Murdered by Prejudice: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Series

by Dianne Harman

  “I’m getting the sense it didn’t work out,” Liz said.

  “Yes and no. Here’s the deal. I tol’ Jose Chivera, he’s one of my best waiters, to substitute for Jessie until her ex-husband left. He went to the table where her ex was sitting and handed him a menu. Guy went berserk. I was out in the restaurant jawin’ with a coupla’ customers when I heard the guy say, ‘I don’t want some wetback serving me. I want another waiter.”’

  “You’re kidding,” Liz said visualizing the scene. “That’s horrible. Talk about politically incorrect.”

  “Ya’ got that right. Anyway, the jerk goes on and on about that’s what’s wrong with the country these days. Somethin’ ‘bout all these foreigners that aren’t real Americans taking the country over. He jes’ kept rantin’ and ravin’. He was so red in the face and angry I figured the steam comin’ outta’ the top of his head would blow that hat with the American Eagle on it clean off his head,” Gertie said.

  “What happened then?”

  “I walked over to him and asked him to lower his voice. I tried to calm him down, but he was in a real lather. I tol’ him I was the owner and if’n didn’t stop squawkin’, I was gonna’ throw him out.”

  “Gertie, as small as you are, that would probably be impossible.”

  “Listen up, girl, it gets better. The dude stands up and he musta’ been twenty feet tall, or at least that’s what it felt like. Then he says, ‘When I was in Afghanistan, I killed people for less than that.’ That’s when I started gettin’ nervous.”

  “Oh, Gertie. I can’t imagine. Did any of the other customers try to help you?”

  “Yeah, and girl you ain’t gonna’ believe this. First time I ever seen Seth, our good-fer-nothin’ police chief, step up to the plate. He jes’ happened to be at the diner, having hisself some dinner. He moved his big fat belly outta’ the booth he was settin’ in and walked over to where we was, all cocky like, but I noticed his hand was on his gun. Tol’ Doheny to leave the diner or he’d shoot him. Doubt if that little dork woulda’ had the guts to do somethin’ like that, but durned if it didn’t work. Big boy Doheny walked over to the door, ‘bout as mad as a wet hen, and walked out it.”

  “What did Seth do?”

  “Puffed hisself up like a peacock and said in a loud voice, ‘That’s why y’all elected me. Cuz’ I’m the best chief of police in these parts.’ Can ya’ believe that?”

  “Yes, I can. Gertie, why did you call the guy Doheny. Is that his name?” Liz asked.

  “It’s his last name. Leastways that’s his ex-wife’s last name, ya’ know, Jessie, the waitress that works fer me. Don’t know his first name. But here’s the real reason I’m callin’ ya’. Know ya’ and that hunk ya’ was in here with yesterday are workin’ on those murders that have happened ‘round here lately. Jes’ seems to me when a guy comes to town that is obviously untethered, and murders have happened since he’s been in town, ya’ might wanna’ take a look at him.”

  Liz was quiet for several moments while the enormity of what Gertie had just told her registered. Finally she said, “Gertie, I need to talk to Cal, and he may want to talk to your waitress. Is she working there today?”

  “Yeah, should be here any minute to set up fer lunch. She was purty upset and embarrassed about last night, so I’m sure she’ll be on her best behavior today. If’n the hunk wants to talk to her, jes’ have him call.”

  “Gertie, thanks. I have no idea if this will help, but based on some other information we’ve discovered, it just might.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Liz ended the call and hurried downstairs. The door to the guest room was closed, and Liz could hear Cal talking on the phone. When he’d ended the call, she knocked on the door. A moment later, Cal opened it.

  “Good morning, Liz. I’ve been making calls regarding the conversation we had last night. I should have some information in a couple of hours. I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of pouring myself a cup of coffee and bringing it and the morning paper down here, so I could read it while I was being put on hold numerous times.”

  “I’m glad you did. Cal, I just had a phone call from Gertie, and while it may prove to be nothing, I think it needs to be explored. Here’s what she told me.” Cal took notes while she related the conversation to him. When she was finished, she said, “What do you think?”

  “I think that octogenarian needs to join the FBI. I know this may be premature, but my gut tells me that’s our guy. I want to talk to the waitress, but first let me make a call to my contact at the Department of Defense and see if they can pull the file on a guy named Doheny who served in Afghanistan. Did Gertie mention a first name for him?”

  “No. She said that was the last name of her waitress, so she assumed it was the guy’s last name, too.”

  “No problem. I want to call this in so they can get started on it, then I’ll call them again once I have his first name.” He punched some numbers into his cell phone and after several minutes, gave the information he had to his contact at the Department of Defense.

  When he was finished, he turned to Liz and said, “Would you give me Gertie’s phone number? I’d like to talk to her waitress.”

  Liz pulled out her phone and gave him Gertie’s cell phone number, rather than the diner’s, figuring it would be a quicker way to reach her.

  “Good morning, Gertie. This is Cal Randolph, Liz Lucas’s friend. Thanks for thinking to call her. While I have no way of knowing at this point if this Doheny man is the murderer, he’s certainly become a person of interest to me. May I speak to Mrs. Doheny?” A moment later he said, “Thanks.”

  He waited for a moment and then he said, “Mrs. Doheny, my name is Cal Randolph. I’m an FBI agent looking into some murders that have happened to federal employees in this area. Would it be possible for me to come to the diner and talk to you for a few minutes regarding your ex-husband?” He listened to her and said, “It shouldn’t take long, I just have a few questions I’d like to ask you. Ms. Lucas will be coming with me. She’s a friend of Gertie’s.”

  When the call had ended, he said, “I hope you don’t mind that I volunteered you to go with me, but as I mentioned yesterday, FBI agents have been known to scare people. Thought you could mitigate that, plus Gertie obviously loves you, so that should soften the situation. Anyway, I hope you can.”

  “Yes, I’m as curious as you are. I think I’ll take Winston with us, because not only does Gertie love him, dogs also have a way of softening situations. Give me five minutes. We can take my car. Don’t want you getting dog hair in a federal car. I’ll meet you out in front.”

  *****

  Liz knocked on the front door of Gertie’s Diner, and it was immediately opened by the white-haired wonder. When she saw that Winston had also come, she bent down and gave him a big kiss and said, “Winston, while they’re jawin’ with Jessie, ya’ can come with me back to the kitchen. Betcha’ anythin’ my cook can come up with some fresh hamburger fer ya.’ Be jes’ a minute, so ya’ stay right here.” Winston gave her a doggie grin as if he understood exactly what she’d said.

  Gertie walked back to the kitchen and said, “Jessie. Got some people to see ya’. Come on out and meet ‘em.” A moment later, a blond full-bodied woman in her early thirties walked out of the kitchen with a tenuous look on her face.

  “Girl, no need to be nervous. This here’s Cal Randolph and Liz Lucas. Ya’ probably seen Liz in here a time or two and I’m sure you’ve seen her handsome hunk of a husband, Roger, ya’ know, that lawyer next door, who’s in here all the time. Why don’t’cha all set a spell in that booth in the back? That way if we got any lookie loos checkin’ us out through the window, since we ain’t open yet, they won’t see ya’. Winston, ya’ come with me.” Winston obediently followed her to the kitchen.

  “Jessie, thanks for meeting with us on such short notice. Liz received a phone call from Gertie earlier this morning about the incident in the diner last night with your ex-husband. If you don’t mind,
I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  “I’ll try to answer them,” Jessie said in a soft voice. “I’m just so embarrassed about what Bryce did last night. Believe me, this person is nothing like the man I married.”

  “I think you just answered my first question. Your ex-husband’s name is Bryce Doheny. Does he have a middle name?”

  “Yes. His legal name is Bryce Lee Doheny, but I don’t know if he’s ever used Lee in anything.”

  “I understand from Gertie that after you were married, he entered the military service, and you later divorced him, saying he’d changed. Could you tell us about that?”

  Jessie twisted her hands and looked away from Cal. Then she turned back towards him and said, “Bryce and I grew up in Red Cedar. We started going together in high school and got married soon after we graduated. He entered the Army, and he was stationed in several places in the United States. I always moved to where he was stationed so we could be together. Then he went to Afghanistan.” Tears welled up in her eyes.

  “Take as much time as you need, Jessie,” Liz said. “I can see that this is a difficult subject for you.”

  “Yes, it is. Anyway, his last tour of duty before Afghanistan had been at Ft. Riley, Kansas. When he went to Afghanistan, I stayed in our apartment in Junction City, Kansas, because I’d gotten a job as a waitress at one of the better restaurants in town, a restaurant that catered to military officers, so the tips were good.”

  “I’m familiar with the area. My brother did his ROTC training there during one summer when he was in college,” Cal said.

  “After six months in Afghanistan, Bryce was entitled to come home for two weeks which he did. It was horrible. Something had changed in him. He constantly talked about how the United States was in trouble because of all the minorities, and they shouldn’t let any of them in the country. I guess he had a Jewish lieutenant he didn’t get along with, and I always wondered if that’s what started his hatred of minorities.”

  “Did he have certain minorities that he disliked more than others?” Cal asked.

  “No,” Jessie said. “He hated anyone he said wasn’t what he called a true American. For two weeks he wore this hat with an American Eagle on it and said only true Americans deserved to wear a hat with the American Eagle on it. That’s how I knew he was in the restaurant last night, because when I looked out the kitchen door window, I saw his hat.”

  “What happened after he went back to Afghanistan?” Cal asked.

  “He came back to Junction City during his next leave, and he was even worse. He had what I’d call a deranged look in his eyes and all he talked about was the minorities and how the United States was making it even more appealing for them to come here because so many of them were being promoted to positions of leadership in the United States government. He said pretty soon there wouldn’t be any true Americans working in the federal government. They’d all be minorities.”

  Jessie started to tear up and struggled to regain her composure. “I’m sorry, but this is very difficult for me. After he left, I filed for divorce and went to live with my parents in the small town on the East Coast they’d moved to a couple of years after we’d gotten married. I stayed there as long as I could and then moved back here. I love my parents, but they couldn’t accept the fact that I was an adult and needed my own space.”

  “When did you return to Red Cedar?” Liz asked.

  “Almost a year ago. I found a little house that I could afford with a yard and a small room above the garage. I thought my sisters or my parents could use it when they came to visit. I’d wanted a place with a yard, so I could get a dog.”

  “Alright,” Cal said, “That pretty much takes you up to now. Did you stay in contact with your husband after you were divorced?”

  “I did. I still had some things of his that I’d taken with me when I left our apartment in Junction City, and I thought if he was ever in the area, he could pick them up from me.”

  “So that’s how he knew you lived in Red Cedar,” Cal said.

  “Yes, although I certainly regret that now.”

  “Would you tell me about him coming here a few days ago?” Cal asked.

  “Yes, and this is really bothering me. One day there was a knock on the door and when I opened it, there he was. I had no idea he was coming. He told me I owed him for divorcing him when he was overseas and said he wanted to stay in the room over the garage for a few days.”

  “Jessie, how did he know about the room over the garage?” Cal asked.

  “When I moved here, I’d written him that I was storing his things in a room over the garage at the little house I’d rented.”

  “Okay, what was bothering you about his coming here? Was he on leave or had he been discharged and getting ready to start a new life here in the United States?”

  “I don’t know. The second day he was here, when he’d gone somewhere, I took a few things up to the room. I noticed that his army uniform and a rifle were there. I thought it was odd for him to keep his uniform if he’d been discharged, because I remember when I was a kid at some Veterans Day event someone had mentioned that only dress uniforms could be worn by military personnel if they were no longer on active duty.”

  “That’s true, so that must mean that he’s on leave,” Cal said.

  “I thought the same thing, but when I asked Bryce when his leave was going to be over, he said it really didn’t matter because he wasn’t letting any more minorities make decisions regarding his life. To be honest, I really didn’t know what that meant.”

  Cal and Liz exchanged a look and each knew the other was thinking the word “AWOL.”

  “Jessie, I’d like to take a look inside that room. First, does he usually leave during the day, and secondly, would it be all right with you if I looked at it? I know you’re working today, but I need to get in it as soon as I can. You’ve answered a lot of questions, but I have a lot more unasked questions that only a look at what’s in that room will answer. Would it be possible for me to get a key from you, and if that’s alright with you, your address?”

  “In answer to your first question, he’s gone almost all day every day. He has a rental car, and that’s what he’s driving. Yes, I can give you the key. Here’s my address,” she said as she quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper she’d taken out of her purse. “Could you bring it back by here when you’re through with it?”

  “Of course,” he said as she handed the key and the piece of paper to him.

  “Man, does that dog of yers’ love steak,” Gertie said as she and Winston walked towards their booth, Winston licking his lips. “Jes’ happened to have a couple of ‘em fer the lunch crowd and decided I liked Winston more than I like those bus tour snobs. If’n one of ‘em don’t get his steak, them’s the breaks of life. Y’all ‘bout through jawin’? First customers are gonna’ be blastin’ thru that door purty soon, and believe me, when those buses land, it ain’t a purty sight.”

  “Yes, we’re finished here.” Cal turned to Jessie and said, “Thank you for everything. I think Bryce will be leaving soon, and you’ll be free of him.”

  “I hope so. I was never afraid of him when we were married, in fact, just the opposite. I knew he’d protect me no matter what, but the man he is now terrifies me. Please let me know what you find.”

  “We will,” Liz said. “Thank you again, Jessie. You’re a brave woman.”

  CHAPTER 22

  As soon as they got in Liz’s car, Cal pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and made a call to his contact at the Department of Defense. “Larry, it’s Cal. I asked you to find out everything you can about a man named Doheny. I’ve learned that his first name is Bryce, and his middle name is Lee. If you haven’t already done it, start with Army and men who are AWOL who were stationed in Afghanistan.

  “When you find out the name of his commanding officer, and I have reason to believe it’s a Jewish officer, you can text it to me. You have the number. I want you to put an absolute rush o
n this. Top priority. I’m pretty sure that he’s responsible for a number of murders stateside, and I have no doubt that he’s planning another. I want to prevent it. I mean it. This has got to be done ASAP. I’ll wait for your response.”

  “Cal, I would bet anything that he’s the guy. Should we go to that room of his and see what’s there?”

  “Liz, this is starting to get a little dangerous. Why don’t I take you and Winston back to the lodge? If I was responsible for anything happening to you, I think Roger might be capable of murder, and I’d rather not force him into doing something like that.”

  “Not on your life. I’ve been in dicey situations before, and anyway, we have a trained guard dog with us. I’d take Winston over the best the FBI has, excluding present company.”

  “Thanks for that. Alright. Let me pull up the address on my Google Maps.” A moment later he said, “Jessie’s house is only about a mile from here. Take a left.” He continued to give her instructions and then said, “Pull in next to the curb under that tree. Jessie said he’d rented a car, but there isn’t one in the driveway or parked near her house on the street. This will be quick. I don’t want to be surprised by him coming back. Ready?”

  “Yes.” Liz opened her car door and then let Winston out the back door. They followed Cal up the stairs leading to the room above the garage. He turned the key and opened the door, a look of surprise on his face.

  Liz walked in and stared at the sight in front of her. Newspaper clippings covered the small table in front of the couch which was covered with army combat clothing and ammunition. On a table next to the coffee table were several pieces of paper with the American Eagle on it and the words “You Are Next” which had evidently been cut out of the papers.

  “He’s the killer, isn’t he?” Liz said in a tremulous voice as she set her purse down on the floor.

  “I’d bet my life on it,” Cal said grimly as he picked up the newspaper that was on top of the pile. He scanned it for a moment and then said, “I know who the next victim is going to be. I read about him in the paper this morning. While I make a call, look through the rest of these papers and see if any of them refer to the victims who have been murdered.”