“Everything okay?” he said as a greeting.
“You’ve heard from your office,” I replied, thinking the mysterious forces behind his commando cartel had already alerted to my latest adventure.
“Heard what from my office?”
Oopsie.
“Well, I don’t want to disturb you but I thought I should tell you before your office hears it on police-band. Pepper Rick’s dead body was propped into the doorway of Fortnum’s this morning.”
Silence, then, “A present.”
“What?”
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Lee, you don’t have to…” but he’d disconnected.
Jimmy Marker walked up to me and after asking a few questions he wiped his eyes with his hand.
“Indy, tell me you aren’t keepin’ anything from me.”
After Tex got shot, I told Jimmy everything at the hospital, about Rosie, the pot, the diamonds, Terry Wilcox, everything. Well, not everything, I left out my B and E, so almost everything. I had nothing left to tell and if Jimmy was getting frustrated and impatient, he should step into my shoes.
“Jimmy, I may be crazy but I’m not stupid and whatever you think, I know right from wrong. I told you all I know at the hospital.”
Dad walked up to me and slung an arm around my shoulders.
“I just want to know why you’re the focal point of all of this,” Jimmy said.
“I’d like to know that too,” Dad said.
“Well, when you find out, tell me because this is beginning to piss me off!” As I talked, my voice rose and I was screaming by the end.
Jimmy took a step back and a bunch of heads swung in my direction.
I saw an SUV double park and Lee slid from behind the wheel. His eyes were on me but Malcolm and Hank stopped him before he could make his way to me.
“I take it you know what’s going on,” I said to Dad, taking my eyes off Lee.
“What there is to know. Cops talk, you’re my daughter. Jimmy’s keeping me briefed.”
“Why haven’t you said anything?”
“I trust Liam to sort it out and I trust you to do the right thing.”
Simple as that.
Dad was cool, Dad had always been cool. Somewhere in the last couple of days, Lee had been given Dad’s blessing. Probably when I started to have certain incidents, incidents the like of which any father would want Liam Nightingale to be his daughter’s boyfriend.
I walked to the Nightingale huddle. Malcolm had his back to me, Lee and Hank were at his sides, their backs mostly to me.
As I walked up, I heard Malcolm say, “Hank, I know you use Lee to do the shit that’d get your hands dirty and Lee, I know you play the game pretty loose. I let you boys play it the way you feel you need to ‘cause, so far, whatever deal you got goin’ works. But I don’t like what I’m smellin’ and…”
Lee’s head turned and he looked at me out of the corners of his eyes.
“Indy,” he said and I think he said this more to Malcolm than to me.
All the Nightingale men turned to me and whatever was happening stopped.
Great. Whatever. Fine by me.
I walked up to Lee and stopped, though not close enough for his liking because his hand came out and curled around my neck, pulling me into his side. Hank, Dad and Malcolm moved off.
“How’re you doin’, gorgeous?” he asked me.
“I’m losing my patience. This is getting old,” I told him. “How’s your man?”
“No word, I have to get back to the hospital. I see you confiscated the Crossfire.”
“Do you mind?”
“Nope.”
I turned into him and put my hand on his stomach.
“Your man, he wasn’t doing… something… for me?”
Lee’s hand around my neck twisted and he tugged softly at my hair.
“A different assignment, nothin’ to do with you or the diamonds.”
I felt a tremendous relief. I already had Tex’s injury, Ally’s totaled car and everyone else’s worry resting on my shoulders, I didn’t need something else. Then I looked at Lee and realized all that, plus whatever this new thing was, still rested firmly on his.
“You need to go,” I said.
“Yeah.”
I started to pull away but his hand dropped, his arm curled around my shoulders and turned me into him, full-frontal.
“With Rick out of the way, you should be safe but you need to be careful. Coxy isn’t a threat but he’s a wildcard.”
I nodded.
“I want to come home to you,” he said.
My breath disappeared. I didn’t suck it in and I didn’t let it out, it just vanished.
I did a mental shake and got myself together.
“Sorry?”
“Tonight. I’ll phone you when I’m on my way. All you need to get you into the parking garage and condo is on the Crossfire’s key ring. Even after Luke gets out of surgery, I’ve got things to do but when I come home tonight, I want you to be there.”
I only hesitated a second. “Okay.”
He looked at me for awhile, his eyes got soft and he said, “I’m sorry about this morning.”
“It couldn’t be helped.”
“We’ll finish tonight.”
Finally, something to look forward to.
Duke made six big posters, taping them in all the big windows, announcing Fortnum’s was closed. Hard to open with police tape stretched across your front door.
Thank God I didn’t have a mortgage.
I had the day yawning ahead of me and no bodyguard following my every step.
It felt weird.
I went to Tex’s to give him an update and help him with the cats. He’d been re-stitched and let go last night. I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be Pepper Rick’s demise, I guessed jubilation, but was wrong.
“We live, we die,” he said.
Philosophical.
Cats fed, litter boxes cleaned, laser lights jiggled on the walls, I headed to Kumar’s to stock up on stuff for the condo and have a gossip. He wasn’t there but I had a chat with Mrs. Kumar who was behind the counter with Mrs. Salim motionless on a stool behind her. I thought, but did not say, that they might do better business if it didn’t look like a mummy was propped up behind the cash register. Then I worried if God would strike me with lightening for such a thought.
I got my bits and pieces from Mrs. Kumar and headed to Ally’s.
She made me coffee and gave me more ibuprofen.
“I know about the dead guy. Dad called Mom, Mom called me. You okay?” she asked.
“I’m getting tired of this.”
“I bet.”
“What are you doing today?” I asked.
“Laying low, I got a shift tonight.”
Ally now worked at My Brother’s Bar down by Platte River. They’d been around long enough for the wooden tables and walls to look weathered and worn, they had the best bar food in Denver, members of the symphony hung out there after performances and they pulled an excellent pint of Guinness.
“I was beginning to think you’d quit,” I told her.
“No, had a shift the night you got kidnapped but apparently it’s cool to call off when your best friend is being held hostage.”
“Good to know.”
She offered a manicure and pedicure and I took her up on it. I returned the favor by washing and styling her hair. I would have gone to beauty school if I hadn’t inherited Fortnum’s. Since I’d hit teenage status, I always gave good hair. With Ally, it wasn’t hard to give good hair, her hair was soft and thick with just enough wave, it never looked bad.
“How’re things with Lee?” she shouted over the hairdryer as I was roller brushing her hair.
“I’m totally freaking out,” I shouted back.
“I sensed that.” She was still shouting.
I turned off the hairdryer and looked at her. “He’s good at this stuff.”