All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [56]
"I wish I could."
"Is any of it true?"
"I didn't do anything wrong or illegal, if that's what you're asking."
"Can you prove that?"
"I'm working on it."
"Work fast, Natalie. The hospital doesn't like bad press. And patients don't like doctors whose names are mentioned in connection to murder."
* * *
The temperature was fifteen degrees warmer in L.A. when they got off the plane late Tuesday morning. Cole had made a rental car reservation, so they stopped there first and picked up a small silver Honda in the parking lot. They'd flown into the Burbank Airport because it was closer to Studio City, where the book signing was being held; unfortunately, it was also close to Natalie's old neighborhood. It was bad enough having to revisit her college years; now she had to take another look at her childhood years.
She'd grown up in North Hollywood, just a few miles away. She'd walked and shopped and worked in retail outlets along these streets. She'd woken up to the sight of the smog hanging over the foothills, the valley locked in a perpetual hot haze. She'd grown up in a town where seeing a movie star at the local burger joint or grocery store was a given, where beauty, tans, and designer clothes were everything and those who had none of the above were nothing. She'd fallen into the nothing category.
Pushing those memories away, she focused on the present. "Turn right at the next light and get on the freeway."
Cole did as she suggested and within a few minutes they were taking the turnoff to Universal Studios. The bookstore Garrett Malone was signing at was part of the Universal Theme Park shopping area. His hotel was also on the hill. Natalie checked the time. It was just eleven and the book signing was scheduled for noon.
"Book signing or hotel?" she asked.
"Let's try the hotel. He might not have left yet."
They parked in the lot and walked into the hotel and directly to the elevator. Somehow Cole had come up with a room number. Natalie felt both nervous and excited as they got off at the seventeenth floor. She wanted to face Malone. She wanted to ask him why. She wanted to make him admit it was all a he.
Cole knocked on the door of Malone's room. There was no answer.
"He's already gone," she said, disappointed yet again. "Maybe he was doing another interview before the signing."
"Anything is possible." Cole glanced around, tipping his head toward the maid's cart next door. "I have an idea. Come on."
"Where are we going?"
He didn't answer until they had walked down the hall and turned the corner. "We'll wait for the maid to open up Malone's room. Then you'll walk in like it's yours."
She frowned at that idea. "Me? Why can't you do that?"
"Because women aren't afraid of other women. You won't make her nervous. I might."
He was probably right about that, Natalie thought. Well, what the hell. She was already being set up for murder. Why not add breaking and entering to her resume?
She sighed and walked over to the window, which overlooked the studios. The gray sound stages looked like airplane hangars in the middle of carnival rides. The San Fernando Valley spread out behind the studios, each city blending into the next, with little difference in the scenery. The neighborhoods were lined with palm trees, ranch-style homes, and swimming pools in every backyard. Suburban strip malls and chain stores made up the shopping areas in this part of Los Angeles County. The expensive boutiques were in Beverly Hills and Bel Air or in the more upscale cities closer to the ocean.
"Have you ever been down there—to the studios?" Cole asked idly.
"On the tour? A long time ago, when I was a kid. What about you?"
"Emily always got sick at the wrong time. We'd make plans, then cancel them. After a while it was easier to stay home. My parents did everything they could to turn our house into Emily's personal version of Disneyland."
Natalie nodded. "The first time I saw her bedroom, I thought it belonged to a fairy princess.