Or maybe they’d gone back to Araminta Tucker’s house, and something had spooked them, so they’d taken refuge in Griselda Grimshaw’s house next door.Where there was dried blood on the floor and a murder had taken place.
Maybe that didn’t make a whole lot of sense once I started thinking about it.
“Just meet me there,” I told Mendoza.I could hear him draw breath—probably to tell me I didn’t need to bother coming; he knew where it was—and I hung up before he could get the words out.
He didn’t call back to tell me not to come, so I guess he was OK with it.Or at least not so upset about it that he felt he needed to stop me.I left Edwina in the office, with a note for Rachel to let her out when she got there, which ought to be sometime within the next hour.The dog would be OK until then.
“I’ll be back,” I told her—Edwina—and headed out.
Mendoza had either teleportedor been passing the exit when I called him, because when I pulled into Griselda Grimshaw’s driveway, his car was already there.He must have just arrived, though, because he was still sitting behind the wheel.
Texting, I realized, when he got out with a grimace.“Sorry.Talking to my wife.Ex-wife.”
None of my business.None at all.“Everything all right?”
Another grimace.“Fine.Just figuring out kid stuff.”
That can be hard.Not that I have any personal experience with it, but David had two kids when I married him.I spent the first few years of my marriage trying to make friends with Krystal and Kenny, who wanted nothing to do with me—and who could blame them?
“Does your son like his step-father?”
Mendoza muttered something.
“Krystal and Kenny hated me,” I said.“Not only did I break up their parents’ marriage, but I took David away from them.”
“Surely not?”
“That’s what they saw.He dumped their mother and married me, and would rather spend time with me than with them.They weren’t wrong.Although it wasn’t my fault.He just wasn’t that interested in what they were doing.”And more interested, at that time, in bedding my twenty-two year old self.
Mendoza nodded.“Elias doesn’t blame Mitch for anything.Or Lola.He blames me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Mendoza shook his head.“All Lola did was hire Mitch.And all Mitch did was what Lola hired him to do.I was the one who cheated.And got caught.”
“But she didn’t have to marry him.”And make him Elias’s step-father.
Mendoza shrugged.“Water.”
Under the bridge, I assumed.And the end of the discussion.Time to change the subject.
I glanced at the house.“Here we are.”
Mendoza nodded.
“I guess you’re going to ask me to wait outside?”
“No,” Mendoza said.“You can come with me.As long as you stay behind me and make sure you don’t get shot.”
I translated that in my head.“You don’t think they’re here anymore.”
“I think they left here two minutes after Steven hung up the phone last night,” Mendoza said.“But just in case I’m wrong, I’m going in first.And keeping you behind me.”
Fine by me.
“Lead the way,” I said, and fell in behind him as we made our way to the front door.
Mendoza unlocked it, and reached for his gun.I watched as he pushed the door open and ducked under the crime scene tape, leading with his gun hand.“Metro Police!Stay where you are!”
