A Tango Before Dying

by Anna Celeste Burke

  “I can’t tell you that for sure. A sister, who’s older and not well. Her sister’s daughter—Charlotte Chantel’s niece—who lives near her mother. That’s clear across the country in Florida. I have a sneaking suspicion that the task of laying Madame Chantel to rest is going to fall to Carolita.”

  “Knowing her as we do, staying busy will be good for her. Plus, she’s familiar enough with her godmother’s likes and dislikes that she can honor her in an appropriate way.” Jack slowed as we approached the house. Lights were on, but I didn’t see anyone moving about inside. A car was parked across the street. We live at the end of the street that dead ends in a cul de sac, so there were only a couple houses someone could be visiting. What caught my attention was that the car, parked the wrong way, faced us as we approached.

  “You don’t think Carter has returned, do you?” My skin crawled as we drew closer. It glinted white when Jack’s high beam headlights hit it. The interior remained dark so I couldn’t tell if the car was occupied or not.

  “That’s an Arizona tag on the car. Did Kevin and Carter drive here from Phoenix?”

  “I don’t have any idea.” I peered through the dark, wondering how the heck Jack could have recognized an Arizona plate as quickly as he had. Suddenly, I was blinded as someone in the car turned on the headlights and then sped away from the curb barely avoiding a collision by driving away on the wrong side of the street. Jack pulled into the circular driveway in front of our house. “Carter’s obviously not in the house. If you’re sure about the license tags, that must have been him, right?”

  “If I were a gambling man, Georgie, I’d put money on it.” Once we were safely parked in the garage and the door had shut behind us, I jumped out of the car and hurried inside.

  “Home, home, home—at last!” I said, as I stepped into the morning room off the kitchen and looked around. I was swarmed by the cats, which was a good sign. If Carter or anyone else had caused trouble recently, we’d be hearing about it now. I could hardly take a step without fearing one of them would trip me, but neither of them bellowed or otherwise chewed me out. Jack locked the door, scanned the area including the great room off the kitchen, and then checked the sliding door that leads out onto the veranda, too.

  “Everything appears undisturbed, and I’d say the welcoming party approves of our return.” Jack bent down and scooped up Ella who’d been making sweet gurgling sounds as she wove between his legs and leaned against him. When Miles jumped up onto the little side table in the kitchen, he raised his head and roared like a lion. I dropped my shoulder bag, kicked off my shoes, and grabbed big mouth before he could bellow again.

  “Hush, baby! We have a guest who’s sad and exhausted. Give her a break, please.” Miles rumbled his reply as I held him close. He blinked at me with his gorgeous blue eyes that sparkled like sapphires. We traded cats for a couple of minutes so they each got the greeting they expected. When I stood up after setting Ella on the floor, I saw a note on the fridge. I ran and slipped it out from under the magnet that held it and read it to Jack.

  “Goodnight, Georgie and Jack. Thanks for giving me a safe, warm, comfortable place to stay complete with fur babies to keep me company. Don’t let them con you into believing they need dinner or treats—they’ve had both! I had a weird response to my message from Kevin, but I think he understands there’s no need to come back in the morning. Sleep tight. Carolita.”

  “I’m not sure what she means by weird. I’ll ask her about it in the morning. If that was him sitting out in front of the house, he clearly didn’t get the message not to come back here.”

  “I’ll call the guard gate right now and make sure they don’t let him in without calling us first. You didn’t give him the gate code, did you?”

  “No, but if Carol used it to get in, he might have seen it.”

  “Good point. To be on the safe side, I’ll change it while you fix us a bedtime snack. I ate a ton of those mini quiches, stuffed mushrooms, and hoisin meatballs. Goat-cheese stuffed cucumbers and those little skewers with tomatoes and basil and mozzarella, so I had veggies, too.” He was obviously proud of himself.

  “How about I fix us fruit and yogurt to round that out? I had enough, too, including way more chocolate than I needed.” I glanced over my shoulder at my backside reflected in the mirror hanging over the side table and sighed. “Seconds on the lips and forever on the hips.”

  “I’m fond of your hips. Chocolate’s heart-healthy, as you’ve taught me, and cheaper than therapy! According to the Brits, ‘watch your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’—pun intended.”

  “Ha-ha, what a sweet, clever man you are. I’m glad you approve, but I’ll see if Carol feels like going to the gym with me tomorrow.”

  “She might like that—especially a soak in the hot tub after working out. If you two have that hot tub all to yourselves, that’s not a bad place for her to make those difficult phone calls you’re talking about. It will probably be Monday before she can get a death certificate and make funeral arrangements.”

  “That’s a good point. At least we don’t have to go to work tomorrow as if nothing has happened. I’m going to make sure Carol knows she can take off a few extra days if she needs them. At some point, she’s going to have to make a trip to Santa Barbara to deal with Charlotte’s condo and dance studio. Not right away, I hope. No way am I going to let her do that alone. Not with strange men parking outside the place she’s staying that’s meant to be a haven.”

  “If Charlotte left a Will, she could have designated someone other than Carol to deal with her home and other assets.” Jack sat on a barstool as I prepared our snack. The cats were perched next to him, staring as if willing me to bring them one, too. I tried to ignore their penetrating, almost hypnotic, gazes.

  “I didn’t even ask about a Will. I’ll bring it up tomorrow. If someone other than Carol stands to benefit from Madame Chantel’s death, I suppose you coppers need to take that into consideration, don’t you?”

  “Yep. Money’s always a possible motive.”

  “Alright, I’ll ask.” I set small dishes of yogurt and berries on the granite surface. My will to resist the cats caved when Ella put both front paws on Jack’s arm as if she were praying or begging for his intervention.

  “Oh, all right you little con artists. Turkey!” They dove from the barstool and hit the floor in a perfect tandem dismount by the sound of their footfalls. I tore a slice of turkey into tiny slivers and set a dish on the floor for them.

  “You act as if no one has fed you for days,” I chided them. Then I slid onto the barstool next to Jack.

  “At least I get to sit next to you now. What are you going to do while Carol and I are retrieving her car and working out?”

  “I should go to the gym with you, but I’m going to go into my office, instead. I want to see what I can find out about Carter Whitley now that he’s decided to violate the sanctity of our home. I got a partial plate number. He doesn’t have any more sense than Natalie Bucco, does he, to act out in front of the local constabulary?”

  “Natalie Bucco might not have realized she was messing with a master detective when she put on that show in front of you at lunchtime. Carter knows better. I overheard Max telling him all about you. The sooner you can get the scoop on him, the better. I say we also drop in on Kevin Whitley during visiting hours tomorrow night. Max won’t ever forgive me if I don’t look in on him.”

  “Yeah, right. Your cats aren’t the only ones who have a few confidence game skills, my love.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with inspiring a little confidence for a worthy cause like getting to the truth about the culprit behind Charlotte Chantel’s death.”

  “I can’t argue with that. You have a way of putting people at ease and drawing them out which is important even when they aren’t trying to hide anything. A more casual conversation works better than a police interview when it comes to recalling details people weren’t aware that they knew or didn’t realize
mattered.”

  “That certainly seemed to be the case for Kathleen Fowler today. I hope Kevin will have recovered enough to do that and won’t try to cover up for his grandson if Carter Whitley is up to no good.”

  “Ask Carol if those character shoes could have belonged to her godmother. If she had a pair with her and they went missing, she might have said something about it. If not, it could still help to pass along Madame Chantel’s shoe size and the brand she wore to Julie or Jarvis.”

  “Okay. We can check the suite while we’re there and see if we can find a pair. I’m not sure if Carol has permission to clear out her godmother’s belongings, but if it’s okay, I’ll help her pack up everything and haul it to her car.”

  “I could call Julie Spencer in the morning and ask. Since you’ve got to pick up Carol’s car anyway, you might as well assume you can collect Charlotte’s belongings. Don’t worry about it unless you get upstairs to Charlotte’s suite and find your entry barred. I’ll bet the hotel would have had a fit if the police did that and I’m sure they’ll be more than happy for you to clear the room. That’s an expensive suite they’d probably like to get back into circulation.”

  “I’m sure they’re not out any money since Charlotte was booked for the rest of the week. Why not make a few extra bucks if they can rebook the room early—even if it’s because of a murder?” I shuddered at the thought. “You know, when I’ve made hotel reservations, it’s never entered my mind to ask for a room with a king size bed, a city view, and ‘hasn’t been a crime scene, please.’”

  “Not a recent one anyway,” Jack muttered in a distracted way.

  “You must be as exhausted as I am.” I slipped off the barstool with less agility than Miles and Ella. That’s when it dawned on me that our furry friends were no longer with us. As I carried our empty bowls to the sink, I took a little detour to search the hallway leading to our bedroom. I didn’t see cats, but I did see shreds of paper.

  “What is it?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not sure. It looks like the cats have shredded something. Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up. You seem to be busy.”

  “Yes. Gary just sent me a summary of his findings from viewing the video footage recorded on cameras in the hotel lobby and the hallway outside Charlotte’s suite. Your masked man did the right thing to confess—he was caught on video in both places.”

  “That’s interesting, isn’t it?” I asked as I picked up the items in the hall.

  “Yes. He’s not the only one, though.”

  “Really? Was he telling me the truth when he said Charlotte had a visitor after he left?”

  “Yes, indeed! The plot thickens!” Before Jack could give me the details, I interrupted him.

  “Well, I’ll be darned. If I’m not mistaken, little miss pickpocket’s been at it again!”

  12 Telltale Footage

  “This could be what Carter Whitley came back to get.” I held up his driver’s license that had teeth marks in it. One corner had been chewed off. There were little shreds of paper, too, that appeared to have once been a receipt. “I suppose he could have set the receipt for food, along with his driver’s license, on a table and forgotten about it until later.”

  “Or he forgot it on purpose and planned to use that as a ruse to come back later.” I arched an eyebrow at him.

  “What a wily young lad you must have been.”

  “Not me, but I did raise a daughter as you know. I’ve run into more than my share of crafty young men as a cop, too.”

  “I’m more inclined to believe our little thief pinched the goods from a pocket if he took off his jacket and left it lying around unguarded. Those cats can smell food from anywhere in this house, so I’m not surprised they found a receipt from a fast food chicken place.”

  “I’m sure he would have stopped Ella if she’d accosted him and tried to steal from his shirt or pants pocket. Why didn’t Carol notice the trail they left in the hallway?”

  “I don’t know—maybe they started in the great room and didn’t haul the loot down the hall until after Carol went to bed.” Just as I said that, Ella came barreling down the hallway toward us with something dangling from her mouth. She was chortling as she does when she’s got her “precious” with her—like Gollum’s behavior in Lord of the Rings. I hustled after her and took it away from her.

  “Here’s what probably caught Ella’s eye in the first place. You know how much she loves shiny objects.” I held up a silver bracelet with a medic alert tag on it.

  “I suppose if she stole his driver’s license and his tag alerting EMTs that he’s diabetic, Carter had a legitimate reason to come back.”

  “I agree. So why are they still here? All he had to do was text her about what he was missing before driving over here. Once he got here, he could have knocked on the door and Carolita would have handed them over to him. Or why not ask us when we arrived rather than tearing out of here the way he did?”

  “Maybe I spooked him when I flashed him with my brights.” Jack shrugged. “I’m suspicious of the guy, too. Let’s see what a background check reveals, and we’ll have a conversation with his granddad, too, tomorrow. I’ll track down Carter, tell him I have his missing items, and inform him that he can claim them at my office, not our home.”

  “That sounds good to me. I don’t want him back here any more than Carolita does.” I dropped the loot I’d confiscated from Ella into a plastic sandwich bag and handed it to Jack. “It feels like it must be midnight but it’s not even ten o’clock yet. If I make us a cup of tea, will you let me in on the secrets of the telltale footage?”

  “Sure. Why don’t I start with all the action in the lobby? It was perceptive of you to surmise Katrina’s caginess had something to do with a man. According to Gary, the video catches ‘a very personal moment’ between Katrina and her friend before she walks into the lobby from the parking lot alone. He steps into the lobby seconds later and then gets into the same elevator with Katrina and several other guests.”

  “Let me guess. The man was none other than Collin Richards, right?”

  “Very good! I know Kathleen mentioned him as one of the more reasonable people to deal with from the World Ballroom Dance Association. I don’t recall meeting him, but apparently Gary recognized him.”

  “His name came up a couple of times today. When I asked Katrina where she was when she saw Natalie Bucco pull that stunt at lunchtime, she said she was inside chatting with Collin Richards.”

  “Well, if she and Collin Richards are involved romantically, why did she care about the ring she found in Kevin’s dressing room?”

  “Come on, you must know that having a new boyfriend doesn’t always let the old one off the hook. If Kevin doesn’t volunteer the information, let’s tell him the police have that ring and ask him why Katrina threw it at him. I’d like to hear his version of the story about their relationship. So, who else was skulking around in the lobby today?”

  “Gary says a poorly disguised Natalie Bucco, in a bad blond wig and enormous sunglasses, came into the lobby not long after Katrina Milan and Collin Richards returned to the hotel.”

  “Are you kidding me? It must have been a decent disguise if no one figured out it was her. Wasn’t security on alert for her return by then?”

  “No, in his notes, Gary makes a point about the fact that they didn’t get the call to keep an eye out for her until almost an hour later. I haven’t put the timeline together, but I know he’d received word to be on the lookout for Natalie Bucco before he was sent upstairs to Charlotte’s suite. When I asked if he could arrange for us to speak to Natalie Bucco, I didn’t have to explain who she was, so he and the police were searching for her by then, even though Max and Charlotte had declined to file charges against her.”

  “Once the media began broadcasting their film clips, they probably had no choice but to look into it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the organizers of the dance competition were outraged and insisted on a police investigation. That’s easy eno
ugh for you to find out, and then you can put it into the timeline you’re talking about.”

  “Someone with the LAPD dispatch will know when the call went out to look for Natalie Bucco so I can get that information even without contacting Detective Spencer or her partner. Here’s where it gets interesting. When the waiter shows up, Natalie Bucco’s on her feet, and slips into the elevator with Brett Henson.”

  “So, Brett Henson is in the elevator, and Natalie Bucco is in disguise, tailing him. I rest my case about the wig and sunglasses not being all that bad. Brett, of all people, should have recognized her. She couldn’t have been standing more than a foot or two away from him.”

  “From what he told you, he was carried away with happiness and gratitude by Charlotte’s invitation to join her backstage. Maybe he was so preoccupied he didn’t even notice Natalie. According to Gary’s notes, when she steps into the elevator, he doesn’t give her a second glance or speak to her. We don’t have any video of interactions among the occupants of the elevator after the door closes. It’s several minutes later before he steps out onto Charlotte’s floor.”

  “That’s probably because he stopped by the registration table to claim that backstage pass. What happens to Natalie? Did she follow Brett or get off on her floor and sneak into her room while in disguise?”

  “I don’t know where she went. There’s no video evidence that she ever returned to her room. Gary’s already told us there are blind spots on every floor so the video footage may not have captured it if that’s where she went. About an hour later, she’s back in the lobby and makes a beeline for the parking garage.”

  “Hmm. So, that means there’s no way to know where she was for most of that time. Wouldn’t you have to be savvy about surveillance to make use of the blind spots—or be an insider to know where they are?”

  “Dumb luck can do it sometimes, but savviness and insider knowledge are the tools more practiced crooks rely on. Maybe we’re dealing with career criminals, but I doubt pros would have left the hypodermic needle or shoe where it could be found so easily.”