Caruso 01 - Boom Town Page 5

  “I understand you lost a good friend recently. Barb Humphrey?”

  Cocking her head to one side, she said, “Yes. It was a terrible tragedy. Did you know Barb?”

  “I’m afraid I didn’t have the pleasure. I understand she was a very beautiful woman.”

  “She was.”

  “You were her best friend?”

  She thought about it for a second. “I don’t know how you judge that. We were very close.”

  “What about Dan?”

  She stepped across the room and set her container of needles on a small table. Then she turned to him and simply stared.

  “What’s the matter?” Tony asked.

  “Why do you want to know about Barb and Dan?”

  “I’m with an insurance company,” Tony said. He hated himself for lying to her. “I have to determine with one hundred percent certainty that Barb was murdered. You see, if it was as the local sheriff says, a murder suicide, then we will gladly pay Barb’s 44

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  beneficiary. Dan, on the other hand, committed suicide. So we won’t pay that claim.”

  While he said this, her expression had flowed from somewhat quizzical to nearly complete reticence. And Tony felt like a complete asshole.

  Finally she said, “I don’t like being deceived, Mr. Caruso. If you wanted to know about Barb and Dan Humphrey, why didn’t you just come and ask me? Don’t come in here pretending you need an acupuncture treatment.”

  “I’m s—”

  “I’m not done yet,” she yelled. “I suppose you’re not even a friend of Melanie’s?”

  Tony sat up quickly without thinking, and swiveled his bare feet to the floor. What he didn’t know, was that his gown had stayed on the table.

  She glanced down and raised her eyebrows. Then she smiled.

  “Your gown,” she said.

  He was slightly embarrassed, although not as much so if he have just stepped out of cold water. He wrapped the gown around his body.

  There was a full minute where they both seemed suspended in time.

  “I’m sorry,” Tony said. “I’m just doing my job. Melanie is my friend. And, as you could see by my bruises, I thought acupuncture might help me with them.”

  She let out a deep breath and her disposition started to change back to her early cheerful self.

  When she didn’t say anything, Tony said, “You knew them both really well. Was Dan capable of killing Barb?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Anything’s possible.”

  “Had you ever seen him lose his temper?”

  “No. He was always pretty mellow. Same with Barb. They were both pretty wild, though.”

  That word didn’t want to go away. Tony seemed to be gaining her confidence again and didn’t want to piss her off, but he need-BOOM TOWN 45

  ed to know something.

  “I know about the parties they used to have at their house. The Jacuzzi. Everything.” He tried to emphasize that last word with a knowing smile.

  She returned his smile with a better one. “Those were a lot of fun,” she admitted. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about their parties, but the human body can be a beautiful thing when taken care of properly.”

  They stood there a bit uncomfortably, him more than her, since his bare butt was hanging out the back end.

  “How was their relationship in the last week before they died?”

  Tony asked.

  She thought for a long moment. “Barb was the same as always.

  Fun and games. Something was bothering Dan, but I don’t think it had anything to do with Barb. She told me there was something wrong at work.”

  “Like what?”

  “She didn’t say.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  She thought hard. “We did lunch at The Bangkok the day she died. I love Thai food. Come to think of it, she was upset until she had a few glasses of Chardonnay.”

  “Did you see her after that?”

  “She was at the Riverfront later that night. She was with Dan.

  They had another guy at their table. He looked kind of like you.

  He also had an Italian name, but I don’t recall it now.”

  “They all left together?”

  She nodded her head.

  “What time was that?”

  “Probably ten o’clock. I went home at eleven, so it had to be before then. Why is that important?”

  He switched gears. “Did you mention this to the sheriff?”

  “You’re the first person to ask me the question.”

  Now that was interesting. Dan and Barb left a local bar with another man just two hours before all hell breaks loose at 46

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  Cascade Peaks Estates. That means there could have been a witness, or even more importantly, the third party could have done the both of them. In more ways than one.

  “This Italian guy. Did you know him?”

  “No,” she said. “I saw him at the Riverfront a few times, but not since that night.”

  “You suppose they were going out for coffee somewhere?” he asked.

  She laughed. “Yeah, right.”

  “So the trio goes back to Orgy Peaks, they have a little romp, and Dan gets jealous. Maybe Barb seems to be having entirely too much fun. They kick out the Italian stallion and start arguing.

  Except Dan goes overboard and actually kills her. Seeing what he’s done. Distraught. He rigs the living room fireplace to blow the crap out of the place, burning him to a crispy critter in the process.”

  She had been shaking her head as he talked, and he knew it had something to do with his ludicrous reasoning. If he wasn’t buying it, how in the hell could he expect anyone else to buy it? Even more importantly, why was the sheriff signing off on it?

  “What?” Tony asked.

  “They didn’t worry about the other partner. It was strictly sex.

  They both got off on it. And besides, Dan always got his turn.”

  “He liked men, too?”

  “No! He was definitely hetero. I meant one night they would pick up a guy, the next a woman.”

  “That’s quite magnanimous of them,” he said.

  “They were that kind of people.”

  He had about everything he wanted to know from her, and some. Getting dressed in front of her didn’t bother her in the least, and he figured she had already seen everything he had to offer.

  When he was done they went to the front and he paid her for the session, adding a little extra for the information. She opened the door for him and Tony stepped onto the porch.

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  She shook his hand and held it for a moment. “If things don’t work out with you and Melanie, give me a call.” She smiled and handed him one of her cards.

  He walked back and got into his truck. His dog in the bed started to whine. Panzer would need a run soon.

  Tony hadn’t noticed, but while he was in there getting poked with needles, a front had moved in with swirling clouds. The temperature had dropped to near freezing. Good thing he had his pants on.

  Before pulling out, he glanced into his rearview mirror. A block and a half behind him was the black truck with his two friends from Cascade Peak Estates security. Still on his tail.

  Tony smiled and pulled a U-turn, slowly drove up the lane and stopped alongside the black truck. Rolling down the window, he said, “Hey, guys. I’ll be heading downtown to run a few errands, let the dog run. After that I’ll probably go home and take a crap.”

  The two rent-a-cops seemed to sink down into their seats as Tony drove off.

  He had to wonder why the two of them were following him around all morning. Although he had only started asking questions, he was making someone nervous. Break up the status quo.

  That was his motto.

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  CHAPTER 8

  The silver Mercedes crept along the dirt road and turned left into the driv
eway. Cliff Humphrey parked just behind the old pickup truck with the back converted to compartments, the signs on the side indicating that explosives were inside.

  He stepped out onto the dirt and immediately looked down at his black Italian loafers, which were instantly covered with pow-dery tan Central Oregon dust. He shook his left foot, but he knew that was useless. Letting out a deep breath, he moved forward gingerly.

  Suddenly, the front door to the old house burst open and a scruffy-looking man with a long beard plodded out toward him.

  “Get the fuck off my land!” the bearded man screamed, his right hand pointing down the road.

  Humphrey stopped in his tracks in the middle of the driveway.

  “Just hear me out.”

  “Already heard your bullshit. Now get the fuck out.”

  Humphrey gazed about the property. He needed this. Calm and easy. “Listen. I’m sorry what happened to you. But you’ve got to believe me. . .I had nothing to do with it. That’s not the way I work.”

  The other man grabbed his beard and stroked it, his eyes shifting wildly from side to side. “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because it’s the truth. And I think you understand that.”

  “I know one thing. You blackballed me in this town. I can’t get BOOM TOWN 49

  no work.” He swung his head back toward his house and shoved his thumb in that direction. “My grandparents built dis place damn near sixty years ago. You ain’t gettin’ it.”

  Humphrey racked his brain on how to deal with this guy. He had tried just about every tactic he knew. “The world has discovered Bend. There’s no turning back on that. If it isn’t me, it’ll be someone else in a couple of years. I’ve offered you a fair price.

  More than fair. Now, I’m sorry your place was robbed, but I had nothing to do with that. You have to believe me.”

  The man struck a gaze at Humphrey, inspecting the swanky suit, the perfect hair, and the man’s Mercedes, which, probably for the first time, had dust on its tires.

  A cool breeze swept down out of the Cascades, and both men seemed to shiver.

  A horse whinnied down a grade in a pasture out back. Both men turned to see a gray mare shifting its head up and down and then prancing about the small corral next to a decrepit shelter.

  The feisty Arabian glided across the ground, its tail pointing straight out.

  “See, even your horse wants you to sell this place,” Humphrey said smiling.

  The man with the beard lifted his nose to the breeze. “Naw, she smells somethin’ in the air. Could be a mountain lion. More likely your bullshit.”

  Humphrey turned and made his way back to the driver’s door, opened it, and hesitated before getting in. “One way or another, you’ll come to your senses. You’ll deal with me.” With that, he got into his car and started the engine. As he started to back out of the driveway, he shook his head as he noticed the man in his yard. He had turned around, bent over, and his pants were down at his ankles. His right index finger pointed at his hairy white cheeks.

  ♦

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  Tony had a feeling Dumb and Dumber would find a way to finish what they had started, but his concern was why they would bother. Had Beaver Jackson told them to keep track of him? If so, why?

  After talking with Dawn Sanders, and letting her make a pin cushion out of him, Tony drove to a downtown park along the Deschutes River to let Panzer run and take care of business, and then he proceeded to a frame shop to pick up a bunch of photos he was having matted and framed for his gallery opening. While there, he dropped off the roll of film he had taken at the fried Humphrey house. He didn’t expect to find anything in those shots, but he did hope the shot of the security guards turned out.

  He needed something for his website. Something that praised retroactive abortions.

  The photo shop had done a great job on his photos. He worked in black and white, mostly landscapes, but this showing was made up almost entirely of people. Faces from around the world.

  There was something magical about the human face and what it can tell the informed observer at that vital moment of shutter release. Maybe his skill with a camera gave him a better understanding of human nature. His sister Maria, a professor of psy-chology at the University of Oregon, had disagreed with Tony’s self assessment, and had diagnosed his understanding of others as a direct result of his encounters with thousands of people from all walks of life in more than 30 countries—in and out of the Navy.

  Okay. . .maybe.

  He dropped off the last of the framed photos at the Cascade Gallery a block away. The owner, June Van Hoover, looked them over critically. She was in her early sixties, and if she was five feet then Tony was ready to play in the NBA. So thin was she, he imagined a good breeze would blow her halfway across the high desert to Idaho.

  She adjusted her bifocals on a particularly stark photo of a Malaysian woman on the streets of Singapore. One of Tony’s favorites.

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  “I want this one,” she said.

  That was more words than he’d heard her say in two previous meetings in person. He had called from Eugene prior to coming to Central Oregon, setting up the showing with June’s assistant.

  In person, June had rarely said a thing, preferring instead to grunt and clear her throat.

  He left her to admire number two of twenty, Malaysian Woman, while Tony headed back to the condo to regroup.

  Playing an insurance investigator had taken its toll on him. He needed a shower.

  As he was toweling off, his cell phone rang.

  “Yeah.”

  There was nobody on the line. Then he heard breathing.

  “Mr. Caruso?”

  It was Cliff Humphrey.

  “Yes. What can I do for you, Mr. Humphrey?”

  “I just wanted to know how the day went,” he said. “What you found out.”

  When Tony took on cases like this, he tried to assess the type of person he would be working for, and if the person seemed like high maintenance, he would usually pass. Life was too short to put up with assholes. Humphrey had intrigued him, though. Tony was usually open to anything after that. Now he was questioning his own judgment.

  “I made a few inquiries,” Tony said. “Talked with his business partner, neighbors, friends.”

  “What do you think?”

  What he thought and what he knew for a fact were two separate things. “Do you know of anything going on with Dan’s work that would have made him...less than happy?”

  Cliff Humphrey thought for a while, his breathing uneasy.

  Finally, he said, “Not really. There was an offer for their company on the table, from what I was told. Some large software company in California had been there a week before his death. It sounded like a good deal to me.”

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  Interesting. “His partner didn’t mention that.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “It was still preliminary. I think they wanted to maintain control of their baby. It was my understanding they were going to turn down the offer.”

  Tony switched gears. “Tell me about your son’s insurance company and his policies.”

  Cliff Humphrey gave him the name of the company, and explained that they would not be paying out on his million dollar policy. Barb and Dan were each other’s beneficiary, with the same amount. Cliff was secondary beneficiary on both policies, since Barb had no living relatives. And, of course, Dan’s mother, Cliff’s wife, had died earlier that year in a freak equine accident.

  Tony thanked him for the info, told him he would be in touch, and hung up.

  Next he checked his e-mail. There was only one message from Melanie Chadwick reminding him they were on for dinner that night.

  He gave her a call and told her he’d meet her at the Riverfront at seven, which gave him just enough time to look up a few things on the web before heading over to meet her.

  ♦

/>   The Riverfront was a huge complex of condos with an older hotel, a restaurant that resembled a Denny’s, and one of those dark bars with live music five nights a week. Mostly jazz. A weathered wooden bridge crossed the Deschutes River, with a path that led guests to a drastically hilly eighteen hole golf course. They had package deals where guests could rent a golf cart for a week and park it right outside their door. They could even drive it to local shops that lined the river adjacent to the Riverfront complex.

  Being Saturday night, the restaurant was packed. Luckily, Melanie had a friend who worked there who found them a table.

  Melanie was at a table set back in a darker area, with a nice BOOM TOWN 53

  view of a huge tropical fish tank. She had a glass of merlot with only a few sips out of it, and one waiting for Tony. She had changed out of her more businesslike skirt at the open house, to a slinky red thing with spaghetti straps working overtime trying to hold her healthy front in place.

  She smiled at him, and he gave her a quick kiss as he took a seat in the half-moon booth next to her.

  “You look hot,” Tony said.

  “I’m freezing.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “You don’t look too shabby yourself,” she said.

  He was wearing a pair of loose-fitting olive drab Dockers, and a black polo shirt that stretched tightly across his chest. He wasn’t normally prone to showing off muscles, but he thought the shirt had shrunk a bit in the condo’s dryer. Either that, or he was eating too much and not working out enough.

  They ordered and ate. She had a pork something or other and Tony had the lamb. After dinner they sat back nursing their third glass of wine.

  “How was your acupuncture?” she asked.

  “The acupuncture itself was quite relaxing,” he said, thinking carefully for the right words. “Dawn is an interesting person.”

  “She is that.”

  “Are you really close friends?”

  “Not really. I sold her the house. She got a good deal. We go out every now and then for lunch. I go in for a massage and a session once a month.”

  “She does have magic hands,” he said.

  She lowered her brows at him. “What exactly did she massage?”

  “She was very professional. Although I’m afraid she’s seen almost as much of me as you have.”