Mona Lisa Eyes (Danny Logan Mystery #4) (2 page)

Of course
, Cecilia’s premonition had been proven right and the rest
of us wrong—dead wrong—when, at 6:00 p.m
. on Monday, July 16, in front of a nationally televised
press conference, our friend Dwayne Brown of the Seattle Police
Department announced to the world that Sophie’s body had
been pulled out of the Cowlitz River ten days prior
and had been lying on a slab in the Lewis
County morgue the whole time the search had been under
way in Seattle. The Lewis County medical examiner confirmed that
Sophie had been strangled and dumped in the river on
the evening of Thursday, July 5. A couple of fishermen
discovered her body the next day, but the Lewis County
Sherriff had been unable to identify her. Amazingly, even after
the wall-to-wall television coverage, no one in the
Lewis County coroner’s office recognized her. After a week
, the sheriff sent a flyer to local jurisdictions from Portland
to Vancouver, BC, in hopes that someone might know who
she was. When the flyer eventually landed on Dwayne Brown
’s desk, the mystery was solved. Dwayne and Gus, being
missing-person specialists, transferred control of the Sophie Thoms Task
Force over to the homicide detectives. The manpower was doubled
and the task force focus shifted from a missing person
to a homicide investigation.

Cecilia pushed a strand of her
blonde hair back behind her ear and continued. “I should
state at the outset that neither of our nieces cared
much about decorum. They’ve grown up in an age
that seems to reward outrageous behavior.”

Oliver shifted in his
seat, and I glanced over at him just in time
to see him make a little eye-roll grimace.

Cecilia
either didn’t notice, or else she did notice and
simply ignored him. “I suspect that their continued appearance on
page six must have caused a great deal of embarrassment
to their parents—my brother, Sir Jacob Thoms, in particular
. Nicki’s sex tape with that American rock-and-roll
singer was probably the last straw. It certainly would have
been for me.” She shook her head. “Poor Jacob. I
can only imagine he hoped that by moving the girls
to Seattle, perhaps the responsibility of being on their own
in a distant location would encourage them to—” she searched
for the right word, “—frankly, to grow up, to live
their lives in what you might call a more dignified
fashion compared to the manner in which they’d been
behaving in London.”

“Either that,” Oliver said softly, “or he
hoped that their being half a world removed from the
London paparazzi would somehow take them out of the limelight
.”

Cecilia glanced at him, and then she continued. “Perhaps. In
any case, Jacob sent them to us.” She paused, then
added, “God help us.”

“And did it work?” I asked
. “Did they ‘grow up,’ as you put it?”

“To my
surprise, I’d have to say yes as regards Sophie
. Less so with Nicki, although I feel compelled to admit
that she has managed to mostly stay out of the
newspapers here.” She paused, then added, “And out of jail
.”

“You said Sophie’d grown up since she’d been
here?” I said.

Cecilia nodded. “I can’t vouch for
her behavior after hours—we weren’t privy to that
, and I can only imagine what happened then. But she
did seem to be taking her time at work seriously
. She had seemed to mature some.”

“That rather undersells it
, dear,” Oliver said, smiling. He turned to us. “I worked
with Sophie on a daily basis, and I can say
without reserve that she seemed to have a knack for
relating to our donors. Sophie was quite effective.”

“Sorry,” I
said, “I wasn’t clear about that—I wasn’t
sure Sophie actually worked at your foundation.”

“Yes, she did
,” Oliver said. “Jacob appointed her to the board, but her
everyday assignment was donor relations.”

“And what is it that
the Beatrice Thoms Memorial Foundation actually does?” Toni asked as
she took notes.

“Our Foundation is a relief organization,” Cecilia
said. “My brother formed it and named it after our
mother, Beatrice Thoms. The primary mission is to help the
desperate peoples in the countries of eastern Africa—Somalia, Kenya
, and Ethiopia in particular.”

“You said donor relations,” Toni said
to Oliver. “What does that entail?”

Oliver nodded. “Fund-raising
, donor communications and interactions—that sort of thing. He paused
, then added, “Of course, our initial reason for moving the
fund’s headquarters to Seattle from London back in 2006
was that we’d noticed a certain degree of resonance
with the technology crowd here. They tended to be relatively
young and quite wealthy, with well-developed social consciences. They
responded to our message with vigor. Sophie was able to
tap into this—frankly, even better than I’d been
able to. Her, her—” he struggled for the word.

“Vibrancy
,” Cecilia said.

“Exactly. She was a natural. Her vibrancy, her
passion, her youth enabled her to quickly connect with our
donor base. They liked her—loved her, actually.” He smiled
. “Frankly, I think they treated her like a rock star
.” Oliver had been getting enthusiastic, but suddenly he sobered, remembering
why he was visiting us.

We paused for a moment
, catching up with our note taking. When we were done
, Toni said, “Why don’t you fill us in a
little about Nicki while you’re here.”

Cecilia looked at
her watch. “Alright, then. We still have a few minutes
.” She looked up at us. She shook her head. “Nicki
. Where should I start?”

“Does Nicki work at the Foundation
as well?” I asked.

“Humph,” Cecilia said, chuckling. “Technically, yes
. She sits on the board and draws a decent salary
—same as Sophie did.” She paused, and then she added
, “But unlike Sophie, she’s rarely attended board meetings, and
she seldom comes to the office.”

“So it’s fair
to say that she treats her role differently than Sophie
did?” I said.

“That’s one way of putting it
. Another way, perhaps more to the point, would be to
say that if it so much as resembles work, Nicki
suddenly becomes disinterested. She has nothing like Sophie’s work
ethic.”

Oliver shook his head. “I hate to say it
, but I must agree. As regards our Foundation, Nicki seems
to have no interest in the plight of the peoples
of Africa.”

Cecilia added, “I’m not sure that she
has an interest in anything at all aside from parties
and social functions.”

“Got it,” I said, nodding. Unless I
was mistaken, I’d seen the Nicki Thoms type many
times before: wealthy parents, lots of freedom, lots of money
, low expectations. Have fun, but not too much fun. Keep
it quiet. Above all, don’t embarrass Mom and Dad
.

“Let’s switch up. In my experience, trouble often stems
from vices and bad habits. Let’s talk about drugs
—was Sophie involved with drugs? Or Nicki? Any problems there
?”

Oliver shrugged. “In all honesty, this isn’t the type
of conversation topic that either of the girls would have
felt comfortable having with us. But, from my own personal
experience, Sophie never gave me any reason to suspect that
she might have been high on drugs.”

“Nor I,” Cecilia
added.

“And Nicki?”

“Well . . .”

Cecilia took a deep breath. “Mr
. Logan,” she said slowly, “you must realize that it’s
not easy for our family to open up about what
we consider to be our internal affairs—our ‘dirty laundry
’ as it were. We typically keep such . . . delicate matters to
ourselves. That said, I suppose I’d be lying if
I didn’t admit that we have reason to suspect
that Nicki may have problems with drugs, and perhaps with
alcohol as well. I’ve smelled both liquor and marijuana
on her breath and clothing several times. She tries to
hide it, but I’m not
that
old—certainly not
the old fogey she takes me for. I was around
in the eighties, you know.”

I smiled politely. “I understand
.” Actually, if I worked really hard at it, I could
just about picture buttoned-up Cecilia taking an experimental bong
-hit as a teenager. I started to smile at the
mental picture. Fortunately, Toni kept us moving.

“Obviously, our conversation
is confidential,” she said.

Cecilia nodded. “Of course.”

“That said
, have you provided this information to the police?”

Cecilia nodded
again. “We have.”

“Good,” Toni said.

We asked a few
more background questions—boyfriends? girlfriends?—that sort of thing, but
by ten o’clock, we had enough information to be
able to evaluate the case. I leaned back in my
chair and stared at the rain on the windows for
a few moments, considering everything I’d heard. I glanced
at Toni, but she didn’t notice, so I turned
back to Cecilia. “Mrs. Ward, first of all, thanks for
all the background information. We probably asked a few more
detailed questions than I’d originally intended, but it’s
easy to get caught up in the case.” I paused
, then continued. “When you got here, I think you said
you wished to hire us to represent the family. What
is it you expect us to do for you?”

Cecilia
looked at me, puzzled. “Simple. Find out who did it
. Find out who killed Sophie and dumped her into the
river. Help bring the bastard to justice.”

“Find out who
did it,” I repeated, nodding. Sure. Piece of cake. “There
are two obvious questions. First, why do you think our
little firm would be able to find something that a
forty-man police task force has missed?”

Cecilia gave me
a hard look. “You’re good at what you do
, right?”

I studied her for a moment, and then I
nodded. “Yes, we like to think so. But that’s
no guarantee that we’d be able to add any
value to the investigation. Your money could end up being
wasted.”

She gave me another firm stare. “Well, I most
certainly do not agree with you, Mr. Logan. Even if
you prove unable to find Sophie’s killer, you would
still be representing us—the family—as the police continue
their investigation. And your participation alone, even in that role
alone, means our family would be
doing
something—not just
sitting around waiting. Waiting for the police whose competence, in
all honesty, is suspect. Believe me, our money would most
assuredly not be wasted. My brother and I have spoken
at length about this. We have a good deal of
faith that you can help us. One way or another
.”

I had to admit that parts of this actually made
a little sense. It wouldn’t have been the first
time we’d been hired by the victim’s family
to essentially serve as liaison to the police. “Fair enough
,” I said, “and I appreciate your faith in our firm
. Second question, then. Sophie’s homicide is still an open
investigation with the Seattle Police Department. As you can probably
imagine, I think it’s highly unlikely that the task
force would welcome us with open arms, know what I
mean?” Actually, I thought we’d be about as welcome
as a tax audit.

She smiled. “Mr. Logan, I’m
certain that won’t be a problem. You see, it
was the Seattle Police Department who recommended you to us
in the first place.”