4th of July (Women's Murder Club 4)

“I think she’s been swallowed by that big gold boat.”

I ducked out from under the hood, wiped my greasy hands on a chamois, and reached out my arms to Cindy and Claire, grabbing them both in one giant hug. We squealed and jumped around, and Martha, who’d been sleeping on the porch, joined in.

“We were in the neighborhood,” said Claire when we broke from our clinch. “Thought we’d stop by and see how much trouble you’ve gotten into. So what’s this, Lindsay? I thought all these gas gluttons had been crushed and outlawed.”

“Don’t be talking bad about my baby,” I said with a laugh.

“It runs?”

“No, sirree, Butterfly. She flies.”

The girls handed me a beribboned spa basket from Nordstrom’s full of great mood-altering bath and body stuff, and after a unanimous show of hands, we piled into the Bonneville for a ride.

I buzzed down the electric windows, and as the car’s big whitewalls softened the road, the zephyr coming off the bay mussed and tousled our hair. We rounded the loops of Cat’s neighborhood and were headed up the mountain when Claire showed me an envelope.

“Almost forgot. Jacobi sent this.”

I glanced at the eight-by-eleven-inch manila envelope in her hand. The night before, I’d called Jacobi and asked him to get me anything he could find on Dennis Agnew, aka Randy Long.

I filled Cindy and Claire in on my first accidental meeting with Agnew at the Cormorant bar, the set-to at Keith’s garage, and the near-rear-ender. Then I described my skeevy tour of the Playmate Pen in minute detail.

“He said that to you?” Cindy exclaimed after I quoted Agnew on “women debase themselves with men so they can feel powerful.” Her cheeks pinked; she was pissed off right up to her eyelashes. “Now, there’s someone who should be crushed and outlawed.”

I laughed and told her, “Agnew had this wall of fame, like something you’d see in Tony’s office in the Bada Bing. All these signed photos from porn queens and wiseguys. Unreal. Claire, will you open that, please?”

Claire took three pages from the envelope. They were stapled together and annotated with a Post-it note from Jacobi.

“Read it out loud, if you don’t mind,” Cindy said, leaning over the back of the front seat.

“There’s some minor league stuff: DWI, assault, domestic violence, a drug bust and some time at Folsom. But here ya go, Linds. Says he was charged with first-degree murder five years ago. Case dismissed.”

I reached over and peeled off Jacobi’s handwritten note: “The vic was Agnew’s girlfriend. His lawyer was Ralph Brancusi.”

I didn’t have to say more. We all knew Brancusi was a high-profile defense attorney. Only the wealthy could afford him.

Brancusi was also the lawyer of choice for the mob.

Chapter 69

WHEN WE GOT BACK to Cat’s house, there was a patrol car in the driveway, and Chief Stark was walking toward us. He looked as grim as ever, brow scrunched up, with a haunted look in his eyes that was actually contagious.

“What is it, Chief? What’s happened now?”

“The ME’s starting the posts on the Sarduccis,” he said, squinting into the sun. “This is your formal invitation.”

I felt a surge of excitement that I masked out of consideration for the chief. I introduced Cindy and Claire.

“Dr. Washburn is the CME in San Francisco,” I said. “Okay for her to come along?”

“Sure, why not?” the chief grunted. “Take all the help I can get. I’m learning, right?”

Cindy looked at the three of us and saw that she wasn’t being included in the invitation. Hell, she was the press.

“I get it,” she said good-naturedly. “Look, I’ll hang out here, no problem. I’ve got my laptop and a deadline. Plus, I’m a leper.”

Claire and I got back into the Bonneville and followed the chief’s car out to the highway.

“This is great,” I said, my enthusiasm brimming over. “He’s letting me into the case.”