“Good call,” Oliver told him.
“It was my only call. The first thing they taught me to do was to admit to my family that I fucked up. Once I did that, my mom, God bless her, bailed me out. It took me time to pay her back, but eight years later, I was all caught up and then some. I had a lot of business. I took on a few employees to help me out.”
“Melinda Little?” Oliver asked.
“No, I met Melinda way before,” Shriner said. “We used to frequent the same casinos.”
“She had a gambling problem.” Marge tried to keep her voice even.
“She did. I was the one who talked her into going to GA before she hit the skids. She was reluctant to admit it, but once she did, she went with the program. The hardest part was confession. She just couldn't bring herself to admit to her folks that she'd been gambling away her dead husband's insurance money. We worked out a plan. She'd say that she spent the money on hiring a private investigator—the reason why she was low on funds. Her parents bought the story and helped her out. She was ashamed, but swore she'd never go near a table again.”
“I was told that she had money in the bank when Ben died,” Marge said. “When did she start gambling?”
Shriner shrugged. “I met her about six months after the tragedy. She was hitting the tables pretty often: her game was blackjack. I do know that some of her husband's insurance went to the boys for an educational fund that she couldn't touch. That was probably a very good thing. We compulsive gamblers don't have a good stop mechanism.”
“She was very forthright giving us your name,” Oliver told him.
“She didn't know I was going to blow her cover. Otherwise she might not have.”
“How'd she react to that?”
“She wasn't pleased, but she didn't try to talk me out of it. Part of the GA philosophy is to come clean with your lies and excuses. I thought it would be therapeutic for us if we told the truth. She's not ready for confession, but she had no right to tell me how to run my own life. She knows that you'll be contacting her again.”
Oliver said, “Do you think it's possible that she had something to do with her husband's murder?”
“Anything's possible, but I'd say no.”
Oliver said, “Why?”
“I could just tell that the woman was in pain.”
“She may have felt bad about his death, but that doesn't mean she didn't cause it, especially if she had a habit to support.”
“It was my understanding that she started gambling after the murder. At least, I don't remember seeing her until after it happened.”
“She could have gambled elsewhere.”
Shriner said, “Look. I'm not saying that she didn't have the urge. I'm not saying that she didn't indulge from time to time. But it was my understanding from being in the group with her that the problems started on a large scale after her husband was murdered. The woman appeared despondent. She was lonely, she was ashamed, and she was in an altered state of mind. Unless you've been there, it's hard to imagine how quickly you can go from ‘I'm okay, I can handle it’ to ‘I'm totally out of control.’”
“So you think she hid her compulsion until after he died?” Oliver was skeptical.
“I betcha that her husband knew about her tendencies. He probably was able to rein her in. Once he was gone, and she had this sudden windfall of cash … that's a deadly combination. The whole point of my confession is that I don't want you to see me as incompetent. I was a very good private investigator, and I did what I could for Melinda, but I wasn't going to go the full nine yards for her because I had my own troubles.”
“So we're back to my first question, what do you remember about the case?”
“Little seemed to be well liked and admired. The way it laid out, it seemed like a professional hit, but I couldn't find a reason why someone would have wanted to off him.”
Oliver said, “That brings us back to his wife …”
Shriner said, “If she was in deep, deep trouble, she had resources other than murder.”
“Did you know if she owed anyone cash?”
Shriner said, “Not to my knowledge.”
“What did you investigate?” Marge asked.
“The usual. His friends, his relatives, his colleagues, some of his students.”
“Does the name Darnell Arlington mean anything to you?”
“The black kid who was kicked out of school. Yeah, I talked to him over the phone. By the time Little was murdered, he'd moved away. I remember that he seemed broken up about Little. Why? Does the kid have a record?”
“He teaches physical education at a high school in Ohio.”
“Good to hear that he straightened himself out.”
“So you never suspected him?” Oliver asked.
“Of course I suspected him. I ruled him out early on because he had a good alibi, although it skips my mind at the moment.”
“Supposedly he was playing sports in front of an audience.”
“Yeah, that was it. Hard to be in two places at one time, and he didn't seem angry enough to hire a hit six months later. But check him out. Like I said, I didn't spend an abundance of time on the case.”
“Have you ever heard of a man named Primo Ekerling?” Marge asked him.
For the first time, the private detective gave the question some thought. “He sounds vaguely familiar.”
“He was a music producer,” Marge said. “A few weeks ago, he was murdered, stuffed into the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz. Hollywood has a couple of cholos in custody, although they're denying the charge. They admitted to boosting the car, but not to the murder.”
“Could be I read about him in the papers …”
“You don't recall Ekerling's name in your mini-investigation of Little?”
“Mini-investigation …” Shriner smiled. “That's a good term for it. I might have heard the name. If he turns out to be a lead, let me know. In the meantime, I've got a date with my golf clubs. It's not as exciting as PI work, but it keeps me out of trouble.”
DECKER HAD JUST finished eating his bag lunch when Marge called, recapping the interview with Phil Shriner. When she was done, he said, “Exactly how bad of a gambling problem?”
Marge said, “That's what we're trying to figure out. I'm sure that Melinda Little is expecting your call any minute. I think you should pounce on it, Pete, before she starts thinking of some very clever excuses.”
“I'm still in Simi Valley.” Decker shifted the phone to his other ear. “Besides, I've got the interview with Arnie Lamar in fifteen
