Graceless (The Charlie Davies Mysteries Book 3)

by Clare Kauter

  I took my time getting ready, eventually deciding on an outfit of a plain white T and a high-waisted tan skirt. I wore a pair of red ballet flats to liven the outfit up a little and added a matching red bag and red-rimmed glasses. Thanks to the product I’d put in my hair the day before it looked pretty good even though it had been slept on so I kind of moulded it into shape and then left it. After applying my usual very basic makeup it was time to leave, so I headed down to the garage and got in my silver Mustang convertible.

  Although it was a company car, driving it to the office was kind of a novelty since I usually jogged to work – not out of choice but out of contractual obligation. Personally, I thought that the receptionist should be free from such rules, but the company did not agree, so I did my fitness training along with the rest of the employees while they watched on and laughed at me.

  Thanks to the relaxed start to the morning, I was sure when I strolled into the building that today was going to be a good day.

  I was wrong.

  So. Incredibly. Wrong.

  I came into the office building via the elevator from the car park, and even as I stepped out of the lift I could hear the yelling coming from the control room. (‘Control room’ was the fancy name they gave to the room where people watched the monitors connected to various security accounts. There were also a number of other smaller offices and rooms for the private investigator side of the business, but seeing as I was the receptionist I didn’t know my way around all that well – I pretty much just knew the gym, the control room, my desk, and Harry, Tim and Adam’s offices.)

  The voice I could hear yelling confused me. Due to the accent, I could have sworn it was Tim. That couldn’t be right, though, I thought as I made my way towards it. I saw him in hospital just…

  “Then you need to fucking FIND HIM!” Tim was yelling as I pushed through the door.

  “It’s – it’s his day off,” one of the new guys stammered.

  Tim was furious and he was having none of it. He was still in his hospital gown and he was hunched over, clearly in pain, but somehow he still cut an imposing figure.

  “I don’t CARE. Don’t you get that? He needs to get down here NOW!”

  “Morning,” I said. “Um, Tim, shouldn’t you be in hospital?”

  Tim whipped around to face me. Not angry, I realised. Terrified.

  “Oh god, Tim, what’s happened?”

  His face was still purple and swollen, but I could read his expression as clear as day. “Gracie,” he said. “She’s missing.”

  “Have you called the police?” I asked.

  He looked at me like I was the dumbest person he knew. “Of course I called the police, but I can’t trust the cops with this, are you serious? That’s my niece! I need the fucking Baxters, but Harry’s overseas and no one seems to know where Adam is.”

  “He – he’s got the day off,” said the same frightened new guy. I wished for his sake he’d shut up.

  “OK, Tim,” I said. “You take a seat before your spleen falls out your rectum or something. I’ll track Adam down. Have you tried calling him?”

  “Of course I’ve tried calling him! That was the first thing I did when Ellie told me she couldn’t… she couldn’t find…”

  “OK, so he’s not answering. Right. Well, um, I’ll just go to his house, then.”

  Everyone stared at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You know where he lives?” someone whose name I didn’t know asked me.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Harry took me there when …”

  Their eyes had widened again and I realised how buddy-buddy I sounded with the bosses. I decided to shut up. “Anyway, I went there once.”

  “Unless you have a key card, he’ll have to buzz you in,” said Tim. “And he won’t. He never answers his door unless he’s expecting someone.”

  I frowned. “I’ll just have to get a key card, then,” I said. “You guys start doing whatever kind of things you usually do in this situation while I track Adam down.”

  “We’re not usually in this situation,” said Tim. “That’s why we need Adam.”

  “You don’t need to panic, Tim,” I said. “Maybe she’s just wandered off and got… I’m being ridiculous. Gracie wouldn’t just wander off. She’s more responsible than I am. Someone has taken her.”

  Tim nodded, looking sick. “If you can find Adam, Charlie, I… I’d come with you, but my pain meds are already starting to wear off and I don’t think I could handle the trip.”

  “I’m on it.”

  Harry Baxter had left me a key to his office in his absence. ‘In case of emergencies’, he’d said. Well, this was an emergency, right? He wouldn’t hold it against me if I, say, broke into his office and rifled through his drawers to find a key to his son’s house. I sighed. I was definitely going to be fired for this. If we found Gracie, though, who cared?

  There was nothing in Harry’s desk – no keys or cards of any sort. I began rifling through his filing cabinets, but no joy there, either. I tried everything – vases, light-fittings, vents – but I couldn’t find anything anywhere. I had almost given up when something occurred to me. I thought back to the barbecue on Saturday when mum had mentioned Topher’s weed stash and I’d recalled how he put a false bottom in his drawer to create a secret nook. Looking at Harry’s desk now…

  His bottom drawer seemed kind of shallow.

  I pulled the drawer out and felt around the edge of its wooden bottom, looking for some sort of hole I could use to lift it out. The first time around I missed it, but the second time my fingers touched a thin piece of fabric. I grabbed the ribbon and pulled …

  And out came the false bottom.

  There were several key rings and two cards sitting underneath it, so I pocketed the lot and replaced the bottom. Surely at least one of these would get me into Adam’s apartment.

  Chapter Nine

  Fifteen minutes later I was riding the elevator up to the top floor of Adam’s apartment building. I’d been to his place once before when Harry had dropped me, Celia and Os off to have a shower and warm up when we were on the run from a Russian gangster. Adam hadn’t been there at the time, but I guessed he knew although we’d never spoken about it. If we had I wasn’t sure what I would have said.

  Hey, that’s a nice shampoo you use. Where do you get it?

  I personally think very highly of a man with a moisture routine.

  I accidentally went through your underwear drawer, but I swear I was just looking for a shirt of yours to wear as a dress. It wasn’t anything weird.

  No chance.

  Anyway, when I reached Adam’s front door, I was feeling a little nervous. It was his day off, after all, and even though he’d showed up at my house on my last two days off, I wasn’t sure he’d take too kindly to me doing the same to him. I knocked, but there was no answer. When I pressed my ear to the door I couldn’t hear anything, so I began trying keys in the lock. He could still be asleep, I thought, or not there at all. Even though I desperately wanted him to come down to the office, I was kind of hoping he wasn’t there.

  Eventually I found the right key. The lock tumbled and I pushed the door open – and froze. Apparently Adam had a very well soundproofed front door, because while it had been totally silent out in the corridor, now that I was in here I could definitely hear some noise. Adam had, uh, company. Lady company.

  What was I meant to do now? Should I just leave? No, time was of the essence, and he’d probably already heard me.

  Trapped in my inner turmoil, I didn’t realise that the noises from the bedroom had stopped. By the time I noticed, it was too late. Adam, dressed only in navy blue boxer briefs, had walked out of the bedroom and now stood leaning against the doorframe of the entrance to his lounge room looking at me. Why did I only ever see Adam in states of undress when I wasn’t in a position to appreciate the view? Curse you, fate.

  “You better have a good fucking reason for this, Charlie, or you’ll be fired before y
ou can say B&E.”

  “Grace is missing,” I blurted out. “Tim’s down at the office shouting at everyone but no one knows what to do and you weren’t answering your phone so I had to come and get you and –”

  “How long has she been missing?” Adam asked. He was still leaning casually against the doorjamb but his face had taken on a focused quality that I knew meant he was in work mode.

  “I – I don’t know. I came here as soon as I heard.”

  Adam nodded and gestured for me to move into his kitchen.

  “Sit down,” he said. He walked back to his bedroom and said, “I have to go to work. You need to leave.”

  The girl he’d been, uh, entertaining walked out of his room dressed in slightly ruffled clothes (last night’s, I was guessing). “Not even going to offer me breakfast?” she asked, obviously flirting. She licked her lips. “That’s OK. I can think of something I’d rather eat.”

  I gagged, then realised that gagging was inappropriate in this situation and changed to saying, “Ew, gross!”

  Adam ignored us both. “No.”

  “Not even just a quick bowl of cereal? I’m in the mood for something... chocolatey,” she said, pressing herself up against him and placing her hands on his chest.

  Adam removed her hands and stepped backwards, looking disgusted. “Don’t compare me to chocolate. I don’t try to seduce you by saying I’m in the mood for yoghurt.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Yoghurt? You think my skin looks like yoghurt?”

  “A thick yoghurt,” he said. “Like, a good quality one.”

  “That is so racist.”

  “Get out of my house.”

  “You trying to make me work for your affection?” she asked. Man, this girl just wasn’t getting it.

  “No, I just don’t want to sleep with you again and I’d like you to leave.”

  I almost felt sorry for the woman.

  “You’re so arrogant,” she spat.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “That’s not a compliment.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Argh, I wish you were less aware of how good you are in bed.”

  “Argh, I wish I was less aware of how good he is in bed!” I said, blocking my ears. Jeez, did I really have to sit through this? I could feel myself blushing. Blushing, me. Can you imagine? That was not something I needed to know about my boss. Especially when that boss was wearing nothing but his underwear.

  “If you kick me out now, I’m gone forever,” she said.

  “Good,” said Adam. “Go. Forever.”

  Her jaw dropped open in disbelief and she stormed out of the apartment, clearly pissed.

  “Wow, Adam. What a catch.”

  “Don’t give me any more reason to fire you than you already have. I’m going to shower and get dressed, then we can get going.”

  “Do you really need to shower? Time is kinda of the essence right now.”

  “Five minutes.”

  Five minutes later we were back in my car on the way to the office. I wasn’t really sure how to behave after what had just happened.

  “So… How was your night?”

  Eek – that sounded way more perverted than I’d intended.

  “Fine,” he said. “Not that it’s anything to do with you.”

  “I have to say, I didn’t think of you as the kind of guy who’d pick women based on boobs over brains.”

  “Don’t pretend that you know anything about me, Charlie.”

  I was taken aback. “Sorry, I was just trying to make a joke.”

  “You do realise that I’m your boss, right? We’re not friends, we just work together.”

  I gaped at him. “Seriously? What about yesterday?”

  “What about yesterday?”

  “We were hanging out, having fun –”

  “We were working. We needed to listen to people for security reasons. I was just lightening the mood, as I would have done with any employee.”

  I huffed. “What about – what about the advice you gave me about James?”

  “That was my professional opinion on how you should proceed. It wasn’t a friendly chat. We know each other in a professional capacity, and I would like to maintain that boundary.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning shut up.”

  “Fine. Maybe if you were less aware of how good you are in bed –”

  “I’m not joking. I will fire you.”

  “For what?”

  “Stealing my father’s keys? Breaking into my house?”

  “But I –”

  “Just shut up.”

  I shut up, expecting him to continue, but he remained silent. “Is this the part where you tell me not to tell anyone or I’m fired?”

  His raised his eyebrows. “Tell anyone what?”

  “That… you know.”

  “How eloquent of you.”

  “That you were, um, hanging out with a lady friend.”

  His face was a mixture of disbelief and disgust. That was pretty much par for the course – I knew how to impress a guy. “I don’t imagine anyone else would be quite as shocked as you about the idea of me having sex.”

  “I’m not, like, surprised,” I said. “I just thought maybe you wanted to keep that private.”

  “Yes,” said Adam. “That’s why I locked the door.”

  “I – it – it was an emergency!”

  “You still shouldn’t have broken in, but that’s beside the point. It’s not like you’re going to tell anyone.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  He raised his eyebrows at me. “Because then I would tell everyone about finding you in bed with McKenzie.”

  My jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Oh, but I would.”

  Of course he would. He was ruthless.

  “It wasn’t like – we were just having a sleepover.”

  “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” he said

  “No, we just –”

  “You don’t have to explain it to me. I get it. Seeing him with his hair all mussed like that, I was tempted cuddle up to him too.”

  The thought of being in a bed with both James McKenzie and Adam Baxter gave me a hot flush. I had to take a breath to steady myself.

  “We weren’t… Really, he was just at my house and it got late and –”

  “You care too much about what people think.”

  “But we weren’t –”

  “I know.”

  “Oh.” I paused. “How?”

  “Firstly, you were on the lounge room floor with Lea snoring away beside you. Not exactly prime location. Secondly, that GeronGators shirt? No chance.” Harsh. “Thirdly, you weren’t nearly upset enough at his potential betrayal to be sleeping with him.”

  I swallowed, trying to think of an appropriate response but coming up blank.

  “Charlie?”

  “What?”

  “You OK?”

  “Oh, I’m fine, employer,” I said. “If only I had a friend to talk to about it.”

  Even though I was driving, I swear I saw him roll his eyes in my periphery.

  “What, you want to be friends with me?”

  He was infuriating. “No, I don’t want to. I just thought we were.”

  He was silent for a moment before responding.

  “What have I ever done to give you that impression?”

  I scowled at him.

  “Fine,” he said finally. “We’re friends. But don’t tell anyone.”

  “Are you embarrassed of me?”

  “Charlie, what kind of a question is that? Of course I am.”

  Chapter Ten

  “How long has she been gone? Has the abductor made contact?” Adam asked as he strode into the control room, me jogging along behind.

  “She disappeared sometime between midnight and 5 a.m. and no one has made contact,” said Tim. “And where the fuck have you been? Since when do you ignore your phone?”

  “
I was busy,” Adam said.

  Tim raised his eyebrows. He knew what ‘busy’ was code for. He turned to me. “Charlie, you’re braver than I ever knew.”

  “Anything for Gracie,” I said. “She’s Great-ie.”

  Nobody laughed, which in hindsight was fair.

  “OK,” said Adam, after gathering all the private investigators in the control room. “I’m going to split people into teams. We’re going to search the area around Ellie’s apartment and see if we can find anything the police have missed – security footage would be ideal, but anything you see that looks out of place I want photographed and relayed to the police. Wear gloves and don’t trample over the scene. We don’t want to compromise any evidence. Tim and I will be running point from the hospital.”

  “What?” Tim demanded. “From the –”

  “Shut up,” said Adam. He divided everyone up into teams and sent them on their merry way. As people filed out, Adam asked, “Where’s Ellie?”

  “At her house with the police. They’re waiting there in case there’s a ransom call, even though the cops think Grace just ran away.”

  “OK, Tim,” said Adam once everybody had cleared out. “Any ideas who would’ve done this?”

  Tim hesitated.

  “Surely it’s the people who bashed him half to death the other day.” I paused. “More than half to death. Like, three quarters to death. Maybe seven eighths. Or fifteen sixtee–”

  “Charlie, shut up,” said Adam. “We get it. You understand how fractions work.”

  “Well, that’s no small feat,” I said. “Did you know when McDonalds introduced a third-pounder no one bought it because they thought a third was smaller than a quarter?”

  “Fascinating anecdote, Charlie, but now is really not the time,” Adam said, giving me a look. You know the kind of look. I don’t need to spell it out for you.

  “Right, sorry. I’m just a little nervous about the whole kidnapping thing. Anyway, what’s the point of these questions? Surely it’s gotta be the same people who tried to kill him a couple of days ago. Tim’s a nice guy – there can’t be that many people who hate him.”

  That comment was met with silence.

  “Seriously?” I said. I knew that Tim had a bit of a temper, but he and I had been pretty good friends since we met and I had trouble imagining him making people mad enough to do these things to him.