A Dead Husband (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery) (32 page)

“I’m glad you’re okay
. I feel somehow responsible about the trouble on El Paseo. I should have seen you to your car, or let you borrow my uzi, or something.  Is Detective Hernandez clued in on all this?  Did he actually let you go to a meeting with the Tilik woman, alone?”

“Yes he’s up-to-speed, mostly
. No, he didn’t let me go because I didn’t tell him I was going.” Jessica moved on quickly, changing the subject without giving Paul Worthington a chance to chew her out.  “It’s not your fault that I got jumped in the parking lot, Paul.  I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings, given the circumstances. Who thinks about being careful in one of the world’s great shopping Mecca’s? I’m not sure what the guy was planning, but what he tried to do was steal my purse.  I now know why, thanks to my discussion with Margarit Tilik.  As I was just telling Jerry, there’s a little storage device, one of those secure digital cards floating around out there somewhere.  It apparently has loads of stuff on it about Bedrossian Bad Guy, Inc. There’s stuff on it that his loving fiancé took from him without his knowledge or permission.  As it turns out, evil genius that she is, Margarit not only copied but removed files from Bedrossian’s computer in his LA office.  Needless to say, he wants it back.”  Jessica glanced behind them to see if they were being followed as she spoke to Paul.

“They’ve had a couple tries now at finding this thing at Roger’s house
.  Maybe Jerry already told you about the disaster they made of Laura’s house during their most recent visit. We just learned about it at the visitation for Roger this morning. This time, they did a very thorough search.  Something akin to a demolition team went through there, apparently. Laura was mortified, since she had given Roger’s mom the go ahead to stop by the house. The house had been thoroughly cleaned and repaired this week.  Roger’s mom and Laura are both pretty shaken up about it as if they weren’t already stressed enough. I don’t know how Laura is holding up under all this as it is, and now her house is a crime scene again.” She finally stopped talking long enough that Paul could respond.

“That’s a shame
. It’s hard to get on with grieving the loss of a loved one to crime when the crime is ongoing.”

“That’s for sure
. It’s been a hellish week with one terrible blow after another. I’m sure Jerry must have told you the other bad news that turned up while you and I were having lunch.”

“You mean about Laura’s waiter friend? Jerry had just let that bomb drop when you called
. These guys are ruthless and relentless, Jessica.”

“And not taking time to get much background before they go after whoever they think is mixed up in this
. It’s doubtful they knew, or cared to find out, about the tenuous nature of Eric’s liaison with Laura. Eric couldn’t have had a clue about what they were asking him when they beat him to a pulp before shooting him”

“Yeah, poor
.bastard, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! His cousin, too, for that matter.”

“Well, that chapter is now closed, for good, unfortunately
. Life is just not fair.  What I can’t figure out is how they found out enough about him to write him in to the story at all. I sort of found out how they knew I’d be in that parking garage on El Paseo, although Margarit has given me a couple different stories about that.  According to Margarit, Mr. Bedrossian’s quite adept at surveillance, and his connections are far-reaching, including insiders among the police. This Bedrossian guy must have some kind of network, and skills too, like telepathy, since he got to Eric before Laura and I notified the police about him. From what Margarit told me today, Laura and I are both still on Bedrossian’s ‘to do’ list.”

“Which reminds me that I should admonish you about the risk you took not getting your homicide detective friend in the loop before your meeting with this Margarit character.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jessica let out a huge sigh. “Jerry was just reprimanding me about that when you called. I’m going to call Detective Hernandez when I get home That won’t be pleasant. He’s not nearly as diplomatic with me as you and Jerry. Maybe when I tell him what I found out from my meeting with Margarit, that’ll convince him to stay on the right side of the law and keep him from wringing my neck.”

“For your sake I hope that works
. My advice is no more super hero antics for now. The dead bodies are really piling up and I don’t think these guys would think twice about adding your body to the pile. So please, Jessica, enough already okay?”

“I hear you
. I am so ready to be done with this. I’m going to call Hernandez and take my lumps.  Jerry will be in ear shot of the screaming and yelling on the other end of the phone so he can verify that I’ve kept my promise.”

“I’ll lay off the scolding for now
. You have to let me take you to dinner so I can make up for allowing you to roam around El Paseo unescorted. I’ll be back in town next week so maybe we can work something out?”

“Sure, I’ll probably be climbing the walls by then if I’m still grounded by Detective Hernandez
. You sure you want to venture out with a calamity magnet? That is my super power you know, attracting trouble. Ask Detective Hernandez, he’ll vouch for me.” Jessica sounded like she was joking but that’s how she really felt. It all started with calamity Jim and his blond partner-in-calamity.

“I’ll take my chances
. Dealing with calamities goes with the territory for a criminal defense attorney. With any luck Alan Bedrossian will figure out his best bet is to get on a plane to someplace that has no extradition agreement with the U.S.  Of course, depending on what sort of information is on that SD card, eluding U.S. authorities may be the least of his concerns.  Mr. Bedrossian has partners and clients all over the world who would be very upset to have information about their business with him come to light.  It’s no wonder the cutthroat is frantic.”

Jerry had sped home to Mission Hills and had just turned onto the street leading to Jessica’s house when the flashing light of a police car caught her eye
. Paul was still on the phone saying something else about dinner next week, but Jessica cut him off.

“Oh, shit
! Paul we’re going to have to call you back.”

CHAPTER 31

Jerry and Jessica pulled up to her house and parked on the street rather than in the circular drive
. In addition to a marked police car, Jessica recognized the unmarked car Detective Hernandez drove. She was going to have that chat with Detective Hernandez, in person, rather than on the phone. The EMTs were there too and an SUV used by the CSIs. Jessica’s heart began to pound wildly. She got out of the cab of the truck as quickly as she could without landing on her foot the wrong way. She and Jerry rushed into the house.

“Bernadette!  Laura!  What’s going on? Bernadette, Laura
, is everyone okay?” Jessica hollered as she and Jerry joined the crowd gathered in the house.

Detective Hernandez and two uniformed officers were standing in the kitchen
. Two EMTs were nearby, one of them bending over Brien who was sitting at the table in the morning room. 

“Whoa, slow down, Jessica
.  I’m okay.” Brien said as she burst in on them. He was holding an ice pack to his head. There was blood all over the front of his t-shirt.

“Esta bien, Jessica
. Brien’s okay. He’s just got a hit on the head that’s all,” Bernadette added.

Laura was sitting across from Brien, pale as a ghost in the red Karla Colletto cover up Jessica had bought her
. It was ripped on one side near Laura’s left shoulder.

“Some guys tried to grab me, Jessica
. Brien came out of nowhere and knocked them into the pool. They tore my cover up, but I got away.”  She gave the torn corner of the beautiful cover up a tug but to no avail. As soon as she let it go, it sagged down again where it was torn. 

“Yeah, I mowed ‘em down, Jessica
. Then I threw my filter flosser at them and I started whacking them with my skimmer.”

“He distracted them, Jessica, long enough so I got to my phone and called 911
. They climbed out of the pool and came after me. When Brien tried to stop them, one of them hit him on the head.  He keeled over but by the time they could get to me, our St. Bernadette was out the door of the house with a gun.”

“I was going to shoot them too, except I didn’t want to get Brien by mistake.”

“A gun? Where did you get a gun, Bernadette?” Jessica asked incredulously.

“F
rom your dad’s study, niña. When all this trouble started I remembered where he kept it and decided to get it. I put bullets in it, too, so I could scare off the bad guys, you know?  When those maleantes hit Brien and he fell down I was so mad I started shooting. I was going to let them have it, for Roger too. I’m not such a good shot though. I only barely shot one of them, not enough to stop him, but he’s not going to sit down for a while without remembering that old lady in Mission Hills.”

Jessica went to the back sliding door and looked out
. CSIs were in the back yard. The patio and pool area had been cordoned off with crime scene tape. There were drops and streaks of blood in a variety of locations, with little markers by them.  A police officer with a camera was taking photos.  A CSI was collecting Brien’s pool tools, or what was left of them, anyway.  Jessica turned back around toward the group and locked eyes with Detective Hernandez. “Time to come clean,” she thought. 

“We need to talk, Detective Hernandez.” 

“Now what? Have you set that new record for the number of crime scenes you can get mixed up in one day? Don’t think I’m not keeping count, and this is already number two for the day. We’ve had a team at the Stone residence most of the day.”

“No, well not exactly
. Can we go into my father’s study and I’ll explain, please?” Her cell phone rang as she motioned for Detective Hernandez to follow her down the hall that led to her father’s study. Jessica fumbled distractedly with the buttons on the phone and accidently opened the photo album. Before she could close it to answer the phone a photo caught her eye. It was blurry, but there in front of her was a photo of the hulk in Bruno Maglis that had assaulted her in the parking lot on El Paseo. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” she ranted to no one in particular
. She scrolled through quickly and saw there were a couple more photos. None of the photos were perfect. but with a little work they might be able to make use of them for identification purposes. Her phone had stopped ringing.  Jessica had missed a call from Paul Worthington. She realized how it must have sounded when she hung up so abruptly, and hollered over her shoulder as she continued down the hall.

“Jerry, do you have your phone?”

“No.  Don’t you have it?

“No, I think I left it in the car
. We may have scared the crap out of Paul, again. Can you call him up and tell him we’re safe and catch him up on the latest? Tell him I’m getting the third degree from Detective Hernandez right now or I would have called him back myself.”

“I will be soon enough,” she thought
. She moved to the door of the study with the detective in tow. “Let’s go in and get comfortable. I’ve got quite a lot to tell you and something to show you, too.”

“You did what?!”
As Jessica learned later, that bellow got everyone’s attention in the kitchen. When Jerry came back into the house on the phone with Paul Worthington, he had Tommy trailing behind him. Brien, Laura, and Bernadette had filled him in, as Jerry reassured Paul everyone was okay. The little group was still huddled together a half hour later when Jessica and Detective Hernandez reemerged, both of them grim-faced.

“Oh my God!  I just knew something had to happen
, Jessica. It was way too quiet when I left this afternoon,” Tommy began, the moment he spotted Jessica. Jessica gave him her best “not now” look as she and  Detective Hernandez returned to the morning room.

“He’s agreed not to arrest anyone,” Jessica said
. The others looked at her like she was making a joke.  She gave a little shake of her head before any of them could say anything.

“I
do have a couple questions, though.” Jessica said, looking anxiously over her shoulder at the detective.

Detective Hernandez remained quiet. A couple minutes later, without saying another word, he
stomped out of the house.

“Harru
mph! You’d think he would at least say goodbye.” Bernadette muttered something else, quietly in Spanish, that didn’t sound too saintly.

CHAPTER
32

In bed in her house in Cupertino, Jessica was lounging sleepily in Jim’s arms
. They were taking a break after making love half the night. He lay next to her, breathing deeply, as she took in his warmth, along with the scent of his favorite shampoo mixed with the balm of their lust. As the sun streamed in through the window, she snuggled closer, wedging herself into the crook of his arm.  Jim turned over and moved away, but she scooted closer.  He moved again and the space between them grew. 

Jessica reached for him but felt only the edge of the bed
.  She struggled to sit up and look around, trying to find out where he went. It took too short a time to realize she wasn’t in Cupertino at all, but in her bed in Mission Hills.  It had been a dream. A very vivid, very sexy one, but a dream and nothing more.

The disappointment she felt was massive
. It crushed her, forcing her back down into the folds of the bedclothes. Disappointment was quickly overtaken by dread. The fact that the day before two of Alan Bedrossian’s men had gotten past the guard gate brought the anvil down on her again.  The thought of those men getting to her house and her friends, in a stolen cable installation truck, fought with memories of the confrontation with Margarit, as the trauma most warranting rumination.  A close third was that latest round with Detective Hernandez.

Jessica revisited their encounter, closing her eyes as though that could soften the recap running through her mind
. She had been terrified he was going to blow a gasket right there before her eyes. She had never seen anyone turn that particular shade before, deep red, almost purplish. His eyes were bulging and he was so angry that spit flew as he spoke. After the initial bellow heard from one end of the house to the other, he lowered his voice. That was still scary.

As soon as he regained control after Jessica spilled her guts about
meeting Margarit at the spa, the detective sent a squad car to the resort to pick her up. It was to no avail. Margarit had spent the previous night in her usual bungalow, but had checked out that afternoon, before their meeting at the spa. If Jessica had been more forthcoming, Detective Hernandez assured her, he would have been able to pick her up at the spa even though she had checked out of her bungalow. They spent a few minutes arguing about whether or not that was true. He would have warned Jessica off the meeting with Margarit, but Jessica wasn’t convinced he would have been interested enough in the woman to send officers to pick her up for questioning. 

He was now
. Not just because of the information Margarit claimed to have taken from Alan Bedrossian, but because she admitted she had been with Roger at some point on the night he was killed. Jessica felt sure they would eventually have figured that out anyway since Margarit had been driving the little BMW roadster seen in front of the house that night. Of course it might have taken them a while to get to her since it was unlikely the car was registered in her name. Eventually, though, the car would have led them back to Margarit. 

He also read Jessica the riot act for not turning over the pictures on her phone of the lummox in Bruno Maglis
. He found it impossible to believe she had forgotten about the photos and threatened her again with obstructing justice or interfering with a police investigation or something like that.  He also threatened to charge Bernadette with possession of a gun for which she had no permit, discharging a weapon and excessive force or reckless endangerment and sundry other crimes. By that time Jessica was no longer listening. The pounding in her chest and ears was so loud she could hardly hear him anyway. A mix of rage and fear had engulfed her.

This place was a sanctuary
, a last refuge that had now been violated.  Not only by two bad guys who got through the gate in a stolen truck, but by the detective raging like a bull as he stomped back and forth in front of her. For a moment she wondered who was going to stroke out first, her or the detective.

“I’ve had just about all the threats I can take for one day
.  I am at my limit.  Go ahead and arrest me. Or better yet, put Bernadette in shackles since you can’t get your hands on these monsters, roaming the streets and creating murder and mayhem at will! I’m not sure how hauling off a terrified senior citizen for defending herself from home invaders will do anything for you but let’s go. I’m her attorney. I’ll follow along to post bail as soon as you get done fingerprinting her and taking her mug shot. You can also just leave. This is all I have left that’s a home. It’s been violated enough for one day, so no more, Detective.”

Moving behind her father’s desk when the bellowing started, Jessica now sank down into the lavish leather chair behind it, exhausted
. 

“I’m doing the best I can
. We’re all doing the best we can, Detective Hernandez.” Angry tears began to stream down her face. That only made her angrier. She did not want to cry in front of Hernandez so now she was mad at herself too.  Her tears seemed to pop the detective’s bubble of rage.  Or maybe he was exhausted, too. He stopped pacing and plopped down in one of the plush club chairs, set in front of a glass enclosed fireplace on one side of the study. Jessica stood up and dragged herself over to a second club chair and sat facing Detective Hernandez.

“So what are
we going to do now?” Jessica asked the detective who looked a lot older than he had when they first met. They talked for a while longer in a manner that she no longer regarded as “aerobically beneficial” as their earlier shouting match had been. That conversation resulted in yet another promise from Jessica not to go it alone. She emailed the photos on her phone to Hernandez so they could try to identify the well-heeled thug involved in the El Paseo incident.  Hernandez agreed to leave a patrol car at the house overnight and gave her the name of a local security firm. They did a lot of work in the area, shepherding celebrities, moguls and politicians who flocked to the valley for special events or personal getaways. She called them immediately and someone agreed to meet with her at the house in Mission Hills the next morning, first thing. 

Perhaps they could help deal with one of the ongoing dilemmas for those ensconced behind the walls of guard-gated communities everywhere
.  Guards or no guards, you still had to allow a host of service providers inside to do everything from landscaping to house cleaning; utility installation and repair services; pool cleaning, HVAC repair; plumbers, personal trainers and masseuses; caterers and private chefs. The list went on and on. It had never occurred to Jessica that it might be so easy to hijack legitimate service providers as these two had done.

Even before Detective Hernandez left, they learned the two thugs had gotten away
. They abandoned the stolen truck shortly after leaving the Mission Hills community, torching it.  The police collected what they could at Jessica’s house, which was now also a crime scene, and they would haul off the carcass of the burned out truck to examine it. There wasn’t much hope that they’d recover anything that could pin the kidnap attempt on anyone. If they were really lucky one of the drops of blood on the patio would belong to the blackguard Bernadette had shot in the behind.  According to Hernandez, one of the frustrations he was experiencing was the paltry amount of useful evidence retrieved as the crime scenes proliferated.

There was one glimmer of hope, however
.  When they returned to the kitchen area, Brien and Laura had taken a look at the photos on Jessica’s phone. They both thought he was one of the intruders, although they couldn’t be sure given the lousy quality of the photos taken on the fly.  Bernadette stepped up and took a look too.  She was emphatic.

“That’s him
, Jessica. That’s the guy I shot in the trasero.”  She seemed pleased with herself. Jessica could tell that irked Detective Hernandez.  Jessica hid her own amusement at the first bit of lightness she had felt all day.

She would have a talk with Bernadette later about how risky her actions had been
. The guys who went over the crime scene told Hernandez that Bernadette had been firing wildly, hitting a palm tree in the yard, and sinking a couple shots into a privacy wall on the left side of the house near where the would-be kidnappers had fled. They found it hard to believe she had actually shot one of them since all of the bullets were accounted for.  She insisted, so they conceded that maybe she grazed one of them as they ran for it. They had taken the gun into evidence, too. As far as Jessica knew, Bernadette was no longer armed.

In the clear light of morning, Jessica felt stupid for thinking she could pro
tect Laura by keeping her there without professional help. Jerry had suggested she contact the same firm Hernandez recommended  the first day she met him.  She had given the idea little serious consideration. Not even after getting mugged later, that same day, by the pantyhose-wearing thug at Laura’s house. Jessica almost had fond memories of that loser after her harrowing encounters with more practiced psychopaths.

Once Detective Hernandez and the other police personnel left Jessica, Laura and Bernadette cleared the house, sending the rest of their little “cat pack” home
. Jerry and Tommy took Brien home with them. They would all stay at Jerry’s condo for the night so they could make sure Brien was really okay. Jessica wasn’t quite sure what “okay” was for Brien or how they would know but she felt sure it was the right thing to do. He left amid a smattering of statements sprinkled with “s’laters” and “dudes” and some comment about how glad he’d been hit on the head rather than getting donked somewhere that might ding his style on a board.

The three women weren’t ready to reclaim the patio and pool area for themselves, still cordoned off by police tape and needing to be cleaned up
.  They settled instead in the large great room that was a centerpiece of the Mission Hills house. Jessica had Laura and Bernadette sit down to dinner at the bar on one side of the room. Jessica stepped down into a little alcove area behind it where she could serve as bartender. She poured herself a stiff drink, two fingers of an exquisite añejo tequila, straight up.  Laura asked for the same and even Bernadette tossed back a couple shots of tequila with them. She was more shaken by the ordeal than her bluster had revealed earlier.

Emboldened by food and drink, Laura and Jessica agreed to take another crack at trying to figure out where Roger might have stashed the elusive SD card after getting some sleep
. With an officer posted outside sleep was a real possibility, especially given how exhausted they all were.  The demands of the day had started early with the sad task of saying goodbye to Roger. All hell had broken loose after that!

The police were looking for Alan Bedrossian
, not that they had any real evidence yet to arrest him.  They could bring him in for questioning, given they now knew he was Roger’s employer at the time of his death. Of course he’d lawyer up and they’d have to let him go, but at least they could get some sort of story from him about where he was when Roger Stone was killed. 

T
hey were also looking for Margarit Tilik. If they could catch up with Margarit she might give them a better idea of what was on that SD card. Perhaps she could remember something about the files she had taken that would prove useful as a means to ensnare the elusive Mr. Bedrossian. 

Jessica hoped they caught up with him soon
. Maybe being questioned by the police and knowing they were closing in on him would slow down the relentless series of attacks. It was like ‘dawn of the dead’ with all the zombies coming after them. Perhaps the other zombies, yet to be apprehended, might be coaxed into giving up something that would stick to their boss. The police were still looking for Carlos, the guy Jessica had encountered in the closet at Laura’s house. They also had distributed pictures of the brute who assaulted Jessica in the parking garage on Tuesday and made a grab for Laura on Wednesday.  They were taking the photos of the thug in Bruno Maglis to the apartment complex where Eric and his cousin were killed. If anyone recognized him they could connect him to that incident as well. Things were getting more complicated for Mr. Bedrossian and his bloodthirsty crew. Jessica knew in her heart that none of it would stop him from getting that SD card. 

“Why do you suppose he’s trying so hard to get it back, Jessica?”  Detective Hernandez had asked, speaking out loud more to himself than to Jessica
. 

“Good question
. Margarit said I could make a copy, so what’s the big deal?  I can’t believe Alan Bedrossian doesn’t have everything on that card backed up elsewhere, even if Margarit moved, rather than simply copied, some of the files.”

“Maybe it’s just the principle of the thing
, a point of pride or some other nonsense. Instead of trying to get that card back he should be running for it.  It’s sheer stupidity.  Crime is stupid, Jessica.  Criminals are stupid, even the smart ones. Let me know if you find this SD card. I expect you to hand it over to me, right?”

“Sure
.  I’m tired of wrestling with criminals, smart ones, dumb ones, I don’t care.”

Now that they knew what they were looking for she hoped they had a better chance of finding it
. Still, it felt like they were searching for a the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack. The police were going to go through the things they had taken from Laura, as well Roger’s clothes and other items removed from the crime scene. Maybe they had somehow missed it when placing those items into evidence.