“Where were you born?” John asked.
“Millicent, Texas, population six hundred and twenty-one. But in the past five years we’ve had a population explosion.”
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “We’re up to six hundred and forty-seven. A local-Neddy Opper-opened a new rib house off the highway, all down-home with long wood tables and lots of paper towels. I hear that people drive from miles around.”
Mary Lisa took Jack’s hand in hers. “Listen, Elizabeth is right. We’re here, let us help.”
“Why not?” John said. “It’s a deal. We don’t have to pay them, Jack.”
Jack closed his hand tightly around Mary Lisa’s. “John’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. He made me promise not to talk about any business here today. Besides, there’s nothing to be done. After lunch, why don’t you all go sightsee?”
“It’s the same ocean, Jack,” Lou Lou said. “When you’ve seen one wave, you’ve seen them all.”
“Are you going to arrest Olivia Hildebrand?” Elizabeth asked.
“As in take her to jail? No, but she’s at home, and I’ve posted two female deputies there to keep an eye on her. Her lawyer didn’t have a problem with that, thank heaven. Her doctor’s got her sedated so I don’t have to worry about her trying to take off. So is everyone ready for lunch?”
“Where are we going?” Elizabeth asked.
“Le Fleur de Beijing,” John said, “featuring real cloth napkins. And they’ve got mysterious foreign names for the food so you have to ask the waiter, giving him a chance to look at you like you’re an illiterate varmint and don’t belong in such a classy establishment. They’re the big deal here in Goddard Bay right now.”
“Now that’s what I’m looking for,” Lou Lou said. “Stuff like Japanese soba noodles in creamy mushroom sauce. Some people might blanche at that, but not me.”
Jack didn’t like French food, since it was usually big on presentation and microscopic on serving size. “I think I counted a total of eleven noodles on my plate the last time I was there,” he said.
“So get the octopus,” Lou Lou said. “That way you’ll be guaranteed eight legs.”
Ten minutes later, Lou Lou locked the suite door with a key the size of Burbank and hummed as they walked down the long hall toward the creaky elevator. As it lurched downward, Lou Lou patted the mirrored walls. “I love this thing.”
Elizabeth’s eyes were tightly closed. “Next time I’m taking the stairs.”
“The inspector said the stairs weren’t too bad,” John told her. “But that was last year.”
Halfway across the lobby, their path was blocked by the manager, Mr. Clement Rogers, who’d known Mary Lisa since her family had moved here over twenty years before.
He spoke directly to Jack. “Chief, Mrs. Willis saw you and District Attorney Goddard go up to the ladies’ suite a while ago. She instructed me to ask if there was any reason for concern.”
Mary Lisa lightly touched her fingers to Mr. Rogers’s arm. “It’s okay, Mr. Rogers. Please tell Mrs. Willis that I am personally keeping an eye on these two very respectable gentlemen. Assure her that I will not give them any beer.”
“We will drink the beer ourselves, Mr. Rogers, tonight,” Elizabeth said. “It was too early this morning for the gentlemen to imbibe anything more than your excellent coffee.”
“Besides, there are only three bottles in the bar,” Lou Lou said. “We want them ourselves.”
Mr. Rogers said, softening under Lou Lou’s brilliant smile, as did most people, “It’s Mrs. Willis’s favorite, miss, not that heavy hops-happy German stuff, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.” He shot a look at Jack and John.
“The gentlemen will not be returning with us, Mr. Rogers. Assure Mrs. Willis of that. We need our afternoon naps.”
“Thank you, Mary Lisa. Mrs. Willis loves your show, watches it every day, talks about what a believable bad girl your character is. She says you do ‘bad’ with a real flair.”
Two hours later, Jack and John followed the women back to the inn. Jack didn’t kiss Mary Lisa, not that he didn’t want to, but there were eyes everywhere, so he merely took her arm, leaned down, and whispered against her ear, “Believe me, there’s nothing you can do to help. I want you to keep out of trouble.”
Mary Lisa patted his cheek. “You heard Lou Lou-it’s nap time.” John and Jack left under the suspicious eye of Mr. Rogers, who actually followed them out of the inn and watched Jack’s truck until they were out of sight.
“Does he think we’re going to circle back, sneak in for an afternoon orgy?”
“Nah,” John said. “Not Mr. Rogers. But that old bat Mrs. Willis is another thing.”
FIFTY-FOUR
Mary Lisa took a bite of Mrs. Abrams’s pot roast and chewed slowly, savoring the taste of the spices Mrs. Abrams kept secret.
“Have you ever tasted anything more delicious in your lives?” she asked. Lou Lou and Elizabeth were seated on either side of Kelly, opposite Mary Lisa and Jack. Mary Lisa’s parents sat at the ends of the formal dining room table. The women wore dresses and heels, and the men were in suits, except for Kelly, who had on tight jeans and an oversized sweater. She was looking from Mary Lisa to Jack, but there wasn’t a laser death ray in her eyes, which greatly relieved Mary Lisa. John, when told about dinner, readily excused himself from attending. He was a smart man.
“Even better than the blueberry pancakes this morning,” Elizabeth said, “and that’s saying something.”
“It’s great, Mrs. Beverly,” Lou Lou said, nodding toward Kathleen.
Mary Lisa was glad she didn’t have to deal with Monica and Mark being there as well. Both of them were in Salem overnight for one of Monica’s campaign rallies, a blessed relief.
“Elizabeth is an anchorwoman on a local L.A. TV station,” Mary Lisa said.
“Oh?”
Her mother’s voice sounded only mildly disapproving, Mary Lisa thought, and plowed onward. “She was a crime reporter with the L.A. Times until about a year ago when the TV station producer spotted her at a party.”
Elizabeth said, “Serendipity or happenstance, whatever you wish to call it, it’s a wonderful thing. Nearly the same thing happened to Mary Lisa.”
Jack asked, “How did you get started, Mary Lisa?”
“My agent called me one morning, said he’d gotten me an audition on Born to Be Wild. He said it was a lead role, sighed, and added that the audition would be good experience for me. Yep, he had no hope that I’d land it. Anyway, everything worked out very nicely.”
Lou Lou said, “Mary Lisa, sometimes I want to smack you, you’re so bloody modest. Mrs. Beverly, your daughter is the biggest soap actress in history. Her very first year, she won the Emmy for the best lead actress. It’s never been done before, and now she’s won it a second and third time.”
“And the rest is history,” Elizabeth said. “Hey, here’s to Mary Lisa.”
“Hear, hear,” Lou Lou said. Everyone clicked glasses together. Kathleen Beverly slowly raised her glass.
“And Lou Lou is about the greatest makeup artist in La-La Land,” Elizabeth said.
Mary Lisa waited, tense and wary, but again, her mother merely looked at Lou Lou, nodding.
George Beverly said, “Hey, Lou Lou, Mary Lisa told me you landed that primo makeup contract with the big producer.”
Lou Lou nodded. “Yep, that worked out well.”
Kathleen set her wineglass back on the table and said to Lou Lou, “You appear to know my husband well.”
“Well, ma’am, he’s very popular with all of Mary Lisa’s friends.”
“Are you responsible for Mary Lisa’s makeup on the soap?”
“Most of the time.”
“You sure like to paint her up sometimes,” Kelly said.
“Yeah,” Lou Lou said easily. “That’s for sure. Hey, it’s Hollywood.”