In Harm’s Way - Ch. 11-12

Excerpt from rough draft of In Harm’s Way by Pat Otterness

CHAPTER ELEVEN

????????????“Well, well, well!” said Vaughn, looking smug. “Seeking me out at last? I knew it would happen. Is this a social visit?” he said, winking broadly, “or is it business?”

????????????Gag!?How do I get myself into these fixes??“Actually, I was looking for Captain Morris,” I said. “Is he around?”

????????????Vaughn’s smug look dissolved into annoyance. “I’m in charge of this case, Ms. Chance. Get used to it. What do you have for Captain Morris?”

????????????“Yes, what indeed?” said Captain Morris, pushing open the door and looking in. “It seems you have stolen my visitor, Deputy. I’m afraid you’ll have to give her back.” He gestured for me to join him, and I practically leapt to his side.

????????????“But it’s?my case,” said Investigator Vaughn, bordering on a whine. “She should be talking to?me.”

????????????Captain Morris turned to me. “Do you want to talk to Investigator Vaughn?” he asked.

????????????“No sir, I don’t,” I said.?No way in hell.

????????????“There it is, then,” said Morris to Vaughn. “I’ll keep you informed if Ms. Chance has information related to the case.”

????????????I didn’t actually shout?Hallelujah, but the joy of that emotion rang out inside of me. I almost skipped as I followed Captain Morris to a larger office farther along the hallway. “This is a lot nicer than Investigator Vaughn’s office,” I said.

????????????Morris chuckled. “Vaughn doesn’t?have?an office,” he said. “That was an interrogation room.”

????????????“He?said?it was his office.”

????????????“It’s as close as he’s ever likely to get,” said Morris, smiling. “I apologize for him. He can be a little heavy-handed.”

????????????I left that understatement alone. “I have some new information,” I told him. “Hiram … Hiram Jones … thought we might be able to identify the body through her acrylic nails.” At his puzzled glance, I explained that Hiram had been a manicurist. “He knows a lot about acrylic nails. He sent me to interview two girls at a shop called Bodacious, to see if they could identify the woman whose body I found.”

????????????“And could they?” said Captain Morris, resting his elbows on the table with his face in his hands. “What did you learn?”

????????????“It’s not for sure or anything,” I said, “but it might be a Carmen Ruiz-Garcia. She was the only Latina who’d had red nails applied at Bodacious recently.”

????????????“What about other places? Did you look elsewhere?”

????????????“No, sir. Mostly the Latinas go to Bodacious. They have the best selection of colors, and I think they charge less. At least that’s what LaZanya said.”

????????????“Lasagna?” said Morris. “No, wait, don’t tell me. I think I remember when she was born. I thought the name Bodacious rang a bell. Didn’t she have twin girls? Lasagna and … let me see …”

????????????“LaTanya,” I supplied. “And LaZanya isn’t spelled like you’re thinking. It’s L-A-Z-A-N-Y-A.”

????????????“Of course it is,” said Captain Morris. He was smiling. “I remember her. Bodacious, I mean. She was our dispatcher back before her girls were born. She was a doozey.”

????????????“Had to be an improvement over what’s warming the chair right now,” I said.

????????????“Our regular dispatcher should be back soon,” said Morris. “Margot French is very professional. Her stand-in is … umm … something?else.” He cleared his throat, and returned to the topic at hand.

????????????“What could LaTanya and LaZanya tell you about this Carmen Ruiz-Garcia?”

????????????“They didn’t know her. Never saw her. All I could get from them was a cell phone number.” I read it off to him, and he jotted it down in his notebook.

????????????“I’ll check it out,” said Morris. “We need to confirm that this is our victim before we look anywhere else. How is it that the girls never saw the woman? Didn’t they do her nails? Or did Bodacious do them?”

????????????“Neither, I’m afraid,” I said. “It seems the whole family was out of town that day, so they had someone else filling in.”

????????????“And that someone was …?”

????????????“Hiram Jones, sir. He doesn’t know about any of this yet. I haven’t spoken to him. I came straight here from talking to the girls at Bodacious.”?Was I babbling??I really didn’t want to see Hiram involved in this thing. Lord help him when Vaughn got wind of this new turn of events.

????????????“Well, then, I guess we’d better get Mr. Jones in here to identify the body. Or not, if its not his client. Do you know where he’s working today? Or is he at home?” Morris pulled the phone towards him and lifted the receiver.

????????????“I think this is his day to work at Blanche Cook’s bed-and-breakfast,” I said. I started scrabbling around in my purse for my address book.

????????????“I have the number, Ms. Chance,” said Morris. “Blanche is a friend … and of course her son Alan is one of our deputies.” He punched in some numbers, and held a brief conversation with someone. “We’ll be waiting,” he said, ending the conversation. “Mr. Jones will be along shortly,” he told me. “Do you want to stay and hear what he has to say? It might help him relax. He seems to get uptight around some of our officers.”

????????????“We?both?get uptight around Investigator Vaughn,” I said. “Yes, I’d like to hear what Hiram knows about Carmen Ruiz-Garcia. May I go with him to view the body? I never got to see her face.”

????????????“Consider yourself fortunate,” said Morris. “But if you want to see the body, please be my guest. I’m sure Mr. Jones will be glad of your company.”??He made another call: told a deputy to be waiting to drive Hiram and me to Richmond to view the body, then bring us back.

????????????There was a knock on the door. “Mr. Jones is here, sir,” said the dispatcher-from-hell.

????????????“Does she have a name?” I asked Morris as Hiram entered the room.

????????????“We?call her?Wiggins,” said Captain Morris, “but that’s not her?real?name.” He turned to Hiram. “Mr. Jones. Thank you for coming so quickly. We have a little problem that requires your assistance. Please, take a seat.”

????????????Through the door we could all hear Investigator Vaughn’s voice berating stand-in- dispatcher Wiggins. “I should be?in there! Why didn’t you call me? It’s?my?crime scene, dammit-all!”?

Was that a tiny smile on Captain Morris’ face?

????????????“I like to think of them as a?couple,” he said. This time his grin was huge. “Mr. Jones,” he said. “I understand you filled in at Bodacious one day last week while the Keene family was away. Is that correct?”

????????????“Yes, sir,” said Hiram, “I did.”

????????????“And did you do some applications of acrylic nails that day, perhaps?” Morris looked at Hiram with soft, encouraging eyes.

????????????“Yes, I did three or four, I think. And one pedicure … no acrylic nails on her toes, of course.” He laughed nervously. “What is this about, Captain? Have I done something wrong? I’m fully licensed to do acrylic nail application.”

????????????“No, no, no!” said Captain Morris. “Your friend, Ms. Chance, interviewed Bodacious Keene’s daughters today, and we have a possible identification on those red acrylic nails. A woman named Carmen Ruiz-Garcia. They claim it was you who applied her nails, Mr. Jones.”

????????????There was a scrabbling sound at the door, and it flew open to reveal Investigator Vaughn crouching on his knees. “I knew it! he said. “I knew Hiram Jones was involved in this murder.” He pulled himself to his feet and made as if to enter the room.

????????????“Were you listening at my?door, Deputy Vaughn?” said Captain Morris. His voice was deceptively soft, but it riveted Vaughn in the doorway. “Were you?listening?at my?door?” he repeated. You could cut the silence with a knife.

????????????“Captain, I can explain,” said Vaughn, backing into the hallway. “This is supposed to be?my?case … my?witnesses … my?suspects.”

????????????“Were?you listening at my door? Don’t make me ask you again, Deputy.” Morris was furious.

????????????“But, sir … yes, sir … yes, I was listening. But, sir … I can explain.” Investigator Vaughn’s face had gone pale. He knew he’d crossed a line.

????????????“I told him not to do it,” said a whiney voice in the hallway. “I told him he’d get in trouble. But did he listen? No-o-o!”

????????????“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”?screamed Investigator Vaughn.

????????????Captain Morris reached over and shut the door. “I’ll be glad when Jordan Hunt gets back from Richmond,” he said with feeling.

????????????“I remember doing her nails,” said Hiram. “She didn’t say much. She hinted about a big date, though, someone she wanted to impress. And she asked me where she could find a jeweler. Well of course I didn’t know, but another lady was there waiting for a pedicure, and she knew the name of a retired jeweler in Arrington. Maybe Carmen went to see him. I don’t know.”

????????????“Do you remember the name of the jeweler?” Morris asked.

????????????Hiram thought for a moment. “No,” he said. “But I’m sure we can find that woman again, the one with the pedicure. She said she was a regular client at Bodacious. We can get her to tell us his name.”

????????????“Good thinking,” said Captain Morris. “But let’s not get the horse before the cart. Deputy Nines is going to drive you to Richmond now. Once you’ve identified the body … if you can, that is … then we’ll follow up on this jeweler.”

????????????“This is Deputy Philip Nines,” said Captain Morris a few minutes later, indicating the slender young officer I’d shared an intimate moment with the day before. “Nines, this is Ms. Chance, and Mr. Jones. Take good care of them for me.”

????????????“Yes, sir, I will,” said Nines, opening a rear door of the cruiser for us. He looked about fourteen years old.

????????????“Are you sure he’s old enough to drive?” I asked Captain Morris.

????????????Morris smiled. “Just barely,” he said, bringing a blush to the deputy’s cheeks. “I’m kidding,” he added. “Deputy Nines is older than he looks. He’s a reliable man. You’ll be in good hands with him.” Morris closed the door of the cruiser, nodded to Nines, and was gone.

CHAPTER TWELVE

????????????“I think they let you view the body through a window,” said Deputy Nines, making conversation. We had been riding in silence long enough to make all of us uncomfortable. “So you don’t have to deal with the smell and all, I guess.” He cast a meaningful look over his shoulder at me.

????????????“How can I get a good look at her nails if I’m on the other side of a plate of glass?” said Hiram.

????????????“I think the idea is to identify her face,” I told him. I wasn’t sure I could even manage a through-the-glass viewing without losing my lunch. The color green would never be quite the same to me after my in-grave viewing.

????????????“The nails could be important,” said Hiram. “I mean, I didn’t spend much time looking at her face. And I think she’ll look different dead, don’t you think?” He looked to me for agreement.

????????????Oh, yes! She’ll look different. I could already feel my stomach churning.

????????????“But I spent some time on those?nails. I’ll be able to tell if they’re the right color, and if the nails are the right size and everything”

????????????“Size?” I said. “What do you mean, size?”

????????????“Acrylic nails come in sizes,” said Hiram. “Not all fingernails are the same size, you know. They’re graded from one to ten.” He picked up my hand and pointed to nail after nail, appointing a size to each one.

????????????“So you plan on identifying the body by examining her?nails?” I said.

????????????“Umm … yeah,” said Hiram. “Is that a problem?”

????????????“Not for me,” I said, snorting as I tried to stifle a laugh. “But I think … I think Investigator Vaughn may feel differently.” I let out a little gasp.

????????????“Are you all right, Chat?” said Hiram. “You sound like you’re choking.”

????????????“I’m fine,” I said, regaining control of myself. “Something went down the wrong way.” I faked a few coughs.

????????????“I think you’ll be allowed to go in and examine the nails up close if you feel it’s necessary, Mr. Jones,” said Deputy Nines. “I’ll try to arrange it for you when we get to Richmond.”

????????????“Thanks, Deputy Nines. You can call me Harm. It’s a nickname for Hiram.”

????????????“I’m Phil,” said the deputy.

????????????“And you can call me Chat,” I said. “A nickname for Charity.”

????????????“What does the ‘F’ stand for?” said Hiram. “Your name tag says F. Nines, not P. Nines.”

????????????“Phil is just a nickname too,” said Nines.

????????????“A nickname for what?” said Hiram, sounding genuinely interested and totally blind to Nines’ reluctance to tell his name.

????????????“Fyvush,” said the deputy at last, blushing as only the young can blush. “Fyvush is Yiddish for Philip.”

????????????“You mean like Fyvush Finkel, the?actor?” said Hiram. “That’s really cool!”

????????????“Maybe cool if your surname isn’t Nines,” said the deputy. “If your name is Fyvush Nines, you get teased all the time. I mean?all?the time.”

????????????“Yeah,” said Hiram, “but you’re out of school now. You’re an adult.”

????????????Just barely, I thought but didn’t say.

????????????“The deputies are just as bad,” said Nines. “They’ll be looking at a chart, and one will say, ‘Does this look like a?fivish?nine to you?’ and the other one will say, ‘No, I think that’s more of an?eightish?nine.’ And they’ll look at me and laugh.”

????????????“I think that’s just good-natured ribbing,” I said. “You should join in instead of getting offended. Tell them you’re the expert on?fivish?nines, and get silly with them. I think that’s the way to earn their respect and friendship.”

????????????We rode on for a while longer in silence. I was starting to doze off when the car stopped and Deputy Nines told us we’d reached our destination. I trudged into the building behind the two men, less than eager to get another glimpse of rotting flesh.

Hiram’s insistence on seeing the nails of the deceased up close and personal meant Deputy Nines and I were treated to what could best be described as a?near-barf experience. Both of us struggled to maintain our dignity while Hiram donned gloves, then cheerfully lifted and examined the hands of the corpse.

????????????“Look, there’s a nail missing,” said Hiram, holding up a hand for us to see. “Her pinkie finger is missing a nail.” He rattled off a size which meant nothing to either Nines or myself, and moved to the other hand, where he?tsked through his teeth and pointed out scratches that shouldn’t have been there. The deputy and I were oblivious, just struggling to keep from tossing our cookies. Fortunately, there was a mortuary attendant who took down everything Hiram said. He seemed impressed with Hiram’s knowledge about acrylic nails, and said he would pass the information on to the investigating officer.

????????????That would be Vaughn, of course. I could just imagine how much Vaughn would welcome our input into his case. Thinking about that helped me get my mind off my roiling stomach. I had already determined that the woman was a stranger to me. I was ready to go home.

????????????“I’m starved,” said Hiram as soon as we were back in the car. Can we get something to eat before we go home?”

????????????Only Hiram could be hungry right after looking a decaying corpse in the face. I could feel my stomach churn, and I suspected that Deputy Nines felt queasy as well.

????????????“Will MacDonald’s do?” said the always helpful deputy.

????????????“Perfect!” said Hiram. “I haven’t been to MacDonald’s in weeks.”

????????????“What about you, Ms. Chance?” said Nines. “Will MacDonald’s work for you, too?”

????????????“Chat,” I corrected. “Anything Hiram wants is fine. I’m not feeling much like eating.”?Go figure!?“I could get some iced tea, though.” From my window I could see we were approaching the golden arches.

????????????“Look!” said Hiram as we pulled into the parking area. “Isn’t that your sister, Hope’s car?” He pointed to a blue car parked near the entrance.

????????????“I guess it could be,” I said. “She doesn’t have the only blue Camry in Richmond. It could be anybody.”

????????????“No, I remember that scratch on the front fender. See it?” Hiram pointed again.

????????????“How?”?I said. “How could you possibly remember a scratch on my sister’s fender?”?Egad! What next??Hiram had met Hope when she visited me in May.

????????????“I washed her car right before she went back to Richmond – as a thank you for letting me borrow it. I noticed the scratch because I was afraid I might have been the one who put it there.” Hiram stepped from the cruiser and headed towards the car he thought belonged to Hope.

????????????Deputy Nines and I headed for the restrooms, leaving Hiram to his own devices. No sooner had I stepped into my stall than I heard someone whisper, “Chat? Is that you?” in a voice that was hauntingly familiar.

????????????“Hope?” I said, hesitating mid-barf. “How did you know it was me?”

????????????“That’s what happens when you embrace the porcelain god. I can see your shoes – and your jeans – under the stall. No one in Richmond dresses like that.”

????????????“Do you lurk here just to look under the stalls?” I said, losing interest in upchucking and sitting on the toilet instead.

????????????“Do you always toss your cookies in fast food joints – or are you just?pregnant?” said Hope. When I failed to reply, Hope’s voice raised a notch. “Please?tell me you’re not pregnant.”

????????????“I just came from viewing a body at the morgue,” I said, edging around her question. “It was?green.”?Uh-oh!?I felt the bile rising in my throat again. For a few minutes, speech became impossible.

????????????“That’s disgusting,” said Hope. “I’ll wait for you outside.” There was a flush, the sound of water at the sink, and then the opening and closing of a door that told me she was gone.

????????????I made my own pilgrimage to the sink, where I tried to rinse my mouth with water from the tap. I wiped my face with a wet paper towel, combed my hair, and followed Hope out into the MacDonald’s dining area. She was standing right outside the door, peeking out from behind a fake potted palm.

????????????“More?lurking?” I said. “Who are you looking for? Or hiding from?” I tried to peek around her, but she pushed me back.

????????????“Harm is out there?” she hissed. He’s with some Deputy that looks about fourteen.”

????????????“Is that a problem?” I said. “I’m with them.”

????????????“I’m meeting a date here,” said Hope.

????????????“Will he be looking behind this tree? Because otherwise he’s going to think he’s been stood up.” I peeked around Hope again and this time Hiram saw us.

????????????“Chat! Hope! Over here!” he said, beckoning. In front of him was a heavily laden tray. “I got you some tea, Chat!”

????????????“No point in hiding now,” I whispered in reply to Hope’s groan. We walked over and joined Hiram and the deputy at their table. “Hope, this is Deputy Fyvush Nines,” I said.

????????????“Phil. Phil Nines,” said the deputy, holding out a hand.

????????????“Hi Phil,” said Hope. “I’m Chat’s sister, Hope.”

????????????“Won’t you join us?” said Nines, indicating a free seat.

????????????“No, I’m sorry,” said Hope. “I’m meeting a date. He should be here soon.” She glanced at her watch, then let her eyes wander around the room, looking for lone males over thirty.

????????????“What does he look like?” said Hiram. “I’ll help you watch for him.”

????????????“I don’t exactly know,” said Hope. “It’s … I guess it’s … sort of a blind date.”

????????????“From an internet dating service,” I said, grinning all over my face.

????????????My sister’s face darkened with displeasure. “Can’t you keep anything to yourself?” she said.

????????????Deputy Nines waved at someone behind me and I turned to see who it was.?Oh, goody!?It was the cute guy I’d seen manning the forensic van outside my house. He must live in Richmond, I thought.

????????????“Nines, hi!” he said. “You bring them to view the body?” His nod included me and Hiram.

????????????“Yep!” said Nines, as Hiram and I nodded. “Just left there. You off duty now?”

????????????“Finally. I’m meeting a date here, I hope.” He cast a speculative glance around the room.

????????????“An internet date?” I asked.

????????????“How did you know? You’re not Hope, are you?”

????????????I guess I didn’t look like his idea of a hot chick. Was it the grimy jeans and sneakers, I wondered, or the barf-breath he must surely be able to smell from such a short distance. On the other hand, what did he expect, if he was trying to impress a new date with dinner at MacDonald’s?

????????????“I’m?Hope,” said my sister, inching away from me and offering up a smiley face to the cute newcomer. “You must be Jon.”

????????????Was that?relief?on his face? Phooey on him! I took a swig of my iced tea and grimaced.

????????????“I’m Harm,” said Hiram, and this is Hope’s sister, Chat. Why don’t you guys join us? Since we’re all here anyway.”

????????????“Sure, why not?” said Jon, failing to note the horror on Hope’s face as he dropped into the chair next to Deputy Nines.

????????????A?dinner date at MacDonald’s shared by close family and friends. What’s not to like??I found that my appetite had miraculously returned.