I walked out the gate and pondered my options, which turned out to be very limited.\u00a0 Just didn\u2019t seem right for a private eye to arrive at a potential crime scene in a cab.\u00a0 But then I remembered that Mary had moved around here a couple of years ago.\u00a0 It was her statement house, she said, to prove that she had arrived in Santa Teresa society.\u00a0 I really wasn\u2019t a good enough friend to call her at this hour, but with any luck, Nick Nichol would be with her, and he was somebody I could always call.\u00a0 My purse was still in my stolen car, and with a sickening feeling, I realized that my gun was in there also \u2013 an unforgivable mistake, but fortunately, my cell phone was still clipped to my waistband.\u00a0 My call to Nick went straight to voice mail, but it always did, since Nick never answered a call on the first try.\u00a0 I think \u00a0it was a control issue, he always wanted to be the one to initiate a call on his schedule.\u00a0 But I knew that he couldn\u2019t resist the juicy message I left him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sure enough, about two minutes later, his call came in.\u00a0 \u201cNick, I am in a bit of a jam here, I\u2019m wondering if you\u2019re anywhere in the Coastal Estates neighborhood, and, if so, if I could borrow your car? \u00a0Goddard borrowed my car for the moment and now I need to catch up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Goddard has finally reappeared.\u00a0 Tell him that I would need to talk with him as soon as possible about his gallery. \u00a0Where is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to say it, Nick, but the gallery is not his priority right now. \u00a0For one thing his grandmother died, and the family is just coming to grips with that,\u201d I said, dissembling to the best of my abilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this hour of the night, and by the way, what makes you think that I am in the Coastal Estates area?\u201d<\/p>\n
And then in the background I heard Mary said, \u201cOh, she\u2019s good Nick, she knows that I live in this area and you sent her that giggly message yesterday.\u201d\u00a0 She grabbed the phone from Nick and spoke directly to me.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry to hear about Chloe.\u00a0 Look you can borrow my car, that\u2019s what friends are for, aren\u2019t they.\u201d\u00a0 Here was Mary, scoping out a death and setting up a quid pro quo for a potential real estate listing.\u00a0 So I guess we were both good in our own ways.\u00a0 I walked the five blocks over to her house.\u00a0 She opened the front door a crack, and there she was in a bathrobe with a glass of champagne in her hand.\u00a0 \u201cHere you go,\u201d she said, as she held out the keys. \u201cI hope you get a kick out of driving my mini \u2013 it will be quite a change from your old clunker.\u00a0 You know, Liza, a lot of times when there is a death in the family, people can\u2019t cope with the grief, so they first turn to some practical issues that might be a little easier to think about \u2013 you know like houses, cars and things.\u00a0 Anyway, if that comes up, maybe you can steer them in my direction. \u00a0Even though that house is a total dump, it does have historical value.\u00a0 As she handed me the keys, she also slipped in one of her cards.<\/p>\n
As I worked my way across the city, I had to admit that Mary was right.\u00a0 The car did feel great, and as I headed up the canyon, I floored it, and for the first time began to appreciate a car as more than just transportation.\u00a0 About half way up the canyon, a pick up truck came careening around the corner and I had to swerve quickly.\u00a0 It was a white truck and I thought I might have seen Johnny Knox\u2019s logo on the side.\u00a0 All of a sudden I felt vulnerable in the little mini without a gun.\u00a0 I slowly drove into the Todd\u2019s driveway and counted four cars \u00a0\u2013 mine, and a black SUV, which might have been Henry\u2019s and \u00a0Simba\u2019s car.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t identify the fourth car, but perhaps it was Sylvia\u2019s.\u00a0 At first, it looked like the house was completely dark, but then I noticed one faint light in the back.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to just ring the doorbell and present myself \u2013 what was I going to say anyway, that the family mediator had arrived?\u00a0 I decided to discretely reconnoiter, so I turned off my headlights, drove out the other side of the circular driveway and parked alongside the road about 100 yards further along.\u00a0 As I walked back toward the house, I noticed a small gate between the bushes.\u00a0 I pushed it open and found myself in the Todd\u2019s expansive backyard.\u00a0 I could see the light in the house more clearly now, and it looked like it must be in the kitchen, always the best place for family meetings, I thought.<\/p>\n
As I approached the back yard, I got the distinctive whiff of a cigar and I realized that I was near the very same patio where I had ice tea with Sam Todd just the other day.\u00a0 I got even closer and recognized the man’s profile. \u00a0\u201cHello, Sam,\u201d I said, \u201cI just left your brother-in-law Henry in the exact same position, sitting on his patio nursing a scotch and smoking a cigar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam tilted his head back, blow out some smoke and spoke to the brilliant stars.\u00a0 \u201cAh, it’s detective Liza Blue.\u00a0 You can\u2019t seem to leave my family alone, can you?\u00a0 You are a real pot stirrer, you know that, got my little Simba all fired up about becoming a better person, but I\u2019m afraid that she is sorely out of practice.\u00a0 And Henry too, I commend you on taking on another lost cause \u2013 is that your particular skill?\u00a0 Go ahead and sit down, while we wait for the kitchen committee to disband in there.\u00a0 I was not invited of course since the members of this committee are\u00a0 \u201cPeople to Which Everything is Given, But Who Still Want More and Won\u2019t Leave Well Enough Alone.\u201d\u00a0 It is a very elite group because you have to meet all three criteria to join.\u00a0 Simba and Henry are charter members, I have proposed Goddard as well, and that grasping Sylvia Wister.\u00a0 That kid Dessa might not qualify after all, because as far as I can tell, she actually wants less and not more, which is not the best strategy from a business strategy, but what the hell, she is just a kid, so there\u2019s still time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam still hadn\u2019t looked at me, but motioned to me to sit in the adjacent chair, took a swig of scotch right out of the bottle and pushed it across to me.\u00a0 Sam was slightly slurring his words, so I thought the patio was as good a place to start as any.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cSam, I know that you told me my services were no longer needed, but I\u2019m not sure that you know Simba hired me to help her find Dessa and sit down and talk with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSimba can say whatever she want, and you can do whatever you want to supposedly help her, but as I\u2019ve mentioned she will always want more. \u00a0I’m not sure that you know that you have hitched your wagon to one needy person, so have fun with that. \u00a0Plus don\u2019t count on getting paid.\u00a0 I control the checking accounts in this household.\u00a0 I have an accountant whose just about full time job is to run around this city and undo many of the commitments that Simba has supposedly made in the service of her \u201cMrs. Gotrocks\u201d routine.\u00a0 His salary is a percentage of the money he saves me, and he is one very happy employee.\u201d\u00a0 Sam pulled the bottle back and took another swig.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam, don\u2019t forget that a crime was committed here and police tend to be very relentless when it comes to murder,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a justice thing, a speaking for the dead thing, and your family seems to be right in the middle of it.\u00a0 And you must know that the dead girl was the daughter of your long time\u201d \u2013 and here I groped for the right word.\u00a0 I almost used the word \u201chenchman\u201d but that sounded like the mob, the word employee didn\u2019t sound quite right, so I went with \u201cassociate.\u201d\u00a0 The dead girl, Penny Knox, was killed in a hit and run accident and she was the daughter of Johnny Knox, your long time associate.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t I pass his car going down the highway as I was on the way up?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re good Ms. Blue, I should have never dropped you from the case.\u00a0 Yes that was Johnny Knox, but tonight was the first night I ever heard that he had a daughter.\u00a0 She must have crawled out of the woodwork, probably the product of his taste for the underbelly of life, if you know what I mean. \u00a0First of all how was I supposed to know that he had a daughter, and second that she was dead.\u00a0 If I did know I would have paid my proper respects.\u00a0 Had my secretary send in a fruit basket, that type of thing.\u00a0 But he had no right to storm up here to say that I had anything to do with it.\u00a0 Busting in on our little family confab that was going so well.\u00a0 It got Dessa so upset \u2013 she says that Penny was her friend, which is hard to believe, since as far as I know Simba made it pretty impossible for her to have any friends.\u00a0 And Dessa said she saw the accident and then she stared straight at me.\u00a0 It\u2019s all ridiculous of course.\u00a0 Why would I care about some tattooed runaway from Cutter City?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took a deep breath and pressed ahead.\u00a0 \u201cIt seems like Penny had gotten very interested in tracing family histories, and was working on Dessa\u2019s family history.\u00a0 She and Dessa had this suspicion that Simba wasn\u2019t her birth mother and they were trying to confirm that. You know, Simba told me that she lost the baby and you arranged for a private adoption, and that was Dessa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam snorted, \u201cShit, is that what this is all about?\u00a0 I don\u2019t give a shit who knows that, the secrecy was purely a Simba issue.\u00a0 She would say over and over to me, \u2018This is our daughter, Sam, this is our daughter, isn\u2019t it.\u2019\u00a0 See what I mean about people who are given everything?\u00a0 She wanted a baby and I got her one.\u00a0 Simple as that.\u00a0 But then Simba wanted more, want me to create this story that it was our baby, so I gave her that.\u00a0 So sure, Simba is not the birth mother, but all someone had to do was come and ask me.\u00a0 Can\u2019t imagine this is motive for murder.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSam, is Sylvia the mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell if you know enough to ask that question, you probably know the answer is yes.\u00a0 I knew Sylvia from her call girl days back in Cutter City, and then she went and rehabilitated herself as a school teacher, for Christ\u2019s sake.\u00a0 If the school board only knew, but she was really okay, at least as far as prostitute go, and I heard that she was a good teacher.\u00a0 Goddard might have had her in high school.\u00a0 And then she came to me knocked up and asking for help, so what the hell, I pitched in, the timing was really good with Simba bouncing off the walls. Worked out for everyone, and then I let her have a relationship with Dessa.\u00a0 It was a beautiful system that worked out for everyone, until this two bit Penny had to go and muck it all up.\u00a0 Okay, I know of course your next question is who is Dessa\u2019s biological father, and I\u2019ll spare you the embarrassment of being so nosy.\u00a0 I can assure you that I am not Dessa\u2019s real father.\u00a0 I said that I like Sylvia as a person, she\u2019s just not my type.\u00a0 I was sitting here all contemplative before you walked up, and I realized that all the women in my life are similar \u2013 cool blonds with long legs.\u00a0 Now that Sylvia \u2013 she is short and dark, and I would never screw a woman with big ass.\u00a0 As I say, she\u2019s nice enough, but just not my type.\u00a0 Now of course Henry, that\u2019s a different story.\u00a0 She was his favorite at the Margarita Club before it got closed down.\u00a0 Sylvia never told me who the father was, and I didn\u2019t ask, but I got a real rush thinking that maybe I was adopting Henry\u2019s kid.\u00a0 And anyway if that was the case, I was doing Dessa a wonderful favor.\u00a0 I\u2019m nobody\u2019s idea of the best father, I can live with that, but Henry would be everyone\u2019s idea of the worst father.\u00a0 As I say it was a beautiful arrangement until that Penny showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was hard to imagine that the best way to deny parentage was to claim that the mother\u2019s ass was too big. I didn\u2019t know where to begin, once again choosing dissembling.\u00a0 \u201cSam you and I are similar in that both of us had very modest beginnings and have worked hard to get where we are.\u00a0 But just because someone had a privileged life \u2013 well I don\u2019t know, is that their fault? \u00a0Henry is a very fragile person, all sorts of insecurities \u2013 his mother dying so young, and his social awkwardness.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know where I was going with this, so I just shut up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTough titty,\u201d was all Sam would say, and then after a pause, \u201cthat guy is such a meddling asshole.\u00a0 I had a great deal going with Simba down there in Cutter City, and he almost screwed me over \u2013 tried to convince her parents that I was a pimp, which was sort of true, but irrelevant since \u00a0I was the best thing that could have happened to Simba at the time \u2013 she was running wild and would have only caused her family embarrassment. \u00a0My profession was the least of her father’s worries. \u00a0I pointed this out to her father, and he agreed and gave me everything I asked for.\u00a0 I got the money boost I needed and I was off and running.\u00a0 \u00a0But I got that Polly Waddle in the end \u2013 I found out his weakness, like most people it was humiliation, and I got him good and got him out of our lives forever.\u00a0 I\u2019m sitting pretty up here in the canyon, looking down at his disintegrating house on Coastal Estates, what a joke that development is.\u00a0 Now that Chloe is gone, he might be able to get his hands on some money, and he might be able to hold out a little longer, but I\u2019ll get him in the end.\u00a0Skye Island is going to be great, and Coastal Estates will just sink into the ocean.\u201d\u00a0 Sam stopped and for the first time stopped and looked at me.\u00a0 \u201cAnd that my dear, is the abridged version of the story of Sam Todd, from Cutter City to the Canyon Rim.\u00a0 I believe that you now have everything you need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam got up and started to lurch toward the house, drink in hand.\u00a0 I heard a door slam and a car drive off, and then heard Henry\u2019s slurred voice, \u201cSylvia are you here?\u00a0 Where are you?\u00a0 It\u2019s me Henry.\u00a0 Tell me what\u2019s going on her.\u00a0 It\u2019s me Henry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam startled me with his forced laughter.\u00a0 \u201cHey Henry, old man,” he yelled across the lawn. \u00a0“Come join the group.\u00a0 It looks like our family tableau is now complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSam be careful,\u201d called out Simba.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s got a gun.\u201d<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: I walked out the gate and pondered my options, which turned out to be very limited.\u00a0 Just didn\u2019t seem right for a private eye to arrive at a potential crime scene in a cab.\u00a0 But then I remembered that Mary … Continue reading ![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" "\\"Follow")
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