by Dan Kelly
“Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t. Maybe they really didn’t, but believe they did. Hopefully, we’ll get to the truth when we meet with them. You know, it might be better if you set up the appointment with them instead of me? I would prefer to be face-to-face with them during any dialogue we have. That way I can observe those silent communication factors that come into play during any serious conversation. Sometimes they’re more telling than the words spoken.”
“Okay, when would you like to meet with them?”
“The sooner the better. How about trying to set something up for tomorrow morning now and you can call me back at my office number?”
“Okay. Bye.”
A few minutes later Massarelli calls him back with the appointment details, ten o’clock tomorrow morning in Massarelli’s office at the winery.
Since he’s kind of on a roll, he decides to give Basilio Paganelli a call to see if he’s back from his fishing trip yet and has seen the sketch he left with Mrs. Paganelli. Hopefully, he’ll recognize the man in the sketch.
Mrs. Paganelli answers the phone and tells Derrick that her husband and son just got back a few minutes ago and she hasn’t had a chance to show them the sketch yet. “Hold on. Let me get Basilio and show him the picture.”
A couple of minutes go by and then the son, Alfonso, gets on the phone. “Sergeant Chandler, my father doesn’t recognize the man in the sketch, but I think I do. It looks like a guy whose girlfriend works for us. I’ve seen him around the trailer court where a lot of the folks who work for us live. She introduced me to him a while back. I think she said his name was Hector Correa.”
“What’s the girlfriend’s name?”
“Rosa Balcazar. When you include all of the field hands we have working for us, that’s a lot of people and a lot of names to remember which I don’t and never did. I only remember hers because she was the last person I hired before retiring to fill a position in our accounting department. She struck me as being very bright and being very attractive was a plus in my book as well. Hey, I may be getting up in years, but I’m not dead yet.”
“Where’s the trailer court located? I’d like to ask her how I can get in touch with Hector. He may have seen something at the Parmentier Winery where the field hand was killed that might give us a clue as to who the killer is.”
“Do you think Hector might be the killer?”
“No I don’t. The field hand who was killed was a big strongly built man. He died because his neck was broken and someone as small as Hector couldn’t have pulled that off. I just want to talk with him to ask him what he saw and why he ran away from the deputy who was with me when we first visited the crime scene.”
Alfonso gives him the directions to the trailer park and Derrick hangs up feeling pretty good about how the day is going.
As he begins to review his notes on everything he’s done to date, he starts wondering how the blackmailers obtained the damning information to put the squeeze on Mr. Valentini. “The source has to be someone that was involved in the smuggling operation with Valentini as no one was ever caught doing the deed, so there would be no police or public record of the activities. A private investigator could have been brought in to go through the vetting process under some made up pretense to keep the shamus unaware of what they are really up to. Finding which one would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if I found the needle, I most likely would run into a stone wall when it came to getting any information pertinent to the investigation. I won’t rule out a PI search though if I get desperate enough for a meaningful lead.”
Turning to Julie he says, “We’re on to meet with the owners of the Mel Del Meglio winery, Andre and Colette Beauchamp, tomorrow at ten in the a.m. at the winery and Mr. Valentini called to let me know that his attorney and his family have agreed to what we’re trying to do.”
“That’s great. I wonder if any of the other wineries have been scared into selling out with threats of blackmail.”
“I haven’t heard any rumors to that effect. I’m sure Audrey Aragon would have passed them on to me if she had picked up on anything.
“Now I have some more potentially good news. Grab your hat. We’re going out to Paganelli Wineries to see a Rosa Balcazar. Alfonso Paganelli identified the person in the sketch, a Hector Correa, who is her boyfriend. We can get Hector’s contact info from her and then pay him a visit. Hopefully, he saw something that will help us with the investigation. I’m thinking he saw something that scared him enough to run away from a deputy sheriff. If she’s not working today, I have the address of the trailer court she lives in and we can try to reach her there.”
“Alright, I’ll get the car while you let Bemis know what’s up and where we’re headed.”
Chapter 23
When they get to the Paganelli Winery, they check the office directory in the lobby and learn that the human resource department is located on the second floor, so they can avoid contact with the receptionist who might deliberately or inadvertently make the Paganelli twins aware of their presence in the building which might present some hurdles they would have to clear if the brothers didn’t approve of their intent. Derrick wasn’t concerned about being able to clear them, but he was concerned about the influence the twins might have on Rosa Balcazar’s willingness to share information with them.
A Ms. Carstairs directed them to the Accounting Department which is on the third floor the entrance to which is straight ahead when they get off the elevator. Derrick asks the first person he sees where Rosa Balcazar can be found and is directed to a corner office in the back of the large room.
The small office contains two desks with one of them unoccupied. Sitting at the other desk is a very attractive young woman who is deeply engrossed in her work and doesn’t notice them walk in. Derrick says, “Excuse me. We’re looking for a Rosa Balcazar. Can you tell me where we can find her?”
Momentarily startled, she quickly recovers, stands up and asks with a smile, “And who’s doing the asking?”
“I’m Sergeant Chandler, a deputy sheriff with the Napa County Sheriff Department and this is Deputy Styversant.”
“I’m Rosa Balcazar. What did I do that has deputy sheriffs visiting me at work?”
Derrick answers with a smile and says, “Nothing that I’m aware of. We’re here to get some information about someone we’ve been told is or was your boyfriend, a Hector Correa.”
“Hector? What has he done that has deputy sheriffs interested in him?”
“As far as we know, he hasn’t broken any laws, but he might have seen something that can help us with an ongoing investigation.”
“I don’t know what that could be. He hasn’t mentioned seeing anything out of the ordinary to me. He works two jobs to pay his normal living expenses and to pay his tuition at a trade school in Napa. All of his spare time, which isn’t a lot, he spends with me.”
Julies asks, “What kind of work does he do?”
“He works days at a commercial laundry Monday through Friday and at a bowling alley on Saturday and Sunday from ten until five. He goes to school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from six to nine in the evening. He’s a really good leather craftsman and is going to school to become even better.”
Impressed Julie says, “He’s definitely not lazy is he?”
“No ma’am. He’s a good man and we’re hoping when he finishes his leather tooling classes he’ll be able to get a decent job so we can get married and have a family.”
Derrick asks, “How can we get in touch with Hector?”
“Can you tell me what this about? You’ve got me worried he might be in some kind of trouble and not even know it?”
“Are you aware of the killing of the field hand over at the Parmentier Winery?”
“I am. It was all anyone was talking about for days after it happened. Do you think Hector might know something about that?”
“He might have seen something that could help us find the killer. When we first went out to th
e winery later on the day of the murder, while I was examining the area where the body was found, Deputy Styversant spotted Hector out in the vineyard hiding behind some of the vines watching what was going on. When Deputy Styversant yelled at him to come over to her so she could ask him if he knew or saw anything that could help us find out who killed the field hand, he got a terrified look on his face and took off like he was running for his life. He was too quick and nimble for her to catch him and he got away. She worked with a department sketch artist to come up with a picture we could pass around to identify the man and when we did Alfonso Paganelli identified him. He said you introduced Hector to him a while back.”
“Oh boy, if Hector was scared he must have seen something really bad. Even though he’s not a big guy, he doesn’t scare easily and he knows how to fight.”
“We need his address and phone number, so we can question him about what he saw.”
“Of course I’ll give you that, but I think you’ll be more apt to get him to open up to you if I’m involved. Let me call him and tell him why you want to talk with him and urge him to do so. He’s had some bad experiences with law enforcement and doesn’t trust them.”
Derrick asks, “Who with, the local police, county sheriffs, immigration?”
“All of the above. Although he entered the U. S. illegally with his folks when he was a baby and they had to live in some rough areas for years, his parents were able to eventually get legal help and now they are all legal permanent residents. Still, whenever he sees a cop his first inclination is to run.”
“Okay, maybe you have the right idea about how to approach Hector. Do you think you could get permission to take off with us now so we can pay him a visit at the laundry without going into any details regarding the reason for your leaving? I don’t want word to get out that Hector saw or heard something. It might get back to the wrong person and put Hector in danger.”
“I’ll have to run it by my boss, but if I say a personal emergency has come up I don’t think he’ll raise a fuss. Oh, speak of the devil, here he comes now.”
Her boss is an antithesis of any accountant Derrick or Julie have ever met. He looks more like a professional football player, 6’4 or 5” tall, weighing about 275 lbs. and he moves like an athlete.
But the image is shattered when he begins to speak. “Excuse me, folks. Rosa, have you completed the monthly inventory report yet? Riccardo is bugging me for the numbers.”
Instead of the deep rumbling bass or baritone they were expecting to hear, a prissy sounding high tenor voice is emitted. Both Derrick and Julie are struggling to mask their surprise as Rosa tells him the report’s ready, introduces Derrick and Julie to him and asks for his permission to take off for a couple of hours to attend to some serious personal business which she can’t go into at the moment.
Her boss has no objections and asks no questions, but the presence of two deputies in his office must certainly have him wondering what’s going on. Rosa grabs her purse and they head for the elevator.
As they all pile into the unmarked car, Derrick driving, Julie riding shotgun and Rosa sitting in the back, who comes out of the building but Duilio Paganelli. Derrick quickly accelerates to get out of the parking lot before they are spotted as he doesn’t want any confrontation until after they’ve had a chance to talk with Hector. As he turns to leave the parking lot, he peripherally spots Duilio noticing them and begin to waive for them to stop, but Derrick continues out of the lot pretending not to see him.
On the way to the laundry, Rosa calls Hector and tells him about the deputies’ visit to her at work and explains why they want to talk with him. “Hector, they just want to ask you some questions about what you might have seen the day the field worker was killed at the Parmentier Winery. You are not in any trouble. We’re on the way to the laundry now and should be there in about ten minutes. I volunteered to call to let you know in advance so you wouldn’t be alarmed when they showed up at the laundry and take off. I agreed to come with them so you would feel more comfortable talking with them. Okay?”
“Rosa, if I talk with the cops and the person I saw finds out, I could be in real trouble.”
“Hector, the deputies know how to handle these things to keep you out of harms’ way. Trust them and tell them what you saw. We’ll be there shortly. Please be there when we arrive.”
Hanging up Rosa says, “He saw someone and he’s afraid that the person he saw will find out about it and that he told you what he saw. If Hector doesn’t want to mess with him, he’s got to be one terrifying hombre.”
Derrick says, “There’s no reason anyone has to know he’s talked with us. Thanks for running interference for us, Rosa. Hector just might be able to point us at someone or something that will be meaningful to our investigation.”
Chapter 24
When they get to the laundry, they pull around to the back of the building to a loading platform where there are a lot of trucks waiting to be offloaded or to take on clean laundry for delivery. There’s a small office next to the loading platform and they enter it to ask where they can find Hector.
When they enter the office, four women seated behind a long counter that extends across the front of the entire office look up to see who came in. A woman who appears to be in her late forties and likes attention judging from her green hair and gold painted dagger like fingernails rises and approaches the counter to help them.
“How may I help you folks?”
Derrick shows her his ID and says, “We’re looking for Hector Correa.”
Looking at her watch she says, “His shift ends at five so he should be coming through here shortly. I hope Hector’s not in any trouble. He’s a hard worker and reliable. I’d hate to lose him.”
“He’s not in any trouble. We just want to talk with him about something.”
“Oh, that’s good. Please have a seat. Our insurance doesn’t cover non-employees and there’s stuff back in the laundry area that could cause an accident if you aren’t used to dealing with it.”
“I understand. We’ll wait here.”
Ten minutes later Hector comes into the office through a side door that opens on to the loading platform and spots Rosa immediately. Rosa says, “Thanks for sticking around, Hector. This is Sergeant Chandler and this is Deputy Styversant.”
Hector nods in their direction, but it’s clear from the expression on his face that he’s extremely uncomfortable being this close to the deputies. “Can we go somewhere else to talk? I don’t want anyone else to know what we’ll be talking about.”
Derrick says, “Sure, where would you like to go?”
“Someplace I’m not known.”
Rosa suggests, “How about you drive your car to the Napa Premium Outlets mall and we’ll follow you in the deputies’ car. You can talk with them in the mall or in one of the cars.”
“That’ll work.”
Derrick says, “Okay, let’s do it.”
When they get to the mall, they decide to go to the food court where Hector can get something to eat before his leather craft class starts at six. Hector gets some Chinese food and a large Pepsi and the rest of them just get a soft drink to try to put Hector somewhat more at ease.
Derrick begins the questioning with, “Hector, we’re hoping you can help us find the man who killed Juan Peralta, the field hand who was working at the Parmentier Winery. When Deputy Styversant and I first went out to the winery and found out what had happened to Juan Peralta, Deputy Styversant spotted you hiding out in the vineyard behind some vines while I was checking out the crime scene. Why were you in the vineyard when you don’t work there?”
“I was taking a short cut from my house to get to the main road where I could hitch a ride to work at the laundry. My truck had been giving me stalling problems for a while and on the day the deputy spotted me in the field, it completely died on me and I had to have it towed to a neighborhood gas station where it sat for a few days waiting for a part to be shipped.”