“So? Hire a salesperson. I don’t mind.”
“Well, I do mind. Your place is here. It isn’t called Blemish& Sons for nothing. Or don’t you want to take over the store one day?”
He considered telling his dad exactly what he could do with his store, but since that didn’t seem like a good idea, and he didn’t want to hurt his old man, he shrugged. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“All right. You can start by stocking those boxes over there. It’s been so busy I haven’t had time to put them away.”
“Fine,” he said. If there was one thing he hated even more than helping indecisive clients try on dozens of shoes, it was cleaning up the mess they left. But since this was apparently his life now, he slouched over to the minor shoebox pyramid and got started.
Chapter 16
We were back at the office—Chase’s office, that is. One aspect of being a police officer that is often underestimated is the paperwork that comes with the job, and also the number of reports and information that needs to be gone through. The small and dedicated group of officers that assist Chase had produced a small pile of reports that he was now diligently going through one by one. Odelia, meanwhile, took this opportunity to rest in the armchair that was part of Chase’s office furniture. She had closed her eyes and was practicing her breathing exercises, trying to relax. Her hands were on her belly and she looked hot and bothered, her cheeks flushed and her brow beaded with moisture.
“Are you all right?” I asked, but she waved my question away with an irritated gesture.
“I guess she is,” said Dooley, who had watched the scene with rising concern.
“We should probably give her some space,” I whispered to my friend.
“Being pregnant is not a lot of fun,” Dooley whispered back.
Chase suddenly whistled through his teeth.“Listen to this,” he said. “Dewey Toneu’s financial records. His business isn’t doing so well. In fact if it weren’t for a big financial injection made by Marsella last year, he might even be on the verge of going bust.”
“Marsella invested in Dewey’s business?”
“To the tune of a hundred thousand dollars.”
“So if the wedding should be called off for some reason…”
“Dewey would have to pay back the money. Which I don’t think he can.”
“Which would be the end of Toneu Motors.” Odelia had opened her eyes. “We better have another chat with Dewey. And can we take a look at his phone?”
“You mean check if he’s got the app installed?”
“And when he last contacted either Dotty or Calista.”
She had closed her eyes again and was fanning herself with a limp hand.
“We can, but if he refuses we’re going to need a warrant to confiscate his phone.” He gave Odelia a look of concern. “Are you all right, babe?”
“I’m fine,” she said, even though she didn’t look fine to me. “So can you ask my uncle if he can arrange the warrant?”
“Honestly I don’t think we have enough on the guy yet.”
“Just ask him. He might disagree. Is it hot in here or is it just me?”
“I’m taking you home,” Chase said, getting up. “You need to rest.”
“I’m fine, I’m telling you. So what’s next?”
Chase sat back down.“Calista’s husband is back from his business trip. We can go talk to him now.”
“I wonder how much he knew about his wife’s business.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.” He directed another anxious look at her. “Are you sure—”
“I’m fine!”
And so she was—maybe.
We soon returned to Calista’s house, where this time the door was opened by a swarthy man with gray hair. He didn’t look very happy to see us, if the scowl on his face was anything to go by. But when he noticed Odelia’s state, he immediately allowed us in and even helped her to a chair and offered her a glass of water.
“I got back as soon as I could,” he said, also taking a seat. “I work for Merkel, a big pharmaceutical wholesaler. I’m vice president of sales and had back-to-back meetings all day yesterday and the day before. The moment I got your message I jumped on a plane.” He gestured to a pair of suitcases by the door. “In fact I just arrived.”
“So you know about what happened to your wife?”
“Yeah, dreadful business,” he said, dragging a distraught hand through his wiry mane. “Who would do such a thing? An intruder, you think? Though your colleague told me over the phone that nothing was stolen, so that doesn’t seem to make sense.”
“We think it might have something to do with Star Calypso,” said Chase.
“Did you know what business your wife was in?” asked Odelia.
“Oh, absolutely. Me and Calista kept no secrets from each other.”
“Did she… personally get involved with the clients?” asked Chase.
“No, nothing like that. She employed about half a dozen girls but she never dated any of the clients herself.”
“What was your opinion of the line of business your wife was in, sir?”
He laughed a curt laugh.“You mean did I mind that she ran an escort service? No, actually I did not. I’m not a prude, detective. Perhaps there were some questionable aspects about my wife’s business, from a moral point of view, but first and foremost it was just that: a business. A buyer and a seller agree on certain terms and conditions and who am I to question their right to do so? As long as nothing untoward happened, or illegal, it was perfectly fine by me. And as far as I know the whole thing was aboveboard.”
“One of the girls who worked for Calista told us you and your wife had a fight at the office last week. What was that all about?”
“Just one of those husband-and-wife disputes that are all too common in a long marriage. In fact I don’t even remember what exactly started it. Probably the fact that I couldn’t make it to a dinner she’d arranged with some friends of ours. We both led busy lives and sometimes things didn’t work out.”
“Can you tell us where you were two nights ago, Mr. Burden?”
“I told you. I was in Texas for meetings with our sales team. You can ask the hotel. And you can ask my secretary about the meetings. She’ll be able to give you all the details.”
Chapter 17
I was actually starting to get a little peckish, and as luck would have it, Odelia and Chase decided to drop by the same restaurant we’d visited the day before. And if there’s one thing I know about restaurants it is that they serve food—even to pets like us.
A police officer had shown a picture of Dotty’s boyfriend to the neighbor who’d heard the altercation the day of the murder, and this time she admitted she had indeed seen his face and it was Mitch who left immediately after the fight. So it was safe to say we needed to have another chat, since he’d declared it couldn’t possibly have been him that day.
Once more he was called away from his urgent duties in the kitchen, much to his chef’s annoyance, to talk to us.
“Okay, so it was me. It must have slipped my mind. You know how it is.”
“No, I don’t know how it is, Mr. Utz,” said Chase. He’d planted a hand against the wall next to Mitch’s head and was leaning in. “So please tell me so I do.”
“I found a guy’s underpants in Dotty’s bed and when I asked her about it she confessed that she hadn’t worked for that caterer in months and was now working for a dating service, as she called it. Men paid her to go on dates with them and that was it. Which still didn’t explain the underpants. So she finally said she worked for Star Calypso, which isn’t so much a dating service as an escort service and that she occasionally took her clients home with her. She said she was doing it for us, to save enough money so we could buy a place of our own and move in together. The caterer didn’t pay a lot and my job here pays me a pittance, and with the escort stuff, money was rolling in.” He shrugged. “So we had this big fight about it. I told her to quit Star Calypso and she said only a couple more months. I didn’t like it and I told her so. And she said it was her life and I wasn’t the boss of her. Anyway, we didn’t part on good terms, which of course I now deeply regret.”