“To having Josh parachuted into their lives?” Monica paused to consider for a moment before she answered. “Let’s just say she wasn’t thrilled. Gizzy isn’t someone with the milk of human kindness running through her veins. We talked about the situation with Josh a few times. I tried to explain to her that there was nothing else Gerry and Marsha could do. Josh didn’t have anywhere else to go or anyone to look after him. I think Gerry and Marsha both deserve credit for trying to do the right thing.”
I had to admit to myself that Monica didn’t come across as a conniving “other” woman who had broken up Marsha’s longtime marriage. Like Mel with Kenny Broward, I had come here expecting to find a marital “bad guy.” So far there didn’t appear to be any.
“What do you know about Janie’s House?” Mel asked. “Did the girls ever talk about it?”
“Well, sure. The girls’ school encourages involvement, even though I don’t really approve,” Monica said. “That whole noblesse oblige, us-and-them thing bothers me. Yes, I know the official Olympia Prep position is that student involvement with less fortunate kids is supposed to be great for everybody, but who are they kidding? I mean, poor kids already know they’re poor without having the rich kids hanging around rubbing their noses in it.”
“So you’re not enamored of Janie’s House?” I asked.
“Not at all, but that’s just me,” Monica said. “Both Zoe and Giselle were really caught up in helping out there last year. Zoe’s the kind of kid who would break her neck trying to put a fallen bird back in its nest. As for Gizzy? I think her involvement with Janie’s House was more of an ego thing than it was anything else. She’s been back there again this summer, but only because Ron is still there.”
“Ron?” I asked.
“Ron Miller is Giselle’s boyfriend. He’s a year younger than she is and graduated from OP two weeks ago. I thought. . no, make that I hoped that being apart for a year would be the end of their romance, but I was wrong. They’re still as head over heels as ever. Next year could be a little tougher. He’ll be going to Stanford, and she’ll still be going to school in Tacoma. That will put a whole lot more distance between them. As my mother used to say, ‘Distance is to love as wind is to fire. Blows out the little ones and fans the big ones.’ ”
“Sounds like you’re hoping for the first option.”
Monica nodded. “And, at Sid’s insistence, keeping my mouth shut about it, too,” she said with a tight smile. “It’s the voice of experience speaking when I tell you that first-boyfriend types don’t always make the best husband material. Ron is certainly smart enough, but he has a mean streak. Sid takes the position that saying one bad word about him would just mean pushing Giselle in Ron’s direction that much more. Sad to say, that’s probably true.”
“In other words, you don’t like Ron much?” Mel suggested.
“Yes,” Monica answered, “but I try not to show it.”
“What does Ron do at Janie’s House?”
“He’s some kind of special assistant in the computer lab. He’s into computers in a big way. I think he’s planning on studying computer science in college. But didn’t you say you wanted to talk to Gizzy about Josh’s suicide? What does any of this have to do with that?”
I could have given her chapter and verse. Let’s see. Some poor little rich kid with a mean streak who was romantically linked to Giselle and who was intimately involved with the Janie’s House computer system sounded like exactly the kind of person we needed to find, not so much because of Josh’s suicide but because of Rachel’s murder. We didn’t have to tell Monica Longmire that, and we didn’t. It was time to back off from angling for more information about Ron Miller right then for fear of tipping our hand.
“We’re just looking for background material,” Mel said reassuringly. “Trying to understand what sent Josh over the edge.”
“ ‘Edge’ is the right word,” Monica said. “That must be how Josh felt-like he was walking on the edge of a cliff. From what the girls said, I’m sure there was a chasm between his old life and his new one. It doesn’t surprise me that he couldn’t bridge it. It’s a tragedy, of course, but somewhat predictable.”
“You have a nice place here,” Mel said, abruptly changing the subject.
It was important to keep the interview on a cordial basis. Mel’s comment was designed to maintain the smooth flow going with the added benefit that it was also true.
The house was stylish but more comfortable than your basic
Monica looked around and laughed. “Yes,” she said. “Not nearly as grand as the governor’s mansion, but a little more modern.”
“If I had a choice, this is the one I’d pick any day of the week,” Mel said. “But how do the girls get back and forth?”
“Zoe’s still too young to drive, so either Sid picks her up and brings her out or I do. Of course, now that Giselle is home for the summer, she can do some of the driving. Marsha and Sid share custody. When school was in session, it used to be the girls stayed with their mother during the week and then we had them every other weekend, with the situation reversed during the summer. Now that they’re older and especially with Giselle off at school, we’re all a lot more flexible. They come and go at their own discretion. I think it’s really important for everyone that we keep things as civilized as possible.”
“Commendable,” Mel said. “What kind of car does Giselle drive?”
“It’s an Acura,” Monica said. “A silver Acura. Sid bought it for her when she graduated from high school.”
A car pulled into the driveway and I heard the sound of a garage door opening.
“That’ll be Sid,” Monica told us. “He’s been out of town for several days.”
It seemed likely that Sid Longmire’s view of our visit would be far less cordial than Monica’s, especially if the governor had managed to alert him as to what was going on. We decided it was time to beat a hasty retreat.
“We’ll be going then,” I said.
“You don’t want to talk to him, too?”
“No, thanks,” I assured her. “We appreciate your help.”
We made a quick exit out the front door and were gone before Sid Longmire was able to unload his luggage from the car and come inside.
Sometimes the best way to win a confrontation is to avoid it in the first place.
Chapter 22
She wasn’t at all what I expected,” I said as we walked back out to the car.
“Not what I expected, either,” Mel agreed. “A lot older and a whole lot more squared away.”
I was relieved to know that I wasn’t the only one who had arrived at Sid and Monica’s house with some erroneous preconceived notions.
During the interview with Monica Longmire, my cell phone had vibrated three different times in my pocket. Once in the car, Mel immediately got on the phone, checking with Records for licensing information on Giselle Longmire’s Acura and for any vehicles owned or driven by her boyfriend, Ron Miller, or by other members of his family.
I have a Bluetooth earpiece for my cell phone, but I’m not in love with it. Even though Mel and I put it to good use to save our bacon a few months ago, I use it only under duress. Most of the time it stays in my pocket until the battery runs out of juice. Rather than use a state-sanctioned “hands-free” device, I pulled into a parking place beside the guard shack, pulled out my phone, checked the missed calls, and listened to my messages.
I recognized all three of the numbers. Two were from Rebekah Ming, the manager at Tumwater Self-Storage. There were two calls from her but only one message. “Mr. Beaumont, I’ve had several customer complaints about garbage being hauled into the storage facility. You need to come by and empty it
