Family Jewels

24

Stone and Sheriff Martinez stood on the front porch of the little house and watched Carrie Fiske’s body being loaded into a county ambulance.

“I’ve requested a statewide APB on this guy, Harvey Biggers,” Martinez said. “I’ve also alerted the Santa Fe and Albuquerque police to cover the airports. The way you describe him, he should be easy to spot.”

“I should think so,” Stone said. “What did the ME have to say about the cause of death?”

“Strangulation, like I thought. She also had some broken ribs and some defensive bruises on her forearms. Apparently, he sat on her while he killed her. It wasn’t pretty.”

“It never is, is it?”

“You got that right. Our murders around here generally fall into two big categories — barroom and domestic. I’ve never had a rich Anglo woman victim, and I’ve been in office nine years.”

“In New York, we got ’em all — rich, poor, and in between.”

“Why’d you retire young?” Martinez asked.

“The official reason was that I flunked the physical after a gunshot wound to the knee,” Stone replied. “But I think you could say my departure was by popular request.”

Martinez emitted a short laugh. “I know what that’s like. I was a street cop in Albuquerque,” he said, “and I never fitted in too well. My captain called me ‘Smartass,’ like it was my name. I had to punch a couple of guys who tried to make it that.”

The ME walked over to where they stood. “I’ll have a report for you tomorrow. The tox screen will take a lot longer, although that wouldn’t seem to bear on the case. What difference does it make if she was drunk, doped, or sober? She was murdered all the same.” He got into his car and drove away.

“You said you came up here to warn her?” Martinez asked.

“I tried to call her yesterday afternoon, as soon as I heard Biggers was in Santa Fe, but we had a bad cell connection, so I came up here.”

“What time did you talk to her?”

“Three-thirty, four o’clock.”

“So we know she was alive then.”

“If Harvey left Santa Fe before I was looking for him, he could have been here then.”

“That falls within the ME’s guess. He said late afternoon, early evening.”

“The stomach contents will tell you something about that, whether she’d had dinner or not.”

“Why wouldn’t she tell you where she was?”

“She presented me with a dog for a gift, and I think she was afraid I’d want to return it. She needn’t have worried, the dog and I get along just fine.”

“Who else knew where she was, except this Nicky guy?”

“Harvey Biggers,” Stone said. “But I don’t know how he found out or who else knew.”

They were driving back. “I was impressed with how calmly you handled that,” she said.

“I had a lot of practice when I was on the force. It gets to be routine, except once in a while when you get riled or really interested. This one was very violent, and that makes me angry. Carrie certainly didn’t deserve it.”

“It could have happened to me, if I’d stuck with the marriage,” Gala said. “I was afraid to file for divorce, but I knew I had to just suck it up and get it done, if I wanted to live a long and healthy life.”

“Do you still feel that you’re in any danger?”

“Not so much. It helps that we’re in different cities. I had everything he could have thought he owned packed up and shipped back to L.A., so he wouldn’t have an excuse to come out here.”

“You sent his belongings to his house?”

“No, I was more considerate than that. I had the shipper store everything, and I wrote and told him. I even paid for the packing and shipping. He was still angry, called me up and started yelling, but I hung up on him.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Oh, five or six weeks, I guess. I’ve occupied myself by shopping for replacement things. It’s a pretty big house, so I had a lot to do. Second time I’ve done it.”

“Did you have any trouble getting a settlement?”

“Not really. The California community property laws help keep it simple. It’s mostly arguing about which half of things you’re going to get. I told my lawyer to settle it with his lawyer, and I guess I was lucky that he had a girlfriend that he wanted to marry, so he didn’t make a lot of trouble.”

“Did he marry her?”

“Nope. I heard she left him right after the divorce was final. She had the advantage of watching how he handled the divorce, and I think she was able to put herself in my boots. She was an actress. I heard she got an offer to do a play in New York and took it in a heartbeat.”

She drove him back to her house. “You got any dinner plans?”

“Nope.”

“Good. I’ll make us an omelet or something, and then we’ll see how it goes.”

“I’ll need to stop by Ed’s house first. I have some bad news to deliver to Nicky and Vanessa Chalmers.”