J. Jance - Web of Evil

"Right, a little prenuptial nepotism never hurt anybody," Edie observed. "So I'll ask Christopher about April."

"I met her mother," Ali supplied.

"April's mother?" Edie asked. "You have?"

"Her name's Monique Ragsdale. She came to the house this morning to meet with the attorneys. She claims she's looking out for the interests of the baby. I suspect she's mostly looking out for herself. She came hoping we'd agree to a postmortem divorce decree."

"You can't divorce someone after they're dead, can you?"

"Helga doesn't think so," Ali said.

There was a knock on the door. When Ali opened it, the room service trolley was waiting out in the hallway, and so was Dave Holman. His broad-shouldered, military bearing was something Ali really needed about thensomething she welcomed. Reaching past the waiter, she gave Dave a brief but heartfelt hug.

"Thanks for coming," she said.

"Wouldn't have missed it," he said.

While the waiter set up a table out on the deck, Dave prowled the room. "This one's a little nicer than mine," he said. "There's no room service at Motel 6, but there's a Denny's up the block, so I'll live." He peered over Edie's shoulder at the notebook.

"Just trying to get an idea of who all's involved," she explained.

"Good work," he said.

All through lunch, Edie and Dave continued to pepper Ali with questions while Edie took copious notes. Once again Ali recalled what Victor had told her: "Anything you say amp;" But surely what she told her own mother and her good friend Dave couldn't hurt her, could it? Especially since everything she said was the truth.

They were just finishing lunch when the phone rang. "Ted Grantham here," he said. "This is a bit awkward, but amp;"

"What is it?"

"April called while Les and I were having lunch," he said. "I didn't get the message until I came back to the office. She said she was having a problem with her mother about planning the funeral. She wanted to talk to you about it if you wouldn't mind coming back up to the house to see her."

"Of course," Ali said. "I'll be glad to."

"Glad to what?" Edie asked when Ali got off the phone.

"April wants me to come back up to the house and talk about funeral arrangements."

"With you?" Dave demanded.

"Yes. With me." Ali was already searching the room for her purse and her keys.

"How come?" Dave wanted to know.

"Because she's twenty-five years old and doesn't know how to go about handling all those details."

"Shouldn't her mother help her with that?" Dave asked.

"April doesn't want her mother involved."

"Wait a minute," Dave said. "Your dead ex-husband's girlfriend is arguing with her own mother about Paul Grayson's funeral arrangements, and she expects you to walk right into the middle of it? What's wrong with this picture?"

"You don't understand," Ali said. "You haven't met Monique Ragsdale. I have."

"I do understand," Dave said. "All too well. Stay out of it, Ali. Run, do not walk, in the opposite direction."

Ali looked at Dave. He was a nice enough man, but he had no idea what it was like to be pregnant with someone's baby and to have that person snatched out of your life. No matter who April Gaddis was or whose baby she was carrying, at this point it was impossible for Ali to feel anything but compassion for her.

"April asked for my help. I'm going to give it to her," Ali said.

"Well then," Edie declared. "If you're going, so are we."

"All right," Dave said glumly. "But when it all goes to hell, just rememberI told you so."

Ali called down to the desk for her car. "This is Ali Reynolds," she added after relaying her valet parking ticket number to the bell captain. "Are there still reporters down there looking for me?"

"Yes," he replied. "I'm afraid there are."

"Is there a chance you could smuggle me out of the building without my being seen?"

"Sure. I could come up and get you in the service elevator and take you out the back way, through the kitchen."

"Would you?"

"Of course."

Dave shook his head the whole way down in the service elevator and raised a disapproving eyebrow at the size of the tip Ali handed over to the bellman, but the ploy worked. Ali was relieved that in the paparazzi bidding wars, her tip was large enough to allow them to exit the hotel without meeting up with even one of the waiting reporters.

With Edie in the backseat of the Cayenne, Ali drove back up the hill to Robert Lane. The broken front gate was still open, but filming had ended for the day. The Sumo Sudoku RVs were nowhere in evidence. The film crews had pulled up stakes and gone home, too. Leading the way to the front door, Ali was surprised to find it ajar. The DO NOT DISTURB sign had been removed. She paused long enough to ring the bell, but no one answered.

The entire entryway was awash in banks of floral bouquets, even more than had been there earlier.

"Hello?" Ali called. "April? Anybody home?"

There was no answer.

With Dave and Edie trailing behind, Ali ventured farther into the house. They found Monique Ragsdale lying sprawled at the bottom of the stairway. While Dave bent over the stricken woman and checked for a pulse, Ali dialed 911.

"Is she still breathing?" Ali demanded.

"Barely."

"Nine-one-one," the operator responded. "What are you reporting?"

"Someone's fallen," Ali found herself yelling into the phone. "She's fallen down a flight of stairs."

"Is she conscious?" the operator asked.

"No! She's barely breathing. Send someone. Hurry."

"Units are on the way," the operator said. "They'll be there soon."

Not soon enough, Ali thought. Not nearly soon enough.

"And your name is?"

"Ali," she answered. "Alison Reynolds."

"You just stay on the line with me, Ms. Reynolds. Help is on the way."

Ali remained on the phone with the emergency operators while Dave stayed with Monique. Edie was dispatched to the upstairs bedrooms for a blanket to cover the injured woman. While she was at it, she searched through the rest of the house to see if anyone else was home.

"No one's here," she reported. "No one at all."

"Not even the cook?" Ali asked. "Did you check the kitchen?"

"I looked everywhere," Edie replied. "The whole house is empty."

The EMTs arrived within minutes. As they worked to shift Monique onto a board in order to load her onto a gurney, Ali spotted a cell phone and a key ring lying on the floor. She grabbed the phone, opened it, and hit the "redial" button. The words "April Cell" appeared on the screen.

"Where will you take her?" Ali asked one of the EMTs.

"The ER at Cedars-Sinai," he said.

Ali pressed the "talk" button and was disappointed when, instead of being answered, her call to April went straight to voice mail.

"April," Ali said urgently. "It's Ali Reynolds. Call me back as soon as you get this message. Your mother has fallen down the stairs. The EMTs are taking her to Cedars-Sinai. You may want to meet us there."

When she finished the call, Ali slipped the phone into her pocket.

"You shouldn't have touched that," Dave observed.

"Why not?" Ali asked. "I needed to get hold of April to let her know what's happened."

"If this turns out to be a crime scene, you've contaminated some of the evidence."

"A crime scene?" Ali repeated. "What crime scene? She fell."

"After she and her daughter quarreled," Dave pointed out. "You should put it back."

Ali looked around at the field of debris being left behind by the EMTs. The crime scene was contaminated, all right, and not just by her.

"I'm not putting it back," Ali insisted. "I told April to call me back on this number when she gets the message."

Dave shot her an exasperated look and then went to greet the pair of uniformed police officers who had arrived on the scene as the gurney was being wheeled out the front door.