Partnerships Can Be Murder

by Connie Shelton

  By ten, I caught myself dozing so I shut off the TV and went to bed.

  I slept badly again that night. My mind flicked back and forth, from the pleasant anticipation of Drake's visit, to the final angry words Ron had shouted at me as he left. Sharon's financial problems were close by, too. I kept phrasing and rephrasing in my head different ways to tell her about David's dishonesty. In the end, I decided perhaps the best way to do it was to lay out the pages of figures I'd written down. She, too, was a grownup. She might not like what she saw, but she'd have to deal with it. Somewhere around two a.m. I drifted off.

  At six, the phone rang. Just one ring. By the time I reached for the receiver, it was obvious that it wouldn't ring again. An early morning wrong number? Or, my first thought, Ron wanting to talk again? I couldn't help but wonder how he had slept. Had he called Vicky right away, or simply let himself stew about the problem all night?

  With all hope for sleep gone now, I crawled from between the sheets, and headed for the shower. In more ways than one, I wasn't looking forward to the office today. It could be rather tense between Ron and me. Plus, I knew I'd have to face Sharon. I'd be serving her up another set of problems, but no answers. We still didn't know who had killed David.

  I pulled on jeans and a cotton sweater, and decided to postpone breakfast. It was still only seven. Rusty and I headed for the Jeep, and I nosed out into the early morning rush on Central Avenue. The traffic was quite a bit lighter than it usually is at eight, and I decided to make an extra stop before going to the office.

  The University Bakery was not exactly on the way, but a sudden impulse made me think that a peace offering might be in order. The best cinnamon rolls in town are made only a couple of miles farther up Central.

  It's one of those places that doesn't look like much from the outside—chipped white paint, pink lettering on the sign, and a 1950s rendition of a wedding cake for a logo. But inside, the place is clean and neat. Four small tables line the walls, and the smell from the well stocked bakery cases will just about make your knees buckle. A young couple sat at one of the tables near the windows, and a sixty-ish woman wearing a lavender skirt and pink and lavender print blouse sat picking a croissant apart at the table in the far corner.

  A girl dressed in white stood behind the counter. She looked about fourteen, smiling at me with a mouth full of braces when she asked if she could help me. I ordered four cinnamon rolls. Noticing that I was keeping my eye on her, she carefully chose four nice large ones with plenty of glaze, which she placed into a white box. I dug out the correct change, wondering how I was going to keep the box out of Rusty's reach until we got to the office.

  It was only when I turned toward the door that I noticed the couple near the windows. They were holding hands, having coffee and muffins. The girl was Vicky.

  There was no way I could walk past silently. I approached the table.

  "Hello, Vicky." Icicles dripped from my chin.

  She looked up at me with a blank look. Her makeup was much more refined today, her hair brushed smooth and held back from her face with two combs. She wore conservative dark slacks and a cream colored silk shirt.

  "Yes?" she said.

  "Come on, Vicky, cut it out. You can't pretend you don't know me."

  Her face broke into a wide smile, her hand going to her chest. "Goodness, I guess you don't know," she laughed. It was a rich, healthy laugh. "I'm Veronica, Vicky's sister." She held her hand out to me.

  "Sister? As in twins?" I felt a good two inches tall.

  "Vicky never told you about having a sister, I guess," she said.

  I remembered questioning Vicky about being at the Ruiz house after the funeral. She said her sister had attended, not she. Pieces were falling into place. Now that I gave him another look, the man was definitely the one I had seen in the kitchen that day.

  Veronica caught my glance. "This is my fiancé, Steve Silverman."

  I was feeling decidedly red in the face by now. When I looked carefully, there were slight differences in Vicky and her twin, aside from their taste in clothing. Veronica's beauty mark was at the right corner of her mouth, Vicky's had been on the left. She parted her hair in the center, while Vicky's had always been swept to one side. Veronica also had a certain maturity to her. Whether it was an impression conveyed by the clothing, or something definable in her face, I couldn't be sure.

  "I believe I saw you in the kitchen at the Ruiz's home the day of David's funeral," I said.

  "Oh? Maybe so, I left early." Did I imagine a slight blush? "Is that how you know Vicky? Through David Ruiz?"

  "No, we have another mutual friend."

  "Vicky and David were really close at one time. Such a shock about his death," she said.

  "Yes, it was. The police said suicide, didn't they?"

  "I don't think anyone close to David would believe that," Veronica said. "David's family is so religious, kind of like mine, I know they can't face the idea. Religion aside, though, I can't go for that theory either. David was a very gentle guy. I can't imagine that he'd even own a gun, much less use it on himself."

  Steve spoke up. "Even if David was depressed, I'd think pills would be more his style."

  "Did David have a lot of worries?" I asked. "Money, women, business problems?"

  They both shook their heads. "David wasn't involved with anyone that I knew of," Veronica said. "He flirted a lot, went out with a lot of pretty ladies, but no one that he'd kill himself over."

  "Maybe there was a jealous husband somewhere," I said, half jokingly.

  They both smiled. "David had the kind of good looks that attracted women like magnets. But I think he had enough choices, and enough good sense, to stick with the single ones," Steve said.

  "I didn't know anything about his business," Veronica said, "except that he got into that restaurant a year or so ago. We went to the grand opening for it, but that was the last time I was in there."

  Steve pushed his chair back. "Sorry ladies, but I have to get going." He squeezed Veronica's hand across the table.

  I apologized for taking so much of their time, and for the mixup. I wondered whether it had registered with Veronica that I had spoken rather coldly when I thought she was her sister. She hadn't seemed to notice.

  Rusty was staring out the back window of the Jeep when I got back. I placed the fragrant box of cinnamon rolls under my briefcase beside me, and ordered him to stay in the back seat. His nose was working double time by the time I stuck the key in the ignition.

  Ron's car wasn't in the parking lot when I got to the office, so Sally and I helped ourselves to first choice of the rolls. We were standing at the kitchen table, and I filled her in on my amazing discovery at the bakery.

  "No kidding!" Her eyes were even wider than usual. "What was she like? Another ..."

  Ron opened the back door at that moment, and Sally scooted back to her desk up front. His jeans and plaid shirt were rumpled.

  "Cinnamon rolls," I told him. "It's a sorry-for-the-fight present. You can have two."

  He reached for the box without comment. His face didn't look too great. The skin under his eyes sagged with new wrinkles, and I got the idea that he hadn't slept at all.

  "Want to talk?"

  He sighed. "Sure. Let's go into your office."

  He plopped himself onto my couch while I turned on the lights and set my briefcase down.

  "Rough night?"

  He stared at a spot somewhere in the middle of the room. "Vicky had once told me not to call her after nine o'clock at night. Said it would wake up her little girl. Last night I called around ten. A sleepy sounding man's voice answered."

  "Did you talk to him?"

  "I just hung up," he said.

  His voice had a ragged edge to it. I wanted to go over to him and give him a hug, but we'd never been that kind of family. Now I was sorry that we weren't better huggers.

  "Have you talked to Vicky about it?"

  He shook his head.

  "Are you go
ing to?"

  He shrugged. The conversation was about over, I could tell. Ron never had been one to share his feelings. What little I knew about his heart was the part that showed on his face. The only other time I could remember it looking this way was when Bernadette left him. It made me want to cry.

  "Did you know that Vicky has a twin sister?" I asked.

  "I guess there are a lot of things about Vicky I didn't know," he answered in a flat voice.

  He got up from the couch, his boots scraping along the hardwood floor as he crossed the hall to his own office. I felt like such a shit for being the one who had broken the news.

  My briefcase sat beside the desk. It reminded me of the second shitty thing I had to do today. Sharon wasn't going to be any happier to receive her news.

  Chapter 22

  Ben Murray wore a different shirt, but nothing else had changed. The gold chains and rings, the slicked back hair—he was as sleazy as ever. He sat at David's desk, looking quite territorial, when I walked in. Sharon sat across from him, acting about as assertive as a jellyfish. Whose office was this, anyway?

  Murray saw me standing in the doorway, but didn't acknowledge me. His right index finger was stabbing at the stack of envelopes on the desk. From the little I had heard as I approached, I gathered he was demanding payment for his services. Well, stand in line, I thought.

  Each time Sharon tried to open her mouth, his finger got more adamant with the envelopes. When I saw her lower lip begin to quiver, I cleared my throat. Sharon spotted me and brightened somewhat.

  "Charlie! I'm glad you're here," she said.

  "Is there a problem?" I asked, letting my eyes roam slowly over the desk.

  "Mr. Murray was just saying how he better take over our finances. At least until I find someone permanent."

  "You didn't agree to that, did you?"

  "Well... we were still discussing..."

  Murray was on his feet. "This is none of your business, sweetie. Maybe you better go on and play detective somewhere else."

  I could feel heat rising up my neck. I glanced again at Sharon. She was looking more helpless by the minute. Her eyes were sending out strong non-verbal distress signals.

  "Mr. Murray," I said, pulling myself up straighter, "I'm afraid we have no need for your services. Sharon has already made arrangements for me to handle the work. If you will please excuse us." I moved aside, indicating the door to him.

  He sat back down in David's chair. "You gonna throw me out yourself?" he taunted.

  Really. I had just about had it with this jerk. If he hadn't outweighed me by more than double, it would have been tempting. I do, however, still have a few grains of good sense left in me.

  "Sharon, when I arrived a few minutes ago, there was a police officer sitting in his patrol car out front. Go see if he is still there. If not, call 911 and tell them we have an intruder."

  She slipped past me like a cat wanting out of the dog pound.

  Murray's taunting expression did not change, but he stood up. "You're a real little toughie, aren't you, baby." His voice had all the tender qualities of a snake hissing. I was beginning to wish I hadn't bluffed about the police car outside.

  Murray came around the desk. I backed out, leaving him a wide path. In the doorway to David's office he turned. His thick hand came toward me. I tried to be prepared for anything. A male voice, along with Sharon's, came toward us from the main dining room. Murray turned and flung the back door to the alley open. In less than a second, he was gone.

  My knees went a little weak. Sharon came around the corner just then, followed by a young Hispanic man wearing a white apron. They stopped when they saw me standing there alone.

  "He's gone," I said.

  Sharon ran up to me and put her arms around me. We were both trembling.

  "It's okay," I said. "I don't think he'll be back. His kind are only brave in the company of people they think they can bully."

  "There wasn't any police car out there," she said, "and I called 911, but I got worried they would take too long, so I grabbed Ralph out of the kitchen, and just prayed that nasty man hadn't hurt you in the meantime."

  "Slow down, slow down," I soothed. "It's all right now. Ralph, could you bring two cups of tea?"

  He nodded and headed back toward the kitchen.

  I guided Sharon toward the chair Murray had recently left. She clasped her hands together and stuck them between her knees to make them quit shaking. I pulled the other chair closer, and faced her. Ralph was back with the tea, and I handed Sharon's cup to her.

  "Now, what brought him here, anyway?" I asked.

  "Well, he said it was because he hadn't been paid. He wanted a check today. But, Charlie, his bill only arrived on Friday."

  "He was just looking for an excuse to get in here," I told her. "Did you leave him alone at all?"

  "No, I was here the whole time."

  "So, then he said he wanted to take over paying the bills for you, handling the restaurant's finances?"

  "Yes. And on the surface, I guess that seems reasonable. I mean, he was our CPA."

  "But you don't like the man, or trust him, and you hesitated to say yes."

  "That's when he really started to get hostile. Charlie, I guess I just don't do well with conflict, but I didn't know what to say next. That's when you got here." She smiled at me, finally beginning to unwind a little.

  "Don't worry about it," I said. "If you'd like, I'll stay awhile and balance your checkbook. Then we can see how many of these creditors we can get out of the way. We'll pay off Ben Murray, and send him a certified letter informing him that he is no longer the company's CPA, and demanding that he relinquish all files and records pertinent to this business. Would that make you feel better?"

  The relief was visible on her face.

  Now for the hard part. "Sharon, before I begin painting a rosy picture for you here, there's something more you should know."

  I pulled my briefcase toward me and snapped the catches open. My pages of notes lay on top. I handed them to her without comment.

  "I'm not sure I understand," she said after scanning the figures quickly.

  Scooting my chair around, I sat beside her and held the pages where we could both read them. "This column shows the restaurant's profit. This one shows expenses. Here are yours and David's salaries. The first few weeks you were in business, notice the profit figures. After awhile, you can see that sales dwindled slightly, but expenses really jumped, leaving a much lower profit."

  "That doesn't make sense. Expenses were highest in the first few weeks. They should have leveled off later."

  "Exactly. And look at which expense category really jumped." I flipped through the pages until I found the breakdown. "Miscellaneous. A person who isn't being very cautious can dump anything he wants into 'miscellaneous', hoping no one will try to pin it down."

  "So, you're saying that David showed a lot of miscellaneous expenses that might have been something else?"

  "Sharon, I don't know an easy way to say this." I showed her the copies of David's bank statements.

  She stared at them, seeing but not comprehending.

  "Each month he had several deposits that correspond pretty closely with the 'miscellaneous' expenses he was showing for the business. I think David was writing himself checks."

  "Stealing from our business?" Her face had gone pale, her eyes wide.

  "It looks that way, Sharon." My voice came out little more than a whisper.

  "But, why?" she said, more to the room at large than to me.

  "David probably just got in over his head," I said gently. "He liked the fast car, the nice apartment, the expensive suits. Women were attracted to him and to his lifestyle, and that made it almost impossible for him to stop."

  "And those phone calls from the IRS? Had they started to figure it out?"

  "I think so. David's personal return was being audited. I'm sure when they saw all this unexplained money coming into his account, they decided they b
etter look at the business, too."

  "So, maybe David really did kill himself. Maybe it got to be too much for him." Large liquid pools were forming in her eyes.

  "I don't think so, Sharon." I told her briefly, and without too much detail, my theory about the angle of the bullet. "Homicide Detective Kent Taylor has agreed to reopen the case. Now, we just have to figure out who would have had a reason to kill David. Perhaps someone else knew what David was doing with the books. Maybe they tried to blackmail him, he wouldn't submit, an argument broke out..."

  "Ben Murray might be a good bet," she suggested.

  "I'd thought of that. If he was on record as the company's CPA and it was discovered that dirty dealings were going on... Although I don't see Ben Murray as being quite that scrupulously honest, myself. Still, I think I'll check him out a little further. It could be that he was afraid David would turn him over to the IRS as the mastermind. Murray probably has a few other little secrets he'd rather keep from the IRS as well."

  "Charlie, what does this mean to me?"

  "Well, you just keep running your restaurant for now. Try to keep as much money coming in as possible. I'll go over these bills, and try to give you a better picture by this afternoon."

  Some of her color had come back, although she still slumped in her chair. She understood that it wasn't going to be an easy mess to clean up. Even if we could get the insurance money for her, much of the settlement might have to go toward clearing up her tax obligations. But I didn't want to tell her that just yet.

  I hadn't planned on spending the morning at Nouvelle Mexicano, but it was turning out that way. Somehow, I just couldn't leave Sharon to face the entire mess herself. After she went back into the dining room, I sat in the swivel chair and began to sort through everything on the desk.

  Aside from a few new pieces of mail, I was already fairly familiar with it. I quickly sorted everything into stacks: bills, letters, and filing—urgent and 'can wait'. The check register hadn't been balanced in almost a month, but David's entries were neat and readable, so it didn't take long to get a total. Next, I totaled the bills. They were more than the cash balance, so I resorted them by due dates and totaled them again. I could pay everything that was over thirty days old, and pay Ben Murray in full, although Sharon wouldn't get a salary this month. I wondered if she could handle that. If not, we might have to let some of the thirty day bills slip into the sixty day category. I might have to do some rejuggling.