe it was Be Nice to a Former Spy Day!

  "Oh!" I exclaimed. "Because of that patient who disappeared. I'd forgotten!"

  Susan nodded and cut right to the chase. "What should we talk about today?"

  I was prepared for this. "My career as a spy." I studied her reaction.

  If she was surprised, she didn't show it. Either she was that good or she'd heard something like this before. From Kate Becks.

  "You were a spy?" she asked. There wasn't a shred of teasing in those words. She'd meant them.

  I nodded. "I worked for the CIA. I had a partner, and we worked together in situations all over the world."

  Susan nodded. "You liked your job?"

  "I did." I explained how I'd had to retire early because I'd been outed by the vice president of the USA as a stab at my father—a prominent member of the Senate.

  Susan's eyebrows went up at that. Which told me she didn't believe me. "I don't think we have a senator named Wrath," she said.

  "My dad's name isn't Wrath. It's Czrygy. Senator Czrygy."

  "Really? I love your dad!" Susan was excited. "His work on passing the mental health bill through Congress was amazing."

  He did that? I needed to show more interest in my father's work.

  The therapist settled back against her seat, scribbling something in a notebook. And that's when it hit me. She kept written records. Files of her interviews with clients. And since I liked Susan and wanted to keep seeing her, this was a way I could find out more without bugging her. I just needed to get hold of Kate Becks' file.

  How was I going to do that?

  "Let's talk about the outing," Susan said. "How did that make you feel?"

  A mosh pit of emotions slam danced in my head. No one had ever asked me that before. Strange.

  "I hated leaving the agency," I said slowly. "I loved my job. It was interesting. Fun. Dangerous. I thought I'd be there until retirement." All of that was true.

  Susan nodded. "It must have been a huge shock. A major life change."

  I nodded vigorously. "Yes! It was! I got to see the world, go places, meet people. Now, I'm back in the small town I'd wanted to escape."

  Wait! Did I really feel that way?

  "Do you resent it?"

  I thought about this. "No. Yes. Maybe? I mean, I resented the vice president, obviously. And I resented the agency. Even though there wasn't much they could do. Well, that's not totally true. I could've worked a desk job. I just wanted to make a clean break, I guess."

  Susan wrote something down. "Do you resent your father?"

  "What?" That came out of left field. "No. It wasn't his fault."

  "What about your fiancé?"

  I frowned. "No, I don't resent him. Why would I resent him?"

  She shrugged. "I'm not saying you do. It would be normal to do so, however. Rex is a detective. You used to be a kind of detective. He gets to keep doing his job, but you don't get to keep doing yours."

  It seemed as if the oxygen went out of the room. I shoved one thought from my mind and seized upon the other.

  "Do you think that's it? Is that why I'm so nervous about the wedding?" If so, it didn't seem very nice of me. Rex couldn't help it that his job was something I wanted. Was I holding that against him?

  Susan cocked her head to one side. "I don't know. My job is to help you explore all options. Sometimes things look one way, but underneath they turn out to be very different. While this might not be the main reason for your insomnia, it might be one piece of the puzzle."

  I sat back, letting this wash over me. There was some truth in what she was saying.

  "What do I do with this information?" I asked after a lengthy pause.

  "That's up to you. The most important thing about it is how it affects your outlook on Rex, on the wedding, and anything else." She sat back.

  I bit my lip. "Wow. That's pretty impressive. You know, I've talked to my parents, my fiancé, my best friend, and a few animals, and they never offered me this level of insight."

  Susan smiled. "Don't overthink it. This might be part of the problem, or it might not. We've got a lot more work to do."

  I shook my head. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

  "It was always in your head. It just needed to be coaxed out."

  I jumped to my feet and shook her hand. "Thank you! This is a huge breakthrough!"

  "Wait," Susan said. "You still have time on the clock."

  "I've got to go. I'll call to make another appointment." And with that, I was out the door.

  I walked quickly to the nurse's station on the first floor. Kelly was standing at a counter with a clipboard. When she saw me, she seemed surprised.

  "Merry! What are you doing here?"

  "I won't bother you. I know you're working." I looked around carefully. "I just have one question. Did you tell Susan anything about me?"

  Kelly thought for a moment. "Not really. Just that you are my best friend and that you are having wedding jitters."

  "Did you tell her anything about Rex?"

  "Rex?" Kelly looked off into the distance. "No. I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything more specific than the word fiancé. Why?"

  I started off down the corridor, "I'll call you later! Bye!"

  As I got into my car and turned the ignition, I realized I had another problem. One that never would have occurred to me.

  Susan.

  I never told her my fiancé's name or occupation.

  So, how did she know his name was Rex and that he was a detective?

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Back at my house I started pacing back and forth. I'd been so sure I had this all figured out. The Fontanas were illegals—unreported foreign spies. Kate was too. Mark and Pam kidnapped and/or killed Kate. Easy. Cut and dry.

  But now there was another player. Susan. And unless she was a private investigator too, she wouldn't know half of the things she'd just said to me. This was beyond complicated. Or I was paranoid. Did I mention it to the therapist? If only I could go back in time to find out what I'd said.

  "What are you doing?" Riley's voice made me jump.

  I spun around to see him, in a suit, smiling. "What are you doing here?"

  "The door wasn't locked," he said. "You of all people should know the value of locked doors."

  I'd have to work on that.

  I glared
, but maybe this was an opportunity. "Why do you keep stopping by?"

  "Like I said, I'm just passing through…"

  "…between Chicago and Omaha. Yeah. You've said that before. But I'm not buying it."

  Riley sat down on the sofa. "Why don't you tell me what you think I'm doing here."

  "I think you're here because of the Fontanas. The illegals next door."

  Riley gave me a strange look. "I think you might be imagining things. Are you getting enough sleep?"

  Fury rose inside me. If one more person tried to tell me I was imagining things, I was going to kill someone. Probably starting with Riley. No, definitely starting with Riley.

  "I'm not imagining things. I'm completely serious. Something isn't right next door. And I think it's related to the missing woman." I pointed at him. "And you know that."

  He frowned, lines marring his perfect features. "What missing woman?"

  "Kate Becks. She works at my vet clinic and hasn't been seen for days."

  Riley froze. "Did you say Kate Becks?"

  Aha!

  "You know her! I'm right!" I started doing a little end zone dance around the coffee table. Philby and Martini showed up and gave me one long look before scaling Riley and piling on top of each other in his lap.

  Riley was staring into space. In fact, I was pretty sure he had no idea the cats were even on him. Oh yeah. He knew the missing woman, and he'd gone too far to deny it.

  "Who is she?" I pressed.

  "I can't tell you that." His lips formed a tight, grim line.

  "Why not? We've worked together many times since I've moved here. You never kept things from me before."

  Okay, that wasn't entirely true. In fact, he'd hidden lots from me over the last two years.

  "Wrath, I…" His voice trailed off. "This is different."

  "How is this different? I was a spy. Kate Becks is a spy. The Fontanas are spies. You used to be a spy."

  He shook his head. "I'm not with the Agency anymore. I'm with the FBI."

  I folded my arms over my chest. "So?"

  "So, you have never been a Fed. I can't bring you on to a current investigation."

  I looked around the room for something to throw at him. That's when I noticed he was dressed normally.