Shadows of Doubt (15 page)

Caroline stepped out of the closet wearing a triumphant look on her face. “Tada!” She said as she did a little twirl. “How’s this look?” She had finally settled on distressed black jeans tucked into tall black leather boots that reached just below her knee, and a gray chenille tunic.

“Well that looks adorable! Perfect for casual Friday on a rainy day.” Shevaun complimented Caroline’s ensemble. “Are those Lou’s jeans? I can’t believe they’re not too short on you, and that top too.”

Lou scowled at her mother. “That top is a sweater-dress on me. I usually wear it with tights and those boots, which go over my knees!”

Caroline snickered. “Yeah and these jeans are like pedal pushers on me. Without the boots you’d see they only hit me mid calf. But it works!”

Shevaun laughed but tried not to. “Oh honey, she’s more than six inches taller than you and I so don’t feel bad. At least we can call her a bitch to her face!”

They all laughed as Lou took her turn in the closet. She tossed on some boots, jeans and a sweater herself, then the three women sat and enjoyed their morning coffee together. One would think three women would be talking about the latest fashion or gossiping about someone or another, but not these three. Janine Winslow and how she came to be bloodless and legless on those railroad tracks was the topic of their conversation.

The three agreed that it had been premeditated, not a spur of the moment snatch and grab. No robbery since her purse was found in the abandoned car untouched. All three of them felt that the killer knew her or at least enough of her routine. Grabbing her when she came out of the market was the perfect window of opportunity. It was what they didn’t know that was the big issue. Her body hadn’t been on those tracks for very long, which meant that she had been dumped there three days after her abduction.

“You know what this means then, right?” Caroline’s eyes were as big as saucers.

Lou nodded, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “It means if this is one guy, he took Winslow within twenty-four hours of dumping Talbott.”

“Holy marigolds, and you don’t think LAPD has a clue the two are connected?” Lou’s mother broke off another piece of scone.

“Not as of the time I left Mission last night.” Caroline stated as she tied her platinum mane in a tight knot at the nape of her neck. “When the Chief came in and had me pass off Winslow to Carpesh, I told him about the anomalies and the keratin and he said he would follow up on them, but I could tell he was basically slotting it the same way your captain did.” Caroline got up from her chair and began to gather her things.

“Damn, I wish there were a way to get those samples re-tested.” Lou looked at the time to gauge if she had enough of it to indulge in one more scone.

“Oh darlin’!” Caroline spun around and looked at Lou with that beaming Georgia Peach smile. “I plan on just that! I stuffed my own samples in a drawer and am having them sent to a buddy of mine over at Quantico.”

Lou nearly choked on the bite of scone she had just taken. “Why didn’t you tell me that last night when we were plotting with Vinny?” She said through coughs.

“I didn’t? Well I was focusing on the fact that we have no hand in any official part of the investigations anymore. If my friend gets anything off my samples, I have no idea how I’m going to inject myself officially without getting my ass handed to me for going off the reservation. Its a sticky situation we’re in here.” Caroline leaned over and kissed Lou’s mother on the cheek. “Thank you so much for everything. Those scones were dreamy.”

“You know its always a pleasure to have you here, Caroline.” Shevaun’s cell phone beeped with an incoming message. “Oh dear, I need to get over to the Goulds. Joe needs me to sign some papers on the new neighbors and they can’t wait until he gets back up the hill. I’ll walk out with you, Caroline.”

“Give me a kiss goodbye now, Momma. I’ll be gone by the time you get back. Hey tall bitch, you coming back here after work?” Lou got up and kissed her mother before she could bolt out the door.

Caroline laughed at Lou. “Yeah I’ll bring Chinese from that great place we love. Make sure there’s cake.” She waved as she and Lou’s mother headed out the door.

It seemed that for the first time since Lou woke up it was quiet. As she walked over to her balcony doors, she wasn’t sure if she liked it better this way or not. There was something very comforting in the hustle and bustle of a busy morning that seemed to take the edge off knowing the coming workday was going to suck. She stared out into the gloomy morning and was surprised the skies hadn’t started dumping more rain already. The one consolation with so much rain was that the meadow would be blooming crazy with flowers come spring. Lou had a spectacular view of the meadow that spread wide and deep all the way to the hillside. A pang of sadness hit her as she realized the new neighbor would be trashing her meadow. Soon she would be looking at some hideous house in the distance. He would probably even tear out her giant oaks that she loved. Damn, she was thoroughly depressed now.

The sound of clanking cups startled Lou from her brooding and she spun around to see Marta, their housekeeper, collecting the tray that Lou’s mother had brought in.

“Oh!” Marta shouted, obviously as startled by Lou as Lou was of her. “I am so sorry, Miss Lou, I didn’t see you in here! Please forgive me!”

“Don’t be silly Marta, I’m sorry for scaring you. I can bring that down.” Lou started to help the woman stack the cups and plates onto the tray.

“No no, I have this, but thank you very much.” The plump and cheery Portuguese woman smiled brightly at Lou. Her hair was pulled back into a pompom of a ponytail and she was dressed in her usual white smock over black pants and impossibly white tennis shoes. While the McAllisters had no requirement that Marta wear any sort of uniform, the woman had said that it made her feel more official to wear something appropriately professional. She was a darling woman that had been working for Joe since before Lou and her mother had come along. She was family and Lou cared for her very much. “You need to go and catch bad guys and leave these things to me.” Marta gave her a wink, then hoisted the tray up and headed out of the room.

Noticing the time, Lou decided she had better get downstairs and wait for Vinny there. She grabbed her gun, badge, cell phone and other essentials and tossed a coat over her shoulder, then headed down. When she hit the foyer the doorbell rang and Lou was certain Vinny was going to bitch that he had to get out of the car to ring the bell. She yelled to Marta that she had the door and ran before he could ring again. To Lou’s surprise, the person standing on the step was not Vinny at all but some woman who amazingly enough she stood eye to eye with. Lou noted right off that she was lovely and impeccably dressed with a decidedly sassy style. Lou would have liked to steal the woman’s flame red coat but it would be a shame since it matched the woman’s hair so perfectly.

“Can I help you?” Lou asked the woman.

“Hello! I am looking for Shevaun McAllister. Would that be you?” She beamed at Lou.

“No, I’m her daughter. She’s not here at the moment. Can I help you with something? Miss...?” It was definitely a questioning tone that begged for an answer.

The woman shuffled some cardboard tubes under her arm then quickly peeled off a glove which was the same flame color as the coat and her hair. “Where are my manners? I’m Abigail La Rue.” She offered her hand to Lou and Lou accepted it with a certain hesitation. “I was sent to have the architectural committee sign off on these plans. For your new neighbor?”

“Oh, well, crap...” realization dawned on Lou. “You know what, come on in. I think there was some mix-up because she just left for the Goulds apparently to meet you. Let me call over there and get her back. Please, come in!” Lou waved the woman inside, then bolted for the phone. “Make yourself comfortable, can I offer you some coffee or tea?”

Abigail smiled brightly. “Oh no, thank you, I’m great. I am so sorry for the mix-up.”

“No worries, give me just a sec to call her.” Lou began dialing as the red-head took a seat.

Abby knew Max would be livid when everything came out but she couldn’t resist getting her eyes on the woman who had sent her and Frank into an actual, real Code Pink. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, and she would never admit out loud to anyone that she was hoping not to like her. But there was something about this Lou person that Abby instantly liked, and it made her very happy. She sat quietly and folded her gloves while she listened to Lou tell her mother that she had someone waiting for her. Glancing around the McAllister foyer, she could see that tastes ran similar between them and Max. That was going to be convenient. When Lou came back into the room, Abby stood up and resumed smiling.

“Apparently you just missed each other. She’s heading back now so it should only be a few minutes.” Lou gestured towards the sitting room off to the left of the Foyer. “Why don’t we wait over here. Any chance I could get a peek at those plans? Since I’m going to be staring at it every day, it only seems fair.” She grinned.

Abby grinned back. “I don’t see what the harm would be. Are you excited for new neighbors?” She decided to do a little fishing while she had the chance.

Lou sighed. “I probably will get in trouble for saying this but I was just thinking about it while I was upstairs staring out my windows. It’s actually rather depressing!”

Abby blinked. That was not what she had been expecting to hear. “Why is it depressing? I won’t let on you told me, I promise.” She lied. If it served Abby’s purposes she would tell anyone she needed.

“Well...” Lou hesitated for a moment but felt compelled to tell this woman the truth. “I love the natural state of things up here. That meadow in the spring is just amazing with wildflowers. Once someone builds there, they are going to grade it and landscape the crap out of it and it’s no longer nature, it’s just someone’s yard.” She shrugged and waited for the woman to laugh at her.

“Can I let you in on a little secret?” Abby leaned toward Lou with a glimmer in her eye and passed her business card to her. “I’m responsible for the landscaping plans so you tell me what you want to see and I’ll make sure it makes the plan.”

Lou looked at this Abigail LaRue and couldn’t help but smile. “How the hell are you going to talk this guy into just accepting what you put in the plan? He has to have ideas for his own yard.”

Abby just kept smiling as she unrolled the structural plans. “Lets just say I have significant pull in the aesthetics. Right now his plate is very full, so he is trusting me with a good chunk of the project.”

Lou looked at the plans and really wanted to hate everything about them, but she just couldn’t. It was just like her mother had said. The actual structures were going off and to the back with the majority of the land left undeveloped. In fact, when she looked at the orientation of the main house, Lou would only be able to see a third of the actual house at most.

“Are you leaving the oaks alone?” Lou looked at Abby pleadingly.

“You want him to? What about a good trim now and then, that okay?” Abby was moved by the depth of Lou’s appreciation for the trees and land in their natural state. She was not what Abby had expected for an L.A. girl, or a detective.

“Oh, that would be so awesome! I know it sounds strange but I am pretty possessive of the area up here, including the animals. I grew up in Galveston and got a healthy respect for Mother Nature and her creatures at a young age. I was a self proclaimed ‘warrior protector of the sea turtles’ when I was eight years old.” Lou laughed at herself, not even remotely sure why she was spilling her guts to this stranger. “Here it’s the ground squirrels, bunnies, frogs, bobcats, skunks, basically any four legged or feathered creature.”

Just at that moment Lou’s cat decided it was the perfect time to introduce himself by jumping up on Abby’s lap.

“Well hello there!” Abby greeted the friendly feline.

“Angus! That is so rude!” Lou reached for the cat but Abby instantly wrapped her arms around the black ball of fur and snuggled him.

“No! I love him!” She cooed and the cat started to purr in kind. “Oh isn’t he just the sweetest baby!”

Lou had never met anyone who showed no shame in their love of an animal the same way her mother and she did. Seeing this woman adore her cat as if it were her own struck such a hard chord inside of Lou that it was all she could do not to hug them both and cry. Lou was a hard-ass without question the majority of the time, but when it came to her cat or any of her adopted animals, she was as mushy as mush got. “Wow, he loves you. Now you’re screwed.”

Abby looked at Lou suspiciously. “Why am I screwed?”

”Because you’re going to have to come back and visit him or he’s going to drive me crazy with his whining.” Lou gave Abby a sincerely warm smile and she knew at once they were going to be friends for a very long, long time. Max was definitely keeping her whether he knew it yet or not.

Shevaun came into the room and stopped dead in her tracks to see Angus being groped and snuggled by some strange woman and her daughter not ripping the woman’s head off for it. Whoever this woman was, Shevaun liked her already.

“Well isn’t this cozy.” Lou’s mother spoke with laughter in her words. “You must be Abigail. I am so sorry for the mix-up. I would offer my hand but I think Angus might bite me if I make you stop snuggling him.”

Abby laughed and gave the cat one more smooch then shifted him to Lou’s lap despite the protests. “Its a pleasure to meet you Mrs. McAllister.” Abby offered her now free hand to Shevaun. “Please, it’s me who should apologize. I must have misunderstood the instructions. But I have to admit I am glad. It gave me the opportunity to meet your lovely daughter and her precious cat.”