Ivy Kim (Detective, Austin Police department)
Chad Randlett (Coroner, Austin Police Department)
Leonardo D’Almagro (CEO, D’Almagro Fashion and Talents)
Derick James (Police officer, Austin Police Department)
Waltraud Contratto (Housekeeper for Leonardo D’Almagro)
Scott Miller (Captain, Austin Police Department)
Valerie Tyson (Police officer, Austin police Department)
Victoria Mooney (Ivy Kim’s stepdaughter)
Maury Lane (Forensic investigator)
CHAPTER 13
“Any news, Chad? Did you manage to pull that paper from D’Almagro’s throat?”
A sense of excitement engulfed Chad when he recognized the caller’s voice. “Ivy?”
“How humiliating!” she burbled on. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to lay there on the coroner’s table, butt-naked, with a wide-open mouth while a total stranger pulls The New York Times out of your throat. Then again, when you’re dead, you probably don’t care….Chad? Hello?”
Ivy was driving the unbelievable survivor, her old silver-gray Honda Civic, which once had been her dream of a car. One more block, and she would be at the Austin Police Department.
She would be the one to deliver the startling news about Derick James and D’Almagro. Somehow, she had to find a way to buy some extra time for further investigation before the lions were let loose on Derick. Angry lions. That’s exactly what they are, and exactly how they will behave when the story comes out. Our boss, our colleagues, the press, the entire town will be on his neck. Poor Derick! He is such a great guy, and now all this.
“Ivy? Hey!…Ivy, is that you? You’re cutting out. Are you on your cell?”
“Yep, that’s me. The one with the boobs, you know.”
She stepped on the gas pedal since she was already late for her meeting with Mrs. Contratto. And before seeing her, she had to report to her boss, Scott Miller.
Perhaps she could convince Miller to assign Valerie Tyson to the case, too; she was such a great officer. It wasn’t that Ivy actually had any indication that this was going to be a complicated case, but her intuition and long years in this crazy world told her this wasn’t going to be an easy one either. A good officer like Valerie was priceless. She wasn’t sure what excuse or explanation she would present to Miller, but it had to be a good one.
“Ivy? Are you there?” Chad was still waiting for some kind of confirmation.
“Yep! Did you pull that paper out? What was it?” Then she unintentionally yelled into the phone, “Shit, you bastard!”
“Come on! You sound like a drunken sailor. What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong. Some idiot almost hit my car!”
“You did it again, Ivy. Ran the red light, didn’t you?” Chad normally declined to ride with Ivy. “Too much excitement for one day” was his justification.
“Yellow! It was yellow! And I’m late. That paper. What was it?”
“Well, it’s not The New York Times. It’s a page from an employee contract. Looks like a standard one from D’Almagro Fashion and Talents. No signature, no name, nothing as far as I can see that will link it to a certain person, but you’re the expert in that area.”
“Eat that, your bastard,” she muttered to herself, now wondering if she already should have brought Rob Bonner, handcuffed, down to the station for questioning. She speculated as to whether D’Almagro had been forced to eat the page before he was killed or if it had been pushed down his throat after. Some way to show loathing for a contract. Or the business in general. Then again, it wasn’t signed, so it could be a coincidence.
“What? Did you just say ‘bastard’ again?” Chad was amused.
“Sorry, Chad. I just had an impulse. I’ll try to avoid that word.”
“You should! You know that, don’t you? It’s no way for a lady to speak.”
“I’m not a lady, but that’ll work.”
Chad’s advice was the same thing her mother always pointed out to her in an attempt to convert her daughter to the virtues of a refined and educated woman. Victoria is ladylike. Almost too perfect. But what else would she be in her attorney father’s New York home.
Detective Kim yanked her thoughts back to the case. “The dagger. Is it still in the lab?”
“Maury Lane is working on it,” Chad informed her. “So far, I believe he hasn’t found anything. Well, the blood type matches D’Almagro’s; but besides that, it’s clean…so to speak.”
“Yep, what I expected. I would like to get those photos. Close ups. As soon as possible. Will you let Peter Tung know? I’m hoping that I can put Officer Tyson on that, you know, tracing its origin and hopefully the owner. According to Mrs. Contratto, it didn’t belong to D’Almagro.”
“Maury is good, Ivy, really good. He can find an ant leg on a soccer field. And it so happens, he knows a little about Asian culture, too.”
“Well, so do you, Chad! If I’m not wrong, you lived there for a while. So tell me, does it look Asian or what?”
“Maury said Japanese.”
“What do you think?”
He desperately wanted to come up with the perfect answer to impress her; but the truth was, he had no idea. Most of his time in Asia had been in the company of corpses, not ancient culture and fine artifacts. Unfortunately, in almost every way he was a novice when it came to defining what made one culture different from another. If it weren’t for differences in physical appearance among the various branches of Homo sapiens, then he wouldn’t know where he was. All medical examiners’ rooms looked the same.
“Japanese, I would say.” He felt bad about his little lie.
“Hmm. I wonder if this Japanese masseuse’s business card and the dagger are connected. Anyway, I’ll talk to you later. Oh! Would you please have the employee agreement brought over to me when the lab is done with it. Let me know when you have finished your autopsy report, too. Thanks.”
She disconnected the call, parked her car right outside the APD building, and rushed inside.
Bee Yourself 