Chapter 21

Chapter XXI

Pete and Ruby entered the restaurant at lunchtime and were greeted by Al and Jeanne who were already seated.  They were quickly invited to join the couple.

After greetings Pete asked Jeanne, “Has Rumble invited you to dinner?  I was supposed to invite Al, but I couldn’t get him on the phone.”

“When?” Al asked.

“You free tonight?”

“I am,” Al said, looking to Jeanne.

“Checking my busy schedule, I seem to have an opening,” Jeanne said.

“Good, you can check out the Treadmill for yourself,” Ruby said.

“Oh great,” Jeanne said, “I’ve heard so much about it, I’d love to try it.”

“It takes two people.  Maybe we should send you and Rumble,” Pete said, “Not as romantic, but we want Al to look into taking the violence out and I have this gut feeling It might not want Al messing with it.”

Jeanne laughed.

“You know, the fact that you could think that,” Al said, “scares the shit out of me.”

“Yeah!” Ruby’s voice was flat with a tone that said, we shouldn’t have mentioned that.

Pete and Al nodded.

Jeanne searched their faces waiting for a punch line that didn’t come.

It was two o’clock before Kurtis and Spacer entered the spacious ranch style home of Senator Jensen.  Mrs. Jensen was a gracious and graceful lady.  She showed them into the living room, where they were seated and offered them refreshments before she joined them.

“You really have me curious.  What kind of investigation could I possibly help you with?  Why would my husband suggest you call me?  And why didn’t he tell me?”  Mrs. Jensen was full of questions of her own.  “Of course I called him after you called and all he would say was answer their questions.”

Kurtis addressed her questions, “We are investigating a murder, Mrs. Jensen.  Your husband seemed to understand, we prefer to ask questions that haven’t been rehearsed.”

“A murder?  I’d like to say I know nothing of murder; unfortunately, given the times we live in and my husband’s work, we know murder first hand.  How can I help you?”

“We’re looking into the death of Hope Styles,” Spacer said.

“Hope?” Her mouth formed the word with disbelief. “Hope is dead? – She’s so young.  She’s not the kind of person to be murdered.”

“What do you mean not the kind of person?” Kurtis asked.

“She didn’t do the kind of things that get you murdered.  She was a nice person.  Nice to everyone!  How did it happen?”

“She was shot,” Spacer said.

“At The Point?  I really think that place is dangerous.  I won’t go with Hal when he walks there.  I was glad that he ran into Hope.  I figured if a stray bullet jumped up at least someone would be there to tell me,” she said. “I guess I’m a bit of a coward.  I jump at every bang.”

“Did you socialize with Hope?” Kurtis asked.

“We had her over to dinner parties.  She used to go with Al Johnson.  He did some computer things for Hal during the campaign,” Mrs. Jensen replied.  “I never understood why she stopped seeing him.  Well, he was older than her.  He’s mid thirties at least and she was mid twenties at most.”

“Al seems to think there was someone else,” Spacer said. “Maybe a married, secretive affair.”

She pursed her lips puzzling who she might know who would fit; her face brightened, “Oh, you heard about Hal walking with Hope in the park and thought he might be that someone,” she laughed. “I’m sure he was flattered that you thought of him.  He felt very fatherly toward Hope and I sincerely believe that.”

“The person that mentioned him wanted us to understand there was no indiscretion witnessed, simply they had been seen walking together on the trail we were investigating,” Kurtis reassured.

“He was always happy when they met.  It made his walks more enjoyable to have someone so full of life to talk to.  I can’t believe she’s …” She paused sucking her lower lip, in an act that spoke of her pain on the word she couldn’t bring herself to use again.  “She was such a charming girl.”

“The Senator said he would come home and share their conversations with you,” Kurtis said.  “We thought possibly something happened that he forgot, you might remember him telling you.”

“He walks the trail almost every night when he’s home – doctors orders.” Mrs. Jensen took a minute to think, “She was very upset when Al disappeared.  She said he just bought a new house; he wouldn’t leave town.  He had been bothered by someone following him.”

“We looked into Al’s disappearance.  He’s back,” Kurtis said.  “It turned out to be an accident, not a kidnapping.”

“If we could explain it any clearer you wouldn’t believe it,” Spacer added.

“Oh? … I don’t know what else I can tell you.  Hal was disappointed when she dropped the park several days a week in favor of the gym.  He said she implied she had a new boyfriend.”

“Maybe a married boyfriend?” Spacer came back.

She frowned, “I would doubt that.  Hope’s father is something of a womanizer and that’s left Hope with a disdain for that type of relationship.”

Kurtis and Spacer were looking to each other with the signals they had for ending an interview that was not adding to their investigation.

“There was one thing,” Mrs. Jensen said.  “Hope told Hal she had left a trail and run into a pot field.”

“As in marijuana?” Spacer asked.

“Yes.  She said she was looking over her shoulder to see if she was being chased.  Then she laughed and said, ‘It was probably tomatoes.’  She wouldn’t know the difference.”

“That’s something your husband forgot,” Kurtis said. 

“I have no idea which trail she could have been on.  It must have been a weekend trip.  Hal was joking about the wisdom of sending a helicopter to check out a tomato field.”  She laughed, then paled, saying, “Good Lord, maybe he should have.”

Ralph went through the Mac Pearson file for the fifth time in two days.  He called Porter into his office.

“I think we need to look into the boyfriend’s activities,” Ralph said. “It just feels like, if we check on him, he might have reported a gun stolen shortly after Tate was released.  Where else does a felon get a gun?”

“Good idea.  He, she might have found Diether too,” Porter responded, “Christina may be able to find out about a gun-lost report.”

“Lake Ferris is his name.  I wonder if she changed it, or he was lucky to have a name that fit his lifestyle.”

“Be interesting to know how long she had the gun.  If she just bought it, that could be more than aiding.”

“Yeah,” Ralph said.  “We want to move carefully.  Do the paper walk but don’t do anything that would let her know we’re looking until we run all of it passed Spacer and Kurtis.”

“We put Christina to checking for a report she’ll probably tell them what she’s looking at.”

“That would be a subtle in.  They like Christina.”  Ralph checked his watch.  “Too early to call her.”

Rocco Penz opted to meet with the detectives in Spacer’s office rather than having them visit his Gym.

“Thank you for coming in, Mr. Penz,” Kurtis said.

“I heard you guys were looking for me, thought I better call and get to you before you busted the Gym,” Penz said.

“This is not a bust.  Haven’t had any complaints about the Gym,” Spacer said.  “We just need to know what you can tell us about Hope Styles.”

“Sweet Lady.  Who’d off a gal like that?”

“We were hoping you’d tell us,” Kurtis said.

“No one at the gym, I can tell you that.  We all loved her.  Lucky Mace, my new boy, had a thing going with her,” Penz said.  “He’s eatin’ his heart out.  I sent a limo for her to be sure she got to his fights.  He was useless if she wasn’t in the front row.”

“What’s he doing now?” Kurtis asked.

“Had to cancel his last two fights.”  Penz shook his head.  “Got to convince that kid she wouldn’t want him blowing his career.”

“Be nice, if someone’d said something,” Spacer said. “You know we need to talk to him.”

“He didn’t have anything to do with it,” Penz said. “Look, Lucky is just a kid.  I think he was a couple of years younger than her.  I’ll fill you in on all I can, but go easy on the kid.”

“Feeling a bit fatherly are we?” Kurtis joked at the plea from a man with a hard core reputation.

Penz laughed with them at himself, then covered with.  “It’s money in the bank.  If my man can’t fight I don’t get paid.”

“That’s better,” Spacer said.

Kurtis nodded.  “What you going to give us?”

“I had my boys chasing around looking for the black suits who were following Johnson.  Turns out they were a group of dealers who thought the treadmill program might be a usable communication center.”

“You’re kidding,” Spacer said.

“No, I guess they gave up on it when Johnson told Wilson there was no way it could run on an international scale at this point.”  Penz shook his head and laughed. “That Wilson is some salesman.”

“Sounds like he doesn’t care who he sells to,” Kurtis said.

“A buyer’s a buyer.”  Penz went on, “As long as the money comes in.  I bought three pairs for my Gym here.  If they work out I might buy some for my other chains.”

“I don’t think that’s what got Styles killed,” Spacer brought them back to point.

“Someone said she might have run into a marijuana patch,” Kurtis mentioned.

“The tomato field.  You heard about that?”

“You know about it.  You know what trail she was on?” Spacer asked.

“Trail?” Penz asked.

“At Outlook Park,” Kurtis pushed.

“That wasn’t in the park,” Penz said. “That was up at the lake.  Lucky likes to train on the paths up there.  Hope would go along, but she couldn’t handle the whole run so she would take shortcuts and meet him.”  Penz took a moment to remember the scene.  He went on, “We teased that poor girl about her tomatoes so much.  She threatened to go back and get a leaf for us to see for ourselves.” Penz looked up with a shocked expression. “Jesus, You don’t think she did?”

The three men stared in a silent moment. 

Kurtis asked, “Could anyone at the gym have heard her and felt threatened?”

Rocco nodded his head, “Can’t believe how fast things travel once they hit the gym.”     1763