Lovers Galore

We had decided the logical and sensible thing to do was check out the romantic interest of Callie Everson, other wise know to us as Sweety-Pie

                                                                PART  22

Enthusiasm gushed from Jennifer’s words. “And you’ll not guess in a gazillion years how promiscuous she was.”

Jennifer leapt at the chance to do what she called ‘gossip sleuthing’. A service to truth she insisted. “I’ve got a list that doesn’t quit. Half is a little shaky; half are done deals.”

At that moment I knew that only my appreciation and admiration of Jake kept me from kissing her.  “So where do we go from here? To the sheriff?”

“Good gods no. This is ours. Our investigation, your book.” Jennifer produced her two lists, the iffy one, the for sure one. “I think we start with the for sure list. We’ll split them up.”

“But Jennifer, I don’t know these people.”

“And you think I do?” She rolled her eyes. “For god’s sake, if detectives checked out only those they knew, they would have limited and short careers.”

“Let’s hire detectives. I have the money up front and can claim it as expenses when the book is done.”

I ducked to avoid her hand flung at my face. “Do that and I’m out of here.”

“Whoa,” I said. “So how do you propose we proceed?”

“You’re the mystery writer. You tell me.”

I made up stories out of pure imagination. I manipulated facts to meet my plot. I knew nothing about detective work. But I knew a few detectives, who had helped me on various occasions. I could get advice from them. Jennifer need not know. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s start with the for sure list.”

-                        -                            -                           -

By the time Jake and Jennifer left we had organized the ten for sure lovers into graph form with the information we had. Location, career, age, length of relationship, and spaces for additional categories as needed. Looking at the chart I said, ”It seems we have our work cut out for us. Let’s split the list.”

“Great. You take 6; Jake and I will take two each. That seems fair.”

“Fair,” I said. “Six, two, two seems fair?”

“More than fair. This is your job. Jake and I have other jobs. We’re doing you the favor. Unless you plan to split the profits from the book you’ll get out of with us.”

It seemed fair.