“Combination of diazepam and alcohol.”
“Yes.” KelliAnn squinted and dropped the locket. “How did you know?”
“I’ve been hired by Gloria Avery to find out who killed Brad.”
KelliAnn paled, stood, then sat. “Gloria? Really? I never got the impression that she cared all that much.”
“About Brad?” I asked.
“Either one of them, really. She’s. . well, let’s just say she’s a lot like Michelle’s mother was.”
I recalled KelliAnn had not gotten along well with Michelle’s mother. Their father, a commercial airline pilot, had lived a double life, married to Michelle’s mom on one coast and maintaining a long-term affair on the other coast. When KelliAnn’s mother passed away, her father took her in and she came to live with Michelle and her mother.
Our high school was small, about three hundred students, so everyone was privy to the drama that Michelle and KelliAnn were going through as they went from strangers to half sisters.
I did my best to sidestep that land mine. “When’s the last time you saw Michelle?”
“We talked daily, but I hadn’t seen her since last week. Now, I wish I’d made the time. I had no idea she was so down that she’d kill herself.”
“You think she killed herself?”
Her brow wrinkled and creased, highlighting the sun damage on her face and causing her to look angry again. “Well, unless she accidentally overdosed. I mean, yeah. She had a tendency toward self-destruction. When Brad left her, she completely fell apart. She was starting to get better and then the police found his body. She just came apart at the seams.” She shook her head. “And Brad left her for another woman. I don’t know if you knew how vain Michelle was, but she was supervain. So imagine the hit to her ego when he told her he was leaving her.”
“Do you know who he was seeing?”
She shrugged. “Sure. It’s no big secret.”
She knew! I could barely contain my excitement. I tried to remember I was supposed to be a professional.
As calmly as I could, I asked, “Who?”
She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, “My neighbor, Jen.”
Hippie chick was the other woman?
“Jennifer Miller?”
KelliAnn looked confused. “You know her?”
Now I felt foolish. I had met Jennifer, but didn’t peg her as the other woman. What other clues were under my nose that I was missing?
I shrugged at KelliAnn and tried to hide my inexperience. “Well, I did speak with Jennifer early on in my investigation. I am a PI, you know.”
KelliAnn resumed fidgeting with the locket. “Right. Of course. Well, Michelle knew Brad was two-timing her, but I didn’t think she knew with whom. And I certainly didn’t want to tell her, ’cuz, I’m the one who got Jennifer hired at El Paraiso in the first place.”
“You felt responsible that Brad was cheating on Michelle? That’s absurd! If he was a big cheat, that has nothing to do with you!”
KelliAnn looked around the room and sighed. “I know, you’re right, but. .” She shrugged and looked despondent. “Brad would come here, well, there, next door, practically every night until. .”
My breath caught. “Did he come over here on June fifteenth?”
KelliAnn nodded. “He made kind of a scene that night, pounding on her door and yelling. She finally let him inside. He left after a while.”
“He left?”
That meant he’d left alive, not like she’d shot him in her apartment and dragged out a body bag.
“Yeah, but so did she, just a little bit after he did.”
“Have you told the police?”
A look of misery crossed her face. “I did tell them. But I never told Michelle. I didn’t want her to blame me. Now that she’s gone, I can’t believe I didn’t come clean with her.”
“Do you think Jennifer killed Brad?”
“I’ve told the police that a dozen times. Svetlana, too. After Jennifer quit at El Paraiso, she went to work at Svet’s store.” She stood and picked up a handbag off a side table. “Well, I was on my way out. Can I walk you downstairs?”
We left the apartment in silence. In front of the building, KelliAnn embraced me. “Thank you for coming by, Kate.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said into her red hair.
She released me and smiled sadly. “I know.” From her purse she pulled out a pair of glasses, held together in the middle with tape, and a key ring. She pointed the key at a gold hard-top Mercedes. “Can I give you a lift anywhere?”
“No. Thanks. I’m not parked far.”
She nodded and put on the glasses, which succeeded only in making her look sadder. She walked to the Mercedes, then waved at me as she climbed into the car.
I crossed the street and peered through the windows of Heavenly Haight. Jennifer was helping an older woman pick through colorful scarves.
I sighed.
My tummy rumbled. Hungry again.
A huge McDonald’s sign loomed over me. My stomach roared. I never ate fast food, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I needed time to think, and eat. I ducked into the McDonald’s and placed an order.
Was I really burning all this food by breastfeeding? Or was this another old wives’ tale that would end up biting me in the ass, literally? What good was it to burn an extra five hundred calories a day if I was craving and consuming an extra thousand?
Oh well, at least I hadn’t supersized. And of course, I’d gotten the diet soda. Why drink the calories when you can eat them?
I dialed Jim from my cell phone and asked about Laurie.
“Honey, I don’t know what you think you’re missing, but she’s sleeping.”
“I’m missing her. Her face, her smell, her entire little personage!”
Jim laughed. “Her entire little personage has been asleep since you left.”
“Is she breathing?”
“Of course she’s breathing.”
“When’s the last time you checked?”
“Hold on.”
I tried not to panic. I bit into my Big Mac and waited. What was taking him so long?
“She’s fine.”
“You have to check on her, make sure she’s okay.”
“I am. I do. I mean, she right here. She’s fine. Kate, you haven’t even been gone an hour.”
“I know, all right. It just feels like longer. Feed her when she wakes up and make sure to check her diaper. I’m having lunch right now. I need to make a couple more stops, and then I’ll be home. If you need anything, call me on my cell.”
Jim laughed.
“What?”
“You’re having lunch? It’s not even noon yet,” Jim said.
“Yeah, but they stop selling breakfast at eleven.”
“Where are you?”
I laughed. “You don’t want to know.” I shoved a french fry into my mouth.
After we hung up, I ate my lunch and mulled over my notebook. I reviewed the entries from the interview with Jennifer. She told me she’d been with her ex-boyfriend, Winter, on June fifteenth. Never said a peep about an affair with Brad or him coming over to see her that night. Well, why would she?
What did I expect? That she’d come right out and tell me she killed him?
What had Galigani said? That guilty people are not usually paranoid. They want you to ask them questions because they think they can fool you. Jennifer had been extremely forthcoming when I’d met her. Offering up an alibi for the night of Brad’s murder without my asking. Of course, she hadn’t told me about her affair with Brad. Galigani was right, she had fooled me.
I dialed information as I chomped down on my burger, and requested an address for Winter Henderson.
Luck was with me. As it turned out, he lived in the Haight, a few blocks away. I wouldn’t have to deal with parking and I could walk off an entire french fry or two.