For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Wednesday, April 19

The next morning, Henry finished getting dressed early; he'd made a ten o'clock appointment with Tim Miller at the Solé Hotel on the phone last night. Tim was gregarious on the phone; he read about Thornbird's death and was very accommodating to Henry's request for an interview. Tim asked Henry if he needed directions to the hotel, Henry said he could find it. Tim warned Henry that the hotel was located in a residential area, and it was hard to spot, Henry told him it was ok, he had seen a picture of the place on the listing from Rosie. He told Henry that they didn't have a lot of guests that morning and there would be no problem parking in the lot right in front of the hotel's office.

A lot of the listings on the paper that Rosie gave him had phone numbers of the new owners, others simply had their names. Henry looked through the list and had also called the Wadowicz family who purchased a Veronica Lake owned house from Thornbird, they agreed to talk to Henry to help him solve the murder of that "awfully nice man" as they put it. He'd stop by there after finishing up at the Solé Hotel.

Henry walked into the kitchen with his folder and several yellow pieces of paper from his legal pad where Charles was having breakfast.

"Hey, good morning stranger, I didn't see you yesterday." Henry grabbed a cup form the cupboard and poured himself a cup from the maker.

"Yeah, I had a busy day. I was at the pistol range with Wayne; I had lunch with the Coachella Real Estate office manager and spent the afternoon at Thornbird's house. Man, what a gorgeous place that guy had."

"Yeah, by the time I got back here last night, I saw the Chinese takeout containers in the trash, but all the lights were already out." Charles said, "I wanted to talk to you about this whole Thornbird thing."

"Did you think of something that would help" Henry asked sitting down at the kitchen table across from Charles. 'Well, perhaps. I think you ought to take a look to see if Thornbird provided some kind of evidence to the property buyers that these homes were actually owned by celebrities." Charles put down his fork and reached for a paper napkin to wipe his mouth.

"You mean like an autographed photo in a cheap frame that Thornbird could put somewhere in the house?" Henry smiled.

"Exactly, heeey, it sounds like you're already onto something along those lines." Charles frowned.

"Yeah, I was on Thornbird's computer yesterday and found that he's been buying pictures on eBay." Henry admitted.

"Was there a picture in the house on Granvia Valmonte?" Charles crumpled up his napkin and threw it towards the trash can, barely missing it.

"No, there wasn't, but there should have been." Henry said.

"Find the picture, and you'll have your killer." Charles got up and picked up the napkin and put it in the can.

"Yeah, that's what I told Wayne yesterday. The problem is locating the picture."

"Did you find out anything else yesterday?" Charles came back to the table to get his dishes. Henry wasn't sure if he should tell Charles about Thornbird's pedophile activities just yet. He decided not to.

"I learned a lot. And something interesting happened at lunch that involves you." Henry smiled at the memory of lunch with Rosie.

"Me, what happened that involves me?" Charles rinsed his dishes at the sink.

"I had lunch with the Coachella Real Estate office manager, Rosie, yesterday and she thought you and I were more than housemates, she thought we were lovers." Henry grinned.