CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) (3 page)

            “What’s that mean?” Rose asked. “See you at Merriweather.”

            “She has a charity concert there in two weeks.” Sarah’s voice came from behind them.

            Skip turned to the PA. “Sarah, I need several things from you.”

            The plain-looking brunette nodded, her brown eyes serious behind wire-rimmed glasses.

            “I need a list of everyone who knows Cherise’s real name and knows about this farm. And a list of anyone who is a current or previous romantic partner...” Sarah’s lips curled into a small smile, or was it a smirk? “Or sexual partner,” Skip added. “I know Cherise has resisted giving us that information in the past, but now we have to have it if we’re going to keep her safe.”

            Sarah’s face sobered again. “How soon do you need them?”

            “Yesterday,” Skip said. “And on those lists, indicate if someone was a cat person, or hung around the barn when they were here. How friendly was that cat?”

            “The other two barn cats are half wild,” Sarah answered. “But that one was very people-oriented. He liked being petted and was the only one who would let you pick him up. Cherise loved that cat, Skip.” The young woman’s eyes welled with tears. “She called him Sweety Pie.”

            “Okay, let me know who on the lists would know that he’s the most approachable of the cats.”

            “I’ll get on it right now,” Sarah said. “Are you going to stay with her?”

            Skip looked at his watch, then at Rose. “One of us will, for this afternoon at least, and we’ll get a couple extra men on for tonight.”

            Sarah nodded and left the room.

            “I’ll stay,” Rose volunteered. “Mac’s busy at the restaurant today anyway. Take my car and go home. I’ll have Mac pick me up later, or Ben can drop me off.”

            She knew how he and Kate tried to keep Sundays sacred, not just from a religious standpoint, but as family day. And it was true that Mac Reilly–half-time restauranteur, half-time operative for Canfield and Hernandez, and her man full-time–would be tied up all day. He was interviewing for a manager for the restaurant he had inherited ten years ago from his parents. He had built it into a thriving enterprise, but recently the ex-Green Beret had decided that playing private detective was a lot more interesting than serving up crab cakes.

            “Thanks, Rose,” Skip said. “You’re saving me from sleeping on the couch tonight.”

            “Oh, yeah, that’ll happen. Not.” Rose flashed one of her rare but dazzling smiles that turned her plain face into a vision of radiant beauty. Then she laughed out loud when a pink tinge crept up her partner’s cheeks.

            “My God,” Skip said. “She doesn’t talk about it to you all, does she?” He was referring to Rose and Liz Franklin, Kate’s two closest female friends.

            “Of course not, but it’s pretty darn obvious. You two still can’t keep your hands off each other, even after three years.” Rose chuckled again when the pink tide turned red. She slugged him in the arm, making him wince a little. Short but sturdy Rose packed a wallop.

            “Glad to see you two are still able to party, despite the horror of current events,” Cherise said from the kitchen doorway, her voice dripping with angry sarcasm. “And who the hell is this woman anyway, Skip?”

            “Cherise, this is Rose Hernandez, my partner. Rose, meet our client, Cherise Martin.”

            “Ma’am,” Rose said, nodding at her.

            “Rose has been investigating the notes, trying to identify the source of the fancy stationary and checking into the postmarks.”

            “This guy’s covered his tracks fairly well,” Rose said. “Postmarks from four different cities all sent to your L.A. condo, then forwarded here. Doubt he was actually in those cities. He may be getting friends to re-post the letters to you, or bribing someone at a commercial mail service to do it.”

            “You’ve had over a week and that’s all you’ve figured out,” Cherise said, looking Rose up and down. She turned to Skip. “Frankly, I’m not as impressed with Canfield and Hernandez as I once was.
This
is your partner?”

            Skip resisted the temptation to point out they hadn’t had much to go on up to this point. “Trust me, Cherise,” he said, rubbing his bicep. “Size is not everything. Rose is a former police officer and she’s as tough as they come. I’ve seen her take down guys twice her size. And personally I wouldn’t want to have to arm wrestle her. Not at all sure who would win.”

            “I would,” Rose said, her expression neutral.

            Skip stepped over to Cherise’s side and took her elbow to guide her to the big kitchen table. “Let’s sit down and hash out where we’re going from here,” he said. “How many of your staff were on the premises today and/or yesterday evening?”

            “Not counting Sarah, three people,” Cherise answered. “The groom, Bobby Hall, lives in a small apartment on the back of the horse barn. The housekeeper, Bonnie, is off today but she was here yesterday. And Harry Bailey, he’s the farm manager. He’s usually not here on Sundays but he said he had to talk to Bobby about something.”

            “Is Mr. Bailey still here?” Rose asked.

            “I don’t know.”

            Rose turned to Skip. “Can you stay a little while? I want to talk to Hall and Bailey.”

            “Yup, do it,” Skip answered.

            Rose was just barely out of the room when Cherise turned to Skip, tears in her eyes. “What does she mean, for a little while? You can’t leave me alone!”

            “We’re not going to leave you alone, Cherise. Ben and Rose will both be here the rest of today, and–”

            “I want to hire you, Skip,” Cherise interrupted, “as my chief of security, full time.”

            Skip chose his words carefully. “Well, essentially that’s what you’ve done, for the time being at least.”

            “No, I mean as a permanent position. Even after this crackpot is caught, there’s bound to be others. I think I need a security staff.”

            “I appreciate the offer, Cherise, but I have a job. I like being my own boss.”

            “I’ll pay you twice what you’re making now. And give you free housing. There’s a nice three-bedroom for sale right down the street. I could get it fixed up for you.” She jumped up. “I’ll have Sarah contact the agent and make an offer, then get my decorator started on it right away.”

            “Stop, Cherise,” Skip said, then softened his voice. “Sit down, please. I know you’re upset but I think you’re over-reacting a little. We can keep you supplied with guards 24/7 for a lot less than it would cost to have a full-time security person like me. I’m flattered by the offer, but I’m not interested. For one, Kate would never agree to move out of our house. She loves it.  And I don’t want to disrupt my kids. Take them away from their preschool and their friends.”

            “Okay, so you don’t have to live here, but I’d still like you to be my security chief. Would you think about it, please?”

            “Yeah, I’ll think about it, but don’t get your hopes up. Like I said, I like being my own boss.” He was tempted to tell her that money wasn’t much of an incentive since his wife was a moderately wealthy woman, thanks to the sizeable insurance policy her first husband had bought two years before his death. But he decided that would just prolong the argument. Hopefully, once Cherise settled down, she’d forget the whole idea.

            “So let’s get back to the plan here,” Skip said. “I want to hire extra people if that’s okay with you. Have two outside and one inside for awhile. Rose and I are going to step up the effort to track this guy down. And as upsetting as this was for you, Cherise, this is not a totally bad thing. Now we know this guy’s not just some random fan. He’s somebody who knows you and knows about this farm. That narrows the field considerably. Now what’s the deal with this concert at Merriweather?”

            “I’m going to call my agent and cancel that,” Cherise said.

            Skip thought for a moment. On the one hand, he hated to see this guy get the satisfaction of controlling Cherise’s life that way. It would probably egg the bastard on. But on the other hand, Merriweather Post Pavilion, an open air theater in Columbia, Maryland, was surrounded by woods, making it a security nightmare.

            He nodded. “That’s probably for the best,” he said.

* * *

            It was after two by the time Skip was able to get away from Cherise’s farm. She had gone ballistic when he had repeated that Rose and Ben would be staying, but he would be going home.

            Rose walked out to the car with him. “I’ve gotta hand it to you, Skip. You keep your cool with her really well. I’m grateful you’re the hold-the-client’s-hand person on our team. ’Cause I wanted to shake her and tell her to get a grip.” Rose shook her head so hard her tight little bun of black silky hair threatened to shake loose.

            Skip chuckled. “She is a tad wearing on one’s nerves, isn’t she?”

            Serious brown eyes looked up at him as they stood beside the car. “I’m glad we ended up partners. We’re a good...
complement
is probably the best word for it.”

            Skip wasn’t quite sure what to say. For Rose, this was a significant display of emotion.

            “Yup, good ole easy-goin’ Skip reels in the clients,” Rose continued. “Charms ’em and keeps ’em happy. Then I step in and do the real work.” She flashed him one of her glorious smiles.

            Skip grinned back at her. “I’m glad we’re partners, too. You’re the best, Rosie,” he said, then quickly jumped back when she tried to slug him in the stomach. She hated being called Rosie, which of course made her friends that much more inclined to do so when they wanted to tease her.

            It took Skip a moment to figure out how to stuff his big frame into the driver’s seat of Rose’s car. Once he was in, the seat pushed back as far as it would go, he congratulated himself again on the decision to buy new vehicles, with all the bells and whistles, when the agency had started doing well. The hands-free phone would allow him to call in extra guards while he drove back to Towson.

            He had upgraded his own vehicle to a Ford Expedition, a truck big enough to carry his family and to chauffeur important clients comfortably. It had even more head and leg room than the Explorer he’d driven for years. He squirmed in the car’s seat, wishing he had some of that leg room now.

            Once home, he filled Kate in on the day’s events, omitting both the attempted hug and the job offer.

            Kate sighed. “I should probably call Cherise. Make sure she’s okay.”

            “I wish you wouldn’t. She’s already taken up enough of our day. She can call the answering service if she feels the need for your support.”

            “You talked me into it, or out of it actually.”

            “Wasn’t exactly a hard sell, was it?” Skip said, a teasing note in his voice.

            Kate opened her mouth, then remembered she had no waiver of confidentiality. She closed it again. He read her expression accurately.

            “I know. She’s becoming a bit of a pain for me to handle. I’m sorry now that I referred her to you.”

            “That’s okay. I could have told her no, but I didn’t. And I’ve certainly worked with more difficult clients than her.”

            “Where are the kids?” Skip asked, suddenly realizing the house was abnormally quiet.

            “Edie’s at a friend’s birthday party. We need to pick her up,” Kate consulted her watch, “in an hour and a half. Billy’s napping.”

            “How long ago did he go down?” Skip asked, a glint in his eye.

            “Just a little bit before you got home,” Kate answered, knowing where his thoughts were headed. She was tempted to resist. She had some chores she’d been planning to do while Billy was napping. But something told her he needed to reassert something, she wasn’t sure what, after dealing with Cherise.

            Actually she wouldn’t mind reasserting a few things herself. She had a funny feeling her handsome husband wasn’t telling her all the ways that Cherise Martin was becoming hard to handle. Skip tended to take his good looks in stride, along with the frequent come-ons from women, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous at times.

            She knew it was a primitive territorial thing–how dare these women think they could mess with her man? But she trusted
him
completely. He could have had just about any woman he wanted, and he had wanted her. He had even patiently waited several months, while she held him at arm’s length, insisting it was too soon after Eddie’s death for her to date.

            Heading toward the bedroom, she let out an exaggerated sigh. “I just have so much to do today, so many chores. First I need to change the sheets on our bed.”

            “I’ll help you with that, darlin’,” Skip said, following her down the hall.

            She giggled. “With your help, I’m sure we can get it done in three times the amount of time I could have done it alone.”

            He caught up with her and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. “I’m thinking it should take four or five times as long,” he said, as he buried his face in her dark curls. “After all we’ve probably got an hour before Billy wakes up.”

CHAPTER THREE

            On Wednesday, Kate and her closest friend, following a tradition of many years, were meeting for lunch at Mac’s Place, across from the Towson courthouse. It wasn’t quite the same, however, now that the owner was seldom there. Kate and Mac Reilly had grown up together; their parents had been best friends. It seemed weird to come into his restaurant and not have him stick his head out of the kitchen to greet her with, “How ya doin’, sweet pea?”

            Kate was already ensconced in their favorite booth when she spotted Rob Franklin’s six-two frame coming through the door. Lowering his significant bulk onto the bench across from her, he let out a sigh. “Feels good to sit down. I’ve been in court all morning.”