She Wore Mourning by P.D. Workman (best desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

fudge brownie deals. I’ll wait and make sure the lady approves first, because I don’t want to eat it alone.”

She flashed him a genuine smile. “That may or may not be a good idea. No self-respecting woman would order such a high-calorie treat. You know, everyone’s on a diet, but if someone happened to order one before she had a chance to say no…”

“Ah,” Zachary nodded agreeably, “then why don’t you bring me one, and we’ll see if I can get her to share it?”

She wrote it down on her order form. “Anything else?”

Zachary leaned forward. “This is a sort of unusual question. I don’t usually do things like this…”

“What?” Her eyes narrowed, but she continued to smile pleasantly.

“Don’t turn around too fast, but the two ladies at the table behind you. Are you sure they’re both legal?”

Her smile dimmed. She obeyed his advice and didn’t whirl around to stare. She looked over her shoulder toward the dance floor, scoping the two women out peripherally without being obvious about it.

She swore and looked back at Zachary. “The brunette, right? Doesn’t look a day over seventeen.” She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know how they let her in without carding her. I’ll have the manager come over and check them out. Thanks for letting me know.”

He nodded. She walked back away. Zachary continued to watch the couple, a knot of anger growing in his stomach. The waitress returned with his coffees and a brownie with two forks and placed them down without a word. It was some time before the manager came over to talk to the two ladies. Zachary had taken several pictures in the interim, as the two became decidedly more cozy.

The manager, dressed in worn blue jeans and a big cowboy hat, leaned over the table to talk to them, his voice too low for Zachary to catch his words. There were exaggerated movements from the two women, feigning shock and amusement at his questions. He was firm, insisting on proof that the younger woman was legal drinking age. Eventually, they both rose, expressing their outrage, and stormed out of the bar. Zachary watched them go, wondering if he should follow them and pursue the matter further. The manager watched to make sure that they left. He noticed that Zachary was watching them too.

“You’re the one who pointed them out to the wait staff?” he asked Zachary.

“Yes. I don’t normally go out of my way to ruin someone’s date, but…”

The other man scratched his two-day-old whiskers and shook his head. “Can’t be allowing underage drinkers in here or we’ll get shut down. I appreciate you pointing them out.” His eyes went over Zachary’s coffee mugs, one full and one empty, and the half-eaten brownie. “Please don’t worry about the bill, we’ll pick it up.”

“Oh, you don’t need to do that.” Zachary would bill it to the client anyway. “They left without paying theirs, didn’t they?”

“Yep.”

“Then let me pay mine and tip the waitress.”

The cowboy shrugged at him. “If you insist. Again, thanks for helping us out.”

After the manager had again withdrawn, the waitress came back to see if Zachary needed anything. “I guess they couldn’t prove she was of age,” she observed.

“No, I guess not. She didn’t bother trying to show a fake ID, at least.”

“Can I get you anything else?”

“Just the bill, if you could.”

“Sure.” Her eyes went to the remains of his dessert. “Your friend never showed up?”

“She had an emergency.” Zachary gave an exaggerated shrug. “What can you do?”

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. Next time.”

“Okay. I’ll bring you your bill.”

After he had settled up, Zachary went out to his car. He sat there with his guts in a knot, trying to decide what to do. He pulled up his tracker to see where Principal Montgomery had gone after leaving the bar. Her phone showed her at a shopping center, which eased his anxiety. Maybe they were going to look at clothes. Try on shoes.

Still, he went to the police station and approached the duty officer. He was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Joshua Campbell, who was normally too high-ranking to do desk duty, but must have had to fill in for a sick officer until they could find someone else to do the job. That meant that Zachary at least didn’t have to introduce himself and explain why he would be following someone around and taking pictures.

Joshua finished dealing with the gray-haired lady in front of Zachary. It was a quiet night. Still early, the crazies not yet out. Joshua motioned Zachary forward, giving him a big grin.

“Zach, my friend! What brings you by today? Somebody key your car? Run you off the road?”

He hadn’t been run off the road before, but he’d certainly been keyed or had a window smashed. People tended not to like it when he pried into their private lives.

“No, not this time,” he said. He hesitated about how to approach the issue.

Joshua raised an eyebrow and waited.

“Normally when misbehavior comes across my radar, it just gets reported to the client, and then it’s up to them whether they are going to report a crime or not.”

“Yeah. Normally.”

“But in cases that involve minors…”

Joshua’s smile quickly disappeared. “You got an abuse or neglect case to report?”

“Something like that.” Zachary placed his phone on the counter between them and opened his photo app. He swiped through a few pictures and found the one that showed the minor’s face most clearly. “This girl. They were at Rancheros. I had management card them, and she wouldn’t show any ID. The two of them took off in a huff.”

“Could be something. Do you know the identity of either one?”

“The older woman is Principal Dana Montgomery.”

Joshua’s eyes snapped up to Zachary’s face. “Principal?”

“She’s a high school principal.”

Joshua swore. “Tell me they just like the food at Rancheros.”

Zachary flipped to further photos. Joshua looked ready to leap over the desk and go after the woman on foot all by himself.

“You didn’t follow them when they