‘From your lips to God’s ears,’ E.J. said. Graham looked at his mother, smiled a strained smile and said, ‘Amen.’
‘At least take Mrs Pugh!’ Miranda said.
‘We can’t,’ Luna assured her, keeping her voice calm.
Miranda flung herself on the bed next to the kid and said, ‘This sucks!’
Champion moved to her and patted her on the head. ‘It’ll be OK.’
She shook his hand off. ‘Woof, woof,’ she said.
He grinned and he and Luna headed for the door.
Once in Champion’s unmarked car, Luna said, ‘So you’re coming around, finally.’
‘Don’t start!’ Champion said, fastening his seatbelt as he started the car. ‘I’m still on the fence. I could fall to either side, you know.’
‘You know Graham didn’t do it. Your pride’s just in the way.’
‘Shit, woman, I have no pride. My ex got it in divorce,’ he said.
Luna laughed. ‘Nate, I really think you need to get laid.’
‘Are you volunteering?’ he asked, giving her a look.
‘You know my husband would gut you like a chicken just for asking that, don’t you?’
‘Yeah. Don’t mess with a guy who’s done federal time, right?’
‘Exactly,’ Luna said.
‘Duly noted,’ Champion said and headed toward campus.
‘What do we do now?’ I asked Graham and Miranda.
Graham shrugged and Miranda looked dejected. After a few seconds, she brightened. ‘I know!’
‘What?’ Graham said, obviously infected by her enthusiasm.
‘We need to look into Tina Ng. I mean, really look into her—’
‘How are we supposed to do that?’ I asked.
‘The computer,’ Graham said. ‘We need to find someone with mad computer skills—’
‘We have someone,’ Miranda said.
‘Who?’ Graham asked.
She grinned. ‘My cousin, Dave.’
Graham frowned. ‘Ah, Miranda, he’s a nice enough guy and all but he’s a serious stoner—’
‘Yes, he is that, but he is also a computer whizz. He broke into the CIA’s database when he was twelve. Instead of arresting him, they had him build them a new firewall. They haven’t been hacked since.’
‘But that was—’
‘How do you think he affords that apartment?’ Miranda asked.
‘Dealing?’ Graham suggested.
She shook her head. ‘Nope. He’s a gamer. You’d be surprised if I told you some of the games he’s designed.’
‘So you think he’d do this for us?’ I asked. ‘Check out Ng?’
‘Absolutely,’ Miranda said.
‘Well, then, let’s get out of here,’ I said and headed for the door.
Graham pulled into the parking lot of Dave Wisher’s fourplex. Miranda had called ahead to make sure Dave was available and, according to Miranda, of course he was. She explained that Dave did almost all of his classes online and seldom left his apartment. Groceries were delivered, his friends came to him and even his dope was delivered. He rarely needed to leave. The question was more was he straight enough to help rather than was he physically there?
The three of us climbed the stairs and Graham rapped on the door to the apartment. When it opened, the smell almost knocked me over. It had been long enough that I would probably get a contact high just walking in. I was sort of looking forward to it.
‘Hey, Pugh! Cuz! Who’s the hot chick?’ he said. It took me a moment before I realized he was talking about me.
‘Jeez, man!’ Graham said, frowning. ‘That’s my mom!’
Miranda moved forward, pushing her cousin aside. We followed her, Graham closing the door behind him. ‘Hey, ma’am, no disrespect meant!’ Dave Wisher said, looking at me and grinning. ‘But you’re, you know, like, well, hot.’
‘Wisher!’ Graham said.
‘Come on, Dave. Behave,’ Miranda said. ‘Like I said on the phone, this is some serious shit and we need your skills.’
‘I got skills,’ he said, and I could tell that, even as early as it was, Dave was stoned out of his gourd, as we used to say back in the day. But it was possible that he functioned best that way.
‘Yeah, man, try to focus!’ Graham said.
Dave looked at me again and grinned. ‘I can’t promise nothing, man.’
‘Shit!’ Graham said under his breath. ‘Mom, you wanna, you know, take a hike?’
‘Graham!’ Miranda said. ‘Dave will behave or I’ll tell his mother.’
The grin escaped Dave Wisher’s face. ‘You wouldn’t do that, would you, Cuz?’
‘Not if you get down to business. We need a complete background check on somebody, including banking records.’
‘I’m not supposed to do that,’ Dave said, tap, tap, tapping away on his keyboard. ‘If I get caught they’d have my nuts this time.’
‘But you won’t get caught, will you?’ Miranda said.
‘Shit, no. You got a name?’
‘Tina Ng. That’s spelled “n-g”.’
Dave shook his head. ‘Gotta have a vowel, man.’
‘It’s Vietnamese,’ I said.
He smiled up at me and attempted to bat his eyelashes. I thought for a moment he’d fallen asleep. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I can dig it.’
He put in Ng’s name, tapped some more and then said, ‘Here’s the stuff from the school.’
The three of us leaned over Dave’s shoulder to read the information. Pretty generic stuff: name, address in Austin, permanent address in Palo Alto, California, phone numbers, and voila, a social security number.
‘Okey-dokey,’ Dave said. ‘Here we go.’ He hit some more keys, whistled a tune and pulled up her grades. ‘Straight As. Graduated two years ago. In the graduate studies program for economics. T.A. Teaches some freshman and sophomore poli-sci classes and a couple of other things.’
‘What other things? Economics, for instance?’ Miranda asked.
He did some more tapping then said, ‘Not this semester, but last semester, yeah. Took over for a T.A. Went into labor.’
‘It says that there?’ Miranda asked, leaning forward and frowning.
‘Naw. I knew the chick. Kinda worried cause I banged her once, but this guy shows up and says it’s his so I, you know, relaxed.’
‘Congrats,’ Graham said, only to get elbowed by both Miranda and myself.
‘What?’ he said, moving out of elbow range.
Miranda and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes.
‘So what about bank accounts?’ I asked Dave.
‘I’m looking!’ Then he took his eyes off the screen for a second and looked up at me where I was leaning over him. ‘You know, you can rest one of those on my shoulder if you’d like,’ he said, eyeing my boobs.
Graham whacked him on the back of the head. ‘Stop it! She’s married! To my dad! You know, because she’s my mom?’
‘That hurt!’ Dave said, turning back to face the screen. ‘Bank records coming up.’
Gretchen Morley was in her room when Champion and Luna knocked on her door. On seeing them, she threw up her hands and said, ‘O-M-G, not y’all again.’
‘Really?’ Luna asked, looking at Champion. ‘I can’t believe people actually say that in initials.’
Champion shrugged. ‘I don’t know about people but she certainly does.’
‘What do you want this time?’ Morley said, not moving from her doorway nor inviting them in.
‘We need to talk about your testing scam,’ Champion said. ‘We can do it out here so all your, excuse the expression, sisters can hear, or we can come inside.’
Morley had gone pale at the mention of the testing scam and moved back into the room.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said, turning her back on them.
‘Yeah, well, I think you do,’ Champion said. ‘I think you know exactly what I’m talking about and I think it’s about time you spilled you
r guts. So to speak.’
Gretchen Morley turned to face them, some color back in her cheeks and a stern look on her face. ‘I’m calling my attorney and I’m not saying another word.’
With that, she grabbed her cell phone and dialed.
Tina Ng’s banking records showed monthly deposits of four hundred and fifty dollars for the past two years. ‘T.A. salary. Really sucks, huh?’ Dave said.
‘Anything else?’ I asked.
He tap, tap, tapped some more then said, ‘Couple of checks for a hundred here and a hundred there.’ He looked up at me and batted his eyes again. ‘Parents, you think?’
‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘You’d think she’d be getting more for a cheating scam.’
‘Wait, now,’ Dave said. ‘Here’s a monthly debit to the bank.’ He left that screen, went to another then back to Ng’s bank records. ‘Yeah. What I thought. It’s the fee for a safe deposit box.’
I sat down on the nearest beanbag chair and Miranda plopped down next to me. ‘So that’s it?’ she said. ‘No way we can get into her safe deposit box, right?’
I shook my head. ‘We’d need a search warrant, which we can only get through Champion, and I doubt if there’s enough evidence at this point for any judge to sign off on it. If, and it’s a big if, Champion would even listen to what we’ve got.’
Dave had turned from his screen to look at us. Well, me. I was being modest. ‘Sorry, Pugh’s mom. Anything else I can do?’ He brightened. ‘Back rub?’
‘Just a minute,’ I said and pulled my notepad and a pen out of my purse. I began writing a list of names – Gretchen, Ng, Bishop Alexander, Gaylord Fuchs, Bobby Dunston and his parents, Bishop’s mom and Lexie Thurgood. I tore off the sheet from my notepad and handed it to Dave. ‘This is a long shot, I know, but can you just run these names and see if there are any connections?’ I shrugged. ‘That’s all I’ve got at this point.’
‘Sure,’ Dave said. ‘For you, anything.’
I laughed, got up awkwardly from the beanbag chair and patted Dave on the head. ‘You’re good for a middle-aged woman’s ego, you know that, Dave?’ I said, and Graham, Miranda and I left.
‘You’re really just going to sit there?’ Luna asked.
‘My attorney is on her way,’ Morley said. ‘Until then, I’m saying squat.’
‘It’s her right,’ Champion said. ‘I mean, so what if it seals the deal. It’s her right.’
Morley’s brow furrowed. ‘What deal?’
‘I don’t have to answer you any more than you have to answer me,’ Champion said.
‘What deal?’ she repeated.
‘Oh,’ Luna said. ‘You mean because this definitely makes her suspect number one in her boyfriend – I mean ex-boyfriend’s murder?’
‘Hush now,’ Champion said.
‘Sorry,’ Luna said. ‘I guess I shouldn’t have let the cat out of the bag.’
Champion sighed. ‘Too late now. We’ll just wait for her attorney to get here, then read her rights to her and cuff her. That should work.’
‘Wait a minute! Wait a minute!’ Morley said, panic in her voice. ‘I didn’t kill Bish! I swear! I loved him!’
Luna looked at Champion, shrugged and said, ‘Remember that old song? “You only hurt the one you love”? Something like that.’
‘Yeah, I remember. Don’t make music like that anymore.’
‘I know,’ Luna said. ‘The big-hair eighties was the death of it.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ Champion said.
‘No, now, y’all wait!’ Morley said. ‘I don’t care what that song says! I didn’t kill Bish! I didn’t!’
And for the first time in her presence, Champion thought he detected traces of real tears in her eyes.
‘We’re not supposed to talk about it,’ he said.
‘But I didn’t! I had no idea what she was going to do, I swear it!’ Morley said, real tears flowing down her peaches-and-cream cheeks.
Champion prided himself on the fact that he didn’t yell ‘Eureka!’ or even point a finger and say ‘Ah ha!’ He simply said, ‘Who?’ in a quiet voice.
‘Ah, I can’t, I mean, oh, God. She’ll kill me too! Oh, shit!’ Morley said and began to sob. It wasn’t the quietly controlled sobs he’d heard from her earlier when she was supposedly bemoaning the death of Bishop Alexander. No, these sobs were gut-wrenching, eye-swelling, face-blotching authentic sobs.
‘No one’s going to get near you,’ Luna said. ‘We’ll take you into protective custody and you’ll be safe.’
‘You mean jail, don’t you? You’re going to take me to jail!’ The sobs began to border on hysteria.
There was a knock on the door. Luna went to answer it. A woman stood before her. She looked fiftyish, fit and pissed off when she looked behind Luna and saw her client in hysterics.
‘You two,’ she said, ‘out of here, now! I want to see my client.’
Champion and Luna stood up and left the room.
‘What was on that list?’ Miranda asked from the back seat of Graham’s car.
‘Just a list of the names of anybody associated with this.’ I shook my head. ‘I couldn’t think of anything else we could get Dave to do. I mean, as far as computers go, I can turn them on and turn them off. Oh, yeah, and I can check my email.’
‘Graham!’ Miranda said, hitting my son on the back of his head, not a good thing to do when he’s driving but I let it go. ‘You’ve really let your mother down! Why haven’t you taught her how to use the computer?’
‘Because she wouldn’t let me! And stop hitting me. It hurts!’
It was true. I’m a writer. I write books. Romance novels. And I believe in libraries. Library science was my minor in college. And I’d had plans to continue on to get a second degree in it but Willis sort of got in my way. So I ended up with only one degree, in English literature, which was my major. A BA in English lit and five dollars still won’t get you a cup of coffee these days. So, this trip down memory lane is to explain why I don’t Google or Goggle or whatever people do instead of going to a perfectly good library wherein you can find the wonders of the world in actual book form.
‘Can either of you think of something we should have asked Dave to do?’ I asked.
There was a minute of silence, then, from the back seat, ‘No, I guess not.’
‘Me neither,’ said Graham.
‘So why don’t we go talk to Tina Ng? Let’s just ask her what she has in her safe deposit box!’ Miranda said.
‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘We don’t want her alerted to what we’re doing just yet. Besides, she doesn’t say much when we’re not accusing her of dastardly deeds. I can only imagine how closed mouth she’d be if we did.’
Miranda sighed. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m just so frustrated!’
‘Aren’t we all,’ I said.
‘Why don’t y’all trade recipes on the cake you’re gonna make me with the file inside? I think I’m going to need it,’ my son said, heading his Toyota toward our motel.
‘She’s gotta be talking about Ng!’ Luna said as she and Champion stopped on the drag for a cup of coffee.
‘Definitely, and maybe if she tells her lawyer the truth, Nancy will be able to get her to ’fess up, for a deal, of course.’
‘Nancy?’ Luna asked as they sat down at a small table with their drinks.
‘Nancy Richards. Morley’s attorney. Known her for years. A real mover and shaker in Austin. Used to be a state senator.’
Luna sighed. ‘Leave it to Morley to have a big gun.’
‘Big gun or not, Nancy’s no slouch. She’ll see that it’s gonna be in Morley’s best interest to push Ng under the bus.’
Looking out the big plate-glass window by their table, Luna said, ‘Now that’s an odd couple.’
Champion looked out. ‘Isn’t that Gaylord Fuchs? Or Gay Fucks as the vic was so fond of calling him.’
‘Yeah, you’re right. But is that his wife?’
The two cops stared out the w
indow at the little man and the not-so-little woman walking with him. She was several feet taller and at least one hundred and fifty if not two hundred pounds heavier. When they stopped to look in a store window, the woman leaned down and kissed Fuchs on the lips.
‘Unless he’s messing around, yeah, I’d say that’s his wife,’ Champion said.
‘Now wait a minute!’ Luna said. ‘Lexie Thurgood so intimidated the vic that he had to put her down whenever he got the chance, and she was slightly taller than him. That woman, I’d say, is taller, too, but she’d also outweigh him by a lot, and I dare say she could have handled him with no help from her husband when Bishop made a pass. If he made a pass.’
‘What do you mean if?’ Champion said.
‘I mean, I just can’t see the misogynistic asshole that was Bishop Alexander coming on to a woman who looks like Mrs Fuchs. I mean, look at Gretchen Morley. She’s a Barbie doll. Mrs Fuchs is more like Xena Warrior Princess.’
‘A really big Xena Warrior Princess,’ Champion said.
‘Hey, look, I’m a big woman,’ Luna said. ‘And I know how guys like Alexander react to women like me, like Mrs Fuchs. They all want a Barbie doll. Not Xena. Or even Wonder Woman.’
‘You think you’re Wonder Woman?’ Champion said with a raised eyebrow.
‘You’ll never know,’ Luna said.
‘OK, so what you’re saying is maybe Fuchs lied?’ Champion asked.
‘Well, I dunno. Maybe?’
‘So maybe we should have a chat with Mrs Fuchs?’ Champion asked.
‘Sounds like a plan,’ Luna said.
We’d barely made it back to the motel before the rain came. It can come quickly in Central Texas, out of a seemingly clear blue sky, especially in winter. But this day had been overcast and threatening so the rain came as no real surprise. The surprise was the rapid dip in temperature. It had been in the mid-to-low fifties for the past few days but by the time we reached the motel it had dropped down to the thirties. Once inside my room, we turned the TV to the Weather Channel to find out what was going on. It wasn’t going to be pretty. Ninety percent chance that the rain would turn to sleet by early evening, and the temperature was predicted to drop into the twenties by midnight. Icy roads were predicted for the next day.
‘Well, at least I wasn’t planning on leaving for home tomorrow,’ I said.
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