In a querulous old-woman's voice, Evelyn Sherlock said, 'What are you doing here? You're always at the courthouse this time of the morning. What do you want, Corman?'
'This isn't exactly a day to have business as usual. I'm here to see how you're doing, naturally.'
'I'll live, no thanks to you. I'll be pressing charges, you can count on that. Oh my, my head feels all soft. What's on TV, Lacey? I always watch Oprah. Is she on yet?'
'Oprah is on in the afternoon,' Judge Sherlock said. 'Get a grip, Evelyn.'
'Oh, then it's The Price Is Right. That's a great show. I can guess the amounts of money better than those stupid contestants. Do turn it on, Lacey.'
It was down the rabbit hole, Lacey thought as she switched on the TV, then handed her mother the remote.
'You can leave now, Lacey, I'm not going to die. Your father didn't hit me hard enough. I guess he couldn't build up enough speed to get it done once and for all.'
'All right,' Lacey said. She leaned down and kissed her mother's white cheek. 'You take it easy, okay?'
'What? Oh yes, certainly. I'll bet that powerboat with all that stuff on it costs exactly thirty-three thousand five hundred dollars.'
As Lacey walked from the room, she heard Bob Barker call out, 'It's thirty-four thousand!'
She wasn't aware her father was there until he stepped into the elevator with her.
'I'll see that she's well taken care of. I've decided Mrs. Arch just isn't keeping good enough control. She never should have let her get away like that. Also, after the new shrink sees her this afternoon, I'll call and let you know what she says. I'll tell you one thing, though. Right now she certainly doesn't sound as if she wants any attention from me. She sounds as if she wants me hung up by my balls.'
'As you said, we'll see.' She looked up at her handsome father, at the uncertainty and confusion in his eyes, at that stern set of his jaw. She lightly laid her hand on his forearm. 'Take care, Dad. You don't really think she'll try to press charges?'
'Probably not. She'll forget all about it by this afternoon. If she doesn't, the cops will treat her gently and ask me to see that she has better care.'
'Dad, does Mother have money of her own?' 'Yes, something in the neighborhood of four hundred thousand. It's safely invested, has been for years. She's never had to touch it. Why do you ask? Oh, I know. Your mother's been claiming I married her for her money again. Not likely, Lacey.'
On a hunch, she called San Quentin from the airport. Belinda's father, her mother's first husband, Conal Francis, had been out of jail since the previous Monday. She pressed her forehead against the public phone booth. Where was Belinda's father? Was he as crazy as her father had said he was?
She called Dillon from the plane and got his answering machine. He was probably at the gym. She'd surprise him. She could see him walking through the front door all sweaty and so beautiful she'd have to try to touch all of him at once, which was great fun but impossible. Suddenly, in her mind's eye she saw him and Hannah in the shower. The jealous rage surprised her. She was breathing hard, wanting to yell, but the person seated next to her on the plane probably wouldn't understand. It was in the past. Every woman he'd ever had sex with was in the past, just as Bobby Wellman and his yellow Jaguar were in her past. That made her smile.
It was raining hard in Washington, cold, creeping down into the forties, and utterly miserable. She couldn't wait to get home. Home, she thought. It wasn't her own town house, it was Dillon's wonderful house, with the skylights that gave onto heaven. She got into the taxi at the head of the line and gave the black middle-aged driver directions.
'Bad night,' the driver said, giving her a huge white-toothed smile in the rearview mirror.
'I'm hoping the night is going to be a lot better than the day was,' she said.
'Pretty little gal like you, I hope it's a hot date?'
'Yes, it is,' she said, grinning back. 'In fact, I'm going to marry him.'
'This guy get lucky or what?'
'Oh yes.' She leaned back and closed her eyes. When the taxi pulled up in front of Dillon's red brick house, she was asleep. The driver got out of the cab and walked to the front door. When Savich answered, the driver gave him a big grin.
'I've got a nice little present for you, but she's all asleep in the back of my cab. I guess you're her hot date, huh? And the guy who's going to marry her?'
'She told you that, did she? That's a really good sign.'
'Women always tell me everything,' the driver said, walking back to the taxi.
Savich couldn't wait to get her inside the house.
'Dillon?'
'Yes, it's me. Go back to sleep, Sherlock. You're home now. But I'm not going to let you sleep very long. That all right with you?' He leaned down and kissed her nose.
'Okay,' she said, and bit his earlobe.
She giggled. He thought it was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard in his life.
The phone was ringing as he laid her on the bed.
'Well damn,' he said and answered it. She lay on her back, just looking over at him, listening to his deep voice, his very short answers. When he hung up the phone, she said, 'Have they caught him?'
Savich just shook his head. 'No, but it might be really soon. That was Jimmy Maitland. A call came through from this woman in southern Ohio claiming to have seen both Marlin and Erasmus in a restaurant off the turnpike. It sounds like it's for real. They're going to check. They'll get back to us when they know one way or the other. Nothing to do now but wait.'
'Is this the first time both Erasmus and Marlin have been reported being seen together?'
He nodded as he pulled his navy blue sweater over his head. He smiled at her as he unfastened his jeans.
Sometime later, she whispered in his mouth, 'Please sing to me.'
His rich baritone filled the air. 'You're my gateway to heaven, all tied up in a bow. Let me at your hinges and I'll oil them really slow.''
The phone rang again. He held her close as he rolled to his side. 'Savich here.'
'We think it's Erasmus and Marlin,' said Jimmy Maitland, more excitement in his voice than Savich had heard in three months. 'So it looks like they're in Ohio. I'll get back to you when I hear any more.'
'That's a relief,' Savich said and slowly hung up the phone. He turned back to her, saw that the sated vague look was long gone now, and there was fear there, haunting fear. 'No, no, Sherlock, Maitland thinks it was Erasmus and Marlin. They're way off in Ohio someplace, far away from us. It's okay. They'll catch them.' Still, the fear didn't leave her eyes. He said nothing more, just came over her again. He shuddered with the feel of her stiffening beneath him.
He didn't ease his hold on her until he was certain she was asleep. He kissed her temple. He wondered what had happened in San Francisco. Then he wondered if they'd caught Marlin yet and if they'd dispatched him to hell.
Lacey was feeling mellow as she sipped Dillon's famous darkly rich coffee. Morning sunlight poured through the kitchen windows. She was leaning against the refrigerator.
Dillon took her cup and kissed her until she was ready to jump on him. Then he gave it back to her. It took another three long drinks of coffee and a distance of three feet from him before she could function again. He just grinned at her.
When she had her wits together, finally, she told him about her parents, about Douglas. 'Douglas was treating my mother like she was his lover. He kissed her, caressed her face, called her by her first name. I'm not wrong about this even though he denied it, denied it quite believably.'
He nearly dropped his spoon. 'You're kidding me. No? Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. When it comes to your family, I'm willing to believe just about anything. Do you think it's possible that Douglas was sleeping not only with his wife but also with his wife's mother?'
She took a bite of toast, then added another dollop of strawberry spread. 'I have no idea. Maybe he wanted all the Sherlock women. After all, he wanted to sleep with me too.' She sighed, rubbed her stomach, knew she was going to have to relax or she'd get an ulcer. 'It's as if I know them but they're strangers to me in the most basic ways. I found out that Belinda's father, my mother's first husband-his name is Conal Francis-was released from San
