The Dana Potter Cozy Mystery Collection

by Liz Turner

  “Young lady,” Dana scoffed. “You know you don’t have to call me that, Inspector. But hey, it’s treating me very well! I’m actually here spending some time with my neighbor’s children, and they’re just the sweetest things.”

  Maya glared. She had agreed to play the part of the innocent neighbor kid, but she didn’t seem to like being called ‘sweet’ at her age. Dana smiled and mouthed the words, ‘Just play along’, without skipping a beat in her conversation.

  “Well, I take it you’re not calling just to catch up, so what can I do for you?” Inspector Allister said.

  “Yes, as much as I wish I had the time to spend catching up with you and all the other good people at the precinct, I just get myself too caught up in the daily routine sometimes,” Dana replied. “But you’re right—there is something I need to ask you. See, as I said, I’m here in my neighbor’s home, and her eldest daughter told me something I wondered if you might be able to help us sort out. Here, I’ll have her tell it in her own words.”

  “Uh, Inspector Allister?” the girl said, leaning close to the phone which was on speaker. “I’m Maya Williams. Um, Miss Potter wanted me to tell you about this guy that a friend of mine knows, who she thinks may have changed his name and she’s not sure why…I don’t know if he did anything illegal, but I’m kinda concerned about her, and Miss Potter said you might know someone who could look into it for me…”

  “Is he a romantic partner… relative… stalker…?” the inspector asked. “I’m just wondering if this is something you should report to your local police so that they can launch an official investigation.”

  “Well, no. The problem is that I don’t know if it’s something to be really worried about,” Maya said. “She thinks he might be this one guy, but if he’s not, I just wanted to make sure he didn’t have a criminal record or anything… I want her to be safe, ya know? But I don’t wanna take it to the police if it turns out to be nothing.”

  “Maya, is it all right if I talk to Miss Potter again for a moment?”

  “Sure. One second.” Maya said, pretending to hand the phone over to Dana.

  “Hey, there. Did you get any leads, Inspector?” Dana said after waiting a moment.

  “What is this, Dana?” he said. “This girl is giving me next to no information, so I really need you to explain to me why you’re bringing me into it.”

  “Well, because I trust you,” Dana said. “You see, I know you have connections to people who can look up names even if it’s changed. All I need you to do is look into this guy so that we can be sure he’s not some crazy man preying on young women. Maya’s friend–a young woman who I also know–has been stricken with this man, and we don’t even know if she’s safe to be around him. Is there anything you can do?”

  “Well, Daniels has been slow to return my calls ever since the last time we almost got him fired for using government equipment on his own time. But he is in the Human Trafficking Task Force, so I might–and that’s a huge might–be able to get him to take a look for us really quick. But that’s all—just a look. And only because this guy sounds like a potential predator.”

  “Oh, thank you, Inspector! I truly appreciate you doing this!” Dana said.

  “I’ll get back to you in an hour or two,” he said. “But remember, no guarantees!”

  “Regardless, I appreciate everything you’ve done and are doing for us.”

  For the next seventy-eight minutes, Maya sat by the computer, tapping her fingernails on the desk and glancing at her phone.

  Dana had to laugh, seeing how she had turned her neighbor’s child into just as anxious of an investigator as she was. “Who you chatting with?” Dana asked.

  “Oh, it’s nothing important,” Maya said. “I’m mostly just trying to keep my mind occupied until that FBI guy calls back. He really seems to be our last chance in solving this…”

  “I see,” Dana said. “Ya know, an investigation usually gets difficult long before it makes any progress. And I’m not gonna lie to you, life isn’t an episode of CIA or whatever it’s called. There are a great deal of cases that get thoroughly investigated and still go unsolved. But what I can tell you is that I happen to have some very reliable sources in my old colleagues, so there’s that.

  “All I’m saying is, if you keep looking at your very first lead like it’s a last chance, you’re gonna get discouraged more often than not. Honestly, I’m not even sure he’ll get back to us with much today. I’m really just waiting for him to give us a yes or no, and a potential timeframe for how long we gotta wait if it’s a yes.”

  “I know,” Maya said and then sighed. “I’m mostly just worried because I’ve never been able to help with something like this before. I just want it to be worth it. I want to do a good job–make it pay off.”

  “Oh, I see,” Dana said. “You want some recognition when this is all over, so that you can brag to your friends about how you helped little old me track down the mystery man I was searching on Facebook, huh?”

  “No!” Maya exclaimed. “Well… yeah, but not like that… I just wanna be able to tell them about it because a couple of them have really been mocking me for wanting to be a cop. They say I’m too wimpy, and I’m supposed to hate cops, anyway. But I keep telling them I’m actually a really good detective, but then they’re always like, ‘Finding out that Lyssa broke up with Tyson before they told anyone doesn’t count’, and then they all laugh at me.

  “If we–I mean, you–can’t find the guy, it means I have to keep the whole thing a secret, so that Celeste doesn’t find out and get even more heartbroken. And not to be selfish, but that would really suck to not be able to tell my friends that I was the one who found the guy online for you. I know I’d make a good cop. I just want them to see it.”

  “Now, why does it matter what they think of it if you already know?” Dana said.

  “It doesn’t. I just want them to shut up about it!”

  “Ah, the true motive–” Yet, Dana was interrupted by her cell phone ringing.

  She took a deep breath, pulled her phone out her purse, and flipped it open.

  Maya almost knocked her chair over as she jumped up to catch a glimpse of the caller ID. “Oh my gosh, it’s him,” she said, resting her hand on Dana’s shoulder. “Miss Potter, it’s him!”

  “Good thing too, because I was about to give someone an ear-full for surprising me with a call when I was expecting another call,” Dana said, hitting the answer button. “Hey there, Inspector.”

  “So it turns out you were right,” he said.

  “That’s quite often true, but what in particular are you referring to?”

  “Well, on a couple counts, actually,” he said. “First thing first—that Daniels was the right man to call. I had to leave a message explaining that this particular situation involved a minor who may be at immediate risk before he’d return my call, but we found evidence pretty quickly that you were right to be concerned.

  “We found the guy thanks to the image you tracked down–extremely lucky you found one that old, by the way. The name you gave me seems to be somewhat of an alias. He legally hasn’t gone by that name in about ten years–no record for why. But if he’s using it to mislead a young girl, that’s cause for concern. Agent Daniels wanted me to ask if you’d like for him to launch an investigation.”

  “No, let’s not go uncovering this man’s demons until I get a chance to find out the nature of the relationship,” Dana said. “I sure wouldn’t want to get him arrested for cutting corners on taxes or something, only to find the relationship with this girl was entirely innocent.”

  “Okay. Just don’t stir anything up. And you call me the second you catch a whiff of anything fishy.”

  “I sure will,” Dana said. “Now, what was this man’s current legal name?”

  “First name’s the same, but he changed his last name to Thompson in about 2010. Looks like it’s his mother’s maiden name.”

  “Ah, see? All this worrying, and it may not be
an issue of forming an alias at all,” Dana said. “Could just be a young man who was raised by only his mama.”

  “Yeah, but he also wouldn’t be the first criminal to take up his mother’s name just to protect himself.”

  “Sure. Well, thanks Inspector,” Dana said. “I’ll dig around a bit and keep you updated.” When Dana hung up the phone, the first thing she noticed was Maya beaming. “Now, what’s with that grin about? You look like your mama just bought you a puppy!”

  “Sorry, it’s just that this is so cool! I can’t believe how easy it was for him to figure all that out! And just think, one day, that will be me! I can’t wait to tell the guys I helped figure all this out! Well, maybe I won’t mention how we sort of lied to get information from an FBI agent… Is that even legal, what we just did?”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Dana said. “We still have to find a way to contact Mr. Thompson before any of that can happen. And no, the information we gave was much too vague for it to be considered a false accusation or slander or anything. We didn’t do anything illegal, and we prevented them from doing anything, well, questionable by giving them a reasonable suspicion to look into him–which you take the credit for, by the way.

  “I may have been counting on the inspector’s assumption that Celeste was a minor in current contact with William–which I may have pushed him to believe by having you call Celeste your friend instead of mine, and by leaving out how long it’s been since they talked–but that’s how all detectives get their information. To do good detective work, you gotta get inside people’s heads. Make ‘em think and say things are a certain way, then lead them to divulge the answers you need, sometimes without realizing it.”

  “I could do that,” Maya said, nodding her head.

  “I’m sure.” Dana laughed. “Now, let’s get these filters set back up again and run his real name.”

  Maya set the search parameters on Facebook to match those they’d previously set, but this time with the new last name. Dana groaned; the list was even longer than the last one.

  “There are almost four hundred more results on this one.” Maya frowned. “And just when I thought we were getting somewhere…”

  “All these years, I’ve only learned that you’re never quite as close as you think you are… I wish I could have asked the inspector for Mr. Thompson’s contact information without casting suspicion.”

  “Same,” Maya said. “Maybe if I asked…?”

  Dana scoffed. “You think he’d wanna let another teenage girl talk to the guy?”

  “No, I meant, like, tell him I was giving it to her parents just in case, or something like that?”

  “Hmm…” Dana rested her chin on her hand. “I’d say we make that our –maybe even plan C. If things get too tedious here, I’m sure I’ll get desperate enough. It’s just—that one would be a flat-out lie.”

  “But I’ll be the one telling it,” Maya said.

  “No way I’m gonna give you the okay on something that unethical,” Dana said, wagging her finger at Maya. “Besides, what happens if you arouse the inspector’s suspicion, and his little hacker-friend finds out I was the next one to contact him after you out-right lied? If you’re gonna be an officer of the law one day, you gotta learn that there are certain boundaries you don’t cross, no matter how tempting.”

  “I didn’t think about it like that… Sorry, Miss Potter. I’m just really exhausted with this search, but I’ll keep looking.”

  Maya’s shoulders slumped as she scrolled through the next man’s profile, glancing back and forth at the old photo of William.

  To a degree, Dana felt bad for crushing Maya’s already limited confidence, but she knew it would be a much harder lesson to learn later on if she allowed Maya to cut such dangerous corners.

  Dana sighed, stood up, and placed her hands on her hips. “Well, we can’t have you exhausted and over-worked, now can we? How about you take a break for the rest of the day? I’m fixing to cook up dinner in a bit anyway, and it’s not like we’ve got a deadline on this. You and your brother are welcome to join me for the meal, if you’d like.”

  “Thank you,” Maya said, her voice void of emotion.

  “All right. Well, based on the time now, I’d say dinner will be ready around five-thirty. Feel free to just knock on the door around then.”

  “Thanks,” Maya said.

  On her way out, Dana waved goodbye to Jaron, who gasped and jumped up off the couch to show her out the door. As she headed home, she once again felt bad for hitting Maya with such a hard to swallow pill. Still, she was certain Maya would take her advice to heart much more easily after hearing it straight.

  Dana left her front door open, closed the screen door, and opened the kitchen window to let some fresh air flow through the house while she battered several chicken wings. She threw the chicken in the deep-fryer and started cooking up some mashed potatoes and gravy on the stovetop.

  “Hmm, we need some more color in this meal,” Dana observed. “Ah, I got just the thing. Carrots and string beans!”

  Whistling a jazz tune, she scurried to the fridge to gather the vegetables. She glanced at the clock, noticing it was just after five o’clock.

  “Looks like I’m doing good on time,” she said.

  As she finished chopping the carrots, Dana’s whistling was interrupted by a frantic pounding on her screen door.

  “Miss Potter!” Maya’s voice echoed. “Miss Potter, I found him! I’m sure of it!”

  “Now, didn’t I tell you to take a break?” Dana said as she scurried to the door. “It’s been something like eight hours now since we started looking!”

  “I know. I tried, but it just kept bugging me, so I started searching for him from my phone while I was watching TV–and look!” Maya turned her phone toward Dana, revealing the Facebook profile of a man who was unmistakably the older version of the one in the photo.

  Dana pursed her lips and nodded in approval.

  Maya’s smiled widened.

  “Well, you better come in then,” Dana said, swinging the screen door open. “I got food on the stove.”

  “His profile says he’s single,” Maya continued, following Dana into the kitchen, “although that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I haven’t seen any photos of him with a woman or kids or anything, though. And he currently lives in New Orleans; that’s only, like, a six-hour drive!”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself now. You haven’t tried to contact him yet, have you?” Dana said.

  “I thought about it, but I couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound weird coming from a teenage girl he’s never met. Besides, I would’ve run the idea by you first.”

  “Sounds like you’re over-thinking a bit,” Dana said. “I think you’ll be surprised by how simple it is when you see what I’m going to say. But I do think it’s best I initiate contact. There is a lot to be nervous about when a thirty-five-year-old man is talking to a young girl regarding his love life. If I were him, I wouldn’t even answer.

  “Although, I admit I’ll need your help to create a profile of my own to contact him through. And we’ll likely have to use your phone or computer again because I’ve gone back to the Stone Ages in my retirement and don’t waste money on fancy phones or internet connection anymore.”

  “Okay. Let me log out of mine real quick,” Maya said.

  “Hold on a second,” Dana said. “First—are you hungry?”

  “Well, I am now.” Maya took an exaggerated whiff of the meal.

  “All right then. How about you go home and extend the invitation to the rest of your family? I’ve got enough here to feed a small village.”

  “Okay. I know Jaron would love this, and I don’t think my mama’s started cooking yet. She just got home.”

  Maya dashed out the front door and returned only moments later with her parents and siblings.

  “Mmm, something sure smells good!” Mrs. Williams said. “Jaron, honey, why don’t you ask Miss Potter w
here the silverware is and start setting the table?”

  “Okay!” Jaron said, bounding over to Dana and smiling shyly. “Miss Potter, where’s the silverware?”

  “Now, ain’t that sweet of you to offer?” Dana said. “Top drawer on the left behind me, and I’ll pull you down some plates and cups and things. Thanks for the help, hun!”

  The Williams family helped Dana with the remaining preparations, then they all laughed and ate together like a big happy family. Dana couldn’t help but smile. She had longed for a family like this, but in her stubbornness and independence, she waited until it was much too late to consider having children and grandkids of her own.

  While they cleaned up the table and washed the dishes, Maya followed Dana around, asking her all sorts of questions to put in her Facebook profile. The rest of the Williams thanked Dana and returned home one-by-one, until only Maya remained.

  “All right, done!” Maya announced. “Now, I guess all that’s left is to send the message!”

  Chapter 5

  A Mutual Feeling

  “Mr. Thompson,” Dana wrote, “I am a friend of a woman named Celeste Winterbottom, pictured beside you in the attached photo. I wonder, do you recall this photo being taken, or meeting Miss Winterbottom at all?”

  A small icon appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, suggesting William had seen the message and was typing a response.

  “Wow, that was fast,” Maya said.

  “Oh look, there’s his reply!” Dana said as his message appeared.

  “Yes, I do,” William had written. “May I call you?”

  “Of course,” Dana replied. “Here is my phone number.”

  Instantly, her phone rang and Dana exchanged glances with Maya before answering. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Miss Potter? This is William Thompson. First and foremost, I noticed the last name for me shown on this photo is Pollock, not Thompson, and I find that a bit concerning. Are you with law enforcement? Is Celeste okay?”