Cookie flushed with pleasure at his words. “You would think over the years that I’d get sick of baking, but the truth is I love it more than ever. See, now I get to bake for myself and my friends. It’s not a job anymore.”
“Did you bake for Betsy?”
“Oh yes. And for Lloyd when he was alive.” “So you’ve been here a while?”
“Moved in three years after Betsy and Lloyd did. So yes, a good long time.”
He set his glass of lemonade down. “And I want you to know how so very sad I was when she passed. She was a wonderful person, she really was. A good friend to me. Just very caring. And when something needed to be done in the community, you could always count on Betsy to pitch in. And Lloyd too when he was alive.”
“That was how she was wired. Very can-do,” replied Puller.
“She told me a lot about your father, her brother. A three-star. Army legend.”
Puller nodded. “Yeah.” He never liked to talk about his father. “Do you know whether she had a lawyer?”
“Yes, same one I used. His name is Griffin Mason. Everyone calls him Grif. He’s an excellent attorney.”
“Does he handle wills?”
“Every lawyer in Florida handles trusts and estate work,” said Cookie. “Sort of their bread and butter, what with the elderly population.” “You have his contact info?”
Cookie opened the drawer of a built-in desk next to the refrigerator, drew out a business card, and handed it to him.
Puller eyed it briefly and slipped it into his pocket. “So you said you found her body? Can you run me through the details on that?”
Cookie sat back and his plump face assumed a sad expression. Puller could even see tears clustering in the corners of his eyes.
“I don’t get up that early. I’m more of a night owl. And at age seventy-nine, four or five hours a night are plenty for me. At some point down the road I’ll have a lot longer time to sleep. Anyway, I have a little morning routine. I let Sadie out in the backyard while I sit on the back deck and drink my first cup of coffee and read the newspaper. I still get the actual paper, most of the old folks around here do. I’m online a lot and consider myself pretty tech-sawy for an old fart, but I still like to hold the news, as it were.”
“What time was that?”
“About eleven or so. This was several days ago now, you understand. So I was sitting on my deck and I noticed that Betsy’s back door was open. From the deck I could see it over my fence- line. I thought that was odd because as a rule Betsy didn’t really get going until around noon or so. Her osteoporosis had done a real number on her spine. It was getting difficult for her to even get around with her walker. And I knew it was difficult for her to get out of bed.”
“I can see that,” replied Puller. “Did she have a caregiver?”
“Yes. Jane Ryon, lovely girl. She would come three days a week, starting around nine in the morning. She would do some tidying up around the house and then help Betsy get up, get her clothes on, stuff like that.”
“Why only three days a week?”
“Betsy wanted to retain her independence, I guess. And a full-time caregiver isn’t cheap. And Medicare really doesn’t cover that unless you’re in far worse shape than Betsy was, and even then they don’t cover the entire expense. Betsy never seemed to be hurting for money, but folks of our generation, we’re frugal. Jane also helps me as well. Twice a week.”
“You look pretty independent.”
“She runs errands, takes care of Sadie when I’m gone. She’s a great physical therapist and all those years of baking left me a permanent pretzel, particularly in my hands.”
“You have her contact info?”
Cookie presented him with another business card. “I have hundreds of them. People in Florida pass them out like candy. The elderly are a service industry’s best customers. We all have stuff that we can’t do ourselves anymore, but that still needs doing.”
“Okay, so back to that morning?”
“I walked to the fence between our properties and called out her name. I didn’t get an answer, so I left my backyard, walked over, and knocked on her front door. I didn’t expect her to get up and race to the door if she was in bed, but I thought maybe she might call out. Her bedroom is on the first floor.”
“I know,” said Puller. “Go on.”
“Well, there was no answer at the front door, so I decided to go into her backyard and get into the house that way. I was hoping nothing had happened to her, but in our neighborhood we’ve had people die before and they haven’t been found for some time. At our ages, your ticker can just stop and down you go.”
“I guess that’s true,” said Puller. He kept his gaze on the man, willing him to pick up the pace and get to what he really needed to know.
“I managed to open the gate latch and stepped into the backyard. I was looking at the door as I came around the corner of the house. I almost didn’t look in the direction of her little fountain pool, but luckily I did. I couldn’t see it from where my deck is situated, you see. But now I could.”
Puller stopped him there. “Okay, if you could just take it one step at a time. Tell me everything you saw, smelled, heard.”
Puller had taken out a notebook and Cookie looked at it anxiously. “The police told me it was an accident.”
“The police might be right. Then again, they might be wrong.”
“So you came down to investigate?”
“I came down to see my aunt. When I found out she was dead, I paid my respects. Then I switched to investigation mode to make sure she didn’t leave this world against her wishes.”
Cookie gave a little shudder and continued. “I saw her lying in the fountain pool. It’s only about two feet deep. You’d think no one could drown in it. But she was facedown, her entire head was underwater.”
“Which way was she facing?”
“Her head was pointed toward the house.” “Arms outstretched or by her side?”
Cookie considered this for a few moments, obviously trying to picture the scene in his mind. “Right arm outstretched and over top of the stone surround. Her left arm was by her side.” “Her legs?”
“Splayed.”
“Her walker?”
“On the ground on the right side of the pool.” “What did you do next?”
“I ran over to her. At that point I didn’t know if she was dead or alive. I kicked off my sandals and walked directly into the water. I grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her head out of the water.”
Puller thought about this. Cookie had wrecked the crime scene. He had to do it, because like he’d said, he didn’t know if Betsy was still alive. Crime scenes could be legitimately tainted by first responders trying to save lives. That trumped even preserving evidence. In this case, unfortunately, it had been for naught.
“But she wasn’t?”
Cookie shook his head. “I’ve seen a few dead people in my life. Not just at funerals and such. Smoke inhalation killed my little sister over fifty years ago. One of my best friends drowned in a pond when we were teenagers. Betsy’s face was deathly white. Her eyes were open, her mouth hung loosely. There was no pulse, no sign of life.” “Foam around the mouth?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Were her limbs stiff or supple?”
“They seemed a little stiff.”
“But just a little?”
“Yes.”
“Upper arms stiff or supple?”
“Stiff. But her hands seemed normal, if cold.” “What did you do then?”
“I set her back down exactly as I had found her. I watch a lot of CSI and NCIS. I know you’re not supposed to mess with the area where a body is found. Then I went back to my house and called the police. They showed up about five minutes later. A man and a woman.”
“Landry and Hooper?”
“Yes, that’s right. How did you know that?” “Long story. Were you around when they went over the scene?”
“No.
They took my statement and then asked me to go back to my house, and to stay there in case they had any other questions. Other police cars showed up and then I saw a woman with a medical bag drive up, get out, and go into the backyard.”
“Medical examiner,” said Puller.
“Right. Then a black hearse arrived a few hours later. I watched them bring Betsy out on a gurney with a white sheet over her. They put her in the hearse and it drove off.”
Cookie sat back, obviously exhausted and saddened by retelling the story. “I’m really going to miss her.”
“Did she still drive? I saw the car in the garage.”
“Not really. I mean, I hadn’t seen her out in the car in a while.”
“But she was still capable of driving?”
“I would say no. Her legs were weak and her reflexes were shot. Her spine was bent. I’m not sure how she dealt with the pain.” He paused. “Come to think of it, she did go out the day before I found her. I saw Jerry drive up.”
“Jerry?”
“Jerry Evans. He has a car service. I’ve used him. He picked Betsy up around six in the evening and she was back around thirty minutes later.”
“Short trip. Any idea where she went?”
“Yep. I asked Jerry. He said to mail a letter.” Puller knew it was the letter. “Why not just put it in the mailbox out front?”
“Our mail comes early here. Jerry said the box she used had a later pickup. It would go out that night.”
Puller thought, She mailed a letter. And a bit later she was dead.
Before Puller could even ask, Cookie handed him a business card with Jerry’s name and number on it.
“Thanks. Did she often go into the backyard at night by herself?”
“She liked to sit on the bench by the fountain pool. Usually during the day. To catch the sunlight. I’m not the best person to ask about what she did later at night. She normally went to bed long before I did. I like to get out and about. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but anyone in their seventies is considered a ‘young’un’ down here. We’re supposed to go out at night and party hearty.”
“Did you notice anything suspicious the night before you found her? People, sounds, anything?”
“I was out visiting friends across town so I probably wouldn’t have seen anything. I got home late. Everything seemed normal.”
“Was she dressed in her pajamas or regular clothes?”
“Regular clothes.”
“So the probability was she died the night before. She hadn’t been to bed.”
Cookie nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Over the last few days leading up to my aunt’s death, did she talk to you about anything she was concerned about?”
“Like what?” Cookie asked, looking curious. “Anything out of the ordinary. Did she mention a person? An event? Something she’d seen, perhaps at night?”
“No, nothing like that. Was she worried about something?”
“Yeah, I think she was,” said Puller. “And it looks like she might have had good reason to be.”
CHAPTER 18
Puller sat in his rental and called the medical examiner, Louise Timmins, and after that the attorney, Grif Mason. Timmins was a practicing physician busy with patients until six that evening. Mason was out of the office at a meeting. Puller arranged to meet Timmins at seven at a nearby cafe and he left a message with Mason’s office to call him back when he returned.
He called Jerry, the driver, who confirmed what Cookie had already told him but added, “She looked tired, and worried about something.”
Puller thanked him, clicked off, and thought back to Cookie’s commentary. Upper arms stiff, hands normal. Rigor started in the upper extremities before moving outward. Then it went away in the reverse order. She had not been dead long enough for the process to start reversing.
Puller thought through the possible timetable. She had mailed a letter at six p.m. and her body was found at eleven a.m. the next day. Puller didn’t think she had died the moment she had returned from the mailbox but probably later that evening. So stiff upper arms told Puller that rigor was just beginning on his aunt’s body. That meant that when Cookie found her she had been dead probably about twelve to fourteen hours. That number could be skewed by the Florida heat and humidity, which would speed up a body’s decomposition, but it at least gave Puller a range to work with. If Cookie found her shortly after eleven her death might have occurred around ten the previous night, give or take. Or about four hours after she mailed the letter.
Puller checked his watch. It was past three in the afternoon and he didn’t yet have a place to stay. Now it was time to find a bed.
Right as he put the car in gear he spotted it. A vehicle parked at the curb four car lengths down from him and on the other side. It was a tan Chrysler sedan, Florida plates that began ZAT. He couldn’t see the rest because the plate was dirty. Perhaps intentionally so, he thought. The reason this was significant was that Puller had seen this very same car parked across the street from the funeral home.
He eased the Corvette from the curb and slowly drove off. He checked his rearview mirror. The tan Chrysler started up and pulled out.
Okay, that was progress. Someone was interested in him. He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the Chrysler’s reflection in his rearview mirror. There looked to be two people inside, but the sun’s glare made it difficult to see much detail.
He drove up and down the main strip right off the water but easily gauged that all of these places would be far beyond his budget. He began driving off water, block by block. He checked prices at the second and third blocks and found them to be so high he wondered how anybody could afford the places on the water.
He finally got on his cell phone and did a search of lodgings in the area by price. On the fifth block from the water was one that landed in his sweet spot, a residence inn called the Sierra, where one could rent by the day or week. Eighty bucks a night, breakfast included, or you could get it down to four-fifty for the full seven days paid in advance. Actually it wasn’t all that sweet for a guy whose salary was paid by Uncle Sam, but it was going to have to do.
The three-story building was a block of ragged stucco with an orange terra-cotta roof, which was in as bad shape as the stucco. It was sandwiched between a gas station on one side and a building undergoing renovation on the other. The narrow street it was on had nary a palm tree. What the streets did have in abundance were old cars and trucks, some on cin- derblocks, others looking as though they were close to being so. It didn’t seem to Puller that any of the rusted vehicles were from later than the 1980s.
He looked in his rearview for the Chrysler but didn’t see it.
A group of barefoot kids in shorts and no shirts was running up and down the street, kicking a soccer ball with great skill. They all stopped playing and stared when Puller pulled up in front of the Sierra in his Corvette. When he got out, they stared even harder and drew closer.
He grabbed his bag from the passenger seat, shut and beeped the doors locked with his key fob, and strode up to the kids.
One of the boys looked up at him and asked in Spanish if that was his car.
Puller answered in Spanish that it was actually being rented by a friend of his named Uncle Sam.
The boy asked if Uncle Sam was rich.
“Not as rich as he used to be,” answered Puller as he walked toward the Sierra’s little front office.
Puller paid for two nights, got his room key and instructions on where and when breakfast was served. The woman behind the desk told him where he could park his car. She gave him a key card to access the garage.
“I can’t leave it on the street?” said Puller She was a small Latina with straight dark hair. “You can, but it might not be there in the morning.”
“Right,” said Puller. “I’ll put it in the garage.” When he got back to the car the gang of boys had surrounded it, touching it and whispering. “You like cars?” Puller asked them.<
br />
They all nodded their heads.
“I’ll let you hear the engine.”
He got in and fired it up and revved the engine. They all jumped back at the sound, looked at each other and started laughing.
Puller drove to the garage area that was on a side street next to the Sierra. He put his key card in an electronic reader and the large metal door rose, revealing a large space beyond. He pulled through and the door automatically closed. He parked the car, exited via a side door of the garage, and walked back to the Sierra.
At the comer he saw one of the boys who had been admiring his car. He had brown curly hair and looked about ten or eleven. Puller noted the skinny, undernourished frame. But he also saw that the boy’s muscles were hard and his features determined. His gaze was wary, but then Puller figured around here one had to be careful.
“You live around here?” asked Puller in English.
The boy nodded. “Si.” He pointed to his left. “Mi casa.”
“What’s your name?”
“Diego.”
“Okay, Diego, I’m Puller.” They shook hands. “You know Paradise really well?”
Diego nodded. “Very good. I live here all the time.”
“You live with your mom and dad.”
He shook his head. “Mi abuela.”
So his grandmother was raising him, thought Puller.
“You want to earn some money?”
Diego nodded so vigorously that his soft brown curls bounced up and down. “Si. Me gusta el dinero.”
Puller handed him a five-dollar bill and then took out his cell phone. He showed him the picture of the Chrysler.
“Keep an eye out for this car,” he said. “Don’t go near it, don’t talk to the people in it, don’t let them see you watching, but get the rest of the license plate for me if you can, and what the people inside look like. Entiendes?”
“Si.”
Puller held out his hand for the boy to shake. He did so. Puller noticed the ring on the boy’s finger. It was silver with a lion’s head engraved on it.
“Nice ring.”
“Mi padre gave it to me.”
“I’ll be seeing you, Diego.”
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