True-Life Adventure

the floor, will you? I think Marilyn dropped a syringe with digitalis in it.”
    Sardis complied. “It’s under the bed.”
    Blick looked dumber than ever. “What the fuck is this all about?”
    “Dr. Markham here helped Steve Koehler kill those folks,” I said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she tells you all about it herself.”

CHAPTER 25
    She did, to avoid being charged with murder one. It went like this: She never was in love with Jacob Koehler at all. Lindsay just thought so because Marilyn’s way of controlling his every move was artfully disguised as devoted solicitude. She married him so she could hitch her wagon, if you’ll indulge me, to his star. Seems she’d had a little trouble getting her talents recognized, what with being a woman, so she’d decided to turn womanhood to her advantage. Things turned out even better than she’d hoped when Jacob become incompetent, leaving it up to her to develop the smart bomb.
    She helped Steve kill the three guys to the extent that she stole the digitalis and lent him her car— a medium-sized dark one. Also, the two of them conspired to protect Jacob. It was she, of course, who talked him out of going public about the kidnapping, but he outfoxed her and did it anyway. She never admitted that she knew— before Lindsay told her— that Jacob was giving Terry treatments, but I think she did know, at least in some dark corner of her mind.
    The night the ferry was gutted, she was a backup, like I guessed, in case something went wrong. She had no idea, of course, that Susanna and Freddie and I would be there, and when she saw us, she momentarily lost her head. That’s when she pointed the gun at Sardis. When she took in me and Freddie with his Minicam, she figured out what we’d actually been up to, correctly guessed that the jig was up for Steve, though not necessarily for her, and ordered Freddie not to drop the Minicam. She thought if Koehler tried to implicate her, she could lie her way out of it. But either she hadn’t reckoned on Aunt Hallie or she intended to kill her, too.
    Who knows? Neither she nor the Koehlers were exactly your average red-blooded Americans. They didn’t seem to care how many folks they killed.
    As for the rest of us, there’s good news and bad news. You can probably predict the bad— Terry died about eight months later. But it was a very peaceful death, at Rachel Carroll’s ranch. She just fell asleep one night and didn’t wake up.
    Jacob’s world fell apart when Marilyn and Steve were arrested. He voluntarily checked into a private hospital and Lindsay says he’s getting better.
    She’s back working on Susanna’s show and they’re both doing great.
    Pandorf Associates relocated, but Sardis struck out on her own— she’s now a free-lance graphic designer, and she’s painting on weekends.
    As for me, I wrote a prize-winning series about the foregoing events. Joey Bernstein practically squirmed with delight, but he didn’t offer any bonuses for a job well done.
    Seeing Sardis nearly get killed that night on the boat had kind of a sobering effect on me. In a way, I got over my lover’s block. That is, I realized I loved her. She still gets on my nerves if she gets too close; let me amend that— if I feel myself getting too close to her. And sometimes she doesn’t turn me on. But I should be more precise— I mean, sometimes I don’t feel turned on to her.
    I used to think if a romance didn’t go smoothly, the thing simply wasn’t meant to be. But now I think you have to work on these things. So I’ve taken up meditation. A strange pastime for an ornery guy like me, but I’m certainly no fanatic. If I start feeling too peaceful I call up Blick and trade a few insults.
    THE END

DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    For Titter
    The author thanks Dr. Boyd Stephens, John Reid, Susan Price, and Veronica Napoles for help in their various fields of expertise. Paul Mcdonald extends special thanks of his own to Jon Carroll, without whom he would have been less of a man.

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