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I sat in the car to regroup.  I sure could’ve used a session with Ralph and Fanny and some white boards, but I didn’t want to keep driving back and forth to Santa Teresa.  Besides, I had to be realistic; the car was basically my office.  I couldn’t imagine how my father functioned as a PI without a cell phone and internet access.  The miles he must have put on his car.  Just as I was dictating my notes from the depressing interview with the downtrodden Carla, a call came in from Jimmy with an update on downtrodden Henry.  He told me the police essentially had nothing, just barely enough for a warrant and since the car was gone, they didn’t even have enough to bring him in for questioning.  He had dropped Henry off and told him not to the police without him present, in fact not to talk to anyone – a concept that Henry found hard to believe since he kept on insisting that he hadn’t done anything.  I briefed him on my meeting with Carla, and my growing certainty of the relationship between all the principles in this case, particularly that Henry might have been keeping company with Sylvia, who was now probably keeping company with Dessa and Goddard. Continue reading →

Chapter 44

We both climbed into the car, mutely put on our seat belts, and I was about to turn on the ignition when Simba grabbed my arm.  “Will you listen to Dessa’s message for me?” she said, “I’m too nervous, if she says that she never wants to see me again, all this won’t have been worth it.  I think that I would just go back up the canyon and gut it out with Sam.”

“Simba, I think that you have to listen to the message, but when you listen to it is up to you.  Listen to it later after you had some rest and can think more clearly.   But regardless, I don’t think that it is a good idea to go back to Sam’s house.  I’ll take you back to Henry’s, get some sleep and then start fresh.”

Simba slid back into her seat and closed her eyes, but as I wove through traffic I could see her fingering her cell phone.  Finally she said in a whisper, “Would you mind pulling over, I think that I have to listen to the message now.  Would you mind if I put it on speaker?”

I nodded my head and turned into the Safeway parking lot.  Suddenly for the first time, I heard Dessa’s soft voice.  “Hello Simba, this is Dessa.  I was really surprised to get your phone call because I don’t know how you got my number, but I guess that shows that you are really trying and serious about our relationship.  So thank you.  I’m not sure if you are worried about Goddard, but he is here with me – so I’m telling you just in case, and also it has been good for me, because we are working through some things together.  We are both fine and staying with a friend of Goddard’s.  I know that we need to talk together sometime soon, but I am not ready yet.  My friend Penny told me many things about my family, at least what I thought was my family, but I didn’t want to believe her.  It was very confusing, but then she died and I got very scared.   I’ve been told that the police would like to question me about her death, but I really don’t know anything that would be helpful.  Goddard says that you are probably working with this woman named Liza Blue, and that she’s okay, so that’s good.  But I am throwing this telephone away now.  I need to meet you on my terms and you’ll just have to wait for me to get in touch.  I’m fine where I am, and I’m safe.”  There was a slight pause, and then she whispered, “I’m scared of Dad.  Be careful.”  And then the phone clicked.

“Why do you think that she called my Simba, and not Mom?  And if she is calling me Simba, why didn’t she call her father Sam?  Instead she called him Dad.  Do you think that means that she knows that I am not her birth mother, but that Sam is her real father?  Do you think that she’s with her birth mother?  Did she sound like she was mad at me or just disappointed, but she did say that she appreciated my efforts, so that’s good isn’t it?”

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Simba didn’t say a word and my mind raced.  What evidence could Grimes have put together since yesterday?  No judge would grant a search warrant based on a partial match of a license plate.  He must have come up with additional evidence, some sort of relationship between Penny and Henry, and I didn’t even have that nailed down yet, it was still conjecture on my part.  Grimes wasn’t due to talk with Penny’s mom Carla Piccinini until tomorrow, so that left Sam, Johnny Knox, or maybe Dessa or Sylvia.  Sam was the most likely candidate given his hatred of Henry, but he claimed he didn’t know anything about Penny during his last interview with Grimes.  But of course he could have been lying; maybe Simba’s interest in getting custody of Chloe prompted him to rat out Henry.  Johnny Knox was also a possibility, either on his own initiative, or based on Sam’s orders.  And it just didn’t make any sense for Dessa or Sylvia to be involved if they were still laying low. Continue reading →

Chapter 41

As I ran along the bike path at the beach, I began to think that going to see Henry on my own was a bad idea – I suppose being a neutral go between was a decent enough idea, but I don’t think that Henry would perceive me as neutral.  This would almost be the role of a court appointed mediator.  I stopped to get some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and as I headed back to my apartment I resolved to call the meeting off.

As I walked up the stairs, I could smell bacon and eggs.  There was Simba in the kitchen cooking away.  “Hi,” she said, “I hope that you don’t mind, but I thought that I would get a jump start on breakfast.  I slept for maybe a half an hour, but I feel totally refreshed.  I went to the corner market and bought you some provisions.  It’s the least I could do after your hospitality.”

I stood there with my mouth open.  How could something as simple as bacon and eggs create such a mess?  I could only imagine that she was totally out of practice.  She must have fumbled when she cracked some of the eggs, because there was s smear of liquidy egg yolk across the counter.  She had then chosen to use an egg beater, which she must have dug deep to find.  I didn’t even know that I had one.  Perhaps that is why the counter was stacked with bowls that I hadn’t seen in years.  The egg beater was perched along the counter, and drips of beaten eggs ran down the cupboard door.  But Simba was beaming as if she was a little girl who wanted to surprise her mother with a mother’s day feast.  “Here, sit down, and dig in, and I have something else important to tell you,” she said. Continue reading →