Chapter Eight
Nearly twenty years had passed when Sebastian Tyrovitch woke in the motel room in Winona and got dressed for two appointments. The first one was lunch at the Arrow Leaf Country Club near Flagstaff and the second was later at Betsy's Breakfast Counter outside of Winona.
The Arrow Leaf was with Jessie Vail, and he was sure it would be quite an elegant lunch. Betsy's would just be coffee in the evening with Grace Young but he was looking forward to the food and the company at Betsy's much more than meeting with the widow at her club. Besides, he was hopeful that Betsy would have homemade baked goods to eat with the coffee.
Before he left, Sebastian stopped at the front desk to see if Kelly had contacted him. A young, black girl was at the counter.
"No calls or mail," she was reading a magazine and didn't want to look up from it.
As Sebastian turned to leave and she put the magazine down and called to him.
"Oh, two of your friends dropped by yesterday. They asked what room you were in and they said they might come back later to see you."
"Did they leave names?" Sebastian asked. "What did they look like?"
The young girl knew by his tone she may have done something wrong. She looked a little frightened.
"One guy was black and kind of tall and skinny. The other guy was white, about your height but a little chubby. I hope it's okay that I told them you were here."
"No problem," Sebastian said. "Look, another friend might come by. His name is Steven Clarke. I'd like to reserve the room next to mine just in case he stays over night. The one that's attached would be great. I'll pay for his room in cash right now."
The girl never responded, she just typed something into her computer and printed a single sheet of paper. Sebastian signed for the extra room and took the key card. Then he went back to his own room.
He unlocked the adjoining door and left it ajar and then went into the hall and into the new room where he opened the other adjoining door so he could enter his old room. He took his laptop into the new room but nothing else. The old room was left as it was so that it looked occupied. From the new room he called Kelly.
He gave Kelly a quick review of the previous day's events, including his meetings with Grace Young, Cam Starr and Cory Pezzo and the visitors at the motel. Kelly seemed interested to hear that Sebastian had attracted some interest.
"I need some more money. I've rented another room and I will need another laptop."
"No problem. I spoke to the police department there about you. Someone named Young called me to check on you. We need to be careful. I can keep informers who are criminals under a full salary but the department won't want me hiring some guy to investigate a murder. You're not a federal agent. I'd get my ass in a sling. I covered for you for now but lay low."
Sebastian was fully aware that his role here was a little unusual.
"What's the other room for? From your description of the local police I'm guessing it's for Officer Young."
"That would be okay with me but I am continuing in my role as a wooden duck and I need to be ready. It looks like I can expect visitors," Sebastian said and he hung up.
The computer store was a five minute drive from the motel. By ten o'clock that morning Sebastian had another laptop with just one file on it. He called the file "Cory Pezzo" and he wrote notes that included, "Evidence links Pezzo to death of Paul Vail and Witness willing to testify he saw men leaving murder site."
He then left the new computer in his original room and took his own laptop into the room he rented for Steven Clarke and closed the adjoining doors. All of his things were left in his own room. If anyone broke in they would assume Sebastian was still in the original room.
He left for Flagstaff.
At 12:45 Jessie Vail arrived to find Sebastian sitting on a brown leather chair in the front entrance of the Arrow Leaf County Club. She was ten minutes late and he had arrived nearly an hour early.
He wore the same jacket and slacks that he had purchased earlier in the week and he felt underdressed. Places that wrapped themselves in elegance and affluence, like Arrow Leaf still had the effect of making Sebastian feel out of place. The old saying, "Were you born in a barn?" had a special significance to him. He was never completely comfortable around wealth and the Arrow Leaf reeked of it.
Jessie Vail however strolled in like the place belonged to her. She had long ago shed any of her childhood poverty and was more than comfortable cavorting with the successful. As she walked in she contributed to the atmosphere of unwelcoming privilege.
They ate lunch in the manor room where Jessie was unable to add anything more to the evidence. She hoped that the men that her husband's friends at the club might know something.
A waiter brought a silver tray with a selection of desserts. Jessie just had coffee but Sebastian ate two helpings and then Jessie took Sebastian to a small bar that looked out onto the golf course and introduced him to Tim Black, Richard Shore and Dane Mansel. According to Jessie, Paul didn't spend a lot of time at the club but when he did these were the men he tended to spend time with. She told the guys to talk and she left to shoot nine holes.
These guys spent even more time at the club than Jessie did. Although the Arrow Leaf was like their second home they didn't have the air of elegance that Jessie did and Sebastian found himself more at ease with this meeting.
Even though the impression was all frat house, these guys came from the wealthiest families in town. Black, Shore and Mansel had that arrogance that comes from dating the prettiest girl at school, getting a sports car on your sixteenth birthday and going to the finest colleges that money could buy. They had been given the best of everything from birth and they were respected throughout the community. They had been used to the subservience of teachers, cleaning ladies and their father's employees but Sebastian knew that they would bend easily if he needed to apply pressure.
"So you're an FBI agent?" Shore said. He was a big guy with a square head full of bushy brown hair. He was about forty but he liked to sport the same unkempt style he did when he was chasing girls in college.
"Something like that," Sebastian answered. "I wonder if we can all introduce ourselves then you can give me an idea what you do here and how long you've known Paul."
Shore took control again.
"We've all been friends from high school, same with Jessie. Paul and Jessie were one of those popular couples when we were kids. They're good people.
The group of us all left for college but Paul stayed back to start his business. Jessie went away like the rest of us but she never dated anyone else. You know the high school sweetheart thing."
Tim Black interrupted his friend. He was a big guy as well, over six feet and carrying an extra fifty pounds on his bulky frame. He had a round face and he was balding. His cheeks were red and his breathing was strained. Just sitting there sucking back beer and a burger seemed to be an effort. Probably thought he could still do the same things he did when he was a lineman on the high school football team.
Sebastian wondered how long it would be until this guy had a heart attack somewhere out on the links.
"Not that Jessie didn't get offers. There were a few guys in college chasing that tail and a few like to say they caught it but I'm pretty sure it was just Paul. Jessie was just that way. So was Paul. It was a real love story.
Like Ricky says, we've all been friends for years and we still are. Paul didn't come in that often. He wasn't really much of a golfer. He had two loves, his family and his business. They took all of his time.
Us three golf here four times a week in good weather and of course we always stop here for a beer. Paul joined us when he came by to pick up Jess."
"What about Cam Starr?" Sebastian asked.
Now it was Dane Mansel who spoke. He was shorter than the other two and very slim. His hair was dark and he wore glasses with a wire frame. The other two were friendly and loud but Mansel was all business.
"Cam has had a thing for Jessie forever. He will tell you she was interested in him too but I don't think anything was going to happen there. Cam is not in Jessie's league. I always thought it was funny that Paul put up with Cam but I guess they were friends since school and Paul kept Cam out of trouble. His interest in Jessie was only one sided and I know for a fact that Paul never worried about that."
"I understand Jessie has hired him to run the plant for her," Sebastian said.
"He runs the plant. Jessie isn't one to go down and take over and Cam worked for Paul for years. Paul kept Cam employed. Paul would give you the shirt off of his back," Mansel said. "I don't know if Cam has any idea what the hell he is doing there. That is a very big business now and I don't know if he is going to handle it. I think Jessie would be better off getting rid of it before Cam runs it into the ground but I guess for the time being there is no one else to run the place."
"I thought Cam Starr was a businessman. Doesn't he have a gym somewhere in Winona?" Sebastian asked.
"Sure he does. He runs that place with a guy named Ted Arsenault but I am not sure they make any money. It's pretty seedy," Mansel said. "Arsenault is an asshole. He is a friend of Cams but I wouldn't trust him."
Sebastian wanted to try another angle.
"So it sounds like the marriage was rock solid?"
Black started to speak and then stopped himself. He thought for a moment and then he went ahead.
"Hey, once I was over at the house because I had to drop off our dog. It's a labradoodle. We call her Nancy. It's the kid's dog."
Tim Black seemed to want everyone to know that the labradoodle named Nancy was the kid's dog and not his.
"Had it for nearly ten years now and of course we have to find someone to watch her when we go away. The Vale's were looking after it while we went to Florida.
That morning, I was standing out by the pool and their daughter, Morgan comes running out of Paul's office and says something like, why shouldn't I fool around, you do."
He stopped and sipped on his beer and waited to see if the others would stop him from speaking about this. He seemed nervous that he was breaking this confidence. The others had painted a different picture of Vail and his wife.
"I don't remember her exact words but it was something like that. I didn't believe it. Paul wasn't like that. I mean he wouldn't cheat on Jessie. Who the hell would?" Black said. "But I heard what she said. I was stunned and at the time I just thought she was being a little shit. Kids say stuff it doesn't make it true."
Richard Shore spoke up now.
"We all knew that Morgan has some problems. She dropped out of school and hangs out with a tough group of kids," he said.
"I'm sure Paul worried that he worked too much but he loved his family. Christ we should all spend more time with our families. I didn't believe it," Shore said.
"I am just saying what I heard," Black said.
The conversation slowed. They all waited for someone else to speak.
"Tell me a little about yourselves," Sebastian said. "What do you guys do? Where would I find you if I needed to ask something else?"
Shore started taking again.
"I have a grocery business. I used to run it with my Dad but he passed on three years ago and now I am the largest privately owned grocery retailer in southern Arizona."
He looked at Black.
"Tim also took over a family business. He's a television star."
The three men all laughed.
"He sells cars at the dealerships that are out on Purple Heart Trail. You would have passed it on your way in from Winona.
It started with Black's Cadillacs. His Grandaddy sold limos to gangsters in the fifties."
This got a laugh from all three of the guys including Black.
Shore continued.
"Now, Timmy has four lots. He sells a few Hummers and Corvettes and a whole lot of Japanese shit boxes.
Of course Dane's a lawyer. His office is on Pineway Road, in that new plaza. He'll tell you he's the only one of us that didn't take over a family business. Went to school and hung up his shingle all on his own."
"I noticed Cam Starr bought himself at corvette. Did he buy it from you?" Sebastian asked Black.
"Where else? My dealerships sell half the cars in Arizona." Black replied. "I hadn't seen Cam since school and I ran into him two months ago.
Said he wanted a red Corvette. I told him to come in and see Leslie Vaughn. She's my top salesperson. Funny isn't it, a woman outsells all the guys now."
Mansel had been watching Sebastian and listening without saying as much.
"Hey look we've told you a few things now tell me again what is it you do for the FBI?" Mansel said.
"As I said, I am not an agent. I am an investigator. I was asked to find out about Mr. Vail's business affairs. Obviously we need to know if it relates to his death."
Sebastian was trying to sound officious. He knew he wasn't fooling Mansel but the other two seemed appropriately impressed. He decided to end the conversation.
"If I need anything else can I contact you?"
"The Vales were good people. We are happy to help in any way we can." Mansel said. "Maybe we should go now."
Sebastian drove back to his motel to freshen up before the next meeting and found that someone had already been in his room. There was no damage to the lock so they must have gotten a key card somewhere. The new laptop was gone. He smiled.
Nothing else had been disturbed. He knew very soon the thieves would be reading a series of comments which were meant to make Pezzo react. If Pezzo was guilty he'd come after Sebastian.
He showered in the other motel room and then drove to Betsy's Counter for dinner and to wait for Grace Young. He was looking forward to this meeting. Grace seemed honest and open to sharing ideas and she might be able to shed some light and besides, she was very good looking.