Faye Kellerman - Stalker

“I’m not arrogant!”

Oliver stopped talking and focused in on her face. She was crushed but trying to hide it. He knew he was coming on too strong, although it didn’t make his words any less true. Lecturing to her just as he had done with his own sons. He had always been so anxious to get the words out; he had never bothered to think how his brutal remarks had affected them.

Cindy stared into her wineglass. “You want to know the irony of all this?”

Oliver nodded.

“I’m actually shy,” she said. “I mask it in superiority. Because in a cop’s world, it’s better to be egotistical than shy.” She looked up and made eye contact with him. “If you give off even an inkling of fear, no one’ll ride with you.”

“That’s true.”

“If some of the guys knew how nervous I was, they’d dissolve me in acid.”

“Everyone’s nervous at first.”

“It’s different being a woman.”

“I’m sure you’re right—”

“Better to eat than to be eaten.” She stared at her plate. “Who thinks I’m smart, by the way? Or did you make that up to console me?”

“Nah, I didn’t make it up. For starters, the detective I was consulting with yesterday—Rolf Osmondson. He says you’re smart.”

She was skeptical. “I don’t know why he’d say that. First time I ever laid eyes on the man was last night.”

“Apparently, he’s laid eyes on you.”

“Suddenly second-grade detectives are noticing uniformed rookies?”

“If the second-grade detective is a heterosexual male and the uniform rookie is a lovely young female, you bet your ass he notices. Also, Craig Barrows mentioned you to me.”

“Craig Barrows?”

“You don’t know him, either?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Oliver said, “About my height. Long face. Sandy-colored hair that’s thinning. Blue, bloodshot eyes—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn’t he in Homicide?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Sure, now I remember,” she said. “About three months after I arrived at Hollywood, one of the vets threw a party and actually invited us rookies. Some of the gold shields were there. I chatted with Detective Barrows for about ten minutes.” Cindy pushed away her salad plate. Immediately, the busboy removed the dish. She said, “From that one lone conversation, he thinks I’m smart?”

“You must have impressed him.”

“I think it was the red hair.”

“You attribute an awful lot to your hair, you know that?”

She chuckled and looked up into the dour face of their server. He placed the sand dabs on the table. “For the lady. ”

“Why, thank you.” Cindy picked up a French fry and bit it. “Perfect.”

The waiter cracked a smile. “You’re welcome.” He served Oliver his dinner. “More wine?” He looked pointedly at Cindy. “It seems to agree with you.”

“Wine agrees with everyone,” she stage-whispered to him. “Thank you. Half a glass. I must save room for dessert.”

The waiter poured wine for both of them. “Anything else?”

Cindy said, “I believe we’re fine.” She looked at Oliver, “Are we fine?”

“We’re very fine,” Oliver answered. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” the waiter said. “Watch out for pin bones.”

Again he left.

“Awwww, he cares about us,” Cindy said. “He doesn’t want us choking on a fish bone. He’s definitely thawing.”

“Either that or you’re buzzed, so your perspective has changed.”

“Could be, could be.” She ate another French fry. “Why do you say I’m buzzed?”

“You’ve got color in your formerly pale cheeks.”

“Oh, that! It’s just the makeup kicking in.”

Oliver laughed. “What did you and Craig talk about?”

“Pardon?”

“Craig Barrows. At the party? You chatted for ten minutes?”

“Gosh, it was so long ago.” She tried to bring the memory back into focus. “I think we talked about Armand Cray—” She felt her cheeks get hot. “About the Armand Crayton case. It was me, my partner, Graham Beaudry, and Slick Rick Bederman—”

“When did that take place? About eight months ago?”

“About. The case had been all over the papers. It was such a weird thing with the wife witnessing the whole ordeal.” She glanced at Scott, who was staring at her. “Just idle chitchat.”

Oliver said, “Cindy, what aren’t you telling me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Sweetheart, you’re blushing. What’s up with Armand Crayton? Did you know the guy?”

“What do you care?”

Oliver audibly plunked down his fork and sat back in his seat. “What do I care? The file is open, darling. What are you hiding?”

Cindy waited a moment, then sighed and said, “Okay. Here’s the deal. I used to work out at Silver’s gym in the Valley before I moved into town. I went there for maybe a year. We struck up a casual acquaintance.”

“Did you date him?”

“I said casual—”

“Did you sleep with him?”

“Oliver, do you know the definition of the word casual ?”

“Sex is casual with lots of people.”

“He was married, Scott.”

“Meaning?”

“I don’t sleep with married guys! Ever!”

“The guy was known as someone who fucked around,” Oliver persisted. “Did he ever tell you he was married?”

“No, he didn’t. But I, being perceptive and astute, stood clear of his advances.”

“So he tried to pick you up?”

“Not in a big way,” Cindy said. “You know, sometimes we’d have a drink at the juice bar after our workouts. A couple of times he asked me if I wanted to go someplace else for a cup of coffee. I told him no.”

Oliver gulped down a prawn, trying to spit out the tail without looking crass. “What’d you talk about?”

“Nothing that would shed any light on the case.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?” Oliver frowned. “What’s going on, Cindy? Why are you acting so squirrelly? Knowing you, I think you’d jump in head-first to help crack a major homicide. At least, you’d tell your dad—”

He stopped talking.

“Okay. Now, I get it. You did tell your dad. You told him, and Big Deck told you not to talk about it. You want to tell me the details? Or should I just ask your father?”

Cindy smiled, wickedly. “Exactly how do you intend to bring it up with him? ‘Uh, Deck, I happened to be having dinner with your daughter and—’”

“Oh, fuck you!” Oliver threw a prawn tail at her. “Cindy, fill me in. Pretty please?”

Cindy hesitated, then said, “Our acquaintance was never any big deal, Scott. Our conversations were strictly lightweight—buffing up our bods, how our workouts went. Stuff like that. Once in a while, he mentioned a hot business deal he was doing. I think he was trying to impress me.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Well, it didn’t work. Usually, when he started his business-speak, I zoned out. It wasn’t our conversations that alarmed my dad.”

“Go on.”

“It was one of those extremely bad cases of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. After one of our juice encounters, we were walking back together to our respective cars.” Cindy picked up her wine but put the glass down without drinking. “Someone took some potshots at us—”

“Jesus!”

“Yeah, it was frightening.” She looked away. “This was several months before he was murdered. I was in the academy by then, so I had my gun. But I didn’t use it.”

“That was very smart.”

“Yeah, that’s what Dad said, but I felt like …” She blew out air. “I felt that I should have done something. ” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Oliver, it scared the shit out of me.” She felt her eyes moisten. “Not the gunfire, although that was very scary. But the fact that I froze—”