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  Shadow of Pretense

  Margot Harris Book 2

  Nora Kane

  Shadow of Pretense by Nora Kane Copyright © 2020 by Nora Kane.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to real people or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors imagination and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Books by Nora Kane

  1. Secrets of Woodcrest Manor

  2. Wolverine Harbor Novellas Series

  Book 1 - The Veil of Deceit

  Book 2 - The Veil of Envy

  Book 3 - The Veil of Vengeance

  3. Emmy Grimm Series

  Book 1 - Lured

  Book 2 - Chased

  Book 3 - Blindsided

  4. Margot Harris Series

  Book 1 - Shadow of Greed

  Book 2 - Shadow of Pretense

  Book 3 - Shadow of Suspicion

  Book 4 - Shadow of Betrayal

  Book 5 - Shadow of Misgivings

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  Claim Your Free Copy of My Book Secrets of Woodcrest Manor.

  This book is not available anywhere else, exclusive for subscribers of Nora Kane’s Newsletter.

  When the Patriarch of the Woodcrest Family was found dead in the flowerbed under his bedroom window, the local police department called it suicide. His son hired Private detective Emmy wanting to uncover the real truth behind his father's death. Surrounded by so many individuals who could benefit from his death, now the responsibility is on Emmy to figure out who was responsible. When Emmy starts to talk to the heirs the Woodcrest family's secrets begin to emerge.

  Table of Content

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Books by Nora Kane

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  “You know this isn’t my first time looking down the barrel of a gun.”

  “If you don’t drop that piece, it’s going to be your last.”

  The dead-eyed man in the blue sharkskin suit smiled, showing off his gold teeth, “It’s not the first time somebody has said that to me either.”

  “Are you going to put the gun down or am I going to blow your head off?”

  “Neither.”

  “Neither?”

  “Yeah, I’m not putting down the gun and you’re not going to blow my head off.”

  “You’re awfully confident.”

  “Comes from experience. Besides, you know why I’m here and you got the jump on me yet you still haven’t pulled the trigger. You know what that tells me?”

  “That I’m a decent human being?”

  The dead-eyed man laughed. “We both know that’s not true.”

  “This is your last warning.”

  “Good, this shit’s getting old,” the dead-eyed man in the sharkskin suit said as he raised the gun in his right hand.

  A half a second later the sound of two guns being fired filled the air.

  Chapter 1

  “What are you doing here?”

  Randy stopped before he reached her table, put up his hands, and said, “I come in peace.”

  While he was doing that Mal came up behind him and put the business end of his gun behind Randy’s ear.

  “What the Hell is this?” Randy asked.

  “A precaution,” Margot told him.

  Stan, the bartender and owner of Layla's West, looked over and saw Mal with his Glock pressed against the back of Randy’s head and made eye contact with Margot. She gave him a nod to tell him things were under control. She wasn’t sure she believed this was under control, but he seemed to. He went back to washing glasses.

  “Precaution against what? I came here to hire you,” Randy told her.

  “Is that so?”

  “Do you have your thug boyfriend sneak up and put his gun on all your potential clients?”

  “Only when they give me a fake name, and he’s not my boyfriend,” Margot told him. She didn’t mention that, since her last case, both she and Mal were a little jumpy. After the way things played out, it was a distinct possibility organized crime on both sides of the border might be looking to take them out.

  “And I’m not a thug,” Mal added.

  “Whatever you say, but this is a pretty messed up way to treat someone planning to pay you.”

  “Paying me implies you have money.”

  “I’ve got money.”

  “You do? Last I checked, my sister was paying your bills but after you nearly fractured her orbital socket, I told you to leave her alone.”

  “And I listened. Do you think I’d be here if Melanie and I were back together? My knee still hurts from that shit you did to me.”

  “Should I shoot him or lower the gun?” Mal asked, “My arm’s getting tired.”

  “He’s fine, I can take it from here.”

  Mal lowered the gun and put it back behind his back, making sure the long shirt he was wearing covered it up before he went to the bar.

  Randy took the seat across from her, “Do you always meet clients here?”

  “I don’t have an office. I used to meet people at Lefty’s, but some things happened there.”

  “I heard. This place isn’t bad. I’ve never been here.”

  “Do the owner a favor and come back. If it closes down, I’m going to need to find a new bar.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  “Good. I’m curious, if you don’t have my sister's money, whose money do you have?”

  “My mom’s.”

  ‘I’m not taking money you stole from your mom.”

  “I didn’t steal it. I know you think I’m scum, but I wouldn’t do that. She gave it to me to hire you.”

  “Okay, what does your mom want me to do?”

  “Find her niece.”

  “Okay, why isn’t she in here asking me herself?”

  “She doesn’t like to leave the house. Plus, if she makes me do stuff, she doesn’t think I’m a freeloader since I’m still staying at her place. I’m earning my keep.”

  “Why me?”

  “She likes you.”

  “The last time we met, I was beating the shit out of you.”

  “Yeah, that’s what she likes about you. I told her not to worry, Chrissie will show up in a few days, she always does. When she insisted this time was different I suggested anybody but you, but she wasn’t hearing it.”

  “How old is Chrissie?”

  “Fifteen, almost sixteen.”

  “How long has she been missing?”

  “A week.”

  “That sounds like a reason to be concerned.”

  Randy shrugged, “She ain’t exactly Miss Goody Two Shoes.”

  “Did someone file a police report?”

  “Nah, her mom is too busy being gone to notice that kind of thing. It’s surprising Chrissie has done as well as she has with a mom like that.”

  “Dad?”

  “He ain’t been around for years.”

  “They talk at all?”

  “I
don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “Yeah, a punk who’s too old for her. I already talked to him. He hasn’t seen her.”

  “I might want to talk to him myself.”

  “You going to kick his ass?”

  “No.”

  “If I paid you extra?”

  “No.”

  “Bummer, that punk has it coming.”

  “Can you make a list of her friends and close relatives and give me as much contact information as you can get? It’ll make it easier and faster.”

  “I didn’t know I was in the ‘make it easier on you’ business.”

  “Yeah, well I get paid by the day so it’s your money—or more accurately, your mom’s money. Maybe she’d be willing to make a list.”

  “I’m just messing with you. Mom figured you’d want this,” Randy said as he reached behind his back and handed her a folded up sheet of notebook paper. “Everybody is in there. Mom said if you have any questions, all you have to do is call. Her number’s on the bottom.”

  Margot unfolded the paper, Inside were two wallet-sized pictures of Chrissie, the kind that are usually taken at school. Chrissie might not be Miss Goody Two Shoes, but she did show up on picture day with hair combed, wearing nice clothes.

  “I put her Facebook and Instagram pages on there, if you want to see more pictures or just see if she’s posted anything you can use.”

  “Thanks. Have you checked them lately?”

  “Yeah, nothing. No posts since she left.”

  “Is that unusual for her to go a week without posting on social media?”

  Randy thought about it for a second. “I don’t pay that much attention but yeah, it kind of is. Not so much Facebook, but she does Instagram a lot. I mean that’s weird for any teenage girl isn’t it?”

  “I’d guess most of them.”

  “It’s weird for her. Shit, now I’m kind of worried.”

  “A lot of relatives on this list, how about her friends?”

  “Sorry, other than her loser boyfriend, neither mom nor I really know them. We wouldn’t have known about him if I didn’t see them together hanging out at a place no fifteen-year-old has any business hanging out.”

  “You tell her that at the time?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know how many fifteen-year-old girls you’ve been around. They aren’t the best listeners. I should have taken a page from your book and kicked his ass.”

  “What stopped you?”

  Randy shrugged, “I was by myself. He wasn’t.”

  “I need a week upfront,” Margot told him. “If I find her in less than a week, I’ll refund the difference minus expenses.”

  Randy handed her a wad of cash.

  “I prefer checks or PayPal.”

  “Mom doesn’t trust banks and she trusts PayPal even less.”

  Margot nodded and took the money.

  Chapter 2

  Margot started with Chrissie’s mom’s place. She had never worked missing persons when she was a detective, but she did when wearing uniform, and she remembered the best place to look was at home. Sometimes the missing person just came home and because they didn’t know they were missing, they didn’t bother to inform anyone of their return. Especially when the person reporting it is an aunt. It could be Chrissie just doesn’t return her Aunt's calls.

  Chrissie’s mom, Jennifer, had a spotty work history. Randy didn’t know if she currently had a job but said she usually worked as a cocktail waitress or barmaid. Among the places she worked was Margot’s old favorite hangout, Lefty’s Bar and Grill. This meant her and Margot should have met, but the name didn’t ring a bell and since she wasn’t the one missing, Randy didn’t give her a picture.

  Margot chose nine in the morning as the optimal time to catch her at home. It was early enough a person who worked nights would likely still be home and in bed. Margot would give her a few hours’ sleep; she would get up to see who was at the door. The logic worked for a kid on summer break who probably kept her mom’s same late-night hours. According to Randy, the kid was already living the nightlife even though she was at an age where she shouldn’t be.

  Chrissie and Jennifer lived in an aging townhome on the east side of town. Margot lived on the far west side; another couple of blocks farther west and she’d be in the Pacific. This meant a slog across town in morning traffic. The fact it was worse in other places didn’t make Margot feel any better as she sat in the tail end of rush hour traffic.

  She kept an eye in the rearview mirror since she feared she might have made some powerful enemies on her last case when she stumbled into a cartel murder while tailing a local crime lord’s wife. He suspected her of infidelity but really she was talking to the F.B.I. Everyone involved except Margot and Mal had ended up dead and she had no reason not to think they might be next.

  With this in mind, she took note of the dark blue sedan staying two cars back as she worked her way across town. The blue sedan wasn’t the only car she was keeping an eye on, but as she got farther East, the others turned off the crowded highway while the blue sedan stayed with her, never being closer than two cars and never getting farther away than three. She could only make out silhouettes, but there were at least two people in the car.

  Every intersection it stayed with her made it seem more of a threat. Margo dumped her purse out so her gun, along with a can of mace and her telescoping baton, was on the seat beside her within easy reach. She tried to get the license plate, but the car never gave her a direct view. The longer this went on, the more it seemed like intent.

  She reminded herself there the driver of the blue sedan could just be heading across town like she was but kept her eyes on it. She got off the main road, picking a street with little traffic. While it was possible the occupants had business on this road, it was unlikely. The blue sedan made the same turn.

  Margot considered slowing down and making them pass her, but she pictured the passenger sticking an Uzi out the window and emptying his magazine into her Toyota Prius. Margot sped up instead. The Prius was built for fuel efficiency instead of speed, but it moved well enough the Blue Sedan would have to break the speed limit to keep up.

  Margo turned right without using her turn signal and then took the first right and pinned the accelerator to the floor. In her mirror, she could see the blue sedan go through the intersection without matching her turn. Margot took another right and ended up back on the same road she started on. She went back the way she came and picked up the highway going east. At no time did she see the blue sedan. She either lost him or he was never following her in the first place.

  She reached her destination without any more cars arousing her suspicions. It was a gated community. The gang graffiti on the yellow stucco wall surrounding it wasn’t a good sign. Enough people were going in and out that Margot didn’t have any problems getting in. In Margot’s experience, this was the kind of walled-in community that made thieves think there might be something worth stealing while doing nothing to keep them out.

  Margot found the unit they lived in; according to what Randy gave her, they were the only ones living there. There was no car in the driveway, but the unit had a garage so that didn’t mean anything. The garage didn’t have windows so Margot couldn’t check. The curtains on the ground floor window were pulled closed so there was no way to look inside the unit either.