Murder Under the Italian Moon (20 page)

She didn't move, made no attempt to come and get me. The short distance felt like the trek to the Promised Land. I reached the car. Florian handed me the keys without a word.

"Thanks, Florian. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." She turned around and went up the short alley.

I sat in my car. My butt hurt. I bet I had bruises. Too bad, I had to get home. Most importantly, I had to get out of here, in case Florian kept an eye on me. I switched on the engine and headed out of San Juan Capistrano. As soon as I got out of Florian's sight, I parked on the side of the road and removed the other boot. The minute I took it off I felt instant relief—wonderful. With both feet freed of the harnesses from hell, I could drive home. Or not.

I felt a noticeable difference. The right foot started to be normal but sharp pains shot from the toes of my left foot all the way to my brain.
Oh, oh. I lifted the foot up on the seat and massaged it. The closer my fingers inched to my big toe, the more the pain intensified. Could the foot be broken? Maybe the toe? I couldn't put any pressure on it. It looked huge and getting bigger by the second. No way to wear shoes with that toe. I started the engine again, made a U-turn and headed for the emergency room at San Clemente Hospital.

Chasing Ruby would have to wait.

I gave a watered-down version of the facts to the admitting nurse then sat in the quiet lobby and waited for a doctor to look at my foot. I had time to analyze my encounter with the hat thief. Was it really Ruby?
My Ruby?
I went back through time, to see if somewhere along the way I missed important clues. Never mind that. All I saw was a blonde wearing my gaucho hat. In all the time I'd known her, Ruby never wore such enormous dark glasses. The only familiar aspect was the luscious ruby-red mouth. Then again, this wasn't about appearances.

Mind games popped into my brain. What would Ruby gain by playing cat and mouse with me? Maybe it wasn't about me at all. Maybe it was about Ruby and Kyle? The more I analyzed the events in my mind, the less sense they made. Ruby had a lot more money than Kyle or I. Except for the lingering side effect of the accident, she was in good health. With Tom dead, she turned into a healthy, wealthy, good-looking single woman. For all practical purposes, she appeared to be invisible too. Two days before I left for Italy we had lunch together down at the marina. I forced myself to revisit details of the lunch to see if she acted differently than normal. We ordered the same food we always did. Soup and salad for me. Chicken and coleslaw for Ruby. And a glass of wine. We both had wine. I drove away, leaving Ruby at the marina because she needed to run some errands, and I, of course, had to get home and start packing. The next time we saw each other, she picked me up to drive me to the airport. If changes had taken place in Ruby's life, she hid them well. Either that or the Ruby I thought I knew never existed. Was she created by the real Ruby to gain my acceptance and forgiveness? Nah, who was delusional now? Every time I felt the need to give Ruby absolution, memories of Nick at the funeral home found their way into my consciousness. That and my son Kyle, in a cell for something he didn't do. Would an unbiased outsider assume that Ruby's ultimate goal was to destroy my family? Oh, dear God. I never thought about it that way. I felt like someone punched me in the middle of my chest.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" The voice of the woman behind the desk brought me back to reality.

I smiled at her. Nodded. "Yes, thanks. I'm fine."

My doubts and my fancy rationalizations began to fade once again. Drama, my life seemed to have become a series of dramatic events. All in need of closure.

What about Larry? He called Florian. I managed to ruin Florian's day off. She didn't believe a word I said. Did she tell Larry about rescuing me? Did it matter? I knew my name would be mentioned among Larry's co-workers. I decide not to dwell on it. I needed to focus on finding Ruby. One thing I knew for sure—for the first time since Ruby's disappearance, I feared my old friend.

My toe was sprained, but not broken. Thank God for that. The doctor taped it to the one beside it, then he bandaged my whole foot and told me that only time and staying off my toe would help. He suggested taking an over-the-counter painkiller if necessary. The cute nurse gave me a pair of non-slip socks, the kind surgery patients wear. I hobbled back to my car and headed home, feeling physically better but emotionally drained. I drove into the common garage. Larry's Mercedes sat next to my parking spot. The driver's door was wide open and his legs hung out. Uh oh. I expected him to jump to his feet to greet me or perhaps yell at me. He didn't do either. I parked next to him, grabbed my evil boots, locked the car and gingerly walked toward the Mercedes.

"Hi." I smiled.

He stared at me. I sensed his irritation; what did Florian say to him? "Are we back to not answering the phone?" It came out as a sigh. He was concerned about my wellbeing, I assumed.

I rummaged into my purse, looking for the broken cell phone. Larry must have noticed my no-slip socks for the first time. "What happened to your shoes?"

What? Detective Florian forgot to give him a detailed report? Besides, my boots were in plain sight, dangling from my hands. Not sure what element nudged his consciousness, but something did because he got to his feet. "Sweetie, are you okay? You're limping. What happened?"

If he tries to carry me, I'll slug him, I swear.

"It's nothing. I sprained my toe."

"How did you sprain it?"

"Let's not waste
our
time discussing my feet." Did I really say that? I must have. Larry looked at me with a whole different attitude, or at least that was how I credited the smile overtaking his usually brooding eyes.

"Need help?"

I relented. It hurt walking on that hard concrete.

"Yes, please."

He kicked his car door shut, walked over and hugged me like you hug something or someone very special and dear. I got so choked up I nearly dropped the boots on my good foot.

He put his arm around my waist. "Lean on me, take the weight off the foot."

We walked over to my place like an old couple, in perfect harmony.

"Did you talk to Florian?" Like it or not, I needed to discuss my chase with someone, to test my sanity. He was the perfect someone, a trained detective with an invested interest, I hoped.

"I thanked her for lending you a helping hand." He didn't look at me.

 "Do you believe me? It was Ruby I saw, I swear. Were you able to find out something about the small key she had mailed me?"

"Okay, one question at the time. Regarding Ruby, other facts support the possibility of the woman being alive and roaming around." He shook his head. "It's hard to believe she hasn't been caught. She must have some means of transportation, and a place to stay. She isn't invisible. The theory that she changed her appearance is also a possibility. Regarding the key, I'm told it's a safety deposit box key."

I sat on the couch next to Larry. "You said a safety deposit box? Like the ones people get at banks for important stuff?"

"Yes, that kind of safety deposit box. Can I get you something to eat or drink?"

"Larry, I'm fine. Do you need anything?" I didn't give him time to answer. I had noticed Flash's absence. "Where's my cat?" As if on cue, Flash appeared at the laundry-room door and walked over to sniff my new socks. "Come here, my little baby," I called to Flash. "Come sit with Mommy."

Flash jumped on the couch and rubbed against me, purring. She sniffed the boots. "Those are the evil boots that gave Mommy a booboo, and now Mommy can't wear her shoes to go see Kyle. Poor little Kyle."

Larry watched the whole scene without a word.

The truth hit me. How was I going to visit my son if I couldn't wear shoes? Would I be allowed in with open-toed footwear? I couldn't remember the jail dress code regarding shoes. Damn! Flash jumped off the couch and went straight up the stairs to my bedroom. So much for socializing.

"Lella, do you have any other outside doors beside the entry door?"

"The patio door, but no key there, it slides. Are you still concerned about Ruby and my old key?"

He smiled at me. "Comes with the job." That half-devil-half-angel smile lingered on his lips and gave me pleasant goose bumps. "Have you considered installing a security system?"

"Not really. I've always felt safe here."

"You don't even have a peephole on the door."

"Can we talk about something else? Like, Ruby, Kyle, the safety deposit box…"

"Let me look at you. Is that the costume you wore at the mission? You went there after all, didn't you? That's my girl." Larry sat next to me and I remembered the phone. I pulled out the parts and the battery and handed them to him.

"These are the pieces of your cell phone?"

I nodded. "Can it be fixed?"

"That's why you weren't answering." He pulled me closer and began to reassemble the phone with his arm around my waist.

"I dropped it while chasing Ruby. If not for the boots and the train, I could have caught her or the blonde who stole my hat. I think Ruby is both people. That doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean."

"Tell me about the hat."

"You don't believe me, do you? Neither did Florian, I could tell. I can show you pictures. I wear the hat every year for Swallow's Day. It's sort of my signature. But the box was empty this time. My hat was gone, along with the wig stand I kept it on."

I felt the arm around my waist tense. Something I said must have hit a nerve.

"You kept your hat on a wig stand?"

"Upstairs, in a huge box. The box was in the linen closet. But when I got it, only the pins were left."

"I think you're onto something." He said it in a hushed voice, talking to himself? "And you think Ruby wore a blond wig?"

"No, I never mentioned a wig. I said she was a blonde."

He handed me the phone.

"Oh, thanks. Is it working?"

"Looks like it. How close did you get to this hat thief?"

I couldn't tell if he was trying to get information or just making conversation.

"She outran me from the very beginning, that's because of my poor feet. I only saw her face for a few seconds, from a distance. But those red lips, ah, that's so Ruby."

"Lella, why would she steal your hat, then come parading it around the mission?"

"I don't know, I've been asking myself the same thing. Maybe she wanted to make sure I was there working." I had not thought of that before. "We were together when I bought the hat. She's done crazier stuff than taking a hat since her accident. What am I saying? Ruby likes to take chances. Maybe she needs the adrenaline rush. It got worse the last year or so. It's like she forgets and she goes backward."

"Backward?"

"Yeah, one time she withdrew a lot of money from her own account. And she made a big production of telling me Tom, her husband, didn't know about the account. Then insisted she had no recollection of it and had no idea where she stashed the money. Or when she went looking for me at my old house, months after I had moved out. The doctor assured her it would get better, that it was a matter of time. I don't know. I'm tired of talking about Ruby. I need to find a way to get to see Kyle."

He sat next to me, quiet, his arm still around my waist. The arm was still there, but the mood not so much. Larry's body was there, his mind wasn't.

"Can I get you something? Water, coffee, soda, wine?"

He moved a little away from me. "No, thanks. I'm fine. Yes, I know it's your house and all. But I'm here, at your service." His voice came from a faraway place. He looked through me, not at me. "Sweetie, do you mind if I make a couple of phone calls?" He already held his cell in his hand.

"Sure, go ahead." I started to get up. My foot felt pretty good, all things considered. "I'll go upstairs and change my clothes while you do that."

He didn't answer. I could hear him hitting the numbers on his mobile. I began climbing the stairs. It had to be something I said, I knew it. I remembered how I felt when I discovered that Ruby substituted the keys. My sense of elation. Larry exhibited the same symptoms.

Flash, sprawled on the bed, watched with an expression of pure cat boredom while I removed my skirt and examined the damage. Nothing ripped, but even so, the hard landing left noticeable marks. I would try to clean it with a hard brush. I had undressed down to my red silk camisole and my undies when I noticed the flickering on the answering machine. There was a message. "Hello, Mrs. York, it's Audrey, your neighbor. I know I—asked you to keep an eye on my place while I'm in Parker, and I just wanted to say, well, don't be alarmed if you see people, I mean, movers. Things have changed since I arrived, and I need to stay here in Parker indefinitely. I would appreciate if you could say hello to Kyle for me. Maybe you could keep me posted if anything new comes up and thank you for all your help. Goodbye."
What?

Before my brain could process Audrey's monologue, the house phone rang. Kyle?

"Hi, Lella, It's—" Bonnie? Calling on a Sunday evening? Oh my God. Something must have happened to Kyle.

"Is Kyle okay?" I blurted out before she could finish her sentence.

"Kyle is fine. I just left him. We had to work on the details for tomorrow. We'll be in court in the morning. I suggest you get there no later than 9:30 a.m.. Actually, I insist you be there. We need to show he has family and friends' support, ties to the community, people who care. Carolyn, his agent, promised to come."

"I'll be there. I'll be there, even if I have to come barefooted. What's happening? The cops found Ruby?"

"Barefoot? I don't understand." No comment regarding Ruby.

"Nothing, a stupid joke. Tell me about Kyle." I heard Larry coming up the stairs.

"There is a good chance Kyle will be able to go home. Even without locating Ruby. He will be monitored and confined between home and work. We got lucky. He was cleared of the arson charge—"

"The what? Arson? My son was accused of setting fire—to what?"