Chapter 2
Olivia
My phone rang, and I picked it up off my desk. The paperwork I was having to get through was enough, but I knew the moment I held my phone to my ear, I’d get another case. I was one of the most prosperous private detectives in the city, but I kept my identity under wraps for various purposes. I never advertised my services, and I only allowed my clientele to reach me via personal references. I had specific business cards I gave out only to those who hired me for my services, and that was to cut down on people in the city knowing me.
After all, I couldn’t do undercover work and stakeouts if everyone recognized me.
I got my first taste of my skills when I pieced together that my father was cheating on my mother. I noticed his change in behavior and the odd lies he would always tell my mom. Time and time again, I’d tried to talk some sense into my mother. I’d tried to convince her to talk to him about it, to call him out on his shit. I wanted my mother to get her head out of the sand and understand the truth of her marriage.
But, when my mother didn’t step up, I was the one who did. I followed my father around and listened in on his phone calls. I learned how to request data from his phone, like text messages and phone numbers he called. I eventually deduced that my father was, in fact, cheating on my mother, and then, I was the one who cornered him about it. After all my work, my mother still denied it, but eventually, my mother came to accept it for what it was.
That’s why I only worked by private referral. People who came to me were already prepared to find the truth. They had already settled that fight in their minds, which meant finding out what was happening wouldn’t be like pulling teeth. I wouldn’t have to convince them something was going on because they already knew. Or, at the very least, suspected. This way, all I had to do was what I did best, stake out, follow, acquire information, and then place it in front of the client.
It was easier that way, and it freed up a great deal of time to take on more clients than private detectives usually did at once.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Olivia. Oh, shit. You have to help me, please.”
“Destiny? Wait, wait, wait, wait. Slow down. Just take a few deep breaths.”
I heard my friend’s deep breathing on the phone in between her sniffles. What the fuck was going on to put her in this state? Destiny Smart was anything but a genius, but she did know when she’d been duped. Destiny had been my very first client. She’d come knocking on my door after I slipped a card to the crying woman in a restaurant after overhearing a conversation Destiny was having with her lunch date. I had sat with my back to Destiny in that restaurant while I listened to the woman cry over how she thought her husband was having an affair, and it had struck a delicate chord within me.
I slipped the woman my card, and she was in my office the next day.
When I got to digging, I found out the husband wasn’t just cheating with one woman. He was cheating with four different women at once. At first, the information was hard to swallow for Destiny. I comforted the woman in my office far longer than I was comfortable with, but two weeks later, she’d come storming back in with a lawyer. Destiny announced she was divorcing her husband and taking everything she was owed, and I gladly handed over my evidence.
Now, Destiny sat on enough cash to ride out the next few generations of her family. She’d put her ex-husband through the ringer, but now, it sounded like someone was doing the same to her. Now, it sounded like Destiny had gotten herself into more trouble. There was something in her voice I couldn’t place, however. Her words were a little more desperate and a little less grounded.
Like she still didn’t believe what was happening.
Oh, shit.
“Destiny? Are you there?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m here.”
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Is it Mikey?”
“No, no, no. Mikey’s fine. At boarding school. I talked with him a few days ago. Did you know he turns sixteen this year?”
“Destiny, focus,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“You remember that guy I was telling you about? Alex?”
“The new one you’re dating,” I said. “Yeah, you’ve told me a bit.”
“I woke up this morning, and all my shit was gone.”
“You’ve been robbed?” I asked.
“No, no, no. Fuck. I—”
“Destiny. Take another deep breath. Then, just start at the beginning. Does this Alex have a last name?”
“Yes, Alex Ruth,” Destiny said.
“All right. Were you and this Alex Ruth together last night?”
“Yes. We’d come back from our third date, and we were, well, together. And in all the best ways. He made me feel beautiful and did all the dirty things I wanted him to—”
“How about you skip to the part where you woke up and your stuff was gone?” I asked.
“I got up this morning and went to go grab my purse. I thought I heard him say he was going to stay with me last night, but I figured I’d just dreamed it. I came hard last night and—”
“Destiny.”
“Sorry. Anyway, I went to go get my purse so I could pick up some breakfast, and everything was gone.”
“What do you mean everything?” I asked.
“Everything. My money. My credit cards. He took everything from me. I checked my credit card accounts, and I’ve got thousands of dollars of ATM withdrawals on them. He’s maxed out my fucking credit cards, Olivia.”
I began jotting down all this information as Destiny started crying again. I took down his name, what he’d taken, and the events she cared to describe leading up to the event. I jotted down a few theories that were already coming to mind as well as a list of information I’d need to pull on him, but I needed a few more tidbits of information.
“Destiny? Do you have anything else on him? A birthdate? A phone number? An address? Anything like that?”
“I’ve got his phone number, but I don’t have anything else other than his name and what he looked like.”
“Good, I’ll take both,” I said.
“Does this mean I can hire you?” Destiny asked.
“The moment you told me what he took, it wasn’t even a question. I’m clearing a spot for you in my schedule, Destiny.”
“Thank you so much, Olivia. You’re the best.”
I jotted down his phone number, along with what he looked like. About six feet tall, muscular but not lean. Platinum blond hair with gray eyes. A striking smile with gleaming white teeth and milky white skin.
“Did he have any roots?” I asked.
“What?”
“In his hair. You said it was platinum blond, but then you said he had gray eyes.”
“Yeah? So?”
“It’s just an odd combination of traits,” I said. “It would take two individuals with those exact same recessive traits to even have a chance of creating a child with those features. Did you see any roots growing out in his hair that might suggest an alternative color of hair?”
“Not that I can remember, no,” she said. “And I’d know. I did a lot of tugging on that hair over the weeks.”
“All right, Destiny. We can cut it with those comments. Is there anything else you can think of that might be of use to me?”
“Not at the moment, but I’ll call you if I think of anything,” Destiny said.
“All right. I’m gonna get on this. I should have a bit of news in the next couple of hours with just a few phone calls. In the meantime, go online and put a hold on your credit cards. Then, call the companies and explain to them the issue. See what you’ve got in terms of protection. I’ll call you in a couple hours.”
“Thank you so much, Olivia. I’ll call them right now.”
I hung up the phone and immediately began my work. A simple internet search didn’t bring up any Alex Ruths in the immediate area, and even when I expanded my search, I couldn’t find any in the surrounding states.
All right. So, we got a fake name.
I picked up the phone and dialed the phone number Destiny gave me, but the monotone voice on the end said the phone line had been disconnected. I did one last search on some software I had for a man with the features Destiny described. But the few pages the software pulled up didn’t have men that quite matched the appearance. Yellowed teeth were set off to the side as well as men whose hair was sandy blond instead of platinum. Some guys who thought they had gray eyes really had blue eyes, and other men who had distinguishing features I jotted down to ask Destiny about.
Then, after my search, I picked up the phone and called her back.
“Olivia?”
“Destiny, I have a few questions. Ready?”
“Shoot,” she said.
“Did the guy in question have a mole on the left side of his jawline?” I asked.
“What?” Destiny asked. “No. Why would you ask that?”
“Just a few more. What about a birthmark? Any indication of one running down his neck?”
“No,” she said.
“Missing teeth?”
“Hell, no.”
“Overbite?” I asked.
“What the hell are you asking me all this for?”
“Did the man have an overbite, Destiny?” I pressed.
“No. Any more idiotic questions?”
“Just one,” I said. “Are you sure the man’s eyes were gray and not blue?”
“Positive,” Destiny said. “They were gray as the thunderous sky before an afternoon rain shower.”
“A simple yes would’ve been fine.”
“I figured since you were spouting crazy shit, I could, too. I called the credit card companies, and they’re willing to work with me, provided we can prove what’s going on. So that’s a thing.”
“I figured,” I said. “I’ll find this guy. Don’t worry.”
“Oh, I know you can. I also found something on my floor. I was looking around for my ring, and I found it underneath a bed with something that looks like a business card.”
“Can you send me a picture of the card to my cell?” I asked.
“Already done it. Your phone should be ringing now.”
My phone lit up beside me, and I picked it up to view the image. The card was tattered, to say the least, but the writing on it was legible. It was a professional business card on woven cardstock, which wasn’t cheap. They weren’t the kind you simply ordered online, which meant the profession on the card was probably a fake, too.
“Wesley Fox, Mixologist Beach Bum Bar. Malibu, California,” I read aloud.
“Is this guy’s name not ‘Alex Ruth’?” Destiny asked.
“Not if this is his card,” I said. “Alex Ruth isn’t even someone who exists in the surrounding states, much less the man you slept with last night. And once I entered in the information you gave me for Alex’s physical attributes, it pulled up only a few men in the state with those same looks. None of them fit exactly what you gave me, Destiny.”
“You mean to tell me I slept with a man last night whose name I didn’t know and who didn’t actually look like what I thought he did?”
“It’s why I asked about his roots growing out,” I said. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions or start ruling theories out yet, but I just wanted to let you know that whoever you were with last night wasn’t who you thought he was.”
Destiny sniffled on the other end of the line, and it broke my heart. Sure, Destiny might not have been my best friend, but we were close enough. Men fucking around with women in my city wasn’t something I was going to put up with, which only made me more determined to figure out what the hell was going on. While Destiny was crying on the phone, I made a call on my cell phone to put in a favor with someone down at the local precinct.
A quick search on their end turned up information that was helpful but useless.
“Destiny?” I asked.
“Yeah?”
“Turns out the number you gave me was registered to an Alex Ruth. It gets us nowhere, but it does confirm something going on in my head.”
“Which is?” Destiny asked.
“Whoever this was had the intention of taking your stuff,” I said. “I don’t have any proof to think you were stalked, but I do think you were targeted because of your money.”
“You think this man singled me out just so he could rob me?” she asked.
“I’m not sure what I think. All I know is that registering that number under his fake name means the phone was probably a burner. As in, the phone was meant only for you to have that number. It’s probably sitting in a trash can somewhere outside your home.”
“Which does us no good because the fucking trash came this morning,” Destiny said.
“Don’t worry, all right? I’m gonna get you answers, and I’m gonna get you proof.”
“I know you will, Olivia. I just feel weirded out.”
“Can you do me a favor?” I asked.
“Anything, if it’ll help.”
“Put that card you found in a plastic bag and bring it over to my office,” I said.
“Done and done. I’m headed that way now.”
“I’ll see you when you get here,” I said.
“Olivia?”
“Yeah?”
“You think Wesley Fox is his actual name?” she asked.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. Something tells me it’s not, but it could be that it’s his name but his profession is wrong.”
“Why do you think that?” Destiny asked.
“The card you’re holding is woven. Woven cardstock is expensive, but the thickness, from what I could see in the picture, indicates those business cards have to be a specialty order. Fifty of them in a box would easily cost four-hundred dollars, and I highly doubt a bartender in the middle of Malibu could afford those, much less have any need for them.”
“You’re incredible, you know that?” Destiny asked.
“Just get that card to me,” I said. “I’m gonna chase it once you get here.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, we’ve got a name and a place of work,” I said. “I’m simply gonna go down there and see what I can find.”
“Just be safe, all right?”
“Destiny, I’m always safe.”