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“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She’s already on the floor calling Lola to her.
When we reach the company SUV, Hailey frowns at Ryker. “Are you coming with us?”
“I’ll follow you.” He tilts his head in the direction of his truck parked a few spots away.
“What’s the deal with the insurance claim?” I ask as soon as we’re settled in the car.
Hailey giggles. “I get it. You don’t want to talk about whatever’s going on with you and Ryker. No worries. I won’t pry. But if you ever need to talk, I’m here.”
“Thanks.”
As we drive to the suspect’s house, she fills me in on the case. Douglas Flint was working as a car mechanic at one of the local car dealerships when part of a ramp swung around and hit his ankle. He’s now suing the dealership as he can no longer fulfill his function since he can’t be on his feet all day and walking is torture for him.
“If this is true, I feel sorry for the guy. I broke my foot once when I fell off a swing. It was agony.”
“You were allowed to play in an actual playground?”
As if. “Not an actual playground. We had our own in the backyard. I was generously allowed to play there until I was ten. Then, the playground was packed up and my mother put in a rose garden.” A rose garden she never visited as far as I know.
Hailey pulls over and parks. She points to a house three doors down. “Flint’s place is there.”
I grab the camera case and pull out the camera and start fiddling with it. “I hope we don’t have to sit here all day.”
“I warned you being a PI is boring.”
She did, but I didn’t listen. Why would I? I’d found two women who were willing to be my friends despite knowing nothing about my past and my family. In my experience, people couldn’t wait to be friends with me fast enough once they learned my last name. But Hailey and Suzie didn’t know my real last name. They were willing to take a chance on me anyway. Of course, I couldn’t sign up to work with them fast enough.
Hailey sits up in her seat. “The garage door’s opening.” She switches on the car.
A muscle car backs out of the drive and takes off down the street. We follow. I look in the side mirror and see Ryker’s truck is behind us as well. Yippee, it’s a convoy.
Douglas Flint drives to the nearest Wal-Mart and parks in a handicapped spot. He grabs a cart and throws his cane in it. He limps as he walks into the store.
“Damn. His injury looks serious,” Hailey says as I snap away. “Can you follow him?”
I nod and jump out. I hurry to catch up to Flint as he disappears into the store. I hear a vehicle screech to a halt and a door slam, but my attention is riveted on my target as I rush inside.
Flint scurries through the store to the electronics department. For someone with an injury, he sure moves fast. I nearly have to run to keep up and I have long legs.
I watch as he fills his cart with ink cartridges. What the heck is he printing? No one needs that much ink. He leaves the department to walk to the checkout. I pass Ryker as I follow Flint. I wave and he shakes his head at me. What? It’s rude not to greet people you know.
Flint motors straight past the checkout and heads for the door. What in the world? Is he stealing an entire cart full of ink cartridges? I keep my camera at waist height so it’s not obvious what I’m up to and I snap a few pictures of him rushing out of the store to his car.
He dumps the cartridges in his trunk, leaves the cart where it is, and jumps behind the wheel. A car squeals to a halt next to me and the door flies open. “Get in!” Hailey orders. I barely manage to close the door before she takes off after Flint.
“Did he seriously walk out of there without paying?”
“Sure did. He breezed out of there like he owned the place. No one bothered to look at him twice. But what is he going to do with a trunk load of ink cartridges?”
“I bet he’s planning on selling them on eBay. Ink cartridges average about thirty bucks a pop.”
“And he had at least fifty of them in his cart.” I quickly calculate in my head. “That’s fifteen-hundred-dollars for an hour’s work.”
“Work?” Hailey frowns. “Since when is stealing work?”
“You know what I mean.”
She turns right to follow Flint. “This isn’t the way to his house.”
