Trouble in Dixie by Rebecca Barrett

Author:Rebecca Barrett [Barrett, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KaliOka Press
Published: 2017-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Julia had done a cursory search into the shipping company when she was first assigned the file. It was a legitimate business, incorporated six years earlier. Their corporate offices were in Miami but they had a satellite office in the docks area in Savannah. Here, then, she thought, was a starting point.

Earlier in the investigation she had been distracted from a closer look at Renee Slovaska by the arrival on her doorstep of Mitchell Lawson. That lack of professionalism might have cost Trip Youngblood his life. And Peter Ryder was still missing. She fired up her laptop and entered Renee Slovaska’s name.

After twenty minutes of searching, Julia still didn’t know much about Slovaska. Her employment with the Fine Art and Antiques Shipping Company began eighteen months earlier. She was listed in their roster of mid-level employees. She had transferred from the Miami office eight months ago. The fact that she had landed in Savannah at almost the same time as Doug Heinz wasn’t lost on Julia. Also suspicious was the lack of a Facebook page or a paper trail beyond a LinkedIn profile.

Julia felt momentarily stumped. She read over her notes from her interview with Chappie. The owner of the apparel had arranged the delivery, had insisted on it according to Chappie. She dug through the file and found Reginald Horchow’s phone number.

A woman answered the phone when Julia called. She identified herself as Mr. Horchow’s secretary and that her employer was in the hospital, the result of a heart attack. There was very little she could tell Julia about the missing clothing of King Christian IX. She did remember her employer being elated that the garments were going to be part of a legitimate exhibition on Russian art and history but she knew nothing of the arrangements.

Something kept niggling at the back of Julia’s mind but whatever it was, she couldn’t bring it forward.

Her next call was to Chappie. His butler/assistant answered the phone and informed Julia that Mr. Chapman had not yet risen from bed. The previous evening’s events had taken their toll. Julia couldn’t tell if the man was being flippant or if his accent only made it seem that way. She didn’t hear a great deal of concern in the man’s tone. Perhaps he was accustomed to Chappie’s mercurial ups and downs of temperament.

Adoni, as he identified himself to Julia, couldn’t help her with any information on the missing apparel. He handled Mr. Chapman’s personal matters, he said, things like his social calendar, shopping, travel arrangements, household staff.

When she hung up, Julia decided she needed to pay a visit to the Fine Art and Antiques Shipping Company office. That was the only logical next step. But how was she going to slip away from her guard dogs? There would be little hope of learning anything of value if she arrived with an entourage of law enforcement personnel.

She got up from the sofa and looked out the window. A replacement deputy had arrived sometime in the past half hour and from what she could tell, he was in the process of interrogating her father.

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