Tahoe Chase (An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller) Read online

  “Who are you, anyway? Her father? And Simone, where is his meal? What is going on, here? I have a restaurant to run, and you have neglected your customers. Either you get back to work right now, or you’re fired.”

  I stood up. “Ma’am, I’d like to explain. But this is uncomfortable. Please let me talk to you for a moment.”

  The woman suddenly went from looking mad to looking fearful. I was afraid I had made things even worse. I stepped away from her to give her space, turned and smiled, waiting, trying to put an expectant look on my face.

  She came over.

  I spoke in a soft voice. “I’m Detective Owen McKenna. I’m investigating domestic abuse. Simone has a bad situation at home. You’ve probably noticed the bruises. Local law enforcement has a plan to arrest her abuser. But until that happens, I’d like to ask you to go easy on her. Battered women undergo stress unlike anything we can imagine. I understand that this little scene has made other diners upset.” I pulled out my credit card. “Please charge all their meals to me. Then you can go around and tell them that their meals are on the house.” I stuck my credit card into her hand. She reluctantly took it.

  “Simone will get past this,” I said, “if you can give her a little flexibility and understanding.”

  The woman looked at me for a few seconds, then walked away, gripping my credit card. If, in fact, she charged the meals to my card, it wouldn’t amount to a great deal. And it would go on Joe Rorvik’s bill, anyway.

  I went back to my table. Simone was standing behind her chair.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Sit down.” I sat.

  Simone seemed to think about it. Then she sat.

  “What did you tell Marilyn?” she asked.

  “Your boss? I just asked her to give you a little space. I told her that things would be calm from now on.”

  “And she believed you? She just walked away?”

  I nodded.

  Simone looked at me, then at the table, then at her hands, which were red and still shaking.

  “I’ll go get your meal.”

  She left, came back a minute later with my plate. The food looked a little dry but otherwise okay.

  I ate. Simone sat across from me.

  After a moment, she said, “You think that Rell Rorvik’s fall off the deck wasn’t an accident?”

  “It’s not clear. I have doubts.”

  Simone chewed on her lip, swallowed, looked around the room as if she was avoiding looking at me. Finally she spoke. “I don’t think it was an accident, either.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Ned has a side job as a spy, and he is paid to spy on Joe Rorvik.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Simone looked across the room with concern. “I have to get back to work. I need this job.”

  “When do you get off?”

  “The lunch shift goes until two. I usually have to stay another half hour for cleanup.”

  “I can pick you up.”

  She began shaking her head.

  “We need to talk. You can pick a place where Ned won’t see you,” I said.

  She looked doubtful. “You talk like you’re trustworthy. Maybe you are. But I don’t really know, do I?”

  “I understand. The other men sounded trustworthy, too. You tell me how we can meet. I need your help. If I’m going to find out what happened to Rell, I need to know more about her. Do it for Joe, please.”

  “I don’t like Joe. He’s patronizing. He’s condescending. He treats me like I’m nothing, like I don’t have dreams, like I’m a loser for being with Ned.” Simone sucked her left cheek in between her teeth. “I guess I am a loser.”

  “No, you’re just trapped. I can help get you out of that, if you let me.”

  “Oh, like you’re the white knight or something?” Simone’s tone was scathing, her French accent stronger than before.

  “I want to help. I’m sorry if that makes you unhappy. But I’m glad to see you angry.”

  “Why? Is that another twisted thing that men like?” Her voice hissed.

  “No. I’m glad because it’s better than seeing you fearful. Anger is the first step out of bondage. It shows that your captor hasn’t completely destroyed you.”

  Simone went silent for several long seconds. “He’s almost destroyed me,” she said. After another silence, she said, “There is a little coffee shop that Ned doesn’t know about. It’s in the basement of Harvey’s, not far from the tunnel from Harrah’s. I’ll meet you there at three. But when the auto-parts store is slow, they let him off early. Sometimes he comes here. If that happens before I leave, then I’ll have to go with him.”

  “I understand. See you at three.”

  Simone stood up and carried my dishes back to the kitchen. I thanked Marilyn for her understanding. She handed me my card and a slip to sign. I was pleased to see the large bill. That meant it was more likely she’d go easy on Simone.

  I was in the coffee shop at three. I’d figured out the stealthiest route that Simone could take from the café. I was pleased to see her arrive from the opposite direction. It trumped my expectations and showed a good sense of psychological cunning.

  We got our coffees and sat in a corner behind a support post. Even if Ned walked by outside, he wouldn’t see us. He’d have to come in the coffee shop and look into the corners.

  Simone seemed edgy, like she was suspicious of me.

  I waited for her to talk.

  “You said you wanted to help me,” she said. “Why?”

  “Its a worthy thing to do. If you find that unbelievable, then consider that I’m being paid by Joe Rorvik to find out what happened to Rell. You may as well benefit. Anything Rell cared about falls under the umbrella of my job.”

  Simone dipped a spoon into her coffee, lifted the spoon up and slurped the coffee off the spoon. Then she looked up at me, doubt still on her face.

  “You want a third reason? I’m an ex-cop. Twenty years in San Francisco. I bought into all the clichés about protect and serve. I still feel that mission. During those twenty years, I had to engage with wife beaters on many occasions. I saw how that kind of domestic abuse usually ends.” It was a harsh statement, but I’ve learned that you can’t be too harsh with the truth if you want to motivate an abused woman to save her own life.

  Simone took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes.

  I decided to press on and let the abuse situation simmer while we talked. “You said that Ned is paid to be a spy,” I said.

  Simone nodded. She looked around, fearful, worried. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. I don’t know the details. But a man comes to the house about every other week. Ned turns on music in the living room and tells me that I can’t turn it off. Then he and the man go up to the bedroom and shut the door. I can’t overhear what they say. Ned is clever that way.” Simone spooned more coffee into her mouth.

  “If you can’t hear them, then how do you know what’s going on?”

  “Because I’m clever, too. I’ve spied on Ned when he’s spying. I’ve seen him go up to Angora Highlands and watch Joe’s house. I’ve also seen him follow Joe when Joe runs errands. Ned is so focused on not letting Joe discover him that Ned doesn’t realize that I’m following him.”

  “Why do you think that Ned’s visitor is connected to the spying? It could be drugs or something.”

  “I think it because every time after the man leaves, Ned has extra money, and he spends it in ways that are noticeable. It’s almost like he’s flaunting it because it reminds him that he’s doing something exotic. I know the money doesn’t come from his paycheck because I’ve been with him many times when he deposits his check at the drive-up bank machine. I pay the rent and other bills, and we barely get by. So I know that Ned isn’t taking the money out of the bank.”

  “Sounds like you have good reason to think that Ned gets cash from the man,” I said. “But you have no direct evidence that it’s payment for spying on Joe.”

  “Yeah. But it’s
still indirect evidence. There are two strange things in Ned’s life. Unexplained money that follows the visit from the man, and unexplained spying. It makes sense that they’re connected. Am I wrong about that?”

  “Probably not.” I drank coffee, holding the cup to my lips longer than normal so I could look around near the front of the coffee shop without being obvious. I saw nothing of concern.

  “You’ve clearly thought a lot about what the purpose of the spying might be,” I said. “Have you come up with any answers?”

  “No,” she said, spooning more coffee. “I can’t dream up any reason why someone would pay Ned to spy on an old man.”

  “What about Rell?” I said. “Do you think Ned pushed Rell off her deck?”

  She hesitated. “It’s very hard for me to think straight about Ned. He’s a hothead. He’s crazy. He’s threatened to kill me many times, and now he says he’s going to kill you. So yeah, he could certainly throw Rell off her deck. But Rell never gave him any reason to do such a thing. Rell was always civil to Ned the few times she talked to him. I know she worried for me a great deal. If Ned had known that she talked to the police about him, then I could see him exploding in rage. But he’s never found out.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because Ned can’t know something distressing without talking about it. He can’t keep something inside. He obsesses. And when he obsesses, he stomps around and hits things and talks about it incessantly.”

  “I understand that you’re afraid to leave Ned. But...”

  “He’ll kill me if I do,” she interrupted. “Simple as that.”

  “You didn’t see any hint of that side of his personality when you met him?”

  “Here’s where I should get angry and say of course not. But the truth is that I did sort of see it coming. I have no excuse for being so stupid. But men like him pull you in gradually. Ned can actually be charming, believe it or not. And because of my past, I stupidly thought that a big strong man like Ned would protect me from any other potentially abusive man. So I ignored the early signs. It didn’t help that he’s gorgeous. It made me blind. Then, after he and I moved in together, everything changed. He took possession of me. I became a material object, a robot to wait on him and do whatever he said. If I ever protest, he hits. When I protest the hits, he hits harder. One time, when I threatened to call the cops and press charges, he went very cold and calm. Like ice. Like an ice cold killer. He said, ‘Do that and you’re dead.’ I knew he would do it even if he ended up back in prison.”

  “After he came at me the other day, did he punish you?”

  “Just one hard slap on my face. Then he took to focusing on you. He got drunk and was mumbling and swearing and pacing around. He moved like he was sore, like he got hurt. But I got the sense from his mumbling that what really upset him was something about his pants. I don’t know what you did, but you should know that he is going to kill you unless you stop him first. It’s not an idle threat. It’s real. That’s why I eventually came back out of the restaurant kitchen. I knew I had to warn you.”

  “I appreciate that. Can you tell me about Rell?”

  “First, is she still alive?” Simone asked.

  I nodded.

  “Good. I’ve been so worried. Is she going to be in the hospital for a long time?”

  “Probably. She’s in rough shape. It’s not looking good.”

  Simone’s face shifted away from fear and anger to sadness. It was a bit before she spoke.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked.

  “How you met her. What you talked about. Anything that might help me understand why she was pushed off the deck.”

  “You don’t think her fall was an accident?”

  “I don’t know. I’m still trying to get a picture of her life. What I learn will probably tell me if she was pushed or not.”

  Simone looked into her coffee. “Rell is my best friend. Maybe my only real friend.”

  She paused. I waited.

  “She came into the breakfast café where I used to work. I waited on her a few times before we talked much. She would say a few things, just being nice, and I found myself talking to her a lot. I said things I would never normally say. She is so easy to talk to. She makes you feel safe.”

  “Joe told me that Rell really cares about you. He thinks she feels closer to you than just about anyone.”

  Simone looked up at me, her eyes wide with astonishment. “Really? Did he really say that?”

  I nodded. “Yes. He was sincere about it.”

  “Oh, I never...” Simone stopped. “That’s amazing. That’s wonderful. I love that woman.”

  “Rell told Joe that Ned made you quit your job and go to work someplace where Rell couldn’t find you.”

  “He did. He’s the biggest jerk. So controlling. I can’t believe that I thought I liked him once. He’s made my life hell.” Simone took another spoonful of coffee.

  “So I got a job at the other restaurant you came to. First chance I got, I called Rell and told her. So she started coming there. We saw each other maybe three times a week. She was like the grandmother I never had. The mother I never had. No one has ever cared about me the way she does. She even brought me little presents sometimes.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  “Anything. Everything. Hopes and dreams. My life has always been drudgery. Work and survival. Rell wanted me to believe that it could be something more. So I told her my secret dream. I assumed she would think I was ridiculous. But she didn’t. She believed I could do it.”

  “If she believed you could, then she’s probably right.”

  “I don’t know if she’s right. But it’s nice to have someone think it. After she said that, I actually thought that maybe I could be more. That maybe I could make something of myself. That was the first time in my life that I ever thought that. But I’m such a chickenshit. I’m afraid to try anything.”

  “Maybe that’s because Ned has scared you.”

  “Yeah. Ned and the other men.”

  The way she said it sounded a little pregnant, like she wanted me to ask about the other men. But it seemed like dangerous territory, especially for an ex-cop. A trained psychologist can explore treacherous country. Maybe Rell could, too. But I might make things worse by what I said or didn’t say.

  I went back to her previous subject. “What is your dream? I realize that you might not want to tell me. But I’d like to hear.”

  Simone frowned, worried, probably, that I would not give her a good reaction. She ate another spoonful of coffee.

  Simone hesitated. “It’s probably ridiculous, but I’d like to do the Tahoe Randonnée Extreme Challenge.”

  “What’s Randonnée?”

  “It’s a kind of back-country skiing that originated in the Alps. I didn’t learn about it until I came to Tahoe. You’ve probably seen it. Randonnée uses that special ski and binding that allows you to lift your boot heel up and down for touring, prop it up high when you’re climbing a slope, and then lock it down in the normal position for when you ski down, similar to downhill skiing at a resort.”

  “Yeah, I have heard of that, but I didn’t know the name. You use skins on the bottom of your skis to grip the snow on your ascents, and then you take off the skins to ski down, right?”

  “Yeah,” Simone said.

  “But what is the Tahoe Randonnée Extreme?”

  “There’s a guy who writes a blog about it. He’s kind of a back-country legend. He’s set several records for back-country treks. You’ve probably heard of the one where you ski the high country from Tahoe to Yosemite. Well, he’s been promoting a trek that sort of follows the Pacific Crest Trail from Donner Summit on Interstate Eighty all the way south to Carson Pass on Highway Eighty-eight. But his trek veers away from the PCT to bag a bunch of peaks along the way.”

  “You climb the nearby mountains on your skis.”

  “Right. Over twenty peaks.” she said.

  “And after you bag
the peaks, then you ski down them.”

  She nodded. “But on the steepest ones, you have to take off your skis and pack them up and down.”

  “Kind of dangerous,” I said.

  “The participants prefer to think of it as challenging instead of dangerous.”

  “Is it a race?”

  “No. It’s enough simply to complete the challenge. The way it works is you hold your phone out and take a picture of yourself at the top of every peak. Then, when you finish the route, you upload the photos to this website. It’s still new. Not many people have done it. I want to be one of the first women to do it.”

  “From Donner to Carson must be forty miles. Several days what with climbing the mountains. Plus, you would have to bring a full range of winter camping gear and all your food.”

  She nodded. “We can stay at the Benson Hut or the Bradley Hut on the north end of the expedition. And there’s the Ludlow Hut about midway. But the rest is all camping.”

  “Are those the huts the Sierra Club maintains?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The rest of the time you’re sleeping in a tent in the snow.”

  She nodded.

  “Putting up with whatever storms come through.”

  Maybe I sounded doubtful because she said, “You don’t think I could do it?”

  “No, didn’t mean that at all. I was just cataloging the challenges. I’m sure you could do it.”

  “Don’t say that.” Simone gave me a stern look. “Almost for sure I couldn’t do it. But I want to try. It would be the most amazing experience of my life.”

  “You go on the buddy system?”

  “They recommend it for safety. But I want to do it solo.”

  “Because then it would be a greater achievement.”

  “Right,” she said.

  “Have you been training for this?”

  “Trying to. But it’s hard to find the time.”

  “Does Ned know you want to do this?”

  “Of course not. He would forbid it. That’s why it’s hard to train. If I go out too much, he gets suspicious.”