The Spia Family Presses On - By Mary Leo Page 0,62
me a rush.”
She threw me a sly smirk.
“Spare me the details.”
“I’ll put them in a book someday, an erotica. I could make a killing in that field.”
“But where would you get the time for the research?”
She gave me a wry look. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Of course I am,” I said, but I really wasn’t. Okay, so up until last night sex had been put on a high shelf in my life. So high it had required a ladder to retrieve it, but her life seemed to be so full I couldn’t imagine when she possibly had the time for anything, much less an active sex life.
But then Lisa never did have a problem juggling several things at once. Sobriety does that.
“Did you see who it was?” Lisa asked.
“Kind of, but I couldn’t get a good look at the idiot’s face under that cowboy hat, and Chanel shades. Although, I think I saw a mustache, but when I looked again, it was gone.”
“Okay, so whoever the idiot is uses cheap glue, but buys expensive sunglasses, and has the whole Western monster truck thing going on. I’m betting it’s your cousin Jimmy or a friend from his bar in North Beach. Lot’s of testosterone coming from that truck.”
“Wearing Chanel sunglasses?”
“You have a point, but the women in your family don’t drive. How about Maryann?”
I shook my head. “She’s into saving the planet and only drives eco-friendly.”
“Any other little clue?”
“Well, the idiot didn’t have a double chin or any gray hair that I could see, but the windows were heavily tinted, so I can’t be sure of anything.”
She sighed.
“Here’s the thing,” Lisa said. “I don’t get why anyone would come after me. I was all for the family burying Dickey in the grove.”
I sat down on a gray plastic chair, my head spinning with possibilities. “Nobody knows that but me.”
“Shouldn’t you tell someone? I’ve got a life to live, deadlines to keep, a mother who looks forward to retiring in my guesthouse.”
“You live in a condo in the city. You don’t own a guesthouse.”
“And I won’t ever own a guesthouse if your family keeps trying to run me off the road. The odds aren’t in my favor with this group. Eventually they’ll succeed. Dickey being the prime example.”
“Does this mean you’re completely over the idea of allowing my family to cover up Dickey’s death?”
“No offense sweetie, I love your family but we need to figure out who this idiot is and turn his sorry ass over to the police before he gets any more ideas about sending us body parts or running us off the road. I have no intention of becoming his second victim. Maybe we need to find that ring first and give it back. That way we can smoke this killer out in the open.”
I leaned back on the plastic chair. “Now you’re talking like the Lisa Lin I know and love, but first we need to get rid of the doll, as Aunt Babe would say. And quick.”
“What doll?” Nick asked as he slid back the curtain.
Somehow, in the family and doctor frenzy, I had completely forgotten about relentless Nick.
“A doll I had when I was a kid,” I said.
He grinned. “You don’t really expect me to believe that’s what you were talking about, do you? The officers at the scene told me about the black Tundra that tried to run you ladies off the road. According to Jade, if it wasn’t for Lisa’s defensive driving abilities, you girls might be lying in intensive care right now instead of getting a thumb stitched up. Want to tell me who might want to harm you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said about as convincingly as a five-year-old caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Let’s see, Dickey seems to be missing, there’s a blood stain on your antique olive press, I have a handgun in my possession that has recently been fired, and now someone’s tried to kill the three of you on the highway. I’d say there’s a reasonable chance you both know exactly what this is all about, but for some reason you’re choosing not to tell me or anyone else for that matter. You do know that I can get a warrant and haul both of you into the station for questioning, or you can make all this easy on me and come clean right now.”
“Jade is overreacting to a pushy tourist. Okay, so maybe we were bumped a little. Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Lisa