Jozsa Neptune King and the Missing People

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4835-7028-0
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 196 Seiten

In THE CASE OF THE MISSING TOURISTS, Neptune and Shark are hired to find a couple of German tourists who went missing in the picturesque Lakes District, while Shark's brother Lance is also working on a missing persons case. Homeless people are disappearing from London. He thinks it's a serial killer at large. Is there a connection despite the difference in victim type? In THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY GIRL Neptune and Shark's protective instincts are aroused when they are hired to find a 14 year old runaway. All is not as it seems, when her Muslim background becomes a key factor in her disappearance. As always they triumph in the end but not necessarily to their client's satisfaction. In ALL IN THE FAMILY, Sharks elder sister Gwenevere Robinson arrives at their office all the way from Australia, complete with her two sets of twins-four undisciplined unruly boys. A tornado would have been more welcome. Her husband Jim, had come to a medical conference in London and disappeared. She insists on staying with Shark, who has misgivings about that, worried how his wife would cope with Gwen's volatile moods. Meantime Gwen hates the thought of Neptune being involved in the search for her husband, but they can't do it without Neptune's brilliance. Sparks fly between the two, until Gwen comes to realize just why the Johnson clan holds Neptune in such high regard.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jozsa, Magda

Leseproben

CHAPTER TWO

Petite, pretty, red haired Rachel King reluctantly handed her two and a half year old son over to the teacher at the Frank Barnes School for the Deaf.

Max looked back at her, his aquamarine eyes huge round circles on his freckled face.

“Go on, Max.” Rachel motioned with her hand and smiled at him, although it was an effort. She felt like crying. It was bad enough when her adopted daughter Tamara started kindergarten, but Max was still a baby as far as she was concerned. She wasn’t quite ready to part with him, but her husband Neptune had convinced her that the sooner he started learning to communicate the better it would be for him. The school took students as young as two, so Max was already behind.

The teacher took Max over to where several other young children sat—all were under five.

Max looked them over with interest. He hadn’t really had any children his age to socialize with before.

Rachel sighed. As hard as it was parting with him for the day, she knew this was good for him. He was sure to blossom.

The teacher looked across at Rachel. “Did you want to stay, Mrs King?” she asked. “You can sit at the back of the room if you like.”

Rachel nodded. “Maybe just for a short while.”

The teacher smiled. She understood how Rachel was feeling.

Rachel found a seat at the back of the room and watched with interest as the teacher held up picture cards with different animals on it and indicated what they were with sign language. She then repeated the motions slowly, getting Max to copy her. After an hour, Rachel could see Max was thoroughly engrossed in the lesson and didn’t seem to be missing her so she decided to leave. It was obvious he was in good hands. She gave the teacher a wave as she left.

At their Baker Street office, Neptune King and his business partner, Shark Johnson was loafing in Neptune’s office. They’d just finished reading the newspapers, pleased that Shark’s brother had once again given them a good write up on their last case, a thief calling himself Robin Hood.

“I hope it’s not going to be busy today. I’m feeling lazy,” said Neptune.

“You’re always feeling lazy,” countered Shark automatically. He heaved his muscular frame out of the arm chair in front of the fireplace and walked across to Neptune’s desk, flicking open the appointment book. Tall, blond, and movie star handsome, he was a younger replica of his brother Lance. He studied the book a moment. “Looks like your lucky day. There’s only one appointment in the book and that’s not until eleven.”

“Who is it?”

“Mr. and Mrs Von Hoffman.”

“I hope it’s something interesting.”

“Interesting or not we’ll take it,’ said Shark. “It’s been a bit quiet around here lately. But for the Robin Hood case we’d have had nothing to do.”

“Lance’s write up about us should bring in a few new customers,” said Neptune. “We always get an influx anytime there is a story about us in the newspapers.”

“Yep, it helps. Still, we shouldn’t be choosey.”

Neptune nodded. “Those new men you hired seem to be doing all right handling Garth’s cases.”

“Yeah, they’re getting through them pretty quickly. Speaking of Garth how is he?”

“He’s getting discharged from hospital tomorrow. Rachel will pick him up. He’s going to stay at our place until he’s better. We didn’t want him going home alone with no one to look after him.”

Shark smiled. He wasn’t surprised at the news. It was typical of Rachel and Neptune to open their doors to anyone in need. Garth was an employee and considered almost part of the family. “That’s good. It won’t hurt him to be pampered for a while. You might even manage to fatten him up a bit.”

Just then a knock on the door interrupted them.

“Come in,” called Neptune sitting up straighter on the couch.

Their second full time investigator, Milo Washington stuck his head in.

“Come in, Milo,” said Neptune.

The tall, good looking black man entered, he had a beaming smile on his face and carried a copy of the Times. “Have you seen the newspaper?” he asked. “We had a good write up.”

Shark smiled at him. “Sure did. You got a mention as well. I hope your wife is suitably proud.”

“She is. She’s going to start a scrap book.”

“You did really well on the case, Milo,” praised Neptune. “I hope from now on you will stop doubting yourself. You are a bona fide, qualified, professional investigator and worthy of working for such a prestigious firm as ours.

“Modesty aside,” added Shark, “I agree with Neptune. I don’t want to hear of you doubting yourself ever again.”

Milo grinned, his white teeth gleaming. “I won’t. It was a real pleasure working with both of you. If you ever need help with any other cases, count me in.’

“Not sick of insurance cases are you?”

Milo shook his head. “No, but it’s different working with you two. All the disguises and things. An insurance investigation doesn’t really call for such subterfuge.”

“Most of our cases don’t either,” replied Shark. “It’s just that Neptune likes dressing up.”

“Well I think it’s amazing the way he can transform himself into different people.”

“Stop! It’ll go to his head if you praise him too much.”

Neptune smiled and said, “One can never have too much praise. Go right ahead, Milo. Praise me at will.”

Milo chuckled. He had woken up this morning feeling different. Even though they’d hired him with no real experience and he had been successful handling the insurance cases that came his way, he was still lacking confidence in his ability. It was a throw back to his previous job where he was constantly belittled and overlooked. He suffered none of that here, but he was always questioning himself.

Working directly with Neptune and Shark had been an experience he would long remember. He had acquitted him- self well and had even managed to gain Robin Hood’s trust and get hired as a new member of his gang much to Neptune’s approval. This morning when he woke, he had none of the usual misgivings. He always worried that he would come to work and fail on an investigation. K & J were proud of their one hundred per cent success rate. He didn’t want to be the one to ruin their record. Today he felt supremely confident, and after reading the newspaper article about their capture of Robin and seeing his name mentioned in conjunction with Neptune and Shark’s, he’d almost burst with pride. Perhaps he had been underestimating himself. Neptune and Shark always had confidence in him, as did his wife. It was time he believed in himself also.

“Gunna mail a copy of that article to your previous boss?” asked Shark.

Milo smiled again. “I don’t think that’s necessary. I sent him the one that mentioned me as a top insurance investigator. I don’t want to give the fellow a heart attack.”

“And he’ll see the story anyway,” added Neptune. “The other papers are sure to pick it up and rehash it.”

“Uh huh, there’s that too. Well, I guess I’d better go and do some work. I have a couple of cases on my desk that need my attention.”

“Good,” said Shark. “We like to see our employees hard at work.”

“Someone has to bring in the bacon,” replied Milo, before going out.”

“Oh my God,” said Shark. “We’ve created a monster. Milo actually gave us some cheek back.”

Neptune smiled. “It’s good to see. He looked more confident, don’t you think? The old diffident Milo is gone now. He feels more like part of the team now, and surer of himself. Perhaps it was a mistake putting him straight into insurance investigation on his own. Maybe we should have worked with him at the start so he could build up his confidence faster.”

“Maybe, but I figured it was better not to be breathing down his neck and once he handled a few insurance cases on his own he’d feel more confident. Guess I was wrong.”

“Never mind. The end result is the same.”

They were still lounging before the fireplace when Rachel turned up. “Hard at work I see,” she said on entering Neptune office.

“As always, Rachel. How did it go?” asked Neptune.

“Oh yeah, it’s Max’s first day of school,” said Shark.

“It was harder on me than on him. He looked a little scared at first, but when he saw the other children around his age he settled in okay, and he looked really interested in the lesson. I think he’ll be all right.”

“I’m sure he will be,”...