Murder Most Fermented

by Christine E. Blum

  “Why don’t you sit down on the bench, I know it’s been a long night.”

  I did what he asked and stared at the extra handcuff attached to the bar. I started to shed small tears that stung my eyes as they fell.

  “I think we can uncuff her, Officers. In your case, Ms. Hall, you have committed what is called an ‘infraction,’ the most common of these are moving violations like speeding or making unsafe turns. Non-criminal trespassing also falls into this category. Since it appears that you were not at this building site to cause any damage or to threaten anyone, you are not subject to incarceration or to being placed on probation.”

  “Thank you.” I let out a deep sigh of relief.

  “You do however have to pay a fine; in this case, the amount is one hundred fifty dollars. Do you have someone who can come and make this payment?”

  I nodded.

  “Good, as soon as they do, we can release you. Is there someone that you would like us to call?”

  I gave him Jack’s cell phone number. The back door opened and I saw officers bring in three very rowdy men. They reeked of alcohol.

  “Best place for you to be until he arrives is back in the tank,” he said as one of the guys spat at the caged window.

  I didn’t argue.

  * * *

  “Someone here to pick you up, Ms. Hall. You’d better be nice to him ’cuz he paid your fine,” a different officer told me while unlocking the cell door. “Come with me.”

  The mud and sludge from the basement pit had now dried on my pants and when I stood, it made a cracking sound. It also made walking a conspicuous event as with each step a clump of it would fall off me and turn to a splat of dust when it hit the ground. I looked like Pig-Pen’s deranged sister. And to top it off, I was shaking uncontrollably from a deep bone chill. It was five a.m.

  The three guys that had been brought in were now cuffed to the center hall bench. I guessed that this was not their first time, as it hadn’t shaken their attitudes or foul mouths. When we rounded the corner out to the sergeant’s front desk, I saw Jack. I couldn’t help it; I burst into tears. I’m talking major waterworks. So much so that I could feel the mud melting off in the narrow paths that the tears were marking. I imagined that my face must make me look like Pagliacci’s clown.

  I reached out to hug him and the officer held me back. I could also swear that I saw Jack recoil a bit.

  “Ms. Hall, I’m going to explain a few things to you,” the sergeant said to me from his high desk pulpit.

  “Yes, your honor,” I whispered.

  “Sergeant, it’s just sergeant. Now, you were brought in on a suspected charge of criminal trespassing on private property. We have since downgraded this to an infraction. With the payment of this fine, you are exonerated. Do you know what that means?”

  I nodded.

  “You were lucky that the CSI officers that found you sorted this whole mess out.”

  “CSI? I thought that someone had reported seeing me on the property.”

  “Incorrect, the investigators were called back to the scene to gather further evidence as a result of the autopsy report on the dead workman.”

  “The results are back? May I see? What did the report say?”

  “Halsey!” Jack admonished. I’d never seen him look at me that way. He was seething mad.

  “This is exactly the kind of thinking that got you here in the first place. This is not your business and you need to stay out of it. Understood?” the sergeant asked.

  I was about to say that it was very definitely my business if I was a suspect in the murder, but stopped myself. If Augie had really made that official, then this would be a moot point anyway. Instead, I nodded vigorously to the man on high.

  “Mr. Thornton was kind enough to pay the small amount with the promise that you will leave here never to return again. You will mind your own business, be a law-abiding citizen of Mar Vista, and an example for all to follow. Which you vow to do, correct?”

  “Yes I do, your honor, I mean sergeant. May I get my personal belongings back? I believe that they were placed in the property room.”

  He eyed me for a while and then picked up the phone. A couple minutes later a female officer came out with the evidence bag containing my blue gloves of sludge.

  “Thank you, thank you so much!” I said finally feeling the light at the end of the tunnel.

  “Thank Mr. Thornton, without him you’d have been locked up until morning.”

  I reached to put my arms around Jack.

  “Are we cleared to go, Sergeant?” Jack asked.

  “Go, and get some sleep.”

  Jack took my arm and we exited the station.

  “Honey, I am going to make you the best breakfast ever for getting me out of that nightmare. I think that bacon and sausage is in order. We could also start with prosciutto and melon. Do you want French toast or pancakes? I hope I have some champagne chilling.”

  “This is all fun and games to you, Halsey, isn’t it? You think that this is a lark, being arrested in the middle of the night? Maybe the cops have nothing better to do?” He was not happy.

  “Well, I thought I brought some levity to the station. How about I bring them a basket of bagels in the morning, donuts would be so, obvious.”

  When we approached his monster truck, he opened the back door first, leaving me wondering if he was going to drive me home in a doggie crate. To my relief, he had retrieved a couple of big towels.

  “Wrap yourself in these,” he said, tossing them to me. “You’re a dirty mess and I don’t want it to get all over my vehicle.”

  “Jack, I’m sorry,” I said, doing as he’d commanded. He unlocked the doors, and I was careful to take off my shoes and slap them against each other to shake off the mud before I got in the passenger side. “I was just trying to get a sample so it could be tested for oil. I didn’t mean any harm.”

  “You never do, Halsey. But it’s always one more little thing and the next we know you’re in jail or kidnapped or stowed away on a boat.”

  “That was part of the kidnapping.”

  “Whatever, I don’t find this fun or funny. I have a relatively calm life training dogs and the excitement comes when I’m called on a rescue with CARA. And then I am working for a good cause to rescue someone and prevent further danger. I am not running after some pie-in-the-sky theory about striking oil and moving to Beverly Hills.”

  “When did I ever say that? And I resent you calling what I am doing just a lark. You need to remember that I’m a suspect here, for two murders! Do you think that I planned to find Abigail’s body in the garden? Do you, Jack?”

  We rode the rest of the way in silence until we pulled into my driveway.

  “I don’t know anymore. These things always seem to happen to you,” he said, not looking at me.

  “Wait here a minute, please,” I said and got out of the truck. A couple of minutes later I returned. He’d rolled down the window on his side, and I handed him two hundred dollars.

  “I think that this covers the fine and the gas it took for you to come and pick me up. There should also be enough left over for a nice breakfast. Thanks, Jack.”

  “Let’s just take a breather for a little bit, okay?” He put the truck in reverse and was slowing backing out. “I love you, Halsey, very, very much.”

  “You love sedate, wine-infused Halsey. Too bad because today kick-butt Halsey came out to play.”

  I watched him drive away and went into the house where Bardot was beside herself with kisses for me. The sun was just coming up. I opened the doors to the backyard. “Come on, Bardot!”

  I took off running and jumped in the pool, clothes, shoes, and all. Bardot was right behind me.

  “Where were you all night?” I heard a voice say from over the fence.

  “In jail,” I replied.

  “Fine, don’t tell me.”

  “I just did, Marisol.”

  Chapter 19

  This time tequila shots were not i
nvolved.

  I met Frederick Ott for coffee, tea in my case, the next day at the Rose Café, in Venice. This spot has been a favorite of the bohemian artists and the beach community since 1979. The café was recently renovated and under new ownership. It boasts a top chef causing walk-ins to be an exercise in futility. But we were there at an odd hour and were lucky to find a café table for two.

  “People are going to think that I’m filthy rich.” Frederick smiled, adding a sugar packet to his cappuccino.

  “I thought you are,” I teased.

  “Hardly.” He laughed. “But when they take note of my beautiful table companion it will be the only logical explanation.”

  I forced a smile. I’d taken two showers and a long bath after getting home from the police station, but I still felt like the unwashed.

  “You don’t seem your chipper self,” he said, noticing my somber demeanor. “Should we go find a place that serves midmorning tequila shots?”

  “God no, I may never drink again.”

  “That would be a shame. So, Halsey, what has got you in such a funk as the beach people call it?”

  Although encroaching on eighty years old, Frederick took pride in making an effort to stay current. That was one of the things I loved about him.

  I gave him a recap of my trespassing arrest and my night in the holding tank while at the same time bringing him up to date on the Abigail Rose murder case. I told him that the sudden interest in oil rights in Mar Vista might be somehow connected to the deed I’d found with poor Abigail’s body.

  “Sounds like you have indeed poked the bear,” he said when I’d finished. “I know I’ll sleep better knowing that you have strongman Jack by your side.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face.

  “Uh-oh, trouble in paradise? Dear, dear.”

  “It’s all my fault,” I started to explain.

  “That, Halsey, is never the case. It takes two to tangle as I like to call it.”

  I brought Frederick up to speed on the fight and Jack’s desire to “take a break for a while.”

  “I think that may be a good idea,” Frederick finally said after a good several minutes of thinking. “You need to recognize that in much of Jack’s world he has adopted the pack mentality. This is what he taught us while taming our savage beasts. He said that we needed to be the alpha dogs in our little pack at home in order for our dogs to respect us so that we could train them and manage their well-being. And do you know what? It worked. I was amazed, especially since one of our dogs outweighs my wife.”

  “I am very happy for you, dogs are such great partners. But I’m not sure where you are going with this in Jack’s and my situation.” I sighed.

  “Forgive the pun, Halsey, but you are a strange new animal to Jack. He can try to be the alpha dog, but you do not possess the inner workings to be submissive and a follower. You wouldn’t be happy in that position and neither would anyone else that knows and loves you. Especially Jack.”

  “Sooo?”

  “So Jack needs time to adjust to this new kind of relationship. He’s not the type to need to be controlling but it is the part of him that he goes to for peace and order in his life. I take it he’s told you about his father?”

  “Yes. I know that he’d been a forest ranger who worked search and rescue in Colorado. I also know that his dad died in the process of saving a family and their two young boys from a rafting accident. Jack was ten; the day he died was his birthday.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment to remember when he had told me this. We were on the beach in Malibu with the dogs when our relationship had just started. I could feel the tears trying to escape from my closed lids, and I could still feel the hurt I’d felt for his pain.

  “Knowing those deep feelings Jack carries around should help you to help him adjust. He loves you very much, Halsey, that I know.” Frederick sipped the remains of his coffee, giving him a foam mustache. “Maybe you need to just throw him a bone from time to time,” he said with a mocha grin.

  “Okay, that was one pun too many.” I laughed. “But thank you for your valuable advice, Frederick. Switching gears, do you have any more information on the deed that I found?”

  “I do, although it may not be what you want to hear. It is looking more and more like it is a very clever fake. For one, our research hasn’t been able to turn up any provenance whatsoever. While the names of the signatories are those of real people who were alive at the time that the document was drawn, we cannot find any kind of trail to support its validity.”

  “Interesting, I’ve been given similar results by experts who have been analyzing the ring.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, if this is a forgery, it is an excellent one done by someone with experience at these things.”

  For whatever reason, my mind went to Malcolm.

  “I won’t say that we’ve exhausted all possibilities, but we are getting close, Halsey.”

  “I completely understand and I can’t thank you enough for all your hard work. You’re the one who is a treasure, Frederick.”

  “You are too kind, my love.” He beamed.

  I reached in my bag for my tinted lip balm. I just loved that “kiss of cherry.”

  “Do you have anyone I could contact that tests soil samples for oil?” I pulled out the evidence bag and placed it on the table.

  People who noticed the blue plastic with the brown sludge inside clearly thought that this was something entirely different and gave me a less than favorable reaction.

  “I will see to it.” He quickly put the baggie into his tweed jacket pocket.

  That only exacerbated the looks of horror.

  “He’s going to test it for me,” I explained to a couple that was openly staring at us. “I’m hoping it’s positive!” I smiled.

  * * *

  When I got home, I called Peggy and Sally and asked them to come over. It had felt good to tell Frederick about my ordeal, but if I really wanted to vent, I needed my girls.

  “And that’s how you left it?” Sally asked when I’d finished my story.

  “I’m afraid so. Frederick thinks that he just needs time, but I don’t know.”

  “I agree with Frederick,” Peggy said. “You’re a dynamo, Halsey, and I’ll bet that Jack’s not the first one who’s tried unsuccessfully to tame you.”

  I thought of my ex-husband and nodded.

  “Maybe this will help you get your mind off Jack.” Sally pulled out her trusty iPad.

  “You bet it will. We’ve uncovered some very interesting new financial information about Howard the developer.” Peggy paused for the tablet to boot. “And, your discovery of the straw bowler at his site confirms that Slimy Snyder is working right along beside him.”

  “Howard Platz had a development company with a different name that he ran into the ground, forcing him to declare bankruptcy a few years back.” Sally showed me a PDF of a legal document. “His current company, the one named on the signs posted around his site is actually registered to a conglomerate out of Las Vegas.”

  “It is an actual LLC, I had someone check for me,” Peggy added, “but it is very likely that most of the members of this group are bogus. What Howard is trying to do is skirt around the slow task of re-establishing credit that is needed to borrow money. Even when he does, the interest rates will be much higher until he can prove himself.”

  “Does anyone else feel like wine should be involved in this conversation?” I asked.

  “Good lordy, yes, what took you so long?” Sally followed me into the kitchen to get the glasses.

  When we returned, Peggy was thumbing through one of my magazines. She pulled out some papers wedged between the pages.

  “What’s this you’re hiding, Halsey?”

  “I forgot all about that, it’s Max’s research as provided by Paula. I hid it just before Snyder came in with his sales spiel.”

  “Perfect, we’ll have to compare this with what Aimee found over the internet, but let’s finish wi
th Howard first,” Peggy said, nodding to Sally.

  I poured a Joel Gott Alakai Grenache; I loved its ripe fruit flavors reminiscent of France’s Rhone Valley offerings. I’d discovered it when I was invited to a dinner party featuring Indian food. I’d thought that the light blueberry and raspberry notes complemented the spiciness of the food.

  “It is like we said earlier, Howard is running a Ponzi scheme to keep afloat, but it is not helping. Enter Slimy Snyder. Either together or apart, these two created this mineral rights scam to raise money to save them and the project.” Sally took a healthy gulp of her wine.

  “So the basement that was not in the plans could have been an afterthought to make this scam credible,” I said, thinking out loud. “If they’d really thought there was oil under there, wouldn’t they have quietly dug until they found it?”

  “Possibly, but if they were really out of money, then there isn’t much they could do.” Peggy frowned.

  “Until they find the deed. Once they have that, they could borrow anything they want against it,” Sally said. “But where does this take us? They could be guilty of a scam, but we have nothing to connect them to Abigail.”

  I agreed. More tail chasing.

  “But Malcolm as they say had means, motive, and opportunity.” A hundred thoughts started racing through my head. “What do we know about his ancestors? He said that they were some of the first settlers in America from England but after that, the story doesn’t pick up until almost present day.”

  “What are you thinking, Halsey?” Peggy replenished my wineglass.

  “Just wondering really. Penelope’s expert for the ring and Frederick for the deed are close to confirming that both items are excellent forgeries. Since they were found together, I think it’s safe to assume that they were done by the same person or persons.”

  They nodded.

  “To forge both, a person would have to have deep historical knowledge as well as the skills in printing with the tools of the 1900s. They would also have to be a jewelry expert and designer. In other words, if someone would go to this much effort to create these, then it seems likely that he or she would also kill for the mineral rights if it came to that.”