L.A. Dead

'Is that where she's staying?'

'She's been cagey about where she's staying. I don't like it, frankly; I don't think this is over.'

'Neither do I.'

'Are you carrying?'

'No, and I don't know why I asked you to bring a weapon out here. A moment of paranoia, I guess.'

'If Dolce is mad at you, it's not paranoid to go armed. If I were you, I wouldn't leave home without it.'

'I'd feel a fool, wearing a gun these days,' Stone said. 'It took some getting used to when I was on the force, but now… well, it just seems, I don't know, belligerent.'

'You've never liked guns, have you?'

'No, I guess not. I mean, I admire a well-made tool, and I guess that's what a gun is. Some of them are beautiful things, like the Walther, but I never liked the Glocks; they're ugly.'

The women came back, and Manolo poured their coffee.

'Did Marc Blumberg see you today?' Stone asked Arrington.

'He came in time for lunch, and by the time he left, I was prepped,' as he put it. Sounds as though someone had shaved my pubic hair and painted my belly orange.'

Dino made a face. 'Such imagery! Only a woman could put it that way.'

'Men are such babies,' Mary Ann said. 'So easily shocked. Dino, you couldn't make it as a woman for a single day.'

'And I wouldn't want to try,' Dino said.

They chatted for another hour, then Stone rose and announced his departure. Dino was stifling yawns by this time, too, and he and Mary Ann departed for the guest house.

Arrington walked Stone to the door. 'I'm sorry about my behavior last time,' she said. 'I realize now that it wasn't your fault, that you were the victim.'

'Hardly that,' Stone said. 'I knew what I was getting into.'

'No, you didn't,' She said at the door, resting her head on his shoulder. 'You never do.'

Stone put a finger under her chin, raised her head, and kissed her lightly. 'I'm glad you and I are all right again.'

'So am I.'

'If it's any help, I'm already working on an Italian divorce.'

'Any kind will do.'

'I'd better go.'

'Good night, sweet prince.'

'And angels sing me to my rest? Not just yet, I hope.'

He walked toward the car, then he stopped and turned. She was still standing in the doorway. 'Arrington?'

'Yes?'

'I seem to recall that you never wore terrycloth robes.'

'What a good memory you have. I always liked plain cotton or silk. What an odd thing to remember.'

'Oh, I remember a lot more,' he said, as he waved good night and got into the car.

All the way back to Centurion he thought about what she used to wear.

Chapter 53

The following morning Marc Blumberg called and asked Stone to come to his office to discuss the motion to dismiss. Stone left Centurion and on his way passed the spot where he'd had the flat tire, reminding him that he had left the damaged tire at a service station for repair. He stopped to pick it up, and as he opened the trunk he saw Felipe Cordova's Nikes. He'd completely forgotten about them.

He arrived at Blumberg's office and was shown in and given coffee, while Marc finished a meeting in his conference room. Shortly, the lawyer came into his office and sat down at his desk.

'So,' said Stone, 'what's your plan? Who are we going to call?'

'Nobody,' Marc replied. 'That's my plan.'

'Come again?'

'My plan is to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses to within an inch of their lives. After all, it's they who have to make a case, not we.'

'You don't think we ought to try?' Stone asked doubtfully.

'Let me ask you something, Stone: Can we prove Arrington didn't shoot Vance?'

'Maybe not.'

'If we could prove she didn't do it, wed be home free, but we can't. So we're going to have to cast so much doubt on the prosecution's case that the judge will throw it out.'

'And how are we going to do that?' Stone asked.

'I know Beverly Walters better than you,' Marc replied.

'How well, Marc?'

'Well enough, trust me.'

'All right, I'll trust you.'

'Have you got any other ideas about how we might proceed?'

Stone took a deep breath. 'I think we ought to call Felipe Cordova.'

'I thought he was lost in darkest Mexico.'

'He was, but he's back in LA. Brandy Garcia gave me a heads up.'

'Doesn't it bother you that the prosecution would call Cordova, if they knew what we knew about his actions that night?'

'No.'

'Stone, we're going to have Beverly Walters on the stand saying she saw Arrington shoot Vance, while Arrington doesn't remember what she did or didn't do. Cordova is just going to back up Beverly's story, isn't he?'

'I don't think so,' Stone said.

'And why not?'

'A couple of reasons. First, Vanessa Pike told me she drove Beverly to the Calder house, and that Beverly saw what happened from the rear of the house, at the doors to the pool.'

'Wait a minute. What Vanessa told you was that she drove somebody to Vance's; she didn't say who.'

'But we know it was Beverly.'

'How do we know that?'

'Because Charlene Joiner says that the two of them left her house together that evening, after a day lying around the pool.'

'At what time?'

'At just about the time it would have taken for them to drive to the Calder house and arrive at the time Vance was being shot.'

'Will Charlene testify to that?'

'Yes, to that and more.'

'What else?'

'She'll testify that Beverly was wearing a terrycloth robe over a bathing suit when she left her house.'

'So?'

'Cordova says he saw a woman next to Vance's body, and she was wearing a terrycloth robe.'

'Did he see her face?'

'No.'

'Then it could have been Arrington.'