Mystery on the Tramway

by Albert Simon

  Charles smiled a half smile. “Oh, Gloria, I know that you’re very sensitive about being here in my space, but that’s not what I’m upset about at all. I love having you here and you make Henry very happy. I’m so glad that the two of you have found one another.”

  Charles picked up his wine glass and looked into it before speaking again. “Robert Silverstein is dead.” Charles looked back and forth between Gloria and Henry.

  “Robert Silverstein is dead, what happened, how did he die?” Henry was upset and nearly shouted the words at Charles.

  “Henry, Robert was in advanced stages of AIDS, he died from pneumonia today.” Charles explained. “It happens all the time, I ought to be used to it, but it’s still difficult when someone finally passes away. It was quiet and he wasn’t in any pain.”

  “So he wasn’t… he didn’t get… I mean he died of natural causes then?” Henry asked. Gloria had come over to Henry and put her arm around his waist.

  “Well yeah, if you can consider this disease a natural cause, then he did. What were you expecting?” Charles furrowed his brow.

  “We were worried that Robert was going to get killed by Todd Gregory. We’ve been working on several theories and in one of them we were considering Robert as a suspect in Terrance Quinn’s murder.” Gloria told Charles.

  “We’ll have to tell you the whole story.” Henry said when he saw Charles’ quizzical look. “Right now I want to call Wayne and tell him what happened. He was going to head over to Silverstein’s house today.”

  “You guys are serious that he was considered a suspect in the murder of his partner?” Charles asked.

  “Let’s start dinner; we can let you know what is going on while we eat.” Henry said.

  “You know, this didn’t have to happen. If there had been enough money to get Robert the prescription drugs that he needed, then he would still be alive right now and probably functioning pretty normally. There’s been a lot of progress in the past decade with drugs and people are living a lot longer. It is expensive though, and Robert simply couldn’t afford the treatment that he needed.” Charles shook his head sadly as he took another drink of wine.

  “Didn’t he have some sort of medical coverage?” Gloria asked, as she moved over to put her arm around Charles’ shoulder to console him.

  “No, none that would pay for the drugs he needed.”

  Henry was ready to walk to his office to call Wayne; before he did he had one more question. “Charles, was Robert well enough to drive a car, oh, let’s say a week ago?”

  “I suppose so. He could have gone for a short drive. It would have made him very tired though. Why?”

  “I’ll tell you during dinner.” Henry said as he headed for his office. “Gloria, sweetie, the steaks are in the frig, if you could take them out, please. I can do our baked potatoes outside on the barbecue, or we can microwave them – whatever you guys prefer. I’ll be right back.”

  Henry headed off for his office and Gloria reached into the refrigerator and found a package wrapped with white butcher paper that she took to be the steaks. She put them on the counter and started unwrapping them.

  “Well, I’m impressed.” Charles said.

  “Impressed? With our murder theories? Wait until you hear everything.” Gloria said putting the three steaks on a plate.

  “No, not with your murder theories, which I don’t think are correct by the way, but we can get into that later. Henry just called you sweetie. I think you have made him truly happy and I’m very glad about that, he really deserves it.”

  “I guess he did call me that didn’t he?” Gloria smiled as she looked for the salt and pepper so that she could season the steaks.

  “Wayne, this is Henry, can you hear me ok?” Henry had reached Wayne on his cell phone since he wasn’t in his office.

  “Yeah Henry, go ahead.” Wayne replied.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m on my way to Silverstein’s house. He won’t answer the phone, so I’m taking a chance that he’ll be there.” Wayne replied.

  “Wayne, Silverstein passed away quietly today of pneumonia.” Henry wanted to make sure that Wayne knew right away that he had not been shot as he had thought when Charles first told him of Silverstein’s death.

  “Hang on a second.”

  “What’s wrong, are you ok?” Henry asked.

  “Yeah, I’m just surprised so I pulled over. I’m in a gas station. So tell me what happened.”

  “Not a lot to tell really. Charles told us when we came home this afternoon that Robert Silverstein had passed away. He was in advanced stages of AIDS and his body could no longer fight off the pneumonia. Can you go over and search his house? I’m interested in seeing if you’ll be able to find the murder weapon.” Henry asked.

  “Since the house wasn’t the scene of a crime, I’ll have to get a search warrant. But that’s easy to do, I’ll make a couple of phone calls and I’ll go through the place tomorrow morning. Do you want to join me?”

  “No, I’m thinking of taking Gloria to Joshua Tree National Park, or to the Living Desert Zoo. You can let me know what you find.”

  “Ok, by the way. Cherie Gregory never showed up for her shift at the casino today. We can’t find her. You may have scared her away.”

  “That’s a shame, but running away like that certainly leads me to think that she’s guilty instead of Todd. Now you have to find both Gregorys.”

  “I have a feeling that when we find one, we’ll find the other. Remember what I told you about bringing your weapon with you, I don’t care if you are at the zoo, I think you need to be armed.” Wayne reminded his friend.

  “Yeah I know. I doubt that I’ll run into anything more dangerous than a tarantula at the zoo though.”

  “You’re probably right, but you’re better off having a little insurance with you. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know what I find at Silverstein’s place.” Wayne disconnected his cell phone.

  Henry hung up the phone and went back to the kitchen to rejoin Gloria and Charles in making dinner.

  Henry lit the grill outside and put the baking potatoes on the rack to get their skins nice and crispy. He cooked the steaks while Gloria made their salad. When dinner was ready, the three of them sat in the dining room and enjoyed the meat and a bottle of wine. They talked about the various theories and motives for Terrance Quinn’s murder and the progress of the investigation. By the time they finished their steaks, Charles was engaged in the conversation and feeling much better.

  Charles felt that Cherie’s motive was the strongest; he was shocked when they told him about her outburst at Henry’s question about her son’s sexuality. Charles knew that even in liberal, tolerant Palm Springs, there was still a lot of homophobia. Charles told them that he’d known a lot of people like Cherie during his career as a high school history teacher. She was the typical overprotective mother who was in denial about her son, and she was trying to blame someone.

  After dinner, the evening Palm Springs breezes had cooled the air off considerably and the three ate their ice cream outside at the patio table. Charles and Gloria helped Henry position the new fountain next to the doors going into the kitchen and Henry filled it with water and plugged it in. Henry suggested having the gardeners plant Gloria’s hibiscus plant when they came later in the week. Gloria said she wanted to do it herself and would take care of it in the morning once they found a suitable spot.

  At nine-thirty, Charles said he was off to visit some friends and would not be home until after midnight. Henry and Gloria cleaned up the dishes and saved the leftovers in the refrigerator. Pierre scratched at the door and Gloria let him out to do his business in the backyard.

  Henry winked at Gloria and asked her if she was interested in joining him in the pool, she grinned and told him that they never determined who the rotten egg was the other day as she ran off into the bedroom to strip off her clothes. Henry went out through the French doors, tossed his clothes onto the chaise lounge and the two
of them jumped into the pool at nearly the same time. They relaxed there for an hour and got out to get ready for bed.

  By eleven o’clock they were in bed together and Henry was holding Gloria in his arms as they watched the late evening news. After the news, he reached for the remote, turned off the television and rose up on an elbow.

  “I love you Gloria McCann.” Henry said as he rolled over.

  “I love you too Henry Wright.” Gloria said as she patted his arm.

  Henry went to sleep with a smile on his face and his hand on Gloria’s back. Gloria was awake for another twenty minutes thinking about how this simple domestic life of making dinner and cleaning up afterwards made her happy and fulfilled. She smiled at Henry in the darkness before falling asleep herself.

  Chapter 12

  The sky was turning a pale blue and Henry could hear the birds chirping just outside the screen doors when he woke up the next morning. Henry ran his hand along Gloria’s curves; her body was still warm with sleep, and she didn’t move at his touch. He kissed her softly where her ear met her neck and quietly got out of bed. He picked his goggles and digital watch up from the dresser, grabbed his towel from the bathroom and quietly went out the screen doors to the pool.

  While he was swimming laps he ruminated on yesterday’s developments. Cherie Gregory had disappeared after their visit to her house. Where did she go, and why did she run? The gun that she claimed was in her purse was missing and now so was she. Could she have fled, like her son? Could she have shot Terrance Quinn trying to protect her child from what she said was a perverted way of life? Certainly her “little gun” matched the murder weapon. In her mind, she had a motive; did she leave the casino that night to commit murder? Was Todd truly shocked at Terrance’s death or was it an act that Wayne saw at the tram that night?

  Robert Silverstein passed away of natural causes. Did he have the strength to drive to the tramway and shoot his partner? Why there? If Silverstein wanted to kill Quinn why didn’t he do it at home? He must have known that he was going to die. If he had been arrested for Quinn’s murder, he would have died in police custody. He may not even have lasted until yesterday. Did Robert shoot Terrance with the gun that he bought at the gun show? Did Terrance and Todd go to the gun show? There were too many loose ends there; he was going to have to find out more about this trip to Las Vegas.

  Why would Todd have bought a gun if he already owned one? Todd Gregory was still gone and couldn’t be found, where could he have gone? Somehow Henry had a hard time with the “ran off to Mexico” theory that the police department favored. He was trying to think like Todd. Where would he go if his lover – if Terrance was a lover – had been shot? He couldn’t ignore the fact that Todd had a .45 caliber handgun with him, it wasn’t the murder weapon, but it certainly could prove to be lethal in the hands of a distraught young man.

  His watch started beeping and he slowed his pace and swam a couple of cool down laps. He took off his goggles and smiled at Gloria who was sitting on the chaise lounge in her robe. She waved at him and he made a cup holding a drink to his mouth motion with his hand to ask her where her coffee was. She looked at her watch-less wrist and held up two fingers as she stood up and picked up his towel and wrapped it around him as he got out of the pool.

  “Are you ready for your coffee? It’s almost done” She whispered, patting the towel to dry him off.

  “Good morning sweetie, I’d love some; you’re going to spoil me by making the coffee while I swim, usually I don’t brew a pot until I’m done.” Henry whispered as well. He wasn’t quite sure why, Charles was a sound sleeper and rarely came out this early in the morning. “Why are we whispering?”

  “There’s a hummingbird in my hibiscus and we haven’t even planted it yet.” She pointed to the plant that they had left near the new fountain by the French doors. Buzzing around its three flowers were two hummingbirds, the little birds twittered noisily at one another as they fought over the best spot from which to enjoy the flower’s nectar.

  He sat down on the chaise as the little birds flew off, chatting with one another as they did. Gloria went inside and shortly came out carrying two mugs filled with hot black coffee.

  She sat on the chaise lounge and leaned into him as they took small sips of the coffee. “That’s the second time that you’ve called me sweetie, and I like that.”

  “The second time?”

  “Yes, yesterday when you asked me to take the steaks out of the refrigerator, you called me sweetie as well. I didn’t even notice, I guess because it felt so natural. Charles pointed it out to me. He really cares about you and your happiness you know.”

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t even realize that I did that. It seems like such a natural thing to call you that I don’t even know that I did it. See, that’s what I wanted – a pet word for you that I didn’t think up, it just slipped out.”

  “Don’t apologize, I like it.”

  “No, I was apologizing for not being aware of it. I am aware of something else though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Last night as I was falling asleep…”

  “Yes?”

  “I told you that I love you, Gloria McCann.”

  “I remember. And I love you too Henry Wright. I have for quite some time now, but I was afraid...”

  “Afraid?” Henry had a puzzled look on his face.

  “Yes, afraid. It had been a long time since I truly loved another man. Even my ex-husband, when he retired from the Navy and we were together full-time, I realized that I didn’t love him. I cared about him, but I was no longer in love with him. Then a couple of months ago, when I got the call from the hospital that you had been hurt, my heart sank through my stomach. I realize now that I was falling in love with you then. Our phone calls over the past few months endeared you to me even more. Then when I saw you as I arrived the other day, I could barely stand. It was a good thing that you carried my bags in, because my knees were too weak to do it.”

  “I didn’t know that you felt that way two months ago.”

  “I was denying it to myself. Then the other morning when I watched you swim laps for forty-five minutes I felt very warm and caring towards you and just wanted to hold you in my arms. I decided that what you and I had was very special and I wanted to be more than just friends. That’s why I seduced you and dragged you off into your bedroom.” Gloria was blushing as she finished her last sentence and buried herself in her coffee cup.

  “So it was no accident that your robe fell open and you wore nothing underneath.”

  Gloria cast her eyes down in an attempt at an innocent look that she almost pulled off. “No.”

  “Ever since you got here, I can no longer imagine my life without you. What are we going to do when it is time for you to go home? I know that eventually you’ll need to go back to Sonora, but…” Henry reached over and held her hand and looked directly into Gloria’s dark eyes.

  “I’ve been thinking about that a lot and it may be time to make a permanent change.” Gloria’s face took on a very serious look. “You and I need to have a long conversation, maybe during dinner with a bottle of wine.” She stopped to gather her thoughts, taking a long sip of the coffee while doing so. “Henry, I love being here, and I love this house, your house. I love Charles and Pierre and cannot imagine life alone in my big place in Sonora without you.” She set her coffee cup on the ground. “When we have that dinner let’s talk about how permanent you want to make this; I really have nothing keeping me in Sonora.”

  Henry reached over to take her other hand. “That makes me really happy. I too want to have that conversation and I think I want to have it soon. In the meantime, let’s enjoy our time together and let’s get this business of the tramway killing behind us as quickly as possible.”

  After they got dressed and Gloria was finishing up in the bathroom, Henry went into his office and pulled his Glock out of the locked drawer. He pulled the clip out and was satisfied that it was full. He checked the secon
d clip that was fastened to the holster and it was full as well. He clipped the holster to his belt in the small of his back and pulled his shirt down over it. Just wearing the gun made him feel like he was working. A feeling he didn’t care for today.

  They were walking out to the car to drive over to the zoo when Charles asked them if they were going to come to Robert Silverstein’s funeral service later that afternoon. They were both surprised that it would be that soon. Charles explained that in Robert’s religion it was customary that the deceased be buried within twenty-four hours and the service was that evening at five-thirty at the Desert Synagogue on Palm Canyon.

  Gloria stopped at the door from the kitchen into the garage. “Henry, I didn’t bring anything to wear to a funeral. Maybe you should go without me.”

  “Absolutely not, you and I are together as a couple and we’ll go together to the service. Let’s just go shopping. Except, I’m not sure where I should shop for women’s funeral clothes in Palm Springs.” Henry turned to look at Charles.

  “Me, what makes you think that I know?” Charles said grinning. “Alright, you’re going to be at the Living Desert Zoo right?”

  “Yeah, we were heading out right now.” Henry said.