Grave Apparel (61 page)

“So
you’re
communing with Aunt
Mimi’s
spirit. Does she
have
any
answers from
beyond?”
His
voice
was
gently teasing.

“Maybe. It helps me think, you
know.”
“Thinking is good. Can I help?”

Lacey
set
the
pattern
down
and
leaned
back
against
her
dark
blue
velvet
sofa.
“I
don’t
know
what to do,
Vic.”
She sighed deeply and closed her
eyes.
“Jasmine’s
just a kid, this is proba
bly
all
just
a
big
game
to
her,
and
she
won’t
call
me
till
she’s
good and
ready.”

“Or when it gets good and cold.
You
might not
have
to
wait
much
longer,
darling. The weather is changing.
You
still
have
those parkas ready?”

“Parkas
won’t
be enough to
save
them if
they
end up on the street. There are so
many
predators out there. What can I do,
Vic,
recruit your mother and her pink Caddy and
drive
up and
down
every
alley
in the District?” She
couldn’t
banish an image of
two
cold little girls huddling in
doorways,
with the pimps and pushers just biding their time.

“Lacey.”
She
liked
the
way
it
sounded
when
he
said
her
name. “This might help. I’m putting a little
surveillance
team in her last
known
neighborhood, the area where
they
lived
and the church where she
borrowed
the
robe.”

“You’re
doing
what?”
She
opened
her
eyes
and
sat
up
straight.
“A
surveillance
team?”

“They’ll
be
watching
for them. Kids are hard to
find,
but
you
never
know,
they
may get
lucky.”

“Oh my God,
Vic,
that’s
so great!” It had
never
crossed her mind that he
would
do something
like
that for
her,
or that he
even
could, as if he had some
vast
network
of secret resources to spread around. She
knew
his
dad’s
security
company
was
stretched pretty thin these days,
but
Lacey
had underestimated him. And this must really be costing him, she thought. “Who are
they?”

“Just a couple of my guys who need some
extra
hours.
For
Christmas shopping.
They’re
good.”

“How
are
they
surveilling?”

“Urban
standard.
Beatup
van,
just
this
side
of
legal,
so
it
looks
like
it belongs in
Shaw.
They’ll
take
turns
walking
the neighborhood, check out the local flora and
fauna,
watching
for a
little
shepherd.
They’ll
check
Eye
Street
too,
they’ll
do
a
loop.”

Lacey
was
almost,
but
not quite, speechless with gratitude.
“That’s
so
wonderful,
Vic.”

“I’d
like
to see you tonight,
Lacey.
I need your opinion on something. The guys will call me if
anything
breaks.”

Every
bone in her body seemed to ache with
exhaustion,
and not to mention her flagging spirit.
She’d
returned home after
work
only when she decided she could do nothing
productive
in the
office.
She
knew
it
wouldn’t
be safe for her to roam around the streets of
Shaw
alone on foot, and probably she
would
find

nothing
anyway.
Without
a
car,
she
was
stuck. Stella
was
work
ing at the salon.
Brooke
was
up to her ears in a case. She had almost called on Nadine and the Pink Flamingo. At moments
like
this she really missed her old Nissan 280ZX.

“You’ll
pick me up?”

“In
fifteen
minutes, if that
works
for you. If we get the call,
we’ll
head straight to the kids. I
promise,”
he said. “What do you say?” His
voice
was
honey
on her
nerves.
“I’m close
by,
I’ll
be there
soon.”

By the time
Vic
pulled into the circle
drive
of her apartment
building
Lacey
had
washed
her
face,
redone her
makeup,
put on a rousing red sweater
over
her jeans for a little color
therapy,
and grabbed her red leather jacket. She climbed up into
the
Jeep.

“Do I smell
coffee?”
she
asked.

“I
picked
up a café mocha for you. In the cup
holder.”

She
fastened
her seat belt and reached for the steaming cup. “Thank you.
It’s
a little
spooky
how
you
know
this
stuff,
Vic.”
He swung out of the circle
drive.

“Professional
boy
scout, ma’am. Gotta be
prepared.”
“Where are we going?”

“Reporters just
have
to
know
everything,
don’t
they?”
He
kept
his
eyes
on the road.

“That’s
right.”
“It’s
a
surprise.”

Lacey
raised her
eyebrow
at him. She
wasn’t
really a sur prise kind of person. “Then just
drive,
darling.
I’ll
commune with the
coffee.”
She hoped it
was
decaf,
but
she’d
probably be
awake
all night
anyway,
she thought,
worrying
about Jasmine and Lily Rose.

Vic
turned
right
onto
South
Washington
Street,
which
turned into the scenic George
Washington
Parkway north
of
Old
Town.
Lacey
loved
the
Parkway
paralleling the Potomac
River.
The rain had stopped and the night had turned crystal
clear.
The monuments across the
river
were striking. She could see the
Jefferson
Memorial at the
Tidal
Basin, the Capitol on the National Mall, the
Washington
Monument, and the Lincoln
Memorial.
The
Parkway
took
them
beneath
the
Memorial
Bridge, which featured huge matching statues of
warriors
on horses
facing
into
Washington,
with their backs to the
traffic
from the
Virginia
side.

“That’s
the perfect metaphor for entering the
Nation’s
Cap
ital,”
Vic
said, as he often did. “Being greeted by a pair of giant gilded horses’
asses.”

“Majestic horses’ asses, though. As horses’ asses
go.”

They
drove
on
in
cozy
silence
until
Vic
spoke
again.
“How
was
your lunch with
Bentley?”

“It’s
actually
Jeffrey
Bentley
Holmes
,”
Lacey
said.
“He
says
he’d
happily drop the
Bentley,
except
he’s
been called back into the
family
biz.
They
think
he’d
be
wasted
in a
monastery.”

“And
what do you think?”
Vic
glanced her
way.
“He’s
not cut out to be a
monk.”

“Too
bad.
How
was
lunch?”

“Lovely,
until Jasmine called. I really
couldn’t
eat after that.
Too
bad, the
chicken
crepes were
delicious.”
She realized she
was
being
coy.
She
didn’t
mean to be.

“Not
exactly
what
I
was
after.”
He
gave
her
a
look.
“Where
did he
want
to
take
you as his date
tomorrow
night?”

“Some big fundraising cocktail
event.
Now
we’re
both in
vited,
Vic. It’s
at
the
Willard.”
Not
that
the
Willard
would
tempt
Vic
the
way
it tempted
Lacey.
“I
love
the
Willard.
You
want
to go?”

“Maybe.
You
told him about us then?”

“Well,
I
was
tempted to just run
off
with him at lunch,
Vic.
You
know,
the clothes, the furs, the
jewels,
the limousines, the lifestyle, none of which he has actually
offered
me. Oh, yes, the glamorous life of a
Bentley
woman!
The
fantasy
dimmed
ever
so
slightly
when
I
pictured
his
cousin
Aaron
and
his
Uncle
Hugh trying to murder me. Again. Not to mention what
his
mother might do to me. So when all
was
said and done, I de cided to dump the
Bentleys
and come back to you, Sean
Victor
Donovan.”

“Oh were you gone? I
hadn’t
noticed.”

She punched him playfully in the
shoulder.
“Of course I told him about us, you handsome jealous thing,
you.”

Lacey
thought she detected a hint of relief in
Vic’s
smile,
but
she
didn’t
press it. She left out the part about telling
Jeffrey
she’d
call him
first
if things fell through with
Vic.
That
was
the sort of
emergency
backup plan a girl should
keep
to herself.
Lacey
smiled at him and he put his right hand on her left knee and squeezed
gently.

“He’s
a mighty rich
boy,”
Vic
said.

“I hear
you’re
a rich
boy
too.”
“Comfortable,
Lacey.
Comfortable.”