Mystery on the Tramway

by Albert Simon

  Gloria was supposed to arrive on the third of July around lunchtime. He’d asked Juanita, his housekeeper; to come early that morning so that the inside of the house sparkled as well. Charles thought he was a little obsessive with all this preparation and was impressed that Henry was going all out to try and impress his “woman friend” as Charles called her. Charles had already figured out that Gloria was very special to Henry.

  Henry’s train of thought was broken when his watch started beeping; he had been swimming for forty-five minutes. He climbed out of the pool and picked up his towel and after drying off sat down on the chaise lounge for a few minutes. The sun had come up, the sky was bright blue and there were no clouds to be seen anywhere. Today was going to be another beautiful warm day, and he could hear that the world outside was starting to wake up. Over on the next block he heard a garbage truck making its rounds, in his own yard there were more pleasant sounds as there was a bird singing in one of the trees.

  As he looked towards the house, he spotted a hummingbird visiting his large hibiscus; he never tired of watching the little birds. His garden looked really good, it wasn’t the grandiose view that Gloria’s house had of canyons, a reservoir and a far off town, but this semi-tropical oasis that he watched over was very pleasant. He sure hoped that Gloria would like it.

  He sighed and looked at his watch, it was time to shower and get dressed for the day. Thursday was his regular day for meeting Wayne at Sherman’s Deli for breakfast. He got up and wrapped the towel around himself and headed for the French doors that led directly into the kitchen to start the coffee pot.

  Ninety minutes later he parked his Mercury Grand Marquis in Sherman’s parking lot next to the nearly identical looking Ford Crown Victoria. It looked as though Wayne was already here. Henry bought the Mercury three years ago after he moved to Palm Springs because he liked the big cars. The Eagle River Police Department had four of the Fords, in the Crown Victoria rendition, and Henry had spent a lot of time cruising in the large automobiles. Lately, he had been thinking of getting something with better gas mileage though, especially if he was going to keep making trips to Northern California to visit Gloria.

  Henry walked into the restaurant and spotted his friend already sitting in their usual booth in the back. As he arrived at the table so did Millie, their favorite waitress, coffee pot in hand.

  “So did you solve the tramway slaying mystery yet?” Henry asked, sliding into the booth.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” Wayne said grumpily.

  “The newspaper is beating you guys up, says the crime has Palm Springs finest stymied for the past week. I think that was the word they used.” Henry held his cup up to allow Millie to fill it with coffee.

  “Your old usual, or your new usual, what will it be?” Millie asked Henry.

  He smiled at Millie’s question, he used to eat the bagel and lox every Thursday, Sherman’s did a great job with it. A few months ago he switched to bran cereal and fruit and found that he enjoyed it more. “The new usual please, and I’d like blueberries if you have them.”

  “We do, I swear we get them just for you, no one else seems to like the damn things. You take low-fat milk on your cereal right?” Millie made some scratches on her order pad.

  “Yes, please.” Henry turned back towards Wayne who already put in his order for breakfast.

  “You’re in a good mood, is she arriving today?” Wayne asked.

  “No, I’m not ready today. She’s arriving the day after tomorrow. Then I’ll be ready.” Henry smiled and took a sip of coffee. He was in a good mood and nothing was going to change that.

  “So instead of ribbing me, do you have some time in the next couple of days to help me? Besides, the paper is wrong, it hasn’t been a week, only five days.” Wayne looked at Henry as Millie set his order of pancakes down in front of him.

  “Not really, I have to go to the outlet mall today, I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow, I want to do a little more pruning in the yard, I really don’t have much time. What do you need?”

  “Well, the paper is somewhat correct. I’m a bit baffled by this tramway thing, do you mind if I bounce some ideas off of you?” Wayne started in on his pancakes.

  “I thought you didn’t want to talk about it?” Henry kidded him.

  “Yeah, I don’t, but I need to. The profiling work that you do and your way of getting into the victim’s head might really be helpful. I need to get on the right track in this investigation. I know I said I don’t want to discuss it, but I’m frustrated and need to bounce some facts off someone.”

  “All right, let’s hear it.”

  “Obviously you’ve read the paper, what they’ve said is fairly accurate. We don’t have a murder weapon, we don’t have a motive, and we don’t even know how the crime was committed. I haven’t seen Spiderman hanging around Palm Springs.” Wayne had to chuckle at his own joke. Henry could tell he was frustrated and didn’t know where else to look.

  “Yesterday’s edition of the Desert Sun says that the kid that works at the tramway and found the victim is missing.” Henry took a sip of his coffee as Millie set his cereal in front of him.

  “Todd Gregory, yeah, he never showed up for work the afternoon after he found the body. We have an APB out for him, we’ll find him.” Wayne shook his head. “Funny thing is, I don’t think he did it. The lab crew tested his hand and overalls for gunpowder residue and none was found. Besides, if he did it, why did he do it?”

  “If he didn’t do it, why did he run?” Henry asked.

  “I interviewed him the night of the murder. He’s a kid; he was scared and crying, nearly hysterical that night, I’ll admit, it was a pretty gruesome scene. When he found the body, he didn’t even call us first; he called one of the managers from the tramway.” Wayne shook his head; he had a hard time visualizing Todd Gregory killing Terrance Quinn.

  “How old is he?” Henry emptied his coffee cup and tried to catch Millie’s eye.

  “He’s nineteen.” Wayne answered. “Why?”

  “Did you check his mom’s house?”

  “No, why do you say that, do you think he might be there?”

  “If I was nineteen, and my supervisor was killed on the job and I thought I was a suspect and I didn’t know where to go, I’d go home.” Henry answered as Millie refilled his coffee cup.

  “Ok, I’ll find out who his parents are and where they live and pay them a visit. Do you have any other ideas?” Wayne held his cup out for a refill from Millie as well.

  “You don’t have a murder weapon, right?” Henry asked.

  “No, Quinn was shot once with a .38 caliber pistol, the bullet entered just above his left eyebrow and came out the back and was actually found just kind of lying in the collar of his overalls. It caused quite a bit of bleeding, but death was instantaneous according to the coroner. The bullet was fired from inside the tram gondola, or through an open window or door, there are no entry marks in the glass or sheet metal of the car.”

  “Did the bullet match anything in your files?” Henry knew there was a national database of bullet markings and any bullet and its unique rifling marks that the gun’s barrel left could be traced if it had been entered into the system.

  “No, this gun had never been used in a crime before; you know there are millions of .38 caliber weapons out there. Who knows who it belonged to?” Wayne shook his head; he had already thought of all these questions and had not arrived at any answers.

  “Did Quinn own a gun?” Henry asked.

  “Are you suggesting suicide? What, like he shot himself and then disposed of the weapon while he had a hole in his forehead and most of the back of his head was missing? No, he didn’t. We talked to his partner Robert Silverstein; according to him Quinn didn’t own a gun of any kind.”

  “Partner? Quinn was gay? That wasn’t in the newspaper.” Henry put his spoon down and furrowed his brow.

  “This is Palm Springs Henry, why are you surprised. Your housemate is gay; you thi
nk gay men aren’t murder victims?” Wayne looked a little astonished; he was surprised at his friend’s reaction. “We didn’t pass it along to the news media because it has no bearing on the case and we didn’t want to sensationalize this aspect of the crime.”

  “No, no, no, that’s not what I meant at all. It’s just that it throws a different wrinkle into possible motives, what with death benefits, rules of survivorship, inheritance issues and all that.” Henry replied. “Actually, I wasn’t even thinking suicide either, but the gun had to come from somewhere and since you don’t know where to start, I just thought of starting with Quinn.”

  “Good idea, but we already covered that. Quinn and his partner led a very quiet life; they were together for fifteen years and didn’t party or participate in any of the alternative scenes in town. They were registered with the State of California as domestic partners and seemed like a happy couple. Robert Silverstein has been ill for quite a long time and is now in shock and is not taking this well. We’re not considering him a suspect at this time.”

  Wayne was a little mystified by Henry’s reaction. Obviously Henry didn’t have an issue with alternate lifestyles; he lived with Charles after all. Did Quinn’s sexual orientation have something to do with this crime? Wayne was so quick to dismiss that issue, that he never considered it a motive for murder. Henry sure had a way of making him think about his investigations, no wonder he was so good at solving these unsolvable crimes, it wasn’t just his diligence or perseverance, Henry just had a different approach to problem solving.

  Henry fished the last of the blueberries from his cereal with his spoon. “I’ll tell you what. Get me the names of all the people that Quinn worked with and I’ll see what I can do in the next couple of days before Gloria gets here.”

  Wayne reached into his shirt pocket and gave Henry a copy of the spreadsheet that Nancy at the tramway provided him. “Here you go, everyone is on there.”

  “It looks like you were ready for me to agree to help you.” Henry couldn’t help but smile.

  “I know you like a good puzzle, and this one certainly has a lot of missing pieces.” Wayne smiled as well.

  “I don’t know how much time I’ll have over the next couple of days; I really want everything at the house to be perfect for Gloria’s visit. I’ll do what I can though.” Henry put the paper with the tramway employees’ names in his pocket.

  “Henry, Gloria is coming down here to visit you, not to visit your house.” Wayne shook his head.

  “Yeah, I know. Charles has told me that numerous times. Her house is gorgeous though, with wonderful views that I don’t have. I just don’t want her to think that I live in a little dump.”

  “Henry, you have four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a wonderful backyard that looks like an oasis with a beautiful swimming pool! You live in a great neighborhood, I hardly think your place is a dump and I’m sure that Gloria will love it.” Wayne was laughing at his friend. He wasn’t this nervous when his daughter Claire came out for a visit a couple of years ago.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’m surprised at how I feel myself. It’s almost like I’m back in high school and I’m getting ready for a first date with the homecoming queen. Not that I ever dated the homecoming queen when I was in high school of course. I was kind of a geek back then.” Henry remembered his high school days and was glad they were long gone.

  “You are still bringing her over for our Fourth of July barbecue at the house, right? Elliot and I can’t wait to meet her.” Wayne waved Millie over to get the check for their breakfast.

  “Yes, I spoke to her on the phone last week before she left for her daughter’s house. She said she was looking forward to meeting my friends. Can we bring anything?” Henry reached into his pocket for cash as Millie laid the check down on the table and refilled their coffees one more time.

  “Let me get this one, since you’re going to help me on this tramway slaying it’s the least I can do.” Wayne took the check off the table. They normally split the check; the last time that Wayne had paid was when Rex Thornbird, the real estate agent, was murdered and he requested Henry’s assistance.

  “Ok, I’ll let you buy me breakfast, but I’ll tell you right now that looking into your case is a lower priority than my social life in the next couple of days.” Henry took a last sip of his coffee and put an extra dollar on the table for Millie before following Wayne to the register.

  “I understand and am not complaining. Anything you can do to help me get a better understanding of why this happened will speed up solving this mystery.” Wayne paid the check and turned to head out the door that Henry was holding open. “And before I forget, yes, you can bring something on the Fourth, how about a bottle of wine? You pick whatever kind you like, I trust your taste.”

  “That sounds good. I‘ll pick up something decent at Jensen’s tomorrow while I’m getting food for the week.”

  “What do you mean food for the week? I hope you don’t plan to spend the entire week locked up at home. You should be taking her out to see some of the sights in the Coachella Valley. You could maybe even take her for a ride up the tramway.” Wayne enjoyed kidding his friend, but hoped at the same time that Henry would take the time for a tram ride, he would probably come up with other ideas on how this murder was committed for Wayne to look into.

  “No, no, of course we’re going out. I want to take her to some of my favorite places to eat. I do want to show her around, she’s never been here before. I don’t think she’s afraid of heights, maybe I will take her up in the tram.” Henry pushed the button on the Mercury’s key fob to unlock his car and waved goodbye to Wayne who got into his city issued Ford. They turned out of the parking lot right behind one another, Wayne headed back to the police station, while Henry headed home to see if Charles was ready to go shopping.

  Chapter 3

  Henry pulled the Grand Marquis into the garage at home. He parked next to Charles’ Ford Explorer and walked through the garage door into the kitchen. Charles was sitting at the counter finishing up some toast and coffee and reading yesterday afternoon’s newspaper.

  “Heeey, good morning. Did Wayne rope you into helping him with the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway murder?” Charles looked up from his paper as Henry walked in.

  “Good morning, well, yes sort, of but not really.” Henry answered. “Are you still willing to help me go shopping this morning?”

  Charles ignored his question, and said. “I know that today is Thursday, your regular “breakfast with Wayne day” and I figured that he would try to get you to help. So are you working on this case or not? And, yes, I’m all dressed and ready to head out. Though I still don’t think you need to bother with new sheets. I swear the only person that has used those sheets is your daughter Claire when she came out for that short visit a year or so ago. The only way that those sheets can be worn in any way is because you’ve washed them so damn much in the past few days.” While he was talking, Charles carried his plate and cup to the sink, rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher.

  “Yeah, I know, maybe I’m being a little bit too worried. I really want to make a good impression on Gloria and I want her to be very comfortable here. She took very good care of me when I was at her house in May and I owe her. Besides I want her to like it here.” Henry looked a little sheepish; he couldn’t quite explain why Gloria was so important to him. He couldn’t quite figure it out himself.

  “Henry, she’ll be fine. From what you’ve told me, she is not set on appearances and will like you for you, not for the thread count in her sheets. For goodness sake, she’s a waitress right, when she doesn’t need to be a waitress?”

  “You’re right. Yes, when her mother passed away, she inherited everything and she is quite comfortable. She’s a waitress because she enjoys meeting people and likes getting out of the house. You’re right, image is not important to her, but I still want her to be happy here.”

  “Henry Wright, are you making plans for your future that you ar
en’t sharing with me?” Charles turned around and shot Henry a look as he was heading off to his bedroom. Was Henry planning to make his relationship with Gloria permanent? “Let me put Pierre outside and then we can go.”

  “No, I’m not making any plans right now. Gloria and I have something special between us, we’ve talked about that. We’ve decided that for now we just want to be friends. Good friends. Her visit here is an important step in our relationship. We enjoyed each other’s company at her house, now I want to see if she likes it here. There’s nothing like July in Palm Springs to test if someone can stand our desert climate.” Henry reached over and turned the coffee pot off. He added the carafe to the dishwasher and closed it as Charles came back with Pierre under one arm.

  “I swear this dog just sleeps all day, you have to wonder what goes on in their little brains sometimes.” Charles picked Pierre’s water bowl up from the sink, filled it and set dog and bowl out the door into the yard.

  “They think about where their next meal is coming from, and when he can take his next nap, and since he’s neutered, that’s all he can think about.” Henry said as he turned around and headed back to the garage while he heard Charles groaning in the kitchen.