BEAUTY AND BEAST ROBIN AUSTIN. Kindle Edition

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2 BEAUTY AND BEAST BLACK AND BLUE INVESTIGATIONS ROBIN AUSTIN Kindle Edition 2018 Robin G. Austin. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by mechanical, photographic, electronic, or photographic recordings nor stored in a retrieval system transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use, other than brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews, without written consent of the author. This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events are the product of the author s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Reference to brands, media and trademarks are used fictitiously and under the fair use doctrine.

3 Chapter 1 Nick Black sat with his back to his desk, staring at the county dump. The wind was blowing the stench away and he almost didn t notice. His office phone rang twice. Black Investigations. Nick? Yeah. Who s this? It s Rose. Rose Shrimpton. Miller now. I m remarried. Nick cringed. The Shrimp was dog deuce lodged in the treads of a new pair of shoes. Shrimpton was a name he planned on never hearing again, not after hearing it on the news last week. How you doing, Rose? Pete s dead. Yeah, I heard. Sorry Amherst is closing the case. They aren t going to investigate. If anyone deserved to be dead it was Pete Shrimpton. He was a douchebag all the years Nick had worked with the guy. Then the man started moonlighting. The Shrimp found a Venezuelan pipeline for pharmaceuticals and was selling to script users. PTA moms were dying on the streets while Shrimpton was pocketing their grocery money. Rose cleared her throat. I m sorry I didn t call. I mean after. He started to say he d gotten her card, but Nick felt sorry for the woman and the card was more than he d gotten from most. What can I do for you? I want the woman who had Pete murdered to pay for what she did. Nick blinked at that one. After their investigation, SUI threw Pete off the force. Nick heard Rose and the kids moved in with her parents. He had to admire a person who didn t hold a grudge. He wondered what that would feel like. Pete worked out a deal with the DA where he turned in some clients who were using and profiting too. In exchange, his criminal activities were wiped clean with a snot-filled rag. Nick knew Shrimpton got his private investigator s license. Isn t that what all ex-cops did? It was only a matter of time before he got a bullet in the back. The news reports were sketchy.

4 Something about an exchange of gunfire in a pharma executive s home. The executive and The Shrimp were dead. What woman? Diana Stride. That s her married name. Rose paused. Maiden name. Callan. Mayor Callan s daughter? That s right. So they aren t investigating. She set Pete and her husband up to kill each other. Now she s getting away with it. Nick leaned back in his chair. He didn t need a case connected to local politics. Actually, he needed any case he could get since he usually got none. He glanced at the time. He was meeting a woman s daughter across town. A woman who was paying a retainer. He didn t intend to be late over something involving The Shrimp. Not investigating isn t something Chief Amherst would do, Nick barked, then regretted it. Well, he is doing it. Not even two weeks and they re closing the case? Come on, Nick. You and Pete were once friends. He made a mistake, but he was trying to get his life back on track. If anyone could understand that, I thought it would be you. Low blow to compare his injuries to Pete s criminal dealings, Nick thought. But love made fools out of people who were only half idiots. Even with a new husband, Rose was at least three quarters one. Why do you think this woman was involved? Rose seemed to relax. Stride said her husband was cheating. Pete was supposed to tail the guy and get photos for the divorce attorney. Pete said he was wining and dining a bunch of people, but he thought it was all work related. Nick knew all about cheating spouse cases. They were about the best he could get. He d forgotten that Rose took an interest in their cases. She d show up at the cop bar on Pomeroy to share a few beers. With a new husband, he wondered how she knew so much about what Pete had been up to. He figured their having kids might be the reason. One reason anyway. Diana asked Pete to come over that night. She said her husband was out of town. She claimed she wasn t feeling well enough to go out. Pete said she was acting nervous. I told him not to go. Nick checked the time. Ten minutes and he had to leave. She lied about her husband not being home. Think what you want about the man, but Pete was just doing his job. He walked into an ambush. Who s the detective on the case? Chuck Weaver. He says he can t talk to me. Pete was my kids father. He has to talk to me. Amherst has some rookie call and say they re investigating. They re not. Rose was yelling then crying. Nick finished his coffee. He didn t know Chuck Weaver.

5 I ll call the chief. With the connection to the mayor, they re walking on quicksand. I m sure they re doing a lot more than they can talk about. Give them time No. I m not blaming it all on the mayor. He s only part of the problem and you know it. This is payback for what Pete did while he was on the force. Weaver said Pete was probably having an affair with Diana and the husband caught them. That s a load of crap. Pete thought the woman was nothing but a used up diva. Like I said, I ll call Amherst. That was the last thing Nick wanted to do. He didn t need to get on the chief s bad side. The Shrimp was nothing but Amherst s bad side. He d make the call and be done. Having no cases was better than having one involving Pete Shrimpton and Mayor Callan.

6 Chapter 2 Her scream was so shrill he took two steps back. The mother was at her side, soothing, whispering. She was clinging to her mommy like a child. She wasn t one. Nick put his head down and walked out of Madison General Hospital. It was the second job he d lost out on in the past three weeks. Or would be when Madge Potter called to say her daughter needed more time to recover, or some other lame excuse. He d have to use his savings to make the loan payment on his office, Again. Things were really working out. Nick took a left and his 2009, gray Yugo sputtered. The ex-wife got his truck and the house and the kids. It was only fair. A chilly Oregon rain made mud of his windshield and he shivered. It wasn t the temperature his skin was always hot. His doctor said damage to the sensory nerves made that unlikely. How unlikely? he d asked. Very, the doctor had answered. That was almost two years ago. Nick pulled to the curb and held his hand out the window to collect a few rain drops while eyeing the store. People were going in, coming out. Shopping carts were rolling. Seven minutes tops to get a bottle of Evan Williams cheap, but smooth going down. A half dozen stares and whispers. A few looks of horror. Always a crying kid. Then he d go home and figure out what he was going to do now that things were never going to work out. Then again, why figure it out when a single bullet could solve all his problems. He reached for the door and saw the flashing lights. Nick leaned back and watched from the rearview mirror. What was taking so long? Checking his plate. The cop adjusted his gun belt as he walked to the Yugo. Detective Black? Great. The cop barely looked old enough to be out of college. He still had pimples. Nick didn t recognize him. So many new faces, so many old ones fading. Just Nick, he said, as he handed the kid his license. No need, he said, looking away. Right, the pity dodge. It s a no-parking zone. The cop was biting his bottom lip while pointing to the sign.

7 Nick started to say he didn t see it, but there was nothing wrong with his eyes. Sorry. I thought I heard a noise under the hood. Now the cop was trying not to look at the Yugo. Unless you need to write me a ticket, I ll be on my way. No need for a ticket. You can go. I Okay. I ll get out of your way. The cop stepped back. I ve heard a lot about you. The chief s always bringing up your cases. The guy was biting his bottom lip again. Nervous habit. Having doubts about his career choice. Watches too much news about violence against cops, or by them. Chief Amherst talked about him. Nick didn t know that. He nodded like he did. Be careful pulling out. He regretted his words. Nick knew he did. It was too late to be careful. Honey, I m home. Nick s voice echoed through the six by eight empty reception area as he went into his office. His phone started ringing. He figured it was Madge Potter. You scared the gosh darn out of my little girl. I need to find a private investigator who isn t. But it s so close to Halloween. Didn t the woman have any respect for the undead? Black Investigations. Hey, Nick. It s Randy. How s business? Picking up, Nick thought. Hoped. Randy Davenport was an attorney in the Miraloma District skid row central. Davenport barely threw him a case a month and the jobs didn t pay much, but Nick liked working for the Iowa farm boy. His clientele wasn t the type to freak out when they saw him coming. I thought you were a client calling to fire me. Randy laughed, a soft country-boy laugh. Got something for me? I might next week. That s not why I m calling. I have a friend. Nick slumped. Everybody had a friend. Lucinda Blue. Lou. I told you about her. Nick couldn t remember the name. She in need of a good PI? No. She used to work at the law firm. I use her to serve papers now and then.

8 The man s voice faded. Randy never liked talking about his old law firm, and for good reason. But Nick figured the guy was stalling about a pro-bono offer he d have to squirm out of accepting. Anyway. She s looking for a job. More like a business arrangement. Nick reached for the jar of M&M s. He was trying to get a green one good fortune while waiting for Davenport to say what he really wanted. The last thing Nick needed was to get hooked up with a friend of a friend in some arrangement. She s got money. From a settlement. Randy did the fade thing again. Nick had the jar tilted on its side. It spun to the left and the contents spilled onto his desk. I hope she wants to share some with me. Yeah. She was an insurance investigator at the firm. Did mostly paper trails. A few tailings. Maybe one. Anyway, she got her provisional license and needs hours for the state. So she can work on her own. I m not looking for a partner, temporary or otherwise. How about an apprentice? One who can help out with the clients and overhead in exchange for experience. Nick picked up a few blue M&M s and chewed slowly. He liked the idea of his two cents worth paying his bills, and someone with a decent face doing the meet and greet with his clients. That s what he liked about working for Randy no meet and greet. After his last job though, Nick had taken a bottle of Evan Williams to the man s office to pick up his check. The bourbon made for loose lips. Since then, there d been solace in the attorney s voice. DOWNLOAD ON AMAZON