After filling in Uncle Bob on the autopsy results, I drove home on autopilot. My worst fears were starting to materialize, and I didn’t know what to do. Once at home I fed Iris and Otis, and afterward alternately held each of them on my lap, taking comfort in the cuddles of the fluffy white pompom of a dog first and then the purring black fur ball of a cat. Each nuzzled gently into me, seeming to sense their momma was in need of a strong dose of TLC. My nerves calmed and feeling better, I changed into the outfit I’d planned for dinner. All black, low V-neck top, skinny-fit pants, and heels. I brushed off Iris’s hair, which clung to everything I wore, touched up my makeup, and brushed my hair, swinging my head down and up to give it volume. I gave Iris a tickle under her chin and Otis a little pat on his head and promised them I’d be back in a couple hours or so.
When I arrived at the Mugs & Teacups Café, a coffee shop near Paloma’s apartment in a quiet neighborhood off of the Avenue, Ashley had already bagged us an indoor table. Two cups of steaming tea served in fine English china greeted me at the round table.
Her chair pushed back from the table, Ashley stretched out her long legs, wrapped in indigo skinny jeans. New black suede booties hugged her crossed ankles. As soon as our eyes met, she straightened up.
“Something happen? You look upset.”
This girlfriend knew me so well.
I pulled up a chair. “Adrian called and said my dad’s autopsy results are nearly complete.”
“And?”
“They’re not ruling out homicide.”
She whistled a long breath. “Whoa, really? That’s unsettling, to say the least. When will you know for sure?”
“Tomorrow.” My put-togetherness started to unravel. “Look, Ash, could we not talk about it right this minute, please, because I might cry and I don’t want to freak out Paloma when she gets here. I want to maximize our time with her and focus on my aunt. I’ll tell you more about what Adrian said later.”
“Of course. Are you sure you’re okay to talk to her?”
“I’ll be fine. Thanks for the tea. Exactly what I need. Love the boots, by the way—super cute.”
“Aren’t they? Got ’em on sale at Banana Republic.” Her faux leather jacket was open to reveal a low-cut black top.
“Someone’s fancy tonight. You have a hot date?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” She tilted her head and smiled coyly.
“Do tell.”
“Well, it’s not a date, really, at least I don’t think it is. We’re just meeting for a drink.”
I swished a spoon around in my tea. “So, come on, tell me, who is it?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Seriously? Must everything be a mystery? Please, can’t something in my life, for once, be transparent and straightforward?”
“Calm down. Everything isn’t about you, miss. It’s just that I really like him and I don’t want to jinx it.”
“Adrian?”
Her jaw dropped. “How did you know?”
I laughed. “Oh, come on. You two are always on-again off-again. I don’t have to be a detective, or a fortune-teller, for that matter, to spot chemistry when I see it. Plus, you guys are like two peas in a pod when it comes to justice.”
Ashley sank back and crossed her legs. “Yeah, we are. But also, I want to keep it on the down low because you’re my client.”
“Is that unethical?”
“Not really. You’re not an official suspect yet.”
“Yet?”
“If I date Ernie, start to worry.”
I nearly spit out my tea. “That would be wrong on so many levels.” I pursed my lips and made a zipping gesture. “Okay, my lips are sealed. I haven’t heard a thing, and I’ll try not to jinx your nondate with Adrian.”
“Thanks. Now, can you tell me what else Adrian said about your father’s autopsy before she gets here, or would you still prefer to wait until later?”
I deadpanned, “Who’s Adrian?”
“You’re a funny girl. Hurry up. Fill me in.”
I fished the teabag out of my cup and added a bit of milk. “Just that the toxicological results aren’t completed yet, probably will be in tomorrow, but he wanted to warn me that so far they know my father died from blunt force trauma to the head. They found blows to both the front and back of his head. Once they determine the timing sequence of the blows, we’ll know more about which one killed him. He said the medical examiner told him some of the contusions and head injury happened before he hit the water.”
Ashley stared at me as if she was processing her thoughts. “So, someone punched him in the face and he fell and hit his head?”
“Yeah, sounds like something like that.”
“Hmm. Putting on my defense attorney hat for a minute, if I had a client charged with murder and those were the results, I’d be thrilled.”
“Thrilled? Why?”
“Because I’d argue that they got into an altercation and my client didn’t anticipate the deceased would fall and hit his head because of it.”
“But that wouldn’t get your client off the hook, would it?”
“Not necessarily, but it would definitely work in their favor if the case went to a jury trial. It would make it possible for the jury to find them guilty of a lesser charge than first-degree murder, due to lack of intent to kill.”
“Well, at least it proves he didn’t commit suicide, right?”
“It certainly wouldn’t help the suicide theory. From a legal standpoint, your dad’s death always struck me as suspicious, and a possible homicide, even before Milo disappeared. I always consider homicide in situations where I look at what behavior I’d expect against what behavior actually occurred and it doesn’t add up. I couldn’t imagine your dad, runner and fitness enthusiast, as a likely candidate for a fatal stumble. Equally implausible to me was that he took his own life. I mean, the man embodied optimism, right?”
“Totally. That always bothered me too, the incongruity of the accidental fall. As people get older, they have a greater tendency to fall, but he wasn’t a frail older person. He was exactly the opposite—he averaged about twenty thousand steps a day on his Fitbit watch. His competitive nature resulted in him leading our Fitbit leader board more times than not. He was obsessive about keeping fit.”
Ashley jokingly said under her breath, “The apple didn’t fall far from that tree.”
“You’re not trash-talking my boyfriend Gym again, are you?”
We both giggled.
Ashley reached over and squeezed my hand. “After Milo’s disappearance, it struck me as even more shady. That’s why I was so protective of your assets when Milo disappeared. I couldn’t rule out, at that point, that Milo might have been involved. Sorry, Tor, but I can’t not think like a lawyer.”
I nodded. “I think I knew my father might have been murdered all along, but the thought of someone killing him was so abhorrent to me that I kind of repressed it all.”
She leaned over and rubbed my arm. “Aw, sorry, sweetie. But, that being said, I am also well aware that almost everyone has secrets and that people aren’t necessarily who they appear to be. That’s what makes law so complicated. If everyone told the truth, no problem, but people lie from time to time. Sometimes, for dumb reasons, having nothing to do with the crime. But nevertheless, by doing so they risk incriminating themselves or others.”
“Well, that’s good then in terms of the insurance company, right?”
Ashley sipped her tea. “I honestly have no idea how your insurance company will view it. If they’re on the up and up, I would guess they’d view it like me and rule out suicide. But if they’re the type of company who’ll go to the mat rather than pay a penny for a claim, they’ll probably try to twist the report to support their position.”
“At least Adrian thinks homicide’s a possibility too. I’m assuming he’s waiting for the toxicological panel results before he rules anything out. If the toxicological results show my father had drugs or alcohol in his system, a case could be made that he fell and stumbled off the pier accidentally or he jumped off the pier intentionally and hit his head.”
“Right. And if the autopsy results find he had nothing in his system, then the case for murder is stronger.”
We both nodded, then sipped our tea in silence for a minute, lost in our thoughts as we mindlessly checked our phones. Paloma entered Mugs & Teacups a few minutes later. I almost didn’t recognize her. Instead of the dramatic style she’d displayed at the firefighters fundraiser, flowing garments replete with layered shawls and scarves, she appeared wearing a more mundane outfit consisting of loose-fitting white slacks and a flowered tunic. The only remnants from the other night were her bangle bracelets, although she wore half the number she’d worn at the fundraiser.
I stood up and pulled a chair out for her. She smiled and told me she was going to place her order first.
Ashley’s gaze tracked Paloma to the counter. “Oh, she’s the palm reader, right? She read my palm the other night. Said she sees a lot of love in my future.”
“Lucky you.”
“I thought we were meeting with the other one, the fortune-teller.”
“Yeah, that’s Blanche, and she’s a medium, but they’re all fortune-tellers pretty much. I need to talk to her, too, but Paloma was the one I Googled first.”
Paloma returned, setting down her teacup and saucer on the table. She smelled faintly of patchouli and cigarette smoke.
She held out her hand, first to me, then Ashley. “Hi, nice to meet you formally.”
She had a deep voice and a theatrical manner that commanded attention. I wondered if she had been an actress at one time.
Ashley shook her hand. “Actually, you read my palm at the fundraiser the other night.”
Paloma held on to Ashley’s hand and flipped it over in a dramatic manner to study her palm. Ashley rolled her eyes at me.
After a moment, Paloma’s eyes crinkled and her lips stretched into a wide smile. “Yes, I see it right here. There’s a lot of love in your future. In fact, I see it happening very soon.”
Ashley shot me a wide-eyed glance and I responded in kind.
Paloma settled into her chair and sampled her tea. “So, what can I do you for? You want dirt on Jo? Like what?”
“Yes, I’m trying to piece together my aunt Jo’s life, specifically during the years between my memory of her as the nice lady who brought me ginormous lollipops to the fortune-teller who had the misfortune of being stabbed to death.”
“Well, I’ll try my best. I first met her at a halfway house when we both were bouncing back from some low periods in our lives. We kind of bonded over our struggle to stay on the straight and narrow.”
“By halfway house, you mean a place where women with past substance-abuse issues can get back on their feet?”
“Yep. Some landed there as part of a plea bargain for illegal drug possession arrests or other victimless crimes instead of going to jail. Others were there after being in hard-core rehab, where they were monitored twenty-four seven. The halfway house was a transition period for them to learn how to be totally on their own again, without drugs or alcohol. I’d started drinking too much after I split from husband number two. Guess I felt sorry for myself for getting divorced a second time, and drinking made me forget about it. Then I crashed my car into a tree one night—hit it pretty hard, totaled it. I’m lucky I didn’t kill myself or anybody else. You can always replace a car. I had a great judge who told me I’d come to a fork in the road and it was my choice whether I wanted to continue the way I’d been heading, which was down, or switch course and do something uplifting with my life.”
“Good for you. How did Jo wind up there?”
Paloma fiddled with her bangles. “I knew her as Jo Benning back then. She didn’t call herself Esmeralda until she started working with Blanche. We bonded almost immediately when we found out we’d both had two lousy marriages. Well, to be fair, I don’t think she ever actually married number two. But both were deadbeats, by her telling. Good riddance to bad rubbish is what I told her.”
“Did she ever mention having any children?”
“Blanche would know about that more because she had kids too. I never had any—no regrets, hard enough taking care of myself. If I recall correctly, I think she had one with each of her guys. What happened to them she never said and I didn’t ask. Don’t like to pry. Eyes front, mind my own business. Keep my head clear for my palm reading.”
“So, you didn’t know Sam Benning, the teenager that helped you with your booth moving and setup, was her son?”
“I do now. But no, I didn’t. She told me she got him from a local high school. I never knew his last name. Only knew him as Sam. But I liked him. Good kid, if a little troubled.”
“Troubled? Why do you say that?”
“His aura. He’s a good person but vulnerable—that often attracts predators of all sorts. Not necessarily sexual predators. I got the vibe that people could use him for their own goals, that sort of thing. Like he was trapped.”
“Really?”
She bobbed her head in agreement. “I read his palm once to confirm it. I told him to learn to stand up straighter to ward off others looking for weak people to suck into their own agenda.”
“What did he say when you told him that.”
“He went white as a sheet. So, I knew I’d touched a nerve.”
“And when was this?”
“Just a few days before Jo got killed. I just feel awful because I told Jo about his reading. I felt her being in close proximity to this troubled boy might put her in danger.”
“How did she react?”
“All she did was laugh. She told me to save it for my paying customers.”
“So, you knew she was going to be murdered?”
“Jeez Louise, no. If I knew how to predict specifics like that, I’d be a very rich woman. No, I just pick up on people’s auras and vibes, their light. Jo’s aura had a dark shadow over it.”
I shivered, making the teacup and saucer in my hand rattle. “Is there anything you can think of to shed light on her murder? Do you have any ideas of who might have killed her or why? Any enemies?”
“Jo was a person who had faced her demons and finally beat them. She was in a good place. No financial problems I knew of. She was happy being single and working and having friends. And now I see finding her son brought her joy. I’m happy about that. I can’t think of anyone having a motive to kill her, to be perfectly frank.”
“Well, thank you for your time.”
“Oh, wait a minute. Jo was a big animal and nature lover. I guess you could call her an animal rights and environmental activist. Save the world, save wildlife. The fires we’ve been having upset her a lot. She was concerned for the wildlife and feared human lives might also be lost if the weather turned hot and windy. She often mentioned going to local protest meetings. She was anti-development too. Protesting when developers wanted to disrupt the bird sanctuary to build condos. Stuff like that.”
I shook my head. “I had no idea she was into that.”
I wondered what she’d think of our condo project for the Hotel Santa Sofia. Part of our site contained an old vacant strip mall, but the other part was undeveloped land. Most development disrupted some natural habitats. But I had peace of mind knowing I’d made the right decision making the community garden our design concept.
We’d all finished our tea.
Ashley checked her phone. “Gosh, where’d the time go? I have to meet someone in fifteen minutes. I better leave now.”
I looked at my phone. Jake had texted me he was on his way to Lazarro’s. “Me too. I have dinner plans.”
Ashley cocked her head. “You do? Who with, Gym?”
“As a matter of fact, no. Someone new.”
Paloma grasped my hands to say goodbye. Her smile melted into a frown.
I gasped. “What is it?”
Her eyelids fluttered shut for a few moments. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was steady and somber. “Be careful, princess. Your mission is beset with landmines. Beware of false friends and you will succeed at finding the truth.”
Ashley and I bustled out of Mugs & Teacups side by side. As soon as we were out of Paloma’s earshot, Ashley spoke. “What the heck was that all about? Sounded like dialog out of a Star Wars movie.”
Cold overtook me and I started to shiver. “I don’t know. It felt like she was inducting me into a Marvel superhero team. ‘Mission’ and ‘false friends’? What’s that about?”
“Well, she knows you’re interested in finding Jo’s killer. She just wants you to be prudent and careful, like we all do.”
“Maybe.”
“Are you going to tell me who you’re having dinner with, or do you want me to guess?”
“Guess.”
“Well, unless you’re leading a secret life, the only cute guy you’ve seemed interested in is Jake.”
“I’m not really interested in him like that.” I frowned as I considered my own behavior—going out with another man when Milo’s body hadn’t even been found.
Ashley read my expression well. “Nothing wrong with going out to dinner. It will be good for you to relax and have a little fun.”
“I just feel guilty, because of Milo. Plus, I hardly know this guy.”
“I thought you had lunch together. And you Googled him.”
“Yeah. He was fine for lunch. And I only Googled enough to ascertain that he was who he claimed to be, a PI. But I didn’t do my level-two extensive Google search, like for arrest records.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. He wouldn’t have a PI license if he had any arrests.”