he fell asleep was Donna in his head, saying, “So that’s what it’s like for a man. It’s so wonderful.”
Chapter Seven
Hugh Washington walked through the hospital lobby with a spring in his step. Walker had surprised him. The man had given him a new lease on life. Maybe this was the shot in the arm that would put his marriage back together. He hoped so. He was tired of being a weekend father. Tired of sleeping alone. Tired of eating alone. And tired of begging Jane to come back.
He’d been separated a long time. He’d changed. The gray moods were gone. Mostly he owed that to Glenna and her perennially positive attitude. Amazingly, she handled the rape and shooting of her attacker much better than her parents had. They blamed each other. She lay all the blame on the doorstep of the dead rapist.
Maybe it was the superb counseling, maybe it was just her make up, but whatever it was, she hadn’t gone through the period that most women go through after a rape. She never blamed herself. Even though she had lied to her parents about where she was that day. Even though she had invited the young man into her home. Even though she should have known better. Even after all those “even thoughs,” she had no blame left over for herself. As far as she was concerned the incident was closed. The guy got what he deserved. Justice was done. Life was living for the present and the future. The past was dead and gone.
He was halfway through the lobby when he realized he didn’t have a car. He turned to the information desk and asked a young receptionist where the phones were. He flashed her a grin when she pointed down a corridor and felt his heart flutter a little when she smiled back. Then he went to the public phones and called a cab.
Thirty minutes later, as he was paying the cabbie, he remembered that he had a lunch date with his daughter. He silently cursed himself for almost forgetting. Glenna had been out on her own for the last month, living with a girlfriend in a small apartment on the north side of the Long Beach State campus. She worked full time and went to school nights. She was proud of her independence and he knew that she was looking for a chance to show it off by buying him lunch.
The Jim Monday investigation would have to put itself on hold, because nothing was ever going to come between him and Glenna.
He took the steps up to his bachelor apartment two at a time. He had a little over three hours before he was supposed to meet her. Plenty of time. He shucked his suit jacket onto the sofa bed and finished undressing, tossing the rest of his clothes in a heap on the floor.
He felt good in the steamy shower, so he stayed under the spray until it started to turn cold. Then he turned it off and got out, drying as he padded from the bathroom back to the living room. He thought about folding the bed back into a couch, but what was the point, he’d only have to take it out again tonight. Besides he hadn’t planned on company. So, for the twenty-first day in a row, he ignored the sofa bed and dressed.
He donned a pair of Levi’s, running shoes, his spare shoulder holster with his off duty weapon and a faded blue sweatshirt with cut off sleeves. He wasn’t going to eat in the Shore and embarrass Glenna by showing up in one of the old suits from his detective days. Especially not that beat up brown job he was wearing this morning. He was going to look young and hip, like he belonged. Casual.
Dressed, he started for the door, then turned back toward the bathroom for a dose of Skin Bracer to set his face tingling. He looked in the mirror, touched the bandage on his forehead and winced. It hurt. Then he opened the medicine cabinet and reached in for the after shave, when a gecko scurried from the top shelf, jumped onto his bare arm, ran up his sleeve, over his shoulder, brushed along his neck, then dove five feet to the floor and dashed out of the bathroom.
He jumped back and slammed into the wall behind, banging his head. He pushed himself away from the wall, catching his breath and feeling foolish, while he tried to calm his raging heart.
He hated surprises.
“ What the hell?” he muttered. “First the hospital and now here.”
It was unusual, almost impossible and under different circumstances he would have worried about it, but he had other things on his mind. A new job, finding Jim Monday and lunch with Glenna. He wanted her to be the first to know that he was finished with the department. No more gray moods and never being there when he was needed. From now on his family came first. Jane, Glenna and himself-family.
He checked his watch on the way out the door. He had plenty of time to take the bus down Ocean to get his car. At the station he crossed the parking lot to where Power Glide lay, parked between two newer Chevrolet relatives, a Corvette on the left, a souped up Z28 on the right. They may be sporty and fast, he thought, but his Impala captured all the eyes. She was old and sometimes hard to start and maybe even harder to keep running, but she looked like the day she came off the showroom floor, waxed and new.
He ran his hand along the hood and flecked some bird droppings off the windscreen with his index finger.
“ No shit on you.” He unlocked the door, got in. She started immediately, a good sign.
Since he was early, he figured he might get in a little work before lunch, so he drove to Dr. Kohler’s clinic on Lakewood Boulevard.
Bernd Kohler’s Clinic de Beaute was a modern three story structure near the Traffic Circle, where the old Circle Drive-In Theater used to be. He was one of those plastic surgeons that advertised in TV Guide. His ads pictured young, nude women, hidden in shadow, always under the caption, “We can make you look the best you can be.” Not very good English, but effective. Kohler was a rich man.
He parked in the clinic lot, locked the car and made his way to the reception, where he was confronted by a beauty that looked like she stepped straight out of a centerfold. A perfect advertisement for Kohler’s practice.
“ Do you have an appointment?” she asked in the kind of voice that made men stammer.
“ I’m a police officer.” He showed his badge. “I’d like to talk to Dr. Kohler about what happened yesterday morning.”
“ He’s not here, won’t be for the next two weeks.”
He was about to ask the next most obvious question, when she answered it without his asking.
“ He’s at his place up north. He has a summer home in Tampico.”
“ Really? I grew up in Palma. A stone’s throw away.”
“ Dr. Kohler’s place is on Mountain Sea Road. Do you know it?”
“ I know it well.” Washington smiled, putting the woman at ease.
“ You’d love his house, everybody does,” she said. “It has the woods in front and a cliffside view of the ocean from the rear. I love sitting on that deck and listening to the waves.”
“ Sounds like a neat place,” Washington said.
“ Gorgeous, but only from the inside. It looks like a prison from the outside. Gray, with bars on the windows. He has to keep it that way to keep the thieves away, because he’s not there all that much.”
“ Can’t be too careful these days,” Washington said.
“ Would you like me to get him on the phone?”
He told her it wasn’t that important. He would see the doctor when he returned and she lit her face up with a smile. He thanked her and made his way back to the car.
It was time to put the Monday-Kohler business out of his mind. He hadn’t seen Glenna in two weeks and he was looking forward to lunch. Especially since they were eating at Armando’s, his favorite Italian restaurant. He smiled at the thought of the rich food. He was hungry.
Thirty minutes later he was sitting in a back booth bursting with anticipation. He wanted to let it all flood out, but Glenna had started in as soon as they were seated.
“ What happened to your head?”
“ Bad guy hit me. He got away.”
“ But you’ll catch him, won’t you?” she said, pride evident in her voice.
“ I’ll catch him, because that’s what I do,” he said, bragging a little.
“ I’m changing my major to police science,” she said. “There’s no future in psychology, unless I go on to a masters or a doctorate.” Her words were like a slap.
“ Honey, I want you to do whatever you want. I’ll always stand behind you, you know that. But, police
