eb93c43e214c621f9157c05b4b6a6878

“I got back as soon as I could,” he said, also taking a seat. “I work for Merkel, a big pharmaceutical wholesaler. I’m vice president of sales and had back-to-back meetings all day yesterday and the day before. The moment I got your message I jumped on a plane.” He gestured to a pair of suitcases by the door. “In fact I just arrived.”

“So you know about what happened to your wife?”

“Yeah, dreadful business,” he said, dragging a distraught hand through his wiry mane. “Who would do such a thing? An intruder, you think? Though your colleague told me over the phone that nothing was stolen, so that doesn’t seem to make sense.”

“We think it might have something to do with Star Calypso,” said Chase.

“Did you know what business your wife was in?” asked Odelia.

“Oh, absolutely. Me and Calista kept no secrets from each other.”

“Did she… personally get involved with the clients?” asked Chase.

“No, nothing like that. She employed about half a dozen girls but she never dated any of the clients herself.”

“What was your opinion of the line of business your wife was in, sir?”

He laughed a curt laugh.“You mean did I mind that she ran an escort service? No, actually I did not. I’m not a prude, detective. Perhaps there were some questionable aspects about my wife’s business, from a moral point of view, but first and foremost it was just that: a business. A buyer and a seller agree on certain terms and conditions and who am I to question their right to do so? As long as nothing untoward happened, or illegal, it was perfectly fine by me. And as far as I know the whole thing was aboveboard.”

“One of the girls who worked for Calista told us you and your wife had a fight at the office last week. What was that all about?”

“Just one of those husband-and-wife disputes that are all too common in a long marriage. In fact I don’t even remember what exactly started it. Probably the fact that I couldn’t make it to a dinner she’d arranged with some friends of ours. We both led busy lives and sometimes things didn’t work out.”

“Can you tell us where you were two nights ago, Mr. Burden?”

“I told you. I was in Texas for meetings with our sales team. You can ask the hotel. And you can ask my secretary about the meetings. She’ll be able to give you all the details.”

Chapter 17

I was actually starting to get a little peckish, and as luck would have it, Odelia and Chase decided to drop by the same restaurant we’d visited the day before. And if there’s one thing I know about restaurants it is that they serve food—even to pets like us.

A police officer had shown a picture of Dotty’s boyfriend to the neighbor who’d heard the altercation the day of the murder, and this time she admitted she had indeed seen his face and it was Mitch who left immediately after the fight. So it was safe to say we needed to have another chat, since he’d declared it couldn’t possibly have been him that day.

Once more he was called away from his urgent duties in the kitchen, much to his chef’s annoyance, to talk to us.

“Okay, so it was me. It must have slipped my mind. You know how it is.”

“No, I don’t know how it is, Mr. Utz,” said Chase. He’d planted a hand against the wall next to Mitch’s head and was leaning in. “So please tell me so I do.”

“I found a guy’s underpants in Dotty’s bed and when I asked her about it she confessed that she hadn’t worked for that caterer in months and was now working for a dating service, as she called it. Men paid her to go on dates with them and that was it. Which still didn’t explain the underpants. So she finally said she worked for Star Calypso, which isn’t so much a dating service as an escort service and that she occasionally took her clients home with her. She said she was doing it for us, to save enough money so we could buy a place of our own and move in together. The caterer didn’t pay a lot and my job here pays me a pittance, and with the escort stuff, money was rolling in.” He shrugged. “So we had this big fight about it. I told her to quit Star Calypso and she said only a couple more months. I didn’t like it and I told her so. And she said it was her life and I wasn’t the boss of her. Anyway, we didn’t part on good terms, which of course I now deeply regret.”

“You didn’t return that night to have it out with her again?”

“No, I didn’t. She texted me but I didn’t text back. I was pretty upset when I found out what line of work she was in. And even more upset she didn’t bother to tell me about it.”

“Did you know Dotty’s boss? Calista Burden?”

“No, I didn’t. Dotty might have mentioned her, but we never met.”

“You could have found out where she lived by trawling through Dotty’s phone.”

“I didn’t. I’m telling you, after we fought I didn’t go back there. I was too upset.”

“So can you think of anyone else who could have done this to Dotty?”

The guy thought for a moment.“She did mention that a neighbor had started some kind of a campaign against her. Wanted to get her kicked out by the owner.”

“What kind of campaign?”