“Why?”
“Because otherwise things get to me.”
Eddy stood up and came toward me and pulled me into him.
“You’re taking advantage of me when I’m in a weakened state,” I said.
“You’re damn right, I am,” he said, and he kissed me gently but it was good and I let him. It wasn’t long before he led me back into my bedroom and I was out of my pajamas. He inspected the knife scars on my back and arm, tracing them with his fingers and then his lips. He took a good look at my head and face injuries and where Mary had burned my hair.
“That isn’t looking so good.”
“Don’t hurt me,” I said.
“That’s a two-way street,” he whispered in my ear.
I trembled when he caressed me, my body transforming into electricity with a kind voltage. I was an injured animal and Eddy held me in a manner more protective than a mother’s. The caution between us made for a slow-rising orgasm that peaked in mountainous waves.
The afterglow encircled us like God’s love. We lay in each other’s arms, breathing each other’s air, touching and gazing at each other. Tears streamed out my eyes but I made no crying sound. Eddy kissed me and kissed me.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“Because you need someone, you need me.”
“What do I need you for?”
“For a while,” he said, making a joke. But I was serious.
“Is that all?” I asked. “You’re just here for a while?”
“Joan, I’m staying with you, close as I can, until you tell me to go away. I might have to take care of some things, but I’m here for you. Understand?”
“Not really, but it sounds good,” I said and kissed him.
I got slowly out of bed, felt more than a little stiff while Eddy pulled on his pants and followed me into the kitchen. We finished up the coffee, scrambled up some eggs and made buttered toast. I was washing the dishes, Eddy was drying, when we heard a loud squawking chorus.
“What’s that?” Eddy asked. He went to the window and stood there. “Joan, come here,” he said.
I moved up behind Eddy’s muscular shoulder and peeked around him to see the sun shining part way into the kitchen and a whole flock of multicolored parrots sitting in my banana trees.
“Isn’t that pretty?” he asked.
I laughed and hugged Eddy’s torso. Tears of joy ran down my face and the squawking increased.
“Oh, Eddy.”
God’s noisy rainbows continued their serenade.
Eddy turned around and kissed my ear while I continued to watch in wonder. We stayed there like that until the parrots got interested in my birdbath and then we laughed at their funny antics. Then I kissed Eddy, my lips hungry, grateful for the love he had to offer.
“I’ll have to point out parrots more often,” he said.
He stroked my face and pulled me against him. We made love there in the kitchen.
A half hour later we were both in jeans, T-shirts, and tennies. Eddy assembled scissors, a comb, and a new disposable razor. He carefully trimmed my hair, his touch reminding me of my gramma.
“Where did you learn to cut hair?” I asked.
“In the Marines, the Fleet Marine Force.”
“The Marines? You never mentioned that before.”
“It wasn’t my favorite time. Once I did six hundred haircuts in one day.”
“Girls, too?”
“Yessss. Women, too.”
The guy was so politically correct.
“Ohmigod, I’m a punker,” I said when I looked in the mirror. “Is there some reason you didn’t shave it all off?”
“You didn’t have much to work with, but I was going for a certain look.”
He grinned at me and I kissed him to let him know that I liked it.
“So where to?” he asked.
“Parker Center,” I said.
“You’re so in love with that place. It’s distorted, you know. You can’t save everybody. You can’t right every wrong.”
“Eddy, somebody has to mean it. You of all people, with all your Save the Bay and Save the World. You should understand. It takes more than the usual to fight the bad guys. You have to be a little bit crazy because they are. You can’t be casual or nonchalant, just clock out at five and that’s that.”
“But you’re only human.”
“That’s no excuse. I know, I know I’m only human but…don’t tell anybody.”
“Who’m I gonna tell?”
“I dunno. The press?” He laughed.
Eddy pulled on his leather jacket. I picked out a jean jacket from my closet and grabbed my gun, and we headed out the door. On the way, I asked him about a hundred questions. Was he was an only child? Yes. Were his parents alive? Yes. Was he popular in high school? Yes. Was he on the student council? Yes, the president, in fact. How old was he when he lost his virginity? Seventeen. Was it with an older woman? Yes. I had him pegged pretty good. Finally, he turned to me.
“What is this? An interrogation?”
“No, you can ask me things if you like.”
“Okay, Detective, how old were you when you lost your virginity?”
“Fifteen.”
“That’s a little young.”
I paused for a moment then said, “I thought so.”
“Were you an only child?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, we have that in common. Were you popular in school?”
“No.”
“Are your parents still alive?”
“No.”
“How old were you when they died?”
“Ten, when my mom died. Fourteen, when my grandmother died. Fifteen, when my father…died.”
“I’m sorry. That must have been hard.”
“It was very difficult.”
Sort of an understatement, that.
“Where did you go, who took care of you?”
“I was sort of adopted by my juvenile officer.”
“Juvenile officer? What did you do?”
“I…shot my father. Justifiable murder.”
“What? No. Oh, I’m…so sorry.”
“My father…he um…”
I couldn’t speak. The words wouldn’t come. For some reason I wanted to explain everything to Eddy, I wanted him to understand me, to know my darkest corner. Maybe if I blurted it all out, told him everything, he wouldn’t make the mistakes that Carl made. I was willing to try that, but the words would not come. I looked at my hands as if I could find the answer there. For a moment I wondered what my life would be like if I had decided to be an artist or a healer, or even a chef, anything but a cop.
“It’s okay, Joan.” His kind brown eyes searched my face.
“Hey, be careful,” I said with a false bravado. “You gotta keep your eyes on the road, or we’ll have an accident. This ain’t Monterey, ya know.”
He looked back at the road and put his hand gently on my knee.
“Someone should have protected you, watched out for you.”
“Who?” I said like a big hoot owl.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EDDY PULLED THE INSECT car into the parking lot at Parker Center. The guard eyed the car suspiciously and waved us in when he recognized me in the passenger seat.
“You’re not going to make me wait out here forever, are you?” Eddy asked.
“I only need to run in and check on something,” I said.
“Like what?”
“Like the records of each and every victim of the two Johnnies.”
“The two who?”
“John and Mary Tyler, the brother and sister team who hit me in the head.”
Eddy gave me a curious look before he spoke. “Why do I get the feeling you’re doing something not quite right?”
“Because it takes one to know one?”
“Joan.” His voice chastised me.
“It’s just that I’m supposed to be resting. Medical leave and all that. My captain would be pissed and
my partner probably wouldn’t approve of me being up and about.”
“I should stop you.”
“You can’t,” I said. “Nobody can.”
“Why do I believe that, I wonder?” He waved me on to do my bidding.
•••
UPSTAIRS ON THE FIFTH floor I walked into a tiny yellow-painted room. It has always bothered me how small Missings is. There are only a few file cabinets and they cover the entire Los Angeles county. One of the reasons the different children involved in the Tyler case had never been connected is because so many children go missing every year and because juvenile files are kept separately in each district. It makes it that much more difficult to see a connection. On the Tyler case, the identifying objects found in the children’s graves combined with the use of computers allowed for the correct missing file to be matched to the bones and dentures of each child and sent to Parker Center.
I talked the clerk, Debbie, Carl’s new love, into giving me a copy of all the files, eighteen in all. She knew exactly where every piece of paper in that office was. Debbie was a beautiful and very earnest Korean woman with a slight build. Her shiny black hair was cut just below her chin. She was no dummy. Everyone was aware that she’d carried a major torch for Carl for years. With a circumspect look, she took me into the next office with the copier and gave me detailed instructions on the quirks of the copy machine. As she was leaving, she cut me a sideways look that could have been a warning but left without saying anything. There are usually several detectives sitting at their desks in that room, but at that time it was empty. I had an eight-inch stack of papers to copy. I was getting down to it when Debbie came back in the copy room. “You look terrible,” she said.
I continued working and said, “I didn’t know I was running for beauty queen. What’s wrong, don’cha like my haircut?”
She ignored my humor. Hell, after what I’d been through it was appropriate to look like shit. And that wasn’t even taking into account Carl blowing down my door in the middle of the night.
“Are you okay?” she insisted.
“I’m fine.”
She stood there like a big ol’ hawk eyeing me. I stopped working and faced her. Her black eyes were full of reproach.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Stay away from him,” she said.
I didn’t have to ask her who, I knew she meant Carl. “Don’t worry,” I said.
“Carl’s got a new life.”
“Okay, good.”
“Don’t call him, either. You’ll just upset him, get him all worked up.”
“I won’t.”
“He said you were going to call him.”
“I was. But I won’t now. Not if you don’t want me to.”
“He deserves to be loved and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Great,” I said. “I’m happy for him. For you, too. He’s a good guy.”
“I know that already. I don’t need you to tell me.”
“Fine.”
There was a silence during which she eyed me some more as I continued with the copying. This must be why I hate girl talk.
“Heard you found the ones who killed all these missing kids,” she said.
“Looks like.” I was glad for the change of subject.
“What about the nine missing girls? The ones my friend, Detective Mark O’Malley, has been working on.”
“There’s exactly nine girls missing?”
“That’s right. Nine girls.”
Debbie always has her numbers perfect.
“I thought it was ten. I have ten flyers of missing girls, I’m sure of it.”
“No, no. They’re not really sure it is ten, see, the first one was eight months ago. The nine missing were in the last six months and they’re more closely related. So, the nine are connected for sure and the first one is a question.”
“How do you know all that?”
“Just because I’m a clerk doesn’t mean I’m deaf. I overhear the detectives talking. Sometimes I even read the files. I might even notice something and bring it to the detective’s attention. Imagine that. You’re not the only one who cares about these people, you know.”
“Okay. So, what about ‘em?”
“Mark mentioned you were helping him with the case. Think you’ll find them, too?”
“I don’t know… I haven’t had much time until just now. There does seem to be some connection between cases but it’s a little shaky. Anyway, I hope so. I’d like to find them before they end up like these kids.”
“They could still be alive.”
“Could be.” My mind was clicking away. I was elsewhere even though I was standing there talking to Debbie.
“You stay busy with your work and leave Carl be,” I heard her say.
“You don’t have to keep telling me that. I got it the first time.”
“Just making sure.”
She turned to walk away and then hesitated, turned back to me. I prepared myself for more admonitions. You’d think I was lurking in the bushes, trying to snatch back her man. She held her body straight as a board and her mouth was clamped tight in a thin line.
“Listen, congratulations and best of luck. Keep up the good work.”
“Thanks, Debbie.”
“You’re welcome,” she said and left me to my work.
I was on the basement floor when I stopped in at evidence on my way out and looked over the items collected from Autumn Riley’s bungalow. I was supposed to sign an official document to take the garage door opener, but the evidence clerk was busy doing something, I didn’t know what. I didn’t want to keep Eddy waiting too long. That would be rude. I slipped the garage door opener into my jeans pocket and called out a bye to the clerk as I split. I got out of there as fast as I could, put my stack of papers in the back seat of Eddy’s electric car, and let out a sigh. We pulled out of Parker Center with a wave to the guard.
Eddy didn’t go straight to my place. Instead, he drove up the coast to Big Rock Beach. We got out and took a long walk on the sand, holding hands. I understood completely why Autumn longed for such a loving gesture. We climbed up and sat on the eponymous big rock and watched the emerald green waves roll in. “Thanks for bringing me here,” I said.
“You need me. I’m someone who will take time out for love.”
I sat there stunned and thankful at the same time.
“Did you say love?” I asked.
“Yes, I did, and I’m not taking it back. either.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.”
“Wouldn’t want me to what?”
“Take it back.”
He circled my ear with his finger as if it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. How did he know that was my main erogenous zone? Then he kissed my ear and I kissed his neck. An unfamiliar happiness filled my chest.
On the way home, we stopped for fish and chips at this shack on Pacific Coast Highway and ordered fish sandwiches. We sat outside at a picnic table. The sun bounced golden on the ocean green and it seemed to go on forever. We munched on our sandwiches, smiling between bites. I thought about what Debbie, Carl’s new girlfriend, had said. Nine girls. The number was suspiciously the same as the number of different nails bound together in Autumn’s voodoo doll. What would Satch say if I tried that theory on him? God, he’d have a coronary. I needed more than a number. Eddy stopped still in the middle of his Ono sandwich.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There’s something I need to know.”
“So, ask.”
He put down his food, wiped his hands with a paper napkin while I became increasingly wary of a question that would warrant so much preparation.
“When are you going to tell me what you’re up to?” he asked.
“As soon as I know.” I put down my sandwich, too, and took a sip of my beer. “What most people don’t understand,” I started, “is that good homicide investigation is hours and hours of a tedious, boring, skull-numbing search for a
connection. What kind of connection? Nobody knows. It requires an amazing focus on the not-so-exciting. The only time it’s not boring is when it’s terrifying. You can know something, like maybe I know something right now, but it does you no damn good if you can’t prove it. Horrible criminals can get off scot-free if you don’t do every damn thing just right. And I still say you’re taking advantage of me when I’m in a fragile state.”
His hand reached out to my face and he touched my bruised eye with tenderness. I found his ways irresistible.
“You’ve always been in a fragile state,” he said.
The funny thing was, in that moment, I realized it was true.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
WE WERE TOOLING DOWN PCH and it was one of those perfect moments when you’re glad to be alive, grateful your heart’s beating and there’s air to breathe. I looked over at the driver’s seat where Eddy was earnestly at the helm and thought how strange it was that I was sitting beside him in his electric car. If someone had told me a month ago that I’d meet an environmentalist-slash-surfer who would break through my hard-assed shell and wiggle his way into my life, I would have laughed.
“You know where Autumn Riley’s bungalow is?” I asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“Go there.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it, please.”
He shook his head and gave me concerned brown eyes, but I knew he would take me because he wouldn’t want me going by myself, not with this big bump on my head. A person can sure get a lot of mileage out of an injury. Women especially, I think. Eddy shook his head again but made his way toward Autumn Riley’s place.
We pulled up past the pepper trees and it brought back my first day back at work and the spell cast by the young dead beauty. I recalled the bold green gaze when I lifted her eyelid and how I’d held her cold hand and wished with all my might that she would breathe. And what do you know? She did. Autumn was not dead. Officially, I had no business here. I had to be extra careful, especially after Satch’s harsh words of warning. Eddy waited in the car and I pulled out the garage door opener I’d confiscated from evidence and approached the house, trying to decide whether to commit the crime of breaking and entering or just go home and have fabulous sex.
There were no cars parked near the house.
Body on the Backlot Page 29