Monday morning found me wading waist deep at the detective agency. Mark wasn’t around. It was just me with a red-faced Bret Holmes, arms folded, leaning against his massive desk. He’d been frothing for a while now and little drops of spit clung to the corners of his rapidly moving mouth. Agitation clouded his face and deep wrinkles surrounding his glaring eyes let me know I was in serious trouble.
“I just finished reading the last report Mark turned in about you, Lucy. It wasn’t a pretty picture.”
I blinked. “From the mall stakeout?”
“Yes.” He reached a hand behind to grab a thin report, waved it in front of me. “Want to read it?”
“No.”
“I’ll summarize then.” He brought the paper close to his face. The guy must need reading glasses but didn’t want to stop to find them. I could swear the gray hair on his head was beginning to turn white.
“You received yet another personal call while on stakeout.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Well?”
“Well, what? I received a call.”
“You know that’s against the rules of this agency.”
“And I didn’t answer it, Bret. I had my phone on vibrate anyway so it wasn’t a distraction.”
“That’s not what Mark wrote.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes. “It was a distraction to him but not to me.”
“Meaning what?”
“Did he happen to write in that report that while he was chewing me out for having my phone on vibrate that the target got up and left?”
That stopped him, for a moment. “No, but that doesn’t excuse breaking the rules.”
“Bret, isn’t it more important to stay focused on the target and move when she does? I would think a good detective would…”
He didn’t want to hear my idea of what a good detective would do. “And then there’s the bomb threat.”
“Yes, there was a bomb threat. We all had to leave and…”
“Mark said you didn’t go out with him. He had to hunt around for you outside the building.”
I blew out a weary breath. “While Mark was hightailing it out of the building as fast as humanly possible, I hung back to watch the target. She calmly looked back at me, took her boyfriend’s hand and walked into Sears with him. It’s obvious that she made me, probably the both of us, and had possibly called in the threat herself to throw us off track.”
“Um…”
“Which is what happened. After we were done with the cops, we couldn’t find her anywhere.”
“So you lost her.”
“What did Mark say about that in his report?”
“Just that she disappeared.”
“Well, if you ask me…”
“And I’m not, Lucy. I’m not asking you to do anything but shadow a detective who has his private investigator license. You don’t, I need to point out, but Mark does and has been an invaluable asset to this business for five years now.”
I just waited. Whatever was coming wouldn’t be good, just inevitable.
Bret’s arms unfolded and he took a deep breath. He tried to calm down.
“You came highly recommended to me by Joe Warner, a personal friend. Plus you’ve had success on your own as a kind of Nancy Drew, but I’ve got a license to protect and you’re breaking some important rules. I put these rules in place for a reason and I need to know that you can follow orders.”
I continued to wait. There wasn’t much I could say anyway. An ass chewing was an ass chewing.
“I’m going to give you one more chance, Lucy.” He reached towards his desk for a small notebook. “I’ve got a missing person case that I want you to work on with Mark. Shadow him, Lucy. Learn how a professional works a case. I believe you have the makings to be a good detective but you lack discipline.” He handed the notebook to me. “Show me that you can do the job right.”
I nodded unsure if I was grateful for a second chance or dismayed by it.
“Thanks, Bret.”
I turned and walked to the door.
“Lucy.”
“Sir?” I looked back at him.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Closing the door behind me, I leaned against it and tried to quiet my breathing. I’d been yelled at by the best—my own father—but Bret Holmes was a close second to making me feel lower than a body buried six feet under. I was rapidly discovering that I could lose faith in my abilities as puzzle-solver extraordinaire if I listened to any more of this. Bret’s secretary was watching me with a strange expression on her face, so I smiled and walked out of the office with my head high.
The second I got back in my car, my chin sunk to my chest. All my instincts were being questioned, which in turn, made me question myself. Movement caught my eye and I watched Yosemite Sam/Mark walk by with a smug expression on his otherwise dull face. I sat up straight, smiled at him and took off for the movie theater. I needed to get to work.
After a day at the theater where I basically functioned as a robot mechanically going through the motions, I went home and walked Baskerville. Breathing in the cool air and watching the neighborhood children dash around playing and riding bikes made me feel somewhat better. A comical exchange with Mrs. Murphy and Hamlet had me chuckling. When I returned to the apartment, I played back the answer machine and there was one from Joe Warner. I decided to pay him a visit tonight. After feeding the pets and covering Napoleon’s cage, I changed into fresh jeans and tee shirt to see what was on Joe’s mind. I needed to talk to him and his neighbors anyway. And it would be good to talk with someone who had faith in my abilities. I was a quart low on confidence and this could be a pick-me-up.
“Lucy, thanks for coming tonight. We’ve all been,” Joe Warner scanned the room, “a little nervous.”
“Sorry I didn’t call sooner, Mr. Warner, but I’m still in the gathering clues stage of my investigation.” I turned to look at Joe’s neighbors. “Did you bring the pictures I requested?” Everyone nodded at the same time.
Petite Tessa Desmond handed me a photo. “This is Spanky. It was taken this year.” She pointed. “You can see his new blue collar in the photo too.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Desmond. This is great. He’s a cute Pomeranian.”
Tom Brewer got up to hand me his photo. His wife Emma beside him folded and refolded her nervous hands. “And here’s Jack and Bella. Remember they’re two-year-old Yorkshire Terriers.”
“Do they bark much?” I smiled at them. Tom loosened up to smile back.
“Constantly, unless they’re afraid.” His smile faded. “Then they’re quiet.”
“When did you see them afraid?” I asked gently.
Emma opened her mouth. “The man we bought them from didn’t seem like a nice man. They were quiet with him but noisy when we took them.” She exchanged a look with Tom. “We took that to mean they were afraid of him.”
“That could be useful,” I nodded to her. Last I turned to Joe. He was looking at the picture in his hands, biting his lip. When he looked over at me, I cleared my throat. “Mr. Warner?”
He licked his lips twice, pushed the glasses back on his nose. Tears pricked my eyes at his sad expression. “This is Winston.” He handed me a photo. “You know he’s a Golden Lab and he’s three in this picture. You can see the new black collar I’d just given him for his birthday.” Looking at his neighbors, his smile was small. “Our pets are our children, aren’t they?”
Returning his gaze to me, he continued. “You and Winston are the closest to children that I’ve ever had, Lucy.” When a tear rolled down his cheek, I was close to losing it. “Find him for me.”
It wasn’t a request. It was something I had to do to make the world quit tilting for him, Tessa, Tom and Emma. I began a silent prayer that I wasn’t too late. I feared that I was.
I swallowed hard and summarized the situation for them. On a stakeout with Cindy, we’d met a man who introduced us to his neighbor who had lost a dog. On a subsequent stakeout, I’d gotten a license plate number of a suspicious van, which gave me the name and address of a business in Sparks. But when I mentioned that the business was a lab of some kind, they all got excited and jumped up.
I held out both hands. “Listen, I know you want to help but give me a few more days. I have some things to do still and then I hope to get you all involved.” I looked at each one in turn. “Can you do that?”
Slowly everyone nodded. Some slightly, some vigorously but they all wanted in on the action.
“Thanks.” I rose and they rose with me. “And thanks for the pictures. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
“Lucy, I want to talk to you privately.” Joe gave me that advisor look. Tom got the hint.
“Sure, we’ll be going now. Emma?” He stretched out a hand to his wife.
“Bye, Joe, Lucy.” Emma and Tom walked to the door.
“Bye Joe and thanks, Lucy.” Tessa followed Tom and Emma out the door.
Mr. Warner walked to the kitchen and poured me a glass of red wine.
“The least I can do,” he held it out to me. I gratefully accepted and drank a good sip.
“Thanks, Mr. Warner.” I raised the glass to him. “And thanks too about the comment that I’m like your child.” I smirked. “I know I’ve been a pain for the last ten years.”
“You’ve been a delight, Lucy, and believe me when I tell you that you’re paying me back now for all those restless nights I spent worrying about you.”
I blinked at him. “You had restless nights about me?”
“I’ve always worried about you. Why do you think I finally gave you that Sherlock Holmes deerstalker cap?”
“Why?”
“To point you in the right direction. You sure couldn’t see it by yourself.”
I wanted to tell him that his push in the right direction was going to give me an ulcer, that the internship wasn’t going very well. But he looked so pleased with himself and I didn’t want him sad again. I gave a half-hearted smile and nodded.
“You’ve been a big help, that’s for sure, Mr. Warner and I thank you.”
I set down my glass. “Thanks for the wine but I need to take off.”
“Pet Baskerville for me.”
“Will do. I’ll call you soon.”
His last smile was a sad one. I’d be sad too if my dog disappeared off the face of the earth.
If my dog disappeared…
That gave me an idea.
* * *