Chapter 17

"Close it! Oh God, close it!" Tony shrieked. "Why'd you do that?"

Doreen shut it, then turned to look at the kid and explained, "You needed to get a good-enough look to see if that's the man who was with Mathew."

He nodded slowly. "It was. That's his driver.… Suddenly I don't feel so good."

He did appear to be sick. In fact, a moment later, he raced over a few steps and upchucked onto the gravel.

Doreen already had her phone out, calling Mack. When he answered, she asked, "Remember that comment about how I can't even go pick up takeout without getting into trouble?"

"Yes," he answered hesitantly. "Are you in trouble?"

"Maybe," she muttered. "I think you need to come to the car park downtown." She gave him the address.

"And why is that?" he asked, his tone ominous.

"You'll understand when you get here, but, to save time, you should bring the forensics team and the coroner. And don't bring the new detective. She's useless." And, with that, Doreen disconnected.

Bernard sighed and shook his head. "I don't think a relationship with you would be all that easy."

She looked up at him, gave him half a smile, and nodded. "No, I'm sure that's true. Yet, if you died, you can bet I would chase down every lead, until I found out who did you in."

He stared at her, then grinned. "That's really good to hear. In this day and age, not a whole lot of people you could count on to do that."

"Still, I must insist that you don't die on me," she muttered. "Although, when Mack finds out that you're the one who brought me here, he might try to choke you just a little bit," she added, wearing a big grin on her face.

Bernard's face scrunched up, and he turned a bit pale. "Oh no, now I have to deal with Mack."

"Yeah, you sure do."

At that, Tony started to fidget, looking around in a bit of a panic.

"Oh, no, you don't," Doreen declared. "You don't get to walk away on this one."

"I do. I have to. You don't understand what'll happen to my job."

"Which one? Your real job or your side gig? Because, I've got to tell you, the light is about to shine on that sideline of yours. Then, when Mack finds out, it'll get even uglier."

When Tony turned and faced Bernard, he just held up his hand and added, "I didn't know you were holding bodies here, Tony."

The kid looked as if he wanted to cry.

Doreen pointed out, "Technically he wasn't. The body is not on the parking lot that he's charged with protecting."

At that, Tony nodded frantically. "This has nothing to do with me," he declared. "I really should just call in sick and go home."

"You could," Doreen conceded, "but that'll just make it seem you're running away. I can't really condone that choice because I've got to tell the authorities who was here, and it'll take them all of five minutes to track you down."

Tony's shoulders sagged. "I knew it was too good to be true."

"What? Renting other people's vehicles out for money?" she asked, with a chuckle. "These easy-money side hustles probably seem great in the moment, but I don't think they're intended to be long-term career paths."

At that, Bernard chuckled. "Oh, I do enjoy your sense of humor."

She grinned at him and noted, "You're in the minority there. An awful lot of people don't think very much of my methods, and we may be meeting some of them in the next few minutes."

At that, Bernard chuckled and nodded. "And I can see why. You're a little hard on everybody's emotions, though you certainly make for an interesting date," he declared, motioning toward the trunk holding the body.

"Hey, we're not on a date," she clarified, with a big smile, "and, so far, I've avoided finding bodies on dates."

"So, what was the most recent result when you and Mack went out for Chinese food?"

She frowned at that. "That was us answering an SOS," she countered. "And, for the record, we didn't find a dead body. We found Mr. Woo, injured, and got him to the hospital in time, we hope." At that, she turned to face Tony. "So, you didn't see this vehicle arrive?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't know when it showed up. And, since it didn't look to be one of mine—not in its original shape and not being on the car park itself—when I did see it, I didn't give it a thought," he explained, with a shrug. "I only look after the ones I'm paid to look after."

Bernard shared, "You have a rather broad interpretation of ‘looking after,' young man."

Tony nodded. "I'll be in so much trouble, won't I?"

Doreen glanced at Bernard, then shrugged. "That depends on how many vehicles you rented out without the owners knowing. That's the bottom line. If you rented them out, and all the owners know, maybe it's not an issue but otherwise? Yeah, it could be a problem."

"Yeah, it'll be a problem," Tony admitted morosely.

She winced. "Then I'll just tell you now that the best thing for you is to confess. Come clean right off the bat and don't make your situation worse by wasting time and making Mack pull the information out of you. That will make him much happier."

"Is a much-happier Mack a better deal?" Tony asked in a bit of a panic, just as they heard sirens coming closer.

"Well, Tony, a pissed-off Mack is like an avalanche, so anything that avoids setting him off is a better deal, and you'll need all the help you can get."

"Fine," Tony grumbled, glaring at her. "I hold you responsible for this though."

She frowned. "Why is it that people who are doing something wrong always want to blame me?"

Tony glared at her. "If you hadn't killed your ex-husband, I wouldn't be in this mess."

"Careful, son. I wouldn't go there," Bernard warned him.

"Are you kidding?" Doreen snapped. "How is that even logical? If I had killed my husband, do you really think I would be here trying to find out what is going on?"

He frowned at her. "You didn't kill him?"

"No, I most certainly did not. But, if ever I had been tempted to do such a thing, you are rapidly working your way to the top of the list."

He just glared at her, while she glared right back.

Bernard put a hand on her shoulder and murmured, "Easy now, Doreen. Not everybody is as accustomed to finding bodies as you are. People react differently, remember?"

She snorted at that. "Yeah, imagine if that was your coveted Jag, and you caught sight of it cruising around town, looking like that."

Bernard winced. "Yeah, I might have killed the guy myself."

"Exactly. So, who knows what brought this on?"

"Maybe the owner of the Jag saw this guy driving it. Maybe it's got nothing to do with Mathew's death at all."

At that, the poor kid shook his head. "The owner's out of town. He doesn't know."

"I'm pretty sure he's about to find out," Bernard said.

When a shout came from behind them, Doreen stepped out from between the dumpsters, so that Mack could see her, then waved him over.

He stormed over, looked at Bernard, then glared at her, at the kid, and then back at her. "Somebody want to tell me what's going on here?"

"First off," Doreen began, "this is where Mathew's rented green Jag came from. Tony here has identified Mathew from my photos, but he didn't recognize any of Mathew's staff I had photos of." With a glance down at the tired and fed-up-looking canine at her feet, she hoped Mack would be softened by his presence. "Mugs brought me over to this vehicle."

Mack frowned at her, then over at the car. "It's a green Jag."

"Yes, it is. Now, Tony here, who works at the car park, didn't think it was his car park's green Jag because it's in a lot worse shape than the one he rented out, and the license plate doesn't match. However, he had the spare keys to the one he rented out and found that they opened this one."

"Ah."

"Once we had opened the driver's door, and, based on the behavior exhibited by Mugs, naturally I popped the trunk latch." And, at that, she eyed Mack uncertainly, expecting him to burst out in a fit of warnings or profanity. "At this point, you should probably open the trunk."

He sighed, closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, then asked, "So, who will I find stuffed in the trunk?"

"The driver," she replied. "The same man who Tony here saw driving off in the Jag, with Mathew in the back seat. Likely Mathew's PI from the coast."