Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 03 - They Call Me Ace (4 page)

Chapter Six

“I want you and Mikey to go out to the car. Stay in it and lock the doors.” I was terrified to go into the bedroom alone, but I was more afraid of something happening to my son. “And call Chris on the cell phone. Tell him to get over here right away.”

“What about the police?” Mikey asked. “You could call Janet.”

Janet Riley is a family friend, but at a time like this, her line of work was more important than her friendship. Janet is a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I’ll call Janet if I actually find a body. Now would you two please go lock yourselves in the car?”

I noticed that for all of her bravado of the night before, Judith didn’t waste any time leaving the house.

Trying to climb the stairs quietly didn’t work. They creaked and groaned like a loud speaker announcing my arrival. I hoped Chris would hurry. Since he and his father were watching a ballgame, I just hoped he’d answer the telephone. I pictured Sherlock racing into the kitchen to beat

Chris and almost giggled. Realizing it would be a nervous giggle, I didn’t.

I stood tentatively in front of the door to the center bedroom. “Hello?” I called softly. Maybe some kids were playing a prank and they’d answer me. When no one replied, I stepped closer to the doorway.

“Hello?” I called again. Nothing but silence.

I leaned through the doorway, not wanting to enter the room. I could see a hand, but nothing else. A chest of drawers blocked my view.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and my feet grew a mind of their own which sent me running into the bedroom. Why couldn’t they have sent me
out
of the room? “
Ahhhhhh
,” I yelled.

“I’m sorry, Pamela,” Judith said softly. “I felt guilty for sending you up here alone.”

Glancing behind her, I didn’t see Mikey.

Judith understood. “Don’t worry. I left Mikey in the car with the doors locked. I told him to wait for Junior and not to come back inside the house.”

“You just scared ten years off my life, Judith, I mean, Mom. I didn’t hear you come up the stairs.”

“They creaked. You must have been concentrating on the body or you would have heard me.”

The body. I turned away from the doorway to look at the body. My mother-in-law was right. This was definitely a dead woman. 

I closed my eyes to regroup before taking a second look. I swallowed hard before opening my peepers again, and sighed, knowing my husband was changing my whole way of thinking and speaking. Peepers? I opened them and took a good look at the body, while I pulled my cell phone out of my purse.

“Judith, go downstairs and wait for Chris. I’m going to call the police. Send Chris up here the minute he arrives.” I

found myself looking around the room at possible hiding places, but I was pretty sure the killer was long gone. I didn’t want to walk around and possibly destroy any evidence that might have been left behind.

Judith didn’t even question my directions, but turned and descended the stairs. I had a feeling she hadn’t really wanted to come back upstairs to join me. She was an outgoing woman, and apparently loved adventure, but I didn’t think a dead body would fit into that category.

Hands shaking, I dialed L.A.P.D. and asked for Janet Riley. Fortunately, she was in and at her desk. “Janet, this is Pamela Cross. Um, my mother-in-law and I just found a dead body.”

“You’ve got to be kidding, right?” There was silence while she waited for me to say something like April Fools.

“I’m not joking. We drove over to look at an old house that’s for sale, and there’s a dead body on the second floor. It’s a young woman, and I think she might have put up a struggle.”

“What makes you think she struggled?”

“The floor is dusty and dirty, and I can see lots of scuff marks. There’s an old rug on the floor, too, and it’s all bunched up.”

“I’ll be right there. Don’t touch anything.”

I gave her the address and she hung up on me before I could say anything else.

I stepped closer to the body, feeling braver because I knew the police were on their way. Bending over, I studied the woman. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, and she had long mousy brown hair. Her brown eyes were open, and I wished I could reach over and close them. She had tattoos on her arms and a ring through her upper lip. Even so, and even in death, she had a sweet face. She was wearing jeans that barely covered her hips. Her jersey shirt didn’t quite meet the jeans. There was a flip flop on one foot, but I didn’t see the

other one. Glancing at her face again, my eyes were drawn to her neck. It was long and slender, and there were marks to indicate she’d been strangled.

I turned away, knowing I’d seen more than I should have. Morbid curiosity? I didn’t think it was that as much as a need to know what happened.

“Pamela?” I heard Chris at the bottom of the stairs.

“Up here,” I called back.

I could hear him running up the stairs, with someone following him. I stepped out of the bedroom and met Chris and his father as they reached the top.

“Where’s the body?” my husband asked.

I pointed to the center bedroom. “Chris, she’s so young.” I sighed. “In there. I called Janet and she said not to touch things.”

He didn’t say a word, but his expression clearly read
, I’m not a nincompoop. I know not to touch anything
. He motioned for his father to follow him. Chris Sr. walked into the room, took one look and did a u-turn and walked back down the stairs.

“Unlike my son, I’m not into dead bodies,” he mumbled as he passed by me.

“Neither are we.” I found myself talking to his back and didn’t think he heard me.

I’d lost track of time, but if I had to guess I’d say about ten minutes passed before I heard sirens blaring. The first to arrive were uniformed coppers. Chris Sr. sent them upstairs. After asking where the body was, they cleared us out of the house and told us to wait on the porch. Chris Sr. walked out to the car and brought Mikey up to join us.

I pulled my son to my side and held onto his hand.

“So there really is a dead body?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Was it creepy?”

I nodded again.

He didn’t ask any more questions.

Judith nonchalantly moved to my other side. “Pamela, I think you need to investigate this one.” She was whispering and watching Chris and his father, apparently hoping they wouldn’t hear her.

“
Excuse me?
”

“Shhh. I don’t want Junior to hear me.”

“Don’t shush me up. Janet is on her way, and
she’ll
do any investigating that needs to be done.”

“Janet?”

“My friend, the homicide detective. She’s good at her job, and she certainly doesn’t need us sticking our noses into her investigation.”

It had stopped raining, and Chris and his father stepped off the porch and walked around the side of the house, returning shortly and talking quietly.

Janet pulled up to the curb before Judith could say more. She climbed out of her car and studied the house before walking to the porch, taking note that there was a For Sale sign sitting near the curb. Nodding at Chris, she walked directly to me.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” Janet didn’t look happy, but then who would when a dead body was laying mere steps away.

“There’s not much to tell. My mother-in-law called the Realtor because we wanted to look through the house – ”

“This wreck? You and Chris have a nice house. Why would you be interested in this one?” She knew that Chris and I have a penchant for becoming involved in crimes, and she sounded suspicious.

My mother-in-law held her hand out to Janet. “Hi. I’m Judith Cross, Chris’s mother. I wanted to look at the house and Pamela and my grandson just came along for the ride. Chris Sr. and I are thinking about moving back to this area.”

“Uh huh.” Janet took my mother-in-law’s hand and

shook it firmly. “And you’re into renovating old houses?”

“Not really, but this one could be an exception. I’ve needed a good project to keep me busy. Now that we’ve found a body, I might have to change my mind about this particular house though.”

Janet narrowed her eyes and studied first me, and then Judith. She looked down at Mikey and smiled. “How’s it goin’, Ace? Are you enjoying your summer vacation?”

Smiling, he looked up at Janet and nodded. I thought maybe he had a mild crush on her at one time, but I finally figured out that he simply liked her.  Well, that and the fact that she’s a detective and likes him, too. He thought it was cool to have a flatfoot for a friend, and he bragged about it to his friend, Danny, every chance he had.

One of the uniformed coppers came to the door and motioned for Janet to follow him. I heard him say he’d already called the medical examiner. Janet told us not to leave and entered the house, pulling a notebook out of her purse.

After about twenty minutes she returned to the front porch. The uniforms followed her outside, but they didn’t stop on the porch. They walked around the side of the house and disappeared.

“I’m afraid they’re going to find my dad’s and my footprints,” Chris said, walking up the porch steps.

“And why would that be?” Janet asked.

“We took a walk around the side. My mother was here last night. She climbed through a window and went inside.”

“Last night?” Janet turned to Judith and pinned her with an accusing look.

Judith took hold of my hand and squeezed. “Yes, last night. I wanted to see the inside.” She sounded defiant, not a tone that would impress Janet.

“Uh huh. And what did you see?”

“Nothing, really. I didn’t go upstairs until today.”

“Why did you want to see the inside?”

“Mikey and I were on our way to get an ice cream cone, and I saw a light in the window upstairs. I was curious since it was obviously a deserted house.”

Janet dropped her head. I could see she was taking a deep, cleansing breath – or at least that’s what I thought she was doing.

“What?” Judith squeezed my hand harder. I was glad she was a small woman with little hands.

Janet lifted her head and looked down into Judith’s eyes. “Did it ever occur to you that since the house was deserted there shouldn’t be a light? That maybe something was wrong?”

“Not until today when I found that dead woman.”

Janet turned to Chris. “Is this a trait that runs in your family?”

Chris stuck his thumbs in his pocket and rocked back on his heels. “What trait would that be?” Men can be so slow sometimes.

“For the sake of argument, I’ll just call it curiosity.”

He took his thumbs out of his pocket and pulled on his ear lobe. I could see the wheels spinning and he tried to think of a good answer. He smiled and glanced at his mother. “I was trained by the best.”

It was a good thing Janet knew us so well or she probably would have done something copperish – like stick Chris in the backseat of her car with handcuffs on. Well, she might not have gone that far, but she wouldn’t have been happy with his answer.

Chris walked away and rejoined his father.

The medical examiner’s van pulled up to the curb and parked behind Janet’s unit. A car pulled up right behind the van and also parked. There was a magnetic Realtor sign attached to the door.

“Don’t go anywhere. I’ve got to take another look at that body.” She motioned for the M.E. to follow her and

walked through the doorway.

“Am I in trouble?” Judith asked, glancing at me.

Chapter Seven

The Realtor who approached us turned out to be Max Avery, the same Realtor who’d sold Chris and me the house we’d renovated and turned into
Bogey Nights
. He recognized us and flashed a brief smile before asking what was going on.

“We found a dead body in the house,” I explained.

His pudgy face fell, which didn’t surprise me. Maybe I should have been gentler when I told him about the body. After all, he’d already sold
us
a house that contained a dead body. Chris and his father walked over to join us, and Chris knew by the look on Max’s face that I’d told him what we’d found. Chris patted the Realtor’s back.

“I know this seems like a bad rap,” Chris said, stepping back, “but even though someone bought the farm here, this house will still sell. Remember, Pamela and I thought no one would put on the feedbag at
Bogey Nights
after that stiff turned up in the basement. We were wrong. We – ”

“People were curious,” I interrupted. “Once they came and saw the restaurant, and ate the food, they kept coming back. There was nothing there to remind them of the murder, and the ambiance was great, so it was kind of an out-of-sight,

out-of-mind thing.”

Chris crossed his arms across his chest and watched for a reaction from Max.

“I suppose… This is a major fixer upper though, which means it’s going to be difficult to sell to begin with, but now with the murder… Do they know who the, uh, victim is?”

Judith stepped forward and introduced herself. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t been so nosey – ”

“Now Judith, it’s not your fault.” Chris Sr. put his arm around his wife.

“It’s nobody’s fault,” I said. “None of
us
killed her.”

“But we found the body.” Judith seemed to feel the act of finding the body was a positive statement of her actions. “If I hadn’t climbed through the window last night, we might not have come back today and found the body.”

“Ma,” Chris said, “I really think you should clam up about climbing through that window. It was illegal – remember?”

Ma? I’d never heard Chris call his mother
Ma
before. Maybe it was part of his Bogey persona, but I wasn’t sure.

“You’re right, Junior. I need to – ”

“Pu
lease
, don’t call me Junior.”

Judith’s face began to take on a look of annoyance, and she stamped her foot. “Junior, Junior, Junior. If you don’t like it, then you can just lump it.” She turned and walked toward the street.

Chris started to follow her, and I grabbed his arm. “Chris, let it go for now. She’s upset because she found a corpse, and you’re worried about her calling you Junior? Now’s not the time.”

“You’re right, cupcake. Sometimes I can be a big lug. I’m sorry.”

“Tell it to her, not me.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Chris Sr. said. “You two wait here and I’ll be back with her in a minute.
She’s
never found a dead

body before, unlike you two.”

Chris’s father walked toward the curb, and I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like it’s an everyday occurrence for us.”

Mikey quickly glanced from Chris to me. “I don’t know, Mom. You and dad have a kind of track record. Our teacher explained what a track record is last year. You’ve got one.”

“Ace.” Chris smiled at our son. “It just seems like we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time once in a while.”

Chris Sr. and Judith talked for a moment before turning and walking back to the front porch. Janet walked out the door and joined us.

“I’ll try not to call you Junior anymore,” Judith said.

Janet tried to hide a smile, but she wasn’t totally successful. “Junior?”

Rocking back on his heels, Chris rolled his upper lip under and pulled on his earlobe, in true Bogey fashion. “Yeah. Wanna make something of it?”

“Oh, no.” She cleared her throat. “We found the victim’s driver’s license in her pocket.”

“And?” I knew she wasn’t supposed to tell us anything, but I also knew she would.

“She lived next door. I’m heading over there now. You want to come?”

Everyone took a step forward.

“No, just Pamela. Well, maybe Chris, too.”

“Judith, would you stay with Mikey?” I asked.

“Of course.” She glanced up at Chris Sr. and took hold of Mikey’s hand. “We’ll take him for a walk. Get him away from all of this.” She swung her arms expansively from one side of the house to the other.

“Come along,” she said, pulling him beside her. “I’ll tell you some stories about when your father was a child.”

“Really? Very cool, Grandma.” Mike willingly walked to the sidewalk with his grandparents. The neighbors had

come outside when the police arrived, and they watched the little procession with curiosity, talking among themselves.

“What do you want me to do?” Max asked. “Do you need me here? Or can I leave?”

“Why don’t you wait here for a few minutes?” Janet suggested.

Max shrugged and sat down on the front steps of the house.

Chris and I followed Janet to the small house next door. It was newer than the place where she’d been killed, but probably not by much. The small porch looked like it had recently been painted a light grey. The house was a darker grey, and the trim had been painted green. There were flower pots lining the edges of the porch, and flowers were in full bloom. There was a hibiscus bush at the end of the porch – it was neatly trimmed. The front door was painted green to match the trim.

“What was her name?” I asked.

“Kimberly Rose Hawthorne,” Janet replied, climbing up the two steps to the porch. She pushed the doorbell and waited, listening. “She was twenty-four, and had a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks.”

Chris and I kept quiet. Janet had to work out whether this was just another case or if it was personal. She once told me she tried to keep her feelings about the victims at a distance, but sometimes it wasn’t possible. Her tone of voice made me feel that for some reason this one might be personal. Maybe she’d tell me why, and maybe she wouldn’t.

She rang the bell again, and knocked loudly. When there was still no response, she tried the door handle. It was locked.

Turning, she walked down the steps. “Let’s check the back door,” she said over her shoulder.

Looking toward the other yard, she saw three coppers looking at something. “
Hernandez
,” she yelled. “
Over here,

please.
”

He waved at her and headed our way.

There was no fence, so we walked around the side of the house unimpeded, heading for the back door. Chris and I were talking softly, and as we neared the door Janet held her hand out.

She pulled her gun out of her shoulder holster. “I want you two to head back to the other house.” She spoke softly and motioned Hernandez to move forward.

Chris pointed at the back door. It stood wide open.

Before I could say anything, he took hold of my shoulders and turned me around, pushing me toward the old house next door.

“Chris – ” I began.

“Shhh. Let them do their job.”

I missed the grand entry into the house because the Bogey Man was shushing, pushing and herding me away from the yard. I heard Hernandez holler, “Clear” and pulled away from Chris, turning back to the young woman’s house. Instead of stopping me, he followed along behind. I knew he was as curious as I was.

We found Janet and Hernandez standing outside the back door, talking. She glanced up and saw us and said something to Hernandez. He turned and reentered the house.

“It looks like she walked out and left the door open because she thought she’d be right back. The TV was still on and she had a bowl of popcorn sitting on the end table.”

“Maybe she saw the same light my mother saw and went over to investigate,” Chris said. “The way my mother described it, the light looked like it was floating past the window.”

Janet looked past us, toward the other house. “Where is your mother?”

“She and my father-in-law took Mikey for a walk. They decided it would be better to get him away from here for a

few minutes.” I pointed in the general direction of the street.

Janet nodded. “I want to talk to her again and find out exactly what she saw. Maybe she heard something while she was in the house.”

“In the house?” Chris tried to sound innocent, but he’d already given it away.

“Yes, Junior, in the house. You already told me she was in there last night.” Janet folded her arms across her chest and gave Chris the same look I give Mikey when I think he’s fibbing to me.

“Don’t call me Junior, and it was worth a try. I didn’t know if you were listening when I mentioned her adventure last night.”

“I’m not going to mention what you call her adventure. I just want to know what she saw and heard.” Janet let her arms drop to her sides and walked into the house.

I followed. So did Chris.

Hernandez gave us a questioning look and Janet shrugged, saying we were okay. She also reminded us not to touch anything.

“Detective, you might want to come listen to this.” The copper was standing next to a telephone with an answering machine. Janet walked over and stood next to him. He pushed the Play button and stood back.

There were three messages from someone named Cloene. The first two were just, “Hey, call me back. It’s Cloene.”

The third one was a bit more frantic. “Kimmie, it’s Cloene. I’m getting worried. You said you’d call me back after you checked out the old house next door. Quit fooling around and call me. Now! Aww, come on. If you’re there, pick up.” There was a pause before she spoke again. “I’ll be over in the morning to check on you.”

“Okay, this
woman knows something about what happened last night. Let’s see if we can find a phone number

for her.”

Not knowing if any crime had been committed in the smaller house, Hernandez put on gloves before he picked up a personal phone book from next to the answering machine. He flipped through it. “Here it is, Detective. Cloene Farmer.” He read off a phone number while Janet wrote it down on a piece of paper.

“I’ll call her right now.” Janet pulled her cell phone out of her purse. “I want to know what Cloene might know.”

“What’s going on here?” A young woman entered through the back door. Her tanned face had turned pale and she ran her fingers through long, blonde hair. Unlike Kimberly, this young woman didn’t have any tattoos or piercings. She glanced at each of us, and I could see fear in her brown eyes. “Where’s Kimmie?”