“Nothing that graphic,” Jack said. “Me passed out. Her next to me.”
“Can I see that one?” Mitch asked.
Jack pulled his phone out, tapped the screen a few times, then turned it around.
The photo showed an unconscious Jack Marsh in a bed with the woman, Monica, lying next to him. Smiling for the camera. Looking very much like a hunter with her kill.
Mitch’s eyes narrowed. “Who smiles for a photo after they’ve been forced into having sex?” He glanced at Harper. “Seem odd to you?”
“It does.” She nodded. “And if she was really traumatized, as she claims, why didn’t she call the police? Why take pictures, then contact you for money? Seems pretty scammy to me.”
“Maybe,” Jack huffed out. “But it’s a scam that’s going to work. I don’t see any other way to get out of it except to pay her, man.”
“You can’t do that,” Mitch said. “She’ll be after you again and again for more money each time. You need to end this. I bet you’re not the first guy she’s done this to. You might be the biggest name, however. I’m sure she thinks she’s found her golden goose.”
“Okay, so what do I do?”
Mitch spread his hands out. “You were going to spend some money on this one way or the other. I suggest you hire a privateinvestigator to do some digging on this woman and see what he can find out.”
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I’m not against that but I’d need one I can trust. One who knows what he’s doing. How do I find a guy like that today? Because she’s only giving me a couple of days to cough up the dough.”
“As it happens,” Mitch said. “There’s a private investigator coming here to Hideaway Bay. He’s the brother of a friend of ours. I feel pretty strongly that he’d be trustworthy.”
“Whose brother?” Harper asked.
Mitch smiled. “Lucas Prime.”
Chapter Fourteen
Yoga was good. Hard and sweaty, but that was sort of the point, Frankie figured. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be exercise. She and Prisha chatted a bit before and after, which was nice. Prisha was lovely and let Frankie know right away that she’d uninvited Suzanne from the book club. She insisted Frankie and Harper become members.
Interestingly, Suzanne didn’t show for yoga. Frankie was more than a little happy about that. She hadn’t wanted any kind of confrontation with Suzanne, but it would have been hard to ignore the woman who’d caused her sister so much pain.
Prisha said Suzanne hadn’t come to the class in several days and that there was a rumor floating around that she and her husband were moving out of Hideaway Bay. Prisha’s last comment on the subject had been along the lines of good riddance to bad rubbish, which had made Frankie laugh and nod.
Home and showered, Frankie headed to the office to check email. Taking a break to do something good for herself had been great, especially after her weird morning, but now it was time to work. She was particularly eager to see if Stacy had responded about the logos yet.
Frankie sat down at the desk, fired up her laptop and went right to her inbox. Sure enough, there was a response from Stacy.
Frankie held her breath as she opened it.
Frankie, these are fantastic! Seriously, so good. I’m a little mad at how hard it’s going to be to pick one. lol The first and third options are my favorites, but I love the colors in the second one. Could we take the background of the first one, along with the letters used in the third, and combine them with the colors in the second one? If that’s not possible, let me know what can be done or if you have any other ideas. They really are great. Chic and major high-end. I’m so happy.
Much love,
Stacy
PS. Look for my friend Allan to reach out to you about his book cover!
Frankie took a second to process Stacy’s requests, then instead of immediately answering, she fired up her graphics program and started creating the brand-new logo. It wasn’t hard. The elements were all there. It was just a matter of putting them together the way Stacy wanted.
Frankie had each mockup saved in layers, meaning she could combine the first and third versions, then it was as simple as turning off the font selection on the first option, then turning off the background layers in the third. Once that was done, she did a little more tweaking, adjusting everything so that it was lined up properly.
The next thing she did was copy the color scheme from the second logo and shift it to the new logo, transforming all the colors to match. Again, there was a little tweaking needed, but it was nothing major. She saved the logo in a new file and just like that, Stacy’s request had become real.
Frankie took a hard look at the logo, trying to see it through the eyes of a client. It looked good. Then she scrutinized it further, looking for anything that she would change, anything that needed refining, anything she wouldn’t be happy to put her name on.
A few more small adjustments, and she was satisfied. She saved the file, then exported it and attached it to her email back to Stacy.
