A Dead Husband (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery)

by Anna Burke

  She would have to tell Laura what happened. Laura had more than her share of trauma to deal with already. Jessica took some time to see how much of the damage she could mask with makeup and sunglasses. She hoped the seriousness of the situation would help convince Laura to come and stay with her and Bernadette. Still, she wanted the chance to break it to her slowly.

  Jessica would tell Bernadette not to give the guards at the gate permission to let anyone in they didn’t already know. Lots of folks could get in, anyway. Service providers of all kinds came and went through those gates every day. There would at least be some record of their comings and goings. It would make things a little harder for anyone who might be up to no good, if Laura would agree to move in for a while.

  Maybe they should hire somebody to protect them until this thing was settled. They had a security system in the house, although they didn’t always use it. She would talk to Bernadette about that too, making sure it was on at all times. The community also provided security patrols. Plus, Bernadette and her cronies kept an eye out for each other via a sort of coffee klatch neighborhood watch. Surely, they’d be okay.

  Jessica’s dad used to keep a gun in the house but she hadn’t seen that in years. Maybe it was still around, but where? In his study or on a closet shelf in her mother’s room? The thought of a gun revved up her heart with the telltale flutter and rapid heartbeat that presaged a panic attack. It was hard to believe she had any adrenaline left after a day like today but she was too tired to have to fight with her own body. She bore down as she was told to do by her shrink and the racing heart stopped immediately.

  “Enough with the guns already, it’s time to deal with something really scary,” she said to herself as she headed into her closet. A wrinkled tee and pair of leggings would have to do. At least they were clean. She found a brand new, loose-fitting, big-shirt among the new items hanging in the closet. She put the gauzy blue blouse on over the tee and leggings. She felt better about going out in public, especially to El Paseo. Her prospects continued to brighten. Who knew what she might find at Saks? She was going to get some basic things for Laura but if she stumbled on to a couple things for herself, so be it.

  By the time Jessica joined the others on the back patio a kind of party mood had set in. Jerry looked more beautiful than ever after his shower. Bernadette had made a huge platter of nachos to go with the pitcher of margaritas Tommy fixed. They were all seated in a little semi-circle chowing down, with a seat left open for Jessica. In addition to Tommy and Jerry and Bernadette, Brien was sitting there stuffing his face too. His pool cleaning equipment was strewn about.

  “Hey, Jessica, Tommy and I brought your car back. I heard you kicked some dude’s ass today, that’s righteous! Can I see your eye where you got whacked?”

  “Sure,” Jessica said as she plopped down, scooted close to the nachos and put the sunglasses up on the top of her head.

  “Whoa, that’s sick,” Brien said as he scarfed down more nachos. Jessica wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

  “Going to look a lot worse than that,” Bernadette piped up. “You feeling any better, mija?”

  “Lots better, but I’m starving. I sort of lost my lunch before I kicked that dude’s ass. It takes a lot out of a girl, especially one of us older babes, Brien, to wrestle with an asshole.” Jessica took one of the small plates on the table next to her and slid a pile of nachos onto it. She picked up a tortilla chip, covered in cheese, guacamole, jalapenos and black olives. Opening her mouth wide as she could with her sore lip, she crammed it into her mouth.

  “Jessica,” Bernadette interjected, “please don’t say asshole with all these nice young men here. It’s rude.”

  “They’ve heard worse,” Jessica retorted. That actually came out kind of muffled since she had put another chip in her mouth before she had finished chewing the first one. Jessica washed it down with a sip of the margarita Tommy handed her.

  “That’s for sure,” Tommy said. Brien and Jerry nodded in agreement. Cramming another nacho in her mouth, Jessica looked at her watch. It was nearly 4:00. She really wanted to knock back that drink but had promised Laura to stop by around five. It probably wasn’t good to be mixing alcohol and aspirins anyway or, drinking when she had driving to do.

  Getting to Sara’s house to meet with Laura by 5:00 was not going to happen. If she waited any longer, the shops on El Paseo would be closed. She had to get a phone, and the Apple store closed at six on Sunday. Jessica took one more sip then set the drink down.

  “Spectacular, Tommy!” Jessica said as she gingerly licked the salt off her lips. Tommy had learned to make great margaritas in a short stint as a bartender wannabe. Another of the many careers he had tried out and abandoned quickly. Tommy beamed at her praise and when the others, especially Jerry, chimed in Jessica thought he might wet himself like a puppy.

  “Bernadette, I’m worried about Laura. That pendejo in her house this afternoon might be after her, or his friends might be. I think she’d be safer here with us than in Cat City with her sister. What do you think? If we’re careful to use the alarm system, and we don’t let anyone we don’t know in through the gates, do you think we could keep her safe here? I could put her up in a hotel somewhere, but she just lost her husband. She has a funeral to arrange...I, I don’t know what to do.” Jessica’s voice trailed off.

  “Bastante! Of course she can’t go to a hotel. She needs to be someplace where she can feel safe and have some comfort. Besides if you bring her here, I can help. We can both help her bury Roger properly.” There was no doubt in her eyes or on her face. Jessica wanted to hug her but it would have to wait until she finished shoveling the rest of the nachos on her plate into her mouth.

  “I can watch out for you all, too, Jessica.” Brien volunteered. “I’m in the neighborhood almost every day anyway. I can do some drive-bys to make sure you’re all okay. I’ve had bouncer training. I know how to handle some—what’d you call him?” He looked at Jessica and at Bernadette.

  “Pendejo,” Bernadette replied since Jessica’s mouth was still too full to say anything. “And saying it in Spanish doesn’t make it less rude, Jessica.”

  “Yeah, some pen-de-jo,” Brien said, pronouncing each syllable. He finished his drink and set it down a little too heftily on the table.

  “So much brawn,” Jessica thought, “but so little brain.” The extra muscle hanging around might make someone think twice about busting in on them. She had a lot of running around to do so that meant Bernadette and Laura would be alone a lot this week. Jessica chanced one more swig from the margarita, delicious, but deadly. At least it wasn’t spiked with a roofie! And she could not resist another handful of nachos.

  “Okay, Brien, but no heroics. You don’t have to handle anybody, just call security or the police. Actually just call everybody if you see someone sneaking around or trying to get in here. You need to come over here and hang out when I have to run around so Laura and Bernadette won’t be alone. If you can juggle your pool jobs this week to help out I’ll make a donation to your North Shore surf safari fund. Deal?”

  “Deal.” He held out his hand and Jessica shook it with the hand not loaded down with nachos.

  “What about me?” Tommy asked.

  “You could help me with a few things,” Jerry offered. “You have any experience with computers?” Jerry asked.

  “I could help you with a lot of things,” Tommy said quickly. “And I’ve got plenty of experience—with computers, I mean.” Jerry was blushing again. Jessica wasn’t sure how much of this young love she could take as she nearly choked on a mouthful of nachos.

  “I’ll have him do some background searches for me. We’ll find out what we can about this Eric guy. I can get a last name from the restaurant manager in the morning, if you’re sure Laura doesn’t have one.”

  Jessica smacked her head with the palm of her hand. That hurt. “Shiii—shoot! My list!” The things she needed to ask Laura were on her phone.

  “It’s ok
ay, Jessica, I got you covered.” Jerry tore a page out of the little notebook he carried with him and handed it to her. There was her list. Just like she had put it there herself, along with several things she didn’t even know she needed to ask.

  “You’re amazing Jerry.” Now she had him blushing.

  “Can I borrow your phone?” Jessica asked. She took the phone he offered and called Laura’s cell. It was one of the few numbers she knew by heart.

  “Hello,” Laura said picking up on the first ring.

  “Laura, this is Jessica. I have a lot to tell you but I’m running behind. It’s probably going to be closer to seven, after dinner, by the time I get to you. Will that work?”

  “Sure, Jessica, that’s fine. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

  “That’s what you think,” Jessica thought.

  “Also, I wanted to give you a heads up Laura. Things didn’t go as planned at the house today. Have the police called?”

  “Uh, no, why? What happened?” The pitch of her voice started to rise.

  “Somebody broke in while Jerry Reynolds and I were there. Jerry’s the P.I. that Paul’s law firm loaned us for a while. He’s going to follow up on a few things tomorrow. I just wanted to check with you to see if you remembered Eric’s last name. You were going to think about it, right?”

  “What do you mean somebody broke in, Jessica?”

  “A man broke into your house, using the door leading from the patio into your bedroom. He sort of trashed your bedroom, especially the closet. I got into it with him. I tried to stop him, but he got away. The police were still in the middle of their investigation when we left, but I’m sure at some point they’ll get in touch with you about this. I promise I’ll give you the whole story when I get to your house later, okay? Now how about Eric. Did you come up with anything more about him? Jerry is going to try to track him down tomorrow. I told Detective Hernandez about Eric. He’s been assigned to handle Roger’s case. The police can start tracking Eric now, too.”

  “I’m sorry Jessica, but I don’t know his last name. I’m sure he told me but I had a lot to drink. All I know for sure is that he had just started working at Lulu’s, so he’s a new employee, if that helps. He was staying at a friend’s condo in the Villa Caballeros complex. A two bedroom place, on the first floor, next to the pool. I think he said his friend was Joe Abercrombie or Abernathy, something like that. He might have said the guy is a cousin, but I’m not sure about that either. I can’t believe I sort of remember his friend’s last name and not Eric’s. I’m so sorry I can’t tell you more.”

  “It’s okay Laura, Jerry’s a pro. If anybody can track this guy Eric down, he can. After speaking to Detective Hernandez today, it looks like we have plenty of time to sort all this out. They’ve got the guy I ran into in your bedroom to investigate now, too. He’s got to be higher on their suspect list than you or anybody else right now.”

  “That’s good, I guess.” She sounded relieved, like somebody taking in air after holding their breath for a long time.

  “A couple quick questions before I let you go. Did Roger use his office at home to meet with clients?”

  “No, not that I know of. Mostly he met clients at the site where he would be doing the work for them. Sometimes he met with them elsewhere like at a realtor’s office. When his shop was still open he met with clients there of course, but never at home.”

  “Okay, Laura, last question for now. Off the top of your head do you have any idea who someone with the initials MT might be? Roger had lunch on Thursday, at the Adobe Grill in La Quinta, with someone with those initials.”

  “Nobody comes to mind. It could be someone he works with or a client. Lunch meetings weren’t unusual. I honestly don’t know.”

  “No problem. I’m going stop by the restaurant tomorrow. I’ll show them Roger’s picture and see if anybody remembers seeing him there with a lunch partner. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

  “How will I ever be able to thank you, Jessica?”

  “Laura, we all have to count on our friends now and then. You were there for me a lot during last few weeks. It’s your turn to lean on me for a change. Hang on, I’ll be heading your way in a bit.”

  Jessica handed Jerry his phone and went over the information with him. Most of it he had already. That Eric was living with a cousin or a friend named Joe Abernathy or Abercrombie was something new.

  “I’ll head over to the condo complex after I check with the manager at Lulu’s for information about Eric. Tommy, you can find out who manages the complex, okay? They may or may not be on the premises. Give me a call tomorrow when you get that information. Hopefully, by then, I’ll have a last name for Eric and you can run a background check on him.” Tommy nodded soberly as Jerry went on, obviously taking all of this very seriously.

  “I want to go back to Panorama and talk to Laura’s neighbors before too much more time goes by. I’d like to hear for myself what they remember while it’s all still fresh, and before they start reading anything in the papers. I was planning to do that today before the incident with the intruder, but I’ll take tomorrow afternoon to do that instead. I still want to do a more thorough search of Laura’s house at some point. I’ll try to squeeze that in tomorrow, too, when the police have finished their work—again. Somebody needs to get in and clean the place. I need to finish my search in order for that to happen. I can get you the name of one of the companies we use to clean up crime scenes if you want, Jessica. Tommy can also check for locals if you’d prefer.”

  “Tommy you check the web for locals, but get the name of the company Jerry’s talking about and see if they service this area. If not, find out who they recommend, okay?” Tommy was smiling ear-to-ear typing rapidly on his phone.

  “How about we all plan to meet here for dinner tomorrow night to check in and see what we’ve learned. I’ll get pizza delivered and salad, Bernadette, so you don’t have to keep feeding our little army.” More like a herd, Jessica thought, a herd of cats.

  “That’s awesome, Jessica. I’ll bring some brewskies. Not that I plan on getting drunk while I’m on duty. I’ll only bring a case.” Jessica thought at first Brien might be putting her on but he was so earnest she just let it slide with a “sure, thanks.”

  “Great, make that a herd of drunken cats,” she thought as she headed to the garage for her car. She took a last look over her shoulder at the odd little gathering on the patio, cooling mist swirling around them as they ate, drank and chattered away. Her own little “cat pack” but with none of the sophistication that characterized the “rat pack” that hung out in the desert during their heyday. That included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin; Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford for a while. Jessica hoped she was up for the task of playing cat whisperer to keep them from all wandering off or getting into mischief.

  CHAPTER 11

  It was a few minutes past 4:00 when Jessica hit the road for the trek from Mission Hills to Palm Desert. There was more traffic than there had been that morning but it wasn’t bad. Normally about a fifteen minute drive, she covered the distance in twelve. She pulled into a parking space on El Paseo near the Apple store and about half a block from Saks. Thankfully, the Apple store wasn’t the mob scene that it could be during the “season.” It took less than 20 minutes to get a new iPhone and download her apps, music, contacts, and other items from the iClouds, wherever that was. She was grateful to have it all back. Nobody said a word about her appearance. She kept the dark glasses on in the store hoping to hide the worst of the damage from prying eyes and questions she didn’t have the time or the inclination to answer.

  At fifteen minutes to five she walked into Saks, black AMEX card in hand. Unfortunately, the store closed at 5 on Sundays. She was looking distraught when one of the saleswomen recognized her. Well, Jessica recognized her anyway, given her many recent shopping binges there. The sales clerk’s eyes strayed to the black card, then to Jessica’s face, and back to the card. She paused for a
moment scrutinizing Jessica’s face, but said nothing.

  “I’m in a jam. I had a little accident so I wasn’t able to get the things I badly need for a friend of mine. I can head over to Macy’s but I’d really rather shop here. I know you’re going to close in a few minutes. Is there any way you can help me?” Jessica ticked off a few of things she needed, starting with a simple black dress suitable for a funeral in this heat. Two of them actually, since she had no idea if she could find anything appropriate for herself to wear amidst the chaos of her closet. The mention of a funeral caused the sales woman to raise her eyebrows, but she still said nothing. Jessica went on indicating they needed shoes and bags to go with the dresses, and pajamas, a robe, house slippers, and underwear for her friend, as well as 2 or 3 casual outfits for her too. That included tops, pants, and casual shoes. If Jessica convinced Laura to stay with her in Mission Hills, she could use a swimsuit, some flip-flops, and a cover up to wear around the pool, too. Jessica was still enumerating items on the list when the salesclerk interrupted.

  “Hang on a second, please. Let me see what I can do. Can you come with me and bring that,” she said pointing to the black AMEX card. Time was ticking but Jessica presumed the saleswoman knew what she was doing. Jessica followed her to a nearby customer service station. The clerk went behind the counter and picked up a phone. At the same time she began pulling up information on the computer.

  “Yes, this is Amelia. I have a customer here, a Ms. Huntington-Harper. who’s going to need several of us to help her after five o’clock. I want to keep my register up and running a little longer than normal so we can check her out through here. She’s going to use her AMEX black card, right dear?” Amelia looked up at Jessica who nodded assent. She smiled but couldn’t help lingering on Jessica’s battered face a little longer than normal. A moment later, she was back punching numbers into the computer in front of her while speaking on the phone.