Her Better Half

It was a classic Tudor home, with lovely English-garden-styled landscaping.

“I scoped out the neighborhood earlier. We can park down the block. The people who live there have teens. Cars are always coming and going.”

Erin pulled into a vacant space, opened her window a few inches, then motioned for me to do the same. “I know it’s hot, but we can’t run the air-conditioning. It’ll look too suspicious.”

“And two women sitting in a parked car won’t?”

“You notice I picked a spot between streetlights. We’re in the shadows here. Now, just recline your seat—” as she spoke, Erin demonstrated “—and no one will even see we’re here.”

There were all sorts of tricks to this game, I realized. “Are we sure Martin is going to show up tonight?”

“No.”

That was disappointing. “What if he doesn’t?”

“Then we come back tomorrow. Then the next night and the next.”

“Sounds…boring.”

Erin’s grin flashed again. “Now you know why we needed the coffee. Without it, I’d fall asleep in the first hour.”

“Good point.”

“Can you pass me the camera? It’s at your feet.”

I found the vinyl bag and handed it over. “Is he here?” A car had just driven by, but though it had seemed to slow a little, it hadn’t stopped.

“Nah, I’m just getting prepared. Nothing bums me out more than waiting for hours, then missing the shot when something finally does happen.”

I watched as Erin turned on the power, then inserted a fresh cassette into the machine. Funny how comfortable I felt, sitting in this car with a woman I’d known for only a week. Usually it took me a while to warm up to strangers. Yet, I’d confided the details of my marriage breakup to Erin within an hour of meeting her.

“You’ve heard my life story, but I know hardly anything about you. Have you lived in Toronto long?”

“All my life—just like you. Well, maybe not just like you. My mom had a house in the Beaches—that was before the yuppies declared the place trendy and drove up the real-estate prices.”

“Must have been a fun place to be a kid.” I had enjoyed taking the girls to the Beaches when they were little. We’d stroll along the boardwalk on the shore of Lake Ontario, then walk up to Queen Street for an ice-cream cone and a little window-shopping.

“It was fun, yeah, until my mother remarried.”

I noted the injection of coolness into her tone. “You didn’t like your stepfather?”

“You could say that. I beat it out of there as soon as I could land a job. After that, it was sort of my policy to make the stupidest choices I could possibly make.”

All the while she’d been talking, Erin had been carefully scanning the road, passing cars and the occasional pedestrian. Now she let her gaze settle on mine for a second. “You name it, I’ve probably done it. The one good piece of luck I had is that I was never arrested. I wouldn’t have been able to get my P.I. license if I had a record.”

I wondered if I’d ever met anyone more unlike myself than Erin. You name it, I hadn’t done it. I’d even refused to try marijuana when I was in college.

But then, so had Gary. We’d been such a straight couple. I’d thought that was one of the things that made us so perfect for each other. But perhaps our lack of adventurousness when we were younger was exactly why Gary was rebelling now.

Wait. I was thinking about Gary, and about our failed relationship again. I was supposed to stop doing that.

There was something else I wanted to ask Erin about. “How long have you known Murphy?”

“I met him the night I moved into the neighborhood, when Shelley was still a baby. After an exhausting day of moving I couldn’t believe it when she wouldn’t settle for the night. By midnight I was almost crazy. She just wouldn’t stop crying.”

“Colic?”

“Or something. Anyway, I was almost out of my mind and I decided, to hell with the breast-feeding rules, I needed coffee. I didn’t have any in the house so I went to Murphy’s. You have to understand that when I walked into that diner, the kid was yelling at the top of her lungs. I expected to be kicked out onto the street.”

“But Murphy didn’t kick you out.”

“Nah. He poured me a cup of coffee, then came out from behind the counter and took Shelley into his arms. Damned if he didn’t hold her right, too, supporting her head and all of that. The little monster had the nerve to shut right up. I kidded Murphy it was because she was scared, but she wasn’t. She took to him on sight.”

Erin shook her head, as if it defied belief, and I had to admit, Murphy did not seem like the nurturing sort. Still I wasn’t surprised to find out that Murphy had a softer side. When he looked at Erin, it was clear that he cared about her.

“Are you and Murphy…?”

Erin’s eyes widened. “No way. Not that I don’t like the guy, you understand. It’s just that by the time Shelley came into my life, I’d had enough of men. It’s always been just the two of us, and that’s how I want to keep things.”

“But don’t you ever—” I stopped talking as Erin lifted a finger to her lips.

“Shh.” She turned the key to the auxiliary position, then lowered her window all the way down. As she did this, a dark sedan in front of us began to slow. The driver parked his car a discreet distance from Sherry’s boss’s place, then stepped out.

I scrunched as low in my seat as I could manage while still keeping an eye on the street. My heart was pounding so madly it was as if I was the one who was doing something wrong here, not Martin. I wondered if I would ever be able to do this job without feeling like a criminal.

The man we were pretty sure was Martin looked up and down the street. I was scared to death that he would spot us, but he seemed to find nothing amiss. He pocketed his keys then walked jauntily along the sidewalk headed for the Tudor house.

As he stepped under a street lamp, I got a clear view of his face. It was definitely Martin. Beside me, Erin switched on the camera and began training it on him.

Good thing Erin had remembered. I’d been so on edge, I hadn’t even thought about the need to shoot video.

But, disappointingly, there wasn’t much to capture on film. The front door opened and I caught only the briefest glimpse of a woman before Martin slipped inside and the door shut tightly again.

“Well, that was useless.” So Martin had gone inside the house. We couldn’t even prove he’d been met at the door by Sherry’s boss. “Are you sure we shouldn’t try and get some footage of the bedroom?”

Erin powered the camera off and returned it to the vinyl case. “Aside from the fact that the bedrooms are on the second story and I’m lousy at climbing trees, we probably won’t need to. This camera prints the date and time of the footage. Let Martin try and explain why he was at this house so late on a Wednesday night.”

“That is suspicious on its own right,” I had to agree.

“Besides, we might get lucky when they’re done. Usually cheaters are pretty cautious at the beginning of a date. But I’ve often caught a good hot kiss on the doorstep around midnight when they don’t think anyone will be in sight.”

“That makes sense.” I hoped it would happen. I wanted Sherry to nail this jerk and teach him a lesson. Next time, Martin might think twice about cheating on a woman when he’d promised fidelity.

An hour went by. Then another. I had been so excited at the beginning of the evening, I hadn’t been able to imagine feeling tired or, worse, nodding off. But after another hour passed, I started yawning. The coffee was gone, as was the bag of potato chips Erin had stashed in the back seat.

“Can we change the radio station?” Maybe a talk program would help me focus.

“Go ahead.”

As I played with the controls, Erin grabbed the camera from the floor.

“What? Did I miss something?”

“No. I’m just guessing that they might be finishing soon. I think I’ll get better pictures of the tender goodbye scene if I hide in that shrub over there.” She pointed.

“The dogwood?”

“Whatever.” Erin opened the car door, and after a brief hesitation, I followed her.

“You don’t have to do this,” Erin whispered. “Why don’t you wait in the car and be comfortable?”

“No way.” I was here to learn. Eventually I’d be doing this on my own and I wanted to do it right.

Erin hesitated, then passed me the camera. “You might as well do the shooting then.” She paused by the shrub, then got down on her knees and crawled in among the branches.

I did the same, squirming around until I’d made myself reasonably comfortable. Once settled, I checked the controls of the camera, wanting to be familiar with how to operate it.

“See the door?” Erin said softly. “We have a better angle here. Even if they don’t come out on the stoop, we should get some decent footage of the woman.”

“Right.” I was primed for action but, as minute followed minute, my adrenaline rush began to fade. I needed to talk or I was going to fall asleep.

“When did you get into the P.I. business, Erin?”

“About ten years ago I started working for this guy, Harvey Westman. He was quite a character, but he was mostly legit and he taught me the ropes. When he had a heart attack, I took over the business.”

Something in Erin’s voice suggested that this Harvey had been special to her. “Were you and Harvey friends?”

“Sure.”

I hesitated. “More than friends?

“Harvey had twenty years on me.”

Not a straight answer, which made me all the more curious. Could Harvey have been Shelley’s father? I didn’t quite dare to ask the question.

Erin’s hand clamped on my arm a split second before I noticed the same thing she had. The front door to the Tudor home was opening. Martin stepped out to the landing and, as Erin had guessed, the woman gave him a goodbye kiss, right underneath the bright porch light.

I got it all on video, but couldn’t manage to get a clear facial shot of either of them. Once the woman had gone back inside and Martin had driven off, I handed the camera back to Erin.

“I don’t think that was very good.”

“We tried. It just goes that way sometimes.” She scrambled out of the bush and started pulling twigs from her hair.

As we walked back to her car, I asked what had happened to Harvey after his heart attack.

“He died,” she said matter-of-factly. “He had no family and we were close, so he named me as his beneficiary—there was a will and everything. That’s how I got the business…and enough money for a down payment on my house.”

“Sounds like a good guy.”

“Better than most.”

Pretty cynical, I thought. Then again, my opinion of men wasn’t much better these days. Maybe Erin and I had something in common after all.

CHAPTER 4

T hough I didn’t get home until after one, the next morning I forced myself out of bed in time to make the girls’ lunches. Last night Erin had carried a sleeping Shelley home to her own bed, so it was just the three of us, as usual.

Devin was already at the table, eating her bowl of cereal. Five minutes later, when it was time to leave for the bus, Jamie rushed into the room.

“Do we have any muffins? My alarm clock didn’t work. Mom, can you get me a new one?”

So easy to say, I reflected. And only a year ago, I would have added the item to my shopping list and picked one up at the Bay without a further thought.

“I’ll take a look at it later. And yes, we have muffins.” I passed her a bran one. “And here’s your lunch.”

Devin stuffed her sandwich, fruit and cookies into her knapsack without comment. Jamie stared at hers in disgust.

“I hate bringing a lunch to work. All the other swim instructors buy theirs.”

I refused to feel guilty. “If a cafeteria lunch is that important to you, then buy it with your own money.”

“Mom’s lunches are better.” Devin gave me a kiss, then headed for the door.

Jamie stared after her, lips curled dismissively. “She is such a suck.”

My first instinct was to defend Devin. But I knew that would only escalate the sibling rivalry. So, I aimed for a lighter tone. “Come on, Jamie, admit it. You love Mommy’s lunches, too.”

Though Jamie shook her head and rolled her eyes, I saw a hint of a smile.

“Have a nice day, Mom. I’m out of here.”

A few seconds later, the front door slammed, and I was alone in the house. I hesitated a moment, wondering if I should just crawl back into bed. I had the morning free since I wasn’t meeting Erin to discuss our next case until one o’clock.

In the months after Gary left, I’d spent many mornings that way, tucked under the covers, trying not to think about how I was going to fill the hours until the girls came home from school. I didn’t want to fall back into that pattern.

What I needed was coffee. I went to the cupboard and pulled out the tin of economy blend that I’d compromised on in an effort to keep the grocery bill under control.

I started to measure out the right number of scoops, but after the first one I stopped. The idea of sitting in this run-down kitchen by myself and gulping down a pot of cheap coffee was so unappealing.

A moment later I made my decision. Since the divorce, I’d given up Belgian chocolate, fashion magazines and organic produce. I was not going to give up my coffee, as well.

I’d had my heart set on something that combined coffee, chocolate, caramel sauce and whipped cream. Unfortunately, I could not find a café that sold specialty coffees anywhere in my new neighborhood. I still didn’t want to go back to my lonely house, though. In resignation I found myself returning to Murphy’s Grill.

At least I would fit in with the crowd better today, with my jeans and casual, though admittedly silk, T-shirt. When I’d been putting on my earrings, I’d thought about taking off my necklace, but pearls were supposed to go with anything so I’d left them on.

As I entered the small establishment I wasn’t too surprised to find Erin seated at the counter facing the kitchen.

She twisted in her seat and gave a weary wave. “Why do kids have to wake up so bloody early?” She took a long swallow of her coffee.

I perched on the stool next to her, setting the alarm clock I’d brought with me on the counter. “I used to consider myself a morning person. Now, I’m not so sure. So where is Shelley?”

“Day camp at the community center.”

Murphy emerged from the kitchen with two plates loaded with eggs, toast, bacon and hash browns. He hesitated for a second when he spotted me.

He’d shaved. And he looked good. Nice jaw, strong cheekbones. He was wearing a plaid shirt again, but a different one.

I wondered why I found him so attractive when he was completely different from any man I’d ever dated. Not that there’d been that many.

Maybe he got to me for the oldest reason in the book. Because I clearly didn’t get to him. His indifference bugged me.

“Addicted already?” he said as he passed by on his way to his waiting customers.

I noticed they tucked into their breakfasts as if they hadn’t seen food in a week.

“The breakfast special is the only other edible thing on the menu,” Erin said, not seeming to care that she was speaking loudly enough for others—including Murphy—to hear.

Remembering my greasy BLT from yesterday, I asked, “The other being the steak sandwich? You could have warned me.”

“Some lessons are better learned through experience,” Erin replied.

Murphy was back behind the counter now. Leaving room for cream, he filled a mug with coffee, then slid it along the counter toward me before slipping back to the kitchen.

Erin pushed the cream pitcher closer and I did the necessary mixing, then took my first sip. Suddenly the crazy world seemed to come into focus. “I think coffee does for me what yoga does for Gary.”

Beside me, Erin had both hands around her mug, holding it close as if she was afraid someone was going to try and grab it away. “You mean it takes you to another level of consciousness?”

“Yes. From asleep to awake.”

Erin laughed. “You’ll get used to the late nights.”

“Will I?”

“Actually, no. Not as long as you’ve got kids at home.”

“Only three more years for me,” I said, not feeling as happy about that fact as I sounded. Sleeping in seemed like a small benefit when I thought about the prospect of living alone after all these years of raising a family.

Murphy passed by with two more plates of hot food. I glanced over at Erin. “Want to split a breakfast special?”

For the first time that morning, Erin opened her eyes all the way. “Are you crazy? Murphy hates it when people order things to share. Besides, I don’t eat breakfast.” She held out her empty mug as Murphy walked by with the pot in his hand. He refilled her coffee practically without breaking stride.

“You?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “I’m good.”

Erin downed about half the coffee in her cup. “This is actually handy that we ran into each other. I have an appointment later this morning, so I can give you the keys for Adam’s condo now.”

She pulled them from her bag, along with a sheet of paper with an address.

I took both items and stowed them in my purse. “Um… What do I do with these?”

“Remember how I said that the company was called Creative Investigations?”

I so did not like that question. “Yes?”

“Well, I was talking to this woman the other week. Shelley was getting her teeth cleaned. This woman was the hygienist. Her name is Ava.”

So far, so good. I nodded for her to go on.

“Turns out Ava has a big crush on the dentist in her office. She’s been working there for a few months but he hasn’t shown any interest, yet.”

“Maybe he doesn’t date his employees.” Which seemed like a smart policy to me.

“Ava doesn’t want him to date her. She wants him to marry her.”

“But— She’s only known him a few months. How can she be so sure?”

“She just is. Anyway, we were talking, and she told me that he’d recently lost his cleaning lady. He was asking the staff for recommendations.”

None of this was computing so far. “I did have a cleaning lady, but she’s very in demand. I’m sure she’s filled my slot by—”

“That’s not it, Lauren. We aren’t looking for a cleaning service. We are the cleaning service.”

I still didn’t get it.

“Here’s the plan. We go into Adam’s condo every two weeks. We find out what he’s reading, what movies he’s rented, his favorite flavor of ice cream. Then Ava uses this information to convince him that they’re perfect soul mates.”

Erin leaned back on her stool and gave a satisfied smile.

“That’s a perfect plan?”

“What don’t you like about it?”

“Well, first off…who cleans Adam’s condo?”

“We do.”

“You mean, I do.”

“Well, yeah, but you get to keep the extra hundred bucks. See, that’s the beauty of this arrangement. Ava pays us to get the goods on Adam. And Adam pays us to clean.”

So I wasn’t really a private investigator. I was a glorified maid. On the positive side, at least I knew how to vacuum and clean toilets.

“But it all seems so…”

“Creative?”

“I was thinking illegal, actually.”

“You worry too much, Lauren. This is the perfect gig. And it’s all yours. Adam wants his place cleaned on Tuesday afternoon and I’ve already got a regular job scheduled for that time.”

Oh, lucky me.

“Keep on the lookout for signs of a regular girlfriend. According to Ava, he’s never mentioned one at the office, but you never know.”

“By signs you mean women’s clothing, that sort of thing?”

“Yeah. Check for an extra toothbrush, women’s toiletries, the regular girlie stuff.”

“And when I’m done?”

“Write up a report. Ava will want to pick it up in person. She has roommates and we obviously can’t send it to the office. Wouldn’t want this stuff in the wrong hands.”

Definitely not. Wouldn’t want the wrong girl becoming the dentist’s soul mate.

“Okay, you’re set.” Erin tossed a toonie on the counter for her coffee. Halfway to the door, she stopped and looked back at me. “You don’t have to do this. I could tell Ava I couldn’t fit her in.”

I was tempted to tell her to do just that. Then my eyes fell on the broken alarm clock on the counter. I thought about the gap in my budget between expenditures and income. “I’m okay with it.”

“Good. You’ll do fine.” Erin grinned. “Though I’ve got to admit I’m having a hard time picturing you cleaning someone else’s toilet.”

I grimaced while she laughed at me. That was actually the only part of the job I didn’t object to. I wondered how Ava was going to feel ten years from now when she was married to a man she had nothing in common with.

Once Erin had left, I dug out the change to cover my own cup of coffee. As I dumped it on the counter, Murphy walked up from behind me.

“Is it broken?” He picked the alarm clock off the counter and looked it over.

“My daughter says it is. I thought maybe at the hardware store Denny could give me the name of someone—”

“You’ll end up getting charged enough money to buy a new one.”

Yes. He was probably right. I’d have to use part of the extra hundred dollars I was going to earn this afternoon to buy a replacement. I held out my hand to take it back, but Murphy ignored me.

“Our garbage dumps are full enough. Leave this with me and I’ll take a look at it. It’s probably something simple.”

“But—” Why would he offer to do something like this? I really hadn’t thought he liked me at all. Was it possible he truly was offering out of concern for the environment? “Thank you. I’ll pay you for your time.”

“Yeah? I wouldn’t make that offer if I was you.” He waved a hand at me. “Now get out of here. I’ve got customers waiting for that stool.”

He didn’t, the place was half-empty, but I left as requested.

At twelve-thirty, I took the bus to the subway and rode to the St. George stop. When we’d first moved to Dovercourt Village, I hadn’t taken the subway in years and had forgotten that the concept of personal space was meaningless on public transport. Now I was becoming accustomed to the smell of strangers again, and the distinction between the sway of the bus versus the rocking motion of the subway.

The truly great thing about transit, however, was never needing to worry about finding a parking space or encountering a snarl in traffic. When I emerged from the subway station, cars were at a standstill on both sides of the street. I blithely walked past the jam and headed north to the dentist’s condo.

With Erin’s piece of paper in hand, I stopped in front of an elegant stucco building and consulted the address again.

Yes, this was the right place.

I followed the brick path to the front security door. A well-dressed woman exiting the complex gave me a frown, then paused to make sure the door had closed completely before leaving me on the stoop.

I made a show of pulling out my keys. She glared.

“I’m the new cleaning lady for unit two.”

Clearly she didn’t believe me. I tucked my pearls back under the cotton T-shirt I’d worn for the gig, then slipped my key into the lock, praying it would work.

It did.

Ironically, just as I’d proven I had a legitimate reason to be here, I felt like the criminal that woman had obviously thought I might be.

This was so crazy. I was about to enter the house of a perfect stranger.

Cleaning ladies do it all the time.

Yes, but cleaning ladies don’t check for extra toothbrushes. They don’t make lists of their client’s reading materials and examine the contents of their kitchen cupboards. At least, they aren’t supposed to.

So you’re a snoopy cleaning lady. There’s no law against snooping.

Okay, technically I wasn’t breaking the law. But ethically speaking, I was still about to do something wrong.