“Of course not. It just took me by surprise.”
“Sorry if it seemed dishonest. I wanted to do right by her.”
“I understand,” I said. “While I’m here, would you mind my taking a look at her things?”
“You can do that. Sure. Doesn’t amount to much. The desk was hers. My office is in the second bedroom. I cleared two drawers of a chest of drawers in the master. In the bathroom, she’s got the usual shampoo, deodorant, that kind of thing.”
“Let’s start there.”
“You want me to hang around or make myself scarce?”
“Come with me. That way, if anything comes up, I can ask questions while I search.”
He showed me into the bathroom off the master bedroom. “Margaret and I remodeled fifteen years ago. Tore out a wall here and opened these two bedrooms to form a master suite. Doesn’t look like much compared to new houses these days, but we were happy. We did a bump out in the kitchen to make like a breakfast nook and then added a screened-in porch.”
I made what I hoped were appropriate responses while I sorted through the medicine cabinet and the vanity drawers she’d been allotted. He was right about her medications-no prescriptions at all. Sixty-three years old, you’d think she’d be into hormone-replacement therapy or thyroid medication, pills for high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol levels. Her personal hygiene products were just what you’d expect. Nothing exotic. I’d have been happy to see a tube of Mary Kay lipstick, just for the chance to track it back to the local rep.
“The police still have her purse,” he said apropos of nothing.
“Doesn’t surprise me. Too bad she didn’t take prescription meds. We might have tracked down her doctor and learned a thing or two.”
When he saw that I’d run out of drawers to tackle, he said, “Bedroom’s this way.”
I followed him into the bedroom where he pointed out the drawers she used. When I opened the first, I was greeted by a soft cloud of fragrance-lilac, gardenia, and something else.
Marvin took a step back. “Whoa…”
“What?”
“That’s the White Shoulders I gave her on our six-month anniversary. It was like her signature perfume.” He shook his head once and his eyes flooded with tears.
“Are you okay?”
He gave his eyes a quick swipe. “Took me by surprise is all.”
“You can wait for me in the other room if it’s easier.”
“No need.”
I went back to my search. Audrey’s tidiness extended to her lingerie. In both drawers, she was using fabric-covered boxes to store her neatly folded underpants, bras, and panty hose. I felt my way through the items without discovering anything. I pulled the drawers all the way out and checked for papers or other items taped under them or on the back. Zip.
I crossed to the closet and opened the door. There were rods for double hanging, cubbyholes, shelf dividers, wire baskets, and cedar-lined shelves tucked away behind clear Lucite doors. Her wardrobe struck me as skimpy for a working woman. Two suits, two skirts, and a jacket. Of course, this was California, and work clothes were more casual and relaxed than in other places.
Marvin’s side of the closet was as organized as hers. I said, “You guys are something else. She must have had a closet company come in and do this.”
“Matter of fact, she did.”
I removed stacks of folded sweaters, felt along the seams for anything hidden. I checked the pockets in her slacks and jackets, opened shoe boxes, and rooted through the laundry hamper. There was nothing of interest.
I returned to the small desk in the living room, where I sat down and worked my way through the drawers he’d cleared for her. No address book, no month-at-a-glance calendar, no appointment book. It was possible her route was preset and she had no need to make penciled reminders to herself. But what about the ordinary day-to-day transactions? Everyone has to-do lists, scraps of paper, scratch pads with scribbled notes. There was none of that here. Which meant what? If Audrey had decided to kill herself, she might have systematically deleted anything of a personal nature. I wasn’t sure why she’d be that secretive unless she was paranoid about anything connected to her shoplifting extravaganzas. She’d been working with a younger woman. If the two were linked to a larger retail-theft ring, even a fragment of information might be telling. So maybe the other woman was the one who kept track of their activities.
The flip side of the issue was just as troubling. What if she hadn’t killed herself? If she’d been murdered, she probably didn’t have warning and therefore she’d have had no opportunity to erase personal or professional references. Did she tidy up after herself as she went along? I had to credit her with a job well done. So far, she was invisible.
I sat in her desk chair and pondered the situation. Marvin had been good about keeping his comments to a minimum. I turned and looked at him. “When it came to business travel, what was the pattern?”
“She was usually gone three days a week.”
“The same three days or did it vary?”
“It was pretty much the same. She’d be gone Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and every other Saturday. With outside sales, you usually have a regular route for customers you visit or stores you service. Plus, you make a certain number of cold calls, developing new contacts.”
“Was she in town last Friday when she was ordinarily gone?”
“I have no idea. She said she’d be away the usual three days. She worked from home on Monday and Tuesday and then took off, saying she’d be back first thing Saturday morning.”
“In time for her regular hair appointment.”
“Right. That and the real estate agent.”
I changed my focus. “Did she have hobbies? It may sound irrelevant, but I’m looking for any kind of crack in the wall.”
“No hobbies. No exercise program, no sports, and she didn’t cook. She used to make jokes about what a rube she was in the kitchen. If I didn’t do the cooking myself, we went to restaurants, did takeout, or ordered in. She liked anything that could be delivered. Lot of times we ate at the Hatch, which has a limited menu of bar food-burgers and fries, nachos, chili, and these premade burritos you can heat in the microwave.”
I was already thinking about whizzing back over to the Hatch to catch a bite to eat before the kitchen closed for the night. I returned my focus to the job at hand. “Where did she do her banking?”
“No idea. I never saw her write a check.”
“Did she cover her share of the living expenses?”
“Sure, but she paid me in cash.”
“No checking account?”
“Not as far as I know. She might have had a checkbook in her purse, but the cops still have that and I doubt they’d provide us an inventory.”
“Did she pitch in on groceries?”
“When she was in town. I covered the household because my name’s on the mortgage and I have to pay water and electric whether she’s here or not.”
“What about when you went out to dinner?”
“I’m old-school. I don’t believe a lady should pay. If I invited her for a meal, it was my treat.”
“Did she explain her reliance on cash? Seems quirky to me.”
“She said she got into debt at one point, overdrawing her account, and the only way she could curb her spending was to switch to all cash.”
“What about credit card statements?”
“No cards.”
“Not even a credit card for gas when she was on the road?”
“Not that I ever saw.”
“How about telephone bills? Surely, she made business calls on days she worked from home.”
He considered the question. “You’re right. I should have thought of that myself. I’ll pull the phone bills for the months she was living here and mark any numbers I don’t recognize.”
“Don’t worry about it until I’ve checked the house in San Luis. That might be a gold mine of information.”
“Anything else I can be doing?”
“You could put a notice in the newspapers-the Dispatch, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, and the Chicago papers. “Seeking information about Audrey Vance…” Use my phone number in case we get crank calls, which are all too common in these situations.”
“And if no one comes forward?”
“Well, if the house in San Luis doesn’t net more than this, I’d say we were up shit creek.”
“But overall, this is good, right? I mean, so far, you haven’t uncovered any evidence she was a master criminal.”
“Ah. Funny you should say that. I forgot to mention my talk with the vice detective. Audrey’s been convicted of grand theft on at least five prior occasions, which suggests she was into retail theft up to her pretty little neck.”
“Saints preserve us,” he said, which was a phrase I hadn’t heard in years.