Fast Women (41 page)

So all she had to do was find somebody she liked and respected who was doing work she liked and respected, and organize that person's business life. Of course, she'd already found that person in Gabe but…

She went on indexing newsletters until, close to five o'clock, she flipped over a newsletter and read "Stewart Dysart." It wasn't the first time she typed a page number after his name, but it was the first time there'd been a picture. It was Stewart all right, blond and running to fat and arrogant as hell, his arm around a pretty blonde, his secretary, according to the caption. Kitty Moran.

Nell looked closer. Kitty Moran looked familiar. Extremely familiar. Nell put her thumb over Kitty's blonde upsweep and imagined her brunette. Lynnie Mason.

"I will be damned," she said out loud and took the newsletter out to the copy machine. When she was done, she put the copy back in the files and stuffed the original in her purse, and then she went out to the hall-"Bathroom break," she said to Elizabeth, who frowned at her-and around a corner to another secretary's desk. "Can I use your phone?" she said. "Elizabeth is-"

The man pushed the phone toward her. "You don't need to tell me about Elizabeth," he said, and she grinned at him and dialed Riley's number.

"It's me," she said when he answered.

"Tell me you're coming back," Riley said.

"No. Listen, I have something you'd like to see."

"Never say that to me in front of Gabe," Riley said. "I gather this is something I haven't already seen?"

"Yes," Nell said. "But I could meet you in an hour and go into great detail."

"I also gather you are not alone," Riley said.

"I'm in the belly of the beast. How about the Sycamore? Say, six?"

"How about the Long Shot at eight? It's a bar on Front Street in the Brewery District. I have to be there anyway."

"Okay," Nell said, thinking it was probably just as well since Gabe was likely to show up at the Sycamore and feeling treacherously disappointed about that.

"I hate to sound melodramatic," Riley said, "but this isn't putting you in any danger, is it?"

Nell smiled at the secretary who was blatantly listening. "Yes," she said. "Elizabeth is going to kill me and hide my body in the newsletter room, and let me tell you, it'll be decades before anybody goes in there again." The secretary grinned at her.

"Eight, then," Riley said. "Look hot. I only hang out in bars with hot women."

"Like that's news," Nell said, and hung up, smiling at the secretary. "Thank you so much."

"My pleasure," he said. "I'm good for anything that bugs Elizabeth."

Nell went back to the newsletter room and found Jack waiting for her. "Taking a break?" he said, smiling tightly at her, and she thought, Uh-oh. Something happened while be was out.

"A small break," she said.

"Do you know the boss well enough to do that?" he said and took a step closer.

"Probably not," Nell said, trying not to overreact. "I'll just get back to work."

"No hurry." Jack loomed over her, looking mad as hell behind his smile.

Okay, is he going to bit me or kiss me? Nell thought, and when Jack grabbed her and kissed her, she was so relieved she didn't stop him. He was a pretty good kisser, even when she knew he was doing it so she'd tell Suze. Nell heard a bleating sound and pulled back to see Elizabeth, standing in the door to the newsletter room. Nell looked up at Jack and said, "Busted." Jack jerked back, glaring at Elizabeth, but before he could say anything, Nell said, "You know, I am absolutely ruining the working environment here. I quit."

She ducked away from Jack and grabbed her purse and escaped into the parking lot, neither knowing nor caring what was happening behind her, heading back to the Village where she belonged.

Gabe had just gotten back to the office when Riley came in and sat down across from him.

"We're missing a secretary again," Gabe said. "Spinal Tap didn't have this much trouble with drummers."

"She's out on a job," Riley said. "I gave her Becca's Randy."

"You did."

"She wants to be an investigator. I think she'd be good at it, and we're turning down work. So I'm trying her out, and if she's good, she can move into that when Nell gets back."

"And where would we put her?" Gabe said, trying to ignore the way his pulse picked up when he thought about Nell coming back.

"Chloe's storeroom," Riley said. "We get rid of the freezer and put a window in the street wall."

"Chloe might have something to say about that," Gabe said. "And then there's the question of where we'd put the freezer files."

"The basement," Riley said.

"Okay." Gabe turned on his computer, not really caring. "It's your call."

"She's going to be good," Riley said. "She has skills we don't."

"I never doubted it." He opened his notebook and flipped through until he found the notes for his report.

"By the way, I stopped by OD on a background check and offered Trevor and Jack a reference for Nell. I told them she'd organized everything in the place except for the Porsche. We all got a laugh out of that."

"Very subtle. If the Porsche gets stolen it's nobody's fault but your own."

"We can only hope they're that dumb. I have it locked in the garage so they'll have to make an effort to get to it."

"You are sure there's nothing in it?"

"Positive," Gabe said. "I'm not 'that dumb."

"Jury's still out on that," Riley said, "considering your fine performance with Nell."

"Was there anything else, or are you leaving?" Gabe said.

"Something else. Chloe called from London."

"Did she?" Gabe squinted at his notes. "Did you ask about the earrings?"

"Yes. Your father gave them to her in a red box with a devil on it when Lu was born. He told her to save them for Lu when she got married. She wore them for the picture, and then she put them away and forgot about them until I asked."

"I knew she wasn't a diamond kind of woman," Gabe said. "He gave them to her in that box? The box with the car title?"

"Yep. But she put the box on the shelf in the bathroom because of the picture on top of it. The devil. Bad karma."

"Chloe put it up on the shelf? Did it have the title in it then?"

"She didn't notice. But I don't think anybody moved it since she put it up there, so my guess is yes."

"Then Lynnie never had it. So what was she looking for?"

"The diamonds," Riley said. "She was a diamond kind of woman. Back to Chloe. She talked to Lu, and Lu's upset, so Chloe's upset."

Gabe shrugged. "Lu and Jase are having some problems. They'll work it out. I still don't get how Lynnie knew Trevor or Jack or why they'd tell her about the diamonds."

"Pay attention to the present for a minute," Riley said.

"Chloe's worried about Lu. She's coming home."

"When?"

"Should be here tomorrow. She was at Heathrow when she called."

"Okay," Gabe said and went back to the computer.

"And Nell called."

Gabe swung away from the computer. "Really."

"She found something at OD. There were people listening, so she told me she'd tell me the rest tonight at the Long Shot. I'm meeting her at eight."

"There's a coincidence," Gabe said. "I'm meeting Gina Taggart there at eight."

Riley looked innocent. "I told Suze I'd take her there tonight, show her the ropes, so I'm meeting Nell there, too. Convenience. Not a coincidence."

"What ropes are there in a bar?"

"I have my reasons," Riley said.

"I'm sure you do," Gabe said. "And you did not tell Suze you'd take her to the Long Shot. You'll tell her that when she gets back. You set this whole thing up so I'd see Nell."

"You're a very suspicious man," Riley said.

"Am I right?"

"Yes."

"Thank you," Gabe said.

When Riley was gone, Gabe sat back and thought about Nell and Suze and Chloe and then Nell again. He wanted Nell back. "Compromise," he'd told Lu. Maybe he could corner her tonight and suggest a compromise. At this point, she could present a list of demands and he'd give her all of them. Except the window. But anything else, she could have.

Oh, hell, she could have that, too, as long as she came back.

He put Dean on and listened to "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime," while he keyed in the report and felt happier than he had since Nell had left.

When Nell got home that night at six, she showed Suze the picture in the newsletter.

"We should take this to Margie," Suze said. "We have time. We don't have to be at the bar for two hours. And she'll know about Kitty, I bet." She put the newsletter down. "We should talk to her an3way. She's been a little…strange at work this week."

"Work does that to some women," Nell said, thinking of Elizabeth.

Half an hour later, sitting at her kitchen table over a glass of soy milk, Margie squinted at the picture and said, "Yep, that's Kitty. I always thought Stewart was sleeping with her."

"You don't sound too upset," Suze said.

"Well, it was Stewart," Margie said. "She could have him. In fact, I always thought she got him in the end."

"You think he left with her?" Nell said.

"Well, I did. But if she came back, where is he?" Margie said, and then she put her glass down, horrified. "Oh, no. What if he's back? What if he came back with her? What if they ran out of money and came back here for more? What'll I do?"

"You'll get a divorce," Suze said. "He's the embezzler. He can't make any trouble for you."

"Yes, he can," Margie said, staring stricken at her soy milk. "I tried to kill him."

"Stop showing off, Marge," Suze said.

"I'm not showing off," Margie said. "I hit him hard and he went down, blood all over the place. It was the only part of my marriage I really enjoyed."

She smiled wistfully, and Nell and Suze looked at each other. Then Suze picked up Margie's milk and tasted it. "Amaretto," she said. "Lots of it."

"Margie," Nell said. "You've had enough calcium."

"It is impossible for women in our age group to have enough calcium," Margie said, her voice tight with panic. "As you stand there, calcium is just dripping out of your bones. Budge says so."

"What's he say about the Amaretto?" Suze said.

"He doesn't know about the Amaretto," Margie said. "And he's never gonna. What am I going to do about Stewart?"

"Nothing," Nell said, keeping her voice upbeat. "You did not try to kill him."

"Yeah, I did," Margie said, sniffing and sipping at the same time so that she choked a little. "He was leaving on a business trip and Budge came by and told me he'd taken money from Daddy. So I told him he had to give it back or I'd leave, and he laughed and said that I didn't have the backbone to leave, and even if I did, I wouldn't be much of a loss because I was boring."

"Uh- oh," Suze said.

"And then he turned his back on me and I hit him with my Franciscan Desert Rose milk pitcher."

"Oh," Nell said, believing her now.

"It was on the buffet, full of Queen Anne's lace." She nodded into the distance. "That pitcher was a big sucker, and I caught him right across the back of the head with it. He went down like a rock. Queen Anne everywhere."

"Okay," Nell said, regrouping as fast as she could. "Well-"

"Then Budge came in, and I called Daddy, and Daddy called Jack, and I went upstairs, and they got him to the airport. And he never got on the plane." She shook her head as if this were just one more example of Stewart's perfidy. "So I figured he was with Kitty and the money."

"Budge was there when you hit him?" Suze said.

"He was in the next room," Margie said. "When Stewart came home, I made Budge go hide."

"Stewart didn't see Budge's car?"

"He always parked over on the side street," Margie said.

"Always?" Suze said, straightening. "Margie?"

"Well, Stewart was really awful," Margie said. "In bed and out. And Budge is really good."

Nell got up and poured herself a milk and Amaretto. "Okay. You were sleeping with Budge while Stewart was alive?"

"It seemed like a good idea," Margie said. "Daddy doesn't believe in divorce. He thinks Jack is a scandal."

"So do I," Suze said and poured herself a glass, too.

"So I was stuck. And then Stewart left, and there was Budge. I owe him, so I have to stay with him. Most of the time it's all right, but sometimes he makes me crazy. Like he hates me working at The Cup. And the vegetarian thing. I mean, I do think being a vegetarian is important, but everybody needs to cheat a little. I haven't had a hamburger since he moved in. Sometimes I'd kill for a steak."

"That shattering sound you just heard was our illusions," Suze said to Nell.

"So then what happened? After Stewart left." Nell nodded at Margie to encourage her.