The Death Card: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery (11 page)

“Do you think anyone would
notice my new ring if I put my hand nonchalantly out the window and waved it
around on the way to town?”

“Yes, and I
think you’ll be getting plenty of attention shortly. I want to go to Gertie’s
Diner for lunch. I’m starving. This whole getting married thing is making me
hungry for a hamburger and one of her famous malted milks.”

“You don’t
have to ask me twice. I was in there the other day and had the same. Think she
nails it on both. No wonder people drive here all the way from San Francisco
just to get a hamburger and malt.”

A few minutes
later they drove by Gertie’s. “Well, I think a number of people from San
Francisco are here right now judging from the makes of the cars and the fact I
can’t begin to find a parking place anywhere nearby. We’re going to have to
walk a couple of blocks. Hope that’s okay with you,” Roger said.

“Better than
okay. Now I can justify what I’m about to eat.”

“I like the
way you think, Mrs. Langley-to-be. Look Liz, there’s a vacancy sign on the
building next to Gertie’s. I kind of like the looks of it. Wonder what they’re
asking for it and how big it is.”

“How much
space do you think you’ll need?”

“I’ll need a
large office for me, so I can keep my files and law books in it. I’ll need a
reception area that can probably double as an area where my secretary will be
plus another office for an intern or legal assistant who can do legal research
for me.”

“What will you
do about Sean? You’ve used him for so long you’ll probably be lost without him,
and from what you’ve told me, he doesn’t seem like a man who would enjoy living
in a small town.”

“Even though
he works for me, technically he’s an employee of the firm, and several of the
other attorneys use him as well. He’ll stay in the San Francisco office, but I
can still use him. That’ll work out fine.”

Gertie looked
up from the order she was taking and waved at them when they walked into the
diner. “Sit anywhere you can find. Be with you in a minute.”

A couple was
just getting up from a table in the back of the diner, and they quickly walked
over and sat down. A minute later a young teenage boy wiped the table down and
handed them menus.

“We already
know what we’re going to order,” Roger said, “so we won’t need the menus.”

“Liz, Roger.
Good to see you. Lordy, lordy, what am I seein’ on that finger? Looks like a
brand new shiny diamond. Ya’ll got some news you want to share with me?” she
asked, picking up Liz’s left hand and examining the ring. “Sucker looks to be
‘bout two carats. You got nice taste, counselor. When’s the weddin?”

“Thanks,
Gertie. We haven’t set a date, but we’re thinking sometime during the holiday
season. At our ages, it doesn’t make any sense to wait a year or two.”

“Couldn’t
agree more. By the way Liz, remember we was talkin’ ‘bout Madame Dika the other
day, and I tol’ you the guy I was lookin’ at was her brother. Well, couple of
the other waitresses tol’ me he’s been comin’ in from time to time and meetin’
with other men who have sorta’ dark lookin’ complexions like him. Thought you
might like to know. Don’t know how it would fit into Leroy’s death, and I don’t
know what they’re talkin’ ‘bout, but from the way my waitresses say they always
huddle together, guess they don’t want anyone else to hear.”

“I have no
idea if it fits in, but I appreciate you telling me.”

“Gertie, looks
like you’re pretty busy. We both want hamburgers with everything and chocolate
malted milks. Oh, I have one other question for you,” Roger said. “Do you know
anything about the vacancy in the building next to the diner?”

“Jes’ might,”
she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m moving
here to Red Cedar, and I want to set up a law office. I need about 1,200 square
feet. Do you know of any buildings in Red Cedar that might have something like
that available? I’m ready to occupy it as soon as possible.”

“Well,
handsome. This jes’ might be your lucky day in addition to gettin’ Liz to say
yes. I own that buildin’ next door, and there’s a space in it for rent
immediately. It’s got 1,400 square feet, but you’d have to build it out. Don’t
have no offices in it. Last guy that rented it used it as a big storeroom for
some things from his ranch. His wife was tired of livin’ here and wanted to
live in San Francisco. Moved everything out last week. Let me get the key, and
you can look at it when you finish eatin’. I’ll put your orders in and be back
in a minute with it.”

“Roger, just
think. If you rent that space you could eat all your lunches here!” Liz said.

“Yeah, and
between Gertie’s cooking and your cooking, I’d probably have to get up before
dawn and run for a couple of hours every morning just to maintain my boyish
shape,” he said smiling and patting his stomach.

“Roger, I’ll
love you however you are. If you want to eat lunch at Gertie’s, I promise I’ll
never comment on a growing tummy or as some might call them, love handles. Just
more for me to love.”

“Right. That’s
what you say now, but just wait ‘til it happens.”

Gertie walked
up to their table. “I brought your malteds before the burgers were ready, cuz it
takes a long time to get them down. Here’s the key. Jes’ bring it back after
you’ve looked at the place.”

“Gertie, we
never discussed rent. What are you asking monthly?”

“The last guy
paid me $2,000 a month. I’d take the same from you.”

“That’s very
fair.”

“This is a
small town. How many people do you think need a place that big, and anyway, how
many people want to rent a place in downtown Red Cedar?”

“Good point.
I’ll bring the key back, and maybe we can talk then.”

“Should be a
little quieter then. Gotta go,” she said tottering towards a table where four
well-dressed tourists had seated themselves. She waved to all of the other
customers as she walked to the table, all the while blowing big pink bubbles.

When they were
finished with lunch and had paid, Liz and Roger walked next door to the
two-story early 20
^th
century architectural style brick building with
sunny yellow shutters surrounding each window. The space for rent was on the
ground floor. Roger put the key in the lock and opened the door. They walked in
and looked around at the large room with a bathroom off of it. The brown shag
carpeting had clearly seen better days. Liz knelt down and pulled a corner of
the carpeting up.

“Roger, look.
There are hardwood floors under this carpeting. If all of it is in as good a
condition as this section, it would be beautiful. What do you think?”

“I’ve never
been very good at visualizing, let me ask you instead. What do you think?”

“It would have
to be painted and have new carpeting or the hardwood floors would have to be
polished and restored. You’ll need to have it built out to your specifications.
It’s large enough you can even have a little room for a lunch table and coffee
pot. We didn’t ask if it has Wi-Fi, but almost everything does these days. I
know I had to put it in for the cottages and the lodge. Some of the guests
can’t unplug and need to work from their cottage or even from the great room in
the lodge. I think it would be perfect for what you need, plus if you have
elderly or disabled clients, you wouldn’t have to worry about an elevator or
stairs, since it’s on the ground floor. I like it.”

“Well, I trust
your judgment. If you can see the potential, I might as well take it. Gertie
said there probably weren’t too many people who’d want to rent space in Red
Cedar and conversely, I imagine there aren’t too many places for rent. Let’s go
back to the diner, and I’ll ask what kind of a deposit she wants to hold it.”

Roger locked
the door and turned to walk back to the diner when he saw Gertie walking towards
them. “Gertie, I want to rent it. I’ll need to build it out, and I want to
check out the floors and see if they can be refinished or if it needs to be
carpeted. Liz has a better eye for this stuff than I do. Can you recommend
someone who could do the work? And what kind of a deposit do you need?”

“No deposit.
If I can’t do business on a handshake, ain’t doin’ it. You’ll be good for it.
I’ve learned to trust my instincts. As far as someone who could do it, the
sheriff’s brother is pretty good at stuff like that. Larry Brown’s his name.
I’ll call Liz with his phone number, and you can get started. Glad to have you,
and at least I won’t have to tell you a good place to eat,” she said laughing.

“Bye, Gertie,
thanks. Roger, I need to get home and get ready for tonight’s dinner. With
Jim’s meeting this morning, I’m a little behind. Emily’s probably already at
the lodge, and I didn’t leave any instructions for her.”

“After talking
to her last night, I doubt if that’s a problem. That young lady seems wise
beyond her years. She’s probably got dinner completely ready and is working on
breakfast for tomorrow morning’s guests.”

Early the following
morning Liz and Roger were awakened by the ringing of his cell phone. Roger
reached over to the nightstand and answered it. “This is Roger Langley.” He
listened for a few minutes and then said, “Jim, Liz is here. I’m going to put
you on speakerphone. She needs to hear this. Go ahead.”

Liz sat up in
bed, suddenly wide awake. She knew if Jim was calling this early, something
important had probably happened.

“Roger, Liz, I
have a lot to tell you. First of all, Anton Sutra was killed last night. I took
your advice, Roger, and had some of my officers follow him after he left work
at Le Petite Orangerie. They followed him to a rundown apartment building down
by the waterfront just as they had the night before. My officers staked it out,
and pretty soon they saw several other suspicious looking men enter the
apartment building.

“They found
out the men had entered apartment number 1A on the ground floor. As luck would
have it, the apartment manager lived on the premises, and after a brief meeting
with him he gave the officers access to apartment 2A, which was empty at the
time. The two apartments share a common wall, and the officers were able to set
up some highly sensitive listening equipment which enabled them to hear the
conversations that were going on in the adjoining apartment. Two of my men were
on the street watching the entrance and four more were in the apartment. The
two groups of officers were in constant contact with each other by two-way
radios.”

“Jim,” Roger
said, “I don’t know where this is going, but as a criminal defense attorney,
the first thing I’d want to know is whether or not you had a judge sign off on
the use of this type of listening equipment. Seems to me you’d need a valid
search warrant. You’re getting awfully close to some invasion of privacy issues
that might be a problem for you down the road.”

“Rest assured,
Roger, I’m not that stupid. We contacted a judge who is on call at night to
approve emergency police requests for search warrants, and he approved our
request last night before we went in and occupied the adjoining apartment. We
provided enough probable cause facts for him to authorize the issuance of a
search warrant. Anyway, around three this morning my officers heard loud voices
and the sounds of an argument that had broken out among the occupants in the
adjoining apartment. They knew from talking to the officers on surveillance outside
the building that five men had entered the building, Anton being one of them.
They presumed these five men were the same ones who were now in the adjoining
apartment. 

“One of my
officers who was in the apartment is fluent in a number of Southeast European
languages, including Romani, which is the language spoken by most gypsies who
live in that area of the world. He was able to translate what was being said by
the occupants. One of them was accusing Anton of holding out on them. He said
Anton wasn’t contributing as many credit card numbers as the rest of them and
that Anton must be skimming some of the numbers for his own personal use. Anton
denied it and said the clientele of Le Petite Orangerie wasn’t as wealthy as
the clientele of the other restaurants where they worked.”

Liz
interrupted Jim. “Your officer was able to understand all of the conversations
that were going on in the apartment next door?”

“Yes, he’s a
brilliant linguist. As a matter of fact he has a master’s degree in Southeast
European languages. When I saw that on his resume, I knew I wanted him to work
for me. I can’t tell you how many times he’s been invaluable to me in resolving
other criminal cases. Several groups from that area of the world have taken up
residency in the San Francisco area in the last few years and have caused a lot
of problems for local law enforcement. Probably the most well-known of these
groups are the gypsies, or the Roma as they prefer to be called. They are quite
adept at committing crimes involving fraud, credit card theft, and theft of
consumer personal identity information. 

“Anyway, the
argument among the men in the adjoining apartment escalated. Several of them
continued to accuse Anton in angry voices of skimming credit card numbers for
his own personal use. They said they were risking everything to steal credit
card numbers, and it wasn’t fair for him to keep some of the one’s he’d stolen
for his own use. Finally, my officer overheard one of them threaten Anton with
a gun. He told him to stand up and put his hands in the air. He had two of the
other men search Anton’s pockets. One of them apparently found a little
notebook similar to the one you gave me. As best we can tell, remember my
officers did not have visual contact with what was going on inside the
apartment, this individual discovered the credit card numbers Anton had written
down in the notebook in the same way he had done in the notebook you gave me.” 

“Sounds like
you might have enough to convict them of credit card fraud,” Roger said.

“Yes, and
that’s not counting the murder of Anton. From what we’ve been told subsequently
by those who were in the room, Anton bent down like he was having stomach
pains, and he pulled a pistol from his ankle holster. Before he could fire it,
the man who was holding a gun on him shot and killed him. 

“When my men
heard the gunshot, they rushed next door to apartment 1A, kicked in the door,
and luckily for the officers, the man holding the gun that he had just used to
shoot and kill Anton dropped the gun and peacefully surrendered to the
officers. A search of the room revealed numerous disposable cell phones along
with a huge number of sheets of paper with credit card numbers written on them
that were scattered all over the apartment. It was obvious from the evidence
that the officers seized that the apartment was being used by the men as a
“boiler room” to phone retailers, airlines, or whatever to make fraudulent charges
using the stolen credit card numbers. All of the men in the room were arrested
and are currently in jail awaiting arraignment in court later today. Naturally
they’ve hired an attorney who will try and get them out on bail. The individual
holding the gun when the officers barged into the apartment has been charged
with murder, which is a no bail offense, so he’s going to be in jail for a
long, long time.”

“Has Madame
Dika been told about Anton’s death?” Liz asked.

“No, and I’m
not so sure she’ll be very sorrowful, and here’s why. We discovered that the
Death card that was found at the scene of Leroy’s murder had a very small thin
crack on one of the edges of the card. Believe it or not, a small human hair
had become snagged in that tiny crack. It looked like a chest hair.”

“Jim, when I
saw Anton at Madame Dika’s, I remember that Anton had a very hairy chest and
wore his shirt unbuttoned so his chest hair was quite visible.” Liz said. 

“Turns out it
was a chest hair. I had the coroner get a DNA sample from Anton’s body while it
was in the morgue and there was a match between the DNA from the hair sample
and the sample obtained by the coroner. I also had the coroner get fingerprints
from Anton’s body. Apparently he had never been fingerprinted by any law
enforcement authorities. We compared the fingerprints the coroner provided to
us with those on the Death card and there was a match. So the end result was
that both Anton’s fingerprints and his DNA were found on the Death card.”  

“Do you think
Anton killed Leroy?” Liz asked.

“Yes, I’m
certain he did for several reasons, number one being that one of the men who
was arrested said that Anton had told him he’d killed a man who was the
ex-husband of the woman he was going to marry. Anton told him the police department
carried an insurance policy on Leroy, and his wife-to-be could collect her back
alimony from it. He told the man he hated his sister, and it would serve her
right to do prison time again. Anton said she was always telling him what he
should do, and how she didn’t like his friends.

“He also told
the man he’d left a little evidence at the scene of the murder that would make
everyone think his sister had committed the crime.  That would be the Death
card that Anton apparently had stolen out of Madame Dika’s special deck of
tarot cards and deliberately left at the murder scene, knowing she’d be
considered a prime suspect. After all, the card had her initials on it, it had
mysteriously gone missing from her deck, and her fingerprints were all over the
Death card. She was practically the only person who ever touched the card. As I
said earlier, Anton’s fingerprints were on the Death card too, but apparently
he wasn’t concerned about that, because he knew he’d never been fingerprinted
by the authorities, and they wouldn’t be able to trace the prints on the card
to him. Since his sister had served prison time, he knew her fingerprints would
be a match.

“It was only
after his death and the coroner provided us with a set of his fingerprints that
we were able to tie him to the Death card. Concerning the DNA evidence against
him, my guess is he stole the Death card from Madame Dika’s deck of tarot cards
and put the Death card in his shirt pocket. After he shot and killed Leroy in
his office, he pulled the Death card out of his shirt pocket and dropped it on
the floor, but in doing so, one of his chest hairs snagged in the small tear in
the card.

“By leaving
the Death card at the murder scene, it’s obvious he wanted to make it look like
Madame Dika had killed Leroy. I’m sure Anton was thinking something like the
following: it’s her card; it has her initials on it; it’s missing from the
tarot card deck that is more or less exclusively under her control, and
suddenly without explanation it shows up at the murder scene; Leroy is
threatening to shut down her business, so she has a solid motive to kill him in
order to protect her business. That’s a long answer to the rather short
question you asked Liz, but for all of those reasons, yes, I’m certain Anton
killed Leroy.”

“So this means
Seth is no longer a suspect in the case, and for that matter none of the others
we had identified are either. Right?”  

“When Sheriff
Brown comes back from what’s now officially bereavement leave since his wife
has died, and I tell him what’s happened on the case, I’m certain he’ll agree
that based on what we’ve found out, Anton was the killer and tried to make it
look like his sister did it. Funny thing, if Anton had worn his shirt buttoned
a little higher and used a pair of latex gloves, Seth might have been tried for
murder.”  

“Jim, thanks
for calling. Sounds like you’ve had a long night. Any chance you can go home
and get some sleep?” Roger asked.

“Not until I
get this paperwork done. This is just the beginning. It’s going to take awhile
to prove that any unauthorized fraudulent charges were made on those credit
cards. Naturally, the restaurants will have to be involved, and they’re pretty
skittish about stuff like this becoming public and hurting their business.”

“Roger, Jim,
would it be all right if I was the one to tell Madame Dika?”

Both of them
spoke at once. “No.”

“I feel sorry
for her. Her brother was her only relative who lived in the United States, and
several times she mentioned her mother. I think she’s very close to her, and it’s
going to be very hard for her to have to tell her mother that Anton is dead.”

“Liz,” Roger
said, “One of the things I love about you is your innocence. Madame Dika is not
a good person. I don’t know if she’s running a scam with the tarot cards or
not, but I do know she fleeced a lot of people out of a lot of money in
Southern California with her jewelry scam. Sounds like her brother wasn’t much
better. Jim, we’re going to be married in a few months, and this may be our
first argument. Probably better sign off and talk to you later.”

“Hold on,
Roger. Liz, if things don’t work out with that caveman husband-to-be of yours,
I want you to know you can always have a job with the San Francisco Police
Department. The work you did on this case was brilliant. I really want to
commend you for it. Thank you. Matter of fact, might just call you up and pick
your brain from time to time. By the way, just for the record, I agree with
everything Roger said about Madame Dika. I’ll have one of my men tell her. It
would probably be better if she heard it from an official source. Again, Liz,
without you, we never would have been able to crack this case. Now it’s in our
hands and we need to make it stick.”

“Jim, if you
ever need a place to come for a little R & R, I’d be happy to put you up at
one of the cottages and even make an appointment for you to have a massage.”

“That just
might happen. Again, thanks,” he said ending the call.

“Roger, you’re
both probably right about Madame Dika. I do need to call Seth and tell him
what’s happened when the hour is decent. What about Leroy’s ex-wife? She should
probably be told as well.”

“That’s
another one you can stay clear of. I’ll text Jim about her. It’s in the police
department’s hands now. All I want you to do is think about being Mrs. Langley.
Woman, we have a wedding to plan!”

“You’re right,
Roger, I can do that.”

“I think I’ll
treasure this moment. This may be the only time in the foreseeable future I’ll
hear you say I’m right.”

“You’re right
about that too, Roger,” she said grinning.