For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Saturday, April 22

Saturday morning began with a little light overcast over Palm Springs. Henry was listening to the television weather report; apparently they were seeing the remnants of a tropical storm over Baja California, the clouds drifted all the way up to the Coachella Valley. The weather forecasters said the skies would be clear by late morning or midday. Henry was relieved; he wanted everything to be perfect for his barbecue with Rosie this afternoon. He had time this morning to go talk with Janet Icklebee, do some shopping and get everything ready for this afternoon.

He was glad that the housekeeper, Juanita, was coming on her regular Saturday morning cleaning. That meant that his place would sparkle and shine in the afternoon. He hoped Rosie would be impressed, though he was a little uncomfortable that she knew as much about him and his house as she already did. He figured she looked it up somewhere; probably the Riverside County title records where the deed to the house was registered or the real estate Multiple Listing Service. He shrugged his shoulders as he thought about it, if he had still been on the police force, he probably would have run her license plates through the Department of Motor Vehicles and he would know a lot about Mrs. Rosie Murphy. More than she knew about him - all she really knew was how many rooms his house had or how much he had paid for it.

Charles was swimming laps in the pool with Pierre, who obviously had forgotten all about having his nap interrupted last night, keeping pace and barking encouragement. He waved at them and left the house to head for Janet Icklebee's place over on Calle Rolph, only about four blocks from the house where Thornbird was murdered. He purposely drove there by way of the house on Granvia Valmonte. With the crime scene tape and door stickers gone, it looked just as peaceful as the other homes on the block. He noticed that someone had taken down the "for sale" sign as well; he supposed there was a bit of cleaning up to do inside before it went back on the market.

It didn't take him very long to get to the Icklebee residence and he parked on the street in front of a well-kept little house and walked up to the door. Before he could knock the door opened and a woman who he estimated to be about ninety smiled and stuck out her hand.

"You must be Henry Wright, please come in." Janet Icklebee had obviously seen some sun in her life; her brown face looked more like a leather purse than anything Henry had ever seen. Her tan face made her teeth look extremely white as she gave him a big smile and her bright blue eyes looked at him with intensity and it felt as though she was looking right through Henry.

Mrs. Icklebee was wearing a pale blue housecoat that wasn't quit buttoned all the way up and her feet were in plastic slippers with white fur and little silver heels. Her gray hair was swept up in a sixties kind of style and she had glasses on a chain around her neck. Her eyes made him feel a little uncomfortable, but he returned her firm handshake with his own.

"It's good to meet you Mrs. Icklebee; I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me." Henry stepped inside the door.

"Please, call me Janet. No matter how old I get, when I hear someone say Mrs. Icklebee I start looking around for my mother-in-law, rest her soul." She led the way to the living room, but as Henry closed the front door behind him, he stopped in his tracks in the entry. Covering the entire wall were black and white pictures of celebrities and movie stars, all of them in identical silver frames. It almost looked like something that you might see in a restaurant frequented by celebrities.

"That's quite a collection you have there." Henry said looking closely at some of the pictures.

"Yes, isn't it?" Janet was already in the living room of the house, and turned around.