Текст книги "Lunch at the Club"

Автор книги: Kate Kane

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Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 11 страниц)

Chapter 6

A Search warrant is served

It was seven-thirty Sunday morning when the persistent ringing of the doorbell awakened the whole Parker household.  Lane got out of bed, put on a robe and went to the door, where she found Detective Lila Crane, her partner, and three uniformed Overland Park Police Department officers.  Detective Hunter handed Lane the search warrant as the uniformed police entered her house. Lane asked if she could wake her kids and get dressed.  The female uniformed officer followed her down the hall where Lane knocked on Jamie’s and Jess’s bedroom doors before opening the door to her own bedroom.  The officer stood in Lane’s bedroom as she gathered clothes and went into the bathroom.  The uniformed officer either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Lane had grabbed her cell phone and as soon as she closed the bathroom door, she called Ben. As she dressed, she read the warrant to Ben.  She was still on the phone as she walked down the hall and out of the house.  Jess and Jamie were already in the drive way sitting on lawn chairs they’d pulled from the garage.  They started to ask Lane what was going on but noticed that she was on the phone.  She hit the end call button and sat in the chair Jamie had vacated as he started to set up another chair.

“The warrant gives them access to the house and garage.  The cars aren’t specifically mentioned.  Ben’s on his way,” Lane said as Jake pulled to a stop at the curb.

Jake pulled a McDonald’s bag and a drink tray from the passenger seat of his Silverado pickup.

“I was on my way to get Jess and Jandy when I got the call.  Ben’s stuck at the light on 95th.”

He handed Lane a Diet Dr. Pepper before giving the drink tray and bag to Jess.  Jess opened the bag and began handing out breakfast sandwiches.  Ben pulled to the curb and Lane met him at the end of the driveway.  She handed him the warrant and he walked into the house to talk to Lila and Hunter.

One of the uniformed officers was in the living room and advised Ben that Detective Crane was in the bedrooms and Detective Hunter was in the garage. Ben went toward the bedrooms and found Lila going through Lane’s night stand. That’s the way he saw it… not that Lila was searching the night stand but that she was snooping through the drawers of Lane’s nightstand.  He stood in the doorway, leaning against the door jamb for several seconds, watching Lila snoop, before he cleared his throat.  Lila’s reaction confirmed his suspicion.  She quickly stood and hastily closed the drawer she’d been going through.

“Detective.”

“Counselor.”

A uniformed officer tapped Ben on the shoulder and he moved so the officer could enter the bedroom.

“Detective Hunter’s finished the search of the garage.  He didn’t find any golf clubs.”

Lila moved her glance from the officer to Ben.  “I saw golf clubs in the garage last night.  What did your client do with them?”

Ben fixed icy hazel eyes on the detective.  “You’re looking for golf clubs?  And I imagine you expected to find them in the nightstand.”

Ben walked into the bedroom, stopping as Lila came to stand toe to toe with him.

Lila was five feet seven inches tall, and even in her three inch heels, she wasn’t quite tall enough to look directly into Ben’s eyes.  She tipped her head back, and growled, “I want to know where those golf clubs are, Counselor.”

Ben replied, with a forced calm in his voice. “I told you last night not to confuse what happened between us personally with what’s going on with my client.  Execute your warrant, Detective.  It’s the only thing you’ve got.”

Ben turned on his heel and strode through the house toward the garage. He’d known Lila for a few years, and until now had thought her to be level headed, a thorough and competent investigator.  But that opinion was all formed before he’d gone out with her.  What the hell, it was just him having this conversation with himself.  Who was he kidding? That was before he’d slept with her.  He’d met her for drinks after work the Wednesday before Memorial Day and the night had ended in her bed. They’d made plans for Friday night, but on Thursday he’d gotten the call from Lane about the disappearance of her friend’s son.  He’d called Lila late Friday afternoon to cancel their date and he hadn’t called Lila or taken her calls since.  God, one dinner, one lunch and why did he have to meet her that night for drinks?

Although Adam Hunter played basketball with Ben, he didn’t know him well. But clearly he needed to talk to someone who didn’t have some hidden personal agenda. If he couldn’t make headway with Hunter, he’d be on the phone to a friend in the Johnson County DA’s office.  He ran it through in his head before he got to the garage.  No matter how he phrased it, it still sounded like he was an ego maniac.

He walked through the garage to the driveway, where Lane and the kids sat.  He looked at Jake. “You came to get Jamie and Jess, right?  You were going to play golf.  Round them up and get out of here.  I’ve got this.”

The kids looked toward Lane.

“I trust Ben.  If he says y’all should go, then you should go.”  She stood and did a group hug. “I’ll be fine.”

The kids walked to Jake’s truck and left.

Lane stepped close to Ben and whispered, “You know what they’re looking for, don’t you?”

“Yes. Seems Lila saw some golf clubs in your garage last night.  If she’s looking for the golf clubs, they have to be the ones you bought at the garage sale yesterday. Where are they?”

Lane smiled.  “They just drove off.  Jake loaded them into his truck last night because the kids had an 8:30 tee time and he wanted to save time this morning.”

“In the meantime, I’m a little concerned because Lila seems to be going through your bedroom with a fine toothed comb.”

Lane gasped. “She’s going through my bedroom?”  She leaned back and looked up at Ben.  Why hadn’t she seen it Friday night?  “I believe you when you say that you and Lila have been over for months, but you left something out, didn’t you counselor? There was one diner, one lunch, and some drinks, but I think you may have omitted a little roll in the hay?”

Ben nodded and then looked toward the house as Lila exited the front door and approached them.

“Any objections to searching the vehicles?”

Lane’s Mercedes convertible, the Escalade and Jamie’s Chevy Colorado truck were in the garage.  Ben had said the vehicles weren’t specifically mentioned.  She knew she had a receipt for the golf clubs in the console in the Escalade and she feared that Lila was just crazy enough to take it.

Lane smiled at her.  “I understand that the vehicles weren’t specifically listed on the search warrant, I’d like to confer with my attorney before I make a decision.”

Lane and Ben stepped away from Lila.  “I have a receipt for the golf clubs in the console of the Escalade.  It’s hand written, dated, and lists everything I purchased at that house.  It isn’t normal to get receipts from a garage sale, but the woman gave me one.  I wrote the house address on it.  I’m so sorry I laughed the other night. She is crazy and coming after me because of you.  Is she crazy enough to make the receipt disappear?”

Ben called out to Hunter, “Since the search of the vehicles is voluntary, my client would like to request that Hunter conduct it.  She’d also like to point something out to him as he searches.”

Lila was clearly pissed, but allowing the search of the vehicles was voluntary.  She had no grounds to object and didn’t want to cause a scene.  The important thing was getting the search done and getting those golf clubs.

Lane approached Detective Hunter.  “The keys are on a hook inside the door.  Could we start with the Escalade?”  She walked into the garage and stood next to the SUV.

Hunter grabbed the keys and approached the SUV on the driver’s side.

“If you’d unlock it and open the console, please.”  She watched as Hunter opened the console.  “There should be a receipt near the top dated yesterday.  It should show a set of golf clubs and a golf bag purchased at a garage sale.”

Hunter held up the receipt. “Got it.”

Ben looked at Lila before he moved into the garage.  “Detective, we’d like a picture of the receipt before you bag it.” Ben held up his cell phone.  He took a still shot of the receipt Hunter held in his gloved fingers and then turned on the video feature and recorded the scene as Hunter bagged and tagged the receipt then handed it to a uniformed officer.

Lila stalked into the garage. “Great, so you have a receipt.  Where the hell are the damn golf clubs?”

Lane smiled at her.  “My children had an early tee time.  I’d say they could be at the second or third hole by now. I’ll gladly call and ask them to return home with the clubs. Oh, and there is one more thing.  My daughter has a habit of taking a photographic history of the garage sale purchases we make.  You’ll find a montage on my laptop showing the photos not just of the purchases, but of the people we bought things from yesterday.  I got those clubs from a very nice woman who told me her daughter no longer needed them. One more thing, if the montage has disappeared, it shouldn’t be a big deal.  Jess has probably already uploaded them to Facebook.  Please, Detective Hunter, proceed with the search of the vehicles,” Lane said as she waived her hand dismissively and left the garage.

Hunter did a cursory search of the other vehicles, he opened the trunk of the Mercedes, and barely opened Jamie’s truck.

“I think we have what we came for, don’t you Detective Crane,” Hunter said as he closed the Mercedes trunk.

“Shall I have my children meet us at the station with the golf clubs, Detective?”

Hunter looked at Lila. “Crane, you want those clubs or not?”

Chapter 7

Laying some Ground Rules

Lane and Ben stood in her driveway as they watched the police cars drive away.  When the police cars were out of sight, she and Ben walked through the garage and into the house. Lane went into the kitchen and got a glass of ice and poured herself a Diet Dr. Pepper.

She looked at Ben.  “Do you want coffee or a soda?” She put her glass on the breakfast bar.

“You sit, I’ll make coffee,” Ben said.  Lane wasn’t a coffee drinker, but to Ben’s amazement she could brew a decent cup, even before she’d bought the Keurig single cup coffee maker.

Lane sat down and watched as Ben smoothly went through the motions of making his cup of coffee.  She looked at his back.  “You know we need to talk about this, right?”

He turned to face her. He knew they needed to talk about it, he was just worried about what they needed to say. Before he could open his mouth, Lane went on.

“We fell into this relationship a few months ago.  We’ve never talked about ground rules.  Maybe we need to do that now.”  When Ben started to open his mouth she held up her hand in that international stop signal.  “No, just let me finish.  You grew up Catholic.  You know there are lies of commission and lies of omission. No matter what they say, people never lie to protect the other person, they lie to protect themselves.  I don’t care what you did or with whom you did it before we became a couple.  I know you weren’t a monk, and I can tell that you’re not wild about the celibacy that I’ve imposed on you.  You know about Gus.  So I’m going to tell you some things and ask you a couple of things.”  She held up her hands and ticked off the fingers as she talked. “The first thing I’m going to tell you is this.  Trust is the most important thing to me in a relationship so you can never go wrong by telling me the whole truth. That’s not a request for a broad, sweeping blanket confession.  I don’t want or need to know about other women unless it has some impact on my life now. The first thing I’m asking is:  Did you always use protection?”

She shook her head, her eyes nailing him to the counter on the other side of the room with a look as she ticked off the second finger.  “The second thing I’m asking is that you get tested for AIDS and other STD’s. And the second thing I’m going to tell you is that I haven’t had sex in 18 years. That’s all.”  She picked up her soda and took a drink as she watched him.

“Can I come over there now?”  Lane nodded and Ben crossed the room and pulled her from the chair.  As he held her he responded.  “All right, now I have an answer for you, a couple of things I need to say and maybe a question or two of my own. Answer one:  yes, always.  Statement one:  I love you.” He bent and kissed her. “Statement two:  You’re the first woman to whom I’ve ever said that. Excluding female relatives, of course.”  He kissed her again. “Question one:  when I told you that two days ago, you gave no response.  Why?”  He kissed her again. “Question two:  are you telling me if I get a clean bill of health that we’re taking our relationship to the next level and just to be clear, I mean are you going to let me make love to you?” Before she could answer he kissed her again.  She parted her lips and he slipped his tongue into her mouth.  As if on cue she moaned and slipped her tongue into his mouth. They were standing and he shifted and pulled her closer making sure she felt the full impact of his last question.

She pulled away and laid her head on his shoulder as she whispered, “Question two:  yes that’s exactly what I’m telling you. Question one is a little more difficult.  I’ve said that to three men, and before you, only three men had said it to me.  You know how two of those relationships ended. There was someone after my divorce from Phillip.  Luckily I found out before I slept with him that David was already married. I know you aren’t Gus or Phillip or David, but there’s still a part of me that’s afraid to hear those words from a man, let alone say them back to him.”

She stood on her toes and brushed her lips against his.  He pulled back.  “So are you telling me you don’t love me or are you telling me you’re just afraid of saying it?”

Lane laughed. “I guess I forgot for a minute that you’re a lawyer who is famous for his powers of cross examination.  The latter, I’m telling you the latter.  I couldn’t move our relationship to the next level otherwise.”

He lifted her off her feet and twirled her around. He kissed her and sat her back on her chair. “I need to call Pauli,” he said, as he pulled out his cell phone.

“Why do you need to call Pauli?”  Pauli was Paolo Raffaele Bellini, Ben’s youngest brother.  Lane had met him over Memorial Day, he was a Doctor, doing his residency in St. Louis.

“He’s going to be in town tonight, staying overnight.”  Ben smiled at her.  “I need to have him call and order lab work. The sooner he orders the lab work, the sooner I get a clean bill of health.  The sooner I get a clean bill of health, well, you know the rest.”  He winked at her.  “I guess you don’t know the rest, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.” He hit the send button.

Like hell she needed to use her imagination.  For weeks now, she’d been feeling his massive erection press against her when they embraced, just as she had this morning. She didn’t need to imagine the equipment he had to work with.  She smiled.  Maybe he meant she needed to imagine how he’d use it.  She felt a blush creep up her cheeks as she wondered what he’d done that could make a woman behave as Lila Crane had been.

“Pauli, I need you to order a full workup of STD testing for me as soon as possible.”

“No, I don’t suspect that I have anything.  Yes, I’m still with Lane.  God no, I don’t think she has anything.  Pauli, can you just order the tests, so I can go someplace today and get my blood drawn?  How long before I get results?  Fine, call it in, I’m on my way now.  When will you be in town?  Are you staying with me, with friends or with the folks? Good, see you later.”  Ben ended the call and turned to Lane.

“Pauli’s leaving St. Louis after he calls in my lab orders.  There’s a place where I can go today, so I’m heading there now.” He smiled and bent to kiss her.  “I’d ask you to ride along, but I suspect you might find it uncomfortable.”

She kissed him. “I wouldn’t find it uncomfortable, but I’m going to hang out here and wait for the kids.  Go, get out of here you dopey love crazed man.”  She pushed him toward the garage door.

As he clicked the remote access for his SUV he turned back to her.  “Hey, I’ll stop and get some steaks.  Bring the kids over for a cookout.  We’ll swim, we’ll eat.  We can tell them about the outcome of the search. It’ll be fun. Don’t make anything, don’t bring anything but yourself. Come whenever, you know the code.”

Chapter 8

A Bellini Meets the Parkers

After Ben left, Lane went through the house, setting things back to rights after the police invasion.  She spent over an hour cleaning and straightening her bedroom alone.  Finally, at around two o’clock, she called Jess and was surprised to find that they were already at Ben’s.  They’d played nine holes and opted for a dip in the pool instead of the final nine.  So Lane told her Ben was running a couple of errands, but was stopping off for steaks and all the cookout side dishes.  Lane told her she’d be over in a few minutes.

Jess ended the call, relayed the information to her brothers and went into the house to get a drink.  She’d gotten a glass of ice and was bent over in front of the refrigerator, when she heard the garage door open and close.  She peered through her legs at the feet of a man leaning against the door jamb.

“Hey did you bring DDP?”

The man looked at the ass attached to the voice.  That wasn’t Lane, too short and the hair was blonde, not red.  Hadn’t Ben told him that he was still with Lane?  So who the hell did those legs and that ass belong to and why the hell did she want diaminedichloroplatinum?

“I don’t think I brought DDP, but if you enlighten me as to why you want it, maybe I can help.”

Jess stood, turned, and screamed.  She’d grabbed the only weapon in the refrigerator, a stalk of celery.  And she held it in front of her like an ugly, mostly limp, green sword.  She looked the tall dark stranger over.  He was wearing scrubs and he looked a lot like Ben.

“Who the hell are you?”

Pauli started at her feet and worked his eyes up to the top of her pretty blonde head.  She stood about five feet four inches tall, was trim but not anorexic and had blue eyes, which were currently squinted at him. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he wondered what she planned to do with that stalk of celery.

He took a step toward her, his hand extended.

Apparently, she took it as an act of aggression, because she shook the celery at him as menacingly as celery could be shaken.

“Who ARE you?”  She repeated.

He withdrew his hand, but stood his ground.  “Allow me to introduce myself.  I’m Dr. Paolo Raffaele Bellini.  I believe you’re standing in my brother’s kitchen.”

She put the celery back in the open refrigerator.  She smiled and extended the hand which moments ago had held the deadly celery stalk.  “I’m Jess.”

She had the bluest eyes and longest eyelashes he’d ever seen. And a smoking hot body, barely covered by the blue and white striped bikini she wore.  He knew she was a sophomore at UCLA which would make her about 20.  He stepped forward and took her hand.  He was a doctor and he knew there was no medical explanation for feeling electricity as he held her hand.

“Now that we’ve been introduced, maybe you’ll tell me what you call DDP and why it would be in the refrigerator.”

She laughed.  “It’s shorthand for Diet Dr. Pepper.  And it’s the preferred beverage of the Parker women.  Ben usually keeps the fridge pretty well stocked for my mother, but I don’t see any.”

He bent to look into the open door.  His mother would be throwing a fit about the door being open for so long, and letting all the cold air out of the refrigerator.   He reached around her with his left hand to close the door.

“I don’t see any soda in there.  I saw a refrigerator in the garage.  Is it possible that Ben keeps soda out there?”

They were inches apart now and neither of them seemed to notice or care that he was still holding her hand.

The door to the patio opened.  “Jess, where are those sodas?”

Pauli looked into the hazel eyes of a man who stood as tall as himself.  He was blonde and muscular with six-pack abs.  Brother or boyfriend, Pauli was hoping for brother.  He knew Lane had three children and that Jess was the middle child with a brother on either side.  He was definitely hoping for brother.

Jess hadn’t even turned around before saying, “Well Jamison, as soon as Doc Bellini here lets go of my hand, I’ll check the fridge in the garage.”

Jamie glared at Pauli trying to figure out what possible dire situation would cause Jess to use his complete real first name.

“Jess?” A second tall blonde with similar six-pack abs had stepped into the kitchen.

Jess whispered, “That’s probably your cue to let go.”

“You must be one of Ben’s brothers.  I’m Jamison Parker.”

“I’m the youngest, Paolo.  My family call me Pauli.”

Jake nodded in that male “what’s up” greeting style.  “Jake Parker.”

“So Parrot Boy, are you going to let go of my hand or do I have to sick my brothers on you?”

Pauli released her hand.  “So, is your whole family here?”

“Not yet.  Is there someone in particular you’re hoping to see?”

And as if speaking about her had conjured her up, Lane stepped in from the garage.  She dropped her purse on the island and grabbed Pauli in a hug

“Paul.  It’s so good to see you.  You look good.  I see you’ve met my daughter and my sons.”  She released him and he stood looking from gorgeous redheaded mother to gorgeous blonde daughter and back again.

“I just talked to Ben.  He’s about 15 minutes away.”

She looked at Jess. “Jess, you’re getting goose bumps.  The air conditioning must be freezing you.  You’d better put something over your suit or get back out to the pool.  Speaking of pool, Paul, please excuse me I’m going to go change.”

She walked toward Ben’s bedroom unsure whether either Jess or Pauli had heard a word she’d said.  Neither had responded to a single thing and they seemed to be engaged in a staring contest.

She was in the master bathroom in the midst of changing into her modest one piece swimming suit when she heard the bedroom door open. “Jess?” She walked out of the bathroom pulling the straps up over her shoulders.

“No.  She’s sitting in the kitchen with my dumbfounded brother.  I’m not sure he even knew I was there.  What is that about?”

Lane laughed.  “I planned to wait until I finished changing and then I thought I might have to throw cold water over him.  Jess has goose bumps from being in the air conditioning in her wet suit.  At least I think it was because of the cold.  I guess it could have been Bellini fever or something.”

Ben picked her up and kissed her.  “Give me a couple of minutes to change.  I’ll see if I can shake him out of it without water torture.”

As Ben and Lane approached the kitchen, they heard voices.  What they found was Jess and Pauli sitting at the table each with a DDP, Pauli bare chested, Jess drowning in Pauli’s scrub shirt.  Jess was telling Pauli the same story she’d told them Friday night about the practical joker and his fake car accident make-up. Pauli was listening in rapt attention.

Ben tapped Pauli on the shoulder.  “Pauli, shirts at the table, what would Nonna say?”  Getting no response, Ben slapped the back of his right hand hard into his left.  “Pauli, camicie a tavola!”

Pauli almost came out of his skin as he jumped up.  Jess snickered as Pauli looked at Ben in obvious confusion.  Jess hadn’t told anyone, but she’d ordered Italian from Rosetta Stone just after she’d gone to UCLA, and now understood every word the Bellinis and Lucianos said to each other.

“Ben, Lane how long have you been standing here?”

“Pauli, why don’t you go change into a swim suit?  If you didn’t bring one you can use one of mine.  I could use help manning the grill.”

Jess stood.  Slowly peeling out of Pauli’s shirt, she threw it toward him.  “Hey, Parrot Boy, don’t forget your shirt.”  Then she picked up her glass, turned and walked out the patio door toward the pool.

Ben told Pauli to find a guest room to crash in, not knowing which two rooms the Parker kids had taken as changing rooms.  Pauli dumped his bag in an empty guest room, went into Ben’s room and grabbed a spare pair of swim trunks.  He used the master bath to change.  What the heck had just happened? He walked back into the kitchen.

“So you said something about help manning the grill?  What do you need?”