Course of Fate / part11
"Mr. Ivy will see you now." Mrs. Alysan, the secretary, escorted them into a large office. Behind the enormous desk was a rather small and bony man.
Cassy was surprised by his appearance. "Mr. Ivy?"
"Sergeant St. John, I presume." He extended his hand and she accepted it. Then he turned and offered the same hand to Tom. "Sergeant Ryan, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Tom was equally surprised by his appearance. They had both been expecting more of a body builder than a librarian.
"Please sit down. I had just received a cancellation seconds before Mitch Garnett called. I am a very busy man and my schedule stays quite full. Your timing and your connection to the Garnetts was very fortunate. The normal waiting time to see me is usually six weeks to three months."
He paused and took a long drink of water. "He mentioned this had something to do with his daughter."
Tom could see that Cassy was becoming annoyed with his obnoxious attitude. "Yes, it does. She was killed a few days ago in Palm Beach. Strangled. I understand you were having her followed for the two weeks prior to her murder. We'd like to know what you saw."
"I didn't see anything, Sergeant Ryan. I very rarely take cases myself. I have an entire crew who does all that for me. They see all and report all back to me. Greer Garnett's case was just a routine two-week observation every other month. A level C job."
"Level C?" Cassy asked.
"Yes, Level C. They are leveled according to priority and effort. Since the Garnett case required very little time and effort, it was given a level C and issued to Roxanne Sawyer."
"Do you have Roxanne Sawyer's report?"
"Of course Sergeant Ryan. I run a very organized business." He opened his safe and slid about a file cabinet. "In this business, security is your life line." He thumbed through all the files and finally pulled out a disk and inserted it in into his computer.
"You keep all your files on disk?" Cassy asked.
"I have to. If I kept all my files on paper, I'd run out of office space before reaching the letter D."
Cassy nodded and said nothing.
"Here we go. File number G58745 Greer Garnett Richards." He hit the print button and his printer came to life. Cassy walked over to the printer and began to collect the sheets as they printed off. She needed to do something before she told Mr. Robert Ivy what she really thought of him. "Is it possible to speak with Roxanne Sawyer?"
"Not at the moment. She's on an assignment. But leave all the information with Mrs. Alysan and she'll see to it that Roxanne gets the message."
Cassy had a thought. "Why didn't Mrs. Garnett use a PI in Florida?"
"Robery Ivy Investigations has offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle and LA. We are the third largest in the country. Felicity Garnett wanted the best and that's what she got. I could have easily suggested a decent firm in Palm Beach for the work she wanted done but she insisted that I handle the case. So I did."
Cassy collected the final sheets and grabbed her purse. "Thank you for all your help Mr. Ivy."
"It was my pleasure. I hope this information helps."
"I'm sure it will. We do appreciate it." Tom stated as he and Cassy walked out of Ivy's office and headed towards Mrs. Alysan's desk. Tom explained to her about needing to interview Roxanne and left his card with her. He grabbed their bags from the waiting room and headed to the elevator.
"What time is our flight?" Tom asked when they stepped outside.
"In two hours. We might as well catch a cab now and head to the airport in case of traffic."
They didn't have to wait long. An upset woman stopped off in front of Ivy's building and hurried inside. Tom threw the bags into the trunk and joined Cassy inside.
"LAX, please." Tom told the driver.
"Tom, did you recognize that woman?" Cassy whispered.
"Who?" Tom whispered back.
"The one who just got out of this cab. Do you know who she is?"
"No. Should I?"
"That was Scarlett Blake. She stares in that nighttime drama 'Life Begins Again.'
"You watch that show?"
"You don't watch that show? Anyway, she seemed very upset. I read that she and her long time companion, Dante Umberto, were having problems."
"Dante Umberto? The guy who started out writing songs in his free time and now is one of the most popular musicians of all times? The guy whose last song sold 30 million albums and who has women falling all over him whenever he sings one of his love ballads?"
Cassy held back a chuckle. "Heard of him, have you?"
"Just in passing."
"Mmmm."
"Please fasten your seatbelts."
The flight attendant's voice came over the speaker.
"Cassy, did you hear that?"
"Hmm?" Her eyes stayed focused on her book.
"Cassy, you do realize that your book is upside down."
"I like it that way."
"Cassy." He removed the book from her. "You want to tell me what's going on?"
"I'm scared of flying."
"Since when? Aren't you the same person who took me, no forced me to go skydiving with you?"
"That was before I saw that movie."
"What movie?"
"I don't remember the name. It was the one where the roof of the plane ripped off and people we're dying."
"Cassy, honey, that was just a movie."
"A movie based on a true story."
"You will not be allowed to watch anymore 'based on a true story' movies. Is that why you went through an entire book of crossword puzzles on the flight over here?"
"Bingo."
The take off was as smooth as it could be but not smooth enough for Cassy.
She grabbed hold of Tom's arm and dug her nails into his flesh.
"That hurts. That hurts. Cassy, let go, that hurts." He grabbed his arm back and examined the damage.
"Sorry. Did I mention how much I hate this?"
"Briefly." He rubbed his arm.
The seatbelts light went out and Cassy relaxed, slightly. So far, so good.
"Are you sure you're going to be all right? I mean, you're not going to pass out are you? If you want to puke, go ahead, I'm use to that by now but I'll lose it if you faint."
She touched his arm. "I won't faint. I won't puke. I promise. But if we hit turbulence, all bets are off."
The remainder of the flight was uneventful, and Cassy kept her cool and her lunch. They landed smoothly and had no trouble finding his car. When he dropped her off at her home, it was almost 10:00.
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End of Part 11
To Part 12