have a number to reach him or a phone to call him if she had. About five o’clock, she knocked on Margery’s door. Her landlady came out in heliotrope shorts, holding a tall screwdriver garnished with lime.
“Do you know how to get hold of Phil?” Helen said.
“Which part do you want to hold?” Margery had obviously been getting her liquid vitamin C. Helen was irritated because she’d spent a lot of time speculating on exactly that subject. “This is serious. I need to reach him for business. Can you get a message to him?”
“Of course I can. Keep your pants on,” Margery said.
Helen wondered why everything sounded suggestive.
“Go on back home,” Margery said. “I’ll handle it.”
Margery worked her magic. She found Phil, and he found the authorities.
At seven the next morning, Savannah and Helen were standing at the dock in Hank’s backyard, like mourners at a grave. Savannah stared into the dark water. Helen looked for Phil, but he wasn’t there. It was an achingly beautiful day.
Helen didn’t know how long it took the police dive team to find Laredo’s little yellow car. Time seemed to stretch, then fall away. When the battered Honda was pulled from the canal, Savannah did not say a word. Helen was afraid to offer any comfort, even a hug. If she touched Savannah, she would shatter, and they’d never put the pieces back together.
When the grim business of resurrecting the dead car was complete, the police opened the trunk. There was a body inside. The police would not let Savannah see it, but they said it was a small blond woman wearing short- shorts and one red high heel.
Laredo had been found.
“It’s over,” Savannah said. For a brief moment, she looked like her old self. “I can bury my little sister. And she won’t wear a dress slit up the back.”
• • •
At sunset, Helen was sitting by the Coronado pool with Margery and Peggy. Pete sat on Peggy’s shoulder, munching an asparagus spear. The chubby parrot was on a diet.
Helen brought out a box of white wine. Peggy found a can of cashews. Margery added a plate of chocolate- dipped strawberries. The evening breeze sent bougainvillea blossoms sailing across the pool. It was just like old times.
“So tell us what happened this morning,” Margery said, “after they pulled out the body.”
“The police got a search warrant for the house,” Helen said. “They were looking for evidence to link Laredo to Hank Asporth.”
“You think they’ll nail the bastard?” Margery took a big bite of her strawberry. It dripped on her purple shirt.
“I hope so. He can say Laredo’s fingerprints were in his house because he dated her. But he’ll have a harder time explaining away her purse. It was in the same closet where I found her red shoe. They found other stuff, too. He’s been charged with the murder of Laredo Manson.”
“I thought Mindy killed Laredo.” Peggy picked up a cashew. Pete eyed it.
“I heard her say it, right before she went up in flames—and off to hell. Once the car was found, Hank started babbling and his lawyer couldn’t shut him up. He swears Mindy strangled Laredo and he was only a terrified bystander.”
“But that’s true, isn’t it? Aren’t you going to tell them about Mindy’s confession?” Peggy ate her cashew and picked up another. Pete watched with beady-eyed interest.
“Hank could have stopped her from killing Laredo. He hid the body and nearly worried Savannah into her own grave. I’m not testifying on his behalf,” Helen said. “He kept his silence—I’ll keep mine.”
“What happened the night Laredo was killed?” Margery took a healthy gulp of wine.
“I think I’ve pieced it together from random remarks by the police, some stuff Savannah said and educated guesses. I know Laredo got some damning information from Hank’s home computer the night he’d abandoned her to talk on his cell phone.”
“Served him right,” Margery said. “I hate people who ignore you to yak on their cell phones. So she put it all on that red disk and tried to blackmail him?”
“Yep. Hank offered Laredo twenty thousand dollars for the disk, then doubled his offer. I think the cops found some uncashed checks in her name. But Laredo didn’t want money. She wanted Hank to marry her. Savannah told me that. The confirmation was in the Girdner Surveys files.”
“Where?” Peggy finally popped the cashew in her mouth.
A disappointed Pete bit his asparagus.
“Laredo told the survey taker that she lived at Hank’s house. I saw that information in the Girdner files. Laredo wanted to be Hank’s wife and have the big house and a place in Lauderdale society. I think that’s why she was at his house the night she died: Laredo threatened to go public with the information if he didn’t set a wedding date.
“Hank was not going to marry her. Laredo was definitely going to talk. It would have brought down the whole moneylaundering operation. That’s when Mindy strangled Laredo.”
“With the same scarf that caught on fire?” Margery liked the gruesome details.
“I don’t know,” Helen said.
“How’d they get rid of the body so quick?” Margery said.
“The cops think Hank and Mindy carried the body to Laredo’s car, which was parked in Hank’s garage, and put it in the trunk. Mindy removed the drink glasses and other signs of Laredo. Hank stuck a murder mystery in the VCR.
“He was congratulating himself when he noticed one red heel and her purse by the couch. He tossed them in the guestroom closet as the police rang the doorbell.”
“And where was Mindy?” Peggy listened spellbound, yet another cashew in her hand. Pete moved stealthily toward it.
“She drove the car with Laredo’s body in it to the driveway next door. Then she went for a walk until the police left.
When the cops were gone, Hank and Mindy dumped the car in the canal. They had some trouble with it. We’d had a lot of rain that week, and the car sank into the mud and tore up Hank’s backyard when the wheels spun.
“His lawn service told the police he wanted them to replace the damaged grass. They have the order. Hank called them the day after Laredo was strangled. Hank still owes them money, so they’ll be happy to testify against him.”
“How come no one saw the car go into the canal?”
Margery said. “It’s bigger than a bread box and bright yellow.”
“Hank’s next-door neighbor wasn’t home. The other neighbor was almost deaf. The house across the canal was shuttered and the snowbird owner wasn’t in Florida until January.”
“And what about Mindy’s car? There’s no parking on those private streets.” Peggy’s cashew was suspended in midair. Pete leaned forward, watching it.
“On Las Olas, where she’d been drinking before she showed up at Hank’s house. Mindy took a cab over to Hank’s because she was afraid of a DWI. The police found the cab records. Hank drove Mindy to her car afterward. Pushing a car into a canal must be a sobering experience. She drove home—but a parking ticket placed her on Las Olas that evening.”
“Ow!” Peggy said, as Pete grabbed her cashew and ate it.
The newspapers reported that sixteen people died in the fire at the Mowbry mansion. Uncounted careers went up in smoke that night. Two city council members and a state senator announced that they wanted to spend more time with their families. They would not be running for reelection.
There were twelve early retirements in corporate Lauderdale.
The assistant United States attorney general in the Southern District of Florida refused to prosecute Hank Asporth for the murder of Mindy Mowbry. But the prosecutor did want him for killing a witness—and Laredo’s murder carried a death sentence. Hank sang to save his skin. He got life with-out possibility of parole, but he won’t be sunning himself in some federal country club.
Thanks to Hank’s testimony, Dr. Melton Mowbry and his partner, Dr. Damian Putnam, along with his funeral
