Born To Be Wild

FORTY-FOUR

The doorbell rang at seven-thirty the following morning. Mary Lisa, with Elizabeth behind her, didn’t open it immediately.

“Who is it?”

“Jack, Mary Lisa.”

She threw the door open, a smile on her face that quickly fell away. She grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. “What is it? What’s wrong? Come in, come in. We were just about ready to leave for work.”

Elizabeth was standing back, watching. She said, “Jack, what’s the matter?”

He said, “I’m glad you’re here, Elizabeth, glad Mary Lisa isn’t alone. I’ve got to fly home.”

“But, why?”

He lightly laid his palm against Mary Lisa’s cheek. “Milo Hildebrand-my deputies found him dead in his cell an hour ago.” He added to Elizabeth, “He was a murderer, in jail awaiting trial. I’m waiting for a call from the M.E. to tell me what caused his death. My deputy thinks he was poisoned.”

“Sit down,” Mary Lisa said. “I’m getting you some coffee.”

He sat. When she handed him the last cup of coffee from her coffeemaker, she said, “It’ll grow hair where you don’t want it, it’ll be so strong, but I think you need it.” She said nothing more until he’d taken a couple of drinks. He closed his eyes a moment, then set the cup down on the side table. “My flight leaves at ten o’clock.”

“I’m really sorry about this, Jack,” Mary Lisa said as she eased down beside him. “Do the deputies know who did it? Who visited him? Anything?”

He shook his head. His cell phone rang. “I hope it’s the M.E. Chief Wolf here.”

When he hung up nearly five minutes later, he said, “My deputy was right, Milo Hildebrand was poisoned. My deputy had told me there was blood coming out of his mouth and nose. The M.E. said his pupils were dilated-he said they were blown-and that means a part of his brain was compressed, probably by internal bleeding. He thought it was the work of an anticoagulant, like coumarin, the rat poison. He said he’s checking the blood work now, and they’re looking for his meal trays in the garbage, since that’s how it had to have been done. Dr. Hughes says he can’t speculate about whether Milo cooperated, that is, whether or not he committed assisted suicide, or was murdered. I knew Milo. I would swear he was one person who would never take his own life. It was cold-blooded murder, no doubt in my mind, and it was done on my watch, in my jail. I can’t believe this, dammit.”

“Where did he get his meals?” Elizabeth asked.

“From the Goddard Bay Inn, and my people are already over there checking the kitchen and talking to the staff, to guests, to anyone they can find who might have seen someone local in the kitchen or nearby. I’ve trained them well, but I’ve got to be there.” He slammed his fist on his leg. “It smacks me in the face that this was either a revenge killing or Milo was going to implicate somebody else in the crime. I know he was guilty, the evidence was so strong.” He jumped to his feet. “I’ve got to go,” he said. He grabbed Mary Lisa and pulled her close. “Do you want me to hire a bodyguard or a private investigator to stick to you like glue?”

“No, I’ve always got people with me. You know that. I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”

“Yeah, right.” He didn’t want to let her go, he was afraid for her, but both of them knew he had to go back to Goddard Bay. She pulled away from him, touched her fingertips to his cheek. “I’ll be fine.”

“Lou Lou and I will be Krazy Glue, Jack.”

He gave her a long look, slowly nodded.

Mary Lisa said, “Call me when you find out what exactly is going on, all right?”

He kissed her hard, nodded to Elizabeth, and was gone.

Set of BORN TO BE WILD

It was ten o’clock in the morning, and actors were lolling about the set, sprawled in chairs, reading their scripts, drinking coffee. Betsy Monroe had brought in two dozen of what she claimed were low-fat donuts stuffed with sugar-free raspberry filling, a few of which the crew hadn’t yet devoured. Only the light guys and the sound guys were busy, making adjustments for the next set. She heard the director-of-the-day, Tom O’Hurley, Paulie Thomas’s uncle, speaking to Bernie Barlow about a reaction Susan had had in her last scene he hadn’t liked. She heard one of the wardrobe people griping about how late she would have to work. Though she made an effort to keep up a conversation with Betsy, Mary Lisa felt apart from the people around her. Truth was, she was exhausted. She had had a lot of trouble sleeping the previous night, and now Jack was gone.

Lou Lou was already in Mary Lisa’s dressing room to meet her. “What’s up, Mary Lisa?”

Once the door was closed Lou Lou patted the chair. Mary Lisa sat down and closed her eyes while Lou Lou freshened her makeup. “Okay, what’s wrong?”

The eyebrow brush dug into Mary Lisa’s left eyebrow. “Oops, let me Q-tip this off. Okay, that’s good to go again. You tell me about it, honey.”

“I’m just starting to feel exhausted, Lou Lou. I’m frightened. And I miss Jack. Is that sad or what? He only just left.”

Lou Lou looked down at Mary Lisa, picked up her hands and rubbed them. “Listen to me, it’s going to be all right. This idiot’s not going to get to you. Think of me as your own personal spandex. Are you okay with your lines? Okay to go back on?”

Mary Lisa nodded. She felt numb to her feet. Saying it out loud had made it real again.

“Danny will come over this evening. Then we’ll talk about it. Jack’ll call tonight, tell us what’s going on up in Goddard Bay.”

Mary Lisa nodded. She looked at herself in the mirror, saw Sunday Cavendish, smart, beautiful, took crap from no one. What would she do about this? More than martial arts classes and having a friend make an announcement on the six o’clock news, that’s for sure. The last thing Sunday would do was leave everything up to the men. She wouldn’t be pitiful.

Mary Lisa straightened her shoulders and walked, chin high, back onto the set. She wasn’t going to let this creep paralyze her. She had two minutes before she had to be in the club dining room to see her mother.

She called Chico, then Elizabeth.