Caruso 01 - Boom Town (6 page)

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She gave him a nice smile. “Melanie is a beautiful woman.

How long have you known her?”

“Just a couple of days.”

“Are you new to Bend?”

As far as Tony could tell, this was a question almost everyone in Bend asked. From what he understood, it was an informal feeling out process. There had been so many newcomers to town, especially from California, that the older residents used it to find out where people were coming from, physically and mentally.

“I’m watching a friend’s condo.”

“So you’re totally open to this?” she asked.

“Sure. Why not?”

“Take off your clothes and lay face down on the table.”

Tony must have hesitated too long, because she smiled at him and handed him a gown.

“I’ll give you a few minutes,” she said. Then she left him standing there, wondering what in the hell he had gotten myself into this time.

Tony wasn’t really the modest type. The military had a tendency of stripping away any reserve in people. So he did what Dawn Sanders said. He got into the gown, which had one of those back tying things impossible to reach. Then he lay on his stomach and waited. Seconds later she entered.

She got onto a rolling chair with a container in one hand, loaded with long skinny needles.

“I’ll start with your neck,” she said. She ran her strong fingers over the base of his skull. “Relax. You have a powerful neck.”

“Umm... You have powerful hands.”

“I work with my hands all day,” she said. “I’m also a certified masseuse.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Now I’m going to start with the needles, so try to mellow out.

You might feel a slight prick.”

“That’s what the teenage boy told his virgin girlfriend,” Tony said.

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She giggled like a little girl. “You have a nice sense of humor, Tony. That’s important in life.”

Whatever she was doing, it was working. Even though the pain had been minimal since coming to the dry high desert, he could feel improvement. Next she opened the back of the gown.

“Oh, my,” she said. “You have fresh bruises back here.”

“Yeah, I fell while show shoeing. Probably hit a tree limb under the snow.”

She rubbed her hand on the outside of the bruised area, as if she knew exactly where the pain would be. Then Tony felt a few minor pin pricks. The pain didn’t completely subside, but it was substantially less.

“How’s that?” she asked.

He had his eyes closed now it felt so good. “Much better.”

Tony was feeling so good, in fact, that he almost forgot he was there to ask her questions about Barb Humphrey. Then he was distracted further when she ran her hand across his bare butt.

“Do you have any pain here?” she asked.

“Should I say yes?”

“Only if it’s true.”

She settled her hand at his lower back, rubbed the skin gently between her fingers, massaged the muscle beneath that, and then seemed to hesitate.

“Relax,” she said. “You’re a strong guy, Tony. I can tell you use these more than most men.”

For a slight moment he felt like a chunk of meat at a butcher shop with some woman squeezing the cellophane to see if he was fresh and tender. Nice cut.

“This isn’t a bad thing,” she continued. “You just need to learn how to let all the power within you escape.”

He did what she said, trying his best to transform his body into a 190-pound pile of Jell-O. His best probably fell far short of what she had in mind, because she planted a few more needles in various locations around his buttocks. He didn’t think about it then, but she could have done just about anything to him at that
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point and he wouldn’t have complained. It was that relaxing. He also decided at that moment not to ask any questions about Dan and Barb Humphrey until she removed all her needles. He had a feeling she could bring pain as quickly as pleasure.

When she was done with his back side, having planted her needles from his neck to his heels, and then removed them as meticulously as she had placed them, she stood for a moment rubbing down his body.

“What about your front?” she asked. “Let’s roll over and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

He immediately realized he had a problem that, although as a woman she was qualified to fix, an acupuncturist was not needed.

“Before we do,” he said. “I was wondering about something.”

She didn’t say a thing. Instead, she crossed her arms to her chest and narrowed her glance his way.

“I understand you lost a good friend recently. Barb Humphrey?”

Cocking her head to one side, she said, “Yes. It was a terrible tragedy. Did you know Barb?”

“I’m afraid I didn’t have the pleasure. I understand she was a very beautiful woman.”

“She was.”

“You were her best friend?”

She thought about it for a second. “I don’t know how you judge that. We were very close.”

“What about Dan?”

She stepped across the room and set her container of needles on a small table. Then she turned to him and simply stared.

“What’s the matter?” Tony asked.

“Why do you want to know about Barb and Dan?”

“I’m with an insurance company,” Tony said. He hated himself for lying to her. “I have to determine with one hundred percent certainty that Barb was murdered. You see, if it was as the local sheriff says, a murder suicide, then we will gladly pay Barb’s
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beneficiary. Dan, on the other hand, committed suicide. So we won’t pay that claim.”

While he said this, her expression had flowed from somewhat quizzical to nearly complete reticence. And Tony felt like a complete asshole.

Finally she said, “I don’t like being deceived, Mr. Caruso. If you wanted to know about Barb and Dan Humphrey, why didn’t you just come and ask me? Don’t come in here pretending you need an acupuncture treatment.”

“I’m s—”

“I’m not done yet,” she yelled. “I suppose you’re not even a friend of Melanie’s?”

Tony sat up quickly without thinking, and swiveled his bare feet to the floor. What he didn’t know, was that his gown had stayed on the table.

She glanced down and raised her eyebrows. Then she smiled.

“Your gown,” she said.

He was slightly embarrassed, although not as much so if he have just stepped out of cold water. He wrapped the gown around his body.

There was a full minute where they both seemed suspended in time.

“I’m sorry,” Tony said. “I’m just doing my job. Melanie is my friend. And, as you could see by my bruises, I thought acupuncture might help me with them.”

She let out a deep breath and her disposition started to change back to her early cheerful self.

When she didn’t say anything, Tony said, “You knew them both really well. Was Dan capable of killing Barb?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Anything’s possible.”

“Had you ever seen him lose his temper?”

“No. He was always pretty mellow. Same with Barb. They were both pretty wild, though.”

That word didn’t want to go away. Tony seemed to be gaining her confidence again and didn’t want to piss her off, but he need-BOOM TOWN 45

ed to know something.

“I know about the parties they used to have at their house. The Jacuzzi. Everything.” He tried to emphasize that last word with a knowing smile.

She returned his smile with a better one. “Those were a lot of fun,” she admitted. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about their parties, but the human body can be a beautiful thing when taken care of properly.”

They stood there a bit uncomfortably, him more than her, since his bare butt was hanging out the back end.

“How was their relationship in the last week before they died?”

Tony asked.

She thought for a long moment. “Barb was the same as always.

Fun and games. Something was bothering Dan, but I don’t think it had anything to do with Barb. She told me there was something wrong at work.”

“Like what?”

“She didn’t say.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

She thought hard. “We did lunch at The Bangkok the day she died. I love Thai food. Come to think of it, she was upset until she had a few glasses of Chardonnay.”

“Did you see her after that?”

“She was at the Riverfront later that night. She was with Dan.

They had another guy at their table. He looked kind of like you.

He also had an Italian name, but I don’t recall it now.”

“They all left together?”

She nodded her head.

“What time was that?”

“Probably ten o’clock. I went home at eleven, so it had to be before then. Why is that important?”

He switched gears. “Did you mention this to the sheriff?”

“You’re the first person to ask me the question.”

Now that was interesting. Dan and Barb left a local bar with another man just two hours before all hell breaks loose at
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Cascade Peaks Estates. That means there could have been a witness, or even more importantly, the third party could have done the both of them. In more ways than one.

“This Italian guy. Did you know him?”

“No,” she said. “I saw him at the Riverfront a few times, but not since that night.”

“You suppose they were going out for coffee somewhere?” he asked.

She laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“So the trio goes back to Orgy Peaks, they have a little romp, and Dan gets jealous. Maybe Barb seems to be having entirely too much fun. They kick out the Italian stallion and start arguing.

Except Dan goes overboard and actually kills her. Seeing what he’s done. Distraught. He rigs the living room fireplace to blow the crap out of the place, burning him to a crispy critter in the process.”

She had been shaking her head as he talked, and he knew it had something to do with his ludicrous reasoning. If he wasn’t buying it, how in the hell could he expect anyone else to buy it? Even more importantly, why was the sheriff signing off on it?

“What?” Tony asked.

“They didn’t worry about the other partner. It was strictly sex.

They both got off on it. And besides, Dan always got his turn.”

“He liked men, too?”

“No! He was definitely hetero. I meant one night they would pick up a guy, the next a woman.”

“That’s quite magnanimous of them,” he said.

“They were that kind of people.”

He had about everything he wanted to know from her, and some. Getting dressed in front of her didn’t bother her in the least, and he figured she had already seen everything he had to offer.

When he was done they went to the front and he paid her for the session, adding a little extra for the information. She opened the door for him and Tony stepped onto the porch.

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She shook his hand and held it for a moment. “If things don’t work out with you and Melanie, give me a call.” She smiled and handed him one of her cards.

He walked back and got into his truck. His dog in the bed started to whine. Panzer would need a run soon.

Tony hadn’t noticed, but while he was in there getting poked with needles, a front had moved in with swirling clouds. The temperature had dropped to near freezing. Good thing he had his pants on.

Before pulling out, he glanced into his rearview mirror. A block and a half behind him was the black truck with his two friends from Cascade Peak Estates security. Still on his tail.

Tony smiled and pulled a U-turn, slowly drove up the lane and stopped alongside the black truck. Rolling down the window, he said, “Hey, guys. I’ll be heading downtown to run a few errands, let the dog run. After that I’ll probably go home and take a crap.”

The two rent-a-cops seemed to sink down into their seats as Tony drove off.

He had to wonder why the two of them were following him around all morning. Although he had only started asking questions, he was making someone nervous. Break up the status quo.

That was his motto.

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The silver Mercedes crept along the dirt road and turned left into the driveway. Cliff Humphrey parked just behind the old pickup truck with the back converted to compartments, the signs on the side indicating that explosives were inside.

He stepped out onto the dirt and immediately looked down at his black Italian loafers, which were instantly covered with pow-dery tan Central Oregon dust. He shook his left foot, but he knew that was useless. Letting out a deep breath, he moved forward gingerly.

Suddenly, the front door to the old house burst open and a scruffy-looking man with a long beard plodded out toward him.

“Get the fuck off my land!” the bearded man screamed, his right hand pointing down the road.

Humphrey stopped in his tracks in the middle of the driveway.

“Just hear me out.”

“Already heard your bullshit. Now get the fuck out.”

Humphrey gazed about the property. He needed this. Calm and easy. “Listen. I’m sorry what happened to you. But you’ve got to believe me. . .I had nothing to do with it. That’s not the way I work.”

The other man grabbed his beard and stroked it, his eyes shifting wildly from side to side. “Why should I believe you?”

“Because it’s the truth. And I think you understand that.”

“I know one thing. You blackballed me in this town. I can’t get
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no work.” He swung his head back toward his house and shoved his thumb in that direction. “My grandparents built dis place damn near sixty years ago. You ain’t gettin’ it.”

Humphrey racked his brain on how to deal with this guy. He had tried just about every tactic he knew. “The world has discovered Bend. There’s no turning back on that. If it isn’t me, it’ll be someone else in a couple of years. I’ve offered you a fair price.