Several hours after Solomon slipped out to meet a client, I awoke. I was wondering how to track down Olivia Steadman. Despite not knowing where she resided, or even if she were still in the area, catching up to her was easier than I thought. She was waiting for me at the agency, which I discovered just as I found her business card buried in my bag.
"Did you find the rat bastard yet?" was her first question when she saw me approach. She wore sunglasses again, despite the cloudy sky, and made no attempt to remove them.
"No," I answered as honestly and succinctly as I could. I didn't need to ask who the rat bastard was.
"Not even his body?" she asked hopefully.
"No body, sorry."
"Not even pieces of it?" she continued.
"Not a single hair," I told her as her face fell.
She pursed her lips, anger filling her words, "I knew it! He's definitely alive and on the run now with my money."
"If he were on the run, we'd know about it," I replied, "and so would the police. Believe me, no one could have survived that much blood loss."
"I think he has enough cash to stay under the radar," Olivia pointed out. "He could have bribed a whole bunch of people to get out of town. He's probably in Brazil by now with his latest girlfriend and a few pints of black market blood."
"If he's alive, my money is on Mexico," I said, remembering how much he loved going there. I was almost enjoying my new perspective since my failed relationship with him. I figured Mexico was now less about the cocktails and beaches and more about the money and ease of transition from leaving this county and migrating to our neighbor. I was sure he could feasibly get lost with minimal effort in Mexico.
"He does have a thing for dark-haired girls," mused Olivia, flicking her own dark brown hair.
"He does," I agreed. I was remembering how I became a blonde for several years after the Anthony Steadman debacle. I only returned to my natural brunette when I needed a disguise. I ended up liking it better and decided to keep it. "Do you have any idea why he would break into several properties here?" I asked.
If she frowned, or was surprised, I couldn't tell; not behind the oversized sunglasses. "None."
"No idea at all?
"What Anthony does remains a mystery to me. Please keep me updated," said Olivia, the anger dropping from her voice. "I have to talk to his family later today and they're very worried. I keep telling them they shouldn't be, but they are. I have to ask them: how can anyone be so supportive of a man like Anthony?"
"He's always been their golden boy; meaning, he can do no wrong," I told her although I was pretty sure she already knew that. "Unless they witness his bad behavior for themselves, they always insist he had a plausible excuse."
"Maybe I should introduce them to his girlfriend," Olivia said before shaking her head, and apparently deciding that was the wrong way to solve her problem. "But they'd just blame me. They’d say I drove him into an affair before they all started ripping apart our marriage. Naturally, he would come out looking golden, while I played the role of the green card deceiver."
"Are you?" I asked.
"Sure." Olivia shrugged like that was inconsequential. "But our marriage was a business arrangement we both benefited from long after our relationship stopped being fun. At least, until he got murdered and stole my money the minute I got my status confirmed. You have my number?"
I assured her I did and we said goodbye. I watched Olivia crossing the sidewalk to a waiting town car where a chauffeur held the door open. She slid in, her legs modestly staying together as though she spent a lot of time practicing such ladylike behavior. The car pulled into traffic and I turned away. Upon entering the building, I was ready and eager to study the case I was supposed to be following. The file I created on the real estate company's big problem was waiting for me.
We might have read the firm's brief to get a clue about who was breaking in, although we had one very likely suspect. But without knowing the why or how, it was something we had to consider. What kind of investigation and security agency were we if we couldn't try to protect our client from suffering this kind of activity again? Much as I didn't relish going back undercover, I knew it was a possibility in this case. I had to confirm that Anthony was our culprit and not just an opportunist in the wrong place at the right time.
As I entered the office, I stopped dead in the doorway. Anthony's girlfriend was seated in the boardroom. "She refused to budge until she spoke to you," said Fletcher, instantly arriving at my side. A former cop, Fletcher didn't have a lot of time for small talk. Initially, we weren’t too friendly, but these days, I counted him as a true friend and ally. I wished he could’ve blocked me from her view, but Chloe had already spotted me. "I suggest you tell her something to get her out of the office."
"Is she annoying you?" I asked.
"It's more like... will she start annoying us on a regular basis?" countered Fletcher. "If she annoys you, she might have to leave via the window."
I blinked. "Harsh."
"Want company?" he asked as we both looked toward the boardroom.
"No, I've got this." I sighed. I dropped my bag at my desk before walking across to the boardroom. "Hi, Chloe," I said, waiting for her inevitable outburst.
"I need answers!" Chloe started without preamble. "Where's Anthony?"
"We still don't know at this time," I told her.
"That's exactly what Detective Turner told me."
"Then we're on the same page. There's nothing more I can tell you."
"They said that too. I'm his girlfriend! Someone should tell me something!"
"I think his wife precedes you on the need-to-know list."
"His wife? As if she cares? I love Anthony! I'm devastated! She probably just wants to bury him."
"That's fairly usual for the family of the deceased."
"Ohmygosh! He's deceased!" she wailed before covering her face with her hands as big sniffling sobs wracked her whole body.
"I'm very sorry," I told her gently. I didn't know much about Anthony's marriage; only what Olivia referred to as a business arrangement. Perhaps he genuinely wanted to be with Chloe? That didn't stop the niggling doubts in my mind that Chloe had probably been easily duped as well as easily dumped. "I can't tell you anything. I suggest you speak to the detectives at the Montgomery Police Department if you want any further information."
"I will and I'll make sure to tell them how unhelpful you've been!" She stood, her bottom lip wobbling as she held back more tears. "I thought you would understand!"
"I understand how hard it is to be deceived."
"I haven't been deceived. Anthony loves me! And I love him!"
"I'm sure you do," I readily agreed. "My colleague will show you out."
She stopped sniffling long enough to give me a hopeful look as she asked, "But you'll call me if you hear anything to report?"
"I'll call you if I need to," I told her. I didn't want to entirely alienate the woman. She might end up being useful to the investigation in ways I hadn't thought of yet.
"Thank you. I'll show myself out," she said as she flounced out of the boardroom, past Fletcher who hovered near the doorway. We both watched her sashaying in the tiniest miniskirt out of the office. We were still staring when the door banged open again and a curvy brunette entered.
"I'm looking for Lexi Graves," she announced, fixing a look on me. "Are you she?"
"I am," I said.
"Great. I'm Brynn Madden. I'm here about my boyfriend, Anthony Steadman."
Fletcher and I exchanged looks. "Pardon?" I said.
"My boyfriend. Anthony Steadman. He's gone missing. I heard you're handling his case."
"You're his girlfriend?" I asked, feeling stupid for asking. How many girlfriends did Anthony have? For that matter, how many wives and enemies?
Brynn nodded. "That's right."
"His girlfriend was just here," I said. "And I spoke to his wife already."
"Them? He's getting divorced! And Chloe is totally delusional. She's nothing more to him than a secretary that he feels sorry for."
I ignored that in favor of another question. "How come you're here now?" I asked.
"Anthony told me he was going to Montgomery so when I heard he was missing, I went to Montgomery, Alabama. Who knew there was a Montgomery in Massachusetts too! Is this town even real?"
"Very real," I told her while shooting another perplexed look toward Fletcher. He gave me one of his own. "There's nothing I can tell you. I'm not involved in his case."
"But you are looking into his disappearance? I might have important information."
"Who told you I was looking into it?"
"His secretary, between tears."
"Then you probably know Anthony's name came up in relation to another case I was looking into. I'm not officially investigating his disappearance or murder." Even as I said it, I knew it wasn't true. I was stuck looking into his case and even worse, I seemed to be the first person called by everyone previously involved with him.
"Murder?" Brynn faltered, her hand grabbing the back of a chair as her knees buckled. Fletcher hastily caught her before she fell. "Anthony's dead?" And with that, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped like a bag of Jell-O into his arms.
~
"Unbelievable," said Lily when I phoned to check on her and fill her in on the crazy details. "How many significant others does that make now?"
"Three and I'm going to go with insignificant others, given how many there are."
"Those poor women."
"Are they? Or are they all delusional?" I wondered out loud.
"I don't know. There's definitely something wrong with dating a married man who already has a girlfriend."
"She seemed genuinely shocked. We had to call an ambulance when she didn't come around."
"Are you going to see her again?"
"I guess so. Like she said, she might have some pertinent information."
"Crazy town. I can't wait to hear what she says. Can I come too?"
"No."
"Spoilsport. Speaking of crazy women, I'm going crazy wondering what Jord is doing. Do you have any leads?"
"None, but I think you're right about being crazy."
"I know he's meeting her for lunch. How's that for crazy?"
"How do you know?"
"I overheard him setting up a meeting while he thought I was in the shower. They will be at another café. Can you observe them?"
"I'm so sorry, I have to work."
"I can't do it! He'll spot me and I have to know the truth. Please, Lexi."
"I'll work something out," I promised. Naturally, I also wanted to know what Jord was doing, especially after what I witnessed by the florist. "Are you sure they're not just friends?"
"What kind of friendship would they have to hide from me? No one up to anything good needs to hide messages and meetings from his wife. He should just say 'Oh, hey, I'm meeting Diane for lunch today'."
"Good point."
"Let's meet for dinner later. Jord is working a late shift, or so he says, and I haven't been to O'Grady's in forever. Let's go get a couple burgers before this baby arrives and ruins all my hot dining options."
"I'll meet you there."
"You can have an alcoholic drink and I'll live vicariously through you. Bye!"
Gazing at the open file on the Booth Realty case in front of me along with the list of questions I wrote, my mind kept wandering to my personal issues. I knew there was no way I could tail Jord successfully since I relied on anonymity. My mark couldn’t notice my presence. If it were a genuine case, I could have asked any of my colleagues to fill in for me on some light surveillance; but it wasn't, which limited my options. There was only a small number of people I could ask. I immediately eliminated two of them. I could not ask my parents to tail their own son. That left only one person.
"Please tell me this is what I think it is," said Ruby when she answered her phone. I met Ruby on my first case and she helped me several times since I became a PI. Most lately, she worked for Lily at the bar but I knew she relished the chance to help out. I just hoped she would be discreet when I told her my request.
"If it's surveillance, yes," I replied.
"Yes!" she yelled. "I can't wait. Who? What? Where? What did they do?"
"You're sworn to secrecy. You can't mention this to Lily at all."
"I can hear you," said Lily. "We're at the bar. And yes, you can ask Ruby to tail my husband. She knows everything."
"I can't wait," said Ruby. "I told Lily seventeen million times that Jord would not cheat on her and I even bet twenty bucks on it."
"I didn't make that bet," said Lily.
"So, when and where?" asked Ruby.
"Lily can give you the details; but swing by my office to get my camera," I told her. "And thank you."
"I think she has pregnancy brain. It's a real affliction. She's paranoid," said Ruby. "I had it once and I wasn't even pregnant."
"I'm still next to you!" said Lily.
"She's also very irrational right now. Let's call this Operation: Save Jord."
"Too much of a mouthful," I decided.
"Lily said the same thing about Jord only..."
I hung up before Ruby completed her sentence and turned my attention back to the file. I was forcing myself to concentrate. I knew I was missing something but I couldn't think of what it might be. As I sat there, drumming my fingers on the desk, I thought about all the reasons I suspected Anthony of breaking into the empty houses. Then, a light bulb flashed. It was one thing to steal the master list, and quite another to know when he could break in. Could Anthony have had an inside man? What if someone else leaked the information to him on which houses to target? What if that person got a cut of the proceeds? And if the mystery person were exclusively motivated by money, could they have heard about the missing two million dollars and betrayed Anthony?
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like those answers wouldn’t just solve one puzzle, but a much bigger enigma. Perhaps learning those answers could identify Anthony's killer, or, at the very least, locate his body. "I wonder if that body is still alive," I said, talking out loud again as I rocked back in my chair. There was only one person I knew well enough to consult at the realtors: Taylor. A couple of phone calls later, I discovered Taylor had taken a few days off to recover from her shock. Solomon said she would help me; did it matter where?
I grabbed the file and loaded it into my purse before heading down to the parking structure to retrieve my inconspicuous black VW. I knew Taylor's neighborhood. She lived in a district off Century Street, the main long road that transected Montgomery and took a hundred years to traverse at rush hour. Her address was a neat looking apartment block with big tubs of flowering plants by the front entry. It didn't look expensive but it didn't look cheap either. If I had to guess, I would say it was resident-owned, which was why they all took so much pride in its appearance. Sitting there, I was mulling over the questions I would ask, when a rap sounded on my passenger door. A moment later, before I could trigger the door locks, Maddox climbed in.
"Don't you ever lock your doors?" he asked.
"Usually. How did you know I was here?"
"Magic," he said.
"This is the second time you've jumped into my car recently. Given that I haven't seen you in weeks, I have to wonder if you're stalking me," I teased.
"That would be telling tales. What are you doing here? Another case?"
"I have to interview someone in that block."
"You don't seem too happy about it."
"It's a confusing case," I said, ignoring all the other mystifying cases I had already solved.
"Tell me about it."
I hesitated, then thought what the hell? Maddox was a great detective and I needed another good mind on this case. I wondered how he would react to some of the details. "My primary mission is catching someone who is breaking into my client's open houses and vacant rentals."
"There's a secondary case?"
"The other one involves Anthony Steadman."
"Why does that name sound familiar?" Maddox paused, thinking.
"You remember I used to be engaged, oh, a million years ago?"
"To a disaster of a man who cheated on you and tried to ruin your life?"
"That's him."
"I knew I recognized his name. What has he got to do with this case?"
"It looks like he’s part of it."
"Lexi!"
"I know! Not my choice either."
"Your ex is in town?" Maddox sounded appalled; and given what I told him, it wasn't surprising.
"Yes. No. Maybe."
"Which is it?"
"All of the above? I don't know. First he turned up out of the blue, saying someone was trying to kill him. Then he jumped to the top of my suspect list."
"I don't know which question to ask first."
"Wait until you hear about his wife and two girlfriends."
"This is like a reality show."
"Welcome to my life."
"What does the wife say?"
"She accused him of stealing two million dollars from her bank account."
"And the girlfriends?"
"Girlfriend number one pointed the finger at his wife. Girlfriend number two only just turned up today."
"Amazing."
"Is that all you have to say?"
"No, I have a lot to say but at the same time, I'm speechless."
"I don't know what to do."
"Did you find the money yet?"
"I haven't started looking," I admitted.
"You should definitely find the money first. I'll bet Lucas can track it down in a couple of hours."
"Except it was all in cash, not stolen electronically."
Maddox raised his eyebrows. "Interesting. And not so easy to find."
"You're telling me."
"You know what else? That amount of cash isn't so easy to hide either."
I pondered his point. "That's a very good aspect to consider. How would someone even move that amount of money?"
"In a large suitcase. Definitely need some kind of vehicle."
"Where would you hide it?"
Maddox shrugged. "Depends on how paranoid I was."
"Imagine you stole it and someone wanted to take it from you, maybe even kill you for it. Where would you hide it then?"
"In a place the authorities would never equate with me; or a place so far from me that I could lay low until the heat faded before picking it up."
"What about burying it?"
"No! I wouldn't put it anywhere that someone else could stumble over it and snatch it. That would seriously ruin my payday. My guess would be a storage locker somewhere outside of town."
"What about a hotel room?"
"For a curious maid to discover? No way. Maybe in an empty building. Not a foreclosure, necessarily; that would be too risky. Someplace that I knew would be unoccupied for a while. An off season cabin by Lake Pierce would work."
"Or a house where the owners go out of town for long periods," I mused. There were several places on the realtors’ books and they were all huge mansions. Could I realistically check out every single one from top to bottom?
"Where have you been anyway?" I asked, changing the subject.
"I told you. Paris."
"I know that; but what were you doing there?"
Maddox tapped his nose. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
"Seriously?"
"No, but the people I work with might."
"That sounds ominous. What the hell were you doing?"
"That's a story saved for another day."
"I got your postcard. Thank you." I found it in my mailbox before Maddox disappeared on me and now it was tucked into my notepad. I was surprised and pleased that he thought of me.
"You're welcome."
"So are you home for good now? Or are you preparing for another secret adventure?"
"That remains to be seen. The job was interesting and complicated, so maybe. It's been a long time since I had a case like that."
"So it was a case? For the FBI?"
"Ish."
"You are so full of mystery."
"That's me. International Man of Mystery. I have to get to a meeting now but let's catch up later in the week. I want to hear about this crazy case of yours." Maddox reached for the door handle and flashed me a killer smile that would have made most women weak in the knees.
"You won't when you hear the details."
He released the handle, sitting back. "Oh? What the hell was Solomon thinking by taking a case like that?" Maddox's voice filled the car and I winced at his disapproving tone.
"He didn't. Anthony stumbled into the case and may have gotten himself killed. If I walked in a moment earlier, I could have seen everything..."
"Whoa! Back up! You almost walked in on Anthony being murdered?"
"I think so. Only we didn’t find any dead body, just so much blood everywhere so..."
"You almost walked in on your ex being incredibly violently murdered? And you're okay with that?"
"No! Not particularly, no. It was very traumatic, especially when Garrett took me in for questioning."
"What? No, wait, don't answer. Here's another question. Steadman stole the money and disappeared?"
"His wife thinks so."
"What kind of case have you gotten sucked into this time?"
"A very complicated, very messy, case."
"You're not kidding. I almost don't want to get out of the car. I kind of want to shadow you just so you don't get hurt. Wait, is someone shadowing you? Has Solomon at least given you a bodyguard?"
"No."
"Some boyfriend," muttered Maddox.
"Excuse me?"
"If we were still together, I wouldn't let you out of my sight with all this intrigue going on. I'm worried about you. Do you have your gun?"
"No."
"Unbelievable! No bodyguard, no gun, and a crazy ex who might have been murdered."
"That seems to cover it."
"Can you promise me one thing before I get out of this car?"
"Yes?" I asked, wondering what he had in mind.
"The minute you get worried about anything, anything, call me. Even if it's just a squeaky floorboard. I'll drop everything, I promise."
"You don't have to do that."
"Someone has to." Maddox leaned over and kissed my cheek in a display of affection that hadn't existed between us for a long time. "Remember, anything."
"Anything," I repeated, not sure if I were agreeing with him, although his sincere concern touched me. I believed him too. Despite our sad breakup, we always remained friends. I was pretty sure there were times when Maddox hated me. Truth was, no one was to blame for the breakup. It was a terrible misunderstanding. By the time it was all cleared up, we'd already moved on. Or rather, I had; and Maddox was hurt by my move.
I was also sure that Solomon wasn't thrilled with our friendship, and Maddox would have rather I dated just about anyone else besides Solomon. I'd never been too sure about their history but I did not fail to miss the irony when their roles seemed to reverse. Once upon a time, Solomon was the mystery man; now we shared a laundry basket. I once shared a lot of things with Maddox too, but now I barely knew what he was doing or where he went. I had to remind myself that Maddox's life ceased to be any of my business.
"Anything," he said again after a long pause. "Take care, Lexi, and watch your back." He got out of the car before I could reassure him I'd be fine. He crossed the street before climbing into his SUV, and waved as he took off. I waited until he turned the corner before I got out and walked over to Taylor's apartment. I was hoping the interview would be simple and not as horrifying as finding Anthony's body stuffed inside her closet.