Chloe Babineaux Private Investigator

by Lisa Clancey

  Chapter Seventeen

  I arrived at my apartment and cleaned the bathroom. That was always the highlight of my day. It was starting to get really gross. Okay, now I could take a nap. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I was going to tell Rick. I seemed to have already said it. Everything I needed to say in one very short paragraph. Oh, hell, I asked for this so now I’d just have to wait and hear how long his paragraph was. Did that sound dirty or did I just want it to sound dirty? I groaned, loudly.

  I hate sleeping in my bed for a nap. So I slept on the couch.

  It was four when I woke up and went to my office to write up what I’d done so far. I didn’t write anything about the blackmailing. Petunia was going to read it, and I didn’t want her to think I suspected her of finding inventive ways to pay for her children’s education.

  Cheri’s client left, and she sat down in the chair across from me at my desk and stared. I, of course, ignored her. Three minutes later I broke. “Would you stop staring at me? I have a report to work on.”

  “You feel guilty. Good,” she said and smiled.

  “I do not feel guilty for not coming all the way across town for lunch. I really did have work to do, and I’m not finished. I’m going back later,” I said not looking up at her.

  “I’m not talking about that, and you know it,” she said defensively.

  I looked up at her, smiled slightly and said, “I’m sorry. I just…did not want to talk about…you know…right then.”

  She looked at me a long time and then said, “I don’t really think that was a real sentence.”

  I cocked my head, straightened my mouth, and asked, “Who are you, Miss Grammar now?” I shook my head and said, “Look, I ran into Cody and Rick at a deli after I tripped and landed on a cop’s lap.” I rolled my eyes. “Later. Running into them was an accident, but Rick caught up with me in the parking lot, and we’re gonna talk tonight.”

  She smiled and said, “Good, I’m glad. I can tell he likes you.” Her grin broadened, and she said, “Now, tell me about this lap dance.”

  “How…? Oh, never mind.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head and said through clenched teeth, “It wasn’t a lap dance. I tripped over a little girl.” She laughed, and by the time I was through telling her, I was laughing.

  Cheri told me about her day, and I told her about mine. She agreed with me about the painting not being of naked people.

  “Chloe, what if it isn’t a painting at all? What if whatever it is, it’s hidden? It could be something else entirely?”

  “Yeah, that would make sense. But I still think it’s a painting. I just don’t know what is so important about it. Could the frame be made of gold?” I asked. We sat thinking for a while and then I said, “I keep thinking it might be something like fool’s gold. Everybody thinks it’s something worth stealing, but it isn’t. I mean, it’s been missing for so long anyone that has ever seen it, is dead. Maybe. I don’t know.”

  We sat staring at each other with our feet propped up for a long time before Cheri eventually said. “I think you could be right and I don’t think the frame is gold. Think about it, if it were it would have been melted down long ago. But that could be the reason why you can’t find it. Someone doesn’t want a frameless painting to be found.”

  “I hate it when I have frameless paintings,” I said straight-faced.

  “Is that why you don’t own any paintings?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “Otherwise, I’d have paintings and no frames and that just plain looks funny unless it’s the kind of painting that looks good without a frame.” She laughed, and I told her I had to waste more gas.

  I was on my way across town when my phone rang. I smiled when I saw it was Rick, although he may not smile when I told him I was working.

  “Hey.”

  “That’s encouraging. What time are you coming over?”

  “Actually,” I said, “I’m working. I’m going to some of the homes I missed because no one was home earlier. Can I come to your house later?”

  “Sure. Yeah, call me when you’re on your way.” He sounded surprised. Good. Always keep them guessing. I actually wanted to go to his house so I could leave anytime I wanted to. It was embarrassing when I walked out of my own apartment and left the man I was mad at staring at me like ‘why did she just walk out of her own apartment?’ Let’s just say it may have been done before.

  We said goodbye, and I concentrated on not having a fender bender.