Chapter 81

  WHEN I REACHED Twilly’s suite¹ on the fifth floor of the St. Regis Hotel, he was waiting in the doorway², a cockeyed grin on his face, his hair disheveled and shirt untucked and unbuttoned. The fire exit door slammed at the end of the softly lit hallway. My guess, it was Twilly’s paid-by-the-hour guest leaving in a hurry.

  I showed Twilly my badge, and he fastened his eyes on the V of my tank top, skimmed the cut of my jeans, then took a slow return trip back to my face. Meanwhile, I was taking in his amazing room - leather-textured walls, a window seat with a great view of San Francisco. Very impressive.

  “Working undercover, Sergeant³?” Twilly leered.

  He’d scared Yuki with this act, but it enraged⁴ me.

  “I don’t think we’ve met, Mr. Twilly. I’m Sergeant Lindsay Boxer,” I said, putting out my hand. He grasped it in a handshake and I pulled his arm forward, twisted it high up behind his back, and pushed his face against the wall.

  “Give me your other hand,” I said. “Do it, now.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “Other hand.”

  I cuffed⁶ him, frisked him fast and rough, saying, “You’re under arrest for criminal trespass⁷. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.” When I finished informing Twilly of his rights, I answered his question: “What’s this about?”

  “It’s about your illegal entry into ADA Yuki Castellano’s car. She’s filed a police report, and by noon tomorrow she’ll have a restraining order against you.”

  “Whoa, whoa! This is the biggest deal about nothing I’ve ever heard. Her arms were full! I opened her car door to help her!”

  “Tell it to your lawyer,” I snapped. I had one hand on Twilly’s arm, my cell phone in my other, and was about to call for backup.

  “Wait a minute,” he said. “Is Yuki claiming that I’m harassing⁸ her? Because that’s crap. I admit I provoked her a little, applied⁹ a little pressure just to get her going. I’m a journalist. We do that. Look. If I made a mistake, I’m sorry. Can we talk? Please?”

  I’d checked Twilly out, and his record was clean. I had a moment of free fall as my anger evaporated. A stern warning would have been appropriate. Now that I’d cuffed him - that media flap Cindy had warned Yuki about?

  It was going to go down.

  I could already see Twilly spinning this “bust” to Larry King, Tucker Carlson, Access Hollywood. It would be bad news for Yuki, bad for me, but it would be stupendous publicity¹⁰ for Twilly.

  “Sergeant?”

  I had to hit rewind. I had to try.

  “You want to avoid a court appearance, Mr. Twilly? Leave Yuki Castellano alone. Don’t sit behind her in court. Don’t tail her in supermarkets. Don’t enter her car or premises¹¹, and we’ll put this incident aside.

  “Yuki files another complaint? I’m taking you in. Are we clear?”

  “Totally,” he said. “Crystal.”

  “Good.”

  I unlocked the cuffs¹² and started to leave.

  “Wait!” Twilly said. He stepped into the other room, with its aqua-striped wallpaper and canopied¹³ bed. He snatched a pen and pad from the bowlegged writing desk and said, “I want to make sure I got this right.”

  He scribbled¹⁴ notes, then recited my speech back to me, verbatim.

  “That was really excellent stuff you just said, Sergeant. Who do you think should play you in the movie?”

  He was screwing with me.

  I left Twilly’s suite feeling as though I’d been smacked¹⁵ in the face with a shit pie - and I’d done it to myself. Damn it to hell. Maybe I’d jammed myself up, and maybe I was wrong to cuff⁵ him, but it didn’t mean that Jason Twilly wasn’t crazy.

  And it didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

1 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

2 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

3 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

4 enraged   

使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤

参考例句：

• I was enraged to find they had disobeyed my orders. 发现他们违抗了我的命令，我极为恼火。
• The judge was enraged and stroke the table for several times. 大法官被气得连连拍案。

5 cuff   

n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口

参考例句：

• She hoped they wouldn't cuff her hands behind her back.她希望他们不要把她反铐起来。
• Would you please draw together the snag in my cuff?请你把我袖口上的裂口缝上好吗？

6 cuffed   

v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She cuffed the boy on the side of the head. 她向这男孩的头上轻轻打了一巴掌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother cuffed the dog when she found it asleep on a chair. 妈妈发现狗睡在椅子上就用手把狗打跑了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 trespass   

n./v.侵犯，闯入私人领地

参考例句：

• The fishing boat was seized for its trespass into restricted waters.渔船因非法侵入受限制水域而被扣押。
• The court sentenced him to a fine for trespass.法庭以侵害罪对他判以罚款。

8 harassing   

v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人）

参考例句：

• The court ordered him to stop harassing his ex-wife. 法庭命令他不得再骚扰前妻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was too close to be merely harassing fire. 打得这么近，不能完全是扰乱射击。 来自辞典例句

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

11 premises   

n.建筑物，房屋

参考例句：

• According to the rules,no alcohol can be consumed on the premises.按照规定，场内不准饮酒。
• All repairs are done on the premises and not put out.全部修缮都在家里进行，不用送到外面去做。

12 cuffs   

n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• a collar and cuffs of white lace 带白色蕾丝花边的衣领和袖口
• The cuffs of his shirt were fraying. 他衬衣的袖口磨破了。

13 canopied   

adj. 遮有天篷的

参考例句：

• Mist canopied the city. 薄雾笼罩着城市。
• The centrepiece was a magnificent canopied bed belonged to Talleyrand, the great 19th-century French diplomat. 展位中心是一架华丽的四柱床，它的故主是19世纪法国著名外交家塔列郎。

14 scribbled   

v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• She scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper. 她把他的电话号码匆匆写在一张小纸片上。
• He scribbled a note to his sister before leaving. 临行前，他给妹妹草草写了一封短信。

15 smacked   

拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He smacked his lips but did not utter a word. 他吧嗒两下嘴，一声也不言语。
• She smacked a child's bottom. 她打孩子的屁股。