“Where the hell have you two been? You knew I was making lunch! If you weren’t planning on eating, then you should’ve told me so that I didn’t make so much!” Geri was furious.
If there was one thing I had learned, it was that Italians took their food very seriously. The video was going to have to wait.
“I’m starving, Geri. I’d love to eat what you made now. We didn’t stop to get any food.”
“Fine! But I’m not reheating it for you! You two can fend for yourselves if you’re hungry. I’m going out. Food’s in the fridge. Don’t forget that Linda and the kids are coming tonight.” Geri turned on her heels and slammed the door behind her on the way out.
Frank shrugged and placed the bag of rolls on the table. I went to the fridge and removed a meatloaf, mayo, and macaroni salad. Traipsing out to the porch, I grabbed paper plates and cups. Returning to the kitchen, I reached into the paper bag and took out a couple of fresh Italian torpedo rolls. Finding a good knife in the drawer under the stove, I cut the rolls, sliced the meatloaf, slathered the bread with mayo, and made sandwiches for myself and Frank. Frank got water from the fridge for both of us to drink. I spooned a generous portion of macaroni salad onto each of our plates.
I took a bite of my sandwich. Geri made a mean meatloaf. “After we eat, do you think you could blow up that video? I think the woman is wearing that ring around her neck.”
Frank nodded. His cell phone rang and he reached into his pocket to pick it up. “Yeah. Okay. Uh huh. Hmm. Okay. Thanks.” He hung the phone up and looked at me. “DNA came back. No matches in the system. Female.”
It came as no surprise that the DNA found on the ring was from a female suspect, given what I thought I saw on the video. But it came as a huge surprise that the DNA results came back within a few hours. Either Frank or Freddy had great connections, or maybe it was an easy job since we had no one’s DNA to compare it to. I immediately started thinking how I could go about getting DNA from suspects to have it checked against.
With the last bite of my meatloaf sandwich, Frank’s phone rang again.
“Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Yup.” Frank handed the phone to me.
I placed the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
It was Freddy. “Here is the latest. You may or may not know that Archie’s second wife is Drew Pavlica’s sister. Chelsey checked her out. It wasn’t her, she has an alibi. She was out of state at the time of the murder. I confirmed her whereabouts. I also confirmed Tina Liara’s alibi. She was also out of state on her honeymoon. Chelsey is at Savoy’s now, interviewing potential witnesses. I’ve assigned her to collecting DNA from suspects as well.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You assigned DNA collection to Chelsey?”
“Yeah, my other employees are tied up.”
It’s not that I didn’t believe Chelsey could do it, but my life was at stake. And I…well, didn’t believe she could do it. “You want me to help her with that?”
“You want to botch my investigation? Or get caught and stay in jail until I investigate?”
“No.”
“Then stay put. All I need you to do is to stay put.”
“The video Frank found of the female suspect near Archie’s house—I think she was wearing that ring around her neck. Frank and I are going to try to enlarge the video to see for sure.”
“Good, stay with that. See if you can get your hands on any other videos with that woman. If we can figure out who she is, then maybe we’ll have a solid lead.”
“I’m on it. Who do you have Chelsey collecting evidence from?”
Freddy explained who Chelsey was going to get evidence from and why. He told me Chelsey uncovered a former mistress of Archie’s—Cynthia. She had a daughter with the possible name of Tina or Tara. His other main suspects were Pamela, Archie’s wife; their daughter, Brittany; Archie’s girlfriend, Lake; and Archie’s first wife, Martha.
“Hang tight Bryce, things are happening. We’re getting there.”
I hung up with Freddy and threw my paper plate and cup in the trash. Frank followed suit and we marched through the garage and into the basement.
“Frank, I have to ask you. Why do you have all those colorful toilet seats in the garage?” Yeah, okay, maybe I was a little obsessed about the toilet seats.
“You know, they don’t make anything like they used to. These here are probably forty years old. Sure, I could go to the store if I need to replace one in the house, but those wouldn’t last half as long as these will. Cost you all that money, then they don’t last.”
“Uh huh.” Not that I understood Frank’s logic, because I didn’t. A decline in the quality of toilet seats manufactured today wasn’t something I’d noticed. But then, I was no commode expert.
Frank sat down at mission control and pulled up the video. “Unfortunately, this looks like it’s from a shoddy camera. Owner of the deli probably didn’t spend much on his security system.”
Frank enlarged it as much as he could. The picture was blurry, the woman unidentifiable, and the ring indiscernible—even with him using forensic enhancement software.
Disappointment, anger, and hopelessness were the emotions I felt, nonetheless, I sensed we were on to something. Even if we were, what we had as evidence wouldn’t hold up in any court of law. I was screwed.
Above my head, the sound of the Pamplona bull run met my ears. Since we weren’t in Spain, I guessed Linda and the kids had arrived.
“Don’t wallow in your own self-pity yet, Bryce. I’ll keep digging.” Frank must’ve noticed the expression on my face. I nodded in agreement.
The basement door creaked open. “Frank! Bryce! Are you down there?” Geri was back.
“Who did you expect to be down here? Patrick Swayze?” Frank laughed at his joke. He sure thought he was a funny guy. I wasn’t sure if he realized his jokes weren’t making any friends where Geri was concerned.
“Linda and the kids just got here.” As if everyone in a twelve-mile radius didn’t hear Linda and the kids arrive.
“Yeah, and?”
“Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.” Geri slammed the door. I was certain I heard her mumble an obscenity before slamming it, but Frank hadn’t noticed.
I looked at my watch. We had been enhancing and studying the video for over an hour. I certainly wasn’t hungry after eating the meatloaf and macaroni salad, but I couldn’t risk offending Geri again by not eating dinner. If nothing else, I’d be going to death row with a full belly.
“Frank, how about the video you found from Savoy’s? The woman in the Ford Focus? Can you use your magical software to enhance that video?”
“I can certainly try.”
A few keystrokes later, Frank had the video from the night at Savoy’s up on the screen. I watched as I stumbled into a taxi with Archie. I had absolutely no recollection of that. Once our taxi left, I could see the woman and the Ford Focus.
“There’s the license plate. Can you zoom in on that?” My excitement returned. Maybe this was the break I needed. I could barely hold on to my seat as Frank hit the zoom button. It took a few more seconds for the forensic software the clean up the pixels, but there it was—MMM71C.
“Can you run the plate down here with all your equipment?”
“Bet your behind, I can. I’m surprised I missed that earlier.”
It took less than five minutes for Frank to locate the owner of the vehicle. It was a rental car owned by Meyer’s Car Rentals in Madisen, New Jersey.
“No worries. I appreciate all you’ve done. What are the chances that we can find out who rented the car?”
Frank shrugged. “Depends. It if was Hertz or Enterprise, they’re all computerized. I can take a stab at hacking into their systems. A mom and pop company? It’s a shot in the dark. They may not keep computerized records. We can try to go in person, don’t know if they’d give us any intel.”
Frank fumbled around with his computer trying to gain access to Meyer’s Car Rentals’ network system. Another hour ha
d passed. My pacing didn’t help matters. Frank wasn’t having luck.
The basement door creaked open again. “Frank! Bryce! Damn it! I told you dinner would be ready!”
I knew better than to ignore Geri a second time, though Frank didn’t seem to mind. I wasn’t going to piss off this Italian grandmother any more than she already was. I told Frank I’d meet him upstairs.
I used the washroom to clean up. My appetite hadn’t returned until I smelled the aroma of barbeque. I sat at the table with Linda and the little ones. Geri had made some fine looking ribs.
“Bryce, be a dear and get the corn out of the microwave,” Geri said.
I did as I was told, using a pot holder to remove corn on the cob from the microwave. I placed one ear on each plate. Geri removed a bowl of coleslaw from the fridge, placing it on the table. She removed a pot of baked beans from the stove and placed it on a trivet within my reach.
“You might as well dig in. That old man of mine might be in the basement all night.” Geri smiled warmly.
“Smells good.” I dipped a tablespoon into the baked beans and loaded some onto my plate. I grabbed a rack of ribs from the platter and added them. They were fall-off-the-bone tender.
“Let me get you a second plate for your coleslaw. I have buttered rolls too.” Geri handed me a salad-sized dish. I added coleslaw to it. I grabbed a roll from the bread basket and took a bite.
“How is your research coming along?” I guessed Geri was making polite conversation instead of being genuinely interested in the case.
“We’re making progress.”
“And where is your friend? Chelsey.”
“She’s out collecting evidence.”
“Will she be joining us again?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Shame. I think you two are perfect together.”
I blushed. “What makes you say that?”
“Oh, sometimes I get feelings. I think it’s a motherly thing.”
“What kind of feelings?”
“Just that there was an attraction between you two. That you seem good together. Content with each other—I don’t know. I might just be a crazy old lady.”
“You’re not crazy. I am attracted to Chelsey, but I’m not sure she feels the same about me.”
“She does.”
“Did she say that?”
“She didn’t have to. She looks at you like she does.”
I nodded, although I wasn’t sure I agreed with her assessment. I never saw Chelsey look at me that way.
“Eat up. It’s getting cold.”
I finished my plate and Geri offered me more.
“No, really, I’m stuffed.”
“Surely you have room for dessert? I have key lime pie. And I made those cookies I promised you.”
I wasn’t one to turn down a good piece of key lime pie, so I agreed. She cut me a quarter of a pie and divided the rest for Linda and the kids. I didn’t complain. It was decadent. Geri went back to the fridge and retrieved another pie. She sliced a piece for herself and sat back down at the table.
Frank emerged from the basement as I took a second bite of pie. I perked up. “Any luck?”
“Not yet. I’ll try again in the morning.”
Geri scolded Frank. “Uh, your dinner is cold!”
“I’ll heat it up.”
“Don’t think I’m going to do it.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Good!”
Frank piled his plate with ribs and stuck it in the microwave.
Geri made a face. “You didn’t cover that! So you get to clean up the microwave when it splashes everywhere. And you get clean up the dishes when you’re through too.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I covered my mouth with my hand to smother a laugh. There was a sticky note on the microwave that read Cover your food, THIS MEANS YOU! The ironic part was that it was in Frank’s handwriting. As much as they seemed annoyed with one another, I felt like underneath it all there was a lot of love.
Linda got up from the table. “We have to go.”
Frank and Geri saw to it that the grandkids had their treats to go home with and followed them to the front door to say their goodbyes. When they returned to the kitchen, Frank removed his ribs from the microwave and sat down to eat. Geri made herself a cup of coffee and sat with us.
“It’s certainly a lot quieter now that they went home.” Frank shoveled a forkful of beans into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in a week.
Geri rolled her eyes.
“How long have you two been married?” I asked.
Frank was quick to answer. “Too long.”
Geri punched his arm. “Forty-eight years.”
“Wow.” They got married well before I was born. It occurred to me that I hadn’t asked Geri and Frank much about themselves. Here they were, selflessly helping out a stranger, and I had only been thinking of myself. “I’m sorry I’m imposing on the two of you. I truly appreciate your generosity.”
Geri put up a hand to shush me. “Nonsense. You’re not imposing. You’re keeping that old fart out of my hair.”
“Old fart? Uh huh. Okay.” Frank turned to me. “You know why they call her Geri? It’s short for geriatric.”
“Speak for yourself, old man.”
I decided to interrupt the spousal bashing. “No, seriously. I really do appreciate all you’re doing. I can pay you back…”
“Your money’s no good here.” Frank seemed insulted.
“I’m sorry. I’m not saying the right thing. It’s that…uh…most people wouldn’t take in a complete stranger and help them out. You did it without hesitation. I’m grateful that you’d help me.”
Frank’s expression turned hard. “Let me tell you something. I have a son about your age. Well, a little older than you, but I would hope someone would help him if he was in trouble. Plus, Freddy vouched for you. That’s enough for me. I’m sure he ran a background check on you before he sent you here.”
I nodded. “Thanks. Really. Thanks.”
“Our pleasure.” Geri patted me on the shoulder then sliced another piece of key lime pie. She promptly added it to my plate.
“So you have a son?”
“Yeah. He lives in Philly with his wife. We don’t see him much. He’s busy working all the time,” Geri said. “And his wife’s not Italian.”
I wondered what nationality she was, since Geri made it a point to tell me she wasn’t Italian. “And you have a daughter who I met.”
“Yes, Linda’s our oldest. She has six kids. Then there’s our other daughter, Kimberly. She’s the middle child.”
“And you’re related to Bonnie?”
“That’s Frank’s niece. His sister’s kid. She’s only half Italian though.”
“Half Italian?” I thought that was a strange thing to say.
“Yeah, you know. She makes those Greek salads and baklava and all.”
Of course—it was all about the food. Getting to know Geri and Frank better made me feel less like I was using them. Someday I’d compensate them for their help. Maybe not with money because they seemed like they’d be insulted with that, but I’d find a way to say thanks.
I helped Frank clean the dishes, then I sat on the couch to watch a movie with them. With a full belly and a reclining chair, it wasn’t long before I fell into a key lime pie coma.
* * *
A vivid dream appeared in my mind. Chelsey stood in a field filled with wildflowers. Her blonde hair blew behind her in the wind. Her eyes twinkled. Her flowing white sundress fluttered in the breeze against a brilliant sapphire sky.
As I approached her, I felt the intensity of her gaze burn through me. A feeling of pure and unconditional love washed over me. I embraced her. The sky grew dark. The flowers wilted, the gentle zephyr turned into a strong gust.
She pushed me away. Her face filled with horror as she looked over my shoulder. “Run!” Her voice was so shrill, my eardrums bled. I glanced over my shoulder.
Police officers and their K-9s hurtled toward me. I froze for a moment. I turned to grab Chelsey’s hand, but she vanished.
I looked over my shoulder once more. The police officers shapeshifted into warlocks more hideous than the creations of George Lucas himself. The dogs morphed into dragons. With spears in hand and flames shooting from their pets’ mouths, the warlocks charged.
Streams of fire sailed past my head. Spears narrowly missed me. I glanced to my right, looking for an escape. I saw Freddy pointing. I sprinted past him, following his direction.
Toward the safety of an underground cave, I barreled through the field. Nearing the cave, I could see Frank and Geri waving me in. I lost my footing and tumbled. The warlocks had caught up to me. I scrambled to my feet but felt the fire singe the skin on my back. I was about to meet my maker when I was jolted awake by the sound of my ringing cell phone.
Chapter 17
Chelsey
Savoy’s Bar and Grill was shaped like a train car. I hiked up the stairs to the front deck and stepped into the entrance. The crowd was light. A few businessmen sat at the bar for happy hour. A group of three women ate at a high-top table.
I selected a stool at the far end of the bar—away from the other patrons. I ordered a glass of their house white wine and nursed it while I thought of what to ask the bartender.
When the bartender reappeared to ask if I’d like anything else, I placed an order for their chicken quesadillas and explained that I was investigating the death of Archibald Wallace. I asked if he had a moment to answer a couple of questions.
The bartender held up his index finger, encouraging me to wait. A lock of his black hair fell to his face. He moved over to the computer, punched in my dinner order, and returned. I learned he was there the night Archie passed away. He remembered Archie because he was a regular at Savoy’s. He hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
I asked him about a woman driving a Ford Focus.
“I was behind the bar all night, I can’t see what cars people are driving.”
I nodded. “Were there any women hanging around the bar, talking to Archie and his friends or anything?”
Major Crimes Page 12
