Chapter 41
IT WAS LATE by the time Stilwell got home.
Handling Gwen Bassett turned into an issue, as she had trouble grappling with the news that her live-in boyfriend had been arrested for murder and that she would not be allowed to return to her apartment for the time being.
Then Mack Fanning, her boss at the Nickel and the man from whom Middleton presumably got one of his aliases, became upset because it was the eve of a busy weekend and his lead bartender was incapacitated by the information Stilwell had delivered.
He initially refused to let Bassett use the seasonal crew quarters, but eventually he relented and she was allowed to stay.
After that confrontation, Stilwell went up to Bird Park and crisscrossed the door to the apartment shared by Middleton and Bassett with yellow crime scene tape and a DO NOT ENTER sign. He posted Dawn Stabile, who was on second shift, at the complex until calls for service took her elsewhere.
His house was dark when he entered, but he could hear TV noise from the bedroom. Then he heard Doris Day singing “Que Sera, Sera” in a duet with Arthur Godfrey and he knew Tash was watching The Glass Bottom Boat.
To Tash, the romantic comedy was comfort food.
She had grown up in a family that took pride in the island and loved seeing it in movies and on television shows.
Over the years Tash had curated a selection of DVDs of movies and shows that were either set on the island as part of the story or filmed there and presented as somewhere else.
The collection included everything from Captain Blood to Baywatch.
The most notable of the obscurely connected productions was the classic film Jaws.
The underwater shots of the terrifying opening sequence of a young skinny-dipping woman being stalked by a great white shark were filmed in the clear waters off Catalina.
Tash insisted on having a movie night once a month, during which they shared a bottle of wine and discussed Catalina’s role in that night’s film.
While Tash preferred romantic comedies like The Glass Bottom Boat and Catalina Caper, Stilwell really only engaged with suspenseful films like Jaws and Chinatown, the latter of which had used a club in Catalina as the setting for the shady Albacore Club.
Tash heard Stilwell come in and called his name.
“Be right there,” he called back.
He left the go bag he kept in the Bronco by the door so he would remember to replenish it with a clean set of clothes. He went into the kitchen, put an ice cube in a glass, and liberally soaked it in Blanton’s bourbon, then headed to the bedroom.
“Que sera, sera,” he said.
“You must be beat,” Tash said.
“Definitely. Last night I stayed in this cheap motel on Sepulveda up in the Valley. I got no sleep because of the people who use the place for their various businesses—if you know what I mean.”
“I do. Why didn’t you stay somewhere nicer?”
“Because we had a five o’clock start and I knew I’d only get a few hours in. Anyway, right now all I want to do is take a hot shower and crawl into bed.”
“Good. I’ll finish watching this while you’re cleaning up.”
He came around to her side of the bed, leaned down, and kissed her.
“How many times have you seen this outdated farce?” he asked.
“Too many to count,” Tash said. “But I love it. I mean, how many times do you get Paul Lynde and Dom DeLuise in the same movie?”
“Uh, this is the one and only?”
“You are correct, sir.”
“I’d still take All Ashore with Mickey Rooney over Doris any day.”
“Very funny. We’ll watch All Ashore again next movie night.”
“Oh, you know what, I just found out I have to work that night.”
“Not very funny. How did it go today?”
“Well, it looks like we got our man.”
“What? When were you going to tell me?”
“I just did.”
“And you’re talking about the bones case, right?”
“Yeah, we arrested a guy. I’ll be doing some follow-up stuff tomorrow.”
“Who is it?”
“Gwen Bassett’s boyfriend.”
“The ranger? Oh my God, that is crazy.”
“Yeah, well, he’s crazy.”
“Does she know?”
“Yeah, she knows. I came from the Nickel. She didn’t take it too well.”
“Well, congratulations, I guess. Always seems weird to say that about a murder case.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Take your shower, but then you have to tell me all about it.”
“Uh, I just pretty much told you everything I can. We’re trying to keep it on the down-low at the moment.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just that we don’t want to say much until charges are actually filed.”
“You still think I’m Lionel’s source, don’t you?”
In his exhaustion, Stilwell had stumbled into the one spot of friction between them.
“No, Tash, I don’t. We hashed that out a long time ago and I really don’t. I’m just tired and said the wrong thing. I completely trust you on that.”
“But not on other stuff?”
“God, no. I just can’t seem to say the right thing here. I’m going to take a shower and then we can start over. Okay?”
“Okay, fine.”
Stilwell took his glass of bourbon into the shower with him and put it on the shampoo shelf. He sipped it after dousing his head under the spray. He soon felt its burn start to work on the tightness between his shoulder blades and the angst between his ears.
When he came back to the bedroom, the movie was over and Tash had fallen asleep.
That was okay with him. It was probably for the best, since he had messed up by saying the wrong thing earlier.
He now wanted quiet so he could think. He knew there was still work to be done on the Middleton case but he was already disengaging and getting ready to go after something that was possibly more dangerous than a madman.