Mick the Dick Ch. 06

©2005 All Rights Reserved

In the morning I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs and fresh brewed coffee. I sat up in bed, stretched, and slid out onto my feet. It was one of the most restful nights I'd had since... since I was first married. I put on the pink gym shorts and walked into the kitchen.

"Well, good morning, Boss. Did you sleep okay? I hope you like them scrambled. Those shorts do look good on you." Carla gave me a little wolf whistle.

Carla was wearing my golf shirt. That did look good on her. "I slept great. Scrambled is fine." Damn! Bacon, eggs, toast, orange juice, coffee. I hadn't had someone fix me a breakfast like this since... since I was married. I better stop making these comparisons before I find myself hitched again.

"There's your coffee, blonde and sweet."

"Just like you." Oh shit! I started that sweet talking, man in love crap. I better drink the coffee and make sure I'm awake before I get myself in deep do do.

"I'll bet you not all bosses have secretaries that fix them breakfast."

"Oh, you can bet on that one. You didn't have to go through all of this."

"All of what? I usually fix myself breakfast every morning. It takes just as long to fix 2 helpings. Shut up and eat." She slid a plate in front of me.

We ate breakfast and didn't even talk about the conversation the night before. Instead she asked me to tell her about the Armacost case. I told her how I followed him home yesterday with no detours. "Being neither Mrs. Armacost nor Holly called to say he was going out, I take it he stayed home." The way last night transpired, I'm glad he did.

After we ate, Carla got ready to take her shower and get ready for work. I gave her a kiss and told her I'd see her at the office. "You know, last night was terrific. I mean, you were terrific."

Carla gave me a big grin, "Yeah? So were you... for an older guy."

"When did you say you were looking for that new job?" I laughed.

"I'm just kidding, just kidding! I couldn't find a better boss." She gave me a big hug and kiss. "I just want you to know, that was the first time I've slept with a man."

I just looked at her waiting for the punch line.

"Oh, I've been to bed with men, a couple, but that's the first time I ever slept with one."

I held my hand out like a correspondent holding a microphone, "And, Carla, the world is just waiting to see what you thought of it."

She actually blushed, "I liked it. I couldn't help but cuddle up with you all night. It was so comfortable." It was the first time I heard her giggle. "It was like sleeping with a big teddy bear."

"Don't let that get out. It could ruin my reputation as a bad ass."

Carla kissed me as she headed into the bathroom to take her shower. I locked the door behind me on the way out. I was heading to my place to take care of the 3 S's and change my clothes. I live about a half hour away from the office, just far enough away from the city to be nice, but close enough to be convenient.

I made pretty good time getting home, being it was opposite the rush hour traffic coming into town. I took care of my morning business, showered, and shaved. I finally woke up enough to get only Carla out of my mind and start thinking about other matters at hand, Armacost.

I started driving back into the city thinking about the who, what, when, where and why of the case. And I had to do it from three angles, not just two. I had this daughter to do, I mean think about. "See, it didn't take long for Carla to slip from my mind."

I was also thinking about Friday night, the dinner and how I was going to get close enough to see what was going on. Driving down the road I was passed by a limousine. That's when it dawned me. "Big party, big shots, big cars." "I'll just bet somebody is renting a limo to go to this party."

I didn't get my parking space in front of the building, but it wasn't too far down the street. As I was walking up the street towards the office, I passed by the gift shop, greeting card store in the same block. In the window was this teddy bear. It was a "bad ass" looking teddy bear in a sheriff's outfit. "I just have to get it for her." Oops! Guess who was back on my mind.

I went into the store and told the little old lady behind the counter I wanted it. "That's a pretty tough looking teddy bear. I wouldn't want to tangle with him."

"Oh, your daughter will just love it?"

"I don't have a daughter."

"Oh, your wife?"

"Just ring it up." Then I had a flashback of the Village People and the guy dressed up like a cowboy. Just to make sure she didn't get the wrong idea, "It's for my secretary. She likes bears."

"Oh! You're such a nice boss. I wish my boss was that nice."

Under my breath, "Keep wishing lady. You don't know the half of it."

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. What did you say?"

"Nothing. I was mumbling to myself."

When I walked into the office Carla looked up at me, "Good morning sir, Welcome to the Mick Pheury Private Detective Agency. Can I help you?"

"Yes you can. You can do some work and stop goofing off." I tossed the bag to her.

Carla caught it and opened it. "Oh, isn't he the cutest thing. He looks just like you."

I didn't need to hear that. "No he... it doesn't."

"He even has the mustache."

I hadn't even noticed that. Okay, so it did a little. Carla got up and walked over to me and gave me a hug. "Thanks Mick. I love him. Can I keep him on the shelf behind my desk?"

"He's yours. You can keep him anywhere you want."

Carla went over to the credenza behind her desk and sat the bear on top.

"By the way, there's a message for you on the answering machine. Holly Armacost."

"Okay. Must not be too important, she has my cell phone number."

I went into my office and listened to the message. When Holly got home from school last night, around 9, she looked for her father, but he wasn't around. Her mother was there and said she didn't know where he was. His cars were all there, but she couldn't find him. Around 11 he came in the back door, which according to Holly, he seldom does. Her mother had no idea where he was and Holly didn't hear any car drop him off. When she asked him where he had been, he told her he was working on something in the garage. She knew he wasn't in the garage because she checked.

This was interesting. Now the daughter thinks something is up. I called her on her cell phone.

"Hello Mr. Pheury." Isn't caller ID great?

"Hi Holly. I got your message."

"Do you believe it? He has never lied to me before."

"Maybe you just have never caught him."

"That's what I'm beginning to think."

"Holly, are you sure you checked everywhere he could have been?"

"Yes, I'm sure. He was nowhere in this house."

"What about at a neighbor's?"

"No. He hates our next door neighbors. Well, the one we don't know too much, the other one, well... they're always calling the cops on each other."

"For what?"

"Oh, all kinds of stuff. Blowing leaves on each others lawns, cutting the grass on the other persons property. Playing music too loud when they have parties. They've been doing it for years."

"How does your mother and his wife get along?"

"I don't really know. The lady always says hi to me. But for that matter, so does the man. They both seem really nice, but my father hates them. I don't know why. I think it's one of those stupid lawyer things."

"Do you know their name?"

"I think it's Schmidt. My father always refers to him as Schmidthead."

I liked the humor in that. "Do you know what he does?"

"Yeah. He's an attorney. Just like my dad. I think he has an office in my father's building. My dad's sneaking around for some reason or another. We have to find out why."

"I agree. Where are you now?"

"On my way to class."

"Okay, be careful and I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, Mick. Oh! Umm, Mick, can we have a drink after you get off this afternoon? Just to talk about the case."

"Sure. What time do you finish classes?"

"I'll be done around 3, but I wanted to do a little research in the library. How about around 6?"

"That will be fine. Where would you like to meet?"

"How about Murphy's?"

"No!" I didn't want to take any chances. "I mean, how about something downtown?"

"Okay, how about the sports bar down the street from my father's building?"

"Yeah, that will be good. Maybe there'll be a game on."

"Okay, I'll see you at 6? You can give me my daily briefing then."

"I'll be there. See you then."

I hug up the phone and looked up at the door. Carla was standing there staring at me.

"What?" I didn't know if it was the guilts or what. Why should I feel guilty? Man, I better get out of this frame of mind about her.

"Meeting Holly after work?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"No reason. I was just asking. I thought that is what I heard you say."

Oh boy! The guilts were setting in. "I have to talk to her about this case. I told her I'd give her a daily report..."

"Mick! You don't have to explain. You're the boss. I just like keeping tabs on you in case something happens."

"I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump at you."

Carla smiled at me as she turned and walked back to her desk. Either she really is that "cool" or she knows how to get to me. Of course it could be a little of both.

I picked up the phone book that I had forgotten to put back on Carla's desk. I opened up to the lawyers pages again and looked for a Schmidt in Armacost's building. There were two, luckily both David; Junior and Senior. Room 608.

All of the sudden it dawned on me. David Schmidt. I knew him when I was on the police department. He was a prosecutor in the District Attorney's Office. He was pretty good. I had a couple of big cases he handled. I had heard that he went into private practice a few years ago and was doing pretty well for himself. I guess he was, living in a neighborhood like Armacost's.

Now it was time to see what Mrs. Armacost had to say about last night. I had to play it safe. If you remember, I didn't tell Mrs. Armacost that Holly had seen us. That's because Holly had hired me too. Ethics? Conflict of interest? Not if I do it right, and I always do it right. It is probably more of an ethics issue if I told each of them that I was hired by the other. After all, clients' identities are privileged information.

It's time to mess with Carla a little too. I stood up from my desk and closed the door between our offices. Then I called Mrs. Armacost. Funny, Carla didn't even look over her shoulder.

"Hello?" Teresa Armacost answered.

"Hi, Teresa. Mick Pheury here."

"Hi Mick. Is something up?"

"No, not really. I told you I'd check in with you daily. Anything happening on your end?"

"Funny you should ask. Last night, Benjamin disappeared for several hours. After dinner, I loaded the dish washer and when I went back into the dining room, Ben was gone."

"Do you have any idea where he went?"

"No, none. Holly came home from school around 9 or so and was looking for him. She said she looked everywhere and he wasn't there. About 11, he came back in the house."

"Maybe he went for a walk."

"Benjamin? Walk. Mick, one thing about Benjamin Armacost, he doesn't walk anywhere, unless he's on a golf course. He actually wants to get a golf cart to ride down to the mailbox."

"Did you hear any cars? Maybe somebody dropped him off."

"No. Even Holly thought of that, but we were both sure he wasn't dropped off."

"Maybe he was in the garage working on something."

"That's what he claimed, but Holly said she checked. To be honest, I checked there too."

"Why do you say, "to be honest"?"

"Mick, Holly's been acting strange. She has always been really close to her father. I think she is doubting my loyalty. She has been very emphatic that she doesn't think his fooling around on me."

"That's not good." At least I know Teresa is being somewhat honest to me. "You don't think she's covering for him, do you?"

"No, I don't think so. I think last night opened her eyes. This morning when she was leaving for school, she kissed me goodbye. She doesn't usually do that. She hasn't kissed me goodbye in the morning like that in years."

"Well, maybe that's a good thing. By the way, you didn't mention to Holly that you've hired me, right?"

"No. Why? I figured when you said nobody should know, that included the kids."

"You were correct. Don't let them know. If anybody ever says they saw us together, just deny that it was planned, we just kind of ran into each other and you didn't know I was a private detective."

"Okay." Teresa sounded puzzled on why I elaborated but agreed not to tell anyone.

"Do you think he may have gone over to one of the neighbors?"

"Ben hates our neighbors. He doesn't even talk to them. David Schmidt, he's another attorney. Ben just hates him for some reason."

"Maybe it's that professional rivalry."

"Maybe. The Schmidts are always nice to me. The say hi. When we're outside together, they talk. But any time Ben is outside with me, they ignore us."

"What about the other neighbors?"

"On the other side of us? I don't even think he knows them. I know I don't. He's some sort of doctor, I believe. I don't even know their name. That's the problem with living in such big houses on such big lots. When it comes to knowing the neighbors, nothing beats an apartment."

"You are probably right."

"Mick, is there any chance he could just be messing with me?"

"Well, that's possible. But I don't think he would do without sex just to mess with you. Have you done anything that would make him want to mess with you?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I mean, I haven't done anything that would upset him. At least nothing that I remember or can think of."

"Teresa, is there any chance he thinks you are fooling around on him?"

"Me? No. Well, I don't think so. Why do you ask that?"

"I'm trying to think of any reason he would be doing this. Any reason. He hasn't accused you of cheating on him, has he?"

"No. I mean, not lately. A few years ago he accused me of having an affair with one of his law partners. But he was way off base."

"Which one of his partners?"

"Oh, I don't think you know him. Richard. He's one of his younger partners. Nice boy, but way too young for me."

"Why would he have thought you were having an affair with him?"

"I don't really know. I think it was because Richard was always sucking up to Ben. If I happened to be there, he'd suck up to me too."

"Well look, keep me posted. I followed him home from the office yesterday. He made no stops. I'll check in with you tomorrow, unless something happens. I have a few things to check up on."

"Okay, Mick. Thanks."

We hung up. I walked over and opened the door again. "What did Mrs. Armacost have to say?"

Damn she's good. "Who?"

"Mrs. Armacost. You know, your client. Or should I say one of your clients."

"Oh, her. Nothing. Nothing new to add."

I could tell Carla knew I was messing with her. She went back to what she was doing.

If I remembered David Schmidt the way I think, it is no wonder he and Armacost don't get along. David was a straight shooter. He never played favorites and would never back down to the big shot attorneys like Armacost.

I started back to my desk and then realized I was getting hungry. It was going on 11. "Hey, wanna do lunch?"

"Lunch? Together? Who'll get the phone?"

"Put the answering machine on. If it's anybody important, they'll have my cell number."

"Okay, where are we going?"

"How about Mexican?"

"Yee Haw! Let's go!"

I swear this girl had to be an orphan in Texas and got adopted here. I grabbed my brown casual sport coat and slipped it on. Something about walking around the streets with a .45 stuck in your pants that has a tendency to upset some people these days.