04 - Shock and Awesome (25 page)

 
   
"Is this a case for Solomon?" Maddox's eyes darkened, only briefly, at that.

 
   
"Nope."

 
   
"Call me if you need help."

 
   
"You're on the list."

 
   
Maddox nodded and stood, leaving me with another nice view of his midriff, where his shirt untucked from his pants. He smoothed the shirt back into place, patted the roof of the VW and strode away.

 
   
"Damn, he's one good looking man. Are you sure you don't want to get friendly with him again?" said Lily. "I saw you checking him out."

 
   
"I have no idea. I don't know if I can trust him."

 
   
"And you don't know that you can't," Lily pointed out. "Maybe he told you the truth. Maybe he was just playing a part and things got out of hand. Maybe he was faithful to you. Oh! Check out his ass. Great ass."

 
   
We checked it out as he reached his car, our heads whipping to face front when he turned. Of course, this was nothing I hadn't thought of before. The same words — can't trust, can trust, got it wrong, lies, truth — were going around and around in my head. Thing was, I would never know for certain. Part of me believed Maddox was an honest man, that he wouldn't treat me badly. Part of me was suspicious; some of the things he said about his last undercover case just didn't tally up. I knew he wanted me back. However, I slept with Solomon not long after discovering Maddox's suspected infidelity, and that was my choice, and therein lay the dilemma: if Maddox wasn’t cheating, did that make me the cheater? Or, at the very least, the bad guy for running into the arms of another man? And if he was cheating, then I would be pretty stupid to go back to him.

 
   
Either way, I wasn't sure we could ever have what we had before. The trust was gone. Plus, I definitely did have (great!) sex with Solomon, regardless of what Maddox may or may not have done with Blake.

 
   
Right now, I didn't want to think about it anymore or my head would explode. "Maddox had a point about asking for help," I told Lily as the window closed. "I'm gonna call Garrett. Maybe he can run a background check on this Marsh guy."

 
   
"Cool. You think you can get some stuff from Lucas at the agency to bug his house?"

 
   
"Yes, but he'd want to know why, and I don't want to tell him; plus, it's not agency business so I'd feel bad using their resources." I thought about the
Schuberts
' suspicions, even though they were off the probability scale. "Plus, I don't want to go inside the house," I added. "Just in case."

 
   
"I would rescue you."

 
   
"Would you?"

 
   
"Nope! I'm not stupid, but I would call someone else to do it. Like, Maddox. Or maybe Solomon." Lily peered at me. "Whom do you prefer?"

 
   
"Since I'm categorically not going inside, it really doesn't matter," I decided, dodging the elephant of a query.

 
   
"So, how are we going to find out what's going on?"

 
   
"Good question." I grabbed my cell phone from my purse and dialed Garrett. "I need a favor," I told him.

 
   
"I need babysitting," he rebounded, quick as a whip.

 
   
"Weekend babysitting or weeknight?"

 
   
"How much of a favor do you need?"

 
   
"This probably counts as a weeknight favor." I really couldn't think what counted as a weekend night favor, but it would certainly have to be super illegal, and I would have to be really desperate to give up a prime time evening.

 
   
"I'll take what I can get. Shoot."

 
   
"Can you do a background check on someone for me?"

 
   
Garrett sighed. "At least it's nothing highly illegal. What's the name?"

 
   
"Aidan Marsh."

 
   
"He someone you're dating? Can't you stalk him on Facebook?"

 
   
"Gar', no. He's sort of a case."

 
   
"Sort of?"

 
   
"Um... Not strictly a case. Well, it is a case, but not an agency case, it's more of a..."

 
   
"Whatever," Garrett cut in. "I got a dead body in
Harbridge
to get to. Some old guy died and no one noticed for two years. He's practically a mummy. Date of birth?"

 
   
"Don't know. I have an address." I reeled it off.

 
   
"That's a start. What do you wanna know about this guy?"

 
   
"The usual. Criminal history. Any murders. Prison record."

 
   
There was a long pause. "Murders?"

 
   
"Or, you know... burglary? Anything iffy." I hoped that was better. I don't know why Garrett sounded so worried. It wasn't like I hadn't met murderers before and survived every damn time. I was shit hot when it came to murderers. Now burglars... they creeped me out.

 
   
Garrett sighed again. "I'll get back to you. And,
Lexi
?"

 
   
"Uh-huh?"

 
   
"I want Thursday, two
weeks time
. It's Traci's birthday. I want to make it special."

 
   
"You got it." I hung up and made the entry on my phone's calendar. A night babysitting Garrett and Tracey's three terrors wouldn't be so bad. I was pretty certain I knew every prank they could play on me; after all, I taught them most of them. "Garrett's on the case," I told Lily.

 
   
"Hurrah. So, what do you wanna do? Sit here a while longer and stare at the house? Or go get pizza and come back tomorrow?"

 
   
I thought about it. It had been quiet for some time and I didn't want the neighbors getting antsy again. Plus, I was hungry, and pizza sounded really good and I wouldn't even have to wear a fancy dress. I gasped.

 
   
"What's wrong?"

 
   
"I just decided sitting at home with a fresh pizza and eating it while wearing sweats sounded way better than dressing up for a fancy dinner."

 
   
Lily lay the back of her hand against my forehead. "I don't think you have a fever, but I'm not sure. Do you have a thermometer?"

 
   
"Oh yeah, never without one." Lily waited. I raised my eyebrows.

 
   
"Oh," she laughed. "Ha-ha. I'm calling Monty's now. I'm going to ask him to burn your half."

 
   
"That's mean. I want extra cheese."

 
   
"Okay. I'm getting anchovies, bacon and capers on my side."

 
   
"Wow. You really are pregnant."

 
   
"Tell me about it. I think it happened while we were..."

 
   
I clapped my hands over my ears. "La
la
la
la
laaah
!" Lily giggled. A half hour later found us safely ensconced on her couch, the mouth-watering scent of hot pizza filling the air, and a huge bowl of salad between
Jord
and us. When they started getting overly snuggly, which made me start feeling sick, I grabbed the last slice of pizza and hightailed it out of there.

 
   
~

 
   
The next morning, for the first time in the case, Solomon gathered us all at the agency. Instead of the boardroom, which was just about big enough for our own staff, this time, we sat at our desks, while Helen
Callery
, Maddox and Blake joined us in front of the large whiteboards Solomon set up across one wall.

 
   
"Let's compare notes," said Solomon, "and catch this guy."

 
   
"How close are you?" asked Helen. She was ensconced in Solomon's office along with Maddox when I arrived, and now she perched on the edge of my desk, clad in a navy pantsuit, bright red lipstick expertly in place and her hair coiffed to the point of not moving.

 
   
"
Lexi
has narrowed our suspects from four to two.
Lexi
?"

 
   
Everyone turned to me and I felt my cheeks heating up. I hated being stared at, unless it was because I looked particularly amazing. If I knew I would be on show today, I would have dressed up, but as it was, I wore skinny blue jeans and a sleeveless white blouse. Thankfully, I added red suede heels. I call the look “casually awesome.” Even so, it didn't quite compare with
Callery's
power dressing suit, or Blake’s casual/smart work attire. It was just different. Best of all, it was me. I really didn't know what I was worrying about. I stood, rolling back my chair.

 
   
"David Markham is off the table," I recapped for the team. "He's alibied for the time another theft took place. I can also rule out Marty
Tookey
. He doesn't have the
ba
... uh, smarts to commit this kind of theft."

 
   
"We persuaded Markham that there's no merit to pressing charges," said Maddox, to my relief.

 
   
"There's no evidence
Tookey
has ever left the state," Lucas continued, picking up where I left off. "He's no traveling thief. I found the girlfriend, Claire Archibald. Flaherty made contact discreetly, and apparently, she misses the guy. Nothing else doing there."

 
   
I nodded, even though I couldn't imagine anyone missing the douchebag. "That leaves us with Lord Justin and Ben Rafferty. Both are well traveled, as well as charming and affable. I see no problem with either gaining their dates’ confidence to access their goods. However..." I paused. This was where I could look stupid, but I had a valid point to make. I pressed on. Better to look stupid than to stupidly leave something important out. "I don't see any motive for either of them to steal."

 
   
Solomon nodded, like he agreed, which was reassuring; and after a moment, so did Maddox. "Lucas has been checking into their backgrounds," Solomon told us. "Lucas?"

 
   
"There's not a lot to find on either of these guys which appears suspicious," Lucas explained, appearing distinctly uncomfortable in front of a crowd. "Lord Justin was easier to follow. There's a lot of images on line, small mentions in the media, European mostly. Ben Rafferty is more of an enigma. I haven't found anything online about him."