Self-Defense by JONATHAN KELLERMAN

“I keep telling you, I don’t know about any murder. Just that she disappeared.”

“From the Sanctum party.”

Nod.

“You hired her to work at the party.”

“So what does that make me, a criminal? I hired her as a favor. She needed the money. Her tips weren’t that good because she wasn’t the greatest waitress, kept getting orders wrong. And that hypocrite father of hers didn’t approve of her being an actress, so he never sent her a dime. I helped her, so now people are getting murdered and I’m being treated like a criminal?”

“When’s the last time you saw her?”

“How can I remember? It was twenty-one years.”

“Try.”

Silence.

“In the middle of the party,” she said. “I don’t know what time it was. We were all working; I wasn’t paying attention to her.”

“You never told anyone she was there, did you?”

More silence.

“Did the sheriffs ask?”

“They came around the Dollar, a few days after she was gone. They thought she was lost up in the mountains. They had helicopters looking for her.”

“And you didn’t tell them any different.”

“Who says it was any different? She could have left the party with someone and gone to the mountains.”

“In the middle of work?”

“She wasn’t the most reliable person—used to call in sick at the Dollar so she could go to Disneyland. Coming out here was a big vacation for her.”

She bit her lip. “Look, I’m not putting her down. She was a nice kid. But not too bright.” Tears filled her eyes. “I never wanted to see anything happen to her. I never did anything to hurt her.”

She put her hands over her face again. Travis had managed to turn himself around and was looking at her, fascinated. The box slid down his lap and landed on the floor. He reached for it but the leather belt restrained him, and he started to shout.

Gwen uncovered her face and started to get out of her chair.

I retrieved the box and gave it to him, tousling his hair.

“Aa-gaah,” he said, grinning. “Aa-gaamnuhuh.”

Gwen said, “It wasn’t any big intense investigation or anything. A deputy just dropped in and asked if anyone’d seen her; then he sat around and had coffee.”

“What about the private eye Karen’s family hired? Felix Barnard. What did he ask you?”

“He was weird. An oily old guy.”

“What did he ask you?”

“Same stuff the police did: When did we last see her?”

“And you told him Friday night, after her shift at the Dollar.”

“He was a sleazeball. I didn’t want anything to do with him.”

“He found out Karen had been at the party. How?”

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t from me,” she said. The way she looked away quickly let me know she was hiding something. I decided not to push, right now. Thinking of the unaccounted-for time between Karen’s leaving the Dollar and the party the next day, I said, “Why did Karen go up to Sanctum early?”

“The caterer needed someone to set up chairs and tables before the food got there.”

“And you picked Karen even though she wasn’t reliable?”

“I felt sorry for her. Like I said, she needed the money.” She blinked several times.

“Is that the only reason?”

She took a deep breath and turned to Travis. “You okay, honey?”

Ignoring her, he continued to study the box.

“What’s the real reason you chose Karen to go up early, Gwen?”

“Someone called. Wanted us to send the best-looking waitress up early.”

“Who?”

Long silence. “Lowell.”

“And Karen was the best-looking waitress.”

“She was cute.”

“Why would looks be important if all he wanted was for her to set up?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t like he mentioned that first. More like, As long as you’re sending someone, send a good-looking one, and some other stuff—crazy words I don’t remember—something about eternal beauty. I don’t know why, maybe he had big shots over and wanted to make an impression—it was none of my business. What difference did it make to me who set up? Karen was happy to do it.”

“Happy to be with big shots.”

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 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173

Leave a Reply 0

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