“May I help you?” the woman asked with a warm smile. Amazingly, she barely glanced at Rule.
There were disadvantages to being an expert consultant. Lily’s hand started to reach for her ID before she remembered. “I’d like to speak with Ms. Harris. I’m sure she’s busy, but I’m an old friend.” Lily smiled. “Tell her Lily Yu is here to see her.”
“An old friend?” Rule said, very low, while the woman spoke into an in-house phone.
“Later.”
The receptionist had already finished and was standing. “Come with me, please.”
Lily followed six feet of fashionable blonde skinny into the main part of the salon—a trendy place with eight-foot potted palms, decorative tile, chemical smells, and women. Lots of women. Every one of them stared at Rule as they passed.
Maybe the receptionist was gay.
They passed through a door at the rear into a more utilitarian zone—a brief, carpeted hall with doors at either end. Lily made a halfhearted effort to persuade herself it was relief making her heart pound. She hadn’t been at all sure Ginger would see her.
But relief doesn’t make your palms damp.
They stopped at the door on the east end. The Julia clone gave it a quick rap, then opened it and stood back, still smiling.
Ginger’s office was furnished in expensive kitsch: a neon palm in one corner, pink fuzzy chairs for visitors, a chrome and glass desk. Ginger wasn’t behind the desk but stood at the window as if she’d been looking out. She wore a brief, stretchy top in fuchsia and snug cropped pants that showed off her belly button ring.
She turned as the door closed—and her eyebrows climbed. “Rule. I wasn’t expecting you. Since you’re here . . .” She glanced at Lily, and her lips curled up at the corners. “We could try a threesome. The love seat’s too small, but there’s always the floor.”
To her intense aggravation, Lily felt herself blush. “Does that mean you don’t mind having sex with a murderer? Or that it doesn’t worry you to get naked with a man you tried to frame for murder?”
“Ooh, you talk tough these days.” She shook her head, and for a second Lily thought hurt flashed through those big eyes. “I guess you’re not here to talk about old times, after all.”
“Good guess. I should mention that I’m not here as a cop, either. I’m assisting the FBI in their investigation.”
“The FBI?” Ginger ran a hand through her cropped red hair, fluffing it. “How scary. Have I mentioned that I swing both ways?” She gave Lily an up-and-down look, that cat smile curving her lips. “Nice jacket.”
“Thanks. Who persuaded you to lie about seeing Turner last night?”
“I didn’t lie.” She glanced at Rule, shrugged. “Didn’t mean to get you in trouble, sweetie.”
“As you see, the trouble was of short duration.” His smile was sharp enough to cut glass. “I understand that lying to federal officers creates more lasting problems.”
“Could be I made a mistake, but it sure looked like you.” She waved at the fuzzy pink chairs. “Let’s do sit down. Can I offer you anything? We’ve a nice Chardonnay, or you could have some fizzy lemon water, if you’re being all prim and proper and on duty.”
Letting Ginger set the dial to chat wasn’t going to help. The other woman would keep control that way, flirt with one or both of them, and tell them nothing.
Lily walked up to her. “These people—the ones you’re protecting—are killers. Do you know what they did to Therese Martin? Ripped out her guts. Made a real mess of her, right there in her home, where she thought she was safe.”
Ginger’s tongue darted out, touched her upper lip. “That’s awful, I’m sure, but nothing to do with me. Maybe I made a mistake about who I saw come out of that building, maybe not. Either way, I’m not guilty of anything.”
“What were you doing there? Not that night—I understand you’d been at the club. The next day, when you just happened to see the cop cars outside Therese’s place and wandered over to see what had happened.”
“My, it does sound odd, the way you put it.” Ginger tilted her head to one side, then brushed Lily’s cheek with her fingers. “You know, sugar, your skin’s good, but I don’t think that shade of foundation is working for you. Makes you look sallow. I could work you up a personal palette with the brand we carry. You’d love it.”
Lily wasn’t wearing foundation. “You didn’t answer the question.”
“For someone who isn’t here as a cop, you’re sure sounding like one.” She shrugged. “Why not? I told the other officer about it. I’d left my purse at the club, which I didn’t realize until I tried to pay the cabbie.” She grimaced. “He was
not
very understanding, let me tell you. I had to wake up my neighbors and borrow some money, and they weren’t understanding, either. I went back to get it the next day.”
“Why did you take a cab home?”
Ginger rolled her eyes. “Just between you and me, sugar, I’ve had a little trouble with my license. I take cabs everywhere these days.”
“Club Hell is two blocks away from Therese Martin’s apartment. How could you see Turner clearly enough to identify him from that distance?”
“We drove past it, sugar. I don’t know if the cabbie saw him or not, but I always notice Rule.” She slanted him a smile.
Lily nodded slowly, wondering if they—whoever they were—had arranged for a man to leave Therese’s building at the right time for the cabbie to see him. “It’s a good story, Ginger. Tight.”
“Story?” Those thin eyebrows lifted in outsized surprise. “Sweetie, I’m not the one who makes up stories about where she’s been or where she’s going. That was you and Sarah.”
The air was sucked right out of Lily’s chest.
Was it my fault? Have you blamed me all these years? I could have said no, could have talked Sarah out of it. . . .
She got her breath back. “Good one. That connected. But I’m not eight years old anymore, and I hit back. You might want to remember that, because you really need me to be your friend. You’re in a world of shit, even if you are too dumb to know it.”
Anger flashed through Ginger’s eyes. “Now, now. Mustn’t call names.”
“Think it through. If you saw the killer, you’re in danger from him. If you didn’t—if you agreed to lie for some reason—you’re in even more danger.”
“How sweet of you to worry about me.” Her voice lowered to a purr. “Poor little Lily. You think highly of safety, don’t you? After what happened, I’m sure I can’t blame you. Did you go into police work because you felt safer with a gun and a uniform between you and the bad guys?”
Another good one,
Lily thought. But Ginger had always known how to jab below the belt. “The thing is, Ginger, I know you didn’t see the killer. Because the killer wasn’t there.”
The thin eyebrows lifted. “Now, that’s quite a trick. He killed her without showing up?”
“Yes. You see, Therese wasn’t killed by a lupus. She was killed through sorcery.”
For a second, fear flickered in those expressive, too-familiar eyes. Ginger gave a nervous little laugh. “You’ve been watching too many trash movies.”
“I said I was assisting the FBI, remember? They’ve got the case now. Murder by magical means is a federal crime . . . the only one with an automatic death penalty.”
For a second, Ginger didn’t say anything. Then she jerked one shoulder in a dismissive shrug and turned away. “I’ve really got to get back to work, sugar. I do appreciate you filling me in on all these fascinating little details, but—”
Lily took her by the shoulder, stopping her. “Listen to me. They don’t need you anymore. We know Turner didn’t do it, so you’re a loose end. You think they won’t hurt you as long as you keep your mouth shut, but that isn’t how they’ll see it. You could change your mind. As long as you’re alive, you could decide to talk. And the person who killed Therese can reach out and stop your heart any time he wants.”
“Wow.” She was trying for smart-ass but couldn’t quite pull it off. “That’s some imagination you’ve got.”
Lily said nothing, letting Ginger’s own imagination work.
She looked away, fiddled with one earring, looked back. “So what happens if I tell you someone asked me to say what I did? Will I get in trouble?”
“I think I can see that you aren’t charged with obstructing justice.”
“Well.” Ginger bit her lip. Her gaze darted around again, as if she were seeking some reassurance. It landed on Rule, who’d stayed back near the door. “All right.” She heaved a sigh. “It was Cullen. He asked me to say that.”
“Cullen Seabourne?”
She nodded. Her lower lip jutted out like a sulky child’s. “He and I have had an on-again, off-again thing for awhile. That’s the way it is with lupi. But when they’re on . . . oh, my.” Her smile returned briefly, smug, then faded. “We’ve been more off than on lately, and I was hoping to change that. I didn’t know what he was going to do to that poor woman, but I guess I knew he wanted to make trouble for Rule. I didn’t realize how much. Truly I didn’t.”
“SHE’S
lying,” Rule said. He slammed his door shut.
“Maybe.” Lily pulled her seat belt across and fastened it. “When I looked for Seabourne the other day, I couldn’t find him.” She glanced at Rule. “You did well. Didn’t butt in.”
“It wasn’t easy,” he said grimly. “Lily, I know Cullen. He’s not part of this.”
But it fit awfully neatly. They were looking for a sorcerer. He was the only one Lily knew about. “You’re friends. Close friends?”
“Yes. I know it looks bad for him, but Ginger isn’t the most reliable witness.”
“Considering that she’s already lied once, no. But what does she gain by lying about him?”
“It could be her way of protecting herself, but I’d vote for spite.”
“Hmm. Are she and Seabourne involved, then, like she said?”
“Involved might be too large a word for it. Cullen doesn’t indulge in relationships. Just sex.” He pulled out into traffic. “Which won’t make you think highly of him, but there’s a difference between promiscuity and ripping out a woman’s throat.”
She turned it over in her mind. “Ginger lies easily, but she was genuinely frightened.”
“You’re scary when you get going.”
“How long has she been coming to the club? Is she one of your groupies, or is it lupi in general she likes?”
“She likes having sex with lupi. She doesn’t actually like us.” He swept her with a quick glance, his expression unreadable, and returned his attention to the street. “I never had sex with Ginger.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“You were thinking it loudly enough,” he said dryly. “She’s afraid of us. I found that a turnoff.”
That startled her. “She hangs around lupi because she’s scared of you?”
“She enjoys fear. It excites her.”
Lily sorted that into what she knew of Ginger as she had been and as she was now. It fit. “I want to—hey. Why are you stopping here?” He’d pulled into the parking lot of a beach-front restaurant.
“For lunch.” He shut off the motor and turned to look at her. “And for questions. This time I’m asking them.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I am, but it can wait. You said you’d explain later. This is later.”
“Tonight will be later, too.” Seeing Ginger had been more than enough of a trip down memory lane. She didn’t want to linger there. “Look, I was friends with Ginger’s sister in grade school. Bad stuff happened. It was a long time ago, and I’ve got an investigation under way.”
“You’re hurting. I want to help.”
Lily looked out the window. Beyond the parking lot, a slice of ocean showed between buildings. It was a deep blue today, sparkling back at a cloudless sky. Twenty years ago, sky and sea had been gray. Gray and stormy.
Deep inside, something tugged at her, urging her to tell him. To trust him.
She couldn’t. She unfastened her seat belt. “I can’t talk about it. I’ve never been able to talk about it.”
“Never?” He laid his hand on her shoulder.
She felt the warmth immediately. The connection. She shook her head.
“All right. It’s up to you, but the mate bond can be good for more than sex, if you let it.”
Lily looked out the window again, at gulls wheeling overhead and a sky as clean and shiny as polished glass. At first they’d all wanted her to talk about it—the cops, her mother, the therapist. She hadn’t been able to. Parts of it, yes, but never the whole story. Never the worst part.
But it had been a long time since she tried. A long time since anyone urged her to try.
Maybe, she thought, she could do it now. Maybe she was tired of silence.
She bent and pulled off her shoes. “Let’s walk on the beach.”
IT
was surprisingly uncrowded near the water. Families mostly came on weekends, of course, at this time of year.
“All we need is a sunset,” Lily said, “and we could be in an ad. We must look like the perfect California couple, walking barefoot and hand in hand on the beach. Lord knows you’re photogenic enough.”
“Someone’s usually smiling in those pictures.”
“I’m fresh out right now.” She wasn’t sure she could do this, or that she wanted to. “We need to keep this short.”
“All right. You knew Ginger several years ago.”
“Twenty. Twenty years ago last month.” Was it sick to know to the day how much time had passed? No, she decided. Sad, maybe, but inevitible. “Her sister was my best friend in grade school. I spent the night with her often enough, played with her after school. So I saw a lot of Ginger.”
“Did you like her any better then?”
She smiled without humor. “No. But she was the older sister, so naturally she was contemptuous of us little kids. Back then, Ginger was the obedient child, believe it or not. Sarah . . .” Her breath caught. She so seldom said that name out loud. “Sarah was the one who got into mischief.”
“I’ve a hard time picturing you getting into much mischief.”
“I was pretty much a Goody Two-Shoes. I did my homework, didn’t cut in line, didn’t talk in class. But Sarah loosened me up some. She could talk me into things. We played hooky one day,” she said abruptly.
His hand remained warm and easy, holding hers. “Not a large rebellion.”
“You wouldn’t think so.” She walked on in silence a moment. Her blood seemed to pulse through her body at a new tempo, quick and insistent.
Keep going.
“We didn’t like our teacher, and somehow it made perfect sense to punish her by skipping school. We had it all worked out—how to slip away before class started, which bus to take. We hadn’t planned on the weather, though. It was working itself up to storm, so hardly anyone was at the beach. At first we were bummed, but then we decided it was cool. We had it almost to ourselves.”