Murder & The Monkey Band: High Desert Cozy Mystery Series (4 page)

There was a soft knock on Marty’s
door the next morning, and she heard her sister saying, “Marty, it’s time. We’d
better get going, or we’ll be late.”

Marty picked up her keys,
gave Duke a pat on the head, and walked out the door. “Let’s take my car,”
Marty said, “I can write it off.”

“Not much to write off.
It’s only a thirty minute drive to town,” Laura said, “but that’s fine with me.
I drive enough as it is. Do you realize in all these years I’ve never been on
an appraisal with you? I’m excited about it. Do you have everything you need?”

“Yes. I’m pretty sure I
do,” Marty said. “The most important thing is my magnifying glass. I’ve got a
really good one that’s incorporated into a beautiful piece of jewelry. Years
ago, while we were still married, Scott gave me a magnifying glass set in gold
with little diamonds around it and attached it to a long heavy gold chain which
I wear around my neck. It’s a beautiful piece of jewelry, even if he did give
it to me, but it’s also very functional. I have my camera, my tape recorder, a
pad of paper, a pen, and a tape measure, all the things I’ll need to do the
appraisal.”

“So what specifically will
you do?” Laura asked.

“Well, first of all I’ll
go from room to room to get a general idea what’s in the home. With antique and
art items, I’ll photograph each item, measure it, dictate what it looks like,
look for specific identifiable marks, and things of that nature. You’ll also
see me do some other things such as running my finger around the rim of a glass
or art glass piece. Often the eye won’t see a chip or a nick, but the finger
will feel it, and it really diminishes the value. I do the same thing with cut
glass items. Items that look like cut glass but are knock-offs have a different
feel than those that are true cut glass. That’s the type of stuff you learn
after years of appraising. I’ve never seen those kinds of tips in the books
about how to appraise antique art objects. I’ve just picked them up over the
years.

“Anyway, depending on what
the client wants, in estate appraisals I usually lump the non-antique and art
items into several groups such as appliances, kitchen items, towels, blankets,
etcetera and assign a value to them. If the client wants each one individually
appraised, it can increase the cost of the appraisal by thousands. I mean I’m
not complaining if that’s what the client wants, but it seems like a waste of
money, and usually it’s completely unnecessary.

“I remember one time I was
doing an appraisal for the Resolution Trust Corporation when a lot of the
savings and loan companies went bankrupt in the 1980’s. I was appraising the
items in a savings and loan branch office, and the only things that had any
monetary value in a fair market value appraisal were the potted plants. I
always felt a bit guilty about that appraisal. My fee was more than the value
of all of the items in the building. There were over two dozen supposedly fine
art paintings hanging on the walls of the building. In order to inflate the
value of the savings and loan assets, they had placed the value of the
paintings, on their books, at five hundred thousand dollars. They were actually
cheap paper prints worth no more than two hundred dollars in total. I always
wondered what the interior decorator had originally charged the savings and
loan company.”

“This is a whole new world
to me,” Laura said, “but I think I better tell you something. You know I have
some psychic abilities that can’t be explained. Well, last night I kept waking
up with a bad feeling about this appraisal. I don’t know what it was about or
why I felt like I did. I kept getting a feeling that the murder of the woman
was tied to something that’s no longer in the house. Something you won’t be
able to appraise because it’s not there. When I walk through the house with
you, I might be prompted with some new thoughts, and it may be a little
clearer. Would you like me to tell you what I feel or keep my mouth shut?”

Marty looked at her sister
who was dressed in a chic dark blue pant suit with a cream shell under the
jacket. In contrast to the turbans and heavy jewelry a lot of psychics wore, no
one would ever look at the woman wearing small pearl earrings with a pearl
barrette holding back her red hair and think,
This woman is a psychic
.
There was absolutely nothing about Laura that would indicate she possessed
certain unseen powers.

“I’m no detective, and I
haven’t been hired to do anything like that, but yes, even if it has nothing to
do with my appraisal I’d like to know what you think or feel. Are your feelings
always right? Who knows? Maybe you and I will end up solving the crime,” she
said laughing.

“Don’t plan on it,” Laura
said. “I’m right more than I’m wrong, but sure, sometimes I’ll get a feeling or
a vision and nothing happens. By the way, you mentioned what was involved in
appraising an item, but once you do the initial identification of the item,
then what?”

“That’s where the real
appraising comes in, and I have to make some judgment calls. Silver, china,
glassware, and a lot of furniture and other things I can take by myself from
start to finish. In other words, I know enough to write up the identification
and assign a fair market value to the item. I dictate an inventory list of
those items, put a value on them, and send them along with my photographs to a
woman who has done my transcriptions for years. She’ll put it together for me
in the proper report form and ship it to me for proofing. When it’s ready to go
to the client, I’ll have a copy made for my file and send the original to the
client. Sometimes an insurance company wants a copy as well.”

“Sounds terribly
complicated to me,” Laura said.

“Trust me, it’s not, but
what it does require is years of experience. What I didn’t mention is how I
appraise things when I don’t consider myself qualified to appraise a particular
item. In those situations I rely on the expertise of others who specialize in
areas like pre-Columbian art, certain ethnic pieces, gun collections, knives,
and other things that aren’t within the normal antique and art appraiser’s
scope of knowledge.

“For instance, I’m not an
expert in jewelry. I’ve made some contacts in Palm Springs with several
jewelers, and I can take a photograph of the piece of jewelry, actually I
usually take several photographs of the item, and show the jeweler what I have.
They can usually give me a valuation based on the photograph. If someone has a
lot of items in an area like jewelry or pre-Columbian art, it’s worthwhile to
hire an appraiser who has expertise in that area. Being a town with a lot of
wealth, Palm Springs has a lot of appraisers who live and work here. I’ve made
it a point to meet with the ones who aren’t generalists like me, as well as
some who specialize in what I do in case I have a job that needs more than one
person.

“Well, looks like we’re
almost there, so I’ll know what I’m dealing with in a few minutes.” She turned
into the driveway of a large white U-shaped mid-50’s style home. “Wow! What a
beautiful house,” she said. “It’s really in keeping with the desert. I wonder how
she ever came to acquire and collect the things Dick mentioned. It seems so out
of character with the feel of the desert. I could understand it more if she
collected Native American rugs and baskets or some such thing.”

“I don’t know, but it
looks like you’ll be able to find out real soon. A large SUV just pulled in
behind us. It’s probably her son, and Marty, FYI, I’m getting bad vibes from
him.”

Marty stopped the car and
turned and looked at Laura. “You’re getting bad vibes, and you haven’t even met
him? How does that work?”

“I have no idea how any of
this works, but I will tell you I not only have bad vibes about him, I also
have bad vibes about this house.”

“Swell. This should really
be entertaining. Okay, let’s do it.”

At the same time that Laura and Marty
got out of Marty’s car, Jim Warren stepped out of his SUV. He walked over to
them and said, “Hi, I’m Jim Warren. Which one of you is Marty Morgan?”

“That’s me,” Marty said.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry about your mother. I’m here to help you in
any way I can. I understand that the appraisal is to be done for the purposes
of probate.”

“Yes, that’s correct. I
was concerned my stepsister was going to contest the Will, but so far she
hasn’t. My mother left everything to my sister and me. I have her Will, and as
soon as her attorney gets back from his trip, he’ll be filing it with the
Court. How long do you thing the appraisal will take?” he asked, pointedly
looking at his watch.

“I have no idea since I
don’t know what antiques, art, and collectibles are in the house.”

He unlocked the gate that
led to the courtyard and the front door of the house. “Even though the gate’s
locked, my mother’s housekeeper, Rosa, should be here. Mom instructed her to
always keep the gate locked.” He rang a bell. A few moments later the front
door was opened by a small Hispanic woman with her greying hair pulled back off
of her face and secured by a clip at the nape of her neck.

“Hello, Rosa. This is the
appraiser I told you about.” He looked at Marty and then at Laura.

“This is my sister, Laura.
She works for Alliance Property and Casualty Company and agreed to act as my
gofer. Often I need an assistant to hold a painting or some such thing, so I
can photograph it. Rosa, I’m Marty Morgan. I’m the one doing the appraisal.”

“Please come in. How can I
help you?”

“At the moment I don’t
know.” She turned to Jim. “I always begin my appraisals in probate situations
with a walk through of the house to determine the scope of the appraisal. When
I’m finished, I can give you an estimate of how much time I’ll need to spend on
the premises. Is that all right with you?”

“Of course. Let’s start
with the kitchen.” They walked to the rear of the house where the kitchen and
breakfast nook overlooked an infinity pool that looked as if it was going to
flow off into the desert. Marty spent several minutes opening cabinets and
looking in drawers.

“There are quite a few
things in here which definitely are of value. Your mother evidently collected
Quimper pottery. It looks like the pieces are from the 18
^th
century
and are highly desirable as well as expensive. The fifteen plates on this wall
will all need to be individually appraised. There are some other pieces in the
cabinets which definitely have value as does the sterling silver and chinaware.
Those I will be appraising. As far as the run-of-the-mill kitchen items and
appliances, I think it would be fine to lump them together as miscellaneous
kitchen items, and I’ll assign a value to the lot. Not appraising them piece by
piece will save you quite a bit of money on the appraisal. If the Will is going
to be contested, I’ll have to do it piece by piece, but if not, there shouldn’t
be any problem in doing them in bulk.”

“No, I don’t think there
will be a Will contest, but you never know. Just appraise those items in bulk.
Go ahead and walk through the rest of the house. I’m going to spend a little
time in my mother’s study, and see if I can decipher some of the things in her
desk.”

For the next half hour
Marty and Laura walked through each room of the house. Clearly, Pam Jensen had
been very knowledgeable about antiques. There were collections of antique
perfume bottles in the master bathroom, fine art on the walls throughout the
house, antique furniture in all of the bedrooms and the dining room, a
breakfront filled with cut glass, and a library with antique books spilling out
of the floor to ceiling bookcases. Everywhere they looked it was a feast for
the eyes.

“Laura, remember how I
told you sometimes I needed to bring in an appraiser in a certain area when it
wasn’t within my scope of expertise. Well, you’re looking at one of the areas
now. There’s a man in Palm Springs who specializes in antique books. I’m going
to ask him to appraise these for me. What I do in a case like this is pay him directly
and then attach his appraisal to mine.”

The one room left was the
living room. When they walked into it Marty caught her breath and stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Laura asked.

“The Meissen collection in
this display case is quite simply the finest I’ve ever seen. Look at this room.
It should be in a museum. Everything in here is worth a fortune from the
mirrors with the rococo frames to the Aubusson tapestry on the wall to say
nothing of the antique Oriental rugs casually scattered around on the floor. Not
only did Pam Jensen have an excellent eye for antiques, she also had an ability
few collectors possess – being able to blend different types of antiques in a
pleasing way, so nothing jumps out, it just all becomes one cohesive unit. Wow!
I’ve done a lot of appraisals over the years, but I’ve never seen this many
fabulous items in one place.”

Jim joined them in the
living room. “Have you had a chance to get the lay of the land?” he asked.

“Yes. Your mother was
obviously one of the most astute collectors I’ve ever encountered. Not only is
her collection one of the finest I’ve ever seen, she had an ability to combine
everything in a warm, welcoming way. As far as timing, I’m estimating three
days to conduct the on-site appraisal, then additional time for research and
preparation of the report. Antique books are not my forte, so I’ll need to
bring in another appraiser for them. Is there anything else I should know
before I get started?”

“Yes. My mother had a lot
of jewelry. Let me get it out of her safe and show you. Let’s go into her
bedroom.” After the three of them walked to the bedroom, Jim knelt down,
pulling the rug back which revealed a floor safe. He opened it and removed
handfuls of jewelry.

Marty looked at the
jewelry for a moment and said, “I’m going to have to call a friend of mine
who’s an expert in jewelry. I would be doing a disservice to you by appraising
it. Just like the antique books, I’ll attach his appraisal to the main
appraisal.”

“There’s one other thing.
My mother had a ten carat marquise cut diamond ring in a platinum setting that
Brian gave her for their twentieth anniversary. It’s not in the safe, and I
can’t find it. While you’re appraising everything, I’d like you to keep an eye
out for the ring. Here’s my address. You can send me the appraisal when you’ve
completed it.”

“I should have it within a
few weeks. I do require a retainer of three thousand dollars on an estate of
this size with the rest due when I deliver my appraisal.”

“No problem. I’ll write a
check out now.” A moment later he handed her a check in the amount of three
thousand dollars.