We stared at each other across the coffee table.
“But you told me you’d been on vacation for two weeks!”
“Do you believe everything anyone tells you?” she snapped. “You’d just told me Jerry was murdered. I was horrified and scared and imagining all kinds of things.”
“So you real quick thought it would be a good idea to cover your back. Or Donny’s back.”
“I . . . I’m not covering anyone’s back now. Our flight left for Cozumel around eleven Saturday morning. Which, from what you tell me, was after Jerry was killed.”
“But if Donny had been at home with you all night—”
“He wasn’t. He worked the previous night. I thought it was a bad idea, working right up until we were practically ready to take off, but he said we needed the money.”
“Was he working?”
“I don’t know. This particular job was at a warehouse. He could have left for several hours, and if the place wasn’t broken into during that time, no one would know. He could have gone to Jerry’s condo, followed him to your place, killed him, and gone back to the warehouse.”
“You’ve done some thinking about this.”
“Oh, yes.”
I gave all this some thought too, then pointed out a different twist on the murder. “So if Donny was at the warehouse, you were home alone. Which means you could have gone to the condo, followed Jerry to the limo, killed him, and got home in time to meet your husband with a smile and a suitcase full of bikinis and suntan lotion.”
“I didn’t kill him! What reason would I have to kill him?”
“A woman scorned, etc.”
She frowned but repeated her statement, this time with an emphatic shake of head. “I didn’t do it.”
“There’s something else, something you don’t know,” I said. “All Jerry’s computer equipment was stolen out of his condo the same night he was murdered. And the murderer took his cell phone and that flash drive thing he always carried in his pocket. His Rolex watch too. The police have kept it quiet, but the computer theft had to be connected to the killing. But your Donny didn’t have any reason to—” I broke off at the stricken look on Elena’s face. “Or did he?”
She got up and paced back and forth between the sofa and the window, swinging hair and swift turns graceful as a prowl-ing cat.
“I didn’t tell you how Jerry and I met.”
“You were both working at F&N.”
“Donny changed after what happened with his job down in California. He thought everybody was out to get him.”
This sounded like an off-subject tangent, but I knew there must be a connection.
“We had an income tax problem. He saw that as a government conspiracy. The rich can get away with anything, and the IRS was after him. Our car got totaled in an accident, which is why I’m driving the clunker out there. But to Donny, it was another conspiracy between the other driver and the insurance company.”
“A little paranoid, as you said.”
“A lot paranoid. He started spending time on the Internet while I was at work. Through that he got tangled up with some strange, quasi-military group called the Twenty-first Minute-men and even started going to their meetings. He brought some of their literature home. It was all this awful hate stuff. How the government was on the verge of collapse and was conspiring against innocent citizens. How it was every man for himself, and we all needed to be armed and ready. And beware of anyone not like us. It scared me. I looked up the Web site. And down at the bottom I saw this little notice: Site Design and Maintenance by Jerry Norton Web Design.”
Jerry had told me about that particular Web site, although I hadn’t known the name before. He said most of the guys were “weekend commando” types playing war games and seeing conspiracies everywhere, but a couple of them might really be dangerous. Was Donny Loperi one of the dangerous ones?
“I knew there was a Jerry Norton at F&N. I didn’t think it could be him doing the Web site, but one time I made kind of a joke out of it and asked him.”
“And it was.”
“Right. So we talked . . . and laughed. He was older and mature, like you, but still so much fun.”
I almost choked at that, but I doubted she even realized how it sounded to me. At least she wasn’t making malicious cracks about my being too old for Jerry. So all I said was, “Yeah, Jerry could be fun.”
“Donny took the group seriously, but Jerry thought they were just a bunch of kooks and crackpots and laughed at them. He was that proverbial breath of fresh air after all Donny’s anger and paranoia.”
“And the talking and laughing escalated into an affair.”
Another nod.
“You must have been very discreet. I don’t think anyone at F&N knew about it. At least it never got onto the gossip express.”
“We were careful. Looking back, I think Jerry enjoyed the cloak-and-dagger part of our relationship. Made it more exciting.”
Until Elena started making waves about a different kind of relationship, something wifey and permanent, and then he ducked out.
“Did Jerry and Donny ever meet?”
“Jerry went to a few of the group’s meetings. He met Donny then, although that was before Jerry and I . . . got together.”
“I remember Jerry telling me that he closed the Web site down because they didn’t pay their bill.”
“Donny mentioned that.” She smiled without humor. “To him that meant Jerry was part of some vicious conspiracy to destroy the group and keep them from getting the truth out.”
“Would Donny feel strongly enough about that to kill Jerry?”
She paused and tapped her fingertips together nervously. “Maybe, if he got paranoid enough. But I’d think it more likely that if Donny killed Jerry, it was about me.”
“But what could possibly have been on Jerry’s computer that would make Donny steal everything to keep it hidden, especially if the Web site had already been shut down?”
“I don’t know.” Elena returned to the sofa, her slim body graceful in spite of the dispirited slump as she dropped to the cushion and clutched a pillow to her chest. “Jerry liked to dig into stuff, you know. He thought hacking into places he wasn’t supposed to be was fun. He said once he’d gotten into the computers of some rival insurance company and could have sabotaged every one of their accounts if he’d wanted to.”
“I didn’t know that.” Although I remembered he’d laughed once about how he’d hacked into a dating site and teamed up several of the most incompatible couples he could find.
“So maybe he had some kind of confidential information about Donny. Or maybe it was just more of Donny’s paranoia, thinking Jerry might have something on the computer that would tie him to the murder if the police saw it.”
Donny Loperi was more and more looking like a major suspect. Although one of my hot theories had to be wrong. Elena’s husband and Big Daddy Sutherland couldn’t both have killed Jerry.
“Why is Donny down in Portland now?”
“He heard about an opening on some suburban police force there. He sent in a résumé and got called for an inter-view. I’m hoping he gets the job. I feel bad divorcing him when he’s so . . . down-and-out.”
“But you’re afraid of him.”
“Wouldn’t you be, if you were me?”
“And you’re telling me I should be afraid of him too.”
“I don’t think he’s going to deliberately come after you. But if you keep trying to find out who killed Jerry, and you get close enough to Donny that he starts to feel cornered, I think he’ll do something to . . . protect himself.”
“Protect himself by getting me out of the way.”
“Stay out of it. Let the police handle it. It’s their job, not yours. If he did it, they’ll catch up with him sooner or later.”
“Sometimes killers never get caught.”
We sat there in silence until finally she picked a word out of something I’d said earlier. “You said Jerry had a Rolex?”
“He got it a month or so after I met him. You sound surprised.”
“I am. Jerry had expensive tastes—I’m sure you know that—but he didn’t have that kind of money.”
“His brother said he used to be heavily into gambling. Maybe he still was, though if he was, I didn’t know anything about it. But maybe he won a bundle. Was he gambling when you knew him?”
“Not that I knew. But he could have been, I suppose. We never went out anywhere together where someone we knew might see us.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what ever made me think that kind of relationship could go anywhere.”
“Maybe you should work a little more on your relationship with Donny. It sounds as if he needs some help.”
“Counselor? Psychiatrist? Good whack alongside the head?”
“Maybe it’s God he needs.” I almost looked around to see who’d said that. Me? Okay, I’d gone that far, so I added, “Maybe you need God too.”
She looked thoughtful, but what she said was, “When you called me, you said you were looking for a job. Is that true, or was it just some ploy to talk to me?”
“Both,” I admitted. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, since you’ve been away, but F&N merged with another company. They’re closing down here and moving everything to San Diego. Jerry was supposed to transfer there, as an assistant to his boss.”
“Really? I’m surprised he wanted to keep working with Findley. He thought the guy was a real jerk and was always making fun of him. I hope you find another job,” she added.
“Thank you.” I looked at her hopefully, but no offer was forthcoming.
She stood up. “Well, I should be getting home. Donny might try to call.”
I looked at my watch. “At this hour? It’s past midnight.”
“An hour Donny thinks is the perfect time to call and check on me.”
Oh, Donny had known about Jerry, all right. I had no doubt about that. We walked to the door, and I opened it for her.
“Thanks for taking time to talk to me,” she said.
“Thanks for taking time to come all the way over here. I appreciate your concern.”
She put a slim hand on my arm. “And please, please listen to what I’ve said.”
A new thought suddenly hit me. “Maybe you’re trying to protect Donny. Maybe all this stuff about divorce and being afraid of him is just a big smoke screen. Maybe you just want to stop any investigation that might lead to him and give him time to get out of the country!”
“You do have a suspicious mind.” She didn’t sound critical, merely observant.
I offered Fitz’s comment. “Goes with the territory.”
“Believe what you want, but I really was thinking of the danger to you. As I said before, I don’t want another dead body on my conscience.”
“Jerry is on your conscience?”
“I can’t help thinking that if I hadn’t had a relationship with him, he’d still be alive.”
“You could be a responsible citizen and go to the police and tell them everything you’ve told me.”
“Yeah, I could, couldn’t I? But Donny would know who’d tipped them off, and I’m afraid my desire for self-preservation exceeds my desire for exemplary citizenship. But you could go to them.”
Right. I could tell them all about how I thought Jerry’s ex-girlfriend’s husband may have done him in, or maybe it was his not-quite-ex-father-in-law.
Anyone else you’re suspicious of? I could hear Detective Sergeant Molino saying politely. Maybe his cleaning lady’s cousin’s ex-husband? Or his condo neighbor’s former brother-in-law?
No, I needed something more solid than what I had here to take to the authorities. Although I’d rather that something solid wasn’t my dead body.
“You know, there’s one puzzling point about Jerry’s murder that I keep coming back to, and nothing you’ve said explains it. What was he doing here at my place that night?”
She looked thoughtful. “Maybe he wanted to make up with you.”
“It was the middle of the night. And he didn’t come to the house, just to the limousine.”
“I don’t know. That is odd, isn’t it? For a while, I thought Jerry and I were soul mates. But, looking back, I think maybe I saw in him . . . what I wanted to see. And I think now that there was a lot I didn’t see. So I have no idea what he may have been up to.”
Me too. Multifaceted Jerry, showing a different face to each of us. Which was the real Jerry? Or did he show that face to anyone?
Elena looked both ways down the street before heading out to her car.
“I really do like those TV ads with the two cats and the dog,” I called after her.
“Thanks. Watch for the next one. The cats are at a ritzy pet spa, having their nails and hair done.”
I watched until Elena’s car was safely around the corner, then closed the door. I didn’t see myself and Elena ever being big buddies, and I certainly couldn’t condone her relationship with Jerry no matter how bad her marriage was. But I liked more than disliked her. Whether or not her husband had killed Jerry, I suspected she had good reason to be afraid of him.
And maybe I did too. I shivered.