For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series (16 page)

“
Yeah, I think you’re right
about the money. Did you get a color on the car? I’ll pick up a map
at the Southern California Auto Club office on the way to the
airport.” Henry said. “I guess I’ll get a hotel room when I get
there and figure out the lay of the land.” “Why don’t you give me a
call once you land, maybe my office can help you out with something
while you’re in the air?” Wayne picked up the check that Millie had
dropped on the table and got up to head for the cashier.

“
Yeah, I can do that.” Henry
reached in his pocket to get a couple of bucks for the tip. He was
thinking if he needed to let Rosie know that he was going out of
town. He wanted to, but there was really no reason to call her.
They had left it fairly casual last night; he was to call her when
he was ready to see her again. Maybe he should call her at her
office and ask her out on Saturday night and then he could casually
mention that he would be gone tonight. Yeah, that’s what he could
do, that way she would know, but at the same time it wasn’t as
though he was calling specifically to tell her that he was going to
be out of town.

Henry walked into his house
and first wrote a message to Charles on the refrigerator’s white
board to say he was flying out and would be gone until tomorrow.
Then he grabbed a bag from his closet and packed his toiletries, a
clean shirt, underwear and an extra pair of socks. He threw his
handcuffs into the bag and picked up the paperback that he’d been
reading from his nightstand as well. Just then he heard Charles
come home.

“
Heeeey, do you want a
ride?” Charles poked his head around Henry’s bedroom door. “Where
are you going anyway?” “I’m flying to San Francisco this afternoon,
picking up a rental car and then driving to Mountain View, you
ought to be familiar with that area.” Henry zipped his bag shut.
“Sort of, I never went down the Peninsula much, there’s nothing
there.” Charles leaned against the door frame.

“
Well, there’s a potential
suspect there, he’s not returning my calls and so Wayne asked me to
go up and talk to him.” Henry picked his bag up from the bed and
started for the door as Charles stepped aside.“So the guy lives in
Mountain View?” Charles followed Henry into the kitchen. “No, he
actually lives in Los Altos, but the company he works for is in
Mountain View, so I’m hoping to find him at one of those two
places.” Henry set his bag on the kitchen table and pulled his
wallet out to see how much cash he had.

“
Well, I believe they’re
right next to each other, but I have a Bay Area map in my room, let
me get it for you.” Charles walked off to his room at the other
side of the house. “I’ll take the ride to the airport if that offer
is still good.” Henry yelled after him. “Ok, I can take you right
now.” Charles yelled back. “Are you ready? By the way, you should
bring a jacket; it’s usually a lot colder up there!” He said in a
normal tone of voice as he walked back into the kitchen waving the
map.

“
All right, let’s go now
then, thanks for this.” Henry took the map and put it in the side
pocket of his bag. He opened the hall closet and took a windbreaker
off its hanger and opened his bag and laid it on top. He picked up
the bag and walked out to the garage with Charles close
behind.

One of the benefits of the
small town atmosphere that Palm Springs has retained is that the
airport is easily reachable from most areas of the city. Henry’s
house was no exception and within fifteen minutes he was walking
into the terminal looking for the Alaska Airlines ticket counter.
He stood in a relatively short line and got to the ticket agent who
welcomed him as Deputy Wright.

Obviously Wayne’s phone
calls had made some impact with the airline. However, the agent at
the counter told him that the only difference it made was that he
would not have to go through the extra security check that someone
who bought a last minute ticket at the counter normally had to go
through since he was “traveling on official police
business.”

Henry got his boarding pass
and headed out to the terminal. He went through the security
checkpoint, and indeed there was no problem. He bought a bottle of
water at the snack bar; he thought it was amazing what airport
stores charged for a simple bottle of water. He sat down near the
gate to wait for the boarding announcement. The Alaska Airlines
Boeing 737 arrived, let out a large number of passengers and within
twenty minutes after it pulled up to the gate Henry was walking
down the plane’s aisle looking for his seat number. He put his bag
in the overhead and sat down just behind the wing in a window seat.
He normally preferred aisle seats, he liked stretching his long
legs out, but the ticket agent told him that he was lucky that he
didn’t have to sit in the middle.

The jet took off; Henry
looked out of the window to see if he could see his house, but they
gained altitude quickly and Henry couldn’t spot anything that
looked familiar except the wind farms that helped produce
electrical energy for Palm Springs’ air conditioners. He settled
back in his seat and realized that he forgot to call Rosie. Maybe
he could call her tonight from the hotel. The plane reached its
cruising altitude and Henry reached for the magazine from the seat
pocket. He browsed through it as he thought again about confronting
Amit Anchula. The stewardess, Henry couldn’t get used to calling
them attendants, interrupted his thoughts and asked him if he
wanted a drink. He had black coffee and some kind of sesame
crackers they were handing out, they weren’t very good.

The captain came on the
intercom and announced that they were approaching San Francisco
International Airport where it was sixty-five degrees. Chilly
compared to the ninety-five he had left behind. By the time the
plane pulled up to the gate Henry was ready to go. He stood up and
grabbed his bag, pulled his jacket out of it and put it on. As he
was waiting in the aisle to get off the plane he thought he’d call
Wayne to see if he had arranged a hotel room for him before heading
off to get the rental car.

This must be one of the
older terminals at the San Francisco Airport; he had a hard time
finding a public phone. Everyone had cell phones these days, maybe
he did have to get one; it would come in handy now. There was a
bank of phones next to the security checkpoint, he found one that
wasn’t being used and called Wayne’s cell phone. “Henry, is that
you?” Wayne answered. “Yes, how did you know?” Henry was
curious.

“
I have caller id on my cell
phone, I recognized the area code.” Wayne had a tone in his voice
that this was obvious and Henry should have realized that. “Oh
yeah. I’m on the ground, I’m going to get my rental car, did you
reserve a hotel room for me?” Henry asked. “Aw shoot, sorry buddy,
I totally forgot, I got busy with this murder suicide we’re helping
out on in Cathedral City.” Wayne said, “Hang on, I’ll get you
something right now, I’ll…” “Naw, never mind, I’ll find something
on my own. I’ll call you again when I get settled.” Henry hung up
the phone.

Henry took the airport
people mover train out to the rental car office. They gave him a
Ford Taurus, a map and some confusing instructions on pre-paying
for a tank of gasoline. He headed out, found the freeway and was
soon speeding south at sixty-five. After about twenty minutes all
four lanes of the freeway came to a crawl. He forgot what rush hour
on a major highway could be like, Eagle River, Wisconsin didn’t
have any traffic and he hardly ever used the Ten as the Interstate
was known in the Coachella Valley.

Along with thousands of
other cars, he idled the remaining five miles towards Los Altos. By
now it was close to six and he figured the best place to catch
Anchula was at his home. He took the freeway exit for Los Altos and
pulled over into a gas station to look at the map Charles gave him.
He pulled the napkin from Wayne from his pocket, checked the map
and it looked as though he was about five miles east of Anchula’s
house. He headed west towards the mountains crossed over a large
street that he’d heard of before, El Camino Real, and after a few
more traffic lights and turns he was parked three houses down from
Anchula’s home.

There were no cars on
Anchula’s driveway, and the house looked like most of the others in
the neighborhood. He got out of his Taurus quietly and walked over
to the house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. He
looked through the window next to the door, he was looking into the
home’s kitchen and it looked spotless. Either Anchula didn’t use it
much or he was a neat freak. He decided to check out the back. He
pushed open the gate at the side of the house, there were some
garbage cans there, he picked up the lid on one, there were some
paper bags and cups from McDonald’s and nothing else. He put the
lid back and continued around the back. The patio had only one
chair, nothing else, not even the obligatory barbecue that everyone
in California had. There was a sliding glass door that led into
what appeared to be the living room; there was a beanbag chair in
front of a large television and no other furniture. A look through
the other windows revealed a bedroom without any furniture and what
had to be the master bedroom with what appeared to be a brand new
bedroom set with a king sized bed. It looked as though Anchula
furnished the home with the bedroom, but had not yet gotten around
to buying anything else.

He walked back past the
garbage cans and opened the gate when he was startled by an older
man with a large dog on the driveway. It was either a lab or a
mutt; Henry wasn’t too good at recognizing dogs other than their
size and this one definitely qualified as large. “Can I help you?”
The man said while the dog watched him carefully, it looked as
though it couldn’t decide whether to growl or wag its tail. “I’m
looking for Amit, I’m his Uncle, I’m in town for a convention and
decided to stop by to say hello.”

Henry kept the gate between
him and the dog. “Hmmmm, you don’t look like him, but whatever.
It’s only six thirty; you’ll probably still find him at work. I’m
Amit’s neighbor, Bob Thomas.” The dog started wagging his tail.
“Good to meet you, he’s my wife’s nephew, that’s why we don’t look
alike. If he’s still at work at this hour that’s probably why he
hasn’t been answering the phone.” Henry now stepped out past the
gate and closed it behind him.

“
Hmmm, I guess. He works for
one of those high tech companies over here in Mountain View, but I
don’t know exactly which one. I can tell him you came by, Mr.….”
Bob Thomas walked to the curb with Henry.

“
I have the address, I think
I’ll drive over and surprise him right now.” Henry turned towards
Bob to shake his hand. “I appreciate you looking after Amit’s place
while he’s working. I’ll be sure to tell his aunt.” “Sure, glad to
help out. Tell her that kid works too hard.” Bob and his dog turned
around to walk back to his house. “I’ll do that. Thanks again for
your help.” Henry watched Bob go into the house next door before
walking back to his car. He got in, sat down behind the wheel and
breathed a sigh of relief. That was a close call, the dog could
have caused quite a scene, he was glad he was able to convince Bob
that he didn’t mean Anchula any harm. He pulled out his map,
figured out how to get to Xalaxy and started the car.

Chapter 12

It was completely dark out
by the time he got to the Xalaxy building on a frontage road close
to the freeway. Despite the ten foot muddy colored brick sound
wall, Henry could hear the trucks and cars going by heading south
and back in the direction of his beloved Palm Springs. Henry
thought there were too many people in this part of California. If
someone had told him that he was in the middle of Los Angeles, he’d
of believed them.

He parked across the street
from the building with a canvas banner on it that said Xalaxy in
front of a similar looking building that just had “Building C”
painted on the side. The entire frontage road was full of similar
buildings, all concrete wall tilt up construction, and he was
convinced these would all fall down like stacked cards in the next
big Northern California earthquake. He was surprised at how many
cars were still in the Xalaxy parking lot.

Henry spotted at least two
of the Mercedes SUV’s similar to what Wayne said Anchula drove. He
sat there and watched the building for about thirty minutes and
every once in a while, someone would walk out and get into their
car and drive away. Right after a tall woman carrying a briefcase
walked out and climbed into one of the Mercedes SUV’s, Henry
decided not to wait any longer and got out of his car and walked
across the street.

The front door was unlocked
and Henry walked right in and stood just inside the door. The
building was filled with cubicles and didn’t look that much
different from Rosie’s office. Except here there were inflatable
pool toy animals hung from the ceiling, Christmas lights strung in
an arch over an aisle way, he could hear at least three different
stereos playing various kinds of music, there was the clattering
noise from what sounded like a pinball machine from the back of the
space and a rhythmic droning that sounded suspiciously like a
dribbling basketball. What was obviously the reception desk right
in front of him had a telephone and laptop computer with a slide
show going with pictures of a small child and a large fluffy white
cat.

Henry walked through the
maze of little hallways orienting himself on the pool toys and
Christmas lights so that he wouldn’t get lost as he had at Rosie’s
office. Hmmm, why did he keep thinking about her? Once he arranged
a hotel room for himself, he was determined that he was going to
call her to ask her out for Saturday night. Maybe she’d enjoy a
movie, he was probably too forward when he asked her during lunch
the other day. Or should he ask her over to the house so that he
could throw something on the grill for the two of them. That
sounded better, he hoped she would come over, it was much easier to
talk at home than during a movie and he did like talking with her.
He could ask Charles to go visit one of his many friends and stay
away.