by Emily Greene
I gave her a big hug. “Thanks, Carrie!”
It was a really nice perk to have a best friend who had a rich husband so that we could travel at the drop of a dime.
“Are we going to squeeze in a Broadway show? I am dying to see Wicked in New York City.” She was practically begging me with her eyes.
“We’ll see. We might be preoccupied with tracking down Janice the entire time.”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “If we can’t see it this time then you have to promise we will take another girl’s trip to really see New York City the way it deserves to be seen.”
I gave her another hug. “I promise. Thanks for going with me and for arranging the plane for us.”
“Nothing is set in stone, so don’t thank me yet, but I’m sure there won’t be a problem.”
It was hard to contain my excitement as I smiled at her.
“Yay! New York City here we come!”
Chapter Five
“Carrie, the energy here is amazing! I had no idea it would be like this!” It was a gorgeous Friday evening and I was in awe of all the hustle and bustle that surrounded us.
“Yep, New York City is a pretty cool place,” she said as we rode down 5th Avenue to our hotel. It was almost 6:00 p.m. and if I had not had to deal with a last-minute emergency at the bakery, we would have been in New York a lot sooner that day.
“I am going to have to thank Jeff for putting us up in such a nice hotel. I know he does this for you, but I appreciate being able to tag along,” I said.
“Tag along? You’re family, Harper! You’re the sister I never had so we would do anything for you!”
“Thanks, Carrie,” I smiled as we walked into The Pierre. The hotel was like nothing I had ever seen and I felt so fancy being there, but I had to focus because we were there for one reason, and that was to find out what Janice’s secret was and if it had anything to do with Sarah’s murder.
We checked into our hotel room and a few minutes later I sat on my bed, pulled up Janice’s information on my phone and looked at Carrie.
“I guess I didn’t think about what we were going to say to her about why we are in New York. Should we say we came to surprise her?”
Carrie shook her head no. “I don’t know if we should tell her we’re here because if she knows we’re coming she’ll have time to hide whatever the secret is. We are going to have to find her and follow her for the day.”
“Okay, I guess you have a point about her having time to hide the secret, but how in the world are we going to follow her around for a day?”
“I was thinking we do it the old-fashioned way and wait outside her apartment building and follow her to see where she goes.”
“Um, I don’t know, Carrie. If she has a husband and kid we’re probably just going to follow her going to a grocery store.”
“Well, we have to try something. What do you suggest?”
I tried to think of something else and Carrie’s suggestion was probably the best. We didn’t know the name of the law firm where she worked so we couldn’t wait for her there, so her apartment building was going to have to do.
“I got nothin’ so let’s go with your plan. But we need to rent a car to sit in while we wait because it’s kind of chilly outside.”
“Don’t worry, Jeff already has that covered. Our car is waiting for us whenever we are ready. The valet will pull it around for us.”
“You guys think of everything, thank you!” I gave her a huge hug and then we headed out.
As we drove to Janice’s building Carrie, who was expertly navigating New York traffic, quickly glanced at me and shrugged her shoulders.
“So, should we just sit outside of her building?”
“Let’s take a trip around the block and scope out the area and see where we can park so we won’t be conspicuous. Once we find a good spot we’ll just wait until we see her.”
“Oh my gosh, Harper, what if she is out of town?”
“She’s not. Andrew contacted her before we left; she’s here.”
She raised her eyebrow at me giving me a teasing look.
“Oh, you talked to the very handsome Detective Sloane before we left? Didn’t you just spend a couple of hours in his office a few days ago?”
“Yes, and by the way, it is official, Sarah was murdered.”
“Oh, my goodness! I kind of suspected it but I was hoping it was an accident. How awful!”
“I know.”
“When did Detective Sloane tell you?”
“When I called to make sure he had the right contact info for Janice. He didn’t offer much more information than that except to say I should keep my nose out of the investigation because I could get hurt.”
“Oh, how sweet, he’s worried about you! He is so good-looking, Harper. What is his story again?”
I shook my head. “No, we’re not going to chat about Detective Sloane, we need to focus on the task at hand.”
“Ah, avoiding talking about a man…hmmm…that means you like him,” she teased.
“Carrie, you’re silly!” I giggled. “It doesn’t matter if I do or don’t feel something for him because he has a very beautiful girlfriend.”
She nearly bumped into the car in front of us as she looked at me with surprise.
“Really? How do you know?”
“I met her at the Hanson’s party. I can’t even dislike her because she is literally one of the sweetest people I have ever met.”
“Wait a sec, here’s a spot.”
Carrie pulled into the spot and then looked at me.
“Okay, so he has a girlfriend. Well maybe it’s not that serious. Did they seem like they had known each other a long time?”
“I think so. She talked about her mother being worried about him in his job as a detective so I’d say that is pretty close.”
Carrie’s face fell. “Oh. Her mother was mentioned? Yep, they’re the real deal. But you know what? There are plenty of fish in the sea. Matthew is a very nice man and he is definitely interested in you, Harper. Maybe you should give him a real chance. Spend more time with him and really get to know him.”
“You’re right, I will. Matthew Carson is very nice and also easy on the eyes. He wants me to go on a double date with him and his friends.”
“Oh, great! Meeting a guy’s friends is always a good sign! Who knows where things could go with you two. You might be walking down the aisle sooner than you think!”
I rolled my eyes at her and shook my head as I smiled. “You are completely nuts; do you know that? I barely know Matthew. Let’s slow things down a little.”
“Fine, but just keep an open mind about him, he’s a good catch.”
I was getting ready to respond with a quick retort when something caught the corner of my eye, and there walking out of her building was Janice Blaine. She was wearing a short black dress and four inch heels. I assumed she was dressed like that for her husband and he was meeting her somewhere for a special date. It was definitely not the kind of outfit I ever saw anyone wear in Prairie Cove. I quickly nudged Carrie and she saw her too and turned to me.
“Oh my gosh! What do we do, Harper?”
“Come on, let’s follow her!” I whispered.
We quietly exited the car and stayed about ½ block behind her. It was dark outside but the streetlights allowed us to see where she was so we didn’t have to worry about losing her because of the light, we had to worry about losing her because she was walking so fast! She was clearly in a hurry to get somewhere. Three blocks later she rounded a corner and slipped into what appeared to be an upscale gentleman’s club. Carrie and I stopped in our tracks and looked at each other.
“Why in the world would she be going into a place like that?” Carrie asked.
“I have no idea, this is really strange,” I replied.
“Should we go in?”
“No, because we don’t want her to know that we are following her. I say we go have dinner somewhere and check out the city a little bit,
and then tomorrow we can call…what is this place called?” I looked up at the bright sign and it said ‘The Martini Spot’. You would think from the name it was just a martini bar, but the martini glass in the sign had a scantily dressed woman sitting in the glass winking her eye. “We’ll call The Martini Spot and see if they have any info on her.”
“We’re just going to randomly call and ask about Janice? I don’t know if that’s the best idea, Harper.”
I thought about what Carrie said for a second and then I nodded my head. “You’re right. Let’s just show up and start asking questions. That way we will be able to see people’s reactions when we ask about her and we’ll know if something is shady or not. We don’t have a lot of time here so now that we know she went to a place like this maybe we can find out why.”
“What if she was just meeting her husband for a fun night or something like that?”
“If that’s the case then we follow her for one more day and see if we can discover anything else. What do you think?”
“If anyone can track someone down and figure out a secret they are hiding, it is you, Harper Madison, so I’m in. I’m here to help however I can but I think they are going to look at us like we’re crazy when we start questioning the people in that club. I’m not so sure it’s the kind of place that will give information about their customers and employees. I kind of get the idea the people who frequent that place want to be discreet.”
“Hmmm, you might have a point about being discreet. Give me a little time, I will figure out a way around that. In the meantime, do you want to check out that restaurant across the street from our hotel?”
“Sure! I’d go just about anywhere in New York City!”
“Okay, great. Let’s go to the club tomorrow around 11:00 and see if anyone can give us some info.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Carrie exclaimed.
Chapter Six
The next morning, Carrie and I enjoyed breakfast at a cute little diner in SoHo, and we took our time because I saw that the club did not open until 11:00 so I figured we would go around 11:15 to beat the lunch crowd. After breakfast, we parked the car about a block away from the club and as we approached the front door, I realized I had no idea what I was going to say. I thought I had crafted the perfect plan by going to New York and finding Janice, but I neglected to iron out the details of what I would say once I had found her. I looked at Carrie, completely perplexed.
“Who should I ask for? I guess I didn’t think this through enough.”
“I don’t know, the manager maybe?”
“Right, right, good idea. Carrie, I am more nervous than I thought I would be!”
“Me too, but we are doing this for Sarah and to assuage people’s fears about Prairie Cove. Remember the look on Natalie’s face when she found out about what happened to Sarah? She actually was thinking about moving away because she doesn’t feel safe in our town. I don’t want people to have the wrong idea about Prairie Cove.”
“I agree, the last thing we want is for Prairie Cove to get a reputation for being an unsafe place to live. That is just absurd! Let’s go find the manager and get to the bottom of what Janice is really up to.”
When we walked into the club it was nothing like what I imagined it would be. It was much more elegant than I imagined and if I had not known it was a gentleman’s club, I would have just thought it was an upscale restaurant. At least Janice was not spending time in a low brow establishment.
A pretty, middle-aged red-haired woman walked up to Carrie and me as we entered and gave us what appeared to be a genuine smile.
“Hello, ladies. Will you be joining us for lunch today?”
Carrie and I looked at each other and giggled.
“No, we are looking for our friend, and a neighbor said they thought they saw her come in here yesterday. Do you mind if I show you her picture? Maybe you’ll recognize her.” I did my best to sound nonchalant.
“Is she missing? Was she supposed to meet you at a certain time and didn’t show up?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.”
“It’s Gina, I am one of the hostesses here.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Gina. We got in late last night to surprise her and we haven’t been able to track her down. We are only in town for a couple of days and we were hoping we would be able to see her.”
“Oh, how nice, I’d love to take a look at the picture to see if I can help you ladies out.”
I pulled out the picture I had taken of Janice at the reunion a few months back and quickly glanced at Carrie to make sure she was watching for Gina’s initial reaction.
“Oh, that’s Janice!” There was not one second of hesitation. “She should be in around 8:00 tonight. You probably haven’t been able to get a hold of her because she works nights and usually is sleeping during the day.”
“Really? That doesn’t leave much time for her husband and daughter.” Carrie blurted out the words before I could stop her and the lady gave us a quizzical look.
“Are we talking about the same Janice? It’s news to me if she has any children and she is as single as they come! Well, I guess I should say she probably won’t be single for long. Brad Devereaux is completely smitten and I would not be surprised if he popped the question any day now.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. Why would Janice lie about that? I remembered the look on Sarah’s face when I mentioned Janice’s husband and daughter and how she said that everything was not always as it seemed. I guess she knew more than she shared with us. Maybe that was the secret that Janice didn’t want to get out.
Gina was full of information and seemed to be offering it freely so I gently pressed her for more gossip. I ignored the fact that Janice wasn’t married and didn’t have a daughter; I was going to tackle that new information with Carrie when we were alone.
“Oh? We haven’t seen Janice in so long and we briefly saw her at our high school reunion a few months ago so I suppose I didn’t hear her correctly when she was catching me up on her life. It was a very busy night for us.”
“That’s right,” Carrie chimed in, “we had to bake over 300 cupcakes that day so we could have easily mixed up her information with someone else’s.”
“Three hundred cupcakes? My goodness that must have been grueling!” Gina exclaimed.
“It was,” we both said in unison as we giggled.
“Well, the Janice I know is single but has captured the heart of a very wealthy older man and she will probably be off the market very soon.”
“Can I ask, is Janice a dancer?” I was hoping I would hear the answer I wanted.
Gina burst out laughing. “Oh heavens, no!”
Some small part of me was relieved that Janice wasn’t an exotic dancer and it gave me hope that she was the nice, sweet person I always thought she was. Four men entered the club and I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was lunchtime. I didn’t want to be there for the lunchtime rush so it was time for us to go.
“Okay, we will stop in tonight to see her. Thank you so much for your time!”
I grabbed Carrie’s arm and we got out of there fast. As soon as we were outside Carrie gave me a curious look.
“Why the rush to leave?”
“I don’t want her to mention to Janice that we were here and if she gets distracted by the lunch rush, hopefully she will forget we stopped by.”
“Okay, that makes sense. So, what time are we stopping by the club tonight?”
I really had no desire to go back to that place, especially on a Saturday night, so I had to think of a way for us to run into Janice that day. We had about eight hours before she had to go to work so I decided we would have to go see her at her apartment building.
“We’re not. Carrie can you imagine what that place is going to be like tonight? Do you really want to be around that?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, no, but I know that we need to see Janice.”
&nbs
p; “We’re just going to have to go to her apartment. If she has to go to work at 8:00, what time do you think she’ll wake up?”
“Hmmm, well some of the guys who work for Jeff work third shift and I have heard Jeff mention that they get up around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon.”
“Maybe we should go see her around 5:30, that way she will have had enough time to wake up and get dressed and we will have enough time to talk to her without making her later for work. What do you think?”