21 – Missing in Action

When I woke up the first time, it was only seven thirty-eight. I rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up again about two hours later, not because I wanted to, but because someone was beating on my door. It was Sheriff Russell.

“Where did you ladies go when you left Evans’ store last night?” asked the sheriff.

“We all went home. It was three thirty in the morning at the time”, I said sarcastically. “Why?”

“Because right now, both of them are missing”, said Nate. “Wendy’s husband called me when she didn’t come home. She had called him before they left your house and said they were on their way. They were in the same car”.

I was wide awake now. Hearing something like that will do this to you.

“Do you have any leads yet?” I asked.

“What I know right now is that Jessica’s car was found sitting at a stop light. The key was sitting in the ignition and the engine was running. Both of the front doors were hanging wide open. Their purses and phones were sitting in the car”

“Thank you for letting me know, Sheriff. I’m going to snoop around in my usual ways and see what I can find out”.

“I didn’t hear you say that, but keep me informed”, he said with a bit of a smile.

I called Keith as soon as the sheriff left and told him what happened. He told me he’d get right on it. I suggested that he pull up the video feed from the stop light to see what he could find out from that.

“Woman, hush and stop telling me how to do my damn job”, said Keith.

“Tell me again why it is that I put up with you and your surly attitude?”

“Because you won’t find anyone else with my skill set in a two hundred mile radius that will work for what you’re paying me”, said Keith.

“Oh, yeah”, I said. “Carry on”.

“I’ll call you when I have something”, said Keith as he hung up the phone.

There was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep anytime soon after hearing news like that, so I started a pot of coffee and took a shower.

I got dressed, set up my laptop on the kitchen table, and sat down with my first cup of coffee. By the time I was pouring the third cup, I still hadn’t heard from Keith, so I reached for the phone to call him and it started ringing. It was Keith.

“Please tell me you have something I can use to find them”, I said.

“That’s why I was calling. How fast can you get here?”

“I’m on my way”.

22 – There’s Always a Catch

I walked into my office about fifteen minutes later. Keith had a stack of pictures spread out across his desk.

“What did you find out?” I asked.

“Give me a minute”, said Keith, “and don’t touch anything”. He was arranging the photos by the time stamps that were printed on the bottom right corner of each picture.

After Claudia finished printing out the rest of the photos, she brought them over to us. The three of us started putting them in chronological order with the other photos.

With the three of us looking, it didn’t take long to find the photos that showed the kidnappings. The first photo that showed anything was one of the girls pulling up to the stop light at a quarter to three in the morning.

From what we could tell, there were two men involved. They were wearing dark clothing and had their faces covered.

The photos showed that the two men each grabbed a door and yanked it open. The first guy grabbed Jessica and clocked her on the head, knocking her out cold. Wendy tried to run, but the second man brought her down on the street with what looked like a stun gun.

They loaded the women up in the back of a white van. There were no license plates. The only discernible markings were a small dent near the rear door handle, a small red streak on the right rear bumper, and red clay on the tires.

The photos showed that the men headed north before leaving the view of one of the few stop light cameras in town. There was no other usable information from the photos.

I gave Sheriff Russell a call and told him what we found.

“I’ll take it from here” said Nate.

“What can I do to help?” I asked.

“You can stay out of it, Savannah. You’re too close to this one. Let me handle it”, said Nate.

“I’ll try, but no promises”, I said as I hung up the phone.

“I’m gonna go talk to a man about a horse”, I said to Keith. “Wanna help?”

“So what you’re really saying is that you are going to go steal a big hairy spider, right?” asked Keith. “If that’s the case you’re about to work on, I think I’ll pass”.

“Yeppers, that’s the one”, I said as I walked out the door. “I’ll be back later after the spider freak picks up his hairy little pet”.

I really couldn’t think of a better way to distract myself from two of my best friends being kidnapped than to go steal a big hairy tarantula spider. I shuddered at the thought of it. I REALLY do NOT like spiders.

From what Barrie told me, the spider is in a glass case out in the pool house in his ex-wife’s backyard. She hates spiders as much as I do. She didn’t want it. She just didn’t want him to have it. These two think far too much alike.

According to Barrie Landers, all I had to do was slip in through the pool gate, go into the pool house, grab the spider in its glass enclosed cage, bring it home, and he’ll come pick it up.

It sounded easy enough, but I knew there would be a catch. There’s always a catch.

I parked a block over from her house. There was a field nearby with access to the backside of her house. I was hoping it would give me enough cover that the neighbors wouldn’t see me walk through there on my way out with that tarantula case under my arm.

The ex Mrs. Landers wasn’t home and neither was anyone else, from what I could tell. I got into the pool area with no problem, but the pool house was locked. I looked around for another way in and found a window covered up by some not-so-neatly trimmed shrubs.

I crawled in through the unlocked window and found the spider in its case, just where he said it would be. Ugh! I shuddered again.

I looked around for something I could cover the case up with. I just couldn’t handle seeing that thing look at me, waving its hairy little legs around.

I unlocked the dead bolt on the door and peaked out. When I was sure that there still wasn’t anyone around, I covered the case with a beach towel I’d found in a covered cabinet, picked it up, and carefully walked out of the pool house.

I was almost to the gate when “the catch” showed itself. There’s always a catch. This time, “the catch” was that there were two Dobermans running towards me from the main house. Either someone let them out, or they had just realized I was there.

I ran the rest of the way to the gate, holding the spider in its glass cage under my right arm. I threw the gate shut with my left hand, stepped away from the fence, and checked the spider. Yep, the hairy little, beady-eyed bastard was still there.

When I got back to my car, I put the spider and its cage on the front floor board, keeping the cover on it. If that thing got out before I got home, I wanted to know ahead of time, but I didn’t necessarily want to look at it.

When I got inside my house, I put the glass case on my kitchen counter and called Barrie. He didn’t answer so I left him a message asking him to please come and pick up his spider as soon as possible and hung up the phone.

I didn’t want to stray too far from home before I heard from Barrie, so I kicked back in the recliner and turned on the TV. It wasn’t long before I was sound asleep.

23 – Midnight Drive

I woke up a few hours later to my phone ringing. The voice on the other end of the line was slightly muffled, but I could still hear him. He said, “If you ever want to see your friends alive again, be at the Hope County Cemetery at midnight tonight. Come alone or they die” and disconnected the call.

I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Even though every bone in my body screamed at me not to, I knew I had to go.

Normally I would not have gone alone, but this time I didn’t have much of a choice. My best friends’ lives were at stake.

I opted not to call the sheriff. He would just stop me from going in any way that he could.

It wouldn’t be the first time he threw me in the drunk tank to keep me from doing something stupid, on a professional level of course. It’s ironic that I’ve been in there so many times and was never actually drunk or under arrest.

You’d think with as many ways as I “bend the rules” I would have gone to prison by now. Hell I just broke into some lady’s pool house and stole a hairy ass tarantula. What the hell was I thinking?? Oh yeah that’s right. I was thinking about the extra twenty-five grand.

It was only seven thirty. I had several hours to kill before cemetery time, so I decided to go to Ryer’s Pub for a few drinks.

I wasn’t sure what I would be facing tonight at the cemetery, but I knew it couldn’t possibly be pleasant. I could use the liquid courage and the sexy distraction that Mitch Redman would inadvertently provide.

I took a shower, got ready, and headed out. I got to the bar around nine. Tim and Dallas were behind the bar. Lanie was busy waiting tables, but she damn sure wasn’t in any hurry.

I sat down at the bar and ordered a shot of whiskey. I looked around but didn’t see Mitch. Damn. I sat and stared at my first shot for a while before I drank it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the danger that my best friends were in. I’ve had people come after me before, but not my friends.

For the first time, I was seriously nervous long before ever leaving for a job, even though this wasn’t something I would actually be paid monetarily for. My “payment’ would be for my friends to be back home again, safe and sound.

“Hellerrrrrrrrr??? Anybody home?” asked Dallas.

I looked up and Dallas was standing in front of me behind the bar. He looked like he was waiting for something.

“Earth to hot brunette” asked Dallas.

“Huh? Oh, Sorry. My mind is somewhere else tonight”, I said.

“No problem. I was just asking if you were ready for another drink”.

“Yes. Definitely, but make it a double this time”, I said.

He nodded, poured my whiskey, and handed me the glass.

The more I drank, the more I realized it was likely that they were both already dead. No ransom had been requested. The only contact as far as I knew was the phone call to me.

If they’re dead, their killer was just using them to lure me into a trap. All I had to do was figure out was why. Sure, no problem. I’ll get right on that.

I thought about my current case load. I dismissed the completed cases. The only unhappy client at this point was Rod Martin. He’s in jail for stabbing his mistress to death and trying to kill me at the moment, so it’s obviously not him.

The only case I’ve been working on without much progress has been Shawn Greenley’s case. It could have something to do with that, but I have no idea what it could be.

I’ve got it! That has to be it! Alena Johnson’s murderer kidnapped my friends and is meeting me at midnight. How the hell do I keep getting into situations like this? Whoever did must be using my friends to keep me from finding out the truth.

I looked at my watch: quarter to eleven. I stuck a ten dollar bill in the tip jar for the guys and headed out.

I was still pretty sober. Apparently I’ve been drinking enough tequila lately that several shots of whiskey didn’t affect me the way they used to.

It didn’t do much for liquid courage, but at least I was a little more relaxed. That, of course, changed drastically when I started driving towards the cemetery.

I knew if I did this and didn’t tell anyone they would wring my neck and I’d never hear the end of it, assuming I survived the rest of the night in the first place.

I couldn’t call the sheriff’s office without someone telling Nate. I knew he’d get the message almost immediately and would try to stop me.

My only recourse was to leave a message for Keith on the business phone. I knew he wouldn’t hear it until morning, so he wouldn’t be able to intervene.

I sat in my car for a few minutes debating the issue in my head and then made the call anyway. I left a message telling Keith about my mysterious phone call and the midnight meeting. I told him what time it was and that I was about to be on my way to the cemetery.

After I hung up the phone, I tried to get a grip on my nerves. I got my gun out of the glove compartment and made sure it was loaded. I put the safety on, put the gun between the small of my back and the waist band of my blue jeans, drove out of the parking lot, and headed towards the cemetery.

It was still a few minutes to midnight when I got there. The lock on the front gate had been broken for years. No one had ever bothered to replace it, so the gates just stayed open all the time.

I didn’t see any cars, but I knew someone was there. They had to be. I just can’t see a kidnapping-creepy-phone-caller being late for a meeting.

I waited until my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, got out of my car, and started walking around in the cemetery. I kept looking around me, watching for someone; watching for anyone. I heard what I thought were leaves rustling behind me and turned towards the sound, drawing my gun. A

Calico cat came running away from the fallen leaves, meowing as it went.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Damn”, I said with a small, nervous laugh and smiled. I lowered the gun, but did not put it away. I kept the safety off because, well you just never know. I might just run across another human hunting kitty cat.

It was a quarter til one and still no sign of the kidnapping-creepy-phone-caller, so I got in the car and locked the doors. I turned the safety back on, laid the gun on the passenger seat, and headed home.

24 – On the Loose

Everything seemed quiet on the home front. That is, until I got to the sidewalk and saw that my front door was open.

I drew my gun, turned off the safety, and slowly pushed the door open. My house had been ransacked. Lamps were broken, drawers were left open and clothes were thrown all over the place. The kitchen trash can had been emptied all over the floor.

“Son of a-“, I started to say then stopped myself. “the spider”.

I froze where I stood and looked over at the tarantula case. It was lying on its side, with the bottom of the case facing me. I was far more afraid of looking at that case from the front than I was the whole time I was in that damn cemetery.

I slowly walked into the kitchen, keeping away from the counter. I put my hand to my mouth and tried not to panic when I saw that the spider’s glass cage was open and empty.

“OH SHITNESS!!!!!” Panic instantly set in. Let’s face it: panic was inevitable. There was a hairy assed, eight legged, little bastard loose in my home and I had no idea where it was.

I waved my arms around in the air like an idiot, gun in one hand and mobile phone in the other. I screamed the entire time I was running back out to my car. I was freaking out so badly that I didn’t even notice the car speeding away from my house, at first.

I locked the doors and saw the car driving off in my rearview mirror.

“Oh, HELLLLLL no!!!!”

Now I was just flat out pissed. I’d been sent on a wild goose chase to a cemetery at midnight, no less. Then, these house-wrecking-bastards break into my home and let a tarantula out to God only knows where.

I jerked the car into reverse and damn near hit the tree when I popped over the curb. I put it in gear then hauled ass after the car.

I had lived out here in the country for several years, so I knew the winding back roads like the back of my hand. Fortunately for me, the dumbass that broke into my house did not. He lost control around one of the many sharp curves and flew off into a ditch.

When I caught up to the car, the driver was still sitting behind the wheel and wasn’t moving. There were fresh footprints near the open passenger side door, but no sign of the passenger.

I walked around with my gun drawn to check on the driver. There was no pulse and a great deal of blood. The driver was Gus Porter.

I called Nate and told him what happened and where I was.

“Stay put until I get there”, said Nate.

I also told him about the spider, in case anyone was going to be in my house.

Nate showed up at the scene of the accident about ten minutes later. The county coroner arrived not long after that.

My house had not been cleared yet, so I went to my office. I deleted the voice mail that I had left for Keith, laid down on the couch in our front lobby, and fell asleep not long after. I woke up around seven when Keith and Claudia walked in.

“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Keith.

I yawned and said, “It’s my office”.

“I MEANT why are you sleeping here instead of at home?”

“I know what you meant, jackass”, I said. “It’s a long story”.

“It’s still Mr. Jackass to you”, said Keith.

“I’ll go to Babe’s”, said Claudia.

“Hang on. Gimme a minute and I’ll go with you. I want to check on Babe”, I said. “Keith, would you call the sheriff and ask him for an update on my house while we’re gone?”

“Sure. It’s not like I have anything else to do”, Keith said sarcastically and I glared at him.

“I’m barely awake. I haven’t had a shower since yesterday. I spent over an hour in a cemetery apparently just so the Porter boys could break into my house. The spider got loose and is probably still roaming somewhere in or around my home. I slept here for the few hours that I actually slept and I haven’t had any coffee yet. Do you REALLY think this is the best time to try my patience?”

“Hell yes it is! There’s no better time!” said Keith. He was grinning from ear to ear.

I growled at him then Claudia and I left the office.

25 – It’s too Early for Coffee

Claudia and I walked down to Babe’s Coffee Shop. There was a little more traffic on the streets than I was used to, but then again, I’m normally still dead to the world at this time of day.

Isaac wasn’t perched out front with his saxophone like I expected him to be.

“Where’s Isaac?” I asked.

“He’s never here this early. He’s a late riser just like you are”, said Claudia.

Babe’s was really busy this time of day. I’m so glad I’m normally still asleep when all these people are here. It would really ruin the relaxation view of things that this place gives to me.

When we walked in, Callie was behind the counter waiting on a customer and Babe was sitting at one of the front tables inside the coffee shop. There were some tables set up outside, but he didn’t feel comfortable or safe enough to sit out there alone, not since he was attacked.

Babe smiled when he saw me.

“Savannah! Claudia! Ladies, forgive an old man for not standing up. Things are healing, but I’m not all the way there just yet”, said Babe.

“No worries”, said Claudia. “We came here just to see you. No need for you to stand, when we can sit down and join you”.

The line to order was getting long pretty fast. Poor Callie. A young man that I didn’t recognize walked out of Babe’s office and over to our table. He was about five foot eight, dark hair and eyes. He looked to be about twenty years old, if that.

“Savannah, this is my great-nephew, Evan. He’s going to be helping out around here for a while”, said Babe.

“Nice to meet you, Evan”, I said. “I’m Sav-“

“Oh I know who you are, Miss Hartman. You’ve done amazing things for my family. We are all eternally grateful”, said Evan.

He shook my hand profusely and asked what he could get for us. He literally ran around to the other side of the counter after we told him what we wanted.

The people that were already waiting in the long line didn’t seem to like it very much when our order was being filled before theirs. Some of them I knew, some I didn’t.

It was kind of fun annoying people at such an early hour of the day and I didn’t even have to do anything. This just may turn out to be a good day after all.

26 –Forgotten Cases

When we got back to the office, Keith had his head resting on one hand and the phone in the other. He was rolling his eyes and looking at us as if to say “Save me”.

He pulled the phone away from his ear and used it to point profusely at the open file on the desk.

I looked at the name on the file: Cecelia Adams. I shook my fists up near my head and whispered, “Shitness! Don’t tell her I’m here”.

He put the phone back to his ear long enough to say “uh huh” then pulled it away again.

“She heard you. She wants to talk to you IMMEDIATELY”, said Keith as he handed me the phone. He covered the mouth piece with his hand and whispered, “Fair warning. She’s a screamer”.

I closed my eyes and put the phone to my ear, trying to brace myself for the scream fest that was about to come my way.

“No, ma’am. I am not avoiding you. Things have been extremely hectic around here lately. Yes Ma’am. Yes, I understand-.. Uh huh. Yes. Yes. I will put your case at the top of the stack. It will be the first one I work on today. Yes ma’am. I will call you as soon as I have any information for you”.

I handed Keith the phone and shook my head around.

“That woman is unbelievable”, I said.

“I told you”, said Keith as he hung up the phone. “You have two other clients that are panicking as well: Casey Gordon and Bruce Garrett. They are both expecting your call ASAP”.

Keith handed me all three files and I went to my desk. I called Casey and let him know where things stood. I told him I was still investigating and I would get back to him as soon as possible.

The truth was, I had completely forgotten about his case and was just trying to pacify him so he didn’t fire me. I called Bruce Garrett and told him the same thing. He requested a meeting with me, so I set it up with him for three o’clock this afternoon.

I grabbed my camera and my gun and got up to leave.

“I’m going to go stalk Cecelia’s daughter and her gold-digging boyfriend. See what kind of pictures I can get for her mother to see. This should be a pleasant experience”.

27 – Shave and a Haircut

Mila Adams was a hard-headed, rebellious, seventeen year old girl. Her mother, Cecelia, hired me to follow her around.

Her mom believes that she is still seeing her gold-digging boyfriend, even though she threatened to cut her off from the family fortune if she didn’t break it off with him.

Her boyfriend went by the name of “Scruff”. His real name was Henry Warder, but, of course, he hated the name. In the neighborhood this kid grew up in, a name like Henry would get him clobbered on a daily basis.

He was always flipping a coin to make decisions, and never made a bet that he didn’t win. His mother, God rest her soul, gave him his nick-name because he always looked like he was in desperate need of a shave.

Mila still lived at home, in her own wing of the house. Damn the luck. Scruff had a little apartment in one of the rougher areas of Oak Cliff, near Dallas.

He would always pick her up on his motorcycle, since her mom had GPS installed on all of the family’s vehicles, so she could not take her own without getting caught. Cecelia had it set up where the GPS could not be removed or disabled without it locking down and disabling the entire car.

She would sneak out through the back gate and meet him a block or two over. They’d either go out on the town, his place, or to a motel. Of course, her family wouldn’t approve of any of these, least of all, Cecelia.

Scruff didn’t have a land line, so Keith couldn’t simply flip through a phone book and pull up his address the easy way like normal people. Instead, he hacked into the DMV and pulled up Scruff’s address through there. Of course, for Keith, the hacker route probably was the easier way.

He gave me Scruff’s home address, work address, father’s address, and the plot number where his mother was buried. If this was my information he was pulling up so easily, I would think the world was set up too well for the hacker community. Since it’s Scruff’s personal information, I’m okay with it.

Scruff worked at Baldy’s Auto Repair Shop. Baldy was six foot five and three hundred pounds of pure muscle. He was one of the few people in this world that no one would ever even consider teasing him about how shiny his head was when the light hit him just right.

I checked the parking lot for Scruff’s motorcycle with no luck. I was just about to call Keith to let him know when there was a knock on my driver’s side window.

It startled me and I almost dropped the phone. It was Baldy. He was motioning for me to roll down my window. I really didn’t want to, but it might look suspicious if I refused, so I rolled it down halfway.

“Something wrong with your car, ma’am?” asked Baldy.

“No, I just took a wrong turn. I was just about to call information”, I said.

“Well where were you trying to go? Maybe I can help”.

“Interstate forty-five”, I said, lying through my teeth. I knew exactly where I was.

He smiled a half toothless smile and pointed in the direction of the highway, although you couldn’t actually see it from here. He gave fantastic directions. I was surprised.

It was hard for me to look at him while I listened to what he said. The few teeth he had left in his mouth were rotted, making his breath absolutely horrible.

I seriously wanted to give the man a case of mouth wash and toothpaste or at least volunteer to pay for his dental work. Although if I did, I seriously doubted that he would actually go.

I drove off in the direction of I-45, even though that’s not really the way I wanted to go. I stopped for gas after I got to the highway and doubled back, heading south, towards Scruff’s pathetic shack of an apartment.

No sign of either of them at his place, so I went to search the local motels. He couldn’t take her to a fancier place. The people there knew her mother and had been ordered to notify her if her daughter was there at any time without her.

Cecelia had good friends in high places, so none of these establishments ever questioned her presumptuous level of authority.

I didn’t realize how many seedy motels there were around Dallas. Geez! It was ridiculous.

I searched the parking lots of seven motels before I had any luck. I found Scruff’s motorcycle at the Green Light Motel, parked in front of one of the rooms.

This place had the worst reputation for any motel in the metroplex: drugs, prostitution, you name it. Their motto was, “The Green Light Motel is the place where anything goes”.

The same people owned the motel that owned Pleasure Plaza (the porno shop next door to the motel).

No one was around and there were no cameras in places like this. The curtains were open just a tad, enough for my camera lens to get a good shot of anyone in the room.

I blindly snapped several photos before quietly moving away from the room and back to my car.

“Oh boy”, I thought to myself when I checked the pictures on the camera. I didn’t really want to look at them, but I had to make sure I didn’t just get pictures of the ceiling.

I called Keith and told him I’d be back in the office in about an hour, in case Bruce Garrett got there before I did.

I told him he’d need to process the photos I just took before he leaves for the day and then I asked to talk to Claudia. When she was on the line, I asked her to get in touch with Cecelia and set up an appointment with her on my behalf for tomorrow morning at the office so we can finalize her case.

28 – Bang Bang, Anyone Home?

On the way back to the office, my phone rang. The number was blocked, but I answered it anyway since I get that a lot in my line of work. The caller only said three words before he hung up: “Drop the case”.

I was pretty sure it was Louie Porter, but I couldn’t swear to it. His voice was pretty well etched into my brain after the elevator incident. I kept hearing his words over and over in my head: “Bang! You’re DEAD”

I knew he had something to do with Jessica and Wendy’s kidnapping, I just couldn’t prove it yet.

I was starting to think that he killed Alena too and set up Jessica’s brother to take the fall. The question was, why? Did Shawn have ties to the mafia that we didn’t know about? I dismissed that thought as soon as I had it.

Maybe Shawn had witnessed something he shouldn’t have? No, that can’t be it either. They would have just killed him. They wouldn’t have set him up like that, well, unless they wanted him to take the rap for the murder then kill him in prison?

This case just doesn’t make much sense to me. What is it about Shawn’s case that would explain why Louie – or someone Louie works for – wants the case dropped? I need to go through his file again.

29 – Do My Bidding

It was about two-forty when I got back to the office. I gave Keith the camera when I walked in the door and asked him to start processing the pictures in the next few minutes.

“Anything else I can do for you? Laundry? Dishes? Care for your first born child?” asked Keith, sarcastically.

“Shut up and process the pictures, jackass”, I said.

“That’s Mr. Jacka-“

“Just do your job without bitching for a change”, I said.

I sat down at my desk and booted up my computer. Claudia brought me my phone messages and I read through them.

There was no one from the stack of messages that I had any desire to call back at the moment, so they could all wait til I was damn good and ready.

It was still a few minutes before Bruce Garrett’s appointment, so I spent the time I had left reviewing his file.

According to the case file, Bruce owns fifty one percent of The Tool Palace (the only hardware store in town). He said his business partner had been stealing from the company. He believes that his business partner had been recording some not-so-honest tax write-offs. He also thinks he’s been over-charging some of the customers and pocketing the difference.

“This will be a fun one to prove”, I sarcastically blurted out.

“Which one are you looking at? Garrett’s?” asked Keith.

“Yeah and I’m thinking I need to get a look at the ledger books without his business partner knowing about it. Well, really I guess it should be without anyone knowing about it”, I said.

“Right, you definitely don’t want to give him a chance to destroy any evidence”, said Keith.

“That’s assuming that it hasn’t already been destroyed”, said Claudia.

30 – Turn of the Screw

A tall, thin man walked through the door. He looked to be in his mid to late fifties. He was dressed in a very expensive suit, tie, and even more expensive shoes.

“I’m Bruce Garrett. I have a three o’clock appointment”.

I stood up, shook his hand, and introduced myself, Keith, and Claudia.

“Uh..is there somewhere we can talk privately, Miss Hartman?” asked Bruce.

“No need for that, Mr. Garrett. These two run the office and do most of the background research for me. They know the cases inside and out long before I ever get to read any of them”, I said.

He slightly raised his eyebrows and nodded in agreement.

“Very well then”, said Bruce. “Let’s talk business”.

I told him about the conversation that me, Keith, and Claudia just had concerning his case. I made him aware that Claudia would be typing up notes on our conversation and that it was for our use only.

I asked him what hours he, his business partner, and their employees are usually on the premises, regardless of whether or not it was during regular business hours.

He told us all the specifics he could think of without physically looking at the store’s work schedule.

“Works for me”, I said.

He gave me a copy of the key to the front door and the alarm code. He also gave me the password that the security company would need to hear in case I typed in the code wrong and they called to check on the store. This was a good thing, since it would be really easy to screw it up.

Mr. Garrett left around four. We spent the next twenty minutes printing out the photos for Cecelia Adams, putting them in chronological order, and shoving them into a large, manila envelope.

Cecelia’s going to be happy about this one, but her daughter…well, Mila’s upcoming reaction is another story altogether.