Ben huffed and I thought I saw the barest crinkle of a smile in the corner of his eyes.“Muffin is inconsolable, you know.He’ll be glad to see you at home.That reminds me—I need to have the contractors look at that pocket door, too.Strong enough to withstand a Cane Corso onslaught but not strong enough to prevent Tony’s claw marks.”
“Poor puppies,” I crooned, a little mush-brained even without the drugs.Exhaustion, headache, and lingering narcotic effects, I supposed, were making me emotional.“What about Charlemagne?”
“Everyone’s at home.I’ve just had to close off the affected rooms for the time being.They’re crime scenes.”He eyed me carefully, taking a few shuffling steps closer until he could gently put his hand on my arm.Unlike Heath’s solid, sure touch just a few hours earlier, Ben’s was butterfly-light, delicate really.Like he was afraid I’d shatter.“I’m glad you’re okay.As okay as possible,” he corrected.“Heath told me Gwendolyn had been planning to make it look like an electrical fire but decided to use the lighters and papers after having doubts.She had some tools in her bag...”He shook his head, fingers fluttering against my wrist.“She probably wouldn’t have been able to engineer the catastrophic blaze she’d been dreaming of, but I don’t want to think about thewhat if.”
“She was the one who pushed me into the water,” I said.“She tried to kill me then, too.”
“She admitted to that as well.She’d gone to the boat to look for any other evidence, anything that might have indicated Pamela was there.She couldn’t get on it—they’d moored it too far from the jetty for her to even try.But when she saw you, she thought you recognized her.”
Ben’s phone chimed with an incoming text and he glanced at it, lips firming into what I privately called his Professionally Annoyed expression.“The contractors are early.I need...”
“Go on, I’ll be fine.”I moved my arm away reluctantly, grabbing the huge remote attached to the bed and clicking the television on.“I’ll just entertain myself with a zillion episodes ofFriends.I think one of Max’s movies might be on.Maybe I’ll film a little update for my socials while I critique it.Oh...crap.My phone!”
Ben chuckled, giving my wrist a firmer squeeze this time.“We’ll get that sorted, too.”
***
BEING IN THE HOSPITALis a lot of hurry up and wait.And a lot—alot—of boredom.My phone was technically evidence for now so I was at a loose end until it got released.Ben was gone for hours, and Heath had to work—theaudacity!Sienna and Carmel showed up around three in the afternoon to make sure I wasn’t dead, which was sweet of them and also relieved a bit of the crushing ennui.“They tossed the room looking for anything Tubbs had on Pamela Sommers,” Carmel confided in a hushed tone.“Just tore it up!”
“We’re suing his estate and those ladies for damages,” Sienna added, grim satisfaction in her tone.“I already asked our lawyer and she’s drawing up papers today.”
“Oh, before I forget!”Carmel pulled a pretty paper box out of her shoulder bag.“I know it’s your favorite and thought maybe you could do with something nice right now.”
I peeked under the lid and barely restrained my happy wiggle.“You made mebaklava?I love you, Carmel, and were I a woman, I’d woo you beseechingly.”
“Good lord,” Sienna muttered under her sister’s peals of laughter, “that head injury was worse than Heath said.”
Clarence came by as the sisters were leaving, eyes wide and cheeks flagged with pink.“Oh mygod,” he gasped as he hurried to my bedside.“Everyone in town is talking about you!”
“Again,” I sighed.
“Is it true you fought off an armed intruder with a knife?Marcy Simon—she lives across the street from Witte House, do you know her?—well, she saw them taking a bloody lady out earlier today and she said it looked like she’d been sliced up with a butcher knife!”
“Oh my god,” I echoed.“No.She was attacked by the cat.”
“You have an attack cat?”
“I seem to have acquired one, yes.”
The trickle of visitors was steady after that.Belinda and her mother popped in before Clarence left, the three of them hustling out together when a nurse came in to check my vitals again.Cherry stopped by to make sure I, in her words, wasn’t worse than everyone thought.She grimaced as her kid did somersaults against her ribs.“I’ll be glad when he’s out,” she’d admitted.“He’s either going into gymnastics or cage fighting.Either way I’ll be glad when he’s not doing it inside.”
“Hey, um, I have a question about...everything,” I said when she perched on the edge of my bed, the chairs not accommodating to someone nearly full term with a huge baby.
“If your folks didn’t explain how this happened,” she patted her belly, “I’m not gonna be the one to spoil the surprise.”
“Ha.No.I meaneverything.”
She held up a hand before I could continue.“I don’t know much about it, Damien.Anything to do with Beth Ellison is going to happen in LA.And anything to do with you...Well, you’ll know before I do.”
“Ugh.”
“Pretty much.”
“What about my pap stalker?Are you guys going to take that seriously or what?”
Anmorata’s snarky comment about Paul Santos haunted me.I didn’t want to consider he might know who was doing it but it was a duck situation.It looked and quacked and smelled like one.
“There’s only so much we can do, Damien.I’m sorry, but that’s the truth of it.You’re better off getting a PI and seeing if they can track down whose doing it, then send a cease and desist.”She shrugged, struggling to her feet with a wince.“At least that’s what I’d do.”
