Murdered by Prejudice: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Series

by Dianne Harman

  “No, and if it’s any consolation, I have no idea where this is going to go.”

  “That doesn’t console me, and now I’m starting to get nervous. See you later,” she said as she ended the call.

  *****

  Liz had just set her phone down when it rang again. She looked at the screen and saw that it was Judy Rasmussen, a long-time friend of hers from when they’d both lived in San Francisco.

  “Judy, how are you? I’ve missed seeing you. Our New Orleans trip was too short,” Liz said, referring to a cooking school trip she and Judy had taken to New Orleans, but it had ended up in a search for a murderer.

  “I’ve missed you too, but I sure don’t miss all that voodoo and gris-gris drama of our last trip together. Anyway, that’s not why I’m calling. The hotel and the spa I bought in Calistoga are doing so well I decided I’d treat myself to a stay at your spa and one of the cottages. I just talked to Bertha and fortunately one just became available, so I’ll see you around 8:00 tonight. Okay with you?”

  Liz paused, not quite sure what to say.

  “Liz, I’m not sensing an enormous amount of enthusiasm on your part. Is something wrong? Would you rather I came some other time?”

  “No, of course not. It’s just…”

  “Just what?” Judy asked.

  Liz told her about the murders and that Roger was bringing an FBI agent with him to stay at the lodge for a few days.

  “Does this mean you’re involved in another murder? And one the FBI is investigating? Liz, that’s pretty heavy stuff, even for you,” Judy said.

  “No, I’m not involved in another murder. The husband of a woman who was a guest here at the cottages was murdered. As far as the other murders, I don’t know anything about them. And I have no idea why an FBI agent wants to talk to me.”

  “What did Roger have to say about it?” Judy asked.

  “Not much. I had a feeling he knew more than he was telling me, but the only thing I know is that a friend of Roger’s from law school, who is now an FBI agent, wants to stay here and talk to me. Honestly, Judy, I have no idea why.”

  “Sounds interesting. Did Roger mention if this FBI agent was married?”

  “No, Judy, he did not. I have no idea if he’s married. And don’t even think about it,” Liz said in a stern tone of voice.

  “Liz, I simply asked a question. You don’t need to get all huffy about it.”

  “Judy, you never met a man you didn’t like, but please, don’t muddy up this situation by flirting with one of Roger’s friends. I’m kind of adrift at sea here anyway, since I have no clue what this is all about, and the last thing I need is for you to start batting your eyes at him.”

  “I’ll make you a promise, Liz. I won’t bat my eyes at him. Okay?”

  “Okay. Anyway, I’m glad you’re coming. See you tonight.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Liz hosted that evening’s dinner with divided attention. Part of her responded to what her guests were saying and the other part of her was thinking about why an FBI agent would want to stay at the lodge, and more importantly, what he wanted to talk to her about.

  The last guest left at 7:45 and just as Gina was leaving at 8:00, she heard the sound of two cars pulling into the parking area in front of the lodge.

  “Good night, Gina. Thanks for all your help. It looks like having a full house for dinner is more the norm than the rarity, so I guess we better get used to it.”

  “Not a problem, Liz. I love talking to the guests and they love the meals, so it’s a great job. Have a good night.”

  As she walked down the stairs, Roger and another man got out of their cars and started towards the steps. “Hi Gina, how are you?” Roger asked.

  “I’m fine, but we’ve missed you at dinner the last couple of nights.”

  “I’ve missed being home too, but duty called. See you tomorrow night.”

  A moment later Roger and the man Liz assumed was Caleb Randolph walked into the great room. Liz had just put the last plate in the dishwasher. She straightened up and walked over to Roger and the man, lightly kissing Roger on the cheek. She held out her hand and said, “Welcome to the Red Cedar Lodge and Spa. I’m Liz, and you must be Caleb Randolph.”

  “That I am, but please call me Cal, and thank you for putting me up on such short notice. I rather imagine you’re curious as to why an FBI agent would want to talk to you.”

  “I think that would be a fair statement.” She turned to Roger and said, “Welcome home. I’ve missed you.”

  “It’s good to be back home,” Roger said as he stooped down to pet Winston who had come up the stairs when he’d heard a strange voice in the great room. “Cal, let me introduce you to Winston, guard dog extraordinaire.”

  “Hi fellow,” Cal said as he held out his hand for Winston to smell and make sure that this stranger was worthy of being in the house with his two favorite people. Deciding that if Roger said it was okay, it must be, he licked Cal’s hand and walked over to his dog bed, circling around twice and then lying down.

  “May I offer you some coffee, tea, or perhaps a glass of wine?” Liz asked, not sure what the proper protocol was for having an FBI agent stay in your home and offering him food and drink.

  “Since I’m off duty and it’s been a long couple of days, I’d love a glass of wine. Thanks.”

  “Roger, why don’t you show Cal to the guest room while I get us all a glass of wine?”

  She’d just finished pouring the wine when she heard the sound of a car door in front of the lodge and then a knock on the door. She walked over and opened it. “Come in, Judy. Roger is showing a friend of his to his room,” she said, giving her friend a hug.

  Judy pulled away when she heard the men coming up the stairs. She walked over to Roger and hugged him, then put her hand out and said, “Hi, I’m Judy Rasmussen, a longtime friend of Liz’s.”

  “And I’m Cal Randolph. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Judy, I didn’t know you were coming. It’s great to see you again,” Roger said.

  “Spur of the moment decision, Roger, nothing more,” she said with a dazzling smile that included Cal. She quickly looked down at his left hand and saw there was no ring there. At the same time Cal was looking at her hand, glad to see she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, either.

  “Liz, maybe Judy could join us while we’re having a glass of wine and talking. Judy, may I interest you in that?” Cal said as he looked at her.

  “Of course,” Judy answered.

  “Why don’t we sit at the table while we talk? I’ll be back in a minute,” Liz said. She returned with Judy’s wine.

  Cal lifted his glass and said, “To new beginnings and to good outcomes.”

  Liz looked over at Judy who was smiling broadly at Cal and thought, she’s doing it again. I don’t think she even realizes she’s flirting. She can’t help it, and it looks like Cal is just fine with it. Swell. Just what I need. Babysitting two middle-aged people who are practically swooning over each other was not on my agenda.

  CHAPTER 13

  “Liz, thanks again for putting me up. You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here and why I wanted to meet with Roger this morning,” Cal said. He turned to Judy and said, “If you’re a friend of Liz’s you’re probably used to discretion, so I’d ask that anything I say go no farther.”

  “It won’t, I promise,” Judy said bringing her thumb and index fingers to her lips and making a twisting motion as if she was sealing her lips closed.

  “Alright, just bear with me. This is going to take a little time. Whenever a federal employee is murdered, the FBI is required to investigate it. The FBI has 56 field offices which are managed by supervisory special agents. I’m the one in charge of the San Francisco office. The reason I’m telling you this is that when one of these murders occurs, a notice is sent to each office alerting them of the murder.

  “In the last three months there have been eleven murders of federal employees beginning on the East Coast an
d moving westward. Three weeks ago, Dev Rajan, the supervisor at the U. S. Forest Service in Phoenix received an anonymous call that several bombs had been hidden along hiking trails at Rattlesnake Cove in the Tonto National Forest and were set to detonate in six hours. Normally, the manager in charge of that area would investigate a call such as that, but he was out on family leave. His wife had just given birth the day before.”

  Cal stopped talking and took a sip of his wine. “This supervisor told his secretary that he needed to investigate before a visitor that might be hiking on a trail was killed or was injured by an exploding bomb. That was the last anyone saw of him. When he hadn’t returned to the office by closing time, his secretary assumed he’d gone home for the day. He didn’t show up for work the following day, and the assistant supervisor called his cell phone, but there was no answer. He went to the man’s home and learned that his wife had called the police. She was frantic, saying he’d never come home the night before. Several people from the Forest Service office went to the Rattlesnake Cove area and found Mr. Rajan dead, with a bullet through his heart. There were no bombs.”

  “How tragic. Did the Forest Service have any idea who might have done something like that?” Judy asked.

  “No. What was interesting is that the supervisor’s secretary had been late in picking up the mail that day. When she did finally remember to go to the box where the different departments got their mail, there was an envelope hand-addressed to Dev Rajan which she put on his desk. After his body was found at Rattlesnake Cove, as part of the investigation, his desk was searched and the envelope was opened. In it was a sheet of paper with a picture of an American Eagle pasted to it with a slash mark across it. The words ‘You Are Next’ were below it, the letters having been cut out of a magazine or a newspaper.”

  “Oh no!” Liz exclaimed. The three others turned and looked at her.

  “Liz, isn’t that what the woman who was staying at the lodge and whose husband was murdered found in his shirt pocket? I’d swear you told me about it when I talked to you on the phone,” Roger said.

  Liz looked at Cal and told him about Allison and what she’d found in Rick’s shirt pocket and how it had bothered her. “Do you think there’s a connection?” Liz asked.

  “I do. You see, in every one of the past murders, and as I just told you, there have been eleven of them, an envelope containing a piece of paper with the exact same message had been sent to the victim. Sometimes they’d received it, and according to those closest to them, had laughed it off. In some other instances, such as the recent one in Rattlesnake Cove, the envelope was found, unopened, after the person was murdered. The same words with the same eagle were on each one. Liz, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, but first I could use another glass of wine. Anyone else care to join me?” he asked.

  They all said yes and while Liz was getting them another glass, her mind was churning with the other murders in the Red Cedar area. Had all the victims received envelopes like that? It seemed that the murderer was zeroing in on the Red Cedar area and why here? she wondered.

  CHAPTER 14

  After Liz had refreshed their wine glasses, she sat down and said, “As I just explained to you, I was the person who had to tell Allison Lawrence that her husband had been murdered. She, in turn, told me about the note she found in her husband’s shirt pocket. As I thought about it the next day, something bothered me about another murder that probably came across your desk since the victim was a federal prison guard, and I believe prison personnel are federal employees.”

  “Indeed they are,” Cal responded.

  “The woman’s name was Sylvia Tanaka. It seemed really odd to me that two people in the Red Cedar area would be murdered, but I couldn’t remember the details of how she died. I went to the office of our local newspaper, the Red Cedar Tribune, and asked the publisher, Bart Stevenson, who’s a friend of ours, if I could see the article about Miss Tanaka. He had his secretary print it out for me.

  I brought it home and after I read it and discovered she’d been murdered by what appeared to be a sniper, I called the county coroner, Wes Anderson. I asked him if he thought the same gun had killed both of them, and he told me that a preliminary ballistics report indicated that it had. Nothing was in the article about an envelope with a note in it, but now I’m wondering if there was one.”

  “Wes is a friend of mine,” Cal said, “and that’s the reason I wanted to talk to Roger and see if it would be alright if I stayed here, since Wes suggested that I ask for your help. He’s a huge fan of yours. He told me about all of the murders you’ve solved, and let’s be honest, I could use some help with these because the Red Cedar area is under my jurisdiction.”

  “I’m happy to do whatever I can to help. I have a business here and let’s face it, having a serial killer on the loose is not good for business. I’ve already been asked a couple of questions by guests who are wondering if they might be in danger. I’d like to see whoever did this arrested sooner, rather than later,” Liz said.

  “This is a side bar, but Wes told me about the inept police chief of Red Cedar. He also solicited my help in convincing you to run for his job. He’s sure between us we could convince the Board of Supervisors to give you a waiver on the police experience requirement.”

  “I think I should be consulted about this. I have to tell you that I’m not really in favor of my wife wearing a uniform and catching bad guys,” Roger said.

  “She may not be in an official uniform, Roger, but you better deal with the fact that your wife is a law enforcement natural, at least that’s what Wes tells me.”

  “I think this discussion is a little premature considering there’s a killer on the loose and that should be our top priority, not whether or not Liz should run for Red Cedar Police Chief.”

  “Fair enough,” Cal said. “We’ll table the discussion for now, but I reserve the right to revisit it at a later date. First, I agree, we need to catch this serial killer.”

  He turned to Liz. “Another reason I wanted to come here is that not too far from here is the Mt. Holy Oak fire watch tower. I received a call this morning that the head of the U.S. Forest Service was taking a ten day tour of duty there. He was murdered while he was on duty. The helicopter pilot and his replacement found him yesterday. He was killed by a gunshot to his chest, and if I was a betting man, I’d bet he was killed by the same weapon as the other victims.”

  “Was there any mention of a note or an envelope?” Liz asked.

  “No. I told them I couldn’t get there until tomorrow. I asked them to search the victim’s personal effects and desk to see if there were any clues,” Cal said.

  “You’re planning on going there tomorrow?” Liz asked.

  “I am. Liz, I know you run the spa and the cottages and prepare a nightly dinner for your guests, but Roger told me you have excellent help, and I wonder if you could free yourself from your obligations here. I’d like you to go with me tomorrow morning to the Tanaka residence and the prison and then to the Forest Service office in the afternoon. Two heads are better than one, and I’ve found that when I tell people I’m from the FBI, they get nervous. I think you’d have a calming effect on them.”

  “Yes, I’d be willing to do that. What time do you want to leave?” she asked.

  “Let’s plan on leaving at 9:00. Would that work for you?”

  “Yes, that would be fine. There must be some connection between the victims. Have you come up with anything?”

  “No, nothing other than they’ve all been federal employees. No, that’s not entirely true. Obviously, I’ve investigated this aspect of the murders and all of the people who were murdered were recently promoted which immediately leads one to think that maybe the killer was a federal employee who was jealous or passed over for a promotion.

  “That could be true, but there is no way that every federal employee could be investigated,” Cal continued. “There are over two million federal employees in the U.S. alone. That’s an impossible
task. That may be the motive, and there’s a good chance it is, but there’s simply no way that can be investigated. There has to be something else, but I have no idea what it is.”

  “If that’s the motive, the killer is pretty smart, because he or she would also know there is no way you could do that. Even if you only investigated the offices of the people who were murdered, that number is still unmanageable. I’m assuming the envelopes and the papers in them have been fingerprinted,” Roger said.

  “Yes, and again nothing. In most, but not all cases, the victims were murdered by what we think is a long-range high powered rifle, although that wasn’t the case in the murder in Arizona and a couple of others…”

  “How can you tell something like that?” Judy asked.

  “When a gunshot wound is examined, it is classified based on the distance from the muzzle of the gun to the victim. These classifications include contact, near-contact, intermediate, and distant wounds.”

  “And the ballistics tests indicate the same gun was used, so you have the same gun, some bullets fired from a distance and some from close-range, and the fact that all of the victims were federal employees. Does that about sum up what you know right now?” Liz asked.

  “Pretty much, unfortunately,” Cal said. “As you can see, it’s pretty wide open. I just wish I could figure out if there’s another common denominator beyond the federal employee link. If there is, it would narrow the field, although since there have been three murders in this area, I suppose it has narrowed.”

  “I know nothing about law enforcement, but I would think if you could figure out why these last three murders have happened in the Red Cedar area or if there’s a connection between the people being murdered, that would really help in trying to find the killer,” Judy said.

  “That would be the answer to my prayers,” Cal said, “and on that note, I think it’s time we all got some sleep. Looks like tomorrow will be another long day. Roger, Liz, thanks for your hospitality, and Judy, I’m planning on being here for dinner tomorrow night. I hope you are as well.”