Robin took the keys from Julia's fingers and opened the driver's side door. She got in and slid to the passenger side. She waited while Robin stood watching the men in the street for a while. Then he got in too.
"The tires will probably be slashed when I come back for my car," Robin said as he started the engine. "But it's better to do what McQuery says. He's had lots of experience in these kinds of things."
They drove past the tableau in the roadway; one man solidly planted in the middle of the street holding three men and a huge dog at gun point.
"Was Quijada really serious about the murder/suicide, or just trying to scare me?" Julia asked as she turned her head, watching the standoff until they went around a curve and the odd scene was lost to view.
"Quijada would try to make it look like I killed you, first. Then committed suicide. Maybe take our bodies back to my cabin at Lake Arrowhead and arrange them so it would appear as if we had a nasty, bloody fight. That's what they planned before. Juan Carlos admitted it."
Julia shook her head. "Unbelievable. He's way off the mainstream of normal reality."
"It's worse than you think. Juan Carlos was promised a piece of the action when he broke into my cabin last time. Quijada told Juan and Mike to tie you up and rape and torture you. Before they killed you. They would have forced me to watch. Quijada wanted a video of the rape, to satisfy some perverted hunger. He not only wanted us dead, he wanted to ruin our reputations, with a sordid depiction of our deaths."
Julia sat there in shock. "I knew Quijada was despicable. But that's beyond belief."
"Delusions of grandeur," Robin said shortly. "He thinks he can get away with anything. But he'll get a strong and gritty dose of real life when he's arrested. And it won't be long."
Julia nodded at Robin's profile and looked down at the ring on her hand, trying to dispel ugly thoughts of murder and torture. The ring was so beautiful. And it fit perfectly. She sighed and took it off. "That was quick thinking, about the ring," she said, holding it out to him.
"I got it for you." Robin took a brief glance at her and smiled. "Looks like it fits perfectly."
"I can't accept," Julia said immediately, still holding it out. "Even a fake ring with this beauty and craftsmanship is very valuable."
This was not the right time and circumstance to give her the ring, but now that she had it he would never take it back. It annoyed him to think she could believe he'd give her a fake ring. "I'd rather you kept it. Even if it's so fake it turns your finger green, promise not to throw it away?" he added, a little anxiously.
"Oh, never. It's the most beautiful simulation I've ever seen. I really do love it, Robin. It looks like a sparkling flower. Or a snowflake. I don't care if it's fake." She polished it with her shirt and held her hand up, admiring the thick band of intertwined hearts and roses and the beautiful imitation diamonds.
"Yeah. Fake as my cheating heart," Robin said rather drolly. He was looking at her oddly.
Julia laughed. The way he said it was funny, but she didn't like joking about something that had hurt her so badly. She looked at him quickly, saw him laughing too. "Well, it will be a good reminder for me."
"Yeah. Is it real or is it Memorex? Is it a mechanic, or a slimy lying lawyer? What's behind the third door? The lady or the lion?"
"How profound," Julia commented with some amusement. "But thank you. I promise to keep the ring." She looked down so he couldn't see her face. "I'm glad we're talking again. I really do like you, Robin."
"I know," Robin said gently and very softly. "And I like you."
Julia felt tears welling up in her eyes. Damn, the pregnancy was playing havoc with her emotions. She turned and looked out the window so he couldn't see the moisture in her eyes. She blinked rapidly, hoping a tear wouldn't fall. He might notice if she had to wipe it away. It was black night outside and very quiet. She wished she could stay in the car forever. Safe with Robin. The thought of going back alone to her hotel room was a bleak idea.
"I do like women," Robin said.
"Yes. Well, that's what I understand now."
"Yeah. And I mean the whole gender. I love little three- year-olds. Beautiful and arrogant teenagers. Or the shy, awkward ones. And the wonderful mothers. And grandmothers. I think I love them best of all. With their kindness and wisdom, and soft wrinkled skin."
No wonder she had cared for him, Julia thought sadly.
"I date a lot of women," Robin went on. "Always looking for the special one who'll make me forget all the rest. So I don't waste time. Not their's and not mine."
This was it, Julia thought sadly. The kiss-off. The irrevocable brush off. It was the final good-by. He was trying to justify his womanizing ways so she wouldn't take it personally, but damn, even after all this time, it sure hurt like hell. The ring was a farewell gift. And Julia realized she couldn't be angry any more, which had just been a cover up to hide the pain, which was now descending with a force that took her breath away. Julia squarely faced the fact that she loved Robin and the feeling was not reciprocated.
"Sometimes I sleep with women that I like and who like me." Robin was speaking in a monotone, looking straight out the front windshield. "I can't really excuse my behavior. But I'm a young healthy male. I was always afraid I wouldn't meet the special woman I hoped to find someday. It would be such a waste to pass up something as wonderful as sex, for something I felt might never materialize."
"Your dream woman?" Julia asked, trying hard to keep from breaking out in tears. She was also thinking it wasn't fair. Robin could carouse around with lots of women, but women were expected to stay chaste and wait, perhaps in vain, for their knight on a white horse. Julia knew, for her, the knight had come and gone, even though he was sitting right here beside her.
Robin nodded. "You understand my reasoning?"
The awful thing about it was that Julia did understand, perfectly. He proclaimed that he wanted to meet someone who would be the ideal woman for him, so he could give up all the rest. But he wasn't holding his breath. He would enjoy his life, even if he never found his paragon of womanhood.
"Of course. It's good of you to explain it to me," Julia said stiffly.
"I don't think you really do understand."
"Oh, yes I do," Julia said. "And you're right. Not to waste time with women who are wrong for you."
"If you have no experience, you have no basis for comparison."
"And you're very experienced," Julia commented wryly.
"Enough to know exactly what I want. Uh...my experience was accumulated in a careful manner."
He was saying he had practiced safe sex, Julia concluded. And that experience had paid off, making him an extraordinary lover. Julia found herself a little angry at his attitude, though. He wasn't facing the fact that he would never find that perfect woman. She didn't exist. And catting around would become a way of life. He didn't want to admit that he liked abundant sex with different partners because it was an unaccepted and unorthodox way of life.
It was sad because Julia had always wanted one man to grow old with. For a few wonderful hours she had believed it would be Robin. Those hours had been the happiest in her lifetime.
There was one instance in which Robin had not practiced safe sex. And she was glad.
"I've always wanted children. One man will suit me just fine," Julia commented a little shortly.
"My attitude exactly."
But that wasn't his attitude, Julia thought. Unless she was misinterpreting him entirely. Maybe he really was looking for the perfect woman. But he would probably set his standards far too high for any one woman to meet.
They reached Sunset Boulevard and parked the car on the side of the road, sitting in silence for a while, waiting for Thomas McQuery. Julia wished she could stare at him now that she knew that her time was strictly limited. Robin said he didn't waste time and she wanted to memorize his face. He was still the most attractive man she had ever seen. Which had been the reason she had decided he was a degenerate, so long ago, when she had first seen him in the impound yard. He had been scruffy, with a slight growth of beard, dusty jeans and no shirt. She had been so attracted, right then, she decided he must be a rogue. Now it seemed like a curse. One that would never go away.
"I could sit here forever," Robin said contentedly as he leaned his head back against the seat rest, looking at her through half closed lids. She was surprised because it was exactly what she had been thinking earlier. He was still looking at her oddly.
"I have deep reservations about taking you to the final interrogation of the men who murdered your brother. It will be hard to listen to. You'll have to be strong tonight. I'm afraid it might be painful."
She took a deep breath and nodded. "I want to go."
"I knew you would," Robin said. "It'll put an end to all the speculation. But it might leave you with some terrible nightmares."
Julia nodded, and rubbed the ring with the soft material of her black shirt. She could almost see dark sparkles in the shadows.
Julia was sitting alone in a small dismal room. The walls were comprised of cinder block in an awful shade of bile green and the bare ceiling had acoustical tile and harsh florescent lights. There was just a scarred, four legged wooden table and a few straight backed folding chairs. It was the place for viewing another room through a large one way mirror in the wall opposite her. No one was in the other room yet. She had a strange sense that this was all unreal. It was exactly like the rooms she had seen on T.V., with the cop actors watching an interrogation.
Julia took the ring out of her purse. Robin had told her to put it away while she was in the police station because some unsavory character might think it was real. Before it had been dark, in the street and in the car. Here in the harsh florescent lighting she could really study it. Robin said he got it because it made him think about her, and she wanted to see why.
It was definitely unusual, delicate but heavy, and extraordinarily beautiful, almost an antique setting.
Then Tony walked into the room where Julia was sitting."Hi, Julia." He was smiling with that wide leprechaun grin.
"Tony," Julia said surprised, slipping the ring on her finger without thinking. The last time she had seen him was at the cabin at Lake Arrowhead. "It's nice to see you again."
Tony took a chair and sat down at the table beside her. "It shouldn't be long now. Robin asked me to come and sit with you. He didn't want you to be alone when you watched this."
"Why can't he be in here?" Julia asked.
"He and Jay reopened the murder case. Really, Robin did all the work. He's not pushy, as you know, but the day after you left California he was at Cedars-Sinai Hospital with mug shots of Juan Carlos, asking all the hospital personnel if they recognized him. There were some good breaks. He presented all the evidence to the D.A. and forced our office to reopen the investigation just last night. We think Juan Carlos will break and incriminate Aaron Quijada. Maybe tonight."
"Unbelievable," Julia said. She was dumbfounded. Robin must have been working awfully hard so she could get justice for her brother.
Tony nodded. "That's why he didn't go to Boston immediately. You didn't know?"
Julia shook her head.
"Robin never says anything. He's been working night and day with the prosecutors in our office. So he'll be in the interrogation room, too, since he found all the evidence. See, we're not telling Juan Carlos he's been fingered as the unknown orderly who went into your brother's hospital room and sabotaged the life support machinery. Not yet, anyway. Because when that comes out, there's no way we're willing to plea bargain with him. Right now Juan Carlos thinks he's going to be charged with attempted burglary and assault only, if he incriminates Quijada in the drug trade. We've been letting him stew for a while." He pointed at the still empty room they were looking into.
"So he really did it," Julia said.
"I have the eye witness accounts." He picked up his briefcase and put it on the table in front of them, snapping the locks open. "I'll show you some of the evidence, although I'm not supposed to. But you are closest relative of the deceased. You wanted the case about your brother investigated, so we could say that Robin was working for you. This is some of the evidence he collected."
He opened the briefcase and handed Julia the copy of an interrogation. "That's one of the nurses who was on the floor." As Julia started to read the report about an intensive care nurse noticing a small dark man in a orderly's uniform that she had never seen before in her hospital, Tony interrupted.
"Well! Congratulations, Julia!"
She looked at him, surprised, when he leaned over and kissed her cheek. "What?"
"He's been keeping that ring in his pocket for the last couple of weeks. We all told him he was crazy to carry it around like that. It's far too valuable. But I'm so glad, for both of you."
"No," Julia said, looking at the ring in shock. "This isn't real?"
"What do you mean?" Tony asked, gazing back at her with equal surprise.
Julia was still staring at the ring in dazed astonishment. "It's a fake ring. I know it is."
"Oh, no." Tony was looking at her in anguish. "Oh, please don't tell me you thought it was fake? Cause if I jumped the gun here, Robin's going to kill me."
"He would never kill his best friend," Julia said mechanically, still staring at the gorgeous ring. "It can't be real. It just can't be. Robin even made a joke about it. Said it would turn my finger green. It's as fake as his cheating heart."
Tony was shaking his head, distraught. "First there was the wager you found out about. Now this...about the ring. He'll never speak to me again."
"You mean this is a real diamond?" Julia asked, looking at him in confused surprise.
"Several real diamonds," Tony said, dismally. He sounded like he was giving dire predictions of the end of the earth. "The yellow ones are very rare."
"Oh, my God." She looked at Tony. "I don't believe it."
"I am up shit creek without a paddle," Tony said. "I've ruined the whole thing and he'll never forgive me."
Robin's heart was as fake as the diamond, Julia was thinking. It felt like she had sticky candy cotton in her brain. She couldn't fully grasp the facts as she gazed into the gigantic middle diamond, as though mesmerized. And the diamond was real!
Julia could hardly catch her breath and her heart was thumping away like mad in her chest. She could hear it pounding in her ears. It made a thundering noise. She immediately burst into tears of relief, covering her face with her hands. She was so happy she felt she could float like a balloon right through the ceiling; as though she had chugged far too many glasses of champagne far too fast.
Then she had a terrifying thought. Maybe the diamond really wasn't for her. Robin had put it on her finger under duress. To keep Quijada from hurting her.
"Ah, now I've made you sad," Tony said, patting her back softly, like he was burping a baby. "You really don't care for him?"
"No. No!" Julia said urgently, wiping away her tears. "Are you sure this ring's for me? That it isn't supposed to go to someone else?"
"Are you crazy? He's been miserable since you left. Absolutely intolerable to be around. Totally insufferable, to tell the truth. And then he showed the ring to me, after he bought it, and asked me what I thought. If you would like it. Course it's the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. So I said I thought you would like it. As an understatement, you know? And he muttered, Thanks for the opinion. But he seemed to be uncertain that it would fit or something. He was kind of anxious."
Julia threw her arms around Tony and hugged him tight. Then she started smiling. "You and Robin had a secret bet about me. Now you and I will have a secret together, too. And we won't tell Robin."
Tony nodded at Julia, who was still looking at the ring and smiling with a stunned expression on her face.
"Show time," he said.
She looked up and saw through the one-way glass that Robin and Jay were entering the room. It was like a movie theater. No one else was in that room for a while as they sat down and started putting legal documents on the table in front of them. Then a woman dressed in a police uniform went into the room. She had a dictating machine that she plugged into a wall socket. She sat down in a corner of the room, at a small desk, and set up the machine.
"The first interrogation is Mike Garcia," Tony whispered in Julia's ear. "His attorney has advised him to make a clean breast of the whole thing, hoping to plea bargain. If he's an accessory to murder he could get the death penalty, so he has nothing to lose by telling the truth. Hopefully, he'll incriminate Juan Carlos."
Tony became quiet again as they waited.
Mike Garcia was led into the room, hand-cuffed, with a hulking man she thought must be a prison guard in a dun colored suite. Another tall cadaverous man with a briefcase them in.
It was kind of surprising to hear them all talking suddenly. Everything had been quiet, like a silent movie. Julia hadn't expected to hear them all so clearly. Evidently there was some kind of audio equipment in the room where she and Tony were sitting that had just been turned on. There was also a videotape camera in a corner of the interrogation room and Julia saw the red light go on when the interview started.
"Can I take pictures?" Julia whispered to Tony.
"They might see a flash through the glass."
"This film is made for night photography. There won't be any flash."
"I don't see any reason why not then," Tony answered.
Julia nodded and set up the equipment on the desk.
As the interrogation started, Mike Garcia evidently had, indeed, decided to give a truthful version of what happened on the night of Brian Monay's nearly lethal beating. Mike looked sullen and defeated, like a hulking small-time thug, from his time in jail. He was not a loquacious or articulate fellow, so he slowly started describing how he and Juan Carlos had gone to the gardener's cottage where Brian had been living for a couple of months, writing Quijada's autobiography.
"I didn't know nothing about what was coming down that night. You gotta believe I'm innocent. See, when we went inside, Brian was working on his computer. He turned it off, real fast. Like he was hiding something. He kept working, though, filing papers and cleaning up his desk.
"We told him we just wanted to borrow a couple of beers because Quijada was out of brew in the main house. He said, 'Sure, go ahead.' I was making a racket in the kitchen and watched through the open door. Juan Carlos sort of crept up behind Brian and bashed him over the head with a short iron pipe. Man, was I surprised. He hit Brian real hard. Brian slipped right out of the chair to the floor."
As Julia listened to how the two men carried Brian's limp body out of the cottage to Juan Carlos's car, she couldn't bear sitting in one place. She paced back and forth behind the table, listening, while tears coursed down her face.
Tony got up, put an arm around her shoulders and walked with her as the grim narrative continued.
"Pete Estandos came out of the main house, got in the car, and we drove to East Los Angeles and stopped under this noisy freeway. Pete and Juan pulled Brian out of the car. He was conscious now, and struggling, but Pete held him while Juan Carlos beat him until they thought he must be dead. He hit him with his fists mostly. Kicked him some, too. Grisly, man. I didn't even watch most of it.
"Man, were we surprised when these two old winos came out from behind one of those concrete pilings that hold up the overpass. They started yelling at Juan and Pete to leave the poor kid alone. The two homeless guys were drunk and harmless, but Juan Carlos was afraid there were witnesses to the beating. That they might identify them.
"Juan and Pete picked up Brian and shoved him back in the car. He was bleeding, dead or unconscious. I drove them a few blocks away and Juan dumped Brian on the side of the road, like trash in the street. Then, to make it look like a robbery, they took his wallet and watch. And his shoes.
"You gotta believe, I didn't know what was going down. I'm innocent. Was just doing a job, you know, driving the car."
Then he started in again, describing how the two other men had assaulted Brian in detail, in answer to specific and pointed questions from Jay and Robin.
Pete Estandos was brought into the interrogation room next. He was blond and handsome with large watery dark eyes. Julia took pictures of him through the glass.
His interrogation went quickly, as he had already been questioned. He was read the testimony given by Mike Garcia and he concurred that everything was correct. When Pete was asked who his orders came from, he said he had been following the orders of Juan Carlos. It was just a job. He said that he didn't hit Brian Monay, but held him down while Juan Carlos used his fists and kicked him.
Julia found it scary that such an innocent looking, handsome man could have performed such a horrendous act for money. She was shocked and horrified by the violent underworld that normal society knew nothing of, as Pete repeated again, in explicit and gory detail, how Brian Monay was assaulted.
"That's it," Tony burst out. "That's enough, Julia. You don't have to listen any more." He had been watching for the last fifteen minutes, and it was he who couldn't stand seeing her suffer. It was like watching slow, painful torture. "I don't know what Robin was thinking about. Bringing you here tonight."
Julia looked at Tony, her large eyes reddened from crying. "I knew what happened. I knew Brian was murdered. And I would have heard it all at the trial, eventually. This way is better. Robin warned me it would be painful."
Julia left to find a bathroom down the hallway to wash her face before they brought Juan Carlos in for the final interrogation of the night.
Tony sat in the viewing room, waiting for Julia to come back, and for the interrogation of Juan Carlos. He had been moved to tears himself, watching Julia cry, and he surreptitiously pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket to wipe his own eyes.
Robin burst into the room like a tornado. "Did you see that! We got Juan Carlos. And maybe Quijada, too."
Tony looked up at his best friend, who was positively radiating triumphant energy. "You fucking bastard," he said tonelessly.
"What's wrong? Where's Julia?"
"Probably crying her eyes out in the bathroom. You insensitive fuck."
Robin slumped as if he had suddenly deflated and pulled out a chair, sitting down. "I warned her it would be hard to listen to."
"Hard? Oh no," Tony said sarcastically. "It wasn't hard to hear that her only brother was brutally hit with pipes, fists and kicked senseless. Then left dying, bleeding, and having seizures on a filthy roadway. It was fucking torture you just put her through. You've been so close to the damned case that it's just a story. To her, it was like reliving the whole thing, blow by painful blow. Each time Garcia would describe how they hit her brother, Julia would let out a tiny moan, like she was feeling it herself."
"Poor thing," Robin said sadly. His voice was low. "But it would be worse to hear in court. At least now she knows the truth. At the trial they're going to bring out the photographs of her brother, when the police discovered him. I wanted to prepare her for that."
Tony glowered at him.
"When she found Brian at the hospital she saw him all bandaged up. She didn't see his head caved in by the blows. And all the blood. I know this is rough. And it's going to get worse at the trial."
Tony nodded again, but he was still glaring at Robin.
"She believed her brother was getting better, when he was in the hospital, but I don't think he would have survived. The beating is most important, because that's what really killed Brian. Juan Carlos just speeded up the process, when he tampered with the machines. Julia had to understand that. And, Tony, you're the best person I could ever find to be with her through this," Robin added sincerely. "I really appreciate it."
Tony sighed. "Sorry I yelled. It was just so sad. I thought she might faint dead away when Jay started questioning Pete Estandos. She was breathing so fast. Probably hyperventilating with the stress." He smiled for a brief instant. "She tried so hard not to cry."
"God, I better go find her," Robin said, jumping up and leaving the room.
Tony sat there, glad that he had spilled the beans and Julia knew Robin had not given her a fake ring.
Julia was splashing water in her face in a small one-stall, one-sink bathroom and really crying hard, now that she was alone. She knew that she had to get herself under control, so she could go back into that viewing room again and watch her brother's murderer go through his interrogation. But she couldn't seem to stop crying. Every time she would almost stop, the terrible scene in her mind would close in, as though an evil projectionist in her brain would not let her go.
Julia thought of her baby and pressed her abdomen gently, trying to picture the tiny curled infant inside, instead of the horrible scene of her brother being beaten. This type of painful emotion wouldn't be good for the little one. She hoped the baby would be a boy, so she could name it Brian, in memory of her wonderful dead brother.
That started her sobbing again. This pregnancy was causing havoc with hormones and her emotions. She had to get control. Then there was someone knocking on the door.
"Just a moment," Julia managed to say, between sobs. It was probably Thomas McQuery, who had run down the hall after her when she had bolted out of the viewing room. Now she really did have to stop, Julia thought. She might miss the whole interrogation; cause people to worry about her needlessly. She frantically splashed more water in her face and then got some rough paper towels from an ancient rusting dispenser and dried herself. She had splashed water all over herself in her haste and was glad the black clothing she wore hid it.
There was more knocking. "Almost out," Julia called out, with fake cheer.
Maybe some police woman had to use the room. Julia unlocked the door and opened it. Someone big was in front of her but the tears in her eyes made the person a blur. She tried to walk around without looking up, knowing her face was swollen and her eyes fire engine red.
"Julia?"
She walked right into him and felt his arms fold around her for one exquisite moment of peace. She let herself relax in Robin's arms for just a few seconds, leaning her head against his chest. Then she pushed him away, hard. When she looked into his eyes, she saw how badly she'd hurt him.
"I didn't mean to be that abrupt," Julia apologized. She wanted to explain and everything went out of her mind. She felt like she was drowning in his eyes. When she tried to look away she couldn't. They were magnetized.
"I should never have brought you here," Robin said. "I'm so sorry."
"No," Julia said, blinking hard and fast. "No, you were perfectly right. I can handle the truth. Not knowing is much worse." She was looking into his large light blue eyes, which were still gazing at her with pain and dismay. "It's just that if I get any sympathy right now, I'll start crying again. Once I start, it's hard to stop. Don't take it personally." She tried to smile at him and started to hiccup.
They turned around and started back down the long hallway toward the viewing room. She was aware that Robin started to put his arm around her and then moved away.
Julia took a deep breath and hiccuped. She couldn't think about the ring. Maybe it wasn't an engagement ring as she had first thought. It might be a sympathy gift, although diamonds meant forever, didn't they?
They reached the viewing room and Robin had to leave her. She took hold of Robin's arm to get his attention. When he turned toward her, she looked straight in his eyes and blurted out, "When you find your paragon, that perfect dream woman, I hope she understands that she's the luckiest person on this earth."
Jay was out in the hallway, beckoning for Robin to hurry up. "Come on. You're holding us up."
Robin stood still, gazing at Julia in surprise. He grabbed her arm. "What'd you say?"
Julia smiled up at him, "You heard me."
He was grinning down at her. "I need a repeat."
"I was thanking you, Robin. For me. And for my wonderful dead brother. For the justice you've given us. I'm so proud of you. What you've done for my family."
Then she hiccuped, turned around, and went back inside the viewing room.