Trudi Baldwin - Sammy Dick, PI 02 - Acid Test for Yellow Flower

by Trudi Baldwin

  The hawk had returned and suddenly dove straight down into the canyon. A rapid-fire shriek echoed up from below.

  “You might try it, Sammy. What are your unique attributes and gifts?”

  Oh, crap. Now it was my turn to squirm. I, too, diverted while I gathered my thoughts. “I wonder if the hawk just killed a rabbit or a mouse?”

  My suspense was short lived. The hawk rose again. This time with a limp field mouse clutched in its talons. We were so close, suspended as we were, out on the deck, I could see the mouse’s loose tail swinging in the wind.

  “You have your answer, Sammy,” Gloria said calmly. “I see it all the time here. Swift death. It helps me keep things in perspective.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what kind of healthy perspective needed to be grounded in “swift death,” but, of course, I was too smart to question my new employer. Well, not yet anyway.

  Hoping the dead mouse wasn’t an evil omen, I gulped and proceeded. I didn’t want to lose this opportunity to do some personal marketing and branding myself. “Sylvester is somewhat of a mentor to me. He says I bring psychological insight and intuition into my casework that enables me to rapidly piece together disparate bits of information, gathered from many sources, but especially from observing and talking to people. I am able to leap across my observations and see the hidden connections. This special gift accelerates my ability to solve cases. Of course, it helps that I work with my genius cousin, Geo, who conducts and interprets much of the research on his computer too.”

  “So am I hiring you and Genius Geo if I sign this contract?” she asked, picking up the pen.

  My heart beat faster in nervous anticipation, because I’d scribbled an outrageous sum, at least for Geo’s and my brief history in business, for the Dick Agency’s services on the bottom line. “Certainly,” I affirmed, not really sure at all how much Geo would help me on this case, now that he was head over heels in love with Little Miss Kathy Keach.

  Gloria continued, “So far, this incident, has been contained on a small scale, and the amount of acid discovered was not of lethal proportions, but someone in my company has malicious intent that could explode into something more sinister and damaging. Therefore, I expect quick resolution. You and Genius Geo will have exactly one week to uncover the culprit or culprits, before I will be forced to go more public. So far, we have contained knowledge of the incident to a few, trusted people in the Quality Department, since they are having to spot check every bottle, but we won’t be able to do that for long and it’s very time consuming and expensive. Do you think wrapping this up in a week’s time is doable?”

  Sounds impossible, I thought, all the while looking her straight in the eye and nodding confidently. Also, since she didn’t want public exposure, I wondered what, exactly, we’d do with the perpetrator if we did miraculously uncover him or her, but I didn’t ask that either, since she had the pen in her hand and was hovering over the contract. Surely, the police would have to be brought in at some point unless she planned on disposing of the offender herself, but this was no time to quibble over minor details. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

  She wasn’t signing yet, though. Instead, she handed me two large accordion file folders. “Here are the Quality Department’s findings so far,” she said tapping one folder with her pen. Then she tapped the other, much fatter folder. “And here are key documents outlining the history of the business, research, milestones, significant personnel files, etc. I’m hoping Genius Geo can begin assessing this research and that you will show up tomorrow at the factory in Phoenix to apply for a manufacturing job. We have fairly high turnover, and I’ll leave a message tonight telling Human Resources to add more personnel to the Organic Yellow Flower production line. I suggest you wear rebellious-like clothing. It doesn’t look like that will be too hard for you,” she said astutely. “I want you to be a bad girl, from day one on the job, someone who might attract and gain the confidence of those malicious enough to pour acid into my Organic Yellow Flower lotion and destroy my business!” she snapped heatedly.

  “Destroy your business and a lot of people’s skins at the same time,” I quipped.

  “True,” she said as if in afterthought. “I am writing in a clause here where you agree to minimum wage payment for your time, should you fail to uncover the culprit. This much larger figure, here—she pointed to the outrageous sum I’d written in—is contingent upon successful exposure of the culprit within a week’s time. After that, I will be forced to call in other professionals and the law, which, of course, I am reluctant to do. Right now there’s been no harm done, knowledge of the incident is contained, and I’ve put extensive quality checks in place, but that approach can’t go on forever. We need the bad apple identified and ripped from the apple cart!” she made eye contact with me. Then she looked down and signed with an extravagant flourish along the dotted line.

  Hell, yeah! I thought and tried to look unperturbed and serene as if this were an everyday event for the fledgling Dick Agency.

  I signed and dated the contract too. She rose, “Now, would you like to see how the dogs are doing and meet my horses?”

  “Hell, yeah!” This time I even crowed it out loud.

  Chapter Five – Preliminary Work

  Glory had shown me her four palominos. One was a tall, well-muscled copper palomino stallion named Rainmaker with billowy white mane and tail, wide set dark brown eyes, and an attitude off the charts—my kind of horse.

  To make space for the stalls and covered riding arena, Gloria had carved her own little mesas right out of the mountainside. Many horse trails wove through the Sedona hills and valleys she’d informed me, and when I came up to visit next time, with my mid-investigation report, she and I could go for a horseback ride along her favorite trail.

  I left soon after the palomino visit with a worn-out Mr. Happy Dance, who had been rebuffed so many times by Kachina, he could barely stand. I even closed the window on the passenger side a short way into our journey back down I17, since Snack had crawled into the backseat, flopped on his back and dropped instantly into deep sleep. He liked to sleep with his legs in the air, so as we rounded the curves his front paws would sway back and forth like a drunken orchestra conductor. It had been an exhausting, action-packed day for us both, in different ways.

  I thought about it some more as we careened down the steep canyon turns heading back to Phoenix. Maybe Snack’s and my day had been the same—both of us twisting in the wind to the tune of an alpha female. I would need to be on my guard, but, on the other hand, I might gain a second mentor, if things worked out. Only time, as in one short week, would tell …

  We arrived back in Phoenix as dusk settled on the city. I sped up Greenway and turned left onto Sunnyside Lane. As I opened the garage door, I could see both cars parked inside. I’d have to park on the street. The drive had refreshed Snack and me. We both bounded out of the car and into the garage, beeping the car locks and shutting the garage door behind us. Upon entering through the side kitchen door, a delicious aroma swelled our senses. Snack became nearly delirious. Apparently attempting to hump Kachina all day and suffering a barrage of unrequited love had made him ravenous.

  No one cooks in our house, except occasionally Delilah. Even though I love to eat, I don’t love to cook, so Geo and I tend to subsist on a varied mix of Lean Cuisine and Diet Coke. I’d switched to Coke Zero lately, but our eating patterns were simple when left to our own devices. Therefore, the delicious aroma gave me a sneaky suspicion that Little Miss Kathy Keach must be lurking somewhere about and sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed as Kathy and Geo emerged from his bedroom with guilty looks and telltale pink, flushed faces. Kathy was petite, like Delilah, with creamy skin, sparkling blue eyes and shoulder length auburn hair. She was barefoot, dressed in dark blue leggings and a long, rumpled, frilly blouse. Geo, who always dressed one hundred percent in black except for what might be scrawled across his t-shirt, had black hair and white skin. He was tall and slim lik
e me, though not nearly as toned, with black slim jeans, and a black t-shirt that said Really? in big white letters. Three tats circled down his arm like a snake in some kind of oriental script. I knew they translated to Peace, Harmony, and Electronics. That’s my genius cousin and business partner, Geo, or was my genius cousin and business partner, Geo, until Little Miss Kathy Keach burst into our lives.

  What a downer, I thought. I need my business partner to be focused on business tonight and not Little Miss Kathy Keach.

  “Hi, Sammy!” Kathy chirped, while Geo looked at the floor.

  Enough small talk. Time to get focused. “Hi, Kathy. Hey, Geo, I want to show you something,” I said while pulling the amazing contract out of my bag, flattening it on the kitchen counter, and beckoning them both over. “Take a look-see at this!” I pointed at the huge sum that would be awarded to the Dick Agency in a very short time if he and I could just join forces and solve this case.

  Kathy and Geo peered down at the figure. “Holy shit, Sammy! That’s a huge amount. I can pay for the rest of my schooling if we solve the case,” Geo exclaimed. He’d paid off his first two years of schooling on our last big case with Sylvester Swane.

  Now, that’s my boy. That’s the kind of language I want to hear!

  “Wow,” Kathy chimed in. “Geo, the Dick Agency may be more lucrative than law work. What do you think?”

  Now, that’s my girl, Kathy. I didn’t know you had that kind of insight in you.

  “I think we have a long way to go before the Dick Agency is stable enough and lucrative enough to be considered a legitimate business,” Geo retorted dryly.

  Well, who the hell are you, Geo, to say such a thing when we’ve both worked so hard to make this a success, I thought, but I didn’t say. I couldn’t afford to piss off Geo on the eve of our investigation. I needed him. Badly. Especially if we were to solve it in a mere week. Time to play nicey nice. Unfortunately, nicey nice was not one of my signature strengths, but I’d have to fake it.

  So I avoided the subject of the unstable Dick Agency altogether and switched bait. “Kathy, something smells super delicious, and I can only assume you are responsible.” Geo liked it when I played up to his girlfriend. She lived in a condo located close to her job at 24th Street and Camelback near downtown, but lately she’d been spending more time at our house.

  Little Miss Kathy Keach gave me one of her endearing, dimple-invested smiles. The kind of smile that makes Geo swoon. The truth is I would have liked her a lot if she and Geo weren’t in love. In our last major investigation, her bravery and clear head saved Geo’s life. I had her to thank that Geo was alive at all, even if he was whining about the Dick Agency’s unstable future.

  “We’re having roast chicken with roasted potatoes, carrots and onions on the side,” Kathy chimed.

  “That sounds awesome, Kathy. Am I invited?”

  “Of course, you’re invited, Sammy. I’ve already set the table for four.”

  I looked at our little, cheap Formica table with some mismatched plates and silverware already pre-set at each place. Home sweet home.

  “Do you have any candles?” she asked innocently.

  At least at this point in the evening, Geo caught my eye with a look that read, “Candles? What’s a candle?”

  Out loud, I replied in my nicey-nice voice, “Neither Geo nor I are the type to acquire candles, but Delilah might have acquired one or two. Let me go look, right after I feed Snack.”

  At the mention of his name so close to dinnertime, Snack bolted upright from the sofa he was forbidden to get on. I opened the sliding glass door to our small back patio to pour his food in his bowl and check his outside water. I kept a bowl of water for him inside too. It’s easy to get thirsty in Arizona, even in November. Snack followed me out and began gobbling up his food in great big bites, barely chewing it before swallowing. His lust for life always gave me pleasure. I caressed his velvety head, while he scarfed his food down heedless of my touch, then I walked back in the house in search of Delilah.

  Delilah Chavez rented the third bedroom in our home and, unlike Geo and me, she kept hers neat as a pin, or rather, neat as an accounting ledger, which was the degree, and now CPA certification, she was working on at ASU. Delilah and I had been friends for forever. True, deep BFFs. Polar opposites in most ways, we both shared a love of horses and of being silly, and that seemed to be enough to have kept us together all this time. Plus we compensated for each other’s differences. It had kept us BFFs since elementary school.

  Delilah’s head of dark brown, longer than shoulder length hair was bent down over a thick text book. She had a yellow highlighter in her hand and seemed to be highlighting entire pages.

  “It looks like you’re highlighting the whole book, Delilah.”

  She looked up from her studying. “I have a big test tomorrow, and now I’m trying to prep some more for it, Sammy. I’m not sure I’m prepared enough.”

  Unlike me, Delilah was a straight A student, but even with straight A’s, she always worried that she wasn’t studying enough. This compelled her to study a lot. When I was in school, I was always worrying that I’d studied too much, and wasn’t partying enough. I avoided over-studying at any cost. Probably why my grades were never as good as Delilah’s.

  “Do you have any candles in here? Little Miss Kathy Keach is hoping to serve us all a candlelit dinner.” I never called Little Miss Kathy Keach that to her face, but I could be myself with Delilah, who knew me well. She ignored my sarcasm, my immaturity, jealous streaks, the whole long list. She accepts me as I am, with a few push backs here and there.

  “I think it’s wonderful that Kathy is making us all dinner, Sammy. I do have candles too. Look over on the dresser top by my bed.”

  Sure enough, Delilah did have candles. Three big, off-white ones of varying size. I gathered them up.

  “Thanks, Delilah. You’re joining us for dinner in a little while, right?”

  “Mm hmm …” she murmured, her head lowered over the book, the yellow highlighter squeaking across the page. I could smell its sour odor. Thank goodness, I’d already finished my MBA.

  I carried my prize back into the kitchen to impress Kathy and try to win back the good graces and business support of Geo. Kathy squealed in delight when I entered the dining area clutching the candles in front of me like a peace offering. Geo gave me a look from under his eyebrows like good try, keep it up, I might conduct a wee bit of research for you if you play real nicey-nice.

  I shot him a look back from under my eyebrows like you’re lucky to be in business with me in the first place and we made a ton of money last time, so get over it and help me you stuck-up twit.

  In response, Geo spun on his heel, marched into the kitchen and pulled open the store everything in the world you don’t know what to do with and are never going to use anyway drawer. I watched him paw around among a bicycle chain, Snack’s puppy collar from years ago, tons of paperclips strewn haphazardly everywhere, sticky notes, a few pennies with gum or something stuck on them, a whole bunch of pens that didn’t work, etc. He rattled and rattled around in the drawer having kind of a little hissy fit.

  I walked over and thrust open the skinny little cabinet over the stove, “Looking for these, Cuz?” I flashed a matchbook in the air. None of us smoked, so matches were a rare find in our house.

  Little Miss Kathy Keach squealed in delight again, “Oh, Sammy, that’s exactly what we need! Would you be so kind as to light the candles and dim the lights? Dinner is about to be served!”

  Ah ha, I’d now successfully pissed off my cousin and business partner even more. However, I’d impressed his girlfriend. I was hoping that’d be worth enough points to get on Geo’s good side.

  I returned to Delilah’s bedroom and dragged her away from her game of highlighting the entire book. Then I dimmed the lights and we all sat down at the Formica table with the mismatched dinnerware and glowing candles. The chicken sat in front of Kathy in slices with the roasted vegetables arrange
d around the slices. Apparently, she’d convinced Geo to carve up the chicken. I didn’t think he knew how, but he’d done a decent job of it.

  “Before we begin, I was hoping we could hold hands and that I might say a few words of blessing,” Kathy intoned into the room.

  OMG! I thought, but I knew where this was headed. Kathy is one of those girls who is so special in a certain sense that it’s hard not to like her. Further, it was obvious why Geo had fallen in love with her. We were going to have to do her bidding.

  We all dutifully held hands and closed our eyes. I sneaked a peek around the table and caught Geo sneaking a peek too. I looked him straight in the eye over the flickering candles with a Ha Ha Ha, Gotcha look. He smiled serenely, closed his eyes and bowed his head. OMG! Geo and serenity made a strange combination. I gave up and closed my eyes. Snack slipped his head onto my thigh hoping for a slice of chicken.

  Kathy launched into grace with her quiet voice, “I am grateful, God, for these friends I have gathered around me. Since I lost my parents, you three have become my new family and God could not have created anything better for me. Hopefully, in small ways, I can give back to each of you what you have so generously given to me. Amen, and enjoy.”