The Manipulated (Joe Portugal Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page B

less seriously. Finally I got fed up and asked, if Ambiance was turning her life around like she said, why was she shooting a commercial for herpes medicine? Which really didn’t make much sense, but it shut her up long enough for me to escape. I wandered over to the two younger actors and listened to them dissect the Lakers.
    It was nearly bedtime when I recounted Mike’s sighting to Gina.
    “Not this again,” she said. “It’s different.”
    “How?”
    I was sure it was, but when I considered the two situations, they sounded a lot alike. Toby Bonner hadn’t been seen in years. Neither had Donna Lennox, though in her case the number of years was far fewer. Nobody knew if Toby was even alive. Same with Donna. Toby’d supposedly been sighted around L.A. As of approximately twenty-four hours ago, so had Donna.
    “And you never found Toby,” Gina said. She was the only one who knew this. I’d admitted it to Mike outside Staples, but I doubted he’d remember it, the state he was in. And if he did I could just say he misunderstood me. As far as everyone else who cared was concerned, I’d seen Toby’s remains.
    “What harm can it do to look? I’ll just poke around a little, satisfy Mike that he was wrong, be done with it.”
    She adjusted one of the pillows propping her up in bed. “You’ll call Burns, no doubt.” Alberta Burns was a police detective I’d known since the first of my friends was murdered. She’d just left the force, after getting shot by a gangbanger made her reevaluate her life. But she still had contacts.
    “I hadn’t thought about exactly what I was going to do, but yes, that would be an excellent place to start.”
    “And you’ll ask her to find out who has those seats.”
    “How come you’re coming up with all the ideas here? It sounds like you’re more into this hunting-down-the-missing stuff than I am.”
    “Just helping my little hubby.”
    I went in and brushed my teeth, came to bed, picked up the Jefferson Airplane biography I’d slowly been working my way through.
    Gina looked over at me. “What’s going on with Ronnie?”she said.

Six
    Things whirled around in my guts. Finally I managed,“What do you mean?”
    “I haven’t seen her in a while.”
    My intestines ground to a halt. “She’s in Hawaii. Didn’t you know?”
    “I thought that was next week.”
    “It got moved up. I haven’t seen her since the party.”
    “How was that, anyway? You never said anything.”
    My perfect chance, right? If ever I was going to spill, this was the time, yes?
    Evidently not.“It was okay. You know, one of those Hollywood things. I spent most of my time on the lawn getting loaded with Mike.”
    “Think there’s any hope?”
    “Hope?”
    “You know. You. Me. Ronnie.”
    Have I mentioned that Gina’s bisexual? This particular
ménage
had come up several times before. “Sometimes I think you’re serious about you-me-Ronnie.”
    She took my hand. “You know I’m not. But if I were unattached, I’d be all over her like flies on honey.”
    “That’s flies on shit. Honey is bees.”
    “Whatever. Wouldn’t you? Oh, right. You think you’re her father figure. That nasty incest taboo. Has she ever actually said that? That she sees you as the father she never had?”
    “No.”
    “It’s probably just a fantasy of yours.”
    Last chance, Portugal. Speak now, or forever hold your peace.
    I put down my book. And turned off the light.“I’m going to sleep,” I said.
     
    A couple of men were out back, working on our remodel. They had a radio going, a Spanish station, playing mariachi music. It was way too loud, but if that was the price I had to pay for a smidgen of progress, I was more than willing.
    The first contractor we hired overcharged us, used miserable materials, and caused a gas leak that brought out the fire department. Then he threatened to sue us for non-payment. When we finally got r id of him—Gina knew someone at City Hall who put on pressure—we found