For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Henry got into his car and picked up his handwritten list of houses and owners. He thought about what he had just learned he found it interesting that Thornbird mentioned the Marilyn Monroe connection only after he had shown the hotel to the Miller family. Perhaps Thornbird had not thought about or learned of Marilyn's stay at the hotel until after the Frey connection did not make any impact on Tim and MarieAnne. Had Marilyn Monroe ever stayed at this place? It was certainly difficult to find out, and Henry wasn't sure that it mattered to his investigation.

He couldn't really consider them suspects. Henry felt that the Millers had no reason to harm Thornbird, their business was thriving, he was sure the hotel property had increased in value considerably since they bought it. An interesting business Tim and MarieAnne had here, he never would have guessed that there was money to be made by allowing people to swim and sunbathe in the altogether. The idea didn't bother him at all though; after all, he swam nude every day and usually just carried his towel out to the pool. Maybe he would take them up on their offer of a day visit sometime in the future. He looked down at his left hand again; he realized that this was the second time in 24 hours that his ring caused someone to have a mistaken impression about him.

He started the car, waited for the air conditioner to make an impact on the heat and headed for the Wadowicz house. It was a few blocks away, over in the Movie Colony section of Palm Springs. The house didn't appear like much from the street, but that wasn't unusual for a lot of the homes here. He remembered reading the description about Alexander homes on Thornbird's computer and while he didn't think this was an Alexander built home, it had some similarities to them. Henry parked on the driveway, walked up the path and knocked on the door. A large Hispanic woman opened the door and without saying anything, let him in and waved at him to follow her to the back of the house. They walked out of open French doors to the backyard where Mr. and Mrs. Wadowicz were having a late breakfast or early lunch under the patio cover.

Whereas the front of the house was plain, the backyard was the total opposite. There was a large black bottomed pool, and a built in spa on one side that continuously spilled its water back into the pool. Lush tropical plants everywhere, large palm trees and a pool house with chaise lounges covered with thick fluffy white towels. It was hard to see a fence and impossible to know where this yard ended and the neighbor's began. In one corner of the yard he noticed a small creek with a little waterfall and he couldn't quite see it from here, perhaps a small pond. The garden furniture was made of expensive plantation grown hardwood covered in thick cushions; Henry had seen this stuff in a catalog once and guessed that each piece was an average person's house payment.

Mr. Wadowicz pushed his chair back and said "Gracias, Rosa." At which the woman who escorted him back here, smiled and did a little half bow before she disappeared into the house.

"Good to meet you Mr. Wright, I'm Fred Wadowicz, pull up a chair, we hope you haven't had lunch."

"No, I haven't, thank you for your hospitality and please call me Henry." Henry pulled the chair out and took Mrs. Wadowicz offered hand.

"I'm Georgia, please just call me Georgia, and we're happy to help." She waved Henry to sit down.

Henry pulled up the chair and sat down; there was a place setting for him as though they knew that he would join them. The table was set with a linen tablecloth, there was a plate of fresh fruit on the table, a platter of crepes, a bowl of scrambled eggs, a basket with a stack of fresh croissants, a bowl with large strawberries and champagne flutes.

"Champagne, Henry, or are you on duty?" Fred pulled a bottle of Moet Chandon from an ice filled wine cooler next to his chair.

"Uh, yes please, perhaps just a little." Henry picked up his champagne flute and held it out for Fred to fill.