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An eyebrow went up. “Am I not going to like this?”
“I really don’t know, I haven’t known you long enough to know whether or not you feel-well, the thing is when I met you here on Friday morning, I liked you immediately. You seem like a great guy.”
“That’s a kiss-off line if I ever heard it.”
“Yeah, I guess it is, but not for the reasons you’d think.” She drew a deep breath. “I didn’t realize until last night that Kelly still has feelings for you.” She looked at him dead on now. “You know what happened three years ago, everyone in this town knows-Mark Bridges and I were to get married and I found him and my sister Monica together in bed. No, please don’t interrupt. The thing is once I realized Kelly still cares about you, I knew I couldn’t let this go any further, whatever this is, and it might be nothing, it might all be on my side.”
He said quietly, “No, it’s not all on your side.”
“I’m sorry about that. The thing is, John, she’s my sister, and I won’t have any part of doing any such thing to my sister.”
“I’m not all that sure Kelly cares about me anymore. Well, other than wanting to castrate me or something-”
“She cares. She was playing up to Jack Wolf last night, trying to make you jealous. The thing about feelings, John-she can’t simply turn them on and off, even if she wanted to.” She touched her fingertips to his forearm. He felt warm to the touch. “Please understand. I don’t want to alienate Kelly any more than she already is. I don’t want to hurt her.”
John turned away, streaked his fingers through his hair. “Dammit, what Kelly needs is a job. She needs to focus on something outside herself. As for her playing up to Jack-well, she’ll find Jack isn’t seeing any women, not since Rikki left him torn and bleeding.”
“She told me he’d been married.”
“Yeah, for three years.”
“What happened?”
John shrugged. “Who knows? Most of the relationships-and believe me, just saying the word raises the hair on the back of my neck-I’ve ever had have ended with someone’s fur flying, sometimes mine, sometimes hers.”
Mary Lisa said, “My longest relationship ended with finding my fiancé in bed with my sister. But there wasn’t any fur flying. I just slinked out.”
“I do wish Kelly would do something with that communications degree of hers. She’ll forget about me soon enough.”
“I guess we’ll see. The first thing she needs to do is to move out of our folks’house, get back to her own apartment.”
“Mary Lisa.”
“Yes?”
“I know you don’t want me to, but I’d like to tell Jack about what’s happening down in Malibu.”
“Oh no, please don’t, John. Jack doesn’t like me, he really doesn’t. He thinks I’m a-”
“A what?”
“Never mind. It isn’t important. Detective Vasquez is handling everything.” She stuck out her hand. “I really liked meeting you, John. Good luck with the murder case.”
He shook her hand, brushed her cheek with his fingers, and turned away.
TWENTY-ONE
John’s cell rang with the theme to Titanic at eight o’clock Sunday evening.
“John, it’s Jack. You want to come with me to make an arrest?”
“Whoa-what, Jack? Who?”
Jack said, “Meet me at the Hildebrands’ house right away,” and he punched off his cell.
Jack arrived first, with two of his deputies close behind him, and found the Hildebrand house dark and quiet. Only one downstairs light was on, a dim shine through the living room draperies. He checked the garage, and was pleased to see both their cars inside.
He climbed back into his truck to wait for John, and soon saw lights in his rearview mirror. He unlocked the passenger door, and watched John pull his sleek BMW behind his truck and turn off the lights. When John tapped on the window, Jack leaned over and opened the door.
“Who?” was John’s first word.
Jack looked toward the Hildebrand house as he said, “Milo. The day after it happened, I knew to my bones he killed Jason Maynard. It just took a little work getting the proof, and now we have it. I’ll tell you all about it at the station, John, but right now we need to do this. Are you ready?”
He gave a small wave to the two police cars parked in each direction half a block away, and waited a moment until he saw the four deputies fa
Milo Hildebrand answered the door on Jack’s third knock. He looked haggard and wary, but he was well-dressed, as if he pla
“I heard you were asking more questions out at the club, Jack. I called my lawyer this afternoon. Ms. Bigelow said if you came by again you were bordering on harassment and I should refuse to talk to you unless she’s present.”
Jack nodded. “Yes, I’ve been out to the club three times now, interviewing people. And yes, your lawyer is trying to have you declared a saint, Milo. But I’m not here to talk this time. I’m here to make an arrest.”
Milo stepped back, shoulders slumped. “Olivia? She really couldn’t have realized what she was doing, Jack, she must have been crazed, angry-”
Now that was amazing. Jack interrupted him. “No, it’s not your wife I’m here for. It’s you, Milo. But you might want to tell Mrs. Hildebrand that I’m arresting you for the murder of your son-in-law, Jason Maynard, that you’ll be spending the night in my nice jail.”
“I don’t believe this! Are you nuts, Jack? I didn’t-”
They heard a noise from behind him and all turned to see Mrs. Olivia Hildebrand standing at the bottom of the stairs, her hand fisted against her mouth. She looked pale as death. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but he killed Jason, you know.”
Milo walked toward her, saying, “Olivia, it’s not true,” and then suddenly turned and ran through an open door down a short hallway past the stairs.
John shouted, “Damn, that’s his office!”
“He’s got guns in there,” Jack said. “I should have cuffed him the instant he answered the door. You stay put, Mrs. Hildebrand, stay here.”
Jack was after him, John on his heels. The door slammed in his face before he reached it. Milo yelled from inside, “Go away, Jack, or I’ll shoot you! I’m not going to jail!”
Jack said through the door, keeping his voice calm and slow, “Milo, don’t make this any worse by resisting arrest. I’ve got deputies outside. There’s no way out for you. Open the door, and we can talk this through.”
“I didn’t kill the thieving little bastard. I didn’t kill him!”
Jack waved John behind him, then backed up and kicked his foot hard against the doorknob. The door shuddered and gave way, crashing in against the office wall.
Jack drew his Beretta. “You stay out here, John.”
Milo had one leg out the open window that gave onto the backyard. He jerked around and fired wildly, two of the bullets striking the wall behind Jack, a third shattering a crystal brandy carafe on a drink trolley, spraying the air with the scent of liquor.
Jack and John had both dropped and rolled behind Milo’s desk. “Enough, Milo!” Jack shouted. “I don’t want to shoot you. Put down your weapon now.”
Jack came up fast to see Milo drop through the open window. He heard a shout from outside as he ran across the room. He climbed out the window, rolled as he hit the ground, and came up fast to his feet. He saw Milo ru
“Nice shot, Chief,” said Deputy Ames as they restrained and cuffed him.
“Yeah,” John said, coming up to him, “so long as you weren’t aiming for his arm.”
Deputy Ames said, “An arm, a leg-I can’t see it matters much.”