Nursing a Grudge is Murder (A Maternal Instincts Mystery) (13 page)

“That doesn’t mean anything really,” Galigani said. “Those prints could be from anytime.”

The man with the helmet stepped forward into the light, his handsome face illuminated by the sunlight peeking in through the window.

Vicente winked at me, then flashed his dazzling smile at Galigani. “Yes, a record for assault and battery. It’s definitely something that needs to be looked at.”

Chapter Thirteen

I stuffed down my frustration and downed the rest of my Bloody Mary. What the hell was Vicente Domingo a.k.a. V.D. doing here? Had he followed us?

Galigani apparently wasn’t frustrated; he looked completely relaxed.

“Ah, Vicente. We meet again.”

Vicente extended his hand. “
Señor
Galigani.”

Galigani shook his hand. “I hear your big-wig client, Brent Miles, is behind bars?”

Vicente shrugged. “Pfft. Not for long. Barramendi will see to that.”

“And you have to make sure he stays out, right?” I asked.

“Of course.” Vicente said, waving to the bartender and indicating he wanted a Bloody Mary by pointing to mine then to himself.

The bartender nodded his understanding and got busy concocting another drink.

“What do you have?” Vicente asked.

Information? He wanted information from us?

No way. Not without a quid pro quo.

“How did you find us?” I asked.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “GPS tracking on your phone.”

“You’re tracking my phone?” I asked, dumbfounded.

Vicente nodded casually. “Yours, and his.” He nodded to Galigani. “Even Sam Kafer’s.”

I inhaled sharply, trying to control my anger. I glanced at Galigani, wishing he’d blow his top all over V.D., but he said. “So, Kafer’s on your list, huh? You work fast.”

V.D. shrugged and accepted the Bloody Mary put in front of him by the bartender. “You know the procedure. Check out next of kin and all romantic relationships first. Kafer is the vic’s sister’s boyfriend and he has a prior. Elementary. And then the GPS of three of you together. Too hard to pass up.”

GPS tracking? I’d have to look into that later. It didn’t seem ethical, let alone legal, but if the competition was using it, I should be too. There was probably some tracking software I could get online.

Why was I always behind on everything?

I excused myself to use the restroom and took advantage of the excuse to text Jill. Hopefully, V.D. wasn’t tracking my text messages. I assumed
that
was illegal, but then again, what did I know? Just in case, I left Jill a cryptic message requesting she call me. Which she did immediately.

I decided to take the call in the privacy of the ladies room.

“Kate, I’m on break at the studio, so I can chat, but only for a minute. What’s going on? Have you found anything out?”

“SFPD has detained Brent Miles. Person of interest.”

“Oh my God!” Jill gasped.

“I know, but they probably won’t be able to hold him long. He’s got a top notch attorney, not to mention a P.I. who’s following me around.”

“He’s following you? Why?” Jill asked.

“Well, tracking us. Me and Galigani. We met with Sam, Melanie’s boyfriend. He’s got a bruise on his eye. Blamed it on a co-worker. Do you know anything about it?”

Jill tsked, then said, “Oh. No. I…I don’t know what to make of it.”

I fiddled with the faucet on the sink, an idea forming.

“Jill? Did Perry think Sam was abusing Melanie?”

“Perry knew Melanie had a tendency to sort of pick the wrong guy. She’s got a history of abuse. She swore Sam was different, but…”

I bit my tongue. I wanted to tell her that Perry had planned to meet someone on the hike, but I’d promised Melanie I wouldn’t say anything. Besides, I hadn’t figured out who he’d planned to meet yet. It could have been another woman, which she would want to know, but I also didn’t want to arouse her suspicions unnecessarily. And I certainly wouldn’t want to drag her through the emotions of betrayal if I was on the wrong course.

Could Perry have been meeting Sam? Perry could have given Sam the black eye, if he thought Sam was abusing his sister. It would make sense if they’d fought. Maybe it got out of hand and Sam ended up pushing Perry off the cliff.

And yet, what about the sign?

If Sam was abusive and he and Perry had fought over that, then Perry’s going over the cliff would likely have been an accident, a crime of passion type of thing. Moving a warning sign was a premeditated thing.

No, my theory didn’t seem to make any sense.

I sighed.

“What?” Jill asked over the phone.

I startled at her voice. I’d almost forgotten she was still on the line. “Oh. Sorry. I was lost in thought.”

“About what? What are you thinking?” Jill asked.

“About that warning sign. I’m going to go up the hill and dust for prints.”

“Be careful? Okay?” Jill said.

“Of course.”

She rang off, after saying, “Let me know what you find out.”

<><><>

Galigani and V.D. were still chatting when I emerged from the restroom. I gave V.D. a curt nod and indicated to Galigani that we should go.

V.D. raised an eyebrow at me, but said nothing as Galigani and I left the bar. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight.

“What did he say?” I asked.

Galigani blew out a breath. “Not much. I told you the guy doesn’t share. So I didn’t either. We talked about the play-offs.”

I laughed. “There’s always football, right?”

Galigani nodded. I filled him in on my conversation with Jill and my ideas about Sam being the person Perry had met.

We talked as we began the steep incline of the Land’s End hike. The wind was howling and I regretted not grabbing a hat or even a scarf. I thought of Laurie, realizing that soon it soon would be feeding time. I’d left Mom with several bottles so I probably had a little more time than usual to spend on the investigation.

“How much farther?” Galigani asked. A bead of sweat had developed on his brow and he wiped at it with the back of his hand.

How ironic. I was freezing and he was sweating.

“I think it’s a little bit higher. Are you okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “The exercise is good for the ticker.”

We followed the path along a twisty route and then a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge came into focus.

Galigani paused. He looked happy to have a credible excuse to stop.

I pointed to a bench that was up a steep incline. “Want to take a moment and enjoy the view?”

Galigani blew out air, keeping his cheeks puffed and giving the impression that he’d had it with the hike.

I placed my hands firmly on his back. “Come on. I’ll push you up the hill.”

“I can make it to the bench,” he said, indignation in his voice.

Ignoring him, I began to walk, pushing him ahead while I leaned into the steep hill.

“Uh. It’s much easier with a little engine that could behind me.”

I laughed. “Weird thing is, I was exhausted the first time I did the hike, too. I think knowing we only have one more hill is making it easier for me.”

We collapsed onto the bench as soon as we reached it.

“I should have trained you to dust for prints. Why didn’t I do that? Then I wouldn’t have—”

“The exercise is good for you. You’ll thank me tomorrow when you can’t get out of bed.” I laughed.

Galigani didn’t laugh, though; he grimaced and reached for his phone. “You think they can Medivac me out of here?”

Glaring at him, I pulled the phone out of his hands. “It’s steep but it’s only a quarter of a mile—”

“It was more than a quarter mile!” he growled.

I waved a dismissive hand at him. “Something like that. Quarter mile, half mile—”

He grabbed his phone out of my hand. “I’ll check.”

The wind seemed to be picking up and now that we were resting on the bench I felt colder than before. A lone raindrop landed on my wrist. “Come on. If you’re rested enough to play with your phone then you can make it up the next little bit. Painted Rock is around the next bend.”

“You say that as if the next bend isn’t a mountain.”

I grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. His pride returned. “I got this,” he said.

We walked in silence for the next few minutes. It was beginning to sprinkle, and each time a raindrop hit Galigani he grunted. When we reached Painted Rock, I gasped.

“What?” Galigani asked.

I indicated the fork in the road. The main path continued up the hill, but on the other path—the one that went right off the cliff—the warning sign was gone.

“It’s gone! The sign is gone.” I looked around half expecting it to be in a nearby shrub.

Galigani frowned. “Are you sure?”

I nodded and indicated the large Painted Rock marker that was painted on the side of mountain. The dirt around the base of the sign had been soft and loose. I examined it now and found only two gaping holes.

“Do you think the cops pulled the sign?” I asked.

Galigani shook his head. “No. If they had, there would be crime scene tape.”

“Vicente!” I screamed.

“What?” Galigani asked, puzzled.

“Could he have grabbed it? Maybe he thought it had Brent Miles’ prints on it.”

“No,” Galigani said. His voice was emphatic and yet a skeptical look crossed his face. “It would be highly unorthodox.”

“Is it orthodox to track down the other P.I.s working on the case using some phone GPS tracking thingamabob?”

Galigani’s lips twisted, causing his mustache to work back and forth across his face. “Well, you’ve got to keep up with technology, but I can’t see stealing a piece of evidence.”

My hair, aided by wind, was swirling around my face. The sprinkles had turned to drizzle and I covered my face with my hands so I could focus. “Someone took it,” I said.

“It could be unrelated. You said the base was loose. Maybe hikers took it home as a souvenir.”

“Please. That’s ridiculous!”

Galigani pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Really? Happens all the time. You’d be surprised how many kids take street signs and stop signs and all sorts of things. And the sign had a pretty menacing message, too, right?”

“People have fallen to their death from this point. Keep out,” I said.

Galigani nodded. “What kid wouldn’t want that on their bedroom door?” He began to photograph the scene with his camera phone. I sighed. It was a good thing I’d brought him along. He began to make his way down the short path, ominously close to the edge.

“What are you doing? Get away from there!” I demanded, remaining absolutely rooted to the safe ground where I stood.

“Having a look. What the heck you think I’m doing?”

“Hello! People have fallen to their death from there!”

He gave me a dismissive wave. “You have no idea how many times this cat has flirted with death. I’ve got nine lives.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about. If anything happens to you, Mom is going to kill me. Now get away from the cliff, please.”

He ignored me.

“I’m serious,” I said.

Proceeding to ignore me, Galigani got down on his hands and knees and examined the dirt. He pulled a plastic baggie out of his pocket and rooted around the ground.

“What are you doing now?” I asked.

“Soil sample,” he answered.

The man carried around plastic baggies? I really needed to be better prepared if I was ever going to make it in this field.

Galigani shoved the baggie back into his pocket and stood. He wiped the dirt, which was quickly turning into mud, off the knees of his jeans and walked even closer to the cliff. “Oh my!” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“The view from here is amazing. No wonder people ignore the sign.” He took a few pictures. “Especially those photographers.”

He paced the edge of the cliff a bit, examining all the angles. I could barely avoid the image in my mind of him disappearing entirely off the face of the earth.

“I have to get home,” I said.

Galigani proceeded to pace the edge.

“It’s really started to come down now,” I said, wiping rain from my face.

Galigani didn’t answer.

“I’m hungry.” I yelled. “My baby’s hungry. I need to pay the sitter. Christ! Will you get away from the edge!”

He turned and began walking toward me. “Calm down,” he said. He joined me where I stood on the main path.

We began to descend the path toward the parking lot. The dirt path was becoming slick from the rain. “Be careful,” I said.

Galigani nodded and said, “I’m always careful,” as he started to punch a number into his phone.

“Who are you calling?” I asked.

“SF Park Service. They gotta replace that warning sign right away. Without it we’ll have another disaster soon. I don’t know why they don’t put a railing…”

Suddenly Galigani’s foot slipped out from under him and he pitched forward.

“Oh no!” I yelled, grasping at him. I grabbed hold of the sleeve of his jacket, but it wasn’t enough to stop his fall, and he took a tumble down the path, pulling me with him. I fell to my knees, but he was completely laid out on his back.

Ridiculously, laughter erupted from me.

“Stop laughing,” Galigani groused.

I continued to laugh. “I can’t help it. I’m so glad you fell here and not off that cliff!”

He grunted. “Way to look at the bright side of things, kid. But I think there’s something wrong with my foot.” He propped himself on his elbow to get a better view.

I stopped laughing abruptly and took a deep breath.

His leg and knee were pointed to the right and his foot was angled grotesquely to the left.

I grimaced. “I guess we’re going to need that Medivac after all, huh?”

Chapter Fourteen

The rain turned into an annoying drizzle as we waited for the paramedics to arrive. They took about fifteen minutes to get to us and, all the while, I got to listen to Galigani complain. Of course, I didn’t mind. After all, this was my fault. I should never have pushed him out of his comfort zone. Now, he’d likely be in a cast for six weeks.

As the medics loaded Galigani into the ambulance, he handed me his keys. “You can take my car home, kid.”