thing, over and over.'
'The messages weren't from your mother,' Ali said firmly. 'They're from me, April, all of them. Your mother's been hurt. She's in the ER at Cedars-Sinai. You need to get here as soon as you can. Where are you?'
'Hurt? What do you mean, hurt?'
'She fell down the stairs at the house. She must have hit her head, either on the way down or on the tile floor at the bottom of the staircase.'
There was a pausea long pause. 'Is it like, you know, bad?' April asked.
'I don't know how bad it is,' Ali returned. 'Since I'm not a blood relative, the people here at the hospital won't tell me anything.'
By now Ali had reached the registration desk, where a woman seated in front of a computer terminal glared at Ali impatiently, waiting for her to finish the call.
'You brought Ms. Ragsdale in?' the receptionist asked. 'We're going to need some information.'
Ali thrust Monique's cell phone in the woman's direction. 'There's no point in talking to me because I don't know anything. This is April Gaddis, Monique Ragsdale's daughter,' she added. 'You should probably talk to her.'
The receptionist took the cell phone and handed it over to the same nurse who had come to collect the puking toddler. About that time two uniformed LAPD officersa man and a womanmade their way into the ER. Ali recognized them at once. They were the same officers Ali had passed as she sprinted out of the house on Robert Lane intent on hitching a ride to the hospital. Unfortunately, three other people followed the two cops. Two of them carried camerasone still and one video. The reporters were still on the hunt, and this trio had just gotten lucky.
The officers spotted Ali standing near the reception desk and hurried toward her. 'Ms. Reynolds?' the female officer asked. 'Could we speak to you for a moment, please?'
The flurry of activity that marked the arrival of the cops and the cameras caused every head in the waiting room to swivel curiously in Ali's direction. The room went totally silent as everyone strained to hear her answer.
'Yes, of course,' she said. 'How can I help?'
'I'm Officer Oliveras. We understand you're the person who found Ms. Ragsdale at the bottom of the stairs?' she asked.
'Yes,' Ali answered. 'That's correct.'
'Can you tell us how you came to be there?' That question came from Officer Oliveras's partner, one Dale Ramsey.
'Monique's amp;that is, Ms. Ragsdale's daughter, April Gaddis, sent a message to me and asked me to come thereto the house. April said she needed my help.'
'With what?' Ramsey asked.
'With making funeral arrangements,' Ali began, then she paused and looked around the room. All ears seemed to be cocked in her direction. 'It's all rather complicated,' she added.
Officer Oliveras didn't smile. 'Maybe you'd rather speak to us in a somewhat more private setting,' she offered. 'Our squad car is right outside.'
The idea of being closeted in a vehicle with two more inquisitive cops didn't sound all that appealing, especially if there were photographers here ready to capture each and every vivid detail on film.
'No,' Ali said quickly. 'This is fine. I was sitting over there in the corner. Maybe we could do this there.'
She led the cops into an area where the distinct odor of puke, barely covered by some astringent cleaning solution, still lingered in the air. Officer Oliveras followed Ali while Officer Ramsey rounded on the reporters.
'All right, you bozos,' he said. 'Enough! Get the hell out of here. Can't you see there are sick people here? You're botherin' 'em.'
'So,' Officer Oliveras said to Ali. 'We're given to understand that the house where this happened, the house on Robert Lane, actually belongs to you?'
'Supposedly,' Ali said. 'But all that's pretty much in a state of confusion right now. You see, my husband died the night before last. Because our divorce hadn't been finalized and because his will hadn't been changed, the house evidently comes to me.'
'And Ms. Ragsdale is the mother of your ex-husband's intended bride.'
'Yes,' Ali said. 'That's correct.'
'And you know her?'
'We've met,' Ali admitted. 'Only this morning. We were at a meeting together there at the housea meeting with our several attorneys.'
'Where you discussed this will situationwhere your husband left everything to you and nothing to Ms. Ragsdale's daughter, the mother of your husband's baby?'
'Yes,' Ali said, although her answer was barely audible. It was difficult to speak when what she was hearing loud and clear in her head were Victor Angeleri's words: 'What part of whatever you say' don't you understand?'
'Should I have an attorney with me when I'm answering these questions?' Ali asked.
Officer Oliveras's face darkened. 'It's up to you,' she said. 'If you feel you need one, that's fine, but at this point, all we're trying to do is get a handle on who all was there at the house this morning and why.'
'We gathered there for a reading of my husband's will,' Ali answered after a pause. 'I was there along with April Gaddis, my husband's fiancee; Ms. Ragsdale; and then four attorneys. No, wait. There were five attorneys actually, counting Ms. Ragsdale's.'
Ali reeled off each of the several attorneys' names while Officer Oliveras took notes.
'You say this last one, Mr. Anderson, is Ms. Ragsdale's attorney?' Oliveras asked. 'Why would she need one? Is she a beneficiary under the will?'
It didn't seem wise to mention the possibility of a postmortem divorce. That wasn't necessarily lying. 'No,' Ali said finally. 'Mr. Anderson was there ostensibly to protect the rights of the unborn baby. My understanding is, however, that regardless of whether or not the baby is named in the will, she'll still benefit from it.'
'The baby?' Oliveras asked.
Ali nodded.
'You already know the baby's a girl then?'
'Yes.'
Officer Ramsey sighed and shook his head impatiently, as though all the marital back-and-forthing was boring him to tears.
'If you and Ms. Ragsdale met just this morning, it's fair to assume you didn't have any particular bone of contention with her?'
'No. None at all.'
'Was anyone else there?'
Ali did her best to recall everyone elsethe cook; Jesus, the gardener; Tracy McLaughlin and the Sumo Sudoku people along with the accompanying film crew. Of those the only name she knew for sure was that of the interviewer, Sandy Quijada.
'All right now,' Oliveras said. 'Tell me again why was it you went back to the house this afternoon.'
'April called and invited me over. Or rather, she called Ted Grantham's office and left a message asking me to come over and help her work on making funeral arrangements.'
'For your ex-husband?'
'Yes.'
'You must have a pretty cordial relationship with your husband's fiancee,' Oliveras observed. 'It seems to me she would have asked someone else for help with that kind of thingher mother, for example.'
This was exactly what Dave had said when he had warned Ali to stay away. And, as he had predicted, things were indeed going to hell.
At that moment April herself came charging through the ER's automatic doors. Her eyes were wide, her skin deathly pale. Panting, she raced up to the receptionist, who, after only a few murmured words of conversation, immediately summoned the nurse who was still holding Monique's cell phone. With no more formalities than that, April was handed the phone and then ushered through the curtains and back into the treatment rooms.
