CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) (31 page)

            Cherise looked at him skeptically.

            Rose stood up. “I’ll come out tomorrow to talk to her.” She was thinking she would call the PA and drum up an excuse to go to her home.

            “She probably won’t be here tomorrow. I told her to stay home unless she was totally okay. Like I said, I can’t afford to catch a cold right now.”

            “Okay, just give us a call when she does come back to work,” Skip said as he stood up.

            “I don’t like this, Skip,” Cherise said, also standing. “If there’s something off about Sarah, I want to know what it is.”

            “It’s not a big deal, Cherise,” Skip repeated.

            “Then why are you
both
here?”

            Rose ad-libbed. “We were headed to D.C., to talk to a new client. Figured we’d stop off here on our way. The bosses showing up unannounced now and then tends to keep the men on their toes.”

            Cherise shuddered and moved toward Skip. “The shooting yesterday was so scary... I’d feel a lot safer if you were here.” She lowered her voice, so Manny, standing by the door, couldn’t hear her. “Manny’s a nice guy, but he’s not you.”

            “Cherise, we’ve already told you we’re stretched thin,” Skip said, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice.
I used to be a patient man. What happened to that?
he thought.
Oh, yeah, Cherise happened to that.

            “Manny’s a bodyguard but he’s not an investigator. I’ve got investigations to run. He can’t do that, but he can guard you. And besides, I can’t be here 24/7. I have a family.”

            “I know, I know.” She stepped closer to him, sliding her arms around his waist. He caught her hands in his own, just before she made it to his gun.
What is this woman’s fascination with my gun anyway?

            Strike that
. He knew some women were turned on by firearms, or more precisely by the idea of a big strong man using a big powerful gun to protect them.
Has to be a phallic thing.
He made a mental note to ask Kate about it.
Strike that!
No way was he going to mention to Kate that this woman kept hugging him and trying to stroke his gun.

            Holding Cherise’s hands between his own, he pumped as much sincerity into his smile as he could manage. “Believe me, Cherise, you’re safe. Everything’s under control.”

            “I believe you,” Cherise said, as Skip let go of her hands and moved toward the door. She followed him, then stood on tiptoe and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Thank you, for still being so kind to me after all this case has put you through. You’re a good man.”

            This time Skip’s smile was more genuine. “Thanks, Cherise. You just made my day. You have a good one now.” He backed out the door Rose was holding open behind him.

            As he and Rose walked side by side out to the driveway, she started making little gagging noises in the back of her throat. “Behave yourself, partner. At least, until the client is no longer watching us,” Skip said softly.

            “Ack, ack,” was Rose’s response.

            “Ya got a hair ball yer tryin’ to hack up there, Rosie?” Skip drawled.

            Once in the truck, Rose punched him in the arm. “Don’t call me Rosie.”

            Damn, it was good to have her partner back.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

            Rose left her apartment while it was still dark so she could be in position before the subject she would be watching, one William Crawford, came out to get his morning paper. After a minor car accident, he was claiming that he could no longer bend at the waist and he was in excruciating pain most of the time.

            She had all her paraphernalia spread out on the passenger seat next to her. Two digital cameras, one still, one video, with extra battery packs, binoculars, small digital recorder so she could dictate her surveillance log, a bag of pretzels, the egg and salsa burrito she had whipped together for her breakfast, and a small battery operated fan so she didn’t have to keep the car running to use the air conditioning.

            On the passenger floor was a small cooler with energy drinks and a cold cut sub in case she was still here at lunch time. Beside the cooler was a plastic bucket she was praying she wouldn’t have to use.

            Lack of appropriate bathroom facilities was the only thing Rose didn’t like about surveillance work. Most detectives, private or in law enforcement, were not particularly fond of the assignment. It was the ultimate definition of tedium. But Rose didn’t mind it. Being the quintessential introvert, she enjoyed any time when she could be alone with her own thoughts.

            Nonetheless, she would be happy if Mr. Crawford came out on his front porch soon, stretched and then bent over to pick up his morning paper.

            One small problem. When the delivery guy drove slowly down the street tossing papers out his window, he didn’t throw one on Crawford’s porch. Damn, the man didn’t take home delivery of the newspaper.

            Rose picked up the napkin-wrapped burrito and settled in.

            Her mind turned to Cherise’s case. She had left two phone messages on Sarah’s cell phone voicemail, but the woman hadn’t called her back. The address on her driver’s license records was for an apartment complex in Mt. Airy, a town on the border between western Howard County and Carroll County. A call to the management office had netted the information that Sarah had moved out without notice and without leaving a forwarding address, seventeen months ago.

            Rose doubted the failure to update the address with the motor vehicle administration had been an oversight. She sighed. They would just have to wait until the PA returned to work to question her.

* * *

            Kate got up earlier than usual, as she had every morning this week, to help Maria get the children ready. This week was vacation bible school at church and the youth director had decided to include the preschoolers in the program. Maria had graciously volunteered to help out with the little ones.

            The kids were having a blast. They were so excited that they were more than their usual handful in the mornings.

            Kate looked across the breakfast table at her son, as he sniffled for the third time. Was his little face just flushed from excitement or did he have a fever? Maybe she should keep him home. It wasn’t fair to the other kids, and their parents, to spread germs. He was bouncing up and down in his chair, singing one of the songs he and his sister had learned that week. Kate hated to think what his reaction would be if she told him he couldn’t go today.

            While the kids ate their breakfast, Kate picked up the phone to call her office answering machine for messages. The first one was her ten o’clock appointment, cancelling because she was achy and feverish. The second message was her nine o’clock person with similar complaints, also cancelling. While Kate listened to the woman’s sniffling voice asking her to please call her back to reschedule, she walked around the table and used the time-honored maternal thermometer, a hand on the child’s forehead.

            Hmm, not cool but not particularly warm either. She should go get the real thermometer to be sure. Kate’s hand was still against Billy’s forehead when he started singing and bouncing in his seat again. She almost accidentally poked him in the eye.

            Hell with it, if there was something going around, which her client cancellations certainly indicated, everybody’s kids would eventually get exposed to the germs anyway. She wasn’t going to disappoint the little boy.

            Kate suddenly remembered she didn’t have a client scheduled in the eleven o’clock time slot. She had planned to catch up on paperwork. But she wasn’t going in just for that. She’d meet Rob for lunch and then go in for her afternoon clients, assuming they weren’t all sick as well. Oh, happy days, a whole morning to herself! How often did that happen?

           
Ben
. She’d better head him off before he left home to pick her up for the office. Kate called his cell phone. “Hey, Ben. I’ve had a rash of cancellations this morning. But I am meeting Rob at noon and then hopefully I’ll have some afternoon clients. Seems to be some bug going around.”

            “I hope I’m not coming down with it,” Ben said, his voice sounding more gravelly than usual. “Tonight’s my first official investigation assignment.”

            “Oh, yeah. Congratulations! It’s probably just as well then that you can take the morning off and rest up some.”

            “Thanks. I’ll come at eleven thirty, to pick you up for your lunch with Rob,” Ben said.

            “See you then,” Kate said. She was smiling as she disconnected. Skip had been bugging his friend for a year now to get his PI license. They needed another investigator and, as Skip had put it, he knew Ben could do much more with his life than just stand around looking scary.

* * *

            At ten-forty, Skip was just putting the finishing touches on the agency’s license renewal application when his phone rang. It was Cherise.

            “Skip,” she whispered into the phone. “Sarah showed up just a little while ago, and I think she’s the one who’s been sending the notes. She started rummaging in the fan mail sack that came yesterday, and I could’ve sworn I saw her putting a letter in rather than taking it out. When she left the room, I looked in the sack and found a letter with no return address. I ran back here into my bedroom and locked the door.” Her voice squeaked with fear. “It says, ‘This is your last chance, my love. If I can’t have you than nobody will.’ Oh, Skip, I’m so scared.”

            Skip jumped out of his chair. “Where’s Manny?”

            “Out there in the living room with her. I can hear them talking.”

            “You stick like glue to him. Rose and I are on our way.” He was out the door, calling Rose on his cell as he took the stairs three at a time and then sprinted across the parking lot to his truck.

            Rose’s car was halfway down Cherise’s driveway when his truck turned in. Manny’s was the only car parked by the house. That gave Skip a real bad feeling.

            He skidded the Expedition to a stop, slammed it into park and jumped out. Rose was already knocking on the front door.

            There was no answer. Skip banged on the door and called Cherise’s name while Rose started around the corner to the back of the house. Skip joined his partner in the back. No answer at that door either.

            Skip spotted Manny standing beside the barn with Harry Bailey, Bobby Hall and what had to be one of McPherson’s men. He pointed in their direction and he and Rose sprinted over to the men.

            “Where’s Ms. Martin?” Skip said.

            “Out on the trail. She insisted on taking Joey out, even though he’s not one hundred percent healed yet,” Bobby Hall answered.

            Bailey spoke up. “She was going on and on about something to do with Sarah, and said she just had to get on a horse and ride, be by herself so she could sort out her feelings.” The man gave a little eye roll.

            “Where’s Sarah?” Rose asked.

            “She left a little while ago,” Manny said.

            “Did one of the other men go with Ms. Martin?”

            McPherson’s man answered, “No, sir, she wouldn’t let us. My guys are walking the perimeter of the property like we’re supposed to, though I’m not real sure what or who we’re protectin’ at the moment.”

            “When did they leave?”

            “Sarah, about forty minutes ago,” Manny said. “Ms. Martin, about ten, fifteen minutes after that.”

            “Why’d Sarah leave?” Rose asked.

            “Ms. Martin sent her home,” Manny said. “Bawled her out first, for coming to work when she was still sick. Told her not to come back until she was healthy again.”

            Skip was looking at his watch, calculating. All this had gone down just after he had talked to Cherise. The woman must have lost her mind. First she yells at her PA, who could very well be the one who had been making threats, and trying to shoot people. And then she goes off in the woods by herself? He could hear Rose grinding her teeth beside him.

            To buy time while he decided what to do, Skip asked, “Where’s Ms. Martin’s car?”

            Manny shrugged.

            Bobby Hall spoke up. “She had me drive it up the street to some guy’s house last night. Said he was gonna take a look at it for her. It was makin’ funny noises.”

            Rose was looking up at Skip. She gestured with her head and they moved out of earshot of the others.

            “What do you want to do, partner?” she asked.

            “Besides strangle Cherise with my bare hands?” Skip said, jamming those hands into his pockets. “Go look for her. She’s pretty vulnerable in those woods by herself.”

            Rose thought for a second, then shook her head. “Somebody shot at me last time I got near those woods. I may be brave but I’m not crazy. We aren’t going in there. She knew the risks and took off on her own anyway.”

            “We could take MacPherson’s men as back-up?”

            Rose thought about that. She shook her head again. “Don’t really have the right to ask, since they don’t work for us. And safety in numbers didn’t do me much good on Monday.”

            “So what do you want to do?” Skip asked.

            “I’m thinking that she broke her word and slipped off the leash again, so if and when she comes out of those woods, we tell her we’re done. I’ll call MacPherson on the way back to Towson and see if he wants to take over the case completely. We give the Howard County police what we have on Sarah, and let them check it out.”

            A little bubble of joy started forming in his chest as Skip nodded his agreement.

            They walked over and said goodbye to the men, then Rose gestured for Manny to come with them. Halfway to the house, Rose said, “Don’t let on we were here. Just call me as soon as Cherise comes back.”