CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) by Kassandra Lamb

by little feet pounding up onto the porch.
                “Guess I missed my opportunity,” Skip said, dropping a kiss on the top of his wife’s head as he walked by her, headed for the caffeine.
                “Afraid so. But we’ll make another one soon, I’m sure.” Kate grinned at him. He returned the grin as the kids came tumbling into the room, chattering at top volume about the fun they’d had at the park.
                While Skip ate a late breakfast, the kids, made hungry by fresh air and exercise, had an early lunch. “Actually, darlin’,” he said to Kate, who had joined them at the table, “I may need to take another nap this afternoon, and I don’t mean that the way I normally would. I have a surveillance job this evening and I need to be alert.”
                “On a Saturday night?” Kate said, not looking happy. “Couldn’t you assign it to somebody else?”
                “I’m afraid we’re stretched a bit thin right now.” Skip grimaced. “We’ve been getting a lot of new cases lately. Good word-of-mouth, it seems, is starting to get around town.”
                “Well, that’s called good trouble,” Kate said with a smile. “I’m not surprised you guys are getting so popular.”
                “Yeah, but the work’s coming in a bit faster than we can hire more people, or get them trained. Mac’s now full-time, and I’ve finally convinced Ben to train as an investigator, but it’s still not quite enough hands on deck at the moment. So I’m doing this job tonight myself, just a surveillance gig.” He wasn’t about to tell Kate any of the worrisome details. “I’ve got to leave about five, to find a good spot to watch from, should be home by ten though.”
                Kate nodded. “I’ll hold down the fort, sweetheart, but tomorrow is definitely going to be your day of rest.”
    * * *
                Skip made a second slow circle around Elise Thomas’s block, trying to make it seem like he was looking for a particular house number, so nobody would call the police to report a suspicious character casing the neighborhood. He decided the clump of trees between her house and her neighbor’s would be the best spot to have a good view of the back door and also most of the approach to the front of the house. He would have to make a circuit around to the other side periodically to make sure no one was sneaking onto the property from that direction.
                He parked three blocks over and called Elise. “Hi. Skip Canfield. I’ve found a good spot to watch the house from, but it’s on the boundary line with your neighbor to the left. Do you mind if I knock on their door and tell them what’s going on? I don’t want them to see me out there lurking around and think I’m a prowler.”
                Elise hesitated a moment and then agreed. “Try not to give them too many details if you can help it, though. I’m kind of a private person, don’t really like my neighbors knowing too much of my business.”
                “I can relate. I’ll be as vague as I can. Give me about half an hour, then you and the kids can go.”
                “Okay, we usually get home about nine-thirty.”
                “See ya then and, hopefully, I will have nabbed your bad guy for you.”
                Skip walked over to Elise’s block and up the sidewalk to her neighbor’s front door. He was raising his hand to knock when the door opened and a teenaged boy came barreling out. Skip just got a quick impression of pimply pale face under greasy dark hair, baggy tee shirt and drooping jeans as the kid shoved past him. A man in his late forties came into the doorway. “By eleven, Jack, or you won’t be going out next weekend at all,” he yelled after the kid. The boy ignored him and turned left, toward the main drag two blocks