Malicious Desires

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I took a deep breath. “It was an accident. I was tailing him and got too close. Frank, he saw me. It would’ve been too obvious if I’d retreated, so I just went with it. He didn’t suspect anything.”

Frank was quiet and had that look he gets when he’s frustrated with me. I knew there would be a lecture sometime in the near future.

Wally reached for his phone and threw a couple of bucks on the bar. He raced down the stairs, so Frank and I followed. Moving through the casino, he headed out through the doors by the hotel.

We followed him outside and caught sight of him getting into a maroon SUV just before it sped away. Without any chance of catching up, Frank gave me my sub, and we went our separate ways.

I drove home to once again wash the smoke out of my hair. As I stepped out of the shower, I realized it was my third of the day. If this keeps up, I’m not going to have any skin left. I put on my sweats, brushed out my hair, and went downstairs to the bottle of red wine and my sub sitting on the kitchen counter.

While I ate, I filled out my index cards, adding a few notes about my observations of Wally. Then, out of nowhere, I found myself thinking about how afraid Michael Carson’s mom must be. I was tempted to call, but I knew better. Frank would take me off the case so fast I wouldn’t know what hit me. Still, I knew she had to be a mess.

To take my mind off Stacy Carson, I sank into the couch and settled on the Clint Eastwood movie, The Dead Pool, and enjoyed my wine. By the time I staggered up to bed, it was after 11:00. I was completely wiped out.

I woke up to a cold, grey morning that confirmed it was officially fall in Temecula. Unlike most states where fall is considered to start in late September, we don’t even start cooling down to a reasonable temperature until the end of October, which meant we were right on schedule.

By the time I got to the office, Frank was in rare form, which always made me uneasy. Usually, it meant there was trouble in paradise. With Frank, there was a lot of trouble in paradise. He’d been divorced twice and appeared to be heading toward a third, but he conveniently kept forgetting all the pain divorce entailed. Recently, he’d been seeing an unbelievably beautiful woman named Monique Collins, a cop.

Monique was the only female cop I’d ever seen who looked amazing in that horrible uniform. She filled it out in all the right places, and it was pretty tough not to notice. So here I was, evaluating Frank’s current mood, wondering if I should even ask.

Frank was the kind of guy who would either spill his guts completely or bask quietly in his pain and misery; I never knew which it would be. I decided to wait and feel him out, so I went to my desk and powered up my computer. I was at a loss how to proceed, so I decided to set up the dummy f*******: account. As I searched the internet for a tutorial, Frank’s cell phone rang. I glanced up.

He looked at the caller ID and set it down, letting it ring.

“Are you going to get that?”

He looked at me, expressionless. “No, Sam. I’m not going to get it.”

“Should I ask?”

“Probably not a good idea.”

“Then can I ask a work-related question?”

“What is it?”

“I want to set up a dummy f*******: account to try to connect with Wally.”

“I bet Jake can help. We should find out if they have a file on old Wally anyway, so we don’t duplicate our efforts. Why don’t you go check that out before we do anything?”

It seemed Frank wanted to get rid of me, so I grabbed my jacket and headed out.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“You bet.”

As I pulled into a parking spot, I had flashbacks of when I’d first met Jake. We had this crazy, intense connection. I found it interesting that even now, after dating for several months, that I still had that excitement to see him. I checked myself in the mirror, put on some pink lip gloss and strode into the lobby. I couldn’t find him but caught sight of Monique as she brought a file to the clerk.

“Monique?”

“Hey, Sam. What’s up?”

“I’m looking for some information.”

“I can help unless you’re waiting for Jake.”

“I couldn’t find him. Are you sure you have a few minutes?”

“Yeah, sure.” I followed her back to her desk. “So, how can I help?”

“Do you know anything about a guy named Wally Mason?”

“It’s not ringing a bell. Who is he?”

“I’m working on that missing teen case. Michael Carson, the kid from Van Horn, Texas. We believe he may have come here at the urging of Wally Mason.”

“Why do you think that?”

“We spoke to a friend of his. She said that Michael had connected with Wally through online gaming and Facebook.”

“Any idea what’s going on?”

“No, not yet. I was hoping to get some help with a dummy f*******: account since that’s how Wally and Michael connected. It might give me some insight into what Wally is doing.”

“We have someone who specializes in setting up and monitoring those. Let me see if we have a file on Wally Mason.”

Monique went to check on the file. As I waited, her cell phone rang. I couldn’t help but take a look to see who was calling, but I immediately regretted my decision. Just as I sat back down, Monique returned and set the file down on the desk in front of me.

“This is all we’ve got.” She glanced at her phone to see who’d called. “Take a look.”

I opened the file and read through it; nothing new stood out. Wally had obvious issues with being a con artist, but it didn’t look like he had any history of violence. That was a plus. I closed the file and handed it back to Monique.

“There’s not much there. Let’s go see if Ted can help you with the dummy f*******: account.”

We walked down to the Crime Prevention office and found Ted monitoring surveillance on several screens.

I stayed in the doorway as Monique gave him the rundown on what I needed. He looked over at me, and I sent him a nod.

“Come on in,” he said.

“Hi, I’m Sam Parker.” I stretched out my hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Ted Williams. So, tell me about this Wally guy.”

“He’s a twenty-nine-year-old guy that invited a sixteen-year-old boy to come here from Texas. We’re not sure what he’s up to, but I was told he met Michael, the sixteen-year-old, on some gaming site then connected with him through f*******:. Honestly, I’d just like to find out what was said to get this kid to leave his home and to find out what he’s up to.”

“I can help with that. Monique tells me you’re a PI. Who do you work for?”

“Frank Meeker.”

“No s**t? You work for Frank? How the hell is he? Is Chuck still around?”

“He’s fine.” I glanced at Monique, who smiled ever so slightly. “And yes, Chuck’s still around but he’s been working a case in Seattle.”

“Wow. You work for Frank. That’s wild. Okay. Let’s get you all set up.”

Monique handed the file she had on Wally to Ted and we moved out of his way. He reviewed the file then moved to his computer and went to work. After a few minutes, he looked up. “I’ll let you know when I’m finished. This is going to take a while.”

Over a cup of coffee, I hoped she’d tell me what was going on with Frank, not that it was any of my business. Still, I wanted to know.

“Did Frank talk to you?” she finally asked.

“About?”

“What’s going on with us?”

“No, but I can tell you, he’s not happy. Want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know. I’m really conflicted.”

“Conflicted?”

“He -” Her phone sounded and she quickly answered. “Great. We’re on our way.”

Ted showed me the dummy f*******: page he’d set up.

“Here’s the page. Now it’s up to you to get Wally to make the first move. Your account is under Katy Smith. After reviewing Wally’s background, it was obvious he was into girls. Anyway, Katie is a seventeen-year-old cheerleader with a crappy home life. Her parents are divorced, and her dad is out of the picture. Her mom’s trying to make ends meet and is living with an abusive man. You’ll need to become active on the gaming sites, and post on f*******: and the other social media sites.”

I felt like I was in unchartered territory and I hoped I wouldn’t screw it up. The upside was that I had this new identity. I was seventeen again!

The fresh air felt good as I walked across the parking lot. The dark sky that had threatened rain this morning had renewed its promise. Driving out of the lot, I wondered about Jake. I hadn’t heard a word from him all day and there had been no sign of him at the station.

With my stomach rumbling, I stopped by Rock N Jenny’s for a sub. I ordered a turkey with lettuce and tomato and chatted with Jenny as I waited. Then, I sat down and called Jake. The call went right to voicemail, so I left a message telling him I was heading to the office but would be home by five and hoped he would give me a call.

I don’t make a habit of worrying too much about Jake; he’s a cop – a very good one – and worrying was a waste of time. I finished up and went back to the office to start studying up on gaming and social media.

When I walked into the office, I immediately knew something was wrong. There was no sign of Frank and the door was unlocked; I knew Frank was a stickler about locking up. “Too many people count on us for privacy,” he’d always said. I didn’t want to panic, so I looked around to see if he’d left me a note or if anything was out of place. I noticed the door to the small conference room was closed. That was odd because we never closed it, even when we had the rare occasion to use it. I slowly and quietly moved towards the door and reached to open it. When I peeked in, my heart stopped.

There, in the darkened room, was Chuck, boning some girl over the conference table. They both looked at me and she screamed.

I quickly slammed the door and, horrified, I ran down to my Jeep. I pulled out of the parking lot, attempting to make sense of what I’d just seen while trying not to run off the road. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Chuck had brought some girl to our office to get laid. I mean, Chuck had been working on a case out of town, and this was the first time I’d seen him in over a month, which suited me just fine. The less I had to deal with him, the better. I knew he felt the same way about me, but opening that door, and seeing him there, bare-assed…and well… Ugh! Now I’d have to live with that visual.