In the photo Mahl had his suit coat off and was holding a piece of clay sculpture, his white shirt cuff revealing, where it had pulled back, an expensive-looking watch, heavy and ostentatious.
Joe stared at it. "What kind of man would wear a watch decorated with cupids and those heavy wings sticking out. Pretty pretentious, for someone who's supposed to have the tastes of an artist."
"Where did you learn about the tastes of an artist?"
"Not from Clyde, you can bet."
The last entry in Janet's diary had been made the night before she died, a one-line comment which perhaps she had written just before she went to sleep.
Lovely night at the de Young. Two awards. Euphoria. All perfect. Except K. was there.
Behind that page she had tucked a newspaper review of the exhibit, her hotel bill, a charge slip for gas, and a plain slip of paper with some numbers jotted on it.
"Could be the van's mileage," Joe said. "For her tax records. Mileage when she left, and again when she got home." Janet had crossed out the beginning mileage and penciled in a new one, two hundred miles larger.
"Guess she wrote the original number wrong, then corrected it-put a three hundred where she should have had a five."
"She must have been in a hurry," Dulcie said. "What should we do with the diary? We can't let Beverly-or the police-come back and find it."
"We have to get it to the police, Dulcie. It could be evidence."
"But there are personal things in here. She wouldn't want this read in court."
"We don't have any choice, if it's evidence. And there are things in here about Rob Lake."
She laid a soft paw on the pages, on Janet's small, neat handwriting. "Would they read it out loud in court? If the papers get hold of this, they'll print everything-all the things she said about Mahl." She licked her chest, smoothing her fur. "Janet wouldn't want this made public, plastered all over the newspaper."
"It belongs with the police. Max Harper won't let the papers have it."
"Detective Marritt would, behind Harper's back."
"You think Harper would let anything happen behind his back?"
"Marritt messed up the investigation, didn't he?"
Joe sighed. "You're not really sure of that. We'll hide it for tonight, until we decide what to do." He rose and headed for the kitchen.
Pawing open the lower cupboard doors, he prowled among the pans until he found a supply of plastic grocery bags rolled neatly and stuffed in an empty coffee can.
Within minutes they had bagged the diary to protect it from the damp and rain, and had dragged it outside and hidden it beneath the deck, pushing it deeper under than the bowls which Charlie had left for the white cat.
"That was nice of her," Dulcie said. "I guess Charlie believes in the white cat."
"I didn't say I don't believe in him. I just think he's- Oh, what the hell. Maybe he'll show up and eat the damned kibble."
She gave him a long green stare, but then she snuggled close. "Come on, let's go con that old Mrs. Blankenship, see what we can find out."
10
"Suck in your stomach, try to look hungry." "I am sucking it in, I can hardly breathe." She let her ears go limp and forlorn, let her tail droop until it dragged the ground.
"Yeah. That's better, that's pitiful. You really look like hell."
"Thanks so much."
"A starving stray, not a friend in the world."
The plan was, she'd approach the old woman alone as this was definitely a one-cat job. One starving, pitiful little kitty could turn the hardest heart, while two cats tramping the neighborhood would give the impression of mutual support, of perhaps greater hunting options. A pair of cats could never achieve the same high degree of helplessness and neglect, elicit the same pity.
"She's still watching," Joe said, peering out at the old woman. "And even if she didn't see us come into the bushes, she's already seen us together, up at Janet's house. She knows you're not alone. I don't think this is going to work."
"It'll work." Dulcie studied Mrs. Blankenship. The soft, elderly woman looked a perfect mark, like some old grandmother there behind the curtain, her nose pressed to the glass. "But before I go into my half-starved act, we need a little drama, a little pathos. How about a cat fight? Before you nip out of here, how about you beat the stuffings out of me."
Joe smiled. "A screaming frenzy of a fight."
"Exactly. Poor little kitty torn apart by the big ugly bully."
"So who's ugly!" He lit into her, kicking and clawing, knocking her out onto the lawn. She screamed, yowled. He was all over her, they rolled clear of the bushes tearing at each other, raking and kicking, tearing divots from the grass-but not a bit of fur flew. They didn't lay a claw on each other. Dulcie's screams were loud enough to have drowned out all the fire engines in Molena Point, her voice ululating in crescendos of terror and rage.
Mrs. Blankenship's troubled face remained pressed against the glass for only an instant, then the old woman's window banged open. "Stop it! Stop it! Leave her alone!"
They gave it a few more licks for good measure, then Dulcie escaped into the bushes. The old woman yelled again, and Joe fled, hissing and snarling.
He paused behind a rhododendron bush out of sight. I'm pretty good at this acting stuff, a regular Robert Redford-or maybe Charles Branson. He pictured himself bashing skulls, leaping atop runaway cars.
Mrs. Blankenship had opened the screen and was leaning out, beckoning to Dulcie. "Kitty? Oh you poor, poor kitty." She reached out as if Dulcie would come to her outstretched hand. She was dressed in a flowered bathrobe, her gray hair confined beneath a thick, old-fashioned net.
Dulcie crept out from her shelter, staring up.
"Come on, kitty. Oh you poor, pretty kitty."
Dulcie mewled pitifully, her voice unsteady and weak.
"Oh, you poor little thing. Come on, kitty. Are you hurt? Did the bad tomcat hurt you?"
At least, Joe thought, the woman knows how to tell a tomcat. Broad shoulders, thick neck. It doesn't take a look at your private parts, necessarily, to know you're a stud. He watched Dulcie creep across the lawn, walking slowly, managing to limp. Shyly, warily, she approached the window. This cat was no slouch, either, as an actor-she could play Scarlett to his Rhett.
"Oh, you poor, poor kitty. Come on up here to Mama. Can you jump? Are you hurt too bad, or can you jump up?" The old woman tapped on the sill with a shaky finger.
But Dulcie lay down on the grass, trying for the wan, coy effect. Lying upside down, widening her green eyes with longing, she let her little peach-colored paws fold over her poor empty tummy.
Yes, that did it. Mrs. Blankenship leaned farther, her lumpy bosom pressed down over the sill. Her body in the flowered robe was round and soft, the robe bleached out from numerous washings, baggy and wrinkled. Her eyes were a faded brown. And her hair was not gray, but the color of old, dried summer grass.
"Oh, you poor, sweet little girl. That terrible tomcat. Come on, sweet kitty. Come on, dear. I'll take care of you."
Dulcie remained shy and frightened.
"I can't come out to get you, dear, Frances will see me, she'll have a fit." Her face wrinkled up, petulant and cross. "She doesn't like animals-doesn't like much of anything. Come on, kitty, you'll have to come up on the sill-if you're not too hurt to jump. Oh, dear…"