For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series (9 page)

“
So during a tour you drive
over to every new home on the market, look at it and take the
flyers? I picked up a bunch of realtors’ business cards yesterday
from the house on Granvia Valmonte where Thornbird died; they must
be from the tour?” Henry looked at Rosie and was fascinated at how
she kept licking the salt from her glass before taking small sips
from her margarita.

“
Generally whenever a
realtor goes into a house, either on the tour, or with a
prospective buyer, they will leave their card behind as a courtesy
to the listing agent.” Rosie answered. “That’s what Wayne Johnson,
the police captain who called you to let you know that I was coming
to see you, mentioned to me as well.” Henry picked up his coffee
again, and looked directly into Rosie’s bright green eyes. “You
told me yesterday that Mr. Thornbird had a penchant for finding and
selling celebrity owned homes, can you tell me a little bit more
about how he did that?”

Rosie took another sip of
margarita, “Did I tell you yesterday that he sold an Albert Frey
designed hotel that had a Marilyn Monroe connection to a young
couple from Chicago?” “Yes, you did mention that. And my housemate
Charles mentioned to me that there was a small hotel near the
Racquet Club where Marilyn Monroe was rumored to have met President
Kennedy in 1962, I think it was.” Henry moved his coffee cup aside
as the waiter brought their plates. “Housemate? I’m sorry; I
assumed that you were married. You wear a wedding ring.” Rosie said
with a flustered tone in her voice as the waiter set her enchilada
plate in front of her.

“
Will there be anything else
folks? Would you like a refill on that margarita, Ma’am?” The
waiter asked having set the hot plates on the table. “I normally
don’t, but I think that this time I need another one.” Rosie nodded
to the waiter. Henry pushed the refried beans around on his plate
and looked down at his left hand where his wedding ring was still
around his finger. “My wife Irma died suddenly about three years
ago.” He said quietly, “I haven’t felt a reason to take it off. It
was just before my retirement from the police force, things were
kind of hectic and I just have had a hard time letting her go, so I
guess that’s why I didn’t take my ring off.”

“
Oh, I’m so sorry.” Rosie
put her fork down, she too was quiet. “I know what you must feel
like; I lost my husband in a plane crash five years ago. One minute
he was whistling a tune as he walked out the door on the way to the
airport, the next thing I knew the Highway Patrol was on the phone
with me to let me know that his small plane crashed while he was
trying to land. He was such a good pilot too.”

Henry looked up at Rosie,
whose eyes seemed misty at the thought of her dead husband. “I’m
sorry for your loss as well.” Henry finally said. “You know, you’re
not the first person I have ever met who lost his wife and then
became gay.” Rosie put a forkful of enchilada in her
mouth.

“
Gay, what do you mean?”
Henry asked incredulously. Rosie finished chewing, “You know, you
lost your wife, your life with her was obviously very happy since
you still wear your ring, you couldn’t imagine yourself with
another woman, so now you live with Charles.”

Henry couldn’t help but
chuckle, “Well you’re partially right, Irma and I were very happy,
but Charles rents a room from me, we don’t have any relationship
beyond friendship and as far as other women, I haven’t really given
them any thought after Irma died.” Until now, Henry thought to
himself taking another look at the lively woman across the table
from him.

Rosie put her fork down,
“I’m so, so, sorry for making the wrong assumption.” Her face
turned nearly the color of her hair. “Yesterday I saw your wedding
ring, I assumed you were married, and then just a moment ago, I
thought you were happy in your relationship with Charles, I don’t
know how to apologize, can I buy you a margarita?” “Is everything
ok here folks” the waiter appeared as though summoned. “I’ve
decided to have a margarita as well.” Henry was still laughing,
“Better make it a large one, frozen with salt please.” “Yes, sir!
One large frozen margarita with salt coming right up.” The waiter
disappeared again.

Henry attacked his fish
tacos with renewed interest. It seemed as though something had been
cleared up between Rosie and himself. He had not enjoyed lunch with
a woman in a long time; he was certainly beginning to enjoy this
lunch and this woman. “I’m glad we’ve resolved that, yesterday I
was wondering if your husband was jealous of your relationship with
Thornbird.”

Rosie licked the salt off
her margarita glass and took a much larger sip than earlier. “When
my husband died, he didn’t have any life insurance or anything, so
I had to go to work to support myself. I started as a receptionist,
just like Tiffany, at Coachella Real Estate and eventually worked
my way up to office manager.”

The waiter set Henry’s
margarita in front of him and brought Rosie’s fresh margarita as
well. Henry picked up his glass and held it in front of him as
Rosie lifted her glass to his and clinked it. “Here’s to
communication without assumptions.” Henry said as Rosie nodded.
“I’ll drink to that as well.” Henry took a drink from his
margarita, and set it down on the table. “Let’s get back to telling
me about the hotel that Thornbird sold to the couple from
Chicago.”

Rosie took her own drink.
“Well as I mentioned, it was the first property that Rex sold with
a celebrity connection. The hotel seemed to be what the couple
wanted but the Monroe story certainly helped seal the deal.” “Did
the property sell for a premium price?” Henry poked his fork into
his fish tacos which had cooled off considerably during their
little misunderstanding. “No, I think that was before Rex realized
that a celebrity tie-in would make a property more valuable.” Rosie
said as she put another forkful of enchilada in her mouth. “The
next house, the Robert Goulet place, did get fifty thousand more
than similar houses in the same neighborhood. I’ve included both of
those places in the report that is in my car.”

“
Do you have any idea how he
researched the celebrity lineage of these homes?” Henry finished
the last of his tacos; he didn’t really feel like eating the cold
refried beans or the rice. “All realtors have access to the county
records of home ownership of course.” Rosie took the last bite of
her enchilada. “Rex was very computer savvy and certainly would
have been able to look up which homes were owned by celebrities;
from there it would be a simple matter of trying to get the current
owners to put them up for sale.”

Henry pushed his plate aside
and leaned on the table looking Rosie right in the eyes, “Do you
think he went through all that trouble?” Rosie met his gaze, “No.”
“Somehow, I didn’t think so either.” Henry sat back in his chair,
here was a question he didn’t want to ask, but he had just told
her, no assumptions. “Did you know what was going on?” Rosie sat
back also, she looked down at the napkin in her lap, “You know, I
had my suspicions, but it all seemed very plausible, given the
Hollywood connection that this town has.”

The waiter came over and
cleared their plates, “Can I get you folks anything else?” “Do you
want anything?” Henry asked as Rosie shook her head no. “We’re set,
we’ll just finish our drinks and you can bring the check whenever
you’d like.” Henry wasn’t real anxious for lunch to end, he was
enjoying himself, and he took a very small sip from his margarita.
“Did Thornbird ever have a problem with any of his ex clients once
they found out that perhaps the home they just bought wasn’t what
he said it was?” “No, hardly anyone ever complained. You know, it’s
actually pretty difficult to discover that a celebrity didn’t own,
or didn’t stay in a house. All of the buyers wanted to believe that
they had a piece of Hollywood glamour, so I don’t think they ever
thought of researching the true house lineage or complaining for
that matter.”

Henry noticed that Rosie had
stopped drinking her margarita all together. He sort of hoped it
was because she didn’t want their lunch to end either. It could be
that she is full, or maybe she has had enough to drink he thought.
“I’m having a really good time; I don’t really want to go back to
the office.” Rosie interrupted his thoughts. “How about seeing a
movie down the street?” Henry asked.

Rosie appeared to be
thinking about it as the waiter set their check on the table. She
reached for the bill, “I invited you, so I’m buying. A movie? No,
I’m sorry; I can’t take the whole afternoon off, how about a walk
around the block to work off some of this lunch?”

Henry was surprised that he
felt a little disappointed. “That sounds great; you’ll have to walk
slower so that I can keep up. And I’ll let you pay for lunch if
you’ll agree to let me pay for dinner later in the week.” “Deal!”
Rosie dug cash out of her purse, Henry noticed with satisfaction
that she was a more generous tipper than Wayne and they got up and
walked out the front door.

Palm Canyon Drive was fairly
busy after lunch and the temperature was in the low nineties,
certainly bearable for a walk. They walked next to each other
towards the Hyatt Regency Suites hotel. Rosie had indeed slowed her
walk; Henry had no trouble keeping up with her. They must have
appeared an awkward couple though; Rosie was barely over five feet
in her heels while Henry was just over six feet tall in his
loafers. No one paid any attention to them, and they didn’t pay
attention to anyone else on the street.

“
So after I started at the
real estate office, Rex was very nice to me and suggested that I
take some computer classes at College of the Desert.” Rosie
explained. “I did and started working on entering the properties
into the Multiple Listing Service that all the agencies across the
country use.” “You mean the realtor.com website that I used to find
my house here is connected to your Multiple Listing Service?” Henry
asked. “That’s right, there’s a regular update, but MLS has been
around a long time before the Internet and has been used by agents
across the country for decades.”

They reached the Hyatt hotel
and without discussing it, turned around and headed back towards
the Blue Coyote and Rosie’s car. “You know, you might be able to
find out a lot more about some of his past customers if you could
look at Rex’s computer.” Rosie suggested. “That’s not a bad idea; I
suppose Wayne’s team has already checked his place out pretty
thoroughly.” Henry thought of all the things that Wayne told him
didn’t amount to much and decided that he should probably head for
Thornbird’s home that afternoon. “Rex carried a set of keys with
him and he had a spare set in his office. But I’m sure your friend
Wayne can get them to you; if not...” Rosie suggested. Henry looked
down at Rosie appreciatively. “You know, you and I could make a
good team at this detective stuff.” “You flatter me.” Rosie’s face
turned the color of her hair. “I do hope you find out which one of
his former customers were that upset with Rex as to do this to
him.”

They had walked back to her
car while talking and got in to drive back to Rosie’s office. Henry
leaned into the back seat for the manila folder and started looking
through Thornbird’s past real estate sales. Rosie pulled her car in
next to Henry’s in the parking lot and turned to Henry, “You know,
this morning I thought we were going to have a standard business
lunch, but I want you to know that I had a really nice time being
with you.” This time it was Henry’s turn to blush the color of her
hair. “Me too, you’ve helped me a lot and not just with my
investigation.” She held out her hand which Henry took into his
own. “Can I call you for dinner later this week?” He smiled at her.
“I’d like that, I’ll be expecting your call.” She smiled as she got
out of the car. “See you then.” She waved to him as he got into his
own car and she walked up the steps and disappeared into the real
estate office.

I’ll be darned, Henry
thought, of all the things I expected to find while investigating
this murder; I certainly didn’t expect to find this. He started his
car and headed for the police station to see if he could get the
keys to Thornbird’s house from Wayne Johnson.

Chapter 7

Henry took the four stair
steps up to the police station in two long strides. He pushed open
the door and signed in at the front desk. The reserve officer
behind the bullet proof glass asked him who he was there to see and
pushed a visitor badge through the slot under the glass. Henry took
the badge, peeled off the backing and stuck it to his shirt. Before
September 11, if he wanted to see Wayne, he basically walked in and
waved at the officer at the desk. That the world had changed that
day was apparent - here was one more sign.

He wondered if after the
tragedy they had made any changes at the Eagle River police
station. Of course, it wasn’t as large as the building here in Palm
Springs; Eagle River looked more like the sheriff’s office in
Mayberry than this large multi-storied building.

Wayne came down the stairs
and escorted him up to his office. “Did you find out something?” He
asked as they were walking back up the stairs together. “No, not
really, I came by to see if I could get the keys to Thornbird’s
house.” Henry replied. “Sure, why not, the lab crew has been there,
I don’t think they found anything.” Wayne replied, “Let’s call the
property room from my desk, they should have the keys.” “Maybe they
didn’t know what to look for.” Henry sat down at the visitor’s
chair next to Wayne’s desk. “Perhaps, and you think you do?” Wayne
smiled as he dialed the extension for the property room from his
desk phone.