Chase had checked Ona’s shoes, and also Perlita’s, Michele’s and even his motherin-law’s modest collection of footwear. He hadn’t found a single pair of stiletto heels, and definitely not the murder weapon they were looking for. As far as shoe size was concerned, there wasn’t a lot of difference between the ladies. And if Odelia didn’t forget to check Vena’s shoes, they’d have covered all the women present. He’d also used the opportunity to take a closer look at their faces, but he couldn’t imagine any of them having gone through life as Gavin Droba. Their features simply did not match the picture of Gavin he carried in his pocket.
The man had had a wide face, with a flattened nose, and pockmarked skin. He was also short and chunky, and even though a person can change their face, it’s probably hard to make yourself taller by several inches.
He sighed. This investigation wasn’t going the way he had hoped. So far they had nothing. Now if only he could prove that this detective who’d been tailing Rocamora was in on the whole business, but by all accounts Mark Devine had an impeccable record. Respected by his colleagues and his employers, there wasn’t anything in his file to suggest he might collude with a murderer.
His phone chimed and he took it out of his pocket.“Kingsley,” he said curtly.
“Yes, hi, detective,” spoke a voice he vaguely recognized. “Alison Droba. I was wondering when I can have my car back? Your people took it, and I need it.”
“I’ll check with the forensics team,” he said curtly. “Anything else?”
“Yes, I thought you might be interested to know that the detective I hired to find my father called me just now. He found him, though not in Mexico but in Belize. Turns out he’d been living there all this time, under an assumed name, which is why it took so long to find him. He owned a bar.”
“A bar?”
“Yes. A far cry from managing a multinational corporation, wouldn’t you say?”
“Are you going to reach out to him?”
“I would, only it turns out he died three years ago.”
“He…”
“Yes, died and was buried under his assumed name. Sebastian Dixon.”
“How did he die, if I may ask?”
“He was hit by a car and died.”
Chase could hear that she was upset, and even though she was still a suspect, he softened. He wasn’t a hard-hearted man, quite the contrary. “My sincerest condolences, Miss Droba.”
“Oh, you know,” she said in a shaky voice. “It’s been seven years. I was quite young when he left, so it’s not as if I…” Her voice broke. “I’m sorry, detective.”
“No, that’s all right. It’s understandable that you would feel this way. Even though he left you and your mother, he was still your dad.”
“Yeah, he was,” she said quietly. “And now I don’t have any parents left.”
“Did your mother know, you think? About your dad, and the fact that he died?”
“I’m not sure. She might have known. Maybe that’s why she acted so cold when I told her I’d hired someone to find him. It didn’t occur to me before, but she could have hired a detective herself, and found out what happened. But if she did she never told me about it.”
“If she did, it will be in her book, I imagine,” said Chase.
“Yeah, that stupid book of hers,” said Alison. “The book that got her killed.”
Chase didn’t respond. Odelia might think that Isobel’s murder was connected to the book she was writing, and so might everyone else, but he still thought this whole case revolved around Jason Rocamora and the lovely but very deceptive Miss Droba. “By the way, Alison, what size shoe would you say you have?”
“Just get me back my car,” Alison snapped, and promptly hung up.
CHAPTER 34
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Even though Mark Devine wasn’t the PI Alison had hired to find her dad, he worked for the same detective agency, and since his colleague Steve Martin was still in Belize, where he’d been instrumental in finding the missing man, it was up to Mr. Devine to fill us in on the details of Mr. Martin’s successful investigation.
The detective had agreed to meet in front of the house, and so we found ourselves piling into his modest metallic gray Renault Clio which was probably parked in the same spot where it had been parked on the night of the murder.
Chase had ordered a background check on the detective, but so far he’d come out squeaky clean, much to the cop’s disappointment. Chase’s line of inquiry was that Mark Devine was somehow in collusion with Alison and her criminal fianc?, but so far the evidence didn’t bear out that theory.
Which was perhaps the reason Chase wasn’t as friendly to his colleague as he could have been.
Mark Devine seemed surprised when Chase was accompanied not only by Odelia, introduced as a civilian consultant, but also by Odelia’s two cats. We weren’t introduced as such, though the term feline consultant would have been appropriate. But Uncle Alec, when he appointed his niece, hadn’t extended the courtesy to Dooley and myself, unfortunately. As it was, we were simply part of the decoration, one could say. The wallpaper, perhaps. Or background noise.