Page 63 of Deja Who
THIRTY-FOUR
“I’ve never had to do this before.”
“What?”
“Bail someone out of jail.”
Cat shrugged. “It’s easy. It’s just paperwork, right down to the money part. How much do you need?”
Appalled, Archer stood—no, practically leaped off the park bench. He’d watched them haul a weirdly cheerful Leah away, asked questions of the cops remaining at the scene, then came to the park to tell Leah’s only friend what had happened. “I’m not here for a loan.”
“Oh yeah?” She squinted up at him, deep brown eyes narrowed, one side of her mouth tipping up in a smirk. “You’ve got... hmm, let’s see... fifteen percent of a six-figure bail bond to piss away?”
“Uh...”Oh, shit.“Six figures?”
“If they arrested her for aggravated homicide, which it sounds like they did, yep.”
“Okay, I guess Iamhere for a loan.”
“Mmmm. Might not need it. I’m betting that detective’s boss is gonna look over the paperwork and have a chat with—what’s his name?”
“Preston. Except Leah kept calling him Aaron. I guess he used to be related to the Boston Strangler.”
“Trust Leah tonotkeep that to herself,” Cat said dryly, and Archer barked laughter. “Okay, well. Here’s how it goes: they would’ve arrested her and hauled her to jail, booked her. They would have taken her before the magistrate, but that’s assuming they’re really gonna stick with the homicide snatch. I don’t think they will.”
“Why? You weren’t there, Cat. She practically dared them to arrest her.”
Cat waved that away, then dug in one of her many sizeable tote bags and extracted a bag of carrots from the depths. She offered them to Archer, who declined with a head shake, then helped herself. Crunching, she continued. “Yeah, but they can’t afford to piss off the Insighters. Leah’s not popular, but she’s generally acknowledged as the best. Her colleagues will get pissy about it, and that’s gonna put pressure on the suits. The suits will pressure the cops, and shit flows downhill. The detective might let her go, or he’ll knock the homicide charge down to disturbing the peace or some horseshit like that. In which case, bail’s gonna be much cheaper. Since she was born here—”
“She was? But she lived in Hollywood all those years.”
“Her mom was born here, Leah was born here. It was only after people kept telling Nellie how pretty her baby was that shehauled them to L.A. When Nellie’s career went into the shitter, she came back. And that’s important, because it might mean no bail is needed. Either way, you go to the jail, find out what the charges are, or if she’s even still under arrest—it’s too bad her phone’s broke, but there’s nothin’ to be done about that right now—and if you can bail her out, you’ve just gotta sign a bunch of paperwork. You’re legally responsible for getting her home, and for making sure she shows up for her court date. If there is one. Which hopefully not. I mean, she didn’t kill her mom, right?”
“Right.” At Cat’s long, inscrutable look, he repeated himself. “Right! She honestly didn’t, Cat. She was with me.”
“All night?”
“I wish,” he sighed. Then, “Her mom called Leah while she was dying. Leah didn’t do it.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“Well. Who did? It wasn’t you, and it wasn’t me. You’ll have to take my word on that one,” she added dryly. “Or not... last night I was at the Four Seasons, and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. The receipt will be time-stamped. Depending on what the ME decides is the TOD, that might clear me.”
“We don’t think it was you,” Archer said, horrified.
“No? That’s not very smart, Arch.” Cat’s dark gaze was cool, almost clinical. “You liked me right away, but people always do. It’s why I went into politics. Some people, they canmakeyou like them. It’s a knack, like being able to raise one eyebrow. I can do that. But you don’t know the real me. You know what you’ve seen and heard, which isn’t much, and you know whatever Leah told you.”
“Did you really lose your job because you weren’t a bigot?”
“Yeah. Check the headlines from back then if you’ve gotnothing better to do with your life. Anyway, it’s foolish to dismiss suspects because you like them. But you’re right, I didn’t do it. Although I don’t give much of a rat’s ass that she’s dead. In fact, if she’d been murdered a decade or two earlier, your would-be girlfriend wouldn’t be the fucked-up future recluse we know and love.”
“Okay.” Archer was thinking that he needed to spend a lot more time in the park listening to Cat’s Theories of Life and Politics. And yeah—hedidlike her. He just hadn’t known Cat hadmadehim like her. “What else?”
“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t you, it wasn’t the agent. It wasn’t Leah. So who’d kill a has-been B-list actress? And in such a wicked nasty way? Maybe it’s the guy who keeps killing Leah. Maybe he’s trying something new this life. Or maybe he can’t find Leah, so he—no, that doesn’t make sense, if he could find It, he could find Leah.”
“Yeah.” Archer hadn’t even had time to consider any of the things Cat had instantly thought of. His respect amped up a few more notches. “Who would? And why kill Nellie at all? She was a threat to exactly nobody. Not even Leah.”
“Yeah, well.” Cat crunched a final carrot and put the bag away. “If you knew why, you’d know who. Get going,” she ordered, “and let me know if you need a wire.”
Ah, yes. I’ll let the homeless rich woman in the park know if I need a loan to bail out my future girlfriend for not killing her mother. What has happened to my life?
He didn’t know. And there wasn’t time to wonder about it now. He took Cat’s advice, and got going.
