Perri O'Shaughnessy - Presumption Of Death

He jumped back into the yellow truck, pulling the door shut behind him with a thump. She saw him making a radio call.

Observing his face in her rearview mirror, she started up her car. They cut through the fog and back into summer as they turned inland, driving past fields of red snapdragons and orange poppies. All the way down Carmel Valley Road, she studied him. He had lost his job and his nephew, both recently, yet here he was, out on the road helping her and whoever else needed that big helping hand. How must he feel, really?

Back home, she took her purse out and searched for her checkbook.

“Please,” Ben said. “My pleasure.”

“Oh, no. I owe you. This is business.”

“Not for me.”

He wasn’t joking. He meant, he had welcomed the opportunity. “Thank you,” Elizabeth said.

“De nada.”

She hesitated, then said, “Today is my birthday.”

“Really?”

“I’m thirty.”

His smile widened. “Happy birthday, then. I hope thirty is a good year for you.”

“Thanks again.”

“I’ll be going, then. Take care.” Reluctantly, she thought, he turned and walked off. She fitted the key into the lock and opened the door to her empty house and looked back.

He had stopped and was watching her. She saw the desire in his eyes.

She stepped inside and held the door open. He bounded back up the steps and came inside with her, kicking the door shut. Then he had her tight in his arms, supporting her, his hands tangling in her hair, his mouth on her mouth. He was searching for someone, the someone behind the great gray fortress of words and money.

And he found a way in. He found her, exposed her, soothed her fright, caressed her. She began to moan and twist in his arms.

She took his hand in hers and led him into the bedroom. They hardly spoke.

D EBBIE TOLD NINA ON THE PHONE that Thursday afternoon, “You better not be making all this up. People on Siesta Court are getting scared of each other. You really think the Cat Lady was murdered?”

“That’s what the medical examiner found.” Nina scratched her ankle, though the poison oak had faded away at last and the scratch was just a leftover nervous tic, like biting her thumbnail. Paul had gone to town to talk to Crockett again.

“Well, I asked around about the money. Whoever set the fires and killed Danny and Ruthie has to be found. But you have to understand, these are my friends.”

“Hear anything back yet?”

“I’ve heard plenty. But not about the sixty-two hundred fifty dollars.”

“Anything you have heard might help us.”

“Do you really believe your client, that young man-”

“Wish Whitefeather-”

“Didn’t kill Danny?”

“I know he didn’t, Debbie.”

“Of course, you’d have to say that. I don’t know why, but I believe you anyhow. Well, then. Darryl and Tory had a loud discussion this morning before Darryl left for work. I couldn’t help but hear part of it. Darryl told Tory he’s not happy and Tory was crying and carrying on. She’s pregnant.”

“Is it about your sister? Elizabeth?”

“Mm-hmm. So I called Elizabeth and I wanted to know whether she and Darryl-I mean, it’s none of my business in a way, but she is my sister-”

“Sure.”

“And she said, no, she doesn’t want to have anything to do with Darryl, but she has started seeing Ben Cervantes! I was thrilled to hear it, so I thought I better let Tory know she has nothing to worry about, so I gave her a buzz and left a message. And guess what. Talk about bad luck, I never thought something like this might happen-”

“What?”

“Darryl called home from school and picked up the message instead! And he called me and wanted to know everything. I told him that’s all I knew. I was very embarrassed. But also, I’m worried. Because Darryl acted so upset. He sounded jealous. Of Ben.”

“Not good,” Nina said.

Debbie heaved a sigh. “I was just trying to help out. So I called Elizabeth. And she said she was sorry she ever told me about Ben and she must have been out of her mind. I’m afraid I’ve complicated things.”

Nina thought about this, decided she couldn’t link it to Danny, arson, or murder, and said, “Has anything else happened, Debbie?”

“Well, David-you know, the Cowans on the corner-he usually sleeps late, into the afternoon, because he goes to the observatory at night. But this morning I heard the Boxster start up early. One time last year Danny told me that David tried to hire him to spy on Britta. Danny laughed when he told me this and I was curious as to why he was laughing, and the whole sordid story came out that Danny couldn’t spy on himself !”

“Oh. You mean, Danny and Britta.”

“Right. None of us can understand why David stays with her. He actually made a joke about it once. He said he was getting the lay of the land.”

“What else did Danny tell you, Debbie? About anything?”

Debbie needed a moment to change her focus. Then she said, “Lots of stuff. We talked quite a bit.”

“Ever talk about this guy named Coyote?”

“Just that he knew this part-Washoe character who lived out in the woods. A drinker. How is Nate?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’d like to bring him something. I bet he doesn’t have any clothes or anything.”

“That would be nice.” Nina gave Debbie a number to call.

“By the way, I’m sorry Sam was rude to you when you and your friend came over. Sam hasn’t been himself.”

“No problem.” Nina hung up.

What had she learned? Nothing, she thought, but she had enjoyed talking to Debbie, a talented gossip. She ought to have a talk show: She’s another Oprah, she thought.

She called Jaime at the D.A.’s office and had the incredible luck of finding him in. “I’d like to come down and see you,” she said.

“About?”

“Ruth Frost’s murder.”

“I’ve already consulted with my boss on that. She may have been murdered, but I don’t know why or by who, so I can’t link it to the arson case. So I’m not dismissing, you’re wasting your breath.”

“But why else would someone kill this poor woman? She had no money to steal. Come on, Jaime, you think someone did it to lash out at cat lovers?”

“We’ll find out. This is my only free time today, Nina, what else do you have?”

“Is there any progress on finding Robert Johnson?”

“Coyote? I haven’t heard a thing. State highway patrol has his license number, though, so we ought to grab him soon.”

“Before he takes these children as he threatened to do on the phone?”

“You mean the schizophrenic kid’s statement? Let me tell you, Nina, I’m using the word statement loosely. He didn’t feel like talking when my investigator went out to the juvenile facility to interview him.”

“You should warn the parents and grandparents on Siesta Court, Jaime. I don’t like having this information-”

“What evidence do you have that this alleged threat has anything to do with them?”

“The conchos in his tent link him to the fire.”

“They’re similar to the ones on the dead man’s belt, yeah.”

“He had an infusion of cash. That fits Nate’s story.”

“But doesn’t link him to the fires.”

“He worked on Ruth Frost’s car!”

“So we’re back to that. It isn’t a credible threat yet, Nina. I’m not going to throw those people into a panic.”

Five more minutes with Jaime convinced her that Wish was facing a real live preliminary hearing in ten days and she’d better get ready for it. She called a temporary secretarial service and arranged to interview someone the next day at Paul’s office. There would be motions, all kinds of paperwork.