by Roy Johansen
Dalborne squinted at her. “I didn’t have a muffin.”
“No, but your assistant did.”
The assistant quickly looked down at his shirt and tie.
“Not on your clothes,” she said to the assistant. “There’s a distinctive orange splotch under your right thumbnail.” She turned back to Dalborne. “Your breath and his orange thumb can only mean you guys ate at the Breakfast Club Diner.”
“The newspaper?”
“Your right fingers have newspaper ink on them, meaning you’re left-handed, by the way.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Only one hand is stained, meaning you were probably eating with the other hand. If you were holding the newspaper with your right hand, you were holding your fork with your left. Your dominant hand.”
“How did you know which paper?”
“The San Diego Union doesn’t come off on the hands nearly as much as the Coast Group of neighborhood papers. It’s a pretty safe assumption you were reading the Coast.”
“The fact that I wore braces?”
“Aside from that perfect smile of yours?”
“Thank you.” He smiled again. “Aside from that.”
“You have a habit of breathing in through your teeth. A lot of kids who wore braces do that. And it’s a habit some people carry with them throughout their lives, even if they aren’t aware of it.”
“Trust me, I’m aware of it. Every time I watch replays of myself at debates. It’s that obvious?”
“Not to most people. But I bet a lot of these kids could hear it.”
“Interesting,” he said as he heard sounds of agreement from the audience. “I think I just found my next debate prep team. What else can they hear?”
“A very slight rattle in your chest, a postnasal drip that’s probably a residual effect from your cold. I’m sensitive to it, because I also had it. And they might also hear the sound of your very elegant loafers snapping up against your heel. It’s the same sound someone makes when they wear flip-flops. That says to me you’re probably used to wearing flip-flops more than any other type of shoe.”
Dalborne shook his head. “Incredible. Now I know why the FBI likes you so much.”
“What they like about me is that I just pay attention and can help them do what they do a little better.” Kendra whirled toward Dee. “And paying attention is how I know Delilah Winter didn’t show up at the recording studio night before last and left the crew and musicians waiting for her the entire session. Right, Dee?”
Dee’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack. After a shocked moment, she finally responded. “Yeah, I was on the beach working on writing a new song. Time got away from me. I was in another world.” She added quickly to the audience, “But trust me, I felt really guilty, and I paid overtime to each and every one of the crew. That was very unprofessional of me. So you guys do as I say and not as I do. Okay?” Then her face suddenly lit with a rueful smile. “And be sure and watch your back when you’re doing something bad around Kendra Michaels!”
The kids were clapping and laughing wildly at this sudden sign of naughtiness and vulnerability in the superstar they adored. As well as at the idea that she had been bested by one of their own.
A perfect time to end the performance, Kendra thought. She stepped forward and waved her hand at the audience. Then she bowed low as the applause washed over her. The next moment she jumped down off the rock and tried to escape through the crowd.
But she found Dee in front of her, hurling herself into her arms. “You were terrific! Just what I wanted. Just what they needed. I’m window dressing, but you’re the real thing.” She pushed back and grinned up at Kendra. “Wanna go on the road with me?”
“No, I don’t.” But she had to smile back at Dee. “And that was a dirty trick catching me off guard. What if I’d blown it?”
“You didn’t. I have an instinct about things like that. I knew you were a natural. And how could I resist doing it when I’ve wanted to know how you do all that stuff myself? I knew I wasn’t going to have much more time to find out, so I laid my trap.” She made a face. “But how in hell did you know about that session I missed the other night?”
Kendra smiled. “Jessie told me. She said your manager called her when they were searching for you.”
“That’s cheating.”
“A little. But you deserved it for putting me on the spot.” She paused. “Is anything wrong? You worried a lot of people that night. It’s not like you.”
Dee shrugged. “Yeah, like I told you, time got away. I was really into creating something great with that new song.” She nibbled at her lower lip. “And maybe I wasn’t into anything else that night. With music you can’t do it if you can’t feel it, you know?”
“Sure.” It was only half true. She could understand the artistic problems, but balancing them with the fame and emotional traumas could only be solved by Dee herself. It troubled Kendra that there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to help her. She said lightly, “But you must have been feeling it today. You gave those kids a fantastic show.”
“You helped. It was great fun, wasn’t it?” She gave Kendra another hug and stepped back. She said quietly, “Don’t worry, I’ll do a couple more songs and then I’ll say goodbye to these guys. I’ll be off your hands in an hour and on my way back to L.A. with Jessie. I’ll even promise that we’ll lead all those paparazzi creeps out front away from here. Jessie is terrific at stuff like that.”
“I know she is,” Kendra said hesitantly, her gaze searching Dee’s expression. The last thing she’d wanted to do was to hurt her. “It’s not that we don’t like you and appreciate everything you’ve done for us. You’re a very special person, Dee.”
“But so are these kids,” she said softly. “And they belong here. I know I don’t. It was just nice being able to watch them, be with them for a little while. They’re so strong, much stronger than me.”
“No, they aren’t. Jessie keeps telling me what a tough cookie you can be.”
“That’s different.” She gave Kendra another quick hug. “Now stop looking at me like that. Everything’s okay. I understand.” Her hand tightened on the mic, and she jumped back on top of Big Rock. She shouted, “Hey, I’m jealous. Kendra was just a guest artist. Let me show you what I can do. You heard her tattle how bad I was about writing that song when I should have been at work? Well, it might have been a bad thing to do, but the song turned out pretty darn good. Who wants to hear the new song I just wrote?”
The audience erupted with a clamor of shouts and applause.
“Come on, you’re now ancient history.” Jessie was suddenly beside Kendra and leading her out of the crowd. “Though you did a damn good job. Dee was impressed with you.”
Kendra gazed over her shoulder at Dee Winter, glowing, intense, giving everything, who had started to sing again. “Then she wasn’t the only one. I was very impressed by her…”
* * *
“I was right, you know,” Allison Walker said as she came to stand beside Kendra at the front gates of the school. She watched Jessie drive Dee Winter past the crowd of paparazzi at the curb in her black Range Rover SUV. “She was disruptive. Look how those paparazzi are jumping into their cars to follow her.”
“Yes, she was disruptive,” Kendra agreed. “But those paparazzi are doing exactly what she wants them to do right now. Jessie is leading them away from here like a Pied Piper.” She added quietly, “And the kids had a wonderful, memorable experience.”
“I understand you had something to do with that,” Allison said dryly.
“A little. But that was Dee Winter, too.” She smiled. “And I can’t deny you were right. How could I?”
“You can’t.” She was silent a moment. “I…like her.”
“I know you do. She was just a problem you felt you had to solve.”
“She stopped by my office and thanked me for being so kind to her. She actually…hugged me. I was a little uncomfortable.”
>
“I’m sure she wasn’t. And I’m sure she meant everything she said to you.”
“I believe she did.” She was silent a moment. “Perhaps we’ll invite her again…in a year or so.” She shrugged. “At any rate, she’s on her way to where she belongs now. Thank heavens your friend Jessie brought a car and not her motorcycle this time. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for an accident happening to a guest at our academy.”
“I don’t think our ‘guest’ would mind. Dee would find riding on the back of Jessie’s motorcycle a blast. She’s probably done it many times before.” Kendra sighed as Jessie’s SUV disappeared around a corner, followed by a parade of screeching paparazzi vehicles. She wished she was with them. She was suddenly feeling very much alone after the excitement that had gone before.
She turned away and headed for her Toyota in the parking lot. “Now I’ve got to go back to my condo and have dinner with my friend Olivia. I had to cancel on her twice this week, and Olivia doesn’t tolerate that kind of discourtesy. She let me know it wasn’t to happen again. It seems as if I’m up here all the time these days.”
“I know you are,” Allison said. “And I’m grateful. Don’t think I’m not. You’ve practically saved the academy. It’s just that things are different now. It’s hard for me to get used to it.”
“Me too. And you’ve worked just as hard as I have, Allison. We’ve done it together.” She got into the Toyota. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Have a good dinner.” She paused. “I haven’t seen that extraordinary Lamborghini that belongs to Lynch up here for the last week.” She hesitated again. “Is there some problem?”
Allison was trying to be tactful, Kendra realized. Unusual for her these days. Bluntness ruled her life except when dealing with business associates or parents of students. But evidently, she didn’t want to come straight out and ask her if the man she assumed to be Kendra’s lover had left her and gone on the lam.
“No problem other than the usual one with Adam Lynch. The Justice Department wanted him to save the world and he was sent somewhere in Tibet to do it. I haven’t heard from him since he left last week.” She backed out of the parking space. “But I’m sure he’s missing the Lamborghini.”
* * *
Highway 5
Oceanside, California
“They’re gaining on us.” Dee’s voice was tense with excitement as she looked at the rearview mirror. “I think it’s that red Subaru who’s in the lead.” She tilted her head. “Though that Chrysler is pretty close.”
“You sound like you’re calling a horse race.” Jessie cast her an amused glance. “And enjoying every minute of it.”
“I always have fun with you.” Dee’s gaze was fixed on the vehicles careening around the curb behind them. “That green jeep took that turn on two wheels. He definitely has potential.”
“Potential to kill himself, maybe. Or someone else on the road.”
“Can you lose ’em before that happens?”
Jessie pulled the wheel hard right and spun onto Oceanside Boulevard. “We’ll see. By the way, are you going to tell me where you left your security detail this morning?”
“Not sure. They’re probably still at Thunder Road recording studios, wondering where in the hell I went.”
“You slipped out on them?”
“Maybe.” She looked away from Jessie. “They would have tried to stop me. The recording company pays them.”
“And you wonder why I quit as your security director.”
Dee grinned as she leaned back in her seat. “I wouldn’t have tried to slip out on you. Admit it, you’ve never had a more fun job.”
“I had more fun dodging gunfire in Afghanistan.”
“You miss me.”
“How can I miss you when you’re always hanging out at my office?”
“Not when I’m on tour. Are you sure you don’t want to come back?”
“Positive. Buckle your seat belt. It’s about to get hairy.”
Dee’s smile deepened as she pulled the belt across her chest. “Now that’s what I like to hear.”
Jessie punched the accelerator and sped toward the I-5 entrance ramp. As the paparazzi’s vehicles fell in line behind them, Jessie slowed to a crawl.
“What are you doing?” Dee asked.
“Waiting for that eighteen-wheeler to catch up to us.”
“Why?”
Jessie was still looking in her side-view mirror. “Gotta time it just right…”
The cargo truck pulled alongside them and most of the other photographers’ cars. Just as the lane turned right onto the I-5 northbound entrance ramp, Jessie gunned the engine, jumped the median, and swerved left in front of the truck. She sped down Oceanside Boulevard and checked the rearview. The paparazzi caravan, still blocked from the left by the eighteen-wheeler, could only continue onto the freeway.
“Well done, my friend.” Dee initiated a fist bump that Jessie didn’t return.
“There’s still a couple stragglers back there.” Jessie’s hands tightened on the wheel as she sped up and turned right onto South Coast Highway. “And the others will get off at the next exit and try to intercept us.”
Dee’s eyes were glittering with excitement. “Then let’s change cars.”
“How do you propose we do that?”
“We find someone to loan us theirs.”
“That’s your plan?”
“Yes. We’ll find someone, and I’ll strike the Summer on the Beach album pose.” Dee flipped back her hair, cocked her head to the side, and smiled in a perfect re-creation of her multi-platinum debut album cover. “I’ll offer ’em ten backstage passes, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll volunteer to show up at their daughter’s next birthday party.”
“That actually works?”
“Yes.” She was beaming. “For almost everything.”
“I’m really glad I don’t work for you anymore.”
Dee was ignoring her. “Slow down, I think I see a housewife getting into a Suburban.”
“I have my own plan, Dee. And it doesn’t involve a meet-and-greet at a kid’s birthday party.”
She frowned. “I’m not naming a song after someone.”
“Also not on the table. Hang on.” Jessie spun hard left into a restaurant parking lot and raced down a narrow driveway to the building’s rear side, where a deck overlooked the narrow beach.
Dee looked around. “So we’re just gonna hide back here? l like my plan better.”
“No. We are switching vehicles, but not in the way you think.” Jessie put the SUV in park and killed the ignition. “Let’s go.”
“Go where? Is someone meeting us? Did you send for an Uber?”
Jessie climbed out and slammed the door closed.
Dee scrambled out and joined her on the blacktop parking lot. “Come on, what’s the plan?”
Jessie motioned ahead, where a black fourteen-foot bowrider boat was partially beached on the sand.
Dee’s eyes lit up. “The Moon Shadow! What’s it doing here?”
“Saving your sorry ass from the paparazzi.”
“You brought it down here for me?”
“I came prepared.” She sighed. “You know, it’s almost as hard being your friend as it was being your employee.” They approached the sleek craft, which Jessie occasionally used for surveillance and tracking along the coast. “Let’s push this back and get out of here.”
Within five minutes, they were on the boat and speeding north on the waters past Camp Pendleton.
“We got away from them!” Dee collapsed back in her seat, her face wreathed in smiles. “For a minute, I thought they had us. What a way to go, Jessie!”
“I’m glad you approve,” Jessie said dryly. “Given how close we came to going off that cliff near the school. And those cars following us came even closer.”
“I knew you’d find a way to lose them.” She reached out and squeezed Jessie’s arm. “You’re one of the best stunt drivers in Hollywood. You’re
totally awesome behind the wheel. Remember, you let me watch you on the set a couple times when you were working as the head of my security.”
“That was a mistake,” Jessie said grimly. “I only did it because we were just getting to know each other, and I wanted you to have faith in my driving in case the situation called for it.”
“And this situation called for it,” she said with satisfaction. “So it wasn’t a mistake.”
“Except that I’m no longer heading your security team. And today you blew off the people who have that job. Not good, Dee.”
“You’re going to yell at me.” Her smile faded. “I thought you would. I deserve it. I’m a professional, and I knew I didn’t have any right to breach my security contract with my recording company. But I thought maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do it one more time before I became Delilah again.” She added coaxingly, “Give me a break. I’ll apologize to everyone. I’ve already told Kendra I’m sorry I put her on the spot by showing up at the school.” She made a face. “I really thought I could sneak past the paparazzi at the front gate.”
“They had it staked out because they knew you’d been there four times before.” Jessie frowned. “And you don’t have to apologize to me. You’re not that crazy sixteen-year-old kid I watched over any longer, Dee. You shouldn’t have to apologize to anyone. You’re grown up and you should have your own standards and abide by them.” She paused. “And usually I believe you do. I think this time you went off the rails a bit. Is everything okay with you?”
“Sure, fine.” She smiled brilliantly. “Why not? My last record went platinum.”
“Is everything okay with you?” Jessie repeated.
Dee glanced out the window. “I’ve missed you. You’re the only one I can really talk to, Jessie. I know you’re always busy. Hell, you were even on that job in Afghanistan for a while this year.” She went on quickly, “I’m not complaining. You’re right, I’m grown up and you don’t work for me any longer. But if I sent you tickets, would you come to my concert tomorrow night? I’m playing the Hollywood Bowl.”
