Trifecta (7 page)

R
obin decided to borrow Jay's apartment for the
meeting with Julia.  He had given her directions to the apartment in Westwood and
was expecting her at any minute.  He had enjoyed presenting himself as a macho working
mechanic and had the feeling he would be able to get to know Julia better in that
guise.  Of course, he would tell her the truth, he promised himself, but maybe not
right away.  He felt like a kid anticipating Halloween.

Now Jay was showing Robin around his apartment.  The living
room was austere and modern, with lots of brass, plants and leather furniture. 
Robin gazed around, thinking the apartment might be just a bit ostentatious for
a mechanic.  But he could never take her to his own place; a home high in the beautiful
Beverly Hills, with a spectacular view of the city.  She would never believe the
charade that he was a mechanic for one second.  Robin had even dressed for the working-man
role, in nice but worn jeans and a long sleeved black tee shirt.

Following Jay around the apartment, Robin looked into the
kitchen.  He was a little appalled.  It could have belonged to a gourmet chief,
with all kinds of hanging pots and pans over a large range with eight burners, next
to an oversized microwave.  Julia might get the mistaken idea he could cook.  Whip
her up a mean little dinner.  It almost was dinner time and his stomach was growling. 
Maybe he could take Julia out for something to eat later.

The two men crossed the living room and Jay showed Robin
the bathroom, and then a study.  There were pictures of sports idols and sailing
boats on the walls.  Robin thought it could pass as a mechanic's pad, except for
the law books and journals.  They both worked quickly, turning the books around
so the spines wouldn't show.  They hid law journals under sporting magazines.

Then Jay ushered Robin, with a triumphant flourish, into
the master bedroom.  It was a typical but exaggerated bachelor's lair, with mirrors
covering the sliding doors of the closets, directly opposite the bed.  Robin was
horrified to see that there were even mirrors on the ceiling, over an absolutely
enormous, round bed with black satin sheets.  Speakers stood on either side of the
bed for easy access to mood music. 

"This is really wonderful," Robin said to his
friend sarcastically.  "One look in here and she'll run, screaming out the
door." 

Robin was reminded of an old movie with Doris Day and Rock
Hudson.  The bedroom in Hudson's apartment had been decorated as a joke with doors
that locked when the woman was safely trapped inside, music which went on automatically
as soon as the doors locked, and a hidden bed that swung out, complete with garish
harem curtains.  This bedroom was almost as suggestive.

"Hey pal, I might be doing you a favor," Jay
said.  "You don't know.  She may go for it."

Never in a million years, Robin thought, shaking his head. 
He closed the door firmly.  He would never even let Julia near that seduction palace.

"I better get going," Jay said.  "She'll
be here any minute.  You look around, so you can act like you live here."

"Hey, Jay, this is really great of you, you know?" 
Robin said as he waved his friend out the door.

"I'll come home early," Jay warned, turning around
again to face his friend, "if you don't promise to tell all the grisly details."

"Sure, sure," Robin said.  "Right."

"Just messing the covers on the bed won't be good
enough.  You promise now," Jay said, standing there obstinately, obviously
not planning to leave until he had a firm oath from his friend.  He was enjoying
himself immensely, sensing Robin's uneasiness.

"I told you before, it's just a meeting."

"Uh huh," Jay said.  He was ready to launch into
another plea to get the information out of Robin, when he saw a sudden look on surprise
on his friend's face.  Jay turned around quickly and saw a woman emerging from the
elevator.  She was only the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  Strawberry blond
hair with very dark eyes and black eyebrows.

"Hi, Julia," Robin said.  He was leaning against
the door jam with his arms folded, like he owned the place.  "I was just saying
good-by to my friend, Jay.  Jay...Julia," he said, in introduction as Julia
walked toward them, nodding at each in turn.

Julia put out one delicate hand, shaking Jay's hand.  Robin
smiled at his friend, who looked stunned silly, like he had gone into a hypnotic
trance. 

"Jay and I have known each other for years.  From
work," Robin explained.  "He was just leaving."

"Yeah," Jay said.  He still looked dazed. "I
work with the Old Hood all the time."

"Old Hood?" Julia repeated.  Then she smiled. 
"A nickname?  From Robin Hood?"

"Naw, the Old Hood here," Jay said slapping his
friend, Robin, on the shoulder, "looked like a real hood in high school.  You
know, slicked his hair back with grease, rolled a pack of cigarettes in his shirt
sleeve, and was always working on old cars.  So we called him Hood.  Not only did
he look like a Hood, but he was always under the hood of some old hunk of metal."

Julia couldn't know Jay was joking and looked kind of stunned,
herself, at the picture Jay had presented.

"Cleaned up his act real well, though," Jay went
on.  "You'd never guess he was the Drag Strip King, back when we were adolescent
delinquents."

"That's quite enough, Jay," Robin said warningly. 
Jay could really pile the shit when he got started. 

"Women just loved drag racing in his dangerous, hopped
up, speed cars with him," Jay drawled, noting Robin's discomfort with immense
satisfaction.

"Jay's exaggerating a bit," Robin said tightly.

"Yeah, miss the good old days," Jay said sadly,
shaking his head and walking away.  Waving good-by and smiling evilly at Robin.

Thanks loads old pal, Robin thought to himself cynically,
as he followed Julia into the apartment.  He could already tell that Julia had believed
Jay's silly bantering.  She was staying as far away from him as possible as they
went into the living room.  There was a definite chill in the air.

"Please sit down," Robin said, indicating a couch. 
"Jay really was kidding, you know." 

"I'm sure," Julia said distantly.  She sat down. 
He sat across from her on a chair.

"Oh, let me get you something.  Coffee?  A soft drink?"

"Whatever you are having," Julia said formally.

"Two coffee's coming up," Robin said cheerfully,
but he didn't feel cheerful.  This was a disastrous idea, meeting at Jay's place.

Julia watched Robin jump up from the couch like he was
full of nervous energy and go into the kitchen.  She was uncomfortable being alone
with him in his apartment.  He seemed much larger than she had thought, towering
over her when they had walked into the apartment.  His physical presence seemed
to make the normal sized place quite small.  Robin had an energy or presence that
was almost breathtaking.  And his outfit was extremely masculine.  She could see
the large muscles in his arms and chest in the black tee shirt.  She supposed though,
that most mechanics were in excellent shape, with flat stomachs.  Her heart was
beating much too fast, so she thought she must be a little fearful.  But it was
a silly response to a perfectly nice working man.

Suddenly she heard a loud bonging sound from the kitchen,
and then muffled shouting, which sounded like a string of some profanity.  It was
rapidly stifled. 

She got up quickly and walked to the doorway of the kitchen. 
Robin had evidently walked right into one of the hanging pans.  He was holding his
head like he was in pain.  She looked at the pan.  It was large and heavy and she
wondered why he had hung the thing so low in his own kitchen.  She almost ran toward
him to see if he was all right, but he was moving swiftly.

Robin was oblivious that she was observing him.  She watched
as he started opening cabinets frantically, with his left arm.  His right still
covering his forehead.  At first she thought he was so badly hurt that he was disoriented
and couldn't find anything in his own kitchen.  After a while she realized he really
didn't know where anything was.  He had found two cups and was looking through the
cupboards for instant coffee, evidently.  Robin finally found it, and then looked
around frantically for something to boil water with.  When he turned around he saw
her.

"Can I help you?" Julia asked.  "I heard
you hit your head."

Robin gave her a dazzling smile and shook his head.  "No,
thank you.  I'll be just another minute."

Julia went back into the living room and sat down.  Poor
guy probably lived in such a hovel that he had borrowed this apartment from a friend
so he wouldn't be embarrassed.  It was kind of sweet, but she still felt she might
be in some danger from the large man.  She thought back to the time when he had
his special suit on, for appearing in court and wondered, first, if he was a robber
or something.  Jay, his friend, had mentioned that they both had been juvenile delinquents. 
She might be alone in an apartment with a master thief, or even something much worse. 
Maybe he was out on bail for some heinous crime.

On the other hand, she remembered that she had walked straight
up to him after her brother's death and he had held her gently, just like she had
needed at that moment in time.  She couldn't believe he would do anything truly
awful. 

Robin was coming into the living room, holding two mugs
of coffee.  "I ran out of cream and sugar," he said apologetically.

Julia smiled at him, knowing he couldn't find it, "I
always drink black." 

The room seemed too small again, and much warmer.  She
wondered if he had so much masculine energy that it came off his body in waves of
heat, because it felt like that.  And the coffee was making her even warmer.

"As I said on the phone," Robin started, after
he sat down and stared at her for an uncomfortably long period of time with extremely
piercing blue eyes, "I think that your coming here is a bad idea.  There may
have been foul play involved in your brother's death.  And from what I understood
at the hospital, I don't think it was a mistake by the people who work there, or
by the machines that were monitoring your brother's condition.  The fact that you
are here might put you in some danger."

Julia could see that he was going to go on with the tirade,
so she put up her hand.  But as she did so she was surprised again.  He didn't talk
like a mechanic.  His use of the English language and his diction was perfect. 
He didn't belong in this apartment either. 

"It's too late for that," Julia said.  "I
talked Mr. Quijada into letting me complete my brother's work.  Now I'm going to
find out what caused Brian's death."

Robin put his coffee on the table between them, leaned
forward and put his elbows on his knees, hands under his chin.  He was looking at
her face almost fiercely.  She didn't know he was admiring the beautiful skin, and
that he couldn't decide whether he liked her hair pulled back severely, as it was
now, showing off all the contours of her face, or if he preferred the soft look
she had when it fell to her shoulders.

"I guess it's time to trade information," Robin
said, finally.  "I'll tell you what you want to know, on the condition that
you tell me your brother's last words.  I will insist that you let me help you. 
I also insist that as soon as you get any information, you turn it over to the police
and that you go directly back to Boston.  Otherwise, I won't reveal what I know."

"I made an agreement already, with Mr. Quijada, that
I would complete Brian's work.  It will take a few weeks.  And it's important to
me.  It is Brian's last work.  I want his name on it.  As author." 

Julia could feel herself get a little teary.  It was Brian's
work.  She would change it somewhat, she knew, but it would be the high quality
that he himself would have been proud of.

"If there's a secret that Brian uncovered during the
time he was working at Mr. Quijada's home, and it was that which accounted for his
untimely death, then you have to leave as soon as you know."

"Not till the book's finished."

"Seems we've reached an impasse," Robin said,
leaning back in the chair as though the conversation was finished.

A mechanic would not use the word impasse, Julia thought. 
"Just who are you?"

"A friend who really has your best interests at heart." 

She could tell he meant it.  "If that's true, Robin,
you will tell me what you know, because I promise, I'll find out by myself, and
use whatever means I have to."

"It won't bring your brother back," Robin said
curtly.  He was immediately sorry.  He had forgotten that the funeral was yesterday. 
She looked stunned, like she might cry.  Then her head was down and she was gazing
into her coffee cup.  He could see her long lashes blinking.  "Forgive me. 
That was unkind.  I just want you to be safe."

"Thank you for the sentiment," Julia said a little
harshly.  "And for the coffee."

She had put her cup down and was slinging her purse over
her shoulder.  It was fine for her to be angry with him, Robin thought as he watched
her rise.  It was the only thing that was keeping her from crying.  He was impressed
by her control.  She had tears in her eyes, but was blinking rapidly as she got
up, ready to leave.

Robin stood up too, a few feet away, towering over her. 
"Let's change the agreement, then.  I'll tell you everything I know.  And you
will finish the work, if you see fit.  Because I think this whole matter does have
something to do with Quijada.  I also believe you might choose not to finish the
work, because of the things you find out.  You may decide to write something completely
different."

"Really?"  She was sitting down again.

Robin nodded.  "Also, if you need to cry, it's just
fine.  You have good reason.  Now, who goes first?"