Drop Dead Gorgeous (21 page)

“My ex-husband, Lieutenant Trent, homicide. Joseph, this is Mr. Sean Black.”

Joseph Trent rose, reaching out to shake Sean’s hand. “Nice to meet you,” Sean said, and looked at Dr. Gillespie, frowning. “I kept my own name when I was married,” she explained. “I’d gone through medical school with it, and then, of course, Joe and I were divorced
…
he couldn’t live with
my
corpses.”

“She couldn’t live with
my
corpses,” Joseph Trent corrected.

“One would think you’d both be happy as larks, sharing corpses,” Sean suggested politely.

They both smiled, then Trent explained. “My dear angst-ridden ex-wife has been convinced for some time before this last murder that we had a serial killer on our hands, but it’s been difficult to get any real federal help when we’ve nothing but some old bones to go by and no real fear in the community.”

“Well, I think you’ve got some real fear going since the Metz killing,” Sean said.

They glanced at one another. “I admit,” Trent said, “I was scoffing at Kate’s suggestion that I didn’t know my business, but I understand you’ve worked with some real experts, that you studied with some of the finest professors, and have consulted the FBI in certain cases. At first, you see, I told Kate that she had too great a fondness for fiction. She was trying to create a mystery when we were quite busy enough in homicide already. So, you see, she dragged you in on this to prove that her opinions were right. Can you prove her right?”

“I can’t prove her opinion, but I do agree with it.”

“Now, Joseph,” Kate Gillespie said patiently, “you know as well as I do that for a killer to
have
gone so far over the edge, he must have
started
somewhere.”

“Usually,” Josep
h said firmly. He looked at Sean. “There was the case of that young female marine who was abducted while she was out jogging and horribly murdered and mutilated. Her killer turned out to be a married man, and to the best that anyone has managed to discover, he didn’t even beat his wife.”

“Few killers beat their wives—they kill other women,” Kate said with a sigh. “Please remind my husband—who has been through all kinds of behavioral classes!—that violence can be far more addictive than drugs or alcohol, and that the capacity for it can grow within the human psyche at a terrifying rate.”

“He doesn’t need to remind me, dear,” Joseph Trent said. He sighed. “I believe what you’re telling me, that—that among our other murders, and we do have other murders— we’ve had a specific sexual serial killer down here for several years now. A careful, organized killer.”

“But I think he’s growing less careful, more unhinged,” Kate said. “Don’t you think, Sean? Eleanor Metz’s body was found before it had decomposed.”

He hesitated, then agreed. “The fact that her body was so poorly hidden might be indicative of a carelessness
…
because he is either growing too confident in himself—or because
he was afraid of being caught in the act. But I would say, yes, as his confidence continues to grow, he’ll be more careless. And he’ll probably grow to need bigger thrills.”

“More killings, each more violent and
angry
,”
Gillespie said.

Joseph Trent rose. “Well, dear, we are on it. Honestly. But I still have to be careful; we don’t want a panic.” He started out the door, then paused, setting a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “Actually, I’d like to keep our discussion quiet. From everyone. Including your friend, my associate Detective Garcia.”

Sean frowned. “Ricky brought me in here.”

“Of course. But just tell him Kate is interested in helping you with research.” He glanced at his ex-wife. “He’ll buy that.” With a smile, he left them.

Gillespie smiled broadly at him and took a bottle of brandy from a desk drawer. She didn’t have glasses. She took a swig and handed it to him.

Politely, he took a swallow as well.

“There is someone evil out there,” she said firmly. “Thanks!”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

“For making you study more bones when you’ve got rich and famous as a writer?”

He grinned. “I still like old bones. But no—thanks for believing in me enough to want my opinion.”

She drank from the bottle again and handed it back.

“Still, you’re a lot richer. The brandy is on me. If I do prove my point and the cops get this guy, the champagne is on you. And it had best be good.”

“So we’re partners, huh?”

Gillespie arched a brow. “What does that mean?”

“I need a favor from you.”

“All right.”

“Come with me.”

“Are you taking me somewhere dark and dangerous and scary?”

“Dr. Gillespie, you are the M.E. at the morgue—just what do you consider spooky?”

She shrugged. “Dark, spider-webbed mansions in gothic novels, I suppose. But where are you taking me?”

“Just to my car, and just for a moment.” Intrigued, she came with him. He opened the passenger-side door, and she wrinkled her nose—the cat was already getting rank. He hadn’t realized he’d be at the morgue so long.

“You’re not driving around with a corpse, are you?”

“Cat corpse.”

“Oh?”

“I need a cause of death,” he told her.

She frowned, watching him. “I imagine you think you have your cause of death already.”

“Indulge me,” he told her.

She grinned, slipped on a thin pair of gloves from her pocket, and reached into the bag for the cat. She looked at him. “Neck snapped.”

“Could a car have done it?”

“No, a person did it.” She frowned, watching him. “I’m sorry to say it, but lots of people get angry and kill animals, especially stray cats. It’s terrible and they should all be arrested, but
…
where did you find this cat?”

“In a friend’s trash pile.”

“Probably has some nasty neighbors.”

“Maybe.”

“You think there’s more?”

“I think that maybe
…
I don’t know. Maybe I’m suffering from paranoia
…
”

“Maybe,” Gillespie said shrewdly, “you feel that you should keep a close eye on your friend?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“I’ll get rid of the cat for you,” Gillespie volunteered.

15

J
an’s party was a tremendous success from the minute it started.

Lori came early, having promised Jan that she would help setting up the food. Brad, too, arrived before the other guests and instructed the kids in setting up banquet tables on the patio while Lori and Jan made dips, cut veggies, and arranged pepperoni, salami, and trays of cheese.

Lori’s parents and Gramps arrived with the Jacksons and Hunts, all still friends involved with one another through their country club. Jan’s mom had made lasagna, Lori’s
mother
contributed a shepherd’s pie, and
Brad’s
mom, the daughter of a pastry chef, had
brought
fabulous desserts. Within a matter of minutes there was a fair amount of confusion in the kitchen and beyond. More of Tina’s friends from school came, Jeff Olin arrived, then Michael Black, then Andrew and Josh, Ricky, Ted, Sue, and finally, late, after their party had gotten going with kids racing in and out of the pool, squealing everywhere, Sean arrived.

He obviously hadn’t been prepared for Brendan and Tina spreading the word that
the
Michael Shayne would be there, but as he entered the patio and was nearly knocked over by the throng of teenagers, he quickly rebounded and handled the situation with humor and courtesy.

Lori watched him, torn. She could see the teenage girls forming instant crushes on him while they chatted. He smiled back, polite, talked, handed out autographs.

“I think I’m going to save him,” Jan said, watching. Their old group was sitting together at one of the plastic-covered banquet tables. The grown-ups had gravitated together, and the kids were all excitedly arranged around Sean.

“Why save him?” Brad demanded. “Let him bask in the adoration.”

“He can deal with it,” Michael said, a soft note of pride in his voice.

“He always was a hunk,” Sue said. “When you think back to what we did to him—” She
broke off, looking around, uneasy, because a number of the older parents who had jerked their children away from Sean after the scandal were present here tonight. Sue’s dad had died, and her mother had Alzheimer’s, but Ricky’s parents were there as well as Ted’s mother and the Jacksons, Hunts, and Kellys. And she was sitting across the table from Jeff Olin and next to Michael Black.

“We didn’t do anything to him,” Jeff said. He reached out and set a hand on top of Sue’s. “And it’s all right. I never thought that Sean had anything to do with it. He and Mandy had their problems, but they solved them like normal people.” He grinned. “They yelled a lot.”

“It’s still strange to realize that Mandy is really gone, much less Eleanor,” Michael said.

“I still miss her,” Jeff said. He lifted his bottle of Miller Lite. “Jan, thanks. This was a hell of an idea.”

“I still think we should save Sean,” Jan said.

“He doesn’t look like he needs saving to me,” Ricky commented. “Who is that cute little thing with the sexy curves? That girl can’t be thirteen, is she, Jan?”

“You’d better not be talking about my daughter,” Brad growled.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I know your daughter.”

“That’s Jennie Larson, and no, she’s my neighbor’s daughter, ahead of Tina in school. She’s sixteen,” Jan told him.

“She thinks she’s twenty,” Sue said.

“Sour grapes?” Josh teased.

“No, she just knows that she’s attractive, and she’s experimenting,” Lori said, smiling.

“Ah
…
so you were out to torment older men in your younger days as well!” Ricky accused her.

She shook her head, laughing. “No, I thought that thirty-somethings were decaying when I was that young. I was out to torment kids my own age.”

“Honesty!” Jeff applauded.

“Well, I’ll tell you. That little cutie is one hot ticket,” Ted commented.

“Well, didn’t we all think we were something back then?” Andrew asked.

Josh laughed. “We were. We were the ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ of our high school.”

Sean was managing to extract himself from the throng of kids. A couple of the girls raced by the table with Tina. “Oh! Isn’t he just gorgeous!” one of them said.

“Drop dead gorgeous!” the other agreed.

“Oh, God,” Sue said softly. She looked around at them all, her eyes wide. “Ellie used to call guys that. When she met someone sh
e really liked…
”

Big tears started to form in her eyes. “Sue!” Jan wailed.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it.”

“Look at those girls over there! All talking away, spilling everything! Females will just talk, talk, talk!” Michael said, trying to distract Sue.

It worked. Sue looked. She turned back,
grinning. “Well, at least when we age, we wrinkle, but we do learn a little discretion.”

“Discretion has its place,” Josh Kelly said sagely. Then he grinned at Sean as he finally joined the group. “Hail the conquering hero! Want a beer, you
hunk
you
?”

Sean laughed, joining them at the table, accepting the beer. “It still throws me.”

“You’re surprised that people get all excited that you’ve written a book?”

He shook his head, grinned, swigged the beer. “No, no one got excited when I had just written a book. I wound up in
People
because of a movie deal. Millions of people see a movie, and I assure you, it’s seldom that millions of people read a book, any book. I worked for a long time, wrote for a long time. Nobody noticed—then I had an offer for the big screen. The movie deals did it. Now people think that I actually have something to do with the movies.”

“What a pity. Women throwing themselves all over you!” Jeff moaned, clapping him on the back.

“It can be,” Sean informed him. “You haven’t seen some of the women. They can be downright terrifying.”

“Oh, hardy-har!” Jan told him. “But you know what? Come to think of it, I don’t have an autographed book. I need one. How will I ever prove that you’re a friend when I’m throwing around names to sell real estate if I don’t even have an autograph?”

“Well, Jan, I think I can manage an auto
graph for you,”
he teased back.
“I
mean, if
you really
think
it will sell more real estate…
”

“Hey,
excuse me,” Lori said, rising quickly. “It looks as if my folks are leaving.”

“How late is it? My neighbors are coming for their kids.”

“Elevenish,” Jeff supplied. “Hey, maybe we should all get out of your hair—”

“Don’t even think it! Let’s let the old folks and the young ones go home, and then we can talk, just us, the old crowd. Don’t one of you move!”

“I have to move, have to say good-bye to the folks, and Gramps,” Andrew said, joining Lori.

“Let’s all say good-bye and all sit back down,” Ricky suggested.

They did. It was a long leave-taking, everyone kissing and hugging everyone else.

Lori’s mother offered Sean a rueful smile. Lori watched tensely, glad to see that Sean kissed her cheek and answered something she was saying, smiling.

She hugged Gramps tightly. “I’ll be talking to you!” he told her firmly.

She pulled back. He sounded angry. He
was
never angry with her.

“I watch, you know. I watch—and I know!”
But
he wasn’t going to say more then. He was upset, but he loved her, and he hugged her again before saying good-bye to his grandsons. Puzzled, she watched him, but his stern expression gave nothing away. She grew more
worried, wondering if the cancer treatments weren’t affecting his mind.

Brendan, worn-out, decided to go home with his gran
dparents for the night, delight
ing Lori’s mother and father. She promised to pick him up early, but he told her to sleep late—he planned to do so himself.

Lori waved until they were gone. Tina kissed her a
nd her parents good night, smil
ing to the others.

When the front door finally closed, Jan sighed. “D
own to just us! Wow, I’m worn
out! Brad, would you get me one of those wine cooler things?”

“Yep. Anyone else? Call out your orders, now or never.”

Ricky and Josh opted to help Brad with drinks, and in a matter of minutes they were all grouped around the patio together, Jan stretched out with Brad on a lounge chair, Sue on the ground at their feet, Ricky, in shorts, with his feet in the pool, Michael flat on the patio, Josh, Jeff, and Sean on chairs, Ted and Andrew seated Indian fashion between the loungers, Lori near her brother.

“To Jan, to a great party,” Brad said, lifting his beer. “And hell, to us—survivors!”

Lori didn’t think that Brad had meant that too literally, but Sue suddenly let out a soft sob.

“Ah, Sue
…
sorry,” Brad mumbled.

“It’s just we’re here, all together, while Ellie
…
while poor Ellie
…
”

“Sue, it’s all right. We all miss her,” Jeff said.

“And Mandy, too,” she whispered.

Lori involuntarily looked at Sean, painfully aware that all of them did the same. Sean rose and came over to Sue. “Sue, I didn’t kill Mandy.”

“I know you didn’t,” she whisper
ed miserably. “It’s just that…
we were all so bad to you!”

“It’s all right, Sue. Honest. A lot of time has gone by. I’m okay.”

She smiled, then inhaled on a shaky sob again. “If Ellie hadn’t been killed, maybe none of us would be here. I know that you all hadn’t really seen much of her. She was really so sweet, just looking for something right, you know?”

“We know, Sue. And it’s true, I hadn’t seen Ellie in a very long time, so I can’t feel what you’re feeling. I can’t really mourn her
the way th
at you’re doing, the rest of us…
I
think that in a way, we mourn the girl we knew. We mourn a terrible loss of innocence, but then again, we all lost our innocence so long ago that I’m not sure that’s exactly right, either. We do hurt, though, Sue. But if I remember Ellie, she’d be glad that she brought the rest of us together.”

She finally smiled. She touched his cheek.
“You
came out all right, bad boy from the wrong side
of
the tracks.”

“Well,
excuse me!” Michael protested. “He gets his name in lights, while I just plod away trying
to save
humanity, and he gets all the accolades!”

“Ah, Michael, it’s all right. None of the
rest of us is rich and
famous
in any way. You’ve got to be careful of sounding jealous,” Jeff warned.

“He’s not jealous. That’s just the Miller Lite talking,” Sean teased. “You came out all right, big brother.”

“We all came out pretty much all right, I think,” Sue said. “Well, okay, let’s see, Brad is a wealthy attorney, which we all expected.”

“Ditto here, if I may say so immodestly,” Jeff volunteered.

“Jeff, we expected no less,” Josh Kelly said with mock severity.

“Jan, whom we didn’t really expect to be anything but a pretty fluff ball on the PTA, is in the Million Dollar Club for real estate brokers,” Brad said. He ended his sentence with something of a yelp as Jan slammed an elbow into his rib cage.

“Fluff ball, indeed!” she exclaimed indignantly. Then she shrugged. “And Sue’s our entrepreneur. Lori teaches and takes the fashion world by storm. Ricky—”

“Ricky we always expected to be a cop, a macho man with a billy club bravado!” Brad said.

“Yuk, yuk!” Ricky said.

“Homicide. That’s pretty serious stuff. Ted, as a non-homicide cop, what do you do when you see a body?” Jeff asked.

“When I see a body?” Ted repeated. “Hmm. Now, what should I do, or what would I do?”

“Both,” Sue said.

“Well, protocol says that I ascertain if the
body is a dead body, and radio in medical assistance or a homicide unit or both while I rope off the crime scene with yellow tape, see that no evidence is disturbed, et cetera, et cetera. I call in backup to assist me with crowd control, and I stand ready to report to homicide exactly what I found, saw, and so forth. Then I turn it all over to them, with two tons of messy paperwork, and wish to God I hadn’t been first on the scene. I probably have to show up in cou
rt, and it’s really nasty. So…
in truth, if I found a body, I’d probably run like hell in the other direction and let the next guy on duty deal with it.”

“Ted! You wouldn’t!” Lori said.

He shrugged. “I probably wouldn’t. But bodies are Ricky’s bag. I like working with the community.”

“Oh, yeah. Stopping the rich girls in their red Jaguars and blue Porches!” Ricky accused.

“You both seem happy enough with your work, and that’s what’s important,” Jeff said.