A Family Affair (The PMS Private Investigator Series #1)

By Amber Rochelle Gillet

Paula Stone is a former Executive whose life is thrown into disarray after she follows her boyfriend and realizes he is married. The public confrontation causes her to lose her well paying job but gain an arrest record, probation and a community service obligation where she is able to secure a meter maid position as a last option to maintain what little self respect she has left, now that her professional reputation has been tarnished. Forced to move in with her neurotic mother due to lack of funds, life seems unbearably hopeless. Her story accelerates when arrogant, but wealthy, Uncle Gordie offers Paula a substantial amount of cash to stalk his mistress, figuring if she was good enough to track down her own ex-lover, she shouldn't have any issues with finding out what his girl has been up to. Days later the same Uncle's wife, Aunt DeDe who is struggling with the reality of turning 50, also hires Paula to follow her husband, certain that he is guilty of an affair. Accompanied by her best and very pregnant friend Mitexi, who unexpectedly gives birth on the floor of the pornographic video store, they tackle the adventures with unconventional success. Ultimately, as Paula begins to realize her talent for following others along with her mother’s encouragement, she uses the earned money to start her own Private Investigative business.

This title is published by Amber Rochelle Gillet and is distributed worldwide by Untreed Reads.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Untreed Reads
• Release date: Aug 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781611874112

Book preview

author.

A Family Affair

The PMS Investigators, Book 1

Amber Gillet

-1-

Accompanied by a steady and exceedingly annoying tapping on the outside of the bathroom door, my mother hollered loudly enough that my ninety year old grandmother would have been able to hear her.

Uncle Gordie has left at least a dozen messages for you since yesterday. I don’t know what is so urgent that he can’t even wait for you to call him back before leaving another. She paused. Paula? Paula? Are you even listening to me? Should I call Aunt DeDe and find out what’s going on? Paula?

My futile attempt to push the button lock located in the center of brass knob fast enough to keep her out wasn’t quite as successful as I’d hoped. Actually, I just barely had time to apply my body weight to the door and keep it from opening completely. She definitely hadn’t lost her quick draw abilities that she exercised regularly when I was a teenager.

Can you leave me alone? I am trying to get ready for work. And no, I don’t know what he wanted but I will call him before I leave. I promise, Alice.

I leaned back in to close the door and avoid an excruciating face to face conversation. This time I was extra careful to confirm that it was actually locked before I stepped away. She hated when I called her Alice, but the truth was it made me feel better, especially since I had recently moved back home. Being thirty-one and sleeping once again in the rosebud wallpapered bedroom of the house where I had spent more than the first half of my life was tough enough to stomach; having to call her Mom made the reality of my current living arrangements almost unbearable.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a well paying job as an Account Executive for a national corporation, the kind of company where your boss may not remember your name on the elevator but doesn’t forget your face if you screw up miserably. I was leasing a fantastically over priced studio apartment in the heart of New Haven and spent the majority of my free time doing dirty things with my boyfriend Perry, whom I had met at work. At that point, I was pretty sure my life couldn’t get any better—now I am positive of it.

Perry had started acting distant and wasn’t as readily available as he had been when we first started spending the majority of our free time together, which was usually naked. Shortly before we began dating, our company had established inter-office relationships as forbidden, so there were plenty of occasions where we pretended not to know each other. But when I mentioned his recent case of absenteeism on a more personal level to my closest friend-for-life, Mitexi, she convinced me that the best way to find out what was going on was to stalk him. "We’ll make it an adventure," she promised. Are police usually involved in adventures? I wouldn’t think so, but by the end of our ‘adventure’, there was no shortage of blue uniforms and screaming sirens.

In my heart I believed he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Whenever we were together, he stuck to me like frosting on a cake. So what if he wasn’t available as much as he had been when we first hooked up? After all, he was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources and realistically it made sense that he couldn’t spend all day in bed, no matter how much I begged. But as usual, Mitexi justified her zany scheme until I became convinced that any other logical approach to investigating my current predicament would never get me the real answers I was looking for. So we decided to start following him.

We quickly discovered that he frequently came and went at one particular high rise; unfortunately it wasn’t the address he had told me he lived at. This revelation caused my bravery to diminish, but Mitexi reeled me back in by reminding me how naïve I had been since I met Perry. After all, I had never even questioned why we only met at my apartment, always ordered take out instead of going to a restaurant together or why he had never spent a full night with me.

She insisted it was time to get to the bottom of his mysterious engagements, and then flapped her arms at me like a chicken, which she knew would call my bluff, and suddenly my determination to get answers was renewed. Oh did I mention that she was also about eight months pregnant with her first child? The woman is overflowing with hormones and sporting a Native American background that ran on adrenaline. But we’ll get to her story later.

We concocted a plan and picked a day to stand across the street about the same time we had seen him enter the building on previous occasions. Luckily, Old Man Winter was on our side that day, the swirling snow cascading from the sky gave us perfect excuses to wear our hoods. As soon as Perry approached and disappeared into the massive front entrance, we quickly crossed the street and peaked in through the window furthest from the main lobby. Perry exchanged a few words with the front desk attendant, in a manner that led me to believe they were very familiar with each other. Then he approached the elevator and waited with a small group of people. When the massive brass doors opened, everyone shuffled on. A petite and well dressed woman moved her hand toward the floor buttons on the wall and called out over her shoulder to Perry, who stood opposite her. He responded and she pushed a final selection. I’m not sure if it was luck or misfortune, but I was able to see in the reflection of the mirror that lined the back wall from a gap between their bodies, that she had selected an illuminated button with a twenty three in the center just before the closing doors reconnected.

Mitexi turned to me with fire in her eyes. We need to move fast! You take the stairs and I’ll handle the rest. She grabbed my wrist and before I could suck in my next breath we were inside the lobby.

The attendant immediately recognized us as unfamiliar and stepped away from his post to address our intentions. Are you ladies sure you’re in the correct building? Our casual appearance was definitely a downgrade from the dashing bunch that preceded us.

Without missing a beat Mitexi immediately hunched over, let out a screeching howl and grabbed her mid section. I think my water broke! The pains are so awful! Is there a restroom I can use?

Even I was temporarily stunned.

Charles, who was identified by a shiny nametag which was smartly fastened to the lapel of his crisp suit, suddenly looked pale. His shaky hand pointed to a carved wooden door that was hidden behind a massive fern on the south side of the room. Oh ma’am, can I help you? Should I call someone?

Mitexi’s next gasp was so intense that I genuinely began to worry she might not be lying. Was I going to have to deliver her baby and ambush my boyfriend all in the same day? The fear of a possible impending birth catapulted me toward the entrance to the back stairs but the slam of the fire escape door drew me back to