“I bet she’s on the phone right this minute,” Nina said, handing her cell phone to Gretchen.
“I have to get another phone,” Gretchen said, dialing. “Hey, April, how are you?”
“Tired, achy, I think I need to rest more. This valley fever has me down in bed. I shouldn’t have worked out so soon.”
Gretchen repeated the same story she had told Bonnie, with the same response.
“Well, isn’t that something?” April said. “I’ll call around for you and see if any of the club members have any information. There weren’t any dolls in that bag, were there?”
“I really can’t say right now. Police orders.”
“Ahhhhh,” April said.
After several more calls, Nina nudged Gretchen. “Don’t look behind you, but we’ve picked up a tail.”
Gretchen stopped at a shop window beside a garden courtyard and slowly turned her head.
Their eyes met. Matt smiled, bright and warmly, wearing casual, Southwestern garb as usual. No hint in his attire of his real occupation. Tan. A certain scrappiness about his walk as he approached them.
“Are you always undercover?” Gretchen said.
“Usually,” he replied. “I’m coming from a visit with Daisy at the hospital, on my way to Saks to see my mother. I’m off-duty.” His eyes traveled over the purses, noting their contents, gazing at Gretchen. “There’s something new about you since I saw you last.” He ran one finger along his jawline. “I know, new makeup, a slightly pinker shade than before.”
“You should never comment on a woman’s cosmetics,” Nina advised. “You aren’t supposed to notice that we wear anything.”
“It goes well with the cast on your wrist; sharp contrast. And it matches the color of your feet. Nice.”
“She’s a pro at accessorizing,” Nina said.
“Now that you’ve had your fun,” Gretchen said, “maybe you can tell us how Daisy’s doing?”
“I’ll tell you over coffee,” he said, guiding them toward the Cheesecake Factory.
It was just after five o’clock, and Gretchen realized how hungry she was. With Nimrod and Enrico in hide mode, they slid into a corner booth and kept a careful eye out for waitresses and management staff while stowing the pups in the purses on their laps. Matt seemed amused at their efforts but refrained from comment.
They ordered a large pizza and two cheesecakes to share-White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut and Tiramisu-both selected by Nina.
“Daisy’s fine,” Matt said. “She’s settled right in and isn’t in any hurry to be released, but the doctors say she’s ready to go if she can find a quiet place to recover.” He wrapped his hands around a cup of coffee. “The investigation into her accident didn’t reveal any conclusive evidence, but the team found inconsistent paint chips on the back bumper.”
“Inconsistent?” Gretchen said.
“They didn’t match the car paint,” Nina said.
“We aren’t taking Daisy’s word for it. She isn’t a very reliable witness,” Matt said.
“Why? Because she doesn’t have a mailing address?”
“No,” Matt said carefully. “Because she’s the driver and there weren’t any other witnesses.”
“She seemed confident of the facts when I talked to her.”
Matt shrugged. The waitress brought the pizza, and the pups stayed out of sight. Nina plucked sausage from the pizza, and her hand disappeared under the table. The waitress returned with the cheesecakes and a pot of coffee. She refilled Matt’s cup. A growl grew under the table.
“What’s that?” the waitress said, glancing quickly at Nina.
Nina rubbed her hand on her stomach. “I must be really hungry.”
“We won’t need any more coffee refills,” Matt said. “In fact, we won’t need anything else.”
“Smart thinking,” Nina said to him when the waitress walked away. “I don’t mind getting kicked out, but I’d like to finish eating first.”
“Good thing I’m off-duty, Nina, or I’d have to arrest you.”
Nina laughed.
“Why would someone run Daisy off the road?” Gretchen said. “Unless they thought she was my mother.”
“If we can believe her account,” Matt said, “that would be a logical assumption. But why? Where’s the motive? I think she’s covering for herself, making excuses for her own inattentive driving.”
“I don’t think Caroline ran away from the police,” Nina said. “I think she’s hiding from someone. The attack on Daisy proves she’s in danger.”
“Sounds melodramatic,” Matt said, biting into a piece of pizza.
“Is Daisy being charged with anything?” Gretchen asked.
“No. She had a valid driver’s license and cooperated with the investigation. We could find something to charge her with, but why bother? There’s an issue of whether she had permission to drive the car, but until we locate Caroline, we have to assume she drove it with the proper approval. Unless you know something we don’t.”
Gretchen shook her head distractedly. She was surprised that Daisy had a driver’s license. She sliced into the macadamia nut cheesecake with the side of her fork.
“Do either of you know someone named the Inspector?” Matt asked.
“I’ve heard that name before,” Nina said, frowning in concentration.
Gretchen remembered exactly where she’d heard the name. Martha had complained to Joseph about someone called the Inspector. “Why do you ask?” she said.
“Martha mentioned him to Daisy. According to Daisy, she was extremely upset over something he had done. Daisy said she never saw Martha so angry. I want to find him.”
“Or her,” Nina said. “This Inspector could be a woman. Right?”
“I suppose,” Matt said, reluctantly. “I just assumed it was a man.”
“What kind of inspector? A building inspector?” Gretchen asked. “Housing inspector?” Gretchen thought about Nacho’s makeshift home and wondered if the state had laws against cardboard construction on public land. Probably.
They rearranged the puppies in their respective purses, and Gretchen wandered ahead while Nina and Matt traded witty repartees. Their laughter floated on the breeze. The palm trees in the mall’s courtyard swayed, and the sun vanished in a darkening sky. The monsoon and another rain squall were moving in.
Gretchen felt useless here. She seriously considered going back to Boston to deal with her own crumbling personal life, which was spiraling out of control.
She needed a steady job and income, and she needed to decide what to do about Steve. In a brief interlude of self-pity she listed her current problems. A mother wanted for questioning in a murder, clearly the most pressing problem at the moment. A cheating long-term boyfriend who was afraid of commitment, another monumental problem. Her lack of employment and a dwindling savings account. Right this minute she didn’t even own a phone.
Anything else? Oh yes, let’s add a few physical problems. A broken wrist and second-degree burns on her face and feet.
And she had absolutely nothing to show for her efforts to save her mother except a key of unknown origin. Instead of clearing her mother’s name, she’d implicated her further. If she stayed longer, who knew how much more physical harm she could inflict on herself, how much more physical evidence she could dredge up against her mother.
She decided to call Steve from the house, then catch the next flight home before Courtney permanently displaced her.
She lifted Nimrod out of his purse and held him on her shoulder. He licked her ear. “Right now,” Gretchen said to him, “you’re the best thing I’ve got going for me, and you’re only a temporary visitor. Sad, isn’t it?”
“You can’t go home!” Nina wailed. “I can’t handle this by myself. What about the key? It’s going to open the right door. You’ll see. If you don’t stay and fight for Caroline, who will?”
“Why isn’t she here fighting for herself?” Gretchen threw clothes into her open suitcase lying on the bed. Wobbles watched the action with a steady gaze, his ears flatter on his head than usual.
“What about a flight? You can’t go to the airport without a ticket.”
“I’ll wait on standby. Nina, I’m desperate. I can’t let my whole life pass before my eyes.”
“What are you talking about?”
