Unknown - 22_Cat_In_An_Ultramarine_Scheme

Temple was surprised. He seemed a tad nervous. Maybe he wasn’t used to talking about his feelings. Duh! An Arab-American grad of the L.A. police force from back in the days when ethnic borders were even edgier and bloodier on the streets than today. Guess not.

She prided herself on being able to cross most social barriers since her Minneapolis TV-reporter days. That was a huge asset in her freelance PR business. She decided to let Rafi take his time, and soon he’d be spilling like the Exxon Valdez.

“So,” he said suddenly, “how do I get the new, Dairy Queen–soft Molina to let me into my daughter’s life?”

“Ask?” Temple suggested.

He shook his head. “Too easy for her to give one of her knee-jerk responses. You know how wired she’s been lately. Apparently your ex did that to her?”

Temple was startled by another mention of Max, no doubt.

“Your ex-boyfriend,” Rafi said more specifically, “that magician guy. He may be gone, but, believe me, he’s not forgotten as far as Carmen Molina is concerned.”

“Max wasn’t … forgettable. I thought you ran into him on some of those freelance security jobs.”

Rafi shrugged. “Maybe. I ran into a lot of guys on those details. I’d have liked to shake his hand. He did a great number on Carmen and distracting her from her job, which she hates more than anything. Well, you oughta know. You two are always tenser than alley cats on the subject.”

“We were not fighting over Max. You’ve got that wrong, just as Molina got Max wrong. She was being a pig-headed cop, sure someone was guilty before she had any more evidence than her instincts.”

“Which are pretty sharp,” Rafi said.

“You actually admire her? After the way she’s treated you?”

“I give her credit, just as I give you credit.”

“Well, you don’t give me credit for keeping my men. You’ve implied both Max and Matt might have a love-hate thing going with Lieutenant C. R., she of the untamed eyebrows.”

“Untamed? Eyebrows?” Rafi laughed. “Women fight dirty, for sure. At least she doesn’t have the untamed love life you’ve had.”

“Me? Untamed? I am so boring and below the radar.”

“Yeah, sure, Zoe Chloe.” Rafi laughed again. “Look, that’s why I’m courting your good opinion.”

The word courting made Temple seriously leery. “Yeah?”

“You know Molina way better than I do.”

“I do?”

“Right. As a woman. I want to take Mariah to that father-daughter dance when she starts junior high in the fall. How can I ace out your handsome, morally superior fiancé for the job?”

“You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

“My line to you, bounced back at me. I’m serious, Miss Zoe Chloe Ozone Temple. If I let another man be there for Mariah because her thirteen-year-old brain thinks he’s ‘cool,’ I’ve got no chance at ever getting into her life. Unless you think I have no right to be a father to anyone because Molina had such a huge lack of faith in me fifteen years ago in L.A.”

“Why did that happen?”

“We were rivals on the force. Minorities and women were put into that position then.”

“It was a work problem?”

“Basically. Then she … got pregnant.”

“Not by herself. But a surprise.”

“A shock to the solar system, only she didn’t tell me, just held it in and ran. Reminds me of your MIA boyfriend.”

Temple wanted to get her back up, then realized Rafi was right. “Max only left Vegas that first time because some international bad guys were after him. He thought staying with me put me in the line of fire, and he was right. A couple of them trapped me in a parking ramp, wanting to intimidate Max’s whereabouts out of me.”

“From your body language just now, the creeps’ pressure got physical.”

“That shows? I’d almost forgotten about that nasty incident.”

“No, you haven’t. Your lips and eyelids tightened. Not much. Enough for a trained observer to notice. I’d say you’re lucky they only came calling once. So Kinsella was right to rabbit for the faraway hills. Where’d he go?”

“Canada.”

Rafi whistled. “Not easy to pull off on the run. Borders and visas and such.”

“Max knew how to vanish. There’s got to be a good reason for a pregnant Molina to run.”

“Like what?”

“You wanted her to have an abortion.”

“Since I didn’t know she was pregnant until I saw Mariah some dozen years later, when did I have a chance to dictate what she should do?”

“She knew you would.”

“She was wrong. And so are you. She ran because she thought I wanted her to have a baby, tricked her into it.”

“That’s just … crazy. From all I’ve heard, most guys are edgy about fatherhood at first. Especially unmarried, living-together guys.”

“Yeah. That’s the usual drill. It’s a stupid story we both should disown. Her birth control failed. She thought I sabotaged it to make her into a stay-at-home mommy so she couldn’t ace me out for promotions at work. She was a twofer. Ethnic and a woman. Management liked to handle ‘diversity’ by two at one blow. As for the pregnancy, I wasn’t ready to go anywhere bold on the relationship front. If I couldn’t hack a baby, we could have split. Simple.”

“She just took off without notice?” Temple said.

“Yeah. I admit it put me on an auto–self-destruct. She was good. There was no trace. She pulled a total vanishing act. She’d have made a great spy. You don’t know how utterly ineffective I felt. Me, a cop.”

“She did split, and it isn’t simple. What’s important is that you want a relationship with your half-grown daughter now.”

“Who knew I’d have father tendencies?” Rafi’s wry grin grew crooked. “She sure didn’t.”

“I can see,” Temple admitted carefully, “why her disappearing with no word would put you in a years-long tailspin.”

“That ‘maybe dead, maybe not’ question is a bitch, isn’t it?” he responded. “Even if you’ve got someone waiting in the wings this time.”

“You don’t,” Temple said, stung.

“That’s just a fact. I’m not blaming you.”

“Why didn’t you move on and find someone?”

“Let her disappearing throw me into a down cycle? I was a cop. I should have been able to find my girlfriend. It was a double whammy to my self-esteem.”

“What changed you?”

“Maybe Zoe Chloe Ozone.”

“What? She’s an annoying twerp.”

“I discovered a couple things doing security at that Teen Idol reality-TV house. I liked solving puzzles and I liked watching over annoying twerps who were smart and feisty. I may be wrong, but Mariah really grew up at that thing, didn’t she?”

Temple munched chips and sipped beer. “Yes, she did. And so did you.”

“Then Mama showed up for the big show with her down-and-dirty undercover cop.”

Oooh. Now Temple was doing the observing. Rafi Nadir did not like Dirty Larry Podesta at all. And it was over Molina.

Temple was sure she should be blushing here. She didn’t want to think of Molina and Rafi Nadir in bed. She didn’t want to think of Molina in bed with a man at all, period, especially that edgy Dirty Larry. You don’t get a nickname like that for nothing. Molina should know better. She was the Iron Maiden of the LVMPD, right?

Rafi glanced at Temple. “I’ve got to follow up on the rapport Mariah and I built at the murder house and now at the dancing competition. That’s why I’m asking you to figure a way around Molina. You actually do know what that feels like, to be run out on.”

“How am I going to influence Molina? She wouldn’t believe me about Max … not until recently. Why has she turned around on that?”