3

THEY HAD ONLY CARRY-ON LUGGAGE, so after obtaining their tourist cards and passing through immigration, they were able to leave the chaos of the hangarlike terminal sooner than they expected. An airport taxi drove them northward along a coast that had golf courses, beaches, and luxury hotels, one of which resembled an Aztec pyramid. After twenty minutes, the highway climbed to the rim of a hill, where the spectacle of Acapulco’s harbor appeared before them.

Costera Miguel Alemán, a scenic avenue that paralleled the curve of the bay, took them past modern-looking highrise buildings to the old part of the city, where the architecture was traditionally Mexican and where they got out at a small hotel called El Geranio Blanco, the White Geranium, which the driver recommended when he found out that they didn’t have a place to stay. He had a relative who worked there, he said, and although January was one of Acapulco’s busiest months, he was sure that a room could be obtained for a suitable price. And a suitable tip, Coltrane thought after the driver came back from speaking to his relative inside, announcing with a smile that everything had been arranged. The smile grew broader when Coltrane gave him fifty dollars. As the taxi pulled away, he and Tash peered up at the array of white geraniums on each of the hotel’s wrought-iron balconies.

“Let’s hope our driver was telling the truth about the relative he had inside,” Coltrane said.

They looked questioningly at each other and suddenly found the idea that they might have been cheated inexplicably funny. As things turned out, a room had indeed been obtained for them – one so small that the bed practically filled it, with only one window, on the fifth floor, the uppermost in a hotel that didn’t have an elevator, for a rate that Coltrane suspected was equal to that for the most luxurious in the building.

“What do you think? Should we go somewhere else?” Coltrane asked.

“From what our driver said, the town’s packed. I vote for staying,” Tash said. “Look on the bright side. At least we’ve got a bathroom.”

“But we have to crawl over the bed to get to it.”

“Details, details.”

“And there’s something else we have to do.”

“Are you still referring to the bed?”

“Carl Nolan.”

4

“I MADE A MISTAKE,” Tash said.

Coltrane inwardly squirmed. “How so?”

They sat at a small wooden table at an outdoor café in Old Acapulco’s busy plaza. Both had margaritas. Neither had touched them.

“The first thing you have to understand,” Tash said, “is the past few weeks, since my trouble started, Carl and I have been together a lot.”

Coltrane felt a sinking sensation.

“Nothing happened,” Tash said.

“Look, I feel terrible asking you about this. Your life is your own. This wouldn’t be any of my business if he hadn’t threatened me.”

“No,” Tash said. “I’d make it your business even if he hadn’t threatened you. If we’re going to have a future together, you have every right to know about my past.”

The plaza was shaded by palm trees. Children played on a bandstand. A Moorish-looking church with yellow spires and an onion-shaped blue top dominated the far end.

Coltrane registered none of this. “Is that what you want – a future with me?”

Tash smiled warmly. “I feel more comfortable with you than with any man I’ve ever met. As if I’ve known you a long time. But of course I haven’t, so I get to have all the fun of finding out about you.”

Emotion made it impossible for Coltrane to speak.

“Carl and I spent time together,” Tash said. “So did Lyle and I, Walt and I, the others. They’re my bodyguards, after all. One or another is usually with me – in cars, at the house. We share meals. We talk.”

Coltrane waited uneasily.

“When the package with the bull’s heart was delivered to my house, there was so much blood… It freaked me out. A lab crew came and took it. Then Carl showed up to see if there was anything he could do. Walt and Lyle were already there, but they couldn’t stay – they had a break-in to investigate. But Carl told them not to worry, that he’d hang around for a while, so they left.”

Coltrane leaned forward.

“I was so upset that I started sobbing,” Tash said. “I reached out and held him. I can’t tell you how tired I was of feeling frightened. When he started kissing me, I didn’t resist. It was human contact. It was… But then his kisses became more forceful, and he was touching me and-”

“Stop. You don’t need to put yourself through this,” Coltrane said.

“No, if Carl ever tells you I led him on, I want to make sure you understand everything. I want to explain this now so I don’t ever have to do it again.”

On the other side of the crowded plaza, a mariachi band started playing.

Coltrane didn’t hear it.

“I pushed Carl away,” Tash said. “I told him that he had the wrong idea, that sex wasn’t what I wanted, that all I needed was a little comfort. I told him my life was out of control as it was, without complicating things. He said he’d fallen in love with me. He wanted to know what was wrong with him that I didn’t want him, and I told him that under the present circumstances I couldn’t think about wanting anybody.”

Fidgeting, Tash glanced toward the harbor, where excursion yachts and fishing boats were docking, but the faraway look in her eyes made clear that what she was seeing had happened weeks earlier.

“The truth is, I knew I could never have a relationship with him. But this is what went through my mind. I’m not proud of it. Even so, here it is. I was thinking that some nut was out there, probably planning to kill me, and I needed all the help I could get. So I wasn’t firm in rejecting him. When Carl asked, ‘Maybe not now, but what about later, after we find this creep and you don’t have to worry anymore?’ I didn’t have the courage to be honest. Instead of telling him no, what I said was that I couldn’t think about anything like that while I was jumping at shadows. Now I realize that the false hope he took from that conversation is all he’s been thinking about. When you showed up at my house on New Year’s Day, I could see his resentment when I asked you to stay and talk about the estate I’d inherited. I could feel his jealousy.”

“So he decided to pay me a visit at the Beverly Center and make sure I understood that I wasn’t welcome, that he had dibs on you,” Coltrane said.

“I’m afraid that’s how he sees it – that he has dibs on me.”

Coltrane’s cheek muscles hardened. “Well, when we get back to L.A., after we arrange for Duncan Reynolds to be arrested, I’ll make sure Carl gets his mind straight.”

“No, let the police handle it. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“This time, he wouldn’t be catching me by surprise.”

“Please,” Tash said. “It was my mistake. There’s been enough trouble. Let’s not start more.”

Coltrane couldn’t resist her plaintive tone. “All right.” He worked to calm himself. “I’ll let the police handle it.”

“Thank you.”

When he touched her hand, he was pleased that this time there wasn’t any static electricity. “The main thing is, it’s almost over.”

“Almost over.” Tash sounded wistful. “Something worth drinking to.”

They picked up their margaritas, clicking glasses.

“In fact, if we hadn’t decided to fly down here, it would be over,” Coltrane said. “Do you want to go home tomorrow, settle everything, and come back for a real vacation?”

“A day longer isn’t going to make a difference. I need to know why Randolph Packard put me in his will. If we can find the estate I inherited, it might give me some answers.”

“Yes. From the moment I found Packard’s photographs of Rebecca Chance, I’ve had the sense that the past and the present are connected.” Coltrane set down his glass and picked up his camera. “Hold that pose.”