Rose Pressey - Chase Charley 02 - Seems Like Old Crimes (7 page)

“Later, Charley,” he said and hung up.

My heart rate increased. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the traffic or because Dangerfield wanted to meet again.

Once I made it back to the office, I knew that I wouldn’t get much work done today. Either I would be looking into the murder or I would be distracted by thinking about the murder. It was a lot to absorb in such a short time period.

The office buzzed with excitement and everyone whispered when I walked through the door. I was surprised it had taken them this long to start talking behind my back. I guessed Oscar hadn’t told everyone about what had happened like I thought he would. Why was he being so nice?

Speaking of Oscar, I glanced over at his door and wondered if I could get past without him spotting me. I’d never been able to do it in the past. What made me think I could do it this time? I lifted my head high and pushed my shoulders back and marched across the floor. I wouldn’t look over at him and maybe he wouldn’t notice. Sure, I had tried that trick in the past without success, but I had to get lucky eventually.

I hurried across the floor and just as I thought I might have made it Oscar yelled out my name. I’d made it to the edge of Jim Manning’s desk. That was the farthest I’d ever gotten.

I slumped my shoulders and walked into Oscar’s office. He stood as soon as I entered. That was something he had never done. Was he feeling okay? Was Oscar dying? He’d already loosened his tie and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt.

“Did you find out anything?” His brown eyes were as wide as I’d ever seen them.

“Well…” I wasn’t sure how much I could tell him. “I’m looking into a few things. I have the murder victim’s name.”

“Good job, Charley. Now get out there and find out more.” He waved his hand. At least his tone hadn’t been as harsh this time.

As I left, I glanced back and he had taken his seat again. He offered what I thought was a smile. Must have been my imagination, or maybe Oscar had stomach issues.

When I made it to my desk, I felt Ruth’s eyes on me again. I pretended not to see her at first, but then I finally looked over at her. Her arms were folded in front of her waist, bunching up her black suit jacket.

I quirked an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“You got a phone call again. Since you’re always late, the calls come to me.” She gestured toward her chest.

I wouldn’t even respond to that. “Who was it?” I asked.

Had Haley called again? She had my cell phone number. Had I missed her call here too? I pulled out my phone, but saw that there were no missed calls.

“It was a man,” she said.

I stared at her. “Did he leave a name?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Well, did he say what he wanted?”

“No.” She smirked.

A lot of good that did me. The call could have been from anyone. As Oscar pointed out, I attracted a lot of weird people and they called the station looking for me often. Ruth should know that by now.

“Thanks, Ruth,” I said. 

She smirked, but didn’t answer. Now that she had left me alone, I turned on my computer and immediately searched Timothy Swanson’s name. Lucky for me, a good amount of information showed up.

Tim owned a voodoo tour in town. I’d never heard of the place, but I figured that Courtney had. I’d have to give her a call and ask about the place.

I wondered why Haley hadn’t told me about their tour. She hadn’t told me anything and I thought that was more than a little strange. How did she expect me to find out anything with so little information to go on? At least this was a start though.

I scrolled down, but didn’t see much else that was useful. His Facebook page was set to private. I’d have to ask Haley if there was any relevant information.

I supposed a logical place to start would be by talking with employees of the tour. Would this be something the police would do? I wondered what Marc would say if he knew I was looking into this murder.

I picked up my phone and dialed Courtney. When I glanced over at Ruth, she was watching me. Of course she looked away, but I knew she had her eyes on me. It was killing her not to know what I was up to. We would leave it that way too.

After a few rings, Courtney picked up. “Voodoo House.”

“Hey, it’s me. I have a few questions for you.”

“Sounds serious. What’s going on?” she asked.

“I found some info on the murder victim.”

“Oh, yeah? What did you find?”

“Apparently he owned a voodoo tour,” I said. “I guess he ran the place with his wife.”

“Really? What’s the name of the place?” Courtney said with interest.

“Have you heard of French Quarter After Dark?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know anything else about the tour. You say he was the owner?”

“Yes, with his wife,” I said. 

“That is interesting,” Courtney said. “I can try to find out more for you.”

“That would be terrific. Thank you.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” I knew by her voice that she had a huge smile on her face. “I’ll call you later,” she said.

“Talk to you later,” I said.

As much as I wanted to look into the murder more, I knew that I had to do at least a little work. Oscar wouldn’t tolerate my inability to multitask. Even if he had told me to find out about the murder, I knew he meant find out more while doing your other work too.

I had been working on the case of a car salesman who had scammed people out of a lot of money. I had more phone calls to make for that assignment, so that I could set up more interviews. Just the other day I’d had a confrontation with the man, and it was highly possible I was about to have another one. Obviously he didn’t consider me a friend.

As I sat at my desk, I felt eyes on me. When I glanced over, I spotted Oscar motioning toward me from his office doorway. Twice in one day? Now that was a rarity. I’d really outdone myself this time.

“Looks like you’re wanted again,” Ruth said in a mocking tone from her cubicle across from mine.

I wouldn’t even bother to respond to her snarky comment. I was surprised that Oscar was calling me into his office for a second time. In fact, it made me more than a little nervous. I released a deep breath, pushed to my feet, and marched over to his office with my head held high. There was no need to let this meeting get to me.

When I reached the door, Oscar gestured for me to enter. I pushed the door opened and stepped into the room.

Without being told, I took my usual spot at the leather chair in front of his desk. I crossed my legs and folded my hands in my lap. Oscar’s mouth twisted up at one corner. That was about as close to a smile as I’d ever seen from him.

“So, have you found out anything else about this case?” He sounded as excited as a kid who had just heard the ice cream truck.

I stared at him for a moment. It had only been a few hours. I couldn’t believe how interested he was in this case. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of new information for him since I’d been no further than my desk. Apparently, he was going to be disappointed with that.

I cleared my throat. “Well, I talked with the deceased’s wife. My cousin may be able to get information for me.”

Oscar’s mouth turned down at the corners. “That’s not much.”

“She probably knows who murdered the man.”

“Seriously?” Oscar asked.

I frowned. “No, not seriously.”

“Don’t play games with me, Charley.” He wiggled his stubby index finger at me.

“I’m still looking into a few other things.” I eyed him suspiciously.

“Would you be interested in filming some of things that happen with the case?” he asked. “In case it’s solved we would have great footage for the news.”

Now I knew why he was so interested.

I knew better than to tell him no right away, so I said, “I suppose I can give an interview on what I’m doing.”

He stared for a moment. “Okay then, I’ll set something up.” He reached in his desk drawer and pulled out some papers and then handed them to me. “Here, I forgot to give these to you earlier. Letters from your fans. Just be careful when you’re out and about. There are so many crazy people out there.”

“Oscar, are you seriously worried about me? That is so sweet.” I clutched my chest.

He waved his hand, telling me to get out of his office. It looked as if Oscar didn’t hate me after all. I gathered the letters under my arm and marched back to the door. With my hand on the doorknob, I looked back and smiled.

Oscar shook his head. “Get out.”

I wondered if he had gone through the letters he’d given me. “By the way, Oscar…”

He sighed. “What now?”

“Did you look through these letters?”

“You told me not to, right? So I didn’t look at them,” he said.

“Okay, well, thank you.”

“Is that all now?” he asked.

He was losing his patience with me. I was shocked that it had taken him this long. I turned around and left the office this time. I’d just have to go through the letters myself this time—after all, that was what I had wanted.

Once back at my desk, I sat in front of the computer and placed the letters in front of me. I enjoyed reading the letters and it made my job that much more fun. That wasn’t to say that occasionally I didn’t get a letter that was a bit strange or had a weird request. I hoped that this stack of letters didn’t contain any of those.

I leafed through them and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so far. As I decided which one to open first, not that there were many of them, I felt eyes on me.

After realizing that Ruth wasn’t going to stop staring at me, I peered over at her.

“What’s wrong, Ruth?” I asked with a smile. “What can I do for you?”

“You’re never here to get your calls,” she said.

“I can’t help it if you’re not busy. Who called?” I asked.

She sighed and then said, “He didn’t leave his name again. You get a lot of weird calls.”

“I’ll try to cut down on the odd calls, I promise.” I held up my hand.

She smirked. “Thank you.” Unfortunately, Ruth didn’t turn her attention away from me.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

Finally, she shook her head. “I guess not.”

Thank goodness my phone rang at that moment. Ruth went back to her cubicle. I was shocked that she didn’t stick around to see if it was another one of my weird phone calls, as she called them.

“Chase Charley,” I said into the phone.

Silence filled the other end of the line.

“Hello?” I said again.

But I still didn’t get any answer. It didn’t sound as if the line was dead though. I thought I might have heard breathing on the other end of the line, but I wasn’t sure. I hung up the phone and focused my attention on the letters again. I’d just picked up one of the envelopes when my phone rang again.

“Chase Charley,” I repeated.

Again the person on the other end of the line didn’t say a word. Apprehension fell over me. I didn’t like the way this was going—I didn’t think this was random. It had to have something to do with the call that Ruth had received, right? But why did they ask for me only to hang up when I answered? Was there something else about the calls that she was forgetting to tell me? I could ask, but I figured I wouldn’t get an answer from her. Was this the man I’d seen at the bar?

“I hear you breathing. Just so you know, I will let the police know you’ve called.” I hung up again.

My comment would probably have little effect on the person, but I had to say something. I hoped that the person didn’t call back again. For a few seconds, I stared at the phone, but luckily it didn’t ring. If the person called again, I couldn’t guarantee that I wouldn’t lose my temper.

Releasing a sigh of relief, I decided to go back to the letters. I had to hurry up so that I could get back to working on the case. I picked up the letter that was on top of the pile and pulled out my letter opener from the drawer on my right.

I slipped the opener through the edge of the envelope. A piece of white paper was tucked neatly inside. I pulled out the paper. It was a letter talking about the recent case I’d done and thanking me for my help. That made me smile. I placed that one aside and picked up the next one on my pile. It didn’t have a return address, which made me a little concerned after what Oscar had told me, plus the incident with the man at the bar. Even with my uneasy feeling, I opened the letter and pulled out the single sheet of paper. I unfolded the page and read the contents. It definitely wasn’t a friendly letter like the first one that I’d just read.

So my uneasy feeling had been warranted. The letter said that I was being watched. The author wanted to meet me and if I didn’t want to meet him, then I would be forced into a meeting.

I swallowed hard and glanced around the room. That wasn’t the kind of letter that anyone wanted to receive. What would I do now? I didn’t want to tell Oscar because I didn’t want to hear him comment that he’d told me about the strange ones. I couldn’t just let it go though. One thing was for sure, I didn’t want to read any more of the letters right now.

I grabbed the phone and dialed Marc. He picked up the phone after a couple rings.