Python shot him a look that suggested that was too far, even for them. “Yeah, let’s stick with the Housewives’ Choice,” he said.
“Okay, cool. Thanks, guys,” said Aidan, looking genuinely pleased.
Ugh. Sofia couldn’t work out if Aidan was trying to get on the other guys’ good side for the sake of the undercover operation or whether he was genuinely into being called THC, the Housewives’ Choice. From his expression she suspected it was a little of both.
47
“Let’s get one thing straight. I am not calling you the Housewives’ Choice.”
Sofia and Aidan were back on the freeway. It was after nine but traffic was still bumper to bumper. Sofia had asked Aidan to drop her at her mom’s house. She would get an Uber home from there.
“What about THC?”
“Or that.”
“But it’s my undercover name now. You don’t want to compromise the operation, do you?”
“What are you talking about? Your undercover name is Clark Chivers.”
“I like the Housewives’ Choice better.”
“I’m sure you do.”
Sofia didn’t blame him. She knew that Brendan had pulled Clark Chivers from a ready-made list of aliases they had on file for undercover and other covert work, but it wasn’t the best name. It sounded like a guy who had a comb-over and wore a pocket protector. The kind of guy who looked like an old-school eighties nerd when being a nerd hadn’t been even vaguely hip.
“Hey, so when I was getting changed in the locker room, I asked Anaconda about Horse, the guy who left the group,” said Aidan.
“Wasn’t that a little risky? Like it might make them suspicious?”
“Perhaps, but I figured if you’re the new guy you’d be curious to know about the guy you’re replacing. I kept it vague. What was he like? Did he get fired? I acted like I was eager to make it work. So if he had made mistakes and got canned, I’d want to avoid doing the same thing.”
“Okay, that doesn’t sound too suspicious. What did Anaconda say?”
“He was kind of reticent at first, but then he told me that Horse and Stanley had a big fall-out. As in almost a fist fight.”
This was really good information, especially if they could track this Horse fellow down.
“He tell you what it was about?”
“No. I asked, but Python walked back in from the shower and he clammed up. I didn’t get the chance to speak with him again before I left. But I’m sure I can try to get some more out of him at the next rehearsal.”
That was good. They were making progress. It was a lot of work to get to someone on the inside. But it was usually worth the effort. Even if you didn’t get a taped admission of guilt, you got to see how the dynamics of the group worked. Who would talk. Who didn’t get on. That alone gave them a bunch of ways to proceed.
Know thy enemy. Hadn’t some ancient Chinese general said that? Sofia was sure she’d read it somewhere. Or maybe Jeffery Weiner had mentioned it. Hollywood agents loved all that Art of War stuff.
“Sounds like we need to track Horse down. Maybe they fell out over all the other suspicious stuff that was going on behind the scenes.”
“Don’t worry,” said Aidan. “We will. Disgruntled ex-employees are gold in cases like this. Even if he didn’t know about the blackmail, he might still be able to give us something we can use as leverage.”
They fell back into silence for a few moments.
“I thought you did pretty well in there.”
“Thanks,” said Aidan.
“All things considered.”
Aidan glanced at her as he finished changing lanes. “See, there you go. Why can’t you just give me a compliment and leave it at that? Why did you have to add ‘all things considered’?”
“Because it’s true. You did really well, considering you’re not a dancer and you don’t have any experience. Why can’t you just accept a compliment as it’s given? Or do people just totally have to kiss your ass?”
Aidan didn’t say anything to that. So that was a yes.
The rest of the journey they stuck to talking about the case. Sofia called Brendan to give him an update. He was still at the office.
Aidan pulled into her mom’s driveway. “You going to see Marcie?”
“Hope so. I want her to know we’re getting closer. That might calm down her down a little.”
Sofia started to get out. The side door opened and her mom appeared, wine glass in hand. She looked like she was already half in the bag.
“Oh, Aidan, how fabulous. Sofia, why didn’t tell you tell me Aidan was going to be with you?”
“Because he’s not. He’s just dropping me off,” Sofia said quickly. “I’m going to take an Uber home.”
“But you can come in for a little while, can’t you, Aidan?”
Her mom loved to pepper Aidan with questions about his love life. She still seemed to harbor hopes that he and Sofia would get together. It drove Sofia crazy. Aidan also loved to flirt with her mom because he knew how much it grossed Sofia out. That was why Sofia tried to keep them apart as much as possible.
“Mom, Aidan’s had a really long day. I’m sure he’d love to chat, but he needs to get his rest.”
Aidan looked at Sofia. “I’m sure I can spare five minutes. Stretch my legs before I get back on the road,” he said, stepping out of the car and following Janet inside as Sofia shot daggers at him. He smirked.
“What’s the problem?” he whispered to Sofia, as they walked down the corridor and into the living room.
“My mom’s way too into this case, is what the problem is.”
“She’s taking an interest in your career.”
“She’s taking an interest in a bunch of dudes with their shirts off, is more like it.”
Aidan started to laugh.
“I’m serious. You didn’t see her at that show. There’s no knowing what she would have done if Emily and I hadn’t been with her.”
Aidan shrugged. “Hey, us Beef Cake Boyz have that effect on women.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“And you need to chill out.”
Tim got up from his armchair and came over to say hi. He gave Sofia a hug and shook Aidan’s hand.
“Marcie’s in the kitchen,” he said to them. “How long you guys think this deal is going to go on? There’s only so many rounds of golf I can play in a day without it killing my back.”
“Not too much longer,” said Sofia. “We have Aidan undercover now.”
“You do?”
Sofia had thought her mom had gone to get Marcie. She hadn’t realized she was standing right behind them.
“Yeah, passed the audition with flying colors,” Aidan said, making himself sound better by carefully omitting all the subterfuge and cheating that had been involved. “Not that it was ever in doubt.”
Sofia’s mom twirled the stem of her wine glass. She stared at Aidan’s chest. “I bet there wasn’t.”
Wait a minute. What was going on here? Was her mom hitting on Aidan?
If she was, Aidan seemed oblivious. He was too busy enjoying having his ego stroked.
“Yeah, once I busted out my signature moves, it was pretty much in the bag,” he added.
“Somebody’s proud of his marble pouch,” Sofia said, under her breath.
“What was that, sweetie?” her mom asked.
“I’m just going to check on Marcie.”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” Janet turned her attention back to Aidan.
Sofia left them to it and walked through into the kitchen. She had pretty much reached her gross-out level for the day. Her mom and Aidan flirting, even if he was only doing it to make Sofia crazy, was a step too far.
Marcie was sitting up on a stool. She was nursing a glass of wine and looking at her phone.
“You okay?” asked Sofia, going over to her and putting what she hoped was a reassuring arm around Marcie’s shoulders.
Marcie kept staring at her phone. “I just
keep waiting for a text from Wade telling me that he knows all about this. I really love him, you know. This whole thing was just a moment of madness.”
It was a lot longer than a moment from what Sofia had seen. But she knew what Marcie was saying. “It’s going to be okay. We’re getting closer to having enough on these guys to scare them off. Aidan’s on the inside now.”
Marcie looked up and, for the first time that Sofia could remember, she actually smiled. She even looked a little hopeful. “He is?”
“Yeah, he’s our inside man.”
“He’s going to be dancing with them?” Marcie said, hopping off the stool.
Hang on. Where was this going?
“I’d say calling what he does dancing might be a stretch but, yes, he’s a member.”
Sofia stopped herself. After all she’d seen over the past week, maybe “member” wasn’t the best word to describe a Beef Cake Boy. Participant maybe. Something neutral-sounding. That was the problem with this case: there was so much focus on male genitalia that almost everything you said started to sound deeply wrong.
“I’d better go congratulate him,” said Marcie, scooting past her, and heading into the living room where her mom had her hand on Aidan’s chest.
Sofia followed Marcie through as she made a beeline for Aidan and started gushing over how brave he was for stepping into that den of vipers.
“I’m getting an Uber back to the Cove now,” Sofia said to Aidan, hoping he’d take the hint.
“Okay,” he said, turning his attention back to the two ladies.
“You see, the secret is fluid hip movement,” he said. “In the biz we call it sexy hips.”
What was he talking about? He was an expert dancer now?
“Don’t you need to be getting home for some rest? Big day tomorrow.”
“Really?” said Sofia’s mom. “What’s tomorrow?”
“More rehearsals. I have the first show in two more days,” said Aidan. “Usually they wouldn’t drop a new dancer into the live show so fast, but I’m a pretty quick study.”
“You’re not lying,” said Sofia, grabbing his elbow and not so gently steering him away from the Glendale chapter of his fan club.
“So did they give you a stage name?” Sofia’s mom asked, trailing after them, Marcie hot on her heels.
Aidan stopped dead. “THC,” he said mysteriously.
“What?” said Marcie.
“The Housewives’ Choice,” said Aidan, with an arched eyebrow.
Yeah, it was going to take Sofia a while to get Aidan’s ego back to its usual size. He was loving this. She’d given up being a performer to become an investigator, and it looked like Aidan was headed in the opposite direction.
“I love it,” said Marcie, clapping her hands together.
“You certainly are,” said Sofia’s mom, peering lasciviously at him over her wine glass.
That was Sofia’s cue to hustle Aidan out back towards his car. Another few glasses of wine and there was no knowing what could happen.
48
The next morning Sofia sat at her desk. For some reason, even though she hadn’t touched any alcohol, she seemed to be suffering from a hangover. Her stomach kept lurching, and she had a headache.
“Maybe you’re pregnant,” Aidan said, when she complained about her symptoms.
Sofia did a quick date check. No, she was fairly sure that couldn’t be it. And she and Jaxon had been taking precautions. She was pretty sure it was just the stress of the case. When this was all done she wanted never to hear, read or watch anything about male strippers again, even if Matthew McConaughey was the star.
Okay, maybe she’d make an exception for Matthew, but other than that, she had no further interest.
If only the same could have been said for her mom, who had been bombarding her with texts. She claimed to be checking things for Marcie, but Sofia wasn’t entirely convinced. She’d been hoping it was all the wine that had made her start fawning over Aidan like that. Now she wasn’t so sure.
Maybe Tim needed to start paying a little bit less attention to his golf, and a little more to her mom. Eww. Even that thought seemed wrong.
Aidan left the office to head to his morning rehearsal. Tomorrow evening was his debut at the same skanky Hollywood theater where Sofia, Emily and Janet had caught the act.
If Aidan was nervous he wasn’t showing it. He’d practically bounced out of the office and into his Porsche.
Sofia had to stay back at base to continue gathering background evidence on Jared, Stanley, and Margo. Not that there was much to gather on Jared, a.k.a. Python. So far he was the piece of the puzzle that didn’t seem to fit.
He had no criminal record to speak of, certainly nothing that was connected with blackmail. Then again, that made him the ideal candidate to do Stanley and Margo’s dirty work. If arrests were made there was every chance they would try to throw him under the bus and cut a deal with the prosecutor before he did.
Sofia clicked on the video player on her computer. The tiny surveillance camera they’d planted the previous day at the rehearsal space was beaming back a live stream via a wireless internet connection. Aidan wouldn’t have gotten there just yet, but the others might have arrived.
The screen opened. The hall was empty. She reduced the window and left it running in the corner. Her computer was also recording the stream as it came in, so she could always go back and review the footage to see if she’d missed anything.
Sofia ran a more in-depth credit check on Jared. Maybe he was having money difficulties. That might explain why he’d been blackmailing Marcie. She drummed her nails on the desk as she waited for the report to be generated. This was the downside of Aidan being undercover rather than her: being stuck in the office was boring. She’d grown to love the excitement of being out in the field. It was where her acting chops really came into their own. And she’d kind of grown addicted to the danger. Sitting behind a desk punching keys . . . not so much.
Her cell phone rang. It was Aidan. She snatched it up.
“Hello,” she said, careful not to use his name in case he wasn’t alone.
“I have some fresh intelligence,” he said.
“Great.” She grabbed a pen and her notepad.
“Yeah, I ran into Anaconda outside. He’s kind of chatty. I decided to ask him about Horse, who was the guy I’d replaced. That sort of stuff. Anyway, I have a name for you.”
“Perfect. I’ll get straight on it.”
“Okay, Horse’s name is Dwight Danson, and Anaconda said he lived in Santa Monica. But don’t go rushing off to track him down without me. From what was said, it sounded like he’s a little off the rails.”
Sofia crossed her fingers. “Don’t worry, I won’t,” she told Aidan.
Santa Monica wasn’t all that big and Dwight Danson didn’t seem like a super-common name. She was pretty sure it wouldn’t take long to get an address. There was no way she was letting Aidan have all the fun while she stayed chained to her desk. And the sooner they got the goods on this crew and warned them off, the better for Marcie. A disgruntled former employee might be the answer.
Assuming Sofia could find him, and assuming he would talk to her. It was all very well Aidan telling her not to go alone, but the clock was ticking. And, anyway, it was the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, how dangerous could it be?
Before she left, she knocked on Brendan’s office door. He called her in.
“Hey, I’m just going out for a little while.”
He looked up from a mound of papers. “Getting cabin fever?” He smiled.
It was like he had some kind of psychic ability. “Kind of.”
“Want me to find you some more undercover work?” asked Brendan.
“Last week, I would have said no.”
“But now you’re the one stuck looking at a computer screen?”
She didn’t have to say anything. She just grinned.
“That’s the problem with this job, Sofia. It can get addic
tive. Especially the sketchy stuff. I’ve always figured that’s why so many cops can’t enjoy retirement.”
“Is that why you set up Maloney Investigations?” She’d never asked that before. She’d hadn’t given it all that much thought.
“Keeping busy was part of it, I guess,” said Brendan. “And there’s something to be said for making a difference to the world.”
“That was why I joined.”
“I know, and that’s why I took a chance on hiring you. So where you headed?”
“We have a lead on Horse, the former member of the Beef Cake Boyz.”
“You want me to come with you?”
She thought about it for a second. She really wanted to do this one on her own.
“You think you’re the only one who gets bored stuck behind a desk?” Brendan asked.
She hadn’t thought about that. “Sure. I’d love some company.”
49
Brendan insisted on them taking Sofia’s Tesla.
“It’ll blend better, plus if the cops in Santa Monica see how much fossil fuel my car burns they might arrest me for crimes against the environment,” he said, as they walked out into the parking lot.
He was only half joking. Santa Monica had a well-earned reputation as a particularly liberal part of already liberal Los Angeles. Sofia liked it, but even she had to admit that all the right-on political correctness could get wearing.
It was late morning and Pacific Coast Highway was relatively quiet. The sky was deep blue and the ocean was calm. As they rounded a curve near Big Rock Brendan suggested that Sofia slow down. She did and a few seconds later they passed an LA County Sheriff’s Department speed trap.
“How’d you know they’d be there?”
“Because they usually are this time of the day. Cops are creatures of habit, just as much as everyone else. So what’s the deal with this Dwight Danson character?”
“I ran a check before we left and it came back clean. We know he left the Beef Cake Boyz after a fight with Stanley Kervin. At least, that’s what Aidan was told.”
“So you’re thinking maybe they asked him to do something he didn’t want to do? Like blackmail someone?”
E is for Exposed Page 16