The Cactus Club Killings (Joe Portugal) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sound too maudlin and began strolling around, practicing my delivery. I was on my third run-through, declaiming on what a, wonderful person Brenda was, when Detective Hector Casillas, who’d stealthily insinuated himself halfway up the front walk, said, “Very impressive,” and frightened me half to death.
    “Jesus,” I said, after returning from the stratosphere. “Do you always go sneaking up on people like that?”
    “Sure. They give a course at the academy, Sneaking Up 101. I got an A. Seen today’s paper?”
    He waggled a piece of the
Times
in the air. The Metro section. When I shook my head he came the rest of the way up the walk, handed me the paper, and sat down in one of the wicker chairs. He sat idly fingering the dangling, pencil-thick branches of a rhipsalis while I scanned the front page. Iskipped over PROBE POINTS TO HIGH-LEVEL INVOLVEMENT and LOTTERY WINNER GIVES TICKET TO DIOCESE, and then there it was. UCLA PROFESSOR KILLED WITH PLANT .
    “Nice picture of the victim, huh?” Casillas said.
    It showed Brenda a couple of hairstyles ago, displaying plenty of cleavage. The photo was probably from some fund-raising thing. She was always hobnobbing with the semi-rich and almost-famous, digging up cash for her botanical activities.
    I read a few paragraphs. They got the plant’s name right, but capitalized
abdelkuri
. Not proper nomenclatural practice. I handed the paper back.
    He looked down and said, “I like this part.
The body was discovered by actor Joe Portugal, forty-four, best known for his role in a breakfast cereal commercial
. I thought you looked familiar.”
    I made a little bow.
    “You make a living off that stuff?”
    I shrugged. “More or less. I do about a half dozen commercials a year. Shoot one tomorrow, as a matter of fact.”
    “What for?”
    “Olsen’s Natural Garden Solutions.”
    “Haifa dozen gives you enough to live on?”
    “My expenses are limited. My dad owns the house.” I sat in the other chair. “Mind telling me the purpose of this visit, Detective?”
    He plucked one of last years fruits off the rhipsalis. White, about the size of a BB, the reason they call rhipsalis “mistletoe cactus.” He squeezed it between his fingers. Pulp and
seeds
spurted out. “Jeez,” he said. “What a stupid thing to do.” He pulled out a pocket pack of tissues and wiped his fingers. “I’m a cop; I like to investigate things. Sometimes I get into things I shouldn’t.” He was trying to ingratiate himself with me, and not doing a bad job of it. “But to answeryour question, information gathering is what we call it. This succulent-plant stuff. Burns and me don’t know anything about it. I called the guys at Scientific Investigation Division. They don’t know anything about it either. I thought maybe you could fill me in.” He began fingering the plant again.
    “Could you not diddle my rhipsalis?” I said.
    He let go of the plant, absentmindedly swabbed his fingers with the remains of the tissue. “See, I need some help here. And I thought, here’s this smart guy, he knows all about this plant stuff, and he’s probably interested in seeing justice done, am I right? On account of he knew the victim. So I put two and two together and came on out here.”
    “Do you always drop by without calling first?”
    “See, I’m still confused about cacti and euphorbias and stuff. You got some you can show me? Maybe I can learn the difference.”
    I couldn’t see a good reason not to, so I got down off the patio and led him down the driveway and into the backyard. The June gloom had mostly burned off, and the yard was bathed in pearly sunlight.
    “Watch for the wet spots,” I said. “It’s still kind of mushy from the rain Sunday night. Did you check Brenda’s yard for footprints? With the rain they would have shown up nicely, I would think.”
    “Sure we checked.”
    “What about fingerprints, stuff like that?”
    “We checked all that. You’re not dealing with a bunch