Capital Crimes

12

Barnes’s cell chirped just as the garbled PA voice issued a boarding announcement. He fished the phone from his pocket. “Did she just call our flight?”

Amanda looked up from her paperback. “Uh-uh, Phoenix.”

“How do you understand anything she said? It just sounds like static.” He pressed the green button. “Barnes.”

“Sorry to bother you, Detective. It’s Alice Kurtag.”

Barnes wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear, and found his notepad. “No bother at all, Dr. Kurtag, what can I do for you?”

“I don’t know if this is important or not, but you asked me to call you if I thought of anything.”

“What’s up?”

“As I told you before, my relationship with Davida was almost exclusively business. I barely knew Minette and I didn’t know most of their friends.”

“Okay,” Barnes answered.

“I doubt if this is important, but I recall that about a month ago, Davida dropped by the lab with a friend- an old friend. Someone she had gone to high school and college with. They looked…” There was silence for a moment. “I don’t know how to put this. They looked comfortable with each other.”

The implication was obvious. Barnes said, “More than chummy?”

“Well, they were laughing and touching each other. Of course they were old friends.”

“Do you remember this person’s name?”

“Jane. I honestly can’t recall if Davida mentioned her last name. If she did, it’s eluding me.”

Jane. That threw Barnes. Nothing about Jane ever seemed remotely gay. Just to make sure, he said, “What did this Jane look like?”

“Tall, slim, pretty, Davida’s age- long jet-black hair, very striking hair. And maybe a bit…shopworn? I don’t want to be unkind but it was as if she’d been through a lot.”

No doubt who she meant. Jane sure hadn’t had good luck with men. “Could it have been Jane Meyerhoff?”

“Yes, it was- now I remember, she did use her last name! You know her?”

“She’s indeed an old friend of Davida’s. All right, Dr. Kurtag, thanks for the information.” Tacking on the basic detective’s parting shot: “Anything else you’d like to add?”

“Actually, yes.”

But she added nothing.

Barnes said, “Go on. I’m listening, Doctor.”

“Davida told me that she and Jane were going to be away for a couple of days to do some white-water rafting. Davida told me that she had had an intense week and Jane had been going through a very messy divorce. Both of them needed to unwind and both of them loved physical challenges. She told me her cell wouldn’t be operative, but she gave me a contact number if something important came up in my research. She said the number was only for me and that I shouldn’t give it out to anyone else.”

“Who would you give it to?”

“Since we were working together so often, people would sometimes call me looking for Davida.”

“Which people?”

“At the capital. Sometimes friends.”

“Anyone specific?”

Silence.

“Doctor?”

“Minette called frequently,” said Kurtag. “Eight, ten times a day.”

“That is pretty frequent.”

“In regards to this other woman, it could be totally innocent. Perhaps Davida was taking the trip just to grab a little well-deserved privacy.”

The one-hour flight from Oakland to Burbank was on time and blissfully free from squalling children. As soon as the plane began its descent, Barnes turned to Amanda. “I’ve been thinking.”

She grinned. “That’s always dangerous.”

“That’s why I don’t do it often. In terms of staging, what about that crank letter Donnie Newell showed us? Someone cutting block letters from a magazine and pasting them on a piece of paper. How Hollywood is that? We should really talk to Newell again.”

“Minette’s been harassing Davida for a while?”

“The woman does seem to like her fair share of attention. Maybe she was upset when Davida didn’t take the letter seriously.”

Amanda nodded. “Good point. Now how does it connect with Minette as the murderer?”

Barnes conceded that he had no answer. “There are other reasons to talk to Donnie. He was Davida’s ex-boyfriend in high school before she came out. Remember he said something about Davida being a pistol? How’d you take that?”

“That she was hot in bed.” Amanda shrugged. “So they probably fucked. What’s the big deal? It was a long time ago.”

“It struck me that Donnie remembered the relationship so clearly and chose to mention that aspect of it with Davida lying dead with her head nearly blown off.”

“Men are always thinking about sex.”

“True, but that thing he told you- his wife hating Davida. Obviously, the two of them were still in contact.”

“Minimal contact according to Newell.”

“What’s minimal to him may have seemed like maximal to Minette. Also, from dating her in high school, do you think Donnie knew about Davida’s drinking?”

Amanda laughed. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m not suggesting anything,”

“Yes, you are and it seems a big jump.”

“What?”

“You’re seeing Newell as a suspect. First of all, we know he was in Sacramento the day of the murder because she called him.”

“Exactly. And we don’t know the nature of the call…only what Newell told us. Maybe she says c’mon down to the office for a late-night fling and they spent a little time together. Minette told us Davida had planned to pull an all-nighter. Who said it was to work? She and Donnie are alone…drinking and…”

“And what?”

“Dunno, something went awry. You know people can get crazy when they’re under the influence.”

“Do you not like this guy or something? Some kind of high school thing?”

“I barely knew Donnie. I remember him as a skinny blond kid, that’s all.”

Amanda wagged a finger at him. “Your imagination is doing overtime, Detective Barnes. Maybe it’s sleep deprivation.”

“Or lack of useful evidence in the apartment,” Barnes said. “At the very least, I want to talk to Newell about Davida Grayson and Jane Meyerhoff. He inferred they’d both been party girls. Pair that with Kurtag telling me Davida and Jane were going away together, and not to tell Minette, and I’m wondering: is their relationship new or were Davida and Jane picking up where they left off in high school and college? I’m also wondering if Jane was the reason that Davida came out.”

“How does that tie in with Newell?”

“Maybe Donnie did a threesome with the girls and Davida discovered she liked Jane better than him.”

“And…?”

“And, maybe Newell felt threatened.”

“So he decided to pop her after what…twenty-five years?”

Barnes smiled. “Yeah, it’s thin- but think of this. Williman told us male-to-female’s an easy way to transmit the clap. And Donnie’s male.”

“You know what I think?”

“What?”

“You want to interview Newell in hopes he’ll give you lurid details about a threesome.”

“Maybe.” Barnes laughed. Then he turned serious. “No way to bring up gonorrhea with him in a cop-to-cop chat…okay, let’s shift gears: if there was a sexual relationship between Davida and Jane, it could be a motive for Minette being jealous. Jane just moved back to Berkeley about a year ago. After three failed marriages, maybe she wanted something from her youth.”

Amanda regarded her partner. “Didn’t you date Jane?”

“Uh, yeah, but not for long.”

“Why not?”

“She was a piece of work. No such thing as a casual conversation, everything was a debate.”

“Did it end badly?”

“No, it just ended. I stopped calling and she didn’t care.”

“Seeing as there’s no hard feelings, why don’t you ask her about her relationship with Davida instead of asking Newell?”

“Because Davida was murdered and I don’t know how truthful Jane will be with me. I can approach Donnie differently.”

“Cop to cop,” she said. “But you can’t bring up venereal disease.”

Barnes grew silent. “Okay, the whole thing sucks.”

“Hey,” she said, “I like the way your mind works, I’m just trying to keep things organized. Are you really suspicious of Newell?”

“Maybe intrigued is more the right word.”

The plane’s wheels hit the tarmac and a flight attendant launched into the usual spiel, pretending they had a choice who to fly with. When the announcements were over, Amanda said, “I like the Davida/Jane thing. I don’t know if it’s relevant but it’s always good to look at close friends first.”

Barnes said, “I reckon we should also think a little bit about what we’re gonna do in LA, especially since the department paid for luxurious transportation. Who’s our contact at LAPD?”

Amanda checked her notes. “Detective Sergeant Marge Dunn. She told me her lieutenant- his name is Decker- is very curious about Marshall Bledsoe.”

“What mischief did that dirtbag pull off there?”

“A local synagogue was ransacked about five years ago and Decker always felt that there was someone behind the scenes.”