Joy and Sorrow Chapter 11 A matter of Opinion

Soledad Marquesa and her hubby lay splayed out on their water-bed.The end of Dharma and Greg blared on the boob tube.She passes Doyle the remainder of a squat doobie.Today had been somewhat productive.Doyle and his Shriner pals spent most of the afternoon installing a new  bird bath.Soledad ordered miniature pink roses and orange trees for the backyard.

She aches for that unmistakable smell of fresh orange that once permeated the California air. Back in the sixties a good number of orange groves disapeared to make way for commerce.The news comes on.More talk about blasted O.J. Simpson.Neither of them cares for the news.All the dunderheads talk about anymore is what celebrity or politician won " The Naughty Award" this week.

Both are much too baked now to solve the mystery of the missing remote,so the news stays on.Out of the blue,an anchorman begins yakking about a high profile murder case in New Orleans.A prominent mob boss's twin sons,Spiro and Giuseppe Cordovi,had been freshly indicted for the slaying of Senator Joel Parker Harrington.An anonymous tip to the police claimed to have have seen the two men in a car acting suspiciously outside the restaurant shortly before Joel was gunned down.

The brothers had sworn up and down they were on business in Chicago during said murder.When asked for an itinery of what they had been up to that weekend,both men clammed up.One week after the tip, a shrimper turned in a pistol that had been found in catch for the day.The pistol not matched the murder weapons description,The gun's serial number was a match for Spiro Cordovi's favorite gun.

'' What say you on the verdict ? '' Soledad smiled slyly.

'' Seems to have folded up too neatly,'' Doyle shrugged,stripping out of his Harley Davidson duds.

''You are just saying that because you are a man,''Soledad rolled her eyes.

'' I don't think that is very nice ,'' Doyle said, playfully hitting his wife with a leopard print pillow.

'' Both of them have Charlie Manson eyes,'' Soledad cackled.

'' This Shriner dude, Todd went to school  with them in Chicago.

From the stories he told me,neither of them  is smooth enough  to pull off something like this,'' Doyle said scratching his beard.

'' I think it is someone closer to the family,shrewder than these too,'' he mused.

'' Who!'' Soledad cried exasperated.

''Not telling,'' Doyle smirked,switching off the lights.

'' Where does that leave me ? '' Soledad sputtered.

''Sweet Dreams,' Doyle said with a cheerful yawn.

'' Yeah right, '' Soledad thought sarcastically.