No Hiding Behind the Potted Palms! A Dance with Danger Mystery #7 (50 page)

“Ask him what he knows about her
disappearance,” I called after him. The more we knew about the
situation, the better.

While he was gone, I decided to
examine the foundation and overgrown lawn for clues about the water
bill. The basement was very dry, which was a great thing, and there
were no telltale stains inside, so the leak had to be outside of
the house.

I was bent over a spot in the
knee-high grass when I felt a hand on my bottom. For a second,
shock waves froze me in place. What in God’s name was Jasper
thinking? With an indignant sigh, I stood up, counting as I righted
myself. When I got to ten, I turned.

“As much as I like you,” I started
to say, but I stopped as I saw that smug, obnoxious gargoyle named
Kyle.

“Aw, too bad. No witnesses. ‘He
said, she said’.” He gave me a toxic grin. “Saw your car out front,
Suzykins. Thought I’d stop by and let you give me the
tour.”

“Go to hell, Kyle.”

“Not without you, Suzykins. It
wouldn’t be much fun on my own.”

“It won’t be much fun with me,” I
hollered, hoping Jasper would hear.

“I don’t know. Devil’s playground.
Lots of possibilities. Where shall we start?”

“You really are a creep, aren’t you?
First, you rape Jane, and then you blackmail her. How many other
victims did you have? Is that how you got your wife to marry
you?”

“You’re wrong about me and Jane,”
Kyle snarled. I could see he was angry because his beady little
eyes got tinier and tinier, until they almost disappeared. “You
keep thinking she’s such an innocent. She wanted me. She begged me
to marry her. That whole rape story was drummed up when I
wouldn’t!”

Chapter Six –

“Right. Because you’re such a
freaking catch, Kyle!”

“You think you know your best
friend? Why do you think she moved? Because she was so damaged?
Because she was so miserable over what I did to her? Or because her
little game plan got chumped?”

“What kind of creep takes photos of
an unconscious, drugged up woman?” I snapped back. “What does it
take to have sex with a partner who can’t participate?”

“Is that what that bitch told you?
That I drugged her? That I had sex with her while she was asleep?”
Kyle was roaring at me now. I could see the vein at his left temple
throbbing as his face went crimson. “She was the one who came onto
me. She was the one who chased me.”

“Yeah, right. You’re Prince
Charming. No woman can resist you!”

“I can prove it to you!” he screamed
at me. “I have the evidence!”

I took a step back. Kyle seemed to
be in the process of dangerously spiralling out of control, and I
didn’t want to be within striking distance when he
unraveled.

“Did you forget, Kyle,” I said
defiantly, “about the photographs you took of that orgy? Not to
mention the photos of the other men who took their turns with her?
Kind of hard for a woman to participate in sex when she’s not aware
of what’s going on.”

Kyle got a strange look on his face.
He studied me for a long, silent moment, his breathing labored as
his chest heaved. And then he sat down on the back step, slapping
his knees. The tension seemed to leave his body and he shook his
head in wonderment.

“She really did it to me. Janie
really did it. Good God, she did it.” I wasn’t sure how to take the
bitter chuckle that sputtered out of Kyle’s mouth. “That vile,
deceitful bitch really did it to me. And it’s only taken me ten
years to find out how badly I got screwed.”

“What goes around comes around,” I
muttered. I wasn’t sure how to take the change in Kyle. He didn’t
seem to be paying attention to me any longer. It was like he was
lost in a dark, fog from long ago, wandering about in search of a
memory he couldn’t grasp. I took advantage of the moment to make my
escape.

Jasper was just leaving Farmer
Brown’s yard when I came around the corner. He took one look at me
and knew instantly that something was wrong.

“What’s the matter?”

“That bastard Kyle is
here.”

“For heaven’s sake, is the man a
complete idiot? I’ll go talk to him,” Jasper said. I shook my head.
“I can make him understand you’re not available.”

“No, let’s just go. I want to get as
far away from that creep as I can. And I want to take a shower and
get his stinking fingerprints off my fanny!”

“He touched you again? Son of a
bitch!” Jasper didn’t even get into the silver streak.

Instead, he disappeared around the
back of the house. I don’t know what I was expecting. Yelling.
Maybe the sound of fisticuffs. There was nothing. For a horrible
second, I wondered if Kyle had killed him. But a moment later,
Jasper reappeared and strode determinedly to the passenger side of
the Miata, opened the door, and climbed in beside me.

“Kyle and I have come to an
understanding. He will not be bothering you again.” Jasper was
still steaming. I thought I saw little puffs of moisture coming out
of his lips.

“Oh?” I was alarmed at how tense he
seemed, like he was all wound up and unable to release the
over-tightened spring that drove his mechanism.

“Just drive, Suzanne,” was all he
said.

I pulled away from the curb, still
not sure what had transpired in the backyard. Jasper wasn’t
talking. I took the side streets that ran parallel to Windsong
Boulevard, heading towards the center of Glendale. Finally, I had
little choice. I had to interrupt his silent reverie.

“Where are we going?” I asked.
Jasper seemed to force himself to focus.

“Want to hit the Low Down?” His
voice was throaty, almost as if he had been caught in an emotional
reaction to something, maybe a past memory. As far as I knew, he
and Kyle had never run in the same circles. But something was
gnawing at Jasper. That much I could see in his eyes. He was a
haunted man.

By the time I pulled into the
parking lot at the restaurant, Jasper had put on his game face, but
I could see the distance between us.

“Are you okay?” I gave it a shot,
not really expecting an answer.

“Yeah, sure. It’s a guy
thing.”

“Oh.” We crossed the gravel parking
lot and went through the front door, heading to the back deck that
overlooked the water. It was crowded, but we found a tiny table by
the railing. The waitress came over to take our drink
order.

“Iced tea, please,” I requested,
“unsweetened, with lemon.”

“Make it two,” he added. He was
still avoiding my gaze, and I felt uncomfortable, like I had done
something wrong. “Suzanne, I have to ask you something.”

I waited, watching. I needed to see
his eyes. I needed to know if he really cared about the answer.
Don’t ask me why, but something told me how I responded would
change the course of our friendship.

“Those photographs of Jane...did you
see them, or were you told about them?” he wanted to
know.

“Why are we talking about
Jane?”

“Humor me. Did you ever actually see
them?”

“God, no. That’s
disgusting!”

“Jane told you about them?” He
pressed on.

“Her father did. Jane wouldn’t talk
to me. She was too embarrassed. After all, I had taken her to the
emergency room. I had held her hand when she gave a statement to
the police officer. She left right after that and I never saw her
again. All my cards and letters got returned. None of my phone
calls were answered. Jane just cut me right out of her life, thanks
to that prick!”

“Maybe that’s not why Jane cut you
out of her life,” he suggested.

“What’s that supposed to mean? That
I did something to hurt my best friend?”

“Forget it. Let’s change the
subject.”

“I’m not sure I want to,” I replied.
“What’s going on?”

“We can’t change the past, Suzanne.
Let’s move forward.” Jasper cleared his throat, sounding like he
was shifting mental gears. I waited, but he didn’t explain further.
It was a long minute of silence before he started his report on
Farmer Brown. “The neighbor’s name is John Sullivan. He’s a
maintenance man for Duplox Industries. He claims he’s had a
relationship with Susan Lefkowitz for the last six years. He met
her at a psychic fair down the coast, and when the house next door
to hers came on the market three and a half years ago, he bought
it. Single, never married. John claims Rainbow disappeared in the
middle of the night, after she had a visitor.”

Jasper took a long sip of his drink,
watching the liquid move up through his straw. It was as if he was
avoiding something unpleasant, something that involved me. Jasper
had a secret he wanted to conceal, and now that I knew that, I had
no intention of letting my heart get entangled with his.

“Who was the visitor?” I finally
asked.

“What?”

“If Sullivan knew Rainbow had a
visitor, he must have been watching. Maybe he was jealous,
especially if it was a man who came to see Susan. He doesn’t seem
all that emotionally stable to me. Maybe he had a Manson moment.
Maybe he was all drugged up or drunk, and did something to
Rainbow.”

“What? Killed her?” Jasper chuckled.
“Too much TV, Suzanne. What did he do with the body?”

“Maybe he took it out in the middle
of the ocean. Maybe he buried it in the woods. Who knows? She’s
gone. Her family’s tried to find her since she disappeared three
years ago. Sullivan moved in a short time before she went missing.
Maybe he was stalking her.”

“You went from Point A to Point D
without hitting B or C. How can you conclude that he was stalking
her? The guy said he was trying to look out for her place while
she’s gone.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to admit to
himself that he hurt her,” I suggested.

“Maybe he didn’t hurt her,” he fired
back.

“We’re not really doing well here,
are we?” I looked long and hard at Jasper.

“It’s not you,” he admitted. “I’ve
got something on my mind. It’s not anything I can talk about. Can
you cut me some slack?”

I was going to make a snide remark.
It was just on the tip of my tongue. But there was a look in those
green eyes that begged me to go easy on him. Jasper was wrestling
with something from his past, something that didn’t involve me.
Maybe he got a call from his girlfriend. Maybe she sent him at
“Dear John” text.

“Sure.” I turned my attention to the
menu, glancing at the day’s lunch specials.

“Suzanne?” There was a small plea in
Jasper’s voice. I heard it. It wasn’t my imagination. I looked up
at him. “Things aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes things can
sound worse than they really are.”

“Oh?”

“I just want you to know I respect
you as a woman.”

“Great,” I smiled.

“I do. You’re smart and funny and
sweet, underneath the frayed jeans and tee shirt.”

“Even with them,” I corrected
him.

“Just remember what I said.” His
eyes were on me, fastened tightly, as if he didn’t want me to look
away until he was certain about me.

“I will,” I promised.

“Good.” With that, he turned his
attention to the daily specials. “I think I’ll have the tuna wrap.
How about you?”

The mood lifted after that. We went
back to bantering about Glendale, about running, about the Sea Ray
Sundancer he kept at the marina. By the time I bid him farewell at
two o’clock, he seemed more like his old self. We made plans to get
together right after the closing, so he could have a tour of the
interior of the house.

In the time that followed, I checked
on another property we had going over in Lincoln Valley, just about
completed and ready for the market. The bathroom floors, tub
surround, and kitchen backsplash were ready for installation, so I
got busy laying tile and grouting. One of our painters was out sick
with a bad case of poison ivy he got when he was working on the
outside of the house, so I did some interior painting. The crew was
ready to add the finishing touches on the house we knew would be a
real hit with buyers. It was a good-looking property, and before
the last of the annuals went into the flower boxes, we had two
offers on it. Ned was happy, because one was $10,000 over
asking.

The moment Ned got back to the
office with the keys to the Glengarry Court bungalow, I dialed
Jasper and made arrangements to take him through.

“How does five-thirty grab you?” He
asked.

“Uh...” I hesitated. How do you tell
someone you really need to go for a run? I wanted to kick myself
for the long pause. After all, Jasper was serious about the
property, and that really should be my priority.

“Were you going for a run?” he asked
with a laugh.

“Well, it’s kind of my normal
routine,” I acknowledged. “Get out of work, go for a run, have
dinner.”

“I wouldn’t want to disrupt that,”
he responded. “How about I meet you at your place, we do a run to
the bungalow, check it out, and run back. I’ll take you to
dinner.”