“So that’s why the front door was unlocked and the front gate, too,” said Odelia. “But I don’t understand why he would call his meeting with me a hot date.”
“I told you,” said Chase with a shrug. “He probably had other ideas in mind when he invited you over.”
“But why would he call me Zoe? He knew perfectly well what my name was.”
“Maybe a code name?” Uncle Alec suggested. “Used for reasons of privacy?”
“I don’t know,” said Odelia. “This afternoon we didn’t exactly hit it off, and now suddenly he expected to have a hot date with me? Can I see that phone for a moment?”
She took the phone from Chase and frowned when she called up Carl’s outgoing messages. “There’s no message to me here,” she said. Then she checked the man’s number. “And this is not the number that sent me that message either.” She handed the phone back. “Does Carl have more than one phone?” she asked the burly guard.
Gustav nodded.“One for official business and one for personal one.”
Odelia took out her own phone.“Do you recognize this number?” she asked, calling up the message she got from Carl. “Is this the number he uses to text his girlfriends?”
Gustav glanced down at the message and shook his head.“I’ve never seen this number before.”
“Are you saying it wasn’t Carl who messaged me?”
“I’m saying that I know both his numbers and this isn’t one of them.”
“So if Carl didn’t invite me up here,” said Odelia. “Then who did?”
“Is it possible he’s got a third phone?” asked Chase.
“As far as I know he only has the two numbers: one official and one private.”
Uncle Alec scratched his scalp.“So if you’re not Zoe,” he said, “then who is?”
Gustav shrugged.“Frankly Carl has so many girlfriends it’s impossible to keep track.”
“You never heard of this Zoe before?”
“No. But then that’s not so unusual. Carl has what you might call an addiction, Chief. The guy has a voracious appetite for women. I’ve worked for him for only six months and in that time I’ve never known him to spend the night with the same woman twice.”
“How does his wife feel about that?” asked Chase.
Gustav grinned.“She’s away a lot.”
“How often could she possibly be away?”
“Well… she doesn’t like it out here all that much, so she spends most of her time either in Carl’s Park Avenue apartment, or in San Francisco, or she takes the private jet to go shopping in Paris or London… And then there’s St. Bart’s, of course, to work on her tan.” His grin widened. “I’d say Mr. Strauss entertains three or four girls a week here.”
“Three or four different girls?”
“Sometimes five or six.”
“But where does he meet them?”
“Mostly online.”
“He’s got several dating apps on here,” Chase confirmed. “Though it doesn’t look like he uses them under his real name, or even with his real picture.”
“No, Carl is a very private person, and very scared to have his dating life become a matter of public scrutiny,” Gustav confirmed. “Every girl he invites over also has to sign an NDA before she’s allowed to share his bed with him.”
“And they do?” asked Odelia, surprised.
“Oh, sure. Once they discover their date is the famous Carl Strauss they’ll sign anything for a chance to spend the night with the guy. He’s very popular.”
“Also very rich,” Uncle Alec said.
“That could have something to do with it,” Gustav admitted.
“Well, looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us,” said Uncle Alec. “And the first order of business will be to find this Zoe and see what she has to say about what happened here tonight.” He directed a look at his deputy. “Chase, you dig through that phone of Carl’s some more—check all of his dating apps and see if you can’t find Zoe. Meanwhile I’ll have another crack at Emma Hudson and see if she won’t give up her criminal associates.” He gave them a grim-faced look of determination. “This is the first chance we have at pouncing on those so-called Hampton Heisters and by God I’m going to nail them. If it’s up to me this is the last heist they’ve pulled in my town.”
17
Vesta and Scarlett had just received word about the terrible events that had unfolded at the house of Carl Strauss, and so they were extra vigilant as they rode around the neighborhood, keeping an eye on things as the diligent members of the watch they were.
“It’s those Hampton Heisters again,” said Vesta. “I should have known that sooner or later they’d end up murdering one of their victims.”
“He’s not dead, though, is he?” asked Scarlett.
“Not yet,” said Vesta ominously. “Though Odelia didn’t sound very hopeful. She said Carl looked terrible when she found him. More dead than alive.”
“Who would have thought that a gang of celebrity burglars would resort to murder?”
“I would. I just told you.”
“I know, but why murder one of their victims?”
“Odelia caught one, did I mention that?”
“Yes, you mentioned that. About five times already.”
“A young girl. Barely out of her teens.”
“Stands to reason. These young people are raised with celebrities on their minds. They read the magazines, they follow them on Instagram, and they want a piece of them.”
“That’s what you get when you post all of your wealth on Instagram all the time,” said Vesta. “It makes people get jealous and decide to get in on the action.”
“At least Odelia is safe. They could just as well have taken a whack at her as well.”
“She should have taken her husband’s advice and brought him along for that so-called interview.”
“So-called? You don’t think the interview was real?”
“Of course it wasn’t real! You know Carl’s reputation. He sees a woman he likes and immediately he expects her to jump into bed with him. He probably thought Odelia would be an easy target, so he invited her over in the middle of the night.”
“She just got married! She wouldn’t fall for that guy’s nonsense.”
“He didn’t know that, did he? Now will you look at that?” She pointed to a car that was driving very slowly in front of them. Too slowly to her liking.
“The Hampton Heisters!” said Scarlett. “Looking for another target!”
“Let’s nail them!” said Vesta, and punched down on the accelerator. She would have preferred if her son had allowed her to put one of those police lights in the car, and a police siren, too, but unfortunately Alec was very strict about that kind of thing.
“Ram them!” said Scarlett when Vesta had approached the car within ten yards. “Just ram them, Vesta—these are hardened criminals!”
And since Scarlett was always the more sensible of the twosome, Vesta decided to do as her friend suggested, and hit the car in the rear as hard as she could, consequences be damned!
The car in front was unceremoniously pushed out of the way, and made a kind of scissoring movement that caused it to end up across the road, hitting a mailbox and coming to a full stop. Immediately Vesta and Scarlett were out of the car, shaking off the slight sense of vertigo that had hit them when they hit the other vehicle. They were armed to the teeth with stun guns, cans of mace and the old shotgun Vesta’s husband had left her.
Only when they came upon the Hampton Heisters, ready to take them down, Vesta saw that a familiar figure was behind the wheel.
“Wilbur!” she cried as she caught sight of the face of the driver.
“Francis!” Scarlett called out when she came upon Wilbur’s passenger.
For it were indeed Father Reilly and Wilbur Vickery who were in the car.
“Are you the Hampton Heisters?” asked Vesta, pointing the can of mace at the owner of the General Store’s face. “Confess!”
“Of course not!” Wilbur cried. “Are you nuts?”