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When I got there a little after ten, however, it was to find that Josie had pretty much already taken care of all the party detritus.
“I just couldn’t sleep with all that mess waiting for me,” she confessed as she led me into her immaculate living room. All the Halloween decorations were still in place, but otherwise, you would never have been able to tell that she’d had more than a hundred people crammed into the house the night before. “Especially in there.”
Her gaze strayed to the dining room, where Henry Lewis’s deputies had dutifully chalked their way around Danny Ortega’s prone body. Now the old oak floors were gleaming like new.
“Well, I guess I can’t blame you for that,” I said. “But is there anything you still need help with?”
“You could take out the trash,” she suggested. “I bagged it all up, but I just didn’t have the energy to drag it out back to the garage. The bins are on the side by the fence.”
“Will do,” I said, my tone a little too cheery. Not that taking out the trash was very high on my list of fun things to do with my time, but at least by doing so, I could feel somewhat useful.
“And I’ll make us some tea while you’re doing that.”
Since I’d had two cups of coffee at Calvin’s place, I really didn’t need any more caffeine. However, I guessed the tea was as much to steady Josie’s nerves as it was an offer of hospitality, so I just told her that sounded great.
While she started bustling around, filling her bright red teapot, I grabbed the two large plastic bags of trash she’d propped up against the kitchen cupboards, then let myself out the back door. If there had been any party debris out here, it looked as though she’d cleared that out as well, since the yard was pristine, the patio furniture wiped down and the only real sign of the gathering the night before some carved pumpkins placed in strategic spots around the garden, and a few tiki torches — long since extinguished — staked out on the lawn.
I lugged the two bags of trash down the stone walkway that bisected the yard and made a beeline for Josie’s garbage cans, just barely visible on the far side of the detached garage. Luckily, they weren’t very full, so there was plenty of room for the bags I was carrying. After stuffing them in, I made my way back to the house, then paused on the stoop.
It was a lovely day, the kind of perfect day you could only get in Arizona in late October. Overhead, the sky was a brilliant blue with no trace of clouds, and the air smelled crisp and fresh, with maybe just the slightest hint of woodsmoke somewhere off in the distance. Temperatures were supposed to climb into the low seventies, although at this hour of the morning, it was about ten degrees cooler than that.
However, I hadn’t stopped there to enjoy the weather, or to drink in the sight of the big elm tree in Josie’s backyard, now just beginning to turn gold. No, I wanted to stand there for a moment and see if I could sense whether Danny Ortega’s spirit truly had decided to hang around. I’d told both Josie and Calvin the night before that I hadn’t detected anything of his presence, but I’d been jangly and distracted, and hadn’t put forth any real effort.
I breathed in some of the mild, fragrant air through my noise and breathed out through my mouth, calming myself and doing my best to be open to whatever energies might be present here.
The neighborhood felt very quiet, as though Josie’s neighbors had decided to mute their early-morning activities out of respect for the tragedy that had occurred at her house the night before. Somewhere down the street, a dog barked, but otherwise, everything was absolutely silent.
Because there was nothing to disturb the tranquility surrounding me, I found it easy enough to let my senses drift on the wind. Inside the house, the teakettle began to whistle, followed by a faint bang from a cupboard door, obviously Josie getting out a couple of mugs.
Other than that faint disturbance, though, the place felt utterly serene. I couldn’t sense any presences other than Josie’s and mine, nothing of the faint tingle that would tell me she wasn’t precisely alone in the house.
It really did seem as though Danny had moved on. He definitely hadn’t appeared to be the most evolved of souls, so I thought it likely he would return to this world soon enough to continue his karmic journey. In the meantime, though, I didn’t think Josie had anything to worry about.
I went inside. Josie was setting a bright red teapot with hand-painted turquoise and yellow flowers on it down on the kitchen table. It seemed almost incongruously bright, considering what had happened in the next room the night before, but then I realized she had every right to try to cheer herself up in any way possible.
“I hope you like Darjeeling,” she said, sounding almost apologetic. “I went ahead and made a full pot.”
Of course she knew that Darjeeling was my favorite, and was only being polite. “It’s perfect,” I told her, and took a seat at the table.
She sat as well, the rush-bottomed chair creaking slightly as she settled into it. This morning, she wore a black long-sleeved T-shirt with a bright orange sequined pumpkin on the front, pumpkin earrings, and orange-y lipstick that almost matched her fiery hair. Clearly, she was intent on staying in the spirit of the season, no matter what.
“Have you heard anything else from the police?” I asked.
Her mouth tightened slightly. She lifted the teapot and poured for both of us, into a set of mugs that matched the teapot and were absolutely darling. I wondered where she’d gotten them; I wouldn’t have minded scooping up a set for myself.
“No,” she said. “I called the station this morning, but Henry only told me that they’re waiting on the toxicology report. The medical examiner says the preliminary cause of death is a heart attack.”
Which was what Calvin had suspected. What we didn’t know was whether that heart attack had natural causes or whether something far more sinister might be going on here.
“Well, these things take time,” I said. As I spoke, I realized I didn’t have any idea how long that sort of report would even take.
Now Josie looked almost exasperated. Reddish brows drawing together, she replied, “That’s what Henry told me. It could be up to four weeks. Four weeks! I told him it never takes that long onCSI: Miami,and he laughed at me and told me I shouldn’t be getting my information about murder investigations from TV shows.”
I never thought I’d agree with Chief Lewis on anything, but I had to admit he had a point there. Since I didn’t watch those kinds of shows, I didn’t have much to go on, although I was surprised at the timeframe involved. The murders of Lucien Dumond, Lilith Black, and Brant Thoreau had been completely different in that there was absolutely no type of poison involved, and so a tox screen hadn’t been required.
If we were even dealing with a murder at all.
