Boo-f.u.c.king-hoo, Mendez thought. He came from a tough background himself, but he didn't use it as an excuse for bad behavior. And his mother raised him to treat women with respect, not lie to them and cheat on them.

He didn't wait for Morgan to pull into the driveway. He got out of the car and walked across the street with purpose, coming up alongside the Trans Am as Morgan turned the key off.

Mendez smacked his badge up against the driver's side window then shoved it back in his coat pocket. He stepped back just enough that Morgan could get the car door partially open to get out, only to find himself trapped between the door and the car.

"Is there a curfew law I'm unaware of?" Morgan asked calmly. He smelled just vaguely of alcohol.

"Where've you been all night?" Mendez asked without any preamble of false niceties.

"Working."

"I've been past your office ten times tonight. You weren't there."

Morgan raised his eyebrows. "Ten times? That sounds like hara.s.sment to me."

"Where were you?"

"I had a dinner meeting with a client."

"Oh? Did you take her to that nice out-of-the-way little place in Los Olivos?"

Morgan looked annoyed. He worked his jaw a little back and forth like he was grinding his teeth.

"You spoke to Mark Foster," he said and nodded. "Yes, I sometimes meet clients out of town. People here can get the wrong idea if I take a woman out to dinner."

"Yeah?" Mendez said. "And I bet they really raise their eyebrows when you take that woman home and bang her."

"I took Marissa to dinner," Morgan said, maddeningly in control of himself.

Mendez would have been happy to have Steve Morgan take a swing at him. It would have given him a chance to knock the jerk on his a.s.s, and then drag him off to jail for a.s.saulting an officer.

"We met in Los Olivos to try the restaurant-the same as Mark did," Morgan said. "I didn't want to do dinner here in town because people like to jump to conclusions. I don't need anyone calling Sara and upsetting her for no reason."

"Or giving her one more reason to dump your sorry a.s.s," Mendez said. "Is that what Marissa Fordham threatened to do? Tell Sara the two of you were sleeping together? Did she give you the big ultimatum, Steve? Dump the wife or else?"

Morgan actually had the gall to laugh. "Clearly, you never knew Marissa," he said. "She didn't want a husband. She never let any relationship get that serious. She was very happy being single."

Frustrated, Mendez said, "So you met a client for dinner tonight. Who?"

"That's confidential."

"Where?"

"In Malibu. At a private home."

"Convenient. That explains how you can be just getting home at four in the morning. No closing time. Long drive."

"You know, Detective, I don't have to answer your questions at all," he pointed out.

"No," Mendez said. "Is that the tack you take with Sara too? You don't need to answer her questions?"

"She stopped asking."

Heat burned through Mendez like a flash fire. He stepped closer, leaning his hands on the top of the car door on either side of Steve Morgan. "You're a b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Yeah," Morgan said without humor. "I am."

Mendez leaned in closer. "Is this where you try to make me feel sorry for you because your mother was a junkie wh.o.r.e and you had it so bad you just can't help being the way you are?"

He got his wish. Steve Morgan came with a right that connected hard into his mouth, busting his lip from the outside with knuckles and from the inside with his own teeth. He staggered sideways.

"f.u.c.k you, Mendez!" Morgan said, coming away from the car, pulling his arm back for a second shot.

Mendez came up into his boxing stance, blocked the second punch and hit Morgan with two hard jabs in the face. Blood gushed from Morgan's nose.

He stumbled back into the side of his car and bounced forward again, swinging too hard, too soon. Mendez grabbed the man's fist, stepped to the side, and twisted his arm up behind his back. Using Morgan's own momentum, Mendez swung him around and slammed him across the hood of the Trans Am.

Dogs all around the neighborhood started barking. A light came on across the street.

Mendez cuffed one wrist then the other behind Steve Morgan's back, then turned and spat a mouthful of blood across the hood of the car.

"Thanks, man. You just gave me an early Christmas present," he said.

He pulled Morgan up off the car hood and marched him toward the Taurus at the curb.

"Steve Morgan, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent ..."

39.

"Did you have it coming?" Vince asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"h.e.l.l, yeah."

Mendez tried to grin with only partial success. He had come up to the ICU straight from the ER. A little centipede line of fresh st.i.tches knitted his swollen upper lip on the left side. Lidocaine still had a firm hold on that side of his face.

Vince had to laugh. "You look like a freaking half-wit, Detective Frankenstein. What the h.e.l.l happened to you?"

They sat down at a corner table in the otherwise-empty ICU family lounge.

"I had a little run-in with Steve Morgan," Mendez said, talking out the right side of his mouth. "Turns out he has a temper."

Vince raised his eyebrows. "What triggered that?"

"I guess it was something I said."

"Like what? Your mother was a junkie wh.o.r.e?"

"How'd you know?"

"You said that to him?" Vince laughed. that to him?" Vince laughed.

"Yeah. I said a whole lot of other s.h.i.t before that, but he didn't turn a hair. That one-he went off like the f.u.c.king Raging Bull."

Vince felt a surge of pride. "That's my boy! You wanted to find his hot b.u.t.ton and you did. I hope you gave a good accounting of yourself in that fight, young man."

"He came after me. I had to protect myself. I might have broken his nose, and the one eye was swollen shut. He's still downstairs getting patched up. I left a deputy with him."

"Has Cal heard about this yet?" The sheepish look told Vince the answer was no. "He'll have your a.s.s."

"I was defending myself!"

"You-an ex-marine, Golden Gloves boxing champion-versus a lawyer."

"Hey, he had a h.e.l.l of a swing!" Mendez protested. "He golfs and plays tennis."

"He's gonna sue your a.s.s."

"He a.s.saulted a law enforcement officer."

"You called his mother a wh.o.r.e."

"Did I? I don't remember. Too bad he doesn't have any witnesses to testify to that."

"Let's back this up, Rocky," Vince said as the red flags started popping up in his head. "What were you doing in his face in the first place at O-dark-thirty in the morning?"

Mendez glanced down for just a second before he started his story. And he glanced down several times more as he told about going to the Morgan house and talking with Sara Morgan.

He wasn't lying. Mendez was as straight an arrow as arrows could be. But he was trying to be evasive about something. Sara Morgan.

"Did you ask her how long she'd been friends with Marissa Fordham?" Vince asked.

The glance down.

"No. She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I wasn't going to push her over the edge."

"Uh-huh. Very chivalrous of you."

"What? I was supposed to browbeat her?"

Anger.

"There was no point in it," Mendez said. "She doesn't have it in her to kill someone. Besides, she's going to divorce the husband. That ends her suffering regarding his infidelities."

Denial. Rationalization.

Vince nodded.

Half a scowl. "Don't give me that look."

"What look is that?" he asked.

"You smug b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Mendez complained. "Don't you sit there and psychoa.n.a.lyze me."

"Well, I wouldn't," Vince said, amused. "But it's just so easy."

"Say it, then."

"Say what?"

"You're enjoying this."

"Oh, yeah," Vince said, chuckling.

"So I'm attracted to her," Mendez admitted. "So what? What guy wouldn't be? She's gorgeous and talented-"

"And needs a champion-"

"I kept everything very professional. Nothing inappropriate happened."

"Of course not."

"I mean it!"

"I know you do, Tony," Vince said, serious now. "You're an honorable man. And there's certainly nothing wrong with wanting to stand up for a woman-even if she doesn't belong to you. I mean, really, that's how it ought to be. I just don't want to see you blur a line here."

"Oh, you mean like you didn't?" Mendez said sarcastically.

"Anne wasn't a person of interest-"

"Sara couldn't-"

Vince held up a finger to stop him. "Listen to me. Anne wasn't a witness. She wasn't a suspect. Her involvement in the case-while crucial-was peripheral when we first got together. Then she became a victim. Now Crane's attorneys are trying to get evidence thrown out, claiming I planted it because Anne and I were involved."

"The h.e.l.l!" Mendez said.

"It's true. They want that tube of superglue excluded. Thank G.o.d it's not that important to Anne's case. But if they can get it excluded now, chances are our side doesn't get it back in later. If Crane goes to trial on any of the See-No-Evil cases, and the prosecution wants to establish a pattern of behavior ..."

"s.h.i.t."

"Now back to you, Junior," Vince said. "Don't get me wrong, I like Sara, Anne likes Sara. But if Steve Morgan was having an affair with Marissa Fordham, then Sara had a motive and she has to be considered a person of interest. Even if she wasn't, Steve Morgan is certainly someone we have to take a look at. You can't get involved with Sara."

"I wouldn't," Mendez said, frowning with the working side of his mouth. "She's a married woman."