SINK LIKE A STONE: A REBECCA STONE MYSTERY

Chapter 2

     Everyone nodded in agreement and Josephine moved to the head of the group, leading them farther west in Beverly Hills. As they turned off Lapeer, Rebecca thought about Helene's three-bedroom house here. Helene had once said that her bedroom in her Lapeer house equaled the size of her bedroom closet in the Bel Air home she had shared with her ex – Adam Richman. Yet Rebecca had gotten the feeling that Helene preferred her bedroom in Beverly Hills to her bedroom closet in Bel Air.

     The houses they now walked past had a mix of architectural styles, including what some referred to as "Persian palaces." Many of the Iranians who left Iran when the shah fell had, over the years, torn down smaller Beverly Hills homes and built two-story edifices that often dwarfed the neighboring homes. Someone had pointed out to Rebecca that these homes usually had a column on either side of the front door. Now she and Josh had taken to looking out for these columns, some of which were quite ostentatious and some of which were so cleverly done they were actually hard to spot.

     As Rebecca walked alongside Josh at the back of the group, she considered whether any of these people could have reasons for wanting Helene Marmon dead. Could Helene – or someone else at the powerful law firm where she was a partner – have been involved in a law case that threatened any of them?

     "Yes, we're here!" Josh said as Josephine pushed open the wrought-iron gate in front of her two-story house.

     Josephine's husband Lawrence unlocked the front door, and they all entered a spacious foyer displaying what appeared to be ancient artifacts. Josephine strode down the hall to the back of the house while Lawrence escorted the rest of them into the living room.

     Rebecca watched Pamela Tannenbaum, a tall woman in her early 30s whose conservative taste in clothes was probably designed to inspire confidence in her fiscal judgment, check out the foyer's art displays. As a stockbroker accustomed to sizing up a client's assets, Pamela wanted to be thought somewhat of an expert in the valuation of art.

     Now Pamela asked Lawrence if the collection had suffered any damage during the earthquake.

     "No, we were very fortunate," he said. Then he favored Pamela with one of his smiles that Rebecca thought must go a long way in selling residential real estate.

     "Of course we hedged our bet," he said. "Josephine is neurotic about these things. We've had all these cases securely fastened to the wall in a way designed to withstand considerable shaking, and the artifacts within are firmly secured."

     Rebecca saw Richard shoot an angry look at Lawrence.

     "Really, Lawrence," Richard said. "Josephine is not being neurotic if she has taken special precautions with a valuable art collection. It makes good sense to give herself this emotional reassurance. We all need to take care of our emotional selves."

     Before Lawrence could defend himself, they heard Josephine, presumably in the kitchen, giving directions in Spanish. A moment later she emerged carrying a tablecloth and matching cloth napkins. She beckoned them to follow her out a side door and into the yard, where they spotted a large sukkah with walls of brightly patterned cloth.

     Spreading out the tablecloth on a long folding table that filled the middle of the sukkah, Josephine laughed while folding the napkins at each place. "Pretty nice sukkah, isn't it?"

     She waited for the requisite agreement, then added, "I have to let you in on a little secret. We had our gardener put it up for us."

     Josephine's hands setting out the napkins kept pace with her story. "He's very handy. So a couple of years ago when we decided to have a sukkah for the first time, we just told him to buy the materials and build it. Maria made the walls, of course. Then the gardener takes it down after Sukkot and puts it up again each year. It's great!"