Johnithan Kellerman – Bad Love

Mornings she has her therapy, then she naps. Come to my office first–500

Fifth Avenue. Schechter, Mohl, and Trimmer. The thirty-third floor.

Have you faxed me your credentials yet?”

“Just on my way out to do it.”

“Good, because that’ll be a prerequisite. Send me something with a picture, too. If everything checks out, I’ll see you, say, twothirty.”

I found a quick-print place on Canon Drive and faxed my documents to New York.

Returning home, I postponed telling Robin and called an airline, booking myself a ten p.m. flight out of LAX. I asked the ticket agent about hotels.

She said, “Midtown? I really don’t know, sir, but you might try the Middleton.

The executives from our company stay there, but it’s expensive. Of course, everything in New York is unless you want a real dive.”

I thanked her and phoned the hotel. A very bored-sounding man took my credit card number, then grudgingly agreed to give me a single room for two hundred and twenty dollars a night. When he quoted the price, he suppressed a yawn.

I told Robin about Rosenblatt first.

She shook her head, took hold of my hand.

“Four years ago,” I said. “Another gap filled in.”

“How’d he die?”

“The son didn’t go into any details. But if the killer’s being consistent, it was probably something to do with a car or a fall.”

“All those people. My God.” Pressing my hand up against her cheek, she closed her eyes. The smell of glue hung in the garage, along with coffee and dust and the sound of the dog’s breathing.

I felt him nosing up against my leg. Looked down at his wide, flat face. He blinked a couple of times and licked my hand.

I told Robin of my plan to fly east and offered to have her come with me.

She said, “There’d be no point to it, would there?”

“It’s not going to be a vacation, just more digging up people’s misery.

I’m starting to feel like a ghoul.”

She looked off, at her tools and her molds.

“Only time I’ve been in New York was a family trip. We went all the way up to Niagara Falls, Mom and Dad squabbling the whole time.”

“I haven’t been there, myself, since grad school.”

She nodded, touched my biceps, rubbed it. “You have to go– things are getting uglier and uglier here. When are you leaving?”

“I was thinking tonight.”

“I’ll take you to the airport. When will you be coming home, so I can pick you up?”

“Depends on what I find–probably within a day or two.”

“Do you have a place to stay?”

“I found a hotel.”

“A hotel,” she said. “You, alone in some room. ..” She shook her head.

“Could you please stay with Milo and Rick while I’m gone? I know it’s disruptive and unnecessary, but I’d have a lot more peace of mind.”

She touched my face again. “You haven’t had much of that lately, have you?

Sure, why not.”

I tried a couple more times to reach Milo without success. Wanting to get Robin settled as soon as possible, I phoned his house. Rick was there and I told him we’d be coming over.

“We’ll take good care of her, Alex. I’m really sorry for all this crap you’ve been going through. I’m sure the big guy will get to the bottom of it.”

“I’m sure he will, too. Will the dog be a problem?”

“No, I don’t think so. Milo tells me he’s pretty cute.”

“Milo never expressed any affection for him in my presence.”

“Does that surprise you?”

“No,” I said.

He laughed.

“Are you badly allergic, Rick?”

“Don’t know, never had a dog. But don’t worry, I’ll pick up some Seldane in the ER, or write myself a scrip. Speaking of which, I have to head over to Cedars pretty soon. When were you planning on coming?”

“This evening. Any idea when Milo’ll be back?”

“Your guess is as good as mine…. Tell you what, I’ll leave a key in back of the house. There’re two sago palms growing up against the rear wall–you haven’t been here since we relandscaped, have you?”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *