For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series (15 page)

She drained her drink,
licked the last of the alcohol off her lips and set the glass on
the bar. “Come on, let’s go eat. I’m positively starving. The
calamari appetizer here is great, wait until you try it.” She
literally jumped off the bar stool and grabbed Henry’s arm who
barely had enough time to finish his drink and set it down. He
laughed as he let her drag him up to the hostess stand. “I’m hungry
too, I had an early lunch, or a late breakfast and haven’t had
anything since.”

They were seated at a table
for two by the window. The restaurant was noisy and busy, but at
the same time the commotion provided them a lot of privacy. They
couldn’t hear what the people at the next table were saying, nor
could they be heard. After they ordered the calamari appetizer –
Rosie was the first to speak. “So tell me about your day, did my
list of properties that Rex sold help you?”

“
I think so. First, there
were a lot of them. He was quite a salesman.” “Yes, that he was.
More than you know.” Rosie looked down at her hands. “What do you
mean by that?” Henry looked directly at her. “Well, as you must
know by now, he embellished the properties he was selling with
stories of famous architects that designed them, movie stars who
had lived there, anything to sell the place.” Rosie looked up at
Henry. “He suggested that I become an agent, I took the test, I
have the license, but I couldn’t do it. Be part of his scam I
mean.”

“
I was wondering why someone
as intelligent as you weren’t an agent.” Henry picked up her hand.
She smiled at the compliment. “Rex said the same thing many times.
There is no shame in being an office manager, and I’m very good at
my job. I think I actually prefer working in the
background.”

“
Please don’t take what I
said the wrong way, I know that an office cannot run without
someone like you holding things together, but I just thought that
you were smart enough and were more ambitious.” Henry held on to
her hand across the table. She let him hold her hand and said.
“Thank you for the compliment. You know Rex was very encouraging to
everyone in the office, and certainly he supported my efforts at
educating myself, especially the time that I took my real estate
agent exam. But I never sold any houses, I just couldn’t do what he
was doing, he would tell a buyer whatever they wanted to hear in
order to close a deal. You know, nothing that Rex did was illegal,
but it was certainly unethical, and I just couldn’t be any part of
it. It was bad enough that I ended up turning my head to
it.”

The waiter set their
calamari appetizer down in front of them as Henry let go of her
hand. “Is there anything else I can get for you folks?” “Yes, there
is.” Henry answered. “Would you like some wine Rosie?” “Please, you
order anything you like as long as it is white.” “Do you have any
St. Jean Chardonnay, I don’t care what year.” Henry asked the
waiter. “That will be coming right up sir.” The waiter disappeared
towards the bar.

They started in on the
appetizer, it was indeed very good. Different, it had coarse salt
and black pepper that he dipped the calamari in following Rosie’s
example and Henry enjoyed it very much. “I had a busy morning, I
spoke with Tim and MarieAnne Miller at the Solé Hotel, the Wadowicz
family, and a contractor who was working on a house that Thornbird
sold as having been owned by Bette Davis. I have been trying to
contact the owner of that house, but he lives up near San Francisco
and he is not returning my calls.”

“
I remember that guy; he had
a foreign sounding name. I think by the time that deal closed he
suspected that he had bought more than he got, I think you should
talk with him.” Rosie put her fork down. “Well, if he suspected it
then, his contractor confirmed it for him last month.
Interestingly, according to the contractor, he was in town the day
that Thornbird was killed, and now I can’t reach him.” Henry put
his fork down as well as the waiter showed up with the bottle of
wine and showed it to him. Henry nodded as the waiter opened the
wine and poured some for him to taste. Henry approved and the
waiter poured them both a glass of wine. They ordered their
entrees, the waiter wrote them down on his pad after telling them
their choices were excellent and he disappeared again.

“
That sounds suspicious; do
you think he did it?” Rosie picked up her glass. “Here’s to new
beginnings.” “That sounds good, here’s to new beginnings. I don’t
know if he did it or not. I’d sure like to talk with him.” Henry
tasted the wine, this was one of his favorites and it was always
good.

“
Did you go out to the
hotel, what did you say it was called? Did they ruin the style with
the remodeling?” Rosie set her wine down. “The Solé Hotel, I don’t
think you could tell that anything has been done to the place
really. To me it looks like the only modification they made was
enclosing the courtyard with a fence and a gate. The place looks
pretty prosperous, and Tim and MarieAnne are interesting people.”
Henry didn’t feel comfortable telling her what kind of hotel it
was, at least not yet. He popped another piece of calamari into his
mouth.

“
Then I had brunch with the
Wadowicz family who bought a house in the Movie Colony that had
been owned by Veronica Lake.” “Are they the older couple from
Michigan?” Rosie asked. “Yes, that’s right, they sort of knew that
Thornbird was embellishing the truth but didn’t seem to mind.”
Henry took another sip of wine. “Rex spent a lot of time with them,
at one point he was busy with closing another deal and I showed
them several properties.”

The waiter showed up with
their entrees and took away the empty appetizer plate. Henry
refilled their wine glasses and Rosie started on her Cantonese
Scallops. “Hmmm, this is good.” Henry had ordered the Mango
Chicken; he decided his was good as well.

The rest of their dinner
proceeded at a leisurely pace, they talked about their backgrounds,
their passed on spouses and the reasons that each of them ended up
in Palm Springs. Henry told her about Claire and how proud he was
of her as a successful accountant in Chicago. Rosie lamented that
she had never been able to have children, now that she was getting
older, she missed it even more. They finished the wine and had
coffee as they shared the Banana Spring Rolls for dessert. As they
finished their coffee and Henry paid the check he decided that
tonight had really been more a date than an interview in a criminal
investigation.

It was ten thirty as he
slowly walked Rosie through the shopping center and out to the
parking lot to her car and said good night. This time he bent down
and gave her a kiss on the cheek as he asked if he could see her
again, socially. She happily agreed and got into the little red
Volkswagen and drove off. Henry watched until he could no longer
see her taillights and headed for home himself. He was happy for
the first time in a long time.

Chapter 11

Thursday, April
20

Henry pushed open the door
to Sherman’s Deli the next morning for his usual Thursday morning
breakfast with Wayne Johnson. He expected Wayne to be in their
booth in the back but he wasn’t there yet. “Hi Henry, Wayne called
from his cell phone, said he’d be a few minutes late.” Millie said
as Henry stood at the hostess stand. “Have a seat; I’ll bring you a
coffee.” He sat down in the booth and thought about the previous
evening. He’d enjoyed himself, he hoped that he could be long term
friends with Rosie; it would be nice to have some female
companionship. This was the first time in a very long time that he
realized that he had been lonely without Irma. Well, not really
lonely, there was Charles and Wayne, but he was lonely for a
woman.

“
A penny for your thoughts.”
Wayne said as he slid into the booth. “Huh? Oh, this case has me
puzzled.” Henry said, he didn’t want to let Wayne know about his
new social life just yet. After all, there wasn’t really anything
to tell, was there? “We’re no closer to anything, how did you do?”
Wayne waved Millie over to get a cup of coffee. “There’s a guy in
the San Francisco Bay Area that bought a house that had once been
owned by Bette Davis from Thornbird.

“
Thornbird specialized in
celebrity homes didn’t he?” Wayne said as Millie put coffee down in
front of him. “Do you guys want your usual?” She asked, pulling a
pad out of her apron and a pencil from behind her ear. “Yeah,
that’s fine.” Wayne answered. “No, I’d like something healthy. Can
you get me a bran cereal with a banana or some other type of
fruit?” Henry asked. Millie raised an eyebrow and looked at Wayne.
“Sure, Henry, we have fresh blueberries, is that all right?” “Yes,
that will be great…” Henry had missed the look between Wayne and
Millie as he put down his coffee cup. “…and a refill on the coffee
please. Thornbird specialized in celebrity homes, but the
connections were loose and not real verifiable – if you know what I
mean.” Henry explained. “Some of his customers knew that he was
embellishing a little, the Bette Davis house buyer suspected
something but apparently didn’t really know that it wasn’t true
until the contractor working for him told him about a month
ago.”

“
Have you talked with him?”
“Not yet. I left him several messages yesterday, and again this
morning before I came here. He’s not returning my calls.” Henry
looked at Wayne, “He was down here the day that Thornbird was
killed. Do you think we could have the cops in the Bay Area have a
talk with him?” “I don’t know. What are the Bay Area cops going to
do? Pick the guy up and ask him if he knew that his house was owned
by Bette Davis? I don’t think that will work. You should go up
there and talk to him.”

“
To San Francisco? That’s a
long way but I guess I can do that. Help me find out where this guy
works and lives and I can go up. Will Palm Springs PD pay for a
plane ticket or should I drive?” “We should be able to afford to
fly you up there, I can make a couple of phone calls and get you
all of the suspect’s address information, why don’t you call the
airline and make a reservation? You should be able to go up and
back in one day.” Wayne pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and
started dialing his office. “Give me the phone numbers you have for
him, I should be able to get addresses and everything you need from
them.”

“
Yeah, I guess I can go
today, I think Alaska Airlines has flights directly to SFO from
here. His numbers are on the back of this card.” Millie brought
their breakfasts and Henry started in on his cereal. Millie gave
Wayne another questioning look before heading to another
table.

Wayne folded up his cell
phone and started in on his pancakes. “They’ll call me back in a
few minutes with his home and work address. I asked them to look up
what kind of car he drives as well.” “Ok, sounds good. I’ll go home
grab a few things and call the airline.” Henry said. “You know, we
really need to get you a cell phone.” Wayne said in-between bites
of his pancakes. “I’ll call them for you from here and get you a
reservation.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket again and
called information, within moments he was connected to the airline
and started making Henry’s travel arrangements. “My daughter Claire
tells me the same thing, but I’m retired and don’t feel like being
called by everyone all the time.” Henry snagged a blueberry with
his spoon. He had the feeling that Wayne was not paying any
attention to him at all.

“
Ok, you’re set. I couldn’t
get you out this morning; the earliest non-stop was at three
something this afternoon. You’ll have to spend the night courtesy
of the Palm Springs PD. Your flight back is tomorrow, you should be
back in time to swim your laps. I booked you a car at the San
Francisco Airport, but since I don’t know where your guy lives yet,
I didn’t get you a hotel, you probably want to stay somewhere
between his house and office.” During the entire time that Wayne
was on the phone, he was eating pancakes. He managed not to get a
single drop of syrup or butter on his cell phone.

“
Hmmm, I hadn’t counted on
spending the night. What the heck, that’s ok I guess.” Henry
finished the last of the milk in his bowl of cereal. “Yeah, like
where do you need to be that you can’t enjoy an evening away in the
Bay Area?” Wayne asked looking at his friend
suspiciously.

“
Nowhere, I said it was
fine.” Henry looked at his watch and decided that he had plenty of
time before heading out to the airport. “If I think Anchula did it
after talking with him, do you want me to have the local cops pick
him up?” “That’s probably the best idea; otherwise, one of us would
have to fly up to get him. Just in case, why don’t you bring your
handcuffs and your Glock?” Wayne waved Millie over to get a refill
on his coffee. Henry waived off the offer of more coffee. “I’ll
bring the cuffs, but airport security will give me a lot of grief
if I bring the Glock. I don’t have a badge anymore remember?” “Ok,
then please be careful. If you think you might have difficulty with
this Anchovy guy, please call the locals in to help you.” Wayne
sipped his coffee. “Anchula, the guy’s name is Amit Anchula.” Henry
explained.

Just then Wayne’s cell phone
rang. He looked at its display before answering. “Yeah.” He said
flipping the phone open. “Ok, wait a second.” Wayne pulled a pen
out of his shirt pocket and pulled a paper napkin out of the
dispenser on the table. “Go ahead.” He spent several minutes
writing down information that someone on the other end of the phone
was reading to him. He finished and folded his phone up and put his
pen back. He pushed the napkin towards Henry. “Anchula lives in Los
Altos, I think that is somewhere south of San Francisco, and he
works at Xalaxy a company in Mountain View. I’m not sure where that
is, but I doubt that those two towns are very far apart. He drives
a Mercedes ML320, that is one of those little SUV’s, looks like he
has a few bucks.”