“No. Well, maybe a little bit. He complained a lot about his job and how it wasn’t what he thought it would be.”
“Did he say exactly what about the job he didn’t like?” I said.
“Not really. Just that he didn’t want to do it anymore. He said he was going to quit and go back to Utah, maybe do some consulting but probably change careers, get out of the investment business altogether. I didn’t really believe him. I thought he was just having a rough time at the office and that it would work itself out.”
“Did he mention if he was having problems with anyone in particular?”
He shook his head.
“Would you say that you were his closest friend?”
Crawford thought for a moment. “I would doubt it. We played golf together once a week, but except for the usual bullshit we didn’t really talk much about, you know, serious stuff.”
“Did he talk about any other friends or anything?”
“No.” Crawford looked at me like I’d asked him if he and Norris did each other’s nails.
“Did he have a girlfriend?”
“There was this one girl he used to date, but he hadn’t mentioned her in awhile.” He picked up his golf bag, slung it over his shoulder and started towards the clubhouse. “Sorry, but I have to get back to work.”
“What was this woman’s name?” I walked with him as we passed the putting green. I noticed Blake Rios practicing and waved at him. He either didn’t see me or chose to ignore me.
“Andrea Scott. She runs a pet supply store.”
“Do you know the name of the store?”
“It’s that big one over on 35th Street, Western Feed or something like that. He wanted me to buy my dog’s food there just to give them my business. I never did though.”
I thanked him for his time and the information as we parted ways in the parking lot. He shook his head and mumbled something to himself as he walked off.
On the drive over to Western Feed and Pet Supply my cell phone rang. I pulled over to the side of the street and answered it.
“Hi, I have about ten missed calls from you,” Jill said after I answered. “What is it? What’s happened?”
“Norris is dead. Murdered.”
“Oh, dear god. How? When?”
“Last night at his house. I went over to see him about eight o’clock to put some pressure on him about what he’s been up to. When he didn’t answer, I went around back to see if he might be inside. And then I found him dead. He’d been shot.”
“This is awful,” she said. “Ray, I am so sorry I got you mixed up in all this. I had no idea any of this would lead to… murder.”
“To make matters worse, the police think that I did it.”
“You’re not serious?”
“Officially, I am a person of interest, but the lead detective interrogated me like I’d done it and he asked your father a lot of questions about me.”
The line went quiet for several seconds.
“Have you talked to my father about any of this?” she said.
“I just spoke with him on the golf course as a matter of fact. He threatened to sue me, which is no surprise. Then he more or less implied that maybe the police were right about me killing Norris. No offense, I know he’s your father, but your dad is a dick.”
“Tell me about it. And no offense taken. I’ll talk with him, though I can’t guarantee that it will do any good, knowing my father.”
“Be careful when you talk to him,” I said.
“Why? He’s a jerk but I’m not afraid of him.”
“Think about it, Jill. A guy who has been dissing your dad’s company, saying things that could significantly hurt his business turns up dead. I would say that makes him a pretty good suspect. I’m not saying he’d hurt you but a guy in his position might not like being confronted.”
“He couldn’t kill anyone. It’s not possible.”
“If you say so,” I said.
“I say so.”
More silence as both of us decided where we wanted the conversation to go next. It could go ugly.
“I talked to one of Norris’s friends just now,” I said, changing directions. “He said that Norris was planning to move back to Utah, that he hated his job.”
“You’re not still working on this are you? Because if you are I don’t think it is a good idea. Please back off, Ray. For me.”
“I’m going to see Norris’s girlfriend now,” I said.
“Ray, really, it’s not a good idea for you to be doing that. The police already think you might have killed Norris. Snooping around doesn’t look good for you. And someone’s already been killed. If you get too close to finding out who, then…”
“I know all that,” I said. “But I’ve got skin in the game now. Finding out who killed Norris might be the only way to save it.”
fifteen
Western Feed and Pet Supply consisted of a warehouse-sized Quonset hut with dozens of industrial-grade racks stacked to the ceiling with dog food, cat food, pet carriers, pet beds, dog houses, cat litter, toys, collars and leashes, vitamins, chew toys and pretty much everything else you could think of for a cat or dog. There were also food and supplies for rabbits, Guinea pigs and other small animals. Feed bags for horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, goats, cows and sheep filled the racks in a dimly lit back section of the store. The place smelled of cedar chips and wet straw.
“Hi,” I said to a young woman standing behind the cashier’s counter. She had a cursive neck tattoo and piercings in her lower lip, upper lip, nose and eyebrow. “I’m looking for Andrea Scott. Is she here today?”
“No solicitors,” she said. “Says so on the sign right there on the front door.” She pointed at the front door in case I could not recall how I had entered the establishment.
“I’m not a solicitor. This is about a personal matter.”
“A personal matter? What kind of personal matter?” She used the back of her sleeve to rub her nose and I became concerned that she might snag it on the sharp nose piercing.
“If I told you then it wouldn’t be personal, would it?”
She looked at me, thinking about that for a moment.
“Is she here today?” I asked again.
“Andrea!” she said, in a squawk not unlike a parrot’s.
From a small office just behind the counter emerged a blonde woman in her early thirties. She wore blue jeans and a pink long-sleeved top that didn’t cling to her yet revealed a nice figure. She was pretty in a wholesome kind of way, lacking any visible tattoos or piercings.
“Yes?” she said to the clerk.
“Guy here says he’s got a ‘personal matter’ to discuss with you.” It wasn’t the most elegant introduction I’d ever received, but it was an introduction.
Andrea looked at me as she drew up to the counter alongside Miss Piercings.
“What can I do for you?” she said. She was polite, even offering a smile.
“Can we talk privately in your office? It will only take a couple of minutes.”
“I suppose. You’re not a salesman are you? Because I only meet salespeople by appointment. I’m very busy and—”
“I’m not a salesman. This is about Andrew Norris.”
If I thought that would get me immediate entry into her office, I was wrong. The smile dropped from her face. She looked me up and down as she crossed her arms across her chest.
“Andy and I are no longer dating so there really isn’t anything to talk about.”
“Please, it’s important. Believe me.”
She paused. “Okay, but I only have a few minutes.”
I walked around the counter and followed her into the office. She left the door open and settled into a metal chair behind an old wooden desk cluttered with stacks of papers. I removed a pet toy catalog from the only other chair in the room and, uninvited, sat down.
“Excuse my manners,” I said, standing up and extending my hand. “My name is Ray Courage. I’m a private investigator.”
She shook my hand but seemed a bit taken aback by what I had said.
“An investigator? Is something wrong with Andy?”
I started to speak, but sensed something behind me. I looked back through the open door and could see Miss Piercings pretending to file papers in a cabinet next to the open door to the office.
“Do you mind if I close the door?” I said. “This is a sensitive matter.”
She nodded her approval. After I returned to my seat I began to tell her how Lionel Stroud had concerns that Andrew might be encouraging clients to abandon Stroud’s firm and join up with him. I brought her up to where I went to visit Norris at his house, omitting any mention of Andrew’s own concerns about Stroud and his clients.
“This all seems overblown,” she said. “Andy would never steal clients. He was the most honest person I know.”
“Did you notice that he was unhappy with his job?”
“Of course I did. He hated his job. But wait a minute, if you’re here to gather evidence against Andy then I’m not saying another word.”
“No, I’m not here for that. That part of the case is closed.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “But if it’s closed then why are you here?”
I paused. Even though they weren’t dating anymore, I knew this would be harder than breaking the news of Norris’s death to Tom Crawford and Jill.
“I have bad news. Andy… Andrew Norris was killed last night in his home. He was shot.”
She looked at me for several moments, her face a stone. Reflexively her hand went to her mouth, tears forming in an instant and then she was sobbing.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I pondered moving to comfort her with a hand on the shoulder, something, but I didn’t know if she would welcome it from a stranger so I stayed in my chair not feeling very good about myself.
“Was it that guy?” she asked after what seemed like five minutes. She was composed, though her face was streaked with tears and she used a tissue to blow her nose.
“What guy? Was there someone Andrew was concerned about?”
“I don’t know exactly. Andrew said he had run into a guy who was threatening him. I told him to call the police, but he said he thought he could take care of everything.”
“Did he say how or who was threatening him?”
“All he said is that it was a business deal. He said he got caught in the middle of something he didn’t see coming.”
“When did he tell you this?” I said.
“Two weeks ago,” she said. She started to cry again. “The day we broke up.”
“I’m very sorry.”
“He said he was going to take care of this business, then pack up and go back to Utah where people were normal. That was the first I heard he was leaving. We had only been dating a couple of months. We weren’t far enough along in our relationship to know if it was going anywhere, but I was starting to love him. And I think he loved me. When he told me he was just packing up and moving away… it broke my heart.”
“He didn’t mention any names at all when he talked about this business deal?” I asked.
“No.”
“But you just asked me if it was ‘that guy’ when I told you about what happened,” I said.
“I just assumed it was a man, but he never said if it was a male, a female, or more than one person. Maybe it was something he said one time. I don’t remember exactly.”
“He didn’t mention Lionel Stroud by name did he?” I said.
“His name has come up a lot but just in the way people talk about their jobs to their friends. He was Andy’s boss so he had the usual complaints. You know, like he was demanding, unreasonable, that kind of thing.”
“But nothing that relates to the threat?”
She shook her head, another wave of sobbing on the verge of starting. I didn’t know what else to do, so appropriate or not, I stood, went over to her and put my hand on her shoulder to offer some comfort.
sixteen
About twenty minutes after my meeting with Andrea Scott, I noticed a white sedan pull up behind me as I drove down Folsom Boulevard. The car tailgated me for nearly a block before the driver hit me with a flashing red light and a quick burst of the siren. I pulled to the side of the street, rolled down my window and glanced in the side mirror to see Detective Trujillo walking toward me. Instead of approaching from the driver’s side, he walked onto the sidewalk and came up to the car from the passenger side of my car. I rolled down the window.
“We need to talk,” he said, leaning into the car.
I pushed the unlock button on the car and Trujillo climbed into the passenger seat. He seemed bigger than he had the night before. He looked at me for several seconds, his jaw set and his eyes boring in on me. I decided not to say anything, to make him say the first words.
“Do you think this is a game?” he said at last.
“Do I think what is a game?”
“Don’t fuck with me.” He pointed a finger in my face.
“May I ask why you pulled me over?”
“Ask anything you want, but the only one who is going to give out any answers is you.”
“Are you serious?” I said, referring to the over-the-top attitude.
“As a heart attack, asshole.”
“Why are you being so belligerent?” His bad-cop, bad-cop routine had grown tiresome.
His face tightened. For a second I thought he might hit me or maybe spit in my face the way he was working his jaw.
“Let me get right to it,” he said. “What the fuck are you doing talking to people about the Andrew Norris homicide?”
“Oh, that?” I said smiling. “That’s why you are so upset. I was just tying up some loose ends on the job Stroud hired me to do is all.”
“Don’t be cute.”
“I’m long past cute,” I said. “I’d settle for ‘not unattractive’ at this point in my life.”
“You talked to Stroud,” he said, pronouncing each word with deliberation. “You talked to Andrea Scott. You told her about the murder.” His voice now boomed inside the car.
“Yes. I spoke to the person who hired me and I spoke with the ex-girlfriend of the subject of my investigation. Like I said, I’m tying up some loose ends.”
“Goddamn it!” With that he reached over with both his hands and grabbed my head.
I started to struggle but his hands were strong and insistent so I relented and stared at the cold fury in his face.
“Let me get your attention, motherfucker,” he said. “I am investigating a murder, a high profile murder and you are doing everything possible to fuck it up for me. You talked to a suspect, Andrea Scott. You talked to Lionel Stroud, who is possibly, make that highly likely, connected to the crime. You are poisoning my investigation and if you don’t stop I will arrest you for interfering with a criminal investigation. Is that clear?”
“As day,” I said.
“What?”
“Clear as day.”
He let go of my face and I drew back from him. I started to work up to indignant and from there to pissed off, but Trujillo wasn’t done.
“On top of all that, I think—make that know—that somehow you are involved in this murder. You pulled the trigger or know who did.”
“Why would I kill Norris?”
“I’m working on motive, but you have already admitted that Stroud hired you to follow Norris. For all I know he hired you to kill him.”
“You think I’m a hit man? Come on.” Pissed off was coming to me now. “I’m a retired college professor. How many of those turn to a life of crime?”
“Retired?” He waved off that defense with the back of his hand. “From what I heard you were forced out for playing grab ass with your students. A lowlife perv.”
“It was only one girl and it was a set up.” I felt immediately embarrassed for biting on Trujillo’s ploy and offering up a lame excuse.
“Courage, I will find out exactly what your role in all this is.
That’s a promise.”
“You cannot be serious. We went over this last night. About twenty times. Stroud thought Norris was up to something and had me look into it. I didn’t turn up anything other than the fact Norris seemed unhappy in his work. I had nothing to gain by killing him.”
“But Stroud might have. And a guy like that buys someone to do his shit work for him. A guy suddenly out of a job and most likely desperate for money.”
“You’re looking in the wrong place,” I said.
“I don’t think so.”
“Are we done?”
“For now. But I want you to come in this afternoon about four o’clock to talk some more. It will be recorded. The address is on the card.” He handed me a business card. “Ask for me when you get there.”
“I thought you got everything you wanted from me last night.”
“You thought wrong.”
“Are you going to arrest me?” I said.
“Depends on what I can find out between now and four o’clock.” He pointed at me and we locked eyes. “And remember, stay away from anything to do with this case or I’ll lock you up in a heartbeat.” He got out of the car. I sat there and watched as he started his car and drove past me.
seventeen
I didn’t go to the police station to talk with Detective Trujillo. I’m sure that caused him to blow a gasket. The image of that made me smile. My lawyer, Mark Scofield, advised me not to talk to Trujillo again unless he formally charged me with a crime and only then if my attorney was present. Mark called the detective to inform him of this, couldn’t reach him, and left a voice mail. He then called me and told me to refer Trujillo to him if he should ever contact me.
Not having to talk to Trujillo lifted my mood slightly from the dregs of earlier in the day. I helped Rubia at the bar until about seven, when physically and mentally exhausted I decided to go home. All I wanted was a shower, a couple beers, and maybe a few of innings of a spring training game.
I pulled into the driveway and got out of the car, immediately noticing lights shining through the windows at the front of the house. I lived alone and had not left the lights on. Not even Jill ever had a key to the place. Did Trujillo get a search warrant? I didn’t see the car he’d pulled me over in that morning or any other indication of a police presence. In fact, except for mine, there were no cars in the driveway and none parked on the street in front of the house. The murderer? Could whoever killed Norris have found out about me and come looking to kill me as well? My heartbeat accelerated. I thought about calling the police and decided I didn’t want to have anything to do with them after the last twenty-four hours.
Courage Matters: A Ray Courage Mystery (Ray Courage Private Investigator Series Book 2) Page 7
