A Dead Husband (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery) (27 page)

Jessica pulled her knees up
, toes only on the ground to avoid hitting the bottom of her cut foot on the pavement. She put her head down to keep from losing her lunch or passing out, since she did not intend to do either in front of these fine representatives of local law enforcement. The message from Detective Hernandez was, she presumed, intended to reassure her that Jerry and Tommy were not part of the body count. If he stopped yelling at her long enough, she would thank him for that. 

That did not change the fact that two more bodies had turned up
.  No, not bodies, people. Most likely, they had found Eric-the-waiter and his cousin Joe. Why would anyone kill them? Did they think Laura had given him whatever they were looking for when they hooked up Friday night?  How did they know about Eric, or his connection to Laura? Had she and Jerry unwittingly led them to Eric? If she and Jerry had left all of this to the police would Eric and his poor cousin still be alive? 

“The dark side of kismet,” she thought
.  It was hard to believe there was anything providential about any of this but she found herself praying anyway.  “God, if you’re up there, and you give a damn, please don’t me let me roam about the world wreaking havoc in people’s lives. Once a Catholic school girl, always a Catholic school girl,” she thought, letting out an enormous sigh.

What if s
he was no more cut out for the law than for marriage and motherhood?  Perhaps she should resign herself to becoming a recluse. She could turn the Mission Hills estate into a black AMEX card version of a hermitage, filled to the brim with designer goods.

“S
hades of Grey Gardens,” she thought shuddering at the thought. “I am losing it.  Maybe I need to talk to Father Martin. Better yet, I’m calling my shrink.  He must have a referral for me by now.”  This last part she spoke aloud. Loud enough that Officer Parker asked her if she was speaking to him.  She just shook her head no.

As she sat there trying to regain her sensibilities a police car drove up and an officer got out armed with a camera and other paraphernalia
.  He spoke to Officer Parker and then took an oversized plastic bag to Jessica. He asked her to avoid touching the shoulder strap as she emptied it of the contents. The gloved officer placed her purse in another large evidence bag.

“Did he touch anything else?”
the new arrival asked.

“Other than me, you mean?” Jessica asked
. She wanted this to be over so could go home, take a shower and clean herself up. She wanted to eat ice cream, drink a glass of wine, or do something else to soothe her frazzled nerves.  “No, I don’t think so.  When he saw me turn and look at him he moved over to my car but I don’t think he touched it. That’s when I set off the car alarm. That scared the shit out of him, so maybe he touched the car but mainly he was hell-bent on getting to me at that point.” 

“I’ll
stow this, then I’ll go over and take a quick look.” The guy said, still holding the evidence bag containing her purse.

“Then can I go?  Please?” Jessica asked, beseechingly.

“Yes, as long as you’re sure you don’t want us to call the paramedics.” Officer Parker was pulling at the corner of a form. “You’ll have to...”

“I know, I know—I have to sign a release saying I turned down your offer to make that call
.  No problem, hand it here.”  He brought her the form to sign and helped her get to her feet.  She was a little wobbly, trying to be cautious before putting her full weight on the wounded foot. Officer Parker had done a great job. The cut was cushioned and there was very little pain. The officers had returned the Jimmy Choo not used on her assailant. She just tossed it into the back with the items from her purse. She wasn’t looking forward to driving home barefoot, but she would make it work.

The police officer charged with collecting evidence felt sorry for her and
handed her a pair of those booties worn at crime scenes. Jessica made her way, carefully, to her car, shuffling and tiptoeing in the booties to avoid putting too much stress on her bandaged foot. They let her keep her cell phone, surprisingly, none the worse for wear since the phone was tucked inside a protective case. She doubted she’d ever see her black Rosalie bag again. Jessica didn’t care.

CHAPTER 26

All the way home, Jessica gripped the steering wheel like a vice
.  Tears streamed down her face, a mix of anger, fear and relief. How on earth was she ever going to get her life, any sort of life, back on track? She slapped the steering wheel a couple times. 

“Purse snatcher, my ass,” she said as she gritted her teeth
. The guy in the parking lot had the telltale signs of the high end thugs that worked for Bedrossian.  His manner and dress was a lot like that of the man Bedrossian had with him at the Adobe Grill. 

So much for all the admonitions to back off and stay below the maniac’s radar
. He  was on to her, but how?  It had to be Margarit. What had she told Alan Bedrossian? Jessica had said very little to Margarit. Maybe it was enough just to be asking questions about a dead man in their employ after he turned up murdered.

A
nother of those “wrong place at the wrong time” deals. What on earth could they be looking for? Why did they think she had it? That was a disturbing prospect. Suddenly, an even more disturbing thought occurred to Jessica. 

“How did Margarit Tilik or Alan Bedrossian
know where Jessica was in order to have some goon tackle her in the El Paseo Gardens parking lot?”  Her heart sank. She and Jerry were both being followed.

A loud honk brought Jessica out of her reverie with a start
.  She looked warily in her rearview mirror as a pickup truck loaded with landscaping implements pulled around her and sped off. She let out a sigh of relief, realizing she had just ticked off some local trying to get home at the end of the day.  She had been creeping along on Monterey, driving 35 in a 50 mph zone.  A little road rage was a lot easier to take at this point than yet another encounter with one of Bedrossian’s hooligans. 

Roger had
something that got him killed. They wanted it back and the guy in the pantyhose had failed to retrieve it, thanks to the fact that Jessica and Jerry had interrupted his search.  Now, apparently, she was on the list of people who might have “it” whatever “it” was.  Perhaps anyone associated with Roger or Laura was on that list at this point.

Clearly somebody
had followed her to El Paseo. The guy in the Bruno Maglis was waiting for her. He was at the right car all along—her car.  She just wasn’t supposed to have seen him. In her distraction she had thrown his plan out of whack enough to get him to reveal himself. Still, his effort to grab her, or her purse, or her
and
her purse, probably would have succeeded without intervention by the police.

Jessica picked up the pace
. She turned onto Dinah Shore, only a few miles from home at this point. Jessica checked her rearview mirror, compulsively, the rest of the way home.  She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she looked anyway, until she was safely ensconced behind the gates in Mission Hills. 

In the garage, s
he rested her head on her hands, still gripping the steering wheel.  Jessica tried to compose herself before going into the house and meeting up with Bernadette or Laura. She picked up the plastic evidence bag and climbed gingerly out of her car. She tried smoothing her dress. A lot of good that would do, given her disheveled state. Standing up as straight as she could manage she walked into the house, “ow, ow, ow” she mumbled, shuffling in the booties to the door.  Of course Bernadette was standing in the kitchen. The look of horror on her face said it all.

“So how was lunch with the handsome lawyer?” was all she said before Jessica burst into tears
. Bernadette rushed to Jessica’s side, brushing her hair back from her face, using a tissue to wipe away her tears and the mascara carried with them. She took the plastic bag Jessica was clenching, and placed it on the island in the kitchen.  The lone shoe in the plastic bag caused Bernadette to take a closer look at the booties on Jessica’s feet.  Her eyes wandered up, stopped at the bloodied shreds of pantyhose and continued, taking in the filthy dress hanging on Jessica at an odd angle.

“Dios, mio, niña.!
Lo que esta pasando? What is going on? Tommy and Jerry got here a little while ago looking like the two of them had seen a ghost or somethin’!” Bernadette exclaimed as she went through the drill. She put two aspirin and a glass of water into Jessica’s shaky hands. The cool water steadied Jessica’s shattered nerves.

“Thanks, Bernadette
.  Lunch was fine until some rat bastard. Yes, I said rat bastard, Bernadette, jumped me in the parking lot. He tried to steal my purse.”  She realized she had raised her voice to a pitch that was somewhere between a rant and a whine. Lowering her voice she added, “I already heard Tommy and Jerry had some trouble today too.”

“I’m going to get to the bottom of this
. Tommy, Jerry, get in here, now!” Bernadette shouted.

Hearing her command, Tommy and Jerry rushed in from the patio
.  They both stopped and stared, open-mouthed, at Jessica.

“Oh my God, Jessica, isn’t that a Max Mara dress?”

“It
was
a Max Mara dress, Tommy, and I’m fine.  Thanks for asking.”  Tommy rushed over to give Jessica a hug.

“Easy, Tommy, I hurt in a lot of new places
. I’m not sure how that’s even possible.” 

“I’m sorry Jessica
. I’m kind of shook up too, you know, after what we found at Eric’s apartment.” 

“So I heard, from our friend Detective Hernandez,” Jessica said, wincing as she shifted her weight to set t
he empty water glass on the kitchen counter.

“Laura’s kind of freaked out about it
. She had to go lie down when we told her what happened.”

“Aye, que D
ios mio,” Bernadette said crossing herself. “When
what
happened?” Bernadette asked.

“Nobody tells me nuthin’ around here.”  She shook her head, looked up and crossed herself again
.  “Maybe I don’t wanna know. Do I wanna know?” she asked, looking at each one of them.

“Want to know what?” They all jumped at the sound of Brien’s voice
.  He was peering in at them from the patio. Tommy and Jerry had closed the screen door behind them when they rushed into the house. They had left the glass slider part way open, despite the fact that the air conditioner was whirring serenely. Jerry moved to the door, opening it so Brien could join them. This time he shut both doors. 

“Thanks, man, I er uh...wow, Jessica!  What happened now?”

“Well that is a good question, isn’t it? Some guy hated my dress but loved my bag so much he tried to take it for himself.”

Brien looked bewildered and confused
.

“She got jumped again, Brien
. We found two dead bodies,” said Tommy.  “Detective Hernandez kind of yelled at us like we killed them or something.  He’s pissed at you too, Jessica, says you’re a one-woman crime wave or something like that.”

Jessica wanted to feel
indignant. She could sort of see what he meant, and she was too damn exhausted to care about the injustice of being both victim and pariah.  She wanted to dash off to her room and dive into her bed. Dashing and diving were not options. Crawling was out too.  Hobbling was about all she had left.

“We all do need to talk about what happened today
. Bernadette, you definitely have to know what’s going on. I’m going to try to go clean myself up and then we’ll fill each other in on the trauma du jour. After we eat. Oh my God, Bernadette, I forgot to place our dinner order. I am so sorry. Are you guys willing to wait a little longer for dinner? If I place the order now we should still be able to get food here in an hour.”

“No te preoccupes, Jessica
. These guys will help me fix dinner won’t you?” They all nodded in unison.

“Are you sure?”  Jessica asked
.  Demoralized but grateful, Jessica picked up the plastic evidence bag with both hands, and took a couple cautious steps through the kitchen and toward the hallway to her room. Not too much pain, the aspirin had kicked in. She felt some twinges where the remnants of her pantyhose had started to stick to her skinned knees.  Jessica looked down the hall. The door to her room seemed about a mile away. Bernadette took command as Jessica stood there, trying to work up her courage to cover the distance.

“J
erry, I bet you can handle a BBQ grill, si?”

“Sure, Bernadette, but
I guess it depends what’s on the menu.” Jerry flashed that dazzling, sweet smile of his at Bernadette.

“Nothing fancy
, steaks or burgers. Whatever you guys want. I’ve got both.”

“Both sound
s like a good idea to me,” Brien offered. “I’m starved. All I had for lunch was a couple double western bacon cheeseburgers and some fries.  That was hours ago, Mrs. B. I know my way around a BBQ, too, so I can give Jerry a hand.”

“That would be great, Brien
. Since you had burgers for lunch, let’s cook the steaks for dinner. We’ll save the burgers for tomorrow. After the funeral we’re all coming back here for lunch. You guys go get the grill going. Put one side on high for the steaks and the other on medium so we can start some corn first.  Jessica has had such a hard day. We’ll put peppers and onions and mushrooms on the grill for her, too. You love grilled vegetables don’t you Jessica?” 

Jessica nodded, smiling in spite of her fatigue and disorientation
. It had stunned her to realize it was dinner time already. Her forgetfulness about the promise she had made to Bernadette was unnerving.  She must have gone into some kind of fugue state, no doubt near-shock from yet another assault.  What a dumb idea to drive home like that since walking down the hall now seemed so daunting. She hobbled along, retreating from the hustle and bustle with as much dignity as she could muster.

“Ow, ow, ow,” she mumbled with each step
. Behind her Bernadette issued directives.

“Tommy, you help me fix a salad while they’re getting the grill ready, okay?  Brien, you take these chips and salsa out back with you so you won’t starve while we get the rest of dinner going.”    

“Gee thanks, Mrs. B, you’re the best.”

“No doubt about that,” Jessica said as she
made her way to her bedroom, crybaby tears rolling down her face.