Unexpected visitor

It is time to get back to my studies. What have I lost? Two months? Lars reminded me Christmas evening that my thesis is due in just three weeks. It’s almost done, but I really have to focus these next two weeks.

11:30 a.m.

About 10:30, Cinnamon knocked on my door and asked if I could take a visitor. I didn’t even think about waving her on in.

Angel came in.

I’ve never seen her like this. Her makeup is always perfect and she dresses perfect and she’s just so perfect all the time. But the Angel that came in this morning didn’t have any makeup on, and it looked like she’d been crying. Cinnamon shut the door and left us alone.

“I look a wreck,” she declared. “Deb, I am a wreck.” She burst into tears, and I dredged up some motherly instinct from somewhere and hugged her. We sat down on the sofa together and I dried her eyes with a tissue. God knows I’ve been doing enough crying the past month, I ought to know what to do about it. That’s a myth.

“What is it, Angel?” I asked. “I owe you my life. Please don’t ever regret saving it.” I just knew she was off on having shot Ray. She’s never talked about it, but I know that it’s on her mind. We both know that it’s just something that will be between us. Neither of us will ever talk about it to anyone else.

“It’s not that,” she replied. “I don’t regret for a minute what I did out there. I’d do it again. Maybe faster this time.”

“What then?”

“Simon.” That said it all. You know, I have to admit that when I first heard about Angel and Simon I kind of kissed it off. Rich Man. Gold Digger. Get what you can and get out while you can. But when I saw them together in Croatia… I mean, the way he looked at her like she was the beginning and the end of the universe. And she was the happiest I’ve ever seen her when she was around him. Pull out all the cliché’s you want about old men and young women, these two were crazy in love.

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“I got a message,” she answered. “He’s hiding and isn’t coming up until he knows that Brenda is permanently out of the picture.” I suppose that I should have told Angel that Brenda was on the loose again, but I really couldn’t. “He says that until then, we’ll both have to live apart. It was such a beautiful love letter. But he didn’t tell me where he was.”

“You want me to track him down?” I asked apprehensively. I really need to study, is what I was thinking, but if Angel asks me to track down Simon, you know I’ll do it.

“No. He’s right. In fact, I’m thinking that I should consider the same thing. She is a spiteful horrid bitch. She’ll hurt me just because she can’t get to him.”

“I could be your mutual point of contact,” I said, volunteering before I thought it through.

“I might need that if I decide to go,” she said. “But that’s not why I came.”

“What’s up?”

“Simon asked me to give you something.” She was fishing in a purse the size of Lake Washington and when she emerged, she was holding a little business card box. She handed it to me and I opened it. It was full of credit cards—the kind of ATM card that Angel sells through her travel agency. There must have been, OMG!, a hundred of them.

“There’s a limit on how much I can put on an individual card,” Angel explained. “$9,999.99. If I try to put $10,000 on it, I’ll get hit for all kinds of civil and criminal penalties. That’s how we’ve always worked it. The guys come in and buy $10,000 minus a penny at a time. It’s pretty much like having a pocket full of $10,000 bills.” She pulled a dollar bill our of her purse. “There’s $999,999 on those cards. This makes it an even million.” She handed me the dollar bill. “Simon would like you on retainer, just in case he needs to be found again. He’ll let you know.”

“Angel,” I exclaimed. “I can’t take this.

“Sure you can,” she said. “Simon is a good man. He knows that a good detective has to be able to put her hands on cash at any time. This is invisible. Just put them in your private safe and pull them out when you need one. It never hits the books if you are careful. If you are extravagant and live beyond your means, the treasury will come down on you for tax evasion. If you keep it quiet, you’ll always have a cushion. You are smart. Don’t blow it.”

Angel stood up to leave. I didn’t know what to say. Is that where the money Dag left me came from? The instructions were almost the same. I was thinking about the letter he left me that didn’t show up anyplace in his will.

I’m 27 years old. What have I gotten myself into?

4:00 p.m.

I’d studied my eyes blind in the four or five hours since Angel left. I gave Cinnamon some assignments to get her up to speed about what we really do and what she needed to study. I’m not going to go easy on her. If she quits because the work is too hard and doesn’t pay enough, that’s too bad. She’s making the same that I made when I started with Dag seven months ago. So I thought she was asking another question when she knocked on the door about 3:00. I was wrong.

“You’ve got a Miss Horseshoe here to see you, Miss Riley. At least I think that’s her name. She’s got a pretty thick accent.” It didn’t sound familiar, but if I found one more typo in this stupid thesis I was going to scream.

“Sure,” I said. “Show her in.”

Well, at least this one wasn’t blonde. She had hair that was coal black and stood about 5’ 1” tall if I’m any judge. Petite. Anxious. She looked around furtively and finally faced me. She was beautiful.

“Are you Miss Deb Riley,” she asked with a Scandinavian accent so thick you could cut it with a knife.

“Yes.” She rummaged in her purse and produced a letter and put it on my desk. Now I knew who she was. Teresia Hjortschoe. I had no idea how it was pronounced. I sent the letter to her at Dag’s request when he died.

“Did you read this?” she demanded. God, I’d thought about it.

“No,” I said. “Dag left me a letter asking me to send this to you after he died. I’m so sorry for the loss of your cousin, Miss Hjortshoe.” That did it. I had an ocean being cried in my office for the second time today. Please stop, I thought. I can’t take any more. If I let it come again, I might never stop crying. Fortunately she forced herself under control after I’d offered her a tissue from my unending supply. I better tell Cinnamon this box is running low.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Dag was my favorite cousin. He’s always been there for me.”

“I didn’t know,” I said. “Losing Dag was hard on all of us, but I’m sure it meant a great deal to you.”

“Did Dag tell you about his trip to Sweden last fall?”

“I was here, holding down the fort. He was very disappointed that he hadn’t made it in time to see his aunt before she died. Having two losses in such a short period of time must have been very hard on you and your family.”

“Cousin Dag saved my life,” she said flatly. Dag hadn’t told me about that. In fact, the first I’d heard of a cousin Teresia was when I got instructions to send her the letter. We talked for quite some time. About Dag. About how I worked with him. About why I was sitting behind his desk. My initials happen to be D.H. Riley, so I’ve decided to keep the company name, D.H. Investigations, as it is. I had the impression that she was interviewing me, trying to find out what kind of person I am. She never got around to telling me how Dag saved her life.

We’d talked for nearly an hour when she pointed at the letter that was still lying on my desk.

“Please keep this in your safe place for me,” she said. “Cousin Dag kept it as surety for my good behavior. His requirement of me was that he would send this to authorities if I was ever accused of a criminal offense. Will you keep it safe against the same end?”

I looked at the envelope. As far as I could tell, it was the same envelope that I’d sent her, still unopened. I could tell that I was going to be regretting this for the next God knows how many years. I put the envelope in my pencil drawer. As soon as she leaves, I thought, I’ll put it in the vault.

“As Dag’s partner and friend,” I said, “I will keep this just like he did. I will not look at its contents and will only forward it to appropriate authorities if I hear that you are accused of a criminal offense.” I used her words as closely as I could remember them so that there was no room for misunderstanding. I’ve just become some kind of secret keeper. Where is it going to end?

I’m going to take Cinnamon and Teresia to dinner tonight. I’ve got an idea of what has to be done next, and as long as Teresia is in town, I might has well have her help.

Oh, yeah. The Fig. Turns out I was in bluejeans and a sweatshirt because we moved all my stuff over to Dag's apartment yesterday. Silas took me to Dick's Hamburgers and I felt like a real cop discussing a bunch of legal stuff. Then he dropped me off at the apartment and left. WTF?