A PORTRAIT OF OLIVIA by J.P. Bowie

by. You’ll take care of me, won’t you cowboy?”
    Luke put his arms around her and pulled her close to his hard body. “Yeah,”
    he said huskily. “And when we find out who’s screwing with you, I’ll make sure he can’t write another letter for a long time.”
    “That’s my boy,” Olivia crooned, fondling his crotch. “Mmm, that’s my big boy.”

    J.P. Bowie
    62

    “Jeff?” Monica, Jeff ’s secretary, buzzed him from the outer office.
    “Yes, Monica?”
    “There’s a Brenda Shapiro on the line for you—says it’s important.”
    “Oh God,” Jeff groaned, recognizing the name. “Okay, I’ll take it.” He put a smile in his voice as he answered. “Hi, Brenda. How are you?”
    “Just fine.” Brenda’s voice, as always, sounded brittle and without warmth.
    “Listen, Olivia wants you to do something about these letters she keeps getting.
    Are you up for it?”
    “I haven’t really given it much thought, Brenda.” Jeff maintained a civil tone despite his dislike for the woman. “I’ve been kind of busy here.”
    “Well, this is important!” Brenda rasped. “We’ve received another letter and this time it’s even more threatening than the others. Frankly, I’m worried that this screwball may be planning some kind of hit.”
    “Have you informed the police?”
    “Of course I have,” Brenda snapped. “ Miss Winter’s life is of the utmost importance to me. But she wants to get you involved too…seeing as how you’ve cracked so many cases,” she added, with just a trace of mockery.
    Jeff ignored the woman’s challenging manner. “Look Brenda, like I said, I’m very busy…but, because Olivia has some kind of vested interest in Peter, I will consider taking this on. I’ll need to see the letters and I’ll talk to a friend of mine at LAPD. Can you fax me copies?”
    “Yeah…” Brenda gave him the bored tone. “I’ll get right on it. What’s your number?”
    He gave her his fax number then quickly hung up. This was one case he could live without, he thought, as he put the receiver down. Too bad Nick wasn’t up to taking it on, but he couldn’t blame his partner for wanting to steer clear of Olivia—she was just too much hard work.
    “Why so glum, chum?” Nick stood in front of Jeff ’s desk looking down at him with a half smile on his handsome face.
    “Oh, Olivia’s watchdog was gnawing at my ankles,” Jeff replied. “Wants me to solve the mystery of the anonymous letters they keep getting.”
    “Better you than me,” Nick chuckled.
    “Hey, I haven’t entirely let you off the hook yet, buddy. What’s a partner for, after all?”
    “Come on,” Nick groaned. “You wouldn’t do this to me, would you?’

    J.P. Bowie
    63
    Jeff laughed at his friend’s discomfort. “Probably not…” He broke off as Monica entered the office carrying the faxes Brenda had sent. “But let’s take a look at these together, shall we?”

    Olivia, looking as poised and beautiful as ever, smiled warmly at her audience as she accepted their riotous applause. She waited till the noise subsided then welcomed them to the taping of her new show.
    “We’re going to have a lot of fun today, ladies and gentlemen,” she told them, with a wink. She then reeled off the names of her guests, waiting for each celebrity name to get the desired ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ their individual star status merited. “But first,” she continued, “I want to take a moment for some serious stuff.” She walked to her desk with a stately tread and picked up a sheaf of papers that lay there.
    In the wings, Brenda gasped as she realized what Olivia was about to do.
    “Damn her,” she muttered, under her breath. They had not discussed this…
    “I have here some correspondence I would like to share with you,” Olivia was saying. “Y’all probably think that all the mail I get is in the form of fan-mail—and for the most part that is true. However…” She paused for dramatic effect. “These, that