by Maisie Dean
“Kacey, I have to say that I’m not pleased with how this all happened,” Harrison said. His tone was authoritative. It sounded like he’d decided to go with the role of "tough boss" this morning. “And Owen, I still can’t believe you went along with it. You knew, better than Kacey, that she wasn’t licensed, and what she did was dangerous to herself, as well as jeopardizing the whole business,” Harrison said.
“Did we even have a business after the other day? I thought you said—” Lucky interjected, but Harrison somehow managed to silence him with a glare.
“Kacey, how did you even know that the painting was at August’s house?” Harrison said. For a moment, the tough tone gave way to genuine interest.
Owen, who was still doing his best to avoid eye contact with me for the most part, sat there quietly, allowing the questions to be directed toward me. I realized that Owen had held out on telling his brothers any of the details. Did he do it just so I would get to come back and make my case?
It took me a moment to realize that everyone, the boys and Tippy, had their eyes on me, waiting expectantly to be briefed of the case of the missing artwork.
“Malicious glee,” I stated then realized I would need to provide more than a little context when the Booker family stared back at me blankly.
In truth, I hadn’t been prepared to talk about my reasoning or how everything had gone down the day before. I thought Owen would have filled everyone in on my risky behavior and that it was more than likely that I would be berated for my negligence that morning then sent away forever. But maybe I still had a chance. I took a breath and started again.
“I noticed August’s look of malicious glee when he stopped in for an update the other night. That made me think something was off. And then my roommate, Rosie, she’s a courier, told me about a delivery she made to a client who didn’t want her to get a glimpse of the inside of his house. That reminded me of the very first morning August and Leo were here. August was adamant that Leo not come to his house for breakfast, and that instead they would stay out and choose a restaurant,” I said.
My audience was captivated, but still unclear of how it all came together, so I continued.
“August is thinner under his suits than I first realized, which got me thinking about whether he could have been an approximate match for the build of our cater-waiter suspect. Plus, he’d said that the shrimp puffs had been good when no one else could recall they’d been served. It all added up to me, really. I had to give it a shot. What did I have to lose by trying my hand at investigating?” I asked and laughed nervously. “Worst-case scenario, I’d have cleaned his house for a day without pay. And besides, it would have been good training for my alternate career, anyway.”
Despite a few confused looks at first, about my "alternate career," everyone appeared to have sat up a couple inches taller. Lucky caught my eye and gave me a double thumbs-up. Harrison actually smiled and gave me a crisp nod. Tippy raised her eyebrows as high as I’d seen them go and toasted me with her coffee mug. I smiled at Owen and tried to send him a silent thanks for giving me the chance to show up and defend myself. He gave me a slow nod. After he took in the reactions of his family members, a huge grin slid across his face.
“What you did was dangerous, Kacey. But you may have just kept us in business a little while longer. I thank you for that, we all do,” Harrison said. Lucky let out a cheer.
“That’s about as good as you’ll get with him,” Lucky said, nudging Harrison with his elbow.
“You have good instincts,” Harrison continued, ignoring Lucky.
“I believe you know,” Owen piped up quietly. “About being the first one to jump off the cliff or the barn,” he said. He smiled at me sweetly, in a way that made me feel like I was about to blush.
Luckily, the front door swung open and the bell rattled again, which broke the moment. Rosie stood in the doorway in her tan uniform. Her bright blonde ponytail swished from side to side as she walked over. She held an extra-thick white envelope in her hand and presented it to the group of us.
“Payment for the case in full,” she announced. Harrison winced slightly.
“How did he seem?” Harrison asked her.
“Mad. But not at any of you. He mentioned he sent extra money to apologize for trashing the office,” Rosie said. Harrison’s expression lifted.
“We won’t replace the broken things, but we will be able to pay the rent,” he said.
Owen’s face fell as he wobbled back and forth on his flimsy plastic chair, testing its limits.
Rosie waved the envelope around as if asking who would take it from her.
Tippy made a move as if she was going to take it from her, but then decided to think better of it and pulled back against the cabinet. Harrison, seated furthest from Rosie, gave me a nod that I interpreted as, "take it, you’ve earned it."
Rosie saw it too and handed the envelope to me. It was surprisingly heavy, and I guessed that Leo had opted for cash. Rosie gave a mock salute as a goodbye to everyone and turned to head for the door. Before she let the door fall shut, her ponytail whipped around one more time and she shot me a wink.
“She was much faster than our usual courier,” Harrison remarked when the door closed behind Rosie.
“And ten times more pleasant,” Lucky added with a smug grin. I got the sense that that Lucky had enjoyed more than just Rosie’s demeanor. Harrison rolled his eyes and scoffed at his brother.
“Thanks for the suggestion, we’ll use Rosie’s services from now on,” Harrison said to me.
They wanted to continue using Rosie’s services, but what about mine? It was as good a time as any to bite the bullet and ask.
“So...am I hired back?” I asked. My voice was soft, but my hands gripped my seat like I was hanging on for dear life. I tried to moderate my expression by making eye contact with each of the brothers. I didn’t want to come across too desperate or pleading, no one wanted to see that. My lungs felt tight, fighting with me to exhale. But I couldn’t, not until I knew.
“I’m not sure, honestly. We’d love to have you, of course, but money is still tight even with that,” Harrison said and pointed at the envelope in my hands. Harrison wrung his hands together and bounced his foot up and down. I let out my breath slowly. I feared that if I did it too fast, I’d collapse to the ground like an empty balloon.
“Maybe you could do something else for the rest of the month, and then come back if things are going well enough here,” Harrison suggested. He didn’t look happy with his proposal either, but I could tell he felt stuck. He was just telling it like it was. I felt myself begin to deflate but did my best to hold it together and stay upbeat.
“I understand,” I said, forcing the edges of my mouth to turn upwards. I was surprised when Lucky stood up from his chair and turned to Harrison.
“That’s not good enough,” he said, looking between his two brothers. “We have to keep Kacey, even if it means personal sacrifice. She’s unique, she’s a self-starter, unlike so many of her generation,” Lucky said.
My generation? He wasn’t that much older than I was. But Lucky hadn’t finished.
“We could really use someone with her abilities, not to mention for increasing billable hours,” Lucky continued. He ran a hand through his wavy hair and opened his mouth to continue, but Harrison interrupted him.
“Are you absolutely sure, Lucky? Personal sacrifice?” Harrison said.
“Yes, of course I’m sure,” Lucky said.
“Fine! Kacey, you’re hired back, full-time. And a portion of her pay will come from canceling the lease on your car, Lucky,” Harrison said smugly and beamed. He crossed his arms loosely and leaned back in his chair. I could tell he was genuinely pleased to have found a way to keep me on, but part of his grin definitely had to do with finally getting back at Lucky for that car. That was fine with me! Lucky groaned and scratched his head, before breaking into another grin.
“Let’s vote, by a show of hands who chooses to hire Kacey
?” Harrison asked, scanning the room. Owen’s hand shot up first, followed by Harrison’s and then Lucky’s. Even Tippy had her hand held up.
“There we have it,” Harrison said. “Welcome to the team, Kacey!”
CHAPTER 23
By the end of the day, the five of us had cleaned up the office to a reasonable enough standard. Owen’s chair was still broken, and one filing cabinet had been dented so badly that none of the drawers would open, but other than that most of the chaos had been addressed by the refilling and stacking of boxes.
I had offered my desk chair to Owen, arguing that his work and position outranked mine and he should have a comfortable chair to sit at his computer all day. He strongly refused, and politely thanked me. Instead, to fix the problem of his wobbly chair, Owen had strategically used duct-tape to anchor and adhere various points on the seat to “ensure maximum stability,” he’d told me.
Owen had also recharged and replaced the stun-gun into its rubber tub. I hadn’t known Owen would come to August’s house the previous morning, armed; that hadn’t been in the plan. But I was grateful he’d thought of it.
I was working my way through filing a miscellaneous pile of documents when I heard Owen call my name.
“Kacey,” he said.
Owen had taken the bag of imported Asian shrimp chips out of his desk drawer and waved them at me.
“You kept them!” I was surprised and touched that he’d actually saved them. He had been right, too. I was back, and back for good if I had anything to say about it.
Owen popped the bag open, and we passed them around the office while we worked. Owen got distracted by googling their nutritional details, which I warned him not to do. Harrison tried one and said he couldn’t stomach it. According to him, anything shrimp-related was still a traumatic reminder of the crazy case we’d just closed. Lucky ate them by the handful until all that was left in the bag was a fine layer of shrimp-flavored dust.
Around 5:30, once the group of us had finally slowed down our clean-up efforts, Fitzy wandered into the office looking sheepish.
“I got the rent, boys. Thanks for that,” he paused. He had his right hand cupped around the back of his neck and his gaze jumped between the floor and the three Booker brothers. “I really am a fair and reasonable man, you know. I may have overreacted a wee bit yesterday, though. Glad to see the office is looking better.” Fitzy cleared his throat. Tippy came out of the break room and walked down the hallway to the front of the office where Fitzy stood. She eyed him coolly
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking at Tippy, and then at the Booker brothers. “To make amends, I’d like for you all to go have dinner at Doyle’s and put it on my tab. Anything you like,” Fitzy said earnestly.
The shrimp chips had only encouraged my appetite, not satiated it, and my mouth began to water at the thought of Doyle’s. Owen perked up and craned his neck to see what his brothers' response would be.
“Thanks, Fitzy, we’ll go,” Harrison said evenly.
Tippy did not look impressed. Clearly, she hadn’t yet forgiven her on-again, off-again partner for his overreaction to the James Bond shenanigans.
“You four, go enjoy. I’m taking Tippy somewhere real nice,” Fitzy said. Tippy opened her mouth with a frown, like she was about to protest, so Fitzy quickly spoke again.
“No, not Rockburger. Somewhere really nice, I promise.”
“Fine,” Tippy said. She rolled her eyes while she walked over to the closet to get her purse, and then led Fitzy out the door.
A little while later, once we’d cleared our desks and locked up the office, Owen, Harrison, Lucky, and myself sat across the red vinyl seats downstairs at Doyle’s corner booth. I sat on one side with Lucky, and Harrison and Owen slid into the other side.
“This is our usual spot,” Owen said to me.
His brothers laughed.
“What? She’s officially with us now, she should know our spot,” Owen argued.
“Thanks, Owen, I appreciate it,” I replied.
The four of us opened up the grimy laminated menus to select our I’m-sorry-for-destroying-your-office complimentary dinners. There was something about free food that always tasted better, and I was eager to try something new at Doyle’s.
“Kacey, what kind of car do you drive?” Lucky asked.
“An old Prius. It’s nothing fancy, and it’s got a mismatched door,” I told him. Was it just me, or did Lucky wince ever so slightly? She wasn’t grand, but that car had gotten me through a lot. I’d even lived in it a couple times, but I decided not to reveal that fact.
“Can the company use it? We’ll reimburse your mileage, of course,” he asked.
“Sure,” I said, before remembering what I could be getting myself into. “But I’m with Harrison, Lucky. No more parking in loading zones on purpose. I cannot afford the tickets.”
I gave Lucky my best warning look, but it made him start snickering. That was not the impact I was going for.
“Okay, okay,” he said, putting his hands up in front of him when I didn’t let up on my stare. “No tickets, got it. If I’m not careful you might make an upstanding citizen out of me, Kacey Chance.” Lucky was one of those people whose every sentence had a flirtatious air about it. It was like there was an electric fence running along his perimeter. I reminded myself that I did not want to find myself getting zapped and potentially risk this job. I was too happy and excited to have it back. I would make something of myself in the investigative world. I’d never wanted anything quite so much.
I rolled my eyes at Lucky and turned back to the other Booker brothers.
“It’ll be really useful on Monday for our new surveillance job. I use my jeep around the city so much for work that we can’t use it for anything undercover,” Harrison explained.
The word undercover sent a blanket of excited goosebumps over my skin.
“We should get the windows tinted first, trust me,” I said, recalling the nylons issue from the day before. “Mine won’t be much use either without that.”
Harrison pulled out his phone and made a note.
“Definitely,” Harrison said. “I know a guy who can do it on the cheap.”
“I’ll get to introduce you to Sidney Morales. You’ll like Sidney, I’m sure,” Lucky said. He bounced his knee up and down under the table and angled his body to face me.
“What’s he like?” I asked. The three brothers just laughed.
“Sidney is a woman, actually,” Harrison clarified for me.
“And she’s...unique,” Owen said.
“If you want to survive in this business, you make friends with Sidney,” Lucky said, raising an eyebrow at me. “I wonder if you have what it takes…” he said.
I straightened up and lifted my chin to stare straight at him.
“What do you think?” I asked him.
Lucky lifted his hands out between us, and as a second thought grabbed his white napkin and raised it like a flag. In reality, I didn’t know yet if I did have what it would take, but we would find out soon enough.
“Can I come for the surveillance on Monday?” I asked. I directed the question to everyone, but mostly Harrison.
“We really do need someone around the office...but you’re so quick with the administrative work,” Harrison said.
“It’s true, what you do in an hour it used to take Tippy the entire day. She’s a very capable woman, but those abilities do not extend to the computer, unfortunately,” Owen admitted.
I hoped that meant I’d have to chance to be on my first stakeout, but before I could ask, Doyle appeared beside the table.
His shoulders slumped and there were dark circles under his eyes. Even his mustache was extra droopy.
“Doyle, how did coupon night go?” Lucky asked him. This was the wrong question to ask. Doyle let out a long sigh.
“I ran the usual racket,” Doyle said.
Owen must have seen my expression and he jumped in to help explain.
“Doyle runs
a group coupon thing for the diner, Kacey,” Owen said.
“He’s got a deal for a fake restaurant using an address across the street, and when people show up hungry and can’t find the place, he reels them into his place instead for regular priced food,” Lucky said. Doyle nodded.
“It’s called the Good Time Grill. But it didn’t work this time, that’s for sure. Some enterprising restaurateur opened up in the vacant building across the street using the same business name I’ve been using for years. On coupon night, the place across the street was packed all night with a lineup down the street. It even drew some of my regulars away,” Doyle said sadly. “So, I’m out the cost of the ads, which aren’t cheap by the way, plus a lot of business. And to top it all off, now I’ve got a competitor!” Doyle’s eyebrows curved downwards so much I wouldn’t have been surprised if they suddenly slipped right off his face. That was one man who needed a hug, if I’d ever seen one.
“Cheer up, Doyle. You’ll always have us,” Lucky said. The rest of us chimed in agreeing.
“That’s great, boys. And Kacey. But no diner can stay open on four burgers alone,” Doyle said.
“It will tonight,” Harrison said. “Does four burgers sound good to everyone?” Harrison asked. We all nodded. “And make them extra fancy, Doyle, with all the fixings. This is on Fitzy,” Harrison said. He winked at Doyle and reached up to give his shoulder a supportive squeeze.
“Doyle, no cabbage in my coleslaw please,” Owen added. I don’t think I stopped my mouth from dropping fast enough so that no one would see, but Owen didn’t notice, and Doyle just nodded as if he’d heard it a hundred times before and walked back to the kitchen.