Justified Malice

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2After the early events at the marina, it had been an uneventful morning at the office since Miles arrived just after 9:00 a.m. Uneventful mornings were unusual, as Miles’s caseload had recently increased dramatically. The high-profile cases he had recently solved made him the go-to PI in Lakeville, Wisconsin. Not that there were a lot of PIs in Lakeville, but he was definitely at the top of that short list. The phone finally rang just after 10:00 a.m. and Miles’s assistant, Anne, immediately answered it.

“Miles Darien, Private Investigations. Anne speaking.”

“Hi, Anne. It’s Ken.”

“Agent Caldwell, how are you?” she replied.

“I’m fine. Is the boss around?” Ken inquired.

“Yes. I’ll buzz him and let him know you’re on the line.” She put him on hold and buzzed Miles.

“FBI holding for you.” Anne loved using a dramatic-sounding voice when announcing Agent Caldwell of the FBI was on the line.

Miles picked up the phone. “Hi Ken, I was just about to call you.” He filled in his beau on what had transpired with the boat.

“Wow. That sure is troubling,” said Ken, before shifting into full FBI-agent mode. “I can immediately see three possible scenarios. First one is that the guy, Todd Morton, was sent to blow up the boat and ended up blowing up himself in the process. The second is that he was simply squatting there, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“What’s the third possibility?” Miles asked.

“He was murdered and your boat was merely the scene of the crime.”

“All reasonable hypotheses. We’ll likely be able to narrow things down quite a bit once we get the lab reports on Morton’s cause and time of death, and then the explosion analysis.”

“How soon do you expect to receive the results?” Ken was now fully engaged in the investigation.

“In a day or so, I’d assume. Any chance I can get you to look into Todd Morton’s background? I may have trouble getting that information from Lakeville PD, particularly if they decide to open a criminal investigation.” Miles knew it was a big ask.

“I think I can make that happen. There’s another possibility I hate to even bring up, but do you think there’s any chance that George needed money and blew up the boat to collect on the insurance?” It was in Ken’s job description to look at a crime from every possible angle.

Miles thought for a moment and then dismissed the idea. George was an incredibly honest guy, and if he needed money he would have at least tried to sell the boat before blowing it up. It was a vintage Chris-Craft that would surely bring him more from a sale than an insurance claim. Wouldn’t it?

“Any news on your vacation request?” Miles said, moving the conversation to a happier topic.

“I’ve secured the last two weeks of March for our vacation,” Ken proudly announced. He and Miles had been trying to find time for a getaway ever since they had become a couple several months before. They were both eager to escape the brutal midwestern winter, and now they had two full months to plan their warm-weather getaway.

“I’ll come up with some potential destinations, and we can discuss them when I get to Chicago this weekend,” Miles proposed.

“Good. Let’s decide on where we’ll go while you’re here, and then book it right away. I have a ton of travel rewards points sitting in my credit card account, ready for action. Promise me you’ll finish up all your cases before we leave town. I want us both to concentrate on simply having fun.”

Ken put particular emphasis on the word “fun.” This would be their first time traveling together, and Ken had made it perfectly clear he wanted to take every precaution to head off any work distractions. Miles promised to do his best to tie up any cases he had before they left on vacation. It would be difficult turning down any new ones, as he had just become accustomed to taking on all the new cases his newfound notoriety had delivered.

Miles set his work aside for the moment and spent the next two hours combing the Internet travel sites for possible vacation destinations. The place had to have warm weather, no more than a half day’s worth of travel, and a load of fun activities to choose from. The good news was there were numerous viable candidates. The bad news was also that there were numerous viable candidates. He decided to take a break for lunch before narrowing his list to three or four choices. It was an unseasonably pleasant Wisconsin-winter afternoon, so he took a two-block walk to the Blackhawk Diner for a bowl of chili.

When Miles arrived back at the office, Anne was on the phone. She waved him over and gave him a couple of phone messages without missing a beat in her phone conversation. The only important message was from Bobbie Martin, his friend and former landlord. Miles returned Bobbie’s call before the others.

“Hey, Miles. How are you and Ken doing?” she asked.

“We’re good. Looking to plan a warm-weather vacation this March.”

“I’m envious. I’m buried in cases and don’t see a break anytime soon. On to the reasons for my call. First, I have some good news for you, which may actually help to fund your vacation. I’ve finalized the Jefferson/Shaw settlement for the case we worked on. As further thanks for a job well done, they’ve authorized an additional $5,000 bonus for you.”

“That is great news! You said ‘reasons’ before. What else is on your mind?” Miles asked.

“I’d like to get a few more of the boxes you’ve been kind enough to store for me. I also have a potential new client for you. Oddly enough it’s quite possibly another corporate-larceny-type case. Can I talk you into bringing the boxes to Madison on Friday morning and then meeting with the client over lunch?”

Miles quickly accepted but added a caveat. “I need to be in Chicago Friday evening, so I guess that’ll work.”

They finished their call with Bobbie requesting he bring boxes marked two, three, and four with him on Friday. She was extremely organized, having individually numbered each of the fifteen boxes she’d left in his care. Miles decided not to mention the boat incident, knowing Bobbie was a worrier and would be disturbed by his account of what had happened. He would only bring it up if he solved the case by the time they were together on Friday.

Miles returned the other calls, and even though it was just a little past two o’clock, he decided to call it a day. All that had transpired since his 4:00 a.m. wake-up call had worn him out.