Page 14 of Indecent Proposal

Richard Halifax came from relatively old money, and had gotten a job at an investment firm. On the surface, everything checked out. I interviewed colleagues and friends of his, who were all in a bit of shock over what happened.

“The police said he had gambling debts,” I pointed out to people, just to get their reaction. “That was the reason.”

Everyone seemed surprised by it, but nobody seemed suspicious. It was more along the lines of “how could I not have known?” I understood that instinct. People with issues like addiction were good at hiding them from others. It was something that I’d had to tell people many times when I was working for them. In the course of keeping a client safe, we often found other skeletons in the closet. There was usually guilt—if you loved this friend or family member or partner, how did you not know they were going through something like this?

Every time, I would do my best to remind the client that when someone was dealing with some kind of addiction, they felt ashamed. They knew on some level that it was unhealthy and wrong. So they hid it, and they hid it well.

When I spoke to friends, they didn’t notice anything amiss in Richard’s life before he died other than he was working more lately, staying extra hours at the office. I would be more willing to consider that was an excuse to gamble, if it weren’t for his colleagues all confirming for me that hehadactually been at his office late into the night.

These days, you could gamble online or even on your phone. It was possible that Richard had gotten himself in too deep with his habit and been murdered—but that would take a hell of a debt that the loan sharks knew he couldn’t pay off,anda specific type of gambling ring, the kind with the mafia connected to it.

Contrary to Hollywood’s belief, most mafia and loan sharks did not actually murder people who owed them money. How could you get the money you were owed from someone who was dead? It was better to scare them or hurt them into giving you everything they had, and finding ways to blackmail them or use them as long as that debt was hovering over their heads. They only killed someone when it was useful to them—when the person was dangerous, or if it could be used to send a message to others.

But even if Richard had been gambling and then killed himself, why do it at his office computer? While the IT department was usually so overwhelmed they didn’t have the time, itwaspossible for them to get into Richard’s computer whenever they wanted to if someone deemed it necessary. It would be better for him to just do his gambling on his personal computer.

Even if I’d been inclined to believe this was still just a suicide, though, the fact that his personal computer had been destroyed was a huge clue that something else was going on here. You didn’t destroy your computer if you were killing yourself over gambling debts. The whole ugly truth was out, what else did you have left to hide?

The police were no damn help. They said they hadn’t bothered to seize the computer since it was an open and shut case to them, and hadn’t discovered the destruction until later anyway. They clearly thought I was on a wild goose chase.

Getting into Richard’s work computer, unfortunately, wasn’t possible either. It had been wiped per company protocol and given to the person who had gotten Richard’s position after he died.

That left us with no evidence. I went through the papers that had been in Richard’s desk at his apartment again, even though Claire had said she’d already gone through them and I trusted her thoroughness. Sometimes there were things you didn’t know were clues if you didn’t have the proper context. But there was nothing in there that raised any suspicions for me.

That didn’t leave me much to go on. Richard had said something was in the desk, but he’d been killed before he could tell Claire what or where. You would think that the person who killed him destroyed whatever was in there, but if they had, then they wouldn’t be after Claire. This killer thought Claire had gotten to whatever was in Richard’s desk.

So where had it gone?

Could it be that whoever had killed Richard had taken what was in his desk, and the actual person who’d originally been after him thought Claire had it? Could there be two forces at play here? It was possible. If someone was eliminating Richard and getting the evidence he had to make their own play, they’d probably be glad that Claire was now a scapegoat to distract their enemy while they made their own plans.

That left me with only the fact that Richard had been working late, and something that Claire had said, too: that he had quickly agreed to her request that she move out and they take a break from their engagement.

Now, maybe Richard was an entirely different man from me, but if I had a woman like Claire Turner as my fiancée? I wouldn’t be giving her up without a fight. She was gorgeous, intelligent, with a fiery personality that just begged for her to be trained to learn how good submission could be.

I wouldn’t let a woman like that just walk away from me. Hell, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to make her unhappy enough to want to walk away in the first place. So sure, maybe Richard was just fine with letting the woman he wanted to marry ‘take a break’, which everyone knew was code for ‘I want to break up with you but I’m still working up the courage because I don’t want to hurt your feelings’.

Or, more likely: he knew that he was in danger, and he thought by letting her leave, she’d be safe until everything blew over.

Was it something or someone in his circle of friends, rather than work? I interviewed everyone, ran background checks, but there was nothing that pinged me as a concern.

I decided to look into the company Richard worked for.

That was going to take longer than a couple of days, though. I had enough to establish a baseline: Richard had never been treated for depression or suicidal ideation, he was not diagnosed with any mental illnesses, he didn’t take any medication that might’ve affected his mood. His friends, family, and coworkers hadn’t seen any signs of addiction, and he’d been working late the past few months, withdrawing a bit from friends. He was charming, outgoing, and well-liked.

He also sounded boring as hell to me but that was a separate issue.

In short, there was no reason to be concerned for him, mental health wise. Everything had been fine.

Yeah, something was fishy.

I was able to get his financial records through a buddy of mine, too, and that got my hackles up more than anything. Richard’s accounts had all been drained the day of his death. The police had just taken a look at his last financial statement, seen the bad numbers, and assumed that was more proof of the gambling issue. But whoever had killed him—or whoever was after him—or both,orthe same person—had known the police would only do a cursory look. If you were a gambler, you had large andrepeatedwithdrawals. You didn’t just have one big siphon of funds at the very end.

While I sent out feelers and tried to get more information on Richard’s company, I headed back to the cabin to check on Claire. She’d probably feel better with some more information, too. I could explain that I didn’t know exactly what was up yet, but that I believed her and I didn’t think Richard was a gambler or that his habit had led to his murder.

There was something else going on. I didn’t know what just yet, but I was going to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, she definitely needed to stay at the safehouse. I was sure that there were going to be men on my tail soon enough, now that I was sniffing around.

To be honest, I was kinda glad for this case. It was already a challenge, and I liked a good brain teaser. It kept me on my toes, kept me sharp.

If only Claire wasn’t so distracting, in my thoughts, hovering in the back of my mind.

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