Born To Be Wild

TWENTY-NINE

Nicole Kidman played a glue-sniffing teen on the Australian soap A Country Practice.

The phone rang again, then once more.

“Hello?”

“What have you gotten yourself into? What is going on down there?”

It didn’t sound at all like John Lennon. “Who is this?”

“John Goddard. What’s happening?”

His voice was warm and deep and definitely pissed off, and she smiled into the phone. “Oh, a John by another name. It’s good to hear from you, but how did you know anything was happening? It’s kind of late down here, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry to call you so late. What do you mean a John by another name?”

“I was dreaming about John Lennon and he started ringing and it was you. So, what’s going on?”

“Your dad called me, said Jack had called him, told him it was getting really complicated down there and he was going to stay to see if he could help resolve things.”

“Complicated? Is that cop talk for understatement? Can you sing, John?”

He laughed. “Lock me in a shower and you can’t shut me up.”

Right there in her mind’s eye was the visual of him crooning while she looked at his lovely wet butt. He turned and smiled at her. But it wasn’t John’s face, it was Jack’s, and she jerked the shower curtain closed real fast. “Okay, I’m awake now. Why did my dad call you?”

There was a slight pause before John the tough district attorney said, “Why shouldn’t he call me? I asked him to, I was worried about you. He thinks I should come down there, said Jack was okay, but it’s time for the big gun.”

Big gun, huh? “My father called you the big gun?”

“Maybe not his exact words.”

“John, it’s a nice thought, but you’re preparing evidence for Milo Hildebrand’s trial, aren’t you? Seems to me you’re pretty busy right now. Isn’t Patricia Bigelow all over you with motions for this and that?”

“Well, the thing is, we’ve got all the evidence we need locked down. Pat can shriek and pull her hair if she likes, make motions until all the cows migrate to California, there’s nothing she can do but wait for a plea bargain offer that’s probably not going to come. And we don’t have to worry about Milo skipping the jurisdiction. With obvious premeditation, Judge Howe turned down bail in a minute. Milo’s in jail for the long haul.”

“John, listen to me. I’m working all day tomorrow. Besides the police department, we’ve got the big rottweiler here on the case. Jack’s a pretty big gun, don’t you think? There’s simply no reason for you to disrupt your life to come down.”

“If you have to know,” he said, “your sister was pissed when Jack left town after she’d put some of her moves on him, so now she’s decided to light up my life again. I’m scared.”

“So you think Jack showed up down here just to escape my sister? And you want to do the same?” Mary Lisa forgot for a moment that she’d been afraid to poke her head out her own door that day, and laughed. “So Kelly’s got both of you machos on the run?”

“Sometimes telling the truth really hurts.”

She had no sooner punched off than it rang again. “Grand Central.”

A short pause, a strained laugh, then, “Lots of people calling you at all hours, huh? Mary Lisa, Jack swore to me you were all right. But I’ve been lying here and I can’t sleep. I’m coming down tomorrow.”

“Dad, there’s no reason, I promise. This is exactly why I didn’t want to worry you with all this when I was up there. After work tomorrow, I’ve got an interview with Soap Opera Digest and then a birthday party for a friend to go to. You already sent Jack Wolf down here to run loose in Malibu. Believe me, no one in their right mind would try anything with the original bad-ass close by.”

“But he’s not your father.”

“Dad, please. Stay in Goddard Bay. Truth is, I’d worry myself into a coma if you were here nosing around.”

“But-”

She heard her mother’s voice clearly in the background. “You can’t go to Malibu, George. Monica needs us at her campaign fund-raiser Saturday night. Come back to bed.”

Her father’s voice, a bit muffled because he’d obviously put his hand over the receiver, said, “Mary Lisa is in danger, Kathleen. A fund-raiser is nothing.”

Her mother’s voice became indistinct. She realized her dad had pressed his palm down harder over the phone.

She waited briefly, and her dad said, “Mary Lisa, I’ll call you tomorrow morning, see what’s going on. Yes, yes, I’ll check in with Jack too. When do you leave for the studio?”

When Mary Lisa punched off her cell, she lay back and stared up at the ceiling. She listened to the sound of the waves, a bit closer, a bit frothier since a light rain was falling and the wind had picked up. She got up, checked on Lou Lou, who was sprawled in the middle of the guest room bed on her back, arms and legs snow-angeled, deeply asleep. Her thick streaked hair frothed around her head and over her face, and she looked adorable in Mary Lisa’s cat pajamas. If Elizabeth had been here, she knew the two of them would have been sprawled side by side, but Elizabeth was still back in Connecticut dealing with family problems of her own. Another asshole man, she had said-or was she being redundant? She’d have to run that by Jack, to see the look on his face. At least she’d be back in the next day or two. She’d called, but neither Mary Lisa nor Lou Lou had told her anything more about the trouble. Elizabeth had enough on her plate without adding this course.

Mary Lisa went out onto her covered back deck, leaned her elbows on the railing, and watched the rain sheet lightly down in front of her. Carlo said from the depths of his sleeping bag, “You okay, Mary Lisa?”

“Yep, I’m fine, Carlo. Sorry I woke you up. You’re not cold, are you?”

“Nah, this thing was made for the Antarctic. Good thing for you it’s cool tonight because I sleep in the nude.”

Mary Lisa laughed, thanked him, and headed back to bed. She said one final prayer-she thanked God she wasn’t at this very moment lying in her bed in her mother’s house in Goddard Bay.