MAX5 - MAX ZINN - OLIVE GROWER
Max Zinn and Carlos Perez took their four-wheeler ATV out to the spot of the murder last night. Max wanted to search the area, see if a toxin was spreading out, see if the bees were gone for good, and see if there was more evidence. They went prepared with gloves, ZipLock containers, and marking tools if they found anything.
It was a bright, sharp Wednesday morning. There were some birds as they drove out on the access road to the south entrance. Max generally wasn’t much of a bird watcher, but as they got closer, the birds got fewer and fewer and finally none. They stopped by the olive tree where they had found Juan Garza last night. And, confirming his suspicions, there was a dead sparrow just to the right of the tree.
“Hey Carlos,” Max said, “Look, there is a dead bird - the poison might have killed it.”
Carlos nodded and asked, “Can that super sensitive nose of yours note anything?”
Max answered, “Good idea.”
Max got out of the four-wheeler and stood silently. His usually susceptible nose was not picking up much. The olives weren’t ripe and didn't give off their fragrance. Then he senses just the slightest pungent odor to the right. Max walked in that direction and found a spray pesticide can on the ground. Carlos bagged it to save it for fingerprints.
The tree where the body was found did have some brown leaves and some leaves that were wilting and shriveling up.
Max said outloud, but primarily to himself, “So, Juan is still mad at us for firing him two years ago. Could he be mad enough to do this? What was going through his mind? Was he on drugs? Was he insane? Let’s say he has reasons, so what did he do - what were his plans? And did the killer stop his plans before he could carry them out? Did person X take the toxins with him as he left? Was the killer a man or a woman? Probability suggests a man, but maybe he convinced a woman to help him. Was he going to kill the trees and assume we didn’t notice? Did he think he could get back at us that way?”
“Did his accomplice take the truck back to town after killing him? Might the accomplice still have toxins in the back of his truck? I somehow assumed it was a truck. Could it be a car? I somehow doubt that the toxins or poisons or whatever he was using were other than standard on-the-market variety. Can you buy e-coli bacteria on the black market? Could we ask the local farm store if they sold something to Juan Garza? But, he could have driven to Chico or Bakersfield to get whatever he used?”
“Was Juan working? Did he have money? Does he have a wife or family? I don’t know.”
Carlos was standing next to Max, grinning. “Hey, Boss, do you always talk to yourself that way?”
Max looked up as if in a stupor. He said, “Was I talking out loud? Just trying to get a handle on things.”
Carlos laughed, “You are the most amazing Italian-American, with a Juris Doctorate and Masters of Business Administration, Olive Grower I know!! But I only know one - YOU.”
That brightened Max up.
Carlos continued, “Okay, Sherlock, so now what?”
Max said, “I want to look at the gate where they got in.”
Carlos agreed.
They walked down the access lane.
*****
Last night, Carlos helped Deputy Sheriff Hinojosa through the gate; Carlos didn’t even check the entrance. It was open, the padlock wasn’t around, and Carlos guided the sheriff’s party into the olive grove.
Carlos knew that Juan Garza knew the combination on the lock - right to 36, left (past 36) to 15, then right to 40. It wasn’t the most sophisticated padlock, but nobody other than staff ever needed to come in off the gravel road. After Juan was fired, Carlos didn’t change the padlocks. Well, this time, it allowed entry into the grove. The access road was more of a path than a road. The only time they used the access road was at harvest time. The road was gravel - but the weeks were high and growing around the gravel rocks. A car (or truck) had been up the access road before the deputy’s car. It had parked a little past the gate - pulling a little out of the way onto the grass. It seemed as if somebody got out of the vehicle's passenger side as the grass was trodden on. They couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
They walked back to the gate. There were two people, as the grass seemed to have more than one path. The grass by the entrance was worn down more - but that would have included the deputy, coroner, and the investigators. That was only logical. Juan didn’t fire a bullet through his head with the accuracy of the shot that killed him.
The tree where Juan had been killed was showing some signs of stress. Some leaves were curling.
Max looked at Carlos. “I don’t think we can do much more until we find out what Juan was using - a simple Round-up pesticide or a more elaborate. Let’s go back to the office and call the sheriff.
*****
Max and Carlos walked back to where they left their four-wheeler. Max stopped for a minute and said, “I smell something.”
He walked slowly to his right, went several steps, and then stopped.
He whispered, “Carlos over here.”
Carlos came over as Max pointed at a dead bird.
Carlos asked, “So, what is the significance of that?”
Max answered, “We’re about 40 feet from the tree. Maybe this cat wandered by the tree, and the poison got to him somehow.”
Carlos looked at the dead cat and corrected Max, “The poison got to HER.”
Max laughed, “Okay, Carlos, I didn’t take cat anatomy in college!!!”
They left the cat there. Louise Larkner and her graduate assistants would be here later and would want to see this.
*****
Louise taught her second class from 2:00 to 3:30, a graduate class on fruit techniques. The course covered pruning, grafting, insects, bruising, fertilizer, transplanting, and cross-pollination. At four o’clock, Louise, Henry Lopez, and Aura Martinez met in the lobby of the plant building and got into Louise’s car for the trip to Durham. Although she was a professor and these were to graduate students in Olive Studies, they were consulting and paid for it so she couldn’t use a University of California-Davis official car. (But, it was considered service to the industry for her next promotion to full professor).
*****
Deputy Jose Hinojosa was on his way to his car and home. He was thinking, ‘It was much nicer being a traffic cop; giving out speeding tickets was better than researching murders.
He had his hand on the front door to the Butte County Sheriff’s office when Vivinda called, “Jose - stop.”
Jose’s first thought was to pretend he hadn’t heard Vivinda and just keep walking. Whatever it was could wait until tomorrow.
But, he was a peace officer and detective, sworn to be a county servant, and he turned around.
Vivinda was the department dispatcher and main secretary. And, like most people in that position, they knew a lot about what was happening. She covered the end of her phone and said to Jose, “The State Crime lab is calling for you.”
Jose Hinojosa walked around the exterior of the main desk and through the gate and took the phone from Vivinda.
“Hello,” Jose answered, “This is Deputy Jose Hinojosa; how may I help you.”
The voice at the other end of the line said, “Sorry to bother you so late, Deputy. I’m Michael Pearson from the State Crime Lab in Sacramento. We have some information about the things you sent us.”
Jose replied, “Great. What did you find?”
Michael Pearson continued, “The powder was as you expected, just regular RoundUp Herbicide - but the farm and ranch variety, not the same you get at Home Depot. The bullet was a .22 short, probably fired from a Ruger 10/22. Your coroner had sent a blood sample with a high level of heroin in the sample. The man was high on drugs when he was shot. He also had a high level of alcohol, not quite to the drunk driving level, but elevated. In combination with the heroin and alcohol, I guess that he wasn’t thinking straight.”
Jose took this all in, “Anything else?”
Michael Pearson laughed, “No deputy, that is about all. I hope you get your man.”
Jose Hinojosa thanked him and hung up.
“Here,” he said as he returned the phone to Vivinda.
“Good News?” asked Vivinda.
“Well, the powder was ranch grade RoundUp, and the man was high on heroin and drunk.”
Jose added, “Just your regular olive picker.”
Vivinda laughed. “Have a good night, Jose.”
Just outside the door, Jose pulled out his cell phone and called Max Zinn.
Max answered, “Hello, Max Zinn.”
Jose said, “Hi, Max, this is Deputy Jose Hinojosa. I just got some information from the State Crime Lab. The powder was ranch strength RoundUp, the bullet was a .22 - probably from a Ruger, and Juan Garza was out of his mind on heroin and alcohol.”
Max nodded into his phone, not realizing the deputy couldn’t see him. “Do you know who sells the ranch strength RoundUp in the area?”
Jose laughed, “Just about every farm supply store in the area. I start checking the stores tomorrow. It wasn’t a big quantity, so Juan might just have gotten it off a shelf and paid for it. But, do you have a photo of Juan Garza that I could use to show to the merchants just in case somebody recognizes him?”
Max answered, “I’m pretty sure we have a picture. Even though we had fired him, he had an employee badge, and we should have the picture.”
Max continued, “Louise Larkner from UC-Davis is here with some of her students, helping assess the damage to the trees and orchard. Oh, Jose, all the bees close to that spot are dead. Is that normal?”
Jose responded, “RoundUp can be pretty deadly on plants. If the bees got some of the poison from flowers in the area and brought it back to the hive, it could have killed them.”
Max nodded again, still not thinking that Jose couldn’t see him. “Thanks, Deputy, that is helpful. I’ll let you know if we find more on our end.”
*****
Max stared at the sky. What did it mean?
He put his phone in his pocket and returned to where Louise Larkner and her students worked. They had N-95 masks and protective gloves as they removed leaves from the affected trees. Some of the leaves were already pretty shriveled.
He found Carlos and Louise talking over some dead patches on the ground.
He said, “I’m just off the phone with Deputy Sheriff Hinojosa, and he had the lab report. The lab said Juan used farm and orchard strength RoundUp. So, how do we neutralize RoundUp?”
Louise said, “Water is the first method. Wash everything down thoroughly about four times. If there is still any lingering toxin, a little ammonia at the end will finish off the effectiveness of RoundUp.”
Carlos asked, “What else did the Deputy say?”
Max hesitantly shared, “Seemingly, Juan Garza was on heroin and alcohol and out of it. He also said the gun was a standard .22 caliber pistol - probably a Ruger, but those are pretty common.
Carlos called Ralph Martin, one of the American Olive Grower staff. “Ralph, can you hook up the spray tank? Clean it thoroughly, fill it with water, put in a pint of ammonia, and bring it down to where the shooting occurred last night. Seemingly, the culprit has ranch strength RoundUp, and we can neutralize it with lots of water and just a little ammonia.”
*****
Soon, Ralph Martin and Steve O’Malley arrived and sprayed everything around the tree, including the bee hives, with the water and ammonia mix.
*****
Louise and the graduate students looked around and were happy about the spraying to kill the toxin.
Max came up to Louise. “Thank you and the students for coming down today. We were worried that the toxin might be something like an e-coli bacteria or worse. I’m glad it was all the shelf RoundUp.”
Louise smiled gracefully, thanked Max, piled into the car with Henry Lopez and Aura Martinez, and headed back to campus.
Max looked after the car. He had yet to figure out Louise Larkner. Did she even recognize him? She barely spoke to him. She didn’t have a wedding ring - but maybe she had a steady guy. He was pretty good at picking up girls - but he was striking out on this one.
*****
LJ slept in that morning. When he reported to Moreno Olive Farm at about 11, he had an excuse for the boss, “I was out drinking too late last night.”. The boss frowned and said, “Okay, LJ. It's probably better to sleep it off.. Grab a shovel and go out to the new area. We’ve ordered some new trees that should be here in a couple of days and need to have holes for them.”
But when LJ arrived at the work site, the guys kidded him, “Yeah, LJ, too much to drink last night? Yeah, the guy that could drink any of us under the table is having a hangover?”
******
Yesenia Garza barely made it through the morning. Twice, she excused herself and went into the ladies restroom and cried. At noon, her boss, Lara Medina, said, “Yesenia, I just heard about Juan. What can we do to help? Do you need somebody to watch Miguel? Would you and Miguel want to come to our house? I know my Pedro knows Miguel from school - they could play for a while, and you wouldn’t have to face an empty house.”
Yesenia agreed quickly. If it were up to her, she’d burn their little shack of a house down, and she’d move - anywhere - back to Mexico, to her sister’s in Mount Clara,
*****
Louise Larkner arrived home at 7:45. Inez was typing into her dissertation on her computer. She wanted to finish the first draft by Halloween and was a little ahead of that goal.
“Hi, Dear,” Inez called out. “I’ve got some tacos ready for you. I’ll be out in a minute; I want to finish this paragraph.”
Louise came into the extra bedroom that was functioning as an office and gave Inez a big kiss.
“Hey,” Inez said, “You keep that up, and I won’t finish my paragraph.”
Louise retorted, “Maybe I don’t want you to finish your dissertation and be my slave for the rest of my life.”
Inez stood up, and the two hugged for three minutes until Inez broke it off.
Inez said, “I might want to be your slave for the rest of our lives, but I want to be ‘Dr. Slave’”.
Louise laughed, “Okay, Dr. Slave, let’s have dinner.”
*****
Over dinner, Louise shared about the RoundUp at American Olive Growers.
Louise laughed, “I think Max thinks I’m available. I’m friendly, but not too friendly. And besides, you are much better looking.”
Inez asked, “How are his olives going? Will he get into the top five extra virgin olive oil producers in the five years he allocated?”
Louise answered, “I think he will. It is not a given. The committee that decides such things can be a bit capricious, but at this stage, he will be in the running with his olives, his own olive press, and state-of-the-art EVOO processing.”
*****
Yesenia Garza and Miguel stayed overnight with the Medinas. Diego Medina knew of Juan Garza's death and was agreeable to letting Yesenia remain for as long as she needed to.
*****
This night was Carlos Perez’s night for a nightmare. He was in the olive grove, and suddenly, he was surrounded by five masked men in black clothes, all pointing Ruger pistols at him.
And LJ stopped at the Park Avenue Pub. But he knew enough to have one vodka martini. He didn’t want to be a drunk blabbermouth!!!
******
END OF WEEK FIVE OF MAX ZINN - OLIVE GROWER
HOW WILL LOUISE AND INEZ BREAK THE NEWS TO MAX THAT THEY ARE LESBIAN PARTNERS? WHO IS THIS LJ? WILL THEY DETERMINE WHO SHOT JUAN GARZA? WHAT ELSE COULD HAPPEN? CAN INEZ GET FARTHER IN HER DISSERTATION?
LOVE WINS
LOVE TRANSFORMS
KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, SEPTEMBER 16, 2023
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