The Proof is in the Pudding

to find the person who murdered Ingram. Statistically, the longer that a case was unsolved, the less chance there was of it being solved. Unless there was an unexpected lucky break, and it was foolish to count on that happening.

The only evidence against John was his fury at Ingram. That was flimsy, but people had been arrested on flimsy evidence before. The longer John was under suspicion, the harder it would be on the O’Hara family. Because of her relationship with Ingram, Eileen already felt responsible for the trouble her father was in. I was worried, too, about what the pressure would do to her emotionally fragile mother, Shannon.

A block from home, my cell phone rang. I pressed the “Answer” button, said hello, and heard a man’s voice that always made me think of dark clover honey with biceps.

“Hey, baby. Where are you?”

“Almost home,” I told Nicholas D’Martino. “Where are you?”

“Standing on your doorstep. That will be me, waving at you.”

As I turned into the driveway my headlights swept the front of the house and illuminated his muscular body. The stray lock of black hair that perpetually fell across his forehead brushed the top of his thick eyebrows.

I jammed on the brakes and cut the ignition. No sooner had I reached for the door handle than it was opened from the outside and Nicholas pulled me into his arms.

We kissed, and held each other tightly. The deeper he kissed me, the louder my heart pounded.

When we came up for air, he asked, “Do you have to walk Tuff?”

“I’ll let him out into the backyard for a little while. I have so much to tell you.”

Caressing me through my clothing, he whispered, “I want to hear everything, but later. Okay?”

My responding kiss signaled that was definitely okay with me.

***

Later, happily spent, and Tuffy now curled up on the rug next to my side of the bed, I told Nicholas all that had happened earlier that night.

“You have to be right about Ingram’s murder being connected to the shooting of Gray,” he said. “Nothing else makes sense. The question is how are they connected?”

“I don’t know, but I have to find out.”

“Hold it. I’m not going to let you put yourself in danger,” he said.

“You hold it.” I sat up in bed, looked down into his dark Mediterranean eyes, and said firmly, “You should know by now that I do not let you tell me what to do.”

His full lips curved in a smile that I found hard to resist. I softened my tone. “However, if there’s something you want me to do, you may suggest it.”

Nicholas reached up and started gently caressing my breasts. “Fair enough.” Still lying flat, he inched his body closer to mine. “May I suggest that this time you be the one on top?”

A hot charge of desire shot through me again. I laughed, shifted my position, and whispered, “I am happy to take that suggestion.”

In another moment, there was no more talking.

***

After breakfast, I was saying good-bye to Nicholas at the front door when I saw Hugh Weaver’s personal car, a maroon Chevy Malibu with primer paint on the left front fender, a missing hubcap, and a faded red, white, and blue “Buy American” bumper sticker, screech to a stop in front of the house.

Weaver wrenched himself out from behind the wheel. Crimson-faced and sweating, he hurried up the path and demanded, “Are you crazy?”

With a sly smile, Nicholas asked, “Which one of us are you talking to?”

Weaver ignored him and aimed a worried glance back at the street. “Hatch managed to roust one of the ADAs and get him to talk a judge into signing a search warrant. Soon as he’s got the paper, he’ll be over here.”

A lump of dread formed in my chest. “Why? What are you talking about?”

“SID found your bloody fingerprint on the broken back window of Ingram’s house. Hatch knows you broke in. That’s probable cause for a warrant to search your place for anything belonging to Ingram.”

The lump of dread balled into a big fist and pushed hard against my heart and lungs. The worst had happened.

No, not quite the worst. Hatch doesn’t know about Eileen’s video.

Nicholas gripped my arm. “You don’t have to say anything.”

“I wasn’t going to.” My voice sounded hollow in my ears, as though it was coming from a far-off place.

Weaver’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the faceplate and scowled. “It’s Hatch.” He answered with a brusque, “Yeah?” and listened briefly. “I’m getting coffee, that’s where the f*** I am… In Westwood… No, of course I didn’t call her-the Carmichael dame means nothin’ to me… ’Kay. I’ll meet’cha at her place in ten.” Weaver snapped the phone shut. “He has the search warrant an’ he’s madder than a tiger who missed a meal. You got ten minutes to think of a story, or do what you gotta do. And don’t thank me. I’m not doing this for you, it’s for John. In fact, I was never here.”

Weaver double-timed it back to his Chevy and tore off.

Nicholas looked at me with concern. “Is there anything you want to get rid of before Hatch arrives?”

“No.”

“No?”

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” I said.

“I want to ask if you broke into Ingram’s house, and why you’re not worried about Hatch finding whatever he’s looking for.”

“It’s better if you don’t.”

“O… kay.”

From the way he stretched the word, it was clear he knew my reply had been a silent admission of guilt.

“Do you have a criminal lawyer?” he asked.

“No.”

“I know a good one. I’ll call her for you.”

Her… He knows a lot of women. “Thank you, but I hope I’ll never have to meet her,” I said.

“I think you’d like Olivia. Maybe someday I’ll get the three of us together. You two have something in common.”

From the smile on his face, I was sure now that I didn’t want to meet “Olivia” and find out what the two of us had in common.

“Before Hatch gets here, I want to walk Tuffy,” I said.

I took my Tuffy-walking jacket-the one with the pockets full of plastic bags for picking up after him-from the hall closet.

“I don’t think I want to know what your lawyer friend and I have in common.”

Nicholas chuckled. “You’d be surprised.”

I shoved my house keys into a pocket of my slacks and hooked the leash onto my excited poodle’s collar. Tuffy fairly bounced beside us as Nicholas and I headed for the street, where Nicholas’s prized silver Maserati Quattroporte was parked. He’d bought it several years earlier in a police department confiscation auction and was so careful with it he’d never turn it over to parking attendants.

“You don’t have to stay here,” I said. “Why don’t you go home, or go to the paper?”

“I’m not going to leave you alone with Hatch. He can be one nasty SOB.”

“All in the valley of death Rode the six hundred…” I quoted that grim passage from “The Charge of the Light Brigade” as we started down the street.

“I know a poem that’s a lot more cheerful,” he said. “ ‘There once was a soldier from Lutz, who was a-’ ”

“Stop.” I poked him on the shoulder. “I’ve heard that one.” Remembering the naughty rest of it made me laugh.

We were going south toward Montana Avenue. It was the route I usually took with Tuffy in the morning, and it