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“What?” Dee hadn’t even gotten to her desk good the next morning before Connie rambled about CeCe Babbitt.
“Yeah.” Connie gawked at Dee. “He and his aunt showed up at The Marion Bistro last night when Grayson and I were having dinner. He’s stalking me, Dee.”
“Aren’t you blowing this out of proportion?” Dee sat, nausea ripping through her stomach. “Ooh, Jesus.” She took two nausea pills with Sprite.
“You all right?”
“This damn stomach.” Dee rubbed it. “I’m sick in the mornings, evenings and night.”
“I told his ass off, but it didn’t faze him.” Connie propped her elbows on her desk. “He’s not that timid guy he used to be and he let me know it. It wasn’t what he said but the way he said it.”
“Report his ass for sexual harassment and get him out of here.”
“That’s not even the big news.” Connie wiggled her pen. “CeCe told his aunt she couldn’t come to his place because his apartment building was having renovations. That sounded odd when Detective Phelps hadn’t mentioned that when we talked about the Jessica Jacobs case.”
“And?” Dee belched, getting heartburn. “Ugh.”
“I swung by there to check out these ‘renovations’ and just like I suspected nothing is going on at his apartment building.”
Dee popped a peppermint in her mouth. “He lied to his aunt.”
“Exactly. Why would he do that if he wasn’t hiding something?”
“So he lied. Why is it your business?”
“You don’t care?” Connie grabbed papers. “What about you always going on about Jonathan? I listen to your concerns but you push aside what I say about CeCe.”
“It’s not the same.” Dee smacked the candy. “Jonathan is a sadistic moron who drugged and kidnapped me. CeCe’s a strange guy with a crush on you.”
“No.” Connie shook her finger. “Don’t downplay this, Dee. CeCe’s lying all over the place and I’m gonna find out why.”
Dee moved the candy around in her mouth. “You’re obsessed.”
“Excuse me?” A tall, hunky man around his late 40s with luxuriant blondish-gray hair and a matching beard stood at Connie and Dee’s desks. “Are you Detectives Wilks and Quarter?”
Connie sat at attention. “Yes, we are.”
“I’m Theodore Pyle.” His strong cheekbones flexed as flashes of light popped from his light-brown eyes. “I wanted to speak to you about the Lang Latimer case.”
“Please.” Dee smiled at the man. “We welcome anything you want to tell us.”
Connie stood, straightening her blouse. “Follow us.”
****
“Ooh Lordy.” Dee inched herself into a chair in the interrogation room. “Goodness.” She covered her mouth to hide her burp.
“Are you all right, Detective?” Theodore pulled Connie’s chair out for her to sit.
Dee slouched on the table. “I’m under the weather today.”
“She’s pregnant,” Connie said. “Morning sickness is getting the best of her.”
“Ah.” Theodore took a seat. “I get it. My wife is five months pregnant.”
“Congratulations.” Connie smiled.
“Thanks.” He grabbed the table. “She was sick as a dog those first three months. That’s when your body is goes the most changes. Once you get out your first trimester it’ll get easier.”
Connie asked Theodore, “What did you need to tell us?”
“I don’t want to get someone in trouble if I’m wrong and it’s nothing.”
“If the person did nothing wrong they don’t have to worry.” Connie patted his hand. “We’re all ears.”
Dee groaned as her stomach rumbled.
They glanced at her.
She avoided their stares. “Sorry.”
“I’m the manager at PC Express,” Theodore said. “The computer repair company.”
Connie nodded. “You guys advertise door-to-door. You always seem to come when I’m in the shower.”
He grinned showing his dimples. “We get close to sixty percent of our business going door-to-door and offering specials. Anyway, Lang was a regular.”
Connie wrote on the notepad.
“We’d done work on her laptop last year and she remained a customer. We had a special going about a month and a half ago and we make sure our current customers are at the top of the list.” He clasped his hands. “We had a new salesman on board. He hadn’t even been there two weeks.” Theodore cleared his throat. “I’d assigned him to work in Lang’s area.”
Connie glanced up while writing. “Okay.”
“After the salesman made his rounds, we got a call the next morning from Lang saying she didn’t want him at her home anymore.”
Dee squinted. “Why?”
“She said he made advances toward her and kept shifting the conversation to her personal life instead of pushing the service. It alarmed us to get her complaint because we take harassment seriously. I had no choice but to let him go.”
“Who was the salesman?” Dee asked.
Theodore switched his eyes between Connie and Dee. “CeCe Babbitt.”