M
y enchiladas verde were pretty good, and considering I’ve spent my last decade back on the New Mexico – Texas border, I know my Mexican food. Like a true New Mexican, I won’t even argue with a Californian who has a misguided belief that the best Mexican food can be found out there.
The conversation at dinner had a hard time getting off how I felt, who did I think attacked me, and what the police were doing about it. LG did most of the asking which made me a little suspicious, since only minutes earlier, Bob had fingered him as someone to suspect.
My phone buzzed in my pocket a few minutes before we left the restaurant. The text read, “Can I buy you another piece of pie? It’s important, L.”
I wasn’t hungry. Munching on chips and salsa fills up the gaps between a platter of enchiladas, beans, and rice. However, she said it was important, and she was my only ally on the force. I sent her an affirmative response, received a text from her saying twenty minutes, and responded that I may be a few minutes late.
“Everything okay?” Tom asked after we left the restaurant and approached his car.
“Yeah, Louise wants to see me again tonight.”
He grinned from ear to ear. “You lucky dog. If she shows up in civilian clothes, she wants to take you home. Don’t blow it.”
“She wants to talk about the investigation. Sounds like she may have something new.”
“Something new for you, I bet. Remember I want details and a referral please. We only have a few days left, and then I go back to the old battle ax.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said. “It’s a good thing I don’t record these conversations and send them to your wife.”
He laughed. “That might give me a motive to take a four-iron to your head.” Looking embarrassed, he added, “You know I was just kidding about the four-iron comment.”
“I know you were.”
“Good, that was in bad taste, but seriously, a referral please,” he said with a laugh, closing the door behind him.
He had parked a level above my car. Five minutes later, I arrived at the diner and found Louise standing at the counter talking to Phil. She was wearing her police uniform. Two other couples occupied tables by the windows facing the street.
“Long day?” I asked.
Phil took us to our same table. “Yes,” he said.
“Same thing tonight?” Louise asked me.
“Sounds good.”
Phil nodded and walked away.
“The question was for you. Looks like you’ve had a long day,” I said.
“You don’t look too sharp either. You’ve got food on your shirt.”
I looked down and saw some salsa. “I didn’t mean it that way. Here it is nearly eight o’clock, and you’re still in uniform.”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, but it’s not been a good day.”
“Well, then let me buy tonight.”
“Okay. You should know they found out about you?”
“Found out? What?” Of course, for a moment my mind focused on the week’s events, not my past.
“About all the stuff you’ve been involved in. The internet, you know.”
“Most of that stuff is hyped up, besides Nichols knew it yesterday.”
“Well, today, everyone knows about you. Now they’re arguing whether you’ll try to solve this without sharing, thereby screw up our investigation, or if we should make you an official consultant for the next few days. Either way, no one is a big fan of yours right now.”
“Not even you?” I smiled.
“Don’t push your luck,” she said, but her face lightened up.
“You did ask me to come here tonight.”
She looked at me without speaking. Phil brought our coffee and pie, set them down, and left us. I could tell her mind was trying to figure something out.
“It’s not you, and I’m happy to be here right now,” she said.
“Good, because I’d rather be talking to you than to Nichols.”
“He’s actually one of the good ones. Most of the guys back at the department are great, but there are a couple that are, well to keep it clean, jerks, big sexist jerks. Luckily, none of them are in my chain.”
“Then you can ignore them.”
“I do, but it’s still tiresome. I’m here because I’m a good cop, I want to be involved with this investigation, and I already know you. Nichols needs someone to stay in close contact with you, and I told him I’d be happy to do it.”
“Because I was assaulted, or because they think I might be trying to solve the case on my own?”
“All the above, plus even if you aren’t trying to solve it, you have daily, direct access to our prime suspect pool. It only makes sense that we take advantage of that.”
I couldn’t fault them. I’d be doing the same thing if the roles were reversed. I took a bite of pie.
“Are we good?” she asked.
“Yes. Let Nichols know that I’m not trying to cut out the police or trying to solve this case on my own. However, like you said, I’m kind of stuck in the middle of it. I even have some of the guys coming up to me and volunteering information that implicates others in the group.”
“Like what?”
“I believe their intent was that it got to you all, but I guess it’s simpler for them to tell me. For example, Eric Gamble and Bob Bishop had a real estate business relationship with Doug that went south. Both Eric and Bob believe Doug cheated them out of tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more. You should have Nichols talk to both of them. The three almost came to blows last year. I wasn’t here last year, so I can’t verify that.”
She wrote the names into a small notepad. “Anything else?”
“Just a comment that Doug might have been having an affair down in South America.”
“What?”
“Nothing that made sense to me. It’s what Bob told me to point me in a different direction away from him. I’ll follow up tomorrow, but these guys have really started pointing fingers at each other. If Nichols interviews Eric and Bob, he ought to get more than what they told me.”
“Okay.”
“Have you all developed anything?” I asked.
“Not really. Lab results are still out. The stuff on you on the internet and from a couple of law enforcement sites was the big news.”
“Just trash,” I said.
“What time will your group be heading out tomorrow?”
“By seven thirty, why?” I thought I already knew.
“We may want to grab Bob and Eric before they head out.”
“That won’t make them happy.”
“Well, it is a murder investigation.”
“I know, just saying. I doubt if they had anything to do with it. It’s been over a year, but I guess seeing him again could’ve set one of them off.”
“Think someone else in the group with his own motive may have waited, knowing those two would be the main suspects?”
“That’s a good possibility. I’ll try to find out more about this affair stuff tomorrow.”
“Think they’ll get mad at you for prying?” she asked.
“So far, I haven’t done any prying. They’ve come to me and done the talking. I told them early on that the police would handle this, and that there wasn’t much I could do.”
“Well, they know it became personal when someone tried to kill you. I imagine they expect you to be a little more aggressive now.”
“That may have been his biggest mistake. As we’ve discussed, it narrowed the suspect pool down to someone in the group.”
“And how would you narrow it down anymore?”
“Like I said, I’d take out the two tallest and the shortest. I’d take out Tom, and I can’t see Dick doing it.”
“Dick?”
“Dick Leyes. He’s almost as tall as the other two I mentioned, but more significantly, he strikes me as a straight guy. It would have to be something very big to excite him enough to murder.”
“Everybody thought Bundy was a great guy, too.”
I nodded and ate some more pie. The coffee wasn’t very hot, and as though Phil already knew this, he showed up at the table with a fresh pot.
“Let me warm that up a little.” He topped off our cups.
“Thanks, Phil. How much does Whip owe you?” Louise asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I don’t mind treating the police.”
“I know, but he takes advantage of that. Take this, I’ll get it back from him.” She laid a twenty on the table.
“No, no, no, Louise, you don’t have to do that,” Phil said.
“Take it or throw it in the trash when we leave. It’s not like I have anyone else but you to spend it on.”
That made Phil smile. “How about your handsome friend here?”
“Don’t press your luck,” she said. Phil laughed and walked away, leaving the twenty on the table.
“Handsome friend, at least he noticed.”
She grinned and said, “His eyesight has been going downhill for a while now.”
“Have you talked to Whip about it?”
“Yes, but he’s full of himself and the cop image. The fact that Phil has to make a living, too, hasn’t made it through Whip’s thick skull. He thinks free coffee, donuts, whatever are part of the perks. Other than that and the tough guy image he tries to portray, he’s not a bad guy.”
“Not one of the ones you were grumbling about earlier?”
“What? Oh, forget that. It’s just something that I have to live with. Most guys have matured with the times, but a few are still throwbacks. One in particular always makes comments that could be construed as sexual harassment. Like this afternoon, he says to me that the only reason they picked me to stay close to you was that they knew I had the best chance to suck, with the emphasis on suck, every last drop of information out of you.”
“You should at least talk to your chief.”
“It’s stupid-ass, immature comments. He thinks he’s being funny, plus there is always one or two guys that laugh at his remarks and that only encourages him.”
“Hopefully, that type of behavior is slowly fading away,” I said.
“I doubt if it will ever be gone, but I know it is getting better. I’ve talked to a few of the older gals, and apparently it was a lot worse back in their day.”
“I’m sure it was, but there’s still no excuse.”
“You know, I was thinking earlier that if you get too close, or if the killer thinks you’re getting close to discovering him, he may come after you again. There is a degree of risk in this for you.”
“I know.”