have repeated his usual admonition for me to stay out of the investigation. It was pretty much a given, just the way it was a given I wasn’t going to listen.
If he wouldn’t get Heather to check out who had delivered the package, I’d have to figure out a way to do it myself. I already had an idea.
I pressed in Mason’s number. He answered on his cell, but he was home. “What’s up, Sunshine?” he asked.
I started to tell him about the whole scenario from the morning, but he stopped me. “I was just going to go out. I was going to pick up some dinner. Join me, and you can tell me all about it on the way,” he said. Why not? Mason said he’d be by in a few minutes.
“I was just going to get some food to go,” Mason said as I got into his black Mercedes, “and take it back to my place. Does that work for you?”
“I interrupted your plans,” I said with a shrug, “so, sure, whatever you were going to do is fine.” Mason said something about being glad for the company and the next thing I knew, he’d gotten on the 101 freeway.
“I hope you don’t mind a ride. I have to pick something up from my office first,” he said. He got off at Coldwater Canyon and headed toward the mountains. I barely noticed the twisty ride and the lights of the houses on the hillside as I gave him the whole unvarnished story from the morning.
“Nell should really call me,” he said. “She needs to have somebody advising her on what to do and say or not say.”
“She thinks because she’s innocent that that’s enough. She thinks getting a lawyer makes her look guilty.”
Mason made a tsk sound. “I hate to say it, but she’s right about the general feeling that someone who hires a lawyer when they haven’t even been arrested is guilty. Not that I’m saying she shouldn’t get one anyway. But think about it. What kind of reaction do you have when you see some guy’s lawyer speaking for him on a morning talk show.”
“Yikes, now that you mention it, you’re right. She’s right,” I said. I thought back to watching the news and seeing some lawyer doing the talking while his client mutely stood by. My first thought was, what’s the guy afraid of saying. And my second thought was that he was guilty of whatever he was being accused of.
“She doesn’t need any help looking guilty,” he said “We know it, and I’m sure the cops do, too, that she had the perfect storm of motive, means and opportunity.”
“Geez, when you put it that way, it really does look bad for her.”
“Are you sure she didn’t do it?”
“Yes,” I said. “I can’t explain why I know, but I just know she didn’t.”
Once we reached the city side of the Santa Monica Mountains, he drove to Century City. At one time, it had been part of a film studio, but then had been developed into office buildings, luxury condos, a hotel, and shopping and entertainment centers. He pulled in front of a high-rise, made a call and a moment later, the security guard came out carrying a briefcase.
Mason thanked him and put it in the backseat. “Okay, business taken care of, now for food. I was going to pick up some wrap sandwiches and side dishes.”
I told him it sounded good to me. Actually anything sounded good to me. Somehow in all that had gone on, I’d forgotten to eat. I was always up for serendipity in the food department anyway.
The small cafe was getting ready to close, but the owner seemed to know Mason. I let Mason do the ordering, and a few minutes later, we left with shopping bags of delicious-smelling food.
“One more stop,” he said, heading for Melrose. I knew where he was going before he pulled up to the curb. I didn’t get there often because it was in the city, but it was my favorite cake bakery. Their berry cake was probably my favorite cake in the world. We both went inside and looked at the glass case of cakes sold by the slice. They all looked good, but I still went for a slice of the berry cake. No surprise, Mason got devil’s food.
Driving home, I felt naughty, like being out late on a school night, but at the same time it was fun. Mason lived in the flats of Encino. His house was huge, particularly for one person and a small dog. He’d bought out his wife’s share of the sprawling ranch-style house when he’d gotten the divorce and seemed to enjoy having so much space. I’d actually only been there a couple of times. It seemed like he mostly came to my place or we went somewhere.
Spike was patrolling the door when we came in from the garage. The tiny toy fox terrier seemed to have no concept of his size and took his job as watch dog very seriously. He ran around my feet, keeping me in the doorway until Mason laughed and told him it was okay.
Then he followed us into the kitchen as we carried in the food.
I felt guilty. Although I’d told Mason all about what was going on with Nell, I’d gotten distracted and never brought up finding out about the package. Wasn’t that why I went along in the first place? I quickly mentioned that Nell had remembered that the box of sweetener had been sent to Robyn. Mason picked up on it right away.
“So, you think whoever sent it is the real killer,” he said. “Very good, Sunshine. And it must have come pretty recently,” he added.
“How did you figure that?” I asked.
“Elementary, my dear. Because if the packets were tainted, as soon as she used one she’d . . .”
“Die,” I said, and he nodded.
“Even if they hadn’t all been tampered with, my guess is the ones with the poison would have been positioned on the top,” Mason said as he put everything out on the counter and we made up plates. He’d gotten several kinds of wrap sandwiches, pasta salad, green salad, roasted potatoes and fruit salad. We took our plates of food into the den that overlooked the pool. Mason’s yard was landscaped beautifully, complete with a waterfall cascading into the free-form pool. Lights had been strategically placed to illuminate the lush foliage.
“It happens you’re right about the time frame. Nell said the package had come in the last week,” I said, salivating at my plate of food. I’m sure the food tasted delicious, but I was so hungry, I practically inhaled it. Of course I had room for dessert. I enjoyed every mouthful of the yellow cake covered with whipped-cream icing, along with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.
“So you want to find out who sent the package,” Mason said with a grin. “Barry wouldn’t help you, would he?” Mason said, and I nodded. “Let me make some calls in the morning.”
I thanked him profusely and he did a little mock bow. “Glad to be of service.”
I was shocked when I saw how late it was and quickly helped him clean up and then he took me home. I hadn’t noticed, but Mason had gotten an extra piece of the berry cake for me to take with me. “I’ll call you in the morning, hopefully with an answer,” he said as he pulled in front of my house. I looked for my keys and was about to get out of the car when I saw my front door open.
“Uh-oh,” Mason said as Barry jogged down the path to the street.
“Where were you?” Barry demanded. “You didn’t answer your cell phone.”
“It’s my fault,” Mason said, leaning across the seat. “I had to pick up something from my office and then we got some food.” He handed the white box to me. “Don’t forget your cake.”
I got out of the car and fumbled for my BlackBerry. Somehow it had gotten set on silent.
“You can leave now,” Barry said to Mason in an angry tone, and to punctuate it, he closed the front door of the sleek black car.
I knew Barry well enough to understand his seeming anger was a cover for worry.
“I told you that I was going to come over and bring Chinese,” he said when we got inside. I could smell the food as soon as I got in the door. “You could have at least called and told me you were going out.”
Just then the door opened and Samuel walked in. He nodded a greeting to both of us and sensed trouble. Whether it was nosiness or some thought of protecting me, he hung around instead of going into his room. Having an audience made it awkward, and in a stilted tone, I reminded Barry of the interruption during our phone call. “You know how it is. Something comes up with work and all bets are off,” I said.
Barry blew out his breath a few times. He knew what I was saying was correct. Still, he wasn’t happy. “You couldn’t have just stayed home?” he said.
“I wanted to talk to Mason about something,” I said. Before Barry could start asking more questions, I just told him he wouldn’t want to know what the something was.
“What are these?” Samuel said, picking up some condo brochures on the living room coffee table.
Before either of us could answer, Samuel’s cell phone got his attention and he went into his room to talk.
