A Dead Husband (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery) (12 page)

Jerry got on the phone, “Yes, hello
. This is Jerry Reynolds. I want to report an assault by an intruder in the home.” He gave the dispatcher the address at their location.

“
No, he’s gone. He fled the scene a couple minutes ago, but he’s probably still in the area.” Holding the phone away from his mouth, he spoke to Jessica.

“Correct me if I get any of this wrong, will you?” Then he picked up the conversation on the phone. “The intruder was male, in his
late 20s, maybe. He had dark hair, was medium height with a stocky build. He has tattoos on his left arm and a cut on his face.”

“He was wearing worn blue jeans, an olive colored t-shirt
, and I think black motorcycle boots with buckles and laces.” Jessica interjected.  Jerry passed along the info then paused for a second, listening to the dispatcher on the other end.

“Yes, there is one person injured
.  I’m not sure, minor injuries, I think. Someone should check her out.” He hung up the phone and turned his attention to Jessica.

“They’ll send somebody over in a few minutes.”
He took another look at her. “I don’t think you’re going to need stitches for that split lip, but you’re going to have a real shiner.  Let me get something to put on that eye until the EMTs get here and take a closer look.” 

“I should get the stuff Laura needs,” Jessica mumbled under her breath as Jerry darted out of the room
.  She stood up but felt a little woozy, so sat back down.  She was starting to hurt everywhere. She was more determined than ever not to set foot in this place ever again. After a couple more minutes she got to her feet, steadier this time.  She made her way to the walk-in closet that Roger and Laura had shared. It looked almost as bad as her own closet at home.  Somebody was definitely looking for something and she and Jerry had obviously interrupted the search.  As Jessica reached down to pick through the littered items on the floor, Jerry caught her hand and pulled her to him.

“Jessica, this is a new crime scene you can’t take anything to Laura until the police have gone through here.”  She sank into his arms, resting her head on his chest
, knowing what he said was true.  He walked her back to the bed and handed her a bag of frozen peas, “for the shiner,” he said.

“Does that include the stuff in Jerry’s office?” Jerry thought about that for a minute.

“You can probably take that with you. Given the level of destruction in his wake, I think he was making his way from the back of the house forward. The office was probably going to be next. Even if he was in there before we arrived, we’re likely to have destroyed or contaminated any evidence he might have left.”

Jessica gulped as Uncle Don’s warning about staying out of the way echoed in her head
.  Surely, walking in on a perp in the middle of a new crime wasn’t the same thing.  In fact, thanks to her and to Jerry’s
meddling
, the police were going to end up with more evidence than they would have had otherwise. They saw the guy, sort of, and Jessica helped make sure he left plenty of his DNA behind. Not only wrestling with the son of a bitch, but actually drawing blood by smashing him in the face with her cell phone.

“Can you put Roger’s stuff in the car while we wait?” She asked
. “I want to get out of here as soon as we can. I’m not coming back, ever.”  Whatever Laura needed Jessica could get from the mall or, better yet, from Saks.  El Paseo was calling to her. She had to replace her iPhone and there was an Apple store not too far from Saks. 

“I need a little retail therapy
,” she announced aloud.

CHAPTER
10

It was another hour
before they were able to get away from Laura’s house.  Jessica asked to sit outside on the patio rather than stay confined to the house, but it was hot out there and her head hurt. The EMTs agreed with Jerry that she was going to have a doozy of a black eye.  She didn’t need stitches for her lip, and there was no indication she had suffered a concussion or had any broken bones.  Nevertheless, they offered to take her to the ER, by ambulance, no less. Jessica declined, signing all the papers they required.  Jerry and Jessica gratefully accepted bottled water from them before the EMTs left. They promised to go straight to the hospital if Jessica began to feel worse or exhibit any of the symptoms indicative of a more serious head injury.

The most grueling part of the process was telling and retelling the story of what happened, especially to Detective Hernandez
. Not the most auspicious way to meet. He knew right away who she was since Uncle Don had spoken to him as promised.  He was not happy about being called to the site of a homicide that was still under investigation. 

Surly in look and manner, he w
as in his late 40s or early 50s, of average height and heavy set but solid-looking.  There was the barest hint of grey in his jet black hair which was cut short. The broad angular features of his face and high cheek bones made Jessica wonder if he was, in part, Native American, despite his Spanish surname.  She could not tell how much of his bristly demeanor was due to the fact that he had already spent most of Saturday at Laura’s house. Now he would spend a good chunk of Sunday there too. So much for having a day off.  He wore a polo shirt and khakis like he had just walked off the golf course.

Jessica felt guilty
, like she was the bad guy. Given the level of disdain in which she was held, she might as well have been the pantyhose-wearing intruder.  Jessica explained that she and Jerry were there for good reason. As Laura’s legal representative and a friend, she was helping her organize her life in the wake of Roger’s death and needed documents from his office.  Detective Hernandez understood that and grudgingly agreed that they could take the records from Roger’s office that were already loaded into Jerry’s truck. Of course, with the promise to report anything that might be relevant to Roger’s murder.  Jessica assured him she would do so. She asked, in turn, to be kept abreast of the findings from the investigation.  He hesitated, of course, and groused about it.  In the end he agreed to pass along the police reports as they became available, including preliminary findings from the coroner’s office and the CSIs. 

What he was most put out about was Jerry’s presence
.  That she and Jerry, a licensed P.I., were investigating the case on their own, was not okay.  Jessica tried to cool him out by explaining that they knew he and the members of his department were understaffed and overworked. They were going to do what they could to move things along for Laura’s sake.  He couldn’t argue with that. Jessica felt they had, at least, reached a truce of some sort. There wasn’t much he could do about the fact that they had their own investigator on the job. He made some vague threats about “obstruction” if they withheld or otherwise tampered with evidence, but lots of law firms used their own investigators.

The
police had retrieved the pantyhose from the side of the house, bloodied thanks to her trusty, but cracked smartphone, which they also took into evidence.  Thankfully, Jessica regularly backed up the info on it so she could download it all to the new phone she planned to buy if she could ever get out of Laura’s house.  The police would try to recover DNA from the blood evidence on the phone and the pantyhose. She and Jerry described the tattoos on the guy’s forearm and shoulder as best they could.  If, as Jerry surmised, they turned out to be the sort acquired in a jailhouse somewhere, they might be able to I.D. him from an existing data base. They could, at least, peg any gang affiliation the tattoos might represent.  All of that would take several days to check out thoroughly.

The
police put out a BOLO, which according to Jerry simply meant the police would
Be On the Look Out
for him.  So far he had not been spotted in the area.  He could easily have had a car or motorcycle stashed nearby. Most likely, he was long gone by the time the cops arrived, even though it was only a matter of minutes before the uniformed officers responded.

At the very least, Jessica hoped this latest incident would draw attention away from Laura as a suspect, forcing the police to take a harder look elsewhere for Roger’s killer
. Jessica asked Detective Hernandez, point blank, about the nature of his interest in her client. Busily making notes on a tablet, as in old school, paper and pencil tablet, that is, he stopped what he was doing and spoke frankly.

“Look, Ms. Huntington-Harper, we haven’t ruled anyone out at the moment
. From what I gather, though, Mrs. Stone has a pretty good alibi since she was with you from early Friday evening until she found her husband Saturday morning.”

“Well that’s mostly true,”
Jessica interrupted nervously. Detective Hernandez looked up and his eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean ‘mostly’?”

“Well she
was
with me and some other friends until midnight and then she went off on her own with Eric.  She was actually with him until the next morning.” That last part spilled out rather more quickly than she had planned.  “I’m sure if you speak to him he can verify her whereabouts.”

“Are you telling me her story has changed since yesterday?  Instead of spending the night with her attorney she was out with some guy
, other than her husband?  Do I have to guess what they were up to?”

“For the most part her story has not changed, Detective Hernandez
.  As you can well imagine, Laura was not in a normal state of mind when she spoke to the officers at her house and the hospital.  We had been out late, had a lot to drink, and when she arrived home she was confronted with about the worst thing any woman can ever find—her husband, dead in her own home.  The scene was horrific.  To make matters worse, at some point she passed out and hit her head. If she wasn’t completely clear in the details she provided that shouldn’t be too surprising.  This is all straightened out in her written statement I plan to drop off at your office tomorrow.  I hope you’re not going to tell me that because she was a little confused at the time that makes her a suspect in the murder of her husband.”  Jessica was getting worked up.  She felt Jerry tap her foot with his ever so slightly to get her to calm down.

“We always take a close look at the spouse in a murder like this one
. That’s just the way it is.  If there was trouble between them, we’ll figure that out. We’ll take that into consideration along with all the other facts of the case. At this point your client is a material witness in the death of her husband.  We don’t have anyone designated as a suspect or even a person of interest yet. It’s just way too early for that.”

That was enough for Jessica to feel relieved
. She hoped Laura would feel that way too. Her friend needed time to grieve and to go about the business of picking up the loose ends of her life that had unraveled in a matter of hours. That would be easier if she could do it without worrying that she was going to be arrested or hauled in for interrogation by the police.  Jessica’s anxiety was still sky high though, eager to sort out this nightmare sooner rather than later. After tangling with the goon in Laura’s bedroom she felt a growing sense of urgency to find Roger’s killer.  If only she had held on to the bastard, this thing might have been over.

“Just make sure you include contact information for her friend Eric so we can interview him and confirm her whereabouts after you lost track of her Friday night.”

Jessica and Jerry looked at each other.  “Well that’s another issue.  We don’t exactly have that much information about this guy Eric.  We know he was a waiter at Lulu’s but that’s about it.  Of course Jerry’s looking into it. As soon as we find out more we’ll pass the information along to you.  We also know that Laura took a taxi home from his apartment Saturday morning. We think we can get an address for Eric from the cab company.”  Detective Hernandez said nothing but she could see the wheels turning in his head.  Jessica decided to change the subject and bring the focus back on to current events.

“Detective Hernandez, I wondered if you’ve considered the possibility that Laura might be in some danger?  Given what happened today it seems evident that somebody’s looking for something that they think was in Roger’s possession or in his house
.  What if they decide Laura has it?  I’m concerned she might not have fared any better than Roger, if she had been here Friday night, instead of out with me.” 

“And with her good friend Eric with an unknown last name and unknown address
. I’ve considered it.  Has your friend given you any reason to believe she has something someone wants?”

“Of course not,
but I thought it might be a good idea to set up surveillance. Or, maybe post a squad car on the street outside her sister’s house where Laura is staying for now. ” Jessica answered quickly.  Detective Hernandez looked a bit skeptical but went on.

“For all we know at this point, the two incidents may not even be related.”  Now it was Jessica’s turn to look skeptical. She could tell he didn’t believ
e that for a minute. If the Cat City police department was as strapped for resources as Uncle Don suggested, they might not have an officer to spare.

“Why not put your hotshot P
.I. on watchdog duty?” he asked scowling at Jerry who had been pretty quiet throughout the entire exchange.  Jessica bristled, but relaxed her clenched jaw when she felt a little tap-tap on her foot again from Jerry.

Jerry felt as bad as Jessica about the intruder getting away
. When he gave the police his version of the incident, he chastised himself for not doing a complete walk-through of the house before settling into Roger’s office.  Jessica tried to reassure him that if anyone was to blame it was her. She had completely forgotten that there was another entrance into the house from the patio that led directly into the master bedroom.

“Jerry’s got a lot of other things to do for us
. Besides, this is not the only case he’s working on right now.  I’ll see if I can talk Laura into staying with me at my home in Mission Hills. At least my house is behind a gate.” 

“Hey, that’s better than nothing, but you make sure you keep us updated on her whereabouts in case we have questions for her
.  Women in unhappy marriages sometimes do surprisingly desperate things.”  Jessica wished she could disagree with him but he did have a point.

“No problem
.  She’s in no shape to go anywhere. She hasn’t even buried her husband yet, Detective.”

“We’ll step up patrols in this area for the next few days and we’ll keep a look out for the fool you chased out of here today
.  Not the brightest bulb in the pack, by the way. It looks like the pantyhose might have been something he came up with while he was hiding. They match several other pairs found in the drawers in the bedroom.  I can’t figure why he didn’t just leave before you all walked in on him.”

“He must really want whatever he came here to get
.  Maybe he thought he could wait us out,” Jerry offered.  Detective Hernandez shrugged his big shoulders, placed his hands on his knees and stood up.

“Or maybe he thought I was Laura
and he was waiting to grab me.” Jessica added.

“Who knows,” he said shaking his head as he got up and headed back inside the house from the patio
.  Jessica and Jerry took that as their signal to go too.

Jessica was never so glad to get out of a place in her life
. She was even more eager than she had been to get out of her house in Cupertino after it had been tainted by her slimy husband and the skank.  She shuddered, just thinking about it. Okay, so maybe it was a tie.  She flashed on the things she had hurled at Jim and the she-beast when she found them together in the sanctity of her marriage bed.  It was a wonder she hadn’t maimed or even killed one of them.  She had been in such a fit of rage she couldn’t have hit the side of a barn.  Thankfully, she hadn’t owned a gun! 

Recounting her own rage, she considered the possibility
, once again, that Laura had some part in her husband’s murder, even if she had been elsewhere when it happened.  How unhappy was her marriage?  A one-night stand with a guy Laura hardly knew was desperate alright. It was not at all like Laura to lie about it to the police.  At least, not the Laura she thought she knew.  For now, Jessica had done all she could to set the record straight and register her concern for Laura’s safety. 

Jerry was quiet all the way home
.  When they arrived back at her house they sat for a moment in his truck. “I really am sorry, Jessica, that I let you get hurt.”

“Jerry, my plan was to go there alone today, remember? You may not believe it but I know you saved my neck today, okay?” He nodded, still looking despondent.

“I need to ask you for a favor, though.”

“What’s that?” He seemed a little wary.