by Albert Simon
Chapter 14
Friday, April 21
Charles was out when Henry got back to the house. He debated leaving Charles a note on the refrigerator, Charles said he would help look into Thornbird’s “extracurricular” activities. He knew that a lot of people in Charles’ world were very discreet and he wasn’t sure if Charles could find out anything at all, especially if Thornbird was as secretive as he suspected with his illegal activities. He thought that Jerrie Mungo’s information would help narrow Charles’ investigation; perhaps Charles could find out who Rex had been involved with, he certainly didn’t find any evidence on his home computer on how he had obtained all of his porn. There were no websites bookmarked, no suspicious emails. He wondered about the other computer that he suspected was around somewhere. It would be nice to have a look at it. It had to be a laptop; why else did Thornbird have the wireless setup in his house? Henry didn’t know how to leave all of that in a note to Charles, he felt that it was better that he talk to him in person.
The folder with the list of properties that Thornbird had sold that Rosie had given him was still on the dining room table. He pulled his yellow sheets of paper with his handwritten list of new owners of celebrity owned properties out of the folder and started looking for purchases within the past six months to a year. Rosie had mentioned a widow that had called Thornbird in order to help her sister find a house, but he didn’t find any women’s names on his list. He decided to call three couples, to see if any of the women were perhaps recently widowed. All had purchased homes from Thornbird in the past year.
His second phone call paid off. Janet Ickelbee mentioned that her husband Harrison had died about nine months ago, shortly after they moved into their new house. She had a neighbor over and was busy getting her dinner ready and couldn’t talk, but invited Henry over for coffee the next morning. Janet said she remembered Thornbird well and could tell Henry everything that had happened with the purchase of their home. She mentioned that she thought the stress of house hunting had probably killed her husband, though that was not was his doctor had said. Janet said she was looking forward to meeting and chatting with Henry, she had no other plans for her Saturday morning anyway.
Thinking about dinner, he realized that it was time to head out. He looked through the kitchen cabinet for a bottle of wine that he could bring tonight to the Johnson’s and found a nice Merlot that he’d been saving for a special occasion. He grabbed it and headed for the garage. He took Vista Chino all the way out to Date Palm and then headed south on Interstate 10 to Indio. He took the one-eleven turnoff and headed towards the Indian Palms Country Club.
The Johnson’s had a beautiful spacious Spanish style house overlooking the ninth green. It was a lot more house than a Palm Springs police detective could afford, but Wayne and Elliot had inherited the house from her parents. Elliot’s father, Eugene, was the developer of the country club and the homes that surrounded it. When he died, Elliot’s mother moved into a retirement home in La Quinta and Wayne and Elliot moved into the home on the golf course. They’d been there now for fourteen years; Elliot’s mother passed away peacefully last year. The Johnson’s son and daughter were both grown; William was an architect in Indian Wells with his own family. Lenore was a nurse at the Palm Desert hospital; she was engaged to a medical student at UC Riverside.
Henry pulled his car into the driveway; the Johnson’s parked both of their cars in the garage. Henry believed it might have been a rule for their development, there were no cars parked on the street or on any driveway in neighborhood. It made the development look somewhat sterile and impersonal. All the homes were painted a similar color, a standard palette, Henry knew they called it. Perhaps his own neighborhood on Mel wasn’t as neat and proper, but Henry felt it had a lot more character.
Henry walked up the walkway to the large carved double wooden doors. Before he could ring the bell, Elliot opened one of the doors.
“Hi traveler, you’ve had a busy couple of days! How have you been? Wayne is out on the patio lighting the grill, I’m just finishing up the chicken in the kitchen. Come in, come in!” She held out her arms and Henry got a big hug and a kiss on both cheeks. He handed her the bottle of wine.
If we’re having chicken, you can save this Merlot for another occasion. Geez, it’s nice to be here, I’ve missed you.” Once inside, Wayne and Elliot’s home had a real homey, comfortable feeling. He’d felt at ease here back when he came to Palm Springs looking for a house and stayed with them for the first time. Since then, he always looked forward to and enjoyed their regular dinners. He’d had the Johnson’s over to his house, but those dinners usually turned into outside affairs at the grill and the table by the pool. He stepped through the patio doors where Wayne was just closing the lid to the barbecue.
“Hey Henry, before you tell me about anything else, I want you to know we’ve impounded all the stuff you found in Thornbird’s house. We’ve cataloged it and it’s off to be destroyed.” Wayne wiped his hands off as if he was done with the matter instead of getting the grill grease off them.
I’m glad of that; I’ll have to fill you in on what I’ve found out. Perhaps I should come into the office and meet with your vice guys.” Henry suggested.
“No need to talk about this stuff in the house, Ellie gets upset with that part of the job.” Wayne opened the patio door. “So tell me all about your visit up north partner.” Elliot was busy in the open kitchen pounding on several chicken breasts while a mixing bowl of marinade was on the counter next to her work area ready to receive the end results of her labors.
Henry sat down on one of the bar stools on the other side of the counter that opened to the kitchen while Elliot slipped the chicken into the bowl and dug into the refrigerator for salad fixings. He told them both the whole story of his encounter with Amit Anchula, not leaving out anything including the encounter with the neighbor and the dog, the tackle on the lawn and the dinner at the brewery.
Wayne interrupted him when Henry told them of the conversation about Anchula’s illegal status in the United States.
“Wait a minute, this Anchula guy is worth somewhere between ten and twenty million dollars?”
“Yeah, he said he’s not really sure since he has it invested with three different financial advisors and he hasn’t had the time to reconcile the statements.” Henry explained.
Even Elliot stopped working at the salad, “And you say that by the time you interrupted him in the conference room at the office, it was eight thirty in the evening?”
“It was about eight thirty, that’s right.” Henry said, “Do you guys have any wine, my throat is getting dry from all this talking.”
“Wayne, you’re a poor host, pour the man a glass of wine.” Elliot jokingly chastised her husband.
“Me? I’m up to my elbows in grease from the grill, why didn’t you give him a glass of wine when you let him in?” Wayne was laughing, he and Elliot often bantered back and forth like this, that is one of the reasons Henry enjoyed their company, it was very similar to what his relationship with Irma had been like.
“Oh, all right, here Henry, we have an Australian chardonnay tonight, we like it and the price is right.” Elliot grabbed a glass from a cupboard, the bottle of wine from the refrigerator and poured some for Henry. She set the bottle down on the counter next to Henry.
“Great, thanks – where was I?” Henry picked up the wine.
“I want to know why Anchula was at work at eight thirty at night when he is worth ten million bucks or more.” Wayne stirred the chicken around in the bowl with the marinade and rinsed his hands in the sink.
“You know, we talked a little bit about that and believe it or not, it’s not the money that drives these guys. They’re thrilled by the idea of taking nothing and creating something that has value.” Henry explained how Anchula was working on his third startup company, hoping to take it public. “His big fear though, was that the police would end up deporting him if he reported the body in the house on Granvia Valmonte and tha
t’s why he ran.”
“You know, it seems like a lot of people think that we’re a lot more tightly integrated with the federal government immigration guys than we are.” Wayne said, pouring himself a glass of wine as well.
“Yeah, I suppose that if everything was working properly, if you pulled someone over for a traffic violation on the streets of Palm Springs, the government’s computer would let you know that they were in the country illegally, and instead of hauling them in for a busted taillight, you’d end up deporting them.” Henry mused.
“We’re a long way from being that well organized. There are too many budgets, too many bureaucrats protecting their own turf and too many politicians in the way of that much common sense.” Wayne said. “What else is going on with you?”
“Me? Nothing much else.” Henry looked into his glass of wine.
“No? Someone saw you at the Blue Coyote Grill having lunch with a woman.” Wayne said as Elliot stopped working on the salad and turned to see what Henry would say. “Then yesterday at breakfast you ordered bran cereal with fruit. Are you on some kind of health kick suddenly?”
“Well, yes, I did have lunch with a woman, but it was purely professional.” Henry explained. “But then we had dinner a couple of days later, and I must confess, that was not totally professional.”
“Henry, that’s wonderful!” Elliot clapped her hands together.
Wayne smiled, “So who is she, how did you meet her?”
“Well, I guess in a strange sort of way I can thank Rex Thornbird for introducing me to Rosie. She is the office manager at Coachella Real Estate and worked with Thornbird. We met as part of the investigation I’m doing. I don’t know why, but we hit it off, she is coming to the house tomorrow for a barbecue.”
“Henry, you’re moving rather fast don’t you think, is that a good idea?” Elliot asked. “I also noticed you’re not wearing your wedding ring anymore either.”
Henry looked down at his hand. “Oh, my ring? That was a total accident and not related to Rosie at all. I took it off the other day before I went swimming and then left it on the table when I went in to get dressed to go out and I was in a hurry – anyway, it’s really not related with what is going on.”
“What do you mean moving fast dear?” Wayne gently rebuked Elliot. “For goodness sake, he’s been without Irma for a long time; he’s been without anyone for a long time. Isn’t it about time the man had some company, otherwise people will start to talk about him and Charles. Rosie the little red haired gal from the real estate office? We interviewed her, she seems like she’s really on the ball. Not bad looking either.”
“Watch it Wayne. All right, all right, he’s not moving too fast. By the way, Henry, don’t listen to what people say. Charles is a nice man, I really like him. So her name is Rosie, eh? That’s a nice name, is it short for Rosalynn? When do we get to meet her? Will you bring her over for dinner next month or can we meet her before then?” Elliot was obviously excited at Henry’s news. “I hope I’ll like her, it will be so much fun to do things as two couples, not that you’re not fun alone Henry, of course I’ll like her, you like her!”
“I’m not going to make any plans for next month, I want to take this a day at a time, this is all very new to me you know.” Henry was a little embarrassed by all the questions. “I’m not sure where this is going and I don’t want to put any pressure on her, or me for that matter. I’m just happy being friends; I enjoy spending time with her. I think I need a refill on my wine.”
Fortunately it was time to grill the chicken and the rest of the evening’s conversation was related to an update on the Johnson’s children and their activities. Henry admitted that he had not heard from Claire, his daughter in Chicago, for a number of weeks and didn’t really have any news from her. He decided that when he was done with this Thornbird investigation to at least give her a call, maybe even fly out to Chicago for a couple of days for a visit. Maybe he could invite Rosie along; he wanted Claire to meet her.
At the end of the evening, they said their goodbyes and Henry decided to take the slower way home, all the way up one-eleven with all of its traffic lights. He realized it really wasn’t all that different from last night when he had driven on El Camino Real up north in the Bay Area. Maybe Palm Springs wasn’t a small town anymore after all.
This time driving home from the Johnson house, he didn’t feel as melancholy as usual. Wayne and Elliot are a great couple and they were still in love after many years of marriage and raising their children. A lot about how they related to each other was very similar to how his and Irma’s relationship had worked. It was interesting to listen to them talk and interact. Perhaps he would be in a similar relationship soon. He didn’t realize how much he had missed it until now when he seemed to be close to possibly having it again.
It was almost midnight when he pulled his car into the garage next to Charles’ Explorer. He walked into the kitchen and saw the living room light on and heard the television. Charles was stretched out on the couch quietly snoring with Pierre comfortably napping on his lap.
The television had a talk show on; guests were lined up on a couch, it was either Letterman or Leno, Henry wasn’t sure which. As he reached for the remote to turn the TV off, Charles woke up.
“I’ve been staying awake waiting for you.”
“Well my friend, you weren’t awake now, you were sound asleep!” Henry laughed as he put the remote control back on the coffee table.
“I was right about your Mr. Thornbird.” Charles said proudly now fully awake.
“You were, eh? Interestingly, I heard something from Jerrie Mungo at the Pac and Ship this afternoon that I wanted to tell you but you weren’t here and it was too complicated to leave a note on the refrigerator.”
“You wanna go first or want me to go first?” Charles asked soothing Pierre who had sort of woken up, and was protesting and wanted to go back to sleep.
“Well I want to hear what you dug up, so you can go first. Do you want anything to drink?” Henry said getting up and walking to the kitchen.
“Just a bottle of water please, thanks. Well, ok, it turns out your Mr. Thornbird had a double life that he kept very, very private.” Charles was sitting straight up on the couch now and had put Pierre down on the ground. The little dog wasn’t happy and went off towards the back of the house to find another place to continue his interrupted nap.
“Ok, tell me everything and I think it’s time that I tell you what I know.” Henry returned to the living room with a bottle of water for Charles and a glass of milk for himself.
“Well, word is that Rex Thornbird’s marriage to Mrs. Thornbird was purely a business relationship. In order for Rex to be successful in the real estate business, actually more like in his little niche of the real estate business, he had to have a wife that he could show off, talk about and take to functions.” Charles twisted the cap off the bottle and muted the television at the same time.
“Seems most of the buyers for the kind of properties he was pushing are retired couples and they were much more comfortable with a married and straight Rex Thornbird taking them around than the real Rex Thornbird.” Charles bristled a bit at his own explanation, obviously Rex Thornbird’s need for a double life was a requirement he would never understand.
“So what did Thornbird do after the divorce?” Henry sat down on the armrest of the recliner across from Charles.
“I knew you would ask.” Charles smiled like the Cheshire cat. “For the longest time, Thornbird pretended that he was still married. He had his wife’s picture on his desk, carried it in his wallet, talked about her to his clients, all of that stuff. Eventually though, he had to go to the opening of a new exhibition at the Desert Museum where a lot of his past customers and prospects were present and he needed an escort.” Charles took a long drink from the water bottle.
“Let me guess.” Henry interrupted before Charles put the bottle down. “He brought Rosie.”
“You got it.” Charles s
aid. “Apparently, they were more than just co-workers; she escorted him to events where he needed to be seen with a female partner. They spent quite a bit of time together.”
“What do you mean; they were more than just co-workers?” Henry felt his heart sink through his stomach. “Are you saying they were a couple? Were they lovers? What you’re describing sounds very, very platonic.”
Charles smiled again.
“You’re really hoping that she has fallen for you, and that she wasn’t romantically involved with Thornbird right?”
“I didn’t know it was that obvious, but yeah.”
“Relax, what I’m about to tell you is not to leave the confines of this room, ok? I also need to tell you that there is a sub-culture here in Palm Springs that most people don’t know about, and I want you to know as well that while I just learned about it, I certainly don’t condone it. Understood?”
“This is about Thornbird being a gay pedophile isn’t it?” Henry looked straight at Charles who wasn’t surprised that Henry knew and nodded.
“Thornbird was a member of Sons of Dionysus, a very private, very exclusive all male club that zealously protects its members. They trade porn and are rumored to even traffic in adolescent boys between members. It’s all kept very quiet and hush-hush to protect their members. Most of their members are men who need to give the appearance of leading a life that is acceptable to society at large.” Charles explained.
“Sons of Dionysus? I’ve never heard of anything like that. How do you know about this?” Henry shook his head in amazement.
“Let me explain. First of all, Dionysus was the Greek god of sensuality and rebellion. He was androgynous, neither male nor female. Secondly, this organization exists all around the world, and you would be amazed of who is rumored to belong, including men in high government positions. Naturally you’ve never heard anything of it; this is a very secret organization and as I said this conversation needs to stay between you and me. I just hear things, let’s face it; you and I do travel in different circles. Personally I find this disgusting and immoral and if you and Wayne can bust this organization, at least locally, Palm Springs will be better off for it.” Charles once again sounded like the High School history teacher he had once been.
“Wow, I thought it was just his dirty little secret and that he was on his own. I had no idea that it was this established, with a secret organization and all.” Henry shook his head in amazement at Charles’ revelations.
“So you think that Thornbird and Rosie’s relationship was strictly platonic?”
“Henry, I think every relationship Thornbird ever had with any woman was platonic, including his ex-wife, I tell you Thornbird liked boys. Very young and preferably teenage boys. My gaydar wasn’t off; I was just forty years too old for him.”
“More like fifty, but whatever. So this Sons of Dionysus club or organization or whatever, is that where Thornbird socialized?” Henry wondered how he was going to get more information about this group.
“Well, it’s not like the Kiwanis or the Freemasons or that sort of social club, they don’t meet at Marie Callender’s for lunch once a month. It’s more a network of individuals who have a common interest and help one another out by being extremely discreet, a lot of plain brown envelopes if you know what I mean. Does that make sense?” Charles said.
Henry breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I think so. I asked her over for dinner tomorrow afternoon you know.”
“Who, Rosie?” Charles asked surprised.
“Yes, I want to barbecue something for the two of us and talk to her about perhaps establishing a more permanent social relationship.” Henry settled back in the recliner, he thought for a second and said. “Perhaps I need to look into the Sons of Dionysus for Thornbird’s murderer. That’s probably going to be difficult; I may need your help.”
“You want to discuss a potential social relationship? Henry, why don’t you just let things kind of happen? It’s not like you’re going to discuss a business merger or something.” Charles shook his head at his friend. “Besides, you’re on your own investigating the Sons of Dionysus; I’ve gone out on a limb telling you as much as I have. Remember, these people are very protective and have big secrets to keep. You should probably look at Thornbird’s computer to see if there is anything related to his activities.”
“That protectiveness is exactly the motive for murder. And, I’ve already looked at Thornbird’s computer, there’s nothing there. Now I’m thinking there’s another machine that he used, but I can’t find it” Henry answered. “I’m already planning on going over to talk with another of Thornbird’s former clients Mrs. Icklebee tomorrow morning, but I don’t have much hope, so far his past customers have turned up nothing. Beginning Monday, I’m going to poke into this whole secret society business to see what I can uncover.”
“You’re going to be on dangerous territory my friend. You’d better update your will and make sure I get the house.” Charles had a wry smile as he turned off the television and headed for bed.
