H is for HOMICIDE

by Sue Grafton

  According to the account she’d given to the officer at the scene, Bibianna had been proceeding south on Valdesto at 30 MPH when she’d been forced to slam on her brakes, swerving to avoid a cat that streaked across her path. Her car had skidded sideways and she’d plowed into a parked car. There were no witnesses, of course. Paramedics called to the scene had administered first aid for superficial contusions and abrasions and then transported her to St. Terry’s emergency room for X-ray examination when she complained of neck and back pain. I wondered if the hospital billing department had a good address for her. There was probably a second insurance company, representing the owner of the vehicle she’d hit, and it was always possible that the other claims adjuster had something in his files. Bibianna lived somewhere and I was determined to get a line on her. I went back to the office and made the requisite phone calls, which netted me nothing. I gave Mary Bellflower a quick call next door and told her I was still working on it.

  At two-fifteen, aggravated, I set the matter aside and spent the rest of the day on routine paperwork. I knew I could ill afford to get obsessed with Bibianna Diaz. Now that I had Gordon Titus breathing down my neck, I was going to have to cover some ground. I plowed on, but even while I was concentrating on other cases, finishing off the paperwork, I could feel the pull. Something was bothering me. It’s not like passing a file along to another adjuster is any big deal, but Parnell was dead and that seemed to make all the difference.

  Chapter 4

  *

  The next morning, I showered and donned my generic uniform. I had this outfit done up for me years ago by an ex-con who learned to sew working the big machines in some federal penitentiary. The slacks were blue gray and unflattering, with a pale stripe along the seam. The matching pale blue shirt had a circle of Velcro sewn on the sleeve, which usually sported a patch that read “Southern California Services.” The shoes, left over from my days on the police force, were black and made my feet look like they’d be hard to lift. Once I added a clipboard and a self-important key ring, I could pass myself off as just about anything. Usually, I pretend I’m reading a water meter or checking for gas leaks, any officious task that necessitates crawling through somebody’s bushes and tampering with their security systems. Today, I slapped on an FTD patch and headed for the nearest florist, where I laid out thirty-six dollars for a massive bouquet. I bought a syrupy get-well card, scribbled an illegible name, and put in a quick call to the dry cleaning establishment where Bibianna worked. A woman answered this time.

  “Oh, hi,” said I. “May I speak to the owner, please?”

  “This’ the plant. He just left on his way over to the other place,” she said. “You want that number?”

  “Sure.”

  She recited the number to me carefully and I recited it back as if I were writing it down. What did she know? She couldn’t see what I was doing anyway.

  “Thanks,” I said. I hung up and hopped in my car, flowers on the seat beside me. I drove over to the plant. There was a nice green length of curb out in front, fifteen minutes of free parking. I locked the car and went in. I stood at the counter briefly, waiting for service. The place smelled of soap products, damp cotton, chemicals, and steam. The area behind the counter was a forest of clothing in clear plastic bags. On my left, an elaborate electronic tram moved hanging garments in a tortuous track that snaked up and around, returning to the point of origin so that any garment on board could be delivered to the station when the proper number was punched in.

  To the right, a maze of overhead pipes supported garments in the process of being pressed. There were ten women within my visual range, most of them Hispanic, working machines whose function one could only guess. A radio had been tuned to a Spanish-language station that was blasting out an up-tempo cut from a Linda Ronstadt album. Two of the women sang as they worked, moving men’s shirts expertly across the machines in front of them. With the syncopated rhythm of the irons, the shirt machines, the clouds of billowing steam, the place looked like the perfect setting for a musical number.

  One of the two singing women finally noticed me. She left her machine and came over to the counter where I was waiting. She was short and compact, with a round face, eyes the color of chocolate M&M’s, and coarse dark hair pulled into a snood. The loose gold satin blouse she wore was sprinkled with sequins. She glanced at the bouquet. “Those for me?”

  I checked the attached florist’s card. “Are you Bibianna Diaz?”

  “Nah. She’s off this week.”

  “She won’t be in at all?”

  The woman shook her head. “She hurt her back in this accident… mmm, about two months ago, and it’s still botherin’ her. The pain flares up, she says, real bad. She can’t hardly walk. Boss told her, no way, don’t come in. He don’t want no kind of lawsuit. She got a boyfriend?”

  I turned the card over, holding it up to the light. “Looks like a get-well card, actually. Shoot. Now what am I supposed to do?”

  “Take ‘em to her house,” she said.

  “I can’t. This is the only address he gave. You don’t happen to have her home address, do you?”

  “Nah. I never been there myself,” the woman said. She turned to one of the other women. “Hey, Lupe. Where’s Bibianna live?”

  The second woman shook her head, but a third piped up. “On Castano. I don’t know the number, but it’s this big brown house in front and her place in back. She’s got this little bungalow. Real cute. Between Huerto and Arroyo.”

  The woman at the counter turned back to me. “You know the block she’s talkin’ about?”

  “I’ll find it,” I said. “Thanks. You’ve been a big help.”

  “I’m Graciela. Tell the guy to look me up he gets tired of her. I got all the same equipment, just arranged different.”

  I smiled. “I’ll do that.”

  The second address on Bibianna turned out to be a dank-looking brown cottage at the back of a dank brown house, located in a midtown neighborhood distinctly down at the heel. I spotted the house in passing, then circled the block and parked across the street. I sat and scanned the premises. The lot was long and narrow, sheltered by the overhanging branches of magnolia, juniper, and pine trees. There was not a shred of grass anywhere and what vegetation there was seemed in desperate need of a trim. A cracked concrete drive cut along the property to the right. In the larger house in front, someone had nailed sagging floral print bedsheets across the windows in lieu of drapes.

  There were no cars in the drive. According to the claim form, her 1978 Mazda was still in the body shop, having the right side panel replaced (among other things). I waited twenty minutes, but there was no visible activity. I torqued myself around, reaching into the backseat for the locked briefcase where I keep assorted false ID’s for occasions such as this. I pulled a set for “Hannah Moore,” neatly tucked into a plastic accordion file: California driver’s license with my stats and a photo of me, Social Security, and credit cards for Visa and Chevron gasoline. “Hannah Moore” even had a library card since I wanted her to appear literate. I shoved my shoulder bag under the front seat and tucked the ID in my trouser pocket. I got out, locked my car, crossed the street, and made my way down the driveway.

  The tall trees on the property shaded it to an unpleasant chill, and I found myself wishing I’d brought a windbreaker or a sweat shirt. The exterior of Bibianna’s vintage cottage was a shaggy brown shingle, the perfect little snack for a swarm of hungry termites. I climbed two wide creaking wooden steps to a tiny porch piled with junk. A casement window on the right side had a length of red cotton hung across the glass. I tried to peek in, but I really couldn’t see much. The interior seemed quiet and there were no lights visible. I knocked on the front door, taking advantage of the moment to survey my immediate surroundings. A metal mailbox was nailed to the siding near the front door. Seven addressed and stamped envelopes were loosely tucked in the catch rack, awaiting pickup by the mailman. So far no one had answered my knock. The cottage
had an unoccupied air, and I fancied I could already pick up the faintly musty scent generated by some dwellings with even the briefest of absences. I knocked again, waiting an interminable few minutes before concluding there was really no one home. Casually, I looked toward the big house, but there were no signs of life, no accusing faces peering out the windows at me. I reached over and let my fingers tippy-toe through the envelopes. When no alarms went off, I picked up the whole batch and sorted through them at my leisure. Four were bills. She was paying telephone, gas, electricity, and a department store. There were two number ten envelopes, one addressed to Aetna Insurance and one to Allstate, both with “Lola Flores” listed on the return address. Oh, gee, wonder what that could be, I thought. Cheaters never quit. It looked like the scam extended beyond the claim against California Fidelity. The seventh piece of mail was a personal letter addressed to someone in Los Angeles. I plucked it out of the stack, folded it, slipped it down the waistband of my trousers and into my panties. Shame on me. That’s a federal crime ��� the stealing part, not the underpants. I returned the rest of the letters to the catch rack. Suppressing the impulse to run, I sauntered off the porch, ambled up the drive, and crossed the street to my waiting car.

  I opened the car door on the passenger side, tossed the clipboard on the front seat, barely missing the bouquet, and locked up again. I could see a minimarket at the corner of Huerto and Arroyo, about ten houses down on the right. I headed in that direction in hope of finding a telephone. The market was a tiny mom-and-pop operation, the front windows papered over with hand-lettered advertisements for beer, cigarettes, and dog food. The interior was dimly lighted and there was sawdust on the uneven wooden floor that looked like it had been there since the place was built. The shelves were a jumble of canned goods in no particular order that I could discern. Free-standing shelves formed two narrow aisles crowded with everything from Pampers to Jell-O to lawn care products. Near the front, there was a refrigerated soft drink case and an ancient crypt-style freezer filled with frozen vegetables, fruit juices, and ice-cream bars. “Mom” was standing at the front counter in a white wraparound apron, a half-smoked cigarette in one hand. She was probably sixty-five with a stiffly sprayed flip of blond hair and a wide scab mustache where she’d had the wrinkles dermabraded off her upper lip. The skin on her face had been hiked up and tacked behind her ears, and her eyes had been stitched into an expression of permanent amazement.

  “You have a pay telephone?”

  “Back by the stockroom,” she said, pointing with her cigarette. A half-inch of ash dropped off and tumbled down the front of her apron.

  I dropped four nickels into the coin slot and called Mary Bellflower, giving her Bibianna Diaz’s hard-won address.

  “Thanks. This is great,” she said. “I’ve got a packet of forms I can ship right out. Are you coming back to the office?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be there in a bit. I thought I’d hang around for a while and see if Bibianna shows.”

  “Well, stop in later and we’ll figure out where we go from here.”

  “Has Gordon Titus come back?”

  “Nope. Not yet. Maybe it was a rout.”

  “I doubt that,” I said. When I hung up the receiver, a nickel tumbled down into the return coin slot. My lucky day. On my left, there was a meat counter with a slanted glass front. A sign above it advertised the lunch special: chili beans, coleslaw, and a tri-tip sandwich for $2.39. The smell was divine. Tri-tip is apparently a regional phenomenon, some cut of beef nobody else has ever heard of. Periodically, a local journalist will try to trace the origin of the term. The accompanying article will show a moo-cow in profile with all the steaks drawn in. Tri-tip is on the near end, opposite the heinie bumper. It’s usually barbecued, sliced, and served with homemade salsa on a bun or wrapped in a tortilla with a sprig of cilantro.

  “Pop” emerged from the walk-in freezer. A breath of winter wafted out. He was a big man in his sixties, with a benign face and mild eyes. “What can I get you?”

  “How about the tri-tip to go.”

  He winked at me, smiling slightly, and prepared it without a word.

  Sandwich in hand, I grabbed a Diet Pepsi from the cooler and paid at the front register. I returned to my car, where I dined in style, being careful not to spill salsa down the front of my uniform. The flowers, getting limper by the minute, filled the VW’s interior with the smells of a funeral home.

  I kept an eye on Bibianna’s driveway for two hours, perfecting my surveillance Zen. In many P.I. firms, surveillance work is charged off at a higher rate than any other service offered because it’s such a yawn. There were no signs of activity, no visitors, no lights coming on. It occurred to me if I intended to watch the place for long, I’d better contact the beat officer and let him know what was going on. Also, it might be smart to borrow another vehicle and maybe cook up some reason to be loitering in the vicinity. The postman came by on foot and picked up the letters waiting in Bibianna’s box, replacing them with a handful of mail. I would have given a lot to see who was writing to her, but I didn’t want to press my luck. Where was the woman? If her back hurt so bad, how come she was out all day? Maybe she was at the chiropractor’s getting all her vertebrae lined up or her head replaced. At three I started up the car and headed back toward town.

  When I arrived at the California Fidelity offices, I gave the bouquet to Darcy at the front desk. She had the good taste not to mention my little run-in with Titus. Her gaze rested briefly on my uniform. “You join the air force?”

  “I just like to dress like this.”

  “Those shoes look like they’d be lethal in a kick-boxing contest,” she remarked. “If you’re here for Mary, she’s got some clients with her, but you can probably mosey on back.”

  Mary had been hired as a CF claims representative in May, when Jewel Cavaletto retired. She’d been assigned the desk Vera had occupied before her promotion to the glass-enclosed office up front. Mary was smart but inexperienced, a young twenty-four, with the kind of face just pretty enough to net her second runner-up in a regional beauty contest. I gave her credit for the fact that she had flagged the Diaz claim. She had a good eye and if she could hang in long enough, she’d be a real asset to the company. She’d been married for three months to a salesman for the local Nissan dealership and was taking an avid interest in Vera’s wedding plans. One of Mary’s own wedding invitations (gauzy pink background depicting daisies blowing in a field) had been framed in brass and propped up on her desk. Where Vera had always tucked the latest issue of Cosmopolitan magazine under the stacks of claim folders on her desk, Mary read Brides, whose influence apparently extended from the engagement through the first year of marriage. Mary had once appealed to me for my recipe for chicken divan until Vera set her straight. Now she tended to regard me with the pity of the newly married for those of us determined to stay single.

  I chatted with Darcy for a few minutes more and then made my way back to Mary’s work station, pausing to say “hi” to a couple of other claims adjusters en route. Word of my skirmish with Titus had apparently spread and I’d been accorded celebrity status, which I figured would last until I got fired, one day at best. Mary’s clients, a man and a woman, were just leaving as I reached her cubicle. The woman was in her thirties with a shaggy mane of bleached hair, the styling faintly punk. Her eyes were lined with harsh black, her lashes clearly false. Her patterned black hose and the trashy sling-back pumps with spike heels seemed at odds with the severe cut of her business suit. She seemed far less aware of me than I was of her, barely glancing in my direction as she passed by in the narrow aisle between cubicles. Her companion followed at a leisurely pace, an attitude of arrogance displayed in the very way he walked. He had his hands in his pockets as if he had all day, but I could have sworn he was keeping a tight rein on himself. His dark hair was combed away from his face. He had thick brows above big, dark eyes, high cheekbones, and a mustache cut so that it seemed to trail down around his mouth. He was w
ell over six feet tall, the heft of his broad shoulders exaggerated by the padding in his plaid sport coat. He looked like the bad guy’s ominous sidekick in a prime-time television show. As he came abreast of me, he tried to sidestep but bumped me in the process. He caught my arm apologetically and murmured a “Hey, sorry” as he headed on down the corridor. I caught a whiff of the hair tonic he was using to subdue the wave in his dark pompadour. I found myself staring after them as I moved into Mary’s cubicle.

  She wasn’t at her desk, but she appeared a half second later, eyes pinned on a Dixie cup filled with water to the brim. She wore a red cashmere sweater with the sleeves pushed up. Her complexion was fresh and clear, her skin shiny with good health. Her coloring was the stuff of magazine ads. “Here we are,” she said, and then she glanced up at me with some surprise. “Oh. Did they leave? The pair that was here?”

  “They went that-a-way. You missed them by a half a second.”

  She peered out into the corridor, but there was no sign of them. “Well, that’s weird. She said she wasn’t feeling good, so I went to get her this.”

  “She looked okay to me.”

  Mary’s mouth pulled down with puzzlement and she set the cup of water on her desk. “I wish they’d hung around. I was hoping you could talk to them.”

  “About what?”

  She shook her head. “They’re investigators from the Insurance Crime Prevention Institute. She was, at any rate. He’s a special agent with the California Department of Insurance.” She handed me the woman’s business card.

  “Him? Are you sure?”

  “He was hired last month. She’s been showing him the ropes.”