For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Thursday, April 20

Henry pushed open the door to Sherman's Deli the next morning for his usual Thursday morning breakfast with Wayne Johnson. He expected Wayne to be in their booth in the back but he wasn't there yet.

"Hi Henry, Wayne called from his cell phone, said he'd be a few minutes late." Millie said as Henry stood at the hostess stand. "Have a seat; I'll bring you a coffee."

He sat down in the booth and thought about the previous evening. He'd enjoyed himself, he hoped that he could be long term friends with Rosie; it would be nice to have some female companionship. This was the first time in a very long time that he realized that he had been lonely without Irma. Well, not really lonely, there was Charles and Wayne, but he was lonely for a woman.

"A penny for your thoughts." Wayne said as he slid into the booth.

"Huh? Oh, this case has me puzzled." Henry didn't want to let Wayne know about his new social life just yet. After all, there wasn't really anything to tell, was there?

"We're no closer to anything, how did you do?" Wayne waved Millie over to get a cup of coffee.

"There's a guy in the San Francisco Bay Area that bought a house that had once been owned by Bette Davis from Thornbird.

"Thornbird specialized in celebrity homes didn't he?" Wayne said as Millie put coffee down in front of him.

"Do you guys want your usual?" She asked, pulling a pad out of her apron and a pencil from behind her ear.

"Yeah, that's fine." Wayne answered.

"No, I'd like something healthy. Can you get me a bran cereal with a banana or some other type of fruit?" Henry asked. Millie raised an eyebrow and looked at Wayne.

"Sure, Henry, we have fresh blueberries, is that all right?"

"Yes, that will be great..." Henry had missed the look between Wayne and Millie as he put down his coffee cup. "...and a refill on the coffee please. Thornbird specialized in celebrity homes, but the connections were loose and not real verifiable - if you know what I mean." Henry explained. "Some of his customers knew that he was embellishing a little, the Bette Davis house buyer suspected something but apparently didn't really know that it wasn't true until the contractor working for him told him about a month ago."

"Have you talked with him?"

"Not yet. I left him several messages yesterday, and again this morning before I came here. He's not returning my calls." Henry looked at Wayne, "He was down here the day that Thornbird was killed. Do you think we could have the cops in the Bay Area have a talk with him?"

"I don't know. What are the Bay Area cops going to do? Pick the guy up and ask him if he knew that his house was owned by Bette Davis? I don't think that will work. You should go up there and talk to him."

"To San Francisco? That's a long way but I guess I can do that. Help me find out where this guy works and lives and I can go up. Will Palm Springs PD pay for a plane ticket or should I drive?"

"We should be able to afford to fly you up there, I can make a couple of phone calls and get you all of the suspect's address information, why don't you call the airline and make a reservation? You should be able to go up and back in one day." Wayne pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialing his office. "Give me the phone numbers you have for him, I should be able to get addresses and everything you need from them."

"Yeah, I guess I can go today, I think Alaska Airlines has flights directly to SFO from here. His numbers are on the back of this card." Millie brought their breakfasts and Henry started in on his cereal. Millie gave Wayne another questioning look before heading to another table.