Hangman Read online

  Oliver said, “Because if you had something going on with him, we’d eventually find out about it.”

  “So now’s the time to fess up,” Marge said. “Hiding stuff makes you look bad.”

  “I don’t have anything…” Again her eyes moistened. “He came on to me, okay?”

  “See, that was simple,” Marge said. “What could you tell us about it?”

  “Nothing happened. I wasn’t interested.” She shook her head. “It was at one of Adrianna’s parties. She had them almost every other weekend. He cornered me in the kitchen and tried to mash me. God, it was embarrassing. He was drunk. So was she.” She dabbed her eyes. “It’s hard for me to talk smack about her, especially now that she’s…and we used to be such good friends. It’s not that Garth is a bad guy. He’s just a player. Everyone knows he’s a player.”

  “Did Adrianna know?”

  “Maybe in the back of her mind, she did.” She stood up. “I’ve got to get back to my shift. If you want to talk to me again, please don’t do it here. I live in Canoga Park. I’m in the book.”

  “Thanks, Mandy,” Marge said, “you’ve been very helpful.”

  “No problem. Just find the bastard who hurt her. Adrianna may have had her issues, but who doesn’t have problems?”

  “True that,” Marge said as she watched the nurse walk away. Then she said, “What do you think?”

  “An emotional girl for someone who had drifted away from the victim.” Oliver shrugged. “What’s going on with Garth?”

  “His landline answering machine says…” Marge checked her notes. “That Garth, Aaron, and Greg went river rafting and wouldn’t be answering calls for a week. If he left a couple of days ago, he’s given himself an alibi.”

  “Some people have perfect timing.”

  “You know what I think, Oliver?” Marge said. “Perfect timing is always suspicious.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  DECKER GOT THE feeling that Mack Blanc’s language was an embarrassment to Kathy, but she was just too numb to stop him.

  What the fuck happened!

  That’s what we’re investigating, Mr. Blanc. I’m so sorry.

  I don’t want your fucking apologies, I want some fucking answers!

  Over and over and over and over and over.

  The three of them were in Decker’s office. Kathy remained silent and seated as her husband paced and swore. Finally, Mack attempted a new line of attack.

  “Well, if you don’t know what fucking happened, what do you fucking know?”

  Decker pointed to the chair. Reluctantly, Mack sat down. As soon as he was quiet, his eyes overflowed. Wordlessly, Decker handed him a tissue.

  “Her car is still in St. Tim’s parking lot. We’re going over it right now.”

  “Was she…” Kathy choked back sobs. “Did it happen in the car?”

  “I don’t know, Mrs. Blanc. I sure don’t want to tell you wrong information.”

  Mack took her hand and she leaned against his chest, weeping. The hapless man couldn’t offer her any words of comfort.

  Decker said, “We’re also interviewing people at the hospital to get a time frame. Your wife was kind enough to give us Adrianna’s cell number and we discovered she made a couple of calls around the time she got off shift.”

  “She called Sela Graydon,” Kathy explained to her husband.

  “She and Adrianna have known each other since junior high,” Mack answered. “What about the other number?”

  “When we called it, no one answered. The voice-mail box is full, so we don’t know who it belongs to. We can find out who owns the number and how long the conversation lasted, but that will take a little maneuvering. Also, there’s no guarantee that the person who owns the number is the one who answered the call.”

  “It’s not a familiar number to me,” Kathy told her husband.

  “What about Garth?” Mack said.

  “It isn’t Garth’s number.”

  “I don’t trust that guy,” Mack said. “He’s cocky. Lord only knows why.”

  Kathy said, “He’s good-looking.”

  “How could you say that?” Mack said. “Guy had about twenty pierces in his ears and that crazy soul patch. His hair looked like he stuck his hand in a light socket.”

  “That’s the fashion, Mack. All the rock stars have hair like that.”

  “He wasn’t particularly smart. He was always going to Vegas and never invited Adrianna. Lord only knows where he got the money for his excursions.”

  Decker noticed Kathy’s cheeks reddening. He said, “What do you know about the money, Mrs. Blanc?”

  Kathy looked up. “Pardon?”

  “Had Adrianna ever loaned Garth any money?”

  “What?” Mack stared at his wife. “Did she give that loser money?”

  “She didn’t give it to him, she loaned it to him.”

  “I don’t believe…” He jumped up and started pacing again. “Why?”

  Kathy erupted into tears. “I don’t know why, Mack, all I know is that she did!”

  “Was she generally a soft touch?” Decker asked.

  Mack muttered under his breath and kept pacing. Kathy said, “Softhearted. That’s why she became a nurse.”

  Decker said, “I’m just trying to get a feel for her, so please don’t take offense at my questions. As far as you know, did Adrianna take drugs or drink excessively?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Kathy told him.

  “Of course we know,” Mack said. “We found weed in her dresser when she was in high school. Twice!”

  “She said she stopped.”

  “She also said the weed wasn’t hers.” To Decker: “Yes, she probably smoked dope and she probably drank too much.”

  Kathy wiped her eyes. “She didn’t have a problem, Mack.”

  “I didn’t say she had a problem.”

  “It doesn’t sound like she had a problem,” Decker said. “She had an important job, and from what I heard, she did it very well.”

  “She worked in the NICU with all the sick little preemies.” Kathy started crying. “They all loved her.”

  “Good Lord.” Mack’s eyes moistened. “What the fuck happened?”

  Back to square one. Decker said, “What else can you tell me about Garth Hammerling?”

  “Met him about a half-dozen times. Didn’t trust him.” Mack stopped pacing. “Tell you the truth, I didn’t always trust Adrianna. Her judgment wasn’t the best.”

  “A good kid,” Kathy said. “But she could be a little—”

  “She was wild. She was also spoiled. We were spoiled by her older sister. That one never gave us anything to worry about.”

  “Bea was a different child. There’s no sense comparing.”

  “But we do anyway,” Mack told her. “More than once we were up at four in the morning, calling Adrianna’s friends because her cell was off and we didn’t know where she was. When she wanted to be a nurse, I was skeptical. But…”

  Mack Blanc’s voice cracked.

  “The girl proved me wrong.” He sniffed back tears. “She not only graduated, but got a job with responsibility. Her coworkers love her.”

  “You met her coworkers?” Decker asked him.

  Kathy said, “She had a Christmas party in her apartment two years ago. She invited us and we went.”

  “I think that’s when we first met Garth,” Mack told her.

  “Do you remember any other coworkers?”

  “There was her friend Mandy Kowalski,” Kathy told Decker. “They went to nursing school together. I think it was Mandy who set Adrianna up with Garth.”

  “Mandy set her up with Garth?” Decker repeated.

  “I think so.” Kathy squinted, trying to bring back memories. “I think she knew a boy who knew him…something like that.”

  “Do you remember the boy’s name?”

  “No.” Mack waved his hand in the air. “We kept out of Adrianna’s business.”

  Kathy said, “His name was Aaron O
tis.”

  “How did you remember that?”

  “I just do.”

  Mack shook his head. “She’s a whiz with names.”

  “That’s very good,” Decker said. “Aaron Otis. Did you ever meet him?”

  “I had to have met him once because I recall he was tall with sandy hair…unless I’m getting things confused.” She looked down. “That’s certainly possible.”

  “That’s helpful,” Decker said. “How about the names of Adrianna’s other friends?”

  “You can start with Sela Graydon and Crystal Larabee. The three of them were a tight little group.”

  “Did either of them become nurses?”

  “Heavens no,” Mack said. “I think Crystal wanted to be an actress. At twenty-nine, it ain’t gonna happen. What is she? Like a bartender?”

  “She’s a main hostess at Garage.”

  “Yeah, waiting to be discovered.”

  “Be kind, Mack.” Kathy regarded Decker. “Garage is the newest Helmet Grass restaurant. It’s downtown…right near the New Otani.”

  “Got it. What about Sela Graydon? What does she do?”

  “She’s a lawyer,” Mack told him. “She was always the smart one of the three.”

  “Do both women live in town?”

  “Yes,” Kathy said. “I’ll get you their phone numbers.”

  “Do you know anything about Mandy Kowalski?”

  “Just that Adrianna met her in nursing school,” Mack said. “She seemed nice enough.”

  “She used to help Adrianna study, especially when finals rolled around. The first time they happened, Adrianna freaked out. I couldn’t help her. I don’t know the first thing about the nervous system or the circulatory system, but after studying with Mandy, she not only pulled through, she did well. She even got a couple of A’s in some of the classes.”

  The tears came flowing down Kathy’s cheek.

  “She was so…proud!”

  Decker gave her another Kleenex and watched the woman sob. There wasn’t a state-of-the-art dam in the entire world that could hold back that torrent.

  “THERE’S NOT MUCH to come down for.” Marge was just outside in the parking lot of St. Tim’s because the reception for her cell was better. “The car’s being processed and we’re just about done with our preliminary interviewing. We spoke to a few of her coworkers. Also, we talked to a woman named Mandy Kowalski. She and Adrianna went to nursing school together, but they don’t work on the same floor.”

  “Yeah, Mandy’s name came up when I interviewed the mom,” Decker told her. “She thought that Mandy might have set Adrianna up with Garth.”

  “Hmm. Mandy neglected to mention that. She did say that Garth came on to her.”

  “Okay,” Decker said. “Triangle anyone?”

  “Could be,” Marge said. “I’ll see if I can sort the relationships out. We’ve also got an appointment to interview Adrianna’s supervising nurse tomorrow. She was well liked, did her job, but several people remarked that she liked to party.”

  “That’s consistent with the picture I got from her parents.”

  “Her parents told you she liked to party?”

  “Mostly her father did. He described her—and not kindly—as a party girl.”

  “Unusual for him to admit that under the circumstances.”

  “I have a feeling that he’s been miffed at her for a long time.”

  “But she’s dead, Rabbi. For him to even hint at hostility…that’s weird.”

  “People cope in all sorts of different ways. Maybe he figures if he can be mad at her, she’s really not dead. Anyway, there’s another sister in the family—Beatrice Blanc. She needs to be interviewed separately.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  “There are also two best friends of hers from high school: Sela Graydon and Crystal Larabee.” Decker spelled the names and gave Marge the phone numbers. “Lastly, we need to find out the name of the homeowner’s oldest son.”

  “Did that. Trent Grossman. He’s twenty-six. He lives in Boston with his wife and was at a party last night. So he’s out of the picture. The two younger Grossman boys were home last night, according to the parents. For verification, they sent e-mails, IMs, and were on Facebook. I haven’t dug deeper, but I will if you want me to.”

  “How old are they? Like fifteen and thirteen?”

  “Yep.”

  “Put them down at the bottom for now. Let’s go back to Adrianna’s peers—Crystal and Sela. Set up interviews with them because…okay…here’s the deal.”

  Decker flipped through his notes.

  “Adrianna called Sela Graydon this morning right when she got off of work. Find out what that was all about. Adrianna also made another call, but we don’t know the identity of that number. Each time I’ve called it, the mailbox is full. It’s a cell, so our backward directories aren’t going to work. We may need a warrant to find out who the number belongs to. Hunt around and see if you can find out if the number belongs to one of her friends.”

  “Will do.” Marge asked him, “Any luck with the canvassing of the area?”

  “I haven’t heard anything so far. How about we meet up later in the evening and compare notes?”

  “Sounds like a plan. Talk to you later.”

  Marge hung up her cell and started to dial Sela Graydon’s number, when a crime-scene tech started walking her way. The woman came up to Marge’s stomach. Maybe a little bit higher than her stomach, but she was definitely less than five feet. She was young and Asian and as delicate as a spiderweb, except she had a smoker’s voice. Her name was Rebel Hung.

  “We’re just about done with what we can do here.” Rebel snapped off her latex gloves. “I called the truck. We’ll tow it to the lab and give it a thorough going-over.”

  “Doesn’t look like this is a crime scene,” Marge said.

  “I agree,” Rebel said. “Who knows if she even made it to her car?”

  “Footprints?”

  “We’ve got some partials. We’ve got lots of latent fingerprints. Maybe something will pop.”

  “Hope so.”

  “What about the actual crime scene?” Rebel asked. “Where you found her dangling.”

  “It’s a crime scene, but we’re not sure if it’s the murder scene. If she was killed there, she didn’t seem to put up a struggle. The coroner’s investigators haven’t found bullet or stab wounds—but she could have been poisoned or sedated before she was hanged. We’ll do a tox on her.”

  “Sexually assaulted?”

  “Doesn’t look like it, but we’ll know more once the autopsy’s done.”

  Rebel pursed her lips. “Hanging’s a weird way to commit murder.”

  “Yeah, someone strung her up for dramatic effect.”

  “Very dramatic…like in serial killer dramatic.”

  “Yes, indeed, we certainly haven’t ruled that one out.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  AS THE FRESHIES set up the chairs, Hannah took Gabe over to the choir director. Mrs. Kent was an energetic, stout woman with a bowl cut of black hair and glasses dangling from a chain.

  “This is Gabe,” Hannah said. “He plays the piano.”

  Slipping her glasses over her nose, Mrs. Kent looked the boy up and down. “What year are you in?”

  “Sophomore, but I’m just visiting.”

  “Visiting?” Mrs. Kent let her glasses drop onto her chest. “For how long?”

  “Unknown,” Hannah said. “Maybe a day or two. I thought if he could play ‘My Heart Will Go On’ instead of you playing, you can concentrate on the vocals. Although it’ll probably take a lot more than that to keep us on key.”

  “That’s very cynical coming from the choir president.” She stared at Gabe. “Do you know the song?”

  “I can fake it pretty close. It’s in E, right?”

  “Yes, it’s in E. Can you read music?”

  “Sheet music is even better,” Gabe said.

  “It’s on the piano.” Mrs. Kent told him
. “Decker, help the kids set up.”

  Gabe found a small spinet sitting in a corner, but turned to face the stage. It was a Gulbransen, and while it wasn’t exactly the German Steinway, the mark was serviceable. He pushed his glasses up on his nose, and then touched the ivory keys from middle C to two octaves above using his right-hand fingers. With his left fingers, he went from middle C to two octaves below. Then he played the accidental keys. The sound was about as expected from a small-bodied piano. Its tuning was true, although not all the notes were perfect. It would bother him. Anything that wasn’t musically perfect bothered him, but he had learned how to live with it. He rarely attended any live rock concerts other than thrash metal, where sound was bent and warped anyway, so who cared about pitch. Pop singers were the worst. Pro Tools notwithstanding, there were very few singers who hit the notes all the time.

  He glanced at the music. It needed range. No doubt the choir would massacre it as Hannah predicted. He liked Hannah. She was friendly but low-key. She made conversation but steered away from anything personal. She had self-confidence without being arrogant.

  There were twenty-three kids in the choir, lined up on the risers. As soon as the teacher started talking to them, he zoned out. Around five minutes later, Gabe realized that she was talking to him.

  “Pardon?”

  Mrs. Kent heaved a dramatic sigh. “I asked if you thought you could play the piece.”

  “Sure.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Gabe smiled. “It’s not Rachmaninoff.”

  Mrs. Kent eyed him. “You must be related to Hannah. You have the same sense of humor.”

  Gabe smiled again but said nothing.

  “We can start whenever you’re ready.”

  “I’m ready.”

  “Then start.”

  Gabe stifled a laugh. When he began the introduction, he saw the choir teacher’s eyes go wide. It was stupid that she was shocked. Why would he say he could play if he couldn’t? It was a motor skill—impossible to fake.

  As rightly predicted by Hannah, the choir was awful; the off-key factor was especially prevalent in the soprano section. It was excruciatingly painful to his ear. Midway through the piece, he stopped playing. The teacher cut off the choir and asked him what was wrong.