Free Afraid to Die by Lisa Jackson Page A

were greeted by Grizz, the stuffed grizzly bear standing guard at the door. Over seven feet tall, his lips pulled into a permanent snarl, long teeth gleaming, razor-sharp claws extended, he was always in costume, a regular ursine fashionista who was dressed with the season. Today he was wearing elf attire, complete with a silly little hat decorated with a jingle bell, a red and green coat and huge striped stockings around his hind legs.
    â€œIs it Grizz or Will Ferrell?” Alvarez joked, though she wasn’t in a jovial mood. The holidays always brought her down and the three missing women were bothering her. It didn’t help that the hot water situation at her home hadn’t been alleviated. Jon, the sometimes repairman, had been ducking her and she’d been reduced to heating water on the stove or taking a shower at the gym. Jon had left her a message on her phone earlier: “Hey, uh, this is Jon. Got your message about the hot water. I’ll get to it ASAP.” What a joke; the guy had no idea what ASAP or STAT meant. It was irritating. Damn irritating, but she wasn’t going to focus on it now.
    It was around one o’clock and the restaurant was busy, all of the booths and most of the tables occupied. Conversation buzzed through the high-ceilinged room and a fryer in the kitchen sizzled, competing with the strains of Christmas music filtering from hidden speakers.
    A hostess led them to a table in the center of the large dining area, where, upon the rough-hewn walls, heads of animals stared down at them. Alvarez had always thought the decor bordered on the macabre and never felt completely comfortable with the glassy eyes of deer, elk, a moose and even a cougar glaring down at the patrons.
    They had settled in and ordered before Sandi swept by. She put on the brakes when she spied Pescoli. “Don’t suppose there’s any news?” The lines in her face seemed deeper than usual, her eye shadow a sparkling metallic green, probably in homage to the season.
    â€œNot yet.”
    â€œDamn!” She shook her head and her eyes narrowed suspiciously, green eyelids even more noticeable. “You’d better check out Ray, the ex. Brenda and he have been in a battle royal for those boys. He wants full custody and so does she. There’s always something going on there, with the courts. He’s even had the gall to call your damned department and report her if he can’t get through to his kids, and he’s been on the phone to human services, sending them out to Brenda’s house, trying to prove she’s unfit or some such nonsense!” Sandi snorted at the insanity of it all. “A mean one, he is.” Nodding as if agreeing with her own theory, she pointed a red-tipped nail at Pescoli and jabbed the air in front of Pescoli’s nose. “If you ask me, she was way too good for him, and he knew it! I never did like him. A real loser.”
    â€œAren’t they all? Exes, I mean?” Pescoli asked and Alvarez guessed she was thinking of her own.
    â€œWell, yeah, most of ’em! And you can sure throw mine in there.” Her red lips pursed thoughtfully. “Although Connie Leonetti gets along with hers. She even bakes him and his mother cookies for the holidays. And I’m not talking about the arsenic or Ex-Lax-laced kind. If you ask me, that’s just an abomination of nature.” She didn’t crack a smile at her attempt at humor. “I just hope you find Brenda. And it’s not because I’ve had to pull double-duty without her. She’s really a sweet, sweet woman and when I think of those boys of hers ... Oh, man, she adores them.” Sandi’s lower lip quivered a bit and Alvarez wished there was something that could be said, some platitude that would soothe her. There wasn’t.
    Clearing her throat and squaring her shoulders, Sandi said, “If you ask me, Ray Sutherland is behind this. He didn’t want the