Chapter 1

*Scarlett’s POV

Sigh…another day as a waitress…at least the tips are decent.  So far, I am literally getting the run-around. It is exhausting…well another day in Whitebridge is never boring I’ll say that. Whitebridge is one of those towns in the middle of the woods, and the foothills of the local mountains. It’s got a population of 84,250 people so it’s not a small country town, but it does take about an hour to get to the closest interstate. 2 Universities one more local and one more famous so we get a lot of college kids around. Well, I better get ready for my job, another day seeing if anything happens. Put up my brunette, wavy hair in a ponytail, glasses, and decently do my makeup. Some mascara, some blush, and some tinted lip balm, and I am set to go. Nothing too extravagant but it’s enough to disguise me, alright…off I go.

I work in a local fancy restaurant in town called Rillo’s. It’s an Italian restaurant, good food, it’s known for its homemade marinara sauce and other Italian dishes. I recommend the seafood bisque for a soup and the crème brulee for dessert, and worth going to for special. The restaurant itself seemed like a typical Italian restaurant. 10,000sqft, stone outside, with some fake ivy on the ceiling, booths along the wall with the tables in the middle, the rooms for groups were bigger and more in the back. I’ve been working undercover for almost a month and nothing out of the ordinary so far. The first day of fall in Whitebridge and it is already feeling like it…brr cold! Needed a jacket to go outside today.

Trees are slowly going from green to changing colors. Hopefully, another slow day to report to my partner and hey at least I make some extra cash. Luckily, the dinner rush makes time go faster, one of my customers may have been a little shady, the local lawyer Vincent Blackman, and his wife Victoria. She seems like a trophy wife, high maintenance, and only loves his money not really him. Poor guy. He seemed a little out of it but seemed to be fine. Other than that, it was a quiet night. The other tables I had made things fun and interesting. A local high school party group must be prom season, wish my prom date was fancy like this when I went to prom, didn’t even kiss me goodnight. Oh well, that’s old news. Anyway, looks like the local politician and his wife celebrating 40yrs of marriage and the last kid of 6 finally going to college. How in the world do you stand staying with one person for 40yrs!? Good for them glad someone doesn’t need Blackman’s services. Got decent tips, but during my shift, I noticed something was off with the restaurant owner, Mr. Rillo (or at least that’s what everyone called him) seemed off today. I tried to confront him, but he shoved me away and stomped off to his office in the back near the kitchen.

I asked around some of the fellow waiters and waitresses and they felt the same way I did, just something seemed off. She finished the tables she had for the night, and when she was cleaning up and put away some silverware in the kitchen. I snuck around to the office to see some people I haven’t seen before. I took a picture of them on my phone to show my partner at the station. I pretended to be putting away stuff as they walked past me, and then I snuck into the office.

“Alright, I am in the office.” I had an earpiece in my ear, kind of looked like a hearing aid but smaller, so my partner, Jax Moore, could hear everything I was. Hidden cameras were everywhere in the restaurant, kitchen, and back of the house so we had eyes everywhere. I looked around the office and it seemed like a typical restaurant manager's office. Bills to take care of, food and drink orders, payroll being taken care of. Then there was paperwork that looked like it was in a different language. I took more pictures on my phone of the paperwork.

“You might want to get out of there Scarlett! Mr. Rillo is coming back!” My partner Jax was in a van outside watching everything. The mystery men and Mr. Rillo were almost back in the office, but luckily, I scurried out of there before they noticed me.

“Alright, I’m out! He didn’t see me. I tell ya between having two jobs, a detective, and a waitress I should be paid overtime for this. Between this fake job and you teasing me about said fake job it’s a wonder I get anything done.”

“Nice work partner! I’ll make sure to mention something about that overtime.” Jax was proud of her, he knew the dangers of being undercover and the possibility of being noticed. I went back to the police station to report my lack of findings to my police boss. After a long day working at the restaurant and the station, I’m ready to head home and tomorrow I wake up and do it again. The next day I wake up, put on my waitress uniform, head to the police station, and my partner, Jax, stops me on my way out.

“Hey, Scarlett wait up!”

“Hey, Jax, what’s up?”

“Yeah, a big up. The paperwork and strange people you saw at Rillo’s ended up being something bigger, and your undercover is done. The feds are taking over since you were right about the restaurant. It’s a front for weapon smuggling. Also, you mentioned the lawyer and his wife, Vincent and Victoria Blackman, your regulars at the restaurant last night, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“She’s dead…”

“What!? She was very much alive when I saw her!”

“I know so clearly something happened to her after she left the restaurant and this morning.”

“So, I guess I’m not going back to the restaurant anymore. Glad someone else will deal with that. It’s nice to not go to the restaurant, but the tips were nice, and I get to keep the money.”

“Nice! Well, I guess we can go to the crime scene. Grab your stuff, and don’t forget gloves this time.” Yeah, I’m forgetful…and forgot to restock my kit with gloves and had to use my sleeve to not contaminate a scene, not my best moment. Anyway, we got to the crime scene which was at the creepy manor on the outskirts of town. No one really knows the name of it, but it’s just a creepy house. Some say the original owners came here in the 1850s and built the creepy house in 1909. Sadly, the couple only enjoyed the house for a decade before they died, sad since the original couple sounded like a cute couple. Some say the original owners still roam the house as ghosts. I think it’s just a ghost story. It is a French Renaissance style house, 46 acres, 16,000sqft, and 46 rooms. Anyway, besides sightseeing the nice house they got under the police tape and went inside. The crime was in the study, looks like it was a struggle...