For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series (19 page)

“
So, you’ve hit another dead
end?” Charles asked. “Yeah, how did you know?” Henry futilely tried
to wipe the stains off his pants. “My friend, you’re making this
too hard on yourself.” Charles said, “Something tells me it’s a lot
more basic than what you’re chasing.” “Yeah, I hear you.” Said
Henry. “But I just don’t know where to look.”

“
Maybe because you’re not
seeing what you should.” Charles replied. “You’re mysterious today
Charles.” Henry said, “But I was thinking along the same lines
while I was waiting for my flight. I think I’m going to go talk
with Jerrie to see what he knows.” “I still think Thornbird was
gay, maybe you should check out that angle.” Charles pulled the car
into the driveway on Mel Avenue. “Perhaps, except that I wouldn’t
know where to start.” Henry said getting out of the car. He still
wasn’t sure what to tell Charles about his discovery at Thornbird’s
house.“Hmmm, maybe I can help.” Charles turned off the car and
followed Henry inside. “Let me know what you find out.” Henry
decided that he would let Charles do some checking. Depending on
what he found, then he would tell him about Thornbird’s illegal
activities.

After he showered again and
changed into clean clothes, Henry drove to the Pac and Ship on
Sunrise Way. He didn’t need to ship or copy anything; Jerrie Mungo
who manages the place is a bit of an information broker. Some
places would have called Jerrie a snitch, or a stoolie; he wasn’t
any of those in Henry’s mind. It seemed as though at some point
everyone in Palm Springs came through Jerrie’s store. As a result,
Jerrie knew more about what was going on, who was doing what and
who was involved with whom than anyone else.

“
Hi Jerrie, can I buy you a
cup?” said Henry as he walked into the store. “Henry, you old
copper, how have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while. Of course
you can buy me a cup.” Jerrie came from behind the counter of the
store. “Tess, can you keep an eye on things for a few minutes?”
Jerrie asked his wife who was in the back section of the store
wrapping up a box with brown paper. She waved at Henry and nodded
at Jerrie.

They walked out of the Pac
and Ship together and around the corner to Jensen’s. The large
supermarket had a full deli as well as a coffee stand. Henry and
Jerrie walked in and Jerrie ordered a double latte and Henry had a
cappuccino. While they were waiting for their coffees, they sat at
one of the small picnic tables the store had set out for their
customers.

“
So you must be helping Palm
Springs PD again.” Jerrie started, “I’ll bet it is the murder
suicide in Cathedral City – am I right?” Henry wasn’t sure how much
to tell Jerrie; he knew that whatever he learned from Jerrie,
Jerrie would also learn from him. “No, I’ve heard of it, but no one
has asked me about it. I’m looking into the murder of Rex
Thornbird, the real estate agent.” “Ah yes, the mid-century
specialist, the seller of architectural gems, the purveyor of
celebrity homes, the man whose smiling face lit up this area of
Palm Springs. I heard about his death. Did an unsatisfied customer
finally get the better of him?” Jerrie smiled.

Henry got up to get their
drinks which were ready at the little coffee stand. He brought the
coffees back to their table and set one down in front of Jerrie.
“You know, that’s what I thought when I got started, but the more
of his former customers I speak with, the less I think that one of
them did it.”

“
That’s surprising. You
know, the rumor is that not every home he sold was owned by a
celebrity or designed by a famous architect.” Jerrie said taking
the cover off his latte. “Sometimes I think he was a little liberal
with claiming who lived some place. In fact, he bought stuff,
probably online, he had a box here and we received a number of
packages for him. I think what he bought were photographs for these
homes. Some of the packages he received were flat and marked “Do
Not Bend. He also belonged to a video club of some kind, a lot of
plain brown envelopes; do you know what I mean?”

Henry licked some of the
foam off his cappuccino, “When was the last time that you received
a package for Thornbird?” “Probably about a month ago now, I guess.
Things have been pretty quiet for quite some time. He hasn’t been
here since he picked it up. ’Course he’s not coming back either.”
Jerrie smiled a wry smile. “No, I suppose he isn’t.” Henry smiled
as well.

“
You know, all joking aside,
Thornbird worked really hard, especially after that nasty divorce
of his, he sold a lot of homes, probably made a lot of money, and
I’m not sure that he really hurt anyone.” Jerrie looked down into
his coffee cup, “I sort of admired the guy.”

You wouldn’t if you knew
what I know, thought Henry, and his nasty habit hurt plenty of
people. “What about that divorce, I’ve heard before that it was
messy. Do you know anything about it?” “You know, there was a rumor
that Mrs. Thornbird felt that she wasn’t getting the attention she
deserved from Mr. Thornbird. That’s why she went after him with a
vengeance during the divorce.” Jerrie gave Henry a knowing
smile.

Henry furrowed his brow,
“I’m not sure I follow you.” “Well, let’s just say that Thornbird
spent a lot of time at his job, time with his co-workers and time
with his male friends.” “Ok, so you’re saying he was interested in
men and his wife was jealous?” Henry asked. “Well, I think that his
marriage was a sham, I don’t know that he was gay exactly, but he
didn’t have any time for Mrs. Thornbird other than at public
functions where he needed an escort.” Jerrie finished his latte. “I
better get back to the store; I’m going to get a latte for Tess.”
“Well thanks; you’ve given me something to look into.” Henry got up
as well.

Jerrie was back at the
coffee stand already, “You know you might want to talk with that
cute petite middle aged woman with the nice legs he used to run
around with a lot, I think they worked in the same office
together.” “The one with the reddish hair?” Henry asked? “Yes,
that’s the one. She should be able to tell you volumes on
Thornbird. She seems like she would be pleasant company as well.
Don’t wait so long before stopping by again.” Jerrie waved at him
as Henry walked out the door. “Yeah, I guess I’ll talk with her.”
Henry said more to himself than to Jerrie Mungo.

Chapter 14

Friday, April 21

Charles was out when Henry
got back to the house. He debated leaving Charles a note on the
refrigerator, Charles said he would help look into Thornbird’s
“extracurricular” activities. He knew that a lot of people in
Charles’ world were very discreet and he wasn’t sure if Charles
could find out anything at all, especially if Thornbird was as
secretive as he suspected with his illegal activities. He thought
that Jerrie Mungo’s information would help narrow Charles’
investigation; perhaps Charles could find out who Rex had been
involved with, he certainly didn’t find any evidence on his home
computer on how he had obtained all of his porn. There were no
websites bookmarked, no suspicious emails. He wondered about the
other computer that he suspected was around somewhere. It would be
nice to have a look at it. It had to be a laptop; why else did
Thornbird have the wireless setup in his house? Henry didn’t know
how to leave all of that in a note to Charles, he felt that it was
better that he talk to him in person.

The folder with the list of
properties that Thornbird had sold that Rosie had given him was
still on the dining room table. He pulled his yellow sheets of
paper with his handwritten list of new owners of celebrity owned
properties out of the folder and started looking for purchases
within the past six months to a year. Rosie had mentioned a widow
that had called Thornbird in order to help her sister find a house,
but he didn’t find any women’s names on his list. He decided to
call three couples, to see if any of the women were perhaps
recently widowed. All had purchased homes from Thornbird in the
past year.

His second phone call paid
off. Janet Ickelbee mentioned that her husband Harrison had died
about nine months ago, shortly after they moved into their new
house. She had a neighbor over and was busy getting her dinner
ready and couldn’t talk, but invited Henry over for coffee the next
morning. Janet said she remembered Thornbird well and could tell
Henry everything that had happened with the purchase of their home.
She mentioned that she thought the stress of house hunting had
probably killed her husband, though that was not was his doctor had
said. Janet said she was looking forward to meeting and chatting
with Henry, she had no other plans for her Saturday morning
anyway.

Thinking about dinner, he
realized that it was time to head out. He looked through the
kitchen cabinet for a bottle of wine that he could bring tonight to
the Johnson’s and found a nice Merlot that he’d been saving for a
special occasion. He grabbed it and headed for the garage. He took
Vista Chino all the way out to Date Palm and then headed south on
Interstate 10 to Indio. He took the one-eleven turnoff and headed
towards the Indian Palms Country Club.

The Johnson’s had a
beautiful spacious Spanish style house overlooking the ninth green.
It was a lot more house than a Palm Springs police detective could
afford, but Wayne and Elliot had inherited the house from her
parents. Elliot’s father, Eugene, was the developer of the country
club and the homes that surrounded it. When he died, Elliot’s
mother moved into a retirement home in La Quinta and Wayne and
Elliot moved into the home on the golf course. They’d been there
now for fourteen years; Elliot’s mother passed away peacefully last
year. The Johnson’s son and daughter were both grown; William was
an architect in Indian Wells with his own family. Lenore was a
nurse at the Palm Desert hospital; she was engaged to a medical
student at UC Riverside.

Henry pulled his car into
the driveway; the Johnson’s parked both of their cars in the
garage. Henry believed it might have been a rule for their
development, there were no cars parked on the street or on any
driveway in neighborhood. It made the development look somewhat
sterile and impersonal. All the homes were painted a similar color,
a standard palette, Henry knew they called it. Perhaps his own
neighborhood on Mel wasn’t as neat and proper, but Henry felt it
had a lot more character.

Henry walked up the walkway
to the large carved double wooden doors. Before he could ring the
bell, Elliot opened one of the doors. “Hi traveler, you’ve had a
busy couple of days! How have you been? Wayne is out on the patio
lighting the grill, I’m just finishing up the chicken in the
kitchen. Come in, come in!” She held out her arms and Henry got a
big hug and a kiss on both cheeks. He handed her the bottle of
wine.

If we’re having chicken, you
can save this Merlot for another occasion. Geez, it’s nice to be
here, I’ve missed you.” Once inside, Wayne and Elliot’s home had a
real homey, comfortable feeling. He’d felt at ease here back when
he came to Palm Springs looking for a house and stayed with them
for the first time. Since then, he always looked forward to and
enjoyed their regular dinners. He’d had the Johnson’s over to his
house, but those dinners usually turned into outside affairs at the
grill and the table by the pool. He stepped through the patio doors
where Wayne was just closing the lid to the barbecue.

“
Hey Henry, before you tell
me about anything else, I want you to know we’ve impounded all the
stuff you found in Thornbird’s house. We’ve cataloged it and it’s
off to be destroyed.” Wayne wiped his hands off as if he was done
with the matter instead of getting the grill grease off
them.

I’m glad of that; I’ll have
to fill you in on what I’ve found out. Perhaps I should come into
the office and meet with your vice guys.” Henry suggested. “No need
to talk about this stuff in the house, Elliot gets upset with that
part of the job.” Wayne opened the patio door. “So tell me all
about your visit up north partner.” Elliot was busy in the open
kitchen pounding on several chicken breasts while a mixing bowl of
marinade was on the counter next to her work area ready to receive
the end results of her labors.

Henry sat down on one of the
bar stools on the other side of the counter that opened to the
kitchen while Elliot slipped the chicken into the bowl and dug into
the refrigerator for salad fixings. He told them both the whole
story of his encounter with Amit Anchula, not leaving out anything
including the encounter with the neighbor and the dog, the tackle
on the lawn and the dinner at the brewery.

Wayne interrupted him when
Henry told them of the conversation about Anchula’s illegal status
in the United States.“Wait a minute, this Anchula guy is worth
somewhere between ten and twenty million dollars?” “Yeah, he said
he’s not really sure since he has it invested with three different
financial advisors and he hasn’t had the time to reconcile the
statements.” Henry explained.

Even Elliot stopped working
at the salad, “And you say that by the time you interrupted him in
the conference room at the office, it was eight thirty in the
evening?” “It was about eight thirty, that’s right.” Henry said,
“Do you guys have any wine, my throat is getting dry from all this
talking.” “Wayne, you’re a poor host, pour the man a glass of
wine.” Elliot jokingly chastised her husband.

“
Me? I’m up to my elbows in
grease from the grill, why didn’t you give him a glass of wine when
you let him in?” Wayne was laughing, he and Elliot often bantered
back and forth like this, that is one of the reasons Henry enjoyed
their company, it was very similar to what his relationship with
Irma had been like.