Deadly Deed

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

JUNE 3, 8 PM

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

My wife Blondie has put six-year-old Jerry and eight-year-old Larry to bed, and my dinner is waiting cold in the refrigerator. She is listening to the sounds of the radio, dancing around the living room as Teresa Brewer sings “Till I Waltz Again With You,” which now permeates the downstairs of the house.

As she hears me coming through the house, she flips the radio off and stops dancing to greet me. I make a mental note that I need to take my wife dancing more, although I am not much on the dance floor. We head into the kitchen, and she turns the oven on, placing my cold dinner on the rack to heat, which will take a few minutes. She sits down at the table and obviously wants to talk.

“Have you heard the news? You know the murder of the local tailor, Mr. Tachaikovsky. You’ve been by his shop, I don’t know, maybe you have even been inside?”

I know who she is referencing, but I have never been in his tailor shop. His clothes are too expensive for my taste. Besides, I like Hawaiian shirts or loose shirts to wear outside my pants to hide the pistol tucked inside the waistband. I am not a suit kind of guy, which doesn’t exactly please Blondie. She sees cops all day long with uniforms or the detectives and the lawyers with suits. She thinks I am a bit of a slob, but I prefer to be comfortable.

Blondie pulls dinner out of the oven and proceeds to tell me about the killing of the tailor. “He was killed in cold blood, right in front of several people. No reason. No motive. Seems several witnesses heard him arguing with a young man—five to be exact, who identified the killer.”

I assure her that with that many witnesses, it won’t be long until the sheriff makes an arrest.

At that moment, I hear our youngest son hollering from upstairs for his mother to read him a story. She gets up from the table and proceeds upstairs. I finish my reheated dinner in solitude. It’s been quite a day. Tomorrow I will talk with the cops about the tailor’s murder and see what information can be had to follow up. For now, it’s off to a cool shower and bed.