Malevolence

Rosemaria Baker, former homicide detective and brand-new deputy district attorney, stood sipping her morning cup of coffee, staring out the sliding glass door of the small one-bedroom apartment she shared with Josh Sibley. Suzi the cockatoo sat on her perch near the window, spitting seeds as she crunched on her breakfast. There wasn’t much furniture yet. They had moved in three weeks ago and still hadn’t had time to shop for more. They had a bed, a small dining table, two chairs, and a couch from a thrift shop. That was about it, but to Rosemaria, it was heaven. Any place she shared with Josh was fine with her. She had to admit she had turned into a sentimental slob. Her entire personality had changed because of that big lug she was nuts about.

They lived on the third floor of a Mediterranean-style stucco apartment building in West Hollywood that had probably been around since Greta Garbo was buying up Rodeo Drive and Joan Crawford revealed what a truly ungifted dancer she was in Our Dancing Daughters. Crawford was almost as terrifyingly bad as Elaine in Seinfeld. Rosemaria had actually watched Our Dancing Daughters with her mother at a revival theater in the Fairfax district. Her mother, a failed actress and now deceased, loved old movies from the twenties, thirties, and forties and knew all the old stories of Hollywood. She shared them with her young daughter as if they were magical fairy tales of impossibly beautiful heroines and handsome leading men, some flawed, some victims of tragedy, but living in a world her mother wanted with all her heart and soul to become a part of. But it never happened. Success eluded her, and Rosemaria believed her mother died, not of a coronary thrombosis as the doctors had told her and her father, but of rejection and unfulfilled dreams.

Witnessing her mother’s deep disappointment had turned Rosemaria off show business forever, or so she thought. Inexplicably, that turned out not to be true. Now, she was madly and hopelessly in love with a musician and singer who was steeped in the business. Go figure. Not only was he in show business, an anathema to her, but he also had briefly been a murder suspect in an investigation she had led two years ago, and he had been drinking a lot then. But somehow, despite the whole deck of cards being stacked against them, including a year apart after she fled to New York to get him out of her system, they found their way back to each other. She couldn’t imagine life without him.

This morning, she had an appointment with her new boss, Neelen Summers, the assistant deputy head D.A. at the Los Angeles Superior Court Airport Courthouse near LAX, where county prosecutors had their offices on the sixth floor. After several interviews with LA County high mucke ty-mucks, she had met with Frank Lattimer, the head deputy D.A. who was Summers’s immediate superior, and she had been hired. Even though she had gone to a no-name law school, she had graduated at the top of her class and had passed the bar in both New York and California with flying colors. It helped that she had a sterling record her first year as an ADA in Manhattan and that she was given high recommendations by both Captain Hubbard and Lieutenant Manley of the Beverly Hills Police Department. But now she had to prove she had what it took to be in an LA County courtroom instead of working vice on the streets of Hollywood and investigating murders as well as other high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the famous and not-so-famous denizens of Beverly Hills. She was excited but nervous as well. She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was only seven. She didn’t have to be in the office till nine. She had crept out of bed while Josh was still asleep, which gave her plenty of time to drink a few cups of coffee, but that only made her even more jittery. Josh had stumbled past her after she had consumed two cups of coffee and given her a quick peck on the cheek before heading for the bathroom.

She listened to him humming in the shower. As it did every morning, listening to the sounds of Josh washing and shaving in the bathroom filled her with a deep sense of contentment. Even today, when her nerves were on edge, his nearby presence was a comfort. She heard him turn off the shower, imagined him toweling off, and then he opened the bathroom door. There he was in all his glory, with a towel around his waist. He was tall—about 6' 2"—and had blond hair that was a little too long and sticking out in every direction. His handsome face showed hints of dark circles underneath his blue eyes, and his body displayed evidence that he had abused alcohol for several years. But now, after more than a year of AA, his physique was coming around nicely, thank you very much. They studied each other for a few seconds.

“Am I interrupting some deep thoughts?” Josh grinned.

“Just thinking about how crazy I am about you.”

“Of course you are.” He lifted his hands, palms up in front of him, indicating their tiny living quarters. “Look at everything I have to offer.”

“You won’t use it against me?”

“Never.”

She walked over to him and gently smoothed down his hair. “In that case, I’ll make you breakfast.” Before she could walk away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her close. His soft lips covered hers in a long kiss that took her breath away. As he nuzzled her face and neck, she could barely speak. “I have to leave here at eight on the dot, and if you don’t stop, I’ll have to redo all this hair and paint.”

He pulled back and touched her cheek. “You don’t need any paint.”

“That’s what all you men say.” She shook her head. “But you don’t mean it.”

Rosemaria walked into the tiny kitchen and opened some cupboards, which were almost bare. “How about some instant oatmeal? Or maybe toast with strawberry jam?”

Walking from the bathroom into the bedroom alcove, he shrugged. “Anything, as long as the coffee is strong.”

Fifteen minutes later, Josh was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, and they were seated opposite each other at the small table with their toast and coffee. Josh sipped his coffee and observed the woman he loved. She looked smashing in a blue suit that hugged her figure and a white blouse buttoned up conservatively. Her shoulder-length, curly auburn hair was pulled back behind her ears, and her green eyes were framed by long black lashes.

She took a bite of her toast. “I hope you don’t expect me to cook like this for you every day.”

“Thank God.”

“Hey, I made a nice veggie lasagna last week. You said you liked it.”

“What could I say? You still pack a gun in your purse.” After a moment, he said, “Just kidding. Yeah, it was good.”

“All right then. And the gun is not loaded.”

“I know for a fact it is.”

“Okay, it is. Anyway, we live in West Hollywood, and there are restaurants we can go to for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

“Give me some time to find out if I have a hit song on my hands. Then, I’ll support you in the style to which you were never accustomed.”

“You’re screening the entire movie today, right? I hope the composer is everything you and Ken hoped for. You haven’t even let me hear Joell sing your opening song yet. I don’t know why you want to keep me in suspense.”

The movie that their friend Ken had produced and directed had been in postproduction for five months. Josh had written the song for the opening credits and had a bit part as a homeless man. It was while he was in New York for a week filming his small part on the streets of Manhattan that Josh had run into Rosemaria after a year of living on separate coasts. They had first met in LA when Rosemaria had been investigating the murder of Stan Levy, a movie producer Josh was working for, and he had been one of the prime suspects. Rosemaria had eventually arrested the producer’s wife, Lila Levy, for the murder. Stunningly beautiful, the evil Lila had captivated Josh’s heart from the moment he saw her, while Rosemaria found herself inexplicably attracted to the alcoholic singer/songwriter. When Lila’s true character became obvious, Lila lost her hold on Josh and he fell in love with Rosemaria. A tragic misunderstanding between the two of them caused her to leave Los Angeles and begin a new life in New York. A year later, they found each other again when Josh was working on a movie in Manhattan, and they realized that although they were as different as night and day, they nevertheless were a perfect fit. They returned to Los Angeles together and never looked back.

“Yes, we’re both happy with the score, but I don’t want you to hear bits and pieces. I already told you Joell does an incredible job with my song. You’ll see and hear it all at the screening for the cast and crew.”

“When you have the premiere, we don’t have to do that red-carpet hoopla, do we? Can I sneak in the back door? All that glamour stuff is really not my thing, you know?”

Josh stood up to take his dishes into the kitchen. “It’s my big moment. Of course you’ll be on the red carpet.”

The sound of her cell phone playing generic elevator music interrupted the discussion. It was coming from her purse on the bed. She jumped up, scrambled around till she found the phone, and clicked it on. “Hello, this is Rosemaria.” Her face lit up. “Hey, Sergeant, good to hear from you!” She looked up at Josh, who had grabbed his jean jacket off a hook near the door. “Honey, it’s Sergeant Osborne, who took my job when I was away.”

Josh yelled out, “Show her how it’s done, Osborne!” Rosemaria shot him a look and sat on the bed. She listened for a few seconds, and Josh saw a look of concern come over her face. “No, don’t send me a photo. I’ll come see her in person. I’ll be there in about a half hour.”

Josh walked over and sat on the bed beside her. “What happened?”

Rosemaria’s voice was shaking. “They found a murdered girl in a dumpster at the Island Hotel in Beverly Hills this morning.”

“The Island. That’s that ritzy place on Santa Monica Boulevard, right? Why are they calling you?”

“She had no ID in her purse, but they found my old BHPD card crumpled up in her makeup bag.”

“And they think she might have been one of your girls?”

“It’s possible. I helped as many of them as I could, but some just wouldn’t listen to me.” Rosemaria shook her head and sighed.

Josh put an arm around her and held her close. “Hey, you did your best.”

“Damn!” She stood up and looked out the sliding door. “I kept telling them if they didn’t get off the streets, this is what could happen. A few listened. A couple of them I talked into going back home if home was really the right place for them to be.” She turned and looked at Josh, her eyes glistening. “It was hard sometimes to know what was best for them but working the streets and taking drugs sure the hell didn’t make for a rosy future.” Rosemaria grabbed her purse off the bed, took out a Kleenex, and dabbed her face underneath her eyes. “This is what you’ve done to me. Turned me into an emotional dishrag.”

“It looks good on you.”

“Well, I don’t want to embarrass myself at a crime scene and start bawling when I see it’s a girl I knew and obviously let down. If it is, I won’t even be able to help find out who killed her.”

Josh pulled her to her feet and walked her to the door.

She made a wry face. “Looks like I’m going to be late for my first day at work.”

“They’ll understand.”

She made an effort to pull herself together.

“No matter what, we’re going to spend next weekend with Noor and Gilbert. Being around them always cheers me up.” She pecked his cheek. “Love you.” Then, she looked over at Suzi, who was still eating her breakfast. “Bye, Suzi.”

She went out the door, and Josh watched her walk down the hall. He wondered for the millionth time how he could be so lucky. Two years ago, he had been well on his way to killing himself with alcohol, working at the zoo part-time as a caretaker, and writing commercials whenever Ken found him work. He could not have imagined his life turning out as it had. Now, his best friends—Noor, a black panther he had taken care of at the zoo, and Gilbert, a mountain lion who had spent a lot of time in his apartment after being injured as a baby—were thriving in a sanctuary up north. To top it all off, the woman he loved more than life itself loved him back. He was afraid she was about to have her heart broken.