All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [66]
"This is so damn frustrating," Natalie said as they walked back out to the car. "He's always one step ahead of us."
"I think he's running now. I doubt he'll be appearing anywhere in public anytime soon."
"Then how will we find him?"
"I'm sure my investigators will be able to track him down."
"They haven't so far," she said, feeling grumpy. "Give me your cell phone."
"Why?" he asked, handing her the phone.
"I want to call Malone's publicist. You have her number on the phone, don't you?"
"Under Malone," he said. "What are you going to say?"
"What I should have said as soon as I heard about this book," she replied. The phone rang twice before a woman answered.
"Burke Promotions," she said. "This is Tracey."
"Hi, Tracey. This is Natalie Bishop."
There was a brief, telling silence on the other end of the phone; then Tracey said, "I'm sorry, should I know who you are?"
"You absolutely should, but since you claim that you don't, I'll tell you. I'm the woman known as Nancy in Garrett Malone's book."
"Mr. Malone's book is purely fiction."
"Yeah, you can keep telling yourself that, but that's not going to make it true. Where is he, Miss Burke? We're here at the radio station in Los Angeles, and Malone is nowhere to be found."
"He's ill," Tracey said quickly. "He had to cancel."
"I'll bet he's ill. Well, you can give Mr. Malone a message from me. I'm going to sue his sorry ass for libel, and he's going to wish he never heard of me, much less decided to call me a murderer." She heard the publicist gasp. "Got that? And if I were you, I'd start looking for another job. When I get done with Mr. Malone there won't be anything left of him to publicize." She ended the call on that satisfying note.
"Feel better?" Cole asked as she handed him back the phone.
"As a matter of fact, I do. I know we wanted to take him by surprise, but as you said earlier, he's probably running now anyway, avoiding any chance of a confrontation." She paused, a sudden thought occurring to her. "You know, I can understand why he wants to avoid me, but I don't get why he's avoiding you. His book is about avenging Emily's death. And you're her brother. You want the same thing. You should be on the same side."
"That's true, but I wouldn't have gone this route. He could have called me and told me his suspicions anytime in the last ten years." Cole shook his head. "If this was really about avenging Emily's death, punishing her murderer, he would have done that. There has to be something else going on."
"Something more subtle," she agreed.
"You call this novel subtle?"
"In a way. I don't think Malone could have necessarily predicted the public reaction to the book. It was more like he decided to write a book about Emily in such a way that only a few people would know it was really her."
"It's turning out to be more than a few."
"Yes, it is." She put voice to another thought going through her head. "Instead of focusing on someone who doesn't care for me, I think we should consider the possibility that Malone is someone who really liked Emily, someone she was involved with."
"He's in his forties, Natalie."
"He wants us to think he's in his forties. Don't forget the makeup and the wig." She paused. "What we really need to figure out is who Emily was seeing in the weeks before her death. Madison said she was thinking of having sex with someone. We better find out who that someone was."
"How do you suggest we do that?"
"I sure would love to find Emily's journal."
Cole nodded. "My parents get home tomorrow. Tonight would be the perfect time to take a look through Emily's room. I have to warn you, Natalie, it's a little disturbing."
* * *
Emily's room was more than a little disturbing, it was shocking. After flying back from L.A., they'd come directly to the Parish house. Now, as Natalie stood on the threshold, she felt like she was stepping into a time warp. Everything was exactly