Jarillo Sunset Read online

  After Mike walked out the door and closed it, Don looked at Char, frowning. “What’s happening with the body you found in that house?”

  “The sheriff was able to identify the body, and apparently he was shot in the head. They notified the next of kin, and now they’re zeroing in on me because I found the body.”

  “Why would they zero in on you?” he asked, puzzled.

  Char didn’t want to tell Don what was going on, but felt she was obligated to keep him informed of events. “It turned out that the man who was killed was a guy I once dated, about seven years ago, when I lived in Michigan. Apparently, he came down to New Mexico to see me, but he never called me or made contact with me. Since the sheriff doesn’t have any other leads, they’re assuming that I was somehow involved.”

  “Are you cooperating with them?” he asked.

  “Yes, I am, although they made me angry today when they called me to let me know I was on their radar.”

  “As much as I don’t want the sheriff, or the police for that matter, digging into my territory, we do have to continue to cooperate so we don’t give them anything they can come back and bite you on the ass with later.” Don shook his head and muttered, “What a fucking mess.”

  “I’m doing my best, Mr. Stillwater, but I don’t like being on their radar. I had nothing whatsoever to do with this situation. If I hadn’t gone into the house when I did, they may have never found the victim.”

  “All right. Keep me posted on any updates you get,” he said and dismissed her.

  Char went back to her desk and called Mr. and Mrs. Schneider to inform them of the offer that Rosie and Jonathan had made on their house. Mr. and Mrs. Schneider agreed to talk it over and get back with her either later that day or tomorrow.

  Char was packing her briefcase to walk out the door when her cellphone rang. “Char Johnson,” she answered.

  “Ms. Johnson, this is Ernest Adams from the Sunnyside Homeowners’ Association. I’m the head of the architecture committee, and I was given your name by our president Vincent Carter as someone who we might like to list five lots that we have going up for sale. Is this something you’d be able to work with me on?”

  “Yes, Mr. Adams, I can work with you on this. How about we schedule a meeting to sit down and discuss all the details and possibly draw up a contract?”

  “That would be great. I’m available most early afternoons. I work second shift and go in at four.”

  “Okay, how does tomorrow at one sound to you?” Char asked.

  “That would work just fine. Why don’t you come to my house so we can discuss things, and then I’ll take you to the properties?”

  “What’s your address?”

  “8571 Santiago, two streets over from Pueblo Lane.”

  “Is there a telephone number I can reach you at in case I can’t make it?”

  Mr. Adams rattled off his number and Char wrote it down.

  “Great. I’ll see you tomorrow at one o’clock,” Char said cheerfully.

  Before Char could leave, Danica came over and told her that a couple was there requesting to see her. Char put her briefcase down and walked to the front desk. “Hello, I’m Char Johnson,” she said to the couple.

  “Hello, I’m Dan Sheppard, and this is my wife Mary. We got your name off the for sale sign in front of the home on San Juan that you have listed. We were wondering if it would be possible for us to see the inside of the house.”

  “I can arrange that. I’ll give the owners a call right now and see if we can set it up. Is there any particular day or time you’d like to see it?”

  “If possible, we’d like to see it now, but if not, any time this week will be fine.”

  Char walked back to her cubicle and looked through her calendar for Mr. and Mrs. Jones’s telephone number. She found it and called them.

  After four rings, Mrs. Jones answered the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Mrs. Jones. This is Char Johnson from Stillwater Realty. How are you today?”

  “I’m doing fine, Ms. Johnson. What can I do for you?”

  “I have someone interested in seeing your house. They would like to come out now if it’s possible, but if not, they’re willing to schedule a date and time,” Char explained.

  “Um, you can bring them out now if you’d like. Should I be here when you and the potential buyers arrive?”

  “No, it’s best if the homeowners aren’t there when we show the property, because it sometimes make potential buyers uncomfortable.”

  “If they want to come out now and look, I can leave for a while.”

  “Okay, I’ll bring them now. We should be there in about fifteen minutes or so.”

  “I’m on my way out the door.”

  Char walked out to the front of the office, up to Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard. “Mrs. Jones said we could come on out now if we’d like.”

  “Oh, wonderful!” Mrs. Sheppard said.

  “Let me drive you out there and we’ll see what you think.” Char smiled cheerfully.

  “That’s not necessary, we’ll just follow you there.”

  Char got into the company car and Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard got into their car and followed her to the property. When they arrived, they walked up to the house.

  “This looks like a very nice home from the outside,” Mrs. Sheppard said as they walked up the sidewalk. Char unlocked the front door and they stepped inside.

  “It’s a four bedroom house, with three bathrooms, a two-car garage, a family room, living room, dining room, kitchen, and a full walk-out basement with a smaller kitchen and game room,” Char said.

  Mrs. Sheppard looked at her husband and then remarked, “It sounds wonderful.”

  “Let’s go this way and I’ll give you a tour.”

  Char led the Sheppards through the house. At the end of the walk-through, Mr. Sheppard asked, “What’s the asking price?”

  “We’re asking two hundred and seventy thousand,” Char said.

  “Are there any neighborhood associations that govern the subdivision?”

  “There is a homeowners’ association, and here is a copy of their rules for you to look over.” She handed them a copy of the rules. “There is an annual fee at the beginning of every year, which is a hundred and ten dollars. This helps them to maintain the roads and plan events like the fireworks on the Fourth of July, stuff like that.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard continued asking Char about the house, the utilities, and different things relating to the house. When they left and walked outside, Mr. Sheppard said, “We really like the house. We’ll take a few days to think about it and let you know.”

  “Okay. That sounds good.”

  * * * *

  As Char pulled into the parking lot outside her apartment, her cellphone rang. “Hello,” she answered.

  “Char, this is Vincent.”

  “Hey, Vincent. How’s it going?” she asked, surprised that he’d call her.

  “It’s going pretty good. How are you?” he asked politely.

  “Doing okay. Been a busy day today,” she added.

  “A good busy?” Vincent asked.

  “Yeah, it’s a pretty good busy.”

  “Char, are you busy Wednesday evening?”

  “Well, um...no, I’m not busy Wednesday evening.” Char hated that she had to say she wasn’t busy, as if she had been waiting on a phone call from him to ask her out.

  “I’d like to invite you over to my place for dinner Wednesday night if you’re available and would like to come.”

  “Um, I don’t know if it’s a good idea for us to be seeing each other,” Char answered, unsure of what to do.

  “Why?” he asked pensively.

  “I just have this conflict within myself.” Char was hoping he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate.

  “What conflict is this?” Vincent asked.

  Shoot, I don’t even know if I could explain it to myself. “I think I told you that my dad is an alcoholic and gambler, didn’t I?”

 
“Yes.” Vincent was quiet, waiting on her response.

  “I have an issue with establishments that prey on people’s weaknesses, and knowing that you work for a casino and play in the band for them…it just doesn’t bode well with me.”

  “I’m not an alcoholic nor am I a gambler. I don’t even like gambling,” Vincent said quietly.

  “I know, but you work for the casino, and that’s the rub,” she explained.

  “I only invited you for dinner. Don’t take it for anything more than it is. It’s not like we’re going together, are committed to each other, or anything like that. I simply wanted to ask you over to reciprocate the invitation you gave me last week. What can be wrong with newly-acquainted friends having dinner together?”

  “Vincent, the last time when we were at my apartment for dinner, we got into some serious necking,” Char reminded him.

  “So you want me to be on my best behavior and not do it again?”

  “It’s not that. I don’t think either of us planned it. Did we?” She thought about the evening and if she had said or done anything that may have misled him into kissing her as he did.

  “No, it wasn’t planned. If I remember correctly, I was getting ready to leave and the next thing I knew we were on the couch and my sister interrupted us. Why don’t you plan to come over for dinner Wednesday night, and we’ll just try to keep it as friends without any physical involvement, and see what happens?”

  “Um, okay. Would you like me to bring anything?” she asked.

  “Nope. I have everything I need. I rehearse with Jake every day from one or two in the afternoon until about six, so would six-thirty be too late?”

  “No, six-thirty would be fine. That’s usually when I eat at home anyway.” Char wondered what he was going to fix, or if he was going to order carry-out. “What’s for dinner?”

  “I was thinking about vegetable lasagna. Do you like that?”

  “Oh yeah, I love vegetable lasagna. How about I bring the wine?” Char asked.

  “I have wine, but if you have a particular brand or taste you like, go ahead and bring it.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you Wednesday at six-thirty then.”

  Char sat looking at her cellphone after she hung up from talking to Vincent. She didn’t know how she was going to walk away from him Wednesday night. She remembered his tender assault on her breasts and thought about how it pleasured her and set off sensations she didn’t even know existed inside her. They hadn’t even been to bed, and he excited her beyond anything she had ever experienced with any other man.

  Chapter 10

  Char arrived at Mr. Adams’s house to talk to him about listing the five one-acre lots. She got out of the car with her briefcase, camera, clipboard, and purse. His house looked a lot like Vincent’s, but it was a darker shade of brick and the grass was a little bit taller. His house was situated a little farther back than most of the houses were, so the driveway was longer.

  She rang the doorbell and waited. A woman answered the door, and Char said, “Hello, I’m here to meet with Mr. Adams.”

  “Yes, come on in. I’m his wife Matilda.”

  Char stepped into the foyer area as Matilda called, “Ernest, Ms. Johnson is here.”

  Mr. Adams walked into the living room and over to the foyer where Char was standing and offered his hand. “Hello, Ms. Johnson. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you too, Mr. Adams.”

  “Come on in and have a seat.” He gestured toward the couch and chairs in the living room. Char took a seat on the couch and a little Yorkie excitedly came running and jumped on her lap. Char petted the dog and Mr. Adams finally said, “That’s enough, Otis.” Otis then went and sat down with him.

  “You have property you’d like to sell?” Char began.

  “Yes, the homeowners’ association hired an excavating company to level out and prepare five acres of land to be divided up into one acre lots. We do have covenant rules, and we have a list of contractors that know the rules and will build the houses according the owner’s floor plan but also keep it within the covenant rules. Would you like to see a copy of the covenants?”

  “I already have a copy that Vincent gave to me when I listed the house on Pueblo Lane,” she answered.

  “Okay. When someone buys a lot, they have one year to start building on it. The home doesn’t have to be built in one year, but they have to at least start within the year.”

  “I see.”

  “We have the gas line already underground and the owners will have to run a line from their house to the main line located down the middle of the road. The electrical poles are already installed, and all the owners have to do is contact the electric company to hook it up from their house to the pole. We don’t have sewer hook-up, so the owners will have to have their own septic tank put in and maintained. As you probably see from some of the houses here, the pipes sticking out of the ground are the septic tank pipes.”

  Char was taking notes as Mr. Adams spoke.

  “If you’d like, I’ll take you over to the lots now and show you around,” Mr. Adams said.

  “Okay. I’ll drive since I have the company car,” Char said.

  They got into the car and Char backed out. Mr. Adams gave her directions and within minutes they arrived at their destination. She pulled up to the middle of the five vacant lots and they got out of the car.

  “Are all the lots one acre?” she asked.

  “Yes, they are.”

  “These are such large lots. What do people do with the land?” Char spoke out loud, wondering to herself.

  “Usually, the homeowner will maintain a green lawn in the front and immediate back part of the property behind the house, and the rest they leave to grow naturally. Not all of them do that, but the majority do. Some even went toward the back of their lots and built an in-ground swimming pool and pool house.”

  After taking pictures of the five lots, Char and Mr. Adams got in the car and drove back to his place. Char asked Mr. Adams, “What are you asking for the lots?”

  “We’re asking forty-two thousand, six hundred and twenty-five dollars per lot.”

  They sat down in the dining room where Char pulled out the paperwork to draw up the contract.

  After signing the contract and answering questions, Char left and went back to the five acres and put the For Sale signs up, one on each lot. Then she headed back to the office to log the lots into the multiple service listings and other trade magazines and real estate booklets.

  * * * *

  Char left the office for the day, and stopped at Hobbs Winery Shop to pick up a bottle of wine for Wednesday’s dinner. She walked around the shop, looking at cooking wine, white wine, and red wine. She sampled some of the wine at the tasting area and decided she liked the raspberry flavored wine for herself. She picked a bottle of Chianti in a wicker basket for her dinner with Vincent. She missed the times back in Michigan where she would take wine tours and sample wine. They didn’t seem to do that much here.

  Char was just entering her apartment when her cellphone rang. She looked at the phone and saw it was her mother’s telephone number. “Hello,” she answered.

  “Hi, Char. How are you?”

  “I’m okay, Mom. How about you?”

  “I’m doing pretty good. I haven’t talked to you in a while and I was getting worried, so I thought I’d better give you a call and make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m sorry that I haven’t kept in touch much. I’ve been working a lot of extra hours,” Char said apologetically.

  “Is the real estate market doing well down there?” her mother asked.

  “It’s doing much better than it was in Michigan. It could be better, but I’m staying busy.”

  “Have you made any sales lately?”

  “Yes, I’ve had several closings recently, and I have two sales pending right now. Plus, I just got five lots to list for sale, so it’s been busy.”

  “That’s good.”

  �
��Yeah. How’s Cam?” Char asked.

  “Oh, he’s doing fine. He’s on a special diet now because of his high blood pressure. He’s also on medication for it and that makes him kind of sleepy.”

  “How’s Joannie?” Char asked.

  “She’s doing great. She’s looking forward to graduating from high school and going to college in the fall. She’s decided to go to Washtenaw Community College rather than to a university.”

  “What’s she going to study?”

  “She’s thinking of taking up nursing. You know, nursing has become one of the top ten highest paying jobs in the market, and is one of those kind of jobs that will always be in demand, so she’s thinking of going for it. I do hope you plan to be here for her graduation.”

  Char hesitated for a few minutes then said, “As far as I know, I should be able to be there.” She really didn’t know if she would be there or not with the way her job situation was going.

  “So have you made any new friends lately? Maybe a male friend?” her mom asked.

  “I don’t have time to make a lot of friends, though I do have a couple, and no, I don’t have a man.” Char thought of Vincent, but didn’t think their relationship would classify.

  “It’s got to be awfully lonely for you down there. You know things are looking better here in Michigan. Why don’t you pack up and come back?”

  Char had this conversation with her mother every time she talked to her. Same old question. “Mom, I like it down here. I don’t have the winter months to deal with like I did in Michigan. I just don’t want to come back.” To change the conversation, Char asked, “What’s Kathy been doing?”

  “Oh, she’s been quite busy. Jade is in kindergarten, and Maria is in pre-school. Her and Gerald are doing great, and he’s been promoted at Pinerest Manufacturing and is making good money now. It was tough for them for a while, but they got through it.” There was silence on the phone for a few minutes, and then her mother asked, “Char, have you heard from your father lately?”

  “Yes,” Char answered, not wanting to get into it with her mother about her father.

  “Is he still gambling and drinking?” she asked, and you could hear the bitterness in her voice.