Chapter 1
It had been a little over two months since Ella had started to work for me. I had been hired to investigate a case of stolen identities and credit card scams, and she’d been one of their more helpless victims, on the edge of losing everything her and her husband Doug had worked and saved for. It was also one of my first high profile case since going independent from the police and she had been so grateful that she’d decided she’d pay me back by working for me. Which baffled me then and still does now, but she makes nice coffee, organises my files and has a keen sense of which phone calls to put through and which to ignore.
She could have been the housewife poster model and if it weren’t for the fact that her and Doug had been together since high school, and she’d never even considered the idea that she could be with another man, I might have tried a bit harder to spent time with her. But as it was, it worked.
Doug, on the other hand, loved and trusted his wife, but apparently wasn’t so sure about me. So, every Tuesday at exactly 14:31 he ‘spontaneously’ popped by for a visit. The first time it happened; I didn’t think too much about it. The next few times I began to get annoyed, until I realised that Doug himself wasn’t aware that his ‘spontaneous’ little visits to his wife at work, that really did seem more about checking up on me, were so precisely timed. After that I started to have fun with it. Making the coffee before he arrived. Having a cup of coffee waiting for him. Standing at the door waiting for him. Every time a little something extra to see how long it would take him to notice. I had even set an alarm so that I remembered in time.
Ella looked at me with a slightly confused and curious expression as a stood at my office’s front door, hand on the knob staring at my watch counting down the seconds. It was a bold play that I wasn’t sure would work, but if it did it would cheer me up endlessly. And considering I didn’t have a case to work on, or any money coming in, I needed some cheering up. I had learnt a long time ago that sometimes you’ve got to make your own margarita’s if you want to have a cocktail by the pool.
The second hand reached twelve and I pulled open the door just in time to see Doug reach for the handle. The shock of seeing the door open in front of him like that caused him to jump back. Which caused a broad and genuinely happy smile spread across my face.
“Doug, hello, what a surprise.”
I watched as he composed himself and said nervously.
“Hello Jones, are, are you on your way out?”
“Nope, just had a feeling my door needed to be opened. Come in.”
I stepped aside to usher him in and saw something like comprehension on Ella’s face, but it was quickly replaced by the smile that always came when she saw Doug. The two of them really were each other’s people and as much as I drink and as cute as she is, even if she ever did have a moment’s slip, I’d like to think that I’d be man enough to never take advantage. Not that I’ll ever actually have to take that test.
“Dougy!”
Rang Ella’s voice and was met with the usual response of,
“Ellie!”
Which was so adorable that I lost my smile altogether and started to consider switching the water in the coffee machine for vodka to see how long it would take for it or me to die. I flicked the door closed behind me and heard it bang against something, and a very surprised feminine voice let out a little yelp of surprise and pain.
We all turned quickly to see a woman standing wide eyed in the doorway. It was hard to tell in that moment if she was attractive or not, but she certainly wasn’t ugly. She was about a half a head shorter than me which made her tall for a woman, and she wore a sleek black dress that showed off the shape of her hips and her boobs without actually showing anything. And despite the strangeness of the moment, I still managed to think that she was very over dressed for a Tuesday afternoon in September.
I grabbed the door to stop it swinging back into her face, again.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
The woman put on as sweet a smile as she could and said in a soft voice.
“No, I should have knocked or said something rather than just try stepping in.”
I looked at her and she looked at Doug, Ella and I all staring at her, then she blushed, which was annoyingly charming and said in an even softer voice.
“This is the office of Detective Jones, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is.”
We all said in unison which made her eyes grow wide again, Ella laugh, and I frown at Doug and said a touch to hard.
“You don’t work here.”
He shrank a little and I began to realise that I possibly needed a hobby. Something to get me through slow periods of work. Then I turned back to the woman in the doorway, and put on my best salesman’s smile.
“Hello, I’m Jones, please, come in. I promise not to try slam the door on you this time.”
She smiled sweetly and gingerly stepped into the office. I nodded at Ella who sprang up to sweep Doug out of the way and offer coffee and an array of teas, which, up until that moment, I didn’t know we had. Then with a little wink she added.
“Or if you need something with a bit more power, just ask Jones for the stuff he keeps in his desk drawer.”
Ella was so unbelievably sweet it made my teeth hurt. The woman in the black dress asked for some kind of fruit tea that I’d never even heard of, and which Ella said she’d bring in.
I walked past the woman in black to get to my side of the desk, sat down and hoped that Ella would just know to bring me some coffee. I gesture towards a chair, but the woman in black remained standing with an almost embarrassed look on her face, and I began wondered if she was having second thoughts about being there.
“Why don’t we start with your name? Or if that’s too personal, just a name I can call you.”
She cleared her throat, and while I could see her thinking about how she wanted to question, I decided that she actually was an incredibly good looking woman. Clear blue eyes, a nice chin, slender neck and what looked like naturally curly hair that she regularly tried to straighten. Her skin was pale and smooth and even though she didn’t look like it at a glance, a knowledgeable man would recognise a woman in either her late 30s or early 40s. But if she told you she was 27 you’d believe her without hesitation or a second thought.
“My name, is Margarette Pine.”
Suddenly the dress made more sense.
“As in Pine’s Designs? Margarette Pine?”
She nodded and I nodded, and she began to look like she’d decided that being there was a mistake. But you don’t have to be a detective for long to learn one very simple truth. Like a therapist, when people come into your office, it usually means they need to be there. Even if they aren’t 100% sure why. So, I pulled the bottle Ella had so subtly mentioned out of the desk drawer and said a little bit crassly.
“I think my secretary wears your underwear.”
Margarette Pine’s face scrunched up as if she though the words might literally slap her, but she managed to say rather quickly.
“How do you know what underwear your secretary wears, Mr Jones?”
It was a good come back and it made me like her more, made me even more interested in why she was there.
“Because she’s so desperately in love and dedicated to her husband, that I think she thinks of me as a girl friend. So one day about a week ago she burst in to tell me about how great your bras are. Said it was the softest most supporting thing she’d ever had cupping her breasts.”
Margarette’s eyes once again grew wide, and although she opened her mouth, no sound came out. So I continued.
“Yup, that was my response too. It’s kind of sweet in a way, strange as all get out, but sweet.”
Margarette frowned at me and said.
“I don’t think I like the way you talk about women, Mr Jones, and how you share personal stories. Aren’t detectives supposed to be good at keeping secrets?”
Just then the door opened, and Ella walked in carrying a tray with the tea for Margarette and thank God a mug of coffee for me.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything to personal, just bringing in the tea.”
I smirked, and maintained eye contact with Margarette.
“We were just discussing your wonderful new bra, Ella.”
Margarette’s frown deepened and I could see genuine anger begin to form around her eyes. But Ella saved me just like I expected she would. She turned to Margarette and said enthusiastically.
“Oh yes, it’s from Pine’s Designs, it’s amazing, supportive and soft, it holds everything so well, and it’s so pretty. I can’t recommend it more, specifically for girls like us.”
Ella put the tray down and vaguely gestured at her and Margarette’s breasts. Which I noted looked like they could be a handful. Then Ella’s face lit up, and I wondered if she recognised the woman, but she said.
“I think I have a discount coupon in my desk, I’ll go look for it and you can take it when you leave.”
Then she hurried out and closed the door behind her. Margarette and I both watched her go, then she turned back to me, now with a much softer, kinder and more flabbergasted expression and just said.
“Wow.”
“I know right, almost too sweet to be real.”
“Is she always like that?”
“Yup.”
“Where do you find people like that? I mean, I might hire her out from under you.”
“You’re welcome to try. Truth be told, I never actually hired her, she just decided I needed a secretary and hired herself. I don’t even know if I pay her, she took over the accounting too.”
Margarette cracked her first genuine smile since she arrived.
“You know, two minutes ago I wouldn’t have believed you, but now…”
Her smile turned into more of a smirk and she bobbed her head from side to side. Then her shoulders relaxed, and finally she sat down.
