Fatal Debt by Dorothy Howell

Author:Dorothy Howell [Howell, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dorothy Howell
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Manny and I worked late. It was kind of nice with just the two of us in the office—no customers, no Inez, no hair flipping. We walked to the darkened parking lot together, then parted ways. There were a lot of things I could have done with what was left of the evening, lots more that I should have done. Instead, I did something I shouldn’t.

I accessed the address of the Stanford Medical Clinic on my cell phone, punched it into my GPS, and headed for Dayton Avenue. I found the clinic easily and pulled into a parking space at the rear of the building.

Gerald Mayhew had told me he was working here the night Mr. Sullivan was murdered. I’d verified with his employer that he did, in fact, work here. Still, I wanted to see for myself.

It was after seven now and Mayhew should be on duty, unless this happened to be his night off. I sat in my car for about fifteen minutes before I saw a uniformed guard come around the corner of the building on foot. The security lighting wasn’t great but I could see right away that this wasn’t Mayhew. This guy looked about 23 years old, thin, white, and bored.

It must be tough for security firms to get people willing to spend an eight-hour shift pacing the perimeter of a building, especially on the evening and night shifts. I suppose that was how they ended up with old men like Gerald Mayhew and this young guy on their payroll.

Scrounging through my purse, I found my pepper spray and slipped it into the pocket of my jacket. I scanned the parking lot looking for anything suspicious—not that I knew what suspicious looked like, really, but I checked anyway.

I headed toward the guard. He saw me and walked over.

“Where’s Gerald?” I asked, craning my neck as if I expected him to walk up and join us.

The guy rested his hands on his big leather belt. “Just me on duty.”

I frowned, hoping I looked puzzled, and said, “Doesn’t Gerald work evenings?”

He didn’t seem surprised that I’d asked. I suppose he was glad to have somebody to talk to.

“It’s his regular shift, but he called off again tonight,” he said. “More hours for me.”

“We all need the work when we can get it,” I agreed. “But it must tick you off, sometimes. I mean, you’ve got a life too. You can’t just drop everything and cover someone else’s shift.”

“Yeah, like last week,” the guard said. “I had Lakers tickets and I couldn’t go because of Mayhew.”

I remembered that a basketball game had been on television the evening a week ago when I’d walked into the Sullivan living room.

“You missed the Lakers?” I asked. “Last Monday night’s game?”

“Yeah,” the guy grumbled. “I had to give the tickets to my brother-in-law.”

“That’s criminal,” I told him.

“Tell me about it.”

I glanced around for no particular reason, then said, “I’ll catch Gerald another time.”

His expression showed a little suspicion. “What do you want Mayhew for?”

Good question.

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.