“If your tongue is stiff, it could be an early sign of mad-cow disease,” Mary said. “Might want to have a doctor look at that.”
Dr. Frank gave her a disappointed look that did little to disguise his anger.
“Like I said, it would have been my duty to report any signs of harmful intent regarding Mr. Locher. Now, if there’s nothing else I can do for you, I’ve got a patient waiting.”
Mary wondered if it was true, and if so, how did he know that? She didn’t see a corresponding red blinking light anywhere.
He showed her out of his office without a word and she left through a different door than the one she’d entered.
It took her down a narrow hallway that led back to the main hallway. As she passed the door, a woman with a shock of white hair, cut short, and dressed to the nines, did a double take when she saw Mary’s face.
“Hello,” Mary said.
“Hi,” the woman answered, then ducked into the doctor’s waiting room.
You came to the right place, Mary thought.
Chapter Twelve
Mary sat three blocks away from a group of police cars with their lights flashing. The squad cars were in front of a tony home near Beverly Glen and Westwood.
She ordinarily would have walked right up to the crime scene and talked her way past the crime scene tape, but when Jake had called her he had mentioned two things. The first was that a body had been discovered that might have something to do with the case she was working on. And two, Sergeant Amanda Davies was there and Mary should hold off on arriving until The Shark was gone. For once, Mary agreed, sort of. She actually, desperately, wanted to go up and give Davies a few zingers. But Mary also didn’t want Davies to know that she was working on the case. It would just cause interference.
Besides, there would be another opportunity to insult Davies. And if there wasn’t, Mary would create said opportunity.
So she waited for the text message from Jake that it was all clear.
Mary wondered how Jake knew that this crime might be related to Craig Locher’s murder.
She looked up and saw The Shark climbing into an unmarked cop car. It was easy to pick the woman out, she was always so pale she practically glowed in the dark. Like a ghoul. Davies drove away in her unmarked car and Mary climbed out of her own car.
Her cell phone buzzed at the same time and she smiled. Jake was right on time, as usual.
She locked the car, and walked up to the crime scene. A uniform stopped her, but she told him she was working with Detective Cornell and he let her through.
Mary found Jake standing next to the body of a woman. Mary immediately saw why Jake had called her.
The woman was dressed up like a doll. Pig tails, giant freckles painted on her face, kid shoes with white socks pulled up high, and a ridiculous doll’s dress, hiked up above her body, showing that she had nothing on underneath.
“No need to state the obvious,” Jake said.
“No.”
“However, a techie checked her phone and there were a lot of calls between her and your other murder victim, Craig Locher.”
“Ah,” Mary said. “Thanks for calling me.” She took a careful look at the dead woman, noted the bruising around the victim’s neck.
“Strangled?”
“Looks that way,” Jake said. “No other signs of trauma. But the medical examiner will tell us more,” Jake said. “The Shark put this one on the front burner, now that she knows there’s most likely a pattern.”
Mary looked at the dead woman. She had been a beautiful young woman, with dark hair, and a classic face.
“Yeah, there’s a pattern all right,” Mary said. “But what the hell does it mean?”
Chapter Thirteen
Mary plugged the address of the house where the body had been discovered into her reverse database. The information that came out revealed the home was owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Toomey. Mary used another service to confirm they still owned the home and that the Toomeys had no children and were aged 77 and 79.
The dead woman had been in her early thirties, Mary figured.
Jake was being Mr. Goody Two Shoes and not giving her the name of the vic. He had brought her to the crime scene but he wouldn’t give her the name. What kind of sense did that make? Mary thought he just wanted to lure her to dinner with the information.
Her phone rang and she looked at the caller.
Mary picked up the phone and spoke before he could get a word out.
“Yes, Jake, dinner is fine. Just be sure to bring that name with you.”
She locked up the office, then drove to a little cantina a block from the ocean.
Mary ordered a Modelo, Jake a Dos Equis and guacamole. A woman with a gorgeous skirt came to the table and made the guacamole fresh.
“You like it spicy?” she said.
“Absolutely,” Mary answered. The woman threw in some jalapenos, finished the guacamole, and put it on the table.
Mary dug in with fresh chips.
“Delicious,” she said.
Jake scooped up some guacamole with a chip and shoveled it into his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, then looked at Mary, alarmed.
“Wow, that’s hot!” he said, and gulped some ice water. A line of sweat had broken out across his forehead.
The funny thing was, Mary knew that he loved spicy food, he just couldn’t handle it.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked.
“You.”
“What about me?”
“You and spicy food don’t go together. You should stick with mashed potatoes.”
“I love spicy food, it just doesn’t love me.”
“Is that the attraction?”
Jake smiled at her.
“Are we still talking about food?”
Mary shrugged her shoulders. She had no problem with the guacamole. Her threshold for hot food was very, very high.
“So what can you tell me about our victim?” she said.
Jake signaled the woman in the pretty skirt back and they both ordered. He chose the enchiladas, Mary the green chile tacos.
Once the woman had replaced their depleted beers with fresh ones, he finally answered.
“Valerie Barnes,” he said.
“Vitals?”
Jake shook his head. “All I can tell you is that she had a DUI two years ago, otherwise her record is clean. Her employer was an accounting firm and she was apparently a partner. That’s all I’ve got so far.”
“What is the size of the accounting firm? She seemed pretty young to be a partner.”
“I’m sure the detectives are looking into it.”
“No sign of mental health issues?” Mary asked.
“Only the DUI.”
Mary leaned back as the tacos were placed in front of her. She could smell the fiery chiles.
“Have you heard anything else?” Mary prompted.
Jake was putting salt and pepper on his enchiladas. Why, Mary didn’t know.
“Not a peep,” he said. Jake began splashing hot sauce all over his dinner.
“This is going to end badly,” Mary said.
“Yeah, but if I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out in style.”
He shoved a forkful of enchilada into his mouth and began sweating.
Chapter Fourteen
Jake was assigned stakeout duty for a case he was working on, so Mary went back to her condo.
It was late, and she changed into sweats and a UCLA sweatshirt.