Full Bodied Murder

by Christine E. Blum

  Hovering just above the treetops, we could easily follow their progress, and peering out of open windows, we were treated to some of the scents and smells of the woods. I picked up pine, sage, and lots of woody scents and salty air.

  “This is amazing,” I said, watching a sort of canine Hunger Games play out below me. “And what part of this do you think Bardot has an innate aptitude for, exactly?”

  Jack chuckled. “I know she is all over the place right now, but she will not let anything get in the way of her retrieving. Not water, not distractions I’ll bet, and certainly with her energy, she won’t give up until she has gotten her prize. From what you told me she comes from a long line of field Labs and as a result these characteristics are in her DNA.”

  I wanted to prove him right and divulge our Angeles Forest adventure, but would have to wait until we were off the headphones and mics. I watched the team go to work. A couple of times they veered off course according to the map, but Jodi seemed to recognize when Macy lost the scent and they’d backtrack and pick it up again.

  “Neil, why don’t you tell Halsey what you and Sydney know about Ray?”

  “Sure, we were called out about two a.m. the other night to track some suspected drug activity being conducted in the Marina, just south of the channel. DEA on the ground didn’t want to show themselves just yet, said they were waiting for a bigger bust.”

  “I kept us far enough away,” Sydney added, “but we used night vision to see exactly what they were doing.”

  “Turns out that it was just a run-through, the boat was a local fishing vessel. The DEA identified the guy as Ray Sobel, but they didn’t know who the woman was,” Neil said. He had unbelted, gotten up, and was now securing ropes to some sort of pulley.

  “I know exactly who she is,” I said to them. “Her name is Inez. She may be his girlfriend.”

  “We’ll let the DEA know as soon as we get back, Halsey. Let’s move ahead, Sydney,” Jack instructed. “Ready?” he asked, grinning at me.

  My eyes opened wide and I froze. “Ready for what?”

  “We’re going to complicate things a little bit for our K-9 team. Throw in some unrelated scents from a couple of people and an animal,” said Jack, putting on some sort of harness.

  I noticed that his dog Clarence was also getting harnessed and breathed a sigh of relief. They were going to be lowered down while I watched safely from my seat. Wait. Did he say “a couple of people”?

  Next thing I knew, Jack was strapping something over my shoulders and across my chest. He had that glint in his eye and all I could do was stare blankly straight ahead.

  “You’re going to love this,” he said. “We’ll go down first and then Neil will send Clarence.”

  The side door opened, the pulley mechanism swung out, and Jack pulled me into his chest while he and Neil went through some sort of checklist.

  “You’re not scared of heights, are you?” Jack asked.

  Before I could respond, he held me tight and we jumped out into the air. I burrowed my face as deep as I could into his chest and let out a sustained scream. His jacket, the sound of air swishing by us, and the rotor blades muffled it.

  Jack directed Neil through his helmet headset and told him where to put us down.

  As we got lower we started spinning and Jack said, “Hold tight, we’ll be down in a sec.”

  What the hell did he think I was going to do? Cut loose and waft around like Tinker Bell?

  Later I was forced to admit to myself that we landed softly and safely, but when Jack unhooked my harness, all I could think of was to start punching and kicking him.

  WHOMP!

  “You couldn’t ask me if I wanted to jump out of a plane? If I was okay with being lowered into the jungle with nothing to protect me but you and a giant Schnauzer?”

  So I was exaggerating a little, but he had scared the shit out of me. It didn’t help that Clarence was now coming down on a rope, looking the epitome of cool, calm, and collected.

  “One, it’s a helicopter. Two, this is not the jungle, and three, you don’t think I can protect you?” Jack asked with a mock hurt look and hands placed over his heart.

  “I’m just saying,” I said.

  Jack directed Neil and waited to grab Clarence.

  “Come on,” he said after unharnessing his dog. “I’ll show you what you would have missed if I’d asked if you wanted to jump and you’d said ‘no.’ ”

  It was hard to accept that we were just about thirty minutes out of Los Angeles. As far as you could see in any direction was an amazing panorama of plant life that I could now experience, up close; pine, oak, and sycamore trees, California-looking sage and cactus scrub. Then there was the cacophony of animal and bird sounds that played like a perfectly orchestrated piece. Red-tailed hawks soared overhead, and it was clear from the waste piles scattered around, that deer, rabbits, and coyotes roamed freely.

  How do you find Mel Tormé in the forest? Follow the scat.

  For the next while, Jack led me through his wild kingdom, pointing out fruits and vegetables growing. I’d never seen a wild radish. He loved finding snakes and other reptiles (such a guy thing), and he identified all kinds of fowl. When we got to the creek and I saw ducks, I got a pang of guilt for not bringing Bardot. This was Bardot heaven.

  Once we crossed the creek, which was swollen and running rapidly from the recent rain, Jack led me up a hillside to a flattop boulder. I hadn’t realized that we had been climbing in elevation, but in this perfect spot we were high enough to see the ocean.

  Why was cynical me wondering who else he had taken up here?

  “Sydney tells me the team is about ten minutes away from us, so we’ve got time for a quick snack,” Jack said, opening his backpack. Out came a baguette, cut up slices of apple, paté, and cheese.

  We were famished and tucked in while lazing back on the rock. Clarence got water and apples and looked contented.

  Now was the time and I caught him up on the case, the surveillance video the cops were working on, and the fact that I was still a suspect. (I left out the Römertopf oven part.)

  “I can’t believe this. How can they still think that you are the murderer?” Jack asked, incredulous.

  “I know, right?”

  “Let’s toast to finding the killer and moving on to better things,” he said, producing a split of French Aix-en-Provence Rosé.

  Gets me every time.

  “Okay, quid pro quo, weren’t you also going to ask your detective friend about Ray,” I said, taking a filled glass from him. That pack seemed to be bottomless.

  “My friend Mark is part of a K-9 team and assisted from the ground on the possible bust in Playa del Rey, just on the other side of the jetty separating the Marina. He is one of my graduates. The dogs found about fifteen pounds of marijuana hidden in bags between the rocks and caught a guy above it who claimed to be fishing and knew nothing about the weed. Only problem was he had no rod, no bait, nothing, so they took him in for questioning. He claimed to have used a handline and had gotten fed up and threw it in the water. Totally lame, but they had nothing to keep him. Seems the guy works for Ray.”

  “Was his name Zeke?”

  “Something like that, Halsey. If you see him or Ray, run the other way. The cops seem to think that the drugs are coming in from Mexico, and while they have a tight security net around the bigger ships, the small ones still seem to sneak in every now and again. Mark and his dog and I are going to do some recon over the next two days.”

  “Sounds like a perfect time for Bardot and I to get our tracking feet wet,” I joked.

  He looked at me, actually considering it.

  “I’m kidding, do I look that dumb?”

  We both sipped our wine.

  “So, in the spirit of getting to know one another, tell me three things you have never done but would like to,” he said.

  “You want to play ‘Bucket List’?”

  “We’re too young for that, let’s just call it a
‘To Do List.’ ”

  I looked at him and immediately started filtering thoughts. I could feel my wall going up, even though he was doing everything right.

  “Okay, I’ll go first. I have never showered under a waterfall.” He waited for me to take a turn.

  “Er, I have never had a cronut.” (Which was actually a lie.)

  He did not look happy with my contribution, and I could see that he was thinking about how to make this game more intimate.

  “I have never made love on a mountain top.”

  Ruh-roh. Not happening. I need clean sheets and semidarkness for that sort of thing.

  “This is silly.”

  He gave me a look.

  “Okay, I have never been on a vacation with a group of close friends.”

  “That shouldn’t even count, that is easily fixed!” He sat up, showing his frustration.

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  He took a breath, looked at me reclining on the rock, and calmed himself. He leaned back down toward me. “And my third, I have never, but I really want to, know someone so completely that words are unnecessary.”

  Ruh-roh.

  After a pause, I began, “I have never been in—”

  Clarence jumped to his feet and paced between us.

  “You got something, boy?” Jack asked him.

  “Got what?” I asked, wondering if he had a rabbit hanging limp out of his mouth.

  “He smells the K-9 team even though they are still about fifty feet away. We’ve got to clear out,” Jack explained. “But you’re not off the hook, we’ll get back to this.”

  “Oh joy!” Gotta love sarcasm.

  He was busy packing up but I could see that I’d hurt him.

  “But seriously,” I said, softening my tone, “this is fantastic and so very thoughtful of you, Mr. Jack Thornton.”

  “Wow, I recognize that we are starting over but ‘Mr. Jack Thornton’? Sooo formal.”

  “Honey pie? Babe? Any of those work?” I asked, trying to get the sarcasm out of my voice. Jack didn’t know how to react. He slumped and scratched his beard.

  Why do I always do this ?

  Chapter 19

  “STOP THE CAR,” I screamed and didn’t actually wait for Jack to do so. “PEGGY!”

  As we wound our way to Rose Avenue, I could see that the night sky was lit up. I wondered if maybe something just crashed at the Santa Monica airport. When we turned onto Rose and I smelled the smoke, I felt my stomach drop.

  The scene was surreal. Neighbors in pajamas were using garden hoses to douse what they could. Firefighters were running through their maneuvers and seemed thankfully to be gaining on the fire. I searched the crowd, looking desperately for my friends, and amid the smoke spotted Sally with Peggy, who was breathing through an oxygen mask administered by the EMTs.

  “My God, Peggy, are you okay?”

  “She will be,” replied Sally, “just keep breathing in and out, Peggy.”

  I got down on the ground and cradled her in my arms. She kept trying to say something to me through the mask, but all I heard were muffled sounds.

  If these are her dying words, I’d better hear them.

  “Sally, where are the others?” I asked, distracting her long enough to lift the mask off Peggy.

  “What, honey, what are you trying to say,” I said, caressing her back.

  She gasped for breath and managed to get out, “You better have lots of wine at your house, mine’s a little hard to get to.”

  * * *

  I had gotten Peggy’s mask back on just before Sally returned with Cassie and Aimee. They joined us on the lawn and we had a group Wine Club hug. The color was coming back to Peggy’s cheeks, a good sign. While the others were fussing over her, I took a moment to survey the damage to her house. It was hard to see much; there was still so much smoke. The living room window in the front was shattered, but it was hard to tell if that was from the fire or the firefighters trying to get in or something else.

  “Mrs. Blake, I’m Captain Sparks,” said the mustachioed, helmeted and sooty fireman.

  His name is Sparks? Really?

  “Oh, just call me Peggy like everybody else.”

  Peggy was breathing fairly well on her own now. “Sparky” joined our little hugging circle on the grass, much to Cassie’s delight.

  “Peggy, you are one lucky lady,” he continued.

  “The fire is out, and while it will take a while for the smoke to dissipate, and you’ll have to replace some windows and carpeting, the rest of the house is fine. Thanks mainly to your neighbors’ quick responses.”

  I looked back again, the smoke was starting to clear and I could see pretty much everyone from Rose Avenue taking a breather. They were holding garden hoses, water buckets, even Supersoaker water guns belonging to dads with kids. And towering above them was Jack, helping wherever a gentle giant was needed.

  I saw Cassie’s husband Carl talking on his cell phone while walking around the house carrying an enormous measuring tape. Sally’s husband, Joe, who had somehow managed to change into his customary cords and tweed jacket, was assisting him. Joe is a retired philosophy professor from UCLA, and if Sally is patrician then Joe is erudite. Throw in Sally’s practicality versus Joe’s metaphysical nature and you’ve got one hell of a marriage.

  The rest of the people were starting to clean up while others who had stayed home during the initial emergency arrived with freshly baked cookies, drinks, and moist towels.

  “My guys are coming by with the new glass, I just gave them the measurements, and I got Danny on his way to inspect your walls, ducts, and any other areas the soot might have settled into. As soon as the fire inspectors are done doing their thing, Joe and I will go around and open all the doors and windows and place security tape around the perimeter of the house,” Carl rattled this off to Peggy and the rest of us in a clipped, take charge voice.

  Cassie was beaming.

  “And what have I told you about firing your gun in the house, Peggy,” he said, pointing a finger at her.

  I gasped and looked to the girls for clarification.

  “He’s just kidding,” said Cassie, giving him a big kiss.

  Sally helped Peggy to her feet.

  “Or was it the crack pipe again, toots?” said Carl, grinning and heading back to the scene.

  “Peggy, I have a spare room, a loving, if hyper dog, and some great wine,” I said. “Everybody come on back to my place.”

  * * *

  Most of us sat on the rug in my living room around my large square coffee table. I have always had a relaxed, cottage style home decor, opting for natural woods and solid fabrics accented with fun, decorative pillows.

  This time I had swapped out the more formal, East Coast pinstripes and chintzes for hibiscus, seashells, and nautical flags. I like mixing a Georgian silver tea set on a shelf with Malibu tiles and sea glass. I’m a sucker for vintage sports equipment, like wooden tennis racquets and fly-fishing poles. Capping it all off is my collection of antique oars, which started when I rowed crew in college.

  I’d made a run to Whole Foods earlier that day just in case I’d arrived home hungry and depressed from my date with Jack.

  What? This is the way things have been going.

  On such an occasion nothing beats simple Italian peasant delicacies: prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano, black truffle oil and a nice, crusty bread. I also got a little wine; a sublime Pinot Bianco, a Gamay, and I couldn’t pass up the Sangiovese and Trebbiano Toscano.

  Peggy looked totally relaxed after having taken a shower and changed into some of my comfy sweats. She was sipping her wine, lounging on one of the sofas with—guess who—snuggled next to her. Amazing how dogs know when someone needs TLC. . . .

  Aimee soon joined us; she’d left Kimberly to close up the Chill Out and rushed back when she heard news of the fire.

  For a few moments, we all sat silently consuming and imbibing. And feeding off the comfort of being together.

 
“I’m telling you, we should never have started snooping around Musso or Ray and their business,” said Aimee. “Whatever they’re up to is none of our concern, and after tonight, well, we’ve just got to drop this,” she pleaded.

  “What are you saying, you think he had something to do with the fire? It wasn’t a faulty wire or something?” asked Cassie in disbelief.

  “We’ll know soon enough when we get the results from Captain Sparky the Bear and his fire inspectors,” Sally said matter-of-factly.

  “I can’t for the life of me understand what Musso would have against Peggy, I’m the most likely target. Did I tell you that I caught him snooping in the window of my office the other day?”

  “What?” asked Peggy.

  “I sure hope the fire was an accident, sad as it is, Peggy,” Aimee said, moving up on the sofa next to her and Bardot. “I just think we should drop this whole thing, leave Ray, Ali and Zeke, and Musso alone. I know you need to be cleared, Halsey, but—” Aimee dissolved into tears.

  I sighed. She had a point. Someone or ones was trying to scare us off. But that meant that we were getting close, so we can’t back away now, can we?

  Cassie joined them on the sofa and put an arm around Aimee. Bardot thought that this was the perfect opportunity to roll onto her back and air out her hoohaw.

  Chapter 20

  My research on Tala was really just a bridge to nowhere. I knew time was running out on her visa, that she was originally from Kiev, and that her last listed place of employment was something called the Orchid Tree Agency. I growled at how much time I’d spent getting just to here. The sound woke Bardot up from a deep sleep and instead of securing the perimeter, she thought this was a sing-along and wagged her tail and howled. I played along and for a few moments we had our own “Dueling Banjos” going.

  Of course, just at that moment Sally and Peggy walked in.

  “Bardot, for the last time, be quiet! Hi, ladies,” I said, trying to be convincing and failing.