Ellen was right. It had been a difficult morning. The phone rang as she poured her first cup of coffee. It was Les McIntyre, the pastor of St Mark’s. He wanted to know what he should do. Marlene was a member of St Mark’s and he wanted to help, but not step in before she was ready to see him. What did Mary think?
Mary thought they both needed to go over to the Lowells’ this morning, but she wanted to talk to Emma first. See how Marlene had gotten through the night and see how Tommy was doing. She also wanted to talk to Dan.
Les agreed, saying to call him when she was ready to go. He didn’t want to push difficult decisions on Marlene so soon but there was no telling when the body would be released and they had to be ready. Would they be using O’Dell’s? Mary was sure they would. Then she called Dan.
Had the shop been robbed?
Not according to Heath. The last two weeks’ buys were in the safe in the bag they used, ready to be taken to a smelter somewhere in the Los Angeles area. The cash they kept on hand was all accounted for. The diamonds they’d purchased seemed to be untouched. They were all in the safe, the diamonds in a special tray. The safe would have been open during the day and Jerry kept that inventory, but it all looked as usual. There was no sign anyone had tried to get into the cash register or the display cabinets. There wasn’t much in them, anyway. The blinds on the front door were closed, the door locked and the open sign had been removed. Whoever shot Jerry must have left by the back door but no one had seen him. If it was a him. No one had heard a shot. Only Mo Black and John Lagomasino had heard Marlene’s screams. They were dusting the shop for fingerprints and Dan was sure there would be plenty, but he doubted they’d be much use. There were people in and out of that shop constantly and there was no sign of a struggle. It looked, at least for the time being, as if Jerry either knew who had shot him or had been taken by surprise. Or both. But why continued to be a mystery.
Mary thought she had an idea why. ‘Dan, did Heath look in the bag?’
‘The bag that was due to go to the smelter? No. Why? Oh. Oh my God. No.’
‘It seems possible to me there may be more in that bag than there’s supposed to be.’
‘Of course. I don’t need Heath for that. I have the records of what Jerry turned into us up to his death. We haven’t gone through his records at the shop yet, either. Actually, Wilson should be handling all that but I can’t seem to get him to pay attention. He’s too busy trying to find evidence the Blacks are involved.’
‘Is Emma still at the Lowells’?’
‘No. She came back early this morning. I took one look at her and sent her to the motel to get some sleep. I guess she was up most of the night. Marlene wasn’t doing well but they finally got some sleeping pills down her and she went to bed, but Tommy wanted to talk. That was fine with me – we got a better picture of what might have been going on there from what he told her but, poor kid, she was out on her feet. I’ll talk to her later.’
‘What are you going to do about going through Jerry Lowell’s records?’
‘Call Cody Baxter. I need some accounting types and Wilson’s no help.’
‘Dan, do you think Wilson may be …’ Mary knew her voice sounded worried, but she was. Wilson wasn’t acting like any rational police officer she’d ever known, or heard of. She couldn’t help wondering if, instead of trying to find out something, he was trying to hide something.
‘Involved? The thought has occurred to me. How, I’m not sure. But there’s more than one thing going on I haven’t figured out, and not being the one in charge hasn’t helped.’ He paused and took in a long breath. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I’m going over to the Lowells’ to see what needs doing. Les wants to go with me.’
‘Good.’ Dan sounded distracted.
She could hear voices in the background. Someone had come in, someone he probably needed to talk to, but she had one last question. Hurriedly, she got it in.
‘What about the funeral? Les will bring it up. Tommy needs to start thinking about it. I’m not sure Marlene will be up to it. What should we tell them?’
‘I don’t know. His body is at the San Luis Obispo morgue and they’ll be doing the autopsy. I have no idea when. Tell them … I don’t know.’ Dan sounded frustrated and rushed. ‘Tell them at least two weeks. It takes a while to get the autopsy done and for the coroner’s office to release the body. They could hold a memorial service if they want and have the graveside service later. Mary, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later.’
She hung the phone up with a little more force than necessary. Dan wasn’t the only one who felt frustrated. Funerals, like most things, required planning, and it was never too early to start. She was painfully aware she and Les would be doing a large share of it, having been in this position before. Most people weren’t at their best when it was time to plan a funeral, and that was when they needed people from the church most. Luckily, Joy – wonderful, morose, efficient Joy – had stepped in when she’d needed to make decisions about Samuel’s. All of her sisters had moved away and neither Dan nor Ellen had returned to Santa Louisa yet. She couldn’t have gotten through it without Joy, Les and the members of St Mark’s. She’d reciprocated more than once but she’d never helped plan one for a murder victim. She hadn’t thought it would be easy. Dan had reinforced that fear.
Les was waiting in his car in front of the Lowells’ house when she arrived with Millie in the passenger seat, looking around with what seemed to be great interest. This wasn’t a part of town they frequented. Santa Louisa lay on each side of the Salinas River on land that, on the east side, was either flat or softly rolling. The town limits on the west side didn’t extend very far. They quickly gave way to large parcels filled with almond trees, vineyards, olive groves and steep hillsides dotted with lavender. The Lowells’ house was on one of the streets that bordered the line between the city and county. A low ranch-style home, it seemed to ramble aimlessly across the top of the rise, a large plate-glass window taking up much of the front. The double front door was painted green, the house a beige stucco. The path that led from the street to the door was brick, as was the long, narrow porch. There was a black decorative light pole where the path began and black wrought-iron lanterns on the porch. Mary was sure they were needed. There were no streetlights on this road and no sidewalks.
She and Les stood for a moment, looking at the house, then Mary sighed.
‘I guess we’d better go in.’
Les nodded. ‘This is the only part of my job I dread. I should be a comfort to people going through this time, but I never feel I am, that I can do enough. And a death like this one … the only thing worse is when someone loses a child.’
A small chill ran up the back of Mary’s neck, one she hadn’t felt in some time. She knew how grief felt and imagined the loss of a child would be every bit as great, maybe greater, but so was the pain of never being able to conceive, of never having the child you so desperately wanted. She had come to terms with that grief a long time ago, though. Now it was time to face someone else’s. She resolutely squared her shoulders and tightened Millie’s leash.
‘We’ll do the best we can.’ She started up the walk, Les beside her.
Tommy answered the door before they could ring the bell. ‘Come in. Do you have any news?’
‘Not much. Mostly we came to see how both of you are doing and what we can do to help.’
Tommy grimaced and opened the door wide. ‘I don’t know what you can do but come in. Right now, I don’t even know what there is to do.’
He led the way into a large, comfortable living room. Two ivory sofas heavily strewn with a variety of brightly covered pillows made an L-shape facing a flagstone fireplace with a hearth raised high enough to form a wide seating area. Today it was littered with newspapers. A low square table sat in front of the sofas, covered with more newspapers, a couple of empty coffee cups, a plate liberally coated with what looked like toast crumbs and an empty yogurt carton. Two moss-green wingback chairs were positioned in front of the large front window, a pie-crust table between them. An easy chair, covered in a floral slip cover, was in the corner, and an overstuffed chair in front of it. A cheerful, welcoming room, but not today. The only thing in the room that didn’t look tired or depressed was the dog. Ranger was immediately on his feet, tail wagging, greeting Millie.
Tommy waved vaguely at the furniture then seated himself in the overstuffed chair. ‘Do you know what’s going on? Do they still have the jewelry store cordoned off? I keep thinking I need to go down there. Make sure everything’s all right, but I don’t want to leave Mom. She had a rough night.’
‘I imagine she did,’ Mary murmured. She seated herself on one of the sofas. ‘Is she asleep?’
Les dropped down on the other.
Tommy nodded. ‘We got some pills into her around two and she finally dropped off. She’s in shock. So am I. It all seems so … unreal. I can’t get my head around it, but then I didn’t see him. Mom did. She’s not having an easy time with that.’
Les leaned forward, his hands resting on his knees. He looked as if he was searching for words that didn’t seem to be coming easily. Mary could hardly blame him. The only things that came to her mind were meaningless platitudes. She, of all people, should have ideas of what would be comforting but her mind seemed to have gone blank.
Finally Les spoke. ‘I know this is hard to accept and it’s even harder to have to make some practical decisions, but there are a couple of things. I really don’t want to talk to your mom about this so … are you able to talk about some necessary details?’
‘Do you mean funerals and that kind of thing?’ Bitterness rang strong in Tommy’s voice. Grief was absent but anger present. His father had just been brutally murdered and might have been involved in a crime. It would be hard to feel much else. Grief would come later.
Les nodded. ‘I’m sorry to bring it up but we need to have a mortuary on notice. We usually use O’Dell’s, and if that’s all right with you and your mother, I can give them a call. If that’s what you want.’
Tommy looked a little sick. ‘Yes. She’ll want … I don’t think they had any arrangements, any cemetery plots or anything like that, but I suppose … I have no idea how any of this works. I don’t remember ever having been to a funeral. Even my grandparents’.’
‘Right now, that will be enough. I’ll put them on notice. We’ll need to talk to Dan, see when … They’ll have to have an autopsy. It’s standard in these kinds of events. So we have a little time.’ Les was doing a good job of keeping his voice low and matter-of-fact, kind but not overly sympathetic.
She wanted to get up and give Tommy a huge hug but maybe now wasn’t the time. She thought he was hanging on by a very slender thread and a hug might shake him loose. He needed to keep himself together, if only for his mother’s sake.
‘Is there anything we can do for you right now?’ Les went on, his tone seeming to calm Tommy.
Some of the tension went out of his shoulders; the rigid lines that ran down his neck seemed to relax slightly.
‘Actually, there is. I really want to get down to the store and I want to talk to Dan. Chief Dunham. He was here last night but it seems all I did was answer questions. I have some of my own but I don’t have any answers. Could one of you stay here for about an hour while I see if I can get into the store and make sure everything there is all right? I’ve called Crystal, told her not to think about opening today, but I’d like to go through it, make sure everything is locked up properly.’
‘I’ll stay.’
Both men looked at Mary, Les as if he’d expected her to volunteer and Tommy with a little surprise and a lot of gratitude.
‘I’ll drive you down and bring you back.’ Les started to get to his feet. ‘I don’t think you need to be driving right now.’ He turned toward Mary. ‘You’ll be all right here by yourself?’
‘I’ll be fine. Besides, I have Millie and Ranger to keep me company.’
Tommy also got to his feet. So did Ranger. ‘I guess I should return him to the Dunhams.’ There was uncertainty in his voice and reluctance. ‘It was nice of them to let me take him last night. He helped.’
‘There’s no need to return him right now. Unless you want to, that is. No one’s claimed the dog and he seems happy to be with you.’
Tommy looked hopeful for the first time. He let his hand drop down on the dog’s head. Ranger leaned against his leg a little.
‘All right. I’ll leave him here.’ He turned toward Les. ‘I don’t want to take up your time. I’m fine to drive. I won’t be very long and I have my cell so I can keep in touch with Mrs McGill.’ He paused, and a wave of some emotion Mary couldn’t read passed over his face. ‘But I would appreciate it if you could come back later this afternoon when Mom wakes up. She’s going to need some help and I’m not sure I can give it.’
Les was only too glad to agree and they left together. Ranger followed Tommy to the door, obviously expecting to go with him, and sat staring at it when he realized he wasn’t included. For some reason Mary didn’t understand, it brought tears to her eyes that Jerry’s death hadn’t. Why she felt more sympathy for a dog … but it wasn’t that. She sighed, looked around the room and started to collect empty coffee cups.