The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen - A Dix Dodd Mystery

  I entered the Weatherby building directly after Mr. Billy Star—quickly enough so that I could see him getting on the elevator, lean to push a button, and turn with red-rimmed eyes to stare up at the top of the doors and watch the numbers. I had called his office right after Dylan left my apartment, and was only half surprised to find him working. Ned Weatherby would understandably be absent; Billy had to keep the business running smoothly. But there was more to his appearance at the office.

  Red rimmed eyes didn’t surprise me. If anything, they confirmed my suspicions.

  I watched the elevator lights, rising steadily and stopping on the top floor.

  I took the next elevator up, waiting impatiently then standing as inconspicuously as possible beside the two suited men. It worked. They didn’t seem to notice my presence, or my listening in to their conversation.

  “I heard Mrs. Weatherby had been shot three times.”

  “Maybe it was a suicide?”

  “Three shots?”

  “I heard old Ned had a lover. Bet it was that new girl in accounting.”

  “I heard Mrs. Weatherby was fooling around on Ned.”

  “Holy crap! I can believe it.”

  It didn’t surprise me rumors were flying already. Stuff like that was always flying at times like these. But how much was rumor and how much was truth? Damn elevator. It moved too quickly and dropped my loose-lipped fellow travelers off on the 18th floor.

  I quickly found the maintenance closet and jimmied the lock. I grabbed some Windex and hooked it onto my uniform. I loaded a maintenance trolley with what surely looked official and started heading down the hallway. Star’s office, as I’d ascertained on my way down the hall, was the third to the right off the elevator. Right next to the corner office of Ned Weatherby. I cringed. That had to bite, considering that Star was the major partner just before the stock in the company went skyrocketing. Ned had made millions. And no doubt an enemy in the now under-his-employ Billy Star.

  I passed a couple of other male janitors in the hallway, just as I was about to enter Star’s office—their navy and yellow WATERSHIP uniforms visible from a mile away. They looked at me strangely, trying to place me.

  “‘lo,” I said with a manly nod of acknowledgment. I adjusted the rolls of TP on the cart (like what the hell else was I supposed to do?).

  They nodded back. These guys could have been a father and son team, they looked that similar.

  “You new here?” the older one asked.

  “New? Yeah, very new. First day.” I deepened my voice and slowed my speech.

  “Well, doesn’t that fuckin’ beat all.” His coworker cast me a disgusted look. “Takes us five years to get this floor, and this dude comes in and day one, comes up here.”

  “Don’t seem right.”

  I snorted a laugh and scratched my crotch. “Yeah, well, my uncle owns the company.”

  “Is that right?” the young one said, grinning a smartass grin. “Your uncle is Sophia Maria Watership?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be stupid. My uncle is her husband,” I gambled. Poorly.

  “You mean her late husband?”

  “Yeah.” I squared my shoulders (thanking myself for remembering to add the shoulders pads to the uniform for the decidedly male appearance). “You got a problem with that?” I said it with so much attitude, Steve McQueen would have been proud.

  “I do,” Shorty answered.

  “Let’s call head office, son.” The old fellow shook his head. “Something isn’t quite right here.” They started walking away.

  Aw shit!

  “You do that,” I called. “And when you talk to Aunt Sophia, you tell her I’ll be over for supper at six tonight.”

  They halted and looked back at me.

  “It’s canasta night,” I said, “and Aunt Sophia don’t like me late on canasta night. Tell her I want her to make that seafood lasagna, but don’t use those cheapie small shrimp like last time. And tell her I’ll pick up some of the good rolls at the market on my way in. Oh, and tell her that if I catch my cousin Charlie cheating again, there’ll be hell to pay. Oh, and be sure to tell her—”

  “I look like your message boy?” Shorty called. “Tell her yourself!”

  “Yeah,” the other chimed in. “Tell her yourself! We’ve got work to do.”

  It worked. For now. But I wasn’t foolish enough to think what I’d pulled on them would work for long.

  They both gave me one last spiteful look before proceeding down the hall. And I had the sneaking feeling that though I wasn’t yet busted, it wouldn’t take Tweedledee and Tweedledumb long to check out my story.

  I’d have to move fast.

  Every indication I had of Billy Star from my week of running surveillance on his boss was that he was a hot head. And well, maybe there was a legitimate chip on his shoulder—I’d be pissed too if someone bought me out just before business skyrocketed. But really, what was Billy to do? He was well over fifty, had built the business along side Ned from the ground up; it was all he knew. With a mortgage and an aging father to look after, not to mention two kids in college from his former marriage, he had to keep working for Ned.

  That’s why I packed the heat. Just in case I needed some motivation for him to calm down should he be inclined to go ballistic on me. He was a big man. Rugged. Obviously able to take care of himself, and though I wasn’t intimidated by his size, I wasn’t stupid either.

  This was a murder investigation, after all.

  And there had been tension, anger and hatred in the eyes of both Billy and Ned as they’d fought. It didn’t take a trained private eye to come to that conclusion. But why would Ned keep Billy around if they got along so poorly? And oh, wait a minute, didn’t I recall at the house when Jennifer’s body was found, Ned and Jeremy Poole discussing calling Billy? Yes, they had.

  Oh, man, I was missing something here.

  Plus there was the information Mrs. Presley had provided about Billy’s frequent trips to the Underhill Motel. Granted, that could be unrelated, but I was betting it wasn’t.

  Actually, I was betting my ass it wasn’t.

  Literally.

  Suite 2002, Mr. William T. Star, Vice President.

  His door was closed, but I doubted it was locked.

  Slowly, quietly, I turned the doorknob right as far as it would go before I pushed the door open just enough to peek inside. I was hoping to catch a quick look at Billy Star before he noticed me, before his guard went up. I wanted an honest look at his emotions. An honest reaction.

  I lucked out.

  Now the scary thing about catching peeks at people is that you never know what you’re going to catch peeks of. I’ve seen more guys surfing the net for porn that one could shake a... okay, a stick at (no pun intended). I’ve caught more than a few people picking their noses and digging out their ears with their pens (these top my list of things I’d just as soon forget). I’ve overheard telephone conversations that would make a sailor blush. And certainly, I’ve caught people in all sorts of compromising positions. Hell, I’ve caught them in positions I didn’t even know were physically possible. But the sight of Billy Star sitting at his desk without the knowledge that I was watching him is one sight that I will never forget.

  He sat hunched over his desk with his head in his hands, crying softly. He made very little noise, and his shoulders shook with the effort of containing it. For such a big, powerful man, he looked very vulnerable to me then. As if a feather falling onto his shoulder would just break him.

  “Billy Star?” I dropped the fake voice. “We need to talk.”

  Billy’s head shot up as I walked into the office, and closed the door behind me. “I don’t know who you think you are. But get the hell out of here right now.”

  “That’s not possible, Billy,” I said. I ripped off my fake mustache, slowly. Not for sake of drama, but because I’d used too much damn glue and it hurt like hell.

  He looked at me incredulously. “What the— who are you
?”

  “Dix Dodd.”

  “And what the hell are you doing here, Dix Dodd?” He stood, all hulking muscle.

  I braced myself as he started toward me, possibly to throttle me.

  “I’m investigating the murder of Jennifer Weatherby,” I said in a rush. “And I’m damn determined to find out who’s responsible.”

  He stopped in his tracks. “Who hired you?”

  I fought the urge to preface my comments with Okay, here’s where it gets tricky. “Jennifer.”

  He blinked. “Jennifer hired you to find out who killed her before she was killed? Are you nuts? Are you... you...” He looked me up and down. “What the hell are you, anyway?”

  “In answer to your last question, I told you, I’m a PI. In answer to your other query, yes, I probably am nuts.”

  “I’m calling security.” Billy picked up his phone and stabbed the first button.

  I had to talk quickly. “Jennifer hired me to find out who was having an affair with her husband. She was sure Ned was cheating on her, and I think her curiosity got her killed. And the only way I’m going to catch who killed her, is if you help me figure things out.” I drew a shaky breath. “And dammit, I’m the only one who can figure this mess out. But not unless you help me, Billy.”

  Billy sat down heavily into his chair. “Jesus Christ.” He put the phone back in the cradle, and shook his head. “Poor Jennifer. Poor, sweet Jennifer.”

  He cried. Big Billy Star was a broken man.

  Okay, I’ve never been good with the right words, unless of course the right words were ‘Aha, caught you!’ But somehow I doubted those would fit this particular situation. It was clear that Billy was heartbroken over Jennifer. Clear that he’d loved her, which didn’t come as a surprise to me. Because I was pretty damn sure which blonde he had been hanging out with at the Underhill Motel and pretty sure why Jennifer had missed so many appointments at the Bombay Spa.

  I didn’t sit; that didn’t feel right. But I did walk closer to Billy, deeper into the office. It was large, as offices go. Billy sat behind a beautiful mahogany desk. Above him hung a huge picture of Billy and Ned Weatherby shaking hands. Happier days, when each of them was twenty pounds lighter and a few gray hairs shorter. Days before the buyout, no doubt.

  “I... I can’t believe Jennifer hired you,” Billy said. He sat up straight and wiped a hand long over his face. “She had her suspicions of Ned, of course. Lots of suspicions over the years. And some of them, I know for a fact, were well founded. But...” He shook his head again. “I can’t believe it would matter to her anymore.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Billy hesitated. “Why should I tell you anything?”

  “Because I think that you and I have the same interest here, Billy. We both want to find out who killed Jennifer.”

  He sighed long and shakily. “I saw you at the Weatherby house the night... the night Jennifer was killed. Jesus Christ, I couldn’t believe it when Ned’s lawyer called me. What’s his name...?”

  “Jeremy Poole,” I supplied.

  “Jeremy Fool if you ask me. That guy hangs off Ned like white on rice, or...”

  “Flies on crap?” I offered. Yes, I was truly starting to have a most negative opinion of the young lawyer, but my eloquent metaphor was an attempt to bring Billy more over to my side. Hopefully, it let Billy feel that I was a kindred spirit in his time of need. Hopefully, we’d semi-bond in our trashing of the lawyer.

  He snorted a halfhearted laugh.

  I drew a breath, and took the lead. “How long have you been sleeping with Jennifer Weatherby?” I asked with an authority I hoped to soon have.

  He didn’t hesitate a heartbeat. “A year, six months, twelve days.”

  “Continuously?”

  His eyebrows knit. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Ms. Dodd, but not even I can keep it up that long.”

  “I mean, were you having an affair the whole year, six months and twelve days, or did you have a hiatus in there?”

  The look he gave me affirmed my suspicions that there had been a break, or at least an attempted break, by one of them. And if it was Jennifer, I could very well be sitting with her killer.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Confirmation,” I lied. “Just confirmation of what I already know.”

  “We... cooled things down for a while. It was all part of the plan.”

  “What plan?”

  His eyes misted over, and though I’m sure he realized he was still talking to me, it was as if he thought Jennifer could hear him herself. “I really loved that woman. With all my heart. And we were planning on making it happen. Planning on making a life together. Jennifer was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  “And she loved you?”

  He stirred in his seat. And paused for just one telltale heartbeat. “She did.”

  “Then why do you think she hired me, Billy?”

  “You see,” he said, clearly rattled, “that’s what I don’t understand. Why Jennifer would give a rat’s ass about whether or not Ned was fooling around when we were planning on running away together.”

  “There’s a possibility, Mr. Star, that whoever came into my office last week was merely posing as Jennifer. And it’s possible that that imposter is responsible for her death.”

  “Then you’d better find her before I do, Dodd.” I could see the clenching of his fists, a graphic reminder of his temper. “Because if I get my hands on whoever killed Jenny, I’ll kill them.”

  I nodded, fully believing him.

  “How did it start between Jennifer and you?”

  Billy tensed visibly. “It was payback at first. Ned took from me, I wanted to take from him. For years, I wanted that bastard to hurt like he hurt me and so many others. So, I thought what better means of payback than to take his wife. Not that I had any initial interest in Jennifer.” He paused for my reaction.

  Which would have been fuckin’ pig in other circumstances. “Go on,” I said evenly.

  “I’d known Jennifer for years, but always as Ned’s wife. Nothing more. But I did know that she was lonely. And yes, I knew I could take full advantage of that. So I started to flirt with her whenever I saw her. I’d call her to say ‘hello’. And it led to more. But then... when I started to get to know her, how could I not fall in love with her? She was so smart, so witty and so very alone in the world.”

  “Alone?”

  “Jennifer never fit into Ned’s world. Not with his parents, not with the snooty neighbors. They all wanted her to be the same—quiet and polite and fucking plastic. She couldn’t be. She wasn’t a high-society snob. She wasn’t the shopaholic doting daughter-in-law. So she kind of retreated from everything and everyone in her world. Know what I mean? She retreated into herself. But once I got to know her...”

  “Did Ned know about the affair?”

  “He thought it was over,” Billy said. “We convinced him it was over. That was part of the plan, too. We didn’t want him suspecting anything while we got our ducks in a row to get the hell out of here. We were going to leave before the renewal of the vows this weekend.”

  “I take it the vow renewing thing was Ned’s idea?”

  “Worse.” Billy snorted with disgust. “It was the minister’s. Can you believe it? But Ned got caught up in this new preacher’s bullshit that that would make everything better. Renew the romance and all that. It’s bad enough Ned got in with that new church—all the money he’s donated to it would make your head spin—but now the minister is trying to re-cement the marriage? Just makes me sick!”

  “So he knew about the infidelity?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Was Jennifer scared of her husband?”

  Billy hesitated a moment too long. I could tell he was picking and choosing his words carefully. That always made me suspicious.

  “Not really. She just didn’t want the public hassle. The pictures on page four, the in-laws growling her out...”

  “Did Jennifer
have a pre-nup?”

  “No. When she and Ned were married, Weatherby Industries was in its infancy, hardly worth a thing. Actually,” Billy’s jaw tightened with anger, “it was Weatherby and Star Industries back then.”

  “So once the divorce was through,” I offered carefully, “half the assets—including half the business would be Jennifer’s, and then yours and Jennifer’s if she married you. Financially, you’d be on top again. Right, Billy?”

  He stared at me unblinking, and I stared back.

  “I think you’d better get your ass out of here, Dodd. I don’t like what you’re implying.”

  He stood, towering a good eight inches taller than me, his clenched fists shaking.

  “I just have one more question?”

  “We’re done,” he said coming around the desk and advancing toward me.

  My mind shrieked skedaddle! but my gut told me to stay.

  “Why didn’t Ned fire you?” I asked.

  He stopped in his tracks and looked at me, startled. “Christ! You’re not too damn good at this job, are you, Dodd?”

  Ouch. “What do you mean?”

  “He can’t. If that son of a bitch ever tried to—”

  He shut up. Too quickly; too thoroughly.

  And at the sound of the cigarette-scratchy voice from behind me, I realized why.

  “What’s going on here, Billy?” Luanne marched into Billy’s office, followed by two burley security guards that looked absolutely clueless as to what to do. And bringing up the rear, of course, were Tweedledumb and Tweedledee.

  Busted!

  “Nothing, Luanne. Nothing at all. This lady was just leaving.”

  She hissed at him. “I hope you weren’t telling any of your lies against Mr. Weatherby.” The woman stood close to him. He dwarfed her in height, but it was easy to see she was scaring the crap out of Billy.

  “I... I didn’t say a thing, Luanne.”

  “Gentlemen, you know what to do.” Luanne nodded to the security guards.

  “Yes, Miss Laney.”

  Left-side guy grabbed a little too roughly. The maintenance staff were dismissed with a wave. I expected to be steered toward the elevator, but was turned right and directed down the staircase, away from prying eyes. Unceremoniously, I was escorted/tossed/shoved out the back door.

  “If you ever come back here, Dix Dodd,” Luanne said, “I’ll have a restraining order filed against you so fast your ugly little head will snap!”

  I was about to tag her with my best “Ha! There’s already one against me,” but I thought better of it.

  And I couldn’t help but wonder as I got to my feet and dusted off my butt, how the hell did she know who I was?