Her Private Dick Pt. 01

"Would you like to see my other costumes... Josh, wasn't it?" Ivy purred, her voice dripping sex and promise.

"Perhaps some other time, Ms. Allen," Josh replied. He didn't want to lose this contract by taking his client's sister upstairs to... look at her costumes. "Mr. and Mrs. Allen--"

"Mandy, please!"

Josh paused then tried again. "Mandy, Tane, going AWOL from the military is a serious offense. Koda will be in a lot of trouble and--"

"Oh, I'm sure after he explains it, they'll understand," Mandy says lightly. "He probably found himself a nice girl or something. He'll turn up."

"They?" Josh asked, glancing around the pool area while looking for hidden cameras, beginning to suspect he was being pranked for a television show or something.

"The Navy!" Mandy said in exasperation.

"Mandy," Josh said with exaggerated patience, "they won't understand. This is a serious breach. Koda could go to jail."

"Perhaps we should listen," Tane suggested.

Mandy pouted. "I think everyone is making a big to-do out of nothing. After all, he said he might be back for the party this weekend."

"He always says that, but never does," Ivy said.

"Mother!" Hazen cried, speaking over Ivy, her voice telegraphing her horror that her mother would say something like that in front of Josh. He was a private investigator and he'd surely follow up that revelation.

"Party?" Josh asked as Hazen flushed in shame and looked away.

"Our swingers party. We host one every three months. I've been trying to get Hazen and Koda to come, but they never do. You're a good-looking guy. You and Hazen should attend. It's couples only."

"Mother!" Hazen shouted again. "That's enough!"

"What? A lot of people are swingers. I swear, I don't understand why you're so uptight about it."

Josh looked at Hazen, who was hiding her face in her hands, deciding on the spot this whole family was crazy. He began to plot his escape. "Thank you for the offer, Mandy. Perhaps another time."

"Here's my card," Tane said, handing Josh a card as he put his wallet back on the side table.

Josh took the offered card and glanced at it. The card implied that Tane Allen owned the local Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen dealerships. Suddenly the name clicked. He'd always thought that the Tane Allen on the signs were two separate people. That explained Hazen's car.

"Mandy's right. The party is invitation and couples only, but if Hazen doesn't want to come, I'm sure we can hook you up with someone."

"I could bring him," Ivy purred.

Tane nodded as if it were decided. "That's perfect. It's this Saturday. The party starts at two and goes until two Sunday. Since you're new, Ivy can show you the ropes, or you can find Mandy... or me."

"Do come and look me up," Mandy cooed. "I'd love to share you with Helen. You look military, which makes you her type. Have you ever been in a threesome, Josh?"

"No," he said slowly, drawing the word out. "I can't say that I have."

"I think you'll enjoy it. Helen is very skilled. Trust me... I know. She's helping me explore the pleasures of the fairer sex."

"Yes, well... thank you," Josh said, uncertain of what to do or say. The only thing he knew for sure was he was ready to get away from this insane asylum of a family. Maybe following cheating spouses wasn't such a bad gig after all.

"Now that you've told him far more than he needs to know, can we please talk about Koda?" Hazen growled. She loved her family, and she knew they loved her, but there was no denying that the only two sane ones were her and Koda... and she wasn't entirely sure about Koda.

Mandy sighed in resignation. "I guess. I still think you're worrying over nothing."

"Did Koda say anything before he left?" Josh asked, relieved that the conversation was back in more comfortable territory.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. It was the same as it normally is. Koda comes back from his tour, spends a couple of weeks here, then goes back to the base. We might see him once a week or so after that, then he goes back out again," Tane explained.

"He didn't mention he might be in trouble? Nothing like that?"

"No. How could he be in trouble? We can't even talk to him when he's at sea. How much trouble could he get into while at sea for three months?" Mandy asked.

"I understand. I'm just looking for a place to start. So, he seemed perfectly normal?"

"Perfectly. Antsy, but he's always that way. Always has been," Mandy continued.

"He needs to learn to relax a little," Ivy added. She grinned. "Coming to one of Mom and Dad's parties is a great way to relax." Her smile spread slightly. "Would you like me to help you relax?"

"Hazen mentioned that Koda is only really happy when he's on the sub," Josh said, ignoring Ivy, though it was hard... it was damned hard. "Would you agree with that?"

"I'd say that's mostly true, yes," Tane confirmed. "I don't understand it myself, but Koda has always been a bit of a loner. Never likes to try new things."

"Okay, so Koda seemed normal. When did he leave to return to the base?"

"Saturday? No, Sunday," Hazen said.

"Sunday afternoon," Mandy confirmed.

"And when did the Navy call asking his whereabouts?"

"Yesterday. Tuesday afternoon," Hazen said. "I started looking for help right away."

"So, he's been missing for at least two days, maybe as many as three?" Josh asked, trying to confirm the timeline.

"I would say that's about right," Hazen agreed.

"Anything else I should know? Anything you can think of to help me get started? Friends he might have visited? Anything at all?"

"No. Nothing," Tane said. "I'm sure he's all right. Maybe the Navy just misplaced him? You know how the government is."

Josh smiled. If only it were that easy. "Maybe, but unlikely. Was Koda into anything that might cause him to miss his report? Drugs, alcohol... anything like that?"

"No. Nothing like that. Not even a girlfriend," Hazen said. "He lived to be out on that damned sub."

Josh thought for a moment. "I don't believe I have any other questions. If you think of anything, please get in touch with me," he said while handing over business cards.

"If I call you Saturday, will you take me to Mom and Dad's party?" Ivy asked.

"I'm flattered, and would like to attend, but I'll be working this weekend. I'm sorry, Ivy. Maybe next time," Josh said, gently trying to extricate himself from having to go. "The longer Koda is missing, the colder his trail will be."

Ivy looked disappointed. "Okay, but I'm going to call you for next time. It's been a while since we've had anyone new join us. I was looking forward to bringing you."

He turned his attention to Mandy and Tane. "Nice meeting you, and thank you for your time. My phone and email are on the card if you think of anything more."

He followed Hazen as she stomped through the house, slamming the front door as they exited. Josh had felt his cell vibrate as he talked to the Allens, and he pulled it out of his pocket as he paused beside their cars.

"Excuse me a moment," he said as he checked his email. It was Susan Marker. She wanted to meet this evening for his report. "Hazen, I--" he began.

"Wait!" Hazen interrupted. "I know what you're thinking, and I know my family is crazy, especially my mom and sister, but Koda isn't like that! He wouldn't not report for duty unless something happened to him! I know he wouldn't!"

"I understand how you feel, but without something to go on, I don't know how I can help you. He could be anywhere. I'll help you check hospitals, jails, and God forbid, the morgue, but after that..."

Hazen's face scrunched up as she fought the urge to scream in frustration. Her family screwed everything up. Josh probably thought her entire family was batshit crazy, including her. "Just give it a couple of days! Please! I have access to all of Koda's financial information... his emails... everything! I take care of his affairs while he's at sea. Maybe there's something in there. Please, Josh! Please! Just give me a couple of days."

He studied her a moment. There was no doubt her family was nuts, but Hazen seemed like a tough, well sorted woman. "Why? Why me?"

"Because I didn't want to go to some big firm with a lot of people. I wanted someone small, someone I can trust, someone that will have a vested interest in solving the case."

"Trust me? You don't even know me."

"I know, but I'm a good judge of character, and you seem like a nice, honest guy. The fact you didn't run screaming from my family says a lot," she said with sad smile. "Add to that, your business is so small you must be good at your job or you wouldn't be in business." She paused couple of heartbeats but then continued. "Look, I'll level with you. If you don't take this job, I'll find someone that will, but I want you. I can help you. I can help you find Koda and I can help you get your name out there."

He held her gaze a moment. "Okay, I believe you can probably help with Koda. I still don't think you need to tag along with me as I chase down leads, but let's leave that aside for a moment. How, exactly, can you help me with my business?"

"Daddy owns the dealerships for Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, and Volkswagen, but I run them. We do background checks on all our new employees, and I need someone I can trust to do that. I've been thinking we need to do a security check to make sure our facilities are secure. That's something your website says you do. We have a lot of wealthy customers that may need your services," she said, dangling the carrot. "If you help me find Koda, I'll make sure everyone knows who found him."

She waited, hoping Josh would go for it. He was her first and only choice, and if he tossed her aside, she wasn't sure what she'd do. She'd chosen Josh because he was ex-military, and she hoped he'd want to protect a fellow service member from a blemish on their record. He was also small enough that she thought she could buy his exclusive attention for a few weeks and not have to compete for his time with another client.

"Okay. Let's give it a week. If we haven't turned up something by then, we're not going to. Okay?"

This was a bad idea, and he knew it, but for some reason he had a hard time telling this woman no. Despite her sex crazed family, she seemed sincere, he wanted to help her, and if her brother was in trouble, he wanted to help him too.

She released the breath she didn't realize she was holding, her face breaking into a big smile. "Thank you, Josh. Thank you so much. What's next?"

"Next, I have to meet with client to close out another contract. Let's meet first thing in the morning at my office and we'll dig into Koda's emails and see what we can find. Say 9:00 am?"

She wanted to start now, feeling like every minute they wasted took Koda farther away, but he'd given in, and she didn't want to push him. "I'll bring breakfast."

When Josh rolled to a stop in front of his office door, Hazen's Mercedes was already there. He glanced at the car's clock. 8:47. He smiled to himself as he opened the door. It was becoming clear that Hazen was going to keep him on his toes.

"Good morning," he said as he and Hazen exited their cars at the same moment.

"Morning," Hazen replied with a smile as she juggled a small paper bag, two large coffees in a tray, and a laptop case, shutting her car door with a shove from her hip.

He took the bag from her, unlocked his suite door, and flipped on the lights as they entered. As he disabled the alarm, she dropped her laptop in a chair before carrying the coffees into Josh's office.

"It seems you came prepared," he said as he entered his office behind her, her laptop case and the plain brown bag in his hand.

"Yeah. I have all his account information on my computer already. I figured that'd make it easier."

"Probably. What's for breakfast?"

"Bagels and coffee."

He opened the bag and peered in. Inside were four bagels in various flavors. "Looks good. Thank you."

"I figured I'd be paying for breakfast either way," she said with a grin as she pulled the cups from their tray and set them on the desk. When he opened his mouth, she held up her hand. "Save it. I'd do the same in your shoes."

He smiled. It was nice to have a client that wasn't going to argue over every nickel of expense. "You're very candid about it."

"Why shouldn't I be? You're in business to make money, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am, but I wouldn't have charged you for a meal I'd normally eat at home."

"Then consider this my treat."

"Then thank you again," he said while pulling out a fat blueberry bagel and the container of cream cheese.

They spent a few minutes preparing their breakfasts before Hazen pulled a guest chair closer to his desk, unzipped her laptop case, and removed the computer. She nibbled at her bagel while it booted, and when it was ready, she logged in.

"Hazen is an interesting name," he said as she waited for the computer. "Is it a nickname?"

"No. It was my maternal grandmother's maiden name."

"Interesting. Where's your mom from?"

"Richmond." She smiled, enjoying his confused expression. It was the same expression everyone had when she talked about her family. "I know. Her dad is Filipino. Dad is from DC, but his parents are Samoan. His dad works at the Department of the Interior in Insular Affairs."

"It's nice name. I like it. You have an interesting family," he said before taking a bite out of his bagel.

"Interesting?" she asked, her right eyebrow going up as she smiled. "That's a polite way of putting it." She spun the laptop around for Josh to enter a password. "I need the password for the wi-fi."

"Connect to the one labeled JSIGuest. Peekaboo, with a capital P."

She snickered as she turned the computer back to her, selected the guest wi-fi, and typed. "Interesting password."

"Would you have guessed it?"

Her smile spread. "No. Probably not. I'm in. What now?"

He stepped around the desk and pulled up another chair so he could see the computer's screen. "Let's start with email. See if there is anything in there that looks odd."

She spent a few seconds typing before Koda's email opened. "What am I looking for?"

"I don't know. Anything that looks out of place. You said you handle Koda's email?"

"I handle his affairs when he's out on the sub. I have his Power of Attorney, and access to all his information, but I don't do much with it honestly. I just make sure his bills are paid, handle anything that comes up, that sort of thing. I'm not sure I'd notice anything out of the ordinary."

"All we can do is look," he said as he started the billing app running on his phone.

Josh and Hazen spent the next two hours prowling through Koda's emails. There were only a few emails in his inbox, all marked unread. Hazen only checked Koda's email once a week or so, scanning the addresses for anything that looked important or financial related, and ignored the rest, leaving the emails for Koda to read or delete when he returned. There were a lot of emails in Koda's archived, sent, and deleted folders, but all of it appeared to be either correspondence with friends or alerts from discussions forums on politics or undersea exploration.

They had to do some digging though old emails, but they finally found the email with the username and password for the political forum. They spent another hour reading Koda's posts, and though he had some strong opinions on the role of the military in world affairs, his arguments were generally fact based and he avoided name calling and belittling people. Koda seemed to be well respected and there were no threats they could find. Giving up there, they located the login information for the undersea exploration and mining forum, but gave it only a cursory glance, the information and discussion as dry as three-day old toast.

"Nothing," she said, slumping in her chair.

"Can you get into his bank account?"

"Sure," she replied as she began to type. "Why?"

"I want to see if there are any large deposits or withdrawals."

They perused Koda's financial history as far back as it went. Hazen identified most of the transactions as normal items, like his car payment and auto insurance. The checking and savings accounts showed a comfortable balance, but not enough to be suspicious or to make blackmail likely, unless it was for information, but they'd have no way to know that.

"Does Koda have a credit card?" Josh asked after they abandoned looking for clues at his bank.

"Yes, a Visa. You want to look at that next?"

"I need a break. My eyes are about to cross."

"Thank God," she sighed. "I quit seeing anything an hour ago. I don't know how you stayed focused as long as you did." She grinned. "I never saw Magnum PI doing boring shit like this."

He smiled as he moved behind his desk. "Let me do a little digging for a minute. Let's put our tax dollars to work."

She watched as Josh pounded away at his laptop. "What are you doing?"

"Checking for arrests, wants, and warrants, along with morgue and hospital admission databases. What's his middle name?"

"Garrett. You can do that?"

"All it takes is a license and a yearly fee."

She watched as he worked at his computer, typing and clicking, his eyes flicking to various sections of the computer's screen. After a long moment of steady effort, he looked over the top of his computer at her.

"The good news is that, other than the Navy, there's no wants or warrants out for Koda Garrett Allen, no arrests, and no admissions to any of the area hospitals or morgues. There is only one John Doe in the morgue, but that is for an older man. I assume that's not Koda."

"No. Koda would be, let's see, I'm thirty, so he'd be twenty-seven, twenty-eight in October. That's good news, but now what?"

"Who's his provider, and what's his cell number? He does have a cell phone, right?"

"Yeah. Verizon. Hang on, let me look up his number. I don't remember it, but it's in my phone." She flicked through her phone until she found Koda's contact and then rattled off the number. "Why do you need it? He's not answering his phone."

"Maybe not, but if it's on, I can track it."

"Really?" she asked with a surge of hope.

"Really." He typed for a moment. "Nothing. The last time his phone was online was here in Norfolk, on Sunday evening about seven pm."

"Should have known it wouldn't be that easy. What's next?"

"Next is lunch. I find that if I push too hard, I miss stuff. It's better to take a break and come back fresh in an hour or so. Then we'll dig into his credit card purchases. I'm warning you, that's going to be painful."

"Great..." she growled, drawing the word out.

She was feeling good about what they'd done so far. Josh seemed very competent, which gave her confidence that they'd eventually find her brother. Even though they hadn't turned up any clues, they hadn't turned up any bad news either, like he was dead, which was a relief.

He closed the lid on his computer and tapped on his phone to stop his billing. She closed the lid on her own computer as she rose from her chair.

"Thank you so much for helping me... and letting me participate."

"You're welcome. Having access to his emails and financial information is a huge help. It lets us discount certain possibilities right away. When we get back from lunch, we'll start on his credit card."

"You think we'll find something?"

"Won't know until we look. I hope so. If we don't, we're going to be at a dead end."

"If that happens, then what?"

"Then... nothing. Unless you can give me a thread to pull on, there's not much else I can do." She didn't look happy with his statement, but she deserved to know the truth.