Influence

Chapter 33

At wine o'clock, the city glistened like Goldie's Silvery Seductress lipstick.

"Don't tell anyone," Goldie had once said to her, "but I prefer silver to gold. I'd wear this shade everyday if people didn't think my lips had to match my name like I'm an accent pillow."

Maris sat on her deck, swirling a merlot, her mind fixed in the past. Goldie had existed on this deck with her for a few moments in time. She liked to prop her feet up on the rail and peer out on the world beyond her. They'd talk sometimes and sit in silence sometimes. Maris didn't own a high-rise. Her view was as different from Goldie's as their lives were, yet they could sit together and talk and not talk and neither of them minded one way or the other.

"Hello," a voice called from the front of her house. Someone wanted to know if she was home and Maris had to decide if she wanted them to know or not. The person called again as she rang the doorbell. It was in this second calling that Maris realized who her uninvited guest was.

She lowered the glass of wine to the patio table and stood, walking to the far side of the back porch. "Come around to the back. You have to pull a bit on the gate's latch to get it to open."

What a stupid thing to do, giving an invitation to enter her backyard as though Maris was hosting a barbeque. The smarter course of action would have been to reenter the house, grab her gun, and open the front door prepared for whatever she found there. Too late to change strategy, she waited, legs in a wide stance, ready to strike.

"After all this, you have the nerve to show up at my house?" She met her guest's gaze as she made her way from the gate to the bottom step leading to where Maris waited. "Are you mad?"

"At a lot of things," Tam said. "But not at you. Are you aware of where your partner is?"

Maris sucked in a breath. "Have you done something to him?"

"Have I...what? I haven't done anything with him. Haven't even seen him in days. It's him who's done something. He contacted Jasper."

Maris gripped the edge of her railing, her head woozy as she imagined why Ryan would have wanted to talk to Jasper. "So?"

"So, I'm worried. About Jasper."

"Jasper? He's the one you're worried about when you, my prime murder suspect, just walked onto my property."

"Exactly. I wouldn't be here if I weren't desperate."

"I should arrest you right now."

Tam crossed her arms. "Can we talk first?"

Maris hesitated, then moved to the side, allowing Tam to walk past her. "She smelled like lavender shampoo. "Have a seat. Tell me why you're so concerned that you've come out of whatever cave you've been holed up in. Then be a dear and add your confession to that monologue."

Tam plopped herself down into what used to be Goldie's chair. "I could use a glass of that." She pointed to the half full bottle of Merlot.

"Sorry, I only have one glass. Talk."

"Fine then. Your partner is dirty."

"Fuck no. Try again."

"I'm serious, Detective Garcia. He contacted Jasper so he could trap him and get to me. He knows about Lucre. Probably because he was involved, just like he was involved with Goldie."

Maris couldn't resist laughing. "Leave the detective work to the detectives."

Tam scowled. "Tell me what part I got wrong."

"Every part. I'd love for you to tell me what the hell you meant when you said 'he knows about Lucre' for instance. Whatever you're convinced he's involved with, he isn't, but if there's something you need to fill me in on, now's your opportunity. May make things easier for you down the road."

"First thing's first. How is it that you're so convinced Ryan wasn't having an affair with Goldie? He implied he was to Jasper."

"He did, did he?"

"Yep. Or, that's how Jasper took it. He's wanted to figure out who Goldie was in love with ever since she was killed. Thinks it will somehow lead us to the murderer."

"Is that what you think?"

"What I think is that Goldie was in love with a detective." She paused, taking in the view of the city that had once been Goldie's view. "But it wasn't Ryan, was it?"

Maris picked up her glass of wine. "Nope."

"How long?"

"Since I interviewed her on an unrelated case regarding the death of one of her fans at a convention. She was a witness. We... something sparked. It's been eight months. She didn't tell anyone and at first I was okay with that, but..."

"You wanted to go public."

She nodded. "My fear was that I was more serious about her than she was about me. And then in the last EpiGold, she said flat out that she was single. I didn't want that to sting as badly as it did."

"That declaration was solely for show. EpiGolds were designed to be fiction disguised as reality. Goldie may never have talked about you specifically, but I could tell she had someone in her life that she loved. Everything about her was so out in the open. She wanted something that was for herself and not for her fans or her family or the cameras. She chose you."

"I understand that now. But then there was... it seemed obvious she was seeing someone else."

"Aiden."

"I didn't know his name back then. She wouldn't tell me who he really was. The night she...the night she died, I was there. We fought. She kept telling me there was no one else but she wouldn't say why she was going off with this man. She said I had to trust her. But I was stupid. I didn't trust her, so I broke it off."

"She called me not long after. Is that why she was so upset?"

"Well, she wasn't happy when I left, that's for sure. I couldn't believe she'd invite you over like you were an instant replacement for me."

"It was nothing like that. She needed a friend. Or, that's my theory anyways, now that I know she'd just been dumped."

"I let my feelings for her affect my ability to do my job."

"You should have told Detective Ryan about your relationship with Goldie right away. You realize that, right? You should never have been on this case."

"But my relationship with her isn't why she died. I wanted to find the person who killed her. I wanted to be the one who slapped the cuffs on their wrist." She swallowed hard. "I still do."

"Yet here I sit, without a glass of wine but also without a pair of cuffs."

"They're inside and can be retrieved whenever I wish."

"Except you won't retrieve them, not for me. I'm innocent and you know it. You wouldn't be sitting here next to me if you believed I'd murdered your girlfriend."

Maris downed her wine, helped herself to a refill, then slid the bottle in Tam's direction. "There's a glass in the cabinet through that door and to your left. Pour yourself a glass. Then tell me everything you've learned about Aiden Park."

______

An uneasy alliance seems to have formed. Does Maris finally believe Tam is innocent? What will Jasper and Detective Ryan think about this? I can't wait to share the next chapter with you!!!