Chapter 12
The police chief, Sergio Alvares, was on the scene in less than five minutes. He stepped out of the squad car—looking tall and dreamy in his blue flak jacket, sporting a shoulder holster with a gun—and took full command. He was like a Brazilian version of Ryan Gosling playing a brooding detective in some indie feature. Sadly, for most of the women in town, Sergio was also gay.
He consulted with fire Captain Kendrick outside the warehouse before heading inside to take a look at the corpse. There were no other officers on the scene yet, so nobody was holding back the small crowd of onlookers, which had undoubtedly heard about the fire on their home police scanners.
Hayley casually followed Sergio inside. Even though he was her brother-in-law, she guessed he still might object to a civilian sticking close to him while he investigated the scene. But Hayley had gained a reputation in town as an amateur crime-solver, so perhaps she might get lucky and be allowed to watch. Sergio was distracted and it would be difficult to ask for his permission while he was working, so she decided just to take matters into her own hands and sneak inside, undetected, to steal a glimpse of what was happening.
Hayley crept closer to the kitchen, poking her head in to hear Sergio conversing with Captain Kendrick.
“Looks like he was in the middle of cooking when he died. Maybe a heart attack. Could have killed him instantly. Food was still in the oven and started burning, which caused the fire,” Sergio said.
It made perfect sense. Garth had told her he was busy preparing some dishes for a couple of weekend parties he was catering.
Sergio continued, scanning the scene. “No signs of a break-in.”
“Door was locked, presumably from the inside,” said the dashing captain, who removed his hard hat to scratch an itch on the top of his head. “Took all four of my men to bust it down with a battering ram.”
Sergio nodded and knelt down next to the body.
Hayley knew it was definitely Garth. She could see his face, cold and still. His eyes were closed.
Sergio noticed a pipe still lodged between Garth’s fingers. He withdrew a white rag from his back pants pocket and used it to pick up the pipe and examine it. “A few of the tobacco embers are still burning. He was obviously smoking when he died.”
He then searched Garth’s pocket and found his wallet. He opened it and looked inside. It was filled with bills. He pulled them out and fanned through them. “Must be close to nine hundred bucks here. I think it’s safe to say someone didn’t barge in here and rob him. Especially since the door was locked when you guys got here.”
Sergio took another look around. “So all we’ve got is a barking dog and some burning food in the oven.”
“Excuse me, Hayley,” a voice said from behind her.
It was loud enough to alert both Sergio and Captain Kendrick, who spun around to catch Hayley eavesdropping on their conversation.
The voice belonged to Rusty Wyatt, a young, energetic, and adorable paramedic in his twenties, with tousled blond hair and cheeks you just wanted to squeeze like an overenthusiastic grandmother. Rusty also had a killer smile and was flashing his pearly whites at a chastised Hayley, who kept glancing back at the stern expression on Sergio’s face.
“You get prettier every time I see you,” Rusty said, giving her a subtle wink.
“Thank you, Rusty,” Hayley said, surprised this kid was shamelessly flirting with her under such serious circumstances.
“You mind if we slip past you with this gurney, honey?” Rusty said, still with the killer smile.
“Oh . . . no! Excuse me! I’m sorry . . . ,” Hayley said, stepping aside as Rusty and another paramedic, whom she didn’t know, passed her with the gurney and lugged it over to Sergio, fire Captain Kendrick, and Garth’s body.
“You can take him straight to the morgue, boys. County coroner can decide whether or not to do an autopsy,” Sergio said.
Rusty was staring back at Hayley. He had a lascivious look on his face, as if imagining the two of them skinny-dipping together on some tropical island in the South Pacific. Like Brooke Shields and that long-forgotten curly-haired blond boy in Blue Lagoon, a movie Hayley loved as a child.
She was now officially dying of embarrassment.
“Rusty, did you hear what I said?” Sergio asked.
“Yes, sir! We’ll take care of it right away.”
They lifted the body up off the floor and set him down on the gurney and went about strapping him in.
Sergio walked toward Hayley, mumbling to her as he passed. “You can go home, Hayley. This isn’t a crime scene.”
Hayley nodded and followed him out.
Outside the warehouse there was now a larger crowd, which was being kept at bay by Sergio’s two junior officers, Donnie and Earl, or as Hayley preferred calling them, “Officers Dumb and Dumber.” She knew the reference dated her, but it was too perfect not to use. Sergio was stopped by Lex’s foreman, Nick Ward, the handyman Billy Parsons, and the quiet, withdrawn young man who always seemed to be tagging alongside them. Nick wanted to know what was going on and Sergio filled him in. The three men seemed genuinely rattled by the news that Garth Rawlings was dead.
“Did you guys see or hear anything?” Sergio asked.
“No, Chief,” Nick said, holding a can of beer. “We were inside having our own little holiday party. The kid here, Hugo, thought he smelled something funny, a burning smell, but we didn’t think too much about it until we heard the sirens and saw the trucks pull up.”
“So you had no interaction with Mr. Rawlings at any time tonight? Did he complain about the music you guys were playing next door?”
“No, sir,” Nick said, shaking his head.
Nick glanced over and spotted Hayley, who was watching him closely. She had been there two days before to witness the argument the three men had with Garth over the noise from their machinery.
And he knew it.
“We did have a minor altercation with him just the other day. Some of our equipment caused one of his soufflés to collapse and he was not too happy about it. But we smoothed things over, and Billy here even knocked on his door to invite him over to have a beer with us earlier.”
“What time was that?”
“Around five. I knocked a few times, but he didn’t answer,” Billy said. “I thought maybe he didn’t hear me, so I tried the door, but it was locked.”
Nick lowered his head and asked quietly, “Does Tiffany know yet?”
Sergio shook his head. “I’m heading over there in a few minutes to break the news before she reads about it on Facebook.”
Hayley noticed all three men appeared visibly saddened by the circumstances, especially Hugo, who looked as if he was about to cry.
“Okay,” Sergio said. “I may have some more questions for you later, so I’d appreciate it if you could make yourselves available.”
“Absolutely, Chief,” Nick said. “Whatever we can do to help.”
Sergio turned and walked to his squad car.
Hayley ran to catch up to him.
“What are you thinking?” Hayley asked.
“No pills or drugs were found at the scene. Doesn’t appear to be any kind of overdose. I’m inclined to believe Garth Rawlings died of natural causes.”
“Natural causes? Sergio, Garth was only in his midforties.”
“We know he smoked a pipe and we all know the dangers of smoking. We also know he’s high-strung and prone to tantrums, which can lead to high blood pressure. Maybe his habits and behaviors finally caught up with him.”
Something inside Hayley told her that pipe smoking and a boorish personality were not what killed Garth Rawlings.