Page 25 of Devil in the Details

When Caleb got to his car, he looked all around for anything suspicious, but this part of the parking lot was empty, brightly illuminated by the light poles installed at strategic intervals across the stretch of asphalt. No sight or smell of demons lurking nearby, no one at all, not even someone weaving toward their vehicle after too much blackjack and booze.

Maybe, as Delia had once said, he really was jumping at shadows.

There definitely didn’t seem to be anything here.

A lift of his shoulders, and then he climbed inside the Porsche and touched the ignition button. He’d already put up the roof before he went inside the casino, figuring he didn’t want to leave his new car wide open and unattended like that. Yes, he’d seen a lone security guard slowly making the rounds of the parking lot in a golf cart as he headed inside an hour earlier, but he didn’t know how much good the guy would have done in an actual emergency.

But there hadn’t been an incident. All the same, Caleb wasn’t about to let down his guard. If he’d learned anything over the past couple of years — ever since the Project Demon Hunters crew had entered his life — it was to take nothing for granted.

Delia knew she should have put her feet up when she got home and just watched some TV. It had been a long day, and, with any luck, her broker’s open house would end up producing at least one interested buyer and a quick sale.

But after she’d taken off her heels and slipped into some yoga pants, flip-flops, and a beloved baggy T-shirt, she found herself too restless to sit down on the couch and find something that wouldn’t engage her brain too much, whether another of an endless lineup of home improvement shows on HGTV or maybe a sitcom…preferably one she’d already seen before so she wouldn’t have to pay too much attention.

Instead, she wandered into her office and woke her big iMac out of its sleep. A few months ago, when she and Caleb had first stumbled across The Styx Group, she’d done her own investigating…and later on, had asked her friend Prudence to look into the company as well.

But even Pru’s vastly superior sleuthing skills hadn’t unearthed anything out of the ordinary, so Delia had let it slide. She’d been busy with work and helping Caleb with the renovation, and because everything had seemed peaceful again, there hadn’t seemed to be much reason to keep digging.

Maybe they’d have better luck investigating Aegis Holdings. She hadn’t heard anything from Evan Matthews, and it sure sounded as if one of the buyers represented by Marcy Talbott or Aaron Sanchez had a better chance of stepping in and scooping up the place, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to do a little looking around just in case Aegis came out the winner in a bidding war or something.

Rather than waste time with her own fumbling efforts, though, she just opened the Messenger app on her computer. It was a weeknight, so Delia supposed there was a chance Pru might be out, but since she didn’t seem to be seeing anyone at the moment, much more likely that she was at home.

Sure enough, she responded almost immediately to Delia’s, You there?

Yeah, I’m here. What’s up?

Not much. Or maybe something. I had a guy from a company called Aegis Holdings tour one of my properties this week. Sounds like he wants to turn it into a vacation rental. Can you try looking them up and letting me know if you find anything?

Sure. Just give me a couple of minutes.

Thanks.

In Pru-speak, “a couple of minutes” could mean anything from just one or two all the way up to a half hour, depending on how elusive the information she was seeking turned out to be. To amuse herself, Delia bopped around on a couple of different websites, adding a cute pair of sandals to her wish list over on Zappos, dipping into the MLS to see if anything interesting had popped up since the last time she’d checked.

About fifteen minutes later, Pru came back online.

I couldn’t find much. It looks like the company was incorporated about ten years ago. Based in California.

Of course, Delia already knew that because Evan Matthews had come right out and told her the company was located in Santa Monica.

Anything else?

It looks like they run targeted ads on Facebook and other places aimed at people who are upside down in their homes and need to get out. I guess then they go in and scoop them up and turn them into vacation rentals.

A distasteful practice, taking advantage of people who were already feeling desperate, but there wasn’t anything technically illegal about it.

Do they manage the properties themselves?

Delia couldn’t see her friend — although their last get-together had revealed that Prudence had tired of her turquoise blue hair and had switched it over to a gorgeous ombre of deep purple to pale lavender on the ends, which just brushed her collarbones — but she had a feeling Pru’s dark eyes had lit up with excitement right then.

That’s the interesting thing. I dug around and found out that they hire people to manage all their vacation homes — maybe one person handling three here, and another taking care of four in a different location. All of them are superhosts on Airbnb, and the listings are written carefully to make it sound as if they’re the owners, and not some big property acquisition and management company.

Again, nothing illegal about that. Misleading, sure, because she knew that most of the people who rented those properties wanted to believe they were working directly with the owners.

But adding a layer of obfuscation made it much less likely that Aegis would have to deal with any direct complaints from their temporary tenants while at the same time raking in money hand over fist.

Any idea what they pay their rental managers?

Not really. They don’t have an employment page on their website or anything like that. But I can look into it if you want.

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