Flesh And Blood by Jonathan Kellerman

“I always come back.” I reached for her again, but she shook her head and said, “Let me go.”

“I’m sorry, let’s talk about it—”

She shook her head. “I need . . . perspective. Then maybe we’ll talk.”

“Where are you going?”

“San Diego—my friend Debby.”

“The dentist.”

“The dentist,” she said. “She and I used to have fun together. I used to have friends. Now all I’ve got is you and Spike and my work. I need to expand.”

“Me too,” I said. “I’ll take up a hobby—golf.”

“Sure,” she said, smiling in spite of herself. “That’ll be the day.”

“What—impossible?”

“If there was something less likely than impossible, you and golf would be it. Alex, I’m not trying to tame you. I want you healthy—that’s the point. You standing around on the links in funny shoes, all that dead time, is not a prescription for well-being. Let’s not prolong this. I’ll call you.”

Latching the suitcase, she headed for the door. “Spike’s in the truck. I’m sure you won’t mind that.”

“Not only am I abandoned, it’s for another man.”

She kissed me hard on the lips, turned the doorknob, said, “Take care.”

“When will you call?”

“Soon. A couple of days.” Short, hard laugh.

“What?” I said.

“I was just about to say, ‘Be careful, baby.’ Like I always do when we’re about to go our separate ways. Rotten habit. I shouldn’t have to say that.”

37

THE FIRST DAY she was gone, I was miserable, and the next one was shaping up the same way when Milo dropped by at nine A.M. and showed me Jane Abbot’s correspondence with Tony Duke.

“She kept copies,” he said. “In her safe-deposit box. On the bottom, under some stock certificates.”

Two letters. In the first Jane reminded Duke of their time in Hawaii and informed him he had a daughter. A penciled notation on the bottom was dated five days later:

TD called, 3pm, no prob with $, wants to meet L. I said probs, maybe later.

In the second Jane thanked Duke for his quick response, apologized for restricting him from Lauren, describing her as “a very bright young lady, but unfortunately—through no fault of yours, dear Tony—she is currently emotionally ill and highly troubled.”

TD called 3X, says be knows doctors. Put him off. Lauren gone, again, no idea where. Next time, bail or not?

A final page in Jane’s handwriting laid out the financial agreement. Fifty thousand dollars a year placed in trust for Lauren, to be supervised by Jane, with the understanding that Jane would do everything in her power to effect a reunion and that, by the time Lauren reached twenty-six, Duke would get to meet her.

Father and daughter had fallen short by six months.

I gave him back the papers. “What’s the status on Mel Abbot?”

“He should be released soon, though no one’s sure where to put him. The closest relative they can find is a cousin in New Jersey, almost as old as Mel. Meanwhile, Irving’s right down the hall from Abbot, in the jail ward—you did good work on his face. The D.A. will file multiple counts of conspiracy and first-degree homicide with special circumstances for mass murder, cruelty, and profit motive. Gretchen’s helping them put the case together in order to plea down her own conspiracy rap— The feds finally came through and verified that Irving had been one of her big-time clients. All we’ve got on her is her pal Ingrid knowing I was looking for Michelle and your seeing Gretchen enter the Duke estate the next day.”

“Gretchen works the system again,” I said.

“What the D.A. wants is Irving on a platter, and Gretchen can fill in the blanks. She can also supply the motive for Michelle—no, there wasn’t any blackmail, no one’s sure Michelle even knew anything dangerous. But Irving thought she did—to be brutally honest, my mentioning Michelle’s name to Gretchen signed her death warrant—and no, I’m not blaming myself, I was doing my job. It’s just the way things happen sometimes.”

He rubbed his face. “And Gretchen’s still claiming she’s never heard of Shawna. I’d like to say I’ve been right about Shawna not being part of this, but at this point I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. For all I know Irving took pictures of her, boffed her, killed her.”

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