Murder & The Monkey Band: High Desert Cozy Mystery Series (8 page)

“John, I don’t consider myself to be
a food connoisseur, but this meatball dish is fantastic. What’s in it?” Jeff
asked.

“That’s exactly what a
chef wants to hear. Thank you! It’s a Mideastern dish consisting of lamb
meatballs in a warm yogurt dill sauce. The recipe had an option to serve it
over rice or noodles. I opted for egg noodles and think it works. If the five
of you like it, I’ll add it to the truck’s menu.”

“Don’t have to ask me
twice, Boss. This sucker’s a real hit. Got a lotta Mideasterners for customers
who’ll be all over this like flies on…”

“That’s enough, Max. We’re
in the company of ladies,” John interrupted, grinning at his redneck cook.

“Sorry, Boss,” Max said
abashedly.

“I believe I can speak for
all of us, John, when I tell you this is definitely a hit! I often make
meatballs ahead of time, so it should work on the truck. Actually, I imagine
you could make most of it ahead of time and even freeze the meatballs in your
freezer at home here,” Laura said.

“I think you’re absolutely
right. I see no reason why I couldn’t even cook the meatballs and freeze them.
That way, all I’d have to do is warm them. The sauce will keep for several
days. I don’t want to freeze the yogurt, but I could make batches of noodles
and keep them warm. My loyal customers will have this treat beginning day after
tomorrow. All I need to do is buy the ingredients.”

“Jeff,” Les asked, “did
you find anything on the computer about that Henry guy?”

“Nothing more than what
we’d heard. He’s a wealthy collector who lives in La Quinta. That’s about it. I
need to talk to him, and I want to talk to the housekeeper, Rosa, as well.
Something is nipping at my heels about this Henry guy, but I can’t come up with
it. I’m going to do a little research tonight when I get home, speaking of
which, it’s time for me to be going. I can’t thank you all enough for your
hospitality. I’ve really enjoyed this evening, and this courtyard is magical,”
he said looking around at the twinkling lights and lanterns. “I could stay here
forever and be happy.”

Laura, Les, and John
looked at each other and smiled knowing it wasn’t the twinkling lights at the
compound that interested Jeff. “You’re always welcome here. Please feel free to
come back anytime,” Laura said.

“With an invitation like
that, how could I refuse? Of course I need to check with Marty. Marty, would it
be okay with you if I come back?” the handsome middle-aged detective asked.
Laura was watching him closely and noticed how he rubbed his thumb and right
index finger together. It was a tell. She knew from experience his particular
tell indicated he was nervous.

So Mr. Suave Detective is
not quite as sure of himself as he appears. I like that about him,
Laura thought.

Marty smiled warmly and
answered, “Yes, and I’ll be interested to hear what you find out about Henry.
I’ve never been involved in a murder case before, and I’m finding it
fascinating.”

“It may be fascinating to
you, but for me it’s pretty frustrating. While we’re enjoying a wonderful
dinner, there’s a killer on the loose. That thought never comforts me when I’m
working a case.” He stood up. “Again, thanks to all of you for making me feel
so welcome. Marty, want to walk me to the gate?”

She stood up and so did
Duke. As they were walking to the gate, Duke managed to get between them.
“What’s up with him? Is he some kind of a guard dog?” Jeff asked, grinning at
her.

“Not to my knowledge.
Seems like Labs are pretty friendly, and I’ve never heard of any of them being
on a police force. I’ve never seen him like this.” Duke looked up at Jeff and
growled.

“Well, from the sound of
him, I think he’d make a pretty good police dog. I’d like to kiss you
goodnight, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea at the moment. Does he do
this with all your male friends?”

“Considering that you’re
the first male friend I’ve had since I bought him, I don’t have any history on
his behavior in that context.”

“I’m going to be coming
back, so he better get used to me. Next time I’ll bring some dog treats and see
if I can worm my way into his good graces that way.”

“Detective, I think
there’s another name for that kind behavior. Rather imagine in your line of
work it would be called blackmail or some such thing and would probably be
illegal.”

“Marty, I would prefer to
call it a bribe. That word doesn’t quite have the negative connotation that
blackmail does, and really it is more of a bribe than blackmail.”

“Well, it might not be
good for your reputation if it gets out you’re using bribes to gain favor with
a nice, friendly black Lab. I’d be careful who you say that to. I’ll pretend
like I didn’t hear it. Could cause some problems in your line of work,” she
said laughing. “If you find something out about Siegelman, I’d like to know.”

“If you don’t hear from me
tonight I’ll see you tomorrow. I definitely want to talk to Rosa. See you
then.” He opened the gate and walked out to his car. Duke never took his eyes
off of him until he’d gotten in his car, and then he sat down, raised his head
to Marty and silently asked for an ear scratch.

“Duke, it’s all right. I
think he’s a good man, and I think we’ll be seeing more of him. You’re going to
have to get used to him,” she said as they walked into her house.

Marty had just turned the lamp off on
her nightstand when her cell phone rang. She reached over and answered it.

“This is Marty.”

“Hi, it’s Jeff. I’m sorry
to call this late, but I told you I’d let you know if I found out something
about Henry Siegelman. I did.”

“Actually, I’ve been doing
some research on the appraisal, and I just turned off my light, so it’s not a
problem. What did you find out?”

“I told you something was
bothering me about the name Henry Siegelman, and it came to me on the way home.
I remembered a theft case one of my friends in the department worked on years
ago when I first started out and was with the La Quinta Police Department. I’m
sure you know it’s a pretty wealthy area, and some very valuable California
Impressionist paintings had been stolen from a gallery. I won’t bother you with
the details, but the department was able to catch the person who committed the
theft and arrest him.”

“I’m sorry, Jeff, I must
be missing something. I don’t see a tie-in to Henry Siegelman from what you’re
telling me.”

“Stay with me. A few
months later I had to go to court in La Quinta for my divorce, which is another
story. We’ll go into that another time. Anyway, my friend and I were having a
couple of beers after I’d been to court, and he told me more about the case.
The guy they’d arrested for the art heist sang like a canary about who’d hired
him. He told my friend, the lead detective, he’d been hired by a guy who worked
for a man named Henry Siegelman. My friend told me they’d tried to get
something on Siegelman, so they could make a case against him, but he had a
very good attorney, and there never was enough evidence to charge him, although
they were able to make a case against both the art thief and the guy who hired
him at Siegelman’s request.”

“Wow! That could mean
Henry Siegelman’s possibly behind the Monkey Band theft. Maybe he hired someone
to steal it and the thief encountered Mrs. Jensen in the process and killed
her. You’re the expert here. Would that be a fair assessment of what might have
happened?”

“Yes, you’re right and
you’re thinking like a detective. It very well could have happened that way.
When I talk to Rosa tomorrow I want to find out if Mrs. Jensen usually went out
at night. Maybe the thief was banking on her being gone. No one has said anything
about her having a male friend, but maybe that’s a possibility, and if it is,
and the thief knew about her male friend, he might have been planning on her
being out for the evening with her friend.”

“What about the guy who
went to prison for the art theft? The one your friend arrested? Could you talk
to him?”

“I wish I could, but I
called my friend tonight, and he told me after the guy got out of prison he was
murdered last year in a drug deal gone bad. I’m going to talk to Henry
Siegelman tomorrow, but if he was able to hide his involvement in that case,
there’s nothing that leads me to believe he won’t be able to do it again.
Unless I can find something solid on him, there’s no way the District Attorney
will charge him in this case. There’s simply not enough to go on.”

“So if you can’t find out
something, and if Henry Siegelman did it, he not only will go free, he’ll also
have the Monkey Band set. Is that right?”

“Fraid so. Believe me, I
don’t like this any more than you do, but if I can’t find the person who
actually stole the set and murdered Mrs. Jensen, there is no way I can make a
case against Henry Siegelman.”

“Well, that sounds pretty
lousy.”

“Trust me, it is. That’s
the down side of this business. It’s pretty exhilarating when you solve a case
and the bad guy does time, but when you suspect someone had a hand in a crime
and you can’t find enough evidence to charge them, it’s pretty frustrating.”

“I’ll keep my eyes and
ears open tomorrow. Laura’s going with me on the appraisal again. Maybe her
psychic abilities will kick in, and she can come up with something. Sounds like
you could use some sixth sense help on this case.”

He laughed. “For my own
sake, I wish I believed in that stuff a little more. Maybe that’s what I need
to solve the case. See you tomorrow. Sleep well.”

“Good night, Jeff.”
And
maybe that’s exactly what you do need to solve this case,
she thought,
setting her phone on the nightstand as she turned off the light. Tomorrow
promised to be another exciting day.

“Ready, Laura?” Marty asked, as she
lightly knocked on her sister’s door. “I told Carl I’d meet him at 8:00 at the
Jensen home, and I don’t want to be late.”

“Yes, I wanted to look a
couple of things up before we went out there this morning, but I’m ready now. I
know you’ll think it’s stupid, but there’s such a thing as a protection chant.
I couldn’t quite remember it, so I looked it up and jotted it down. Given
everything that’s happened at that house, I thought we could use it,” she said
as they walked out to Marty’s car.

“Well, thanks, I guess. I
don’t know a thing about chants and protection. I’ll leave it up to you. I did
talk to Jeff last night and found out a little more information about Henry
Siegelman.” On the drive to the Jensen home she filled Laura in on what Jeff
had told her.

“What I’m hearing from you
is that this thing may never be solved. Is that what you got from talking to
him?”

“Yes and no. If Henry
Siegelman is behind it, there’s a good chance it won’t be solved if it’s
anything like the case Jeff told me about that involved him. Then again, it
could be someone else. I had the feeling that Jeff almost hopes it is. Oh good,
Carl’s already here. I don’t think you’ve met him before.”

“How did you find him?”

“There’s an antique
appraiser society in town, and I joined it. We have a monthly dinner meeting.
It really is a good way to network and find people you’d like to work with. For
some reason Carl and I hit it off. He owns the Palm Springs Antique Shoppe, a
really high end antique shop, but his love is jewelry. He’s certified by two
societies in that area, but he’s also knowledgeable about a lot of other
things. I’ve helped him with a couple of appraisals, and he’s helped me. We
work well together. You may not have much to do while we’re appraising the
jewelry, because I’ll be photographing it for him to save him some time.”

“I thought you took
pictures of it yesterday and sent it to him.”

“Those weren’t good enough
for an appraisal. I just wanted him to get a sense of what was in the jewelry
collection.”

They got out of the car
and walked up to the gate where an older nondescript looking man with thinning
red hair and a large belly was standing, wearing a black and white polka dot
bow tie and a bright red vest under a white seersucker suit. “Carl, I want you
to meet my sister, Laura. She’s acting as my assistant, Laura, Carl Mitchell.”

“Happy to meet you Carl,
and I’m also glad to know of a good jewelry appraiser. I work for Alliance
Property and Casualty Company. My boss is in charge of deciding which of our
clients need appraisals. The turnover for appraisers is pretty high. Seems like
a lot of people come to the desert in the late fall or early spring and become
enchanted by the weather and decide to move here. The enchantment often fades
after they spend a summer here and suffer through days and days of temperatures
of over one hundred degrees. A lot of them decide to go back where they came
from. I think that’s one of the reasons we see such a high turnover of people
involved in the appraisal business.”

“Nice to meet you, Laura,”
Carl said. “Here’s my business card. Please call me if I can help you.” He
turned to Marty. “Let’s get started. I really don’t want to open the shop up
late.” The gate was open, and they entered the courtyard.

“I called Rosa last night
and told her we’d be here early this morning. She must have opened the gate.”
The front door to the house was open, and they were greeted by Rosa who was
standing next to the door.

“Rosa, this is Carl
Mitchell. He’s going to appraise Mrs. Jensen’s jewelry, and I’ll be helping
him. By the way Carl, her son mentioned she had a ten carat marquise cut
diamond ring with a platinum setting that wasn’t in the floor safe. He asked me
to be on the lookout for it. He opened the safe to show me what was in it, and
that’s when I decided I needed your expertise. I closed it, and Jim gave me the
combination. Let’s go back to her bedroom where the safe is. I’ll open it, and
we can get started.”

“Ms. Morgan,” Rosa said.
“I remember seeing Mrs. Jensen wearing that ring. It was one of her favorites,
but I haven’t seen it since she died. I thought you might like something to eat
this morning, so I made some sweet rolls and a pot of coffee. May I bring you
some?”

“That would be wonderful.
Thanks!” They walked down the hall to the bedroom, and Marty walked over to
where the floor safe was. She took the combination from her purse and opened
it. “How do you want to do this, Carl?”

“I’d like you to take one
piece of jewelry at a time out of the safe. Place each piece on this black
velvet cloth I brought and photograph it. We’ll follow that process until
you’ve photographed each piece, and I’ve examined each one. I want frontal and
side photos as well as any shots of identifying marks. Make sense?”

“Yes, here’s the first piece.
Let me photograph it, and we’ll go from there.”

Carl had just finished
with the last piece when Laura walked into the bedroom holding a butcher’s
knife and a cutting board in her hands. “Good grief, Laura, what are you
doing?” Marty asked, at a loss as to why her mild-mannered sister was walking
into the room with a butcher’s knife in her hand.

“You haven’t found the
missing ring, have you?” Laura asked.

Carl and Marty both shook
their heads, indicating no.

“I know where it is. I
just had a vision that told me where to look for it.”

“What are you talking
about?” Carl asked. “I’ve seen some pretty strange things while I’ve been in
this business, but I’ve never had anyone walk into a room where I was
conducting an appraisal with a butcher’s knife and a cutting board.”

“Carl, we don’t tell many
people this, but in addition to working for an insurance company, Laura’s a
psychic, and that’s what she means by a vision,” Marty said.

“Marty, this is way over
my head, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with it. Laura, are you sure you know
what you’re doing?” Carl asked.

“Yes. Do you see that
styrofoam wig stand at the end of the closet shelf? It’s shaped in the form of
a human head so a wig can be displayed on it. Carl, you’re taller than we are,
would you please lift it down and put it on the cutting board?”

Carl stood for a moment
clearly trying to decide whether or not Laura was deranged. “Carl, please,”
Marty said. “I’ve learned if Laura says she wants someone to do something
strange, there’s a very good reason for it.”

He stared at her for a
moment then lifted the styrofoam head off the shelf and asked, “Do you want me
to put it on the board upright or lay it down?”

“Roll it over so the back
of the head is upright, and I’d like both of you to take a couple of steps
back.” They did as she asked, and a moment later she raised the knife over her
head and brought it down, splitting the wig stand from top to bottom. A ring
with a large diamond in it rolled out of the split head. “Here’s the missing
diamond ring. Do you want me to put it on the black velvet so it can be
photographed?” Laura asked.

“How did you know that’s
where it was? I’ve never seen anything like this in all my life. My mind is
having a hard time accepting what my eyes just saw,” Carl blurted out with an
amazed look on his face.

“Thanks, Laura. We’ll take
it from here. Knew there was a reason I wanted you on this appraisal. It’s not
uncommon for women who live alone to hide something valuable in unusual places
like the pocket of their bathrobe or some other place, although I’ve never seen
anything quite like this.” She photographed the ring and handed it to Carl
whose eyes were uncommonly large as he stared, gape-mouthed, at the large
sparkling diamond ring.

“I’m almost afraid to
touch it. Laura, could this thing be hexed or something? I guess what I’m
asking is if I’m going to have something horrible happen to me because I’m
about to touch it?”

“No, I did a protection
chant before I came into the room. We’re all going to be just fine.”

“You did a protection
chant,” Carl said. “Swell. I can’t even believe I heard those words, much less
that I’m saying them. I’ve heard of a sixth sense, but this is definitely the
first time I’ve ever experienced it. Do you realize if you hadn’t found that
ring it probably would have been thrown out when the room’s unneeded items like
the wig stand were cleaned out and dumped in the trash? Wow! I’m impressed.”

Carl finished up his
examination of the ring and said, “I need to leave. Marty, it should take me
about a week to get my report to you. Thanks again for asking me to do this.
Laura, I should say it’s been a pleasure to meet you, but instead I think I’ll
say you’ve provided me with the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had in
my life, and I rather doubt anyone would believe me even if I tried to tell
them about it. I know you two ladies have a lot more to do here, so I’ll let
myself out.”

“Thanks, Carl. I’ll be
talking to you,” Marty said.

He walked out of the room,
shaking his head and mumbling to himself.