Swingin' in the Rain (5 page)

  “Just now, at Rockland’s desk, I happened to see a photo of Randy at the crime scene. That same emblem was tattooed on his arm!” I was very excited by the implications. Unfortunately, Jakes wasn’t feeling it.

  “Sooo, you’re saying Patti had a stamp of a very common design and Randy had a tattoo of a similar design and you think, what?” He was giving me his skeptical detective tone and it bugged me.

  “Jakes. Not similar. The same! It can’t be a coincidence. I saw a napkin at Patti’s make-up station, too. The napkin had that fleur-de-lis on it. It was for a club in Los Angeles. They have to be connected!”

  “So you think she was here talking to Rockland about Randy?”

  I gave him an “isn’t it obvious” look.

  “Did she know Randy?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess it’s possible they met, at a party or something.” Jakes eyes were like little slits as he stared at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re doing it again.”

  “Doing what again?” I asked innocently, although I knew damn well what he was saying.

  “I told you you’re not a suspect, didn’t I? You remember that?”

  “Yes.”

  “So then you don’t have a reason to play detective, do you?”

  “I’m curious,” I said, “I didn’t go out and look for this situation. It fell squarely in my lap! And you have to go back inside, anyway. Right?”

  “I’ll ask around,” he said, leaning over to kiss me. “Should I take you and Sarah out to dinner tonight?”

  “How can you be so blasé’ about this? I’m on to something. I don’t know what, but it’s something.”

  “See you tonight.”

  He got up and walked up the stairs. I stood up, prepared to walk down.

  “I’m not getting involved. I’m just curious. Don’t forget to ask around, Detective!” I called after him.

  He waved a hand without looking back. I went down the stairs without looking back. I knew he was mildly annoyed with me but he’d still turn to watch me walk away.

  He always did.

CHAPTER TEN

  I went home, thinking about what Jakes had said about me not needing to play detective.

  A few times in the past few years I did have to play detective, once to clear myself, twice to find out who had killed one of my co-workers and an acquaintance. Was this so different? Maybe I wasn’t a suspect, but Randy was my ex-husband. More importantly, he was my daughter’s father. Wasn’t that reason enough to find out who killed him? Besides, like I had told Jakes, I hadn’t gone looking for this. It came looking for me. So it wasn’t really my doing, right?

  It was still early afternoon. More clouds were moving in off the horizon, which meant more rain on the way. I made myself some tea and contemplated the significance of the fleur-de-lis on Patti’s wrist and Randy’s arm. I thought about the napkin I had seen at Patti’s make-up station. What had it said? Trois something? I had taken a little French in high school so I knew “trois” was French for “three”. I decided to Google it.

  I grabbed my laptop and my tea and carried them outside so I could enjoy some sun before the next deluge. I opened up my computer and typed in “Trois nightclub in Los Angeles”. Nothing came up. I pondered how Patti and Randy could know each other, if, in fact, they did. I sat there for a moment and watched the water. It made me want to throw on my wetsuit and go surfing. Unfortunately, with all the rain the waters at most Los Angeles beaches were too dirty so I hadn’t been out in a long time. Sad to say, the run off from sewers made it dangerous for surfers. Ear infections, stomach ailments, not necessarily a risk you want to take just to catch a wave. It made me feel a little melancholy as I remembered that Randy and I had gotten interested in surfing together. One of those things we had done in Waikiki on our first vacation as a couple. We had a lot of fun together in those days. He was so handsome and charismatic and he was good to me. I know he loved me. He just loved money more. My money in particular.

  I couldn’t figure out how he would know Patti. I hadn’t worked with her before “The Bare and the Brazen,” and I started there long after Randy and I were finished. I guess they could have run into each other over the years at industry parties I had taken him to. Wouldn’t Patti have mentioned that? Unless they were sleeping together and Patti was embarrassed to tell me.

  Hmmmm.

  Patti Dennis had been doing make-up on “The Bare and The Brazen" for thirty years. She had to be in her late fifties and she still had it going on. But Randy liked his women younger, and dumb. After me, I mean. I couldn’t see Randy with Patti that way.

  Or maybe Patti having the stamp and being at the police station was a coincidence, after all.  I decided to stop thinking about it until I heard from Jakes.

  Instead, I was back to thinking about how to tell Sarah that her daddy was dead. She understood about death as best she could for being seven. We’d had the talk when she had accidentally loved her hamster to death a couple of years ago. I decided I would explain that her daddy went to Heaven, and he would always watch over her and be her personal angel. She was smart, though, and inquisitive. She was going to ask me why he died. And how. And when she did ask, I would need to have an answer ready for her.

  A big plop of water hit me squarely on the nose. I looked up and saw the clouds had moved back in and we were in for another soaker. I quickly gathered up my computer and hustled inside.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I picked Sarah up from school and listened to her talk about her day as we drove home. She wanted me to know that she was the fastest girl in the second grade. She had come in third at recess, beat out by two boys, Jesse and Riley.

  “Mom, I was all wet after, I ran so fast. Nobody could believe it!” she exclaimed. “I just kept trying and trying, but Jesse and Riley are just SO fast.”

  “That’s amazing, Sweetheart! I’m so proud of you for trying hard.”

  I decided not to tell her about Randy until I heard what Jakes had to say. I knew I was hanging onto a slim hope, but maybe they’d solved the mystery of his death before dinner and at least I’d know more information when I told her.

  Yeah, right.

  When we got home she ran to her room to play with her “American Girl” dolls and I went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. I’d stopped at our corner grocery store and gotten chicken breasts, bread crumbs, shredded mozzarella and a bottle of red wine. I was going to make my old standby “Chicken Mozzarella”. Quick, easy and something I knew Sarah and Jakes always liked.

  I pounded the poor chicken breasts with a wooden mallet into very thin fillets. If they weren’t dead before they certainly were now. Then soaked them in beaten eggs. I was coating them in the breadcrumbs and dropping them in sizzling olive oil when Jakes walked in the front door. As had become normal, Sarah ran to him and he picked her up. 

  “You’re getting so big! I can hardly lift you up anymore, Sarah,” Jakes said.

  “Daddy says the same thing. He says I must be eating bricks. Daddy’s so funny, isn’t he, Mom?”

  I looked at Jakes, kind of stunned, then took a second to regain my composure and said, “Yes, he is, honey. But no bricks for you tonight. I made your favorite chicken dish. Wash your hands. It’s time to eat.”

  Sarah ran off to the bathroom and Jakes faced me. “You haven’t told her yet?”

  “No,” I said as I turned the fillets.

  “Why not?”

  I placed the breasts in a baking dish, sprinkled a generous amount of shredded Mozzarella on them and stuck them under the broiler to melt. I poured two glasses of Merlot and handed one to Jakes.

  “First, I don’t know how,” I said. “Second, I was hoping you’d come over today with good news.”

  “Sorry to disappoint,” he said. “Let’s eat and then I’ll tell you after Sarah’s in bed.”

  We had dinner, thankfully, Sarah didn’t mention her dad again. After several rousing games of “Connect Four” I put Sarah to bed. Jakes read her a story. It had become an evening ritual when he was over. After she had fallen asleep we sat side-by-side on the sofa and I poured us each another glass of wine.

  “Somebody hit Randy on the back of the head before he went down the hill in that mud slide.” Jakes said.

  “Really? Are they sure he didn’t fall and hit his head on something. I mean, how do they know he was hit on purpose?”

  “They found some metal bits in the wound, made by something like a wrench. Definitely not an accident. He was hit with the cliché ‘blunt instrument’”.

  “So it’s definitely a murder investigation.”

  “Yes.”

  “And your friend, Rockland? He’s in charge?”

  “Not my friend,” Jakes said. “He’s new to the squad, but he’s a fast tracker. On his way up. And yeah, he’s in charge.” He gave me a look. “And he’s kind of an asshole.”

  “Jakes,” I said, “I know what you’re thinking. I am not getting involved.” He was still giving me that look. “I mean it. I’m going to let the professionals handle this.”

  He still looked skeptical.

  “Okay, so maybe I’ll just get a little involved.” I added.

  “How little?” He sighed.

  “Well, I already am involved, because of Patti. I swear she has a connection with Randy. I can feel it.”

  “You can ‘feel it’, huh?” He put his arm around me. “What am I going to do with you? I know there’s nothing I can say to convince you to really let the professionals handle it.”

  I turned to him and kissed him. I looked into his dreamy brown eyes. “I haven’t done so badly before, have I?”

  “Besides almost ending up dead a few times? I guess not.”

  “Seriously.” I kissed him again. “I’m just going to get a little involved.”

   “You know that officially, I can’t work the case. It’s Rockland’s case.”

  “What if he asked you for help?”

  “He won’t ask. He knows my connection to you and besides, he already has a partner. There’s no way he’s going to ask me for help. We just don’t like each other.”

  “What about Patti?” I asked. “What was she doing at Police Headquarters?”

  “Rockland wasn’t talking.”

  “Not the friendly, sharing type, huh?”

  “Not when he figures he’ll be my boss within a year or two.”

  “So we don’t know if she was there to talk to him?”

  “No,” he said, “but she was there. I talked to some people who saw her.”

  “Where?”

  “In the building.”

  “In an interrogation room?”

  “Maybe.”

  “That’s not very helpful.”

  “I know it.”

  We finished our wine, put the glasses down on the table. I sat back.

  “I’ll have to talk to her,” I said.

  “She’s does your make-up, right?”

  “Right.”

  “You could just start a conversation,” he said reluctantly. “Talk about her phone conversation, or tell her you saw her at the Police Administration Building today.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Still don’t remember if she knew Randy?”

  “She never met him through me. That much I know.”

  “Alex, do you know anybody who’d want to kill Randy?” he asked.

  “Besides me? No.”

  “What about the other people he swindled?”

  “They all got their money back from their insurance company, remember?” I asked. “He was careful about who he robbed.”

  “Except for you.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, so they got their money back,” he said. “But maybe one of them was still mad enough to do it. Do you know any of them?” he asked.

  “I met some of them, over the years.” I answered. “It might be interesting to track them down and ask a few questions. You know, just for curiosity’s sake.”

  “Does that still get categorized as a ‘little involved?’” he asked.

  I hesitated. “Probably not.”

  “Then I guess I’ll have to get a little involved, too,” he said, “Look, I’m kind of curious how Randy died. I have a vested interest.”

  “Am I your vested interest?” I snuggled into him.

  “Yes. But so is Sarah. I want to make sure you’re both safe and that this in no way has a connection to you.”

  I sat up.

  “Oh my God! You’re right! I hadn’t thought about that. What if someone has it out for me, too?”

  “Hold on. Don’t panic,” he said, soothingly. “That’s a very slim chance. I just want to make sure my girls are safe.”

  “Your girls?” I got all teary eyed. “I really like the sound of that.” I kissed him again, a little longer this time. Chivalry was not dead.

  “Let’s come up with a plan of attack. Nothing full on. It’s us just getting ‘a little involved.’”

  “We can do that,” I said, putting my arms around him. “In bed.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

  We went to bed and made love, and then while I lay in the cradle of his arms, we hatched a plan. He told me how he would handle Randy’s old customers.

  “How will you know if they’re lying to you?”

  “You have to watch while you talk,” he explained.

  “Watch what?”

  “Their faces,” he said. “Body language. People do certain things when they lie. They look away. They clasp their hands tightly together. Compress their lips. Bite their lip. Little things, Alex. If you watch carefully, you see it.”