"So you had a good time."
"Oh, yes. Jeff wanted to take the rest of the week off so he could show me around Los Angeles. I said no, because I didn't want to take him away from his work. But then he more or less talked me into spending the weekend there. At his place."
"More or less?" Jan echoed wryly.
"Well, I said I would. He has a guest bedroom. I mean, I'd like to go, and I'd probably have fun if I did, and it's not that I don't trust Jeff, but ... I feel kind of funny about it."
"You're not sure it's the right thing to do.'Staying with him at his place."
"Yeah, I guess that's it."
"Go on, and have a good time," Jan said. She figured it might be very helpful for Georgianne to spend some time in the company of a single man, and an old friend had to be safer than a newly met stranger. "You're a big girl, you can take care of yourself."
"Oh, I'm not really worried about that."
"Well then, good," Jan said. "Go and have a good time. See L.A. while it's still there."
Georgianne smiled. Jan had a way of seeing and ex pressing things simply and clearly. You couldn't help feeling a little better for it. How different this same conversation would have been if Georgianne were talking with Bobbie Maddox instead. She felt healthier than she had at any time since Bonnie's death, and she attributed that to Jan. Until she had come to Santa Barbara, she had been drifting from one shuttered room to another. Her friends and relatives had always been on hand to comfort her. Jan was the first to show her the sunlight again.
Later, much later, Georgianne awoke in darkness. For a moment, she didn't know where she was, but she didn't move. She and Jan had been drinking that evening, and alcohol sometimes put you to sleep only to wake you up two or three hours later, well before dawn. It was a lonely, miserable state to be in, betrayed by drink that fails to get you through the night. The best thing to do was to lie still and wait for sleep to come around again. It would.
Something about Jeff stuck in the back of her mind. She still enjoyed the fact that she had been able to surprise him. He had looked more stunned than she had expected. And they'd had a pleasant time together, relaxed and free of tension. The tour of LiskerBenedictus. The long lunch at the restaurant on the ocean, near Malibu.
So what was it? The way he looked at her? There had been moments when she thought there was something odd about it, almost as if he were studying her or thinking about something other than what they happened to be discussing. But thinking about it again, she felt it didn't seem that unusual. Jeff did give the impression at times that part of his mind was elsewhere; he'd been a bit like that the night they'd gone to the Maddoxes for drinks.
No-now she knew what it was. Bonnie. Aside from the first minute or two in his office, Jeff hadn't mentioned Bonnie at all. Perhaps he simply believed he was doing the right thing by not bringing up a very painful subject, but it was strange, all the same. You'd think there would have been some curiosity on his part, at least one delicately phrased question, regardless of how much his aunt and uncle had already told him.
Instead Jeff had talked about the glamour of his work, about the good living in Southern California, things to do, places to go-all the glittery, glossy surface of his life. In a way, that was the kind of mindless distraction Georgianne needed. But it was ephemeral. An hour later you couldn't remember half of it.
Oh, well, he probably just thought he was being considerate, she decided. That's all. It didn't matter anyway. No doubt they'd get around to more personal talk over the coming weekend.
"We get them every year at this time," Jan said, turning down the volume on the car radio. "They vary from bad to really terrible."
"Seems like the wrong time for it." Georgianne shook her head, smiling with disbelief. "This is autumn in New England. Almost winter. Remember?"
Friday. Wildfires had started at several scattered lo cations in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Jan and Georgianne were driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway, which, according to the last report, was not in any immediate danger of being closed.
"Yeah, but not here," Jan said. "October and November, that's the fire season in this part of the world."
'Do you get them in Santa Barbara?'
"Santa Barbara zoning laws won't allow it," Jan cracked. But then she added, "Sometimes they come close, but generally the area around L.A. gets the worst of it. The Santa Ana winds come in off the desert that way, and if nature doesn't take its course, there's usually some nut standing by with a pack of matches to lend a hand."
"God."
Jan laughed. "Relax. You're on your way to be wined and dined by a millionaire. The only fire you're likely to see is the candle burning on your table in a romantic little restaurant in Beverly Hills."
"Oh dear." Then Georgianne laughed too.
Jeff was in the parking lot when the dusty old MG pulled in, circled around, and stopped nearby. Georgianne and her friend got out and walked toward him. He grinned proudly when he saw them blink. Their eyes widened.
"How do you like it?"
Is that yours?" Georgianne asked.
"What is it?" Jan said.
"It's a Ferrari 328GTS," Jeff replied. "And, yes, it is mine. Picked it up a couple of hours ago."
"What happened to-"
"The Camaro? I just decided it was time for a change," he explained. "What do you think?"
"It's beautiful, of course," Georgianne exclaimed.
"Very," Jan said.
"Oh, Jeff, this is Janice Tillotson, the friend from college I told you about. Jan, this is Jeff Lisker."
"Hi, how are you?" Jeff said.
"Nice to meet you." Jan stepped forward and shook Jeff's hand. "I've heard a lot about you."
When they looked at each other, both Jan and Jeff experienced a sudden slight but distinct chill.
"Thanks for bringing Georgianne," he said politely. "I've been trying for a long time to get her to come out to California."
"Can I sit in your car?" Jan asked. "I've never seen a car this beautiful before. I've never even been close to anything like this."
"Be my guest."
"Nice shade of black," Jan said as she got into the driver's seat.
"Graphite," Jeff corrected.
"I'm glad you didn't get red," Georgianne said. "That would have been too much."
Jeff nodded, with a smile.
"It's ... dazzling," Jan said. "Would you mind if I asked you what-"
"Sixty thousand." Jeff beamed. "The stereo system runs about three thousand by itself."
The numbers registered, but meant nothing. Jan was looking at the interior of the car, but her mind was elsewhere. She tried to make sense of the strange feeling of unease that had come over her. It stayed with her all the way back to Santa Barbara, where she still didn't know what to make of him.
He's a different person, Georgianne thought. But maybe he isn't-more likely it's just that I'm seeing him for the first time as he is on his home ground. She was interested, and curious.
At the moment, she was also scared. They were out for a drive, and Jeff was pushing the Ferrari too fast, she thought. It was like being strapped in the nose of a rocket. But he was obviously enjoying himself, so she said nothing. Oddly, it occurred to her that to feel even a tiny shiver of fear had to be a healthy sign. It was easy, in a way, to sit in Jan's kitchen and talk about how much of you had died, and it wasn't untrue, but it took only a little adrenaline in the bloodstream to remind you that you were still alive and wanted to stay that way.
Jeff sped down Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Just south of Woodland Hills, he turned onto a side road. The paving soon gave way to dirt and packed gravel. He was forced to drive a little slower, but the Ferrari spewed pebbles and a trail of dust in its wake.
"Did you ever hear of Mulholland Drive?"
"No," Georgianne replied.
"Well, this is it," Jeff said. "It's kind of famous in L.A."
"Why?" Georgianne looked around as they climbed up into the hills. There were few houses to be seen, and the landscape was unremarkable. "It just looks like a back road."