Read Online The Phantom Photographer: Murder in Marin Mystery - Book 3 (Murder in Marin Mysteries) by Martin Brown - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Martin Brown
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developments were part of the process. He needed to set Paul and his wife aside and move on to others who most assuredly had secrets they’d pay to keep.
CHAPTER NINE
In time, and by practicing patience, Michael found two more targets over the following year. Both were a result of his time working for the chamber and the Rotary.
The first was a popular certified public accountant, Ward Wilson, who had just been elected treasurer for the chamber. Word had it that he and his wife were, “just the cutest couple,” but he had an apparently irresistible urge to pursue a male bedmate every now and then. Michael locked onto him at the chamber’s holiday party when he put his hand firmly on Michael’s thigh and said, “I’m guessing you’d be a fun guy to get to know better. Has anyone ever told you have a wonderful smile?”
Michael had to dodge a couple of offers to join him at his office after hours for some “free pointers” on how to reduce his taxable income. He suspected this was a ploy Wilson used on other potential partners, who no doubt had equally wonderful smiles.
He staked out the perfect location to shoot photos from a rooftop location across from his admirer’s one-man office, and found out that Wednesday, the night his wife had a standing date with three girlfriends to play mahjong, was the night he was most likely to be giving some gentleman, “free tax advice.”
After a month of empty Wednesdays, Michael and his telephoto lens struck gold. Six weeks later, he received the first of Ward’s four-hundred dollar monthly payments. Given the long hours he worked at the camera store, Michael happily thought of this as the easiest money he ever made.
The second was Sheila Grimes, who was married, had twin boys in the local middle school, was active in the Rotary, and was also manager of the Novato Savings Bank branch on Grant Avenue. There were rumors that her “behavior around other men was not always proper,” but no names and no details came attached to that speculation. If she was having an affair, she was being very discreet. Nothing like Fred or Marv, who were both too arrogant to consider the consequences of their actions; or Paul, who with his open marriage found it arousing that he was being secretly spied upon; or Ward, who was blind to the obviousness of his actions. If Michael were to achieve success uncovering Shelia’s secrets, he would have to be willing to invest the time of a private investigator.
Michael, with little social life of his own, and having nothing he enjoyed more than tracking his prey, was up for what he told himself would be a more challenging assignment.
He began by waiting in his car and watching as Sheila left the bank, usually about thirty minutes after its six o’clock closing time. Monday through Thursday, she followed the same road home, with Michael dropping his tail of her at various spots, then driving by her house minutes later to find her car parked on the left side of the home’s carport.
But, to Michael’s surprise, that pattern changed on Friday. At about her usual time, Sheila left work, but once on her way, she quickly turned left rather than right. Michael, at first, was excited, but told himself that she was likely headed to pick up one of her boys or perhaps do some last minute grocery shopping. He followed her up DeLong Avenue and onto the southbound entrance to 101. Eight miles later, in moderately heavy traffic, she exited at Freitas Parkway and turned left and then right again onto Civic Center Drive. Sheila entered and circled the parking lot in front of the San Rafael Embassy Suites. Michael pulled up just outside the property and watched as she found a spot and walked inside.
Michael drove into the lot, parked quickly, and hoped that he had not lost her. If it was a rendezvous, perhaps she had already vanished into one of the hotel’s many floors, but hopefully she was still in one of several public areas. He
CHAPTER NINE
In time, and by practicing patience, Michael found two more targets over the following year. Both were a result of his time working for the chamber and the Rotary.
The first was a popular certified public accountant, Ward Wilson, who had just been elected treasurer for the chamber. Word had it that he and his wife were, “just the cutest couple,” but he had an apparently irresistible urge to pursue a male bedmate every now and then. Michael locked onto him at the chamber’s holiday party when he put his hand firmly on Michael’s thigh and said, “I’m guessing you’d be a fun guy to get to know better. Has anyone ever told you have a wonderful smile?”
Michael had to dodge a couple of offers to join him at his office after hours for some “free pointers” on how to reduce his taxable income. He suspected this was a ploy Wilson used on other potential partners, who no doubt had equally wonderful smiles.
He staked out the perfect location to shoot photos from a rooftop location across from his admirer’s one-man office, and found out that Wednesday, the night his wife had a standing date with three girlfriends to play mahjong, was the night he was most likely to be giving some gentleman, “free tax advice.”
After a month of empty Wednesdays, Michael and his telephoto lens struck gold. Six weeks later, he received the first of Ward’s four-hundred dollar monthly payments. Given the long hours he worked at the camera store, Michael happily thought of this as the easiest money he ever made.
The second was Sheila Grimes, who was married, had twin boys in the local middle school, was active in the Rotary, and was also manager of the Novato Savings Bank branch on Grant Avenue. There were rumors that her “behavior around other men was not always proper,” but no names and no details came attached to that speculation. If she was having an affair, she was being very discreet. Nothing like Fred or Marv, who were both too arrogant to consider the consequences of their actions; or Paul, who with his open marriage found it arousing that he was being secretly spied upon; or Ward, who was blind to the obviousness of his actions. If Michael were to achieve success uncovering Shelia’s secrets, he would have to be willing to invest the time of a private investigator.
Michael, with little social life of his own, and having nothing he enjoyed more than tracking his prey, was up for what he told himself would be a more challenging assignment.
He began by waiting in his car and watching as Sheila left the bank, usually about thirty minutes after its six o’clock closing time. Monday through Thursday, she followed the same road home, with Michael dropping his tail of her at various spots, then driving by her house minutes later to find her car parked on the left side of the home’s carport.
But, to Michael’s surprise, that pattern changed on Friday. At about her usual time, Sheila left work, but once on her way, she quickly turned left rather than right. Michael, at first, was excited, but told himself that she was likely headed to pick up one of her boys or perhaps do some last minute grocery shopping. He followed her up DeLong Avenue and onto the southbound entrance to 101. Eight miles later, in moderately heavy traffic, she exited at Freitas Parkway and turned left and then right again onto Civic Center Drive. Sheila entered and circled the parking lot in front of the San Rafael Embassy Suites. Michael pulled up just outside the property and watched as she found a spot and walked inside.
Michael drove into the lot, parked quickly, and hoped that he had not lost her. If it was a rendezvous, perhaps she had already vanished into one of the hotel’s many floors, but hopefully she was still in one of several public areas. He
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