"If she hasn't already, this Merle has to tell her story to the cops," Lonnie said.
"Merle won't," said Melodie. "She's terrified of Blainey. When the police interviewed people in the office, Merle told them she didn't know anything. She trusts other receptionists, but no one else."
"Can't blame her," said Harriet. "She's seen what happened to Yancy."
"I certainly can blame her," snapped Fran, leaping to her feet. Like a pocket-sized Amazon queen, she bounced on her toes, ready for hand-to-hand combat. "Lead me to this Merle. I'll rip the truth out of her."
Quip reached up to put his hand on Fran's arm. "Sweetheart, calm down. Harriet's father should interview her. If the worst happens and I'm charged with murder and there's a court case, she'd be a witness for the defense. My defense."
Fran's militant stance deflated. I was surprised and almost embarrassed to see Fran bend her head and kiss his fingers. Fran never was demonstrative that way.
Before the meeting broke up, Ariana allocated tasks. Ariana herself would liaise with her contacts high up in the LAPD and Bob would investigate Blainey's movements on Tuesday and Wednesday to establish if he had an alibi for the time of the murder-estimated as somewhere between ten and twelve on Tuesday evening. Harriet, whose relationship with her father was still very tentative, would monitor developments in Quip's defense through her father's personal assistant. Melodie was to report any further information her network could glean. And Lonnie would carry out an in-depth background search of Blainey's staff, concentrating particularly on relief receptionist, Merle.
"What about me?" I said. "What do I do?"
"Kylie, it's not necessary for you to do anything," said Bob with a grin. "It's quite extraordinary, but you're what I call an event magnet-things just seem to happen to you."
For some reason this amused everyone. Even Ariana smiled.
"Is that a compliment, Bob?" I asked.
"Absolutely," said Bob, laughing. "Life before you was quite boring, in retrospect."
Ariana said to me, "You've got your hands full with Dingo O'Rourke and the missing dingo. When that's resolved, you can get involved with Quip's case."
The meeting over, Lonnie helped me carry chairs back to respective offices. "About Pauline…" he said.
Uh-oh! There was no way I was going raise the subject of Lonnie with her again.
"Thing is, Kylie, I've decided to win her hand."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I'm rising to the challenge, not giving up. I'm going to woo Pauline, sweep her off her feet, show her the inner, romantic me.
"Blimey," I said, "do you think she's ready for this?"
Lonnie's face was flooded with eager enthusiasm. "I'll be the love train coming down the tracks. Pauline won't know what hit her."
I was afraid he was right.
I was in my office learning my lines for the afternoon shoot when Dingo called on my cell phone. Lonnie had said the cell wasn't secure, but I didn't want to scare Dingo off, so I didn't mention this.
"Jesus, Kylie," he said, "I'm screwed. Blainey's hung me out to dry. You saw the reward for Darken is a quarter of a million?"
"It was on the news. And so were you, Dingo."
"That bastard, Blainey! He set up the scheme in the first place, but now he's out to get me."
Blainey had engineered Darleen's disappearance? "So Darleen wasn't in any danger at all?" I said.
"Of course she was! That's why I took her."
"You've lost me, Dingo."
He gave an exasperated sigh. "It's too bloody complicated to give you all the details, but Blainey had this scheme to get the maximum publicity in order to bump up the ratings of the show. The story would be that Darleen had been kidnapped and held for ransom and that I, being a fair dinkum Aussie from the Outback, would use my ancient tracking skills to find Darleen and rescue her."
"So what went wrong?"
"It was me put Darleen in harm's way. I had something on Blainey, and when I tried to collect, he turned on me."
"You tried to blackmail Norris Blainey?"
"The bastard didn't take it well," said Dingo. "And then he decided to punish me by having Darleen killed."
"He also sooled the Homeland Security blokes onto you. What was that about?"
"There's a lot you don't know. I've got to have insurance, or I'm dead meat. I mean it, Kylie. Blainey wants to get rid of me. Permanently."
"Go to the police."
"I can't. I'm up to my neck in it. You're working with that high-powered PI, what's her name? Creeling? Well, I want to hire her."
It was stupid of me, but I felt quite hurt. "You were sort of my case, Dingo."
"No offense, Kylie, but you're a beginner at the private eye racket. I need someone who knows what they're doing."
I told him I'd speak to Ariana, but at the moment she was fully engaged with Quip's case.
"Then she'll want to see me," he said. "I know all about that, too."
"You do?"
Perhaps there was a note of doubt in my voice, because Dingo snapped, "Bloody hell, I do. I never went through with it, I swear, but I taped Blainey offering me a cool two hundred thousand to kill Yancy Grayson."
Twenty-One
Ariana, Bob, and I discussed the Dingo situation. Dingo rightly feared Blainey, who knew he was in possession of an audio of Blainey recruiting him to murder Yancy. We agreed it was vital for Quip's case to have Dingo tell his story to the police. It was going to be difficult to persuade him to, but the first step was to get together face-to-face.
I was worried about Ariana, who seemed strained to the breaking point. "Why not leave it all to Bob and me," I said. "When Dingo calls back this evening to organize how and when he'll meet you, I'll say you're not available and that you've recommended Bob to take your place."
"We may all be in government detention by then," said Ariana with a wry quirk to her mouth. "I've just been told that the LA director of the Department of Homeland Security-an individual so cloak-and-dagger that I wasn't permitted to learn his name-will be paying us a visit here at seven this evening after the staff have gone. You and I, Kylie, as co-owners of the business, are expected to be present, and I asked that Bob, being our senior investigator, be included too."
"Yerks! Is there really a chance we'll be arrested?"
"Anything's possible," said Ariana, "but I think it unlikely."
"I'd better leave out extra food for Julia Roberts, just in case." We arranged to meet in Ariana's office at six-thirty, then Ariana went home, Bob went back to work, and I set off for Bellina Studios.
I was getting the hang of this TV acting, which essentially consisted of copious amounts of standing around, and then a few intense minutes when the cameras were on me. Things were greatly helped by the fact the scene being shot didn't require Dustin as Timmy, so everything went quite smoothly. By four-thirty I was on my way back to Kendall & Creeling.
The traffic was heavy, so everyone was leaving by the time I got back. Melodie was getting into her jazzy red sports car as I parked my subdued dark-gray Toyota. Seeing me, she got out and came over.
"Kylie, can I ask you something?"
"Ask and ye shall receive."
She frowned at me. "What?"
"What can I do for you?"
"Bruce is real worried about his mom. He thinks this English guy is only after her money. I was wondering, does she live on a big cattle ranch?"
Aunt Millie had a simple little house in Wollegudgerie, by no stretch of the imagination a cattle station. "Did Brucie tell you that?"
"No, but Lexus and I were watching The Thorn Birds the other night, you know, that old series with Richard Chamberlain as the priest who falls in love? So romantic! Anyway, there was this humongous Aussie ranch, and Lexus said Bruce's mom lived somewhere just like that."
"I hate to disillusion Lexus, but it isn't true. Brucie's mum lives in a perfectly nice house in a country town."