Dorset’s resident trooper, their relationship had thawed considerably, so much so that when he’d finallygotten around to marrying his high school sweetheart, Tawny, Des had been invited and actually gone to the wedding.
“Yo, Des!” he called to her warmly as he climbed out of the slick-top, flexing his body-builder’s muscles inside of his shiny black suit. He always wore black. Thought it made him look classy. In truth, it made him look like a chauffeur.
“How are you, Rico?”
“Never better,” he said, grinning at her.
Marriage did seem to agree with him. He looked cheerful and relaxed. Possibly even a bit jowly. And he’d finally shaved off his dead caterpillar of a mustache, Des was happy to note, although he had not lost his nervous habit of smoothing it with his thumb and forefinger. Except now all he was smoothing was bare skin.
“What have you got for us, Des?”
“Got you one dead movie actor.”
“He jumped?”
“Very good question, wow man. Happily, I don’t have to answer that. You do.”
Soave’s partner started toward them now, dressed in a sleeveless lime green knit top, tan slacks, and chunky boots that gave her a couple of inches on Soave. She was a good five feet nine and built like a rottweiler with jugs. Huge jugs.
“Now, here’s a meeting I’ve been looking forward to,” Soave said eagerly. “Des Mitry, give it up for my new partner, Yolie Snipes.”
Des had heard about Yolie Snipes on the grapevine. The boys called her Boom Boom because of what she had going on inside of her shirt. She was half-Cuban, half-black, and all player-young, tough and street smart.
“God, this is just such a thrill for me,” Yolie exulted as she pumped Des’s hand. She wore her nails short and painted them purple. Her grip was like iron. “Where I come from you are a legend and it is such an honor to even be on the same investigation as you.” She talked extremely fast and her voice seemed to come all the way up from her diaphragm. “Word, girl, I have been wanting to meet you forever.”
“Glad to know you, Yolie,” Des said, a bit blown away by her motor. Yolie Snipes was a girl in a hurry. She had a latina’s creamy mocha skin and gleaming brown eyes, but her big lips and wide-bottomed bootay spelled sister all the way. So did the braids. She had a thin one-inch scar across her left cheek that looked as if it had been done by a razor, maybe a box cutter. She wore silver studs in her ears, no makeup or lipstick. She was bigged up- had a weight-lifter’s rippling arms. She wore the portrait of a woman’s face tattooed on her left biceps with the initials AC written underneath it.
“Walk this back for us, Des,” Soave said. “You have some concerns about the body?”
“I do, although we all know that this was a man with his share of personal problems. And it certainly plays suicide. Looks as if he drove his Jeep up here late last night, got himself drunk, and threw his bad self off a cliff.”
“Damned crazy fool,” Soave said disapprovingly. “Here’s a young guy pulling down millions, is married to a world-class hottie. Why go and do that?”
“It wasn’t making him happy, Rico.”
“Did you find a note?”
“No, I didn’t. But I did bag his cell.” She popped her trunk and handed it over. “He placed a call on it from right here at around one-thirty.” They could learn the exact time from his cell phone record. “The words he used sounded an awful lot like good-bye.”
Soave glanced at her curiously. “You know who he called?”
“I do. It was Mitch.”
“Who, Berger?” Soave had always been bewildered by Mitch’s presence in her life. “Are you telling me he and Tito Molina were tight?”
“Not exactly. Tito went after him yesterday.”
“Sure, sure, I saw it on the news last night,” Yolie spoke up. “Tito whooped this movie critic’s ass on account of he gave him a bad review.”
“You’re not saying that’s why he killed himself, are you?” Soave asked. “Because Berger hurt his little feelings?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” Des replied, wondering if Mitch was thinking this.
“Well, what did he say to Berger?”
“You can get the exact words from him. He’s waiting to hear from you.”
“Okay, good,” Soave said. “What else have we got?”
“Tito’s ride.” Des pointed out the Jeep’s freshly scraped paint job.
“Could be this happened earlier in the day,” Yolie suggested, kneeling for a better look. “If they phoned in an accident report then the car rental people will have a record of it. Then again, he might have sideswiped somebody on his way up here last night. I’ll see if anyone reported it, maybe canvass those farmhouses down the road. Could be somebody heard him hit a tree or something.”
This was a sharp one, Des observed. Her mind broke down all of the angles in a flash. “There’s an empty bottle of peppermint schnapps up at the top of the cliff. Also some spent matches. I didn’t see anything else.”
“Yolie, why don’t you go have a look?” Soave said. “I’ll check out the body with Des.”
“I’m on it.” Yolie immediately went charging off.
“It’s real slippery up there,” Des called after her. “Watch your step.”
“I always do,” Yolie Snipes responded, smiling at her over her shoulder.
“She’s an eager one, isn’t she?” Des said as she watched her make her way across the parking lot, big bottom shake-shake-shaking. Des could only imagine what was happening to the girl’s front end.
“Twenty-four-seven,” Soave agreed, smoothing his former mustache. “You slap her down, she bounces right back up. That’s Boom Boom. She makes me feel middle-aged, you want to know the truth.”
“Rico, you are middle aged,” Des informed him as they started their way down the footpath to the base of the falls.
“Between us, the wife can’t stand her. Thinks she’s a scheming slut bomb. Not true. This is a good kid. Tawny’s just jealous, you ask me.”
“Does Tawny have any reason to be?”
“Hell no,” Soave said indignantly. “I’m a happily married man. Me and Tawny just put in an offer on our first house. Besides, Boom Boom’s hooked up with my cousin Richie.”
“The one who works Narcotics?”
“The two of them are real tight. You know what they’re calling her up at the Headmaster’s House?” Soave glanced at her slyly. “The next Des Mitry. How do you like that?”
She didn’t. It made her feel like she’d retired to Boca Raton or died.
“I’m telling you, Boom Boom’s the complete package,” he said, stepping his way carefully over the bare roots in the path. “Plus I never have to worry about her drowning.”
Des shot a cold look at him in response.
He immediately reddened. “Sorry, Des, you know how I backslide when I’ve been away from you.”
“I do know that, Rico. But I still keep hoping for a miracle.”
Tito was in the middle of his final photo shoot as they scampered down onto the rocks. The assistant ME was photographing the star from every possible angle before they transported his body to Farmington for the autopsy, which was automatic whenever there was an accidental or unexplained death.
“What a stupid waste,” Soave said, shaking his head at the dead actor disgustedly. “Okay, what are you selling, Des?”
“I’m not selling anything, Rico. I just wanted to point out something about the way he landed.”
“What about it?
“The back of his head took the brunt of the impact. That’s not consistent with a swan dive. He should have landed facedown, not up.”
Soave considered this for a moment, his wheels starting to turn. “So he somersaulted in the air, end over end.”
“If that were the case then his head would be where his feet are. He’s turned completely the wrong way
