The Knife Before Christmas

by Jamie Lee Scott

  This time it was the insurance company I’d been working for. They called to thank me for nailing the man trying to defraud them. They wanted me to stop by to sign some paperwork. This was curious, I thought, but I told them I’d be by in about twenty minutes or so.

  I’d pulled into the parking lot of the insurance company when my phone buzzed. It was Lydia, sending me a text to let me know that “the subject” was on the move. She was tailing her.

  I didn’t respond as I went into the building.

  The meeting lasted almost half an hour, and I was getting anxious. They wanted to verify my statements and the images I’d sent, then asked me to sign off on each of the images they’d printed off. It was the first time I’d ever been asked to do such a thing. The entire time I was dealing with the office manager, my phone kept vibrating in my back pocket. I didn’t want to be rude and look at it, but I was crazy curious about what was going on.

  My blood pressure had reached its peak, and I finally said, “Look, I have someplace else I have to be.” I looked at my watch. “In fact, I needed to be there ten minutes ago. Is there anything else?”

  The manager assured me it wouldn’t be much longer, they were just waiting for their attorney to arrive. Then he left the small office where we’d been going through the paperwork.

  I didn’t even hesitate. If he wanted to see me and have me go over the paperwork, he could come to my office. And I was sure as hell charging them for my time that afternoon. I got up and walked out the door.

  As soon as I was in my car, I looked at my phone. Most of the texts were a detailed listing of Carmen’s activities.

  From the time Lydia had started following her, she’d left the bakery, gone to her mom’s house and dropped off the tortillas, stopped at a local daycare and picked up two little girls, then she went to the body shop.

  That last part seemed very interesting, so I called Lydia.

  “Thanks for the play by play,” I said.

  “Why didn’t you respond? I was getting worried about you,” she said.

  “I was in a meeting. I didn’t want to be rude and pull out my phone to look at the messages.”

  I could hear a sting in Lydia’s words. “It could have been an emergency.”

  “If it was, you’d have called me.” She was so dramatic sometimes. “Where are you now?”

  “I’m sitting across the street from Ortega’s Body Shop in Alisal.”

  Interesting that she’d go visit her brother at work. “And…”

  “And she went inside. I can’t see anything from here, but I’m not going to blow my cover. I’ve had enough dealings with gang types after that ordeal at those apartments behind the Shell Station.”

  She’d been staking out an apartment complex for us on a previous case, an abduction case.

  “Well, let me—”

  She cut me off. “She’s coming back out. Some guy who looks close to her age is behind her. Neither one looks happy. Oh, shit…”

  I yelled into the phone. “Mom, Mom!”

  It was about a second but felt like an eternity before she answered. “I had to slink down in the seat so they didn’t see me. I dropped the phone.”

  I took a deep breath. I should never have hired her. She scared me.

  “They’re standing in front of the building. I can’t hear them, so they aren’t yelling, or at least not loud enough for me to hear. But they are definitely talking with their hands. Burning calories big time. Now Carmen is stalking away. Oh, she’s pissed.”

  “What is Mario doing?” I asked.

  “Who’s Mario?”

  “I’m assuming that’s the guy she’s talking to, and it’s her brother,” I explained.

  “He’s a cutie. Too bad he’s from the wrong side of the tracks.”

  I really hoped she was being sarcastic. And who cared what side of the tracks he was from? She was married.

  “Mom, focus,” I said.

  “I am focused. Carmen just threw a piece of paper on the ground and got in her car. I’m going to wait for her to drive away. I should call the cops. She left those little girls in the car while she was inside the body shop.”

  “Focus.”

  “Mario went back inside. I’m going in before the paper blows away.”

  “I gotta go. I’ll talk to you back at the office.”

  She disconnected, and I thought about calling her back, but I needed to go talk to Ester.

  * * *

  I didn’t see any cars in front of Ester’s house. The house was black stucco with white vinyl siding. A long driveway led to a detached garage. The lawn had turned brown, and the shrubs were slightly overgrown. The thing that struck me the most was the black wrought iron bars on the windows and the front door.

  The eaves and windows were decorated with Christmas lights, and snowmen were painted on the windows. It must’ve been painted from the inside because painting through the bars would be difficult. A plastic, light up snowman stood on the stoop.

  I parked on the street and walked up to the front door, once again checking my Glock. I didn’t know why I felt on edge, other than this neighborhood was famous for drive-by shootings. And with the mother of a gang leader living on this street, I understood why.

  Charles had told me what Nick said about Hector’s father being shot and killed on their doorstep. I wondered if this was the same house or if they’d moved.

  I carefully made my way along the cracked and uneven cement of the driveway to the front door. The stoop was nothing more than a concrete block with two stairs. I stepped up and knocked on the wooden door through the bars of the gate, then stepped down one step.

  I could hear movement in the house, but no one came to the door. I stepped back up and knocked again. Then I stepped back again.

  This time I heard, “Un momento.”

  When the door opened, I knew immediately it was Ester. She had a young face, but she looked tired, like she’d seen more than someone twice her age, and most of it not good. Her short, black hair was tucked behind her ears, and she wore no makeup.

  “What do you want?” she said in flawless English.

  I found it strange that she spoke with no accent, like Hector, but Carmen and Mario had accents. I wondered if they’d spoken English or Spanish as their first language in their home. I wasn’t about to ask.

  “Hi, Ester, I’m Mimi Capurro. I was hired by Guillermo Ibara to help your son, Hector.”

  She opened the door wider, but she didn’t unlock the bars. “Help with what?”

  “Oh, I thought Carmen told you. I just stopped by to see her at the bakery about an hour or so ago. I’m trying to help Hector get out of jail.”

  She finally opened the bars. “Come in.”

  I really wanted her to come out and talk to me on the porch. I didn’t like the idea of being in a house with bars on the windows, but I graciously accepted her invitation.

  She was a pretty woman, even if she did look tired. She wore a black skirt and white shirt, as if she worked as a waitress. But hadn’t Mario said something about them working at the bakery?

  “I haven’t had a chance to go see Hector. Have you seen him?” she asked, walking into the kitchen and sitting at a small breakfast table.

  Her house was clean and tidy but quite dark with all the drapes closed. It had a nineties vibe to it and felt like a home. Like a place grown kids would gravitate to, even if they had homes of their own. And I could smell something delicious was cooking.

  Christmas decorations littered every surface of the house, and a fake tree stood in the living room. It had silver tinsel hanging from every branch and was already overflowing with packages on the floor around it.

  “I saw him the other day,” I said.

  “How is he doing? They won’t let me talk to him on the phone.” She moved her fingers around on the table as if moving cards.

  “He’s scared. He’s afraid to sleep, so he looks tired. But he’s okay,” I said. “He needs our help, though.”<
br />
  “How can I help you?” she asked, looking out the small side window, not at me.

  “Can you tell me anything about Hector’s relationship with his fiancée? Were they happy?”

  She continued to gaze out the window. “Mario should have been here by now. He stops by every day. But he’s been acting weird lately. Like he’s afraid.”

  “Okay. Weird how?” I figured I’d just go with the flow and get back to my question later.

  “Hector was staying with me for a few days. He and Zhen had a huge fight. I thought for sure it was the end of their relationship. When Hector was here, Mario didn’t come by. It was like he was hiding from Hector, and now I feel like he’s hiding from me. He’s always been on the fringes. Some people call it the black sheep. But he wasn’t a black sheep; he just heard a different beat than the rest of us.”

  “Did you see Hector and Mario fight? Would that be why he was acting weird?”

  I wanted to get a conversation going, and maybe catch her in a lie or a slip up. She was making that difficult, and I wasn’t sure I knew enough to know if she was lying.

  “There was a huge misunderstanding.” She grabbed a tissue from the box on the table and wiped her nose. “Poor Zhen, she got caught in the middle.” Ester sniffed.

  “You mean her death?” I’d almost said murder, but that was too callous.

  “Yes and no. In the long run, it was her death, but she was caught between two brothers who loved her. How could she have known it would be her demise?” She wadded the tissue in her left hand and looked at me. “This horrible tragedy has rocked our family.”

  Hector and Ester said Mario loved Zhen, but Mario and Carmen said the opposite.

  “I hope I can help in some way,” I said, trying to sympathize.

  “My dear, almost daughter-in-law is gone, my Hector is gone, and Mario may as well be gone the way he’s acting. My sweet Carmen said she’d talk to him, but I don’t think she has.” She wiped at her nose again.

  According to my mom, Carmen had definitely talked to Mario. I didn’t know what they’d talked about, so I didn’t share the information with Ester.

  “Were you and Zhen close?”

  She looked out the window again. “In some ways, yes. I’d known her since she was just a teenager, when she first started coming to the house. She was so cute and flirty. She liked the attention from the boys. She even liked the attention from my husband. I’m pretty sure Carmen even had a crush on her at one point. It seemed everyone had a crush on Zhen.”

  I tried to get a look around the dining room, which had a full wall of family photos in frames. I could see Ester’s family growing up right in front of me. School pictures from way back to kindergarten all the way up to Carmen’s wedding photos. But I didn’t see a single photo of Zhen on the wall. For a girl that was practically family, she wasn’t on the wall.

  “She dated Mario first?” I knew the answer, but what the heck.

  “Yes. Then she cheated on him and they broke up.” Her voice not so frail now.

  “Really, with who?” I wondered if it was Hector.

  “It’s not important. What is important is that she cheated,” Ester said.

  “But it wasn’t with Hector?” I asked.

  She laughed. “Oh, no, Hector was dating a nice girl back then. But right after Mario dumped Zhen, Hector broke up with his girl. That’s when he and Zhen started hanging out. Next thing I knew, they were dating.”

  “How did you find out? Did Hector tell you or bring her by the house?”

  “He brought her to my home for Christmas.” Her hands were moving on the table again.

  “Oh,” was all I could manage. I hadn’t been prepared for the venom in her voice.

  “Hector’s a smart boy. He knew I wouldn’t cause a scene on a holy day. And he brought her into my home like she was welcome.” Her hands stopped, and she had her fingers spread. “But she grew on us. And I accepted her because Hector loved her. She was like family eventually.”

  “Did she ever go to the bakery to make tortillas with you and Carmen?”

  Ester’s grimace answered for her, even if she hadn’t said, “No, that’s my time with my girl.”

  “Oh, I guess I thought if she was family, that was part of being family, doing the girl thing.”

  She tapped the table with her left hand. “No, that was just for me and Carmen. It was our time to talk about girl things.”

  “Do you think Zhen was sleeping with Mario again?” I needed to tread lightly, but I also needed answers.

  “How is my Hector? Is he going to be okay?”

  I started to answer when I heard a phone ring. It sounded like a cell phone ring. I didn’t see a landline from my vantage point.

  Carmen got up and grabbed the phone from the kitchen counter, and it stopped ringing. It was a large phone with a gold cover. Maybe an iPhone?

  “Do you need to get that?” I asked.

  She set the phone back down and it made another sound, a text message tone. I had to hold back a laugh because it was the Minions saying, “You have a text,” with the word text drawn out.

  “No, I don’t. It’s not even my phone. It’s Carmen’s. She’s going to be looking everywhere for it.” She sat back down at the table. “I’ll have to call her husband so he can tell her. My Hector, he’s got a good lawyer. With you helping, he’ll get off. He won’t be convicted.”

  This was a weird thing to say.

  Ester must be confused about the phone. But I wasn’t going to be the one to correct her.

  “Do you think Hector killed Zhen?” I couldn’t believe what she was saying.

  “My Hector is a good boy. He has a job to do. And there isn’t a jury that will convict him. I’m not worried. But I wish they’d let me talk to him,” she said.

  “You can go see him, you know.”

  She looked down at the table, pulling at the tissue, shredding it. “No, I can’t. I can’t go to that jail. I just can’t.”

  I wondered if it had something to do with her previous arrests, or maybe her husband, but I couldn’t think of a way to ask that didn’t sound rude.

  “What about rival gangs? Carmen said there may be some bad blood. Maybe someone killed Zhen to get back at Hector.” She wasn’t going to say she thought her boy was guilty, so I tried a different tact.

  She looked at me as if she’d had a revelation. “Goodness, I don’t know. I need to call Memo. That’s a possibility.”

  She stood so fast her chair almost tipped over.

  I took this as a sign she was ready for me to leave. I stood slowly.

  “Here’s my business card. If you need to talk, or think of something that can help us, please give me a call.” I handed her my generic card with just the office number on it.

  I walked closer to the wall with the family photos and scanned it as closely as I could without it looking creepy. Lots of family photos, lots of smiles, except for Ester. She looked like something weighed heavy on her mind. She never looked directly into the camera.

  She took the card and folded it as she walked to the door.

  I was definitely being dismissed.

  “We’re doing everything we can to find the real killer,” I said.

  She pulled the door open and unlocked the bars. “I’m sure you are. And I appreciate it. I’ll call Memo and tell him we talked. If I think of anything that can help Hector, I’ll let you know. Of all the things that could happen, I never thought my Hector would be in jail for murder. He’s too smart to get caught.”

  Fourteen

  CHARLES

  I wasn’t good with talking about personal stuff even when I was feeling mushy, which wasn’t often. I’d learned to deal with Mimi’s need to talk about anything and everything that happened to her because she was Mimi, and she was my best friend. I wasn’t so comfortable with Nick, so I was glad to see Joe.

  When Joe came back into the room, I could have hugged the geezer. He’d interrupted a conversation I didn’t wa
nt to have.

  “Sorry it took so long. I had to call the coroner’s office, then I talked to our boss to make sure this was within protocol. I’ve never had a private dick come to me for information. Most dicks I know just chase after deadbeats and do skip traces.” He handed me a thin folder.

  “This is the coroner’s notes?” I asked.

  “Bet that coffee’s cold,” he said, not answering my question, probably thinking it rhetorical.

  “Have a seat. I need to refill my cup anyway,” Nick said. He picked up the cup of black coffee he’d brought for Joe, walked over to the drinking fountain, and poured the coffee out. Then he took the cup with him as he disappeared around the corner.

  Joe sat but not anywhere close to me. “What’s the deal with you and Nick? You know he has a live-in girl, right?”

  I thought about ignoring the question, but I said, “Yes, I know. Mimi is my partner.”

  Total confusion spread across Joe’s face.

  “Partner, as in we own a business together. Not partner in life. She’s Nick’s partner in life,” I explained.

  The confusion turned to a look of content. “That’s one patient woman. She’s pretty, smart, and hardworking. Not sure why Nick hasn’t put a ring on it.”

  Just for shits and giggles, I said, “She’s already married.” I had to keep myself from laughing my ass off and explaining.

  Joe didn’t have a response. He looked over his shoulder as if Nick couldn’t get back soon enough.

  I read through the coroner’s report, thinking I still wanted to see the body in person. I didn’t know why, but I felt like she was going to tell me something, as if the dead could talk. I didn’t often come across the opportunity in the private eye business to see and talk to the victim after they’d passed. Yes, sometimes they talked without saying anything. Sometimes there was something an autopsy couldn’t tell a person. I’d learned about dead men talking in my other line of work.

  The report did have photos of Zhen on the table, and I looked closely to see if there were tattoos or other injuries that hadn’t been noted. Then I read the report thoroughly.