I pulled at the handle on the left-hand door but it didn’t budge. Rats. I peeked in through the crack between the doors. Light shone through a round, multicolored stained glass window under the arched ceiling at the front. Being Unitarian, the window design didn’t depict religious symbols but rather resembled a geometrical flower.
In lieu of sitting inside, I slipped into a quiet courtyard on the church grounds instead and eased onto a bench, gazing at a calla lily about to unfold its white trumpet. In the peace and stillness I remembered it had been Liz who’d mentioned the restaurant where Paul worked. I could eat there this week and say hi to Zoe while I was at it. If she wanted to see me, that is. What had Liz meant by a “rough patch,” anyway?
My thoughts drifted back to Paul. The thought of Walter Russom—Katherine’s father—poisoning Mom was deeply disturbing. My mother had been a sunny force in my life and never met a stranger she couldn’t turn into a friend. Who would want to snuff out the life of a person like that?
Paul hadn’t been able to say how Walter Russom might have administered the poison to my mom, but he’d claimed the chemical could mimic or even cause a brain aneurysm. That would definitely be fishy, as Carmen had put it. Was Russom’s company in financial trouble and Mom’s public challenge to it—and him—such a threat he would kill her? Had the police investigated at the time? If they had, I hadn’t heard about it. Did she have other enemies I didn’t know of? I couldn’t believe my peace-loving and levelheaded mother would have had enemies of any kind.
Or was Paul a nutcase extremist making up stories, and she’d died of natural causes, after all? He’d seemed nervous talking to me. Maybe he was mentally unstable. But how in the world could I find out? I snapped my fingers. I knew one avenue I could pursue. I tapped out a text to Jason, my favorite Santa Barbara cop.
Want to grab dinner in an hour or so? I have something I’d like to run by you.
A minute later his reply came in.
Sure. Casual or fancy ?
I replied,
Casual’s good.
K. How about Total Thai on State?
Thx. See there you at 6:30, I ended.
Good. I’d get Thai food and maybe some information, too.
I looked up at the canopy of leaves in this quiet, peaceful garden. When I was a child, Mom and I would take breakfast to the beach on Sunday mornings. A big sky, salt air, and the company of my favorite person had felt like all the spirit I needed. I still wasn’t into worshiping some white-bearded, white-skinned old guy sitting on a cloud. I didn’t want all the rituals and baggage most organized religions seemed to entail. But as I grew older, seeking for a connection with some kind of bigger-than-all-of-us presence was looking more attractive. Bloomington, the university town back in Indiana, surely had a church like this one. The organization, not the building, of course. I thought I’d check it out after I returned.
For now, I headed back across the park to my bike. I clipped on my helmet, unlocked the hybrid cycle—which combined traits from road bikes and mountain bikes—and headed north. If I rode up to the historic mission, a view of the city would spread out before me, ending in the great Pacific. A bit of hill work before the sun went down would clear my mind. With any luck, it would also banish any lurking demon thoughts about my mom’s death.
Chapter 8
After a vigorous ride, I showered in my room at Carmen’s and grabbed my car to get to the restaurant by six thirty.
The white walls inside Total Thai were covered with huge, fanciful line drawings of vegetables and cutlery with words in what must be Thai script written next to some. A grinning mushroom, two frowning slices of cucumber, a graceful clove of garlic, and a dancing sprig of cilantro indicated they’d clearly hired an artist to decorate—or had one on staff.
“I could eat pad thai for every meal,” I said to Jason after I swallowed the first bite of the nutty noodle dish.
“I know what you mean. Asian comfort food, right?” He popped in a bite of his green curry and sucked in air. “Man, this is spicy.”
I tilted my head. “Uh, you ordered it that way.”
He mopped sweat pearls off his forehead with his napkin. “I know, and I love the pain.” He lifted his beer glass. “Hey, cheers, Robbie.”
“Cheers.” I clinked my glass with his before taking a sip. “So where did you go to college? We really lost touch after graduation.”
“I got into Cal. They have a great criminal justice program, and I double majored in computer science. What about you?”
Cal was the University of California flagship campus in Berkeley, originally the only campus. “I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and majored in engineering. I got married right after I got my degree, but it didn’t work out.” I shrugged. “That’s when I moved to Indiana, where my mom was from, and got a job as a chef. Mom’s sister, Adele, lives in the same town, and I see her a lot.”
“Good. You seem happy.” He swallowed another bite. “Hey, fun to see Alana again, wasn’t it?”
“You bet. She has some stuff to do with her parents, so she’s staying down here for this week. I’m looking forward to hanging out with her again.”
“So what did you want to ask me about? I mean, I’m happy to eat and schmooze, but you said you had something you wanted to run by me.”
“I do.” I took a moment to organize my thoughts. “A couple people who knew my mom told me today they thought something was fishy about her death. One guy even said he thought she’d been poisoned.” Again a
