Hotline to Murder (21 page)

“I wish you every happiness,” Tony said.
“And thank you for a nice evening.” What else could he say?

CHAPTER 24

As Thursday afternoon advanced inexorably
toward evening, Tony became more and more worried about Shahla.
Although he had been upset with her on Monday for talking to Nathan
about the possibility of attending a service at the Church of the
Risen Lord, he hadn’t really believed she would do it. But the more
he thought about it, the less sure he was of this conclusion.

Shahla was impetuous, and if she thought she
could find out something about Joy’s murder by attending the
service, she would go. In addition, Tony had seen her writing in a
spiral notebook in the car while they were driving home from Las
Vegas. When he had asked her whether she was writing poetry, she
had said no, she was taking notes. For what? She said for the
true-crime book she was going to write. So now she pictured herself
as a reporter. And reporters went wherever there were stories. And
the premise of this Church might be enough of a story to entice her
to attend one its services.

Tony called Shahla’s cell phone number about
4:00. When she didn’t answer it, he didn’t leave a message,
figuring that if she was planning to go to the service, she
probably wouldn’t return his call. By 5:00 Tony had become so
anxious that he was no longer able to work. He left his office and
walked—limped—to his car. He was becoming more adept at using the
crutches, but they were a damned nuisance, and he would be glad to
be rid of them.

He decided to drive to Shahla’s house and
deal with her face to face. On the way there, he thought about
Carol and last night. What an ending to that romance. Had she
spoiled him for other women? If all their evenings had been like
that one, they would still be together. He was going to have a hard
time getting over her.

Tony pulled Josh’s SUV to the curb in front
of Shahla’s house and was carefully negotiating his way out of the
vehicle when Rasa drove into the driveway. She was undoubtedly
coming home from her work at the hospital. Uh oh. He wasn’t sure
whether she would be happy to see him. After all, he had driven her
daughter to Las Vegas and not returned for over twenty-four
hours.

Better to face the situation head-on. He
limped up the driveway and greeted Rasa as she got out of her car.
He was struck again by how much she looked like a short-haired and
darker version of Shahla.

She looked at him and said, “Tony, what
happened to you?”
He was certain that Shahla hadn’t told her everything about their
trip, so he said, “I had a fall, but I’ll be all right. I just have
to be on crutches for a week or so.”

“Did you see doctor?”

“Yes. In fact, I went to the emergency room
at your hospital.”

“Good. They have good doctors there. Are you
here to see Shahla? She has cross-country practice in afternoon,
but she should be home soon.”

“All right, but I’d like to talk to you for
a minute, if I could.”

“Sure. Come into house.”

Rasa collected the mail from the curbside
mailbox, and Tony followed her carefully up the driveway and then
up several steps to the front door. Once inside, she waved him into
the living room and excused herself. He sat on the couch and
thought about what he should say. Five minutes later she returned,
having shed her work clothes and donned a dark blue sweat suit that
made her look even younger than she already did.

She sat in the chair she had sat in when he
had been here before and said, “Shahla told me nothing happened on
Las Vegas trip. Since you were gone so long that is hard to
believe.”

“It is a bit of an exaggeration,” Tony
agreed. “We talked to this guy, Paul, who is the poet. We went into
one of the hotels so Shahla could see what it looked like. And then
we…well, we followed Paul and a girl. But we did it carefully and
were never in any danger.” Then how come he was on crutches?

“Shahla said you fell asleep on drive
home.”

“Well, fortunately, I stopped before I fell
asleep, and I took a nap. But that’s why we didn’t get home until
Sunday morning.”

“Thank you for keeping Shahla safe.”

“You’re welcome.” He wasn’t sure he deserved
her thanks. “Let me tell you the reason I’m here. When Shahla and I
were on the Hotline Monday evening, another listener was there who
talked about a church he belongs to. They have a service on
Thursday evening, and he invited Shahla to attend the service.”

“What church is this?”

“It’s called the Church of the Risen Lord.
It’s a sort of Christian Church, but it has kind of a funny
idea.”

“We do not go to church. I have not had
faith since my husband was murdered. Did Shahla tell you about
that?”

“Yes.”

Rasa paused, as if contemplating whether to
say more about her husband. She apparently decided against it.

“I have not raised Shahla in religious
environment. Sometimes I feel little guilty about this. If she
wants to attend church, it is all right with me.”

“Well, this church is at least ten miles
from here and not in a great part of town. I don’t think Shahla
should be driving there alone—especially at night.”

“I see.” Rasa frowned. “Thank you for
telling me. I think I hear Shahla now. We will talk to her
together.”

Shahla had apparently received a ride home
from a classmate, because Tony heard the sound of a car driving
away at the same time as the front door opened.

“Shahla,” Rasa called. “We are in living
room.”

Shahla appeared a few seconds later, her
hair in a ponytail, wearing running shoes, shorts, and a white
athletic bra. Tony knew that the cross-country team had uniform
shirts, but on warm days, the girls often took off their shirts and
ran in just their bras, at least in practice.

“Tony,” she said startled. “What are you
doing here?”

“Tony has come because he is concerned about
your safety,” Rasa said.

“Where’s your car? And what are you doing
with crutches? You didn’t have crutches on Monday.”

“Long story,” Tony said. “But it can wait.
Right now, we want to know whether you were planning to go to
Nathan’s church service tonight.”

Shahla looked from one of them to the other,
as if they were conspiring against her. For a moment, Tony thought
she would explode, and then as he watched in admiration, she
deliberately got herself under control. When she spoke, she was
completely collected.

“You two look like parents, sitting there in
judgment.”

“One of us is your parent,” Rasa said. “But
we are both concerned about you.”

“Let me tell you the reason I want to go,”
Shahla said. She paused, perhaps for effect. “The police have not
solved Joy’s murder yet. I think everything should be done to solve
it. Nathan is a queer duck. Being a queer duck is not enough to go
to the police with. I want to see if I can get enough information
about him to make it worthwhile to go to the police.”

“Tony says church is far from here and in
dangerous part of town.”

“How do you know?”

Tony said, “Because…I’ve been there.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

“I haven’t told you everything.” Tony held
up his hand, as if to ward off her anger. “I talked to the
minister. I didn’t get all the answers I wanted. I agree with you,
there is something strange about it. And about Nathan, for being a
part of it. Which is all the more reason you shouldn’t go. I’ll
tell you what I’ll do; I’ll go to the service tonight.”

“I’m going with you.”

“There is no need for that. I can handle
it.”

Shahla took a visible breath, again
appearing to calm herself down. Then she said, “There is a good
reason. You are on crutches. You have helped me. Now I can help
you. It isn’t safe for you to go alone on crutches.”

Rasa nodded. “Shahla has good point. But if
church is in dangerous part of town, neither one of you should
go.”

“It isn’t that dangerous,” Tony said.
“Nathan goes there. I would be all right.”

Rasa turned to Shahla. “What is your
homework situation?”

“I worked for two hours after class and
before cross-country practice. I only have a little more to
do.”

“You do rest of homework while I make dinner
for all of us. Then you may go to service. But I want you back by
ten.”

“Agreed,” Tony said, before Shahla could say
anything.

This was the second night in a row that Tony
had been invited out for dinner. He could get used to this. He
helped Rasa in the kitchen while Shahla showered, changed her
clothes, and finished her homework. He and Rasa chatted about her
job as a nurse, and he told her about Bodyalternatives.net. She was
intrigued with the concept, especially for weight loss, and said
that she had several patients she would refer to his company. Tony
gave her a bunch of his cards.

When dinner was about to be served, a boy of
ten or eleven materialized from a stairway that led to the
basement. Tony hadn’t even known he was in the house. Rasa
introduced him as Kirk. He had Shahla’s coloring and a slight
build. Tony shook hands with him and said, “Hey, Kirk, glad to meet
you. What do you do in the basement, plot the overthrow of the
world?”

“Yeah, stuff like that. I play computer
games and surf the net.”

“I hope you don’t go to any of the bad
sites.”

“Aw, Mom got some computer geek to put a lot
of controls on the computer to keep me out of those sites. I
haven’t found a way to get around all of them yet.”

“Good. It can be dangerous out there.”

“Yeah. Right. Say, are you Mom’s
boyfriend?”

Rasa overheard and said, “Tony works with
Shahla on the Hotline.”

“You’re too old for Shahla. And I’d say
you’re too young for Mom.”

Kirk was still trying to figure out where
Tony fit in when Rasa called them to dinner.

CHAPTER 25

“There’s something else I haven’t told you,”
Tony said as he and Shahla drove to the church. Actually, there
were several things he hadn’t told her, but he figured it was
better to spring one at a time.

“How can I ever trust you again?” Shahla
asked, but in a way that told Tony she wasn’t serious—or at least
not completely serious.

Shahla was wearing a fairly modest dress,
which was her version of what to wear to church, along with a light
jacket against the chill of the evening. She wore her hair in a
bun. She looked good, but then she was one of those disgusting
women who looked good wearing anything.

“I have been doing some more investigating
on my own,” Tony said, stalling a little. If he opened Pandora’s
box, he wouldn’t be able to close it again. “I had some reasons,
which I won’t go into right now, to take a look at…my
roommate.”

“Your roommate? I haven’t met your roommate.
In fact, the only friend of yours that I have met is that
woman—what’s her name?”

“You mean Carol?”

“The one who said snotty things about me.
Have you seen her recently?”

Had he seen her recently? How could he
answer that with a straight face? “Yeah. I ran into her. She’s
living with that man who was with her.”

“I guess you won’t be dating her
anymore.”

“I guess not. Anyway, as I said, I was
taking a look at my roommate, and I happened to search his room.
And I found something.”

“What did you find?”

“I found…well, I found a pair of
panties.”

“Panties?” Shahla almost screamed. “What did
you do with them?”

“Nothing yet. I just found them. I have them
with me. They’re in the attaché case on the seat behind me.”

Shahla unbuckled her seat belt, turned
around and retrieved the case, which she brought to the front seat.
She reached in and, after searching briefly, pulled out the white
panties. She held them up and looked at them by the light of the
streetlights they passed.

“Do you think they could be Joy’s?” Tony
asked.

“I don’t know. The size is okay. But they’re
a little…”

“Conservative?”

“Yeah. I mean, not all girls wear thongs all
the time, but these are, like, for an older woman, or perhaps a
style of a few years ago.”

“So you think they might be too
old-fashioned for Joy.” Tony was willing to grasp at any feather of
hope that would clear Josh, to paraphrase an Emily Dickinson poem
that Shahla had recited to him.

“Maybe. I need to see them in a better
light.”

“I’ll bring them to the Hotline tomorrow. We
can study them there.” Anything to delay taking them to Detective
Croyden.

“You didn’t find a bra with them?”

“No.”

“It’s easier to tell whether a bra belongs
to someone.”

Tony was immensely relieved about Shahla’s
uncertainty. For a few minutes he had been second-guessing his
decision to show the panties to her. He made sure that she put them
back into his case. He wanted to keep them in his possession.

***

Parking was at a premium near the Church of
the Risen Lord. Tony pulled into the small parking lot, but there
was not a space to be had.

“It doesn’t look like a church,” Shahla
said. Some of her enthusiasm for the project seemed to have
dissipated.

Tony wasn’t willing to double-park and block
another car because he wanted to keep a low profile. He carefully
backed out of the lot into the street and finally found a space a
block away that he could ease the Toyota into. He parallel-parked
and then hesitated.

He said, “Do we really want to do this?”

Shahla was also hesitating. Perhaps the
reality of walking at night on a dark street in a strange part of
town was giving her pause.

“Can you walk that far on your crutches?”
she asked.

“Of course.”

Tony didn’t want his infirmities to be the
excuse for their failure. He opened the door and carefully stood in
the street, with the help of the crutches. He navigated to the
narrow sidewalk and laboriously started along it. Shahla walked two
steps behind him, staying out of his way. He watched in the dark
for cracks in the concrete that might upset him and felt empathy
for disabled people who faced these problems every day of their
lives.