4. Give It A Chance

4

GIVE IT A CHANCE

“ I got the picture,” Betsy all but screamed when she came into the office two days later.

“Excuse me?” Zander asked.

“The bum ankle guy,” Betsy said. “Last night I took Rocco to the park again. Not only did I get multiple pictures of him playing basketball, but even got a video!”

Betsy pulled Rocco out of her big bag, set the mutt on the floor, and he went to his bed under Betsy’s desk.

“Good job,” he said. “How come you didn’t tell me last night?”

“Because you never get a break and I wasn’t going to bug you. Who is to say you didn’t have some woman at your place and the last thing you’d want is to get a call about work.”

He snorted. “Can’t tell you the last time I had a woman at my place.”

“Your mother would say that is a good thing since it’s probably not clean.”

He lifted one eyebrow at his assistant. “When did you talk to my mother and how did that topic come up?”

Zander wouldn’t say his apartment was filthy or messy. Maybe just a tiny bit unorganized.

It mainly came from not having the time or being home enough to do more than sleep.

“She called looking for you yesterday. She said it wasn’t important and not to bother you so I left the message on your desk. Haven’t you been in your office yet?”

“No,” he said. “I just walked in the door a minute before you. Coffee was more important.”

Betsy put her bag on her desk, took her jacket off and hung it up behind her chair, then moved over to the little coffee bar where Zander stood. It was there for easy access for the two of them or any clients.

“Here is my phone,” Betsy said. She handed it over after she unlocked it. “Let me know if those pictures work. If not, I’ll try again. I got as close as I could with the video. To me, the pictures show it’s him in the same outfit, then the video.”

Zander was scrolling through the pictures of the idiot who had a bum ankle and complained he could barely walk on it. The dude didn’t even have his brace on and there were pictures of him doing layups and running up and down the court.

When the video played, he just shook his head and laughed.

“Good job,” he said. “Send them to me via email with a summary. I’ll write up the official report and get it to the insurance company. Unless you want to write it all up and let me review it?”

She knew what she was doing and it wouldn’t hurt to let her take over some of those things now, especially since she did the work.

Betsy’s smile filled her face. “I can do that. Can I say I took the pictures and video?” Betsy asked.

He squinted one eye at her. “You know I never say how or where we get that information. They don’t ask and I don’t tell. For all they know, I could pay someone.”

Betsy poured cream into her coffee from the little fridge by the coffee stand while he drank his black. “I know,” she said.

“But we’ll know the truth. And I’ll treat you to lunch today for a job well done.”

“I’ll take it,” Betsy said. He started to walk to his office when Betsy stopped him. “Oh, Garrett Fierce stopped in yesterday afternoon, but you weren’t here. He didn’t leave a message and I’m not sure if it was important. Were you expecting him?”

Zander frowned. “No,” he said. “And if it was business related or building related he would have told you so I’m sure it was more nosiness related.”

“Give it a chance,” Betsy said. “Maybe they’ve got some bimbo without a lot of smarts lined up for you and she’ll only be interested in your body.”

“They need to focus on someone else,” he said. “Hasn’t Bobby been around lately that you’re thinking this is all romantic or something?”

“He’s on the road for another week,” Betsy said. “Then he’ll be back for three weeks. That’s how I was able to get the picture. I have all the time to keep going to the dog park and I figured people would think I was a regular.”

“Are you going to continue to go there?” he asked.

“Sure, why not? Who knows when we need to do more detective work there.”

He laughed and took his coffee into his office.

All the papers, files and notes were in a neat pile on his desk. Betsy always did that before she left at night if he wasn’t around.

Not that it made much of a difference for him because he’d just spread it all out again with the multiple cases he had going at once.

He turned on his laptop that he’d set down when he walked in and then picked up the first piece of paper on the top of the pile.

The one to call his mother.

He was positive she was in court so he’d call and then let it go to voicemail.

In the past he’d text and she’d complain she wanted to hear his voice if she left him a message.

“Good morning, Zander.”

“I thought you’d be in court,” he said. Guess luck wasn’t on his side.

“I’ll be there shortly. I’m just in my office now.”

“Betsy said you called, but it wasn’t important. You could have called my cell phone or sent me a text.”

“Then you wouldn’t have replied back,” his mother said.

“I’m not that bad. I just get distracted. At the end of the day or so I go through my messages again.”

“And by then I’m in bed and sleeping and then we play tag.”

“What is going on?” he asked.

“Your father’s birthday is Friday. I’d like to have a family dinner on Sunday.”

He’d completely lost track of time. “Yeah, I can make it work.”

“Geez, thanks for that,” his mother said drily.

He laughed. “I didn’t mean to sound put out. Tell me what time and I’ll mark my calendar.”

“How about one?”

He grabbed a pen and wrote that on the note that Betsy had taken. He’d put it on his calendar when he hung up.

“That works,” he said.

“Then we’ll see you then,” his mother said. “At least I know you’ll get one decent meal in your belly this week.”

“I eat,” he argued.

“Fast food and takeout,” his mother said. “In your car most times, I’m sure.”

He let out a sigh. “Not nearly as much as I used to. You should be thrilled I’m so busy.”

“I am,” his mother said. “Maybe you can give your father a few things to do.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “He’s retired.”

“And bored out of his mind,” his mother said. “Seriously ready to pull his hair out. I think the first few months were a relief to sleep in and catch up on all the things he’s always wanted to do around the house.”

“There isn’t much to do around the house,” he said.

His parents’ house wasn’t that old. Maybe fifteen years. They’d downsized when he graduated from college. Their big two-story four-bedroom Victorian was sold for a new construction one-story house.

“There isn’t,” his mother said. “Which is why he’s bored. He goes and meets up with the guys for lunch a few times a week while they are on duty.”

“He can’t get his head out of the game, can he?”

“No,” his mother said. “I don’t think he needs the stress of it or wants it. But maybe he wouldn’t mind doing something to occupy him if you could use a bit of a break.”

“I’ve always got shit to do,” he said. “Betsy is doing a lot of the computer work I used to and still running the office. I’m sure Dad isn’t interested in doing that.”

“I think he’d do anything you gave him,” his mother said.

“I’ll bring it up this weekend and see how it goes,” he said. This way it would give him an idea if his mother was right and his father was bored, or his mother just assumed something.

“That’s all I can ask,” his mother said.

“That’s not all you ever ask,” he said, laughing.

“Well, no. I’d like some grandkids someday, but you’d need to find a woman for that. At least I hope you don’t have a kid out there somewhere and don’t come home and say you do without knowing.”

He snorted. It’d been a comment said one too many times in his life.

What he thought was a joke was actually his mother being serious.

Maybe he didn’t have the best track record with women and relationships, but he’d never been reckless either.

He didn’t think Royce was and yet his best friend got his wife pregnant even though they’d been protecting themselves.

Shit happened in life.

“None that I know of,” he said. “You’ll be the first I tell if one suddenly pops into my life.”

“Not funny, Zander.”

“It was a little funny,” he said. “And now I’ve got to go and I’m sure you do too. I’ll see you on Sunday.”

“I better see you on Sunday.”

“You will because you’ll call Betsy later and tell her to put it on my calendar if it’s not there.”

His mother laughed and hung up.

“Everything okay?” Betsy asked, coming into his office.

He picked up the sticky note. “My mother is having dinner for my father’s birthday.”

She took the note. “I’ll add it to your calendar.” She looked down at the two things he wrote. “Sunday at one?”

He’d written “1Sun.” Betsy understood his notes and chicken scratch.

“Yep,” he said.

“Anything else I need to know before I get to work? I’ll be spending most of my day doing background checks. I swear it’s the hiring season right now.”

“You love doing them,” he said.

“I do.”

“Speaking of which. My mother says my father is bored and wants to know if there is any work I can send his way.”

“There is always work,” Betsy said. “I mean, you know I’d love to do more in the field, but my heart was racing just trying to get pictures last night.”

He knew she liked to help out, but he’d never put her in danger. He was very selective in what he let her do and she never argued if he’d said no.

“Make a list of things you think need some more work or might have gotten stale. I’ve always got cases open with not much going on or that are ongoing.”

There were criminal cases that families hired him to look into. Most times there wasn’t much to see or find, but he’d keep them open if they had anything else to report. He had a lot of work he was doing for law firms now too, not just Trent.

Companies wanting background checks done that they didn’t want to pay some big corporation to run but rather know they could call and talk to someone and get more information if needed too.

“Will do,” Betsy said and left his office.

He was just getting ready to open a file to look at when he glanced up to see Garrett Fierce in the doorway.

It was one of those days where nothing was going to get done.

“Garrett,” he said. “What can I help you with?”

Garrett walked in and shut his office door. Hmm, didn’t look like a social call.

“I’ve got a company that is expressing interest in one of the office spaces at the new building.”

There was a second building under construction a few miles away that was bigger than the one he was in but was going to operate the same.

“Okay,” he said.

“I’ve talked with Grant and the other partners about this. We’ve never wanted to turn business away and this company would take up a whole floor.”

“Even better,” he said. There was one company on the top floor of this building too.

“But some of their business feels a little questionable to me,” Garrett said. “Maybe I just don’t have a good enough understanding of it. Not sure. Olsens was good with you looking into this. They don’t have the time but would like to know what they could. The Kennedys and McCarthys, they know construction, not information technology.”

He’d met the other three owners of the building. He was assuming all tenants did at one point or another. Of course, he knew the Kennedys well since he all but grew up in their house, but the Olsens and McCarthys were new to him.

“Give me their name,” he said. “I’ll look into it and see what I can find. When do you need the information?”

“A week or so if possible?” Garrett said. “I’ve been able to put off giving them a tour until then. No reason to waste our time if we aren’t sure we want them in the building.”

“Are you looking to see why they are moving or the business itself?” he asked.

“Both. I’m not sure what they do and it seems odd to me, but I can’t make sense of it. But, when I’ve searched Indeed, there are a lot of employee complaints.”

He laughed. “That is common and not usually a reason not to rent to someone.”

“Agreed,” Garrett said. “But, there was some talk about messes in the offices and tempers of the owners and destructive behavior.”

“Got it,” he said. “I’ll do a reference check on it and see what their last landlord says.”

“Already called there,” Garrett said. “Five times. They aren’t returning my calls.”

Which meant there might be something to hide. “I’ll get on this today and see what I can find.”

“Thanks,” Garrett said.

Zander was shocked there was no talk about finding him a nice young woman or working too hard and needing a personal life.

He got up and walked out to Betsy’s desk and explained what was going on. “Can you work on this first before you get to the rest of what you need today? Just see if you can get any information from the databases first.”

He paid through the nose to be a member to all sorts of databases for criminal activities and personal information that was somewhat public knowledge—if you paid for it—on businesses and people alike.

“I should have some results by this afternoon if there is anything to be found. But I know you want a bigger search.”

“Just the things you love to do. Things I know my father wouldn’t like to do,” he said, laughing.

“Because he’s like you and doesn’t enjoy sitting in front of the computer?”

“Exactly,” he said. “We all have our strengths and yours is finding the right fact in fifty articles.”

“I live for research. In the comfort of this office.”

“Better you than me,” he said. “I’ll be leaving shortly and be back later.”

“Make sure you bring back a good lunch,” Betsy yelled at his back when he returned to his office.

“Text me what you want,” he shouted to her, and she laughed.

They might have more space between them in his office than his old rundown one, but they still communicated the same.