Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 4, September 1971

“So she said.”

“But he was hedging.”

“I’m not sure about that. Something wasn’t clicking just right between them, but—”

“Perhaps Ramirez killed her to get out of what he considered to be a tight spot.”

“You’d have to ask Ramirez about that.”

Sam waned to ask Richard Ramirez several questions. He was too late. Ramirez had disappeared from the house and grounds.

When detectives blow one they wish they were motor pool mechanics and their only problems were leaky transmission seals. Ben Martin stood ruffling his red hair, Randy Howell stared in disgust, the technicians departed with the body, and Sam Champagne put out a pickup for Richard Ramirez.

Martin finally said, “What about all of those people outside, Sam? Some want to cut. They’re beginning to grumble.”

“I’d like to talk to a girl named Connie Lennon. Which one is she?”

“The girl with the camera dangling against her front.”

“The others can go, I guess.”

Connie Lennon impressed Sam. At a distance, she had been striking. In close proximity, inside the air-conditioned house, out of the stinking heat of the afternoon, she was blood-stirring, collected, alert and totally sober.

Connie Lennon did not drink. She also was terribly puzzled about the death by violence of Tina Polk. Connie Lennon did not like violence. She was gentle by nature.

Yes, she had known Tina most of her life. Yes, she had introduced Tina to Roger Caldwell Jr. No, the marriage of Tina and Roger had not disturbed her; she, Connie Lennon, was not the marrying kind. She preferred independence. To date she had not met a man she thought she could live with the rest of her life.

Well, Tina Polk obviously had been the marrying kind.

Tina had needed people. Alone she was a zero, her nerve ends clanged warning signals, all kinds of bad things could happen to her when she was alone, so she had turned to husbands.

And clubs, and pool parties and—

And?

Something was haywire here. Tina Polk had had a first husband, a man who still was very much alive and proclaimed to be very much in love, a man of wealth, prominence, stature, a man — it would seem on the surface — who had much to offer a woman.

The only trouble being Doctor Benz, because of this wealth, prominence, stature and work, was absent too often from home and wife. Wife hears clanging bells again, panics, divorces.

Enters Roger Caldwell Jr.

Tina and Roger had fallen in love with each other, it’s still possible. Roger’s death was true tragedy for Tina.

So Tina began to drink heavily.

Yes.

And the doctor moved back into the house.

Tina was reaching for any straw that might blow past in those dark days.

Did Connie Lennon think Richard Ramirez to be a passing straw for Tina Polk?

In a sense. Connie Lennon did not think Tina Polk was in love with Richard Ramirez, not like she had been in love with Roger Caldwell. They argued too often. They had argued this very afternoon, for instance. Tina Polk wanted to announce to the party that she and Richard were to marry. Richard had refused. The announcement would come in due time and in the proper manner. Thus an argument. Richard had gone off some place on the grounds to brood and Tina had taken her anger into the house.

Connie Lennon seemed well informed.

Connie Lennon and Tina Polk had been close, often confided in one another. Women need some outlet; perhaps a police sergeant didn’t know that.

Yes. Well now, had this argument taken place before or after she, Connie Lennon, had developed a headache — while standing at the pool bar with Roger Caldwell Sr., that is.

Hmm. The police sergeant seemed informed too. The argument had taken place before the headache.

And was Tina Polk intoxicated?

She had been drinking.

Had Connie Lennon seen Tina Polk go into the house, and had Tina Polk gone alone?

Tina Polk had been alone when she entered the game room and closed the door behind her.

Had anyone trailed Tina Polk, say a few minutes later?

If anyone had, Connie Lennon had not noticed — and she was quite sure she would have noticed, since she was a bit disturbed by Tina Polk’s mood, Tina having just confided that Richard Ramirez was being an obstinate animal this afternoon and that she, Tina Polk, was terribly angry with one Richard Ramirez.

Said Richard Ramirez having by this time gone off some place to brood?

Yes.

Was Miss Lennon currently aware that Richard Ramirez had disappeared again, left the grounds?

Miss Lennon was not. Why would he do that?

“Perhaps he is frightened and running,” Sam said.

Connie Lennon frowned. “By inference, sergeant, I think you are saying that Richard may have killed Tina. I find that difficult to believe.”

“Then you pick out a killer for me, Miss Lennon.”

“I find that difficult to do.”

“Well, try a man named Walter Shanks. It is my understanding that Mr. Shanks may have had a physical interest in Tina Polk.”

“No more than in any other woman. Walter Shanks is a chaser.”