Reluctantly in Love

by Niecey Roy

  “Okay, okay, we’ll talk about it later,” I said. He almost had the door shut when I said, “Wait!”

  He popped his head back in. “Yeah?”

  “Make sure you buy something so you don’t look like a creeper or a shoplifter.”

  He shut the door before I could add anything else to his list of Dos & Don’ts.

  The store front was a wall of windows. Inside, Matthew disappeared from view into an aisle. Richard, looking more conspicuous than he promised, had his hands in his pockets while he pretended to read a magazine on display at the end of the aisle Matthew had turned down. I raised the binoculars to my eyes to get a better view. It was a women’s health magazine.

  “Damn it, I should have made him wear an earpiece,” I whispered to the empty van.

  Richard ambled away from the display to look into the next aisle down. Then he went to the end of the next aisle. He didn’t look like he was shopping, which made me white knuckle the binoculars.

  Matthew wasn’t inside for long. He appeared at a checkout counter with a shopping basket, but a display hid him from view. When he stepped outside, he held a plastic shopping bag and had a piece of beef jerky in his mouth. Richard followed him out a few seconds later, a bounce to his step—he looked like he might be whistling.

  By the time Richard climbed into the passenger seat, Matthew was already on the move. I didn’t wait for him to buckle before I backed out of the parking space.

  “That was fun,” he said and held out a package of gum. “Spearmint?”

  I shook my head. “Chewing gum makes my face hurt.”

  “He didn’t suspect a thing.” He popped a piece of gum into his mouth. “I’m smooth.”

  “You were fine.” Then I added. “We’ll work on it. What did he buy?”

  “Gross looking cans of dog food.”

  “Dog food?” My heart fell. “That’s it?”

  Was that all he was doing, after all? Feeding his pet he called rodent and then picking up his girlfriend?

  “That can’t be it,” I said with a shake of my head. “There has to be more.”

  “There wasn’t. Just dog food.”

  “No, I mean, to this story—to Matthew Garrett. I know he’s the one who stole Beverly’s cat. He has to be behind this alien thing.”

  “Hmm.”

  I whipped my head to Richard who had his phone out, texting.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  “I think maybe you got the wrong guy. You’re just obsessing. That’s what Lexie says.”

  I faced the road. “I’m not obsessing.”

  “She says it’s because you broke it off with the doctor and now you’re obsessed with work.”

  “Listen, Richard. I’m not obsessing because of a guy. I’m working because I want to solve this case and catch a man who is tormenting an old lady.” I eased my foot off the gas. This conversation was making me break the speed limit. “And you can tell Lexie that a good investigator does her best to solve a case.” I hooked my thumb toward my head. “That’s me. I’m being a good investigator.”

  “Hey, I didn’t say it. You broads tell me all this stuff. I don’t even know what you want me to do with it.” He pointed at the tablet. “He’s getting away.”

  “I’m not even sure it matters now.” I followed the dot on the screen anyway.

  “Can we hit a drive-thru then? I’m starved. That dude bought a beef jerky. I should have gotten one too, but I didn’t want to look like I was copying him.”

  “Not now. There’s a bag of beef jerky and some sunflower seeds in my duffle bag.”

  “Is this what you people eat on a stakeout?” He dug through my bag. “This is hardcore.”

  “No, this is just an emergency stash in case I get stuck someplace longer than I planned to.”

  Matthew drove across town to the older side of Lincoln. The further we got from the discount store, the more wrinkled my forehead got. When he turned onto Sterling Boulevard, I straightened in my seat.

  “He keeps a pet at the mansion? That’s weird.” I slowed down. Up ahead, Matthew turned into the estate’s driveway. I killed the lights and parked at the curb.

  In the dark, the house was even more eerie.

  “Oh shit, no way.” Richard shook his head from beside me. “Not cool. We’re not going in there again.” When I didn’t answer, he said, “Right?”

  “Relax. I don’t know what’s going on. I think we should at least sneak up there and see what he’s doing, don’t you? I can’t see anything from here.” I leaned down to the duffle bag between us and rifled through it. “Maybe they have a guard dog or something.”

  Richard took a flashlight from me. It was much bigger than the ones we used the first time we went inside the mansion. “Just don’t turn it on yet. He might notice the lights out in the yard.”

  “Man, I didn’t sign up for a haunted house,” Richard said, but he opened the passenger door and stepped out.

  I locked the van and pocketed the keys. “Let’s just climb the fence here.”

  The gate around the mansion was cast iron, the posts close together. I reached up and felt along the top of a post—they came to a dull point. I shook the fence, but it didn’t budge.

  “It’s sturdy. Do you want to go first?” He looked worried, so I added, “I can boost you up. You’ll go right over.”

  “Uh, I don’t know about that.”

  I nudged him out of the light of the street lamp and under the shade of a big oak tree. “We have to get over the fence, and I don’t want to risk getting seen under the driveway lamps. We have to go over right here.”

  “Yeah, okay.” He shoved his flashlight into his pocket.

  “I’ll boost you over. I’ll pass the camera to you over the fence. Then I’ll climb over.” Bending down, I clasped my hands together to make a holster for his shoe. “Come on.”

  He put his foot in my hands. I counted to three then used my legs to launch him upward. He grabbed the fence and boosted himself up. At the top, he teetered, lost his balance, and fell over onto the other side. The fence was only just above waist-high. He could have made it without a boost—I probably should have let him try first on his own.

  “Ugh,” he moaned.

  I put my face up near the fence. “Are you okay? Did you break anything?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Shit.” I slid the camera under the fence since Richard was out of commission and couldn’t take it from me. “Hold on, I’m coming over.

  Launching myself over the fence was a lot more difficult without the added boost. I made it, but the back of my sweatshirt caught on a post and yanked me back against the fence. I wiggled loose and dropped to my knees beside Richard.

  Nudging him, I whispered, “Richard. You okay?”

  He answered with a moan.

  “Did you break something?” An edge of panic crept in.

  “No. I think I just got the wind knocked out of me. That wasn’t awesome.” He held up his hands. “Help me up.”

  I pulled him to his feet then glanced around the yard. The grounds were massive, and the Garrett ancestors had planted a ton of trees when the house was built. We wouldn’t have to worry about being seen as long as we kept to the shadows.

  The neighborhood was quiet. All the homes in this section of town had been built in the early twentieth century, the lots spaced out. The closest neighbor was the one across the street, and their house was set back as far as the Garrett Mansion was. No one would see us lurking about. The Garrett Estate was the largest of all the homes in the area. Even in the dark, it was remarkable.

  We darted between the trees, keeping to the shadows. A sliver of light appeared in a second story window. He’d gone from the foyer straight upstairs. One, two, three rooms over. I left Richard huddled behind bushes up against the house while I rooted under the statue in the flower garden for the house key.

  “We have to go in after he leaves.” I crouched beside him and held up
the key. “What time does your cell phone say?”

  “Nine-fifteen.”

  “He’ll be gone soon. His girlfriend’s expecting him at nine-thirty.”

  We waited, shrouded in the bushes at the side of the porch, hidden from moonlight. Until Matthew Garrett emerged carrying a large garment bag over his arm. My brain ticked over every detail while Matthew’s sports car turned out of the driveway.

  “Come on, we need to hurry. I want to get inside for a quick look around before he picks up his girlfriend. She’s clear across town.” I calculated the distance in my head. “We have about twenty minutes before he gets to her apartment.”

  Richard fidgeted beside me while I unlocked the door. “We won’t be able to turn the lights on because we’re not supposed to be here.”

  “Oh man,” he muttered.

  “We can use the flashlights, though, so we’re not going in blind. We’ll be fine.” Except my hands shook. The last time I was here, I’d nearly cracked my head open trying to leave. Escape, more like it. “It’s fine. No big deal.”

  The door opened with a heavy swing, creaking on its hinges. My breaths came in short, silent bursts. Okay, you got this. Just relax. I took a tentative step over the threshold.

  “This place is creepy.”

  Richard’s whisper made me jump in my skin. I reached behind with a blind slap and got him in the chest. “Shh. You’re making it worse. Get in here.” I yanked him into the house and shut the door.

  We were entombed in darkness now. I fumbled with the flashlight. “He went upstairs. Let’s just get up there quick and get out.”

  The light flashed on. My beam was met with Richard’s beam.

  “You think the ghost knows we’re here?” Richard whispered near my ear.

  Whirling on him, I hissed, “No ghost talk. At all. And don’t talk like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “In a creepy way.” I tip-toed toward the staircase across the foyer.

  “I don’t think I’m being creepy.”

  “I don’t mean creepy as in pervy. I mean, like horror movie creepy voice.” The flashlight beam illuminated the stairs, and I shined it up to the second floor landing. My ears pricked for the slightest sound—but there was only silence. I stopped my ascent, one hand rested on the rail. “Notice how quiet it is? Last time we were here I swear it sounded like moaning and footsteps and way creepier.”

  Richard stopped behind me, his head tilted up to the top of the stairs. “I know, right?”

  “Let’s just keep moving.”

  “I don’t like being in the back.” Richard’s whisper raised the hair on the back of my neck.

  “Do you want to go first?” My flashlight beam darted back and forth in front of us.

  “No.”

  “Well, you either want to be in front or in back. I prefer not to be in back where I can be easily picked off.”

  “But when you’re in front you’ll get attacked first.” Richard stepped on the back of my tennis shoe.

  “What?” I glanced at him over my shoulder, my light shining in his eyes. He blinked back at me. “You’re not making this experience any better.”

  “Sorry. I’ll shut up now,” he said.

  At the top of the stairs I pointed the flashlight in the direction Matthew had gone. “He was the third window over. I don’t know if that means the third room or not. We’re just going to have to open every door on the right and look around inside.”

  “Inside the rooms?” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his neck. “Can’t we just stand in the hallway and shine the flashlights around?”

  “That’s not how to investigate a scene.” I was clearly going to have to be the strong one here, even when my knees were a wobbly mess. Chase wouldn’t be around to stitch me up this time if an angry ghost attacked. I needed to keep it together.

  The room was a fully furnished bedroom with plain but sturdy furnishings. The dust hung thick in the air, which was interesting since Beverly told me a cleaning crew came in every month to do a full sweep of cleaning from top to bottom. Either the company was stiffing the Garrett Estate, or they hadn’t been paid to come in a while.

  The second room’s door squeaked open. My flashlight illuminated two windows.

  “This is it, I whispered to Richard.” My voice shook with excitement instead of fear. I was on the verge of finding out something important; I felt it all the way down to my toes. But a part of me was still afraid there’d be nothing inside. No clues, only more questions.

  I locked my fingers around Richard’s arm and shoved him inside.

  “What the hell, Rox?” He stumbled inside, his arms flailing.

  “I’m sorry.” My whisper sounded more like a hiss. “I’m freaking out a little.”

  He shined his flashlight in my face. “Not cool.”

  I ignored him. My gaze was locked on a huge cage on the other side of the bed. “Holy mother beepin’ shit,” I breathed.

  Richard and I knocked into each other in a scramble around the bed. My heart hammered in my chest, my body electrified with excitement.

  “Whoa.”

  “Bingo, jackass.” The grin was in my voice. “I finally caught him.”

  It all made sense now, and with it an enlightening sense of: I was freakin’ right, hell yeah!

  My uncle had always told me to trust my gut; Leo had drilled that into me ever since he agreed to mentor me into becoming a PI myself—and finally, for the first time, my obsession with this jackass was justified.

  The cage was big and metal, built into the corner of the room. Inside was a pet bed, large enough for a Labrador or, say, a forty-pound Savannah. A big litter box sat outside the cage, empty, but there was a bag of litter beside it. The cans of dog food and an empty food dish next to the cage’s open door.

  I lifted the camera from around my neck and started snapping pictures of the evidence.

  “This is where he kept Pretzels.” And all that howling the last time we were snooping around? Not a ghost, but a caged cat. She was here the entire time and I let my own imagination spook me out of the house. I shined the light on the cans of cheap dog food. “That son of a bitch—he wasn’t even feeding her decent food.”

  And the new cans . . . “It’ll all be over soon . . . Tonight. We’ll finish it tonight . . .”

  “He’s going to steal Pretzels again!” I ran across the room, waving over my shoulder for Richard to follow. “He and his girlfriend are both in on it. They want Beverly to think she’s crazy, make everyone think she’s crazy.” My mind worked like a ticking clock as it connected the dots, filled in the blank holes. “I bet if he gets her committed, or has the court find her mentally unstable, he takes over the estate, the company, everything. Everything his dad didn’t trust him with he’ll finally have in his dirty, pervy, greasy, greedy hands.”

  I didn’t look back to check if Richard followed, I could hear his feet pounding on the wood flooring as we ran through the house. In the mad rush to get to the van, I almost forgot to lock the door behind me. I pocketed the key and we took off down the driveway at a sprint. I was out of breath by the time we reached the van.

  There was no time to buckle up, no time to waste. I fired up the van, whipped a U-turn, and dialed Leo’s cell phone.

  While it rang, I waved my hand at the computer tablet mounted on the dash. “Check where Matthew’s vehicle is right now.”

  “Hey Rox, what’s up?” Leo asked through the phone.

  “It’s Matthew Garret,” I barked at the phone in its mount near the radio. “It was him all along. I have the proof too.”

  “He’s still at his girlfriend’s,” Richard said.

  “He’s going to hit Beverly’s again tonight, and he’s going to try and steal Pretzels. I’ll explain it all later, but I need you to round up some of your men, a surveillance crew, a van, a million Taser guns and we’re going to catch this bastard red-handed, tonight!” I yanked the steering wheel into a right turn and a shortcut that would get us
to Beverly’s in ten minutes. “Can you meet me there, like, yesterday?”

  “I got your back. See you there,” Leo said, and hung up.

  The grin was back on my lips. I glanced over at Richard, whose eyes were glued to the blinking red dot. “Are you ready to catch a real life bad guy? Shit, this is so exciting!”

  “Then afterwards we can get food, right?”

  I narrowed my eyes in irritation. “I don’t even know who you are right now.”

  He knocked against the door when I turned onto 27th Street. “Jeez, okay. We’ll talk about it after.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The rest of the night played out like a scene in an episode of Cops. Leo’s men took Matthew Garrett down in a flurry of black gear. No Taser guns necessary, which was too bad, really. The commotion brought out the neighbors, and the girlfriend sped away in Matthew’s sports car. It didn’t matter—the cops would find her.

  He sat slumped on the ground, his wrists bound together with plastic tri-fold handcuffs, military grade. With his head hung in defeat, he didn’t look like the same guy who’d sauntered around, lying through his teeth, tormenting a woman who loved him despite everything.

  Finding out her stepson was responsible for all the pain, the confusion and fear of the last few months was heartbreaking for Beverly. When she found us all outside her house in the backyard, Matthew in the alien costume, her shoulders wilted and her face paled. I almost tased him.

  “So you’re the jerk who’s been making all this racket outside?” Meredith Jensen stood with her hands on her hips in a pale green robe, peering down at Matthew like he was the scum of the earth. Which he was. For the first time, Meredith’s scowl didn’t bother me.

  Matthew glared up at her, his lips pressed together in obstinate regard.

  Meredith hiked her leg back then landed a hard kick to Matthew’s crotch.

  He doubled over, crying out, “You bitch!”

  “Matthew, that’s enough." Beverly's voice was cold as steel.

  “I’ll sue your ass,” Matthew seethed, his knees pressed together where he sat on the damp grass.

  “Sue me?” Meredith snickered. “I have cancer. You can sue me for my medical bills.”