Riley was sitting at his desk when I barged into his office. Claire didn't look up from what she was typing.
"Merry's here to see you, Ri."
"Ri?" My eyebrows went up as I plopped down in the chair opposite his desk.
Riley, my handsome former handler, ran his hands through his thick, wavy blond hair. "Yeah, she's calling me that now. I can't seem to get her to stop."
"Doesn't she work for you?" I asked. "And by the way, I don't work for you. So why are you having your assistant send her assistant to fetch me?"
"Ah. You've met Toby."
"Yeah," I sighed. "I've met Toby. And besides the fact that he thought I was too old to be at Druid-Con, I didn't appreciate the fact that he thinks you're my boss."
Riley grinned. "Well, I was once."
"You were my handler and we worked together." I looked around but didn't see Kelly. Oh right. It's the weekend. "Why are you working today?"
Riley folded his arms over his chest. "I've got a new client. We have a lot of work to do and fast."
I looked at Claire, then at him. "Stewie hired you?"
Riley nodded. "And Claire is no longer my assistant. She's been promoted."
I glanced at her. "She has?"
"Yes" was all he said.
That wasn't enough intel. "To what?"
Riley didn't answer.
"Riley," I pushed. "What's Claire's new title?"
My former handler and not boss picked at a thread on his immaculate, black polo shirt.
I waited. He knew I wasn't going anywhere until he told me. It kind of made me mad. He fought tooth and nail against giving Kelly a promotion from researcher to investigator. Why did he cave so easily with Claire?
"CEO. She's the CEO," he said after a beat.
"You're the CEO. Although, with only two employees, I'm not sure CEO is an appropriate title."
He put his hand on his chest. "I'm the president. She still works for me."
"So that's why she has an assistant." This really wasn't important. "Why did you call me in?"
He seemed relieved to drop this line of questioning. "I need your take on the murder. You were there, right?"
I nodded. "I was. I didn't see anything." Should I tell him that I'm investigating too? Was it worth it to have both Riley and me investigating, in addition to the police department? For a small town, it seemed like too many cooks and all that.
"This is a lucrative gig." Riley leaned forward. "And I have new staff to support."
"I still don't get why you promoted Claire to such a high position."
Riley clammed up.
"What did you do? Hit on her?" I whispered.
"I wouldn't do that!" he hissed back.
"Since when?" I retorted. Riley was a known ladies' man. With his charm and good looks, he could melt the panties off of a Russian prison matron. In fact he had once in Siberia. Of course, hitting on your employees was pretty bad in this day and age.
"No, I didn't. She just made an excellent case for her advancement."
I looked at the pretty redhead who was typing away across the room. "She brought you the druid account, didn't she?"
"She's proving to be a valuable asset" was all he would say.
"While I'm glad they hired you, I'm looking into this too."
"Of course you are." He nodded. "But why not look into it with me? We can work together on this one, since you are involved."
"You want me to work for you for free?" I shook my head. "Not a chance."
"It would be more like a collaboration," he said. "Think of it as two agencies working together to help Stewie."
"I'm not an agency," I murmured. But I did want to help Stewie.
What would Rex think if I teamed up with Riley? He could tell me not to get involved…not that I'd listen…but Riley was operating as a professional hired by his client. Which meant if I was working with Riley, I wasn't necessarily working against my husband.
"Convince me," I said.
He sat back and spread his hands. "Stewie, your druid king or whatever he is, needs you. That kid cannot take the fall for this. Do you want him to go to prison?"
"No, which is why I'm investigating."
"Well, wouldn't two heads be better than one?"
Damn it. I couldn't argue with that.
"Maybe this will change your mind." Riley handed me a piece of paper.
It was a press release that read,
CULT OF ETERNAL FEAR AND LOATHING MEDIA RELEASE.
The Cult of Eternal Fear and Loathing will be suing the Cult of NicoDerm for intellectual theft for creating upheaval by promoting an event for the same time and place as an event the COEF had spent months painstakingly creating.
"I'm not sure they have a case," I mumbled. Still, this was a low blow.
And as a result of the fact that Dred Demon Odius, aka Stewie, has committed murder, the Bird Goddess of the Cult of NicoDerm has joined with COEF to obtain justice for Deliria.
What? I hurled the paper at Riley, but instead of rocketing through the air, it just floated harmlessly onto his desk.
"I most certainly did not leave the Cult of NicoDerm, and I would never ever betray my druids!" I said it a bit loudly so Claire would hear. She didn't act as though she did. "Besides, I don't think they even have a case. You can't copywrite an idea, so you can't be charged for coming up with the same idea as someone else."
"I did a little digging into the Cult of Eternal Fear and Loathing." Riley leaned back, already convinced I was going to help. "They get their funding from a shell company in the Cayman Islands."
"I guess that's not too surprising," I said slowly. "It's a wealthy community."
"Yes, but I have my suspicions. Why use a shell company for something the cult's parents probably see as a hobby?"
"That's a good point…" I was softening on working with Riley. This was intel he could get, and he still had connections in the FBI and CIA. I only had Ahmed at Langley, who I paid off in cookie bribes. And lately, he hasn't been very keen on helping me.
"You can go out in the field to investigate. I'll send Kelly to work with you," Riley suggested. "I'll do the research. I want to dig around in this shell company a bit."
"Do I get paid?" I asked.
"No. Because I'm sure once again, you'll tell the world you solved my case. And you're doing it for Stewie."
He wasn't wrong. I really didn't like that my druids were up against this strange group. "I really have solved your cases," I sniffed. "I'll do it, as long as Kelly isn't put in the middle and forced to decide who to answer to."
"She'll answer to me," Riley said. "The man who pays her salary."
"She'll answer to no one, as an independent investigator. She can report back to you."
"Fine," Riley caved. "Now, fill me in on everything you know."
"Since it's lunchtime, throw in a pizza and you've got a deal."
The pizza arrived in ten minutes because Clairvoyant Claire had already ordered. That woman knows things about me before I know them. There are times when I'd come to the office unannounced to find my favorite donuts waiting for me.
I told Riley everything while I ate half of a double pepperoni with extra sauce pizza. Riley had a salad. Because he's not right in the head.
"That's very suspicious." Riley waved his fork in the air. "The Blue Zombie deal must've been in the works for a while. So why announce it now?"
"Maybe Deliria was planning to announce it during the Con?" I wiped the grease off my hands. Pizza without grease isn't pizza as far as I'm concerned.
"That's possible. I can look into that too."
"And I'll keep on the widower and agent." I picked up the press release. "Maybe I should pay a visit to the Kennedy's Landing druids."
"What are you going to do?" Riley asked warily.
"Well, I'd like to tickle torture Sherman. But maybe I'll make them think I'm interested." I suppressed a shudder.
My former handler looked off into space. "I believe tickle torture has been outlawed in fifty-two countries."
"I'll try not to take Sherman to one of those when this is all over."
"What if he's the killer? It seems like a pretty risky move to say you actually saw someone murder someone else." Riley slid his salad away.
"I thought that too. I'll have to figure out an angle for talking to the Cult of Eternal Fear and Loathing, one that won't make me nauseous."
"You managed to get by with a lot of the scumbags you were dealing with back in the day."
I agreed. "There were some real winners in my career. I think that if I could handle Chechen strongmen and the Yakuza and Colombian drug lords, I can handle Sherman. Betty could handle Sherman," I said as I got to my feet.
"How is Betty anyway? I haven't seen her in a while," Riley asked.
"Scratch that," I said. "If I can handle Betty, I can handle Sherman.
As I walked out the door, I heard Riley say, "You can handle Betty?" Now why did he have to say it like that?
I headed back to the Con, in hopes of questioning Sherman, Austin, and Amy and possibly my own cult. And yes, I wanted to see the convertible again, but that wasn't my main reason for going. It might be #2 or 3, but not the first one. Obviously my first concern was getting Stewie out of jail. But if I could do it while driving a red convertible, that would be a plus.
Unfortunately, the sign on the door said that the Con was closed down. Officer Kevin Dooley was standing guard, eating from a bucket of fried chicken. I went in to see for myself. Sure enough, the room was stripped bare, and nothing was there, not even my convertible.
They wouldn't cancel the drawing, would they? My heart fluttered. And then I realized my winning was probably a long shot. Why did I think I could win? I rarely won prizes. In fact, the only time I did was when I won a case of soap at an underground raffle in Moldova. I donated it to an orphanage. Riley had wanted me to turn around and sell it on the black market. We could've made a lot of money. But I thought the orphans needed it more.
"Kevin." I walked over. "How did they shut down so fast?"
Dooley looked at me through hooded eyes as he chewed. "Don't know."
"How long have you been here?"
He shrugged. "Want a biscuit?"
It was better to say no. He probably wouldn't really give it up without a fight. "No thanks." I walked away.
How did they close the whole thing down so quickly? How was I going to casually run into Austin and Amy now? And who won the convertible?