Jamie McDaniels was not home. Good. I wanted to talk to his wife without him present. According to Blas, McDaniels’ wife came for occasional weekends and was currently on hand because she’d gotten a week’s vacation. Or maybe she was suspicious that her husband might be cheating on her and was checking up on him.
Patty McDaniels was a slender woman with a slight abdomen roundness that suggested to my untrained eye that she might be pregnant.
They were staying in a one-story apartment complex on the other side of downtown from me that might have been new and trendy in the late forties. She recognized me. She said, “Aren’t you the new guy?”
I nodded.
“Jamie’s not here.”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
She looked suspicious. “About what?”
“Tyler Skeen’s condo. I heard some of the women were pretty fed up with what was going on.”
“Got that right.” Her fury at the activity trumped her suspicion of me.
“I heard it got pretty raucous at times.”
“Why do you care?” The suspicion hadn’t been gone long.
I said, “I heard someone may have tried to murder Skeen. Maybe mixed up his meds. I figured the women would know best who to suspect. The guys seemed to be pretty enamored of the whole scene out there, all the parties and good times.”
I figured, give flattery a try.
“You bet we were disgusted.” She held open the door for me.
She offered me lemonade. I accepted. We sat in the living room of the tiny apartment. A baby slept in a crib next to an end table that featured an unplugged lava lamp. When she was seated, she began, “Jamie said he talked to you. Are you some kind of investigator?”
“Yes. It might help if you could give me more information about those parties at Skeen’s.”
“I’m not one of these extremists that’s out to ruin everybody’s good time, but I think people should drink in moderation. Those things were out of hand. Jamie felt he had to go to fit in. These guys have little stability in their lives. They’d rather go out drinking with their friends than stay home.”
“What was your take on Tyler Skeen?”
She glared out the picture window at the parking lot. “He was a bad man and a bad influence.” She looked at me. “Do they know what killed him?”
“They’re waiting for tox screen tests to get back.”
“I’m glad he’s dead. Yes, I know I shouldn’t be speaking ill of the dead. There were wild parties and wanton women after he got to this town. Jamie is a good guy. A nice quiet man with a focus on his career. That Skeen person was a menace. That’s why I came to town.”
I followed up on her comment. “To stop your husband?”
She snapped. “I trust my husband, but someone has to step in to take command.”
“Any notion on who Skeen’s enemies might have been?”
“They were all friendly to his face. I mostly talked to Jamie and none of the rest of them.”
She had no notion about any of the town squabbles. She said, “I just want what is best for my Jamie.” She glanced at the kid in the crib. “And my child.”
I left.