Body in the Woods, page 8
A slight hesitation? Was she hiding something?
“Uhmm, a few times, yes. He brought women home with him. But, never the same woman more than once.”
“When was the last time you saw Mr. Hines?”
“Mr. Ludefance. How many times do I have to say this? Mr. Hines came home at 5:30 pm. I served his dinner promptly at 6 pm, poured his wine, and went back to the kitchen.”
“You didn’t see him go out again?”
“As I told the police I saw his car pull out about 7 pm.”
“And that’s the last time you saw him?”
She bit her lip and looked at me, deliberating on telling me something more. I could sense it.
“Mariana, this is very important. He came back, didn’t he?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“He didn’t come back until after dark, and he didn’t pull into the garage, but left his car parked out front.”
“Did he leave again?”
She nodded.
“Did you tell the police any of this?”
She shook her head.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It was just easier to tell them he left at 7 pm and never came back.”
“Let me make sure I understand this. You saw Mr. Hines getting out of his car just after dark and then getting back in his car sometime later?”
“Yes. To both of your questions.”
“So, this second time that Mr. Hines left, do you remember if there was anything different about him, or what he was doing?”
“He was taking things to his car.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. The trunk of his car was open and he was putting things in it.”
“What things?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Ludefance. It was dark.”
“How is it that you were able to observe all this?”
“I was in the kitchen. He didn’t realize I was still in the house. I kept hearing him going up and down the stairs and in and out of the front door.”
“Do you remember what you talked about while you were serving his dinner and pouring his wine?”
“I’ve told you and the police several times that we didn’t talk about personal things, only about the house. That’s all.”
“Vance McGruder. What can you tell me about him?”
“Why is that important?”
“I don’t know if it’s important. That’s why I’m asking you.”
“But, what does it have to do with anything? He’s Mr. Hines’ business partner.”
“Did Mr. Hines tell you that?”
“No. My brother and I have gone to all of the last four years of company picnics. That’s how I know. And since Mr. Hines’ murder, Mr. McGruder has called several times to see how my brother and I are doing.”
“So, you and your brother were invited to the company picnics?”
“What do you think, Mr. Ludefance? Invited? Hardly. We were the workers. Who do you think set up the food tables and served the food?”
“What about Mrs. McGruder.”
“What about her?”
“Did she talk with you at any of the company picnics?”
“Mrs. McGruder didn’t hide her disdain for me. For what reason, I have no answer. But she made it quite obvious that I was far beneath her station in life.”
“Look, Mariana. I know that these questions are brutal. But it helps me to find clues. I’m so sorry that I have to put you through this. Please believe me, I have no bad intentions to trick you. As a matter of fact, I’m on your side. You were the closest person to Mr. Hines. You don’t even realize that you have a wealth of information concerning him. I accept it wasn’t on a so-called personal basis, but none-the-less you know more than you realize.”
She smiled and let out a big sigh out. Yeah, Jack. Keep using that charm on her.
“Mariana, do you think I could have a cup of coffee?”
“Of course! How rude of me not to offer. Will instant be acceptable?”
“Certainly, Mariana. I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“No trouble.”
She quickly left the room, as quickly as a very pregnant woman can move, and I could hear her scurrying around the kitchen, then came the hissing of a kettle. She returned with two cups of steaming hot coffee and a plate of cinnamon buns. I decided to change the subject completely.
“Have you thought that since you’re pregnant he might have wanted to let you go?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Why do you think that?”
“It never seemed to matter to him one way or the other. My brother and I are hard workers and honest. Mr. Hines trusts…trusted us. He never gave any indication that my being pregnant was a problem for him.”
“And he never asked you about it?”
“No. He never asked. If he had, I’m still not sure I would have told him.”
“Told him what?”
“That it was his baby.”
Her second bombshell of the morning left me nearly speechless. It took me a moment to recover.
“His baby?”
“Yes, Mr. Ludefance. His baby. He never knew. The police know. I had to tell them. But no one else, not even Mr. or Mrs. McGruder. Well, except now you know.”
“You never told your parents, your girlfriends, anyone?”
“My parents are dead. They were murdered almost ten years ago.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Los Angeles isn’t the safest place to grow up. Particularly not in the neighborhood where we were living. Girlfriends? No. Not anymore. My life is quiet and safe out here. I have no desire to mix it with how things were.”
“Look, Mariana. I don’t mean to get into your personal life, but it’s necessary for you to tell me everything. I’m on your side, remember? I’m not the police. This isn’t just any case to me. Vance McGruder is a personal friend. I’m trying to clear his name and catch the real killer.”
“I understand.”
“Did Mr. Hines force himself on you?”
“Uhmm…”
I gave her time to get herself together.
“I… uhmm… I was making his bed one day when he entered the bedroom. He demanded I sleep with him. He pushed me down on the bed and started undressing me. I thought that if I didn’t, he would fire me. I wasn’t afraid of him, but I was afraid of getting fired. And I thought perhaps I could somehow know the real man, so to speak.”
“To have some power over him?”
“Possibly…”
“Were you attracted to him?”
“No, not really. They say he was very smart and he wasn’t bad looking. I just wanted to know the real Heinrich Hines.”
“So you were curious?”
“Yes. I thought that underneath all that, there was a human being after all.”
“So, you are what…twenty-eight now?”
I took a sip of the coffee, then a bite of a cinnamon roll.
“Ah, delicious. Did you make these?”
“No. I bought them from Trader Joe’s. To answer your previous question, you’re correct. I just turned twenty-eight. People tell me I look more mature than my age, but I think Latino women mature earlier. About Mr. Hines. I mean, if I’d said no, what would have happened? I wanted to keep my job just as much as wanting to find out who he was.”
“So, just like that. No intimacy? No foreplay?”
“None.” She smiled again.
“Can you let me in on it? Why are you smiling?”
“The first time they interviewed me, it was a male officer. When he started asking me those personal questions, I refused. Then they brought a female officer. I told her about what had happened, but not all the details. Now I’m speaking to you and you are almost like a male police officer, but I’m not the least bit uptight about it.”
“I do seem to have that effect on women. Mariana, thank you for sharing that with me. I’m trying to get into his head. Trying to think like him. These personal details tell me more about the man. If I can do that, perhaps I will find some kind of a clue that will make an important lead to the murderer.”
She had a pensive look and then continued.
“We had sex for what seemed a very long time. Several times I tried to get up, but he kept pushing me down saying he wasn’t finished with me yet. Afterward, both of us were soaked in sweat. He got up and went into the bathroom and turned the shower on. While he was in the shower, I dressed, stripped the bed, and took the sheets back to the cottage. I changed, came back, and put clean sheets on the bed.”
Note to self. Why would she take the sheets back to her cottage?
“Did you have sex again?”
“No. That was the one and only time.”
“Did he use a condom?”
“No.”
“And he never acknowledged or questioned your being pregnant?”
“No, never.”
“Don’t you find that a bit strange?”
“Not really. He was a strange man, Mr. Ludefance.”
“And you never tried to tell him it was his child?”
“No, I didn’t. Would he have believed me? Probably not.”
“You could have had an abortion.”
“Mr. Ludefance, when I found out that I was pregnant, I never thought twice about getting rid of it. I could have so easily. But it was my choice to keep this baby.”
“That was a brave choice to make.”
“I have no regrets, Mr. Ludefance.”
“Let’s go back to that last day, one more time. So you prepared his meal, served his dinner and wine, then what did you do?”
“I stayed in the kitchen cleaning up.”
“You said you saw him drive away about 7 pm, return after dark, then pack up his car and leave again.”
“Yes.”
“But, you didn’t tell the police he returned after dark, packed his car and left a second time.”
“No. I only told them he left at 7 pm and that’s the last time I saw him.”
“You have a reason for not telling the police the entire chain of events?”
“No. But, now it’s too late to tell them.”
“Actually it isn’t. But let’s keep it between us for now. And I won’t press you on why.”
My second skirt with the law. Withholding key evidence in a murder investigation wouldn’t go over well if it ever came out.
“Did Mr. Hines have any family…brothers, sisters, anyone?”
“No…not that I’m aware of. I’m sure if there was, someone would have come by now to claim the house.”
“That makes sense. So you intend to stay on here?”
“Of course. My brother and I still work for Mr. Hines. Until someone comes and tells us that is not how it is, we will continue to take care of everything.”
“So the last time you saw Mr. Hines was June 20 when he drove away for the second time, after packing up his car.”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t come home the next day or the day after that?”
“No. That was the last time I saw him.”
“You’re pregnant with his child. Weren’t you worried? Didn’t you call his company to find out where he might have gone?”
“No. He’s left the house and gone on business trips before, sometimes for several days at a time, without telling me where he’s going.”
“I understand that he made overseas trips. He didn’t tell you?’
“Yes, of course he told me when he was going out of the country. Those trips were for extended periods of time and there were things that needed to be taken care of while he was gone. In fact, he was out of the country most of the last six months.”
“When did you find out about his death?”
“When the police came to the door and told me and then started asking questions.”
“Are you shocked that someone killed him?”
“Mr. Ludefance, I’m carrying his baby. You can’t possibly know everything I’m really feeling. What am I going to tell his child? Somebody murdered your father? Mr. Hines was a very rude, abrasive man, but I didn’t want him dead. So, am I in shock? Yes, I’m in shock. What will happen to me and the child?”
“I’m sorry for the position you’re in, Mariana. I wish there was something I could do to help.”
“Like Mr. McGruder. Find out who really killed him.”
“One last question, Mariana. Did Hines’ have a home computer?”
“Yes, of course. In fact he had two. A desktop in his office and a laptop which he took on his travels.”
“I’m assuming the police came and took both?”
“They took his desktop, but not his laptop.”
“Not his laptop? Why?”
“They didn’t know anything about his laptop. He kept it hidden when he wasn’t traveling.”
“Really. Do you know if he took it when he left that night?”
“He didn’t…it’s still hidden.”
It was all I could do to contain my excitement. Hines had a hidden laptop.
“You obviously know where it’s hidden…”
“Of course. I know where everything is in this house.”
“Mariana, thank you again for your time. You’ve been very helpful.”
“But I haven’t actually been able to help you with anything,”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I will be checking back in on you again if you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind, Mr. Ludefance.”
“By the way, when are you due?”
“My due date is the 12th. But to be perfectly honest I’m more than ready right now.”
I took out my notepad, scribbled my name and iPhone number, and handed it to her.
“Call me as soon as the baby comes. And, if you need anything, anything at all, you call me.”
“Thank you. That’s very kind of you, Mr. Ludefance.”
“Mariana, please. Call me Jack.”
“Well, okay, Jack.”
With that, I walked down the front steps, turned, and waved goodbye.
CHAPTER 17
After my interview with Mariana, I headed down to Venice Beach to locate a computer hacker. Saturday afternoon in Venice Beach, mid-summer, and a holiday weekend added in. I should have known how crowded and congested it would be. After an hour of grid-lock traffic, I finally located a Starbucks, parked, ordered my black coffee, found an empty seat, and connected to the Internet.
Bringing up the list of saved hacker listings I thought about all the possibilities of what was on the USB and Hines’ hidden laptop and what I might find. The main thing was to hire the right hacker. I didn’t realize it would be such a challenge; too many to choose from. I’d gone down about half of the list when I saw a news item that read, ‘Orange County Man Suspected of Hacking Computers Arrested.’ I clicked on it and an article came up that described how he’d hacked into a large American bank, the name of which wasn’t important.
The hacker’s name was Rudy and that’s all I needed to know. No full name, no address, but his e-mail was listed. His terms of employment didn’t require a deposit. He hired out on a daily basis. I took a chance and e-mailed, thinking it would take a couple of days to hear back. But, no. He immediately answered and agreed to meet me in an hour at Starbucks.
An hour later, I looked up and watched as a bedraggled, long-haired, thin young man walked in and looked around.
“Rudy?”
“That’d be me.”
He walked over to where I was comfortably seated. As he came closer, I could smell him. Obviously, he hadn’t had a shower in days. But, no matter. He slipped off his grungy backpack, set it on the floor, and took a seat. We talked for quite a while. He seemed knowledgeable and I decided to take a chance. We made a verbal agreement that I was employing him to check out the contents of a USB and a laptop computer. Rudy thought I was joking. He’d hoped for something more challenging and complained that what I needed him for was too easy.
“You want the job or not?”
“Sure, why not. How’re you going to get the USB and the laptop? I don’t do breaking and entering.”
I wanted to laugh…an honest hacker?
“No, you won’t be breaking and entering.”
“Are you going to bring them to your office?”
“I don’t have an office here, Rudy. I’m going to be taking you to where they are.”
“I assume you have some kind of security arranged?”
“No, no security needed. You don’t have to worry about anything.”
He pushed his dirty hair away from his forehead and stared at me.
“Explain.”
“I’m a PI investigating a murder, Rudy. The laptop belonged to the murdered man and the USB contains the download of his office computer which is currently in the hands of the police. We’re going to work on the USB first. Will that be a problem?”
“Nah…as long as there’s a computer to download the USB to.”
“Yes. There will be a computer to download to.”
“What am I looking for?”
“Until I see what’s there, I won’t know if it will help me or not.”
“Is that all? I hoped you might have a major job for me.”
“Just exactly what do you mean by a major job?”
“A major job like hacking into a highly protected website.”
“Rudy, I’m trying to find a killer. Why would I want to break into some protected website?”
“Whatever you say, Boss.”
“Boss?”
“Yeah. You’re the boss.”
“Rudy let’s make this simple. I’m paying you for what we talked about. Now, don’t you go thinking of breaking into someone else’s computer. Besides, I intend to be sitting right next to you. So, you just forget about using the computer to do other things. Okay? Whatever it takes, Rudy.”
