CHAPTER-10.
The thing about north Texas is that no matter how bad a day is the next might just start out beautiful. I woke up and took a cup of coffee out to sit in the wicker chair on the front porch of my house. The sun was just starting to rise to the far right of my view above the old Texas Stadium which would be the home field of the Dallas Cowboys for a couple of more years now. Vaguely I thought about trying to see a few games before the Cowboys fled Irving for the new stadium currently under construction in near-by Arlington.
For April it was still a bit cool, but I was sure it would warm up quickly with the sun’s energy working hard on us all day long. It was a Thursday which happened to be April 24th but that had some significance for me. My thirty-first birthday was tomorrow, so this was the very last day I would be thirty. I can do math, so I clearly understand that on your first birthday you are actually celebrating the first day of your second year of life, but I had allowed myself this entire past year to believe that thirty was the last year you were a young person in your twenties. Officially, tomorrow then, I would be in my thirties and no longer permitted to claim the youthfulness I had enjoyed so much to this point in my life.
Rather than dwell on it though I decided to attack the day with vim and vigor. Just a few more minutes sitting here thinking about it ought to do the trick.
Irving is like a lot of small towns in America. The downtown area had been, at one time, a long time ago, a bustling important part of the town. Then progress had done its duty. They built the new mall away from the downtown area because there was not a big enough portion of land available downtown. They built the new apartment complexes away from the downtown area because land downtown was too expensive. They built the Wal-Mart out near the new apartment complexes because land was too expensive near the downtown area and besides they wanted it to be near the people who all lived in the new apartments. More apartments were built away from the downtown area so other discount stores followed. They built the two new high-schools away from the downtown area because there were not any students left who lived in the downtown area. They built the new municipal center which contained a huge seven story parking lot that serviced the new police station, the new court house, and the new library, but they built it on land they had appropriated just west of the old downtown area. One by one then the businesses downtown closed because there were so few customers who passed through the downtown area. A few businesses hung on and they became the historical legacies. Buildings sat vacant for a decade or so until an owner here or there would die and his kids would then rent the building at a discounted rate to some business that would never have before been able to afford space downtown. That new business would rejuvenate the few historical legacies that were still open.
It would continue to evolve, but today downtown Irving now had a dozen or so legacy businesses and the rest tend to serve the automotive industry. For instance there are several tire dealers, there are a couple of auto repair shops. There are three new car dealers, there were two muffler shops that also did breaks, and there are many used car lots.
Jill had begged me for a day off and I really didn’t need her for this step, so by myself armed with a photo-copy of the five diamond shaped tread pattern, I explored downtown Irving. It was my intention to find out which manufacturer had made the tire so that would help me figure out who had parked at two of our crime scenes. I was really hoping that I found not only the specific tire tread but I would also happen to find someone who remembered putting that type of tires on a vehicle owned by one of our suspects. Of course I also hoped it would be the first business I walked into. Fat chance.
I had eleven automotive businesses in the downtown area to investigate. I wanted to do them in some pattern that would eliminate any backtracking, and I also wanted to prioritize them in such a way that my chances of hitting pay dirt came early in the rotation rather than later.
The three new car dealerships are near the outside of what would be called the downtown area. If I could get them out of the way I could then park the car in the center of the downtown area and walk the rest of the businesses, so I started with the new car dealerships.
The Mitsubishi dealer would be first. I was in the building a lot longer than I needed to be. You see what happened was that as soon as I walked onto the lot a salesman attached himself to me and I was his for the duration of my stay. No matter what I said to him about not wanting to buy a car but wanting to talk rather about tires, he just didn’t get it. By body language and gesturing he made it clear that we would not get inside the office until I had looked over his sparkling expensive inventory. After thirty minutes of saying “Ooh, ah, what a nice color, how much is this one?” we were finally inside the building.
He took me first to the finance manager. I have no idea why the finance manager would have any knowledge of tire tread patterns but my salesman insisted he would be able to help. Honestly it took only about ten minutes to establish that he could not help me but he did make it quite clear that at my age and financial level he could make me an auto loan that was “practically” interest free.
I asked my salesman if we could talk next to the service manager and he told me we could but then he told me that the parts manager would probably be more help about a specific type of tire. Fool that I am, I allowed the salesman to take me into the office of the parts manager. Immediately there was a problem though because the parts manager is the guy they take you to so that they can load up expensive options onto the car they are trying to sell you but since I was not buying a car they really did not know how to follow their well practiced sales routines. I admit I got sidetracked a bit when we started talking about a navigation system that would allow me to talk to my car and it would give me step by step directions. He assured me he could fit it into any car that there was but as it turned out he was not familiar with any car that was not manufactured by Mitsubishi.
When my salesman escorted me out of the parts managers office I told him I needed to use the ladies room. I did take advantage of the plumbing but I waited a full seven minutes after I was done and hoped to sneak out but my salesman was still patiently waiting when I opened the door. After seeing a couple of more people whose entire job was to get me to buy a car and make sure the price of the car got jacked up as high as they could get it, I was finally in the service department which was very busy but at least looked like the end of the automotive industry where they might have a tire or two I could look at.
I had to wait in line behind two other people who had legitimate business with the service department and finally I was face to face with the service manager who looked like he was probably still in high-school and this being a Thursday I decided I would call the truant officer if he gave me too much trouble.
When I told him that I did not own a Mitsubishi and did not want to buy one but all I wanted was to see if he sold a tire with a particular tread pattern it was something he just had no training to be able to handle. A girl my age stopped typing long enough to shove him aside and hand me a couple of tire catalogs. I thanked her and took the books to a chair in the waiting area.
Once I had the catalogs in hand it took only seven or eight minutes to flip through the catalogs and find that they did not sell any tire with that particular pattern.
When I got back into the Taurus I checked the time and I had wasted almost two hours at the Mitsubishi dealership.
I cut a lot of time off the other two new car dealerships by driving my car directly to the service entrance. At both of these dealerships I was able to get the tire catalogs and one even allowed me to go into the warehouse and look through the actual stacks of tires there. The end of the third dealership though proved that I still had no lead on the actual tire manufacturer.
As I had predicted it turned out to be a lovely day and the temperature was already starting to climb so I left my jacket in the car once I had parked it in the downtown area. With a bit of luck I had found a street parking spot right in the center of town. The parking meter told me that I could get seven and a half minutes of parking for a nickel. I loaded it with nickels and dimes until I had topped out the little time thing at two hours.
There were a couple of businesses that dealt only with tires and I really should have started there to begin with. My friend, Tony Tornado, lived in a small house he rented just a few blocks away, and just a month ago he had put a new set of rubber on my Taurus, and I had no idea where he would have bought the tires, but it was probably from one of these businesses.
They each had a big sign outside that advertised tires for as low as ten dollars each but when you questioned them about these ten dollar tires they pointed out that the ten dollar price was for the used tires they were trying to get rid of. They would all be happy to show you a slightly more expensive set of used tires or preferably an expensive set of new tires. At each of these businesses I was able to get their tire catalogs. They each had all the catalogs I had looked through at the auto dealerships but they each also had many more. At the first of these businesses I spent a lot of time going through the catalogs eliminating one after the other without much success.
The next couple went a little quicker because they had many of the same catalogs I had already been through. I had seen just a few nights ago on television an episode of one of those shows where they use science and high tech labs to solve the cases. On this particular episode they took a tire tread cast early in the day then brought the cast back to the lab. The cute Hispanic lab tech then made a regular photocopy of the cast and fed it into the scanner on his computer. Next he kicked off some comparison software that linked all tire manufactures in the world. They switched to another scene on the television show and when they switched back we saw the computer screen positively identify the tire. Simply by the tire tread cast they were able to tell who had manufactured the tire, how old it was, what car it was mounted on, where they had driven in the past month or so, and the social security number of the person who had been driving at the time the crime was committed. I believe they had it all wrapped up in one hour and had plenty of time left over to feed in sixteen minutes worth of commercials.
I did not have a lab like that, so I had to sit in these uncomfortable chairs drinking bad coffee and flipping through page after page of catalogs. At least the coffee was free.
At one of the tire stores I did find one friendly tire jockey and between flat fixes he was bored enough to offer his help. He did not recognize the tread pattern, but he did clue me in on one thing. So far I had only been investigating tires for cars. In his opinion the tread looked a little like what he would expect a tire for an ATV to look. They are usually considerably smaller in diameter but wider than auto tires and not manufactured by the same companies. He pointed out that the tread would be specifically good for driving through mud. That is why he suggested I look at vehicles made for off-road use. Another idea he had was that it was possible that it was a motorcycle tire. I dismissed both of his ideas though because the person who broke into those places and committed the crimes would want a fast get away vehicle so the ATV was out, and who would bring a motorcycle when you were hoping to steal a desk?
I made a note to myself though to look into the possibility that our tire was from a sports vehicle.
Only one thing lucky happened that entire afternoon. I got back to my parked car well after my metered time had been used up but before a meter maid came by. I shoved one more dime in the slot just to give me some time to sit and make notes before driving off.
When I finished the notes I went to stick the note book in the little door pocket meant to hold maps and found in the pocket the four prescription bottles I had taken from Lola’s house. I had a little spare time so I called 411 and found the doctor’s phone number and address. He was in Dallas not too far from the Antique Alley, and I had business there next so I figured I would give it a shot.
It turned out to be one of those older doctor’s offices. The block it was on had several big old houses that had been converted to commercial buildings long ago. Some of them had, by now, been torn down and replaced with cheaply constructed square buildings made from aluminum and glass that were specifically designed and built for store fronts. The new store fronts mixed in with the old Victorian houses gave the neighborhood a strange flavor that was amplified by the large blacktop parking areas instead of lawns.
The doctor still had one of the old houses and, although I did not confirm this, it was a pretty good bet that the doctor did business here on the first floor and lived upstairs on the second. The floor plan, or at least what I saw of it, was quite similar to my own house/office. A wall had been removed to convert the old living room and old dining room into a large waiting room. The nurse/receptionist was a cute little blond girl about my age. She went through the motions of checking the doctor’s schedule but by the completely empty waiting room I was sure I would be able to get a few minutes of the Doctor’s time.
The doctor himself was a little hard to place age wise. He appeared fit as a fiddle but his shock of fine hair so white that it gave him an ancient quality. I expect he was somewhere between fifty and retired, but probably nearing seventy.
For some reason I noticed what I assumed was a family type resemblance between the nurse and the doctor so wondered if they might be father and daughter. I really did not have much extra time here so I just let it go and got onto business.
I showed the good doctor the four pill bottles and explained what I was there for. He appeared genuinely upset to hear that Lola had been murdered. He knew her and had been treating her for about the last fifteen years. He used a little intercom device to instruct the nurse to pull Lola’s file and bring it in to us. While we were awaiting the records he looked at the prescription bottles and we found nothing at all remarkable about them for a woman of Lola’s age.
One of the pills was a blood thinner to keep blood clots from forming. One was to lower bad cholesterol. One was to help her sleep if she had trouble dosing off. The fourth was an antibiotic he had probably given her for a flu and was a full two years past its expiration date.
The thick file the nurse delivered proved that Lola had indeed been seeing the doctor for the last decade and a half. She had visited at least twice a year but almost always just for a check-up. During that time she had never been hospitalized or suffered any injuries. She had no medical insurance that he knew about and she paid for each visit with a check from her business checking account. The emergency contact listed on her original information sheet listed her father’s name and had the phone number and the address of Lola’s Attic.
I thanked the doctor for his time and retreated to my Taurus.
By now it was getting late on Thursday afternoon and I had scheduled the funeral for Monday morning so I figured it was time to see the Antique Alley store owners again and let them know the information I had so far about the final arrangements. They had all asked me to give them the details of the funeral arrangements so that they could pay their last respects, and it gave me another opportunity to interview each of them. I wondered if Jill might want to accompany me so I dialed my office number but got the answering machine, and I got the same response out of Jill’s cell phone number so I drove the four miles all by my lonesome self.
Just to change my luck, instead of working the block east to west I started at the other end to spread the news about the funeral. I found Steven Crowley at Texas Treasuretrove but Wanda was not there. Steven was kind enough to write down the funeral details but suggested that they might not be able to attend. I got no new information from him and he offered no explanation about where his wife might be at the time. Remembering that I had not checked the tires on his car I checked them out as I was leaving. His tires were not the diamond pattern I was looking for, so his car was in the clear but he caught me looking at his tires. When he asked what I was doing I tried to make up a lie but before I could think of anything he asked me flat out if he was a suspect. I had to tell him that everyone was a suspect and what I was doing by checking his tires was eliminating him from the list of potential suspects. I am pretty sure he bought it, but he would be very careful around me now, and he hadn’t exactly been the easiest person to work with so far.
Jana was with a customer at her store and it was sort of fun watching her in her profession. I mean I had seen her with her hair down as it were but I had never really observed her in her business environment. She acknowledged my presence but kept on with the customer and soon sold a bed and dresser set. I waited as Jana wrote up the order and helped the customer load the furniture into a van. It fit but it was tight.
When we were alone Jana offered to lock the door and do lots of fun and nasty things with me but I took a rain-check explaining that I had business to do. She giggled and thanked me then wrote down the funeral details and promised to be there. She also asked if I was doing anything Friday night. It was my birthday but I was sure she did not know that and it was way to early in the relationship to dump milestone baggage on her so I told her I wasn’t sure what plans Jill might have and promised to call her later that evening.
I was sort of surprised when I walked into Buy It Bare. I had, of course, expected to find Shelly up in front and Rubert working with dangerous chemicals in the rear room. Instead I found Rubert cleaned up pretty well and stationed in the front of the store. He was alone and he quickly told me that Shelly was away doing some household errands. When I passed along the information about the funeral he took out a note book and wrote it all down. He promised they would be there but somehow I sort of figured the notebook would never find its way into Shelly’s hands until it was too late. I had to resist questioning him about his past drug convictions but silently reminded myself that Detective Samuels would be handling that. Once again though I left Rubert feeling my boobs had endured a close inspection.
There is a nice old wooden picnic table in front of Antiques of Dallas and there sharing Cokes and burgers I found the gorgeous Donald Smith and my hard to find partner Jill. What could I say, she did ask for the day off. Donald was again in his riding leathers and I noticed that Jill was covered from shoulders to toes in shiny black cow skin as well. The temperature was near ninety and they must have been dripping in perspiration but for some reason there was a very musky smell in the air. Go figure.
Inside the store I gave the time and location of the funeral services to Fredrick Smith and he once again asked if I knew anything about when Lola’s space and inventory might become available. We did talk business for a moment or two about that and he ended up giving me a card of an auctioneer he would like to have conduct the sale. Reluctantly I accepted the auctioneer’s card. I wanted to tell him that if I did not find a next of kin soon the sale of Lola’s stuff would be run by the sheriff’s department and I would have no control of it. As it were he was mistaken about my power in deciding things about Lola’s estate, but, as long as he thought I could help him he would continue to treat me with respect. Once he realized that I could not do little favors like picking out his auctioneer, he would no longer be interested in helping me.
Back at Parnell’s Prize Antiques I found myself waiting once again while the shop owner haggled with a customer. It was one of those fun little moments one gets in life from time to time. I immediately recognized the customer as a well known and well loved but just recently retired morning radio host from the Dallas market. For sure I would have interrupted to ask for his autograph but Parnell was just about to wrap up an eighty-thousand dollar sale of several nice antique pieces and I am pretty sure he would be mad if I blew the sale for him, so like a good little citizen I just minded my own business until the DJ had signed the papers and the delivery was scheduled.
As soon as the celebrity left the store Parnell Erickson thanked me for not interfering and then went into celebration mode. It was the biggest sale he had made in a month and he really was quite happy about it. He had no new information for me but dutifully wrote down the time and location of Lola’s final act.
I found Jill waiting at my car. As soon as I had left his store Fredrick Smith had called Donald in to watch the store while Fredrick went off to do some unnamed chore that had come up an emergency. Donald had picked her up earlier so she was now stranded while he worked and wanted to catch a ride back with me. She was quite irritated about it but on the car ride home we shared a little girl talk about our new love interests. Her new boy seemed just as interested in her flesh as my new girl seemed in mine. We took turns warning each other not to go to far to fast and we each lied promising that we would not.
I was hungry so I suggested we stop for a bite to eat. Jill agreed and we started that thing where we each suggest a restaurant or two and then try to decide what sounds good to both of us. When I mentioned her father’s restaurant Jill immediately became a little too argumentative saying that she wanted to go there Friday night which was tomorrow. I asked her why tomorrow and she wouldn’t tell me but rather just played it off. That was the first hint that there might be a surprise party for my birthday but I had to play it very carefully. I had only met Jill three months ago, and although we had become good friends and even business partners this was the first special occasion that had come along and I really did not want to complicate our relationship. On the same token though, I wasn’t even sure if she was aware that tomorrow was my birthday. I mean I wasn’t wearing a sign or anything. So I let it go. We ended up pulling off of highway 183 just long enough to buy a bucket of chicken to take home.
I know, I know. I am a fast food junkie! I just can’t help it. Living alone for so long I just hardly ever cook, and we all know how pathetic an unescorted lady looks eating by herself in a restaurant. Regardless of the massive calorie and cholesterol counts I just love those little drive through windows.
Jill got all domestic in the kitchen and proceeded to turn our bucket of chicken into a Kentucky fried feast, but before I had my first finger licking taste I checked my answering machine and found a message from Detective Samuels, which simply told me he had a favor to ask and then directed me to read my e-mail.
His e-mail told me that he had been busy with a couple of other cases and had not gotten to a task he had originally assigned to himself. We had found a card from Salvation Army in one of the pieces of furniture that had been delivered to Jana’s store and not stolen. Samuels wanted to follow up with the store and see if they could pinpoint the person that had purchased the truck load of furniture and then sold it to Jana. He had not yet done that and asked if I could run with it. He also, in his e-mail, had attached digital pictures of some of the pieces of furniture.
I downloaded the pictures and printed them off and took notes about the store. I sent Detective Samuels a short e-mail response saying I would take care of it and then dove into my dinner.