Death at Lampier

  Chapter 10

  Fred and Oriole met up at the office and compared notes. “Hey, Snoopy, how about lunch at Murphy’s and let’s invite Marlowe and pick her brain about some of this stuff.”

  “You don’t want to pick her brain, you just want to sit next to her and drool. Anyway, I talked to her on my way back, she’s tied up with the suicide of one of the attorneys. She probably can’t get away.”

  “Who? I didn’t hear anything about it.”

  “It’s a guy who lived down in Phoenix, but took cases up here. She’s going to give me the details later tonight. You might as well come to dinner, since you always show up about that time. Then we can talk to her about ‘sttuuff’.” Oriole dragged out the word stuff to Fred’s chagrin.

  “So you still want to do Murphy’s? I‘ll even buy.” Fred was known to be tighter than a gnat’s ass stretched over a rain barrel, Oriole jumped on the offer.

  “Since you’re buying, I’m having lobster.”

  “You’ll fly too, if you sprout wings.” Fred laughed at his partner. They walked into Murphy’s and took a booth toward the back.

  They had no more than gotten seated, when Frances Pitcher walked up to them. “I’m sorry to disturb your lunch. Can I sit down? I’d like to talk about my last meeting with Lisa. Do you mind?” Frances fell more than sat next to Oriole.

  Her friend’s sudden death had taken a toll, her hair stuck out like a windmill, her suit was rumpled and she had on one black shoe and one navy blue. Her normally carefully applied make up was missing.

  “Tell us what’s on your mind.” Oriole empathized and handed a menu to Frances.

  “See, I thought something was off at dinner the night before she died. She talked in circles. But the real concern I have is her last statement. She said she was going to have to make some real hard decisions soon. Lisa never had hard decisions to make. Her life was pretty stable, well except for marrying Phil. He swept her off her feet and for 12 years convinced her of his wonder. Lately, though, I think she was concerned about his spending money they didn’t have.” The server arrived and Frances ordered a salad and iced tea, Fred and Oriole ordered burgers and fries. “I was going to ask if there was anything I could do to help her, but she seemed in a hurry to get home. I know you always look at family first in a death like this. Maybe you should look at Phil. You know, he didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out. I’ve always thought he had a wandering eye. I will say he was careful not to show it around Lisa though. He knew which side his bread was buttered on. Once I was out at the Hassyampa Golf Club for a meeting and I saw him with a young thing, lots of leg and hair. They looked pretty cozy. I didn’t tell Lisa, because it was none of my business. Now I wish I had. Maybe she’d still be with us.”

  Frances took a breath. Oriole looked across at her partner and gave a slight nod for him to take over.

  “Frances, what was the deal with money, him spending money they didn’t have.”

  “Lisa and I talked about nearly everything. But she kept her money affairs pretty private. I overhead one telephone call to Phil, just her side you understand. She was fairly screaming. We were at the mall, and I directed her outside she was so upset with him. All I know is she was saying ‘that’s a lot of money for an unsure return’. Then she hung up and I’ll never forget this, she hummed her phone half way across the parking lot. Course, it didn’t break, it just skimmed along like a rock in a pond. She turned beet red and looked at me and apologized, went over picked up her phone and I heard her call Marlowe Sharpe’s office right then and there.That‘s how I know it didn‘t break.”

  Fred and Oriole both dropped their burgers back onto their plates. “Remember when this was?”

  “Well, let’s see it must have been three to four weeks ago. I had to pick up a birthday present for my granddaughter, whose birthday is in May. This is late June, so maybe even six weeks ago. Lisa had met me for lunch at the Wildflower and we had that wonderful pecan chicken salad. So if you need a closer idea of the date, I can look at my calendar, but between four and six weeks is about right.” Frances hadn’t touched her salad and now looked down at it as if it was a foreign object materializing from the ozone.

  Oriole had pulled out her notebook to jot down key points of the conversation, nodded at Fred, who lifted his right eyebrow in acknowledgment. “Frances, anything else you can think of that might help?”

  “Oh, dear, I don’t know. Have you talked to Summer? She is much more intune than am I. Who knows, Lisa may have confided in Summer.” Frances frowned then slapped her forehead in memory. “Yeah, there is something else. Lisa had canceled all her credit cards. In fact, I have never seen her pay cash for anything until that evening for dinner. Speaking of which, here’s a ten for my lunch. I’m late for a showing. I have out of town clients coming to look at a listing. Bye, say hi to Summer for me, dear, tell her what a wonderful job she did for Joyce. Oh, and tell her I’ll be by to get her to go over to Rod’s later this week.”

  Fred and Oriole split the check and walked out to their vehicle. Summer had replaced the mild spring and the interior of the SUV broiled. Turning on the air conditioner, Fred rolled down the window to let the car cool. “We need to get copies of those credit card statements. I’m guessing Phil would have destroyed them, but let’s do the down and dirty drudge work and get a subpoena and go back out there to see him. Third time’s a charm. Anyway we might just make him nervous.” Fred punched drive and left downtown Prescott for the Sheriff’s Office which had recently moved to the new complex. Oriole called the office to start the paper work on the new search warrant.