Murdered by Prejudice: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Series

by Dianne Harman

  “No, I can imagine it wasn’t, but you do have one thing going for you in that area. Roger is very comfortable in his own skin, and I don’t think he’d feel the least bit threatened by having his wife be the chief of police. What I do think might be a problem is his concern for your safety, although if you’re going about solving murders all over the place, maybe you should be paid for it.”

  “Good point. I’ll consider it,” she said as Cal turned and drove into the lodge’s parking lot.

  CHAPTER 19

  When they walked into the lodge, Liz immediately went into the kitchen to check on dinner. She’d left instructions for a stuffed flank steak which could be prepared ahead of time as well as the salad, bacon wrapped asparagus, and for dessert, a homemade chocolate sauce served over chocolate chip ice cream. Gina had it all prepped and ready to go.

  She left the kitchen and hurried down to her apartment, but on her way, she ran into Roger at the bottom of the stairs. “I was just coming upstairs to see what had happened to you. I saw Cal a few minutes ago, and he said he didn’t have time to tell me everything that happened today, but he’d like to meet with us after dinner. I told him that was fine. Actually, he looked rather grim. Anything happen I should know about?” he asked.

  She kissed him lightly and said, “I felt like I needed to check to make sure Gina had everything under control for dinner. And as usual, she did. Actually, today was sad. We’ll tell you all about it after the guests leave.”

  “I’m taking it from that statement you still haven’t identified the murderer. Would I be right?”

  “Unfortunately, you are. Go on up and if guests start to arrive, tell them I’m on my way,” Liz said as she quickly unbuttoned her blouse and wiggled out of her jeans.

  “Your wish is my command,” he said with a mock salute. “See you in a few.” He turned and looked down the hall. “Winston, you can stay downstairs tonight and relax. Liz will be fine with both an FBI agent and me in the lodge.”

  Roger heard the front door open as he got to the top of the stairs. He waved at Gina, walked through the kitchen, and prepared himself to make the guests comfortable.

  “No need to panic, Roger, it’s just me,” Judy said. “I was hoping to get here before the other guests arrived and find out about Cal and Liz’s day.”

  “They just got here a little while ago. Liz is changing clothes and should be up in a minute. Cal’s doing the same. As far as what happened today, I know nothing. Liz said she’d talk to me after dinner, and I thought Cal looked a little grim, but that’s about all I can tell you.”

  Judy walked over to the sideboard and poured herself a glass of wine. “So, Roger, since they’re not here yet, tell me a little about Cal. He seems like a nice guy. I didn’t see a wedding ring on his finger, so I’m assuming he’s not married.”

  “Good notice, Judy. Cal’s been divorced for a long time. I was at his wedding, but that was over twenty-five years ago. Other than that, I never really talked to his wife. All I know is that she became, as Cal told me once, paranoid about the dangers FBI agents face and couldn’t take the pressure of being married to one. She divorced him. I’ve never known him to be serious about a woman since then.”

  “Well, that’s good news,” she said with a sly smile on her face. “If I’m interested in a man, I always like to hear that there’s not another woman lurking around in the background.”

  “Judy, you just met him last night, and you didn’t spend more than an hour with him. How can you decide that fast if you’re interested in him?”

  She gave Roger a quizzical look said, “You know how everything is kind of like a banquet of smells to Winston? Well, men are kind of like that to me. It’s kind of something that I just know, or sense, although it doesn’t relate to any of the senses we’ve been told we humans have. I’ve always wondered if we have a sense no one has identified as of yet.”

  Roger was quiet for a moment and then said, “I’m sorry, Judy, but this is way beyond my scope of comprehension, but if you say you just know something, I’ll believe you.”

  Just then the front door opened and several guests walked in at the same time that Liz and Cal came into the room from the kitchen. Liz introduced herself to everyone and made sure they all had name tags as well as asking them to help themselves to an appetizer.

  Cal spotted Judy and walked over to her. “How were your treatments today?”

  “Wonderful, but they always are. If Bertha, the spa manager, or Liz has hired someone to work here, you can plan on them being the best. The people who I’ve hired to work at my spa are excellent, but I’ve always felt hers are just a little better, and I have no idea why.”

  “Well, whatever you had done today must agree with you, because you look beautiful,” Cal said.

  “Why thank you, sir. That’s something no woman ever gets tired of hearing. To change the subject, Roger mentioned that you looked a little grim when he saw you earlier, but he didn’t know why. Was it a rough day?”

  “It was very emotional, and it became worse when I discovered something after I got back here.”

  Judy’s curiosity was piqued, but just as she was ready to ask him what it was, Liz announced dinner and the guests walked over to the large table in the great room. The next two hours were such a blur of good food and conversation that Cal forgot about his discovery.

  When the last guest had left, Judy said, “Liz, let me help with the clean-up. You and Cal have evidently had a long day, and I’m sure you could use an extra pair of hands.”

  “I’ll help too,” Cal said. “The sooner we can get the dishes done, the sooner we can sit down and talk.”

  “Thank you both. Gina, I have two people who are anxious and willing to do kitchen duty. You had to prepare everything today, so go ahead and take off. Anyway, it doesn’t look like there’s that much left to do.”

  “If you’re sure, thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.” She took her purse out of a kitchen drawer and walked down the outside steps to her car.

  A few minutes later Roger said, “Okay, looks like that’s the end of it. I’d like a cup of tea while we’re talking. Can I interest anyone in joining me?”

  As one, Judy, Liz, and Cal said yes. A few minutes later the four of them sat at the table. “Okay, the guests are gone, the tea is here, and I’d like to hear what happened today. Which one of you wants to take the lead?” Roger asked.

  “I will, Roger,” Cal said. “Liz and I had two very difficult investigative talks with the mothers of two of the victims, Mrs. Tanaka and Mrs. Patterson. Believe me, it was not easy.”

  He told Judy and Roger about the interviews and the depth of grief both of the mothers were experiencing. He told them how proud each of the mothers had been for their children having recently been promoted. When he was finished, he turned to Liz and said, “Liz, do you have anything to add?”

  “No, my heart just goes out to each of those women. To have your child murdered is bad enough, but to be left with no reason for it seems to make it worse in my opinion. I simply don’t believe that these murders were random.”

  “I’m convinced they’re not, Liz,” Cal said. “Here’s another piece of evidence I haven’t shared with you because I discovered it when we got back here.”

  “How did you find something more out?” Liz asked. “You were only downstairs a little while after we came back. Did you get a phone call or something?”

  “No. If you remember, Jeff handed me Red’s mail pouch. I carried the boxes of Red’s personal effects to the car for Mrs. Patterson and as I was ready to go back into the building, I remembered I had it in my pocket. I took it out and looked through it, wanting to give her any bills or things of that nature. Thought it would save me some time.”

  “I’m getting a sense you found something in there that’s relevant to his murder,” Roger said.

  “Yes,” Cal said heavily. He reached into his pocket and took out an envelope and a piece of paper.

  “
Cal, that’s like the other envelopes isn’t it?” Liz asked. “Did the piece of paper have the eagle and the same words on it?”

  “Yes, see for yourself.” He handed the piece of paper to her and after she looked at it, she passed it to Roger and Judy. “I’m not going to bother to have it fingerprinted. There was nothing on the others, and too many people have already handled it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated about a case. I know there’s some common denominator here and darned if I can find it. I’d appreciate any ideas you might have about this, however stupid they may seem to you.”

  “Cal,” Judy said, “I’m not a detective or law enforcement person, but if there is a common denominator, let’s start with the victim’s names, sex, type of work they did, age, marital status, everything. Maybe something will come to us. I’ll get a pad of paper. Liz, as I remember you keep one in the desk over there, don’t you?”

  “Yes, thanks,” Liz said.

  Judy said, “I’ll play scribe. Let’s start with the ones in this region. Liz, I think you told me a husband of one of the guests here was murdered at the post office. Tell me about him.” She picked up her pen.

  “Okay. His name was Rick Lawrence. Obviously, he was married. He had recently been promoted to Postmaster of the Red Cedar Post Office. They hadn’t lived in the area all that long. Oh, he was Afro-American. His wife said he was the first Afro-American in this area to be promoted to that position. That’s about all I know about him.”

  “I don’t see anything there that’s unusual or a common denominator,” Roger said. “Liz, you went to see Bart at the paper about some woman. Tell us about her.”

  “That’s the daughter of the woman we talked to this morning. Her name was Sylvia Tanaka. She was unmarried and a prison guard at the federal prison outside of town. She had recently been promoted to the head of the prison guards. That’s about all that’s relevant to the murder. As I told you earlier, nothing her mother told us helped us.”

  “Judy, when you first suggested this, I thought it was kind of a dumb idea and I’d play along, but this makes me look at these murders in a different light,” Cal said. “Both of these murders happened to people who had recently been promoted in federal jobs. We know that the other murders beginning on the East Coast dealt with murders of federal employees as well. And so would Red Patterson’s. I’m beginning to seriously think it had something to do with promotion of people who worked for the federal government, but there must be something more.”

  “Okay, let’s do Red Patterson. What about him?”

  “He was single, in his late forties,” Cal said. “He’d never been married and had recently been promoted to head of the Forest Service for this region.”

  “Well, there’s your federal tie-in again,” Roger said.

  “Wait a minute,” Liz said. “I just had a thought. Red Patterson was half Native American. Just like the other three we’ve talked about, not only were they all federal employees, but all of them were also members of a minority. And all three received the same death threat. That may be the thread that links them.”

  Cal snapped his fingers and said, “I’ll be right back.” He stood up and hurried over to the stairs leading down to the guest room. He was back in a moment with his briefcase. He sat down and pulled a file out of it.

  “Liz, I don’t think I mentioned this victim to you. His name was Josh Espinoza, and he was killed in a vineyard not too far from here. He had recently been promoted to head of this region’s Department of Agriculture and although I can’t confirm it right now, I would sure think from his name that he was also a minority member.”

  “Do you know if he received the envelope with the threat in it?” Roger asked.

  “No, I don’t. It’s not in the file. I’ll check it out tomorrow,” Cal said. “By the way he was killed by a bullet fired from a high caliber long-range rifle. It happened in Dillon County, but Wes was really busy, so he had another county coroner do the autopsy. It’s in his notes.”

  They were all quiet as they tried to digest the information that was beginning to come together. Judy broke the silence, “Cal, when we first met last night and were sitting here at the table, you were explaining to Liz why you had come here. I remember you telling us about someone in the Phoenix area being murdered, Dev Rajan, or something like that. That sounds like the name of a minority person.”

  “Judy, you’re absolutely right. He was Indian, the first Indian to hold that post in the Southwest. Again, a minority, a federal employee, he’d recently been promoted, and he had received the envelope. I definitely think we’re seeing a pattern.”

  “Let’s take it in another direction,” Roger said. “I agree there seems to be a pattern, but let’s make a composite of someone who would kill for those reasons. He or she hates minorities, federal employees, and people who have recently been promoted. The fact the American Eagle is used, and I believe in most, if not all, of the murders a long-range rifle was used. Any thoughts?”

  “I don’t know weapons, but the American Eagle indicates to me it’s someone who loves his country but hates minorities, or the fact that minorities have been promoted. Since all of the people who have been murdered have been federal employees it tells me its someone who has strong thoughts about his country. Maybe he or she feels that the minorities are taking it over.”

  “I do know that the people who have been the best trained in the use of long-range weapons, such as the type used in these murders, are military personnel, particularly those who have spent time in places like Iraq or Afghanistan,” Cal said.

  “Cal, a thought just occurred to me. When someone gets out of the military, do they have to give up their military weapon?” Judy asked.

  “Yes, why do you ask?”

  “I’m the one here who knows the least about this stuff, but let’s say the person who committed these murders is a man who has been in the military. Let’s say further he still has the gun he used when he was in the military. That would tell me that he either found a way to take the gun with him when he was discharged or he’s AWOL. Make any sense?” she asked.

  “It makes a lot of sense, Judy. Liz mentioned that possibility earlier, but it makes a lot more sense now. I became so involved in other aspects of this that I forgot to follow up on that. Tomorrow I need to get access to a database of all the military members who are AWOL and then see if there’s any way to find out from their files if any of them are known for being prejudiced. I’ll get up early and call our contact at the Department of Defense and go from there. Thanks, everyone. For the first time I feel like I have something concrete to deal with.”

  “Cal, something I’ve been thinking about is that it sounds like the early murders were kind of done here and there, but the recent murders have all occurred in this general vicinity. Is there a chance the guy is from around here?”

  “Could be, Liz. I suppose we could start asking if there have been any strangers in the area, but that would take a lot of time, and quite frankly, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. What would be interesting is if there is anyone on the AWOL list who was from this area. That would be a rather coincidental tie-in.”

  “Liz, I have an early appointment at the office, and I need to get some sleep. I’ll take Winston out, and then I’m going to head for bed,” Roger said.

  “I’m with you,” Liz responded. “Judy, Cal, good night. See you tomorrow.”

  “I’m sure you’re tired too, Cal,” Judy said, “but last night I mentioned Brandy Boy’s trick of bringing a little brandy to a cottage when the guest rings a bell. If you’re up to it, I’ll buy you a brandy, courtesy of Brandy Boy.”

  “Can’t think of anything I’d like better. Might help me take my mind off of this case, and believe me, I could use the distraction about now. Let’s go.”

  A little while later as she and Roger were falling asleep, Liz said, “Looks like someone wants a little brandy. I just heard a bell ring. That should make Brandy Boy happy.”


  CHAPTER 20

  The following morning after Roger had left for work, Liz spent the next two hours looking at the files of people Bertha thought would make good spa employees and getting the items and recipes together for that night’s dinner. Having Gina do the prep work really freed up her time. Since she hadn’t seen Cal, she thought he was probably working on the AWOL records and doing some more research on the serial killer.

  A little after ten that morning, her phone rang and she saw that the caller was Gertie, which was unusual. Liz couldn’t remember when Gertie had ever called her in the past. “Morning, Gertie. This is a rarity, you calling me. Usually when we talk it’s always face to face. What’s happening?”

  “May be nothin’ Liz, but want to run somethin’ by ya’. Member yesterday how I mentioned one of my waitresses was havin’ some issues with her ex who was livin’ above her garage?”

  “Yes, that involved the guy who’d ordered the meatloaf sandwich, right?”

  “Yeah. Well, last night we had a little episode here at the diner I thought ya’ oughta’ know ‘bout.”

  “I’m all ears. Is everything all right?” Liz asked in a concerned tone of voice.

  “Yeah. We’re fine, but here’s the deal. The waitress that was havin’ some problems was takin’ an order out through the kitchen doors when she stopped and told me she couldn’t go out in the restaurant cuz’ her ex had just come in, and she didn’t want to see him. I tol’ her that wouldn’t be a problem, and she could just plate the orders in the kitchen until he left.”

  “That was generous of you, Gertie,” Liz said.

  “Well, she’s usually a very good waitress, and I thought if it’d make her feel better, we could do it fer one night.”