by Lisa G Riley
She lifted a brow. “You haven’t heard? So totally lame is so totally in around here. Since you let the family convince you to insinuate yourself into my career, then you might as well be of some use to me. I haven’t hired a receptionist slash administrative assistant yet, so you can fill in until I do.”
“But, dude --”
“It’s either that or get out of here and report back to base that you failed in your initial reconnaissance.”
“Fine,” Quincy mumbled before stomping back out to the outer office.
Lily smiled and pushing her chair back from the desk, leaned back in it, satisfied that she’d extracted a small amount of revenge. She indulged herself in a glance around her office. The small room with its rich indigo walls and plush carpeting represented success after three long hard-working years of proving herself good enough to become a licensed private investigator in the state of Illinois.
She looked at her certificate which she’d framed and hung right next to her college degree. She shook her head. She’d gone to college and majored in education, knowing even then that she didn’t want to teach. But she’d gotten the degree because she knew that it was what her parents had wanted for her and because it was just the easy way out since she didn’t really know what she wanted. Her mother and two of her mother’s five sisters were teachers. There was an untapped wildness inside of her; Lily had always known it, just as her parents had. It had worried her, which was why she’d convinced herself that teaching was a good industry for her.
She’d barely lasted three years and for a year and a half after that, she’d bumped along from job to job trying to figure out what she wanted. She’d been living in Chicago since college and had a friend who was a Cook County state’s attorney. That friend had gotten her a data entry job in the State’s Attorney’s office. It was there that she’d met investigators who worked for the attorneys. She’d been fascinated and had transitioned from data entry to assistant in a private detective agency. It had become natural after that to seek her private detective’s license. And after three years at the large detective agency, she’d finally been eligible to sit for her license exam.
“And now I’m queen of the world,” she said with outstretched arms and a wide smile as she took a three hundred and sixty degree spin in the chair.
“Uh, cuz.”
Lily looked up to see Quincy standing at the entrance to her office with a woman she didn’t recognize.
“There’s someone here to see you,” he said with a smirk.
Unembarrassed, Lily stood with a smile and an outstretched hand. “Hello, I’m Lily Carstairs.”
Tall, rawboned and perhaps in her mid-forties, the woman answered Lily’s smile with a bemused frown and shook her hand. “Benson. Mrs. Lenora Benson.”
“Would you like to sit down?” Lily asked, stepping back and gesturing toward two chairs in front of her desk.
“I can offer you coffee, tea or bottled water,” Lily said once they were both sitting.
“Coffee, please,” Mrs. Benson said.
“Decaffeinated or regular?”
“Regular.”
“Hazelnut, Irish Crème, white chocolate, cherries jubilee?”
Looking surprised, Mrs. Benson hesitated before answering. “Uh, hazelnut.”
Lily smiled in relief, grateful the potential client didn’t request anything unflavored because that was the one kind she’d forgotten to get when shopping for her essentials. She picked up the desk phone and pressed the button for the receptionist, praying that Quincy would answer it. “Yes,” she said when he did. “Please bring in two cups of hazelnut coffee.” She was hopeful he’d bring it in on a tray with cream and sugar. That had been the only thing she’d had time to go over with him when they’d gotten to the office. The rest of the time she’d been taking the calls of nosey relatives.
“So, Mrs. Benson. What can I help you with today?”
Mrs. Benson took a picture frame out of her voluminous purse and slapped it face up on the desk. “That’s my husband Roy. I think the son of a bitch is cheating on me.”
Lily sat in the relative warm comfort of her cousin Tom’s old Chevy Chevette -- relative both in warmth and comfort. The car was more than twenty years old and a hideous green color that really offended her sense of taste, but she wasn’t complaining because at least now she didn’t have to worry about renting a car while her Fusion was in the shop.
She fiddled with the radio dial until she found a station that played hits from the nineties. Singing under her breath to the Beastie Boys, she tried not to wish too hard for her iPod.
She was parked in the lot of Barclay’s because that was where her first client wanted her to be. My first client. She couldn’t believe she’d gotten a client on her very first day on the job. “I guess the advertising must have paid off,” she said. Because she’d gotten her license long after telephone books had gone to print, she was too late to be listed, so she’d invested in some advertising. She’d bought a fifteen second spot on late night cable television and fifteen seconds on the all news radio station. She’d also set up a website, a Facebook page and a Twitter account. She’d have to ask Mrs. Benson where she’d heard about her the next time she saw her.
“I’ll have a questionnaire printed up for the office and I’ll put it on the website,” she murmured and grabbing her pad and pen, added that task to the growing list of things she had to do. She hummed as she did it, happier than she’d been in quite a long time. Her life finally seemed to be on track.
Lily closed her eyes, and for maybe the thousandth time, silently thanked her grandmother for her generosity. Lily was her only grandchild, and when Candace had decided three months before to pull up stakes and move to Chicago to live with Amelia Watley, she’d also decided to help Lily. Telling Lily that she’d rather see her happy while she was still alive, Candace had given her an early deposit on her inheritance. With it, Lily had been able to come home with a nice little nest egg after having spent all those years in Chicago working towards getting the license. Her grandmother’s gift had gone towards her license, an office in a decent part of downtown and her new car.
Candace was also allowing Lily to live in her house on Rowe Street, saying that it worked out perfectly because she’d be getting a free caretaker while Lily would have a place to stay. Though her grandmother had yet to cash it, Lily had sent her a monthly check for rent. She also managed the upkeep of the property and paid the utility bills. Her grandmother had always spoiled her, but as her only child’s only child, Lily was the light of Candace’s life.
Lily sighed. She was bored, but afraid to do anything but sit there and listen to her music. Reading was out and so was talking on her cell. She meant to do this right and didn’t want any screw-ups for her sake and the client’s. Mrs. Lenora Benson was the wife of an investment banker. Thrilled with getting an assignment, Lily hadn’t even taken offense when Mrs. Benson had condescendingly told her that the job was a simple one: follow Roy Benson, find out what he was doing when he wasn’t working or playing racquet ball, take plenty of pictures, report, report, report. She was to start immediately, and of course she’d be well compensated for her work.
“Just bring me proof that he’s cheating on me,” Mrs. Benson had said, “I do not plan to leave this marriage empty-handed.” Lily had dutifully taken notes and asked for more recent pictures than their ten-year old wedding photo.
And taking Mrs. Benson’s driver’s license, Lily had excused herself to go into the outer office where she’d given Quincy the password to a background service site she’d purchased a subscription to and told him to run a check on Mrs. Benson just so she could be sure the woman would be able to pay her bill. That taken care of, she’d handed Mrs. Benson a contract to sign. A fifteen hundred dollar retainer in the form of a cashier’s check or from a credit card was due up front, thank you very much, and have yourself a good day.
Right after her new client had left, Lily had pushed a nosy Quincy out of h
er office, throwing subtlety and cunning to the wind and telling him to “get lost.” She’d strapped on her stun gun and her pepper spray, hot-tailed it by taxi to her cousin’s house to borrow the car and then had made her way over to Sheffield-Chatham’s only country club where she’d waited two and a half hours for Benson to come out. He’d left the club and had come to work, where she’d dutifully followed him.
The only problem was she hadn’t planned her little stake out at all well. She hadn’t eaten and her bladder was fast approaching the point of no return. Lily looked around, wishing she had the guts to make use of the bushes to her right. Besides her car, there was Mr. Benson’s Mercedes S10 and an old clunker that she assumed belonged to another employee from the building. She knew it didn’t belong to the lone security guard because he was her fifth cousin -- something like fifty times removed -- and he rode the bus or had his mom drive him wherever he wanted to go.
She also knew that he was lazy, a bully and mad with perceived power. Hence the reason she didn’t simply go in and ask if she could use the facilities to empty her bladder and stay warm. Her cousin would see that as a breech of protocol and would use a long, drawn out lecture to say no. Adding to that, he’d blab it to the family and by the time she got to her parents for Sunday dinner, she and her “nutty” career choice would be skewered over rack of lamb.
She frowned. She loved her family but they were over-protective, raucous and more than a little intrusive. Her conversation with her father that afternoon was a prime example. He’d actually tried to make her hire Quincy, insisting that he’d pay the teenager’s salary. She’d refused, knowing that they’d use him to spy on her. While her refusal hadn’t fallen on deaf ears, it had been talked over in favor of another suggestion. “Hire one of John’s retired cop friends to work with me? The very idea gives me shudders,” Lily muttered in disgust as she thought of her cousin and all of his macho fellow cops. “I really should have stayed in Chicago.”
But as much as she loved the windy city on the lake, she had really missed Sheffield-Chatham, and if she were honest, her family even more.
Another car pulled into a slot next to her, and Lily turned to look. It was a black BMW. Nice, she thought, very nice. The sky was already an inky winter dark, but the overhead lights helped her to make out the other driver’s features. His face would never be considered handsome, but it was interesting with its high forehead, dark eyes, square jaw and full lips. The scar that curved from his hairline to end beneath his right brow only served to make his face look more interesting. She studied the black hair that was too long to be considered fashionable, and then lifted a brow inquiringly when he looked over at her.
Taking a page from Santa’s book, Lily stuck both her middle fingers straight up in the air and wanting the new arrival to see them clearly, shoved them toward her passenger side window.
Chapter Four
All doubt that Lily Carstairs was sitting in a car two spaces over fled Smith’s mind when she gave him the finger. “That little hell cat will never change,” he muttered with a shake of his head as he fixed his old cowboy hat on his head. He took off his seat belt and prepared to leave his car. When his foot hit the pavement, he heard the definite snick of locking car doors and frowned. She did it to irritate him, he knew, but he was more annoyed that they hadn’t already been locked. “Little fool,” he said aloud and kept his determined stride to her car.
He knocked on the passenger side window. “Are you going to open this door willingly, or am I going to have to make you?”
Lily didn’t even bother to look at him. “Sorry, do I know you?”
Smith laughed, appreciating her mean streak. “Oh, yeah, sweetness,” he told her, “better than most.”
The innuendo in that statement had her whipping her head around and scowling at him. She stared at him in disbelief for a moment and then seemed to pull herself together. “Fuck off, Smith,” she said calmly before turning away again.
“Jesus, you can hold a grudge,” he muttered as he tried to see what was so damned interesting in her lap. All he could tell was that she was writing something. He knocked on the window again and was ignored.
“All right, Lily,” he continued to speak in a voice loud enough for her to hear through the window. “I tried to do this the easy, adult way, but we’ll just have to try it your way. If you don’t open this door right now, I’m going to put in a call to the police about a suspicious vehicle that’s been sitting in this parking lot for hours. Your cover will be blown, and that will be all she wrote for your little stakeout.”
Again, she whipped her head around to look at him with a scowl on her face. He grinned and she scowled harder before slowly reaching over to unlock the passenger side door for him.
“Now, that’s more civilized,” he said as he settled his long frame into the seat and shut the door. “It’s good to see you, Lily-bud. How have you been?” He studied her. It had been four years since he’d seen her, but she still looked good enough to eat. He’d always loved that long, skinny body of hers, which she covered in nothing but stylish clothes that flattered it. Now she wore slim black pants, a red, cable knit turtleneck sweater and a black leather jacket. He took in her hair. The long dark locks still looked thick and lush. It was definitely hair a man could bury his hands in while burying his -- Smith hurriedly put the brakes on that particular thought. Now was not the time for that. Lily would likely spit in his face if she knew he was even thinking about making love to her.
She wouldn’t look at him, but Smith knew those tawny brown eyes of hers were flashing fire and anger was adding a bit of muted pink to her light brown cheeks. “It’s been a mighty long time, but you’re still looking as good as ever, Lily.” He grinned again. “What? No hug for your old friend?” he asked pleasantly.
“Sometimes I just want to punch your face in.”
Throwing his head back, Smith laughed. “Still got that not-so realized violent streak, I see.”
Lily’s gust of a sigh filled the car. “What do you want, Smith?”
“I’m just checking up on you, is all. Your mom told me about this latest wild hare of yours and I was curious.” Her decision to become a private detective had come out of nowhere and seemed to have surprised everyone except him. She’d always had a certain wildness that she’d tried to tamp down, but needed to channel instead. He’d been out of touch with things for several years, but he’d always expected that he’d someday hear about some wild thing Lily had done when she finally broke out of those self-imposed constraints.
She’d apparently kept her plan to become a private detective a secret from everyone except her grandmother until it was time for her to sit for the exam. Given the overprotective and interfering quality of her family he didn’t blame her. His problem with her choice was that he didn’t know if she’d be any good at it, and therefore, safe. He’d been a P.I. for five years and it wasn’t an easy career.
“How did you know where to find me?” she asked and he heard the resentment in her tone.
“I had dinner with your folks and they told me, and if you’re wondering how they knew, your cousin Bill told them. He called them when he noticed you sitting out here for so long. He watched you pull up.”
He smiled when she put her head on the steering wheel with a strangled sound of frustration. “What? You should be glad to have a family that loves you so much.”
“Go away, Smith. I don’t want to deal with you right now.”
“Aw, come on, sweetness. It’s been four whole years after all.”
“Four years away from you weren’t enough. Do me a favor and make it four more, huh?”
“Okay, clearly, you don’t know how to let go of old issues.”
“Oh, please,” she muttered derisively. “Don’t try to minimize what you did. You seduced me and then you disappeared -- never to be heard from again. Well, that’s what I wanted the most anyway. But here you are, turning up like a bad smell, proving once again that Jagger and his boys
were right.”
Smith scowled even as he had to struggle not to laugh. Lily had always been a wise ass. It was one of his favorite things about her. Her stubbornness and her ability to make him feel guilty, however, were not. The scowl won out. “If you’d get over your resentment for five fucking minutes, you’d see that I’m here to help you,” he snapped quietly, hating to be reminded of his bad behavior.
Lily smirked and he could tell that she’d gotten exactly the reaction she’d wanted. “I don’t need your help, Smith, so take your offer and get lost.”
“Look, Lily -- ”
“No, you look! I don’t want you anywhere near me, understand? I don’t care that my parents or your parents asked you to look out for me. I can take care of myself.”
Smith cringed. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears, and he’d never been able to withstand her tears. “Lily, I --”
“Get out, get out, get out!” she suddenly said in a panicked whisper that got louder with each successive command, and she was pushing at him now. He was shocked when she reached across his chest to actually open the door, all while pushing at his shoulder with her other hand. Smith grabbed at her, but astonishment and his awkward position hampered his reflexes and he couldn’t quite catch hold. Before he knew it, he found himself hanging out of the opened door and if he hadn’t caught himself and hurriedly stood, he’d have found his ass hitting the pavement.
Lily started the car and he realized her attention wasn’t even focused on him. He looked behind him to where her gaze was directed and watched as a dumpy little man in an expensive suite walked to a Mercedes. He realized her target had arrived. It wasn’t until both cars had pulled out of the lot that he woke up from his stupor.
“Shit!” he muttered with disgust and rushed towards his car. “What the hell am I doing just standing here like a frigging idiot?” He searched his pocket for his keys, swearing when they slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground. “Fuck!” After picking them up and hurriedly unlocking the door, he jumped into his car and peeled out of the lot, hoping that he was in time to catch up with them. He’d promised her parents he wouldn’t let her get hurt.