by Leslie Leigh
“I’m sure if I tell Carl you were talking to us about something important, he won’t be upset if you’re late.”
“No,” Dale said, quite vehemently. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.” He looked up. “Thanks, Flora. That felt real nice.”
“That’s okay, Dale. You take this little tube home with you. If you put it on at least a couple of times a day, that bruise will disappear in a hurry.”
He nodded and shuffled on out the back door.
Flora turned around toward the table where Brian and Melissa sat. “What do you make of that?” she asked.
“I can’t even begin to conjecture,” Melissa said. “I think we better get on over to see Kim.”
Chapter 4
They pulled up in front of the apartment, but then seeing the yellow crime scene tape, they realized she wouldn’t be there.
“Any idea where she might be staying?”
“Her mom isn’t far away. Let’s go back to the store, and I’ll find a number to call. It’s over in Sonorita, so I’d rather not drive over there and find she’s not there.”
“Even if she’s not there, the mother might be helpful—in giving us some insight anyway.”
“Well, as I understand it, she’ll likely tell the story her own way, whether it’s the truth or not.”
“Believe me,” he said. “Sometimes that can be just as instructive.”
Melissa called Vivian. “Can you tell me where Kimmie Thompson’s mom lives?” Melissa asked.
“Hm…well, if she still lives the same place she did, she’s out on the road that passes the general store there at the crossroads. She’s about the…let me see…the fourth property on the right once you pass the Y right there outside of town. It should still say ‘Thompson’ on the mailbox.”
“Thanks, Viv.”
“Are you going out there?”
“Brian and I are.”
“Well, just be careful,” she said. “She certainly has motive.”
“Vivian says….”
“I could hear her,” Brian said. “Just give me the directions again because you’re more familiar out here than I am.”
“Head toward Sonorita,” she said, and he put his Mini-Cooper in gear and pulled away from the curb.
“So this is your new vehicle, huh?” Melissa asked.
“If I’m going to be making more frequent trips to Catalonia, I need something a little easier on gas than the SUV.”
Melissa just grinned.
# # #
Mindy Thompson was just backing out of her driveway as Brian and Melissa drove up. Melissa waved to her, and they pulled up beside her.
“Mindy?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Are you the one who just called me?”
“Yes,” Melissa responded.
“I was just running down to the convenience store to pick up some cigarettes. I can wait.”
Brian spoke up. “We’d like to ask you some questions about your daughter’s fiancé.”
“You and everybody else,” she said.
Mindy put the car in reverse and backed up, allowing Brian space to pull into the driveway.
“Are you a cop?” Mindy asked, looking at Brian.
“No, Mrs. Thompson. I’m a Private Investigator. I’ve been asked to look into Jim James’ death.”
“By who?” she asked “And for what? He fell—or jumped—out a window.”
“Is that what your daughter told you?”
She looked back and forth between the two of them. “Why don’t you come on inside,” she said. “I can make some coffee.”
The woman walked into the kitchen, and Brian and Melissa followed her. Mindy indicated they should sit.
“No need to make coffee for us, Mrs. Thompson,” Brian said.
“That’s okay. I’ll make some for myself.”
After preparing the coffee and turning it on to brew, Mindy sat down, as well, and took a pack of cigarettes out of her purse. She looked at the two of them again and put them down.
“You still haven’t told me who hired you,” Mindy said to Brian.
“I retained Detective Byrnes’ services,” Melissa answered.
“You did? Why?”
“There are some details about the case that we’re not allowed to reveal at this time,” Brian said. “Melissa’s involvement has to do with those details. First, is your daughter here?”
“No, she went to the funeral home. Why are there details no one can reveal? The guy jumped out a window. Last time I checked, suicide isn’t a crime. My little girl came home last night to find that she couldn’t even get into her house because it’s been designated a crime scene.”
“Let’s just say there is evidence that his death was not an ‘intentional’ suicide and that other factors may have contributed to his death,” Brian said.
“What other factors?” Mindy asked.
“Those are the details we are not allowed to reveal at this time.”
She had been polite before because her visitors were obviously not smokers, but now she fumbled for a cigarette and lit it shakily. She tossed her head to the side as if getting hair out of her face.
“I’m glad he’s dead,” she said. “The son-of-a-bitch deserved it.”
“Because he took your daughter away from you?”
“Well, that would be enough in my mind, but no, not because of that.”
Brian encouraged her to go on.
Mindy blew smoke and looked up at the ceiling without responding for a few seconds. “He abused my little girl.”
“Is that on record?” he asked.
She shook her head. “It wasn’t the kind of abuse that you could call the police about. He abused her mentally.”
“Mentally? How?”
“Always calling her names, demanding this, demanding that. She had to fawn on him every minute to keep him from abusing her even more, but that didn’t always work. He completely neglected her, not even realizing she might have needs herself. The guy was a complete narcissist.”
“Do you have any reason whatsoever to think he might have hurt your daughter physically?”
She laughed. “I can’t really say. She’s never told me if he has.”
Brian nodded. “I thought you and your daughter were somewhat estranged, Mrs. Thompson.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess you’d say so. But every so often, when she couldn’t take it anymore, she’d come home to mama, pour her heart out, and then go right back the next day.”
“So you never saw any bruises or other marks that he might have left on her?”
“No, why? What does it matter now? He’s dead and can’t hurt my baby anymore.”
“We’re just looking to establish a pattern of abuse, Mrs. Thompson.”
“You mean a motive?”
“Well, if she were to be arrested and a pattern of abuse could be established, it might go easier for her. What else can you tell us about their relationship?”
“That it was going nowhere fast. She was getting pretty sick of being alone every night and then having him come home and scream at her.”
“She was sick of it, or you were sick of it? It seems to me that Kimmie was pretty longsuffering.”
Mindy shrugged. “I don’t understand how she could have been so blindly in love with him.”
“Where did he go every night?” Brian asked.
“Some bar over in Rancho Rio, I think, is what she told me.”
“Any idea when Kim might be back? We would really like to talk to her.”
“I don’t. She really didn’t tell me what she was going to do other than stop by the funeral home. I can have her call you,” she offered.
“Thank you,” Brian said, handing her his card. “We appreciate your time….”
Before he could finish his sentence, Mindy’s phone rang, and she picked it up and answered it. Brian and Melissa stood; Melissa made a sign that they would show themselves out.
They were almost back to the car when they
heard Mindy shouting. Melissa turned around; Mindy beckoned to her; and Melissa walked back.
“I guess you can catch up to her now,” Mindy said. “They’ve arrested my little girl.”
Chapter 5
“You can talk to her after the arraignment tomorrow morning,” the sheriff said. “She’ll either be released or put in jail. Either way, you’ll have a chance to talk to her.”
“Can you just tell us why you arrested her, Sheriff?”
The sheriff shot Melissa an irritated look. “Why does your boyfriend always show up when these things happen, Melissa? I’m going to start suspecting him.”
Melissa ignored the stupid comment. “He’s here because I asked him to be here.”
“Well, why are you both here? I’ve got a lot on my plate right now.”
“You know it’s going to be a matter of public record soon, so just be decent and let us in on it a little early,” Brian said, leaning into him a little.
The sheriff looked daggers at him but finally relented. “We caught her with the goods in her possession.”
“The goods?”
“The belladonna was in a bottle of juice in the fridge. That was enough, and then we found the bottle.”
“The bottle?”
“The belladonna bottle.”
“That sounds like search and seizure. You would have had to have a warrant for that.”
“We did. We searched the crime scene and didn’t find the bottle, so we figured she may have taken it with her.”
“You searched her purse?”
“Didn’t have to. It was lying on the floor of the truck.”
Brian looked at Melissa while the sheriff looked through a sheaf of papers on his desk as though he was looking for something. They were both at a loss as to what to ask next.
Brian stuck his hands in his pockets. “Okay, then. I guess we’ll see you in the morning.”
The sheriff grunted and nodded.
“The bottle of belladonna was just lying on the floor of the truck?” Melissa questioned after they were back outside. “I’m sorry, but if I was going to poison somebody and didn’t want to get caught, I sure wouldn’t just toss the bottle on the floor of my truck.”
Brian shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I wouldn’t have left the poisoned juice in the refrigerator, either. Maybe this girl’s not quite as bright as we think.”
Melissa shrugged.
“Hey,” he said. “Where’s Rancho Rio?”
“Good idea,” Melissa said. “It’s not far up the road.”
“Only we didn’t find out the name of the bar.”
“There’s only one.”
###
When they walked into The Flying Pig at four in the afternoon, Derek Winslow, the bar’s owner, was polishing glassware in the back. A young woman sat in a booth folding napkins. There was not another soul in sight.
Brian and Melissa sat down in a booth and looked around the room. Overhead, pink, plastic, winged pigs were suspended from the ceiling. They spiraled and rocked in the breeze from the large, slow ceiling fan.
“Can I getcha somethin’?” the girl asked, coming up to them.
Melissa looked at the girl’s name tag. “I’ll have an iced tea, Debbie,” she said.
“Make that two,” echoed Brian.
She looked at them like they had just crawled out of a pond of primordial ooze and said, “Don’t have any tea.”
“Well, then, make that a Coke,” Melissa offered, cheerily.
“Don’t have any brand name stuff.”
“Cola will do, then.”
“Cherry, vanilla, or regular?”
“Uh-I think I’ll go for cherry,” Melissa said.
“Make that two,” said Brian.
When the girl returned with the colas, they each sported a couple of maraschino cherries.
Brian playfully handed his to Melissa. “Can you tie a knot in that stem with your tongue?”
She showed him that she could.
He was astonished. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody actually do it before.”
She grinned. “One of the tricks I learned living in a girl’s dorm in Seattle.”
“Mm-HMM,” he said.
She loved the growing relationship between the two of them. He was such a gentleman, but she sensed something definitely sensual beneath the PI veneer.
The girl came back by the table. “Derek says you’re the woman who owns that new market in Catalonia.”
Melissa glanced back toward the man with the bar towel.
“Is that Derek Winslow?” Melissa asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Yes, I’m the new market owner.”
“Oh, wasn’t it awful about Jim James?” she asked, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe it.”
“You knew him, then?”
“Yeah, he was a regular customer,” she said. “I liked him. He was sooo cute.”
“It seems the girls always think so,” Melissa said.
“How regular?” Brian asked the waitress.
She shrugged and said, “About every other night or so.”
“A couple of times a week,” Derek called out. “Maybe.”
“Maybe more, or maybe less?” Brian asked him.
“More or less,” Derek’s answered.
Melissa got up and picked up her drink. She looked at Brian and tipped her head toward Derek. Brian followed her, as they walked to the back, and Melissa smiled broadly at Derek.
“Derek Winslow. I didn’t know you owned The Flying Pig. I’ll bet I haven’t seen you for a decade.”
“That’d be about right,” he said, expressionless.
She looked at Brian and said, “Derek and I graduated together.”
“Nice to meet you, Derek,” he said, putting out his hand. “I’m Brian Byrne, a friend of Melissa’s.”
Derek nodded, but just continued wiping the glassware, ignoring Brian’s hand.
“Tragic about Jim James. Did you know him?” Melissa asked.
“Not well. Terri knows him better than I do.”
Terri was at his side now and shot him a dirty look. “He drank flavored vodka,” the girl volunteered. “He loved that flavored vodka.”
“He must’ve been queer,” Winslow said.
“Why? Because he drank flavored vodka?”
“That and other things.”
“Such as…?”
“Look, I told you. I don’t know him all that well. He was mouthy, though, and thought everybody owed him something.”
“You haven’t changed much, Derek,” Melissa said.
“Neither have you, Melissa,” he said. “You’re looking good.”
“Thanks!”
They exchanged a few surface comments. Then, they paid for their drinks and left.
Melissa laughed. “When I told Winslow he hadn’t changed much, I wasn’t talking about his looks. If there was ever a derogatory comment to be made about somebody, it would be Derek making it.”
“Kind of a dick if you ask me.”
Melissa raised her eyebrows, surprised at Brian’s description.
“So,” Brian asked, “what have we learned?”
“You mean besides the fact that their drink menu is limited and that Winslow’s still a slob?”
“He says James was only in there a couple of nights a week, which is different from what the girl said, and different from what Mindy Thompson said. Who do you think is right?”
They got into the car and headed back toward Catalonia.
“Mindy was getting her information secondhand. Kimmie may have told her that Jim is gone every night and that he comes to a bar in Rancho Rio. Maybe she just made her own conclusions. Derek and the girl seem to have slightly different ideas of how often he was there. She says more, he says less.”
“So that makes two out of three who say he was here more than once or twice a week.”
“I find it odd that he had no verifiable source of income yet was able to come
down here and drink, even if it was just a couple of times a week.”
“That likely means he was a drinker.”
“A drinker? Why do you say that?”
“I usually find that someone who has no money but spends money on liquor is more than a casual imbiber.”
“Hmm,” Melissa said. “Let’s see if we can corroborate that at all.”
“So, the list of suspects is pretty narrow, now, especially if they found the poison in…what did he say? The juice?”
“You know, I said that Kimmie wasn’t a regular customer, but now that I think about it, it’s just not that she purchased much volume. However, I think she came in every week for one thing—two jars of organic cranberry juice. I can check on that with the other girls.”
“Really? Cranberry juice makes an excellent medium for vodka. But who buys organic juice to taint with vodka?”
“That not quite as far-fetched as you might think,” Melissa said. “Young hipsters like to eat healthy so they can indulge in the not-so-healthy occasionally. That may have been the way James started.”
“Let’s just hope our conversation with his fiancée fills in some of the blanks tomorrow.”
Chapter 6
“I don’t have to answer that, do I?” Kimmie said in response to Brian’s question about Jim’s drinking. “My lawyer said I didn’t.”
Kimmie was out on bail following the arraignment, and they had met Kimmie and her mother at a coffee shop in Nogales.
“Well, why would you want to impede the investigation?” he asked.
“He was my fiancé, and he’s dead, and I don’t think it’s anyone’s business.”
“Okay, then,” Melissa said, “let’s try this from another angle. How did the poison get into the juice?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe it was tainted at the factory.”
Melissa wanted to roll her eyes. “That’s about a billion-to-one chance, Kimmie,” she said.
“But it could happen.”
Melissa was suddenly beginning to have her doubts about Kimmie’s innocence. She thought, Was that some strange Kimmie-logic she was putting out there? I can poison him and then claim the juice was poisoned at the factory?