Nursing a Grudge is Murder (A Maternal Instincts Mystery) (16 page)

I froze.

A helmet of blonde hair?

Mrs. Miles!

“Was her name Lillian?” I asked.

“Lillian? Yes, I think it was. I’ll look it up to be certain. You know, it’s strange, a gentleman called a few days ago asking the same thing.”

“Someone else called you? Do you know who?”

“No, I’m terrible with names,” she said.

“Was he from SFPD?” A thought struck me. “Or did he have a Spanish accent? Vicente Domingo?”

Ugh! I was always one step behind.

“No Spanish accent…and I don’t think he was with the police…”

Maybe it was Miles’ lawyer then. There was no telling.

I gave her my phone number and she agreed to call me back when she’d verified the name of the woman camping at Yosemite. We hung up and I pumped the air with my fists. “I got you, Miles! I got you!” I yelled.

Laurie jolted awake and Jim came into the room. “What’s going on?” he asked.

I danced around the room. “It’s starting to make sense! Miles hired a criminal defense attorney, not for himself, but for his crazy wife who can’t drive and pushes people off cliffs!”

Jim stared at me wide-eyed. “Honey, I think you may have just gone off a cliff.”

I laughed. “I saw her with Vicente. They were talking, she was upset. She’s desperate.”

“What would be her motive?” Jim asked.

“I dunno. Defending Miles’ reputation or fortune?”

Could Lillian Miles have been the woman meeting Perry on the hike?

A chill enveloped me as I recalled that
Philosophie
was across the street from Land’s End.

“What about skull cap guy?” Jim asked.

I narrowed my eyes at Jim. “For all I know the guy is another P.I.!”

Chapter Seventeen

To Do:

1. √
Order dust kit
!

2. Figure out what happened to Perry.

3. Find skull cap man.

4. Get Galigani a get well card.

I spotted a parking place between an Audi and a Volvo, and prayed that I could squeeze in. Parking around the new ballpark was sketchy and even I couldn’t believe that I’d gotten lucky enough to nab a space. I triple checked the signs on the street to make sure I was clear. The last thing I needed was a parking violation.

The wind whipped me around as I slammed my car door shut and pressed the lock button on my key fob. The wind was so fierce, I immediately regretted not grabbing a jacket. Oh well, it was only a short jaunt to the apartment building. I could manage.

I put my head down and hurried toward Dustin’s. He was the friend of Perry’s I’d phoned yesterday, and he’d agreed to see me and answer any questions.

When I arrived, Dustin welcomed me in. Tall and thin, wearing Bermuda shorts, flip-flops and sporting a three-day growth of stubble, he stood in the entryway holding a coffee mug.

What did he do for a living to be able to afford such a care-free life of luxury in such an expensive city?

“Have a seat.” He motioned for me to cross into the living room. His loft was designer decorated, with an orange weave throw rug in the middle of the floor and several stylish leather arm chairs. The view of the new Bay Bridge, complete with San Francisco’s ballpark in the forefront, was simply stunning.

I stood at his window. “Wow!”

He smiled and joined me at the window. “It is nice, isn’t it? I’m hardly ever home, so I forget sometimes how magnificent the view is.”

“You’re home now,” I said.

He shrugged, “Yeah, right. I have a couple days in between trips. I’m taking off to Africa in a couple days…”

Must be nice, I thought.

He fell silent and I suddenly felt bad about feeling jealous. This man had lost a close friend.

“It’s awful about Perry,” he said, breaking the silence. “It’s so sad. I miss him already. We’d been buddies forever. I can’t believe this accident happened. He was
supposed to go with me to Fiji, but then he bailed out at the last minute…and I keep thinking that if he’d come, he’d still be alive today.”

I always found these moments heart wrenching. A friend coming to terms with loss. Feeling completely inadequate, I muttered, “It’s not your fault.”

Dustin remained lost in thought, staring at the view out his window and taking a swig of coffee. After a moment, he said, “Well, I guess when it’s your time, it’s your time. Perry could have had a freak accident in Fiji, right?”

Only what if it wasn’t a freak accident?

I bit my lip and refrained from launching into questions like, “Do you have any reason to believe that there was foul play?” or “Can you tell me if anyone had it out for your friend?” Sometimes discretion was the better part of valor.

“Melanie told me you had some questions about Perry,” Dustin prompted.

Then again, I hated to waste an invitation.

“I think he was planning on meeting someone on the hike. Do you have any idea who?”

Dustin cocked his head and studied me. “He was meeting someone?”

“I don’t know, but according to some text messages that Melanie recovered, that seemed to be the case.”

“Was he meeting Jill?”

“No. Jill was with me, having lunch. He must have been meeting someone else.”

He frowned. “You met Jill for lunch? Why?”

“Oh, I’ve known Jill for a while. She got the call that Perry was in the hospital while we were together.”

He turned away from the view and leveled a gaze at me. “Then you know about her and Perry.”

I shrugged. “What do you mean?”

He took another sip of his coffee and wiped at the corners of his mouth with his fingertips. “I mean, he’d been trying to break up with her for a while. We were planning a trip to Mount Everest, Perry and I. When I asked him if Jill was interested in coming, he was all, ‘You know, like, dude, she’s old news’.”

Jill was old news?

“Perry was planning on breaking up with Jill?” I asked.

“As far as I know, the relationship was pretty rocky. He may have already kicked her to the curb.” He shrugged. “Let’s just say, she wasn’t in on the Everest plans.”

Jill had thought they were close to being engaged. A part of me felt heartbroken. Poor Jill had been searching for a long time for the right guy, and when she finally thought she found him, he’d ended up DOA at the hospital. And now, what? Mr. Right had been ready to toss her aside like yesterday’s lunch.

Dustin must have read something in my face because he said, “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to her.”

I nodded. “My impression is, she thought things with Perry were peachy keen.”

Dustin raised an eyebrow. “So who was he meeting on the hike then?”

“Exactly,” I said. We had a mini stare-down.

I imagined Perry meeting Mrs. Miles. Suppose Jill suspected he’d been seeing her and wrote the bad review to ruin her business, could that be?

And then again, I thought of the soup for breakfast at
Philosophie
. No, they’d probably earned their own bad review.

“Do you have any ideas?” I prompted Dustin.

He shook his head. “No. I have no idea. Perry had a bit of a wandering eye, but I can’t imagine he’d take a date on a hike. He was more of a ‘get ‘em drunk and get laid’ kind of guy. If he hadn’t broken up with Jill yet, then he wouldn’t invest that kind of time with a chick. I mean, hiking is an all-day thing. You have to really like a girl to take her on a hike. Probably if Perry were cheating, he’d just hang out at a bar…well, you know.”

Not a woman then?

“Do you think Perry would have met with Melanie’s boyfriend?”

Dustin scratched at his beard and mumbled. “Sam? I don’t know. Did you ask him? Why would he meet up with him? As far as I know, Sam’s not much of a hiker.”

Now would be the moment to tell him I suspected foul play, but instead I asked, “How well do you know Sam?”

Dustin’s eyes darted around the room. “I don’t know him all that well. I know that he and Perry seemed to get along okay. I guess, I…” he shrugged. “Melanie deserves better.”

I studied him a moment. His eyes had taken on a glassy faraway look.

Could it be that he had unrequited feelings for Melanie?

Dustin cleared his throat. “You don’t think Perry’s falling was an accident, do you?”

I shook my head.

Dustin drank his coffee. “Well, I have to say that Perry was a very adept hiker. You know, with the trip to Mount Everest we were planning, he was hiking all the time. I just don’t see him following a trail that dead ends into the ocean…but I don’t know. What do you think happened? Did he get disoriented? I mean, the trail is clearly marked, right? I don’t understand why he would go down that path, but even if he did, he’d know when to stop. He wasn’t the type to seek out problems.” Dustin paused and we both looked out the picture windows again at the ballpark below.

After a moment, I said, “If you and he were planning a trip to Mount Everest, then he was the adventurous type, right? Maybe he was curious about—”

Dustin shook his head. “Nah, our hikes lately have been more about endurance and speed than curiosity.”

“What if the sign wasn’t there? What if it had been moved? Would he go down the trail then?” I asked.

Dustin frowned. “Why would the sign be moved?”

I pressed my lips together so as not to disclose the fact that I’d seen the dirt lifted around the base of the sign, and then, to make matters worse, the sign was now gone. After all, maybe Dustin had a reason to want Perry gone.

“When did you get back from your trip?” I asked.

Dustin arched an eyebrow. “Yesterday.”

So he had an alibi—or at least he claimed to.

I shrugged. “Do you know anything about Brent Miles or his wife, Lillian? They own the restaurant,
Philosophie
?”

A look of confusion crossed Dustin’s face. “Brent Miles? No, what does he have to do with Perry?”

“Jill gave the restaurant a bad write-up and says Brent Miles threatened her and asked her to recant the review.” I held my tongue about Mrs. Miles in Yosemite. After all, I had confirmed it and I didn’t want to burden Dustin with all my theories.

He finished his coffee and set the empty mug on a side table. “Sorry, Perry never mentioned the guy. I knew Jill was a critic, but I hadn’t heard anything about the bad review.”

I stepped away from the picture windows and headed toward the front door. “Thank you for your time.” I stopped, dug into my purse and pulled out a business card. “If you think of anything that could help us figure out what happened to Perry, please give me a call.”

On my way to the car, I made a mental note to verify Dustin’s alibi. Although it didn’t seem like he had a motive, I couldn’t be too careful. Everyone should be a suspect until I could prove otherwise.

<><><>

I started my car and pulled out into traffic. I’d left Dustin’s apartment feeling a bit unsettled. Had I learned anything? Jill and Perry hadn’t been as serious as she’d told me. Now the question was, did she know that? Or was she in the dark about Perry’s real feelings?

Did it matter?

I struggled with the answer. If Jill knew Perry wasn’t serious about her, then maybe I could tell her about my suspicions that he was meeting someone else at the hike without crushing her.

What about Sam? Dustin seemed to think that Sam and Perry got on fine, but I got the distinct impression that Dustin and Sam didn’t get along fine.

But then again, did that matter?

I glanced at my watch. It was almost 10 a.m. Soon V.D would be holding auditions for his next play and it was my chance to snoop.

I pulled into a parking spot across the street from V.D.’s apartment building and waited. Mom was going to be at the auditions and she was supposed to text me when he arrived. While I waited, I scribbled some notes in my book and updated my to-do list. At three minutes before the hour I received a text from Mom.

H
E
’
S HERE
. C
OAST IS CLEAR
.

I climbed out of my car and crossed the street. Standing outside Vicente’s apartment building, I studied the mailboxes. Number 107 was marked “Domingo” in faded blue ink. I walked to the corner and waited for someone to leave the building so I could gain access. I tried to look normal, checking my phone for updates.

I glanced toward the apartment house and saw someone in the foyer approaching the front door. I hustled toward the glass doors. A young woman sporting a Goth haircut and dressed in black from head to toe pushed open the door and then actually held it open for me to enter.

I guess I look pretty non-threatening. Hopefully, I don’t look like the type of person who is about to break into someone’s apartment!

I sprinted up the steps to the first floor and located apartment number 107 on the right hand side of the hallway. The corridor was empty and I quickly pulled out the lock pick set I had ordered online. Adrenaline was pumping through my system and my heart was practically beating outside of my chest. I scanned the instructions on the lock pick set for the umpteenth time. All I had to do was insert the tension wrench and then put the pick in. It seemed simple.

I tried to relax, and slipped the tension wrench in. It went in easily, then I stuck the pick in and felt it catch inside the lock.

I smiled.

This breaking and entering could be fun!

Vicente hadn’t dead-bolted the door. I had the lock on the doorknob open inside of 20 seconds. Who knew I had such a talent for this type of thing?

I stepped inside of his apartment: Standard brown carpeting, blue paint with taupe finishes, very sparse and tidy. There were several file boxes along the side of the room. It looked like he had some unpacking to do.

There was a couch and small dark coffee table and in the corner of the living room a table that was set up as a makeshift desk with a laptop and a few folders on it.

Footsteps from the unit above pounded around on top of my head. It made me feel like the floor could collapse on me at any moment.

I could hear the sound of running water. Must be the apartment next door. The units were pressed so close together that it practically felt like you were living with your neighbor.