Page 53 of Lion & Lamb

Baby, come on

Where are you, anyway? I called the salon and they said you’d left hours ago. This is NOT cool

Don’t you dare ignore me, bitch

You had better call me back now, I swear to God

I can have your phone tracked, you know. You want me to do that?

F---me

I see where you are

Really love to know what your fans would think of you right now, you f------whore

There’s not enough fancy makeup in the world to cover up a broken nose, you hear me? CALL ME NOW

And the texts raged on and on and on. “Well, this is completely awful,” Veena said, closing the file.

“Warned you,” Cooper replied.

“Here’s what I don’t get.”

“What more could you want? Archie Hughes was an abusive son of a bitch and no one knew it except Francine.”

“That part is perfectly clear. What I don’t get is, why would you share these with me? Do I need to tell you how much Mostel would love to get his hands on this file?”

“Because we want the same thing,” Cooper said. “The truth, no matter what. Remember?”

“But I’m working for the DA, and you’re trying to keep Francine Pearl Hughes out of prison. Sharing this with me doesn’t help you one bit.”

Cooper took a large swallow of his drink. “Normally, I’d agree with you. But in this case, the texts came directly from Francine’s lawyer. Which I think is very interesting, don’t you?”

“I do,” Veena said, drumming her fingers on the bar. “Why would Francine’s own lawyer willingly hand over a big fat motive that pretty much damns her client?”

“Lisa Marchese is one thousand percent certain that Francine didn’t kill her husband.”

“So what? Easy enough for her to hire someone to do it for her. A pro who turned out to be a little careless or forgot to make it look like a proper carjacking.”

“No. I also believe Francine had nothing to do with it.”

“You’re being paid to believe her,” Veena said.

“I’m working for her,” Cooper replied, “but I believe her anyway. Our killer is still out there.”

Chapter53

11:02 p.m.

“SO WHOdo you like?”

“Nobody on this planet at the moment,” Veena said, stirring the dregs of her second martini with a single blue-cheese-stuffed olive speared on a wooden toothpick.

“I’m sorry,” she continued. “I can’t stop thinking about those texts. How can two human beings be so awful to each other? You start out with the best intentions, maybe you even think you’re in love. You promise to take care of each other, be there for each other no matter what. But time passes, as it always does, and there comes the inevitable day when all of those promises are forgotten. You can’t remember why you’re even together. How did you end up trapped like this with a person you can barely stand? Do all relationships come with an expiration date?”

“No, no,” Cooper said. “I meant who do you like for the game on Sunday? I’m waiting for a call from Red. You want in on some of the action?”

Veena didn’t know if she should laugh or dump the remnants of her martini over Lamb’s head. Instead, she slipped on her sunglasses and tried to force herself to sober up. They poured them strong here.

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