Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jerry staring at the surface of the kitchen table and trying to hide his embarrassment. This was the first time I’d ever said anything nice about him to his face – which was completely unchartered territory for our friendship.
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Kyle. “Because that brings me to the reason why I flew out here instead of mailing you the check.” He looked me in the eye, and I tried not to fidget uncomfortably. Kyle was starting to remind me of my fifth-grade math teacher when she was about to explain to me how I’d done every sum wrong. “I want you to hire Jerry as your assistant.”
Jerry and I sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, and then we both began to talk at once.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I couldn’t do that,” I said. “I can’t afford to pay him, I can barely pay my own bills and I don’t have enough work and…”
Jerry was saying, “No, I’m going to be an actor, I have to go to auditions, I don’t have time for all this… I mean, I can help her out once in a while but…”
Jerry and I stopped talking and looked at each other, and then back at Kyle.
“You see,” I said. “We can’t do that.”
Kyle shook his head. “I thought you might say no. But I think Jerry needs to grow up.” He looked at Jerry and said, “You can’t spend your whole life going to auditions and even if you do become an actor, I want you to have done some real work before that. Something that helps people and shows you the reality of life. When you become a famous Hollywood actor, people will respect you more because you’ve done something that helps other folks. And the work’ll help you improve your acting, and people skills.”
Jerry frowned thoughtfully, and Kyle turned to me. “And I don’t plan on imposing on you financially, so I’m going to pay Jerry’s salary for at least the first few months.” He slid another check across the table. “Half of this is for Jerry’s first six months’ salary. The other half is to cover your admin expenses of hiring him, and to cover the irritation of having him tag along with you.”
He winked at me, and took a sip of his coffee.
I stared down at the check. It was a lot of money. I wouldn’t mind having a lot of money. I could buy myself a nice pair of shoes. And a nice blush-pink blouse, like the one I saw Murderous Mellie wearing. And I could rent an office and look more like a professional PI. I could do a lot of things with that money.
I looked at Jerry, who was staring into his coffee. Sure, Jerry was annoying, but he did seem to know everyone who grew up in the city, and maybe there would be times when I’d need help during my investigations. All the famous detectives had a partner – even Sherlock had his Watson.
Jerry looked up at me and we exchanged a glance.
“We’ll do it,” he told his father. “At least for the next six months.”
Kyle smiled happily, and the oven timer went off.
“That’s the cake,” I said. “Jerry, our first order of business is to have some chocolate cake.”
“I might as well have a slice before I leave,” said Kyle. “I hope you two can work well as a team.”
I wasn’t too sure about working with Jerry. He wasn’t the smartest cookie around, and his constant mocking of me did get a little irritating sometimes. But now it was my turn to call him Nancy Drew.
I watched as Jerry took the cake out of the oven, tipped it over onto a large cake-plate, and brought it over to the table. I’d have to teach him to fire a gun, I thought, unless he planned on hitting suspects with cream pies, clown-style.
He served Kyle and me with big slices of cake each. I wasn’t too sure about what the future would hold for me and Jerry, investigations-wise. But at least he could bake – so if nothing else, at least the future would hold many more slices of chocolate cake.
Table of Contents
Don’t Be a Stranger: A Valerie Inkerman Mystery
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
About The Author
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Accepting her first real case – investigating the murder of casino-mogul Ethan Becker – should be exciting. Instead, things spiral out of control and Tiffany finds herself in over her head, as she confronts secretive suspects, corrupt casino henchmen and her mysterious, ex-Special Forces bodyguard.
Tiffany’s poker-hustling Nanna and pushy parents want her to find a nice man and settle down, but Tiffany just wants to track down the real murderer before he finds her first…
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About The Author
A.R. Winters loves books, TV series and movies about mysteries, crime capers and heists. She also enjoys a good laugh, so she writes light-hearted, humorous mysteries.
When not writing, she’s usually eating too much cake.
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