Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 07 - Vague Images (17 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I HAD TO FINISH AN appraisal Friday afternoon so the bank would get the results quickly. The buyer and seller were hustling to get to settlement in less than a month because the people who made the offer on the house wanted to avoid moving out of their house into an apartment and then into their new house.

A list of chores for the Corn Toss was racing through my brain, but the fact that the courthouse shut at five o’clock made up my mind for me
. I walked into my bedroom, took my camera out of the top drawer of the chest, and grabbed my notebook from the bedside table. It was three o’clock, and if I hustled I could examine the house and do the courthouse research before five.

I drove toward Ocean Alley’s Popsicle District, so named for the bright hues its residents began using to paint their houses a few years back
. Still, I gaped at the house. It was the only one that looked like a lemon bar, complete with bright yellow porch furniture. To each her own.

I gathered my notebook and camera and walked to the front door, still limping a bit on the steps
. The man who opened it was dressed in contrast to the house, all in black with a long ponytail that was a mix of brown and grey. I judged him to be about forty.

“Yeah?”

“I’m Jolie Gentil. I’m supposed to appraise your house today.”

“Next week.”  He started to close the door, but I put my palm on it as it swung to me
.

“If you wait until then you might lose the sale
. It’s contingent on the buyers being able to go to settlement in a month.”

“Fine by me.”  His thin-lipped grin showed a missing tooth on top.

“But not with me. Let her in, Ogden.”  The woman’s voice was authoritative.

“Humph.”  He stepped aside.

“Come on in Jolie. My son isn’t looking forward to getting his own place.”

I wouldn’t touch that with a long oar
.
I smiled at the woman as she ushered me in. Ogden went toward a loud TV in the back of the house.

“I’m moving into an independent apartment at Silver Times Senior Living
. Just one bedroom. I can’t wait.”

I exchanged pleasantries as I pulled out my tape measure and got to work
. If Ogden was as charming to her as to me, I figured she would do cartwheels on the way out the door. Or into the apartment.

From the front, the full size of the house wasn’t obvious
. The three bedrooms were not large, but there was a huge three-season room at the back that served as a family room of sorts. Judging from the space heater, it was used year round, and appeared to now be Ogden’s space. There were half-packed cardboard boxes that, on second look, were probably still packed from when he moved back home. DVDs spilled from one, and a couple of empty beer bottles sat on a closed box.
No wonder she wants a one-bedroom place.

I did my work as quickly as possible, angling the photo of the family room so there were no boxes in it
. I trudged through the yard, which was a mix of gravel and sand, taking photos of each side of the house.

It was four-twenty and I was in a hurry to get to the courthouse when I remembered I had not checked Pebbles’ litter box that morning
. If it’s not up to her standards she uses Jazz’s box. It’s waaay too small for the skunk.

I hurried up the front door and half-jogged through the kitchen, which was a reminder that I shouldn’t do that to my foot
. A peek in the closet told me I owed thanks to either Lucas or Scoobie. I walked back through the house and was almost to the front door when I saw a note from Lucas taped to the inside of the front door, where I couldn’t miss it.

“She’s at the hospital
. They’re going to meet me and take me to her room.”  I studied Lucas’ scrawled note, which was punctuated with a huge smiley face.

If they’re meeting him, she must be badly hurt or something
. I glanced at the clock, which said it was almost four-thirty. Lucas had not written the time that he wrote the note. I wrapped my hands around the car keys in my pocket and then slowly released the keys. Lucas had my mobile number. When he wanted me there he would call.
He probably already called Scoobie.

Ten minutes later I had one eye on the clock in the Register of Deeds office as I searched for similar houses that recently sold for prices comparable to what the buyers and sellers had agreed to for the lemon drop
. I never knew how the negotiations went. Wherever they started, this one seemed to have ended up with a price about three thousand dollars more than I would be able to justify, and even that was a bit of a stretch.
That’ll give Lester something to go ballistic about.

A tap on my shoulder made me jump and turn.

George had a large grin. “I found something you want.”

“Would that be peace and quiet to do my work?”

The young woman behind the counter in the Registrar of Deeds’ office snickered and then turned away quickly.

“Nooo, Miss Priss
. It would be,” he lowered his voice, “information on a probable affair between our Ms. Weiss and the hospital Board’s president.”

“Wow
. Give me two minutes and I’ll meet you on a bench on the north side of the courthouse.”

He loped out and the woman at the counter caught my eye
. “Sorry.”

“No problem
. Maybe it’ll make him mind his manners.”

“Not likely,” she said.

It took fifteen minutes to get the rest of the information I needed, and George was pacing around the bench when I walked out. His excitement overcame his irritation. “It’s not one hundred percent, but two people told me Weiss and he slept together for at least the last few months she worked at Freehold.”

“But not here?”  I sat on the bench and extended my foot.

“Haven’t heard anything. If she was smart she’d keep her sex life to herself in a town like Ocean Alley.”

“Yes, you never know when a nosy reporter’s going to be checking out your love life.”

“Very funny. I wrote out a timeline for her last few years.”  He held out a piece of paper. “She was at a large hospital in Trenton, then the kind of small hospital in Freehold, and most recently in Perth Amboy. That was a short one.”  He consulted his notebook. “Only two months.”

Weren’t those jobs in one of your articles, or her obit?” I asked.

“Yeah, but not in order and not really discussed. And here’s the good part.”  He flipped a page in his notebook and showed me where Jason Logan worked during the same timeframes.

“Not at any of the same hospitals,” I said.

“True, but he was on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce in Freehold when Weiss was there. He would have met her then. Someone told me that Logan met Wharton and a couple of bigwigs from Ocean Alley Hospital when Logan worked in Freehold. Apparently Logan got the Chamber there to help the hospital raise some money from the business community.”

“And the new partners at our hospital liked those fundraising skills and asked Logan to chair this Board?” I asked.

George shrugged. “Could be. Not important. What does matter is that Logan supposedly recommended  Tanya Weiss for her job at the hospital here.”  

I thought for a moment
. “It doesn’t mean they slept together. Or that it matters if they did.”

“No, but when I drove up to Freehold and asked around, the hospital PR office had copies of old newsletters, and look at this photo.”

The glossy newsletter had photos of a fundraiser for some new mammography equipment. In the middle of the page was one of Tanya, and next to her was Jason Logan, with his arm casually draped over her shoulder. They both had hundred-watt smiles for the camera.

“Did you ask anyone about them?” I asked.

“Tried to. The head of the press liaison office threw me out. Unless I’m up there and need medical care. He was careful to say that.”  George grinned. “So whaddya think?”

“Not enemies, certainly.”  I studied the photo for a few more seconds
. Office romances are everywhere. They generally didn’t provide motives for murder.

As if anticipating my thoughts, George added, “Here’s the really good part
. A woman in HR here told me that Logan and Weiss broke up just four days before she was killed.”

“Like with a huge fight in front of a lot of people?”

“Nope. She told me Tanya came in with red eyes one morning. When the woman in Human Resources asked if she was okay, Weiss spilled her guts. Something about she initiated the break-up because she found out he was cheating on her.”

“Whoa, George, that’s pretty scurrilous stuff
. How sure are you about this?”  What I was also thinking was that it was the first time anyone had put a human face on the seemingly ruthless budgeteer.

“She’s always been my best source at the hospital.”

I raised an eyebrow and George interpreted it correctly. “You know I won’t give you her name. Crud. Could be a he, you know.”

“No it can’t
. No woman would tell a guy that unless it was her best friend or something.”

George looked away and then back to me
. “If he recommended her for this job and she dumped him…”

“Which he might have deserved.”

“Even so,” George continued, “if she dumped him he’d feel like he did her a big favor for nothing.”

I shrugged and dug in my purse for my chirping phone
. “Unless she put pictures of him on the web, I can’t imagine he’d do much other than ignore her.” I looked at the caller ID. “It’s Scoobie. Hello Mr. X-Ray.”

“Yo, Jolie.”

“And George.”

“My lucky day
. Hey, did you talk to Lucas?”

“No, but he left a note…”

“Yeah, I saw it. I checked here at the hospital. Kim hasn’t been admitted, and no one in the ER treated her.”

“That’s weird
. Are you sure?”

“Yep
. Told the ER people I was checking on behalf of her brother. They know me, so they checked.”

“He didn’t say who called him, did he?” I asked.

George was looking at me intently. He had the I-smell-a-story look he gets.

“No
. I think you should come over here. Since you have an in with Mr. Security.”

I ignored the dig
. “Sure. “  I hung up and looked at George. “Uh…”

“You’re so elegant.”

“It’s not really something I can talk to you about.”

“Where have I heard that before?  Except I usually hear it after you haven’t told me something that would be good for a story.”

He said it half good-naturedly, but I still did an inward wince. “Honest, this involves someone’s well, well-being. Mental health, even.”

I started to walk to my car and he fell into step beside me
. “Scoobie okay?”

“Oh, sure
. His usual self, anyway.” 

We walked a few steps in silence, and he said, “Look, if you and Scoobie say something’s off the record, it will be.”

I got to my car and paused with my hand on the door handle. If we needed to find Kim, there was no one in town with more spies than George, and they seemed to know not to let on that they were doing him favors. “If I tell you what we’re talking about, you won’t use any of it unless Scoobie and I say it’s okay?”

“Is that an
and
or an
or
?”

I rolled my eyes and opened the car door.

For a second it looked as if George was calculating how much leeway he had, and then he said, “Okay, both of you have to say so.”

I faced him
. “Remember that day you called because one of your spies said I was at the police station?”

“Damn!  I knew you weren’t there because a kid wanted company
. They’d have called Scoobie.”

I eyed him
. “Okay. When we were in high school, a family Scoobie and I knew had to leave town fast.”  I let that hang between us and watched George get excited.

“What?  Criminals?  You gotta be kidding.”  He groaned, then added in an almost hopeful tone, “But that’s old news.”

“It relates to today. You can’t write about it.”

“All right, all right.”

“Anyway, the son is in his twenties now, and he came back because he thought his younger sister might be here. She ran away or something.”

His hand went, by instinct, to the pocket of his Hawaiian-style shirt, where he keeps his notebook
. I glared at him. His hand went back to his side. “Or something,” he said.

I nodded
. “She’s upset. Their mom just died, and she’s really depressed. He found her, and she came by the house…”

“Your house?”

“No, Scoobie’s. The problem is, she didn’t stay. Left by the bathroom window, actually.”

“No way.”