{"id":1067,"date":"2012-02-23T14:17:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=1067"},"modified":"2012-02-23T14:17:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T20:17:00","slug":"chapter-22-clean-plate-club-murder-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/chapter-22-clean-plate-club-murder-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 22: Clean Plate Club Murder Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

For prior chapters, click on the “Murder Mystery” category to the right.<\/em><\/p>\n

I got back into the car and headed north again.\u00a0 I thought that it’d be helpful to find out a bit more\u00a0about the Murphy finances.\u00a0 Actually, if the truth be told I was mostly curious, perhaps a little morbidly so as an eye witness to the decline of a socially prominent family.\u00a0 The original wealth of Santa Teresa was based on the orange groves that stretched along the coast.\u00a0 But most of those families had long since moved on, subdividing not only their great estates, but also the orange groves that were now residential.\u00a0 It was obvious that Henry Murphy disparaged the \u201cnew money\u201d types who were now his neighbors, and his resentment would be amplified in this depressed real estate market.\u00a0 His disdain for Cutter City probably\u00a0 reflected his disdain for his brother-in-law Sam Todd \u2013 in fact he doubled down on Sam \u2013 not only was he from Cutter City, but he was new money.\u00a0 \u00a0But Henry could feel smug that at least he was along the coast \u2013 that was still the address of old money.<\/p>\n

My best source for real estate information was my high school classmate Mary, but I always hesitated to call her.\u00a0 Mary and I were good friends in high school until I beat her out for class president and then student council representative.\u00a0 Since then there was always an edge to our relationship and I felt that she was always trying to show that she was more successful than I was.\u00a0 Mary started in the real estate business at the same time as I did, and from very modest beginnings she had evolved into Santa Teresa\u2019s top realtor for high end properties.\u00a0\u00a0 But Dad had always told me that a good contact should never be casually dismissed and sometimes the job required you to grit your teeth and smile.\u00a0 She answered her phone just as I pulled back out onto the highway.\u00a0 \u201cHey, Mary, I\u2019m looking for info on both the Coastal Estates development and also theSkyeIsland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, Liza is business that good for you?\u00a0 You know that I would be happy to be your realtor for any of those properties \u2013 good buyers are hard to find in this market, and you could probably get a great deal on either of those, particularly the Ocean Estates.\u00a0 Those prices have come down a few notches over the past 6 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry to disappoint you, Mary, but this is just background for a case involving the Murphy\u2019s.\u00a0 Henry Murphy owns the Ocean Estates development and his brother-in-law Sam Todd owns the Skye Island development.\u00a0 I\u2019m just interested in what they are worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLiza, you are involved with the Todd\u2019s? That\u2019s a very high end client for your line of business, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I thought that you mostly followed people and took hidden pictures of them.\u00a0 Wait a minute, is this a divorce issue \u2013 do you think that they’ll have to sell?\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn’t surprised at her question.\u00a0 Mary was always over the top aggressive, scanning the gossip pages for upcoming divorces,\u00a0 corporate transfers, and more recently bankruptcies.\u00a0 I had given her a few tips over the years based on my infidelity cases, and as a result she was willing to do a little research for me.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSorry Mary, this isn\u2019t a divorce, can\u2019t say much more than that, but it sure seems like the Murphy\u2019s are heavily invested in real estate now, and just wondering how this economy is treating them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well tell me about it.\u00a0 Four years ago, I could sell a million dollar property within 6 weeks.\u00a0 I would have multiple offers, people waiving the contractor clause.\u00a0 Real estate was a beautiful thing back then.\u00a0 Now, I actually have to bust my butt to get\u00a0a single offer after 6 months.\u00a0 Ocean Estates and Skye Island are not my properties, but I will check around.\u00a0 Actually, I think that there is a realtor\u2019s open house at Ocean Estates this morning and maybe I will take a look see.\u00a0Skye Island is just vacant land, so it is a little difficult to get a read on.\u00a0 Great view up there, but who wants to drive up and down the canyon?\u00a0 Nobody really wants to build a house anymore and the cachet is still beach view property where you can get some very nice deals.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that I have gone up the canyon\u00a0with any of my clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou certainly don\u2019t need to go to the open house, but it would be great to get the history on the properties, see if the prices have come down, if any are short sales, that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo problem, I wouldn\u2019t mind going over to Ocean Estates.\u00a0 Who knows, maybe some millionaire will walk in.\u00a0 You know the only active market going on right now is nice little apartments like yours, but of course that lower end stuff is not my niche anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks Mary,\u00a0we really need to get together for lunch some time – it’s been ages. \u00a0Let\u2019s see how our schedules look for tomorrow. \u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that I ever talked with Mary without making plans for lunch \u2013 sometimes she offered, sometimes me, but we both knew that these plans were empty promises.\u00a0 We were either both legitimately busy, or did not want to let the other know that we had time on our hands for such a trivial thing as lunch.<\/p>\n

I was just approaching the old army base that separated Santa Teresa from Cutter City along the coast.\u00a0 It was this buffer that had allowed two such disparate communities to develop.\u00a0 The large houses of Santa Teresa extended to this line, and then the dilapidated houses of Cutter City emerged at the other side of the army base.\u00a0 At least along the coast, there was no gradual decline in house values as you moved from one community to the next, no blending of the two cities and two cultures.\u00a0 It was easy for me to understand why Henry Murphy had never set foot in Cutter City in his entire life.\u00a0 His world stopped abruptly at the army base.<\/p>\n

The government had closed\u00a0the base about 10 years ago, prompting a political debate about what to do with this valuable piece of real estate \u2013 should it be annexed to Santa Teresa or Cutter City?\u00a0 Santa Teresa had proposed that the property be turned into a community golf course, with the officers’ quarters renovated into town houses and apartments.\u00a0Cutter City had countered with a proposal for\u00a0affordable housing,\u00a0a large homeless shelter and a half way house for paroled prisoners.\u00a0 I thought that this was a brilliant strategy for Cutter City\u2013 a homeless shelter on ocean view property was not realistic, but Santa Teresians were so appalled at the prospect that they were willing to compromise.\u00a0 Some land was set aside for a golf course, although it had never been built, and the officer\u2019s quarters were rehabbed.\u00a0 They were actually quite nice \u2013 I had even contemplated living here at one point, but Mary had talked me out of if, saying that there was no track record yet of resale value.\u00a0 The based also included\u00a0 more affordable housing that had attracted young families, but Santa Teresa managed to get them assigned to the Cutter City school system.\u00a0 And then instead of a half way house, both communities worked together to create an affordable retirement home \u2013 optimistically called Great Days Assisted Living.\u00a0 Santa Teresa had several other very swanky assisted living facilities, so that it was unlikely that the Santa Teresa elite were rubbing elbows with their social inferiors in the waning days of their lives.<\/p>\n

As I was idling at the stoplight, I suddenly thought that old Mrs. Murphy \u2013 Chloe was her first name \u2013 might be housed here given the dilapidated state of her old family home.\u00a0 Sure, I was partly just curious, but I could honestly claim that I should talk with her to find out when she last saw Dessa.\u00a0\u00a0And certainly I\u00a0needed to establish a time line when she disappeared.\u00a0 I quickly moved over to the left turn lane, and turned into the visitors parking.\u00a0 As I walked under the awning in front of the entrance, I noticed bricks etched with the names of contributors.\u00a0 Right in the middle were a cluster of bricks that were etched:\u00a0 \u201cTo Great Days from the Murphy Family\u201d and then beneath there were bricks designating Henry Murphy, Chloe Murphy, and then her husband\u00a0Raymond James\u00a0Murphy.\u00a0 I looked around but did not see any bricks from Cymbaline or Sam Todd.<\/p>\n

The foyer was nice enough with overhead skylights and photographs of ocean sunsets lining the walls.\u00a0 But there was no doubt that this was a nursing home.\u00a0 There was no carpeting to accommodate easy movement of wheelchairs and there was the slightest antiseptic and institutional odor.\u00a0 The smell immediately reminded me of the weekly visits my father and I made to my maternal grandmother during her 5 year stint in a nursing home.\u00a0 I used to hate those visits, but my father said that we were the only family she had, and it was important for the staff to know that my grandmother had a supportive family \u2013 she would get better care that way. \u00a0So every single Sunday we would visit\u00a0at 9 and stay long enough for my father to finish the Sunday\u00a0crossword – usually about an hour and a half.\u00a0\u00a0My father would ask my grandmother for help, even though she was totally helpless herself.<\/p>\n

As I approached the front desk, there was a loudspeaker announcement of music therapy in the Todd Activity Room.\u00a0 Well, I thought, Sam Todd did step up after all, and totally blew Henry out of the water.\u00a0 Sam Todd was a named room, while Henry was just a scuffed up brick in the driveway.\u00a0 All the little clues were adding up to a cavernous rift between the two branches of the Murphy family,\u00a0with Dessa in the middle.<\/p>\n

I needed to quickly decide on my approach here.\u00a0 Should I invent some of pretext, say that I was looking for a place for a relative, or should I say that I was here to visit Chloe and then totally wing it once I met her.\u00a0 I might be easy to finesse a face to face meeting since I knew that Chloe had some element of\u00a0dementia.\u00a0 In fact, the best possible scenario would be if Chloe was not conversational but her caregiver was.\u00a0 That was probably Dad\u2019s best piece of advice \u2013 the best sources of information are the unwitting fringes who have no agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to visit Chloe Murphy,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

The young woman glanced up from her People magazine to look up the room number.\u00a0 Either Chloe wasn\u2019t here, the receptionist was new and didn\u2019t recognize the name, or Chloe got so few visitors that her room number was unfamiliar.\u00a0 I guessed the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see, it looks like she is in the memory ward, Room 152 on the right.\u201d\u00a0 The woman leaned back in her chair and yawned, and I spotted a wad of apple green gum skittering across her tongue.\u00a0 I thought to myself \u2013 there is no way that Henry Murphy could handle this environment.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t even be able to get beyond the front desk with someone yawning in his face.\u00a0 I peeked into Room 152 and saw a very pleasant woman sitting in an easy chair working on a crocheted afghan.\u00a0 There were two beds in the room, and on the bedside table next to the woman were a collection of pictures of a large family group\u00a0including young grandchildren or great-grandchildren.\u00a0 I immediately realized that this could not be Chloe, and in fact, that Chloe must have a room mate.\u00a0 Almost inconceivable for the once prominent Murphy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me, I\u2019m sorry to interrupt, but do you know where Chloe Murphy is?\u00a0 I would like to pay her a visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChloe, who is Chloe?\u00a0 Are you looking for that other woman? She is in the solarium.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solarium was filled with both men and women slumping in wheelchairs.\u00a0 No matter how reduced her circumstances, both financial and mental, I imagined that Chloe would retain the regal sense of dignity that had been her calling card in her prime.\u00a0 I scanned the room and spotted a well-dressed woman sitting erect in her wheel chair with her hands gently folded in her lap.\u00a0 Her hair was snow white and pulled back into an elegant bun.\u00a0 This must be her.\u00a0 As I approached I heard an attendant say, \u201cMrs. Murphy, would you like to go for a stroll in a few minutes?\u00a0 My target women responded to her name and turned and looked at the attendant with faded blue eyes, but said nothing.<\/p>\n

I bent down in front of the wheelchair to introduce myself.\u00a0 \u201cHello Mrs. Murphy.\u00a0 My name is Liza Blue and I am a friend of your grand daughter Dessa, who talks about you so much.\u00a0 I was just driving by Great Days, so I thought that I would stop by to visit.\u201d\u00a0 I thought I saw a flicker of recognition at the mention of Dessa\u2019s name, but Chloe said nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Murphy is not much of a conversationalist these days \u2013 she has really gone downhill in the past three weeks or so,\u201d said the attendant.\u00a0 I\u2019ve known her for the 6 months that she has been here, and she used to try so hard to be mentally active \u2013 went to speech therapy and memory class, and then all of a sudden she just stopped trying.\u00a0 I think that it was taking too much of her energy and it just wasn\u2019t worth it any more.\u00a0 You are welcome to join us on our walk.\u00a0 In fact, you can help me by pushing her wheelchair.\u00a0 You see the residents in the upper tier of service are promised walks every day, and Mrs. Murphy and I used to have a great time.\u00a0 But recently, she has dropped out of that level of service so technically I am not supposed to be spending my time with her, but it just seems so sad, so I have figured out a way bring her along with another client.\u00a0 But it is hard to control two wheelchairs at once, so I would love to have you come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was beyond my wildest dreams \u2013 the juiciest of an unwitting fringe.\u00a0 A woman without a filter, who would probably tell me anything and who probably had a fabulous insight into the dynamics of the Murphy family.\u00a0 I would push a wheelchair up a mountain for her.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d love to join you.\u00a0 I saw that there was a coffee shop on the way in \u2013 should I get us some?\u00a0 Do you think that Mrs. Murphy would like one also?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the way, my name is Nancy, and I\u2019d love a black coffee.\u00a0 Mrs. Murphy used to have a latte every afternoon, but now she wouldn\u2019t even know what it was \u2013 maybe when we get back, you can get her one with a straw and she might drink it.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get them organized \u2013 I\u2019m taking Roger here as well, and I will meet by the door over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time I returned with the coffee, Nancywas waiting for me outside with Roger and Chloe strapped into their wheelchairs.\u00a0 Roger was covered with a very elaborate hand-knit afghan, while Chloe was covered up in an old blanket.\u00a0 I handed Nancy the coffee and off we went.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo how do you know Mrs. Murphy?\u201d said Nancy.\u00a0 \u201cShe is really a most lovely woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought the best approach was not to actually lie, but to steer the conversation is the most promising direction.\u00a0 \u201cI have actually never met Mrs. Murphy, but I have heard so much about her from her family, and I was sorry to hear that she was not doing well.\u00a0 I used to visit my grandmother in a nursing home, and I tried to come every week, but it was very difficult when she retreated into her own world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is so common, and heartbreaking for us who work here.\u00a0 The family starts out so enthusiastic, taking their parents out for dinner, bringing in special treats, celebrating birthdays with balloons and cakes.\u00a0 And then the attention begins to dwindle, and when the memory is shot, the family really loses interest.\u00a0 But you know, Mrs. Murphy never really had many visitors.\u00a0 I think that she is in her nineties now, so most of her friends are gone.\u00a0 Her son Henry doesn’t\u00a0come very often, I don\u2019t think that I have ever seen her daughter here \u2013 even though the activity room is named after them.\u00a0 The grand daughter was the most regular visitor, she used to come every week, take her on walks, or even took for a drive in the car a couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been in touch with Dessa myself recently,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps she is out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I saw Dessa a couple of weeks ago.\u00a0 She came here with a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted to quickly follow up on this enticing nugget of information.\u00a0 \u201cOh, perhaps that was our mutual acquaintance Penny, the one with all the tattoos.\u201d\u00a0 I thought how convenient that Penny was immediately recognizable by her tattoos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t catch her name, but I did see the tattoos.\u00a0 They certainly made an odd couple \u2013 Dessa looking so elegant, and this friend looking so scruffy.\u00a0 And then Dessa missed a couple of weeks.\u00a0 But she was here a couple of days ago.\u00a0 She sat with her grandmother for a long time and when she left I could tell that she had been crying.\u00a0 I felt sorry for her.\u00a0 Where\u00a0are her mother and her uncle is what I’d like to know?\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s too much for a kid to take on the responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tried to contain the excitement in my voice.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry, did you say that Dessa was here a couple of days ago?\u00a0 I have been trying to reach her, but she hasn\u2019t responded to my messages, so I just assumed that she was out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes I think that it was just a couple of days ago \u2013 actually, now I remember that it was Tuesday.\u00a0 I remember because that was the day that old Mr. Keith died.\u00a0 Yes, it was last Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stopped and grabbed her arm.\u00a0 \u201cThat is fabulous, just fabulous to hear.\u201d \u00a0I knew by the puzzled look on Nancy’s face that I was a little over the top in my joy so I quickly added some context, \u201cI don\u2019t get in town often and am only here for a couple of days, so I will make sure I stop by her parent\u2019s house to see her.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were now at the end of the walk and Nancy stopped to hoist up the slumping Roger.\u00a0 I wanted to explore Chloe\u2019s diminished circumstances, but I wanted to tread carefully. Commiseration and empathy were always a good tactic.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, my father and I cared for my grandmother in a nursing home, and I think that on any given day that kind of responsibility and sadness can either bring out the best in someone or the worst, and you never know which.\u00a0 My father and I had big fights over whose turn it was to visit, and how we were going to celebrate holidays \u2013 for example, we never could go away for Christmas or Thanksgiving because then there would be nobody for Grandma.\u00a0 It was pretty bad, but then I realized that it was the most vulnerable person that gets caught in the middle, and that ultimately we will be judged by how we take care of the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

With anyone else, I might have worried that I was being too forward, but Nancy just babbled on.\u00a0 \u201cI wish we had more family members like you around here. \u00a0I totally agree.\u00a0 My God, you wouldn\u2019t believe the fights that I have seen.\u00a0 The Murphy\u2019s are a classic example, and I think that both Mrs. Murphy and Dessa are the vulnerable ones.\u00a0 That son of hers is the worst.\u00a0 Mrs. Murphy used to have a suite of rooms, then she moved into a single room, which was nice enough, and it was about three weeks ago that she moved into the shared room.\u00a0 There was a screaming match over that one \u2013 you could hear him bellowing all the way down the hallway.\u00a0 That was the day that Dessa was here with that \u00a0tattooed girl.\u00a0 I think that they were actually about to kick Mrs. Murphy out \u2013 don\u2019t think that her son had paid the bills.\u00a0 I just heard him say something along the lines, \u2018After all this family has done for this place, and this is the thanks she gets.\u00a0 You do know that her daughter is Cymbaline Todd.\u2019 \u00a0I never liked that son of hers, but then again Dessa\u2019s mother has never shown up. \u00a0I do a lot of extra things for Mrs. Murphy, and I don\u2019t mind, but it\u2019s not like I get any recognition from that family \u2013 not even a fruit basket of thanks at the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

We completed our circle in silence and reentered the solarium.\u00a0 I noticed that both Roger and Chloe’s heads had tipped over into an awkward nap.\u00a0 I suddenly felt immensely sorry for Chloe Murphy.\u00a0 I could understand why she gave up when she saw her carefully ordered world slip away from her.\u00a0 What was the point?\u00a0 \u201cWell thank you for the walk Nancy.\u00a0 This is a beautiful facility and Mrs. Todd is lucky to have an advocate like you.\u00a0 I will certainly let Dessa know when I next see her.\u00a0 And by the way, if you do see Dessa, ask her to give me a call.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to give Nancy my business card, so I wrote out my number on a piece of paper with the cryptic message. \u00a0\u201cGive me a call.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

I climbed back into the car and headed back into the northbound traffic.\u00a0 My sudden instinct to stop by the nursing home had paid off beyond my wildest dream. \u00a0I had caught Henry Murphy in not a little lie, but a big lie. \u00a0He had seen Dessa within the last three weeks, and he had met Penny. \u00a0And then of course, Dessa was local and on the move \u2013 that was good news.\u00a0 And I was relieved that Goddard was not holding his sister captive. \u00a0Maybe he wasn\u2019t a pederast after all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For prior chapters, click on the “Murder Mystery” category to the right. I got back into the car and headed north again.\u00a0 I thought that it’d be helpful to find out a bit more\u00a0about the Murphy finances.\u00a0 Actually, if the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-murder-mystery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-hd","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}