by M. Z. Kelly
“Griselda’s curse is workin’,” Natalie said, explaining what Nana had just told them. “Wilhelmina broke out in hives and looks like a warthog.”
Nana rubbed her hands together. “I’ll bet she gives up contesting the will, and I’ll be free to spend my millions any way that I want.”
“In a way, it’s too bad,” Krump said, flexing his puny arms. “I wanted to kick Wilhelmina’s lawyer’s butt around the courtroom.”
Nana took a step closer and fixed her eyes on me. She then turned to my friends and said, “Hollywood, I think we’ve got a problem.”
Mo also came over to me. “Did you get in some kinda scuffle today?”
“No. What’s the matter?”
“It’s your face,” Krump said, now also eyeballing me. “You sure you weren’t punched?”
Natalie came over, also examining me. “It kinda looks like a barnacle or somethin’.”
“It’s a spill-over from the curse,” Nana said, lowering her voice and backing away from me. “Kate’s got a giant wart on the end of her nose.”
I was suddenly in a state of panic, telling Natalie, “I need a mirror.” She went over and got her compact case out of her purse, handing it to me. “Just take a quick look, so you won’t throw up or pass out.”
I took a look in the mirror and almost fainted. There was something on my nose, I just wasn’t sure what is was. “What in the hell?”
“It looks kinda like a mini-volcano,” Krump said.
“Or a tumor,” Natalie opined.
“I think it’s just a giant pimple,” Mo said. “I had one like that once. It throbbed like I had an alien stuck inside me, struggling to get out.”
“You’re a goner,” Nana said. She was now giving me a wide berth. “I’ll bet by morning, your nose explodes. You probably won’t be able to show your face in public for years.”
Krump went over and got his leather jacket. “I think I need to be going. I’ve got an early hearing tomorrow.”
“Me too,” Nana said, putting a hand over her mouth, trying not to breath the same air as me. She turned to my friends, lowering her voice. “Maybe you should call public health, see about having the area quarantined. She might have contracted something that’s alien, maybe from a passing asteroid. She probably needs to be relocated to some kind of colony.”
Krump agreed with her as he got to the door. “I think she should just buy a condo in Area 51, live with the rest of her kind.”
After they were gone, I checked myself in the mirror again. I then turned to my friends. “Is it really that bad?”
Mo, who tonight had on a blue wig, turned to Natalie. Her brow looked like river channels on an alien planet, or maybe the asteroid that had infected me. She sucked in a breath and released it slowly, looking back at me. “You’ll be okay. I think it’s just…maybe some kind of an infection. It could be a virus.”
“A virus?”
“I think it’s probably just a growth,” Natalie said. “There’s probably a medical name for what you got, like Nosasaurus or somethin’. You’ll pull through. Probably.”
I slumped down on their sofa, feeling like a cursed leper that was suffering from terminal depression.
“What’s the matter?” Mo asked, taking a step closer to me, but still keeping some distance.
“It’s Noah…” I broke down, unable to go on as my tears came in waves.
“Maybe it’s one of the symptoms of Nosasaurus,” Natalie said to Mo. “You throw a fit and cry like a girl.”
It took me half an hour, but through stops and starts, I finally managed to tell them what Molly had found out. “He not only lied about his military service and how he lost his leg, he’s a member of the Tauists, probably sent by Russell and Ryland to find out what I know.”
“You mean everything he told you was a big lie?” Natalie said.
“All of it. The officer who arrested him after the DUI also suspects he had it in for the driver of the other car and might have killed him.”
Mo’s features turned to granite and fire shot out of her ears and nose, well, maybe not literally, but if anyone ever looked like they were breathing fire, it was my large friend. “I got a plan of action. That big lying coward is goin’ down.”
“Let’s hear it,” Natalie said. “I can probably get me hands on some explosives and a few poisons, if we need them.”
I shook my head. “You can’t do anything like that.” I looked at Mo. “What do you have in mind?”
“Baby sis and me are gonna infiltrate the Tauists, get to the bottom of the scum suckers once and for all.”
“You can’t do that. Noah knows you both. You’d be found out in about five minutes.”
“We’re gonna get us an agent provocator.”
“You mean like a spy?” Natalie said.
“I think she means an agent provocateur,” I said. “It’s somebody who goes undercover and convinces somebody to commit an illegal act.”
Mo explained her ridiculous plan of action. “We’re gonna get somebody to infiltrate them Tauists and convince Russell and Ryland to whack Kate.”
“Then we get the coppers to sweep in and arrest them at the last second before Kate gets the axe,” Natalie said, agreeing to the proposal.
“No, no, no,” I said, feeling both my head and my nose throbbing. “Don’t even think about what you just said. It will never work and it could put me in serious danger.”
Mo put her hands on her wide hips and regarded me. “What you think you’re already in? At some point them two nut jobs is gonna get tired of just havin’ someone like Noah follow you around and they’re gonna take action.”
I exhaled and dragged a hand through my hair. Bernie must have sensed my despair. He came over and licked me. “If Pearl doesn’t turn up soon, I think I’m going to have to take everything back up the chain to the brass. Maybe they’ll reopen the investigation and look into what’s going on with Russell and Ryland.”
“In case you’re forgettin’, you already went to the brass once,” Mo said. Her dark eyes fixed on me, or maybe she was just looking at the wart on the end of my nose. She sighed. “If you won’t go the provocator route, what do you think ‘bout me and baby sis just followin’ Noah around?” I started to protest, but she cut me off. “You forget, we’re trained investigators. I promise we’ll keep our distance and just watch what he does.”
Natalie came over to me. “We can do this, Kate. Please let us help.”
Maybe it was because I was tired or depressed or suffering from some kind of horrible virus, but I said, “Okay, but promise me you won’t talk to anyone about any of this—and you’ll keep your distance from Noah and the rest of the Tauists.”
I got a pinky swear, then stood up, and put Bernie on his leash. “I’m going home and…try to do something about my wart.”
As I was leaving, I heard them calling out, each of them offering their advice.
“It’s probably just a big zit,” Natalie said. “Try poppin’ it with a giant needle.”
Mo had another idea. “Why don’t you try some antibiotics, before the infection takes over your entire body like some kinda flesh eating bacteria.”
Natalie giggled as I closed the door and I heard her say to Mo, “If she croaks, maybe she should donate her body to science, so the rest of us won’t come down with what she’s got.”
THIRTY-ONE
I had a restless night, maybe because of what I’d learned about Noah, and I was worried about my nose. I woke up a little before six and went straight into the bathroom. When I turned on the light, I almost passed out.
“Oh, my God. I think it’s worse!”
Bernie came over and looked up at me, whining. It was probably dog-speak for, “You’ve been cursed.”
I took a hot shower and used a washcloth on my nose to try and reduce the swelling. I then used a ton of makeup and decided it wasn’t so bad, until I took Bernie next door to stay with Natalie for the day.
“What do you t
hink of my nose?” I asked her, after handing over Bernie’s leash.
She went cross-eyed, focusing in on my nose. “You used makeup, didn’t you?”
“Just a little,” I lied.
She turned to Mo. “It looks like a wart dipped in pancake batter.”
Mo made a tsking sound, fixed one eye on me, then said, “Whatever you got, it’s probably just gonna have to run its course.”
I decided to try and put both Noah and my nose out of my mind and concentrate on work when I got to the station. I found Leo at his desk and tentatively said hello, wondering if he’d notice my wart…or whatever the hell it was.
He looked up at me. Maybe it was my imagination, but he seemed to fix his eyes on my nose for a moment, before saying, “Edna wants an update on the Abrams case in five.”
I exhaled, grateful that he hadn’t noticed my condition. “Did the warrant come through on Addison Blaine’s car?”
He nodded. “Darby and Buck got in early, so they went downtown to do the search.”
We heard some voices in the hallway. I looked over and saw Charlie. He’d been working with a detective named Hal Roland and they were exchanging words. My former partner threw his hands up in the air and stomped off.
“Wonder what that’s all about?” Leo said.
I exhaled. “Not sure, but I better go check on him. His emotional state isn’t good, since he’s supposed to marry Jessica.”
“He’s really going through with that?”
I nodded. “Unless you want to loan him twenty grand to pay off his gambling debts.”
Leo chuckled. “I always thought those two made a cute couple.”
I stood up. “Yeah, kind of like a nightmare version of Brad and Angelina.”
I found my partner in the breakroom, slumped down at a table, drinking coffee and eating a donut.
I took a seat and said, “Problems with you and Roland?”
His bloodshot eyes found me. “He’s just always wanting to do things by the book. You know me, I’m old school.”
“Meaning?”
“I just wanted to do a little leaning on a witness.”
I knew that Charlie’s leaning probably involved him asking Roland to turn his back while he used some physical persuasion. I decided to change the subject. “How are the wedding preparations coming?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. Jessica’s in charge of everything.”
“Natalie and Mo told me it’s going to be in the forecourt of the Chinese theatre.”
“Yeah.” He slurped his coffee, then added, “I think Jessica’s got some crazy idea about us putting our hands and feet in a block of cement and keeping it as a souvenir.”
I chuckled. “It sounds romantic, if not a little messy.”
His rheumy eyes fixed on me for a moment. I was afraid he was going to say something about my nose, but he said, “I need a favor.”
“If this is about money…”
He shook his head. “I need a best man…or in this case a best woman. Would you do the honors?”
I was touched, but also wary. “You know that Jessica and I have a lot of history. I’m not sure how that would go over.”
“You let me worry about it. You’re my best friend, Kate. If I gotta marry the shre…her, I want you beside me.”
I felt a profound sadness for him. “Charlie, are you sure there’s no other way?”
He exhaled. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
I patted his hand and stood up, then glanced over, seeing that Leo was in the hallway. “I’ll be there.”
As it turned out, Edna had left word that we were all supposed to meet at Acting Chief Dunbar’s office to update him on the Abrams case. Forty-five minutes later, Leo and I met up with the lieutenant outside the AC’s sixth floor office.
“This is the Dumbbell and Dumbo show,” Edna said, lowering his voice. “Dembowski told me that Jerry Abrams, our vic’s father, is a big supporter of Dunbar’s and the big dog wants results. We need to make it sound like an arrest is imminent.”
“But that’s not true,” I said. “We need to go back to Paulina Kristoff and try to get more information.”
Edna waved to Commander Miles of the Media Relations Section and Mel Peters, who were coming down the hallway. “Just play things close to the vest. It looks like MRS has also been invited to the party.”
The meeting began with Acting Chief Dunbar making it clear that he expected an arrest. “I need Section One to earn their pay and clear this case before the day’s out. There’s a lot riding on the results.” He fixed his gray eyes on me. “What’s the latest?”
I took a moment and filled him in on what we knew, including finding Abrams shot to death in his living room, his girlfriend Addison Blaine apparently sleeping through everything, and the victim’s relationship with Paulina Kristoff. I then added, “From what she told us, Kristoff was hired by Blaine to take care of the victim’s physical and emotional needs. She’s sort of a high-priced escort from a business her mother owns, called the House of Darwin. We need to go back to her today and try to get some more information.”
“So, you’re telling me that Abrams had a secret room with a whore hiding inside,” Dunbar said, brushing a hand through hair that looked like steel wool.
Edna tried to take the edge off things. “I think it was more of a safe room and the Kristoff woman was one of his employees.”
“Except she was apparently hired by the victim,” Leo said. “According to Abrams’ assistant, Jimmy Dietz, Blaine had grown tired of Abrams’ sexual demands, so she hired Kristoff to take care of things. Dietz said he was sworn to secrecy about the whole thing, so he didn’t tell us about it when we initially questioned him.”
“Goddamn it,” Dunbar said, looking at Captain Dembowski, Commander Miles, and Mel Peters. “If word gets back to his father about any of this, or, God forbid, the media, there will be hell to pay.”
“I’m sure we can keep the information confidential,” Miles assured Dunbar. “We’ll just release the bare minimum in the way of details to the press.”
Dunbar looked back at Edna, Leo, and me. “Be sure you keep your mouths shut about this.” His eyes fixed on me. “I don’t want the information being compromised, like in the past.”
It felt like he was making a personal attack on me, so I was compelled to defend myself. “No one has compromised any information in the past. The press works their confidential sources, and rumor has it some of those sources are in this building.”
Dunbar looked at Miles. “If there’s a leak in this department, I want to know about it.”
Miles took a moment, defending her staff before Peters spoke up. “I know for a fact, having worked Section One, that there’s lots of gossip and sharing of information that’s not appropriate.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
Peters didn’t look at me. “Detective Sexton’s friends are sometimes given information that is confidential.”
A heated exchanged broke out between Peters and me as Dunbar’s intercom sounded. While he answered the phone, I told Peters, “I won’t sit here and listen to lies that I compromised any investigation. MRS needs to look at their own staff before impugning my integrity.”
Peters started to respond, when Dunbar ended the call and broke up the conversation. “None of this matters now.” He looked at me. “I want you to go arrest Addison Blaine for the murder of Cole Abrams.”
“But we don’t have any basis…”
Dunbar cut me off. “The fact that your fellow detectives just found the murder weapon in Blaine’s car is all the basis you need.”
THIRTY-TWO
We learned from Paulina Kristoff that Addison Blaine owned a residence in an exclusive enclave of homes, where she spent her time when she wasn’t with Cole Abrams. Buck and I met up with Darby and Leo on the street down the block from the sprawling Spanish style estate in East Gate Bel Air to make the arrest.
“I guess we know how Blaine was spending part o
f Abrams’ money,” Darby said. “I heard the Reagans lived in this neighborhood at one time.”
“Along with a few dozen celebs,” Leo agreed.
“I wouldn’t mind hanging my hat here,” Buck said, his gaze wandering over the grounds.
“You’d need about twenty million to go with the hat rack,” I said, smiling at him.
The only good thing about my already rotten day was that the swelling in my nose seemed to have gone down. So far, no one had claimed I had an alien virus or needed to be relocated to an alien colony.
We were walking up the pathway to Blaine’s front door when a garage door went up and a Mercedes came roaring down the driveway. We ran back to our cars as Buck said, “Somebody must have tipped her off.”
We got in our cars and followed Blaine through the neighborhood, with Darby and Pearl behind us, before she turned off on Sunset and headed west. I heard the dull roar of rotor blades above us and told Buck what was happening. “The press is overhead. Somebody must have told them we planned to make the arrest and tipped off Blaine.”
Our suspect continued to travel at a high rate of speed through the city, moving in and out of traffic, before she got on the freeway.
“Where do you supposed she’s headed?” Buck asked as we followed her, with Darby and Leo still behind us.
“Not sure, but if I were…” We saw Blaine’s car swerve and leave the freeway at the last second. We followed her, and I realized we were close to downtown Los Angeles now, in an area with lots of high rise buildings and corporate offices. I said, “Maybe her attorney’s office is down here, and she thinks he can keep her out of jail.”
“That’s not gonna…” We saw Blaine’s car make a sudden move as she turned into a parking garage. An electronic gate came down as we tried to follow. Buck had to slam on his brakes at the last second to keep from hitting it. When we were stopped, he looked at me and said, “Any idea where she went?”
I’d seen the sign on the building that was adjacent to the parking garage. “Don’t ask me why, but I think Addison Blaine just led us on a high speed chase to a TV station.”