by Jana DeLeon
“Yes,” Ida Belle said. “Your help could make this case. But…everything has to be confidential. You’ll need to sign a form stating that you’ll never repeat anything you saw or heard here.”
“Not even to the police?” Phyllis asked.
“Not unless they ask specifically,” Ida Belle said. “Client confidentiality is very important in our line of work.”
“So you two work with Fortune?” Phyllis asked. “Are you detectives as well?”
Ida Belle shook her head. “We’re analysts, which means we assist on investigations but we’re not licensed.”
“But you still get to go along and do things, right?” Phyllis asked. “I could do that. Hey, I want to be an analyst. I probably have a résumé somewhere. Let me go look.”
“I’m not hiring right now,” I said. “The business is just getting started and I don’t have enough clients to hire more personnel. But if it grows enough that I need to add people, you’ll be the first person I think of.”
As the person I would never, ever hire.
Phyllis bounced up and down, causing her bun to come loose and trail down her back. She grabbed the offending wad of hair, twisted it around on top of her head, and stuck a bread knife through it. I made a mental note to never eat bread at her house.
“So what can I do?” Phyllis asked. “What do I need to sign?”
I pulled out the fake confidentiality document that we’d put together and handed it to Phyllis. “You can have your attorney go over that, if you’d like. But if you do, we won’t be able to enlist your help. Unfortunately, my window of opportunity is closing for my client, so I have to get information tonight, or I’ll have to let the client know I can’t help them.”
Phyllis ran for the counter, yanked a pen out of the drawer, and signed the document without even reading a single word. Then she thrust it back at me.
“His other wife is your client, isn’t she?” Phyllis asked. “I knew I was right about him. It’s all going to come back to roost. ‘Don’t gossip, Phyllis.’ ‘You’re crazy, Phyllis.’ Well, we’ll see who’s crazy once you’re done exposing Larry Guillory for the bigamist that he is.”
“I can’t divulge my client’s name or their interest,” I said.
Phyllis winked. “Of course not.”
I held in a sigh. If we didn’t get out of this woman’s company soon, I was going to need a drink. Maybe even a horse tranquilizer.
“So what do I need to do?” Phyllis asked.
“Nothing at the moment,” I said. “What I really need is access to your backyard.”
“Oh.” Phyllis looked somewhat disappointed. “That’s it?”
“For now,” I said. “But in a few days, I might need you to tell me about Larry’s comings and goings.”
Phyllis pointed to a notebook on the counter. “I’ve been keeping a log. I can tell you every time that man has left or entered the house for the last three months.”
“You don’t sleep?” I asked.
“Yes, of course,” Phyllis said, “but I set up one of those nanny cams in my bedroom window. It overlooks the front of their house.”
“That’s very interesting,” Ida Belle said.
“That’s scary as hell,” Gertie mumbled.
“Well, the back door is right there,” Phyllis said and pointed. “Do you want a tour?”
“No. I’m pretty sure I can figure it out,” I said.
Since there wasn’t an inch of space left on the kitchen table, I pulled out a chair and sat the laser case on it. Phyllis leaned over to look at the logo and blushed.
“Essential oils…” she stuttered. “I don’t think…I mean…”
I held in a smile. Even crazy Phyllis had an aversion to the essential oil movement.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “That’s just to throw people off. People don’t ask questions if they see the logo.”
“I would imagine they don’t speak at all,” Phyllis said.
I flipped the lid back and Phyllis looked in the case, her expression like a five-year-old on Christmas day.
“Oh,” she said, now frowning. “What’s that?”
“A laser,” I said.
Her eyes widened and she gasped. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
“Of course not,” I said. “I’m just going to direct this over your fence and try to listen to any conversation occurring inside the house.”
“This thing can do that?” she asked.
“I hope so,” I said.
She ran her finger down one of the legs on the stand. “Can I get one of these at Walmart?”
“They’re more of a special-order sort of thing,” Ida Belle said. “If you have the right military connections.”
Phyllis looked disappointed and I said a silent prayer of thanks that the Phyllises of the world couldn’t afford military hardware.
I set up the laser and recording device and prepared to head out the back door.
“I need Ida Belle and Gertie with me,” I said. “Phyllis, if you could watch the front to make sure no one is lurking around, that would be great. If you spot a vehicle you don’t recognize, let Ida Belle know.”
“You mean there’s other people checking up on Larry, too?” Phyllis asked.
“We think so, and we don’t want to cross paths with them,” I said. “They might try to steal our ideas.”
“And they’re all Yankees,” Gertie said.
Phyllis drew herself up straight, her jaw set. “We’ll just see about that,” she said as she stomped off to the front door.
“Nice,” I said to Gertie as we headed outside.
I scanned the backyard, trying to determine the best place to attempt to use the laser, and finally settled on the far back corner that contained a huge oak tree. The porch lights from the houses didn’t reach that far and the tree would provide me some cover without getting in the way of the signal. I was pleased to see that cheap Larry’s security concerns only extended to a camera at the front of the house. The back was clear.
“Let’s drag that picnic table under the tree,” I said.
The table was surprisingly solid and fairly heavy, but we managed to get it under the tree and next to the fence.
“This should give me enough height to get the laser directed at the kitchen or bedroom window, depending on where we see movement,” I said.
I pulled the laser and tripod out and set them up, then did the same for the receiver. I adjusted the height and aimed for the kitchen window, since that was the one with a light on, and then hooked up the recording equipment. Lastly, I put on my headphones and handed Ida Belle a pair.
“Handle the receiver,” I said.
“Why can’t I handle the receiver?” Gertie asked.
“Because you couldn’t read the display even if we gave you the Hubble telescope to look at it with,” Ida Belle said.
“Fine, I’ll get new glasses,” Gertie said. “Then you two will have no excuses for leaving me out of the fun stuff.”
“I need you on field ops,” I said. “First, go make sure that Phyllis is watching the front, and then check yourself since I don’t exactly trust Phyllis’s idea of questionable activity.”
“Phyllis is a nutbag,” Gertie said. “But at least she’s impressionable. She took to your story in a heartbeat. What do I do after checking on Phyllis?”
“Take position at the fence gate,” I said. “Open it a crack and watch for any passing cars that you don’t recognize or suspicious people walking by.”
Gertie set off across the lawn to the house and I looked at Ida Belle, who pulled her headphones in place and gave me a thumbs-up. I powered up the laser and checked the aim again, then prayed someone was in the kitchen talking about something besides the weather or what to eat for dinner.
“Look,” Larry said. “I’m sorry about Katia but she never should have come here. After what happened with Annika, why would she put you at risk?”
“She was scared,” Natalia said. “I
think something was wrong.”
“Of course something was wrong,” he said. “I told you years ago that the two of them were up to their neck with people that you don’t play around with—Mafia, drug traffickers, and God only knows what else. You left the company yourself because you had too many questions about their practices. They chose to stay, and if that’s what they wanted to do with their lives, then it’s none of my business. Until they bring it to my home. Have you forgotten that you almost died when you ran off to New Orleans against my wishes to meet Annika?”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten. I sent my sister home to my parents in an urn!”
“And she almost took you with her. Your daughter would have grown up without a mother. I thought that would prove to you just how dangerous it was to be involved with them. You should have sent Katia packing. She’s shown no interest in you since we married. Why come here now?”
“Maybe she needed to regroup.”
“Well, you see how that worked out. Your daughter witnessed a homicide. The woman’s chest practically exploded right next to her.”
“Stop! Just stop! Do you think I wanted any of this? But I couldn’t turn her away. She was like family. I never thought—”
“And that’s your problem. You’ve never thought. I always suspected that if the situation arose, you’d put Katia ahead of Lina and me, and now I know for sure. I’m not going to pretend that we have any big romance. I know you married me to get out of Russia. But I thought we were reasonably happy, and once you had Lina, that changed everything. It’s not about you or your sister or her childhood friend anymore. It’s about our daughter.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were happy Katia is dead.”
“I don’t like how it happened, but I’m not about to mourn the loss of someone who brought serious trouble to my family’s doorstep. The sooner she’s in the ground and that nosy coworker of hers is out of this town, the sooner we can get back to our lives. And they’ll be much safer now that no one is left to bring their bad choices here.”
“I hate you!” Natalia screamed.
A door slammed.
“You reap what you sow,” Larry said quietly, even though the room must have been empty.
Ida Belle looked up at me and mouthed, “Wow.”
I nodded and pointed to the light that went on in the bedroom. I shifted the laser to the bedroom just in case Larry followed Natalia to continue the fight but instead, I heard what appeared to be Natalia on a phone call.
“I can’t hold any longer,” she said. “As soon as the police are done with this investigation, I’m leaving.”
There was a pause as she listened, then she spoke again.
“You think I don’t know that?” she said. “But what am I supposed to do? No judge is going to give me custody of Lina. Not with Larry’s connections. Besides, for all his faults, Larry loves Lina. She’ll be safe with him.”
Another pause.
“Can you get everything in place in time?”
Then everything went silent for a while. The light was still on in the kitchen and I could see Larry’s lone shadow, which meant Natalia had left the room or something was interfering with the signal.
Then I saw two shadows in the kitchen again and moved the laser back to the kitchen window.
“I’m going out for a while,” Natalia said.
“At this time of night?” Larry said. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere,” Natalia said. “I just need some air.”
“Now is not the time to be gallivanting about,” Larry said.
“Why not? The enemy is dead, as you just reminded me.”
The door slammed and I assumed that was Natalia leaving. Then I heard Larry again, apparently on a phone call.
“We’ve got a problem with Natalia,” he said.
There was a pause, then Larry spoke again.
“You know she hasn’t been right since her sister was killed. But it’s getting worse. I can’t continue to take these risks with Lina.”
Then his shadow disappeared from the room and everything went silent.
No! I couldn’t miss what was happening now. It might answer everything.
“Stay here and keep recording,” I said to Ida Belle, and hopped over the fence just as Gertie was returning from inside.
“Where’s she going?” I heard Gertie ask.
I didn’t hear the answer because I was creeping down the dark side of the yard toward the house. I hadn’t seen a shadow in the bedroom so I assumed Larry had moved to the front of the house, maybe the living room. If I could get over the fence and down the side of the house, I might be able to hear through one of the living room windows on the side.
But as I approached, I heard a car slam on its brakes and then Natalia started to yell.
“What are you doing out here spying on me, you crazy old bat!” Natalia screamed.
Crap! I had no doubt Phyllis was the culprit. She’d breached the front window and must be out in her yard taking notes as Natalia was trying to make her getaway.
“I…you…” Phyllis stuttered, then I heard the front door of her house slam and assumed she’d retreated inside.
The car screeched off and I heard stomping inside the house, moving to the back again. I crouched down behind a trash can and next to the fence, waiting to see where Larry landed. Unfortunately, he landed in the backyard. The back door banged open and I saw a spotlight start sweeping the yard. The laser equipment was mostly camouflaged by the tree, but Ida Belle was on the ball and I saw the equipment disappear from the fence line. Unfortunately, Larry appeared in the middle of the backyard and then turned my way.
“Are you out here, you psycho?” Larry called out. “I’ve had it with your meddling.”
I yanked out my cell phone and sent a text to Ida Belle and Gertie.
Trapped on far side of yard. Need a diversion now!
Chapter Twenty-One
I peered around the trash can and saw Larry swing his light toward the fence then start walking my way. What worried me wasn’t the spotlight in his left hand but the nine-millimeter in his right. He had every right to shoot me, and after what had happened to Katia, no one would blame him. But I had no reason to shoot Larry, nor did I want to. And that’s where things got sticky.
I heard movement in the middle of Phyllis’s yard and saw a cat fly over the fence and drop onto the ground. It froze for a moment, probably still trying to figure out what the heck had happened, then the fence panel where the cat had appeared from broke off of its posts and fell over into Larry’s yard, Gertie clinging to the top of it.
As the cat shot off toward the back of the property, Larry swung around in Gertie’s direction with the spotlight. I used that moment to scale the side fence to the front yard, then ran around to Phyllis’s house. I barreled through her gate, then hurried to the fence disaster, praying I got there before Larry decided he’d had enough conflict for the night.
When I got to the broken fence panel, Gertie was kneeling with her hands up in the air. Ida Belle was standing close by, trying to talk sense into Larry, who appeared to be completely out of sorts.
“I couldn’t find him up front,” I said as I stopped, then turned to the side and pretended to see Larry for the first time. “What the heck?”
“Answer me,” Larry said, looking down at Gertie. “What are you doing spying on me?”
“She’s not spying, you nut!” Ida Belle yelled. “She’s looking for Phyllis’s stupid cat.”
“You’re lying,” Larry said.
“Good God Almighty, man,” Ida Belle said. “What has gotten into you? Gertie climbed the fence to see if the cat was in your backyard. That’s it.”
“And if you weren’t so cheap, the thing wouldn’t have collapsed,” Gertie said.
“Not helping,” I said, and kicked her foot.
“I’m sick of that woman poking her nose into my business,” Larry said. “She’s always there at the window with
her notebook, spying, making notes. She’s nuts.”
“Of course she’s nuts,” I said. “Why do you think we’re out here trying to find her cat? If we don’t, she’ll be knocking on the door of every house in Sinful. I’m sorry the fence broke. I’m sure we can find someone to fix it, but you need to put that gun away.”
“Where’s my baby?” Phyllis ran out the back door of her house, wailing.
I cringed. The last thing we needed was Phyllis and her crazy out here in the middle of this. I saw something move across a patch of dirt at the back fence line and pointed. “There!”
Phyllis practically ran across the yard and scooped up the cat, then ran past us, shooting daggers at us as she went.
“I accidentally let him out,” Gertie said. “I think she’s mad.”
Larry stared at all of us for several seconds longer, then threw his hands in the air. “You’re all mad! Just get off my property. I have enough to deal with right now without all this tomfoolery going on.”
We headed back into Phyllis’s yard and waited until Larry went back into the house before attempting to retrieve the laser. I sent Gertie to turn off Phyllis’s back porch light but Phyllis was so mad about her cat that she wouldn’t open the door. That didn’t deter Gertie for a minute. She picked up a garden gnome and smashed the light bulb. I could hear Phyllis wailing inside but that didn’t matter. Ida Belle and I gathered up the equipment and headed for the back door.
“She’s done lost her mind,” Gertie said.
“She never had it,” Ida Belle said.
“Well, I need the case for this laser, so opening that door isn’t an option,” I said.
“We’ve got bigger problems than the case,” Gertie said. “My purse is in there.”
The thought of an angry and emotional Phyllis alone all night with Gertie’s purse had me pulling out a knife and jimmying her back door. It’s a good thing that Phyllis was as cheap as Larry about some things. A five-year-old could have managed it.
I pushed the door open and walked inside. Phyllis stood in the middle of the kitchen, clutching the cat in one arm and an iron skillet in her other hand.
“Are you going to cook us to death?” Gertie asked.