visible between her tight, white curls. And beneath her, an ugly red stain spread on our beige Berber.
I heard a scream and was only vaguely aware that it might be coming from me. My legs collapsed, and I landed in a heap on the floor. Two arms instantly went around my middle, lifting me up and dragging me back outside. I closed my eyes, shaking my head defiantly from side to side as a strong chest pressed against my face. It couldn’t be. I refused to believe it. Aunt Sue was fine. That scene, it hadn’t just happened. This was a dream. A very bad dream that I’d wake up from any minute now.
“I’m sorry,” Cal whispered into my hair. And I realized I was sobbing, tears soaking the front of his shirt as he held me tight. So tight I almost couldn’t breathe. So tight I wasn’t sure he’d ever let go. Then again, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted him to.
I don’t know how long we stood like that, but it felt like an eternity. I began to shiver in the cool breeze, my wet bathing suit clinging to my skin. I felt Cal drape his jacket around my shoulders. It was warm and smelled like soap and leather. I shut my eyes, inhaling the scent. Trying to focus on just that one scent, trying to block out the horrible flashing lights still bathing our neighborhood in ominous light.
“What’s going on here?”
My head shot up, my voice catching in my throat. I spun around.
To find Aunt Sue and Millie striding across the lawn.
I launched myself at them, tackling Aunt Sue around her middle. Huge tears flowed down my cheeks. Only this time, they were in relief.
“Ohmigod, you’re alive.”
“Well, of course I’m alive. It was just bingo,” she shot back, detaching me. “And you’ve got my shirt all wet. Where are your clothes?”
I choked back a laugh, relief replacing the grief which had replaced the fear, which all had me feeling limp, tired, and amazed I could even stand up still.
“What’s going on?” Aunt Millie asked, squinting at the flashing lights through her glasses. “You having some sort of party?”
“I thought she was dead. The body. Our carpet. It’s red.” I realized I was babbling. I stopped. Took a deep breath. Then hugged Aunt Sue again.
“I have no idea what you’re saying, peanut,” she confessed, “but, I hope you’re as glad to see me when I tell you I lost fifty bucks.”
“I don’t care,” I mumbled into her curls as I squeezed her midsection.
“I’ll be right back,” Cal said, moving away from our group to talk to the uniform, his brow drawn in concern. Which I didn’t blame him for. As I released Aunt Sue, I realized that even though my loved ones were still alive and well, things were not hunky dory. There was a dead body on my living room floor. If it wasn’t Aunt Sue or Millie, who the hell was it?
I tugged Cal’s jacket tighter around my shoulders, watching as he pulled some sort of identification from his back pocket, presenting it to the officer. After a brief moment examining it, he and Cal exchanged a few words, the officer gesturing behind himself every few seconds. When they were done, Cal’s expression wasn’t any less grim.
“Well?” I asked as he returned to the group, almost afraid of the answer.
“It’s your neighbor. Hattie Carmichael.”
Aunt Sue sucked in a breath, her hand going to her mouth.
“It looks like she was in the living room, near the television. She was struck from behind with a metal bookend.”
“This is all my fault,” Aunt Sue moaned. “I forgot to shut off the TV before we went to bingo. Hattie was always complaining about it playing too loud.”
“Did Hattie have a key to your house?”
I shook my head. “No, but we always kept one in the planter near the door. Hattie knew it was there.”
“Would she have just let herself in?”
“This is Hattie Carmichael you’re talking about,” Aunt Sue said. “She was nosier than a bloodhound.” She paused. “God rest her soul,” she added, quickly crossing herself.
“A murder at the old folks’ village,” Aunt Millie said, then jabbed me in the ribs. “There’s a story for ya, huh?”
It certainly was. And, were it anyone else this was happening to, I would have already been mentally constructing a salacious headline for the morning edition. As it was, I pulled Cal’s jacket tighter around my shoulders.
Someone had been in my home. Someone had been seen there by Mrs. Carmichael. And someone had killed her. If anyone was to blame for this, it wasn’t Alex Trebek at top volume. It was me.
My caller turned vandal had just turned murderer.
Since our condo had officially become a crime scene, Cal insisted that Aunt Sue and I come stay at his place for the night. For once, I didn’t protest. As soon as the officers let me, I slipped into my bedroom, carefully avoiding looking at the black tarp-covered mound on my living room floor that used to be my neighbor. I changed out of my cold, wet bikini and packed a few necessities in a bag. I crossed the hall and did the same for Aunt Sue before meeting them back outside.
Cal, Aunt Sue, Aunt Millie, and I hopped into his Hummer and rode through the dark streets in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. We dropped Millie home at the Sunset Palms retirement village in Glendale, then hopped on the freeway, where the steady rhythm of the wheels turning beneath me suddenly caused the physical toll of the day to catch up to me. Big time. So much so that by the time we pulled up to Cal’s place in West L.A., I was half asleep and Aunt Sue was snoring in the backseat.
Cal cut the engine, the silence settling over our trio as I stared up at the one-story craftsman in front of us.
“You okay?” Cal asked, turning to me.
His face was guarded, shadowed by the light from the streetlamp outside.
I nodded. “I will be.” Which was more than I could say for poor Mrs. C.
“The police are going to want to talk to you tomorrow.”
“I know.
“Do me a favor and don’t lie to them, okay?”
I nodded again.
“I mean it.” He paused. “You can do that, right?”
I shot him a look. “Yes.”
“Good. Tell them everything. They need to know about the calls, the break-in. Everything.”
Full disclosure was not exactly in my nature. However, in this instance, I had to agree with Cal. Someone was dead. And it was all my fault.
I nodded in the darkness once more.
“Good.”
He got out of the car. I roused Aunt Sue, and we followed him up the walkway to a dark porch where he fumbled with the keys for a second before letting us inside.
As soon as he switched on the lights, I fell in love with the little house. It was small even by L.A. standards, a tiny living room in front, a kitchen/dining area to the left and hallway visible in the back. But the low beamed ceilings and dark, hardwood floors gave it a cozy feel instead of being cramped.
A red leather sofa hugged the back wall, chrome legs curling under it like claws. Beside it, black, lacquered end tables squatted, one of them holding a lamp with a hula girl painted on it. Two
Despite the day I’d had, I felt the corners of my mouth tilting upward. Who knew Cal had such personality?
“Guest room’s down the hall,” he said, dropping his keys in an olive green ashtray near the door as he led the way. “Sue, you can take that one,” he offered. “Tina can sleep in my room.”
I felt my cheeks rush with heat, instantly remembering how close together our lips had been earlier that night.
