Tacked to Death (8 page)

Michaela crossed her arms. "Work out
what? What will she understand?" Joe looked down. "What is it,
Joe?"

"Rhonda received a call from channel 8
and they wanted a quote from her for tonight's six o'clock news
about your arrest, whether or not you would still be working with
the autistic society, and if they would still recommend children to
ride with you."

"What? No! Oh no, no!"

Camden placed a hand on her shoulder.
Michaela, near tears, shook it off and walked into the kitchen,
where she took a pitcher of water from the fridge. She needed to
think. "What did she say?"

"She wouldn't give them a quote. But…"
He paused. "…she did ask that in light of the negative publicity
that for a while, until everything is worked out, you not work with
the kids. She's pretty sure that when the parents hear about this,
there'll be some fallout to deal with."

Michaela slammed the pitcher onto the
counter, spilling water on the floor. "Those are my kids! Those
kids are everything to me, along with my horses. She can't do this!
She has to know that I'm not guilty."

"Of course she knows, but look at it
from her point of view, Mick. She's gotta cover her
butt."

Michaela frowned as she said,
"Unbelievable!" She grabbed her purse off the counter.

"Where are you going?" Camden
shouted.

"To see Lucia Sorvino…but first, I want
to talk to you. Upstairs. Now."

"Now?"

"Now." Michaela motioned for Camden to
head up first. She wasn't about to let her get out of
this.

Camden turned around to look at her.
"What's this all about?" she asked when they'd closed the bedroom
door.

"The comment you made yesterday about
Sterling right after he was killed, about being more than friends.
Do you want to elaborate?"

Camden sighed.

Michaela's stomach sank. "Please tell
me that you weren't cheating on your fiancé!"

"No, no I wasn't."

"Thank God." Michaela plunked down on
the end of her bed atop a coral tropical-flower print.

"But I did sleep with him." Camden
tossed back her red hair.

"You better explain this one, my
friend."

Camden sat down next to her. "Look,
here's the deal. It was a long time ago. A very long time
ago."

"Like how long ago?"

Camden scowled. "Do you remember
George?"

"Your first husband?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yes. The golf pro."

She nodded. "Sterling was his
caddy."

"Oh no. I can already tell that I am
not going to like where this is going. Wait, George? That was what,
eight years ago?"

"Nine."

"Nine, and Sterling was twenty-six when
he died, which means that you and he…when he was
seventeen!"

"He told me that he was
nineteen."

"Oh my God! You…you're like a regular
Mrs. Robinson. That is really disturbing!"

"Hey, I prefer more like an Eva
Longoria on Desperate Housewives during that first season, when she
was sleeping with the gardener kid. He was a senior in high school.
Really good story line."

"I don't watch TV, and I don't care who
you think you're like. That's just gross."

"He said he was a virgin and he wanted
to know what it was like because he was going off to college. Kind
of like a soldier going off to war."

"You've got to be kidding me. You're
delirious, Cam. You believed him? Young guy like that waiting until
he was nineteen? Even at seventeen, I'm pretty sure Sterling Taber
did his share of the cheerleading squad long before he graduated.
Wait. How did you even meet him?"

"Golfing one day with George. He had
those dreamy eyes and his body, wow…And George was already messing
around with Debbie, who became wife number four, so I figured, no
harm, no foul—"

Michaela cut her off. "It doesn't
matter. What I want to know is, were you sleeping with him
again?"

"I told you that I wasn't. God, Mick. I
just said that it was a long time ago. I'm engaged to
Dwayne."

Michaela cocked an eyebrow. "Like that
really stopped you in the past. I just want to be sure."

"This is different. I love Dwayne and
you know that. I'd never do anything to hurt him."

"Then why even have Sterling close by?
Why have him in the show? If you love Dwayne like you say that you
do, then why tempt yourself?"

She sighed. "I'll tell you everything
from the beginning."

"I wish you would. But, you can leave
out any more details from your Mrs. Robinson days. I don't think I
want to hear about any of that."

Camden took a sip of her tea before
going into her saga. "I hadn't seen Sterling in years. He'd moved
to L.A., then back home to Santa Barbara, and then I think he came
back here, he said, when he was twenty, but I'd moved on and so had
he. We only had a fling—"

Michaela held up her hands. "Forget
that. What I want to know is what had been going on between you two
as of late."

"I'm getting to it. His family is some
well-to-do, high-society-type bunch."

"I thought you said he was seventeen
when you met him, but his family lives in Santa
Barbara."

She nodded. "He had some ups and downs
with his parents. They tried military school and then finally
agreed to let him move out here and live with an uncle, who got him
the caddy job. If I remember right, the uncle passed away not long
after Sterling turned eighteen, but I really don't know. I wasn't
in his life at that point. I only caught bits through the grapevine
of what was going on with him."

"Okay, and…" Michaela motioned for her
to continue, finding herself growing impatient.

"I first saw him a few months back,
when that spread ran about him being the most eligible bachelor in
the desert and how he rode down at the polo fields. I went to visit
him. I thought he'd be a great attraction for the fashion show. It
was his idea to do the charity match in the first
place."

"Sure, and you want me to believe that
you just went over there for a howdy-do, and to ask him to be in
the show." Michaela rolled her eyes. "I've known you for a very
long time. You're not fooling me, and please don't try. This is my
life on the line here."

"Okay, so maybe I was a little curious.
We had some good times together. We were friends. But trust me, I
had no plans to cross that line again, and I didn't."

Michaela studied her. She actually
believed her. One thing that Michaela knew about her friendship
with Camden was they were brutally honest with each other. "You're
telling me that Sterling came up with the idea for the charity
match?"

"Yes. I don't understand why you didn't
like him."

"He was a show-off, and he made me
uncomfortable. I don't like overbearing men and he was
one."

"He was just confident."

"We don't need to get into the reasons
why I didn't care for your friend. The facts are he didn't deserve
his fate, and I certainly don't deserve to be charged with his
murder."

"No, you don't. I know you didn't do
it."

"Did he talk to you at all about his
personal life, anything that might have been going on?"

"He did. I told the police yesterday
what he told me only a few weeks ago."

"What was that?"

"We met for lunch at the polo lounge.
He called me, sounding upset and asked if I'd come and meet him. He
said that he felt like someone was watching him. He thought someone
wanted him dead."

"Did he say who?"

"Juliet's father."

"Ed Mitchell?" Michaela knew Ed fairly
well after riding with him at the polo fields. He'd been the one to
give Michaela her mallet. He'd told her it was a gift from the
club. She couldn't see a man of Ed's prominence murdering
anyone.

"Yes," Camden replied.

"Okay, wait, so he had this girlfriend,
Juliet. But he was also considered an eligible bachelor. I've been
wondering about that. Do you know what the deal is
there?"

"That's why he thought her father might
want him dead. He and Juliet started going out after he was voted
most eligible. We talked. I even spoke with Juliet and she seemed
okay with it at the time. We decided that it would bring in a
larger crowd to the show if we promoted him that way. I think,
though, that Juliet may have had second thoughts, and it upset her.
Especially when Sterling was approached by one of those reality TV
dating shows. He didn't agree to do it, but Sterling told me that
Juliet freaked out about it. And Sterling told me that if Juliet is
upset, her daddy becomes even more upset. And I guess Daddy
Warbucks also has a bad temper. I told the cops all of this
yesterday, too."

"What did they say?" Michaela had
caught wind that Ed was protective of Juliet and that he
occasionally lost his temper. But she still couldn't see him as a
killer.

"All the detective said was thank you.
I didn't know at the time that Peters was going to arrest you; if I
had, I would've pushed the issue further."

Michaela stood up and paced across her
bleached hardwood floors. She needed to think. "Can you do me a
favor?"

"Sure. Anything."

"Can you see if you can locate any
article, or whatever else you can on Sterling? I know he did some
acting in L.A. and other modeling gigs. Maybe there's something
there. Can you do that for me?"

"Why?"

"Please, can you just do
it?"

"What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure yet. But the mystery lies
with the dead guy, and maybe we'll learn something about his past,
his life, anything that will give us answers as to who really
killed him, and why."

"Michaela, don't tangle yourself up in
this."

She let out a sarcastic laugh. "I don't
have a choice now, do I? Peters wants me behind bars. I'm in this
mess whether I want to be or not, and this time I'm fighting to
keep my sanity and my freedom."

Ten

Michaela pulled up in front of
Sorvino’s, which was on the hill overlooking the polo fields. To
her dismay the restaurant appeared to be closed. Only one car stood
in the parking lot—a silver convertible Mercedes. She was pretty
sure Ed Mitchell drove a car like that. Maybe Sorvino's was open,
but normally it was packed; one car in the parking lot didn't
exactly constitute busy.

She didn't know where Lucia Sorvino
lived and had hoped that she would be here at the restaurant. Maybe
it was for the best if the girl wasn't around, at least for her
sake, because Michaela's anger had only deepened as she'd wiped
away angry tears on the drive over. How could anyone think she
could have murdered Sterling? And now her students—her kids—not
coming for lessons because of the negative press! It had been one
thing that she owned the damn murder weapon and only her
fingerprints were on it. But Lucia had sealed the coffin shut by
making up the bizarre lie about her and Sterling. She would get to
the bottom of it.

Even though Sorvino's might be closed,
she decided to walk around the building. Maybe someone was there
and she could ask them when Lucia might be in. Typically, a clear
blue sky in November would have made her grateful to be alive.
She'd have taken in the surrounding beauty of the grass field below
and the majestic mountains in the background. But there was not a
whole lot to appreciate at the moment. One minute it was Sunday
afternoon and her team had won a polo match and raised a nice chunk
of change for her riding center, then by Monday she'd been arrested
for murder. All she wanted to do was be vindicated and get back her
life—a life that seemed to have drastically changed in the last
twenty-four hours.

She went up to the front doors and
pulled on them but they were locked. She started to walk around to
the back of the restaurant, passing some of the large picture
windows, which allowed patrons to enjoy the view. Something caught
her eye and she peered inside. Pepe Sorvino was talking to Ed
Mitchell. So, it was Ed's car. They looked to be having a drink and
laughing about something and did not notice her. Michaela continued
around the back to knock on the door, but hesitated. Ed stood up
from the bar and pulled something from his pocket. She squinted to
see what it was. It looked to be a jewelry box. Pepe opened it, and
took something out: a diamond ring. Michaela could tell by the way
the light caught it. Why would Ed Mitchell be giving Pepe a diamond
ring? Okay, jewelry was Ed's business, but wouldn't they conduct a
transaction like this in his store?

She had to hustle as she saw the men
make their way toward the back door. How would she explain being
there? She didn't mind running into Ed, but she wasn't prepared to
deal with Pepe again. She raced for a shed that stood behind the
restaurant. It was open; she went inside and crouched down. From
what she could tell, the shed was used to store catering needs like
large platters, a cappuccino maker, extra plates and…a wig. What? A
wig? Michaela picked up the long blonde wig. Strange. She set it
back down again and listened as Ed and Pepe walked to the parking
lot, still laughing.