Betrayed (Rosato & DiNunzio, #2)(15)
Judy noted that Aunt Barb wasn’t telling him about her cancer and respected that she wanted to keep it private. She let her aunt take the lead, since she had the information.
Detective Boone made another note. “Address and phone?”
Her aunt gave the phone number, then answered, “Point Breeze Avenue, Point Breeze Apartments, 1-C. Do you have her phone? She got a call today that concerned her, and I’m curious about it.”
“I’ll see if the phone was bagged yet.”
“She seemed fine when I saw her today and she never mentioned anything about heart trouble. She’s very healthy.”
“Do you know who her family doctor is, if she had one?” Detective Boone cocked his head.
“I don’t think she had one. She used the LCD, but she never went unless I nagged her.”
Detective Boone made another note. “Officer Hoffman tells me that you’re the emergency contact, and that Ms. Juarez didn’t have close family or friends in the area besides you. Is that correct?”
“She didn’t have family, but she did have a good friend, Daniella Gamboa. Somebody will have to notify her, about this. I never met her but Iris talked about her. They used to work together at Mike’s Exotics, but Iris told me Daniella doesn’t work there anymore.”
“Do you have contact info for Ms. Gamboa, like an address or phone?”
“No.”
“We’ll find Ms. Gamboa.” Detective Boone made a note. “We’ll conduct our investigation in the next few days, and we’ll keep you informed.” He turned to Judy. “Officer Hoffman mentioned to me that you’re an attorney in Philadelphia, so I expect you’ll be an asset.”
Judy tried to believe him, but nobody liked a Philadelphia lawyer, least of all a detective. “Thank you. I know that Officer Hoffman said that the case appears to be a natural death, and I’m sure that’s true, but—”
“The manner of death does appear to be natural, because of the condition of the body and the circumstances in which the body was found.” Detective Boone gestured at the Honda. “The facts suggest she had a heart attack while she was driving.”
“Which facts suggest that, specifically?”
“Several. As is typical, her body slumped forward and took pressure off the gas pedal, then the car drifted off the road into a hay roll. The engine was running when we found the car. The fuel tank was almost out of gas. The air bag did not deploy. This was a low-speed collision, there’s no injury or seatbelt marks that we could find.”
Judy took it in. “Well, my aunt had some questions, like the phone, and also that Iris should have been at work.”
Aunt Barb added, “She never misses work and is very diligent, so I can’t for the life of me understand why she wasn’t there.”
“I see.” Detective Boone made a note. “I will be sure to follow-up with the folks at Mike’s Exotics.”
“You know the place?” Judy asked.
“Of course.” Detective Boone smiled crookedly. “East Grove isn’t Philly.”
Judy continued, “Plus, my aunt made the point that it doesn’t make sense that Iris was on this road, at all. Apparently, it’s not on the way home from work.”
Aunt Barb chimed in, “This is way out of her way. There’s nothing around here. I can’t imagine what she was doing here, can you?”
Detective Boone scribbled in his pad. “She could’ve been going somewhere other than home, obviously. If she began to experience symptoms of heart attack or a stroke, such as confusion or disorientation, she wouldn’t know where she was driving. But that would be just speculation.”
Judy didn’t know enough to agree or disagree with him. “My aunt also made the point that her window was open, and Iris didn’t like to drive with the windows open because it messed up her hair.”
Aunt Barb nodded. “That’s true, and besides which, she only had a T-shirt on, not even a sweater. Women our age don’t do that. We’re always cold.”
Detective Boone looked up from his pad. “We can’t assume that she died in the evening hours. We don’t have the time of death yet. It’s certainly possible that she passed in the daytime. It was a sunny day, so she could have had the window open.”
“But people would have seen her and called the police.”
“Unlikely. This road isn’t well-traveled, and they might not have realized she was dead.”
“Detective Boone, there was one last detail that concerned me, which was that I noticed that Iris had a few broken nails.”
Aunt Barb looked up. “She did?”
“Yes, they hadn’t been broken earlier today, when I saw her.” Judy didn’t know how much more of this conversation her aunt could take. “I noticed because her nail polish was unusual, red with rhinestones. I’m not sure what it means, but I wanted to mention that to you.”
Aunt Barb bit her lip. “Iris took great care of her hands and nails. She loved to do her nails. She wore gloves when she gardened because of them.”
Detective Boone flipped his pad closed. “I wouldn’t want to speculate on the significance of someone’s breaking their nails. We have four pathologists in this county, and one of them will perform an autopsy, run toxicology tests, and do whatever else they think is indicated.”