by Marie Celine
Nordstrom’s flashing eyes went from Kitty to Fran to David Biggins’ bruised and bloodied face protruding from the side of the bookcase. She yelled for several of her uniformed officers to pull him out. Kitty and Fran scooted off the bookcase and left them to it.
‘What’s going on?’ demanded Nordstrom.
‘Hi, Jack,’ Kitty said, looking past the annoying long-legged lieutenant and giving her boyfriend a waist-high wave of the hand. Kitty couldn’t stop smiling despite what she’d just been through. After all, this was one time she was actually happy – no, make that very happy – to see Elin Nordstrom.
‘Kitty,’ Jack seemed to be struggling to control his voice, ‘what have you been up to?’
THIRTY-ONE
The backyard party was a success. The sun was sinking slowly behind some wisps of cloud. There was a cool bite to the air that added a pleasant tingle. The smell coming from the grill of burgers, veggie burgers, corn on the husk and artichoke added an earthly pleasantry to the air.
Jack’s black Lab, Libby, was running freely around the yard, begging for, and usually receiving, scraps of food and strokes of attention from everyone she could.
Kitty helped herself to a glass of white wine. It was her second. Not that she needed it. She was feeling great. David Biggins was behind bars – thanks in no small part to her efforts – and she’d been able to rub the ridiculously long-legged Elin Nordstrom’s nose in that fact.
Speaking of which, Lieutenant Nordstrom was standing beneath the lone elm in the far corner of Jack’s yard, chatting with Detective Richard Leitch. Both were dressed casually in jeans and clutching bottles of Spendrups, the imported Swedish beer that Nordstrom seemed to prefer – and she could have posed as a bikini-clad poster girl for in their ads.
Rick Leitch, to Kitty’s relief, had come as Elin’s date and apparently she was doing her best to make a Swede out of him.
Leitch had been one of the first on the scene the day of poor Gretchen’s murder. He seemed like a nice enough fellow and he was an eligible bachelor. Kitty could only hope that the lieutenant didn’t ruin him completely. Still, if she was honest with herself, she had to admit that she was glad that Nordstrom had found someone other than Jack to sink her claws into for a while.
Several other coworkers of Jack were also present, along with some of the crew from Santa Monica Film Studios – including her director, Greg Clifton, in tow with his assistant director, Julie McConnell, with whom Kitty had heard he was in a relationship. Julie was half Greg’s age, but they were both single and consenting adults, so who cares?
Sonny Sarkisian was there, currently with a spatula wrapped up in his fist, lending a hand at the grill, which seemed to be addling Jack’s nerves. If Sonny wasn’t careful, Jack just might take out his police issue automatic and do some tenderizing of his own.
Kitty was planning to keep an eye on Sonny. She’d finally learned from Bill Barnhard that the reason Gretchen had fired Sonny was because she’d suspected he’d been collecting kickbacks from advertising clients. However, she’d been rash in her decision-making, something she was prone to doing – it seemed to be a flaw in her character – and had been unable to prove her allegations.
Sonny had gotten himself a good lawyer and was threatening a multimillion-dollar wrongful termination lawsuit against the studio and the network. Rather than face the trouble and expense of fighting the charges, Sonny had been given his job back.
Mr Barnhard explained that, this way, either Sonny would prove himself innocent or do something stupid – and unethical/illegal – and they could fire him for good. The company would be keeping an eye on him.
Kitty was determined to do the same. There was simply something – she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly – but something innately suspicious about Sonny Sarkisian. Not the least of which was his apparent camaraderie with her nemesis, Steve Barnhard.
Speak of the devil, Steve was in attendance, too – with his boyfriend. Even though he was a pain in the butt, she couldn’t exclude him from the invitation list. Kitty had to admit, she’d pegged Steve wrong in a lot of ways.
Looking at Steve and Roger cuddling on the patio, sharing a chaise longue, Kitty couldn’t suppress a laugh at her own expense. How could she have been so wrong about him?
They made a cute couple. Each wore tight black jeans and equally tight black T-shirts. Steve hadn’t been having an affair with Barbara Cartwright; he was in a relationship with her assistant, the ever-so-French Roger Matisse.
As it turned out, Steve hadn’t been going behind her back trying to get her fired or sabotage her show either, though initially he admitted he had toyed with the idea. He, Roger and Barbara had come up with a concept for a show that they had secretly been developing for Barbara. They had pitched the idea to Steve’s father the night that Kitty had been run off the road and thinking that Steve was to blame.
They had even produced a pilot, with Greg directing, that had apparently blown Bill Barnhard’s socks off. So it looked like Barbara would be getting a new travel/cooking show of her own soon. Hopefully, both Barbara Cartwright and Steve would be hitting the road.
Gretchen’s death had all been the result of a crazy love affair gone bad, mixed with greed. David had had an affair first with Cindy. But Gretchen quickly found out about it and didn’t approve. She’d concocted a cockeyed plan to woo David away from her daughter by offering herself to him.
David and Gretchen had become lovers and all was well … for a time. With personalities like theirs, it was only a matter of time.
David had been writing her love letters, signing them Cam. That was her nickname for him. In a moment of passion, he’d also given her the silver ring he usually wore around his neck. The one his cousin had designed for him.
Eventually, however, David and Gretchen broke up, and apparently it was ugly. To make matters worse, David had started dating Cindy again. When Gretchen demanded that he stop, he laughed in her face. When she threatened to fire him, he laughed again. He had a union job. If she tried to fire him, she’d have a fight on her hands.
That was when she apparently decided to pay him off. And that was what the envelope full of money was all about. David was getting a hundred thousand dollars to dump Cindy and go away – and, to sweeten the pot, Gretchen was giving him back his precious ring.
Kitty wasn’t sure what had made Gretchen change her mind at the last minute, but that decision had cost her her life. David wasn’t about to see his prize – dangling like a winning lottery ticket before his greedy eyes – suddenly snatched away from him.
In a rage, he had stabbed her to death. The problem was he didn’t know where the envelope was. He couldn’t find it in the office anywhere, even though Gretchen had told him she had it there.
She didn’t though, she only thought she did. Fran hadn’t put it there. If Fran had done what she was supposed to, David would have found the innocent looking envelope in the top drawer of the producer’s desk, which was where Gretchen had instructed Fran to stick it, and probably have disappeared for good.
Instead, the money was missing and David was desperate to find it. He had broken into Kitty’s apartment and Gretchen’s condo to no avail. When he learned that Fran and Kitty had what he wanted, he wasted no time in trying to retrieve it, either through devious means, or – when devious means failed – through deadly ones.
David had even been tailing Kitty. He’d seen her leave Jack’s place in the Jeep and head into the mountains. He figured he’d run her off the road and snatch the envelope from the wreck if she had it with her or at least get her out of the way if she didn’t.
Only good fortune and a jacaranda in just the right spot had saved her.
All this time, Kitty had thought David was completely charming and completely innocent. When David had espied Kitty and Brad hovering over Gretchen’s corpse, he’d said he had come in with the security guard because he’d forgotten his jacket. What an idiot she had been to take that statement at fac
e value. But then, she’d had no reason to suspect him of subterfuge.
Looking back on it, she remembered how Brad had looked at David sort of funny when’d he’d said it. On questioning, after David’s arrest at the studio, Brad realized that he had forgotten to clarify that he had no idea where David had come from and that he, according to Brad’s later statement, just sort of came out of nowhere. David had obviously never left the studio and had been lying in hiding for just the right moment to reappear.
If David had seen Fran backstage with the envelope and realized what was in it … Kitty shivered. There was no telling what he might have done. He might have grabbed another knife and stabbed her, too. Or maybe strangled her like he’d tried to the other night.
Of course, Fran was here at the dinner party, too, looking delightfully ravishing in a pale purple jump suit and navigating the lawn in gold tone heels, glass of merlot in hand. Fran had her old job back at the studio due to Kitty’s insistence. Steve had kicked and screamed about it but in the end had caved. If Kitty was correct, Fran was now on course to connect with a civilian dressed pal of Jack’s named Zeke. Fran being Fran, she’d probably spill half her glass on or in the immediate vicinity of the object of her current desires.
Zeke was standing off to one side, hands in the pockets of a faded denim jacket, looking lost. Kitty had spoken with him once or twice. He was very nice and very shy. Zeke wasn’t going to stand a chance. Fran would bowl him right over; ply him like warm, wet potter’s clay in her hands. He’d never know what hit him.
Kitty herself still barely knew what had hit her. It wasn’t that long ago that she had parted ways with her longtime best friend. That was the first time she’d been involved in a murder, one involving a rock star client of hers. She hoped this would be the last. Then Fran had burst into her life and even into her apartment. They were roommates now, for goodness’ sake.
Fran’s job was secure for as long as Kitty had hers. Hopefully, that would be for a very long time to come. She could get used to having some money in her pocket for a change. Maybe she and Jack would finally set a date … and start thinking about having kids …?
Fran swerved around the picnic table and her smile locked on Zeke. She held out her free hand to introduce herself and Zeke responded by freeing one of his own pocketed hands. He smiled awkwardly.
Bingo! Direct hit.
Jack appeared out of nowhere and wrapped his arm around Kitty’s waist. ‘Having a good time?’
Kitty smiled up at him. She’d finally gotten over the trauma of being chased around Santa Monica Film Studios by David Biggins who’d been bent on killing her. Jack had finally gotten over being mad at her for taking so many crazy chances and risking her life the way she had – at least, he’d stopped complaining out loud about it.
But all’s well that ends well, right?
She kissed him on the lips. ‘Does that answer your question?’
He said it did. ‘I heard from Greg and Julie that your show’s going to continue.’
Kitty nodded her head vigorously. It had been touch and go there for a while. Bill Barnhard and the board of CuisineTV had been uncertain whether to continue or pull the plug on The Pampered Pet what with the murder and all the negative publicity and bad karma surrounding it.
In the end, public reaction to the pilot had been overwhelmingly positive and so the network had agreed to pick up a season’s worth of shows. ‘Isn’t it wonderful? Mr Barnhard explained that the show only tapes two days a week. That means I can continue to run my pet chef business the rest of the week. I won’t have to give it up at all. I didn’t know what I was going to tell my clients.’
‘Sounds like you’re going to be extremely busy, Kitty. Too busy for me?’
She kissed him again. ‘Never.’
Speaking of clients, it turned out that Mr Fandolfi’s wife, Holly, had written the threatening note Kitty had found on her Volvo outside the bakery that day she’d met the magician in West Hollywood. That hadn’t been Steve or David at all.
It seemed that Fandolfi’s wife was insanely jealous and actually thought that she and her husband might be intimately involved. Holly had been following Kitty all over town, and had rigged her husband’s new trick to scare her off. Holly had even disguised herself and come to the taping so she could spy on them.
Hollyweird, right?
That explained why Kitty had found the CuisineTV potholder at the Fandolfis’ house. In fact, that explained the one at Mr Czinski’s place, too. The potholders had been handed out to the audience at her taping as tokens of appreciation.
Kitty couldn’t help but wonder how it was that the rich always liked getting something for free. Human nature, she supposed. Kitty very much doubted that Holly even spent any time in the kitchen let alone knew what to do with a potholder.
Kitty still had a hard time believing that the young and gorgeous Holly could ever have seen her as a threat to her marriage. Yet, that was exactly what Mr Fandolfi had wanted to see Kitty about the night that David had tried to kill her. He wanted to explain to Kitty about his wife’s extreme jealousy in the face of any other competition for her husband.
He hadn’t wanted to say anything before because he was embarrassed and also because he didn’t want to say anything unkind about Holly. After seeing Kitty get hurt while assisting him with his new trick, well, he figured he just had to say something before things got out of hand.
Go figure.
Again, all’s well that ends well. Kitty and Holly had had a long talk and Holly seemed to understand that there had never been anything more between Kitty and Holly’s husband than business. There had certainly never been anything to be jealous about.
Fandolfi and Gretchen’s daughter, Cindy, was nowhere in sight, but Thadeus – Teddy – Gretchen’s other child, had come with his father, Kitty was glad to see.
‘Poor Teddy,’ Kitty said. He had been exonerated, of course, with sincere apologies from the police department.
‘How’s that?’ Jack wanted to know. ‘He stands to inherit a bundle.’
Kitty shrugged. ‘I know, but I still feel bad for him. Money’s not everything, Jack,’ Kitty said. ‘Finding his mother dead like that. Then actually starting to believe that he was guilty of the crime.’ Kitty couldn’t suppress a shiver. ‘How could such a thing happen?’
Jack frowned. ‘Yeah, you can thank your pal, David Biggins, for that. He’s one slick character. When he came by to see Teddy at the station, acting like he was Teddy’s friend there to solace and comfort him, he actually managed to talk him into confessing that he’d killed his mother.’
Jack cursed. ‘Worse still, he had the poor guy believing it.’ He hugged Kitty closer. ‘It was sweet of you to give Teddy a job as an assistant on your show.’
Kitty smiled. ‘It was the least I could do. I don’t think working alone at night as a janitor with nobody around is good for him – maybe not good for anybody.’
She watched as Teddy, on his hands and knees on the lawn, wrestled with Libby. ‘Besides, look at him, Jack. He’s great with animals and it is a pet cooking program.’
Jack agreed.
Kitty cast a bemused look at Elin Nordstrom and Rick Leitch. ‘It looks like the lieutenant has found someone to sink her claws into besides you.’
Jack turned to her with a big grin on his face. ‘Oh, come on now, Kitty. You weren’t jealous of me and the lieutenant, were you?’
‘Of course not,’ Kitty replied a little too quickly.
He squeezed her waist. ‘You know you’re the only woman for me.’
‘I’d better be,’ Kitty warned.
They kissed slowly, and then Jack looked into her eyes. ‘And now that this case is solved and life is back to normal …’ Jack sounded nervous.
‘Yes, Jack?’ Was this it? Was Jack about to set the date? Was a honeymoon in Mexico around the corner? After a smashing wedding in Newport Beach, of course. Oh. She’d have to call her mom!
Mom would definitely wan
t to go bridal gown shopping with her, Aunt Gloria, too. Aunt Gloria was her mother’s sister and head librarian in the City of San Diego Public Library system. Her mom already said she thought Kitty would look best in something empire style. Kitty leaned toward the mermaid silhouette, or even a more traditional ball gown.
Jack shuffled his feet against the dry grass. ‘Well, what with your show being picked up and all …’
Kitty kept her eyes glued on Jack. Her hands were locked in his and her palms were growing sweaty. She would be very busy, maybe they should get married sooner, rather than later. She struggled to keep her smile under control.
‘Well, I was wondering …’
‘Yes, Jack?’ Another minute of this suspense and she was going to explode all over the lawn. ‘Yes,’ everyone would say afterward, ‘it was a lovely garden party. Until one of the guests exploded all over the lawn, that is …’
Jack opened his mouth. Here it comes, she thought.
‘Could I borrow the down payment for a new Jeep?’
Kitty staggered and dug her nails into the palm of Jack’s hand. ‘Excuse me?’
Jack blushed. ‘You see, I’m a little short right now. I’ve had some house repairs.’ He cleared his throat. ‘You totaled my Wrangler, remember? The insurance company said they wouldn’t fix it – the damage was too much and so they’ve totaled it and given me a ridiculously paltry sum as recompense.’ He was talking fast now. ‘So I need a new car. But if I don’t come up with some more cash, the monthly payments are going to be killer.’
Kitty frowned. ‘David ran me off the road.’
‘I know, I know,’ he struggled to placate her. ‘But you’re okay now and since you’re going to be making all that money with the show—’
He stepped back on seeing the flash in Kitty’s eyes. ‘It’d only be a loan. I’ll pay you back as fast as I can.’
Kitty turned and marched toward the house.
‘I’m expecting a raise at my next review!’ he hollered to Kitty’s fading back.