Unknown - 19_Cat_In_A_Red_Hot_Rage

Electra shook Temple’s intertwined fingers. “He knows that. He knows that he’ll be resurrected, that we won’t stand for him being gone. Not even you and Matt. He’ll come to your wedding. Trust me. He could never resist a surprise appearance.”

Temple sighed, shakily. Electra was right. You had to have faith in Max. That was what made him such a peerless magician. Now you see him, now you don’t. But you will.

“Meanwhile,” Temple said, “we’ve got to deal with your crisis.”

“Right. So how is he?”

“Who? Max? I told you, I don’t know and it’s driving me crazy.”

“No. Matt! I don’t know and it’s driving me crazy.”

“He’s fine. He’s still here.”

“No, I meant, how’s he in bed?”

“Electra!”

She shrugged. “It was a natural question, given his priestly history.”

“I’m not asking you how Elmore Lark was in bed. Not that I’d ever want to know.”

“It’s no secret. He wasn’t, so there’s nothing to tell.”

“You must have slept with him to have a son from the marriage.”

Electra pulled a face. “No, I was not a virgin bride in that instance. Curtiss was the only good thing that came out of that marriage. With the next husband, Gerry, I got a herpetologist.”

“As in helping people with herpes?”

“No. As in snakes. I have a daughter with a fascination for reptiles. Now it’s her career. Maybe she was trying to tell me something about my choice of husbands.”

“So there was Darren, Billy, Elmore, Gerry … who else, and any more kids?”

“Weldon the Winn-Dixie manager and Tom, who couldn’t even manage to hold a job. Terra in Indianapolis is a teacher and Rob in St. Louis is a car mechanic. Curtiss sells insurance in Tucson, which is lucrative. Sandy’s the herpetologist in Texas. All grown and good kids and nicely on their own. They can’t believe I married such a string of losers, though.”

“In which case, you could be a suspect in a lot of deaths.”

“No. The only one of my exes I might wish dead is that jerk Elmore. But I suppose I should wish him far away so I’m not tempted to confront the bum.” Temple decided against telling Electra that her supposed almost not ex was here in town. She also was glad that she managed to get Electra’s always-busy mind off of her and Matt’s nocturnal adventures.

Better that she dwell on dead people.

“Can I go back to the convention now, Temple?” Electra inquired in a small wee voice. “I was supposed to be helping with registration.”

“I don’t see why not. Oleta’s dead. How much more trouble could you get into?”

Chapter 17

Sob Sister, Soul Brother

Matt was finishing his afternoon laps in the Circle Ritz pool.

One thing he loved about working nights—and there were a lot of things he didn’t—was having uncrowded daytime access to things that normally would be unpleasantly crowded. There were usually seven or eight after-work visitors to the pool. Now he had it all to himself.

He’d come here late at night too, before or after his “Midnight Hour” stint, which was now two hours and no longer accurately titled. Temple had recently confessed to watching him then, sometimes. That innocent little voyeuristic admission had been wildly … stimulating. But so was everything she said and did these giddy, sexy engagement days and nights.

He was smiling as he swam to the side to pull himself up on the pool’s tile edge when he heard the cell phone “ring.” Templehad helped him program the call signal, a paid-for download of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young.” He liked the way the song echoed the New Testament Beatitudes. Once a priest, always a sucker for biblical phrasing.

Not a lot of people called him. His agent. His immediate boss at WCOO radio. Temple.

So he raced for the cell phone, dripping on the hot concrete, snatching it up from the towel, and sitting on the lounge chair. “Yes?”

“Matt! I’m so glad I reached you.”

He lay back in the soothing sunlight, letting his skin and the sunscreen protecting it soak up rays. “Me too.”

“I mean now.”

There was more than banter under her words. Matt sat up again. “What’s happened?”

“Everything! I’m at the Crystal Phoenix. They’re holding a huge convention here, and they almost were holding Electra for murder. I just got back from the Circle Ritz talking to her around two. You weren’t there.”

“Just got back now myself, in time to slip in some laps before the five o’clock crowd hits the pool.”

“Oooh, what are you wearing besides a light tan?”

“Light tan swim trunks.”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah, apparently.”

“Could I get you to take them off?”

“Hardly!”

“Phone sex is something we haven’t tried yet.”

“I can wait.”

“Oh, don’t mind lascivious me. I’m just trying to take my mind off all the really terrible things that have happened already today.”

“Electra, under suspicion of murder? What on earth is that about?”

“It’s too hard to explain over the phone: hundreds of women in red hats, some of them in pink hats. One strangled with a Red Hat lady scarf. Electra found her dead, and the victim happens to be the vixen who stole her third husband thirty years ago.”

“I am not following this.”

“You don’t have to. I’m on it. The Fontana brothers are on it. Our old friends Alch and Su are on it. What’s really wigging me out right now, selfish as it is, isn’t Electra’s and the Crystal Phoenix’s PR troubles. It’s … oh, dammit, Matt. It’s Max.”

He’d really, really hoped to hear as little of that name as possible.

“I needed to talk to somebody about it, and I know you’re the last person I should, but Electra’s in no state to deal with my petty problems—”

“I’m the first person you should come to. Always. About anything.”

“I know. And I love you for it. Here’s the thing. Aldo Fontana, who’s dating my aunt Kit, believe it or not, drove me out to Max’s top-secret house location this morning.”

“I could have done that.”

“It just came up. I haven’t been able to reach Max by phone for three days. I just wanted to say … you know, about us. Sony, good-bye, and good luck. It seemed the decent thing to do.”

“I agree.” Of course he’d hoped she’d never see Max Kinsella again, that she’d never want to, but that was totally unrealistic.

“Matt, the house was gone!”

“Gone?”

“Not physically, just all the furniture, everything that was so `Max’ about it. This floozy named French opened the door.

She’d bought it at a terrific price a few days ago, she said; moved right in. All her ugly condo unit stuff was everywhere.”

“You said he’d been acting … distant lately.”

“And now Electra just told me that he’d visited the Circle h Ritz four or five days ago, but I wasn’t here. And then he, e—” Matt waited for her to battle back tears. His heart was sinking like the Titanic. Damn Max Kinsella! He always managedto draw the spotlight, create a scene, make Temple’s tender heart ache.

“He … took Electra.”

Matt waited.

“For a ride.”

He waited, not guessing the next line.

“On the Vampire. Way out on the highway, really fast. That was supposed to be me, Matt. But Electra got that last ride. It’s as if he was saying good-bye to the Circle Ritz, to the Vampire, to me. And now he’s really, really, missing. Not like before, just for a while. And I missed saying good-bye.”

Matt waited, but Temple didn’t say anything else. Probably couldn’t. Okay, Counselor Guy, what do you say to the woman you love and adore when she’s cracking up over your rival?