Page 32 of Out of the Shadows
Logan had given her the address, and Jack had come through with the name of the guy Charlie had rented a room from: Greg Nutter. Greg had inherited the house from his parents and worked in maintenance at the Wigwam, where Charlie had once worked. Margo had the basics on the house from Tess: Nutter had taken out a second mortgage, and two other single men lived in the home.
Chances were that no one was home early on a Monday afternoon. Being a PI was a lot of legwork, much of which wouldn’t pan out. If she didn’t find him at home, she’d go to his work.
The house was in an established neighborhood with well-maintained desert landscaping—rocks, cacti, and palo brea trees which looked pretty but dumped a thick layer of tiny yellow flowers half of the year.
Margo knocked on the door. She heard movement in the back of the house, and a minute later the door opened. “Yep?” the guy—thirties, black, shirtless—smiled. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Greg Nutter.”
“That’s me,” he said with a wide smile. “What can I do you for?”
Margo handed him her business card. “I’m a private investigator looking for Charlie Barrett. His ex-wife hasn’t been able to reach him the last few days, and he missed his weekend with the kids. This was his last residence before moving to Scottsdale.”
“Charlie’s missing? Damn.” He put her card in the pocket of his swim trunks.
“Have you seen or talked to him since Thursday?”
“Nope.”
“When was the last time you talked to him?”
Greg thought on that. “Well, I haven’t talked to him in weeks, but he left a voice message for me Friday. I was working, and I didn’t call him back because I couldn’t help.”
“Help?”
“He left a message asking if he could store some stuff in my garage.”
“What stuff?”
“He didn’t say. I texted him back late and said sorry, the garage is full, and he responded with,” he pulled a phone out of his pocket and read off, “‘No prob, got it covered. Thanks.’”
He turned the phone to show her the message, which was as he read.
Greg said, “His condo out in Scottsdale doesn’t have much storage, and normally I wouldn’t mind, but I gotta new roommate and he needed the garage for storage, pays me extra for it. Storage units cost a small fortune.”
“If he calls you, please have him call me or his ex-wife as soon as possible. She’s worried,” Margo said. She didn’t give him more details, no need to. But now she wanted to know what Charlie had that he needed a garage to store.
“Sure,” Greg said. “And have him call me too, would you? I hope nothing happened to him.”
“His ex-wife says he often lets his phone battery die.”
Greg laughed. “True. I gave him a portable charger that was great, but then he forgot to charge the portable charger. And I don’t know how many adapters for his truck he’s lost. That’s probably what happened. Tell him I said hi, and to call me.”
“I will,” Margo said and left.
She called Jack on her way to the O’Neills’ house in North Glendale. “I have one more stop, then I should be at Laura’s before five.”
“Just in time for me to hit traffic back to my house.”
She told him what Greg Nutter said, then, “So Rick called you with the info. I thought we were beyond using you as a middleman.”
“He could get in trouble for running plates, you know that.”
“And how does sending it to you and not me avoid trouble?” she responded.
He ignored her question and said, “Tess is digging into Bishop Securities. They have a webpage that states they provide ‘discreet executive services’ for ‘discerning clients,’ whatever that means.”
“Hmm,” Margo said, thinking. “Physical address?”
