Wipe Out: A fun and fast-paced private investigator cozy mystery/beach read (Maggie PI Mysteries Book 3)

by Rose Pressey

  I hadn’t given Jake much of a chance to look at my phone, so they had to rely on me to take them there. I knew I was getting near. I followed the little dot until I came to the building. I wheeled into the empty parking lot. Jake whizzed in right behind me. They jumped out of the car.

  “Are you sure this is the place?” Abby asked.

  I showed her the phone. “Does this look like the place?”

  I couldn’t hide the frustration in my voice.

  The building looked like some kind of warehouse.

  “What do you think is here? Does she have any reason to be at this place?” Abby asked.

  “Not that I know of. I’ve never been here before,” I said.

  “You should wait out here and let us check the place out,” she said.

  I snorted. Yeah, like that was going to happen. I marched over toward the door, as if I hadn’t heard a word she said. Jake stepped in front of me and eased the door open. The place was dark. We moved in right behind him. Fear flowed through my body at the thought of Dorothy being here. I had a bad feeling about this. Why would she be here? How had she gotten here?

  Jake motioned at his partner that he was checking to the right. She motioned she was going to the left. They pulled out their guns. Jake gestured for me to stay put. Once they took off I pulled out my gun and decided to have a look around too. Just to my left was a closed door. Someone needed to check behind that door and it might as well be me since the other two were busy.

  The door was unlocked, so I slipped into the dark room. After a couple steps inside, I bumped into something. I grunted at the pain in my leg, but managed to compose myself. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized what I’d hit. The room was full of surfboards. That made my stomach drop. Roland and Kenneth had to be connected to this building. This made me even more fearful that Dorothy hadn’t come here on her own.

  “Dorothy,” I whispered.

  There was no answer. I maneuvered around the boards, trying not to knock any of them over. Apparently, Dorothy wasn’t in here. Where was Jake? Had he found Dorothy? I couldn’t just go back out there and wait by the door. I had to do something to find Dorothy. I left the room and made it back over to the door where I’d last seen Jake. I shifted from foot to foot, trying to remain patient while I waited. The anxiety was getting to me and I couldn’t wait there any longer. I had to do something. I took off in the direction where Jake had gone. What if something had happened to him now?

  The place was eerily quiet. There were so many doors that I didn’t know where to start. Where could they be? I peeked into a couple of rooms that had open doors. A few of the doors were locked. Was Dorothy on the other side of one of those locked doors? How would I find out? I continued down the hallway. Maybe Jake would be able to get the doors open.

  A noise sounded from somewhere ahead of me. I continued down the open hallway toward the sound. I couldn’t make out what the noise was, but it could be someone walking. Possibly it was Jake? The more I walked down the hallway, the louder the sound grew. My heart thumped faster as I contemplated what I might discover. The sound was coming from a room just a few steps away from me. The door was open, but I couldn’t see in there yet. I would have to get closer. I inched against the wall with my gun out. When I reached the door, I paused instead of going right in. There was no telling what might be waiting on the other side of that doorway.

  Chapter 27

  When I looked into the room, I realized that Abby had fallen and now her foot was stuck in a hole in the floor. Could I just leave her there? No, no, that was a bad idea. I had to be nice. I rushed into the room.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  Abby looked at me with fear in her eyes. I’d never seen that look from her. She seemed vulnerable when before she had always been tough.

  “I guess I’m okay. I’m just stuck.”

  “I’ll help you out,” I said.

  Sure, the thought of leaving her there was tempting, but that wasn’t nice and in the end I knew I would never do anything like that. Maybe she would be a little nicer to me now that I’d helped her.

  I reached out and grabbed her under the arms and then pulled. She cried out in pain.

  “Wow, that’s really stuck in there, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “Here, let me twist my foot in there and then try to pull again,” she said.

  I hoped she wouldn’t punch me for causing pain when I finally did get her out.

  I grabbed her again and said, “On the count of three.”

  “Okay.” She nodded.

  “One, two, three.” I pulled and she was released from the hole.

  We both tumbled backward onto the floor. I managed to get up first and then pulled on her arm, helping her up.

  “How do you feel?” I asked.

  She was back to that old façade. “I’ll be just fine.” She brushed off her pants and then headed toward the door. Was she even going to thank me?

  Just as we stepped out into the hallway, gunfire exploded all around us. In an instant we fell to the ground.

  “Are you shot?” I asked.

  “No,” she barked as if it was ridiculous for me to think such a thing.

  I pulled out my gun, but I had no idea where I would be aiming it. We crawled on the floor until we came to another room with an open door. She motioned for us to head in there. I was right behind her, already thinking the same thing. We managed to crawl into the room. The gunfire had stopped. Now I worried about Jake and Dorothy even more.

  Obviously, someone knew that we were in this building. We couldn’t hide in here forever. I crawled over to the window and slowly stood. It looked down into the parking lot located on the side of the building. Movement caught my attention. A guy ran away. He had a gun in his hand. Was he an innocent victim or the gunman who had fired at us? All I saw was the back of him, but I was almost sure it was Kevan Willoughby again.

  “There’s someone running away from the building,” I said as I took off toward the door. “I think it’s Kevan Willoughby.”

  I was taking my life into my own hands just by going back into the hallway, but I had a feeling the person who had been shooting at us was now getting away. I ran as fast as I could down the hallway, trying not to run into a wall or something.

  I burst out the door into the bright sunlight. Heat surrounded me. I ran around the side of the building and spotted the guy as he was jumping over a fence. He was trying to get away from the place. Why was he jumping a fence? Couldn’t he just go around the front of the building like everyone else? This guy didn’t seem like the brightest crayon in the box. I had no idea what I was going to do with the guy even when I caught up with him. First off, I would try to get the gunman. Second, I would let Jake drag him down to the police station for questioning.

  The fence was chain link, but it had privacy slats so that the other side wasn’t visible. I was halfway up the fence when I felt something tugging on my leg. Did they have a dog who was now attacking me? When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Abby pulling on me.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked. “The guy’s getting away.”

  “You can’t chase him,” she said.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “It’s just not safe,” she said.

  That was the craziest thing I’d ever heard.

  “I’m chasing after him.” I pulled myself higher on the fence.

  “Get down now,” Abby said.

  I wasn’t going to give up on finding this guy just yet. I kept climbing the fence.

  “Get down here,” Abby called out again.

  If she wanted me to get down then she would have to come after me. When I got to the top of the fence, I realized that he was long out of sight. It didn’t matter if I came back down the fence. Nevertheless, I’d look for him anyway. Getting over the fence was harder than I thought. If only I had long legs like Abby it would be easier. That was okay. I made up for that in other areas. The fence shook a little wh
en I finally got to the top. Now was an even harder part. I would have to jump down or climb down the other side to the ground. Which one would be easier? Yeah, jumping would probably be a bad idea.

  I crawled down the side of the fence. Abby was quiet. What was she doing over there? She probably ran to get Jake. Tattletale. It didn’t matter though. By the time she got back with Jake I would probably have caught up with the guy. Dorothy’s life was on the line. Did they think I was just going to wait around and hope that she was found safely? I could handle this on my own.

  I reached the bottom of the fence and had just put my feet on the pavement. There was a problem though. I couldn’t move. My shirt was stuck to the fence. This was more than a little embarrassing. What if Abby didn’t tell Jake? What if they left me out here? Even worse, what if the killer showed up? Then again, that might be preferable to Jake seeing me like this. No, no. I would have to deal with my ineptness no matter how embarrassing it was. I tried to move forward again, hoping that my shirt would work free now. It didn’t budge. I suppose it could have been worse. I could have been dangling in the air. Or a thunder storm could have popped up. The sound of voices carried across the air. Abby had gone to get Jake.

  “You think she ran off to find him?” Jake asked.

  I might as well tell them now that I was on the other side of the fence. I’d get my embarrassment over with.

  “Jake, I’m right here,” I said.

  “Right where?” he asked.

  “On the other side of the fence.”

  “Well, climb back over,” he said.

  “She probably can’t.” Abby snorted.

  Now she was mocking me.

  “I heard that,” I said.

  “Maggie, come back over here,” Jake said.

  “That’s the thing… I’m kind of stuck.”

  Abby laughed. She quickly stopped. I suppose Jake had glared at her. The fence rattled and then next thing I knew Jake had jumped over it, landing on his feet. Wow, that was impressive.

  “My shirt is stuck on the fence.” I twisted again, trying to break free.

  I wanted to save what bit of dignity I had left. Oh, what was the point? He’d already seen me. Jake reached around me and freed the fabric from the metal. I knew Jake was thinking about my less-than-stellar private eye skills.

  “Thank you,” I said. “I was just trying to find Dorothy’s abductor.”

  “Let’s get back over to the other side.” Jake motioned.

  “Give me a boost over the fence, okay?”

  My energy was drained. This was another embarrassing scene for me. I grabbed hold of the fence and then Jake gave me a lift so that I could climb to the top. Once over the top, I scrambled down the other side. At least I didn’t get caught on the fence this time. Abby was staring at me the whole time. The smirk on her face let me know she wanted to laugh. Jake came back over the other side the same way he’d jumped it the first time.

  It kind of made me angry that I didn’t get to find the guy and that I’d come back to the other side. Abby would think she was getting her way. And she had some explaining to do as to why she hadn’t chased after him.

  “I think Abby should have gone after that guy,” I said.

  “That’s not for you to decide.” Abby moved closer to me.

  If she thought I was going to be intimidated by her, then she was way off base.

  “Okay, don’t argue,” Jake said.

  Unfortunately, Dorothy wasn’t with Jake. I’d hoped he’d found her. At least I knew he was safe. That was one less worry on my mind.

  “Jake, where were you?” I asked.

  “Where were you all? Why did you come out here? I heard gunfire,” Jake said.

  “Someone was shooting at us and I saw him run across the parking lot. I tried to chase him. She stopped me.” I gestured. “I think it was Kevan Willoughby. This guy just doesn’t stop.”

  Jake looked to Abby for an answer.

  “He was already gone. There was no point chasing. She was just going to get hurt.”

  She made it sound so much more logical than it really was. She could have gone after him. She just wanted to make me look bad in front of Jake. The same old thing from her. Even after I had saved her. She probably wouldn’t have told Jake about the incident where I saved her. If I said anything it would just make me look bad. She really knew how to play this game.

  “Who was shooting at you? Kevan Willoughby? Are you sure?” Jake asked.

  I pushed the hair out of my eyes. “I can’t say it was him for sure. It was too dark inside to see. When I spotted the guy outside all I saw was the back of him. He had long sandy brown hair and was skinny.”

  Jake placed a quick phone call. I stood in awkward silence staring at Abby. Oddly enough, she looked away after a few seconds.

  When I Jake got off the call, I asked, “So you didn’t find Dorothy?”

  Jake shook his head. “There was no sign of her.”

  “We should get out of here,” Abby said.

  “We’re going to need to call a crew to come and collect any bullets. I need to find out who owns this place and what connection there is to Dorothy.”

  “Why was her phone here? There’s no reason it should have been here,” I said.

  “We’ll look everywhere and see if we can find the phone.”

  “By the way, that front room is full of surfboards,” I said.

  “So you did a little bit of looking around?” Abby asked.

  “That’s what I came here for,” I said. “I’m a private investigator. That does mean something.”

  Abby sighed. “This is a police investigation.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of that.” Frustration filled my words.

  As we headed back toward the front of the building, something shiny caught my eye. The sunlight shone off of it, almost blinding me. I hurried over to it and picked it up.

  “It’s Dorothy’s phone,” I said, looking at Jake.

  I handed him the phone.

  “We’ll get this bagged and look for fingerprints,” he said.

  We headed around to the front of the building. Jake answered a call. Abby turned her attention to me.

  “By the way, thanks for helping me back there.”

  I was surprised to hear her say that. “Not a problem,” I said.

  I knew my tone was still frosty. Jake got off the call and came back over to us.

  “The crew will be here soon,” he said.

  “I should head back to the office,” I said, gesturing toward the scooter. “In case something else pops up or I think of something.”

  When the officers arrived to inspect the building, I hopped in the scooter and headed back to the office. Unfortunately, I couldn’t speed away, and it wasn’t because the cops were watching. I could practically walk faster than this thing drove. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but still.

  Without glancing back, I left Jake and Abby there. Of course they didn’t have to follow me back. Though Jake seemed worried about me being at the office alone with Dorothy missing. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened with Dorothy. I was hoping that she had just lost her phone and gone out for more yarn. Yeah, I knew that was unlikely, but I held on to a little hope. It helped to stay positive in times like this. I should go straight to the surf shop, although I knew they would just deny any involvement. That was their signature move.

  As I drove back to the office, my mind was on Dorothy. That was why she had sent me the text messages and called so much. That was why she’d wanted me to come to the office right away. Someone had been there. Why had they taken her though? Was it just because they wanted to get to me? Was the man at the building connected to the crime? Maybe he had dropped Dorothy’s phone when he ran out of the building. I pulled into the office parking lot. A couple officers were still hanging around. I knew Jake had asked them to stay around.

  As I walked up the sidewalk to the office door, I spotted a cigarette butt. It was near the f
ront door. It hadn’t been there earlier because I’d cleaned up trash in the area. Was this just from some random person? I hadn’t seen any of the officers smoking. I pulled gloves out of my purse and a small plastic bag. Hey, if I was going to investigate, then I needed to have the right tools to complete the job. I grabbed the butt and placed it in the bag. I took note of the brand. Just in case any of the officers had been smoking.

  I walked over to the officers in the parking lot. “Do any of you smoke?”

  The men gave me a strange look, as if I was asking to borrow a cigarette.

  “Sorry, we don’t smoke.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said, turning to walk away.

  I didn’t want to give this butt to them. I’d hand it over to Jake in case he could get fingerprints or possibly DNA from it. I couldn’t sit around and wait for something to happen. I had to plan my next move. Time was essential in finding Dorothy.

  Chapter 28

  I went back to the surf shop to find someone to give me answers about that building and who was responsible for all of this. Yes, I was angry and I was determined to get answers. I hadn’t told Jake about this trip. He would just tell me to wait for him or other officers to go check it out. I didn’t have time for that. I would handle this on my own. After all, this was my job. Just as I wheeled into the parking lot I spotted Kenneth come out and hop into his car. I wasn’t about to let him get away.

  He seemed to be in a hurry. Where did he think he was going? But would he lead me to Dorothy? Luckily, he hadn’t seen me watching him. He was probably too consumed with his thoughts of crime to notice his surroundings. What a loser. That was good for me though because his ineptness would with any luck lead me straight to Dorothy and most likely the murderer too.