The Murder Motif: An Austin, Texas Art Mystery (the Michelle Hodge Series Book 2)

by Roslyn Woods

  Her condo was in Round Rock, just west of the I-35, and it was a pretty nice place. They had climbed the stairs to the second floor and knocked on the door of number 212. She was expecting them, and on the phone she had seemed fine about answering questions.

  They introduced themselves and she ushered them into her living room. It was surprisingly large, with big windows and oversized, contemporary-looking furniture in varying shades of camel with pops of orange here and there.

  She sat in an armchair and signaled for them to sit on the couch. Did they need a soda or something? But Gonzalez had declined and gone straight to asking questions.

  “First of all, do you mind if we record this interview?”

  “No, it’s fine,” she said, shrugging her shoulders, and Wilson tried to appear indifferent to the womanly lines under the loose, white sweater she was wearing.

  “We just need to know a few things about Amanda Maxwell to fill in some of the blanks about her. Could you tell us how long you’ve known her?” Gonzalez asked.

  “Probably about five years,” she said looking up and to the side as if she was really remembering.

  “And you met her at Dell?”

  “Yes, I was hired about a year after she was, but we got to know each other when we went through some training together. She was Amanda Lopez then,” she said, looking down at the carpet, a sad expression crossing her face.

  “And you started getting together socially, when?”

  “Right away after that training, so just about five years ago. We liked to go out for dinner or drinks. That was pretty much it.”

  “And you’d say she was a good friend?”

  “Well, I was her maid of honor, but she didn’t have a lot of friends. Mostly we just went out together,” she repeated. She was absently pulling at a thread on one of the orange throw pillows as she looked at Gonzalez. “I wouldn’t say we were best friends or anything like that, but we certainly spent time together, and this whole thing is pretty upsetting.”

  “And I’m sorry to have to ask questions when you’re still dealing with losing your friend,” he said.

  “Oh, that’s gotta be okay. I want to help.”

  “So you knew Amanda before she met Dean Maxwell?”

  “Yes. She was seeing someone when I met her, but after a few months she started seeing a different guy pretty heavy.”

  “And did you know this guy?”

  “Yes. He worked at Dell.”

  “And his name was?”

  “Ray Hoffman.”

  “So, was Amanda Lopez involved with Ray Hoffman when she met Dean Maxwell?”

  “Yes. She was seeing both of them at the same time for a while. Anyway, after a while she broke it off with Ray.”

  “And there was another guy before Hoffman and Maxwell?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you know him?”

  “Yes. He was kind of a friend of ours, one of the directors at Dell, Jason Novak. I didn’t get the feeling she liked him much, though. I think they only dated for a few months, and then it was all Ray.”

  “Did Maxwell know she’d been seeing this Ray Hoffman?”

  “I don’t think so. She wasn’t exactly…open.”

  “Did you ever go out with Maxwell and Amanda?” he asked.

  “No. They did stuff alone, and then they got married fairly quickly.”

  “What about Amanda’s brother?”

  “Danny? Yes, he went out with us. We went to his bar a lot, and he went to dinner with us quite a bit. He was fairly pleasant to be with, but Amanda got tired of hanging around with him.”

  “Why was that?”

  “I’m not sure. It might have been just because it’s no fun going out with your brother, but I kinda got the feeling they had their differences.”

  “What kind of differences?”

  “I don’t know, but I could tell they’d argued a few times and weren’t getting along.”

  Gonzalez wrote something on the little notebook he carried and looked up again. “Would you say Danny has a temper?”

  “If he has a temper or not I probably wouldn’t know it. Going out for a bite or drinks doesn’t really show the different sides of people. We were always in a group setting.”

  “But you thought he was a nice enough guy?”

  “Sure. He’s a little flirty for my taste, but nice enough.”

  “Where exactly did you go together?”

  “We went a few places downtown. We liked The Ginger Man, and we liked the Brass House, sometimes The Elephant Room. We liked Roaring Fork and Manuel’s. We went to Danny’s Place quite a bit because he didn’t make us pay for drinks and there were always free appetizers, so we’d skip dinner.”

  “Who went with you?”

  “Our friend Becky Lester went, and Ray got so he’d meet us at different places. Then there was Danny, and Gabe Castillo came a lot.”

  “And Dean Maxwell didn’t go out with you?”

  “No. Amanda liked to go out without her husband.”

  “Why was that?”

  Linda Morrison paused here and thought for a minute before she answered. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t think she was ever really ready to give Ray up. Not completely, anyway. Maybe she was planning to get back with him and didn’t want Dean to get started with the group.”

  “Was Dean a jealous kind of guy?”

  “I don’t know. I never really saw him after he left Dell. I just know she wasn’t very committed to the marriage.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She was pretty, I guess you know, and guys came on to her, and she flirted, but she really liked Ray, you know? I mean, it was only three or four months after she got married that she started staying the night with him pretty often.”

  “Did you know where they stayed?”

  “No, not usually.”

  “But sometimes?”

  “Ray’s place, and Danny had a room above the bar. They stayed here once, but I didn’t like it much.”

  “You say Danny was living at the bar?”

  “Sometimes, but he stayed somewhere else, too.”

  “So he had a place somewhere else. Do you know where it was?”

  “I got the impression it was somewhere in south Austin, but that’s it.”

  Gonzalez let this go for now. “So Amanda broke up with Ray, and then she married Maxwell, and then she went back to Ray.”

  “That’s pretty much it.”

  “So why was she with Maxwell in the first place?”

  “At first, I think she liked him. He was handsome, and he was productive. People respected him. He started his own business while he was still working at Dell, so he had two incomes, and that impressed her. Everybody figured he was making a lot of money. He also had a nice house in Hyde Park. It’s an area with some cachet.”

  “Women liked him?”

  “Sure. I’d say women found him very interesting, but Amanda was also interested in his prospects.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Amanda figured that between Dean and her mother-in-law she was going to have it pretty easy.”

  “What about her mother-in-law?”

  “Amanda said Dean’s mom bought them their house. She seemed to think his mother had a big bank account.”

  “She told you this?”

  “I don’t remember her exact words, but she gave me that idea.”

  “Did you ever meet the mother-in-law?”

  “Only at their wedding, but after Dean’s mom went to the hospital Amanda stayed in her house pretty much all the time until she moved up north to Steiner.”

  “The house next door to Maxwell’s house?”

  “That’s right. It’s a nice little house, and Amanda got so she couldn’t stand to stay with Dean, or maybe he couldn’t stand to stay with her.”

  “Did you know of any violence in their relationship?” he asked looking intently at her.

  “No.” She didn’t elaborate, and Gonz
alez went on.

  “Did Ray stay with her in the mother-in-law’s house?”

  “God no! She saw him other places.”

  “So Dean still didn’t know about Ray?”

  “I don’t think so. I think she was pretty careful about it.”

  “I would think Dean Maxwell would be checking up on her and it would be easy to find out,” Gonzalez said.

  “I would too,” she said, “but I never got the impression he did. I know they fought, but it looked to me as if he was emotionally done with her pretty early.”

  “So you think he’d quit caring?”

  “I do. I would have.”

  “So why do you think he didn’t ask for a divorce early on?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but I know his mom was sick. Maybe it was too much to deal with at one time. I always thought he was a nice guy. Gabe always thought Amanda was doing him wrong.”

  “Gabe Castillo?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Gabe have a friendship with Maxwell?”

  “Yeah, he knew him at Dell, and he and Ray would sometimes watch a game with him or something like that. Jason was sometimes part of that. They were all kinda social.”

  “So Gabe and Ray were friends with Dean while they were going out with you and his wife?”

  “Yes, but Gabe just likes to stay out of other people’s business, and he wasn’t involved with Amanda except to say hello and make small talk as part of a group, but I’m pretty sure Ray was working to hide his relationship with Amanda from Dean.”

  “And when did Amanda get her own place?”

  “It was three or four months ago. After her mother-in-law died.”

  “Did Ray move in with her?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know why he didn’t?”

  “No. Maybe he was planning to move in with her.”

  “When did you last see Amanda?”

  “A couple of days before she died.”

  “Did you go out?”

  “We went to Manuel’s for dinner, but she was in a weird mood and didn’t want to go anywhere else.”

  “What kind of mood?”

  “She was mad at Ray and upset about Danny, and she said she should never have left Dean. She seemed nervous.”

  “Why was she mad?”

  “I’m not sure. Ray had lost his job quite a while before—maybe three months—and started working at Danny’s Place. I thought she didn’t like the idea that he was working for her brother, plus he was drinking a lot and using—”

  “He was using cocaine?”

  “Yes.”

  “And he lost his job at Dell?”

  “Yes.”

  “And this would have been in, say, June?”

  “More like early July.”

  “And did you hear why he lost his job?”

  “Just that he was screwing up and the managers were tired of it.”

  “Where did you hear this?”

  “It was the word around work, but Gabe also talked to me about it.”

  “Gabe Castillo?”

  “Yes. We’re very good friends.”

  “You said she was mad but she also seemed nervous. Any reason why?”

  “She didn’t say, but I think something was wrong. I heard her on the phone saying she wasn’t going to put up with something. I don’t know who she was talking to. I figured it was Danny, but it could have been anyone.”

  “Do you have any reason to think she was afraid of Dean Maxwell?”

  “Why would she be afraid of him and say she should never have left him? No, she wasn’t afraid of Dean, but she might have been afraid of someone else.”

  “Any idea who?”

  “No.”

  “Was she afraid of Danny?”

  “Maybe. Sometimes he seemed to make her nervous.”

  “Did Danny have a girlfriend?”

  “He and Becky were together for a while, but Becky broke it off.”

  “Becky Lester?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know why she broke it off?”

  “I really don’t.”

  Linda Morrison seemed to be tired of talking, and Gonzalez decided it was time to end the interview.

  “Well, this has been very helpful. Thank you for speaking with us,” he said, handing her his card. “Would you mind if we talk to you again in a day or two, Miss Morrison?” he asked as he put the notebook in his pocket and stood up.

  “No, I don’t mind,” she said, standing up and walking them to the door.

  Chapter 19

  Margie was making enchiladas and pinto beans, Donald was making a green salad, and Shell was bringing her signature salsa and some organic corn chips. And she was to bring Dean.

  “Wanna ride over to Margie’s with me tonight?” she asked that morning as she leaned on Dean’s backyard fence. He was throwing a tennis ball for Sadie, and the dog was leaping in the air to catch it.

  “Margie already gave me strict instructions I was to ride with you,” he said as he beckoned Sadie to bring the ball back to him.

  “Well, you certainly don’t have to, but we think it’s good if you leave your car so your house looks occupied,” said Shell. “Don’t you?”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind riding with you. But how are we going to get video of the intruder if he thinks I’m always home? He’s not getting a chance to break in.”

  “And he would be breaking in wouldn’t he, now that you’ve scheduled the guy to change the locks,” she said. Sadie whined and Dean threw the ball again, higher this time, and the dog leaped again and caught it.

  “It wouldn’t be very hard,” said Dean. “But yes. Technically, he’d be breaking in.” He paused as he took the ball from Sadie and she ran to catch it again. “By the way, I think we should change your locks, too. That okay with you?”

  “Sure, but why?”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about it. Amanda had keys to my house, your house, and the storage facility. Might as well cover our bases. If someone who knew Amanda has those keys, it’s possible they also know she stayed in my mom’s house for a while. I don’t want anyone bothering you.”

  “Okay. Makes sense,” she answered, chewing on the idea that Amanda had stayed in Lana’s house. It wasn’t a very pleasant thought.

  “The Lock and Key guy will be here in an hour,” Dean continued. “When he’s finished with my three doors I’ll send him over to you if that’s okay.”

  “It’s great,” she answered. “How do you get Sadie to do that?” she asked as Sadie made another amazing catch.

  “Oh, I don’t know. She’s smart and very athletic. It comes naturally to her. Sometimes I think she’s reading my mind.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I tell her to do things and she gets it, very often the first time, using language that should be impossible for a dog to understand.”

  “Like?”

  “One day I told her to go around the house and sit on the front porch and wait for me. Anyway, she did it. I walked through the house and opened the door, and she was waiting for me on the porch.”

  “That’s pretty amazing,” said Shell with a smile.

  “Mostly she’s just very trainable. Here’s a new thing she can do.” Sadie was sitting in front of Dean after returning the ball. “Back up, Sadie,” he said. Sadie stood and walked backwards a couple of feet. “More, Sadie. Back up.” She backed a few more feet. Then Dean signaled with his hand for her to back up further. She backed until he stopped signaling and she was all the way to the garden gate. He threw the ball again then, and Sadie made another leap and caught it.

  “Does she ever miss?”

  “Rarely.”

  “Well, I think she needs a reward for performing so well.”

  “You can pet her it you want,” he said, laughing a little. “You’re going to spoil her, though. She thinks getting to catch the ball is her reward.”

  “Come here, Sadie!” Shell called, and the dog
ran through the open gate to her. Shell knelt and hugged the dog then. “You’re a very good girl,” she said. Then looking up at Dean she said, “By the way, is it okay if I use some of those chilies in your garden? I’m making a salsa for tonight.”

  A smile broke across Dean’s face. Shell had never seen him smile like that. “I thought you’d never ask!” he answered, laughing. “It’s definitely the end of the season. I’ll see if there are still some good ones.”

  “Oh, there are,” said Shell. “I’ve been eyeing them for days.”

  Chapter 20

  He could see the Austin Lock and Key van had parked on the pad behind the Cherokee, and someone was carrying a tool kit to the front door. He wondered what he would do now. He didn’t know very much about breaking and entering. He could just do it like a kid. Break the window on the back door and reach in. He could turn the lock no problem. He would be in and out pretty fast. That’s if he could find it. And that’s if the dog wasn’t home.

  He had already checked the old lady’s house three times. He was sure it wasn’t there. So it had to be in the big house. He had only had time to check there twice before the Cherokee was parked there again.

  It seemed weird that it hadn’t moved in days. Was anyone in there? Lights had gone off and on, sure, but anyone could set that up. How does someone stay home all the time? Maybe he wasn’t there. Maybe it just looked as if he was there.

  No, he was there. Someone was opening the door and letting the key guy in. Was he doing all the doors? Of course he was. He was changing the locks on all three entrances. Did that mean he knew?

  He looked down at the keys in his hand. Now these would be useless. He wondered for the hundredth time what the smaller one was for. A padlock for sure, but what padlock? He pulled the phone out of his pack. He had been through her notes. Now he went through the contacts, slowly. Here was an odd one. SF. Who was SF? And what kind of number was that? Four digits and a dash and three more.

  Hector had been putting on the pressure. Last night seemed to have thrown him. He was pretty sure the woman with her questions wasn’t a cop, but she had seemed to be fishing. It had taken him an hour to calm Hector down and convince him that it would be found soon. All he had to do is stay low for a while and take the first opportunity.