Gold Hill (18 page)

Honey scowled at the
thought of her mother, Tiffanie, and opened the door. Delphie stood
on the threshold.

“
Oh sorry, I didn’t
realize you’re on the Skype,” Delphie said. “I was just making some
brownies and thought you’d . . . ”

“
I’ll be right there,”
Honey smiled.

“
Duty calls?” MJ
asked.

“
Sorry I got so upset,”
Honey said.

“
You’re going to be all
right?” MJ asked.

Honey nodded.

“
I’ll call in the morning
and check in. ‘K?” MJ asked.

Honey nodded. She knew he
depended on her to be strong and his entire team depended on him to
be their medic. She gave him a soft smile. She could do
this.

“
Love you,” MJ
said.

“
I love you too,” Honey
said and clicked off the call.

“
Sorry,” Delphie repeated.
“I just thought . . . ”

“
I really appreciate it,”
Honey sighed. “I’ve been a
little . . . crazy.”

“
I know,” Delphie leaned
down to hug Honey.

“
Brownies are just the
thing I needed,” Honey said.

“
Come on then,” Delphie
said.

They found Valerie and
Jackie in the living area of the Castle. Valerie did her best to
look nonchalant.

“
Oh, is Honey joining us?”
Valerie asked.

Honey laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Friday, early morning —
3:13 a.m.

After her third day of back
to back shifts, Ava was bone-tired. She pulled her car into the
driveway and stumbled toward the house. Wondering if she should
take a swim, her eyes glanced at the carriage house. She was too
tired for swimming tonight.

She went through the
sliding glass door and into the back of the house. She was almost
to the kitchen when she heard piano music. Her heart pounded with
excitement.

Seth!

And then a woman
laughed.

Her heart squeezed with
jealousy. Before her mind could catch up to her heart, she stormed
to the formal living room Seth used as a public piano room and
pulled open the antique sliding doors. Her eyes took in the
room.

Schmidty was sitting on a
couch with his arm around Lizzie. Dale was talking to that tall
Russian man who trained Sissy. Seth’s back was to her while he
played the grand piano. And the most beautiful woman she’d ever
seen was spinning on toe nearby.

Unfamiliar with storms of
jealousy, Ava stood in the doorway trying to catch her
breath.

“
Oh shoot,” the woman said
when she saw Ava. “She’s here.”

Furious, Ava gaped at the
woman. The beautiful woman smiled an even more beautiful smile and
Ava shook her head. She turned to leave when she felt Seth moving
toward her. She paused for a moment. He touched her arm.

“
Please don’t go,” Seth
said.

“
Why is it bad that I’m
here?” Ava asked.

“
Because this was my
surprise for you,” Seth said. “A trip to New York to see the ballet
and a wedding present from me.”

Ava shook her
head.

“
Are you all
right?”

“
I feel weird,” Ava said.
“My heart’s all constricted and I’m mad.”

“
Sounds like jealousy,”
Seth pulled her to him. “I’d feel the same way if I came home to
all of this.”

“
I don’t like this
feeling,” Ava said.

He nodded. In her ear, he
said, “Don’t be jealous my love. Everything I do, I do with you in
my heart.”

“
I miss you so much,”
Ava’s voice was low. “When is your movie done?”

“
We’re close,” Seth said.
“I’m home for the weekend. I’m working here for the first few days
of next week. The movie’s music crew is coming here on Sunday. The
house will be full of people.”

“
Did you tell Maresol?”
Ava asked.

“
No, should I?” Seth
asked. He pulled back to look at her. Seeing her stern face, he
laughed.

“
Yes, my love, Maresol has
been informed that a crowd of people are going to invade her
house,” he said. “Dale already has a list of things to do to get
the bedrooms ready.”

“
Why do you get to be
here?” Ava asked.

“
Jeraine is helping with
the sound mixing,” Seth said. “He doesn’t feel comfortable leaving
Tanesha right now. And I wanted to be here with you.”

“
Giving your friend’s son
a job?” Ava asked.

“
He’s very talented,” Seth
said. “Plus your father wishes to speak with me, so I’m home for a
while. Want to get married while I’m here?”

Ava chuckled.

“
I guess that’s a no,”
Seth said. “Ah well, can’t blame a guy for trying.”

Ava kissed him and he
laughed.

“
Come on,” Seth said. “Let
me show you what you might expect.”

He looked into Ava’s face
and she nodded. With his arm around her, she went with him into the
room.

~~~~~~~~

Friday morning — 9:11
a.m.

Sitting in a tight
armchair, Tanesha pulled her legs up into her chest and rested her
chin on her knees. Jeraine was waiting in the lobby while Tanesha
took some time alone with their therapist.

“
Were you surprised by
their story?” their couple’s therapist asked.

“
No,” Tanesha said. “I
always figured something like that. I know my Gran feels like she
failed Mom; and let’s face it, she did.”

“
But she didn’t fail you,”
the therapist said.

Tanesha shook her
head.

“
Jer has
been . . . incredible. We stayed up all night
talking.”

“
Talking?”

“
Talking,” Tanesha said.
“Crying, laughing, talking about me, talking about him, planning
our future.
Our
future.”

Tanesha gave a little
snort.

“
Seth called, yesterday,
while I was . . . sick, told Jer that he needed to
come to LA next week,” Tanesha said. “And you know what he said? He
said he wasn’t going to leave me. Could Seth come here? And they
are. The whole team is coming to Denver to do some thing or another
just because Jer wouldn’t leave me. He wouldn’t leave
me
!
I . . . ”

Tanesha shook her head as
if she couldn’t believe the words she was saying.

“
So to answer your
question,” Tanesha started.

“
Which one?” The therapist
gave her a wry smile.

“
Why is this happening
now?”

The therapist
nodded.

“
I think this is happening
now,” Tanesha swallowed hard. “It’s happening now because I’m
getting everything I always wanted. My husband is home and clearly
in love with me, and only me. My Dad finally told me about Mom. I
lived to see the day that Gran admitted she screwed up – anything,
let alone screwed up with my Mom. And I get to go to med school on
Monday.”

The therapist intently
watched Tanesha’s face. Tanesha shook her head and pressed her
mouth against her knees.

“
But?”

“
What I really want, more
than anything . . . ” Fat tears slid down
Tanesha’s face. “I really want my mom to come home.”

With nothing to add, the
therapist could only nod.

“
Why can’t my mom come
home?” Tanesha broke down and sobbed.

Chapter One Hundred and
Ninety-Nine

Forever

Friday morning — 12:11
p.m.

Ava and Seth sat at the
kitchen bar talking to Maresol when the doorbell rang. Shifting
around on his bar stool, Seth grimaced.

“
I can get it,” Ava
said.

“
I’m okay,” Seth said.
“Just a little stiff in the mornings.”

Ava wiggled her eyebrows at
him and he grinned.

“
Knock it off,” Maresol
said as she walked around them. “We don’t need to see you moon at
each other.”

She slapped Seth with a
dishtowel. Ava leaned forward to kiss him.

“
Who is at the door?”
Maresol added on her way to the door.

“
Attorney General,” Seth
yelled back. “Ava’s father.”

“
I think I’ll go for a
swim,” Ava hopped off her stool and trotted toward the back of the
house. Still grinning, Seth watched her go.

“
Attorney General Alvin,”
Maresol’s voice drifted into the kitchen. “Please come in. May I
take your coat?”

Maresol directed Ava’s
father toward the small living room area at the front of the
house.

“
Can I bring you some
coffee or tea?” Maresol asked.

“
No thank you,” Aaron
Alvin’s deep voice rumbled.

Seth rolled his eyes. If
the Attorney General didn’t want coffee, he was aiming to show Seth
off at some public lunch. Maresol came into the kitchen.

“
I’m not feeding that
man,” Maresol said.

“
You know him?”

“
I don’t like the way he
treats his daughter,” Maresol held out a cane to Seth. “Use this.
You’re gimping this morning.”

“
The first of the music
people should be here around one,” Seth said.

“
Then you’d better finish
up with Mr. Important,” Maresol helped him stand.

“
Thanks.” He nodded to
her.

“
For what?”

“
Putting up with my
bullshit all these years,” he said.

She smiled at him and he
made the painful journey toward the Attorney General.

“
Seth!” Aaron Alvin said
when he saw Seth. “How are you feeling?”

“
Better, thank you,” Seth
sat down across from him.

“
I saw the other men who
were injured at an award ceremony we held in their honor, in your
honor in fact, just last week,” the Attorney General said. “They
seem to be still recovering as well.”

“
It’s the joints,” Seth
said. “Our doctor thinks we may have rheumatoid like symptoms for
the rest of our lives. He’s testing us with a variety of
treatments. Since it’s all new, there’s no real
science.”

“
Lab rats, eh?”

“
Yes sir,” Seth said.
“You’ve requested to see me a number of times. What can I do for
you?”

“
I’d like you to come to
work for me,” Aaron Alvin said.

Seth was so surprised he
couldn’t think of anything to say. The men looked at each other for
a moment.

“
I’m not sure what you
mean,” Seth said.

“
As State Attorney
General, you can imagine I have a number of cases that require an
experienced detective. An honest man,” Ava’s father gave Seth a
bright politician’s smile. While he smiled, Seth wondered how the
grounded, real Ava he knew could be this man’s child. Before his
mind could work on the puzzle, the Attorney General spoke again,
“You’d join my staff, of course.”

“
I don’t see an upside for
me in that situation, sir,” Seth said. “I’m sure you realize that I
don’t do this work for the paycheck. I have departments calling me
from all over the country asking me to consult on their cases. I
just helped LA close a particularly ugly murder and get a
confession from the unlikely perpetrator. That’s not to mention my
agent is thinking about sending me on a tour of the US to showcase
some material I wrote but hasn’t sold. What would I gain from
working with you?”

“
You’d have a chance to
work on some of the greatest puzzles in Colorado,” the Attorney
General gave Seth another toothy grin.

“
You mean like who
brutally murdered that the beautiful, blonde fifteen year old under
the Colfax bridge?”

The Attorney General looked
surprised.

“
There was so much blood
that it must have soaked down to the murderer’s very underclothes.
And she put up a fight. Trained in tae kwon do at Tiger Kim’s on
Colfax,” Seth said. “Funny that the man you prosecuted had not a
drop of blood on him, no fibers, not a bruise or a scratch and he
had an alibi.”

“
That was a long time
ago,” Aaron Alvin licked his lips and looked away.

“
Not to Rodney Smith,”
Seth said.

“
I made that right,
O’Malley,” the Attorney General shifted in his seat. “Rodney Smith
received twenty-five million dollars. That’s more than a million a
year. It’s more than he’d ever have made as a
professor.”

“
What about the other
twelve victims of the murderer that Mitch and I had locked up in
the Denver Jail with a signed confession? He told me he wanted us
to stop him. He wanted to get caught,” Seth’s voice raised in
anger. “What do those young women get? What about their
families?”

“
I personally saw to his
execution,” The Attorney General’s eyes blazed with
indignation.