Chapter 16

Later on, just as Doreen sat down to eat a sandwich, Mack called. She snatched up her phone. "What happened?"

"Hi, Doreen," he greeted her, with that calm sense of good humor in his tone. "Nice to hear your voice. Nice to know that everything is good."

"How do you know everything is good?"

"I don't," he replied. "I don't know a thing. You didn't check in today."

"Was I supposed to?" she asked.

He sighed. "No, it wasn't mandatory, but it would just be nice to know that you're okay and not running around town, getting into trouble."

"Even if I was running around town and getting into trouble, you would be the last person I would tell because you would just send me home."

"And for good reason," he muttered. "You can't even stay out of trouble picking up Chinese food."

She gasped. "That's not fair. Besides, you're the one who was supposed to eat it with me."

He snorted. "I don't remember eating any of it."

"No," she muttered, "there is that."

"Are you eating it yourself?"

"No, I was about to have a sandwich instead. I'm struggling to get past the fact that the Chinese food came from Mr. Woo while he was in such trouble. He must have been terrified."

"Mr. Woo certainly wouldn't think less of you if you ate it," Mack stated. "He definitely wouldn't want to see it go to waste."

"Maybe not," she agreed, "but I can't get him out of my mind either."

Mack sighed heavily. "Mr. Woo's awake, I hear, so I'm heading down to talk to him."

"That's good news," she said. "I don't suppose I get a chance to talk to him though, do I?"

"No, family only," Mack stated.

"You're not family," she muttered.

"No, but I am a cop, so different story."

"So you guys keep telling me," she muttered. "But, whatever, just keep listening to your self-serving narrative, while the rest of us get our information the old-fashioned way."

He snorted at that. "Yet, with your recent track record, you might get him into even more trouble."

"I would never do anything to hurt him," she declared.

"I know that, but somebody might hurt him now, since it got out to the media that he is alive. That might be something the bad guys are trying to change."

She stared at the phone for a moment. "I hadn't considered that. Do you really think his life is in danger?"

"Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to silence him."

"But the fact is, they didn't kill him. Maybe they thought that would be enough of a warning or that the head injury would stop him from remembering anything. Until you're able to talk to him, we won't know, but it may have done just that."

"It is possible, yes, but I really hope not," Mack replied. "I'm heading down there now."

"Are you investigating this?"

"Somewhat," he said, with a wry tone. "We do work better as a team here."

"Except when one of the team is a suspect," she snorted.

"Hardly, I have an alibi, remember?"

"Yeah, great, thanks for that," she muttered. "Anyway, go talk to him, see what he has to say, and report back," she stated cheerfully. And, with that, she ended the call. For the first time today she felt much better.

She knew it would piss him off, of course, and that was just fine too. Not that she was trying to, but it was a game they played, and it always made her feel better when she had a chance to end a call on him. It made no sense, and she did realize her actions were that of a two-year-old, but, if it made her smile today, she was all for it because, right now, life wasn't exactly going her way.

What she would really like to figure out was how somebody could have tapped her phone. At the moment, she couldn't remember any point in time that somebody had access to it, and that was a concern. Was it sometime when she went outside and left the house open? Possibly. Could somebody have crept in and done it? Absolutely.

Why, though, was a whole different story, and she wasn't sure she could get anybody on board with any of the crazy theories going around in her head. It didn't make any sense why somebody would even care about her activities. Wasn't Mathew's PI supposed to follow her everywhere anyway? So why go to that level of effort, unless they were trying to set her up for Mathew's death? Mack luckily had an ironclad alibi for that, since Mathew died midmorning that day, while Mack was in the station with the other cops. Whereas she did not have an alibi, as usual, and that would cause her more trouble than she had expected.

Still, going down this pathway occupied her because Mack kept uncovering bits and pieces, where she didn't have a chance to get too involved. What she really needed to figure out and to give Mack was an idea of when her phone could have been compromised. Must have been before his death, obviously. Plus she would very much like to talk to this private rental person with the Jaguar, possibly even show him some photos.

She called Bernard back. "I have a few photos of Mathew's staff," she began. "Do you think I could meet up with this Jaguar rental guy and ask him a few questions?"

Bernard hesitated, and a few seconds went by.

"If you went with me?" she asked impulsively.

"Oh, if I went with you, I'm sure it would be fine. But, if you bring the cops, not so much." His good humor was now beaming through the phone.

"Right, so what is he thinking? That he will avoid talking to the cops?"

"He thinks so," Bernard said, with a note of humor.

"Then, of course, we better get there before the cops really do figure it out."

"Have you told them about it?"

"No, and I should at least tell Mack," she admitted, "but, the minute I do, he'll tell me to stay away."

"We don't know for sure that the Jaguar guy has any information."

"True," she agreed. "Okay, I'll be at your place in a few minutes."

"Good enough, and bring the animals too. They'll be a good icebreaker."

"Is he an animal lover?"

"I would think so. He's got a big, huge Doberman at the car park."

Only after the call ended did she realize her guess about him working at a car park was quite correct. She thought about that the whole way to Bernard's. When she pulled into the driveway, he was already standing outside, waiting for her. She unloaded the animals and quickly loaded them up into his vehicle. "He really does work at a car park, doesn't he?"

He snickered and nodded. "Yes, and, for that reason, I would never leave my vehicle in such a place."

"I had no idea people would actually do that. It's sounds risky in so many ways."

"Unless you have some tracking system on your rentals, and you keep checking it regularly."

"I can't imagine Mathew liked that system."

"He may not have liked it or even known about it. If he was aware of any GPS tracker on those Jags, Mathew probably wouldn't have rented this guy's Jaguars. Still, that doesn't mean Mathew was above renting other people's vehicles, while this middleman was getting the money. But who knows? Maybe this guy shares the rental money with the owners."

"It's possible, and it would keep him on this side of the law, so that, if anybody found out, then he wouldn't be in quite so much trouble. It would also make him ever-so-slightly less slimy," she muttered.

He chuckled. "That's just your definition," he murmured. "Remember that not everybody has the same qualms and honor system that you do."

"Right," she agreed, "and, according to Mack, it keeps getting me into trouble."

"But please don't change, my dear Doreen. The world needs more people like you."

"Yeah, so everybody says, until it comes down to something like this, and then they all stand back, enjoying the show, while, once again, I'm the one in trouble."

"Everybody prefers and loves it when somebody else gets into trouble, remember?"

"Yep, then they get to cheer about how it's not them." It was true and went back to humanity in general. They can all cheer for somebody else, provided they are off the chopping block.

As they drove up to a parking lot, manned by a person at the gate, she asked Bernard, "Is that him?"

"Yeah, sure is."

He pulled up and parked to the side. With her and the animals in tow, Bernard walked over and greeted the guy in the booth. "Hey, Tony."

Tony looked at him and frowned. "Oh, man, I really would prefer that you didn't come down here in person."

Bernard shrugged. "Maybe not, but Doreen was intent on coming down here and talking to you. So you're much better off this way. You talk to her right now with me here, rather than at another point in time, when she's likely to just barrel into your life and not give a hoot."

"It's not as if I care what you are up to," Doreen protested. "I'm not trying to bust up your business here or anything, but I really need to find out if you know the guys who rented the green Jaguar."

He stared at her. "You're that amateur detective chick, aren't you?"

She winced. "That doesn't sound quite the way I think of it," she murmured.

He shrugged. "You are, aren't you?"

"Yes," she said in exasperation. "I'll say that's a yes."

"Cool," he replied. "Okay, so who is it you want me to look at?" She pulled out her phone, the one she had borrowed from Bernard, then brought up her email, where she'd set up a folder with a group of photos that she had. Then she flipped through them, until she got to the one of Mathew. "Is this the guy who rented the green Jag?"

He looked at it and nodded. "Yeah, that's the guy. He sat in the back seat."

She nodded. Then she went through photos of Reggie and Roger and a couple other staff members she knew. "Were any of these the guy who was with him, who was the driver?"

He shook his head, shook his head, shook his head, and then said, "No, none of those."

"Interesting, so you don't know who it was?"

"Nope."

"Was the rental paid for with Mathew's credit card?"

"No, cash, it's always cash," he stated, turning to look at Bernard hesitantly.

She nodded. "Better to keep your receipts that way, huh?"

Tony just shrugged and didn't say anything.

"Did the driver have anything with him, a suitcase, a backpack, anything?"

"No. Just the guy in the back seat with a briefcase."

"I have no idea who this other guy is then," she muttered. "Mathew had contacted a Vancouver private eye, so all I can think of is it might have been him."

"Somebody from the coast, you said," Bernard added.

"As far as I know, but exactly where he's from is speculation, but that would make sense."

"Okay, so chances are he probably just drove up on his own or flew down a day or so early to follow you around town. So the driver could have rented a car as well."

Doreen frowned. "Did this other guy, the driver, show up here in another car to get the Jag?"

Tony shook his head. "I dropped it off to them at the airport, a small private one."

"And?" Doreen asked.

"And what?"

"Did you see the driver around any other cars at the airport?"

After several seconds of silence, he muttered, "Jeez. I don't know. A small white car was close by. It might have been one of those electric ones. But I don't know that he rented it here. Maybe he drove it here. Still, could he have driven very far on an electric one? Regardless I don't know that it was his."

"They do go quite a distance," she murmured. "So, that's about all I have to ask then." She pondered that for a moment. "I guess if I come up with more pictures, I'll just come by and ask."

"Or you just don't bother," Tony replied in alarm. "You'll kill my business here."

"And, of course, your rental business is one that the owners of the cars are fully aware of, right?" she asked Tony.

He frowned at her, looked back at Bernard, and replied in a dry tone, "Sure."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. So, in other words, I'll be back to check in with you, if I find some more photos or have other questions."

And, with that, he looked over at Bernard. "Thanks."

With a shrug, he told Tony, "You keep on the straight and narrow now."

"Sure, like I'll make it in the world if I do that," Tony muttered.

Doreen smiled. "There will always be people like me around, looking to see just who you're renting to."

He shrugged. "They pay, so it doesn't matter. It's a good deal."

"Sure, as long as they're insured and nothing goes wrong. Then everybody's happy," she noted. "But, if the owners of the vehicles don't know about your rental business, that's a whole different story."

"Some of them I have agreements with," he stated. "But some of the others? They aren't really open to agreements. Oh, they want to rent it out, but they want all the money, instead of giving me a share for being the agent in-between."

"Of course. Most people with the money to have vehicles like these are all about the money," she noted, with a smile.

"Hey, not all of us," Bernard protested.

She looked at him and nodded. "Not all, but a good share of them." And, with that, she tried to pull Mugs back over to Bernard's vehicle, but he resisted. She looked at him. "What's the matter, buddy?"

Clearly he wanted to go into the car park. Unsure if he wanted to just lift his leg or had something else on his mind, she followed behind him, even as Bernard and Tony talked.

As she got farther down the way, she whispered to Mugs, "What's the matter, boy? What are you after?" But his nose was to the ground, and he was sniffing, as if he were a hound dog. Mugs just woofed and kept on walking out of the car park itself. Finally he stopped in front of a vehicle parked just behind the parking lot, in between two dumpsters.

She stared at it.

Then she quickly walked back to the two men, calling out, "Are your vehicles ever parked over there?" She pointed to the two dumpsters.

Tony shook his head. "No, they aren't."

"The Jag that you lent out," she began.

"Rented!" Tony called out. "Rented, a business deal."

"It was due already, right?"

He nodded. "It was due back the same day."

"And nobody ever found it, right?"

He nodded. "Nobody ever found it. What are you getting at?"

"A green Jag is parked between those two dumpsters over here."

"I saw that one earlier," Tony noted. "But it's all dented, and it's got a different license plate."

The two men walked over to join her, as they all checked out the green car. "The one I had here was in much better shape than this."

She looked over at Bernard because Mugs was standing up close to the vehicle, sniffing like crazy. She sighed. "So, do you have a spare set of keys for the one that went missing?"

"Of course," he replied, and he stared at the vehicle and shook his head. "Man, there's no way. He will kill me if that was his Jag."

She shrugged. "Not sure what you want me to say, but there is an easy way to find out."

He stared at her and asked, "How?"

"Your spare set of keys."

He swore, then turned and raced back. Bernard looked at her, then back at the Jag and winced. "What would happen to him if that is the missing Jag?"

"Obviously," she stated, with an eye roll, "something bad happened to it."

Tony came running up to rejoin them. "Why do you want to get into it?"

"Look at Mugs," she pointed out, who was sniffing at the trunk, then immediately took several steps back.

"Oh no," Tony muttered. "I didn't sign up for that."

"Really? I figured that you thought this was an exciting business venture," Doreen teased.

Tony pointed the fob to the driver's side and hit the button. It unlocked. "No!" he cried out. "It can't be. This one's been out for a joy ride. It's all dented even. The other one was pristine."

She nodded, walked around him, opened the driver's side door, leaned in, and popped open the trunk release.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Tony cried out. "The cops need to see this first."

"Yeah, they sure do," she agreed. "Unfortunately I think they also need to see something else."

"What do you mean?" Tony asked.

She walked to the back of the vehicle, and, while the two men watched, she lifted the lid on the trunk.