Scottsdale Squeeze: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 2) (4 page)

“Actually, I’m working four of them. Three are cheating spouses but one is an old friend of Lenny’s who’s trying to put together an alibi for a crime occurring a few months ago. Apparently, the police are sniffing around and he’s getting nervous.”

“You mean he is rich,” Sophie said. “Every time Lenny has an ‘old friend’, it means he’s a rich guy Lenny happens to know.”

“You’re right, I’ve noticed the same thing,” Gina said with a laugh. “The police apparently suspect this old-friend may be involved in a string of drug related crimes that have happened over the past two years. The police seem to think he’s some sort of broker or middleman in massive volumes of cocaine and heroin that have come up from Mexico. They apparently have evidence he was directly involved in receiving a heroin shipment coming up from Mexico about three months ago. I’m trying to show our client was elsewhere when the drug deal took place.”

“How’s it going?” I asked.

“So far, I’m getting nowhere. His story isn’t checking out and the people he was supposed to be with at the time can’t be found.”

“That’s never a good sign.”

“Nope.”

“What about the one where the wife’s supposed to be cheating with the pool boy?” Sophie asked.

I cocked my head to the side. This was a new one for me.

Gina saw my look and started laughing. “We were hired by the husband to gather evidence the wife’s cheating. She’s the one with the money and she made him sign an ironclad pre-nup. The only way to break the contract is for him to prove infidelity. The husband suspects the wife’s been cheating with the pool boy, possibly for quite some time.”

“Well?” Sophie asked.

“I don’t know about the wife, but Raul, the pool boy, is having an ongoing affair with the daughter. She comes home from high school about three o’clock and seems to have a standing appointment with Raul every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The house is empty then because mom is always at one of her charity or social events until five or six. I got permission to record in all of the bedrooms, not only the master, so I got some amazing material. She is really flexible, as in feet crossed behind her head flexible.”

“She’s a gymnast,” Sophie said.

We both looked at her.

“What?” she said, looking back at both of us. “I read it in the file. She’s been on a gymnastics team since she was a little kid.”

“Well,” Gina said, “it would explain how she could get into some of those positions. I’m not kidding. It was like watching a circus act.”

“Are you giving the information to the dad?” I asked.

“Nope. Lenny’s only contracted to obtain evidence the wife’s being unfaithful for use in the upcoming divorce,” Gina said. The daughter’s eighteen and it’s outside the scope of the investigation. Per the contract, after I viewed the video to make sure it wasn’t material evidence, I destroyed the tape.”

Sophie held up her glass. “Here’s to pool boys and the women who love them.”

We all clinked our glasses. Living in Scottsdale, most every woman has a happy pool boy memory or two.

~~~~

I got to Paul Marston’s house about eight-thirty but the house looked dark and empty. I opened the gate to the backyard and went in. I saw the bedroom was dark but my opening in the curtains was still there. I walked around to the living room side of the house when Buddy trotted around the corner. He walked over to me and sat down. He licked his drooling doggy lips and slowly wagged his tail.

I reached into my bag and pulled out a thick sirloin I had bought at the same Bashas’ as the night before. Buddy’s tail wagged a bit faster as I held the steak out for him. He took it with a fast snap of his massive jaws but he didn’t eat it. Instead, he held it in his mouth, like a baby with a Binky.

I walked to the living room window and peered into the darkened room. I couldn’t see anything inside, other than a few dark shapes. When I looked down, I saw Buddy had followed me, tail still wagging. I walked to a window looking into a side hallway and again the dog followed. I then went back to the bedroom to see if I could see anything in the dark room through the opening in the curtains. Once again, Buddy followed beside me.

I looked down at the dog, who was wagging his tail harder. He looked so cute, I couldn’t help myself. I reached down and scratched behind his big ears. With the steak in his mouth, he flopped on the ground and rolled over so I could rub his tummy. After a few seconds of rubbing and scratching, he started kicking his back leg and began making happy doggy noises.

“You aren’t much of a watchdog, you know?”

I sat on the picnic table and waited. It appeared the house would be empty for the night, but you never know. I was hoping Paul Marston would still show up and he’d have the women with him again.

By ten o’clock, the house was still dark and I decided to call it a night. I got up and stretched, then started walking back to the gate. Buddy hadn’t left my side as he had gnawed on his dinner. He got up and trotted next to me as I walked through the yard.

When I got to the gate, Buddy let out a sad whine. I looked down at him and scratched behind his ear again.

“Don’t be sad,” I said. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

~~~~

I drove back down into Old Town and parked in my space behind the law office. One convenient thing about my place of employment is it’s within half a mile of twenty of the best bars, restaurants, and nightclubs in Scottsdale.

First on my list to look for Jacquelyn Wade was the Casablanca Lounge. Terry had mentioned Jackie and her friends often went there. It seemed like as good of a place as any to start.

The Casablanca is on Stetson drive, a couple of blocks from the office. I’d been there a few times before and I really like the place. It’s a cocktail lounge located on the third floor of a building where most of the tourists don’t think to look. There’s a beautiful patio with great views of both Old Town and Camelback Mountain, plus there are several fire pits, which are perfect in the winter. They also have menus with tiny lights in them to show you what new drinks they’ve concocted.

I went in and looked around to see if I knew anyone. In my line of work, I tend to meet a lot of people and I seem to keep running into them. The way I look at it, Scottsdale isn’t such a big city.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone I knew, either in the lounge or out on the patio. I went to the bar and asked both of the guys who were working if they knew the woman in the picture. The first looked, but didn’t recognize her. The second immediately knew who she was.

“That’s Jackie-D,” he said. “She’s usually here with a girlfriend or two but I haven’t seen any of them for a while.”

I asked him if he knew the names of Jackie’s friends. He said he only knew them as Elle, Pam, Sonia, and the young one, Annie.

~~~~

Next on my list was the Rock Bar. It was only a short walk to Craftsman Court, down the street from Dos Gringos. I hadn’t been in since it was called the Acme Bar. I went in and really liked the changes. It’s always been a great place to watch a band and the drinks won’t make you go broke.

I went in and looked around. Once again, I didn’t find anyone I knew. I went up to the bar and showed the picture to the woman tending the bar.

“Sure I know her. That’s Jackie-D. I haven’t seen her in a while but a couple of her friends just left, maybe a half hour ago. There was the brunette named Pammy and the younger blonde. I’m not sure what her name is. I think they were headed over to Nexxus.”

~~~~

Nexxus is only about half a mile east of the Rock Bar, but it’s a pain to get across Scottsdale Road on foot. I went back to my car and drove over to Nexxus on Indian Plaza. I surprised myself by finding parking on the street only two blocks from the club.

As far as clubs in Scottsdale go, Nexxus is one of the nicest and also one of the most expensive. It’s been around forever and it’s where the rich and famous go to see and be seen. It’s really two clubs in one. One side is an ultra-modern dance and live music club and on the other side is a more comfortable cocktail lounge. I’d been there a few times over the years, usually with a guy who wanted to impress me to the point I’d go to bed with him. Can’t blame them for trying and sometimes it even worked.

I went in and looked around. This time, I got lucky. Sitting at a table in the lounge was a blonde woman who looked familiar. It only took a few seconds for me to place her. I realized this was Annie and I had met her a couple of months before while working on an assignment. Seated next to Annie was an older brunette woman who I didn’t recognize.

Annie was in her mid-twenties, medium height, and had a medium build. She wore white jeans and a light pink oxford button down. On her feet, she wore pink socks and brown leather sandals. She had short blonde hair, cut in a style that nicely wrapped around her face. Her lipstick was the same shade of pink I remembered from before. I again thought it went well with her skin and hair. As soon as I recognized Annie, the woman in the picture also started to make more sense.

I walked up to Annie and said hello. She looked at me quizzically for a few heartbeats then recognition flooded into her face.

“Laura?” she asked, jumping up to give me a hug. “Wow, it’s so great seeing you. It’s been months since Jeannie’s.”

Annie turned to the brunette.

“Pammy, this is Laura. Laura, this is Pam.”

Pam was in her forties, tall, and athletic. She had short brunette hair and bright blue-green eyes. She had the perfectly toned body that comes from having a personal trainer, a healthy lifestyle, and great family genes. She was dressed in a stylish blue cocktail dress. On her fingers were several sparkly gold and diamond rings and around her neck was a gold rope chain with a large sapphire pendant. She was wearing some type of expensive perfume I couldn’t place. My first impression was she was one of the wealthy single women I occasionally see shopping in the Scottsdale Fashion Plaza. One of the ones who always seem to have four or five bags from the high-end stores swinging from their arms.

I held out my hand and Pam shook it.

“I’m glad I caught up with you,” I said to Annie. We need to talk. The last time we met, we didn’t get around to discussing what I do for a living. I’m an investigator for a law firm here in Scottsdale.”

Pam and Annie both turned to look at each either, shock and surprise on their faces, then they both turned back to me.

“You’re looking for Jackie!” they both said at once.

They saw the surprise on my face.

“Wow,” I said. “Yes, I am. What do you know about it?”

“We haven’t seen or heard from Jackie in a week,” Pam said. At first we thought she’d hooked up with someone and we’d hear from her in a day or two.”

“Yeah,” Annie said, talking over Pam. “When she’s with someone, we usually don’t see her for a couple of days. But even then, she’ll still send out some texts or tweets. But there hasn’t been anything since last Monday.”

“When’s the last time you saw her?”

“We all went to the Roxy last Saturday night. There was a band Jackie wanted to catch.” Pam said.

“Dog Farts?” I asked.

Annie wrinkled her nose. “Isn’t that the grossest name for a band?”

“She had planned on hooking up with the singer after the show, so we all went,” Pam said. “Even Elle and Shannon went and they both hate Terry Lennox. Elle was with him a couple of times last year but now she says his singing voice reminds her of cats having sex. Jackie and Terry took off together after the show and it’s the last time we saw her. She sent out a couple of texts and she was on Twitter Monday but nothing since.

I pulled out the picture of Jackie Terry Lennox had given me. I showed it to Annie and Pam.

“Annie is this the woman I met with you at Jeannie’s a couple of months ago? When I met her, she was made up and had big hair. This picture is from a distance and her hair is wet but it looks like her.”

“Sure,” said Annie. That’s Jackie. I took the picture the last time we all went down to Rocky Point, maybe a month ago. Jackie leases a house in Las Conchas and we’d been there at the beach all afternoon.”

“Do you think she could be there now?”

“I doubt it,” Pam said. “Mexico is safe enough when you go down in a group, but I couldn’t see Jackie going down by herself.”

“I’ve already talked to Terry Lennox,” I said. “He says Jackie’s his girlfriend.”

At that, both Pam and Annie burst out in laughter. Annie laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe and tears began to roll down her face. She finally stopped, looked at Pam, then they both started laughing again.

“Boyfriend?” Pam said, still laughing. “Terry isn’t exactly the kind of guy you would want to be with long-term.”

“Yeah,” Annie said. “And with Terry, long-term would be anything more than about an hour. You said you’ve talked with him. Then you’ll know the man is as stupid as a rock.”

“So true,” Pam said with a smile. “Terry is clueless but Jackie said he was good enough for what she wanted him for.”

“Sooo, you wouldn’t say they were dating?” I asked.

“Terry was only a hook up,” Annie said. They’d been together four or five times in the past month. He’s cute and can sing but he gets annoying fast. I can’t stand Terry but Jackie said he was OK, as long as he didn’t talk too much.”