8
I
stood in Gabe’s home office, holding the large envelope I’d picked up while snooping through his desk, and stared at the Catwoman clone. Why was there another woman in Gabe’s house? How many women had a key to his house? She obviously had the alarm code, too.
What the hell was going on?
Finally, the woman moved, lifting her hands to her face, and said, “Samantha Shaw. Caught snooping.”
A flash blinded me. “What . . .” I blinked and saw dancing black spots. That flash had to be a camera. “You took a picture? Who the hell are you?” I shoved the envelope into its file slot.
Catwoman grinned. “Oh yeah. I’m going to download it onto the laptop and show Gabe just what his girlfriend is doing. Gabe is a man of few words who respects privacy.” Over Gabe’s desk, she ran her gaze down my shirt and back up. “Do you always wear stained clothes? Tacky. Gabe will notice; he notices everything.”
Angel started to stand up. I put my hand on her shoulder, pushing her back into the chair. The bitch had to die, but Angel wasn’t going to be the one who killed her.
And I knew who the bitch was; I recognized her voice from our chat on the phone earlier at Angel’s house. “So you are Dee.” I sized her up. Under the capelike coat, she had white blonde hair cut in a Meg Ryan style around her face. Her black heeled boots took her to about a five eight height, same as Angel. Nervous energy kept her twitching and shifting.
She looked a tad younger than Gabe was. Which made her more than a tad younger than me. “What are you doing here, Dee? Where’s Gabe?”
She checked the picture in the viewing screen of the camera, practically bouncing with joy at what she saw. “Waiting for me, of course. He needs his laptop. He’s teaching me how to write up the report for the client.”
“Uh-huh. So Gabe’s on the stakeout and sent you home to get his laptop.” I squeezed Angel’s shoulder to keep her from leaping over the desk and smacking Dee into next week. Then I let go and walked around the desk. “Translation: you were getting on Gabe’s nerves, so he sent you on a fool’s errand.” That’s what I wanted to believe. That Gabe tired of her and sent her away.
Dee sucked in her full cheeks and glared at me.
I pushed harder. “Does Gabe know you were answering his cell phone, Dee? Did you give him the message that I called?”
She narrowed her eyes and protectively clutched the digital camera she held against her flat stomach. “You can’t threaten me. I’m getting the laptop and I’m going to show Gabe what you really are.”
I turned and sat my butt on the desk. God, I was sore. “Go ahead,” I waved my hand at Dee.
Her mouth fell open. “Huh?”
“Get the laptop. Run back to Gabe. Show him your evidence.”
Her smile faltered, then spread as her confidence returned. “I will.” She pulled her black shoulder bag around, stuffed the camera in it, and pulled out a key. Watching Angel and me with a sharp stare, she made a point of moving close to the wall and as far away as possible from where I was sitting on the edge of Gabe’s desk. She made her way to the closet door that Angel had tried to open earlier. She pulled out a key ring and unlocked the door, then left the key in the lock and reached inside for the light switch on the wall, flipping it on.
I watched this, amused as hell.
OK, pissed as hell, too.
Dee studied the interior of the walk-in closet. It was lined with shelves, and there was a gun safe in there. I would have bet my last dollar that Dee didn’t have the combination to Gabe’s gun safe. She found the laptop in its carrying case right away.
But she seemed to be looking for something else.
I slid off the desk. Quickly, I looked over at Angel.
Her grin practically lit up the night.
“What are you looking for, Dee?” I was two steps away from the closet.
She glanced back at me. “Batteries. Gabe was very specific. He said, ‘Always have backup batteries on a stakeout. ’ ” She turned back around to scan the shelves while muttering, “Batteries, batteries . . .”
I had ahold of the door. “You have a cell phone, right, Dee? And it’s charged?”
“Yeah.” She spotted the extra batteries deep in the closet. She took a big step in, reaching up to snag them. “Mission accomplished!” she announced.
I slammed the door and turned the key still sitting in the lock. Without the key, Dee couldn’t unlock the closet from the inside.
Angel clapped. “Well done, Sam!”
I turned around and looked at Angel. “She sure can scream, can’t she? Gabe should soundproof that closet.”
Angel arched an eyebrow. “Screaming stopped. Guess she figured out to call her boss on her cell phone. Good thing you practically drew her a map.”
I smiled. “Checkmate. There’s no way Gabe hired that,” I jerked my thumb to the closet, “to train as a PI. Damn it, I fell for it. Telling me about Dee, giving me a key, practically giving me an engraved invitation to snoop. He’s just making a point.”
Angel laughed. “I believe you made an excellent counter-point. How do you suppose he knew we were coming here right now?”
Good question. I thought about it for a second. “He probably guessed it wouldn’t take us long, after Dee wouldn’t put my call through.” Gabe knew me pretty well. But that was a risky way to time it. Gabe didn’t take those kinds of risks. I looked around. “Gabe is a security specialist. House and business alarms, that kind of thing. He set something up to notify him when we got here.” Hell.
She thought about that, then asked, “So how far away do you think he is?”
I shrugged. “Let’s get out of here.” Quickly, I set the key to the walk-in closet down on his desk, got my purse, and winced at the banging on the closet door.
Angel glanced at the door. “Hey, are you sure Gabe will get her out? I mean, what if he doesn’t show?”
The phone on Gabe’s desk rang.
I looked up at Angel. “He’ll get her out, Angel. Gabe’s hero streak runs too deep to leave a woman, even Catwoman, locked in a closet.”
Angel picked up her purse and laughed. “This is fun.”
“Or insane.” I made sure to set the alarm before we left.
We got into our separate cars. I smiled as I pulled out of Gabe’s housing tract onto Grand Avenue. Gabe was trying to manipulate me into making a decision about working with him and getting my PI license. Using that Catwoman clone. He’d think again about playing with me when he had to leave his stakeout to rescue Dee.
Of course, Gabe would get even with me.
My cell phone rang. Pulling the phone out of my purse, which was on the passenger seat, I debated answering it. It could be Gabe. A very pissed-off Gabe.
I took my eyes off the road to glance at the caller ID. I was safe—it was Angel. As I put the phone to my ear, I glanced in my rearview mirror.
She wasn’t behind me.
My stomach flipped and I said into the phone, “Don’t you dare go back to your house!” Zack and his gun could show up again.
“I’m not. I’m going to drive by Hugh’s house, then go stay at my mom’s place.”
Relief settled my stomach. “Chicken.” I put the phone on my shoulder and used both hands to turn my T-bird into the dirt parking lot in front of our house. “You don’t want to be around, in case Gabe shows up for a little game of revenge.”
She laughed.
I parked the car and then took hold of the phone. “Why are you spying on Hugh?” I knew part of it was Angel’s restless energy. She should be safe enough at her mom’s house for the night, so I wasn’t worried about that. With her mom and my mom on the cruise, she’d have the place to herself.
“I don’t trust him. Hugh’s up to something. He practically burst a blood vessel screaming at me last Friday. I think Brandi left him and he’s desperate.”
I bit back a sigh. “Angel, Zack’s out there somewhere and he’s got a gun. Hugh’s not your biggest problem right now.” Much as I detested her sniveling weasel of an ex-husband, I didn’t want Angel distracted. She needed to stay focused to stay safe. “We need to think about what we’re going to do tomorrow if the police don’t find Zack.”
Silence. Then, “Still, a girl’s got to have fun.” She hung up.
Crap. I thought I had hurt her feelings. I laid my head on the steering wheel. It had been a long day. In the last two days, I’d thought Angel had been kidnapped, dealt with a crazy romance fan, stumbled onto Angel being threatened by a man with a gun for unknown reasons, and locked my boyfriend’s new assistant in the closet. Now I had hurt my best friend’s feelings and was probably going to be dealing with my pissed-off boyfriend very soon.
“What a day.” Lifting my head from the steering wheel, I looked at the muted yellow light coming through the front window of Grandpa’s small house and consoled myself with having gotten the best of Gabe. Now he had to leave his stakeout to rescue his assistant. That would teach him to hire Catwoman. I got out of the car and stomped up the steps.
I pulled my keys out and unlocked the front door. Angel might be mad at me, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d be OK. Tomorrow, I’d apologize for brushing off her worries about Hugh. Opening the door, I was glad to be home.
Ali ran out from the hallway and across the living room to greet me. She sniffed my shirt with her elegant nose.
“It’s Diet Coke and wine spray, Ali.”
Satisfied, she licked my hand, then turned and went back to the boys’ room.
Grandpa had his nearly bald head bent over his computer screen. He waved a blue-veined hand at me. I walked through to the dining room, set my purse on the glass-topped table, and sank into a chair. “Hi, Grandpa. How are the boys?”
He leaned back and turned to look at me. “They were disappointed that the skateboard pro didn’t show up. Apparently, the guy fell in practice and had to get some stitches. That’s the rumor they heard there, anyway. We cheered them up with a game of poker.”
I smiled. “We” consisted of the same group that I had confiscated the sex-toy kit from earlier that night. What a day. Tiredness sank through my skin into my bones. “I bet you did. Whoever cheated the best, won?”
“Sammy, we’re a bunch of old men—would we do that?” He laughed at himself, his face crinkling up. Then he said, “You look beat, and your shirt looks worse.”
“So I’ve been told.” I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Getting some information on Zack Quinn. Where’s Angel? She’s not staying at her house, is she? I thought she’d come home with you.”
I decided not to scold him for Internet-snooping on Zack. “Angel’s going to stay at her mom’s house because she’s a big redheaded chicken.” I quickly told him the story of going to Gabe’s house, then locking Dee in the closet.
Grandpa’s milky blue eyes widened. “You locked Gabe’s new assistant in a closet inside his house?”
I smiled at the memory. “Yep.”
“Well, then.” He turned back to his computer. “Guess I’d better give you what I have before Gabe gets here.”
I frowned at Grandpa’s bony back. “You mean you want to escape to your room before he gets here.”
“Hey, I’m a magician. I know when to make my exit.” He reached into a side drawer of his rolltop desk and pulled out a yellow tablet. He handed it with a pen to me.
“You aren’t going to get arrested for hacking, are you?”
“Pshaw!”
Alrighty then, I guess that was my answer. I scooted around in my chair, got the tablet positioned on the table, and said, “Let’s just hope the police find and arrest Zack Quinn.”
Grandpa started reading from his computer screen. “Zack Quinn lives in an apartment on Poe Street over by the police station and Swick Matich Field.” He rattled off the address.
I wrote it down. Swick Matich was one of the older parks in Lake Elsinore. It was really just a field in a V of a couple of roads that somehow got dubbed a park. There wasn’t any playground equipment, but these days it was carved up into three diamonds for Little League. There were some lower income apartments in that area, and the police and sheriff’s station was practically across the street.
Adding to the ambience was the lake, just a few streets over from the other side of the park. On cool nights, a damp breeze blew off the lake. But on a hot day after fish kills, the sick smell of decaying fish lay like a heavy, rank fog over the field. Lately, Lake Elsinore had been spared that particular misery.
“Sam, are you paying attention?”
“Sure.” Now, anyway. “What do you have besides Zack’s address?” I was glad Angel wasn’t there, or I’d have to tie her up to keep her from going to Zack’s apartment to confront him. I just hoped the police would get Zack’s address, find him at home, arrest him, and make this whole thing go away.
But I was going to be prepared in case that didn’t happen. One thing I had learned from my life, and from Gabe, was to be ready to take care of myself and my family. Angel was part of my family.