Blue Goodness (Michael Kaplan Mysteries)

by David W. Cowles

  “There’s a logical explanation why Michael was showering at my house that evening. I know what happened, but it isn’t my place to tell you. That’s for him to disclose if and when he wants to. That time may never come. Your lack of faith really crushed him.

  “As far as the brunette is concerned, you’re completely wrong there, too. There is no brunette. The woman you saw having dinner with Michael was the carrot-topped real estate agent wearing a black wig. Soozie Snyder. Michael met her when he was looking at houses. If you recall, he was planning to buy a new home so the two of you could have a place to raise a family. Then, Soozie alerted him to a news story, and he’s seen her a few times afterwards because of that. He doesn’t much care for the woman, but things can change. She’s been on the make for Michael ever since they met.

  “Soozie is your real competition, Myra. She wants Michael and if we don’t do something to stop her she might succeed. Take my word for it. Michael’s told me all about her. Soozie’s completely amoral. The vixen has absolutely no scruples at all, and more chutzpah than the boy who murdered his parents and then asked the judge for mercy because he was an orphan.”

  Kimberly put out her cigarette, then immediately lit another. “Every time Michael’s been with Soozie he comes back looking dazed. After the first time they were together, Michael said he thought she’d drugged him by slipping something into his drink. He was very angry with her at the time, but, since then, something’s happened. Now, Michael’s become Soozie’s staunchest apologist. I don’t have any idea what kind of hex the wicked witch has put on your husband, but whatever it is, it’s working.”

  The waiter brought their Monte Cristo sandwiches. Myra checked hers to make sure the cook hadn’t put ham on her sandwich. Kimberly waited until the waiter moved away from the table before continuing the conversation.

  “Michael’s not stupid—not by a long shot—but for some reason he seems totally oblivious to the fact the harpy’s trying to get her talons into him. It’s as if she has some kind of supernatural power that clouds his judgment.”

  Kimberly paused to take a forkful of the sandwich in her mouth. “Do you remember when you walked into this restaurant a few days ago and found Michael, Soozie, and me, sitting here in this very booth?”

  Myra nodded her head, but said nothing.

  “You assumed the worst about Michael, but again, you were completely wrong. What you saw here was a setup. Soozie was determined to stir up trouble between you and Michael. She threatened to call you and say she was having an affair with him, in an attempt to break up your marriage.

  “So, to get Soozie to back off, I pretended to be you! I told her I knew she was after Michael and threatened to do her bodily harm if she didn’t keep away from ‘my’ husband. Instead of getting angry, you should thank me for that, Myra. You weren’t aware of it, but I was working to save your marriage.” Kimberly shrugged. “Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered. I guess I was just wasting my time.”

  “Don’t say that, Kimberly. I’m beginning to understand. What happened next?”

  “We thought we’d scared Miss Soozie off. She agreed to leave Michael alone, but the very same night she came up with some damned excuse and persuaded Michael to cancel his plans with me and take her to dinner instead. The next night, too. The woman’s a sorceress, Myra.”

  Myra looked puzzled. “I don’t get it, Kimberly. I falsely accused you of sleeping with my husband, but you’re not upset with me. Why?”

  Kimberly took Myra’s hand in hers. “Because I really do care about you, Myra. I value your friendship. More than you know. We used to be so close, you and I, and I miss that.”

  “How you and I feel about each other isn’t what matters,” Myra sniffled. “The issue is my husband. Are you in love with him?”

  “Yes, I am,” Kimberly admitted honestly. “I fell in love with Michael the moment we met. That was before I knew he was married to you, and, quite frankly, I threw myself at him shamelessly. From the start he made it very clear he would never do anything that might jeopardize his marriage. He loves you and takes his wedding vows very seriously.”

  Myra pushed her plate away untouched and helped herself to another one of Kimberly’s cigarettes. “I don’t get it. One minute you’re giving me advice on how to hold on to my husband and the next you’re telling me you’re madly in love with him. That’s so ludicrous it’s like something you’d expect to see on a soap opera.”

  Kimberly looked straight into Myra’s eyes. “I would never do anything to break up your marriage. We’ve been friends for more than half our lives. But if things don’t work out between you and Michael, I’ll be right there waiting in the wings, with open arms.” It was a statement of fact, not a threat.

  “I suppose if it ever comes to that, I’d much rather see Michael with you than with Soozie Snyder. But I have no intentions of letting him go.”

  “Right now, Michael’s feelings are bruised because you didn’t trust him. If you want him back, you’re going to have to eat a lot of crow.”

  “I can do that,” Myra nodded. “I will do that,” she announced with determination. “Thank you, Kimberly. You truly are my very best friend.”

  Kimberly finished her lunch. Getting everything—most everything—out in the open with Myra had given her an appetite. Myra signed the check and they stood to leave.

  “Where did you park?” Myra asked.

  “In valet.”

  “I’ll walk you out.”

  Myra and Kimberly wandered lazily through the casino. A cluster of excitement surrounded a gray-haired woman who’d just won $12,500 for catching a royal flush in sequence on a quarter video poker machine. They strolled past the cocktail lounge, ice cream parlor, and hotel registration desk. A grinning teenager opened and held the heavy door while they exited. Once outside the building, Kimberly handed her claim check to a parking attendant. He scurried off to retrieve the car.

  “I’m so glad we talked today,” Myra said, taking Kimberly’s hand in hers. “I feel much better now.”

  Kimberly squeezed Myra’s hand. “Me, too. Now we both know where we stand. With Michael, and with each other.”

  “I’ll give Michael a call. I’ll tell him he can come home whenever he wants.”

  Kimberly’s jaw grew tight. She didn’t want Michael to go back to Myra. Not yet. She was very close to getting him to make love to her, she knew. Kimberly smiled to herself. She’d turn her phone ringer off, so Myra’s call could not come through.

  “Do that. Call him this evening, at my house. He’s out on an assignment now and probably won’t be back in the office at all today. That wouldn’t be the best place for the two of you to talk, anyway—there’s not enough privacy.

  “It might be best if you don’t try solve your problems over the phone. Set up a date first, for dinner. Maybe for tomorrow night. Then you and Michael can hash things out face to face.

  “When he moves back in, don’t ever put him through an inquisition about what he did while the two of you were separated. If you do, he may leave you because he wants to, not because you threw him out.”

  “That’s good advice, Kim. I’ll remember it.”

  The parking attendant brought Kimberly’s Porsche; she handed him a two-dollar toke. The women embraced affectionately, as if nothing had ever surfaced to mar their friendship. Kimberly brushed a gentle kiss on Myra’s cheek. Then, Myra brought her lips to meet Kimberly’s. The kiss was brief and feather-light, the type of kiss two women often give on parting, but it gave Kimberly a frisson.

  When Kimberly was in the car Myra leaned through the open window and looked her straight in the eyes. Myra’s voice had acquired a sultry huskiness.

  “Whatever happens between Michael and me, I want us to remain close friends, Kim. Always. Let’s get together again soon. Just the two of us.”

  Myra and Kimberly kissed again. But the kiss lasted a bit longer than might be considered proper, even for old friends. Their lips parted slightly, and their
tongues danced momentarily in each other’s mouths. A shock wave flowed through Kimberly’s entire body and took her breath away.

  She was suddenly reminded of an event that occurred when she and Myra were best friends in high school. They spent most of their free hours together and frequently slept over at each other’s houses. One night, shortly before graduation, they’d climbed into Myra’s bed and were watching a romantic movie on television. Myra giggled when a love scene came on and naively remarked that open-mouth kissing seemed so gross and she didn’t know why people did it. Kimberly, who had experienced French kissing more than once, offered to teach Myra how. Soon, they were ensconced in each other’s arms and fondling passionately in the most intimate erogenous areas. They likely would have gone all the way that night, but were interrupted when they heard a car enter the driveway and knew Myra’s parents had returned home from the theater. They never discussed the incident afterwards and it was never repeated, but Kimberly thought often about the juvenile experimentation. Even now, more than ten years later, she still felt a strong physical attraction to Myra. She often wondered if similar homoerotic thoughts ever crossed Myra’s mind. She now believed she knew the answer.

  AS KIMBERLY DROVE BACK to the Times she saw a bank of storm clouds south of town. It appeared to be raining hard in the direction where Michael and Mark had gone. Usually, by the time the clouds arrived over Las Vegas, the rain changed to virga and never reached the ground.

  Kimberly felt good about her confrontation with Myra, exhilarated even. She’d warned Myra about Soozie; the two of them now had an enemy in common. And even though Kimberly let Myra know, in no uncertain terms, she was in love with Michael, the two of them had made peace. Myra had not been outraged by the admission. Not at all. In fact, she seemed relieved. Almost amused. At first blush, that appeared to be a rather unusual attitude for a woman whose best friend openly admitted she’d been trying to bed her husband. Perhaps there was more going on inside Myra’s head than Kimberly originally thought.

  Kimberly’s vivid imagination started running full throttle. Perhaps, she fantasized, now that Myra has had a few days to think about the situation, she’s decided Michael’s fidelity isn’t all that important to her. Not as important as making a show of keeping her marriage intact. Myra had been putting in long hours on the job and working hard to build her career. Michael had complained, numerous times, that Myra no longer seemed to have enough time or energy for him. She, Kimberly, could be a convenient solution to their problem. As long as everyone was discreet and Myra’s marriage wasn’t threatened, Myra might be more than willing to share some of her marital duties.

  Kimberly promised she would do nothing to break up the marriage, and that assurance seemed to satisfy Myra. Kimberly meant every word, truthfully. She would not exhort Michael to leave Myra, ever.

  But Kimberly had not promised Myra she would curtail her attempts at seduction. In fact, she realized, that subject never came up. Both women deliberately avoided mouthing the words. It was almost as if Myra had given Kimberly tacit approval to have an affair with her husband.

  Kimberly decided to intensify her efforts, while she still had the ripest opportunity, while Michael was still staying at her house. Last night he slept in her bed, though she’d spent the night in the guest room. Tonight, she would make certain they bedded together and, at long last, made love.

  And there was yet another consideration.

  The encounter with Myra wakened and brought to the forefront a desire locked in the recesses of Kimberly’s mind for years, a libidinous appetite she had been afraid to admit, even to herself. It was an erogenous craving that surfaced regularly in her dreams, a salacious hunger that repeatedly dominated her fantasies late at night or early in the morning when she was half asleep, but dissipated like morning dew at the first light of day.

  Kimberly could no longer deny that she lusted for Myra. She wanted to make love with Myra every bit as much as she wanted to make love with Michael. She wanted to hold Myra’s soft, feminine curves next to her and lose herself in Myra’s flesh. She wanted to extinguish the inferno that had been kindled so long ago, yet knew that any attempt to quench the flames would only make them burn brighter.

  Their kisses today held a promise of exigency, and Kimberly now had reason to suspect they were both repressing the same carnal feelings. It was time to bring them into the open. It was time for complete abandon. It was time for total fulfillment.

  An idea came to mind. Not instantly, like an epiphany, but in fragments, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle slowly fitted together until, eventually, the entire picture becomes revealed. At first the design seemed to be completely insane, but the more Kimberly thought about it, the more logical it seemed, and she ultimately reached the conclusion, with great satisfaction, that the plan could work.

  Kimberly’s mind was made up. Once she had made love with Michael, her next goal would be to seduce Myra. She suspected Myra would prove to be a much easier conquest than her husband.

  Then, once both Michael and Myra became her lovers, Kimberly would convince them they should all live together and make love together in a ménage à trois.

  Thirty-Three

  ON THE DRIVE BACK to Las Vegas, Michael used his cell phone to call the Times. The switchboard operator told him Kimberly had gone to lunch and wasn’t expected back in the office until two. Michael was irritated because Kimberly hadn’t stayed in the office waiting for his call, as he had requested. He hoped she hadn’t made good on her threat to go to lunch with Myra. Things were complicated enough already. Michael started to dictate the story about Patricia Hogg’s murder into Kimberly’s voice mailbox, but he checked his watch and realized time was running out and he wanted to get the article in the late edition, so he gave the story to one of the stenographers.

  When Mark dropped Michael off in front of the Times building shortly before two, Michael noted that his Mercedes was in its usual parking space and knew Kimberly had returned. He was still peeved at her and decided not to go inside. He took his spare key from his wallet, got into his car, and drove off.

  Michael called Soozie at her office.

  “Hi, Michael. I’m so glad you called. I was just thinking about you,” she gushed.

  “I thought I’d stop by and see you for a few minutes, if you’re not too busy,” he told her. “I have some interesting news.”

  “I’d love to see you, Michael, but I need to run home and pick up some papers for a client. Why don’t you meet me there?” There were no papers and there was no client. Soozie had other intentions.

  “Okay. I can be at your apartment in about twenty minutes.”

  “I should be able to get home sooner than that. If you see my car parked in front, just let yourself in. The door will be unlocked.”

  Soozie’s Cadillac was parked in front of the apartment building and her front door was unlocked. When he opened it, she was standing just inside, and took him by surprise with an extremely moist, sensual kiss. Her mouth had the flavor of a breath mint, but there was a strange, slightly bitter, medicinal aftertaste. Michael had no way of knowing she had transferred liquid valium from her mouth to his.

  “Come, let’s sit on the couch,” Soozie invited. “You owe me an explanation why you didn’t come over last night, Michael.”

  Soozie took Michael’s hand and led him to her sofa. He could smell the aroma of fresh coffee brewing in the kitchen. “Now, tell me why you had to break our date.”

  “There was a burglary at—” He started to say Kimberly’s house. “There was a burglary at home, and we had to wait until the police arrived and made their report. Nothing of any value was taken, fortunately.”

  “I’m glad of that,” Soozie told him. “Why didn’t you call me after the police left?” she asked petulantly. “If you didn’t want to phone me in front of your wife, you could have called first thing this morning.”

  For some reason Michael did not understand, he was unable to lie to Soozie. But he cou
ld and did change the subject. “It’s a long story, and I don’t want to bore you with it now. I have something more important to tell you.”

  Soozie hoped Michael was going to say he loved her and was ready to leave his wife. It would be much better if he came to the decision on his own. “Yes, darling, what is it?” she asked seductively.

  “Gunther Hogg’s wife was murdered. Her body was stuffed into a trash bag and dumped into the mine, right on top of the dead dogs.”

  Soozie had been hovering over Michael, but at that news, she sat straight up with shock in her eyes. “That’s terrible!” she exclaimed. “I met Hogg’s wife only once, and not under the best of circumstances, but no one deserves such a fate. Do the police know who killed her?”

  “It had to have been her husband. Who else would have dumped her body into the mine?”

  “Has Hogg been arrested yet?” There was a trace of a smile in the corner of her mouth.

  “As a matter of fact, he was arrested this morning. Not for the murder of his wife, however, but for the attack on Stewart Lamb. That tape you gave me was very incriminating, Soozie. Are you sure you don’t want to take credit for cracking the case? I understand the Secret Witness program offered a sizable reward for information leading to the arrest of Lamb’s assailant.”