Jeff Shelby - Killer Swell

Emily spotted Kate’s husband first. “Over there. Tall, handsome.” She paused and the finger snapping came to a halt. “Huge bastard.”

I recognized Randall speaking with two other men.

“He’s not so tall,” Carter observed.

“Bastard?” I asked, surprised by Emily’s comment. “You don’t like your brother-in-law?”

Her stare was still locked on Randall. “Have you met him?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you think?”

I glanced at Carter, but he was looking at Randall, too. “Seemed alright.”

Emily turned to me, the soft brown eyes now hard as slate. “He’s a prick, Noah.”

Her face flushed, her anger gathering itself. “Phony two-faced prick. He didn’t love Kate.”

“How do you know?”

She turned back in Randall’s direction. “He was cheating on her. From day one.”

I looked across the courtyard at Randall. I hadn’t pegged him for infidelity when we’d met. I thought there was something off about him, but I didn’t get the sense that he didn’t love Kate.

“How do you know?” I asked.

Emily turned back to me, the anger changing to sadness, tears in her eyes. “Kate and I were sisters, Noah. We talked. I know, okay?” She brought her hands to her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about this now. I’ll see you later.”

She walked away quickly and disappeared into the church. Her reaction made me wonder if old Randall had suckered me into thinking he was a good guy when he wasn’t.

“You think?” Carter asked, his gaze still on Randall.

“I don’t know.”

Randall glanced in our direction, raised his eyebrows in recognition, said something to the men he was standing with, and headed our way.

“But maybe I’ll ask,” I said.

Carter adjusted his sunglasses. “Oh, goodie.”

Randall strode toward us, his eyes visibly red. “Noah, hello.”

We shook hands. “Randall, this is my friend Carter Hamm. He was a friend of Kate’s also.”

They shook hands.

“I’m sorry about your wife,” Carter said.

“Thank you,” Randall said, his voice tight. “Thank you both for coming.”

Carter and I nodded, that awkward bubble again forming around us. The sun felt hot on my neck, and I was sweating in my suit.

“Have you learned anything?” Randall asked quietly, his eyes darting from group to group.

“Not really,” I lied. “This has all happened pretty quickly.”

Randall nodded and smoothed his tie down his chest. “Sure. Please tell me if I can do anything to help.”

Carter glanced at me, and I knew he was waiting for me to say something. I was having second thoughts because we were at a memorial service and I didn’t want to take advantage of someone’s vulnerability.

But Kate was dead and I was frustrated.

“Actually I do have a couple of questions.”

He blinked several times, looking almost surprised that I’d taken him up on his offer, then shrugged. “Alright.”

“The other night you said that Kate didn’t want to be married anymore.”

He nodded. “That’s what she told me, yes.”

“Any more thoughts on why she might’ve felt that way?”

“She didn’t give me anything else,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Never told me what she was unhappy about.”

“Could it have been you?”

He blinked again and shoved a hand into his pocket. “I don’t know, I guess.”

I watched him. “Maybe something you’d done?”

Randall shifted his weight, his impatience starting to show. “Like?”

“What do you do in your spare time?” I asked.

“I don’t follow.”

“Water ski, collect art, knit,” Carter said. “For example.”

Randall glared at him. “Was I talking to you?”

“No. That was me talking to you. Pay attention.”

Randall looked back to me. “Don’t play with me, Noah. Not today. What do you wanna know?”

He’d raised his voice, and several looks were directed toward us.

“You and Kate had a good marriage?” I asked.

His jaw tightened. “I thought so.”

“How good?”

The other hand disappeared into the other pocket. “I don’t know how to answer that. I told you things were strained.”

The sun was high in the sky and aimed directly at us.

“You cheat on her?” I asked.

Randall’s cheeks flexed slightly, his jaw set. His eyes narrowed, and the sun wasn’t the only thing that was hot.

“What the hell is this?” he growled.

“An investigation into your wife’s death,” I told him. “You asked if you could help.”

Randall looked at Carter, who had settled into his imposing-but-nonchalant stance. I thought Randall wanted to hit Carter, but the more I thought about it, that didn’t make sense because Randall didn’t seem like a dumb guy.

Randall looked back at me. “Leave-now.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.

His right hand emerged from his pocket, his index finger pointing at me. “This is my wife’s funeral. You wanna fuck around with me? Fine. But not here, not today.”

“Then when?” I asked.

He jabbed the finger in my direction. “How about after I rip your fucking head off?” He spun on his heel and walked away from us.

I looked at Carter.

He adjusted his glasses. “How will you hear his answer if your head is detached?”

Carter left the funeral before I did, mumbling something about having to be somewhere. I didn’t ask where.

I hung around for a while, despite Randall’s threat. I scanned the crowd looking for people who seemed out of place, who maybe didn’t belong at Kate’s funeral, who looked like a walking clue.

I went zero for three.

I was heading for my car when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw Emily coming toward me.

“Sorry,” she said, as she reached me. “Didn’t mean to yell.”

“It’s okay. What’s up?”

She frowned, looking embarrassed. “I wanted to apologize for earlier.”

“Earlier?”

She nodded. “Walking away from you and Carter like that. I just got too upset.”

I watched the cars trickle out of the lot and down the hill. “I think you’re allowed to be upset, Em.”

“Well, thanks,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “But I don’t need to be rude, too.”

“You weren’t. It was fine.”

The corners of her mouth flared into a small smile. “Always the nice guy. Even after living through my family.”

“Even after.” I paused for a moment. “At some point, I’d like to talk to you, though. About what you told me.”

She turned and looked back at the church. “The thought of going back in there to help clean up isn’t exactly enticing.” She turned back to me. “How about now?”

“I didn’t mean we had to do it right away, Emily. It can wait a day or two,” I told her.

She waved a perfectly manicured hand in the air. “I’m fine. Really. I need to vent anyway. I’ll buy you a drink at George’s. Just let me grab my things.”

She hurried back to the courtyard and quickly reemerged with a sweater and her purse. She reminded me of a more sophisticated Kate. They were both attractive, but Kate had always been the little sister, looking up to her sister with a sense of admiration and awe. Emily had always been more into the fashion trends and a little more into risk taking, a very cool older sister who didn’t mind letting the little sister into her life.

I followed her BMW down the back side of Mount Soledad to the jammed up area at Prospect. La Jolla was a tiny strip on a cliff above the water, and traffic was ever present in the area. We parked up on Ivanhoe and walked back to the bluff-top restaurant at the northern edge of the La Jolla downtown district.