"Luckily for us, I know the next step to take. Look here," she explained, pulling out the list of all of Henry's client's addresses and information. "I grabbed this last night from his office. I have to wonder just what kind of reputation my father had with his client's ex-wives. Even if they didn't know about the stunt he was pulling, helping their husbands stow away their cash, they probably weren't very fond of him.”
She handed me the folder and I scanned the top page, raising an eyebrow as I caught the name Theo Anderson, like the night before. "Gina Anderson. 578 Thornsborough Drive. Is that nearby?"
Karen nodded. "It's not far. Maybe five minutes away, at best. Maybe now would be a good time to go pay her a visit."
The overcast sky decided to finally open up onto the washed-out Napa Valley below. I let out a yelp of surprise as my feet sunk halfway up to my ankle in a puddle as I hopped out of Karen's tiny car, the chill hitting me right in the face. I pulled my jacket tighter around myself and threw my hood over my head, running up the sidewalk after Karen, who was making her way towards a sprawling off-white rancher with gorgeous blue shutters that matched the front door.
"Ready?" she asked me, sucking in a deep breath herself as her fist hovered over the door.
I nodded, bracing myself as she knocked. All I could think about was how much I hoped this Gina lady was here, if only to get out of the weather.
A shuffling of feet on the other side of the door alerted us to someone’s presence, before it cracked open unceremoniously, a very tanned woman's head poking through the small gap.
"How can I help you?" she asked defensively. I had a feeling she thought we were salespeople, or maybe Jehovah’s Witnesses.
"Hi, are you Gina? Gina Anderson?" Karen asked with a small, hopeful smile.
The woman's icy blue eyes narrowed at her. "It's Bergen now. Who are you?"
"Sorry, Ms. Bergen, my name's Karen, and this is my friend, Taylor. We wanted to see if you'd be willing to answer a few questions about the divorce case between you and your ex-husband, Theo Anderson? No, wait!" she pleaded as Gina started to shut the door again. "Please! I know it's sort of random for someone to be knocking on your door out of the blue, wanting to talk about something I'm sure you'd rather be done with. It's just that I'm trying to find out more information about the way my father handled his business. I'm-"
"I know who you are," Gina snapped, her pouty lips pressed firmly together. "And why should I help? Your father helped Theo ruin my life!"
My shoulders sunk. This was not going the way I'd hoped. "Ms. Bergen? Karen here just found out what lengths her father went to with his clients. We're not here to disagree with you, or to defend his actions. We just need to ask you a few questions about your experience through the divorce proceedings. Or at least any time you had to deal with Henry Mortran, himself."
Gina looked me over once, twice, then wrapping her silk robe tightly around herself, she sighed and opened the door wider.
"I have a busy day ahead of me, and my daughter needs me to pick her up from work soon. You'll have to make it quick."
"Thank you," Karen replied as we stepped inside, following the silk robe and thick blonde hair teased toward the heavens.
The house’s interior was sparsely decorated; it was like she’d taken minimalist to a whole new level. The pictures on the wall – mostly of a girl who I assumed was Gina’s daughter - were awkwardly spaced apart, as though some were missing. Dust had collected everywhere, and really, the whole front part of the house felt like no one had really lived in it recently, despite the fact Gina Bergen was standing in front of us. It was sort of depressing, honestly. I supposed this was what the losing end of a divorce looked like.
Gina gestured for us to take a seat on the black cloth couch, and curled up neatly at the other end of it, facing us. "What do you want to know?"
Well, at least she wanted to get right to it.
"Did you ever speak to Henry, personally?" Karen asked her.
Gina pursed her lips but nodded, annoyance flittering in her eyes. "Yes, unfortunately. My lawyer wanted me to only work through her and not have any contact with Theo's counsel, but Henry wasn't one to do things the right way. He would call me without Maria being present, sniffing around for things Theo could hold over my head. He'd question what kind of life my children had here at the house without their father. He asked all about my job and the hours I kept. The calls were endless, and Maria eventually stepped in and told him to leave him alone. But whenever there was a meeting between both parties, Henry always tried his hardest to flirt with me. In the middle of my divorce with his own client, no less!"
I let out a low whistle. That was not what I'd expected to hear.
Karen leaned forward. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. My mother didn't have a very pleasant experience going through their divorce, either."
Gina only nodded, looking down at her hands in her lap. "It was unnerving, to say the least. I think that may have been the point."
Come to think about it, Gina really did remind me of Sydney Mortran with the blonde hair piled high on her head, the stuck-in-the-tanning-bed-too-long tan, and her pillowy mouth. She even had the blue eyes to match. Clearly, Henry had a type, and going by Karen’s expression, she wasn’t too surprised, either.
"How did he act when all four of you were in the same room?" I asked, curious.
"Oh, as if he were an utter professional. Which was a total joke, of course, since both Maria and I knew better by that point," Gina responded.
"Do you know of anyone who would want to kill Henry Mortran?" I finally asked. It seemed the most obvious question, with an even more obvious answer.
The laugh that came out of Gina's mouth was dark, absolutely humorless. "I think the real question is who didn't want to? Every divorced woman in Rosemary Creek would love his head on a silver platter. Everyone knows that the first place a man goes in this town after things are headed south in his marriage, is right to Henry's office. Not just the men here, but from other towns too. He had quite the reputation." She looked over her long, scarlet nails. "Of course, I didn't have anything to do with it, if that's what you're inferring."
I quickly shook my head. "No, we’re not saying that at all, Ms. Bergen. We're just trying to get some perspective from the other end of his business, that's all." I nodded to Karen. "I think that's all we really need, right?"
Karen slowly stood up and pulled her jacket back around her. "Yes, I think that’s it. Thank you again, Gina, for letting us come in. I really appreciate it."
Chapter 14
"I swear to God, if I have to have the same conversation with another woman on this list," Karen sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I don't think we’re getting anywhere with this."
I leaned up against the car next to her, nodding in agreement. "I feel like my head is spinning. There are at least twelve more women on this list that live in town, and more than that living outside of town, too. We’re definitely not going to be able to get everybody on the list today. There's just no way."
Karen and I had gone down the list of addresses, matching them up with wives that still lived at them. We had already seen five women so far—including Gina Bergen — and none of them struck either of us as being the type of person who would have gone about murdering anyone, even Henry Mortran. And going off of what every one of them told us, it was pretty easy to see that he had made a lot of enemies along the way.
"I know," Karen agreed. "We’re just running ourselves in circles, wasting time. It could've been any one of these women, sure, but I feel like it's probably not."
I looked out over the rushing water of Rosemary Creek, just barely visible through the nearby clearing of woods. It really did feel like we were just treading water, not really getting anywhere. Other than learning about Henry's less than stellar business practices, I wasn't sure we were going to be able to glean any more valuable information from the rest of the exes.
The sound of Mmbop, by the Ha
nson Brothers, resonated from somewhere in Karen’s jacket, startling me, and I raised a brow at her as she pulled out her phone.
"What?" Karen asked innocently. "You should hear the ring tone I have for my mom."
But, of course she answered the phone before I had a chance to even question it.
"Hello? Hey Portia. I'm okay, thanks. Did you – oh, really? No, thankfully my mom's back at the shop. I can definitely come in. When did you need me?" She looked down at the phone for a moment, checking the time. "Yeah, I should be able to make it there by then. Of course, it's no problem, really. Thanks, Portia. Bye."
Karen pocketed her phone and clapped her hands, rubbing them together. "Well, that was my boss at the shelter, Portia. Another girl called in sick, and Portia wanted to know if I could come in and pick up the shift for them. I don't suppose you want to come with?"
In the midst of everything going on with her dad, I had barely had any time at all to talk animals with Karen, other than explaining my obvious love for them. "Come with you to the shelter?"
She nodded. "Think of it this way – you'll be able to play with sweet animals for the rest of the day, or more likely for the next four hours, anyway. It's not an intake day, so it should be fairly calm. You should come with me and meet the animals, hang out. I mean really, what else are you going to do?"
I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway. "That was a great sell right there. You'd make a great car salesman."
Karen waggled her eyebrows at me, still grinning. "Well?"
Letting out a rather overly dramatic sigh, I looked up at the sky above us, thankful for the few spots of sunlight. "I guess so." Ok, I was thrilled with the idea. Playing with cute shelter animals for an afternoon sounded incredible.
"Perfect!" Karen squealed, bouncing up and down on her heels. "Let's go!"
I shook my head. “First things first.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to tell me what your mom’s ringtone is before I forget to ask.”
Karen laughed as she rolled her eyes, pulling her phone back out. She slid open her contacts and up came a picture of Barbara smiling. A moment later The Imperial March from Star Wars blared from the phone’s speakers as Karen smirked up at me.
I should have known.
From the outside, Gilly Mills Animal Sanctuary looked like a sort of ranch situated at the bottom of the cluster of hills on the outskirts of Napa Valley. It was hidden away from the road, but once you got up on it, a warm, friendly sign with the silhouette of a hound dog and small cat leaning against one another greeted us on our way in. I had barely gotten out of the car before I remembered just how much I enjoyed and missed being around animals.
When I was younger, I had volunteered at two of our local animal shelters in San Francisco, dividing my time equally between them after school. I very clearly remembered the moment I knew I wanted to become a vet assistant: my favorite cat, Maisie Lou, started going blind in both eyes, and the shelter couldn't afford the surgery to remove her cataracts. I remembered having to help her relearn her basic instincts, and holding her close against my chest with tears in my eyes, wishing that there was something I could do to help her. That was when I knew.
"Welcome to Gilly Mills," Karen announced, spreading her arms open wide as we walked up the dirt path to the front entrance. "My home away from home."
I couldn't help but smile, seeing just how excited she was. It must have been nice to go to work every day, feeling like you were wanted, and knowing that this was what you were meant to do.
"Karen! I didn't realize Portia called you in, how are you doing? How's your mama?" A booming, crackly female voice called out to us as we headed inside. "Who’s your friend?"
Karen threw her arm around me, waving at the short, round woman with curly hair. "Hey Maxie. Yeah, Portia called me telling me how sick Anna was, and asked me to come in. You going to be here for much longer?"
Maxie pulled out a clipboard from the desk she was standing behind, flipping a few pages before laughing. "You know how it goes. I come in for a couple hours, and then whoops! Suddenly it’s six o'clock and I still haven't gotten home to feed the animals. And you know how Rose, Blanche, and Sophia get if I'm not home in time to feed them when they’re used to it. They become a bunch of drama queens, that's what! I'm Maxine by the way," she continued, turning towards me, her wide smile infectious. "Don't let Karen's rude manners here get in the way of things."
"Sorry," Karen laughed. “Maxie, this is my new roommate, Taylor. Taylor, this is Maxine, but we all call her Maxie. She's one of the owners here at the shelter."
"It's very nice to meet you, Maxine," I said with a smile. Her energy was definitely infectious.
She waved me off. "Oh, go ahead and call me Maxie. Everyone else does. What brings you in to visit us, today, Taylor? If you’re roomies here with Karen, I know it's not to adopt... or is it?" she asked, scratching at her chin and winking at me.
"I wish," I answered, shrugging. "Actually, Karen invited me along to work for the day. Or volunteer, I guess. It's not like I'm expecting to get paid or anything."
She nodded. "Well, we can always use an extra set of hands. I don't suppose you'd like a quick tour of the place? While Karen goes and gets ready, I mean."
"Gets ready?" Karen repeated.
"Oh yes, ma'am. Didn't Portia tell you? The intakes came a day early. So we've been wrestling with the two of them all morning and afternoon so far. One of them is a little skittish, the product of one of those nasty backyard breeders. Poor thing’s been through so much already, and she’s only four years old. The other one is a stray tabby Portia found by the railroad tracks that lead into town this morning. He's not so bad, a little bitey though. And he reeks to high heaven, so he definitely needs a bath first."
Karen hung her head, laughing. "Of course. Now I understand why Portia wanted someone else to come in instead of just letting Anna go. All right, I'm on it. I'll catch up with you two in a little bit."
I watched as she went through a pair of doors, and turned to see Maxie watching me carefully. "Sorry," I replied sheepishly, not wanting to feel out of place, clearing my throat “Did you actually name your animals after the Golden Girls?"
Maxie grinned as she nodded. I definitely liked this woman.
The tour was more than I'd expected, and Maxie was obviously very passionate about her job, leaning in and loving on each one of the animals she introduced me to as we went. It warmed my heart more than I first realized.
We circled around eventually to a back room where Karen was busy wrapping a couple of her fingers up with Band-Aids.
"So the cat didn't really approve of the bath?" she said as soon as she noticed us, giving us a small smile.
Both me and Maxie snorted with laughter.
"I'll leave you two to it, then," Maxie said before heading off in the other direction.
"Here, let me," I said to Karen, taking her hand in mine. I knew I needed to practice working on my powers, and there was no time like the present.
“Is there anything I need to do? Like, to make it work?” I asked Karen.
“You need to focus your will on me,” Karen said. “You need to want me to get better.”
I focused my energy, closing my eyes and trying to breathe carefully, really wanting Karen’s hand to feel better.
For just a split second I could feel Karen's energy under my fingertips, and then the sensation was gone, and when I looked down, Karen's fingers showed no more signs of scratches.
She flipped her hand over, giving me an appraising look.
"Wow, that's actually pretty cool. You can’t even tell anything was there! So, what do you think of the place?"
I grinned. "It's perfect. I see why this is your home away from home."
"And did Maxie tell you we’re a no-kill shelter? We've got a very good rehoming rate, even with rascals like this guy," she told me, nodding her chin toward the direction of the crate with the orange tabby cat in it.
He let out an indignant hiss, as if he could completely understand what Karen was saying, and the both of us laughed.
"She did, actually. We talked a little bit about me going to veterinary school. She was telling me how you all have a part time vet who works with you guys."
Karen nodded, standing on her tiptoes to push the first aid kit back on the shelf. "Yeah, Dr. Marston. He's nice, but you know what would be really nice? Having a full-time vet on the staff. Who knows, there might be room in the budget for it one year," she added with a wink.
"Let me just get through school first, okay? Or, you know, just accepted in the first place."
I had to admit though, that the idea of working at an awesome place like Gilly Mills had my heart practically singing, especially after my whole experience at Little Richie’s. This place was like heaven.
"There’s something else I need to tell you, though," Karen whispered, dropping her voice back down. "Something I heard a little while ago."
I quirked a brow at her, waiting for her to continue. "Yeah?"
Karen leaned in. "I overheard Portia talking to one of our maintenance guys who also cleans the law firm back in town. They were talking about my dad's murder, actually. I don't think they realized I was standing close enough to hear them, but the guy told Portia he recognized someone he didn't usually see around the firm the morning of Henry's death. Something about a 'disgruntled professor?' Does that ring any bells?"
My jaw dropped to the floor. "Are you serious?"
"As a heart attack. He said he thought it was weird that this guy was awkwardly hanging around one minute, then scrambling to leave the next. They found Henry about an hour later, he said. I think we need to look at our nutty professor a little bit more closely."
Chapter 15
On one hand, it felt like were getting closer to finding out about Phil Cosgrove, but on the other hand, I still wasn't 100% convinced we were on the right track. Call it witchy intuition, but even with some pretty damning evidence on our side, I thought that it made sense to keep looking for other suspects as well. Karen, on the other hand, was like a dog with a bone, desperate to know more about him and what he was really up to the morning of Henry's murder, convinced he was guilty.
Witches and Wine (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (California Witching Book 1) Page 9