The Wedding Guest (Alex Delaware #34) - Jonathan Kellerman Page 0,31
the junker I married.” She edged closer. “Listen, guys, I’m leaving him but he doesn’t know it. I just sat down with a lawyer.”
“Guess I shouldn’t say sorry to hear it?”
She laughed. “Hell, no.” Another hip thrust. “Hell on toast no, it was long coming. I waited for the wedding to be over. Didn’t want to spoil Baby’s big day.” Her eyes misted. “So much for that.”
Milo said, “What an ordeal. Sorry. If you think of anything.”
He and I turned toward the car.
Corinne Rapfogel said, “Hold on, guys.” Her eyes flicked back to the office building. She walked several feet ahead of us and stopped.
“Look, I’m not saying this is anything relevant, but one of the reasons I’m leaving him is he can’t keep it in his pants. That’s why our business is sliding into the crapper. We’ve had a bunch of Me Too lawsuits and now we’ve got a poisonous reputation. He ruined the business, okay? He habitually pisses people off.”
She paused, flipped her hair. “If there’s anyone someone would want to mess up, it’s him.”
I said, “Is there a type of woman he goes after?”
“The type with a vagina.” She looked ready to spit. Then she slumped.
“When I met him, he was good looking, believe it or not. Surfed, seemed nice, played tennis, kept in shape, I really thought he was the guy. The being buff lasted longer than the nice. By the time Baby was a toddler, he was cheating on me. Probably before, but that’s when I found out about it. I threatened to leave him and he did the atonement bit and claimed it wouldn’t happen again.”
She middle-fingered the sky. “We’ve been to couples counseling with three different therapists, lot of good they do. He even spent some time in a ridiculous rehab place for sexual addiction. Like it’s a disease, huh? Total bullshit, it’s bad behavior. I asked my therapist and she agrees.”
I said, “So he’s pretty indiscriminate.”
“The ones I know about were all too young for him.” A beat. “Some were halfway cute. Like your victim, I guess. At least from that picture, she looked cute. Considering.”
“But you don’t recognize her.”
“Nah,” she said. “Except for the ones who worked for us, I never met any of them, he’s a sneak, not a flaunter. Only reason I found out he was hitting on the staff is one quit and a year later she sued us and then came the others. Four others, can you believe that?”
Her turn to flush. “Bastard. Then I told a couple of my friends and boy did that open the valves. They started telling me about seeing him with bimbos, offering their husbands threesomes, all kinds of sleazy shit. You’d think they might’ve considered letting me know, right? They’re ex-friends now, but that’s okay, I don’t need anyone.”
The hip retracted. Her spine bowed. “I’m ready to strike out on my own, use the grit and initiative I learned from my daddy. He was poor, put himself through school—I might even go back to school, become a hygienist. I was in Daddy’s office enough to know more about teeth than most dentists.”
Milo and I both nodded.
I said, “Good luck, Corinne.”
“Hopefully I won’t need luck, just talent,” she said. Another glance at the building. “If there’s anyone who could inspire hate it’s him.”
Movement from the building. Denny Rapfogel lumbering toward us. He held out his hands, palms-up, in a what-the-hell gesture.
Corinne said, “Just saying goodbye.”
“Can we get back to business? That rental agent just called back. There’s a place on Olympic might work.”
“Sure, Den,” said Corinne. Under her breath, her lips out of view: “Motherfucker.”
* * *
—
I drove west on Wilshire, turned south at the next light, and headed back toward the station.
“That was something,” said Milo.
I said, “The ties that un-bind.”
“Denny the dog, younger women. Looks alone, Red Dress would seem out of his class. But she took off her clothes for money. Maybe she thought he had enough so she could retire. But given Corinne’s plans, you’d think she’d be watching him, might notice a hottie in Fendi. Even if she didn’t, him slipping away long enough to strangle someone, tidy himself up, and return to the festivities woulda caught her attention.”
“Maybe she’s past the point of caring.”
“Good point. There’s also his role. My brother Patrick married off four daughters, told me father of the bride ranks right below janitor.”
I said, “Any way to get Denny’s phone records, maybe establish a link between him and Red Dress?”