Steve’s shorts: You Know I’m Watching (continued)…
[Note from Steve: Today is Pearl Harbor Day. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese fascists attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. entered the war against fascism against the Axis powers. We must never, never give into right-wing fascism, here or abroad. “Nationalist” is just another name for fascist, and autocratic demagogues use that term to justify all kinds of crimes, including ethnic cleansing and genocide. We must always be vigilant!]
You Know I’m Watching
A “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” Homicide Case
Copyright 2018, Steven M. Moore
Chapter Two
At the vic’s workplace, we both interviewed her manager, an older bald man with squinting eyes behind coke-bottle glasses who couldn’t stop wringing his hands. Put a collar on him and he could pass as a priest from my childhood.
“Sharon had no enemies,” said Marvin Dunn. “She was a brilliant, beautiful soul who wouldn’t hurt a fly. She kept to herself, but everyone liked her here.”
“How about outside the office?” said Chen.
“She never talked about her social life. I tried to ask her to lunch once, but she always brought something from home. She seemed to be a true New Yorker, but I know she’s from Nashville. She was always listening to music while she worked, but it wasn’t country music. She liked that classical stuff.”
Wasn’t sure what Marvin meant by “classical stuff,” but he seemed to question Sharon’s musical tastes. “Orchestral or opera?”
“I think it’s called chamber music. There are a lot of free recitals here in the city. I think she attended many of them.”
“That’s a social life. Did she meet someone special at one?”
Marvin frowned. “How would I know that? I just saw some of the programs sitting on her desk at times. I think she keeps them and has a desk drawer full of them.”
Glanced at Chen. She shrugged. “The CSU wouldn’t consider that evidence. There was no sign that she was an aficionado of chamber music in her apartment.” The last was for Mr. Dunn.
I answered but obliquely. “I’ll ask if there were pieces stored on her laptop.”
“That’s likely,” said Marvin. “I told you about the headphones.”
“So she brought her personal laptop to work?”
“The firm purchases laptops and smart phones for employees. She probably wouldn’t spend her own money for others. Many don’t.”
“And you have good security for both?” I said.
“We have a cloud for the accounts and tight security for assessing it, either with a laptop or phone. No company information can be stored on personal devices.” He smiled. “I assume that rule is often broken, but all our people are security conscious.”
We left our cards with Marvin and split up the list of the other employees, talking to them one by one. They were all sad to hear about the murder and nervous about talking to cops, but on gut instinct I didn’t like any of them for the crime. You never know, of course.
All of them were present and accounted for. Of course, the murder hadn’t occurred during normal work hours, so we still had to check out their stories.
Our interview with Marvin hadn’t set off any alarms, but I knew he was hiding something. Did it have any relation to the case? Probably not. He didn’t seem like a murderer—just a boring person managing other boring persons. Wasn’t being fair, of course. Detective work can cause boredom. To each his own for making a living.
But we’d check Dunn out too, dig more into his past. The words “brilliant, beautiful soul” could imply infatuation. But could he take a shot like the one that killed Sharon? I guessed the answer was no.
***
Sharon Hill had graduated from college in Tennessee and gone to biz school in Virginia. Her last job was her third; two in Jersey had preceded it. She was a tax specialist for small businesses and was in charge of several accounts of that type. We’d have to check those out too.
Made sense that small businesses would outsource legal and accounting stuff as long as they found the right people to do it. Sharon’s firm had a good, solid rep and several branch offices, mostly in the tristate area. Her two places in Jersey hadn’t belonged to that firm, though. Wondered why she left them.
Someone who loses a job for sexual harassment could become a stalker. Decided to check on harassment complaints at the first two firms. There were none. None recorded, that is. Did she not report them and leave instead? That happened. Sometimes the victims even blame themselves, even though the #MeToo movement a few years ago changed some of that.
Was imagining a lot more boring work ahead of us. Even someone as reclusive as Sharon Hill had a nexus with an entire population, and her killer could be anyone from that population, assuming she knew him. Figured the killer to not be a random person. She probably knew him. Or her. Couldn’t discount that it might be a woman, but the threatening correspondence sounded like a man wrote them.
We were well into searching into people’s lives when an idea occurred to me. Perused the sheaf of threatening letters some more.
“This stalker is basically saying, ‘If I can’t have you, no one can,’” I said to Chen. “He could be anyone who went from infatuation to threats.”
Chen stopped typing and glanced at me. “But we agreed to eliminate outside people. She had no relatives and doesn’t seem to have had many real friends.”
“Yeah a real-life Eleanor Rigby. Let’s take a break from desk work and canvas the neighborhoods around her apartment and workplace.”
“Uniforms already did some of that.”
“Did they visit bars and eateries.? Wasn’t there a deli a block away?”
“She was a regular patron of the deli,” Chen said after checking her smart phone. “Not unusual for this city, and she always went alone, according to the deli owner.”
Says the deli owner, I thought. Studied the vic’s pic. A pleasant black face smiled at me from my laptop’s screen. Someone had become obsessed with this nice lady.
“What about Starbucks and so forth?”
“There are coffee houses near her home and work.”
“Scratch the one close to home. Does the other one sell tea?” She nodded. “Let’s check it out. I’m not into this computer business.”
“Let me do it.”
“Fine. Stay here. I’ll go do some street sleuthing.” Winked at her as I stood. “Give me a call when you solve the case.”
“Bite me.”
“I’ll leave that job to Eric.”
She frowned. Good thing we’d been partners for years. Might not get away with that otherwise. As I walked out, I was thinking though. Is that how sexual harassment starts? Quips and flirts? Probably. I felt safe knowing that if I went too far, Chen would get physical. She was skilled in martial arts. Most women aren’t.
(To be continued….)
***
Comments are always welcome.
Angels Need Not Apply. #2 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this mystery/thriller novel initially has the detectives pursuing the killers of the son of an FBI agent and friend of Castilblanco. The case soon expands to a case with national and international repercussions as the detectives discover a conspiracy where a drug cartel, terrorist group, and right-wing militia are collaborating. To what purpose? And who are all the players? Answering these questions leads readers to heart-pounding intrigue and action that has many twists and turns, a story that is as current today as when it was written, if not more so. This ebook is now on sale at Smashwords for $0.99, but only for a week.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
