Time to punch it up. She engaged her rockets and very nearly ran right into the man. It was the sudden pounding of his running shoes that made her swerve sharply at the last instant; she stopped and swung around to look at him.
The man had swerved as well. She bent over, her hands on her thighs, breathing hard.
“Hi,” he said, not much out of breath.
She raised her head, smiled. “Hi, yourself. Sorry I nearly ran you down. My endorphins were screaming to be free. The thing is, though, you give them a mile and they want two.”
“No problem. I wasn’t paying any attention either. I was off in never-never land. Thing about endorphins, sometimes they don’t kick in and you collapse in your tracks.”
She cocked her head at him. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. She said, “That was pretty good. Odd that neither of us saw the other. My endorphins and I have been known to flatten people who get in our way.”
He laughed. “Not this morning. Hey, we’re the only two people up and virtuous. I’m usually running with a friend, but he had too much on his plate this morning. It’s nice to have company.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m John Goddard.”
She stared at him, nonplussed. The controlling jerk? The founder’s great-great whatever? She shook his hand, studied his face. “I remember you now. I was thirteen years old when you went back east to school.”
He looked at the bright red hair pulled back in a ponytail, the face clean of makeup, and recognized the smile that lit up the daytime TV screen as much as it did a foggy beach. “You’re Mary Lisa Beverly, George and Kathleen’s daughter. You hadn’t left for L.A. yet when I came back here, but we never ran into each other.”
“No, a pity. Where’d you go to college?”
“Princeton.” He grinned. “You?”
“I went down to UCLA. Even when I was eighteen, I wanted to act. What’d you do then?”
“You have seventeen questions left.”
“Sorry, but I do have my reasons for being so nosy.”
“Okay. I went to law school. And yes, you’re right. I’m the John Goddard who was seeing your sister Kelly until very recently. Kelly told me about your other sister Monica’s husband leaving you at the altar and you moving permanently to L.A. You were really quite lucky, you know? You want to run with me?”
“Whoa, that’s quite a lot you said there, Mr. Goddard.”
“John.”
“Regardless, Mark didn’t exactly leave me at the altar.”
“Does it still sting? Kelly said it was close enough to altar-time that they could have penciled through your name on the wedding invitations and written in Monica’s.” He grinned down at her, but not all that far. He was maybe six-two, but with heels she’d be nearly nose to nose with him. To go with that nice height, he had a good strong body, muscular torso and legs.
She burst into laughter. “Now that makes for a visual.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Why do you think I’m lucky?”
“Run with me and I’ll tell you.”
She gave him a whimsical look and turned with him to run south, back along the highway toward the hamlet of Stoddart. Mary Lisa was soon running smoothly beside him.
“Kelly said you worked out and ran to de-stress.”
“That, and I enjoy being outside, especially here by the ocean. You?”
“Actually, this is my first run in a week, since I-”
“Since you what?”
“Well, there was an incident of sorts where I live and I was out of exercise commission until today.”
A dark eyebrow shot up as he glanced at her. “What kind of incident?”
“Just a minor injury. Why do you think I’m lucky Mark dumped me?”
He ran silently for a moment, his eyes fastened on the out-jutting promontory a quarter of a mile ahead. He said finally, “I don’t think Mark Bridges is the type of guy to stick.”
“Ah,” she said.
“Ah, what?”
“And you think you’re the type of guy who sticks?”
He kept running, and she saw he was thinking about that, seriously. “I guess your sister wouldn’t think so, but-”
“But what?”
“If I found the right person, I’d stick.”
“Hmm. Maybe the same is true with Mark. I have to say you’re not particularly acting like a controlling jerk so far.”
“What was that? Oh-I guess I should have known Kelly wouldn’t sing my praises to her sister. I’m trying to think of a single person I control-you can’t count people who work for you, that’s a job. I wish I could think of one, but I can’t.”
“Earth to Mr. Goddard. Listen up. Kelly told me she kind of left you at the altar because you’re a controlling jerk. It gives us something in common. Both of us kissed off, I mean.”
He opened his mouth, shut it, and kicked up his stride. It took her a moment to catch up to him.
“I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. Since this just happened you might still be hurting.”
“I might,” he said, not turning.
“Okay, it’s none of my business. Why did you come back to Goddard Bay?”
“I told you, I’m a lawyer.”
“Accept my condolences.”
“Actually, I came back to run for district attorney.”
“Yes, I know about that. You got it on your first try?”
He nodded. “I’ve got a good name around here, the right name.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “At least right enough to be elected the Goddard Bay County district attorney. I like putting bad guys away and I like living here.”
“Aren’t you awfully young to be a D.A.? Do you have any experience?”
“Sure. I was an assistant D.A. in Manhattan for four years, and before that I clerked with an appellate court judge, Judge David Reed, in the Ninth Circuit.”
“Well, then, it sounds like you’re qualified for the job to me.”
He inclined his head. “Thank you.”
“Are you having fun?”
“Fun? I never thought of it that way-well, okay, yeah, I really enjoy it, particularly most of the time I spend in the courtroom.”
“Sounds like you’re as much an actor as I am.”
“Could be,” he said after a moment.” He stopped. “You want to take a rest before we turn around and run back?”
“Where?”
“Over here. See that twisted pine? I like that the sea’s nearly bowled it over onto itself.”
As she followed him to the bent pine, he said over his shoulder, “I’m not a controlling jerk.”
“Maybe not.” Mary Lisa leaned her back against the tree and he hunched down beside her. “I thought it was either that or maybe a dud in bed. That would be a sure deal breaker for Kelly.”
He looked appalled. “Hmm,” was all he said.
Mary Lisa thought of Mark Bridges, her ex-fiancé, and a couple of wannabe movie stars she’d dated pretty seriously over the past three years. “I’ve come to the conclusion that most good-looking men are so self-absorbed no one really exists for them outside themselves. Their pleasure’s what’s important, no one else’s.”
“I’d say the same about some good-looking women. Take you, for instance, Ms. Beverly. Are you a dud in bed because you’re beautiful and self-absorbed?”
She laughed. “Yep, that’s me, so beautiful, I’m self-absorbed. I’m going back now. Good-bye, Mr. Goddard.”
She was off and running before he got to his feet. He didn’t try to catch her, just stood for a while by that gnarly old tree and watched her until she disappeared in the distance.
Just his damned luck. The beauty queen was Kelly’s sister.
SIXTEEN
“I wonder why the killer would leave a perfectly good driver there lying beside the body,” Kelly said at dinner that night. “Surely he-or she-knew it would be a big clue for Jack Wolf.”
George said, “I spoke with John today. His office is deeply involved no
w. He’s got two very good investigators on his staff and Jack agreed to use them. You’re right about that Callaway. I’m glad I don’t own any.”
“Are you still using Nikes, Dad?”
“I’m a Tiger fan-what else would I use?”
Kathleen said, “Olivia told me that Jack won’t leave them alone. She says he’s going to arrest one of them because he can’t very well let this go unsolved. She doesn’t know what to do.”
“She needn’t worry too much since Milo hired Patricia Bigelow,” Kelly said. “The rumor is she was there for the very first interview with the Hildebrand family. She’s a barracuda.”
George nodded. “I hope if I’m ever sued, she’s not the opposing counsel-she’s very bright, committed, as intense as they come. I’ve sometimes thought it a pity that Horace is such a longtime friend and only a middling lawyer. I’d hire her in an instant.”
Kelly said, “Detective Lambrowski, who’s an investigator in the D.A.’s office, said she was hinting at a police conspiracy. That had him huffing around.”
“What did John Goddard say?” Mary Lisa asked.
Kelly buttered a dinner roll and didn’t answer her. Her mother said, “As I understand it, neither John nor Jack is saying much of anything. But I’m so very worried about Olivia. She’s scared. How I wish Monica were here this evening, she’d know what to do.”
“And what would Monica do, Mother?” Mary Lisa asked, and immediately wished she had stuck her knife through her tongue instead. Was she nuts?
“Your sister,” Kathleen said slowly, staring Mary Lisa down, “is a very clearheaded, focused individual. I will have to phone her in the morning and ask her what she thinks. I’ve always wondered if there was graft involved in the police department since Jack Wolf came here three years ago. He’s from Chicago, you know.”
“Graft about what, Mom? With whom?”
“Well, Mary Lisa, you’ve been gone for a long time, haven’t you? No one would expect you to know much of anything about what’s happening in Goddard Bay.”
“Okay,” Mary Lisa said. “But it was just a question, really.”
Kathleen said, “Patricia Bigelow is Milo Hildebrand’s lawyer in a lawsuit he has pending against John Goddard’s father, Thomas. Olivia says Thomas Goddard is going to lose. And now his son is persecuting Milo, on his father’s account.”
Mary Lisa rolled her eyes, she couldn’t help it.
Her mother ignored her. “Why wouldn’t John want to help his father? Or Chief Wolf, for that matter? He and John Goddard went to school together. It was the Goddard family, with John’s recommendation, that asked Jack to come out here, and then helped him get elected chief of police. So there’s some payback owed there. If they push Milo as a suspect, it could ruin him, and maybe the lawsuit goes away. John Goddard and Chief Wolf have a lot of leeway to push the investigation in any direction they wish. Everyone knows that.”
George said, “I’ll tell you why that couldn’t happen, Kathleen. Thomas Goddard is a businessman, did his share of wheeling and dealing in his younger days, but this lawsuit with Milo Hildebrand, from what I’ve heard about it, is more of a nuisance than a threat to Thomas. As for John Goddard, he’s so honest I worry for him because there’s room for gray in the world and I’m not sure he knows it when he sees it. He wouldn’t bring charges against Milo Hildebrand unless he was convinced he was guilty. Nothing less.”
“I can’t believe you’re defending John, Dad,” Kelly said. “Look what he did to me, your own daughter. He’s ruthless, and he’d do anything to be governor, whatever, like Mom said.”
Mary Lisa saw anger in her father’s eyes-her eyes. It was so rare, she stared at him, mesmerized. But when he spoke finally, his voice was calm, with only a bit of sarcasm leaking through. “Oh? Did he tell you he wanted to be governor, Kelly?”
“Well, not in so many words, but I do know him well enough to know he can’t be trusted. He didn’t do well back east so he came back here where his family has influence. His father got him elected district attorney, and that’s who he owes his allegiance to.”
Her mother looked ready to jump into the fray again, so Mary Lisa quickly said to her sister, “I met John Goddard running on the beach this morning.”
Her sister froze for a second, and when she spoke, venom was thick in her voice. “I’ll bet he told you he dumped me, didn’t he? He’s a liar, Mary Lisa. Don’t you believe anything he said.”
“You don’t believe he would say anything like that about you to me, your sister, do you?”
Kelly looked uncertain, but her anger flared again. “Yeah, he’d say anything about me to anyone. He’s furious because I gave him the boot. Men like him can’t deal with being rejected.”
“That may be, Kelly, but for your information, he was quite reticent about it,” Mary Lisa said, and smiled. She looked down at the shrimp huddled in the middle of her plate on a small pile of brown rice. She reminded herself she’d come back mostly to see her father, and perhaps to find some comfort in being home again. But what had she really expected? She’d walked onto the stage of another soap opera, this one with a nice juicy murder, only this wasn’t a stage. This was her family and it was real, as real as that LeSabre that struck her in Malibu.
“You don’t look well, Mary Lisa,” Kathleen said.
“It’s nothing, really, just a headache brewing.”
“I thought your friend Judy Reinbold was coming over,” her father said.
“Yeah, she is. I’ll take some aspirin and lie down before she comes. I also need to call my friend Lou Lou in Malibu.” She laughed. “Hey, that rhymes.”
“It sounds like a stripper’s name.”
“No, actually, she’s an excellent makeup artist for the show. And it’s not her real name.”
“What is her real name?” Kelly asked.
“She won’t tell me, won’t tell anyone.”
Kelly asked, “Are you going clubbing with Judy?”
“Not that I know of. Is there a new place in Goddard Bay where one would do that?”
Kelly shot a look toward her father. “It isn’t exactly one of those posh clubs you’re used to down in L.A. but there’s this okay place now over in Tumaluck with a mostly twenties crowd. I’d take you there, introduce you around, but Mick’s coming over.”
“Mick who? Do I know him?” Mary Lisa asked.
“Yeah, Mick Maynard. He’s Jason Maynard’s older brother.”
The table was suddenly deathly still.
“Why is he coming over, Kelly?” her father asked.
“I don’t want him here,” her mother said.
“He didn’t do anything,” Kelly said as she speared a green bean on her fork. “He’s cute and unattached. Hey, maybe he’ll tell me stuff.”
Mary Lisa said slowly, “I remember Mick Maynard. He went to school with Monica, right?”
Kelly nodded, didn’t look at either her mother or her father.
“This isn’t a good idea for you to see him, Kelly,” her father said. “Not now, not three days after his brother was murdered, the murderer still out there.”
“We’re not, like, dating or anything, Dad. He told me he was lonely and confused. I offered to let him talk to me. We’re going for coffee out at the Goddard Bay Inn.”
Silence again.
“For heaven’s sake, I’m not going to sleep with him! I’m only doing a good deed.”
Kathleen turned to Mary Lisa. “I think it’s rather rude of you to leave tonight, Mary Lisa.”
George said, his eyes still on Kelly, “This is a no-guilt household, Kathy. This is Mary Lisa’s vacation, she doesn’t need to spend it in our pockets. As for you, Kelly, I rather wish you would.”
Kelly said, “I’m twenty-five, Dad. I’m an adult. I’m moving back to my apartment after this weekend, so this is all rather silly, isn’t it?” Her parents remained silent, and Kelly added, too brightly, “I thought you played bridge tonight, Mom. Isn’t it your turn to have all the ladies h
ere?”
“No, no bridge tonight. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Mary Lisa, your sister is throwing a party for you tomorrow night.”
Mary Lisa’s dinner roll fell off her plate. She said slowly, “Why would Monica throw a party for me?”
Her father burst out laughing. “Your sister isn’t stupid, sweetie. You’re important. You’re a TV star. You’re a celebrity, which means you can draw people to her. Politically, it’s a smart thing to do. She’s fast, I’ll say that for her. And you know what? It’ll be an excellent party, Monica’s that good.”
When Mary Lisa finally escaped to her room, she called Lou Lou, but Lou Lou wasn’t home. Her machine’s message said, “Tonight I’m working off two pounds on the dance floor. Tomorrow’s Saturday, don’t call me too early. Bye.”
Twenty minutes later, Mary Lisa led her friend Judy Reinbold in only as far as the living room doorway, knowing to her toes that one more step into her mother’s domain would be a mistake. She remembered her mother didn’t like Judy’s parents, and would find a way to show it to their daughter. “Say hi to everyone, Judy, then we’re off.”
Judy Reinbold had the biggest, whitest smile west of the Mississippi. “Hi, everyone!”
“Wait! Come in here, Mary Lisa, and bring Judy.”
“Sorry, Mom, we’ve got to go. We’re already late, right, Judy?”
“Whatever you say, Mary Lisa.”
Mary Lisa laughed as she ran to Judy’s car at the curb. “You wouldn’t have wanted to take another step into the house, trust me on that.”
SHE was not running on Saturday morning because she hoped to see John Goddard again. No, she always ran in the mornings, no matter where she was. Yet, if she was honest about it, she found herself looking around quite a bit, and she was wearing lipstick, a lowering realization.
She had pretty much given up on him when she saw a man running out of the low-lying fog toward her, his pace fast and smooth. She slowed up when she realized it really was John Goddard. He pulled up in front of her, panting.
“I can’t come closer or you’ll run in the opposite direction. I’m sweating like a stoat.”
“Are you running off your anger about this conspiracy thing Patricia Bigelow is talking about?”
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