Out of the Past: A Reed Ferguson Mystery (A Private Investigator Mystery Series - Crime Suspense Thriller Book 5)

by Renee Pawlish

  “Thank God they shoveled,” I said as I walked up the sidewalk to the door. A few inches of snow had blanketed the city overnight, and even though the sun was a bright fiery ball in a cloudless blue sky, it was still too cold for the snow to melt.

  “Yeah, I didn’t wear boots.”

  I stared at Cal. “I’m not worried about your feet. If they hadn’t shoveled, we’d leave footprints, and that might tip them off and they’d know someone broke in.”

  “Oh,” Cal said sheepishly.

  I shook my head. Brains, but no common sense. I stood in front of him as he pulled his lock picking tools from his coat pocket.

  “Anyone around?” he asked.

  I checked. “No. Hurry up.”

  “Don’t rush me.”

  It was funny. He’s telling me to not rush him, but by the time he’d said that, the locks were picked.

  “We’re in,” he whispered. “Here goes.”

  He turned the knob and opened the door. We both waited for some kind of shrill alarm, but nothing happened. I nodded and we slipped inside.

  We stood in a small foyer, looked around and listened. To the left was a living room, to the right, an office, and directly in front were stairs leading to the second floor. And all was quiet.

  “Let’s make sure there’s not a silent alarm,” I whispered.

  He nodded and we walked down a short hall to a kitchen. Cal scoped it out and I turned right, to a laundry room and garage exit. A small rectangular box was near the door. It was an alarm system, but it was turned off.

  I strode back to the kitchen. “We’re okay,” I said. “The alarm’s not set.”

  “Good.” Cal glanced around. “I don’t see a land-line phone. Too bad. It’d be easiest to put a bug near a phone. Okay, let’s put a bug here and in the office.” He pulled a small bag from his pocket and pulled out a tiny device. He studied the room, then decided to place the bug on the underside of a round table in a small nook off the kitchen. “This will catch conversation here, but the bug is pretty powerful so it should pick up conversation from the kitchen as well.”

  “I’ll take your word,” I said. “What about in there?” I pointed to a den across from the kitchen.

  “I’m getting there.”

  We stepped down a single step into a comfortable room with a large stone fireplace, a sectional couch, loveseat, coffee table and a gargantuan flat-screen TV with games and a DVD player hooked up to it. Cal took out another bug and stuck it underneath the coffee table. “That should be good. Let’s go to the office.”

  We went back down the hallway to the office where Cal put another bug on the underside of the desk. An oak desk sat facing the room, and a bookcase in the corner had a few pictures on it, but nothing else. On the desk was a laptop and a desk lamp. Cal sat down in a leather office chair and opened the laptop.

  “Nice,” he murmured as he typed on the keyboard. “Password-protected. Want me to crack it?”

  “Quit fooling around,” I said. “We don’t have time for that. Should we put some bugs upstairs?”

  He grinned. “I was just kidding.”

  “Come on.”

  He closed the laptop, then pushed himself out of the chair. “All right, don’t rush me.”

  We sneaked up the stairs. There was a decent-sized landing that looked down onto the foyer, and open doors led to three bedrooms. One had an exercise bike and weight set in it. Another had an oak bedroom set, a queen-sized bed with blue comforter, and a small desk with another laptop. The master was sparsely filled, with a king-sized bed, a large flat-screen TV on a dresser, and nothing else.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Put a bug in each bedroom?”

  Cal nodded. I waited while he popped into the smaller room. I stood to the side of the door and when he emerged, I tapped his shoulder.

  He let out a high-pitched squeak, then punched me in the arm. “Don’t do that!” he said through gritted teeth. His face flushed red.

  “Sorry. I was trying to relieve the tension.”

  He fought not to grin at me. “If only your clients could see your professionalism. Okay, now the master bedroom.”

  “Great –” I paused. “What was that?”

  Cal stood still and listened.

  “The garage door!” he hissed. His face color changed from red to white in a flash. “What do we do?”

  I held up a hand and he clamped his jaw shut. I pushed him to the wall and tiptoed to the rail, listening. The door from the garage opened, voices sounded, and the door slammed shut.

  “How could you get fooled like that?” I recognized the voice as Bennett Gilbright, and he was fuming.

  “Hey, you weren’t there.” That from Baseball Cap. “The guy who walked down from Reed’s condo looked like Reed.”

  “But it obviously wasn’t him, was it now, Aiden,” Bennett said. They had moved into the kitchen.

  “I know that now,” Aiden said, sarcasm dripping off every word. “The guy picked up the girl who lives across the street and they drove south to the Tech Center. It wasn’t until I saw them stop for gas that I realized it wasn’t Reed. That’s when I called you.”

  “Where the hell did he go?” Bennett asked.

  “How should I know?”

  As Aiden and Bennett continued arguing, I glanced over at Cal. He was breathing in short gasps and I wondered if he was having a heart attack.

  Aiden spoke again. “So now what?”

  They moved into the den and the television came on. A few moments later, the sounds of simulated gunfire drifted up to us. They were playing a video game.

  “Let’s go,” I mouthed at Cal.

  He shook his head vigorously.

  I leaned in close and whispered in his ear. “You want to stay here?”

  He shook his head again.

  “Then let’s go.”

  I had to tug his arm to get him to move.

  “We’ll get caught,” he whispered.

  “We don’t have a choice. Follow me.”

  I crept to the top of the stairs and listened. An “Oh!” came, and then “I got you!” They were getting into the game.

  I waved at Cal as I eased down the stairs. He followed slowly. We stole to the bottom of the stairs and stopped in the foyer. I heard Bennett’s voice, sounding louder.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  I froze. Nearby I could feel Cal’s fear, like electricity buzzing.

  “Gimme a Coke,” Aiden said.

  Noises of the refrigerator door opening and closing sounded over the video game, then footsteps and soda cans opening.

  I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath. I let it out slowly and peeked down the hall toward the kitchen. I couldn’t see either of them. I was across the foyer in two long strides and I quietly eased the front door open. I waved at Cal and he dashed past me. I followed, quietly shutting the door. We hurried down the driveway and to his car.

  “I’m going to die,” Cal said, clutching his chest. He sunk into the driver’s seat and put his head back. “That’s it. I’m never leaving my house again.”

  “Oh, relax,” I said. “It’s okay now.” I glanced around. The neighborhood was quiet, and it appeared that no one had seen us. “You’ve got to show me how to use the equipment.”

  “Okay, and then I’m out of here.”

  Cal fired up his laptop, where he’d loaded the software for the bugging equipment. He plugged in ear buds and handed them to me. “How’s it sound?”

  I put in the ear buds. “Good. They’re still playing video games.”

  “This has a long range so you should be able to hear from around the corner.”

  He showed me how to record their conversations and a few other things, and then he drove me to my car.

  “Thanks,” I said. I got out and put the laptop in my car.

  “I’m going home. This sidekick is sticking to armchair detection from now on.”

  “I’ve heard that before,” I said.

  CHAPTER TW
ENTY-TWO

  I watched Cal drive off, then unlocked the 4-Runner. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, so I sat in the back seat of the car, where the tinted windows would keep prying eyes from seeing me. Nothing much happened. Bennett and Aiden played some kind of battle game for a while, then switched to Madden NFL football. Then they went to the kitchen, and dishes clanked around as they prepared something to eat. The conversation was generally uninteresting.

  While I listened, I got my cell phone out and dialed Willie.

  “Reed, thank goodness you called! I was so worried when that guy quit following us.”

  “Yeah, he came home, and the timing wasn’t the best.” I told her what had happened.

  “I’m so sorry, but we had to stop because Ace was desperate to use the bathroom.”

  “He didn’t think to go before he left my condo?”

  “Well, apparently not,” she said. “You would think he’d do that, but then –”

  “He’s a Goofball Brother,” I said.

  “I’m just glad you got out of there safely.”

  “Me, too. I don’t know how long I’ll be tied up, but I’ll call when I can.”

  We hung up, and I noticed the cold, so I lay down on the back seat and covered myself with a blanket, then ate a Snickers candy bar that left me unsatisfied. “So much for the commercials,” I said, tossing the wrapper on the floor.

  After Aiden and Bennett had eaten, the house grew quiet. I detected what sounded like one of them in a bedroom, and then I must’ve dozed off. I awoke with a start and sat up. The sky was morphing into a deep blue as dusk fell. My cell phone was ringing. I glanced at the number: Forrest McMahon. “Not now,” I muttered, letting the call go to voicemail. Through the ear buds, I heard conversation.

  “We’ve got to be extra careful,” Bennett was saying. “For all we know, he’s outside right now and we’re next.”

  “I can’t believe he’s back after all this time,” Aiden said.

  My ears perked up. Were they talking about me? I sat up and continued listening, and then the sound of a door slamming startled me. Footsteps echoed across the floor. Then a voice said, “You idiots!”

  My jaw dropped. I recognized that voice. It was Stephanie.

  ***

  “What are you doing here?” Aiden asked.

  “I sneaked out.” There was an angry edge in her voice.

  “Man, you look like shit,” Aiden continued. Bad move.

  She called him a few choice names. “It’s not like I had time to shower, and I hurt like hell.” To emphasize this, she groaned dramatically.

  “What about the bodyguards your dad had outside the door?” Bennett’s voice was bemused.

  Stephanie snorted. “My father came by the hospital to see me, but I didn’t want to talk to him so I pretended I was asleep. I overheard him tell Tyrone to go with him for coffee while I was sleeping. Then I got out, called a cab and came here.”

  “Your dad is going to be pissed,” Aiden said.

  “It’s his fault for assuming I was asleep,” she replied. “Besides, he pulled some strings and got my stay extended, so it serves him right. But I couldn’t wait around while you two screw things up. Why on earth are you going after Reed Ferguson? When I texted and said my dad hired him, I didn’t mean for you to follow us all over town.”

  That explained why they were so easy to spot, I thought. They weren’t just amateur assassins, they were amateur everything.

  “Then why did you keep texting us where you were?” Aiden asked.

  “Not so you would follow us,” she repeated. “I just wanted you to know where I was in case anything happened to me. We have to be careful after what happened to Avery and Brittany. And I told you to stop following us, but you wouldn’t listen.”

  “Hey,” Bennett protested. “That detective’s poking around your business, so it’s just a matter of time before he figures out about Rebecca.”

  “He didn’t know anything until he spotted you. Gawd, could you be any more obvious? And now he’s suspicious,” she said. “You two are nothing but a couple of imbeciles.”

  “He can’t trace us,” Aiden said. “I’ve been borrowing friends’ cars so any trail leads to them, not us.”

  “You better hope that fooled him,” Stephanie said.

  Aiden started to say something, but Bennett interrupted him. “So what do we do now?”

  “We’ve got to find Scott and take care of him before he kills us all.”

  My mind raced. Who was Scott? And where had I heard the name Rebecca? Then it hit me. The article in Stephanie’s scrapbook. The girl who’d died accidentally was named Rebecca Thorndike. Sounds like it wasn’t an accident, rather that Stephanie and her pals had something to do with Rebecca’s death.

  “Might I point out, we wouldn’t be in any of this if you hadn’t decided we needed our own secret group,” Aiden said. “But you thought it would be so fun. And then on top of that, you set Rebecca up.”

  “I didn’t hear you saying no to the group,” Stephanie said. “And once Rebecca died, someone had to take control.”

  “And you screwed it up,” Aiden said.

  “You were in on it, too.” Menace crept into Stephanie’s voice. “And when it went bad, I didn’t see you offering to help her, and you were right there with me to cover it up.”

  “Yeah, because if anyone knew what we did, we’d all be in huge trouble,” Bennett said. “You want to talk about your dad being pissed because you left the hospital. Think what would happen if it came out that we murdered Rebecca.”

  “You could kiss your trust fund goodbye,” Aiden said.

  “You, too,” Stephanie snapped.

  “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Bennett interrupted. “The question is, where do we go from here?”

  The conversation turned into an argument about what they should do about me, so I decided to help that along. In a few scant minutes, I was at Bennett’s front door. It was unlocked so I let myself in.

  Voices filtered out from the den. They were still arguing. I walked quietly down the hall and stood in the doorway. Stephanie was sprawled on the loveseat, her left arm still in the sling, her hair in disarray, her face drawn. Bennett and Aiden sat on the couch, both sipping beers.

  “I say we lose the detective,” Aiden was saying. “Disappear where he can’t find us.”

  “Too late,” I said.

  I wished I could’ve taped their responses. It was priceless. All three bolted into the air, and all three screamed. Then a slew of curses erupted.

  “What’re you doing here?” Aiden yelled.

  “I told you he wasn’t as dumb as you said.” Stephanie fixed a hard gaze at him.

  “A lot of people make that mistake,” I said, strolling into the room. “I may not have years of experience, but I’m a pretty good detective.”

  Bennett was shaking his head. “Okay, you found us. Now get out.”

  I looked at Stephanie. “This doesn’t have anything to do with your father’s enemies?”

  She shook her head. “So you can leave us alone.”

  “Not until you tell me about Rebecca Thorndike. I know her death was reported as an accident. And I know that’s not true.” I received a trio of wary looks. “Let me see if I have this right. You all party with her, get her really drunk and high, but you take it too far, you give her too much and she dies. You can’t have anyone know about it, least of all your parents, or you lose your trust funds. And you couldn’t have that. So you cover it up, make sure no one knows you were involved. How am I doing so far?”

  A long silence ensued. Then Bennett regarded me, a begrudging approval in his eyes. “Not bad, but you missed a few things.”

  “Shut up,” Stephanie hissed.

  “You can fill in the holes,” I said. “The bigger issue is, if I’ve figured this correctly, someone who knows the truth is after you, right?”

  Another pause, then heads nodded.

  I looked at each one of
them. “Do you know who it is?”

  “We –” Aiden started, but Stephanie interrupted.

  “Don’t tell him,” she said.

  I turned on her. “How long do you want to keep this up? Whoever this guy is, he almost succeeded in killing you. How many more chances do you want him to get?”

  “You can’t stop him,” she muttered. “He got to Avery and Brittany, he’ll get to us.”

  “I’m your only hope,” I said. “You don’t want to go to your parents, so I’m all you’ve got.”

  “Our parents can’t know what happened,” she said.

  “I don’t care anymore,” Aiden said. “I don’t want to die. I say we tell him.”

  “I agree with Aiden,” Bennett said. “He can help us.” He stared at Stephanie, daring her to disapprove.

  She threw up her hands. “Fine.” She then turned to me. “If we tell you everything, will you help us?”

  I nodded. “But I can’t say that your parents aren’t going to find out about this.”

  They glanced at each other, then back at me. “It started at the beginning of our senior year,” Bennett began.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  And I finally got the whole story. Stephanie, Brittany, Avery, Bennett, and Aiden were in their senior year of college. The girls were at Smith, the guys at Amherst. They were rich, entitled, bored and looking to have some fun, so they decided to form a secret organization. As Stephanie put it, “Something like that movie, The Skulls, with Paul Walker.” I vaguely remembered it, a B-movie about college guys who join a secret society that will help them achieve their ambitions. It had a thin plot with murder and a cover-up at its core.

  Stephanie’s group tried to act organized, with meetings and recorded minutes, and a structure of sorts, with Stephanie as the head. But it was little more than a clique, useless except as an excuse to exclude others and party. And then Rebecca approached them. Smith College didn’t have dorms, but houses, and Stephanie and Rebecca had resided in the same one. Rebecca had overheard some conversations about their group, and she wanted to be a part of it. It didn’t seem to occur to them that if their group was so secret, Rebecca wouldn’t have heard about it, but I left that unsaid. The girls didn’t like Rebecca. They thought she was too weird and she didn’t fit into their social set, so they concocted an idea, one that would mock the poor girl. It fell into place without a hitch, until things went bad.