Clive walked in the front door of my office at the same time Piper walked in from the kitchen. She carried two cups of coffee and handed one to Clive.
“I guess you two have met,” I said. “Piper, come sit here. There’s a pad of paper and a pen.” I indicated to my chair behind my desk.
I grabbed my coffee cup and sat in the chair next to Clive.
“Did you read and fill out the paperwork Uta gave you?” I asked.
He looked at his lap. “I did.”
Piper sat in my chair and pulled the legal pad closer.
“Piper is our new investigator, and she’ll be assisting me with your case,” I said.
“Where’s Lydia?” Clive asked, looking around.
“She’s working other cases. Besides, we try not to work cases for friends. We’re too close to be objective.”
The wrinkles on his face deepened as he considered this. “I called Lydia for a reason.”
“I’m sorry she won’t be working directly with you, Mr. Pratt, but we’ll keep her involved and up to date on what we learn. I hope you understand. We think we’re better able to investigate if we’re impartial,” Piper said, stepping right in.
“Why don’t you explain to Piper what you told me yesterday?” I wanted to hear the story again to see if it changed at all.
He took a deep breath. “My wife died. She was found in her car on Old Stage Road with a gunshot wound to the head. The police ruled it a suicide. I don’t think it’s a suicide.”
“Because women don’t kill themselves that way?” Piper asked.
He nodded. “That, and Edie was vain. No way she’d want to be found with her head blown off, having defecated all over herself.”
“Sometimes vanity doesn’t come into play when a person contemplates their own death. What else makes you think it wasn’t suicide?”
Vanity came into play with Edie on everything, at least as far as I could remember. Back in the day, I didn’t think anything of it, other than she was pretty. And I wanted to be pretty when I grew up. It wasn’t until my teens that I realized how important Edie’s looks were to her. She didn’t work, and she didn’t volunteer. Her only job was to look good on her husband’s arm. Be a good wife. Like a Stepford wife.
“So many things. She had appointments. One for Botox. She’d never have made that appointment if she planned to kill herself. She’d have to pay for the missed appointment if she didn’t cancel twenty-four hours in advance.”
“There has to be more than that,” I said.
“The bad thing is she’s ambidextrous, so the fact she shot herself with her right hand when she usually used her left hand doesn’t play into the evidence.”
I wasn’t so sure about this. I could use both hands for a lot of things, but I golfed right handed, when and if I ever golfed. It was easier. Sometimes people learned things with a different hand other than their dominant one. Maybe she fired a gun with her right hand.
“Old Stage Road is on the far north side of Salinas, kind of in the country,” Piper said, as if thinking aloud.
“Yes. That’s the other thing. We didn’t know anyone out that way. She wouldn’t drive there and sit in her car on the side of the road, then shoot herself.”
“Where exactly was her car?” I asked.
“You know when you turn right off Natividad Road? There are about a dozen small ranches on the right side, and on the left are the hills, thousands of acres of cattle land. They found her car parked next to the first gate on the hill side. It had been pulled off the road as if she planned to get out and open the gate.”
I tried to remember who owned all that cattle land. There were five ranching families who owned most of the land around Salinas. I’d gone to school with the boy of one of the families. Velini, Andrew Velini. But his family owned the land on the southwest side of Salinas, on the way to Monterey.
“Was her car door open?” Piper asked.
“No, but the bullet went through her head and shattered the sunroof in her BMW.” His voice cracked as he said this.
“I used to be with the Salinas Police Department, so I’ll see what I can do to get the police report.”
“Oh, no need.” Clive reached down into the leather satchel he had on the floor. “I have it all right here. I made copies, so I don’t need this back.” He leaned forward and placed the file on my desk.
Piper frowned. “How did you get this?”
“She’s my wife. I wanted everything they did during their extremely short investigation. I insisted on seeing the report. My attorney got it for me.”
“Anything else you want to share with us?” I asked.
“Yes, I have a file with all her social media accounts. I have the passwords to some of them, but not all. The police gave me back her cell phone, so I have that, too.” He reached back into the bag, pulling out another file folder and a cell phone. He put them on my desk.
“We have a pretty good computer forensics guy, so we should be able to get into her accounts even without the passwords,” I said.
Clive looked at me with his brows raised. “Really?”
I smiled. “Really,” I assured him.
“Isn’t that illegal?”
“She’s dead, she won’t care,” Piper said, then must have realized how harsh it sounded. “She’d want us to know, wouldn’t she? I mean, if she truly was murdered, like you say, she’d want the killer brought to justice.”
“I guess,” he sighed. “Sure.”
“What about her friends?” I asked.
“Most of her contacts in her phone should give you that information. I don’t have the password to open her phone, though.”
“Do you have her email address?” Piper asked.
I knew she asked because we could reset the password if we had the right information. I made sure we had Edie’s mother’s maiden name, her date of birth, and the last four digits of her social security number, just in case we needed it.
“And maybe the name of your first dog,” I added.
“We only ever had one dog. His name was Griffin,” he laughed. “He was a Griffin Terrier.”
I smiled.
“So you believe me? You’ll investigate this?”
“I don’t have all of the evidence yet, Clive, but I’ll investigate and Piper will assist me. Or I may let her take the lead, and I’ll assist her.”
His face got red. “You’re going to turn my wife over to a new investigator? You may as well let Lydia investigate by herself. I’ll never find the truth.”
“Mr. Pratt, I worked in homicide before I left the police force. I’m fully capable of investigating,” Piper said calmly.
“Oh, well then, that’s okay. You’ve worked a homicide before.” He looked at me. “Everyone knows you’ve worked them. Your agency name is in the papers all the time.”
I suppressed a grin. Yes, and those nice mentions were why we needed to expand.
Clive stood and shoved his satchel at me. “I’ll get out of your hair and let you get started. There’s more stuff in here, in case it might be helpful. But I promise you, I knew my wife, even if we’d been estranged.”
“Estranged?” Piper asked.
“Yes, we separated almost a year ago. Off and on, anyway. Things got weird in the last few years, and then they got worse in the last year.”
“Weird, how?” I asked.
“Edie used to be so nice. Everyone loved her. But recently, she snapped at everything. What I thought was a small thing, she thought was the end of the world. We fought constantly. And she had insomnia. Sort of. I mean, she’d be awake for three or four days with minimal sleep, then sleep for two days.”
“Did this happen a lot? The sleeping thing?” I asked.
“Every few weeks. She just seemed so agitated. It got to the point where I didn’t want to be home, so I got a hotel room. One time, I got an apartment, and then she moved out and got one the next time. I’d been living at the house again for about a month when she was killed.�
�� He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes.
Piper came around the desk. “We’ll get started on this right away, Mr. Pratt. And thank you for that last bit of information. It may be helpful.”
As if on cue, Uta appeared in the doorway. “Mr. Pratt, I just need your retainer, and there’s one more form for you to sign, then I can see you to your car.”
Piper and I watched Uta walk him out of my office. I noticed he never even drank his coffee.
“Think she was an addict?” Piper said as we both stared at the doorway.
“I just don’t know. I guess we’ll find out when we start digging.”
Edie was a lot of things, but drug addict didn’t seem to fit her demeanor. She seemed too in control to want to take a chance of being out of control. And drugs were worse than alcohol when it came to being uninhibited. She’d always seemed so put together, self-assured, not insecure enough to use drugs. But then again, that was many moons ago.
Seven
Mimi
I was glad Clive had a copy of the police report and the investigation pages. I didn’t look forward to seeing the pictures, but I was delighted I wouldn’t have to ask Nick for any favors.
“How do you want to proceed?” Piper asked.
“It’s your case, you tell me,” I said.
“Really? But I just started,” Piper said.
“Well, this is your forte, so it’s yours.”
She did a little happy dance in a circle, and I loved her enthusiasm.
“Before we get started, I realize I hadn’t asked you about compensation. Then I saw in the employee manual that you’d hired me at a rate higher than you pay entry level investigators. Thank you.”
“You have experience,” I said. “You’ll probably be able to teach us a few things. So, how do you want to proceed?”
I was never comfortable talking about money. I didn’t want to tell her how desperately we needed her, so I asked Uta to increase her salary to what I thought she might be making when she worked for the police. Of course, I didn’t think she made as much as Nick, because she’d been new to homicide and he was a grizzled veteran.
“I’ll make a copy of all of the papers, and we can both read over the case. That way we bring our different perspectives to what we read. Does that work for you?”
It did, and I told her as much. “Uta can make the copies. I’ll give you the bag.” I handed her the satchel. “You can see if there’s anything of value to the investigation. Charles can hack into her phone if we can’t get in by changing the password.”
“Sounds good.” She took the bag. “I think we’ll find answers.”
“I think so, too. Have Uta bring the copies to me when she’s done. I’ll work on my other case reports until I get them. Want to meet back after lunch?” I said.
“Sounds good,” Piper said.
I heard her ask Uta to make copies of everything, then tuned her out as I looked on Pinterest for wedding ideas.
Damn if that Pinterest wasn’t a black hole. It seemed I’d only been searching for planners and ideas for a few minutes when Uta knocked on the doorframe. “I have your file on Edie Pratt.”
I looked up. “Have you ever been on Pinterest?”
She rolled her lips in and bit them to keep from smiling, then said, “And here I thought you’d never start preparing for that wedding.”
I rolled my eyes. “We haven’t even set a date yet.”
“Lord knows that was smart. It’s been months, and I’ve barely heard you talk about it. Most brides-to-be won’t shut up.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I guess I’m…” I had no idea how to finish the sentence: scared, nervous, filled with dread, plain old terrified, “not your average bride.” I’d done the wedding thing already and it hadn’t turned out so great.
“You’ll be ready when you’re ready. And I’m sure Nick’s a patient guy.”
I’d taken a drink of my coffee and nearly spit it out when she said Nick was a patient guy.
She walked up to my desk and placed the copies in my inbox. “He’s been with you this long, hasn’t he? He must be a saint.” She winked and turned around and walked out the door.
She nailed that one. I wouldn’t wish me on anyone. Then again, I was better than Charles, and Max put up with him.
I went back to Pinterest and closed the page. I couldn’t get sucked back in. I picked up Edie Pratt’s murder book. Not that the police thought it was a murder, though.
“Got a minute?” Piper stood in the open doorway.
“Sure, come in,” I said, opening Edie’s file.
“I know I said we’d meet back after lunch, but I wanted to chat about a few things together before we dive in.”
This was a change, for this office anyway. We all seemed to think we knew best, so we did our own thing before discussing it. I was up for a different approach.
I leaned back in my chair. “Okay.”
Piper sat in a chair and opened the file folder, putting it on her lap. “The first thing that caught my eye was that the first officer on the scene called it a suicide.”
I pushed my file forward on my desk, opening it to the first page. Resting my elbows on the desk, I put my hands around the back of my neck as I read the first page. “It looks like that’s what the 911 caller said, that it looked like a suicide.”
“Right, and that’s a problem.” Piper looked up at me. “You can’t assume. Because as a detective, if you assume it was a suicide, you’ll treat it differently.”
“Different how?” I asked.
“He’ll just go through the motions, come to an expedient conclusion. I noticed there aren’t any interviews in the file other than the original caller. This means they didn’t really investigate. It’s only been a few days, so maybe the coroner will have more.”
I couldn’t believe a detective would just go through the motions if there was even a hint of foul play. I still needed to read the file and look at the pictures to see if I agreed with the assessment.
Nick had spoken of a few lazy cops. I hated to think any cop would be so lazy in the investigation of a dead body. But it did seem a few were inclined to pass off the more difficult investigations if they could get away with it. But I didn’t think a cop would rise to the level of detective if they were lazy.
“I thought the coroner had already ruled,” I said.
“I don’t think so. But I’m not finished. I just hope they took enough photos of the scene to be able to investigate if this indeed does turn out to be something more sinister.”
I flipped through the pages. “There’s a lot here. It doesn’t look like they just ‘called it in.’”
I looked through the open doorway and saw Lydia. “Mom, I mean, Lydia.”
She turned to look at me but continued down the hall.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, as I got up and walked out of my office.
Standing at the reception desk, Lydia leaned toward Uta as if whispering.
“Can I see you in my office, Lydia?” I made it clear it wasn’t really a request.
Lydia turned around. “I’m a little busy here.”
“Mom, now!” I said in a loud whisper. “In the living room.”
The living room was our waiting area for clients.
Lydia’s eyes went wide.
I felt more like the parent talking to the kid.
She huffed, then stomped into the living room.
“What is your problem? Do you want to get fired?” I hissed.
“I don’t have a problem,” she said, standing stiff with her arms crossed.
“That’s a load of crap, and you know it. This isn’t first grade, Mom. This is your job, and I’m your boss. If you can’t give me that respect, then you can pack your desk.” My heart ached as I said the words. No one ever wants to fire their mom. I sure didn’t. But I couldn’t have insubordination. If I wanted that, Jackie would still be working for me.
Lydia blinked. “I’m not going to let you make me
cry. It’s so unprofessional.”
“Cry about what?” The words came out harsher than I’d planned.
“You’ve kicked me to the curb. I’ve worked so hard. I don’t complain. I’ve worked late hours. And you ditched me the minute you got a new investigator.” Her voice cracked once in her diatribe.
“I haven’t kicked you to the curb. I need to get Piper in the hot seat quickly to see if she’s going to make the grade. If she’s not, I need to start interviewing for new employees. I don’t have the luxury of a long training period like I did with you. And this might be a homicide. She’s a former homicide detective.” It wasn’t all true, since I had no doubt Piper would make the grade, but I had to say something.
Lydia looked down and uncrossed her arms. “Yeah, Uta told me she was Nick’s old partner.”
I frowned. “I thought you knew that.”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll try harder to not get my feelings hurt. But I think I deserve to be in on this case. I brought it to you.”
I hated to admit it, but she was right. And there were things she could do to help us.
“Come into my office. I’ll formally introduce you to Piper, and we’ll get you something to work on.”
Lydia smiled. “Okay.”
I started back to my office, then stopped. “And, Mom, this is business, please don’t ever disrespect me again. As much as it would kill me, I’ll make Charles fire you.”
I could hear the smile in her words. “Coward.”
I laughed as we entered my office.
“Piper, have you met Lydia Graves? She’s one of our investigators.”
Piper stood and greeted her. “I hear you’re also family.”
“I’m Mimi’s mom, but we try not to bring that up too much.” Lydia gave Piper a wink.
I silently groaned.
“Now, Lydia, have a seat,” I said. “Lydia’s going to help us, so we can put this case to rest quickly.”
Lydia sat next to Piper.
“The main thing I think we need Lydia to work on are Edie’s friends, social media accounts, and maybe medical records,” I said as I walked back to my desk.
“I can do that,” she said. “I’m friends with Edie on Facebook, and we follow each other on Twitter and Instagram.”
A Lie in Every Truth Page 5
