Melinda Wells - The Proof is in the Pudding

“No, but thanks. Figuring out the cost of the ruined food will take more time than it’s worth.”

As I stared at the disaster that was my kitchen, heartsick and virtually paralyzed, Liddy stooped down, picked up a stack of dinner plates, and put them onto the cabinet shelf where they belonged.

“It’s a start,” she said.

My best friend’s simple act-and her encouraging smile-were just what I needed to snap myself out of the emotional morass I’d sunk into.

I indicated the lone pile of plates that Liddy had put back on the otherwise empty cabinet shelf. “One thing done. Only a thousand more to go.”

Filling a bowl of fresh Natural Balance for Dogs, I said, “I’ll take this to Tuffy.”

It was a relief to go out into the fresh, cool air. I hadn’t realized it until that moment, but the search party had managed to raise dust that I didn’t know I had. I resolved to be more thorough when I vacuumed.

Seeing me at the back door, Tuffy trotted over from where he’d been playing with a rope toy I’d hung from the limb of my one orange tree. I put the bowl of Natural Balance on the bottom step.

Ignoring the food, Tuffy nuzzled me, and I hugged him. His warm body and soft fur in my arms was a comfort.

“I’ll let you inside soon, Tuff. In the meantime, you’ve got food and water and shade and toys.”

He looked at me with his dark, intelligent eyes and I felt he understood. In any case, having Tuffy and Emma reminded me that it didn’t really matter how big a mess Hatch and company had made of our home. Whatever was ruined were only things, and things could be replaced.

Back in the kitchen, John was closing his cell phone.

“I gotta go. There’s a double homicide in the Hollywood Hills.” He looked around at the chaos. “I hate to leave you girls with all this.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said. “Liddy knows where everything goes as well as I do.”

Liddy blew him a kiss. “Go solve the crime, Big John. We’ll work faster without having to tell you what to do.”

As soon as we heard the front door close, Liddy tugged at my sleeve. “We’re alone now. So tell me why the Sicilian isn’t here.”

“He thinks I was sleeping with Keith Ingram.”

Liddy huffed. “Men! We can’t do without them and it’s illegal to kill them. Where’s the justice in that?”

It took us two hours to put the kitchen and my bedroom back together. While we worked, I filled Liddy in on what had happened at the coffee shop.

“I love his novels,” Liddy said, “but he’s not exactly a darling of the New York Review of Books. Maybe it was one of those snobby critics who shot at him.”

I smiled. “When he’s well enough, I’ll tell him your theory.”

I’d opened the bathroom door and was enticing Emma into the bedroom, when I heard the doorbell ring.

“I’ll go,” Liddy said.

“Thanks.”

I lifted Emma up and put her on top of my freshly made bed. After giving her a few gentle strokes, I closed my bedroom door to keep her inside until we put the rest of the house right.

My bedroom was finished. Now it was time to begin restoring Eileen’s room and bath. I’d started down the hallway when I heard Liddy’s voice from the front door.

“I don’t know if I should let you in,” she said. “Is your medical insurance paid up?”

I met Liddy and Nicholas in the archway that led to the living room. He carried a large bag from Junior’s Restaurant and Deli on the corner of Westwood and Pico Boulevards. He knew it was my favorite place for sandwiches. I could smell the wonderful scent of Junior’s pastrami from twenty feet away.

Nicholas held the bag out in front of him like a shield. “I come in peace.”

“I’m so hungry if you won’t forgive him, I will,” Liddy said.

Nicholas kept his eyes on me and waved the Junior’s bag so as to waft more enticing aromas in my direction.

“Extra lean pastrami on fresh-cut rye,” he said.

I took a few steps forward, but kept ten feet between us. “What’s on the sandwich?”

“Russian dressing on one side of the rye, mustard and coleslaw on the other. No pickle. I got you your favorite extra lean corned beef, Liddy. And sides of potato salad, and three slices of New York cheesecake for dessert.”

“I forgive you,” I said.

“Thank God.” Liddy took the bag. “I’ll set us up in the kitchen. You two need a few minutes alone.” She winked at me as she left the room.

“I was a total jerk,” he said.

“Agreed. But what made you come to that conclusion?”

“When I cooled off, I thought about the kind of person you are and figured out that you must be taking heat for Eileen. I’m guessing Ingram made a video of her. That’s why O’Hara decked him and why you broke into the bastard’s house.”

“Off the record?”

Nicholas nodded agreement.

“You’re partly right,” I said. “John didn’t know about the video when he hit Ingram. He just knew that Ingram had done something that hurt Eileen badly. I’m sure John’s put it together now because he knows what Hatch got the search warrant for, and that SID found my fingerprint on Ingram’s back window.”

“O’Hara stuck around while I left. He really does know you better than I do.”

I smiled at him. “In one particular way he doesn’t know me at all. Now, I’m trusting you, that you’re not going to write about this.”

“Not unless somebody else in the media gets the story, or parts of it. If that happens I’ll have to report it, but I’ll keep you and Eileen out of it as much as I possibly can.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

“I noticed O’Hara’s car is gone.”

“He was called away on a double homicide in Hollywood. Shouldn’t you be covering that?”

“Ted Jaffe is. I wanted to see you.” Nicholas looked around at the disaster in the living room. “Is the rest of the house as bad as this?”

“It was even worse, but we started in the back and have been working our way forward. We just have Eileen’s room and the living room yet to do.”

“I’ll help,” he said.

“After we eat.”

I turned and began to walk toward the kitchen, but Nicholas caught my hand. Gently, he pulled me into his arms. We kissed until I felt all the tension of the day drain out of my body.

After eating lunch, the three of us finally managed to restore the house to the way it had looked before Hatch and his invaders tore it apart. Miraculously, they hadn’t broken anything, but cleaning up took most of the rest of the afternoon.

Liddy went home to take a bath and to make dinner for Bill.

I gave Tuffy and Emma their dinners, and made a fresh pot of coffee for Nicholas and me. When it was ready, and I’d poured mugs for us, I took out a pen and one of the pads of paper I kept in a kitchen drawer, and joined Nicholas at the table.

“What are you doing?” Nicholas asked.

“I’m going to try to make some sense out of what’s happened,” I said. “I think better when I write things down. Let’s make an investigation plan.”

Nicholas smiled.

“Don’t laugh at me,” I said.

“I wasn’t going to. That was a smile of recognition. When I’m working on a complicated story I make lists, too. I start with what I already know.”

“Here’s what I know.” I talked as I began to write. “One: Ingram had a hidden video camera in his bedroom and taped women with whom he was having sex.”

“Some of them might have been all right with that,” Nicholas said. “Exhibitionists.”

“Eileen didn’t know about it, and I’m guessing some of the others didn’t either. One of those women might have been angry enough, or frightened enough, to have killed him.”