The Wicked Wife (Murder in Marin Book 2) (24 page)

On the first full day Willow was home from Tahiti, she called Jade and suggested that they take a walk together—perhaps this coming Saturday morning, sometime after nine.
 

On the phone, Willow poured on the charm. “I don’t know why I hadn’t thought to call you before.”
 

To Willow’s relief, Jade seemed pleased that she had called.
 

“I’d love to go walking with you, but this Saturday morning I’m meeting up with some girlfriends for a mountain bike ride. Would you like to make it Sunday instead?”
 

“Can’t! I’ve got a promotional commitment for a perfume event up in Seattle. How about the following Saturday?”
 

“I’ll leave it open,” Jade said happily, and then added, “Where do you like to walk?”

“I love that walk out to Tennessee Valley Beach. I just did it for the first time since I was a child. It’s so beautiful, the way you’re surrounded by the Marin Headlands. And, of course, you end up at the beach.”
 

“My other girlfriends love that area too.”

“Other girlfriends!” So, Jade was already considering her a confidant. This was certainly a good sign. Willow purred, “You’re such an outdoor person. I really admire that.”

“I tell people all the time that biking keeps me young.”

“I’ve never thought about mountain biking, but it does sounds great.”

“You’d love it. Call when you come back from Seattle, and we can plan to walk together. Or I’ll get you out biking. Either way, it would be fun for the two of us to spend some time together.”
 

Willow clicked off and looked outside her bedroom window onto a clear blue day. The bay was quiet, as it usually is on a weekday, with only a few boats crossing between Sausalito to the west, and Tiburon on the east.
 

The thought that her plan might actually put James on the defensive gave her a sudden sense of relief as she strolled out onto the veranda and enjoyed the warmth of the mid-morning sun. Well, it was certainly worth her time and effort. She’d do anything to get that pest out of her life!
 

Her skin crawled with the memory of his being on top of her. While Viktor mastered every inch of her, James went after her like a clumsy child banging on a drum. Willow continued to have visions of pushing James off the W Hotel’s rooftop garden, but recognized, sadly, that these were nothing more than glorious fantasies.
 

She then picked up her phone and called both Holly and Sylvia, who agreed to meet her on Saturday morning at the parking area adjacent to Tennessee Valley trailhead. There could be nothing better than a long morning’s walk and a fresh sea breeze to clear her mind of James.
 

On Friday afternoon, William returned home from the investment conference in Aspen. Willow found him seated at his desk, going through mail.
 

As she bent over to kiss him on the forehead, he shared with her that he and James had a ten o’clock tee time tomorrow at Peacock Gap. “Would you like to join us and make it a threesome? It’s been awhile since you got out for a round of golf, and you’re a damn good golfer.”
 

“No, no. Go and enjoy your game. I promised Holly and Sylvia that we’d all walk out to Tennessee Valley Beach tomorrow morning.”
end of chapter 2: "Of course, there are no oven m

 
Holly was running a little late—not unusual for her on a Saturday morning. The plan was to meet at the Tennessee Valley trailhead by nine-thirty, but it was already past nine-thirty when she met Sylvia in the car park under Highway 101, across from the Buckeye Roadhouse. From there, they planned to ride together into Tam Junction, and then out Tennessee Valley Road.

Over recent years, the trail had become so popular that there was often limited parking space left in the lot for hikers; therefore, the choice to take just one car the last two miles to the trailhead. As Sylvia got in the car, she said, “I’m going to call Willow and tell her we’re running a little late.”

Willow’s cell rang without response.
 

Sylvia frowned. “She’s not answering. Let’s just get there as soon as possible.”

From Tam Junction to the trailhead, the road is forested and filled with curves. Holly drove quickly, but not recklessly. When they arrived at the off-road parking area, they looked around for Willow or her car and found neither.
 

“I’ll try her number again,” a frustrated Sylvia said in a clipped tone.

“Don’t be mad at me, Sylvia. She certainly didn’t drive off because we’re fifteen minutes late! Anyway, if she had, we would have passed her on her way out of here. There is no other way back to the main road.”

After another unanswered call to her cell, Sylvia said, “She obviously isn’t near her phone. What do you think we should do?”

Holly laughed. “I think there’s a good chance that the princess overslept. Let’s give her five more minutes, then start out for the beach. We didn’t get up this early on a Saturday to have a chat standing in this parking lot.”

“You’re probably right. She forgot to set her alarm and just overslept. I’ll send a text, letting her know that we left the parking area a little before ten, and we’re heading out toward the beach now.”

As she did so, Holly scanned the cars in the lot, explaining, “That car of hers is so recognizable; I want to give one more look around.”

As Sylvia stretched her legs, she said, “Darn! I was dying to see her today. I wanted to ask her if she and William were going to appear at the community picnic next weekend—the one they hold every year in the park adjacent to Belvedere’s city hall. I’ve been trying to get her as much positive local press as I can.”

“Trust me, Sylvia, she couldn’t get more ink in the
Standard
if she hired a publicist.”

Sylvia smiled, hoping that Holly had meant that as a compliment.
 

Willow’s no-show did nothing to change the fact that it was a beautiful day for a walk. Holly, an avid walker, was in fine form as usual, which put pressure on Sylvia to keep up. Neither of them bothered to look at their cell phones on the trail out to the beach or back, because cell service in this largely undeveloped part of southwest Marin is nearly non-existent.
 

Holly walked briskly that final third of a mile from the horse stables back to the trailhead, but Sylvia struggled to keep up. When they reached the car park, they checked their phones’ displays and were disappointed to see no missed calls or messages.

They got back into Holly’s car for the drive back to the Manzanita commuter lot, where they had left Sylvia’s car.
 

Typical of a busy Saturday for hikers, cars were now parked along both sides of Tennessee Valley Road for nearly of a quarter of a mile before the designated parking area at the trailhead.

Suddenly, Sylvia shouted, “Stop!”

“What the hell is wrong?” Holly carefully slowed her car, hoping not to be rear-ended by the car that was following her too closely.
 

“I just saw Willow’s car!”

“Did it say ‘WILLOW’ on the plate?”

“I couldn’t see the plate, but I’m certain it was hers.”

“Okay, let me just pull up here, and we’ll walk back and check it out.”

 
Holly put on her flashers to get the jerk in the Maserati behind her to slow down, and then pulled into the first spot along the side of the road, a few hundred feet beyond where Sylvia believed she had seen Willow’s car: a Mercedes SL 550 Roadster, the added engagement gift she had received from William.
 

A cold chill ran down Holly’s spine when, along with Sylvia, she approached the red Mercedes with the white leather seats. She had hoped for a different license plate, but there it was:
 

WILLOW
 

Simultaneously, they looked inside the car and spotted Willow’s iPhone in its unmistakable gold glitter case, lying on the passenger seat.

“I guess she forgot to take the phone with her,” Sylvia said with a shrug.

“That’s strange; I’ve never seen her without her phone.”

“Well, she’s been here before. She knows the cell service is all but hopeless along the trail.”

“True, but you would think she would have taken it with her so she could have called us from the trailhead if she didn’t see us.”

“Do you remember when we got here?” Sylvia asked.

“I think it was about quarter to ten that I picked you up and we parked further up at the trailhead.”

“She had to have parked after us. We got one of the last available spots in the lot. She wouldn’t have parked here unless she came at least thirty minutes later and took the first spot she could find in the overflow parking.”

“Somehow, we missed her, I suppose,” Holly said with a shrug.

“Is that possible?”

“There is that one spot, about two-thirds of the way to the beach, where the trail bows out to the right. She might have forked to the left. The two paths are not far apart, but they’re separated by some high vegetation, so sure, it’s possible.”

“Well, now what?” Sylvia asked. “I’m a little worried about her, to tell you the truth.”

“I admit it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I suppose I could leave my car here and we could walk back to the trailhead and wait there for a while to see if Willow comes back up from the beach.”

“I don’t think we have any choice.”

They walked the distance of about five city blocks to where the main lot began, then went up to the fence at the start of the trail and waited there for Willow.

While waiting, both tried making small talk, but the subject inevitably came back to Willow. The time passed slowly and it was getting close to noon. With the sun getting stronger and hotter, they decided to return to Holly’s car.

Along the way, Sylvia said for the umpteenth time that, “There must be some logical explanation.”

Holly was tempted to tell her to stop chattering, but she recognized that it was Sylvia’s way of dealing with her concern for Willow.
 

Holly’s concern came out as an annoying burning sensation she felt in the pit of her stomach.
 

To their disappointment, Willow’s car sat just where they had found it an hour earlier.
 
“There’s a little diner up behind the strip mall at Tam Junction that serves great huevos rancheros,” Holly said. “Let’s go there, get something to eat, and try to figure out what we should do next.”