3. ?
4. Research day care for Laurie.
5. Prep for return to the office.
6. Stock up on pumped milk.
Depressed about having to return to corporate hell, I logged on to the computer to check e-mail. I found a note from Paula.
Inspired by Paula’s note, I searched through my garage for an old yearbook. I found the one from our freshman year and flipped through it.
Pictures of Paula and Michelle and me covered the pages.
I located our sophomore yearbook and searched the pages. There was a photo of Michelle and me in the school play. Michelle had inscribed a message in purple handwriting: “Kate, best of luck to you in the theater!”
My junior yearbook was missing. I vaguely recalled lending it to Paula. She’d probably never returned it.
I leafed through our senior book. Pictures of the prom splashed across the page.
I found a picture of Rich. There he was, with Carol Reilly. Whatever happened to her?
Then I saw it. Brad staring back at me. A pretty date on his arm. A familiar bracelet on her wrist.
I dropped the book.
Hmmm? How had her bracelet ended up in George’s bag?
I picked up Galigani from his home on Telegraph Hill. He limped to the car.
“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice,” I said.
“Hey, I’m not supposed to be out. But who listens to doctors anyway?”
I nodded and steered toward the Haight district. There was no traffic to speak of at this hour of the night. Galigani and I rode in silence. I wondered if he was falling asleep and eyed him suspiciously. He jerked his head up and glared at me.
“What?” He smiled.
“How are you feeling?”
“Fair to middling. Did you see my scar?” He opened his shirt a bit. A fresh scar crossed his entire chest.
“Ouch!”
“Funny thing is, this one doesn’t hurt so bad. It’s my leg. I’ve got a scar there that runs down the whole thing. It’s where they took the veins out to put into my heart.”
I found parking in front of the apartment house. We climbed out of the Chevy. “My legs hurt, too,” I complained.
With a pang I remembered my pain relief pills sitting on my kitchen counter.
“Too much running around for just having a baby,” Galigani acknowledged.
He patted me on the back. “You’re doing great, kid. I knew you were a bulldog from the start.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Sure. Bulldogs are persistent and smart.”
“They’re also short and ugly,” I retorted.
Galigani laughed.
“If I was so smart, I would have figured this out a long time ago,” I continued.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You got no experience.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “What you need is a mentor.”
I held my breath. “You’re supposed to be retired.”
“Right.” Galigani laughed. “We can talk about the future later.”
Despite the gravity of the situation facing us, I smiled. “You got your gun?”
Galigani nodded. “Always. So should you. We’ll see about getting you a license, training, all that.”
“Although we won’t need it tonight,” he continued. “She won’t try anything with both of us there. Even if we are both crippled.”
I laughed as we limped toward the apartment building.
“I don’t want to ring the buzzer and alert her prematurely,” Galigani said. “Let’s wait for someone to leave.”
We didn’t wait long. A blond man in his early twenties exited the building. Galigani grabbed the door saying, “Ladies first.”
We both hobbled up the stairs and took a minibreak outside the apartment to catch our breath.
Galigani asked, “Ready?”
I threw my shoulders back, took a deep breath, and nodded. Galigani banged on the door. The redhead opened it a few moments later. She was wrapped in a robe, her hair enveloped in a towel.
She smiled widely to see me. “Kate Connolly! What can I do you for?”
Galigani flashed his investigator badge. “May we come in? I don’t think this is a conversation you want to have in the hallway.” He walked past her without waiting for a response. I followed him into the living room.
He circled around the room, then made himself comfortable on the couch. KelliAnn and I remained standing. Galigani eyed an opened box of chocolate chip cookies lying on the coffee table. He picked up one of KelliAnn’s magazines and flipped through it casually. “Can you tell us, again, about your whereabouts on the night of June fifteenth?”
She blinked. “What are you talking about? You two need to leave or I’ll call the police.”
I watched her fidget with the towel on her head.
“We have reason to believe you were at El Paraiso,” Galigani said.
KelliAnn rolled her eyes. “Come on. My stupid neighbor killed Brad. The police know all this. They arrested her.”
“You were still in love with Brad after all these years,” I said. “You took him to the prom. You never got over him.”
KelliAnn laughed. “That’s absurd!”
Galigani jumped in. “You overhead Brad and Jennifer that night. You knew he was leaving your sister. You heard Jennifer reject him.”
“Maybe you thought you’d try a last-ditch effort to get back together with him,” I said.
The corners of her mouth twisted downward, creating a half-crazed look on her face. “This is ridiculous! You can’t come over here and accuse me of this!”
“I have something of yours, KelliAnn,” I taunted. “Something you lost that night at El Paraiso. It must have slipped off your wrist when you reached into George’s bag to take the gun you killed Brad with.”
Her eyes flashed. She blinked rapidly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You broke into both my cars, looking for your bracelet. Michelle saw it fall from George’s bags. She told you I had it, right? She suspected you were involved. Is that why you killed her? Because she’d figured it out?”
KelliAnn shook her head frantically, the towel unraveling, her red hair falling to her shoulders. “You’re wrong. Michelle killed herself. And Jennifer. . They found the gun at Jennifer’s place.”
