Web of Evil

City, Dave had spent at least one weekend a month going there to see them.

'Really, Dave,' she told him. 'That's not necessary. What about your kids?'

'What about them? I already did what Rich wanted me to do this weekendwhich was to get him signed up for his learner's permit. As for Cassie and Crystal? They'll be glad to have me out of their hair. Spending weekends with me is more of a hassle for my daughters than it is anything else. I'm not nearly cool enough to suit them.'

'But it makes no sense for both you and Mom to drop everything and come running to California,' Ali argued. 'I'm sure this is no big deal.'

'No big deal?' Dave repeated. 'Are you kidding? Being accused of murder is always a big deal, even if you end up getting off. Ask O. J. Simpson. Ask Robert Blake. And since you obviously don't want me to do this for you, let's just say I'm doing it for your folksfor your mom. This is my cell phone, by the way,' he added. 'Feel free to call me on it anytime if you need to.'

The truth of the matter was, Ali still had Dave's cell phone number stored in her phone. She had needed his help once, desperately, when the abusive husband of one of her cutloose fans had come looking for Ali. But there was no way she was going to admit that to him, especially not right then.

'I still think this is silly,' she said.

'Everybody's entitled to his or her opinion,' Dave returned. 'I don't have enough available cell phone minutes to waste time arguing about it.'

'All right,' Ali said, capitulating. 'You know where to come?'

'Edie gave me the address. Rich is putting it into MapQuest right now. Unfortunately my Nissan Sentra doesn't come equipped with the fancy-schmancy GPS you have in your Cayenne. I can't leave until a little later, but I'll be there.'

He hung up. Ali was still holding the phone in her hand when it rang again. 'Ali?'

Helga's near-baritone usually made people think they were talking to a man. Ali knew better. 'What's up?' Ali asked.

'Are you decent?'

'Not exactly.'

'Get that way,' Helga ordered, 'and then meet us downstairs.'

'Us?'

'Victor and me,' Helga said. 'We have an appointment with Ted Grantham half an hour from now.'

'With Ted?' Ali asked. 'What for?'

'With Ted and with Les Jordan,' Helga replied.

'Who's Les Jordan?'

'Paul Grayson's estate planning attorney.'

Far be it for Paul to have one attorney when he could have two, Ali thought. Then she realized she had no room to talk.

'Why are we meeting him?' she asked.

'For a reading of the will.'

'Now?' Ali wanted to know. 'Don't people usually read wills after funerals instead of before?'

'Under normal circumstances that's true,' Helga said. 'But these circumstances are far from normal. Meet us downstairs in fifteen minutes.'

CHAPTER 5

Victor and Helga arrived together in Victor's silver Lincoln Town Car. When Ali looked inside the vehicle, she could see that Victor took up more than half of the front seat, with the steering wheel grazing his ample belly. Helga, on the other hand, was so tiny that once Ali settled into the backseat, the top of the diminutive attorney's hairdo didn't clear the headrest.

'I'm not sure why we're doing this in such an unseemly hurry,' Ali said, once her seat belt was fastened. 'Yesterday we found out Paul was dead. Today's the day he and April were supposed to get married. Couldn't we wait a day or two and give the poor woman a chance to adjust?'

'We're doing it now because we need to,' Victor said. 'Because if the cops are going to pin a murder-for-profit motive on you, we need to know whether or not it will fly, and it may, especially if you're still a beneficiary under the will. The cops will naturally expect that the will won't be read until after the funeral, and they know the funeral can't take place until after the coroner releases the bodysometime next week. In other words, reading the will now gives us an investigational leg up for at least the next several days.'

'We're also reading it now because Ted Grantham is a spineless wuss,' Helga observed. 'When I called and suggested reading the will today, he practically fell all over himself saying yes. He even suggested we go to the house to do it. He said he'd call Les Jordan and April and set it up.'

Ali was dismayed. 'We're going to the house on Robert Lane?' she asked. 'Couldn't we do this somewhere elseanywhere else? Why would Grantham suggest such a thing? Why would you agree to it?'

'Because evidently he doesn't think April's in any condition to go elsewhere,' Helga said. 'I think he also agreed to reading the will today because he's nervous. His divorce case is in the toilet, but he still wants to be paid. Grantham may not have drafted the new will, but I'm guessing he knows the terms. He hasn't come right out and said sothat would be a breach of client privilegebut from the way he's acting, I'm guessing the new will has been drafted without being put into effect.'

'And I'm still the main beneficiary?'

'Right,' Helga answered. 'So Grantham is making nice with us because he thinks you'll be the one settling Paul's estateas well as paying any outstanding bills.'

'He's doing this because he's buttering us up?'

'Buttering you up,' Helga corrected. 'He also said something about preserving community assets. I think he's worried about handing things off to you before any of those assets has a chance to disappear. If that were to happen, he's concerned he might somehow end up being held responsible.'

'What do you mean disappear?' Ali asked.

'You've never had the pleasure of meeting April Gaddis,' Helga said with a disdainful sniff. 'Ted has met her, and so have I. Prior to meeting your husband and signing on for what she thought would be a very luxurious free ride, her greatest ambition was to become a Pilates instructor someday. She's gorgeous but not exactly the brightest bulb I ever met. The same goes for some of the bodybuilding pals she likes to hang out with. I wouldn't call them the salt of the earth, either. April's bachelorette party the other night was wild enough that the cops had to be summoned to quiet things downand that's with her about to give birth.

'Ted's worried that when some of the more disreputable wedding guests who've been staying at the house pack up to go home, some of Paul's precious objets d'art might end up going home with them. Grantham is lobbying for you to demand a full inventory of the contents of the Robert Lane housean immediate full inventory.'

'In other words,' Ali said, 'Ted's rooting for the old will over the new one because he expects to hand the whole mess over to me and maybe get paid faster besides. But if the old will is still in effect and I'm the primary beneficiary, doesn't that give me a clear motive for wanting Paul dead? Doesn't it make me look that much worse to the cops?'

'That just about covers it,' Victor agreed. 'What's good for Ted could be bad for us.'

'I still don't like the fact that we're having the will read now,' Ali said after a pause. 'It seems rude and pushy.'

They had come to a stop at a light on Sunset. Victor sought Ali's eyes in the rearview mirror. 'It probably is rude and pushy,' he agreed. 'But let me remind you, this is a homicide investigation, Alipossibly even capital murder. With your life at stake, you by God better believe we're going to be pushy.'

'All right,' Ali conceded finally. 'Fair enough.'

Robert Lane was only a few blocks long and sat on top of a steep hill just up from Sunset Boulevard; it was a winding, narrow, and supposedly two-way street. Whenever Paul and Ali had thrown partieswhich they had done oftenthey had rented the parking lot from a neighboring church down on Sunset and then hired one of the local parking valet firms to ferry guests' cars up and down the hill.