thirty-three

Once Jules hit the water, all hell broke lose. She flailed about in the deep end and let loose a rather impressive assortment of expletives. Skippy seemed to think it was a game and jumped in with her. This, however, only increased her screaming. By the time we’d extracted both of them from the pool, half of the guests were wet either from Jules’s splashes or Skippy’s post-pool fur shake. Nigel and I decided it was a good time to say our good-byes. No one put up much of an argument.

“I smell like a wet dog, and I have a headache,” Nigel said, as we waited for the valet to bring our car.

“Poor baby. Come on, I know what will make you feel better.”

“So do I,” he said. “But you said we weren’t allowed to do that in the car anymore.”

I lightly slapped his arm. “That’s not what I meant. I’ll order us some Chinese food and give you a neck massage. You’ll feel better in no time.”

Nigel pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. “Well, it’ll never be as fun as the car, but okay.”

Two hours later, Nigel, Skippy, and I were curled up together on the bed surrounded by half-empty take-out cartons. We had taken a break from watching the tapes and had stumbled across a Breaking Bad marathon. We were enjoying Walter White’s descent into evil when Nigel suddenly sat up. “That’s Mr. Luiz,” he said, pointing at the TV.

I looked at the screen. Walter White was ringing up a customer at his car wash. “Who’s Mr. Luiz? The customer?” I asked.

Nigel nodded. “The reporter at the Oscars—the one who wanted to buy the tapes. That’s him. I’m sure of it.”

I looked at the screen again. Nigel was right. It was the same man—or at least a younger, better-dressed version of him. “I suppose I should call Detective Brady,” I said, as I reached for my phone. “Although, I doubt he’s going to want to talk to me.”

Not surprisingly, my call went to voice mail. I didn’t really care, actually. I just wanted to be able to say that I had tried to get in touch with him. Besides, I didn’t need Detective Brady’s help in locating Mr. Luiz. I had Nigel for that.