“It’s all so normal,” Marley said to Gray. “Look around. It’s like there’s nothing wrong with the world.”
He gave her a long look. “Strange, huh?”
She nodded.
Pipes bent to get into the cab. Her shiny blond hair did its pretty, slipping forward thing.
Two red, swollen welts marred the back of her white neck.
Chapter 16
“There they go,” Gray said. “Shucks. And they barely said goodbye. I’m wounded.”
“You could try to sound hurt.” Marley gave a nervous little laugh. “Weird, though,” she said. She looked different, distracted.
The cab carrying Danny and his newly formed singing duo had cut a left at the end of the block.
Standing there in the sunshine, gold hoops glinting in her ears, Marley attracted all the light to her hair and skin—to her green eyes—or so it seemed to him.
“You’ll want to get to your friend’s office,” she said.
It took an instant for him to know what she meant. “Nat Archer?” Only moments ago she’d said she was going with him. What gave? He said, “Yeah. I need to keep Nat in the picture if there’s something I find out. Do you want to take a cab, too? Or shall we walk?”
He didn’t much care how they got where they needed to be as long as she was with him. Black was great on her and he’d like to tell her how much he appreciated the tight shirt, and the shorts that showed off her legs. Smoothing his hands up her thighs would feel so good. His fingers would slide all the way around to her tush. And her breasts would make sweet little handfuls—sexy-as-hell handfuls.
Shoot, he had lousy timing.
Marley dug in her pocket and pulled out a key. “Wow, I thought I’d forgotten this.”
She didn’t sound as if she thought that at all. He would bet she was uncomfortable with him again and searching for things to say.
If she had any idea how much research he had already done on the Millets, she’d be mad.
“The key to my flat,” she told him, waving it in the air. “Difficult to get in without that.”
“Why is it called Court of Angels?” Damn, he shouldn’t have asked that.
“How do you know about that?”
“You mentioned it,” he lied.
“Really? It’s filled with angels—all kinds of them.”
He looked at her narrowly. “All kinds?”
She nodded. “Stone angels. Young ones, old ones, pretty ones, plain ones, visible and invisible.” Her little smile amused him. She did like to try getting a rise out of him.
“Good,” he said. “You can’t have too many guardian angels.”
“I’ll take as many as I can get,” she said.
He nodded, fresh out of answers.
He’d done some research on her family on the Internet and discovered a lot of odd details. But the really odd thing was that once he hit a site—usually containing nothing more than a few cryptic innuendos—it went away and he couldn’t get back there. The one time he had tried to print something to get around what seemed like a self-destruct setup, he only got what looked like Sanskrit or something equally indecipherable.
“Well.” She gave him a brilliant smile. “I’d best be going. Good luck with everything.”
“I thought you wanted to come with me.”
She spread her hands and shrugged. “You don’t want me tagging along all the time.”
With an awkward, bouncy step, she backed away.
“Okay,” he said slowly. Her act wasn’t convincing. Marley didn’t want to be with him anymore, and she was in a hurry. That was obvious, but not why.
“Thanks for letting me come here with you,” she said, wiggling her fingers at him.
A few more feet separated them. She was hiding something, but he didn’t think it would help to press her.
“It’s nice to have company,” he said and felt lame. “Better than walking alone. Hey, I’m going right past your place anyway.”
She flushed, that lovely bright blush he was getting to like a lot. “You go on. I’m already out so I’m going to do a few things first. Better than breaking away from work again later.”
Marley, he decided, was perfect to look at. And she’d be perfect in bed.
He actually sucked in his gut. When was the last time he had thought about sleeping with a woman and felt as if someone had punched him? He couldn’t remember.
“Bye then,” she said.
He grinned. “Bye then, Marley. We’ve still got a date for tonight, remember?”
She all but danced in place. “We do? Oh, yes, we do. See you then. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Marley jogged away and ducked down a side street.
Gray’s attention switched at once to a police cruiser heading his way. It swerved to a stop at the curb beside him.
“What are you doin’ here?” Nat Archer said through the open front-passenger window of the car. He threw open the door and got out.
“You tell me first,” Gray said. He didn’t like it that he hadn’t been able to hang on to Marley longer.
“According to you I was keeping you out of bed earlier. When you left, you said that’s where you were heading—bed.”
“I changed my mind. Is that a new crime?”
“Only if you make it into something I don’t like,” Nat said. He wasn’t known to be argumentative, but no one would know that here and now.
Bucky Fist climbed from the other side of the car and crossed his arms on top. He wore dark sunglasses. “Hey there, Gray. I bet you think we’re followin’ you around.”
He did. “Why would you do a thing like that? I’m boring. You making any progress with the case?”
“Nope. Nothin’s movin’, not one damn thing. Except the phones. Those phones are ringin’ off the hooks. Lemon’s ready to quit if somethin’ doesn’t happen soon.”
Gray wrinkled his nose and thought about it. “What would make you happy? More bodies?”
“Don’t goad me,” Nat said.
“Me?” Gray feigned shock.
“Where’s your lady friend?” Nat said, catching Gray unprepared.
“Who would that be?”
“Don’t get cute with me. You know who I mean. Your new psychic amour. Is she still inside?” Nat indicated the Caged Bird.
They hadn’t seen Marley on the sidewalk. That was something positive.
“How the hell do you know who I’ve been with or where I’ve been? Or where to find me?”
A slow smile spread over Nat’s memorable face. “You got a short memory? I’ve got my ways—you found that out earlier.”
Bucky came around the car and onto the sidewalk. He hitched his wrinkled suit jacket across his chest and did up a button. He wore a shoulder holster and it bulged.
“You go on in and make sure nobody leaves,” Nat said to his partner. “I’ll be right there.”
Like the good command-taker he was, Bucky walked into the club, his pant legs flapping. Gray noticed he kept on his sunglasses. Maybe he used them to look inscrutable.
When they were alone Nat said, “Now you can answer the question—what were you doing in this club?”
“Visiting old friends,” Nat said.
“When did Pipes Dupuis get to be an old friend of yours?”
He ruckled his brow. “Who told you she was there?”
“Anonymous tip.”
“Ah, of course. So how about letting me in on who you’ve got following me around.” The idea irked Gray. When he’d been with the department his ability to lose tails was legendary. “I must be losing my touch.”
“I doubt it,” Nat said, suddenly really interested in the sky. “Now and then a real talent comes my way, that’s all. I want you with me. Let’s get inside.”
He ought to tell the man Pipes had already left with Sidney and Danny. “Would it be okay if I wait out here?”
Nat hesitated.
“It’s a stuffy place and I’m tired,” he said. “I don’t want to drift off on you.”
“Yeah,” Nat said. “It wouldn’t look good, you asleep on a barroom table. Leave this sidewalk before I get back and I’ll have you picked up so fast you’ll think it’s yesterday.”
“Nice,” Gray said. “I’m not leaving.”