balm and glorious blue skies made
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, I listened. Mostly that’s what I did when I was married. Shetalked, I listened.”
I reached Milo’s cell and reported bothconversations.
“Hooking up with a star, huh?”
“Maybe she settled for someone who looked like one.”
“Meserve or another PlayHouse Adonis.”
“With her level of naiveté, someone who’d been around just a bit longercould’ve seemed impressive.”
“Wonder how long Meserve’s been getting insight from Nora Dowd.”
“Longer than two years,” I said. “He was there before Michaela arrived.”
“And when Tori showed up. So where the hell is he…okay, thanks, let me tossthis around while I wait for Michaela’s landlord.”
The day floated by with all the importance of a cork in the ocean. Iconsidered calling Allison, then Robin, then Allison again. Settled for neitherand filled Saturday by running and sleeping, doing scutwork around the house.
Sunday’s balm and glorious blue skies made matters worse; this was a day tobe with someone.
I drove to the beach. The sun had brought people and cars to the coastline.Golden-haired girls promenaded in bikini tops and sarongs, surfer dudes peeledin and out of wetsuits, tourists gawked at natural wonders of all types.
On PCH, a conspicuously crawling highway patrol car lowered the pace torace-walk from Carbon Beach to Malibu Road. Thesouthern entry to Latigo Canyon was closer butthat meant more miles of winding road. I kept going to Kanan Dume and turnedoff.
Alone.
I tooled up the canyon, both hands on the wheel as the twists tested the Seville’s mushysuspension. Despite being up here years ago, the sharpness of the curves and the dead drops if you steered wrong surprised me.
Not a spot for a leisurely cruise and after dark the route would betreacherous unless you knew it well. Dylan Meserve had hiked up here andreturned to play out a fraudulent kidnapping.
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