Blackberry Crumble (35 page)

Sadie clenched her teeth but pulled all her determination together so as to assume the role she now needed to play—interested investor. “Well, that’s wonderful,” she said, hoping she sounded sincere.

“I’m glad it will work for you,” he said. “What time would you like me to come to the house?”

The house?
Oh, he meant Jim’s house, where he assumed she was today, helping May pack up the house. “Actually, could I come to you?”

“To me?” Gary asked, a little too surprised.

“Yes, do you have an office or something?” She tried to think of a reasonable excuse for why she didn’t want to meet at Jim’s, but nothing came to mind, and she didn’t want to stumble over an improvised reason so she bit her tongue and kept her mouth shut, not an easy thing for her to do.

“Well, sure,” Gary said. “I just, well, I don’t usually meet with clients there.”

Him not wanting to meet at his office made Sadie even more determined to do just that. “It’s just that Jim’s house isn’t my home, and with everything May has going on, I’d rather not infringe on her with my personal business.”

“May won’t mind at all,” Gary said. “And we won’t disturb her one way or another, so if it’s all the same—”

“It’s not all the same to me,” Sadie cut in, then took a breath to calm herself and slow down her words. “I would not feel comfortable meeting at the house, but I’m eager to discuss this with you at
your office.
” She tried not to feel bad about being a bully. “I’m afraid I must insist.”

“Um, well, of course,” Gary said with forced solicitousness. “Whatever you’re most comfortable with.”

“Wonderful,” Sadie said. “Give me your address, and I’ll be right there.”

He proceeded to give her the address, and she punched it into Dora. His office was about fourteen miles away, which would, hopefully, give her plenty of time to determine how she wanted to handle this. She wished she’d done the same background work on Gary that she’d done for Keith, but last night had not turned out as she’d expected. She hated that she was going to the meeting unprepared and wondered if she should stop at a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and see what she could find online. A quick glance at the dashboard clock rendered that option a moot point—she didn’t have even five extra minutes.

Could she ask Jane to help? Should she? Part of her really wanted to—it would give Jane a chance to prove herself and help Sadie out of a bind. Unfortunately, she wasn’t ready to trust anything of any real significance to Jane.

As Sadie slowed down for a red light, she had another thought. Her brother, Jack, worked for a real estate company. He was an accountant, but their office was across the street from a title company they worked with quite often. Title companies, she’d learned from her book on how to be an investigator, had access to all kinds of personal information—far more than Sadie could get on her own. She bit her lip, but could feel the excitement building. It was a long shot, but no longer than meeting with Gary in hopes of solving a murder. It was all about baby steps.

Chapter 40

After she pulled up to the office building, which was a square, brick building with water stains coming down from the rather ragged rain gutters, she dialed Jack’s cell phone number, frowning when it went to voice mail.

She left the message that she was in somewhat desperate need of some background information on a forty-something-ye
ar-old man name Gary Tracey, married to Jolene Tracey and living in Hillsboro, Oregon.

“I know this is last minute, but it might be a matter of life and death. Please call me back ASAP! That’s Gary Tracey. T-R-A-C-E-Y. Thanks, Jack.” She hung up and hoped he would sense her urgency.

She got out of her car and cast her eyes up to the sky. What had been a partly cloudy morning was turning into an overcast afternoon. She would welcome a rainstorm—who knew when she’d get back to the Pacific Northwest and its famous rain—but she would prefer to enjoy the rain when she could be indoors. For now, the overcast skies seemed to simply trap the humidity, and she felt her skin tingle in anticipation of a full-body sweat.

The glass door creaked when she pulled it open, and the breeze caught the door, requiring her to wrestle it closed, which only made her sweating situation worse. Inside, she surveyed the interior. The tiles along the edge of the foyer, away from the traffic area, were three shades lighter than the middle sections. Some plastic plants had been added several years earlier, perhaps to provide a cozier look, but had apparently been forgotten about, since they were bent and dusty.

There was a plaque on the wall with the names of the building’s occupants spelled out with little pushpin letters, though a few letters had fallen to the bottom of the glass case. On the top floor, there was an adult probation office—Adult P obation, according to the directory—and an empty office currently F r Lease. On the main floor, there was a medical billing office and a suite titled Tip-Top Transport. No King Me or Tracey Enterprises or Tracey Investments anywhere. Had she come to the wrong place?

“Mrs. Hoffmiller.”

She looked up to see Gary coming toward her with a wide smile on his face. She had to give him credit for acting as though he was in class-A office space any businessman would be proud of. He reached out his hand and she put out her own, which he covered with both of his as though they were lifelong friends. “I’m so glad you could make it,” he said warmly. “Right this way.”

She followed him down a short hallway, separated from the other hallway by a set of restrooms, and through a door with vinyl lettering that read Tip-Top Transport. The office was quite bare, with an economical desk and chair, a whiteboard on the wall behind the desk, and a single filing cabinet in the corner. There were two chairs opposite the desk.

As Sadie sat in one of them, she noticed the dry coffee pot on the filing cabinet and the overall lack of . . . anything. She wondered if there was a box full of the typical office clutter behind the single door to the right of the desk. Either Gary rarely came here or he had cleared out the office before she arrived. When she finally met Gary’s eyes, she realized he’d been watching her inspect the office. She smiled brightly to ease his concerns, but he burst in with an excuse before she could assure him she was fine.

“My top priority in everything I do,” he began, “is to put everything I can back into my customer’s best interest.” He spread his arms wide and leaned back in his chair. “I could spend thousands of dollars on artwork and executive furnishings, but to what end?” He leaned forward. “I have no need for pretense; the fact is, I’m blue-collar, just like you.”

Sadie fought back explaining to him that she had her master’s degree in elementary education and that blue-collar people didn’t make a living taking other people’s money, but she understood he was trying to butter her up, so she didn’t argue the point.

“I’m not out to make false promises or tell you that I can make you a millionaire; that’s not my job. My job is to give you the financial security you need in order to ensure your very best possible future without risking what you already have. Therefore, trying to seduce you into trusting me by dazzling you with excess is completely counterproductive to who I am.” He placed a hand on his chest. “I am who I am, and my life is dedicated to making other people’s dreams come true.”

He finished and grinned again.

“Well, thank you,” Sadie said, feeling almost dirty to even pretend to believe him. “Tip-Top Transport—is that the car dealership you mentioned yesterday?”

“No point in owning two offices when one can do the job for both.”

Sadie wondered if there even was a dealership or if this was all there was to Tip-Top Transport. “Makes sense,” she said.

“I knew you were my kind of girl when I met you yesterday—a real salt of the earth woman.”

Sadie nodded, her annoyance at his empty flattery making it harder to keep the smile on her face. She could feel it becoming more plastic by the minute. Her phone rang, and she apologized while she dug for her purse. It was Jack. “Sorry,” she said. “I really need to take this.”

“Go ahead,” Gary said solicitously.

“Thanks,” she said, then took a deep breath and stood up. She walked to the end of the office and kept her voice low. “Hi.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said lightly. “You got my message?” Maybe she should go into the hallway in order to have some privacy, but a quick glance at Gary showed he was busy with his iPhone and not paying her any attention.

“You said it was a matter of life and death. Are you okay?”

It took a moment for Sadie to figure out why Jack was so anxious; then she realized he thought she meant
her
life or death. “Oh, I’m fine, it’s not like that.” Gary may not be paying her much attention, but she still needed to be careful. “If you could take care of that, I would be forever in your debt.”

“You’re acting weird.”

She smiled wider. “That would be great,” she said, hoping he’d catch on.

“I ran into Pete Cunningham this morning, and he said he hadn’t talked to you for awhile. What’s going on?”

“Yep, the sooner the better.”

Jack was quiet, and when he spoke next, his voice was softer. “You’re not alone.”

“Oh, no,” she said with a chuckle. “It’ll be fine though.”

“But you’re okay?”

“Yes,” Sadie said, making sure her tone sounded sincere.

Jack paused a moment before he spoke. “Gary Tracey in Hillsboro?”

Sadie almost sighed out loud—he was going to help her. “Yep.”

“You know there are probably two thousand men with that name in the US alone.”

“Thanks again.”

Jack sighed. “You owe me.”

“You bet.”

She hung up a moment later, relieved that Gary was still texting—or playing solitaire, she couldn’t be sure which.

“So,” she said, returning to her seat and pulling her chair up to the desk. “Where do we start?”

For the next fifteen minutes, Gary gave her an overview of his investing prowess, inserting questions about her financial situation between compliments toward himself. Sadie was cautious about what she told him, keeping everything but her home and her retirement to herself. He explained how she could borrow against her home, invest the money, and make back the loan amount plus interest
plus
a fifty-percent profit to pay off the mortgage in less than ten years.

“So, basically,” Sadie said, trying to clarify, “I would use a portion of the loan on my home to pay the mortgage payment and increase my monthly income until the investment began to pay off.”

“Precisely,” Gary said with a nod, clasping his hands on top of the desk.

“And how long would it take for the investment to start paying off?”

“A year to eighteen months, tops,” Gary said.

“And what exactly would you invest the money into?”

“Well, your investment would be rolled into an up-and-coming business, giving it the launch it needs to really make an impact, while assuring you cutting-edge marketing.”

Sadie nodded. “So, what, exactly, would that up-and-coming business be?”

Gary paused. “Well, you’ll forgive me for being just a little bit coy.” He paused to laugh at his coyness. “But until I have an agreement between the two of us, I really can’t get into particulars. In the interest of my other investors, of course, I need to protect the specifics so as not to inadvertently tip my hand and create my own competition.”

So, he wanted her to get a loan on her house and invest the money with him without knowing what it was she was investing in. The whole thing had
scam
written all over it.

“That makes sense,” she lied, nodding. “Um, how much would you need?”

“Well, we have tiers,” he said, spreading his hands like a magician showing that they’re empty before he pulls a raccoon out of his sleeve. “Platinum is two hundred thousand dollars.”

Sadie’s eyes went wide. “Two hundred thousand dollars!”

He put his hands up, palms facing her. “Gold level is a hundred thousand, and Silver is fifty thousand. Keep in mind, the more you invest, the more you make over time.”

“That’s a lot of money,” Sadie said.

“It’s all about the future,” Gary said. “You’ve earned this money through the equity in your home; it belongs to you. Why hold it there, waiting for your children to inherit it, when you could be using it yourself to live a better life?”

His comment about inheritance reminded her why she was there in the first place. She nodded, not wanting to scare him off, but needing to get to the heart of things. She didn’t have time to waste and was anxious about how much time she’d already spent. “Did Jim invest in this?” she asked, watching Gary closely when she mentioned his father-in-law’s name. She wasn’t disappointed. Gary’s shoulders tightened and his lips thinned.

“Jim was a good man,” Gary said. “And, yes, we did a couple of transactions together.”