Mischievous Malamute Mystery Series: Books 1-3

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Meanwhile, Abe and Elijah were wondering the same thing about AJ.

They had returned to L.A. the previous day, ready to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, the only things they managed to hit in the past several hours were a series of brick walls.

Victoria had been convinced the Jackson’s plane crash was not accidental. They learned from working long, hard hours with her she didn’t jump to conclusions easily—quite the opposite, in fact—and oh, so stubborn, that one. She routinely drove them crazy with her don’t-tell-me-prove-it-to-me attitude. And yet, the day before she was killed, she’d been so certain, despite the fact they had previously gone over and over the official report, talked to the crash investigator, looked at the crash site and found nothing. What had changed her mind?

While she had likely memorized the contents of the report, Abe and Elijah agreed it couldn’t have been the source of her new evidence. Anna had locked their only copy in the safe weeks ago, and Victoria hadn’t asked her to retrieve it or make copies. They all agreed she would have done so, had it contained the linchpin they’d spent months searching for. As simple as an explanation as that seemed, it was her nature. She simply wouldn’t have made the comment without having evidence to support it. They’d already searched her condo and had come up empty.

That left Winslow Clark, the crash investigator. Surely, she must have contacted him and asked him to confirm some nugget of information? Their disappointment mounted when he said no, not only had he not talked to Victoria, he hadn’t seen her since the three of them had met him at the crash site several months earlier. He didn’t ask about her, and they didn’t offer—no need to voluntarily put her death out there—so once they had their answer, they thanked Clark for his time and hung up.

Too frustrated to think straight, they headed back to the office to touch base with Anna. She was not only an amazing admin, she got them back on track when they went off the rails. Yup, right now they needed a strong dose of Anna.

Anna was delighted to see them again, too. She knew the Phoenix trip had taken its toll—especially after learning of Victoria’s death—but she had also seen grief and anger turn into something else—a mission. It had become personal. For all of them. She smiled warmly as they bounded through the door, like two schoolboys fresh off the playground. They scooped her up into a big bear hug and spun her around, laughing as they ignored her feigned pleas about wrinkling her outfit. Finally, Abe put her back on her feet, but not before Elijah mock-mussed her hair.

“Touch the locks and you’re done, buster,” she growled, though there was a gleam of mischief in her eyes. She made a display of smoothing the wrinkles out of the black long sleeve cotton blouse she’d paired with rolled-up boyfriend jeans and ballet flats, but a grin peeked out from under the long raven hair that had fallen over her face during their horseplay.

Abe and Elijah laughed heartily. Though she was drop-dead gorgeous—easily passing as a sibling of Angie Everhart’s—and as sweet as they come, she could definitely throw-down when she needed to. Growing up with five older brothers would do that to a girl. Plus, they’d seen her in action at a couple of her martial arts classes. Anna wasn’t a gal you’d want to mess with in a dark alley, much less a well-lit one. Of course, she’d lay you out flat, then apologize by baking you fudge brownies later. Still, they were glad Anna was on their side.

“Any word from AJ?” Elijah asked her.

“Yeah, in fact, we’ve spoken on the phone, as well as e-mailed back and forth a few times. She’s busy tracking down leads at the hospital and adoption agency and is also hoping to speak personally with Jonathan Silverton and Sir Edward,” Anna replied. “Oh, and she fessed-up about her friend Leah.” They all laughed, before she added, “Anyway, I like her. She’s got spunk and isn’t afraid to speak her mind.”

“Kind of like you, huh? Like two beans on a stalk,” Abe chuckled as he went into the kitchenette to fill his water bottle.

“That’s two peas in a pod, smart guy!” Anna shouted at him.

“Thanks for proving my point,” he shouted back, laughing.

Elijah took his brother’s absence to lean in and whisper, “I think Abe has a little crush on AJ.”

“Really?” Anna replied, crooking her eyebrow. Elijah nodded and put a finger to his lips as Abe returned.

“What are you two whispering about?” he asked, eyeing them both suspiciously. “You know my birthday isn’t until next month, though if you wanted to start shopping now, there’s a sweeeet Jag—”

“Stop right there,” Anna teased, “you’ll ruin the big surprise.” Roars of laughter filled the office.

Once the last of the chuckles subsided, Elijah turned the conversation back to the case, “Speaking of Jags, we should follow up with the dealership manager about his missing employee.”

“And the missing paperwork,” Abe added.

“Let me go grab his number out of the file, and we’ll conference him,” Elijah said.

As he strode into the other office, Abe turned to Anna and murmured, “I think Elijah has a crush on AJ.”

“You don’t say?” Anna deadpanned.

As Elijah came back, file in hand, Abe gave her a sly wink, to which she returned a quick nod. His secret was safe with her.

Oblivious to their collusion, Elijah sat down and dialed the dealership’s number. The receptionist transferred the call directly to the manager, who picked up on the first ring.

“Jaguar of Malibu, Paul Switzer at your service. Today is the day—don’t just dream it—drive it!”

He deflated a bit when Elijah introduced himself as a PI—most likely after mentally calculating the probability of a sale—but allowed Elijah to continue.

“My brother, Abe, and my associate, Anna, are also on the call with us,” he paused as they said quick hellos. “Victoria Winestone hired us several months ago on another matter. It has recently come to our attention, however, the situation with her mother’s car might be related to this matter, so we’re hoping you would entertain a few questions?”

“I have already explained everything to Victoria,” Switzer huffed, “as well as to the police. Three times.”

“If you wouldn’t mind telling us, just once, we’d greatly appreciate it,” Anna added in her most sultry voice. Perhaps a feminine touch would inspire cooperation? It did. Abe and Elijah rolled their eyes as Anna smirked.

“This ‘situation,’ as you so kindly phrased it, started when I won the dealership’s yearly raffle for a European cruise. First time in twenty years I could take the wife on a real vacation. And this happens. Worse cluster in my entire career and it goes down the minute I walk out of the dealership.” His frustration oozed through the phone.

“My now-former assistant manager, Tanner Dolby, was supposed to be in charge during my absence. Ms. Winestone’s car was delivered on a truck, along with four others, as scheduled. Her car was the only one that had been a custom job. You know—special wheels, tires, leather, etc.—the works. The color was the same as one of the other four, but even then, you’d have to be a complete i***t to confuse the two, which Dolby managed to do.

“Dolby delivered Mrs. Winestone’s car to another customer, Frederick Glass, before realizing his mistake. He claimed to have called Glass back immediately, but Glass rebuffed him, indicating his wife had already fallen in love with her new car. Under no circumstances was he prepared to disappoint her because of Dolby’s oversight.

“Rather than get me involved, Dolby contacted Mrs. Winestone himself and played the sympathy card, appealing to her good nature. She was legendary for it, but he took advantage of her generosity as a means of covering for his mistake. It disgusts me to think about it, especially considering I will never get a chance to make it right with her,” he sighed, his former employee’s manipulation obviously weighed heavily on his conscience.

“Anyway, Dolby convinced Mrs. Winestone to take Glass’ Jag temporarily—still a remarkable piece of machinery, just not what she’d ordered and paid for—while he ordered another customized car. I can’t believe she went for it. It had taken months to get the car in, not to mention the weeks she’d already put into carefully selecting the customizations. Once she agreed, he probably figured the problem was solved, and he was off the hook.”

“So he confessed when you got back and then bailed?” Abe asked.

Switzer laughed harshly. “Nope, I didn’t even get the courtesy. He bolted the day Mrs. Winestone took delivery of the car—originally Glass’ car—and never came back. My sales manager didn’t have the good sense to call me while it was going down, so I got hit with everything my first day back from vacation. Let’s just say, the only one I plan on taking in the future is called retirement.”

“Victoria mentioned that when Dolby went missing, Glass’ paperwork did too?” Elijah asked.

“Ha, I wish it was only the paperwork. Dolby not only allegedly removed or destroyed the relevant physical documentation but the electronic stuff, as well. And, believe me, it wasn’t like you see on CSI or Law & Order when they are able to retrieve traces of the deleted documents after twenty minutes. In this real-life scenario, the hard drive was g-o-n-e, as in Dolby swapped it out with a new one and took it with him. Allegedly, of course.

“Anyway, I haven’t even told you the best part yet. After Dolby skipped out, Mrs. Winestone’s custom car went missing. And Frederick Glass? Well, he never existed.”

Abe, Elijah, and Anna looked at one another. Something wasn’t adding up. “Seems like a pretty elaborate plan just to steal a car,” Anna commented, to no one in particular. “Why the cover-up? Why not just take Mrs. Winestone’s car and go? Unless…” she paused as they all mentally finished her thought. Dolby needed to get the other car into Mrs. Winestone’s hands. They were silent as they pondered the possibilities.

It was Switzer who finally spoke, changing the subject. “Say, you guys mind doing me a favor? Would you let Victoria know she left her sunglasses here? I would have mailed them, but I don’t know where she lives.”

“Wait, Victoria was there?” Anna stuttered as Abe and Elijah’s eyes widened in surprise. “When was this?”

“Um, a couple of weeks ago,” Switzer replied. “I needed her to come down and finalize some paperwork pertaining to her mother’s car, for insurance purposes and things of that nature.”

“We always assumed she had only called you,” Abe commented, looking at Anna and his brother, who both nodded in return.

“Well, she did call me, but that was on a previous occasion, after my new assistant manager left a message on her parent’s machine about her mother’s car. He’s not from around here and, unfortunately, wasn’t aware they’d been killed several months prior.

“Anyway, on the day she was here, I had to leave her for a couple of minutes while I dealt with a crisis in the service department. When I came back, she was gone. The receptionist, Bonnie, said Victoria literally ran out the door, indicating something urgent had come up, and she was sorry, but she had to leave. Bonnie also said if she hadn’t known better, she would have thought Victoria had seen a ghost.”

Abe, Elijah, and Anna could do nothing but look at each other, open-mouthed, as Switzer dropped that bombshell.

“Anyway, it must have been something important, because she left some pretty nice Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses behind.”

Important indeed.