{"id":1481,"date":"2012-09-04T19:17:59","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T00:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2012-09-14T16:15:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T21:15:19","slug":"clean-plate-club-murder-mystery-chapter-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/clean-plate-club-murder-mystery-chapter-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean Plate Club Murder Mystery: Chapter 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

I slept fitfully that night, and was entirely groggy when I heard phone ring at six.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t catch it in time, and momentarily fell back asleep, and then it rang again.\u00a0 I struggled awake, grabbed the phone and said hello as briskly as I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiza, it\u2019s me Simba.\u00a0 Is it too early for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

I sat straight up in bed.\u00a0 \u201cSimba, of course not, are you all right?\u00a0 Where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m outside your door.\u00a0 Is it okay to come in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, just a minute, let me get my bathrobe on.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid I wasn\u2019t quite up and running yet, but I\u2019m a fast starter.\u00a0 I\u2019m coming down to the door right now, and I\u2019ll get some coffee going.\u201d<\/p>\n

I closed the door to the bedroom to hide the disheveled mess of an unmade bed and strewn clothes.\u00a0 I realized that I could do nothing about the pile of dishes in the sink, but was able to put the overflowing garbage bag in the utility closet.\u00a0 Just in time, I realized that the knot in my bathrobe had loosened and I was about to open the door in a state of near nakedness.\u00a0 I cinched it up, and opened the door.<\/p>\n

Simba was wearing the same clothes as yesterday at the beach, but the impeccable ice blue skirt and jacket were now completely rumpled.\u00a0 I also noticed a worrisome stain along the hem of her sleeve.\u00a0 \u201cSimba, where have you been?\u00a0 Have you been up all night?\u201d<\/p>\n

Simba looked down as I touched her stained jacket and starting laughing, \u201cI can\u2019t believe that you thought that was blood, but then of course you are a detective, and have probably seen worse.\u00a0 Yes, I’ve been out all night, and I probably got that when I stopped at one of those all night burger joints.\u00a0 Actually, it wasn\u2019t that bad \u2013 I think that I used to go there when I was a teenager.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stepped aside to let her in and she immediately slumped down in one of my wooden kitchen chairs and put her head on the matching table.\u00a0 \u201cI got into it a little bit with Sam last night,\u201d she mumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid he kick you out or hurt you?\u201d My hand trembled as I poured the coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam, oh God no,\u201d said Simba.\u00a0 One half of her face was flattened against my table and as she talked, small drops of saliva slid onto the table.\u00a0 \u201cSam’s a powerful man, but not violent,\u201d said Simba, \u201cand believe it or not, he still values my maiden name of Murphy, though you can see from my brother how little that means, but Sam would never threaten his entry into the Santa Rosa elite.\u00a0 I was so energized after my confrontation with Henry, and when I got back to our house, Sam was there for the first time in days, and I thought what the hell.\u00a0 So I took the strategy you suggested and applied it to Sam.\u00a0 I told him that I’d visited Chloe and that I thought that it would be better if she moved in with us, because Henry was not taking care of her properly, and that Dessa had even stepped in to try and help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simba was now sitting up.\u00a0 I handed her a napkin, but resisted wiping up the little puddle of drool on the table, which was now joined by a small smear of her red lipstick.\u00a0 She picked up the coffee, took in a deep smell and took the first sip.\u00a0 \u201cThanks, this is just what I needed.\u00a0 But I just want you to know, I haven’t been drinking.\u00a0 I was mostly just driving around thinking.\u00a0 I even went cruising through Cutter City and I got so depressed thinking about the number of years that I wasted there.\u00a0 Just gone years.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what she was doing here, but assumed that this was part of my new role as family confidant and mediator.\u00a0 \u201cWhat did Sam say?\u201d\u00a0 I prodded her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually said that it sounded like a good idea, and then I told him that we were planning to meet with Henry today, and then he said that he would take care of it, and that we’d have to get lawyers involved.\u00a0 I told him that I wanted to sit down and talk with Henry, coolly and calmly, and that was the point of our meeting, and he once again told me that he’d take care of it, and that I shouldn\u2019t go and see him just yet.\u00a0 That is why I want you to go see Henry alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWait a minute, Simba, Sam might be right, maybe it would be best to talk to some lawyers about how to switch guardians.\u00a0 There’s no point in rushing into this.\u00a0 And did you tell Sam that I was involved?\u00a0 You know he asked me to drop the case, so this puts me, or rather I should say us, in a difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well that did make him angry.\u00a0 Not at you, because I told him that I’d hired you with my own money and that you were just doing your job.\u00a0 I also told him that the issue was more than Chloe, that I wanted my family back, and that included Dessa and Goddard, and I thought that maybe they were refusing to talk to me because of the way Chloe was being treated.\u00a0 And then I told him that I wanted Henry back, that maybe he needed our help and that\u2019s way I wanted to talk with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stopped talking and looked out the window.\u00a0 The rising sun was now shining gently on her face, and it seemed to highlight some of her wrinkles.\u00a0 She stared at me, \u201cThat\u2019s when Sam got this strange look in his eye, and sort of a sarcastic grin and he said, \u2018You want Henry back?\u00a0 Simba you’re in way over your head, believe me, I’ll take care of this, but you really need to leave Henry alone.\u00a0 He’s not a stable person you know.\u00a0 You really can’t talk to him until I talk with our lawyers.\u2019\u00a0 He was patting me gently on the back at this point, which might have looked like a loving gesture, but at the same time he was gripping my wrist very tightly.\u201d She turned over her wrist, and was startled to see a blurry smudge of thumb print.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, do you need to safe place to stay?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, like I said I don\u2019t think that Sam’s dangerous.\u00a0 He\u2019s certainly manipulative, and that’s what has made him a successful businessman, and I\u2019m sure that some would call him ruthless.\u00a0 I suppose there’s a fine line between being manipulative and abusive \u2013 well okay, maybe he\u2019s emotionally abusive, but not physically.\u00a0 But that\u2019s why I want you to go and see Henry alone \u2013 I don\u2019t want to challenge Sam even more, since he did say that he would get Chloe moved out, and I don\u2019t want to risk that.\u00a0 But I also want some sort of d\u00e9tente with Henry, some sort of starting place for our relationship.\u00a0 Do you think that you can do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, you’re putting me in a very awkward position and what makes you think that Henry would even talk with me in the first place?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that he’ll figure out that my presence at the bridge gathering was entirely contrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Well, what would be the harm in trying? \u00a0Plus I think that you could imply that I am on his side, let him know that Sam might be up to something,\u201d as Simba said this she turned away from me so that I could barely hear her, but when she turned back she was smiling slyly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, I’ll go, but only on the condition that you call Henry first and tell him that it will be me alone,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes, I can do that, and I will tell him that I can\u2019t come because Sam has forbidden me to talk with him, but that I want to see him and that you’ll be there to arrange it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, who do you think would be more likely to tell you the cause of this big issue between them?\u201d \u00a0I put my hands up to demonstrate the size of the rift. \u00a0\u201cWould it be Sam or Henry?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know that\u2019s what I was thinking about as I was driving around last night.\u00a0 And I do think that it\u2019s Henry, because beneath it all, we’re family, and that\u2019s what I need to resurrect.\u00a0 And I think that Henry knows that he needs help, and that I am the only person to give it to him.\u00a0 Of course there’s Dessa, I think that she must know something that is going on.\u00a0 It\u2019s that Penny that started this whole thing, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

I was surprised that she remembered Penny at all, and in fact it reminded me that there was still a dead girl amongst all the Venn diagrams back at Ralph and Fanny\u2019s.\u00a0 \u201cYes, you’re right to remember Penny.\u00a0 It does seem that she made the opening crack in your family dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t think that Penny was actually murdered do you?\u201d said Simba.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t think that it could’vebeen anyone in my family, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, I honestly don\u2019t know, but I can tell you that the police are considering this a murder investigation, they know what kind of car it was, and they can tell that the car was accelerating when it hit Penny, so it looks like that, at the very least, it was a hit and run accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simba gave a deep sigh and whispered,\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t who I would prefer as the driver, either Sam or Henry?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba,\u00a0 We certainly don\u2019t know if either was involved, it could have been an accident.\u00a0\u00a0 I think we’ll leave this issue to the police.\u201d\u00a0 I tried to move on quickly.\u00a0 \u201cAfter I left you yesterday, I did a little more investigating, and I\u2019d like to ask you a few questions.\u00a0 When I talk with Henry, I think that it will be helpful to subtly let him know that I know more than he imagines.\u00a0 That\u2019ll help get him on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simba\u2019s head was back down on the table, and her arm hung limply on her side.\u00a0 \u201cSimba, I need you to focus here.\u00a0 Can you tell me, what do you know about the library you and Sam endowed in Cutter City?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe library, what the hell does that have to do with anything?\u201d\u00a0 Her words were barely intelligible, since she was basically talking directly into the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, well here\u2019s the thing.\u00a0 Before it became a library, that building was apparently, well how should I put it, a whorehouse.\u00a0 There was a raid on the property, and Johnny Knox was arrested as the manager.\u00a0 He served a couple of years in prison.\u00a0 Johnny Knox was Penny\u2019s father.\u00a0\u00a0 I think that your brother Henry might have been one of the patrons at the whorehouse.\u00a0 Did Sam own that building before he rehabbed it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God, are you saying that Sam and Johnny Knox were in cahoots in a whorehouse that my brother frequented? \u00a0Oh my God.\u201d\u00a0 She sat up again with great effort, and I began to think that after a sleepless night, I might be piling on too much information.\u00a0 \u201cWhat can I say?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Individually all that could be true.\u00a0 I could imagine Sam owning a whorehouse \u2013 I think that he was pretty fearless when it came to real estate, and if it made money, he was all in.\u00a0 And I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Henry had to use prostitutes for sex.\u00a0 You saw him. Even with all of his supposed money, I don\u2019t think that anyone would consider him a good catch.\u00a0 I remember one of those dreadful family meals when Chloe asked Henry in front of everyone to tell us all about his new \u2018lady friend.\u2019\u00a0 Henry was so embarrassed and didn\u2019t say anything, but Sam was smirking at him the whole time.\u00a0 It might have been the next year we had the final blow up.\u00a0 Oh my God.\u00a0 Poor Henry, maybe his lady friend was a whore, and Sam found out about it and basically tortured him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, this is just bits and pieces of information that I am gathering and trying to piece together into a plausible story.\u00a0 I certainly don\u2019t know that this is true, but the same people seem to keep coming up, including Johnny Knox, who Sam claimed not to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Sam has always had an uneasy relationship with the truth.\u00a0 You know, I knew that he was seeing lots of other women \u2013 late night business dinners, my ass.\u00a0 How about this for a theory?\u00a0 Maybe Sam ran into Henry at the \u2013 well let\u2019s call it the library.\u00a0 And maybe it was Henry that had the goods on Sam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSee, there you go Simba, there could be a variety of explanations, but do you remember how or why the library got rehabbed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly on, I told Sam that we always had to give back to the community, even if it was just \u00a0Cutter City, and I told Sam that I’d be in charge of our charitable giving.\u00a0 So every year he would give me a certain budget and then let me decide how to dole it out.\u00a0 He still does that, though the recently my budget has been drastically cut.\u00a0 He usually didn\u2019t care where the money went \u2013 I gave something to the high school, can\u2019t remember exactly what, that sort of thing.\u00a0 But I do remember that year, he came to me and specifically said that he wanted to rehab that building into something useful \u2013 when I asked him why, he said that it was just business, he didn\u2019t care what it was, but he just wanted that building redone.\u00a0 So the library turned out to be the best use, and I have always like that project most of all the ones that I worked on, but that rehab cost two or three times as much as Sam\u2019s charitable budget, but he didn\u2019t care.\u00a0 I thought it was odd at the time.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that Sam has ever set foot in that library.\u00a0 I actually don\u2019t know if he owned the building before, but he could have.\u00a0 He owned all sorts of houses in Cutter City that he would rent out, sometimes tearing them down and rebuilding them.\u00a0 But of course he made his biggest money buying vacant land and developing it when the prison expanded.\u00a0 That was shortly after the library project, and then we moved back to Santa Teresa.\u00a0 So what else did you find out?\u00a0 You might as well give it all to me now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, I\u2019m sorry, this is just where the investigation has taken me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay, this is what I signed up for \u2013 a mediator plus an investigator \u2013 the ideal combination for my situation.\u00a0 Continue on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, I can\u2019t remember if I told you, but my father was a private investigator, and it turns out that both Sam and Henry were his clients at different times.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why, it didn\u2019t turn up in my father\u2019s records, but Henry hired my father to follow Sam right before you got married and then right before Dessa was born, and then Sam hired him to follow Henry, and the weird thing was, my father was doing a surveillance on Henry when he went to the, hmm, library, and that was the night of the raid, but it doesn\u2019t look like he was picked up by the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simba sighed heavily.\u00a0 \u201cIt reminds of those Mad magazines that I used to read as a kid, remember those Spy vs. Spy cartoons?\u00a0 What where they up to?\u00a0 I can\u2019t even begin to imagine, nor do I really want to.\u00a0 I think that I have reached the point of too much information.\u00a0 But I might as well give you another piece of information.\u00a0 You\u00a0 haven\u2019t asked for it, but I am sure that you already know and are just being kind.\u00a0 Dessa is not my real daughter, well she is my real daughter, but I am not her birth mother.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that anyone really know that except of course Sam, but I bet you suspected didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I did wonder,\u201d I said, and left it at that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I was having all those miscarriages, and that last one was going so well, and then boom, 7th<\/sup> month, it all came crashing down.\u00a0 I was devastated, and I think that Sam just couldn\u2019t handle anymore of my despair.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really know if he wanted more children or not, but then he told me that we could arrange a private adoption, and about two weeks later, there was our beautiful Dessa.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how he did it, and I really try not to think who the birth parents are, because I suppose Sam could actually be the father.\u00a0 I just forced myself not to think about it.\u00a0 Do you know who the birth parents are?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo of course not, I said,\u201d choosing not to give her the detail about Sam paying off a pregnant Sylvia Wister.\u00a0 \u201cBut it was probably something that Penny Knox was interested in.\u00a0 She was very into family trees, and had actually rediscovered her father that way, had done DNA testing, and somehow became interested in your family and Dessa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my god, poor Dessa.\u00a0 No wonder. Oh my god,\u201d Simba moaned.<\/p>\n

I had pushed her to the breaking point and she just sobbed uncontrollably.\u00a0 I had dealt with anger and despair when I showed women undeniable proof that their husband was cheating, but these woman had already suspected it or they wouldn\u2019t have hired me.\u00a0 Simba was different.\u00a0 She was entirely unaware, or at least had forced herself to be oblivious. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t sure what to do.\u00a0 I went into the living room and organized the couch, got an extra pillow from the bedroom and a throw blanket.\u00a0 I went back into the kitchen where she was lying glassy-eyed with her head on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimba, I am so sorry.\u00a0 What can I do to help you?\u00a0 Is there anyone I can call?\u00a0 Any friends, or how about your therapist?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, there’s no one.\u00a0 If I have learned anything the last couple of days it\u2019s that I\u2019m alone.\u00a0 I just want to talk with Dessa.\u201d<\/p>\n

“There may be a way,\u201d I said.\u00a0 I got a call from a young woman a couple of days ago, she didn\u2019t leave her name, but I have a feeling that it was Dessa.\u00a0 I had given my name and number to the Great Days staff and told them to have Dessa call me.\u00a0 I returned the call, but she hung up quickly.\u00a0 But I have the number here.\u00a0 You can try and call it and maybe she will pick up.\u00a0 If you use my home phone here, your name will not come up on caller ID, and perhaps she would be more apt to answer it.\u00a0 You can give it a try anyway, and you can stay here for a bit to see if she calls back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I think that I would like the time to myself, if you don\u2019t mind.\u00a0 Her sobs had subsided to an occasional gasp for air.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll give her a call right now, and pray that she sees fit to call me back.\u00a0 Poor Dessa.\u201d<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I slept fitfully that night, and was entirely groggy when I heard phone ring at six.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t catch it in time, and momentarily fell back asleep, and then it rang again.\u00a0 I struggled awake, grabbed the phone and said … 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-1481","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-nT","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","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=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1490,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions\/1490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}