Lou Lou walked out behind her, yawning. “No, I don’t either. Now, Daniel is as upset as we are, mostly with himself because everything is dead-ended again. When he’s upset, he paces around like you, he’s not focusing on anything but you. Do you know I’ve even told him the name of your third-grade teacher?”
“You don’t know the name of my third-grade teacher.” Mary Lisa paused, turned to rest her elbows on the deck railing. “Do you know I don’t remember it either?”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to disappoint him so I told him her name was Mrs. Pilsner, how’s that? I think I was drinking a beer at the time. Damn, Mary Lisa, this is getting old. I’m ready for an ending, you know? A happy ending.”
Mary Lisa watched Elizabeth stroll out on the deck. She’d taken off her stilt heels and came to stand at the railing beside Mary Lisa, dangling her shoes by their straps over the side. She’d taken off her panty hose and her bright crimson-painted toes sparkled in the dim light.
Mary Lisa said, “I’m going to spend six hours with Chico tomorrow, then I’m going to the firing range for another six hours. Then I’m going to call Irene at the studio and tell her I want the studio to hire me around-the-clock bodyguards, about a dozen of them.”
“And the studio’ll do it in a flash,” Elizabeth said. “They’re not stupid.”
“About that six hours with Chico…” Lou Lou began.
Mary Lisa held up her hand, eyes narrowed. “What? You think that’s not enough?”
“Maybe I’m thinking it’s too much the other way.”
“Elizabeth, you agree with Lou Lou?”
“Six straight sessions with Chico and you’d be a cripple, if not dead. Yeah, cut that down to three sessions.”
Mary Lisa sighed. “Okay, I need you guys to tell me if I’ve gone over the edge.”
“You have,” Lou Lou said. “A long time ago. It’s okay.”
The three women stood side by side beneath the beautiful black sky, a quarter moon bright above their heads, a warm breeze against their faces, hearing conversations from people walking on the beach. None of them said anything.
Finally, Mary Lisa whispered, “Okay, three straight lessons. I can do that.”
FIFTY-TWO
Goddard Bay
It was midmorning on a sunny Friday. Jack sat at his desk studying the transcripts of all the interviews conducted since Milo’s death two days before. Only two days? It seemed like beyond forever. He hadn’t gone home the night before, stayed here at the office and thought and reread all the reports until he was nearly blind. He’d gotten only a couple of hours’ sleep. He was vaguely aware of voices outside his office door, but he blocked them out and tried to focus. The words blurred in his head. He knew he was tired, too tired, really, to see something he’d missed. He swigged down some coffee so thick it could make its own Rorschach if he spilled it.
He was trying to concentrate on proving it was Olivia Hildebrand who had killed her husband. He had little doubt about that by now. But the problem was, Mary Lisa kept coming front and center into his mind. She’d called him last night, not five minutes after he’d spoken to Daniel, and he’d listened to her tell him about Paulie Thomas’s mad motorcycle attack and all that happened afterward. He was so scared for her as those words had rained on him that he’d felt paralyzed with it. He’d heard the fear in her voice as well, she was unable to hide it from him, actress or no. He’d known her such a short time, he thought, but he was coming to know her well. She had tried to present a picture of control for him, and he admired her greatly for it. Mary Lisa was solid, and what was cool, in that moment he thought of his mother and how she’d say Mary Lisa was solid as well. He smiled at that. She’d erased the lingering stain left from his failed marriage, the memories of distrust and dread that had haunted his mind, and betrayal, the final nail Rikki had banged in his coffin. He tapped his pen on his desktop, wondering if Mary Lisa was feeling something like what he felt, if in the short time he’d known her, he’d helped to rub out that jerk Mark Bridges from her mind. It was still awfully soon, dammit, maybe he was expecting too much.
He wanted to be in Malibu, he wanted to find the creep who was terrorizing her, which meant, bottom line, that he had to get Olivia Hildebrand into his jail, and her signed confession into his pocket. So he forced his mind back to Milo’s murder yet again. He simply had to. How had Olivia managed to get the poison into Milo’s food tray? They’d found rat poison at her home, but that wasn’t nearly enough, as Pat Bigelow had acidly pointed out to him. Rats were common enough in Goddard Bay.
He wanted to find that bum who’d been around the Goddard Bay Inn kitchen. He was the key, Jack knew it.
He underlined something Mrs. Hildebrand had said-“I’ve loved my husband for thirty-five years, only him.” And he’d asked, “And did your husband love your daughter, Mrs. Hildebrand?”
“Ah, Marci-such a talented, beautiful child.”
He drummed his fingertips on the transcripts.
“Hey.”
That soft voice sounded sharp in his mind. No, the voice wasn’t in his mind, and it was supposed to be down in Malibu. He jerked up.
Mary Lisa stood in the doorway, grinning at him.
He stared at her, her windblown hair, the big sunglasses she wore dangling in her fingers. She was wearing baize slacks and a fitted top beneath a navy blazer.
He nearly knocked his chair over as he went to her. He hauled her up against him, buried his face in her hair, breathed in the lemony smell, and reveled in the softness against his skin. He felt his fatigue fall away from him, forgotten.
He hugged her for what seemed like a long time, feeling her heart beating against his, and finally whispered against her ear, “I can’t believe you’re here. I was just thinking about you and hating that I couldn’t be down in Malibu with you. Sweet Jesus, Mary Lisa, this is a wonderful surprise.” He eased her back, looked down at the face he’d once seen on the other side of bars in his jail, grinned and kissed her. He said into her mouth, “If I’d have managed to get to bed since Milo’s murder, I’d have dreamed about this.”
She laughed into his mouth, felt the hard length of him that fit against her so perfectly, so naturally, and knew what coming home really felt like, for the first time in her life.
She squeezed him hard, went up on her tiptoes and kissed him. He tasted like heat and man and really strong coffee.
He was hard against her belly and shaking and she loved it. “I’m here to see you, Jack. With just a little nudge from the mad stalker.”
“When you called me last night, I’ll tell you, Mary Lisa, I wanted to fly down there, tuck you into my duffel bag, and take you to Australia. Scared me spitless.”
“I was pretty near the edge myself there for a while. But now”-she paused, kissed his mouth again, hugged him tightly-“but now I’m with you and the world is right for at least awhile. Did I manage to surprise you?”
“Nah, you just gave me the excuse to leap on you and kiss you stupid.”
She grinned, touched her fingertips to his face, studying him, seeing the bone-deep weariness, the frustration, and joy, the joy he felt because she was here. She glowed, couldn’t help it. She sobered quickly. “I know you’re up to your ears in this mess. I won’t be a bother, it’s just that I missed you and, yeah, I was afraid down there-”
“Having you here is what I needed. It’s true things aren’t settled here yet, and I don’t know when I’ll get things cleaned up. It’s all a matter of finding enough proof.” He paused, looked into her vibrant blue eyes, and said, “I’m quite sure it was Milo’s wife, Olivia Hildebrand.”
“Oh dear. This is going to hit my mom pretty hard. You know she and my mother are close friends.”
He frowned down at her. “Yes, of course. Your mom hasn’t missed a chance to bust my chops about harassing Olivia. But tell me what’s going on with you.”
“Well, Lou Lou and Elizabeth came up here with me, and we’re all staying at the Goddard Bay
Inn-no way would I have them at my mother’s mercy at the house. They groused and complained when I dropped them off, but I told them I wanted to surprise you-alone. They got the picture. You don’t mind, do you, Jack? That I didn’t tell you I was coming up here?”
“Doesn’t matter now.” He started to kiss her again.
“Jack, wait, I’ve got things to tell you.”
“I know, but not now, Mary Lisa. Not now. There’s a time for words but now’s the time for this.” He cupped her in his hands and pulled her hard against him. It was amazing, almost as amazing as when he lay on his back on the beach, with her on top of him. “I want to take you back to the beach again.”
“That was”-she gulped, kissing his cheek, his chin, his mouth-“an experience I want again, real soon.”
There was a knock on his office door, but he was grinning like a madman, and paid it no attention.
“Chief.”
Chief?
It was Mary Lisa who pulled away, only about two inches, and turned back to see one of his deputies standing in the doorway, face crimson, looking so miserable Mary Lisa would have laughed if she wasn’t thinking so much about pushing Jack back onto his desktop. She sucked in a deep breath and whispered, “Jack.”
“Go away, Ames.”
“I’m very sorry, Chief, but Mr. Beverly is here wanting to see Mary Lisa. He’s, ah, fact is, Chief, he’s right here, as in right behind me.”
“What?”
“I called Dad,” Mary Lisa said, “got his voice mail. I told him I was coming to see you, and I’d go over to his office later. I guess he had another idea.”
She turned to see her father behind the deputy, staring at her and Jack. “So,” George Beverly said, “I hope I’m not interrupting you, Jack.”
You sure as hell are. But those were not words to be spoken aloud. Jack touched his forehead for a moment to Mary Lisa’s, kissed the tip of her nose, and raised his head to look at the man he was now seeing for the first time as his future father-in-law. Whoa, wait a minute, that wasn’t possible, was it? He stared blankly at George Beverly, relieved he was focused on his daughter.
“Hi, sweetheart.” He gently shoved the deputy out of Jack’s office and closed the door.
She didn’t want to leave Jack, really didn’t, but this was her father and she loved him. She pulled out of Jack’s arms and turned to grin at him. “Hi, Dad. I suppose I surprised Jack as much as you.”
“It looks to me like he got over the surprise part real fast.”
Mary Lisa nodded, looking all sorts of pleased with herself. “Yes, amazing, isn’t he?”
George Beverly struck a pose, fingers stroking his chin. “I seem to recall that Chief Wolf wasn’t at all amazing two weeks ago. I hadn’t realized that you were interested in each other. Indeed, there seemed to be a goodly amount of dislike on both your parts.”
She thought about that, and slowly shook her head. “Mr. Macho and his jail cell-ancient history, Dad. Isn’t life strange?”
Her father hugged her close. “I gave up long ago trying to figure out what life is,” he said, “I just try to live it.” She breathed in his familiar scent, rested her head on his shoulder for a moment.
She heard him say, “You look dead tired, Jack.”
“Not now, sir. Your daughter could rejuvenate a dead plant.”
Jack felt like he could run a marathon at that moment, that or have about six hours of sex with Mary Lisa, enough to last him for a little while. He remembered how he felt at the beach again, relived that endless moment when she’d climaxed and nearly rocketed him right over the edge, and tried not to shudder in his Italian boots in front of her father.
Mary Lisa looked at Jack, and the look in their eyes told George Beverly everything he needed to know, and a lot he didn’t want to know about. “You should rest, anyway, Jack,” he said. “Okay, sweetheart, you need to tell me everything that’s going on down south.”
“Detective Vasquez is still on it, Dad. The studio insisted I take off for a while, and the truth is, I really needed to get away. I thought about spending every day with Chico at his dojo and realized I needed to come up here to see Jack and you.”
Her father waved away her words as he looked from her to Jack standing behind her. “Definitely in that order, I see.”
She took Jack’s hand. “Well, there’s no denying this guy’s mojo. And he’s got all this stuff he’s got to deal with and I thought he could use my help up here.”
“No way,” Jack said.
“Well, I guess we’ll see-”
“There could be a jail cell with your name on it if you give me any grief, Mary Lisa.”
“Would I get a blanket this time?”
Her father, eyebrow arched, said, “I’m glad you’re home and safe, Mary Lisa. Can I take you along to the house?”
“Well, the thing is, Dad, both Elizabeth and Lou Lou are with me. I stashed them at the Goddard Bay Inn, told them I had to see Jack. They wanted to come but I begged them to order the blueberry pancakes from room service instead. It worked since Lou Lou’s a sucker for pancakes.”
“Why don’t all of you come stay at the house? Kelly moved back to her apartment two days ago.”
“I don’t think Mom would like three women invading her space. Not enough bathrooms, you know? Why don’t we all come for dinner this evening?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes, I can see why you’d say that. Truth is, your mother is more than a little strung out, what with all that’s happened to Olivia. When Olivia isn’t at our house, Kathleen is at her house. It’ll be a pleasure to see Elizabeth and Lou Lou again, Mary Lisa. They’re both fine women, and good friends. You know anything more about Milo’s murder, Jack?”
Jack shook his head. “I really can’t discuss it, sir, I’m sorry.”
“When was the last time you had any sleep?”
“I look that bad?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Jack thought about it, slowly shook his head. He took Mary Lisa’s hand. He hadn’t thought about it before, but he saw she wore only one ring, a ruby set up high amid some small diamonds. It looked like an antique.
Mary Lisa hugged her father again. “I’ll be okay, Dad. We can hope Detective Vasquez turns up something while I’m out of town.”
George nodded, smiled at Jack. “You come to dinner as well, all right, Jack?”
FIFTY-THREE
Jack was surprised at John’s reaction when he heard Elizabeth, Lou Lou, and Mary Lisa were all at the Goddard Bay Inn. He insisted on calling them and inviting them all to lunch.
“Elizabeth is something, isn’t she, Jack?” John asked as Jack pulled his truck into traffic.
Now this was interesting. Had he been blind down in Malibu? He looked at the contented look on his friend’s face, and smiled. “She is.”
“She told me they’d stop eating breakfast right away.” And he gave Jack a fatuous grin. Jack nearly jerked the wheel into an old Pontiac parked on the side of the street.
“Hey, careful, Jack. You really needed a break, I can see that, and so do I. So let’s try not to talk about business for a couple of hours, capisce?”
“Since when did you get a transfusion of Italian blood?”
John merely shook his head and looked happy.
A few minutes later, Jack pulled up in front of the circular entrance of the old gray stone edifice built long before either of them was born.
John said as he got out of the truck, “I’ve always been grateful this place is nearly completely hidden behind all these oak trees. You only have to see those seedy old chimneys poking up through the tops of the trees. They look like smudge pots, all sixteen of them.”
Jack waved one of the parking attendants over. “Keep an eye on this state-of-the-art machine.”
“Yes, sir, dude-Chief, sir.”
They walked across the formal lobby with its overstuffed dark furniture and huge palm trees, whose sweeping fronds looked big enough to swallow them, to th
e creaky elevator that belonged in a scary movie. They got off on the third and top floor, took a right down a long, dismal hallway with an ancient cabbage rose runner, and knocked on 333B.
Lou Lou answered the door. “Hi, guys. Have you figured out why room 333B is on the third floor?”
John said, “Hi, Lou Lou. Old Man Willis built this place and died two years ago when he was nearly ninety. They say he chose all the room numbers at random.”
“Oh, I see, the ‘consistency is the hobgoblin’ theory?”
“I’m not so sure about that,” John said. “Mr. Willis was, to put it kindly, the local eccentric who did as he pleased.”
“You mean he was crazy.”
“Nope, he was too rich to be crazy. Definitely eccentric.”
Jack kissed Lou Lou’s cheek.
“Come on in, guys,” she said. “Hey, Elizabeth, Mary Lisa, we got both the big guns here.”
Mary Lisa contented herself with a smile and said, “Hello, Jack.”
“Mary Lisa.”
Lou Lou looked from one to the other and knew the air was cracking hot between them. A chief of police-who knew? And, Lou Lou suspected, he would be good for her, maybe a husband kind of good. She smiled, waved the men to sit down on the big eggplant sofa, the cracks in the leather as old as they were.
Jack sniffed. “The room smells like vanilla.”
Mary Lisa laughed. “Yep, I stopped at Ernie’s little ripoff 24/7 and bought some on the way over. I hope it helps. Smelled musty before.”
John said, his voice all awkward angles, which made Jack jerk his head around and stare at him, “Elizabeth, it’s really good to see you again. I’m glad you came up with Mary Lisa and Lou Lou. Ah, I’m surprised you could get away.”
“It required lots of shuffling, begging, calling in markers, promising favors, but Mary Lisa said she needed me.”
Lou Lou said slowly, eyebrow arched at Elizabeth, “I think one of the reasons you wanted to come up was to see this district attorney here.”
Elizabeth met John’s eyes, smiled. “Maybe so.”
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