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Authors: Melissa Phillips

Claiming What's His

BOOK: Claiming What's His
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Claiming What’s His

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events, places, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2013 Melissa Phillips

 

Cover design © Arijana Karcic, Cover It! Designs

Cover image © Can Stock Photo Inc. /
konradbak

ISBN-13:
  978-1489503251

ISBN-10:
  1489503250

Dedication

 

 

To my awesome Aunt Hon, who was an inspiration to one of the characters.  You’ve always been both a great aunt and an even awesomer friend.  You are truly one of a kind.  I love you!

 

Acknowledgements

 

 

A special thank you to Arijana who I’m pretty sure I have been driving her nuts up the wazoo!

 

To my brother who I always drive nuts no matter what I’m doing, whether it be writing, talking to myself, or doing cartwheels down the street.

Chapter One

 

 

              “Okay, sweetheart, let me get this straight.  You said you
cannot
find Billy?”  Samantha Daniels asked as her brows furrowed.  She was sitting behind her desk with her elbows propped up while her fingers pressed into her temples as she sighed.

             
She was on the phone with a four year old boy named Danny Murphy even though he kept telling her that he was four and three-quarters.  Apparently that little technicality was important to him so she let that go. 

             
But, how he got her phone number and managed to dial it correctly was beyond her.  That wasn’t important right now.  There was another pressing issue at hand.

             
“Uh huh,” he mumbled in his low voice as he sniffed into the receiver.

             
This was not good.  This sounded like a missing child but she knew she shouldn’t jump to conclusions yet because she could be wrong (and she was well known to do that often).  She certainly didn’t have all the information just yet. 

             
“Who’s Billy?” she asked as she wrote down his name on her notepad.

             
“My friend,” he replied in his small voice that almost sounded like a whimper.

             
Shit. 

             
A missing child. 

             
Just what Sam needed for her first case.  This was definitely not good.  Sam needed to be prepared to contact local authorities as soon as she got off the phone.  

             
“When was the last time you saw Billy?”

             
“I dunno,” he replied. 

             
Sam heard material of what was probably his shirt crackling against the receiver that she could visually see him shrugging his shoulders against the phone when he answered.

             
“Are his Mommy and Daddy looking for him?”

             
“They not here.” 

             
Damn. 

             
What kind of parent didn’t know where their child was?  Every responsible parent always knew where their child was (unless this parent wasn’t responsible, then that would be another issue that bothered her).

             
“Okay, is your Mommy or Daddy home?  Can I talk to them?”  She hoped she could get one of them on the line so that she could clarify things with them and obtain more useful information.

             
“Mommy went to the store and Daddy is at work.”

             
“Who are you home with?”

             
“Mandy.”

             
“Who is Mandy?  Is that your sister?”

             
“No, Mommy said she sits on babies.  I don’t think she should do that.  It could hurt them.”  

The babysitter.
  What kind of babysitter was she anyways if a child went missing, especially on her watch?  And she was letting Danny playing on the phone, although he wasn’t technically
playing
on the phone.  He was reporting his friend missing.  What a brave boy.

Still.  Shouldn’t she have been with Danny and his friend to watch them?

              “Okay, is she there?  Can I talk to her?  Is she nearby?”

             
“She’s in the TV room and she’s on her little phone and she’s laughing a lot.  She told me never to bother her when she’s on the phone.”

Typical teenagers and their cell phones.
  Samantha never really did understand why parents would give their kids a cell phone at a young age.  Assuming she was at a young age.  All they ever did was talk on the phone, text and take pictures with it anyways.

             
“Okay sweetheart, hang tight and I will be there.”

             
“Okay.”

             
Disconnect.

             
This was just her luck – to have a four year old as her first client since she opened the doors to Samantha Daniels Investigations two weeks ago.

             
She didn’t have the time to dwell on the significance of Danny’s age at the moment.  There were other pressing issues at hand.

             
A missing child.

             
Sam immediately informed Sergeant Charles ‘Chuck’ Ross, one of the Comfort’s local police department’s officers and a good friend of hers, and gave him the details.  She told him to keep his phone handy so that once she got the details, he could issue an Amber Alert.

*******

Samantha Daniels was a private investigator, owner of Samantha Daniels Investigations and only daughter to Mitch Daniels who was the best dad-mechanic in all of Comfort, Texas.

In fact, she was the
only
private investigator in Comfort.

Three months ago she and her best friend Margaret Conrad graduated from the University of Houston, returning home to Comfort to start their lives and their new companies.  For the past five and a half years, Sam and Maggie refused to commute the forty-five minutes to school.  They wanted to have the full college life experience and live on campus filled with parties, sleepless, study nights, and pillow fights that included the entire co-ed building.

Growing up she and Maggie always had a knack at solving things, whether it be puzzles, problems, or mysteries.  So naturally, Sam embraced that and majored in Criminology. 

Maggie, on the other hand, didn’t want to be solving other peoples’ problems the rest of her life.  She claimed that she already had issues of her own and it was enough for her to deal with.  If she did, Sam knew nothing of them.  Maggie never discussed it with her.  Instead, she chose to use her special ability of marketing and branding by using her photography hobby to enhance her future client’s work.

Sam and Maggie had been best friends since the day they were born.  Maggie hated her real name but loved that she was named after her Nana.  Her nana was the one who mainly raised her when she was born up until she died when Maggie was five. 

Maggie was a natural born badass and troublemaker.  She never took crap from anyone since she stumbled out from the womb.  They had been best friends since the day they were born.  Being friends with her did not help Sam with her reputation in the town either
.   Everywhere they went they were always together and they were never without one another.  Where there was trouble, they were there.

Her first recalled memory – their first attempt to potty in the big toilet by themselves.

Yes, that’s right. 

The big
loo.

Sam and Maggie were three years old wearing pigtails, pull-ups and a tee shirt, holding hands while walking to the bathroom to “attempt” their potty (without parental guidance) because they were ‘big girls’.
 Maggie bent down so that Sam could step on her back and managed to climb up and sit.  Within seconds, Sam fell into the toilet, screaming, while Maggie laughed and pointed.  Thus, starting their shrieking and water fight, including those who dared walk in to stop them.

When they were five, on the first day of school, during recess they rolled around in the mud and even managed to ‘accidentally’ (even though they knew it really wasn’t an accident) splattered mud on Ms. Johnson, ruining her brand new dress and getting mud in her mouth (because she was a
meanie).  That got them sent to the principal’s office and a phone call to the Mitch and George Conrad, Maggie’s uncle, for a change of clothes (and a ‘bad girl’ lecture from them for about five minutes before they left).

At the age of eight, they thought glue was a “multi-purpose” (Mitch had told her the word and definition at that age) use for everything including paper, couch, clothing, hair, and so forth.  So they use it, lots of it, (as in the whole bottle) in Tommy Green’s hair so that they could ‘style’ it for him like how the boy bands had them styled.
  He wasn’t too happy when his mom yelled at him when he got home.  Hey, at least the substance was washable.

When they were thirteen, Sam and Maggie squirted ketchup and mustard on Bobby Stone since he called Maggie ‘snot face’ because when he tried to kiss her between classes, she sneezed in his face (she had been sick with a runny nose).
 He retaliated by throwing shredded lettuce in their direction which Sam ducked to, making it hit Jake Mayfield in the face instead.  This got Jake a little pissed off and caused a food fight in the school’s cafeteria.  Before Principal Harrison came in, Sam grabbed the mustard out of Maggie’s hand, pretending as if Maggie never did anything.  Maggie had an excuse for sneezing and shouldn’t have been punished for Bobby’s stupid outburst.  Besides, friends look out for one another.

Sam got sent to the principal’s office and grounded (while Dad laughed his ass off while trying to be stern and strict; it failed miserably).
 Two days later Sam and Maggie re-retaliated by stuffing dirty tissues and a bag of dog poop in Bobby’s locker during study hall.  This got them sent to the principal’s office, again for Sam.  Needless to say, the office faculties knew their names (and all of their offenses), especially Sam’s.

When they were seventeen, on Halloween they filled Rachel Van Winkle’s car with popcorn (seasoned with salt and butter) because she stole Maggie’s crush right in front of her during the homecoming game (Rachel was a bitch and deserved it).  Later that same night, they
egged her car.  This time they didn’t get sent to the principal’s office; they were escorted to the police station where they had an angry girl and her dad yelling at the big bad police officers. 

One of those being yelled at was Roy Caldwell, Chief of Police.  Sam knew he tried his hardest not to roll his eyes since the whole family tended to get carried away over everything and took things out of proportion.

Sam and Maggie were never charged due to lack of solid proof (even though Sam was sure Roy already knew they were guilty) and because Roy happened to be Dad’s and George’s poker buddy.  What they did get later on that night were lectures from Roy, George, and Dad and conned into community service at the nursing home where they ended up partying with the seniors and their weak (but young) hearts.

Regardless of what they ever did, all they had to do was show
their puppy dog eyes and pouted their lips and their “punishment” never lasted long.  No one ever had the heart to punish the Comfort Cuties and they sort of made sure of that.

Mitch and George had been best friends since high school when they met freshman year during Algebra class.
 Mitch was a full time mechanic, one of the best Sam had ever seen (he was known to many, if not all in town).  He went into early retirement as soon as Sam finished school three months ago.  Now he spent most of his days fishing, fishing and fishing.   

Because Mitch was a mechanic, people assumed that Sam had a knack with cars or engines.

Wrong, wrong,
wrong!

Sam knew absolutely nothing about cars – horsepower, engine, quality, reputation, nothing.  She doesn’t even know the difference between the different blade types of screwdriver.  The only terms she was familiar with were “flathead” and “Phillips
”.

Mitch raised Sam as a single father.  It wasn’t as tough on him because he
raised her using the trial and error method.  He allowed her to do as she please and if she made a mistake, he taught her never to make the same mistake again.  The other reason was to make sure she didn’t electrocute herself along the way.

At one point, Sam went through a tomboy phase where she wore nothing but baggy tee shirts, jeans, and sneakers, and no make-up.  Her hair had even been kept short for easy maintenance.  During this phase, Mitch had been relieved that he didn’t have to worry about boys taking advantage of his girl.  It wasn’t until Sam was in middle school where she discovered girl clothes, name brands, make-up, and boys.  And this was when Mitch kept his handgun nearby.

There was no female figure in her life to teach her about all the girly stuff that teenage girls usually learn when they hit puberty.  Sam didn’t have a mom like most people did (or she suppose she did at some point since she was alive and kicking), but her mother, Linda, (from what Mitch had told her) left her when she was a baby, never to be seen or heard from again.  Mitch didn’t know the exact reason why she left.  It had just been a typical weekday.  Mitch came home from work to find a note on the kitchen counter saying that she had dropped Sam off at the Conrad’s and disappeared.  Her mother left Sam with Mitch so Sam never knew who her mother was.  And she never knew what to make of her.  Sometimes Sam wondered why she left.  She supposed she’ll never find out.

Mitch never talked about it.
 He actually told Sam that the stork dropped her off on his porch because he really wanted a kid.  Sam never believed him.

Mitch was a very handsome man.
  He might have gotten a little round in the mid-section, but he could still catch a lady’s attention.  He kind of reminded Sam of Bruce Willis but with hair and a gut. 

BOOK: Claiming What's His
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