A.R. Winters - Valerie Inkerman 01 - Don't Be a Stranger (15 page)

After Jerry called 911, the cops arrived fairly quickly. We all went to the Precinct, where we gave statements separately.

It was almost eleven by the time we were done, and the three of us met up at a half-empty Chinese restaurant a few blocks down. Over Mai Tais and fried rice, Edgar Martinez said, “I’m sorry I thought you two wanted to kidnap me. My life’s been pretty crazy for a while, now.”

“I’d think so,” I said, “How’d you even end up with Mellie?”

“She seemed so normal at first,” he said. “And I thought we should get married. But then little things she did – like going shopping for Prada handbags and expecting me to pay the bill – got on my nerves. I wanted to break up, but she got all suicidal.”

“Wow,” said Jerry. “Was she really?”

Edgar shrugged. “I thought so. I didn’t trust her, but I also didn’t want her to kill herself.”

“So you pretended to still love her?”

“She said she was doing therapy,” Edgar said. “I told myself I’d end things as soon as she seemed more stable.”

“And then you met Esme.”

He sighed. “That was the real thing. I loved Esme more than anything, and I wanted to be with her, like a real couple. We were talking about eloping.”

“But Mellie found out,” said Jerry.

Edgar nodded. “She fought with me and I didn’t know what to say. And then she talked to Esme, and Esme admitted it.”

“Wow.”

Edgar pushed food around on his plate.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “You know none of this was your fault.”

Edgar shook his head. “I’ll always wonder what I could’ve done differently. I should’ve talked to Mellie’s family. Made them force her to get help.”

Jerry and I exchanged a look. There would always be a lot of “shoulds.”

“You can’t change the past,” I said softly.

Edgar nodded. “After Esme – after the party. I thought, what if Mellie had something to do with all of it? But then I learned they had a suspect. I thought
I
was the one being crazy.”

“Well,” I said. “At least it’s over now.”

“Yeah,” said Jerry. “For a moment, I thought Mellie was really going to kill us all.”

Edgar shook his head. “You think you know a person. But deep down, they’re really just a stranger.”

Later that night, Edgar told Esme’s family what had really happened, and Darren learned that the case was closed.

He came over to our place the next morning, and I opened the door with a smile instead of a fry pan.

“Can I take you out to breakfast now?” he said, and I nodded.

“And this time,” I promised, “Jerry won’t be there.”

Forty minutes later, Darren and I were sitting opposite each other in comfy armchairs, coffee and fresh-baked Danishes spread out on the low table before us. We’d chosen to go to a small, cozy café in the West Village. Its walls were exposed brick, the food was excellent and every now and then, the
brrr
of the coffee grinder rose above the hum of conversation.

“So, you’re a successful PI now,” said Darren. “Everyone’s going to know you solved this.”

I shrugged modestly. “I don’t know how successful I am. I mean, this was my first serious case.”

“You’ll do great.”

I smiled. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

Darren fidgeted awkwardly in his sofa. “Speaking of confidence. I think, um, remember that favor I was going to ask of you?”

I tried not to look wary. “Yes?”

“I was hoping you’d let me hire you for a job.”

“Oh.” I smiled. “What is it? Employee background check? Finding a lost pet?”

Darren shook his head. “No. I’d like you to look into someone.”

“Oh.”

“She – um – I used to know her in college, back in Cornell. But I lost touch with her after that.”

“Do you have friends in common?”

“Sure. But I don’t want to look like a big loser.”

“And that’s why you want to hire me. So that you can find her without anyone knowing.”

“Exactly.”

I sipped my coffee thoughtfully, trying not to look too disappointed.

Well, at least I’d solved the mystery of why Darren was a womanizer – he was still pining for The One That Got Away.

Dating in Manhattan is all about kissing frogs. You hope that at some point, one of those frogs will turn into a nice prince who’ll make you happy – but in the meantime you’re stuck with a bunch of frogs and an icky feeling on your lips.

I’d really hoped that, despite his reputation, Darren would turn out to be a prince. Instead, I’d learned that there was more wrong with Darren than just his reputation.

“And you still love her,” I said thoughtfully. “After all those years and all those women.”

Darren shrugged. “I tried to move on. But… Does that make me seem too pathetic?”

I smiled and shook my head. If anything, I was the pathetic one for thinking that he was being nice to me because he liked me: the only thing he’d been after was my discretion in finding his long-lost girl. “It’s actually kind of romantic. But what if she’s married?”

“At least I’d know, instead of wondering forever.”

“What if she’s living on the other side of the country?”

“I travel all over for work. I might as well travel for… you know. Something else.”

I smiled. Well, at least this time, I’d found that the frog was just a frog, no kissing involved.

Jerry was out when I got home – there was a note saying that he’d gone to an audition. He came back after lunch to find me watching re-runs of
Friends
and snacking on my microwave chocolate pudding.

“You know,” he said, “It’s not that hard to make proper chocolate cake.”

“Thanks,” I said, snuggling into the sofa cushions.

“That wasn’t an offer to make a cake – I was saying you could learn to bake.”

I gave him a morose stare and chose to ignore the advice. “How was the audition?”

Jerry sighed. “Not that great. I suppose I might as well have some of your chocolate pudding.”

“Too bad, I just finished it. How about you teach me to make chocolate cake?”

Jerry eyed me skeptically. He knew just as well as I did that I wasn’t going to learn anything – I’d just hover around, lick the bowl clean, and then, half an hour later, devour half the cake.

“Fine,” he said. “I don’t have any upcoming auditions anyway. I can afford to eat some cake.”

I got off the sofa and followed him into the kitchen, where I tried to beat some eggs while I told him about Darren. I’d expected Jerry to make some stupid joke about how I couldn’t attract men, but instead, he said, “That sucks. What’re you going to do?”

“What
can
I do? I guess I’ll try to find the girl. It’s easy work, easy money.”

“Wow.”

I shrugged. “It’s not how I was hoping things would turn out, but I don’t want to be so jealous that I can’t even help someone find love.”

We were silent for a few seconds, and then Jerry told me about his terrible audition. According to him, there were guys at the audition who were as good-looking as Tom Cruise, back in his heyday, and with the same amount of talent. “I’ll never be an actor,” Jerry
moaned.

A few minutes after we put the cake-mix into the oven, there was a knock on the door. Jerry and I looked at each other, and I shrugged.

I opened the door and found myself staring at Jerry’s dad. “Kyle!” I said. “Jerry didn’t tell me you were coming over! Come in.”

We went over to the kitchen table, and Jerry gave his dad a surprised hug. “I didn’t know you were coming,” Jerry said, echoing my words.

Kyle said, “I didn’t know I was coming till this morning. And then I just hopped on my plane.”

“Well, it’s good to see you,” I said. “Coffee?”

“I’ll get it,” said Jerry, fishing around for coffee pods.

Kyle and I sat at the kitchen table and smiled at each other.

“I’m sure you remember the bonus,” Kyle said.

“I do.”

“Well, here it is.”

Kyle handed me a check and I stared at the amount. This was real. For once, I had actual money. I wasn’t broke – I’d be able to pay my rent and my bills and do some interesting PI work.

“I – I appreciate it.”

“I should get a cut of that,” Jerry said, placing mugs of coffee in front of me and Kyle. “I helped.”

“So I heard.” Kyle took a sip of his coffee and turned to me. “Jerry told me over the phone that he went with you to talk to people, and he called up his friends trying to find contacts.”

Jerry joined us at the table with his freshly-made mug of steaming hot coffee.

“Oh.” I tried not to look too disappointed. On the one hand, I really wanted the money. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to be too greedy – and Jerry
had
helped a little with the investigation. “Do you think Jerry deserves a cut?”

Kyle laughed a deep belly laugh. “Well, aren’t you generous? If it was me, I’d be fighting tooth and nail to prove that the money was mine and only mine.”

I felt my face getting a little warm. I wasn’t being generous – I was just trying not to look like a money-grubbing parasite.

“Well,” I said, trying to be honest, “I’m glad I don’t have to share the money. But Jerry
has
been a big help. I couldn’t have done it without all the contacts he’s got and his help – well, I could probably have done it, but it might’ve been a bit more difficult. And Jerry’s annoying at times, but I appreciate his help.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jerry staring at the surface of the kitchen table and trying to hide his embarrassment. This was the first time I’d ever said anything nice about him to his face – which was completely unchartered territory for our friendship.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Kyle. “Because that brings me to the reason why I flew out here instead of mailing you the check.” He looked me in the eye, and I tried not to fidget uncomfortably. Kyle was starting to remind me of my fifth-grade math teacher when she was about to explain to me how I’d done every sum wrong. “I want you to hire Jerry as your assistant.”

Jerry and I sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, and then we both began to talk at once.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I couldn’t do that,” I said. “I can’t afford to pay him, I can barely pay my own bills and I don’t have enough work and…”

Jerry was saying, “No, I’m going to be an actor, I have to go to auditions, I don’t have time for all this… I mean, I can help her out once in a while but…”

Jerry and I stopped talking and looked at each other, and then back at Kyle.

“You see,” I said. “We can’t do that.”

Kyle shook his head. “I thought you might say no. But I think Jerry needs to grow up.” He looked at Jerry and said, “You can’t spend your whole life going to auditions and even if you
do
become an actor, I want you to have done some real work before that. Something that helps people and shows you the reality of life. When you become a famous Hollywood actor, people will respect you more because you’ve done something that helps other folks. And the work’ll help you improve your acting, and people skills.”

Jerry frowned thoughtfully, and Kyle turned to me. “And I don’t plan on imposing on you financially, so I’m going to pay Jerry’s salary for at least the first few months.” He slid another check across the table. “Half of this is for Jerry’s first six months’ salary. The other half is to cover your admin expenses of hiring him, and to cover the irritation of having him tag along with you.”

He winked at me, and took a sip of his coffee.

I stared down at the check. It was a lot of money. I wouldn’t mind having a lot of money. I could buy myself a nice pair of shoes. And a nice blush-pink blouse, like the one I saw Murderous Mellie wearing. And I could rent an office and look more like a professional PI. I could do a lot of things with that money.

I looked at Jerry, who was staring into his coffee. Sure, Jerry was annoying, but he did seem to know everyone who grew up in the city, and maybe there would be times when I’d need help during my investigations. All the famous detectives had a partner – even Sherlock had his Watson.

Jerry looked up at me and we exchanged a glance.

“We’ll do it,” he told his father. “At least for the next six months.”

Kyle smiled happily, and the oven timer went off.

“That’s the cake,” I said. “Jerry, our first order of business is to have some chocolate cake.”

“I might as well have a slice before I leave,” said Kyle. “I hope you two can work well as a team.”

I wasn’t too sure about working with Jerry. He wasn’t the smartest cookie around, and his constant mocking of me did get a little irritating sometimes. But now it was my turn to call
him
Nancy Drew.

I watched as Jerry took the cake out of the oven, tipped it over onto a large cake-plate, and brought it over to the table. I’d have to teach him to fire a gun, I thought, unless he planned on hitting suspects with cream pies, clown-style.

He served Kyle and me with big slices of cake each. I wasn’t too sure about what the future would hold for me and Jerry, investigations-wise. But at least he could bake – so if nothing else, at least the future would hold many more slices of chocolate cake.