Page 52 of Out of the Shadows
“I told you, I had something to do, and I’ll make it up to them.”
“I have been trying to call you since Sunday night. So have the kids.”
“I lost my phone. Seriously, I’m sorry. It’s probably at my place.”
“We were in an accident Sunday night,” Laura said. “Someone ran us off the road. The 4-Runner is totaled.”
He rushed over to her, rubbed her arms. “Are you okay? The kids? What happened?”
She stepped away from him. “We’re fine. Sit. Please, Charlie, we have to talk.”
Charlie glanced at Jack again, then slowly eased himself into the kitchen chair. “What’s going on?”
“What isn’t going on?” Laura snapped. “We were run off the road, my house was broken into, all because of whatyoufound in that storage locker Friday afternoon.”
He blinked, now fully confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Just think for two minutes and you’ll realize that something was off about that entire bidding process. Three people bidding for a unit full of boxes? You bought it for overfive thousanddollars?”
“How do you know all this?”
“Because Logan hired a private investigator—” she motioned to Jack “—after the hit-and-run and break-in. I couldn’t find you. I called, Sydney called, Logan gave the PIs access to your condo to make sure you were okay and someone had broken in there, too. They broke open the safe.”
“I don’t have anything in the safe,” Charlie said.
Laura threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t believe you sometimes! Whoever broke in wouldn’t know that. Then you use Bob and Beth’s garage, go to LA without telling anyone. Until I learned you were in LA, I really thought something bad had happened.”
He frowned, his brows furrowed as he tried to absorb what she was saying. Charlie was not stupid. He was just clueless. It had once been endearing. Now it was like having another child.
“You’re right,” he said. “It was odd that others were bidding, but I knew something valuable was in the locker so I took a gamble.”
“How did you know there was something valuable?” Jack asked.
“Who are you?” Charlie asked him pointedly.
“Jack Angelhart.”
“You’re a private investigator?”
“I am. How did you know about the locker to begin with?”
“I’m not going to tell you that. Laura, if we can have some privacy for a minute—”
“I’ll tell you how you knew,” Laura said. “You overhead two golfers at Logan’s club talking about it on Thursday. Do not deny it,” she added quickly when she saw his mouth open.
He closed his mouth.
“Dammit, Charlie! Logan gave you a job because you were fired from the Wigwam.”
“I don’t want charity from your brother. I do good work.”
“You do a great job—whenyou work. But you didn’t show up on Saturday and didn’t even call! What was I to think when I couldn’t reach you?”
“Honey—”
“Don’t,” she warned. He would try to sweet-talk it. He always did, and it never worked—at least it hadn’t worked since she filed for divorce.
“Look, Jack, thanks for helping,” Charlie said with a fake smile, “but I got this from here. Nothing happened, I’m fine, it’s just a misunderstanding.”
