THREE

 

 

“The blue woman used to be the renter of record on the apartment,” Donna said as Pilgrim Hugh climbed into the limo.

This stretch limo was far more than just a nice ride around town. It had state of the art computer stations that folded down into hidden compartments and many other features.

The cool air in the limo felt good after the short walk from the front of the apartment building through the hot July afternoon. Donna handed him a bottle of cold water from the fridge near her station in the center of the limo compartment and then went back to her screens.

Pilgrim took a drink as he got into his seat and punched a button so that his computer station would come up and wrap around him.

“Incoming,” Donna said.

She had sent him the image of the redheaded woman. The photo was a glamour shot with her standing with a white dress in a snowstorm of something white. Even with the images slightly blurred from the art work, it was clearly the blue woman.

“Her name is Deirdre Blue,” Donna said. “But it seems she went by the first name of Deep and I am not kidding about the last name. Both parents dead, no siblings.”

“Deep Blue?” he asked, staring at his screen.

“Deep Blue,” Donna said. “And I’m sticking to the moratorium on the jokes.”

“Think that name might be a reason she ended up the way she did?” he asked.

Donna laughed. “Wouldn’t bet against it.”

Pilgrim had his computer screens up and Donna was giving him all the data she had found about Deep Blue. She had worked at a downtown clothing store until a month ago, and also as a professional clothing model. She had been twenty-six and single, and had a degree in design and business. Not a dumb woman by any means and clearly successful in a hard field.

“So what happened a month ago at her job?” he asked.

Donna shook her head. “I hacked into the store employment records to save time and it only shows that she quit with standard notice. No reason given.”

Pilgrim ignored the hacked part and nodded. Clearly Deep had no criminal record, had worked as a model at times and at the clothing store and had lived in a small studio apartment. It all seemed so standard.

He dug deeper into the records for the apartment and found that she had given notice at the first of the month and moved out, paying for a professional cleaning service to clean everything and give all her furnishings to charities. The apartment was still paid for until the end of the month.

“What the hell was this woman planning?” Donna asked, staring at her screen. “Quit her job, gave up her apartment, and then dyed herself blue to match her name.”

“I’m not sure she did that to herself,” Pilgrim said. “And I want to figure out who would kill her and then take her back to her own apartment, one that she had already moved out of. And then why write us to find her?”

Donna looked over at him. “It’s the writing us that is the key to all this.”

“You’re right,” he said. “Who and why?” That was the part that made no sense to him at all.

“The package came priority mail,” Donna said. “At least a full day, maybe two. She would have had a pretty ripe odor after two days on that floor.”

Pilgrim knew exactly what Donna was thinking.

“Any cameras around this building on the street or the alley behind the building near the garbage bins?”

Donna’s fingers were flying over the keys of her computer. After a moment images of traffic cams started appearing on his screen.

“I figured the person who staged her would make sure we got the mail first,” Donna said, “then stage her right ahead of us getting there, so I’m checking traffic cams from an hour or so ago going backward in time.”

“Doing that would show a respect for Deep,” he said. “Not that she was killed.”

Donna glanced at him and nodded, then turned back to her screens.

“I got another idea as well,” he said. “How much you want to bet this person is still watching in some fashion.”

“No bet in a blue moon,” Donna said.

He shook his head.

“Sorry,” she said. “Slipped out.”

“Can you scan that building around the apartment for any stray signals. I didn’t see any hidden cams in that apartment, but doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”

As Donna’s fingers sort of danced a happy dance on her computer keyboard, he started through the videos. It didn’t take him long since Donna had narrowed the choices down so much. A mortuary van had turned onto the street where the three-story apartment building was situated just thirty minutes before they got here.

Stanton Mortuary.

Deep Blue had been embalmed and the marks covered. No wonder her skin felt room temperature.

He suddenly knew that even though the body didn’t smell, he was getting a distinct odor of fish in all this.

He quickly hacked into the Stanton Mortuary files to find the records of a Deep Blue who died five days ago from a massive brain tumor. She had spent most of the last month in hospice care. Her service had been yesterday.

As he looked quickly through the photos of family and friends, he ran across one photo of five girls in college. And with one look at the photo, he knew exactly what had happened.

“Got it,” Donna said. “Camera signal from the apartment to a nearby source.”

He pointed to the hidden computer area that Carrie used when with them. “Check her computer and I think you’ll find the signal.”

Donna looked really puzzled, but did as he suggested and ten seconds later Donna nodded. “The signal is being transferred from here. But how, these systems are guarded better than any system I have ever seen. I know, I set up most of the walls.”

“Break into the signal and tell Carrie we solved it.”

“Of course,” Donna said, smiling.

He glanced at the clock on his computer screen. “Tell her it only took twenty-one minutes. Tell her to send in the mortuary van again to pick up Deep. And ask her how her dates with Officer Daniels have gone.”

Donna just frowned at the date part, but did as she was told.

Pilgrim clicked off his computer and let it retract back into its hiding spot, then sat back with his cold bottle of water and waited.

It took exactly fifty seconds for a knock to come to the side door of the limo.

“Get the chief a cold bottle of water,” he said to Donna, who opened the door for the chief to climb in and then handed him a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Man, that was fast,” Chief Craig said as he sat across from Pilgrim with a sigh. The chief was a thin man, who seemed to dominate every room he was in with his combination stern look and smile. He had worked up through the ranks and was a popular chief, both with his officers and with the city government, a hard trick to pull off.

“How did Carrie get you to allow this stunt?” Pilgrim asked as Donna let her computer screens vanish back into their home so she could turn and join the conversation.

“It wasn’t Carrie,” the chief said. “Carrie just helped. I was friends of the family with the Blues and before they died, I promised them I would watch over Deep.”

“But then she got the inoperable brain tumor,” Pilgrim said.

The chief nodded, clearly sad. “She had heard so much about you from Carrie at their girls’ nights out, that she wanted to use her death to test you, for the fun of it. Sort of a last request.”

“You tried to talk her out of it, I presume,” Donna said.

“We all did,” the chief said, laughing. “Deep was really strong-willed when she wanted to be, even right down to the end.”

“And beyond, it seems,” Pilgrim said. “But I have a hunch there was more to this than just a last wish.”

The chief laughed and then nodded. “Deep had a lot of money from insurance after her parents died. She wanted it to go to good causes, but couldn’t decide which cause to give it to or how to divide it up.”

“You’re kidding me,” Donna said. “Us solving this will result in some charities getting money and others not so much.”

The chief nodded. “All the charities get some,” the chief said, “including a few police funds, but with you solving it in twenty-one minutes, the large share goes to a fund to help the fisheries on the Columbia.”

Pilgrim was just shaking his head. Only his best friend Carrie could have come up with such a strange test. But he had to admit, it had kept him entertained for a bit.

“We were going to pull the plug at one hour,” the chief said.

“Did Carrie say it would never take us that long,” Donna asked.

“Actually,” the chief said, “she wasn’t sure.”

“How much money is the top charity getting?” Pilgrim asked.

“Quarter of a million.”

“And how many charities were standing to gain from this?”

“Five total.”

Pilgrim smiled. “I’ll toss in enough so that all the charities get the same quarter million, as long as it all comes in under Deep Blue’s name.”

“I’m sure Carrie can make that happen,” Chief Craig said. “And thanks.”

“Thank you for honoring the tragic death of a young woman by following her wishes,” Pilgrim said, “even as strange as they were.”

The chief nodded. “I just wish you two had taken another ten minutes.”

Pilgrim laughed.

“Why?” Donna asked.

“I had thirty-one minutes in the office pool.”

“Who had twenty-one minutes?” Donna asked.

“Let me guess,” Pilgrim said. “Daniels.”

“Got it in one,” the chief said, laughing. He handed Donna back his empty water bottle.

“Thanks again for the donations. Very kind of you. Now I got to go make sure Deep gets back to where she needs to go to be cremated.”

The chief started to climb out into the warm air. Then he turned back and said, “Thanks also for keeping the blue jokes under control. The Blue family were really nice people and Deep was a wonderful woman. All gone far too soon.”

He left and closed the door.

Donna took a long drink of cold water, then asked, “Back to the office, Boss?”

“Let’s go get some lunch first and let Carrie wonder for a while how we reacted to all this,” Pilgrim said, smiling. “Your choice.”

She nodded and climbed out to move up to the driver’s seat. He had a hunch he knew exactly where they would be eating. The Blue Diamond Grill. It was close and had great sandwiches.

He was right about that, but surprised when Donna ordered the Blue Plate Special and they actually had one. Who knew?