The Private Eye

“Congratulations, pal. Are we in time for the party?”
    “There's still plenty of champagne left.” Josh glanced at McCray's passenger, who was just getting out of the car.
    The man looked to be in his late sixties. Obviously still hale and hearty, he was built like a mountain.
    The gray trench coat he wore was stretched across shoulders that appeared to be a yard wide.
    “That's him?” Josh asked quietly.
    “That's him. Sorry we're late. Took me a while to find him. He was in the middle of one of his literacy classes. But when I told him who was waiting for him, he dropped everything and got into the car.”
    The big man lumbered up the steps and stuck out a hand. “You're January?”
    “I'm January.” Josh shook the beefy hand. “Thanks for showing up here today.”
    “I don't mind telling you, I'm a little nervous. After all these years...”
    A high-pitched feminine shriek interrupted the big man's words.
    “Ricky!”
    Josh turned to Bee Shirley standing frozen in the doorway. She was resplendent tonight, having chosen to wear nearly every rhinestone in her extensive collection. Her eyes were filled with shock as she took in the sight of the huge man in front of her.
    “Hello, Shirley-” Ricky “The Wrecker’ Ring stood uncertainly in the porch light. “Been a long time, honey. You're just as pretty as I remembered.”
    “Ricky, it is you, I ain't dreamin'?”
    “I figure I'm the one who's dreamin',” Ricky said in a hoarse voice. “Thought you'd have found someone else a long time ago. Someone worthy of you, Shirley. I couldn't believe it when this here McCray showed up telling me you were living on the coast and had never married.”
    Shirley took a hesitant step forward. “I thought you hated me. I thought you believed I was the one that ratted on you all those years ago.”
    Ricky looked genuinely startled. “Hell, no, honey. You’d never turn rat. I knew that. You were always loyal and true-blue. It was the feds who nailed me. They used wires and tapes. All that newfangled technology. I never stood a chance. I was always an old-fashioned kind of guy. I realized the day they put me away that when I got out, I was going to have to find a new line of work. I'm not cut out for carrying on the old business under modern conditions, if you know what I mean.”
    “Ricky, are you sayin' you've gone straight?” Shirley was obviously overjoyed.
    “Straight as an arrow, honey. Record's clean from the day I got out of prison. I know I'm not what you deserve. I knew it back in the old days, too. I didn't contact you after they sent me up 'cause I didn't want to mess up your life again. Told myself you deserved a chance to start fresh. But these guys flay that as long as I'm clean, you might be interested in takin' me back.”
    “In a hot minute, Ricky.” Shirley hurled herself into his arms, her rhinestones flying. “Lord, I missed you, lover. You were the best there ever was. I never stopped thinking' about you. Not once.” “I never stopped dreamin' about you, honey.” Ricky's arms closed around her.
    “I think we ought to leave these two alone,” Josh murmured to McCray. He opened the front door of the manor “Yeah, kind of makes you misty-eyed, doesn't it?”
    McCray glanced inside at the crowd of people milling about. “So, what do you say you introduce me to your bride? I'd like to meet the lady who is about to make me sole owner of BIS.”
    Josh smiled as Maggie materialized from a throng of well-wishers. She came toward him, looking glorious in yards and yards of white lace and satin. He thought he had never seen anything half as beautiful in his entire life. She was everything he'd been searching for all his life. She was his future.
    “There you are. Josh. I've been looking for you. It's time to cut the cake.” She tilted her head to look at McCray. “Are you his ex-partner?”
    “I'm McCray. And I just want to say. Miss Gladstone—”
    “Mrs. January,” Josh corrected dryly.
    McCray chuckled. “I just want to say, Mrs. January, that I am very impressed with you. Never thought any woman would be able to take the chill out of this guy. All I can say is that you must be some kind of female.”
    “Heavens, Josh is not the least bit cold,” Maggie said, laughing gently. “He just likes to hide his true nature behind that tough-guy image.”
    “Is that so?” McCray arched an ironic brow at Josh who smiled blandly back.
    “Yes, indeed. You only have to get to know