Laugh or Death (Lexi Graves Mysteries Book 6) (6 page)

"Can't you make them?"

"Unfortunately, no. Being a PI has its limitations. If people won't comply, I can't force them."

"I'm disappointed
, but... It isn't your fault, okay? You've done a great job tracking her so far. I have the utmost faith in you, Lexi. Thanks for sticking with the case. It means a lot to me and I know it will to Nancy too." Leo reached out for my arm, cupping my elbow and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Will you call and let me know as soon as you find anything?"

"Yes," I agreed. "I'm sorry I don't have more to tell you."

"Speak soon," Leo said, tucking his paper further under his arm. He saluted me with his takeout coffee cup before stepping past and continuing on his way.

I waited for a gap in the traffic
before jogging across the street to my car.

"Who's the cutie?" asked Lily.

"My client," I told her.

"Nice!"

"What?" said Jord, flashing a dark look at her.

"I'm married, honey, not blind. Lexi's client is cute
, but you're cute for life." She reached up, landing a light kiss on his lips.

"Plus
, Lily has been in love with you for years," I chipped in, "so it's not like you have anything to worry about. It's not a secret, Lily!" I squeaked as I stepped back to avoid getting bashed by Lily's purse.

"Any luck?" asked Lily, changing the subject from her lifelong crush on my brother.

"None. The veterinary surgery wouldn't give up the security tapes and neither will the pet parlor. I think I pissed them off. These leads are dead unless I can get someone to issue a warrant for the tapes." I batted my eyelashes at Jord.

"No can do," he said. "No reason to request them."

"Missing woman. Potentially dead," I lied and batted my eyelashes some more.

"Evidence?" asked Jord.

"Damn it!"

"So
, what now?" asked Lily, as we waved goodbye to Jord and his partner. Both of them began munching their sandwiches as they walked. We buckled up and I pulled into the mid-morning traffic.

"My leads here are dead
, so it's back to the drawing board."

"I don't think drawing pictures will help. Maybe these will?" Lily passed me a list of buses that serviced the streets in the vicinity of Nancy's apartment. "I read in the Gazette that they all have cameras now."

"I'll get Lucas to check," I replied as we headed towards Lily's bar. "If Nancy got on a bus, we could follow her all the way to where she got off."

"It's like a
scavenger hunt, but with really crappy clues."

"And a salary," I added, wondering what Solomon would say about my
short-lived leads. At least, Lily had a good idea of tracking the bus cameras, assuming Lucas would hack the network for me. That was a lot easier than riding the buses. "Maybe I could..." I started, but halted as Lily screamed and waved her arms. "What? What?"

"My bar! Pull over!"

We sailed past the bar and I pulled sharply over to the curb. I came screeching to a halt close to a small crowd, an ambulance, and several police officers. Behind them, I could see the doors to Lily's bar standing wide open. "You can't park here," said one of the uniforms, approaching the car and leaning into the window.

"That's my bar!" said Lily, pushing the door open and leaping out
before disappearing into the crowd. "Kyle!" she yelled.

"Oh, hey
, Lexi," said the officer, grinning as he stooped to look through the window.

"Hi, Uncle Dermot." I stepped out, leaning over the roof to talk to my uncle. "What happened?"

"One of the employees was opening the bar for the day, or something like that, and he got assaulted. The night’s proceeds are gone."

"
Is the employee okay?" I asked.

"Sure, just a few bruises. Kaufman's with him
; and the EMTs are here because the guy hit his head on the sidewalk during the assault."

"Sheesh! What about the
money? How much?"

At t
he other side of the crowd, Lily screeched, "How much? Ohmygawd!"

"That much," said Uncle Dermot, grimacing.

I thanked my uncle for filling me in on the events, and, after he assured me no one would tow my car for obstruction, I pushed my way through the crowd. Lily was talking to an officer I didn't recognize. A man was sitting on the floor, holding an ice pack to his head while an EMT knelt beside him.

"The bar got robbed," said Lily, grabbing my arm before whispering how much was stolen.

"Holy crap!" I paused. "Wait, I thought you banked the proceeds every night at the night deposit."

"I know," hissed Lily furiously, "but I wasn't working last night
, and dumbass here didn't take the money to the bank."

"I said
I was sorry," said the man, looking up and wincing. He dropped his head between his knees and groaned.

"Bank
the earnings every night, without fail, Kyle," Lily yelled. "I tell you that all the time! I tell everyone that. You all know that!"

"I forgot, okay?" came his knee-muffled voice. "I was tired and it was late and my buddy picked me up and..."

"And... and... and..." sighed Lily.

"But you're insured,"
Kyle said, raising his head again and groaning.

"You'll get the money back, right?" I asked.

Lily shrugged. "Maybe. The insurers might not pay out if they discover the bartender was negligent."

"I was mugged!" the guy moaned. "I hit my head!"

"And the security camera is smashed," said Lily, pointing to the camera under the eaves. "It wasn't when I left yesterday. Plus, you flouted my instructions. If that money had been properly deposited, as it should have been, when you closed up, this wouldn't have happened!"

"I'm really sorry." This time
, when the man groaned, the EMT took his pulse and called to his colleague. Between them, they got Kyle onto his feet.

"Where are you taking him?" I asked.

"Montgomery General. We need to make sure he hasn't sustained a concussion."

"Did he give a statement?"

"Yeah, I got it," said the officer nearby. "I'll be in touch. Miss Shuler, can I talk to you?"

"Mrs. Shuler-Graves," corrected Lily.

The officer blinked. "You're a Graves?"

"Yes, and my husband is a detective in burglary. Can you call him?" she asked as we watched Kyle
being loaded into the ambulance. The doors banged shut behind him. As they departed, the crowd dispersed, leaving Lily and me, along with the few remaining police officers. "I'm going to have to fire him, you know," she said, softly to me. "I can't believe this happened."

"Do you really have to fire him? He got mugged. That's not his fault."

"Yeah, actually, I do." Lily sighed. "We had an officer by just last week warning us of thefts in the area. Did you know Monty's Pizza got robbed? And more bars and takeout joints. Each one of them was broken into right after all the staff left. That's why I insist on not keeping cash on the premises overnight. Usually, Jord comes by and we take the cash to the bank, or I have another escort, but Jord and I had a date night planned and I trusted Kyle to do it."

"It could have been a crime of opportunity," I said. "It might not even be the same
suspects."

"We'll see. I need to speak to Kyle to find out exactly what happened. From what Officer Kaufman said, it sounds like he opened up and
didn't relock the door when someone came in and grabbed the cash sack as he left to take it to the bank."

"Do you think someone knew you
didn't go to the bank the night before?"

"Maybe. But if they broke in, they'd have known that anyway."

"Or maybe someone knew you usually went to the bank at closing, and didn't think the bar was worth burglarizing..." I pondered that, although it didn't sit right in my head. It still seemed like a smash-and-grab opportunity. Someone saw Kyle opening up and getting the cash, and decided to go for it by knocking him down and stealing the money. Whoever they were, they were long gone.

"I wonder when the security camera got broken," Lily wondered
aloud as we both turned to the camera.

"If we check the tapes, we can see how it happened," I suggested. "At least
, I'll get to look at one security tape today."

"Could you please?" Lily turned
her grateful eyes on me. "I can get it for you now."

"Sure
, and don't worry, okay? We'll get to the bottom of this. Whoever robbed your bar will have the entire MPD looking for them soon."

"I'm so glad I married into your family. It's like having private security
, but on government money."

"And we invite you to barbecues," I added.

"Don't get that from the government."

"Unless you count
the Fourth of July."

"Does the president bring the meat?"

"Nope."

"Doesn't count." Lily stepped around the broken glass on the sidewalk, and I followed her through the open doors into the bar
. We went into the private rooms at the back. She unlocked her office and switched on the monitors that covered every angle of the bar, including the camera outside. That corner of the monitor showed nothing but fizzling noise. At the wall cabinet, she unlocked another door and pressed a couple of buttons, handing me a disc. "That's the last twenty-four hours," she told me. "I'll make another copy for the police."

"I'll let you know what I find. I'm just sorry it won't show the thief since this probably happened before the robbery."

"I know, but thanks anyway." Lily dropped into her office chair and sighed.

"I really don't want to leave you here alone."

"She's not," said a voice behind me and we both looked up. Jord filled the doorway. "I'm here." He crossed the room in quick strides and wrapped his arms around Lily. I heard her sob.

I took a discreet step backwards, turn
ing on my heel and closing the door behind me. The bar was in good order, but without any staff on duty, I figured it was best to shut the doors before the alcohol went missing too. The broken glass posed a problem, however. I decided to ask the police officer stationed outside if I could sweep it up before I tried to find someone to replace the panes. It had to be done before Lily opened up.

As I stepped into the sun,
I didn’t see the police officer at first, but noticed the man talking to him. It was someone so familiar, I forgot to breathe. He saw me just at that moment and smiled broadly, stepping towards me with his arms open.

"Maddox!"

Chapter Six

"Earth to Lexi." Solomon's voice could have been coming from miles away as I blinked and looked up.

"Huh? What did I miss?"

"Nothing. I stopped talking when I realized you
were on a different planet. Are you okay?"

"Who? Me? Peachy." I joined my hands and reached forwards, stretching as I tried to remember exactly what we just talked about. Oh
, yes. The case. "So where are we on Leo Chandler?"

"Nothing
, so far. I've run background checks and they're all clear. I've followed him and he hasn’t done anything exciting while he's been in town. Visited the tourist hotspots, spent a lot of time wandering the streets and frequenting coffee shops. Saw him run into you."

"You saw that? Where were you?"

Solomon smiled. "I'll never tell. Anyway, his evenings aren't spent carousing."

"What does he do in
the evenings?"

"Nothing
, from what I've seen. Holes up in the hotel bar, reads, or stays in his room."

"So what you're saying is..." I paused for dramatic effect
, "I'm winning?"

"No, I'm saying
, this guy is weird and I'm going to find out what he's hiding."

"It was weird bumping into him today outside Nancy's apartment," I told Solomon, skipping over the bit about my failed attempts to get the security camera
tapes.

"That's a big coincidence."

"That's what I thought at first, but he said he was just wandering around. I guess if he doesn't know anyone else in town, that sounds like something he would do. Especially," I added, "based on your surveillance."

"So we have nothing on Leo yet. Where are you with Nancy?"

"I had an idea that maybe she skipped out of her apartment and took public transport somewhere. I have a list of all the immediate bus routes and thought Lucas could hack them. If she took a bus, we could follow her to wherever she went. Maybe that would help us locate her now."

"Sounds good. Did you tell Leo th
at?"

I shook my head. "No, just that Nancy
was seen in the area and I was following up that lead."

"I think it's time we checked in with our client. Do you want to make the call?"

"Sure, but it depends on what you want me to tell him."

"It's not so much what you tell him, but what you can get out of him."

"What do you want to know?"

Solomon rested back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin, pondering my question. "First off, give him an update on the basics of the case."

"Easy," I sighed. "We have nothing."

"We don't have
nothing.
We have new leads to follow, but he doesn't need to know what they are. After that, I want you to draw him out. Find out more about his relationship with Nancy, if there was anything she particularly liked to do, something she might have been drawn to here that might help your search. Stuff they might have done together."

"You think she
was drawn to something that seemed familiar?"

"If she can remember her name, which it appears she does, then yes,
working with the amnesia theory, I think she might remember other things. But..."

"But what?"

"If your theory is right that she had a go bag, she might remember everything."

"Yeah..." I paused, wondering where Solomon was
headed with his thoughts. Then it clicked. "Oh! You want me to find out if their relationship went bad."

Solomon nodded. "It would be useful to know what
their relationship was like in the run-up to her disappearance..."

"In case Leo is hiding something," I finished. "But he seemed so sad!"

"Maybe they split up and he's not over it," Solomon said. "Maybe he's a really annoying ex who won't let go."

"Kind of an elaborate ruse for a sad ex, and an expensive one."

"I know. It still doesn't sit right." Solomon leaned towards the desk and pushed his desk phone towards me. "Make the call."

I had to search in the file for Leo's cell phone
number, but when I found it, I tapped it into the keypad and waited while it rang. When it connected, Solomon hit the speaker button, filling the small office with the ringing sound.

"Hello?"

"Leo, hi, it's Lexi Graves from the Solomon Agency."

"Hi, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Do you have news?" he asked eagerly
. I was glad he couldn't see the face I pulled.

"I just called with an update
, but it's not great, so please don't get your hopes up."

"The sighting this morning? You didn't find her?" his voice dropped, the previous
tone of optimism rapidly dissipating.

"No, not yet, but I have new leads to follow and I'll be starting on them today."

"What kind of leads?"

I paused, waiting for Solomon. He nodded, so I said, "I'm going to check further into whether Nancy was caught on camera near where she was sighted. It might give us some ideas as to where she was coming from or going
to."

"That's great news! Well done, Lexi. I'm really impressed that you can do all this stuff. I wouldn't know where to start."

"Oh well, you know... it's what I'm trained to do."

"How long did you train? Did you go to some kind of academy?" Leo
inquired anxiously.

"No, it was on
-the-job training."

"You boss must have seen something really special in you. I know I do. I really
had a stroke of luck when you took the case."

"That's kind of you to say, but about the case..."

"Have you been a PI long? Is it dangerous?"

"A while, and yes
, it is sometimes," I admitted, trying not to think about the bullets, knives and beatings I hadn't exactly successfully dodged since my employment. Come to think of it, I wasn’t all that successful before Solomon gave me the job either.

"Wow. Have you ever had to fight someone off? Bad guys?"

"Once or twice," I said, frowning as Solomon made a
get on with it
gesture with his hand. Since I gave Leo a snippet of information about the case, it was time to draw him out more, and make him talk about himself.

"Wow! You're a real life action girl. I'm impressed. It's good to know you're on my team."

"Speaking of the team, how are you finding Montgomery?"

"Oh, it's a nice town."

"We don't have many tourist attractions or things to do, but I hope you found something to keep you occupied?" I asked, waiting for him to tell me what he'd done since his arrival.

"Just been walking around, probably
been to all the coffee shops," Leo laughed. "It's not a lot of fun when you're on your own. I need company."

"What would you have done if you were here with Nancy?"

"I guess I am here with Nancy," he mused, "since she's here somewhere and so am I."

"But if you were together..."

"She liked to go to the park," he said. "She loved walking and nature."

"Is there anywhere else she would have gone?"

"A bookshop, maybe. One of those secondhand ones... Nancy called it recycling... and she liked art. Sometimes she sketched in the park. She was really good at drawing flowers. I have some of her drawings, somewhere. No, I think they're at home, or I'd show them to you."

"It must be really hard los
ing someone that you shared so many happy times with..." I trailed off, again leaving Leo to fill in the blanks.

"It's the worst. When she
first went missing, I'd never been so worried in my life. Now I'm used to it, I guess, but it's not something you ever want to get used to."

"I guess you're the kind of couple who never argued?"

"Oh no, hardly ever. We were really happy."

"What
were you doing on the day Nancy disappeared?"

"Uh... well... let's see... we had breakfast and...

"What?" Solomon mouthed and I frowned and shrugged. He grabbed a sheet of notepaper and wrote
What did they eat?

"What did you have to eat?" I asked.

"Uh... eggs, I think. I made scrambled eggs and bacon. Is that important?"

"Just trying to get a
snapshot of your lives," I told him. "Then what did you do?

"I cleaned up the kitchen while Nancy read the newspaper
, and we... we talked a while; then we decided to take a walk since it was a Saturday and Nancy wanted to do some sketches. We were walking around when she tripped..."

"What did she trip on?" I asked, repeating Solomon's mouthed words.

"Uh... a tree root, or a branch, or something. There was a fallen tree. I heard her yelp in pain and I reached out for her, but she crashed down and her head hit the tree and her eyes rolled back into her head. It was scary stuff, Lexi. I panicked. I didn't know what to do! She wasn't coming around so I left to get my car to drive her to hospital."

"Why didn't you call
nine-one-one?" I asked.

"Cell reception
was patchy out there, and it would have been quicker to drive than wait for an ambulance, so I knew I had to get her to hospital. So, I went to get my car from the house, and I was gone barely ten minutes, but when I got back to the tree, she was gone. I thought I must have not remembered where we were, so I walked around for a while, calling her name. Then I saw blood on a leaf and I retraced my steps and I knew she was gone. I searched everywhere, but I couldn't find her." He stopped, his breathing heavy over the phone line like he was trying to regain his composure. "Does that help any?"

"Yes," I assured him, "Yes, you've been very helpful." I
said my goodbyes, promising him again that I'd call when there was any news before hitting
end.
"I don't know how any of that helps. I didn't get any useful information," I sighed.

"Actually, you did. He told you more than you realize."

"You know something is niggling. Something he said, but I don't know what." I frowned, thinking hard, but nothing came to me. "What did you get?"

"I got too much information. Would you remember all that happened if I disappeared?"

"No, I'd be too pissed at you for disappearing."

Solomon laughed. "Would you look for me?"

"I'd have the whole MPD looking for you." Saying that reminded me of another person I'd seen only a couple hours before. "And the FBI," I said, pausing.

"What is it?" asked Solomon, sensing there was more.

"I saw Maddox today."

"Maddox?" Solomon arched his brows, waiting patiently, but it didn't escape my notice that his voice dropped a couple of octaves. Solomon and Maddox
were never close friends, but they were once colleagues and thus, respected each other. Maddox was my boyfriend, but it didn’t end well after I saw him kissing another woman during an undercover op. For a long time, I stayed really angry with him. Recently, however, I came to the conclusion that what I saw could have been misinterpreted. It was too late for us now though, and too much happened that resulted in mutual distrust, so we split. We made our peace right before Maddox left MPD to join the FBI. I now considered him a close friend even though we hadn't been in touch for a while. While Solomon didn't say much about any of that, I was sure he wasn't exactly thrilled about our friendship. However, he was secure enough not to let it interfere with our relationship. "Adam Maddox?" he repeated. "Where?"

"The same. He dropped by Lily's bar when he saw what happened. He's in town
, working another case," I told him, recalling our brief meeting. Maddox told me he pulled over on his way downtown when he saw the squad cars outside Lily's. He decided to check up on her. It was a sweet gesture and I enjoyed our chat. Plus, he somehow seemed to have gotten even hotter since he left. I didn't need to tell Solomon that though. "He said to say, hey."

"Humph. Damn shame about Lily's bar. Hope the cops catch the jerk. Check in with Lucas about those tapes
, and then we'll go to dinner from here. Seven, okay?" he asked, abruptly changing the topic.

"Actually
, I promised to take a look at Lily's security tapes from when the bar closed up until the robbery."

"When will you finish?"

"Easily by seven, but then I need to go home and change."

"What's wrong with what you're wearing?" Solomon asked, lifting his head to ge
t a better view. I was wearing skinny jeans, red flats and a white blouse; and while they were okay for daywear, I didn't feel nearly smart enough for an evening date.

"I need heels. I have standards," I told him.