Robert B. Parker’s Revenge Tour

Fifty-Two

The woman who slapped her looked to be roughly the same age, and even the same height, as Holly.

Long, straight hair, a deft combination of blond and gray. Her black dress fit her beautifully. Low heels. Simple strand of pearls.

I had to admit, the closer I got, the better she looked. Tom Gorman and I moved quickly across the gym floor. Somehow everybody else in their immediate area had backed away, but not far enough that they might miss whatever was going to happen next.

Holly Hall’s cheek was pink where the woman had connected.

“Problem?” I said when Gorman and I got to them.

“Who are you?” the woman said. “Another one of Charlie’s angels?”

“I’m actually just waiting for cake,” I said.

“Is that supposed to be funny?” the woman said.

I turned to Tom Gorman, who seemed to be enjoying the show even more now that I was in it.

“When they have to ask,” I said sadly.

“I’ve got this, Sunny,” Holly said.

She turned back to the woman wearing a black dress that I could now confirm, up close to it, had not been purchased in a department store.

“Please don’t make more of a scene than you already have,” Holly said to her.

“I’ve actually done everything I came here to do,” the woman said. “And I wanted to let you know that if you thought I’d forgotten your betrayal, you are sadly, and perhaps pathetically, lying to yourself. But then, you were always such an artful liar, Holly.”

“Lisa,” Holly said. “Please lower your voice.”

Lisa smiled.

“Unlike you, dear,” she said, “this is as low as I go.”

I stuck out my hand to Lisa, hoping to somehow shift her attention, and de-escalate the situation at the same time.

“Sunny Randall,” I said, as if on the welcoming committee for orientation.

She looked down at my hand, then back at me.

“Who gives a shit?” she said.

I smiled and stepped a little closer to her, now that she had officially annoyed me.

“Lisa,” I said, “this is probably the first and last time we will ever encounter each other. I’m a private detective, and have a gun in my purse, which actually isn’t relevant to this conversation. But this is: Rude people annoy me. And now you have. So if you don’t leave this gym right now, I am going to stick your elbow in your ear.”

It was a line from Spenser that Susan Silverman had once shared with me. I’d been saving it for a special occasion. This was it.

Lisa stared at me. Opened her mouth and closed it. This close to her, I saw that her eyes were so pale that they were almost translucent.

“You can’t talk to me like that,” she said.

“Just did, hon,” I said.

“This is between Holly and me,” she said.

“Was,” I said.

“Sunny,” Holly said, “please let me handle this before the entire occasion is ruined.”

I ignored her. When I got closer to Lisa now, she took a step back, almost involuntarily.

I leaned in now and whispered, “Don’t make me slap you.”

I turned to Tom Gorman and winked.

I turned back to Lisa the bitch and said, “Now, for the last time, turn around and get your skinny ass out of here.”

And she did.