Don't Touch Me! - 21

 

For the next two days, Brent didn't get the chance to do more than call Cody to touch base. It seemed to him as if everyone and their brother wanted to hire him, and he was loath to turn most of them down. As a one man operation, it meant he was going night and day, setting up surveillance equipment for two small shops, running background checks for a new client. Then there was another stakeout, this one in an alley to try to catch whoever was painting off-color graffiti on the backs of several stores whose owners had banded together to hire him.

Those times he wasn't working, he was home in bed trying to get at least a few hours sleep.

When he got to work early on the third day, Sophia informed him Detective Milburn had called and wanted him to call back at his earliest convenience.

He did, asking, "Walt, what's up?" as soon as Walt answered his phone.

"Possible good news, which I shouldn't be telling you."

"But you will anyway."

"Yeah. I've been doing a lot more checking on Mr. Findley. He's the husband of the first murder victim. I knew he was having money problems but when the second killing occurred… Well, to be honest, he sort of fell off my radar, which was my fault. Anyway, it turns out he's got a girlfriend and has had for quite some time."

"Put that together with his money problems and the fact his wife was hardly a showgirl—"

"Which the girlfriend is," Walt said with a dry chuckle. "So, I decided to see what kind of alibis he had for the times the other murders occurred. That did not make Findley a happy camper."

"No alibis?"

"That—then no Mr. Findley. I went by his house last evening. It's dark, locked up tight, and no one answered the door or my calls to him. There's a BOLO out for him as we speak, and for the girlfriend, who has also disappeared."

"Let's hope she's still alive," Brent said tightly.

"My thought, too. Okay, I have to let you go. I just figured you'd like to know where things stand at the moment."

"I do. Thanks."

As soon as they hung up, Brent called Cody to tell him what Walt had said.

"So, this Findley is the killer?" Cody said when Brent finished.

"It looks like it. Walt won't know for certain until he finds him. I suspect Walt's going to get a search warrant for Findley's home, and who knows? Maybe the girlfriend's too. With luck, something will turn up that will cement his guilt."

"And so it will end," Cody said quietly.

"What?"

"Your job. Why I hired you."

"True. But…" Brent wasn't certain how to put it, which surprised him. He was well aware he had begun to care for Cody—as at least a friend, maybe more. "I made you a promise."

Cody snorted softly. "One I doubt you can keep."

"Do not be a doomsayer. If you are, we'll never figure out how to fix things."

"Things? This isn't things, Brent. It's a full-blown fear with no cause."

"There's a cause. We just need to figure out what it is." Brent glanced at his work schedule. "What are you doing Saturday? Like…late afternoon into the evening?"