Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

Dorothy’s day-to-day life than anyone in the investigation so far.
    “Dorothy came by my beauty shop about noon on December 20th,” Felicia recalled. “She often dropped by the shop in the late afternoon to say hi, but we aren’t usually open on Mondays. She just happened to see me. She was very excited about her trip to Texas, and she was on her way to buy a Christmas present.”
    Felicia, too, characterized Dorothy Jones as a creature of habit, who kept to her own routines. “Usually, after she stops in here, she gets the paper and goes home to supper.”
    “You don’t know that she went home after her visit to you? Hickam asked.
    “Not for sure, but she probably did.”
    Felicia said that she and Dorothy had gone to the Esquire Club on Sunday night. “We don’t go out often—or rather, I don’t, because I have a family to look after.”
    Dorothy, on the other hand, had no children and a husband on the road all the time. Felicia said that Dorothy was an avid horse race aficionado and that she spent a lot of time at Longacres, Seattle’s popular track.
    “She always checked the papers for out-of-town results,” she added, “and she went down to Portland Meadows in Oregon, for the races there.”
    When the arson investigators asked her about the man rumored to be Dorothy’s lover—Dante Blackwell—Felicia Brown nodded. “She was always talking about Dante. I can’t really say how serious they were. I know Dorothy sometimes had men over for a drink, but that was pretty casual. She used to know a soldier that she wrote to, but I don’t think she’s seen him in years.”
    Asked what Dorothy Jones had been wearing on Monday, Felicia recalled that she’d worn white slacks, a silk blouse, a velveteen jacket, and brown shoes. Those were the clothes found folded on the bed in her spare bedroom just after the fire.
    Jim Reed wanted to know more about the elusive Dante Blackwell. Reed, Gary Owens, and arson inspector Bill Hoppe called on yet another of Dorothy’s friends—Lita Bowen. Lita said she’d known the dead woman for five years, and that they’d been very close friends for the past year and a half. They attended numerous functions together—bingo, dances, horse racing.
    “We went to the dances at the Esquire Club, and we played bingo four nights a week unless something came up. We went Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Dorothy would drive to my house, park, and I’d drive to bingo, or else she’d pick me up. We always called first to make arrangements, and if we couldn’t reach each other, one of us would go first and save a seat. We always got there at six so we could sort the cards before the crowd came.”
    Lita Bowen knew Dante Blackwell well. Dorothy had started dating him in September, and sometimes the three of them went out together.
    “Dante got married after he started dating Dorothy, but it didn’t seem to bother her, or slow him down,” she said. “Their relationship didn’t change.”
    Lita gave her opinion that Dorothy’s marriage wasn’t as happy as Carl Jones claimed. “Dorothy just got tired of him being gone on the road all the time. In fact, she filed for divorce.”
    “When was that?” Bill Hoppe asked.
    “On November 27th.”
    “Did Carl Jones know about Dante Blackwell?”
    “I don’t know if he was aware of him, but I’m fairly sure that he knew Dorothy had filed for divorce.”
    “Was Dorothy afraid of anyone?” Reed asked.
    “Well—I do know at least two people who have threatened her. One night, we were at a dance at the club with Dante, and this man came up to Dorothy on the dance floor. I’ve seen him at the track, but I don’t know who he is. I heard Dorothy say to him, ‘You would be better off to hit your wife or your mother than me.’ Dorothy seemed to be very afraid of him—so much so that she asked me to wait when I took her home that night, and every night after that. You know, wait until she got inside safely. She even asked me to find someone to live with her because she was afraid to be alone.”
    “Did she tell you of any threats she received?”
    “The only one I know of came from one of Dante Blackwell’s ex-girlfriends,” Lita said. “It was around the week of December 13th to the 19th. This woman told Dorothy to keep away from Dante or she’d kill her. But Dorothy just laughed about that, knowing he had a wife too! She wasn’t worried about some woman who was all mixed up about who to be jealous