A Matter of Lloyd And Death: An Urban Fantasy Mystery (Noctis Investigations Book 2) by Matt Armstrong

Author:Matt Armstrong [Armstrong, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

“How long have you been a private investigator?” I questioned.

We drove for the first ten minutes in silence, leaving the city limits and turning onto a highway listed as “ON-37 N” en route to Tweed. It took some gentle coaxing at first, but Penelope agreed to do the speed limit for a change. Her elbow rested on the door, the window rolled down, lounging comfortably as she controlled the steering wheel with her right hand.

“Five years, give or take a month,” she replied, keeping her eyes on the road, face neutral, as her hair gently whipped in the breeze.

With her attempted seductions behind us, she left the makeup behind, except for a slight dusting of blush and cherry lip gloss. However, even without all the bells and whistles, Penelope Parker remained a stunning woman. In normal circumstances, I may have struggled to maintain a professional relationship with her, which would have been problematic at best. Luckily, she entered my life while I was battered, beaten, and exhausted, leaving me mostly unresponsive to her charms. Otherwise, I might have been in trouble.

I still didn’t trust her. The more time I spent with her, the more legitimate she seemed, but something about her was still off. I would wait for Miri to call with the background check before making up my mind, one way or the other.

“What got you into the business?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Penelope shrugged. “People like to tell me things. It’s stupidly easy to make a man tell you his life story when they think with their dicks. The thought of marrying rich seemed so boring, so I figured I may as well find a way to make money from it.”

“Yeah, you probably would’ve made all the other trophy wives jealous. Imagine the drama,” I speculated. “Best to avoid that, I think.”

She glanced at me quizzically, but smiled. “What about you? Why do you do this?”

“I, uh … developed a certain set of skills by stealing a bunch of shit. When that stopped being a good idea, this seemed like an appropriate use for them.”

“You were a thief? Bullshit!” she replied with a titter.

“Why is that hard to believe?” I defended.

“Because you’re a straight-up pussy-cat do-gooder.”

I scoffed, taken aback. “I’ll have you know, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I once parked in a one-hour zone and stayed for two.”

She smirked. “What did you steal?”

“Usually money. I’d get the bank details of rich GADs and drain them dry.”

“GADs?”

“Grade-A-Douchebags.”

Penelope laughed out loud. “I like that.”

“I dabbled in artwork and jewellery for a while, but fencing them was a pain in the ass. Cold, hard cash and untraceable foreign accounts were always the way. Though, I did once nick a vintage pornography collection. It was worth nearly a million.”

“Vintage pornography?” she exclaimed with a scoffing chortle. “What was it, maids flashing their ankles?”

“Hey, women in the eighteen-hundreds were freakier than you’d think.”

“Hah!” she guffawed. “I bet that ruffled some feathers in their frocks. Who did you steal it from?”

“I’d rather not say, but, for the moment, let’s assume it was a tech billionaire.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.