| |
ONCE AGIN, I WAS lost in thought as Mom and I parted ways after lunch. It was almost 4:00, and I did not know what to do next. As I was sitting in my car, mulling over my options, Julie called.
“Did you have your phone off?” Julie asked without her usual perky hello.
“Uh, yeah. I just had lunch with Mom and didn’t...”
“Detective Winn has been trying to get a hold of you. He needs a list of G names!” Julie was not hiding her aggravation with me.
“Oh, my gosh! I’m sorry! That completely slipped my mind! I knew Garrett was being protected. I’ll be right there and get it done. Could you please let Detective Winn know I am on it?” I pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, heading toward Julie’s condo.
“Will do! See you soon!” Julie hung up the phone. My mind kept going back to Mom’s tea ladies. The women at the table that knew Doug Andres. That knew he would be a part of the chamber music festival. I was sure Leigh Porter had nothing to do with it. If she’s an Episcopalian, she most likely does not know who Doug Andres even is. I will cross her off my mental list.
That leaves Barb Jeffries, Margie Hillerman and Gina Miller. Gina I was already suspicious of. She had a musical background. Even though she played the harp, she still could have taken violin lessons at some point. Plus, she was buddies with a violin professor. I’m sure that Dr. Evangeline Tate could have told Gina what the names of the violin strings are and even about the Pizzicato Professionals.
The more I thought about it, it just didn’t gel. Why would Gina kill people with violin strings? Why would she kill people in the first place? It made little sense, and clearly there was no motive. Ok, start over. I will get back on Facebook as soon as my G name list for Detective Winn is complete.
I pulled into one of the guest spots at Julie’s and hurried in. Henry was curled up on Julie’s lap, as she sat at her computer. He looked at me as much to say, “I have a new friend now.” Then he put his head back down. Julie gave it a little pat, and he went back to sleep.
I’ll make it up to you later, Henry, I thought. I opened my laptop and reached for a legal pad. It didn’t take me long to go through the students and their teachers. Evidently, G names are not as popular as D names! Detective Winn will be grateful for the shorter list, I am sure.
This time I thought about looking at the performers. I felt woozy again when I realized that our headliner, the violinist of the nationally acclaimed Klein-Rossi Trio, was named Gianna. With a G! When I had thought about it, I thought J, not G, even though I had written Gianna, with a G, a gazillion times prepping for the festival. In my head on the way home, I was thinking of names with a hard G, not a soft G! I quickly picked up the phone and called Detective Winn.
He was evidently pulling a long shift today and picked right up. No voicemail messages today.
“Hi Lisa. What have you got?” Detective Winn lost no time. I looked at the clock. It was almost 6:00. We had 25 hours until the opening recital.
“Gianna Rossi! My headliner, she’s famous! Her name starts with G!” I practically yelled into the phone.
“Ok, hang on, slow down. Take a deep breath and tell me that again?” Detective Winn asked.
“Sorry! The violinist who is the big name for this weekend is Gianna Rossi. She is married to Keith Klein. Keith went to school in Fairview. She is very well known.”
“Alright, give me her information, and we’ll get right on it. Anyone else?”
“Just a couple of students and orchestra teachers. About 7 in total. I’ll email the list with contact information.” I gave Detective Winn Gianna’s information over the phone, then emailed him the other names. He assured me he would keep me posted. I just kept watching the clock.
Tomorrow, the festival would kick off with an opening recital played by all three of our guest ensembles: The Allegro String Quarter; The Cantabile Trio; and then the performance would be topped off by our special guests, The Rossi-Klein Trio, featuring world renowned violinist Gianna Rossi. I hoped. I really hoped that everyone would still be alive tomorrow, and that everything would go off without a hitch.
“How’d it go with your mom?” Julie and Henry came over and sat down on the couch beside me.
“It was an experience! Let me tell you. Mom and margaritas should not mix!” Both Julie and I laughed. Julie had experienced Mom and tequila for herself and knew firsthand what I was talking about.
“Did you learn anything?” Julie scratched Henry’s ears. I put my computer and legal pad down on the coffee table.
“Mom is the one who gave me Doug Andres’s name. I had completely forgotten that.”
“How does your mom know that light guy from the high school? That doesn’t make any sense.” Julie’s bewilderment showed on her face.
“I guess Mom was there, at the recital hall, when I was fretting about needing help with the lights. That company from Seattle had gotten me the lights and equipment, but had left me on my own as far as what to do with them.”
“That wasn’t very nice!”
“It was what it was. Anyway, Mom remembered me muttering about needing someone to do the lights. So, when she was at her First Friday Tea with her lady friends, I guess she lost no time mentioning it.”
“The First Friday Tea ladies know theater lighting people?” Henry jumped down, gave a good shake, and trotted into the kitchen for a drink.
“I guess they all go to church together. That Catholic Church on Elm, the one that does all the plays in the summer.”
“St. Matthew’s?” Julie offered.
“Yes, St. Matthew’s.”
“They did a dinner theater production last summer of Paint Your Wagon. I went to it. It was remarkable!” Julie looked dreamy at the memory. Paint Your Wagon? Really?
“Anyway, I guess Doug Andres does all the lights and stuff for their summer productions. Besides working at the high school. I didn’t know that he did stuff at any church. All my contact with him had been at the school. All this St. Matthew’s stuff is new to me.” I scooped Henry back up onto my lap. He snuggled in. I guess I was forgiven.
“So, which ladies go to St. Matthew’s?” Julie continued the quest.
“Margie Hillerman, Barb Jeffries, and Gina Miller. I guess Leigh Porter is an Episcopalian.”
“Who?”
“Never mind. Anyway, Margie Hillerman, Barb Jeffries, and Gina Miller all attend and are active at St. Matthew’s. They also all knew Doug Andres and overheard my mother tell me she would give me his name. I guess.” I stopped.
“What’s wrong?”
“They gave Mom his name months ago, before I had confirmed anyone for the festival. One of those people had to know for sure that I had indeed hired him. Who would have had that information?”
“Did you ever follow up with your mom about him? That you had hired him?”
“I don’t think so.” I was racking my brain to recall every conversation I’d had with Mom about the festival and its personnel. We really hadn’t talked about it a ton. Mom didn’t know string people. But she had known Andrew Hacker.
“What about Andrew Hacker? Didn’t you get his name from your mother, too?” Julie and I were thinking alike.
“Yes, I was just thinking that. Do Andrew Hacker and Doug Andres have anything in common? That is what we need to find out.” I reached for my computer again. Henry glared at me for disturbing his slumber. I opened my laptop and looked at the bios for all the festival participants.
“What are you doing?” Julie leaned over to see my screen.
“Seeing if I can find anything they have in common.” Just as I was scrolling, my phone rang. Oh no, it was Detective Winn.
“Hello, Detective Winn.” I felt my breath catch in my chest.
“Hello, Lisa. I just wanted to follow up. We got ahold of everyone on your list. They have all been given strict instructions for their safety. We have armed officers with both Garrett Neil and Gianna Rossi. We also have prepared a detailed layout of your recital hall and where we will have officers positioned. All should be fine tomorrow night and this weekend. I just wanted to reassure you.” Detective Winn sounded proud of all his arrangements. Unfortunately, all his arrangements didn’t help Doug Andres.
“Thank you so much for calling Detective Winn. I really appreciate it.”
“And please keep the security detail to yourself. We want to avoid tipping off the killer. Good night, Lisa.” Detective Winn hung up before I could say goodbye. Oh, well. Mother! I quickly texted Mother about keeping the security situation for tomorrow night to herself. She assured me she had said nothing to anyone and was now going to bed to sleep off her margaritas. Did she take a taxi home? She should have! Ugh! I couldn’t deal with that now. Back to the biographies that the festival artists had submitted.
“Okay, so Doug Andres was a theater major right here in Washington. He grew up in Richland, then moved here two years ago.” I reported to Julie.
“Sounds pretty average for the high school light guy.” Julie put a pillow under her head and lay down on her end of the couch.
“Wait a minute! Julie, listen to this! Andrew Hacker has a degree in Violin Performance from the Birchard Institute of Music in Chicago!” I looked at Julie, who sat straight up and looked at my computer screen.
“That’s where that professor from Spokane taught!” Julie reread the screen for herself.
“And where Gina Miller went to school?” I added.
“Maybe Gina gave your mom his name?” Julie suggested.
“I would love to think so, but Mom really didn’t seem to know Gina very well at all. I was surprised. She really had no information for me, besides confirming that Gina’s husband is indeed named Wayne.”
“Let’s look at the performers.” Julie reached over to scroll down. I had had Hailey combine all the biographies for me in one document in the order of performance for tomorrow night. The Allegro String Quartet members were first up. Julie and I sat together and scanned and scrolled. Nothing particular about The Allegro String Quartet. On to The Cantabile Trio. Nope, nothing there. On to....
“Julie look!” I looked with wide eyes at the screen and pointed to Gianna Rossi’s bio.
“Violinist Gianna Rossi holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Violin Performance from the Birchard Institute of Music, Chicago, where she was a student of Dr. Evangeline Tate.” Julie read the screen.
“I need to call Detective Winn!” I told Julie. “We have the next victim. Now who’s the murderer?”