Semi-Psychic Life (Glimmer Lake #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,17
didn’t say anything about leaving town or anything like that?”
“No.”
“Did he mention any friends recently? Maybe people out of town he might have gone to visit?”
“I knew he was talking to West because I’m pretty sure that fancy new garage was going to fire him. He was super worried about that.”
“Why?”
“He said something about them being pissed he was working a side job, but is that even legal? I mean, I work two jobs.”
“Does your second job involve working for customers from the first job?”
“But he was giving them a better deal,” Rachel said. “I mean, if he could do the work from his truck and not have to use the garage, he could charge them way less.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of the problem. Legally, I mean.”
Monica closed her eyes. Robin wrote: Is she really that stupid?
Val nodded.
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Rachel said.
“If he was doing work for customers he met at Luxury Pro Autoworks and taking business away from them, do you see how they wouldn’t like that?”
“But they were Josh’s customers.”
Val didn’t want to argue with her about it. Rachel clearly wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. “Rachel, do you know which customer is accusing him of stealing? Do you know where he was working?”
“It was a guy in Pheasant Creek, but I don’t know his name.”
“Do you know what car it was?” It was possible one of the boys would know who the customer was if they could identify the car.
“Some waaaay expensive car that started with an M.”
“Mercedes?”
“No, not like a normal one I remember hearing. It was a weird name. Foreign.”
Val looked around the room. Ideas? she mouthed.
Mark reached for the writing pad. Maybach?
“Maybach?” Val asked. “Was it a Mercedes-Maybach?”
“No.”
Mark wrote again. McLaren.
“McLaren?”
“No, I told you, like a foreign name.”
Val wracked her brain. “Maserati?”
“Oh yeah! That one. It was a black Maserati.”
Monica reached for the pad of paper and scribbled a question. What was their fight about?
“Hey Rachel. I know you’re shook up, but what was the fight about? Did Josh maybe go to a friend’s to cool off because he was upset?”
Rachel snorted. “Him upset? I’m not the one cheating on him.”
Around the room, Robin and Monica both made exaggerated shocked faces and Val rolled her eyes.
“You think he was cheating on you?” It took everything in Val to make her voice sound concerned and slightly surprised.
For the record, she was neither.
“Yeah, I’m like sure he was cheating on me,” Rachel said. “The bastard. And it’s not like I couldn’t have cheated on him like a hundred times. He’s super old.”
“Hey,” Mark said quietly. “Josh is younger than me.”
“What was that?”
Val jumped in. “Just the TV. So cheating? No way. That totally sucks.” Her eyes weren’t going to roll back into their original position after this phone call. “Could he be at this chick’s house? Do you know where it is?”
“No, but I don’t think he’d be there anyway. I’m pretty sure she was married.”
Of course she was. Josh found the challenge of married women way more fun, and they usually never tried to make anything permanent. “Okay, well the boys are really worried, so if you hear anything, let me know, okay?”
“Okay.” She sniffed. “Do you think he’s all right?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
The girl sounded on the verge of tears. “I mean, we were fighting, but I love him so much. And I was so angry with him and—”
“I think you’re breaking up.” If Val had to listen to any more of Rachel’s weeping, over Josh of all people, she might puke. “Rachel, are you there?” She pulled the phone away from her mouth. “Sorry, the reception here is so bad.”
“Oh, do you want me to try to—”
“Rachel?” Val hung up. “There. I called her and we don’t actually know anything more.”
“Wrong,” Robin said, holding up the notepad. “We know he was working for someone in Pheasant Creek who owned a Maserati. There can’t be too many of those. We know he was cheating on Rachel with a probably married woman.”
“That would fit his pattern.”
Mark said, “And we know he was worried about his job if he was talking to West.”
“And all this adds up to—?” Val cut herself off when she heard the knock at the front door. “Boys are here.” She reached for the notebook. “Something else. For now, we talk about anything other than Josh.”
Chapter 6
Val knocked on the door loudly before she cracked it open. “Mom!”