Bundle of Trouble

•CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE•

I let my jaw drop. “You think Mrs. Avery framed you?”

Jennifer nodded, pressing her thin lips together. “She’s had it out for me. No doubt about it. She hated that I was seeing Brad.”

“She didn’t know you were seeing Brad.”

“What do you mean? She saw us together one time at the country club. When Brad went to use the restroom, she warned me to stay away from him or else!”

I shrugged. “She told me she didn’t know who he was seeing. Maybe she thought it was a one-time thing at the club.”

Jennifer sighed, looking defeated. “Maybe. But she’s evil.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, look at the Penny thing.” Jennifer must have noticed the confused look on my face because she clarified, “Brad and Svetie’s daughter. Svet was convinced that someone Penny knew lured her into the water that day.”

Okay, I thought I’d heard everything, but now I knew I’d heard it all.

“You think Mrs. Avery lured her own granddaughter to her death?”

Laurie gave a little kick in her stroller for attention. I rocked the stroller forward and back to soothe her.

Jennifer flipped her hair. “It sounds bad, I know.”

“No offense, but it sounds preposterous. Maybe you’ve been smoking a little too much of that hippie hay.”

Jennifer shook her head. “I don’t really smoke all that much.”

“Does Rich?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Don’t you run drugs out of Heavenly Haight for him?”

Jennifer’s face registered shock. “How. . how did you know that?”

“Well, I am a PI.” I felt momentarily proud of myself.

Maybe I really could do this!

“Does Mrs. Avery know about the drugs?”

“Who do you think pulls all the strings?” Jennifer asked.

I tried to ignore the sharp pain that burned behind my temples. Mrs. Avery did have an awful lot of money. Could it have come from drug dealing?

I pressed against my temples with my fingers. “What about Svetlana?” I asked. “Was she involved?”

“She knew it was going on, but kinda turned a blind eye. I think she was really depressed after Penny. She tuned a lot of things out.”

“Did she know about your affair with Brad?”

“No! God, no! Svetie still wasn’t over the fact that he left her for Michelle. She hated Michelle and her sister. And I really liked Svetlana, so why rub her nose in it?”

“What about the gun? The police found the gun in your apartment.”

“Yeah, so? It must have been planted there.”

“Who has keys to your apartment? Did Brad?”

“No. Just the apartment manager/handyman guy in 101. But he’s a worm. I’m sure Mrs. Avery could have bribed him.”

I stopped at home only for a moment to pick up the car, then drove straight to Mrs. Avery’s. My head was pounding and dread was growing in my stomach. “Please don’t let Mrs. Avery be involved,” I prayed.

I needed somebody, somehow, to be clean in this whole situation. Even worse, I had a selfish reason for wanting her to be innocent. I wanted to get paid.

I pulled up in front of Mrs. Avery’s house. Her Sea Cliff home stood brightly before me. I carefully parked my Chevrolet between a Jaguar and a Cadillac.

I got out of the car and examined my outfit. Jeans and a maroon top. Not bad, but not great either. I searched for my lipstick in the diaper purse.

What had happened to fashionable Kate? I pulled out a pacifier and a tiny headband with a small white hairbrush.

No lipstick! I tried a second pouch and found a rattle and a red lipstick.

It clashed with the maroon top, but I put it on anyway. Lip color has a way of making me feel more presentable. And I knew I’d need to feel as self-assured as possible for this confrontation.

I pulled my shirt down and hiked up the waist of my jeans. Hey, they were fitting a little better. I plucked Laurie’s car seat from the Chevy and walked up Mrs. Avery’s driveway.

I was out of breath when I arrived. The fatigue of not sleeping well and the case were getting to me.

Huffing and puffing, I climbed the few stairs to her house.

Mrs. Avery’s maid, Marta, greeted Laurie and me at door. She ushered us into the sitting room and directed me to a tan chaise lounge with delicate purple and green flowers on it.

After a few minutes, Marta reentered carrying a silver tea service, which she placed on the coffee table in front of me.

Mrs. Avery emerged, dressed in a red power suit. “Kate! Oh! And little Laurie! How are you, dear?”

I pulled the ledgers out from my bag and showed them to her. “I found these at Michelle’s house.”

Mrs. Avery crossed to a side table and retrieved a pair of reading glasses from the top drawer. She studied the reports a moment, her eyes darting back and forth across the pages. “Rich was hired to look over the affairs of the restaurant and the store. Are you saying he’s cheating me, Kate?”

I looked at her, surprised. What if Mrs. Avery was ignorant of the whole drug operation?

“Well, what do you make of these?” she asked.

I hesitated. Why not go for it? I thought. “I thought maybe you were involved in an illegal activity, Mrs. Avery.”

“Illegal activity? Like what?”

“Like drug dealing,” I said, feeling foolish. The woman was in her seventies. What was I accusing her of?

Well, hey, hadn’t George said they were looking into going legit with medical marijuana? Maybe Mrs. Avery was involved in that campaign. I imagined her setting up shop at the country club, dealing pot to seniors.

Mrs. Avery made no effort to hide her indignation. “Do you know what you are saying, Mrs. Connolly? I have no such involvement,” she said firmly. “And neither did my son.”

“Mrs. Avery, I happen to know for a fact that there is a drug operation functioning under the auspices of the restaurant. You can’t deny it.”

Mrs. Avery’s blue eyes locked on mine. They seemed cold in a way I hadn’t noticed before. “I won’t have this kind of talk in my house.”

“All right, I’ll leave,” I said, gathering up my things.

“Have you gone to the police?” she asked.

“Not yet,” I said.

“Why not?” she challenged.

“I wanted to talk to you first.”

Her lips puckered. “Thank you for that. I didn’t have any knowledge of this drug business, Kate. In fact, if what you say is true, I’m shutting the businesses down myself. I won’t have it. I’m not that type of person. I would have thought you’d have known better by now.” She got up from the couch, nearly knocking over the tea service. “I don’t deal in drugs. My family doesn’t deal in drugs.” Her anger was building. Her voice cracked as she tried to restrain herself and she nearly spat out, “My family is very respected in the San Francisco community and the nation at large.”

“That may be,” I acknowledged. “I may be totally wrong. All I know is that drugs have been going out of El Paraiso and Heavenly Haight and somebody you appointed is in charge.”

Mrs. Avery froze. She turned on her heel and grabbed the phone from the den. “Well, we’re going to call Rich right now and straighten this out. I won’t have you thinking I’m some sort of common criminal, bandying about accusations and slandering my family name.”

She dialed a number into the cordless phone and spoke quietly into it. “Rich assured me he’s on his way,” she said.

I sat, defeated, and put my head into my hands. “How long will it take him to get here?”

Mrs. Avery pulled the glasses off her face, then served herself and me tea from the beautiful silver server that Marta had brought in. “He should be here shortly. Fifteen minutes at the most.”

I remember the glasses found at Michelle’s house.

“Mrs. Avery? How long have you worn reading glasses?” I asked.

“Thirty years now, dear. Why? Are you starting to have to push things further out to read them?”

God. Did I look that old? I had to get some sleep!

I smiled tightly. “No. Not yet.”

After about ten minutes of waiting, Rich’s car finally screeched onto Mrs. Avery’s driveway. A moment later Marta entered and announced Rich’s arrival. He came into the room and immediately approached Mrs. Avery, kissing her cheeks. He acknowledged me with a nod and a curt hello.

Mrs. Avery gestured toward the sofa. “Sit, Rich. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

Rich smiled. “What can I do for you ladies?”

“I think you have a few things to explain. Show him the paperwork, Kate.”

I pushed the reports toward Rich. “Here’s a ledger for El Paraiso showing a loss. It’s dated July. And here’s a ledger for El Paraiso for the same month, showing a profit.”

Rich nodded and said, “Hmmm. That’s odd.” He sucked on his teeth for a moment, then finally asked, “Where did you get these?”

I leveled a glare at him. “I know you’re laundering money through the shop on Haight as well.”

He shook his head from side to side, putting his ear to one shoulder then the other, and jiggling his legs up and down. He looked at Mrs. Avery. “Uh, what would you like me to say, Gloria?”

Mrs. Avery frowned. “Is it true?”

“That we’re dealing drugs out of El Paraiso?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Avery said.

He looked from Mrs. Avery to me, then back to Mrs. Avery. “Yes, it true.”

Mrs. Avery paled as though she’d seen a ghost. Then as quickly as the color had drained, it returned, turning her face red with fury. “How can you do this? How can you do this to Bradley’s memory?”

“Well, Brad was the one who started the whole business, Gloria. I’m surprised you didn’t know.”

“How would I know such a thing?” Mrs. Avery demanded.

“This city is very competitive in regards to restaurants. I mean, you didn’t really think we were turning a profit selling hamburgers and frittatas, did you?”

Mrs. Avery looked stunned. I felt sorry for her. She really had had no idea.

She reached for the phone and dialed 9-1-1.