“Hello.” She shook the woman’s hand, a strong hand.

“I’m Patricia Bigelow, attorney at large here in Goddard Bay.”

“I’m Mary Lisa Beverly. You’ve moved here since I left because I surely would have remembered you.”

“That’s right. It’s been nearly two years since I set up shop here. You don’t see many redheads without freckles.”

“I’ve got my grandmother’s coloring. She didn’t have any freckles either.”

“Anywhere?”

“Not even on the bottoms of my feet.”

“I’m being pushy because my cousin is a redhead and she’s loaded with freckles. She’s always looking for ways to make them disappear. I thought maybe you’d found the answer.”

“I heard about cucumbers once but I don’t know if it’s only an old husband’s tale.”

“I’ll pass it along. Oh, look who’s coming this way. Mr. Well-Dressed Stud of Goddard Bay himself.”

Mary Lisa saw John Goddard weaving his way toward them, through groups of people he stopped to greet along the way.

Patricia continued her observations in an expressionless voice. “John is very popular. It’ll take him another five minutes to get here. I’m sure everyone wants to ask him about Jason Maynard’s murder. I doubt he’ll tell them anything, it would be unprofessional and he knows I’d burn his feet to the ankles with it if he did. I’m sure it’s not me he’s coming to see, so it’s got to be you, the guest of honor. I’ll introduce you.”

Mary Lisa saw Patricia Bigelow lightly run her tongue over her bottom lip, her eyes never leaving John Goddard’s face. Now this was interesting. Was he dating her on the rebound from Kelly? No, it was too soon, that couldn’t be right. She said easily, “You and Mr. Goddard are on opposite sides in this murder case, I understand.”

“Not as yet. However, if he and Jack Wolf have their way, I might be facing John in court.” She continued to smile as she spoke, and she never looked away from John Goddard. “It’s my job to kick his fine butt every day to keep him and the chief above any temptation to overstep with my clients.”

“I suppose he does have a nice butt,” Mary Lisa agreed, nodding.

“One of the best I’ve seen, east or west coast.” A dark eyebrow went up. “Have you already met Mr. Goddard?”

“Yes, John and I have met two mornings in a row, running on the beach.”

“How nice. I used to run with him,” Patricia said. “But his little macho ego couldn’t take it. You see, I always had more endurance-the tortoise and the hare sort of thing-drove him nuts.”

John knew he was meant to overhear and laughed. “If Mary Lisa believes that, I’ve got a nearly bankrupt regional airport to sell her. Come on, Pat, I got you into running shoes a total of three times, and you whined about how the shoes hurt your arches. Look at those ice picks you’re wearing tonight and tell me how running shoes could possibly hurt any more than those things.”

Mary Lisa said, “I nearly mowed John down the day we met. I haven’t raced him yet. Hmm, we’ll see. I’ll report back to you, Ms. Bigelow.”

That dark eyebrow shot up again. “You work fast, but I guess that’s what the L.A. crowd does.”

A lovely punch to the gut. “Actually,” Mary Lisa said, “I’m not working at all, only trying to relax. John, Ms. Bigelow tells me she’s enjoying kicking your very fine butt to protect her client. Or is it clients?”

His real feelings about Patricia Bigelow flashed across his face-he wanted to drop-kick her through the front window-but he said nothing.

“Actually, I’m representing both Mr. and Mrs. Hildebrand. Perhaps their daughter Marci as well.”

John ignored that, and turned to Mary Lisa. “I like Bethy’s dress-it fits well on you. I always thought Beth was a bean-pole, so it’s a surprise.”

Mary Lisa said to Patricia, “I borrowed this beautiful dress from John’s sister.”

Pat said, “I hope Beth is doing all right, John?”

“She’s healthier than any other member of the family and impatient to have the babies in her arms instead of her belly. That’s what she says.”

“Ah, Chief Wolf,” Patricia said. “How lovely to see you.”

Chief Jack Wolf ’s face seemed hard and remote as he eyed the three of them with what seemed like clinical detachment. He managed a nod, and said, “Ms. Bigelow.” He turned to Mary Lisa, and if anything, his hard face turned even harder. You didn’t need much of an IQ to guess that he didn’t like her. “Ms. Beverly,” was all he said. To John, he said in a low voice, “I need to speak to you, when you have a moment.”

“Certainly.”

Jack Wolf nodded to the women again, and turned away, John at his side. Patricia and Mary Lisa watched the two men walk to a quiet corner of the room-two big men, friends of about the same age, but Mary Lisa had never seen even a twinkle of amusement in the chief’s dark eyes.

Mary Lisa said, “Whenever he looks at me it’s like he wants to strangle me until my eyes bug out.”

Pat said, her eyes still following them, “He doesn’t like me either, particularly when I try to represent my clients properly. He thinks I’m interfering with his investigation. I do have to say, though, that there walk two of the very finest butts I’ve ever had the privilege of appreciating. So I assume you’re going back to L.A. soon?”

Mary Lisa nodded. “Yep, back to work Monday morning.”

Pat asked, “Don’t you have lines to memorize by Monday morning?”

“Why yes, but it’s a two-hour flight and I’m only in three scenes on Monday. I’ll be able to learn most of my lines in the air. They’ll e-mail me the final version of the script tomorrow morning. Funny thing is, I usually wake up about three a.m. the morning of a shoot and go over them again.”

“An internal alarm clock?”

“Something like that.”

“I’ll bet your boyfriend doesn’t like that,” Pat said.

“No, none of them do,” Mary Lisa agreed. “Whine, whine, whine, all of them, not a single stoic in the lot.” She laughed.

When Mary Lisa left Patricia Bigelow and her double-edged sword, she made her way to the nearest waiter to get another glass of champagne.

“Wait up, Mary Lisa, this isn’t a race.”

She turned to see John Goddard closing on her. She studied his face a moment. “Patricia Bigelow says she admires your butt, even if she does have to kick it sometimes.”

He shrugged, smiled charmingly, and lied cleanly. “Only business as usual, nothing more than that.”

Yeah, right. “She’s a beautiful woman, and she seems terrifyingly smart. But what’s odd to me about all this is that she has a thing for you.”

“What thing? A voodoo doll in her pocket, needles sticking out of its gullet?”

“Nah. I don’t think she’d go the voodoo-doll route. Just the way she looked at you, and your fine butt.”

“Pat treats every guy like that. I haven’t heard her say she likes my butt, though. And you agreed? That’s nice.” He looked beyond her left shoulder, his attention taken by something.

“She seems to admire Jack Wolf’s butt, as well, so I wouldn’t crow too much about it.”

“I’ll wait to tell him when he’s taking a drink off a beer, watch him spew it all over everything.”

She followed his line of vision and saw her sister Kelly looking toward them, her face cold and set.

This wasn’t good. She said quietly, “It’s tough to be in a small town when there’s a breakup. And now my sister sees me consorting with the enemy.” She was reminded of The Young and the Restless, and laughed at herself.

“That’s me, Kelly’s enemy. Patricia Bigelow’s enemy. I am very unpopular at the moment. By the way, you really don’t look bad in Bethy’s dress. But why does Jack look like he wants to throw you in his jail without a blanket?”

“You could say I got in a little trouble before I left three years ago, and as a matter of fact, I did spend some time in his jail. I don’t remember if there was a blanket or not.”