16

“I can’t believe you talked to her last night!”

Amanda was clearly pissed. Barnes said, “It was an impulsive thing.”

“First you call around old high school buds, then you meet with one of them who’s a serious witness all by your lonesome. What’s gotten into you, Will?”

He gave the honest answer: “Don’t know.”

Amanda shook her head, rummaged in her purse. Fishing out a Ghirardelli chocolate square, she unwrapped and ate. Not offering him one from her stash, as she usually did.

“Sorry,” said Barnes. He’d parked the car in front of Davida Grayson’s complex. “I know. It was stupid and I apologize. But it’s done. So can we move on?”

Amanda wasn’t about to let go so easily. “Did you at least learn anything other than that Jane’s back in Sacramento? And why?”

No answer.

She said, “Thought she moved back to Berkeley.”

“Guess she moved back.”

“You didn’t ask her?”

“It didn’t seem relevant.”

“Only her sex life was.”

“She claims there was none with Davida.”

“You believe her?” said Amanda.

“Don’t know. Don’t know if it matters, Mandy.”

“Well, as soon as she gets back, I want a crack at her. Just because she denies having the clap doesn’t make it true. And seeing as how you were both drinking none of it can be entered into the case file.”

“No reason for her to lie- ”

“Well, we won’t know until we officially talk to her, will we? Partner.”

He gave her a few minutes to cool down. She ate another chocolate. Made a show of chewing it slowly.

“Mandy, maybe I’m off but I’m thinking right now, our minds should be on Minette and not on Jane. Per our previous discussion. And unless you can stop glaring at me, we can’t go in and interview her.”

Silence.

“Man- ”

“Forget it, just don’t do it again, okay, Will? For your own sake. It looks bad.”

“You’re right. I was wrong. Shall we move on?”

“Absolutely.”

“Was that a female or a male absolutely?”

“What’s the difference?”

“A male absolutely is absolutely. A female absolutely is I’ll drop it for now but I’ll bludgeon you with it later on.”

“A female absolutely.”

“That’s what I thought.”

The disarray had been cleared, but the condo was far from clean. The kitchen was piled with dirty dishes and the dining room table held cartons of take-out Chinese. At nine in the morning, Minette was still in a terry bathrobe and mules. Her eyes and nose were puffy and red and her hair could have used a good scrubbing. The faint odor of alcohol lingered on her breath and in the unit.

“Thanks for seeing us so early,” Amanda said.

“Sure…” Minette was still dazed. “Have a seat. Anywhere’s fine.”

The two detectives looked around and found space on a Craftsman-style sofa. It was as flat as a bench and merciless on the ass. “Thank you,” Barnes told her.

“You want some coffee? I sure as hell need a cup for myself.”

“I’d love some,” Amanda said. “But let me make it, Minette. Why don’t you sit down and relax?”

“That would be nice.”

Amanda went into the kitchen and began to open the cupboards and refrigerator, looking for coffee. Minette made no effort to direct her. The open space gave Amanda an earful of conversation.

“Rough night?” Will asked.

“Probably one of many.” Minette’s eyes watered. “It’s so surreal. I just can’t believe…” The tears came down. “I’m still in shock.”

“I can’t tell you how sorry we are for your personal loss, Ms. Padgett.”

“The hardest part is that bitch mother. She won’t let me plan anything.” More tears. “She’s taking the body back to Sacramento. Davida hated Sacramento! She had nothing but bad memories.”

“Can I ask what those bad memories are? It might be relevant to the case.”

Minette clamped her lips together. Then she said, “You know…her parents’ divorce…her coming out…it was painful.”

“I’m sure it was tough,” Barnes said, “but she traveled there often for work.”

“She worked there, but she lived here!” Minette folded her arms across her chest.

Barnes backed it up. “It’s must be very painful to be excluded from the funeral plans. I’m very sorry, Minette.”

The woman lowered her voice but her tone remained harsh. “It’s goddamn painful.” A sigh. “I’m so damn angry. It’s not your fault you’re here to listen to me bitch but I make no excuses for my behavior.”

Barnes glanced at his watch. They’d been in her place over ten minutes and she had yet to ask about progress on her lover’s murder or the ransacking of the condo. He wished Amanda would hurry up with the coffee. He didn’t want to approach touchy subjects without her.

Minette said, “I need to sleep for about six months and wake up after this entire nightmare is over. I had to take the phone off the hook and turn off my cell. I’m sick of people calling. They don’t really care about me. All they want to know is the gory details.”

“Gory details?”

“You know, like was there a struggle, did she put up a fight?” She looked at Barnes. “Did she put up a fight?”

Barnes said, “From what we could tell, she appeared to be sleeping at her desk. Did she do that often…fall asleep while working?”

“All the time…especially when she pulled all-nighters.”

“Did you often visit her office and find her asleep?”

“Not often.” Minette’s eyes narrowed. “Sometimes I’d bring her dinner and we’d eat together.”

Amanda came back with a tray of mugs, milk, sugar, and Splenda. “Here we go. I poked around in your cabinets. I hope these cups are okay.”

“They’re fine.” Minette doused her coffee with milk and artificial sweetener. “I don’t want you to think that I made a habit out of going to her office. I never liked to bug her when she was working.”

Barnes nodded, thinking about ten calls a day to Dr. Kurtag’s office.

“I mean, occasionally, I’d surprise her,” Minette said. “Couple of times I did find her asleep at her desk. And here, too. At her home office. She’d fall asleep. She was very tired. You can imagine.”

Barnes nodded, and glanced at Amanda who was ignoring his pleading eyes. “If you wouldn’t mind, Ms. Padgett, we do have a couple of questions for you.”

“Call me Minette.” She sipped coffee and nodded. “Go ahead. I’m more awake now.”

Barnes decided to forestall the bombshell. “Would you like to know about our progress on the ransacking of your apartment?”

Minette looked momentarily confused. “Oh…yes, of course. Did you find the bastard?”

“No, but we’re getting close,” Barnes lied.

“What do you mean?” Minette asked. “What have you found out?”

“We’re not at liberty to discuss everything, but we found some interesting forensic evidence.” Barnes was pleased with his glib tone of voice.

“Like what kind of forensic evidence?”

“For starters,” Amanda said, “it doesn’t appear that the vandals were out for anything specific. We think they just wanted to make a mess.”

“Were? There were two of them?”

“Or maybe just one,” Barnes said. “The point we’re trying to make is that the mess appeared to be superficial- ”

“Not when you’re the one cleaning it up,” Minette said.

“I’m sure that’s true, but we think someone is trying to throw the police off track.”

“How do you know that?”

“We can tell these things, Minette. There’s just something about it that looks funny. As soon as we know more, we’ll pass on that information to you. In the meantime, can you think of anyone who has access to your condo?”

“My housekeeper and the condo manager.”

“We’d like to talk to them,” Amanda said. “Could you get me their numbers?”

“Sure.” She got up and came back a few minutes later with the information. “Emilia has worked for us for two years. I don’t see her doing anything like that, but the manager is kinda creepy.”