Capital Crimes

by Jonathan Kellerman

  She started to cry. Barnes was right there with a napkin, but she elected to pull out a tissue from her exotic skin bag. She blew her nose and dabbed her eyes just as the waitress plunked down the glass. Barnes paid the bill and the tip and edged the glass closer to Jane. She sipped, took a second swallow. Half the whiskey was gone before she decided to resume the conversation.

  “I talked to Lucille this afternoon. She and my mom are good friends.”

  “Like you and Davida.”

  Jane smiled. “Second generation…anyway, the poor old woman is having a rough time. I’m spending the night with her…I don’t want her alone.”

  “That’s really nice of you, Jane.”

  “Actually, I was thinking of moving in with her for a while…just until…”

  Barnes waited for more.

  “I don’t know what just until means,” Jane said. “She’s not even my mother and I feel the need to look after her. Make sure she doesn’t sink into a bad depression, although who could blame her if she did?”

  Barnes nodded.

  Jane said, “My mother never needs anyone. So strong. She comes across DAR but back when we had the ranch, she’d be sinking posts with the guys.”

  “I know,” said Will.

  “You were one of them?”

  She didn’t even remember.

  He said, “Summer job, I worked at a whole bunch of ranches. Your mom was tough.” Speeding up in that big, pink Lincoln, not a glance at the hired help as the car kicked up dust.

  “Do you think it’s weird that I want to stay with Lucille? I haven’t asked her yet. I suspect she’ll say no.”

  “She probably will refuse your hospitality, at first. Later on…” Barnes shrugged.

  She frowned.

  He said, “You feel close to her, it’s no sin.”

  “I’ve known her forever. We’ve all known each other so long.” She finished her Scotch and Barnes called for a refill.

  He said, “It’s nice to stay in contact with old friends. And Davida and you were very old friends.”

  Jane nodded. “We hadn’t been in much contact for about fifteen years. But when I moved back to Berkeley, we picked up where we left off.”

  Whatever that meant. “Did that cause any problems with Minette…your being so close to Davida?”

  Jane stared at him.

  He said, “Being such an old friend. Minette impresses me as the emotional type, with or without a good reason.”

  “You’ve got that right, Will. Minette has a lot of problems and jealousy was one of them. She resented Davida nursing me through my divorce. Once Parker lost his money, his entire personality deteriorated. He’d waver between being a vicious bear and a passive lamb, you can’t even imagine. One moment, I was afraid he’d assault me, the next he’d be sobbing on the phone, begging me to come back to him. I’m sure you remember.”

  Their big stab at dating had come just as Jane had split from Parker. One of those accidents, Barnes running into Jane on Shattuck, he coming off shift, exhausted, in a down mood. She leaving Chez Panisse. Alone. Needing to talk to someone.

  They went for drinks. One thing led to another. She had a gorgeous body but her enthusiasm waned midway through.

  He said, “I remember you being nervous about him. I don’t remember you saying he wanted you back.”

  “I didn’t want to burden you with sordid details, Will. It was totally my fault that Parker and I got married. When I met him, I admired his machismo and his take-charge attitude. It took about four months to realize how controlling he was. That’s always been my mistake. I hook up with the ultramacho men and get surprised when they turn brutal. Call it growing up with a dominant mother and a father who wasn’t. I suppose I got used to people pushing me around and long for the daddy I never had…that’s what I really liked about Davida. She always let me be me.”

  “You two travel together at all?”

  Jane lifted her head from her Scotch, looked him square in the eye and didn’t answer him.

  Barnes said, “Alice Kurtag said you two went away together for a few days to unwind.”

  “Yes, we did.” Jane was still trying to stare him down. “What better way to get your mind off of your troubles? I was involved in a horrible divorce and Davida was stressed about the stem-cell bill. We went hiking and white-water rafting.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “It was the best weekend I’d had in a long time.”

  “Jane, I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but were you involved with Davida? I’m bringing it up because Davida was infected with gonorrhea and if you were—”

  “Are you serious?”

  Barnes nodded.

  “Hah.” Jane shrugged. “She never said a word to me about that. Then again, why would she? I would imagine she’d be embarrassed about it.” She glanced at her watch, finished off her Scotch and started to open her wallet.

  Barnes stopped her. “My treat. So you’re okay healthwise.”

  “I’m fine. Perfect. And in answer to your question, Davida and I were just friends. Period. I’m sure Minette gave it to her.” She stood up. “It’s getting late.”

  “What’s the rush? It’s not that late and you’ve only got about thirty miles to go.”

  “All true, Will, but still I’m done here.”

  16

  “I can’t believe you talked to her last night!”

  Amanda was clearly pissed. Barnes said, “It was an impulsive thing.”

  “First you call around old high school buds, then you meet with one of them who’s a serious witness all by your lonesome. What’s gotten into you, Will?”

  He gave the honest answer: “Don’t know.”

  Amanda shook her head, rummaged in her purse. Fishing out a Ghirardelli chocolate square, she unwrapped and ate. Not offering him one from her stash, as she usually did.

  “Sorry,” said Barnes. He’d parked the car in front of Davida Grayson’s complex. “I know. It was stupid and I apologize. But it’s done. So can we move on?”

  Amanda wasn’t about to let go so easily. “Did you at least learn anything other than that Jane’s back in Sacramento? And why?”

  No answer.

  She said, “Thought she moved back to Berkeley.”

  “Guess she moved back.”

  “You didn’t ask her?”

  “It didn’t seem relevant.”

  “Only her sex life was.”

  “She claims there was none with Davida.”

  “You believe her?” said Amanda.

  “Don’t know. Don’t know if it matters, Mandy.”

  “Well, as soon as she gets back, I want a crack at her. Just because she denies having the clap doesn’t make it true. And seeing as how you were both drinking none of it can be entered into the case file.”

  “No reason for her to lie—”

  “Well, we won’t know until we officially talk to her, will we? Partner.”

  He gave her a few minutes to cool down. She ate another chocolate. Made a show of chewing it slowly.

  “Mandy, maybe I’m off but I’m thinking right now, our minds should be on Minette and not on Jane. Per our previous discussion. And unless you can stop glaring at me, we can’t go in and interview her.”

  Silence.

  “Man—”

  “Forget it, just don’t do it again, okay, Will? For your own sake. It looks bad.”

  “You’re right. I was wrong. Shall we move on?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Was that a female or a male absolutely?”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “A male absolutely is absolutely. A female absolutely is I’ll drop it for now but I’ll bludgeon you with it later on.”

  “A female absolutely.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  The disarray had been cleared, but the condo was far from clean. The kitchen was piled with dirty dishes and the dining room table held cartons of take-out Chinese. At nine in the mor
ning, Minette was still in a terry bathrobe and mules. Her eyes and nose were puffy and red and her hair could have used a good scrubbing. The faint odor of alcohol lingered on her breath and in the unit.

  “Thanks for seeing us so early,” Amanda said.

  “Sure…” Minette was still dazed. “Have a seat. Anywhere’s fine.”

  The two detectives looked around and found space on a Craftsman-style sofa. It was as flat as a bench and merciless on the ass. “Thank you,” Barnes told her.

  “You want some coffee? I sure as hell need a cup for myself.”

  “I’d love some,” Amanda said. “But let me make it, Minette. Why don’t you sit down and relax?”

  “That would be nice.”

  Amanda went into the kitchen and began to open the cupboards and refrigerator, looking for coffee. Minette made no effort to direct her. The open space gave Amanda an earful of conversation.

  “Rough night?” Will asked.

  “Probably one of many.” Minette’s eyes watered. “It’s so surreal. I just can’t believe…” The tears came down. “I’m still in shock.”

  “I can’t tell you how sorry we are for your personal loss, Ms. Padgett.”

  “The hardest part is that bitch mother. She won’t let me plan anything.” More tears. “She’s taking the body back to Sacramento. Davida hated Sacramento! She had nothing but bad memories.”

  “Can I ask what those bad memories are? It might be relevant to the case.”

  Minette clamped her lips together. Then she said, “You know…her parents’ divorce…her coming out…it was painful.”

  “I’m sure it was tough,” Barnes said, “but she traveled there often for work.”

  “She worked there, but she lived here!” Minette folded her arms across her chest.

  Barnes backed it up. “It’s must be very painful to be excluded from the funeral plans. I’m very sorry, Minette.”

  The woman lowered her voice but her tone remained harsh. “It’s goddamn painful.” A sigh. “I’m so damn angry. It’s not your fault you’re here to listen to me bitch but I make no excuses for my behavior.”

  Barnes glanced at his watch. They’d been in her place over ten minutes and she had yet to ask about progress on her lover’s murder or the ransacking of the condo. He wished Amanda would hurry up with the coffee. He didn’t want to approach touchy subjects without her.

  Minette said, “I need to sleep for about six months and wake up after this entire nightmare is over. I had to take the phone off the hook and turn off my cell. I’m sick of people calling. They don’t really care about me. All they want to know is the gory details.”

  “Gory details?”

  “You know, like was there a struggle, did she put up a fight?” She looked at Barnes. “Did she put up a fight?”

  Barnes said, “From what we could tell, she appeared to be sleeping at her desk. Did she do that often…fall asleep while working?”

  “All the time…especially when she pulled all-nighters.”

  “Did you often visit her office and find her asleep?”

  “Not often.” Minette’s eyes narrowed. “Sometimes I’d bring her dinner and we’d eat together.”

  Amanda came back with a tray of mugs, milk, sugar, and Splenda. “Here we go. I poked around in your cabinets. I hope these cups are okay.”

  “They’re fine.” Minette doused her coffee with milk and artificial sweetener. “I don’t want you to think that I made a habit out of going to her office. I never liked to bug her when she was working.”

  Barnes nodded, thinking about ten calls a day to Dr. Kurtag’s office.

  “I mean, occasionally, I’d surprise her,” Minette said. “Couple of times I did find her asleep at her desk. And here, too. At her home office. She’d fall asleep. She was very tired. You can imagine.”

  Barnes nodded, and glanced at Amanda who was ignoring his pleading eyes. “If you wouldn’t mind, Ms. Padgett, we do have a couple of questions for you.”

  “Call me Minette.” She sipped coffee and nodded. “Go ahead. I’m more awake now.”

  Barnes decided to forestall the bombshell. “Would you like to know about our progress on the ransacking of your apartment?”

  Minette looked momentarily confused. “Oh…yes, of course. Did you find the bastard?”

  “No, but we’re getting close,” Barnes lied.

  “What do you mean?” Minette asked. “What have you found out?”

  “We’re not at liberty to discuss everything, but we found some interesting forensic evidence.” Barnes was pleased with his glib tone of voice.

  “Like what kind of forensic evidence?”

  “For starters,” Amanda said, “it doesn’t appear that the vandals were out for anything specific. We think they just wanted to make a mess.”

  “Were? There were two of them?”

  “Or maybe just one,” Barnes said. “The point we’re trying to make is that the mess appeared to be superficial—”

  “Not when you’re the one cleaning it up,” Minette said.

  “I’m sure that’s true, but we think someone is trying to throw the police off track.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “We can tell these things, Minette. There’s just something about it that looks funny. As soon as we know more, we’ll pass on that information to you. In the meantime, can you think of anyone who has access to your condo?”

  “My housekeeper and the condo manager.”

  “We’d like to talk to them,” Amanda said. “Could you get me their numbers?”

  “Sure.” She got up and came back a few minutes later with the information. “Emilia has worked for us for two years. I don’t see her doing anything like that, but the manager is kinda creepy.”

  “Creepy in what way?”

  “You know…” She lowered her eyes. “Lewd looks.”

  “We’ll check him out.”

  Minette’s eyes drifted to the wall clock. She stood and wandered around the room. “Anything else?”

  Amanda said nothing, deferring to Barnes. He was senior anyway. Let him handle it.

  He said, “Could you sit back down for just a moment, Minette?”

  “Why?”

  “Please…” After Minette sat, Barnes said, “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m going to be blunt. Did you know that Davida Grayson was infected with gonorrhea?”

  “Gonorrhea?” Minette appeared truly stunned. “Like in STD gonorrhea?”

  Amanda nodded. “The coroner found evidence at the autopsy.”

  “Holy moly shit!” In a few ticks of time, the woman’s features had turned from baffled to enraged. She flung her coffee cup across the room. “That motherfucker bastard!” She got up and started to pace. “I’ll kill him. I swear to God I’ll kill the fucking bast—” She stopped talking and turned to the police. “I don’t mean that literally. I’m just so fucking furious! How could he do this to me?”

  “Who is he?” Amanda asked.

  “Kyle of course! Kyle Bosworth.” She spat out the name. “Son of a bitch!”

  “Are you sure you got it from him?” Barnes asked.

  She turned her wrath on him. “Look, Detective, I don’t know what you think about me and frankly right now, I don’t give a shit. I only began seeing Kyle because I was so goddamn lonely. I loved Davida but it gets real old drinking by yourself. If she would have been a tiny bit more available, I wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere!”

  Amanda said, “I don’t think he meant it that way, Minette—”

  “It sure as hell sounded accusatory.”

  “I think he meant to ask if it were possible that someone gave the disease to Davida other than you.”

  That suggestion did little to mollify Minette’s fury. Her face turned bright red. “If Davida didn’t have time for me, she certainly didn’t have time for another woman!”

  “Or man?” said Barnes.

  “You two have a lot of nerve! And for your information, D
avida wasn’t into men!” She burst into tears. “I’d like you both to go now.”

  Amanda said, “We don’t mean to be intrusive, Minette—”

  “But you’re going to be anyway. I really need you both to leave.”

  Barnes said, “You need to get tested.”

  “What do you think? Of course I’ll get tested!”

  “When you get the results, could you give us a call, please?”

  “No, I won’t give you a call please. I don’t give a shit about you or her or anything else!” A new batch of tears. “Why is everyone always fucking me up?”

  “I’m sorry,” Amanda said.

  “No, you’re not!” Minette wiped her eyes. “I’m going to call up that bastard and give him a piece of my mind!”

  Barnes said, “I don’t blame you for being angry, but maybe you should wait until you’re tested. If you come back negative, you may be angry at the wrong person.”

  Minette shook her head. “It’s impossible for me to be angry at the wrong person because I’m so fucking angry at everyone!”

  Barnes kept his eyes on the picture window, the one that framed a magnificent view of the bay. A lot more interesting than watching Kyle Bosworth pace back and forth. The man was raking his hair with long, slender fingers. The parallel rows cut into the shafts reminded Barnes of a field during planting season. Summers working the ranches.

  Notepad in hand, Amanda kept refocusing in on the moving target. “I’m sorry that you had to find out from us. You should know that Minette accused you of giving it to her.”

  “The bitch!” Bosworth exclaimed. “The absolute bitch!”

  “I take it you don’t agree?”

  “No I don’t agree! I don’t know what that wicked witch was talking about! I was clean when I met her and if anybody gave anything to anyone, it was she who gave it to me!” He muttered as he paced. “This is great! This is just fucking great!”

  “So you had no idea you might be infected,” Amanda stated.

  “None whatsoever!” He glared at her. “I had no symptoms—have no symptoms. Why would I be infected? I don’t routinely go around cheating on my spouse. Minette was a distraction and only because Yves works too hard.”

  Same thing Minette said about Davida, Barnes thought.