Chapter 23
The next day, Sheri began working on her case at the office while Slade was busy trying to organize his clothes and other items he’d brought to her apartment. He had already given written notice for his place.
Sheri started really digging into the business of Gerard having a girlfriend. She wanted to see Gerard’s cousin, Mr. Lincoln, who lived in Minneapolis and whom they had rescued after he had his heart attack in the BWCA. Maybe he would know who Gerard was seeing. His brother might, but she figured Fitz wouldn’t tell her. The problem was if Fitz did know and he was out to get his brother, he might think the same thing as she did—that Gerard was with a girlfriend.
Since Sheri still had Mr. Lincoln’s wife’s phone number, she called her. “Hi, this is Sheri and I spoke to you before in the BCWA when your husband had his heart attack. How is he doing?”
“He’s home, grouchy because his doctor put him on restrictions. Thanks for calling about him.”
“You’re welcome. I’m just so glad we found him before he got worse. I’m also trying to locate his cousin Gerard Connolly for his wife, Betty. Would you or your husband have any idea where Gerard might be?”
“We don’t know where he is.” Nancy sounded harried.
“Do you know if he was seeing someone else—another woman?” Sheri asked, though she really wanted to ask Lincoln because he might know more about his cousin than his wife.
“No.”
Sheri wondered why Nancy was so abrupt with her, like she had something to hide. “Can I speak to Lincoln?”
“Oh, I’m afraid not, dear. He’s sleeping right now. That’s the only time when he’s not being a grouch.”
“Okay, can you have him call me back when he wakes?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” But Sheri wasn’t sure that Nancy had any intention of doing that.
Gerard and Lincoln might not associate with each other. Even if they did, Gerard could have been really secretive about having an affair so his cousin could be clueless about it.
She wished she could check to see who might have a pilot’s license in the area, which would narrow down her options, but she still needed a name to investigate records.
She began looking into Gerard’s social media postings again, though she hadn’t found anything before to indicate where he was or if he had a girlfriend. But now that she knew he was supposed to have one, she might learn more about her. And then she discovered a clue that she could check into further—a girl of about twenty named Jessica Gardener had posted a happy birthday message to Gerard a week ago. She hadn’t seen any other postings from Jessica, but when she checked out her profile, Sheri thought she bore a striking resemblance to Gerard—the same dark-brown eyes, round face, and smile.
She checked Jessica’s pages. There were pictures of her and her friends, tons of them, but none of them showed Jessica being with Gerard. But then Sheri saw that Jessica had been excited to earn her pilot’s license six months earlier. She checked the records, and sure enough, Jessica had a pilot’s license. Had Gerard taught her how to fly?
Ohmigod, could Gerard have given her the job of flying his plane and carrying the stolen merchandise? Putting her life at risk? Her freedom?
What if…What if Jessica was his daughter from a union between Gerard and some other woman early in his marriage to Betty? And Fitz knew it and was blackmailing Gerard over it? Gerard could be afraid of losing his wife if she learned of it.
Sheri wanted to contact Jessica, but she was afraid to spook her. Cameron was busy on a case, so she walked into Owen’s office. “Hey, okay, so I found a possible pilot that might have flown Gerard’s plane, but it’s weird. Jessica Gardener wished him a happy birthday, but there haven’t been any postings of her with him. There’s an uncanny resemblance between Jessica and Gerard. She’s about twenty years younger than him. What if she’s his—”
“Daughter, but not Betty’s.”
“Right. And Betty doesn’t know about it.”
“That’s possibly what Fitz was blackmailing Gerard over then.”
Sheri agreed. “It’s bad enough that he might have had a girlfriend on the side, but a secret baby too? So I wondered how to approach this situation. I’m afraid to just contact Jessica to see if she knows anything about what’s going on and then the cat is out of the bag. On the other hand, if she cares about her father and I tell her I’m trying to clear his name about the stolen merchandise and keep him safe, maybe she’ll be honest with me.”
“She might not buy it.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“I think you need to meet her face-to-face and talk to her. Show her your credentials. Prove you’re a PI and not one of Fitz’s henchmen,” Owen said.
“Okay. Maybe I can convince her that I’m only concerned about Gerard’s safety.”
“But you’re working for Betty.”
“Right. I’ll think of something. Thanks,” Sheri said. That was the interesting thing about this job. Every case was totally unique, involving different individuals, so they had to come up with different ways to solve them.
Sheri left Owen’s office and tried calling Jessica. “Hi, Jessica Gardener?”
“Yes.”
“I’m calling you about—” Sheri paused. She was so afraid she was going to screw up this case big time and possibly lose her only contact who might know where Gerard was. Sheri could pull a legitimate PI’s ploy, or even a police detective’s con, and say she had money Jessica had won or something to get her to meet with Sheri. But she just couldn’t bring herself to do it with Jessica. Maybe because Sheri felt sorry for the young woman because her existence had to be kept a secret from Betty all these years. Of course, that was if Jessica was Gerard’s daughter.
“Okay, listen, I’m trying to locate Gerard Connolly. I’m a PI, but I was involved in finding Gerard’s plane wreckage and helping the police to recover some of the stolen merchandise that had been on that plane. My boyfriend and I saved Gerard’s cousin after he had a heart attack in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Gerard’s brother came to pick up Mr. Lincoln’s dog, Jet, and his camping equipment, and we learned later that he was involved in the whole business of the stolen goods. One of his friends even shot at us.”
“No,” Jessica said, sounding shocked.
Sheri was glad Jessica was still listening to her and hadn’t just hung up on her yet.
“Yeah, and at the police too. Anyway, I know Gerard’s worried Fitz is wanting to take him down for this business and Gerard wasn’t involved. His wife has hired me to make sure he’s safe and he’s found innocent of all charges.”
“Why did you call me then? What do I have to do with any of this?” Jessica asked, sounding defensive.
“Fitz was blackmailing Gerard into delivering the goods, but the plane crashed.” Sheri sighed. She might as well say what she had to say. “I believe you have a vested interest in Gerard staying alive.”
Jessica didn’t say anything.
“Okay, look, I believe Gerard doesn’t want Betty to divorce him, but Fitz knew his brother had a love child.”
Jessica gasped.
“I want both of you to be safe. I want Fitz and his friends to be in jail for what they have been involved in. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. You might have heard that one of Fitz’s cohorts ended up getting shot by one of the police. He was the one who shot at them. He’s in the hospital now.”
“Um…”
“I’m not going to tell anyone who you are or what your relationship is to Gerard, but I need to talk with him. I need to prove he’s not behind these thefts.”
“I’ll… I’ll call him and see if he wants to talk to you.”
“All right. Thanks, Jessica. And seriously, I’m not telling Betty about any of this. It’s up to him to come clean about you if he wants.”
“Thanks.”
Then Sheri gave her phone number to Jessica and hoped she would get a message to Gerard, and he would call her.
“How did it go?” Owen asked, poking his head into Sheri’s office.
“Well, time will tell. I talked to Jessica, and now it’s in her court. I asked her to have Gerard call me. We’ll see if it works or not.”
“Okay, good. Let me know if you need me to help you with anything more concerning the case.”
“I sure will. Thanks, Owen.” Then Sheri got a call. She thought it might be Gerard, until she saw it was Slade. His call was most welcome. “It’s Slade.”
Owen smiled, then left her office.