Ben had just violated the third rule, but then the main reason you wore protection was to prevent STD’s and both he and Lane were STD free and had lab results to back it up.
Lane had retrieved her dress from the floor where it had landed. She held it up. God it was wrinkled. People were going to know it had been thrown on the floor hours earlier. Ben got up and took it from her.
“Here, let me steam that. You can’t go out in public looking like you’ve been sleeping in your clothes. Everyone will know I’ve been ravishing you and we can’t have the kids thinking that we had sex before we were married.”
He took her dress to the bathroom, filled his hand held steamer with water and plugged it in. Lane smiled. Her daughter sometimes called her Felix after the neat freak in the Neil Simon play The Odd Couple. Ben made Lane look like Oscar, but having a man who wanted to steam the wrinkles out of her clothes, she could live with a man like that. She looked at her engagement ring and smiled. She was going to live with a man like that.
It was after 6:00 p.m. when Ben and Lane had gotten out of bed and dressed. They’d had an early lunch, and they’d burned off a lot of calories since lunch. They talked about going out but decided on going back to Lane’s, where they could tell the kids the wedding plans, which were accelerated. If they were going to get married on Friday, before Jess went back to L.A. on Saturday, they needed to apply for the marriage license tomorrow. Kansas had a three day waiting period between application and issuance, so to pick up the marriage license on Friday, they had to apply on Tuesday.
Chapter 14
The Investigation
Jess put on her best secretary voice and used her cell to dial KEAU. Her cell had an L.A. number. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but she asked for Beth Morgan.
“Ms. Morgan, this is Corinne Miller,” she said, using the name of a character she’d played recently. “I just heard about Carol Anne Woods’ death. Carol Anne and I met at a convention in L.A. recently. I’m passing through Kansas City on my way to the east coast and I wondered if we could get together to talk. I could meet you someplace this evening. I just need to talk to someone else who knew her, you know?”
She couldn’t believe her ears when Beth agreed to meet her. Beth asked what hotel she’d be in and said they could meet in the bar at five o’clock. Jess agreed, knowing she wouldn’t be 21 for a few months yet, hoping she could pull off sitting in a hotel bar. She should be fine. Her fake ID had fooled bartenders and bouncers all over L.A. Jess checked the time, three hours to kill before she needed to leave. Make that two, she’d need to get to the hotel earlier than Beth and make sure Beth didn’t see that she was driving a car with Johnson County, Kansas tags. If she was driving through KC from L.A., her car would have California plates. They’d discussed how to recognize each other, so Jess would just wait in the bar.
Jake and Jamie continued to crawl through the internet, sifting the garbage from the clues.
“Hey, did you know she worked for the city of Overland Park before she went to work for the KCMO police department? She left KCMO to go to KEAU radio.” Jamie IM’d the link to Jake.
“How long ago was that,” Jess asked, absent mindedly.
Jake opened the link. “Looks like she left OPPD five years ago and went to KCMO. She was there for about a year, before taking the KEAU radio gig. She was at KEAU for a year. Then she moved to Denver, where she’s been at the same radio station for the last three years. She doesn’t have any family here. Why come back to KC?”
“Hopefully she kept in touch with Beth Morgan and she can shed some light on things,” Jess replied.
“We should call Tanner and have him meet us at the Marriott in case anything goes hinkey. Ben said same rules as paint ball, pay attention, stay together, don’t take risks. Tanner and I could go to the bar and sit at a table away from you. Jandy can’t go. His baby face would get him thrown out.”
Jess pushed Tanner’s number toward Jake. “I don’t expect trouble, but go ahead, make the call.”
She looked at Jamie. “Rhubarb, that leaves you here alone until Mom and Ben get home. Don’t let anyone in. Don’t even answer the land line.”
Jamie nodded. He was used to taking ridiculous orders from his sister. Maybe it was good practice for going to West Point. You didn’t have to agree with every order, you just had to obey them.
“I need to go figure out my wardrobe, and maybe do a little research. I need to get a backstory that Beth will buy,” Jess said, as she went to look at her meager closet.
That was the problem with going to school on the west coast; except for winter clothes, everything was in L.A. She might have to go with jeans and raid her Mother’s closet for an appropriate top.
“Whoa. Jake, look at this.” Jamie turned his laptop toward Jake. “Isn’t that Ben in that photo with the cheerleader?”
Jake read the caption under the photo. “Yep, Liza Conrad pictured with prominent attorney Ben Bellini.”
“So Ben was dating the cheerleader when she had the stalker issue. He gets around. What do you think about him and Mom?”
“Jandy, I like Ben, you like Ben, heck even Jess likes Ben and Ben loves Mom. I think he sowed some wild oats; okay, maybe a lot of wild oats, but I think he’s ready to settle down. And I think if he hurts Mom, we’ll make him pay for it.”
“Yeah, that’s what I think.” Jamie nodded.
Jess came into the kitchen. “Do I look like an assistant radio producer?”
The boys laughed. “Heck if we know,” Jake said.
“What the heck does one do?” Jamie added.
“I looked it up. ‘The role of a radio producer, on a station dedicated to news and talk radio, is to procure guests of interest to specific hosts and audiences. Once a guest is booked, she is customarily expected to suggest questions and topics to make the guest’s interview compelling.’ Sounds like a bit of research and then finding and booking talent, I think I can bluff through that. The bigger job might be getting Beth to talk.”
Jake looked at his sister. “You ready to go? Tanner said he’d meet us, well, me there. You can ride with me, we can figure out how to have you go in separately on the way.”
Jake and Jess got into Jake’s truck and Jamie locked up as he was told. He continued to search the internet, looking for anything and everything he could find about Carol Anne Woods and then he began a search for Lila Crane. It couldn’t hurt to know everything he could about the investigating detective. After all, he was doing research anyway.
Lila was 33. She’d been with the Overland Park Police Department for 10 years. She’d been a detective for five. It looked like she and Carol Anne had worked together in the past, when Carol Anne was a consultant for the OPPD. He got some paper and drew a timeline. Seven years ago, Carol Anne started as a consultant for OPPD; five years ago, Lila became a detective with the OPPD; four and a half years ago, Carol Anne left OPPD and went to KCMO; four years ago, Liza Conrad was dating Ben and was stalked. Carol Anne consulted and, through notoriety, became a radio talk therapist doing a show on relationships; three years ago, Carol Anne dated Ben but moved to Denver after they broke up. He was missing something, but he didn’t know what it was.
He was hungry, and since he didn’t know when his Mom and Ben would get back, he started rummaging in the fridge for something to eat. Jake, Jess, and Tanner should be at the Marriott bar soon. He was sure they’d call after Jess met with Beth Morgan. He grabbed some left over barbecue and nuked it. He was sitting at the breakfast bar eating, when his cell phone rang.