"Oh, it was a nightmare, all right. She thought Mr. Grape-grabber was stealing Ms. Jelliroll." Gia's insides gave a small lurch as she remembered Vicky's scream—"She even thought she saw him in the backyard."
Jack stiffened. "She saw someone?"
"Not someone. Mr. Grape-grabber. Her doll."
"Go through it all step by step, from the time you awoke until you called the police."
"I went through it all for those two cops."
"Do it again for me. Please. It may be important."
Gia told him of awakening to Vicky's screams, of looking out the window and seeing nothing, of going down to Nellie's room…
"One thing I didn't mention to the police was the smell in the room."
"Perfume? After shave?"
"No. A rotten smell." Recalling the odor made her uneasy. "Putrid."
Jack's face tightened. "Like a dead animal?"
"Yes. Exactly. How did you know?"
"Lucky guess." He suddenly seemed tense. He went into Nellie's bathroom and checked all the bottles. He didn't seem to find what he was looking for. "Did you catch that odor anywhere else in the house?"
"No. What's so important about an odor?"
He turned to her. "I'm not sure. But remember what I told you this morning?"
"You mean about not drinking anything strange like Grace's laxative?"
"Right. Did Nellie buy anything like that? Or did anything like it come to the house?"
Gia thought for a moment. "No… the only thing we've received lately is a box of chocolates from my ex-husband."
"For you?"
"Hardly! For Nellie. They're her favorite. Seem to be a pretty popular brand. Nellie mentioned them to your Indian lady's brother last night." Was last night Saturday night? It seemed so long ago. "He called today to find out where he could order some."
Jack's eyebrows rose. "Kusum?"
"You sound surprised."
"Just that he doesn't strike me as a chocolate fan. More like a brown rice and water type."
Gia knew what he meant. Kusum had ascetic written all over him.
As they walked back into the hall, Jack said, "What's this Mr. Grape-grabber look like?"
"Like a purple Snidely Whiplash. I'll get it for you."
She led Jack up to the third floor and left him outside in the hall while she tip-toed over to the night table and picked up the doll.
"Mommy?"
Gia started at the unexpected sound. Vicky had a habit of doing that. Late at night, when she should have been sound asleep, she would let her mother walk in and bend over to kiss her good night; at the last moment she would open her eyes and say, "Hi." It was spooky sometimes.
"Yes, honey?"
"I heard you talking downstairs. Is Jack here?"
Gia hesitated, but could see no way to get out of telling her.
"Yes. But I want you to lie there and go back to—"
Too late. Vicky was out of bed and running for the hall.
"Jack-Jack-Jack!"
He had her up in his arms and she was hugging him by the time Gia reached the hall.
"Hiya, Vicks."
"Oh, Jack, I'm so glad you're here! I was so scared before."
"So I heard. Your Mommy said you had a bad dream."
As Vicky launched into her account of Mr. Grape-grabber's plots against Ms. Jelliroll, Gia marveled again at the rapport between Jack and her daughter. They were like old friends. At a time like this she sorely wished Jack were a different sort of man. Vicky needed a father so, but not one whose work required guns and knives.
Jack held his hand out to Gia for the doll. Mr. Grape-grabber was made of plastic; a lean, wiry fellow with long arms and legs, entirely purple but for his face and a black top hat. Jack studied the doll.
"He does sort of look like Snidely Whiplash. Put a crow on his shoulder and he'd be Will Eisner's Mr. Carrion." He held the doll up to Vicky. "Is this the guy you thought you saw outside?"
"Yes," Vicky said, nodding. "Only he wasn't wearing his hat."
"What was he wearing?"
"I couldn't see. All I could see was his eyes. They were yellow."
Jack started violently, almost dropping Vicky. Gia instinctively reached out a hand to catch her daughter in case she fell.
"Jack, what's the matter?"
He smiled—weakly, she thought.
"Nothing. Just a spasm in my arm from playing tennis. Gone now." He looked at Vicky. "But about those eyes—it must have been a cat you saw. Mr. Grape-grabber doesn't have yellow eyes."
Vicky nodded vigorously. "He did tonight. So did the other one."
Gia was watching Jack and could swear a sick look passed over his face. It worried her because it was not an expression she ever expected to see there.
"Other one?" he said.
"Uh-huh. Mr. Grape-grabber must have brought along a helper."
Jack was silent a moment, then he hefted Vicky in his arms and carried her back into the bedroom.
"Time for sleep, Vicks. I'll see you in the morning."
Vicky made some half-hearted protests as he left the bedroom, then rolled over and lay quiet as soon as Gia tucked her in. Jack was nowhere in sight when Gia returned to the hall. She found him downstairs in the walnut paneled library, working on the alarm box with a tiny screwdriver.
"What are you doing?"
"Reconnecting the upper floors. This should have been done right after Grace disappeared. There! Now no one gets in or out without raising cain."
Gia could tell he was hiding something from her and that was unfair.
"What do you know?"
"Nothing." He continued to study the insides of the box. "Nothing that makes any sense, anyway."
That wasn't what Gia wanted to hear. She wanted someone —anyone—to make some sense out of what had happened here in the past week. Something Vicky said had disturbed Jack. Gia wanted to know what it was.
"Maybe it will make sense to me."
"I doubt it."
Gia flared into anger. "I'll be the judge of that! Vicky and I have been here most of the week and we'll probably have to stay here a few more days in case there's any word from Nellie. If you've got any information about what's going on here, I want to hear it!"
Jack looked at her for the first time since she had entered the room.
"Okay. Here it is: There's been a rotten smell that has come and gone in my apartment for the last two nights. And last night there were two sets of yellow eyes looking in the window of my tv room."
"Jack, you're on the third floor!"
"They were there."
Gia felt something twist inside her. She sat down on the settee and shivered.
"God! That gives me the creeps!"
"It had to be cats."
Gia looked at him and knew that he didn't believe that. She pulled her robe more tightly about her. She wished she hadn't demanded to know what he was thinking, and wished even more that he hadn't told her.
"Right," she said, playing along with the game. "Cats. Had to be."
Jack stretched and yawned as he moved toward the center of the room. "It's late and I'm tired. Think it'd be all right if I spent the night here?"
Gia bottled a sudden gush of relief to keep it from showing on her face.
"I suppose so."
"Good." He settled into Nellie's recliner and pushed it all the way back. "I'll just bed down right here while you go up with Vicky."
He turned on the reading lamp next to the chair and reached for a magazine from the pile next to the dish full of the Black Magic chocolates. Gia felt a lump swell in her throat at the thought of Nellie's child-like glee at receiving that box of candy.
"Need a blanket?"
"No. I'm fine. I'll just read for a little while. Good night."