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  Shadow of Suspicion

  Margot Harris Book 3

  Nora Kane

  Shadow of Suspicion 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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  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

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

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  Prologue

  It took a minute to put it together. Somewhere between the car and his house, something happened, most likely something involving a taser. That might explain the burning sensation on his side. After that, everything was a blank, but somehow, he found himself hanging from a hook in the ceiling of an empty room. Most likely by his own handcuffs. The thug who slapped the bracelets on had taken them a notch too tight, so they were digging into his wrists. The same thug, wearing a cowboy hat two sizes too big for his head, was standing in front of him.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  “I’m just enjoying myself. You have to understand, once you get a reputation, people just don’t cross me very often,” the man in the cowboy hat said as he twirled a combat knife that was probably big enough to qualify as a sword in his hand like it was a baton. “It might be months before I get to do this again.”

  “Enjoy your work?”

  “I do. What you should be doing is trying your best to make sure I don’t get to have any fun.”

  “How? You want me to talk? I don’t know anything.”

  “Come on now, use your imagination. I’m sure there’s something a man like you could do for a man like me.”

  “You can do what you want to me. I’m not going to hurt her.”

  “Well, you’re going to need to hurt someone. If and when it's time to hurt her, don’t worry, she’ll be hurt. I was thinking someone more difficult to find, someone your friend already found before.”

  “You want me to kill Stone?”

  “I want someone to kill him. You seem to be a good candidate. He seems to trust you, or at least your partner, and she—despite the fact you are something of scumbag—seems to trust you.”

  “If I do it, what do I get?”

  The man in the cowboy hat nodded to someone lurking in the shadows. He never saw the man, just felt the uppercut he delivered to his ribs before going back into the shadows.

  After he caught his breath, the man in the cowboy hat told him, “We aren’t negotiating. Get this done, show you might have some use to us other than as an example to others, and then we’ll talk. I can’t guarantee you doing us this favor will make everything square, but I can tell you what will happen if you don’t do it will be much worse.”

  “I just find and kill Stone?”

  “For now.”

  “You know, you could have just told me that without the abduction and the handcuffs. I know who you are.”

  “I know, but like I said, I don’t get to do this kind of stuff as often as I used to. I’ll give you a week.”

  “He won’t be easy to find.”

  “If it was easy, I’d do it myself and we would be having a very different interaction right now. Any more questions?”

  “I think I’ve got it.”

  “Good. I’d say don’t let me down, but I’m kind of hoping you do,” the man in the cowboy hat said. He turned to the shadows and ordered, “Take him down. Call him an Uber something.”

  Instead of taking him down, the big man stepped out of the shadow and dug and another uppercut into his stomach. Satisfied with the pain the blow caused, he undid the handcuffs.

  Chapter 1

  Today

  It was weird having them both in the car and having Mal behind them, but her life had been weird like that lately.

  “Both of you stay here,” Margot told them.

  Dean Stone, the former client who’d been the source of a lot of her problems laughed, saying, “Where the hell would I go? We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Plus, I’d shoot him in the back,” Detective Rick Radcliff added.

  “Just be cool, this shouldn't take long.”

  Margot got out and looked over the property situated in between some orange groves. The double-wide was well put together. At first glance, it looked more like a single-family home, something one might find in the suburbs. They had a carport rather than a garage and there was no car under it right now. This didn’t mean Lori wasn’t home. According to Gale, they only had one car and Dave Lori’s husband was the only one allowed to drive it. Since they lived miles from pretty much everything but a single service station and a lot of orange trees, this kept her basically a prisoner.

  Lori had a phone, but her husband had been taking it with him when he went to work. They didn’t really get the internet out here, so unless Dave was with her, Lori had no contact with the outside world. On one of those occasions when Dave let her have her phone, she’d managed to get a picture of bruised and broken self out to her friend Gale. Gale had contacted Margot, which was why she was there.

  Even though Dave’s truck wasn’t in the carport, Margot opened her purse so she’d have quick and easy access to the weapons she kept there. Depending on the situation, she could grab her gun, a short-barreled S&W .40, a can of mace, or a telescoping baton.

  She knocked on the door. When no one replied, she yelled, “Lori, Gale sent me.”

  Lori didn’t reply. Margot knocked and called again. Again she didn’t get a reply. Margot checked the door and found it locked. Probably living out here where there were more coyotes than people, Dave and Lori weren’t that security conscious. The door didn’t have a deadbolt. The lock it did have wouldn’t slow Marg
ot much.

  She figured Radcliff would frown on her breaking in. Still, she got out what looked like a credit card but was actually made of metal instead of plastic so it was better for picking locks. She went in without looking back. If she was a cop, she could argue probable cause since it wasn’t unreasonable to think the woman sending pictures with a black eye and broken arm courtesy of her husband could be hurt or worse inside.

  The inside was as well done as the out. Lori and Dave kept a clean house. Margot called for Lori again and got no response. The place wasn’t very big; it didn’t take Margot long to figure out Lori wasn’t there. A check of the closet showed all the hangers were full. If Lori had left on her own, she hadn’t taken any clothes.

  Margot was getting ready to leave when she heard a big truck pull up. She checked her phone. Mal was supposed to be watching the road leading to the house. He should have warned her. Even if he hadn’t, she would have thought Stone and Radcliff might do something. She put her hand in her purse and wrapped her fingers about the handle before she stepped out of the door.

  A stocky guy with a shaved head jumped out of the truck. He was wearing a dress shirt and a long red tie. The name tag above his shirt pocket said “Dave,” so this was probably the same Dave married to Lori. He also had a big nickel-plated revolver in his hand as he came around his truck. Margot drew her gun and leveled it so it was aimed at his head as he came around toward the door.

  “Put it down,” she told him.

  When he hesitated, she added, “I actually want to shoot you, so don’t give me an excuse.”

  “Who are you?”

  “We can talk after you put down the gun.”

  The stocky man Margot assumed was Dave put down the gun and then asked, “Are you the one who kidnapped my wife? I have the money.”

  “Your wife’s been kidnapped?”

  “Yeah, that’s not why you’re here?”

  “No.”

  “Then who are you? Why are you here?”

  “I’m here to get Lori. To get her away from you.”

  “Why?”

  “You know why.”

  Dave shook his head. “This is very confusing.”

  Margot was starting to wonder why neither Stone, Mal, nor Radcliff had made an appearance. Sure, she had told two of them to wait in the car, but a crazed man with a hand cannon showing up was precisely the reason she brought Mal along and he hadn’t shown up yet.

  “Walk over there and put your hands on the Toyota,” she told Dave.

  Dave did as she said.

  Margot could tell something was wrong immediately. The passenger door was open and no one was sitting there. It didn’t look like Radcliff was still sitting in the back. As she got closer, she could see him lying in the backseat, unconscious.

  She looked back at Dave and said, “You need to tell me what the hell is going on here.”

  “Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing.”

  “Well, I’ve got the gun, so I ask the questions and you answer them.”

  “You’re assuming I came here alone.”

  “He’s right,” someone said from behind her. “Put that gun down for me. It’d be a shame to shoot someone as pretty as you.”

  Margot looked back to the house and saw a guy wearing greasy coveralls like a mechanic standing on the stoop. He was carrying a hunting rifle which he aimed her way.

  Chapter 2

  Yesterday

  “That guy seems to be watching us.”

  Margot smiled and looked over the shoulder of the woman sitting across from her to see Mal sitting at the bar. He was supposed to be subtle but subtle was never one of his strengths.

  “It’s okay, he’s with me.”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “No, associate. If he’s bothering you, I can ask him to leave.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’ve never hired a private detective so I guess I’m just a little jumpy.”

  “I know the feeling,” Margot replied. She wasn’t lying. She and Mal had managed to get themselves on the wrong side of some very bad people. That was the reason he was sitting at the Layla’s West bar watching her back.

  “So, what brings you to me, Ms. Thomkins?”

  “Call me Gale.”

  “Okay, what brings you to me, Gale?”

  Gale sighed.

  Margot stayed silent. It took a lot of clients a while to get into what they wanted. The fact was, if someone needed a private detective, something most likely had gone horribly wrong and it wasn’t always easy to talk about. Margot found the best thing to do was to wait patiently.

  “Actually, it was your sister that brought you to me,” Lori said finally.

  “My sister recommended me?”

  “You sound surprised.”

  “We’re not on the best terms.”

  “I guess, to be fair, she didn’t exactly recommend you. I certainly thought of what she said as an endorsement, even though she didn’t mean it that way. She told me what you did to Randy. She may have thought it was awful, but I thought it was great.”

  “What exactly did she tell you?”

  “She said you kicked his ass. Apparently you kicked his ass good enough he decided to break up with her. She also said you got him thrown in jail on some bogus charge about his missing mother.”

  “I can’t get anyone thrown in jail.”

  “But the part about kicking his ass though?”

  “We had a discussion. I may have used some enhanced communication.”

  “I like that, ‘enhanced communication.’ Sounds military. Did you serve?”

  “No, I was a cop.”

  “Melanie told me you were police back in the day. You look too young to be retired.”

  “Melanie didn’t tell you why I left?”

  “No. Actually, unless she’s bitching about how you screwed up things with Randy, she doesn’t say much about you at all.”

  “To be fair, I don’t talk much about her either. I take it you and Melanie are friends?”

  “I suppose we are, enough to have conversations anyway. I live across the street.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but can you prove that?”

  Gale reached into her purse. “Will a driver's license do?”

  Margot answered by taking the license Gale handed to her. It had the right name and the right picture and the address listed did put her on Melanie’s street. If it was a fake, it was a very good one.

  Margot handed the license back. “Sorry, I’ve had some clients misrepresent themselves lately.”

  “Is that why the scary guy at the bar is watching us?”

  “One of the reasons. What is it about my dealings with Randy made you think I’m someone you need to hire?”

  “Mostly the part where you beat the crap out of him.”

  “If you need someone beat up, that’s not what I do.”

  Gale laughed. “I figured as much. Honestly, if I just wanted someone beat up, I think I’d hire your friend at the bar. He looks more the type.”