“Look, it’s… complicated, okay?”
“Complicated as in she’s married?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Not a problem. I won’t mess up your thing. I can contact her at her workplace. Look, let me make this easy for you…” Yolie glanced down at her notepad. “Is her name Lisa Neville?”
“How do you know about me and Lisa?”
“Because you’ve been under surveillance for a while-in connection with the Dorset Flasher case.”
Hal gaped at her in shock. “I have? What on earth for?”
Yolie’s gaze hardened. “We don’t really need to go there, do we?”
“Damn, that was a million years ago,” he responded angrily. “And it was a bum rap. She was my girlfriend, okay? We were getting it on. Got caught out on the bleachers one day during lunch. She panicked because her parents thought she was this perfect little angel. So she put it all on me. The principal, Mr. Jaffe, knew what the real story was. Everyone did. He convinced her parents not to file charges against me. And they didn’t. How did you even find out about it?”
“Dorset’s resident trooper is a first-class detective, that’s how.”
Hal looked over at Mitch. “Did you know about this?”
“Des doesn’t tell me everything she’s doing.” Which was the truth. Just not in this case.
“We’re right back where we started, hon,” Yolie said patiently. “The woman you were with last night?”
“Her name’s Terri,” Hal answered grudgingly. “She was a drop-in on Friday. Blonde, slammin’ good bod. Not a local girl.”
“Terri’s last name?”
“I wish I could remember. I just hooked up with her that one time. I think it began with an E… Edsen, maybe?”
“Did she sign in?”
“I’ll check.” Hal went over to the front desk for the sign-in book and returned with it. “Sorry, she just signed in as Terri E.”
Yolie had a look for herself. “She pay you with a credit card?”
“Cash. It’s like eighteen bucks for a drop in.”
“You have a phone number or address for her?”
“Nothing.”
“Well, what did she tell you about herself?”
“That she’d been staying in Dorset with friends for the week.”
“Do you remember their names?”
Hal shook his head. “All she said was that she was visiting an old college roommate and her dull husband.”
“From…?”
“Excuse me?”
“Visiting from…?”
“New York. She was a New Yorker.”
“There, you see? Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“She told me she was heading back home today. Real sweet girl. We vibed real good when I worked her out. She stopped by yesterday to thank me and, you know, one thing led to another.”
“She hit on you, is that what you’re saying?”
“It happens,” Hal said with a shrug.
“Did she say if she had a job?”
“Yeah, some kind of cube-farm gig. A big outfit that recovers money for people who don’t know they’ve lost it, or inherited it or something like that. I don’t remember exactly. I was more interested in trying to get her top off than I was in her career.” Hal cleared his throat. “Sorry, don’t mean to be offensive.”
“Not to worry, hon. I’ve heard worse. What time did you hook up?”
“Eight-thirty. She met me at the espresso bar out in the food hall, then I drove us to the beach in my ride.”
“Where’d you park?”
“At White Sand Beach. We strolled down to this nice secluded little spot that I know about.”
“Anyone see you?”
“Nope.”
“What do you drive, Hal?”
“A Tahoe.” He gave her the year and license number.
“You say Terri E met you at the espresso bar. How did she get there?”
“She drove, I guess. There were a lot of cars parked there. The food hall’s open until midnight on Saturday night. When I brought her back it was still plenty busy.”
“What time was this?”
“Eleven-thirty or so.”
“Where did you drop her?”
“In front of the main entrance. She gave me a kiss, got out and then I took off.”
“You didn’t see her get into a vehicle?”
“Nope.”
“Did she tell you where in New York she lives?”
“In the City, I think. But I’m not positive. Like I was saying, I was-”
“All about getting her top off. Yeah, I’m there.”
The front door opened now and Kimberly came gliding in wearing her yoga clothes and a look of complete serenity.
“Over here, Kimmy!” Hal called out, visibly relieved by her arrival. “This here’s Sergeant Snipes of the Major Crime Squad,” he explained as Kimberly approached them. “She’s investigating Augie Donatelli’s death.”
Kimberly smiled at Yolie warmly. “Good morning, Sergeant. If there’s anything I can help you with please feel free to ask.”
“Actually, I do need to ask you a few questions.”
“Sergeant, could I borrow Kimmy for just one second first?” Hal interjected. “I mean, if you don’t mind.”
Kimberly said, “Hal, if this is about Beth’s party don’t worry about it.”
“I didn’t sleep a wink all night,” he confessed miserably. “I totally embarrassed myself.”
“And now you should let that feeling go.” There was no trace of annoyance in Kimberly’s voice. Only gentle kindness. Was Mitch witnessing the mystical power of yoga or the chemical effects of strong prescription antidepressants? He wondered-because her calm was pretty amazing. “It was just a silly moment, Hal. Silly moments are like those big puffy clouds in the sky. They blow away and then they’re gone. I believe in you. I want you here. So just forgive yourself and move on, okay?”
He looked at her doubtfully. “Are you sure about this?”
“I couldn’t be more sure.”
“Well, okay…”
A young couple came in to work out. Hal headed for the counter to sign them in.
“About those questions…?” Yolie said to Kimberly.
“Ask away, Sergeant.”
“This is my cue to take off,” Mitch said.
“No, please don’t,” Kimberly said to him. “Kenny will be here in a sec. He was going to take my class but I’m sure he’d much rather hang with you. Shall we go in my office, Sergeant?”
“Or we can just talk right here,” Yolie offered, shooting a quick glance Mitch’s way. He knew why. She wanted him to be Des’s eyes and ears. Wanted him to report back to her. Soave wouldn’t play it this way, but Soave wasn’t around. “If you don’t mind, that is.”
“Not at all, Sergeant. What is it you wish to know?”
“Where you were last night at, say, nine o’clock.”
“With Kenny at his mother’s place. I usually stay there with him when he’s in town. He’s not allowed to spend the night in my room until we’re married. Unlike Beth, my mother’s a little bit old-fashioned and a whole lot religious.”
“Does she attend that lovely white Congregational Church?”
“No, St. Anne’s on Old Shore Road. My folks are Episcopalian. Or, I should say, mother is. Father hasn’t gone to church in twenty years. But she goes every Sunday, come rain or shine. She’s there right now. I just helped her load up before I came here.”
Yolie frowned at her. “Load up?”
“Her car. She collects bags of old clothing for the Nearly New shop. It’s one of her causes. And, trust me, she is organized. Every item of clothing is bagged by category, by size, by gender. And she’s been reusing the same black trash bags for so long that they’re practically nothing but holes. But my mother never throws anything away. Is your mother like that, too, Sergeant?”
“My mother OD’ed on smack when I was baby.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Yolie snapped. “I ain’t looking for your pity.”
Kimberly flinched, taken aback. “At nine o’clock I was out on the porch.”
“With Kenny?”
“No, he’d gone inside to answer some e-mail on his laptop. ‘It’ll just take a minute,’ he says. It’s usually more like two hours. He’s a workaholic. I’m always trying to get him to chill out.”
“Where was he answering this e-mail?”
“In his bedroom. Our bedroom.”
“Mrs. Breslauer has a ground-floor unit?”