Chapter 9 - Looking for clues

As the clock struck a quarter past three, I pulled my old and reliable VW into the parking lot of the Department of Motor Vehicles. I had some time to kill before I was due to meet Lukas at six, and I wanted to investigate the license plate that Dan had given me. My curiosity was piqued by the possibility that it might belong to the Harrington and Leigh Corporation. Umbridge had warned me that people would find and kill him, but he never specified who they were. I wondered if he meant the corporation he stole from and if there was some connection between them and Umbridge’s predicament. It seemed too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Once I parked my car, I made my way into the DMV and scanned the area for Doris. She was a familiar face here, the oldest employee by far, and well past her retirement age. Despite this, she refused to retire and clung to her job as if it were a lifeline. Her friends had died soon after they retired, and Doris was convinced that if she stopped working, she would soon follow their fate. It was a sobering thought—all those years of hard work and sacrifice, only to end up sick or diseased in retirement. She was determined to have the last laugh.

When I finally spotted Doris, she was helping a disgruntled man at the far end of the counter. He was clearly frustrated and impatient, but Doris seemed to take pleasure in making his life difficult. I sat down on a chair to watch the show, wondering what it was today: was she hard of hearing, or was it the start of dementia? Doris would have made a fine actress had she chosen a different path in life.

“Listen, lady. I just want to pay for my licence. Here’s the paper with the amount, and here’s the cash. Now, for the millionth time, hurry up. I ain’t got all day!”

The man threw the papers in Doris’s face. She didn’t even blink and slowly moved to gather everything up. The old lady had a distant look in her glassy eyes, and she even had a slight tremble to her lip.

Oh, she was good.

Doris continued her slow movements and eventually gathered everything the man had thrown. She started counting the money painfully slowly. Boy, what did that man do to Doris for her to give him the turtle, not the hare?

“I’ll also need to inspect your vehicle’s registration. Please give me your certificate.” Doris said while slowly extending her arm and opening her hand.

The man’s face became instantly red. I wondered if I could crack an egg over his bald spot and cook it. I laughed, and Doris saw me waiting for her.

“That’s it! Where’s your supervisor?” the man exclaimed with an uproar. “I don’t want your service anymore, and I’m making a complaint. They shouldn’t keep paying almost senile dinosaurs to serve clients.”

I noticed Doris push a button under her desk, and soon enough, a well-dressed man came over and escorted the unhappy customer away. This encounter created a scene that made everyone too afraid to approach Doris’ counter, fearing the same awful service, so I gingerly got up and immediately went to her.

“What did he say to make you this mad?” I asked her.

Doris raised an eyebrow at my question and pressed her red lips together before answering, “He said I smelled funny.”

“All this dramatic slowness just for that? Come on, it’s not that bad, and I love how you smell. You smell like a grandmother I’d spend my day snuggling up to. What really happened?”

Doris smiled at my attempt to comfort her and gently placed a strand of her previously red, now orange-dyed hair back into place. She then repositioned her leopard-print blouse and smoothed the front.

“You see right through me, Max,” Doris said with a sigh. I lost $1,500 yesterday. I was so close to winning Bingo, but that old crone Cecile Newport called the last number before me. She ruined Bingo night…”

I smirked at the old gal. “All this just for that?”

“Yep. And I’d gladly do it again. This just ain’t my day,” Doris huffed, but she brightened up when she looked at me. “Got anything good for me today? Anything to change my mind?”

I smiled at her and fished the small paper from my jeans pocket, dangling it before her. Doris quickly plucked it from my hand and looked at the license plate number. She typed in the information and searched it in her computer files, her eyes scanning the screen for any relevant information.

Doris confirmed that the plate I was inquiring about was indeed a company plate. However, it was registered to Wilfrid A. Ventura as the owner. Confused, I frowned and asked her which company it belonged to. Without skipping a beat, Doris started typing on her keyboard with ease. After a few moments, she said, “It’s called V Enterprises. From what I can see on the internet, it appears to be a subsidiary company under the Harrington and Leigh Corporation.

“You’re certain that Harrington and Leigh is the parent company?”

“It would seem so.”

I groaned when Doris confirmed my suspicions. On the day they bailed Michael Umbridge out of prison, someone who worked for the company he was running away from came to pick him up. Also, the SUV was similar to the one that intercepted us when I caught the guy. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Now, the question was, what happened between when he was bailed and when he died?

“Why the interest in that plate number?” she asked, peering out from under her bright red, 1950s-styled, far-sighted spectacles.

“It’s for a case I’m currently working on. Thanks for the help, Doris! Always a pleasure working with you. I hope they won’t fire you over what happened with the gentleman before me.”

Doris clicked her tongue on her perfectly bright-white dentures and laughed. “They’ve tried many times, my dear. And they can keep trying. I ain’t ready to stop working just yet. Besides, I look good for their quotas. They get a bonus for hiring an old lady like myself, and they don’t have to pay me fully because of it. The government bonus covers half my salary.” Doris smirked gleefully.

I returned the smile and thanked her once more before taking my leave. I had much to think about.

Sitting inside my Beetle, I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. As far as I knew, Umbridge’s last known conversation had been with whoever was in that SUV, with someone from the Harrington and Leigh Corporation. I’d need to get more information on Umbridge’s case. Maybe sniff out his house or check the morgue for the official cause of death. I refused to believe that he had committed suicide. Not with everything I was discovering.

The plan was to visit Umbridge’s house first thing tomorrow, but I knew I needed to retrieve his address from Moe’s before I could make a move. I had avoided going to his house when I first started working on his bounty because it would have been too risky. Instead, I had decided to stake out the café he was known to frequent. It had taken a month of patience, but finally, Umbridge had started to feel comfortable enough to return to his usual haunt. That was when I made my move and managed to grab him.

I looked at the clock in the car and shifted in reverse. I needed to get home and change. It was close to six, and Lukas had asked me to meet him at Sal’s. For what? I hadn’t the slightest God-damn idea, which scared me to death.

What that man made me feel wasn’t natural. I should be running for the hills. But there I was, remembering the taste of his kiss and the smell of his aftershave as his firm hands slipped down my ass and pulled me up.

I groaned at the memory, and it surprised me it wasn’t from shame but need. I wanted more.

“I’m so fucked…” I whispered to myself and cursed.

I refused to give Lukas any satisfaction, so as soon as I got home, I immediately changed into my gym clothes and went back downstairs to stretch.

I did my usual run and beat my record. I arrived at Sal’s with minutes to spare until six, and when I didn’t spot Lukas, I went inside the gym.

Sal was coaching a young man when he noticed me. He threw a towel over his shoulder and marched up to me, a furrow forming on his wrinkled forehead.

“What happened to you last night? One moment, you were here, and the next thing I knew, someone said they saw you leave.”

I waved my hand dismissively in the air, trying to shake off his question. “It’s fine. I remembered I had to do something, so I quickly left. Why? Did you need me for something?”

Sal looked at me for a time, then passed his hand over his face. “It’s nothing. You’re the only girl who comes here, and I’ve grown fond of you—like a grandfather. I was just worried that the newcomer had upset you.”

I laughed and lightly punched his arm. “Ha! It would take more than a freakishly handsome man to upset me.”

Just as I said that, a gravelly voice sounded behind me. “I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment.”

I felt my underwear get wet, and I clenched my teeth together as shivers danced over my skin. I turned around to see Lukas standing there with his hands in his front pockets, and I noticed his nostrils flare. He looked me up and down, and I could have sworn his eyes became darker as they drank me up.

Swarms of butterflies filled my stomach, and I almost wanted to pull him inside Sal’s office and finish what we had started the night before. But I didn’t act on it. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This man made me lose control over my common sense, which worried me. I’d have to do the next best thing. If I couldn’t fuck him, I’d fight him, and maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to fight my attraction to him with it.