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Peralta sighed heavily. “Greg Townsend was found dead this morning.”
“What?”
“You heard me, David. Murdered. His cleaning lady found him this morning in the bedroom at his place in Sedona. He’d apparently been tortured with a raw electrical chord before he was given the business end of a twelve gauge. The Coconino County deputies found your name and phone number written on a pad on his desk. And naturally, they wanted to know what a Maricopa County deputy had been doing on their turf.”
I sat carefully in the leather easy chair. I told Peralta what Townsend had told me.
“Goddamn it, David, I told you to stay out of this case!” He was headed to the blowup point, which I didn’t want to see.
“It wasn’t anything but a missing persons case when I talked to Townsend, and you gave me permission to look into that. Remember?”
Julie walked in with coffee for Peralta and herself and a diet Coke for me. I patted her hand.
“Julie, sit.” It was Peralta. “I’m really sorry about your sister. But I have to ask you this. Where were you yesterday before David brought you downtown?”
“Is this an interrogation, Mike?” She tossed her hair a bit and sat opposite me. Her eyes were red and puffy.
Peralta sipped the coffee. “Good coffee,” he said, then: “It can be if you want. Should I read you your rights?”
“Wait a minute, Mike,” I said. “I picked her up at the Phoenician, where she works.”
I turned to Julie and said, “Greg Townsend was found murdered.” Peralta shot me a dirty look.
“I didn’t kill him, Mike, if that’s what you’re asking,” Julie said. “Not that I hadn’t thought about it, the way he treated Phaedra.”
“Julie! Jesus.”
Peralta said, “I think you should come downtown with me and talk to us about this.”
“Are you arresting me, Mike? Is that easier than looking for the son of a bitch who murdered my sister?”
He finished the coffee and stood. “David will be happy to drive you down when you two, uh, finish here.”
***
I was supposed to lecture at Phoenix College that afternoon. Instead, I canceled class to take Julie back to Madison Street. Not that I had taken any time to prepare the lecture. Not that I had made much progress on anything. I was no closer to selling the house than I had been two months ago. I was no closer to getting a new job. What I had accomplished was to land in this strange little drama with characters out of my past-my old partner, my old girlfriend. And the drama had a body count that was rising.
I spent a frustrating hour being interrogated by two young detectives from the Harquahala task force, who wanted to argue over every sentence in my report on Phaedra. One kept reminding me that he had a master’s degree.
They went away, and I logged into the sheriff’s computer and read a fragmentary report from the Coconino County deputies on Greg Townsend, who was now neither vibrating nor channeling. It sounded very ugly. Blood on the walls, literally. And the place was just isolated enough that nobody was likely to have heard a thing. Suspect number one in Phaedra’s murder was dead himself, leaving nothing. Maybe the Harquahala task force would make sense of it. Maybe I could let it all go. Let Julie make another statement, straighten out her whereabouts yesterday. And I could get back to my life.
“Hello, History Shamus.” It was Lindsey. Her black miniskirt was even shorter than usual. She looked me over. “You look like you were out all night. I hope sex was involved.”
I could feel the blood rushing to my face. She gave a me conspiratorial smile. “Way to go, Dave.” I showed her the report from Sedona.
“Shit,” she whispered. “He pissed somebody off. Execution city. Are you involved in this?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “He’s some guy who dated the little sister of an old friend of mine. The little sister turned up dead yesterday.”
“Phaedra,” Lindsey said. I nodded.
“I saw the report come through. Neat name. The daughter of Minos.”
I smiled at her. “Lindsey, you are always full of surprises.”
“I’ve read Racine,” she said with an endearing smugness. “This Phaedra found a world of trouble, too. It’s been assigned to the Harquahala task force.”
I nodded.
