Murder Makes Wavesd Page 18

  When my phone rang, I hit speaker phone and answered the call.

  “Maggie Thomas, what are you up to?” Jake asked.

  How had he gotten word already? I swore he had some sort of tracking device on me.

  “What did I do now?” I asked.

  He laughed. “Nothing. I just assumed and thought I would scare you.”

  “Oh, stop it,” I said. “I’m perfectly innocent at the moment.”

  “I don’t even think I want to know. As long as you’re still alive. I just have to keep you that way,” he said. “I thought you were meeting me.”

  “I’m on my way,” I said.

  I hoped that this meeting didn’t involve more questions about my investigative skills. Right after meeting with Jake I would find out more information about Mr. Diedrich. It should be easy enough to find him. For heaven’s sake, his signs were all over town. I just had to find out what kind of connection he had to me.

  On the way to the coffee shop, I spotted one of those signs with Mr. Diedrich’s name on the front. I pulled over to the side of the road and snapped a photo of the sign. Later I would dial the number and see if he answered. Oh, what was I waiting for? Jake probably knew that I would be a few minutes late. It would only take a couple seconds to call the number now. I couldn’t wait to see if he answered. I had to know now.

  “Mr. Diedrich’s office,” the man said when he answered the phone.

  Too bad it wasn’t Arlington.

  “May I speak with Mr. Diedrich?” I asked.

  “Who’s calling, please?” the man asked.

  He already sounded irritated. Not exactly good customer service. What if I wanted to buy some huge property and spend millions of dollars? Yeah, he could probably tell that wasn’t the reason for my call. Oh, well, I pressed forward anyway.

  “This is Maggie Thomas,” I said proudly.

  “He’s unavailable at the moment. May I take your name and number? I’ll have him give you a call back. What is this in reference to?” the man asked in a clipped tone.

  There was no way I could say “because this guy was following me, and I want to know what the dirtbag was up to.” So instead, I had to say, “It’s in regard to the property at 134 Beach Street.”

  “Oh,” he said as if that was a bit of a shock.

  I glanced around, curious why this property would elicit such a reaction. Nothing looked off to me.

  “I’ll have him call you back right away,” he said.

  All right, now I was nervous. What was going on with this guy?

  “Thank you,” I said. “Wait… I didn’t give you my name or a number.”

  The call had ended before I even finished that sentence. Something odd was going on and I had to find out. Should I get out and check out the building? No, I’d already spent too much time here. I had to meet Jake before he sent out a search party to look for me. Before driving away though I searched my phone for more information about Arlington Dietrich. He owned a lot of stuff around Miami. One place in particular caught my attention. The office building that I had been beckoned to and trapped in. That wasn’t a coincidence.

  I’d just pulled away from the building when my phone rang again. I looked at the screen and saw that it was Mr. Diedrich’s number. I immediately panicked and thought about throwing my phone out the window. However, I refrained and held it tightly in my hand. I looked around as if maybe he was watching me. Completely paranoid was how I felt right now. Get a hold of yourself, Maggie. I pulled over to the side of the road again and answered the phone with no clue how this would turn out. I had to pretend like I was interested in this building. What if he already knew it was me, Maggie Thomas, private eye… the one he’d followed?

  “Hello,” I answered hesitantly.

  I should have sounded more competent than that. I was a professional now… somewhat.

  “I received a call from this number. About the property at Beach Street,” he said.

  He sounded rough, like he wanted to rip my head off just for calling. He didn’t say my name though, so either he didn’t have that information yet or he wasn’t telling me if he did. Maybe he really had no idea it was me on the other end of the line. I hoped to keep it that way too.

  “Yes, that’s right,” I said.

  “What do you want to know about it?” he asked suspiciously.

  Did he want to sell a property or what? This was no way to close the sale. Always be closing, right? Or something like that.

  “I’d like to see the property,” I said matter-of-factly.

  Oh, boy. What had I just done? Surely I didn’t think I’d actually meet this guy. He’d know me for sure if I showed up at that building for a viewing.

  There was a pause and my anxiety spiked. He was on to me. I just knew it.

  “I can arrange that,” he said with a hint of mysteriousness in his voice.

  He could probably arrange a lot more than that. Like serious bodily harm to me.

  “All right,” I said, trying to sound just as mysterious. “When should I meet you?”

  “When would you like to meet?” he asked.

  Okay, this was just turning creepy. How long could we go back and forth like this?

  “As soon as possible,” I said.

  “How about in fifteen minutes?” he asked.

  “Perfect,” I said. “I’ll see you then.”

  Had I really just agreed to meet this man? What was I thinking? Would the woman be with him? She’d attacked me and tried to shoot me, so why was I meeting her? When I glanced in the rearview mirror, I realized another car was hot on my trail. Oh, no. I could barely see the little heads in the car behind me. But I knew it was Morty’s Cadillac.

  Chapter 31

  Why Dorothy and Morty were behind me I had no idea. But I was following this silver Jaguar so I couldn’t exactly stop and ask them what they were doing. I just hoped they didn’t get us into more trouble. I was pretty good at that on my own—I didn’t need help from Morty and Dorothy.

  This guy would probably be surprised to see me following him. I knew he recognized me. Maybe he was waiting for his chance to get rid of me. I didn’t know what he was thinking. But I was going to get to the bottom of this right away. And it looked like sooner rather than later because the man turned to the right and I had to immediately follow. When I turned, Morty did too.

  The silver Jaguar pulled up to the tall, gleaming condo building. Arlington parked the car by the entrance. I followed right into the parking lot. I wasn’t even trying to act like I wasn’t following him. I didn’t care if he knew at this point. I was going to confront him. It was the only way to finally solve this crime. Yes, it was dangerous. But I had to do something in order to help Morty.

  Speaking of which, Morty and Dorothy had pulled into the parking lot with me as well. This could turn out badly. I just had to hope for the best. I would motion for Dorothy and Morty to stay in the car. They needed to let me handle this.

  Arlington and the woman got out of the car. I followed by getting out of my car as well. Seeing the woman now, I realized this was Marie Scott. She had lied to me. That shouldn’t surprise me. Criminals lie. She had been the one who attacked me. Why had she done that though? A flash came through my mind. The photos at the office. The couple in the pictures had been Joe and Marie. Joe had been involved with Marie and Jessica? That would possibly give Marie a motive for murder too. It seemed like there were a few people who wanted Jessica dead.

  Seeing Arlington walk this time was when another fact hit me. His legs. The way he walked gave it away. He was the man who had been looking for me at my apartment. He had been the man on the elevator the day Jessica was murdered. It all made sense now.

  When I looked back at Dorothy and Morty, they had already gotten out as well. I motioned for them to get back in the car, but they either were ignoring me or didn’t realize what I meant. I started walking toward the building, following the man and woman. Though I wasn’t sure if they realized I was back there
considering they hadn’t turned around. I guessed they didn’t. My adrenaline was pumping just knowing that I was about to confront this deadly duo.

  I only made it a couple more steps when the man turned around. He had a gun in his hand. In the blink of any eye he fired a shot at me. I immediately ducked to the ground.

  “Dorothy, Morty, run,” I yelled.

  I jumped behind the car, and luckily, Dorothy and Morty scurried behind the car with me. I pulled out my gun from my waistband and peeked out from behind the car. The man realized that I had a gun now, so he hid behind another car. The woman was hiding with him. But it didn’t look as if she was armed. Thank goodness. I didn’t want it to be two against one.

  “What are we going to do?” Dorothy asked.

  “I wish you and Morty had stayed in the car,” I said.

  We stared at each other as if waiting for one of us to make a move. Arlington probably knew if he fired another shot and missed then I would shoot at him. He would have to get me first. Maybe I should take him out first. After all, he was trying to kill us.

  “Stay down,” I whispered to Morty and Dorothy.

  When I glanced over, I realized that Morty was the only one beside me.

  “Where is Dorothy?” I asked frantically.

  Morty looked to the right. “I don’t know. She was just here.”

  I looked back at his car, thinking maybe she had gone back a safer distance, but I didn’t see her anywhere.

  “This is not good, Morty,” I said.

  “Don’t you leave. I’m going to have to find her now.”

  “You can’t find her until that man is gone.”

  Yes, this was a dilemma. I just hoped that Dorothy wasn’t trying something stupid. My phone rang and I assumed it was Jake wondering what was going on with me. I pulled my phone from my pocket with one hand while holding the gun with my other. With my shaky hand I tried to answer. Somehow, I managed to answer while still aiming at Arlington.

  “I need backup immediately,” I yelled.

  I rattled off the address. I just hoped that I had it right.

  “What’s going on, Maggie?” Jake yelled.

  “Arlington is shooting at me. He’s the killer, not Morty. You have to get over here right away.

  “I’m on my way,” he said.

  “Maybe I should go look for Dorothy,” Morty said.

  “No way. You stay here.”

  Within seconds, I spotted Dorothy behind Arlington. She had some kind of huge vase/urn-type thing. I had no idea where she’d found that. I assumed somewhere near the building. I tried not to look at her because I didn’t want Arlington to turn around and see her. If Dorothy was shot right in front of my eyes, I didn’t know what I would do. She lifted up the huge vase over her head. I had no idea how she got the strength for that.

  The next thing I knew, Dorothy smashed the thing over Arlington’s head. Immediately he fell to the ground. That was when the woman noticed what Dorothy had done. She screamed and ran away from the building. Dorothy was my hero. I ran over to her. Morty was right behind me. Dorothy just stared down at Arlington’s body, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d done. I hoped she didn’t faint.

  “Do you have anything to tie him up with, Dorothy?” I asked. “If we don’t restrain him, then he’ll be after us when he comes to.”

  “I have my yarn,” she said.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure he can break free from that, but if it’s all we got. Wait. I have some rope in my car.”

  “Why do you have rope in your car?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe for situations just like this.”

  "Sometimes you’re just weird, Maggie,” she said.

  I placed my hand on my hip. “Well, who’s calling the kettle black?”

  She laughed as she raced over to my car. After rummaging through the trunk, she got the rope out. Dorothy waved it through the air, and I motioned for her to bring it over.

  “Make sure to tie it tight,” Dorothy said as she handed me the rope. “I don’t know if I have the strength to smash him over the head again.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said.

  I secured Arlington’s hands with the rope, but I wasn’t sure how well it had turned out. I supposed we’d find out if he woke up and got free. Dorothy stood beside me as I stared at Arlington.

  “I suppose he’s a handsome man. Even if he only has one oar in the water.”

  Arlington’s eyes blinked a few times and then he was awake. He stared at us with a confused look for a moment, then tried to move. A second later he realized that his wrists and ankles were tied with the rope.

  “Ha. Now what are you going to do, crazy man,” I said. “The police are on their way. You can’t get away.”

  He wiggled on the ground, trying to break free.

  “Why did you kill Jessica? Because she wouldn’t sell you the property? Her husband wanted to, but she wouldn’t. If she was dead, then she couldn’t object to selling the property.”

  “That was the plan,” he said.

  “And that woman Marie? You had her attack me.”

  “Just to get you out of the way,” he said.

  “What about Joe Delgado? He was seeing Jessica.”

  “Only to get her to sell. When that didn’t work, we had to kill her. That was the next plan.”

  “Why did Marie leave me those photos of Jessica and Joe? Who took those photos?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

  “I received photos and I’m pretty sure Marie left them.”

  “I knew she couldn’t be trusted. She was too jealous to be in on this.”

  So in a way she wanted me to know that Jessica and Joe had been together.

  “She’ll pay for that mistake.”

  “I don’t think so because you’re going to jail.”

  I hoped the police arrived before he got lose. He wiggled his hands trying to break free again.

  “So what if the police come, it’s my word against yours. You have no proof,” he said with an evil smile.

  "Oh, that’s where you’re wrong.” I pulled out my phone. “You see that? It’s recording our conversation right now. So you just confessed everything, and I have it on audio.”

  His face turned red and he thrashed around on the ground still trying to get up. I moved back a couple of steps, hoping that he wouldn’t break free. At least I had his gun so that he wouldn’t be able to use it on us. I was glad that I had thought to record the conversation though, because he was right, I had no actual evidence that would convict him.

  At that moment, Jake and the other officers arrived in their cars. Screeching tires came to a halt in the parking lot. Jake had barely gotten his car to a stop when he leapt out and ran over to me.

  “Here’s the killer,” I said, pointing to the ground. “Dorothy took him out with that big ceramic planter. I tied him up.”

  Jakes stared at us in stunned silence. He really shouldn’t be surprised. Dorothy and I actually made a great team.

  “Can you please explain to me what’s going on here?” Jake asked.

  “Well, if you listen to the recording, I got on my phone it tells everything. Arlington wanted to buy a property that Jessica owned, and she didn’t want to sell it. So her husband was trying his best to get it away from her. The only way that was going to happen was if he killed her. There were a bunch of people involved in this plot. Her husband, Arlington, Marie, and Joe Delgado.”

  Jake looked at me as if he had no clue who any of these people were. Not only had I found the killer, but I had tied up all the evidence into a nice little bow for the police. Now all they had to do was sit back and send him to jail.

  I crossed my arms in front of me and smirked. Yes, I was quite proud of myself. I knew by the look on Jake’s face that he was impressed too. Some might call all this luck but that was fine by me. I didn’t care how I found the killer, just that I found the killer. Even if the skill
s were luck, they were still mine and I would take that.

  Now we just had to find Joe Delgado. Maybe he was out on that boat looking for dolphins. I’d somehow track him down and wouldn’t he be surprised when I did.

  “Are you okay, Dorothy?” I asked. “I’d never seen such strength in a crazed look in your eyes.”

  “I guess I was at my wit’s end,” she said. “I just want to knit and do my crossword puzzles and enjoy some ice cream once in a while. I’m too old for this. Maybe I should retire.”

  What? I’d never heard Dorothy utter that word. What would I do without her?

  Now that Arlington had been handcuffed the officers lifted him to his feet and took him away. One of the other officers had found Marie and she was led to a police car as well.

  “This wasn’t my plan,” she yelled. “They made me do it.”

  Whatever her excuse, she was in a lot of trouble too.

  After what seemed like forever, Jake came back over to us.

  I smiled. “See, I told you Morty was innocent.”

  “I should never doubt you, Maggie, P.I.,” Jake said.

  The end.

  About the Author

  Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. The paranormal has always captured her interest. The thought of finding answers to the unexplained fascinates her.

  When she’s not writing about werewolves, vampires and every other supernatural creature, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties.

  Rose suffers from Psoriatic Arthritis and has knee replacements. She’s soon having her hips replaced, elbows, and at least one shoulder.

  Rose lives in the beautiful commonwealth of Kentucky with her husband, son, and two sassy Chihuahuas.