The Deadline Series Boxset

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘She’s cautious about using the internet, but has to have a presence online because she’s in business and businesses don’t stand much of a chance of survival nowadays if customers can’t find them on the net.’

  ‘But,’ Alexi added. ‘There are anomalies. She’s cautious about the internet but tells the world via Facebook that she’s thinking of buying a share in a racehorse, which implies money. Why would she do that? It doesn’t jibe with her cautious approach to online activities.’

  ‘Beats the hell out of me.’

  ‘Fat lot of help you are.’ Alexi shook her head. ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Isn’t that enough to be going on with?’

  ‘We need to hear from Cassie about Natalie’s background.’

  ‘And the fact that we haven’t probably means there’s a lot to find.’

  ‘There is one other thing to add to your list of unanswered questions,’ Alexi said. ‘Something rather important. Does she have a will, and—’

  ‘And who inherits if she turns her toes up.’ Tyler nodded. ‘Good thinking. I must be getting slow in my advancing years. That’s always one of the first things we used to think about in my previous line of work.’

  ‘Don’t feel bad,’ she replied sweetly. ‘I have a naturally suspicious mind, and a generally low opinion of human nature. There’s less chance of disappointment if you don’t have much by way of expectations to start with.’

  Tyler grinned at her as he stood up. ‘Let’s go back to her cottage and take a closer look at her paperwork, then swing back past Darren Walker’s place in Hungerford.’

  ‘Come on, Cosmo,’ Alexi said, standing up and grabbing her bag. ‘This is no time to veg out. We have work to do.’

  Cosmo got to his feet, dislodging Toby’s head from his belly which he’d been using as a pillow, and stretched.

  ‘He looks so comfortable. Why not leave him where he is?’

  ‘We’re a team. Besides, he sulks if I leave him home too often.’

  Tyler chuckled. ‘Oh well, we can’t have that now, can we. Sorry, Toby,’ he added, tugging the dog’s ears. ‘You’re gonna have to make your own fun for a while.’

  Toby rolled onto his back and stuck his paws in the air.

  ‘We’ll take my car,’ Alexi said, picking up her keys. ‘It’s less conspicuous.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Tyler shot her a disbelieving look. ‘With that subtle pink roof.’

  ‘Well, it’s smaller then. Come on, let’s do this.’

  Chapter Seven

  ‘Perhaps we should have looked at her business email before doing this,’ Alexi said, as they followed Cosmo down the stairs.

  ‘We can do that later if need be.’

  ‘I’ll just let Cheryl know where we’re going.’

  Tyler checked out her backside as she walked away from him, still doubting the wisdom of joining forces with Alexi. Those doubts no longer centred upon her profession, but upon his growing attraction towards her. She was intelligent, feisty, opinionated and sexy as hell. He got more attention from women than he could handle, or looked for. Now he’d found one he’d actually like to get to know, but couldn’t afford the distraction. His first and only concern was for his sister’s business.

  ‘Okay, let’s go.’

  Lost in thought, Tyler hadn’t realised Alexi had returned. He followed her out to her car and lifted the passenger seat forward so Cosmo could jump in the back. But it seemed Cosmo was having none of it. He simply sat down and gave Tyler the evil eye.

  ‘What?’ he demanded.

  Alexi, already behind the wheel, chuckled. ‘You don’t really expect him to sit in the back, do you?’

  ‘You have got to be joking.’

  ‘Nope. Cosmo only travels up front.’

  ‘Is that so?’

  She grinned at him. ‘Yep.’

  ‘Well, the way I see it, there’s not room for two alpha males in this relationship,’ he told Cosmo. ‘Man or cat? No contest.’

  Tyler bent to pick Cosmo up, causing Alexi to gasp.

  ‘Careful! If anyone tries to make Cosmo do something he doesn’t want to do, it always ends with blood.’

  ‘His or mine?’ Tyler asked, placing the cat in the middle of the back seat. ‘Bloody hell, he weighs almost as much as I do.’

  Cosmo let out an indignant meow.

  ‘Don’t listen to him, darling,’ Alexi cooed as she fired up the engine. ‘He didn’t mean to make a personal remark. Apologise, Tyler. You’ve hurt his feelings.’

  Tyler chuckled as he slid into the passenger seat, found the lever to push it back as far as it would go, and fastened his seat belt. ‘Sorry, mate,’ he said, ‘but this seat ain’t big enough for the both of us.’

  Tyler’s smile abruptly faded when a feline ton weight landed on the back of the seat in question and wrapped itself around his neck, a smug edge to his rattling purr. Alexi laughed.

  ‘You sure about that?’

  Tyler shrugged. ‘I guess I can live with this arrangement,’ he said, stroking the cat’s sleek body and causing him to purr even louder.

  ‘He likes you.’ Alexi shrugged. ‘No accounting for taste.’

  ‘Well, I like him, and he senses I’m not about to put up with his theatricals.’ He shot Alexi a cocky grin. ‘Kids and animals need boundaries.’

  Alexi snorted. ‘Don’t go getting above yourself. Cosmo is smarter than the average feline and is probably lulling you into a false sense of security. He likes to have his own way.’

  ‘So do I,’ Tyler replied with a smouldering grin.

  Alexi tutted, shook her head and wisely concentrated on driving.

  A short time later they reached Natalie’s cottage and Alexi reversed her car into the same spot at the side of the house that it had occupied before. Alexi and Tyler headed for the front door. Cosmo stalked off into the garden, weaving his way through the flowering shrubs, presumably checking out the local rodent population. Tyler took Natalie’s keys from Alexi and unlocked the Mortis, then the Yale.

  ‘There’s no alarm system here on the cottage, but I noticed there was one on the workshop when you opened it up earlier.’

  ‘Yes, Cheryl told me the code for it. I figured she’d have to have her business premises protected for insurance purposes.’

  ‘Or because that’s where she keeps anything that’s important to her. It is where her laptop lives, I noticed.’

  ‘Yes, but Cheryl says she kept her iPad in the cottage, along with a small printer and scanner.’

  ‘The laptop for business, the iPad for pleasure.’ Tyler shrugged. ‘That would work.’

  ‘But there are no personal financial files in her office, or anywhere else. I found files in her living room relating to domestic bills and those old bank statements beneath some sweaters in her walk-in wardrobe.’

  ‘I’ve been wondering about that.’ Tyler frowned. ‘It seems awfully careless for such a careful person.’

  ‘I agree. An oversight, perhaps?’

  ‘They date back to the time just after she moved in. She was probably disorganised and they just got buried.’ They were now in the cottage’s entrance hall. ‘Show me where you found them.’

  ‘Sure’ Alexi led the way up the stairs and into Natalie’s bedroom. ‘I suspect she had the walk-in closet specifically made to house her clothing. I reckon there was a third bedroom, a small one that she had converted into this closet and her en-suite.’

  Tyler nodded. ‘Makes sense.’

  Alexi rummaged through the clothing that filled the racks and shelves. ‘A lot of this is good stuff,’ she said. ‘Designer labels that would make her feel good but don’t scream money.’

  ‘You’d know more about that than I do.’

  She turned her attention to the racks of shoes. ‘Shoes tell you a lot about a woman,’ she said. ‘And all of these are top notch.’

  ‘There are certainly enough of them.’

  ‘Do not, if you know what’s good for you, ever criticise a woman�
�s shoe collection.’

  Tyler threw up his hands and shuddered. ‘Trust me, I wouldn’t dare.’

  ‘Anyway, this lady likes her shoes and bags and didn’t stint on the money she spent on them.’

  Tyler had moved back into the main part of the bedroom and was methodically searching the drawers.

  ‘Leave it to a man to find a girl’s lingerie,’ Alexi said, walking up behind him. ‘Do you get off on doing that?’

  His responding grin was deliberately taunting. ‘You have no idea.’

  Alexi shook her head and delved into another set of drawers. ‘Oh my!’

  ‘What you got?’

  ‘Come and see for yourself.’

  A large drawer was full of sexy—very sexy—underwear. And a number of sex toys. Tyler let out a low whistle. ‘This lady takes her pleasures seriously.’

  ‘So it seems, but alone or did she invite men back?’

  ‘Not much point in doing herself up in this stuff unless she had an audience to appreciate it.’ Alexi nodded. ‘We ought to talk to the neighbours, see if they’ve noticed any…er, comings and goings.’

  ‘She doesn’t have any immediate neighbours. This place is pretty isolated.’

  ‘Which makes it easier to have assignations that she wanted to keep under wraps,’ Tyler said speculatively. ‘Perhaps that’s why she chose it.’

  ‘She doesn’t need to keep her activities quiet. She has no ties.’

  ‘But perhaps her caller does. And there had to be one.’ He picked up a riding crop from her play drawer and slapped it against his palm. ‘I doubt whether she used this on herself.’

  Alexi giggled. ‘She really does like all things equestrian, doesn’t she?’

  Tyler didn’t reply. This find had really got him wondering. It showed Natalie in an entirely different light.

  ‘Women are way more liberated about their sexual appetites these days,’ Alexi said, as though following his line of thought, ‘and don’t feel any need to apologise for them. But to hear Cheryl talk, Natalie Parker is Lambourn’s answer to Mother Teresa.’

  ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘there’s nothing else to help us in here. Let’s go and check out her work room.’

  ‘Nothing other than meticulous accounts of her business transactions for the taxman, client invoices and invoices from her suppliers,’ Alexi said a short time later, puffing air through her lips and agitating a strand of hair away from her forehead. ‘She’s like a wraith. Nothing about her personal life at all. Nothing to imply she even existed before she came here. No address book, no old birthday cards kept for nostalgic reasons, no letters…absolutely nothing.’ She shook her head. ‘I thought I travelled light, but this is just not natural.’

  ‘It’s lucky you found those old bank statements.’

  ‘I would have smelt money when I looked more closely at her clothes but, yeah, that’s our only break.’

  ‘I wonder if she was checking her statements and was interrupted,’ Tyler said. ‘That would account for their location. Say she got a call from her guy to say he was almost there. She would have been looking through her post but then found herself in a hurry to get ready, deciding what to wear—or not wear. Standing in her walk-in closet, she found she still had the statements in her hand and simply dropped them on that shelf. They got buried beneath her sweaters and she forgot about them.’

  ‘Hmm, perhaps. What now?’ she asked. ‘We don’t seem to be—’

  Alexi broke off when Tyler’s mobile rang. He checked the caller ID and took the call. ‘Hey, Cas, what you got?’ He grinned at Alexi. ‘I’ve always wanted to say that.’

  ‘Who are you talking to?’ Cassie asked.

  ‘Myself.’

  ‘Check your email. I’ve found a few interesting things about your saintly Ms Parker.’

  ‘I know that tone of voice.’ He winked at Alexi. ‘Give me the highlights.’

  ‘She’s known to the police. Is that highlight enough for you?’

  ‘She’s been arrested?’ He gaped at Alexi, whose jaw dropped open. ‘What for?’

  ‘Soliciting.’

  Tyler inhaled sharply. ‘She’s a hooker?’

  ***

  Tyler didn’t look that surprised by what his partner had unearthed, but Alexi was stunned. Why, she couldn’t have said. It wasn’t as if she knew Natalie personally. Besides, she’d seen and heard it all during her years as a reporter and knew that women turned to the oldest profession for all sorts of reasons—usually financial necessity. The sexy underwear and extensive collection of sex toys ought to have told her something. Tyler had obviously made the connection, but she’d been slow on the uptake because she’d bought Cheryl’s take on her friend. A basic error. Not that Cheryl had any reason to lie, but she did have a tendency to think the best of everyone.

  ‘Tell me,’ she said when Tyler ended his call.

  ‘Cassie says it’s all in her email.’ He picked by his iPad, connected to Natalie’s Wi-Fi and waited for his mail to come up. ‘Here we go,’ he said.

  Once again, Alexi found herself reading over Tyler’s shoulder.

  ‘Natalie Parker isn’t her real name,’ she said.

  ‘Nope, so it seems. She’s Natalie Seaton but changed her name by deed poll some years ago. She was given up for adoption at birth. No information available on her birth parents.’

  ‘Given that she never knew them, she can be excused for saying her parents died, I guess. They would be dead to her, poor kid. Whatever she subsequently did, she must have been pretty pissed off at her Mum for abandoning her. I know I would be and the humiliation of rejection often colours an adopted kid’s perceptions.’

  ‘Perhaps she meant her adoptive parents are dead,’ Tyler suggested, scribbling a note to himself. ‘She would have thought of them as her parents, presumably.’

  ‘Most likely.’

  ‘Her adoptive mother was a gardener, into floral art, whatever the hell that is.’

  ‘Flower arranging,’ Alexi told him. ‘Natalie’s adoptive mother’s example must have persuaded Natalie to go down that path. She would have discovered she had an ability for it. How old was she when she got arrested?’

  ‘Fourteen.’

  ‘Fourteen?’ Once again Alexi was rendered temporarily speechless. ‘What were her adoptive parents thinking, giving her that much freedom?’

  ‘No way of knowing. Her juvenile records will be sealed so Cassie hasn’t been able to look at them.’

  ‘Will it be impossible for her to get them?’

  Tyler shot her an ironic look. ‘You trying to insult my partner’s abilities?’

  Alexi answered his question with one of her own. ‘Why did you imply you weren’t talking to anyone when Cassie asked you who you were with?’ She frowned when Tyler hesitated to answer. ‘You haven’t told her about me, have you, Maddox?’ A slow grin spread across her face. ‘You’re scared of her.’

  ‘Yeah, right!’

  Alexi wasn’t buying his denial, especially since he looked so uncomfortable. This was too good an opportunity to let it slip. ‘I thought you said your relationship wasn’t personal,’ she said sweetly.

  ‘I have told her, but perhaps I underplayed the amount of co-investigating we’re doing, just to keep the peace. She’s already annoyed with me for spending more time down here when the paying jobs are stacking up. No point in making matters worse. She can be a tad overprotective.’ Alexi laughed hard when big, tough Tyler Maddox inadvertently, she was sure, gave her a glimpse of his vulnerable underbelly. ‘She knows I was shafted by the press.’

  She tilted her head, pretending to be affronted. ‘And thinks you’re being traumatised by exposure to my conniving company?’

  ‘Something like that,’ he agreed with a self-deprecating smile.

  ‘I’ll be gentle with you.’

  ‘Hey, who said anything about gentle?’

  Alexi shook her head, thinking that at least she’d just learned something useful. Cassie Fenton had her sights set on Ty
ler. For protective Alexi substituted possessive. Tyler obviously knew it since he was prepared to go that extra mile not to antagonise her. Not personally involved, indeed! Still, Alexi got the message loud and clear. Tyler was off limits.

  ‘I wonder if Natalie’s foster father got over-friendly,’ she said, reverting to the subject they ought to be discussing. ‘It happens. A lot. I did a feature about abuse in the social welfare system once. The stories I got out of foster kids were heart-breaking. Those that tried to tell weren’t believed and were labelled as troublemakers. That’s most likely what happened to Natalie.’

  ‘Don’t jump to conclusions, Alexi.’

  ‘I don’t work on conclusions. Just so you know, I always triple check my facts, otherwise the paper’s lawyers would be all over me. I was thinking aloud, that’s all. You said yourself that Natalie’s sensual. That probably became apparent when she hit puberty and not all the creepy scumbags who can’t resist a little under-age nookie work in television.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Tyler was reading Cassie’s email and clearly only giving Alexi part of his attention.

  ‘If she was a high-class escort-cum-hooker then it would explain all that dosh.’

  Tyler let out a long, appreciative whistle. ‘Wow!’ he said.

  Alexi looked at the screen and had to agree with him. The pictures that came up were from a website on which Natalie had advertised her former trade. She went by the name of Natalie Dwight and looked classy, sexy and sophisticated all at the same time. Expensive she might be, but even Alexi could see her expression implied the punters’ money would be well-invested.

  ‘This website is long gone, but Cassie found it. That’s what took her a while.’

  ‘Presumably she retired when she moved here two years ago,’ Alexi said, watching as Tyler flipped through the pages; each of them devoted to a different female—every hair, skin and eye colour featured, every customer’s taste catered for. ‘She was part of a classy escort agency. Does it say where it was based, Tyler?’

  ‘Mayfair Escorts. I’d put money on that being in London.’

  ‘Nothing gets past you.’

  He grinned and winked at her. ‘Cassie will be able to find out exactly where, and if it’s still in business.’