Out of Sight (12 page)

W
aiting for Nat’s attention had started to grate on Sykes. He wanted to get to Royal Street, but not until he had made sure Liam or Ethan understood the importance of keeping tabs on Poppy.

Nat had been on the phone ever since they had joined him in Poppy’s office and since he might as well have been talking in code, even that didn’t ease the irritation.

Poppy’s office didn’t contain anything blue that Sykes could see. The room was as spare as he liked to keep his own spaces. Nat sat at her glass-topped desk. Liam and Sykes used two cube-shaped gray leather armchairs a shade or two lighter than the wall-to-wall carpet. The walls were an even paler shade of gray.

Nat got up and turned his back on them. “Rotary?” he said. “Corkscrew? What the hell does that mean?”

Sykes leaned closer to Liam. “Poppy must not be allowed to go off on her own. And she can’t be with Ward Bienville unless we keep an eye on them.” He raised his brows at Liam. “I’m sure you know what I mean.”

“We’re going to spy on my sister if she’s alone with him. No problem. I’m with you all the way.” Liam studied Nat’s broad back to make sure the policeman was still engrossed in his conversation. “Anything else on your mind?” he asked, when he was satisfied they wouldn’t be overheard.

“A suggestion was made that I should ask you a question.”

Liam cocked his head. “Ask.”

“What do you know about changes in the situation with the Embran?”

This time Liam wasn’t so quick to answer. He raised his shoulders. “Nothing. At least, I don’t think I do. All the information I get comes from you and your family. We’re ready to be of assistance when you give us the word.”

“You can’t think of anything you’ve heard or seen that might be a clue to what they’re planning?”

“No.”

Sykes changed the subject. “Did Ben say anything to you about finding some really small gold keys?”

“When?”

“Right before he Bonded with Willow and they took off for Kauai.”

Liam shook his head slowly. “No, he didn’t. Are you going to fill me in?”

“Probably,” Sykes told him, “but…” He didn’t finish because Nat cut off his cell phone connection and turned toward them.

“Is Poppy out there, I hope?” he said.

“Uh-huh,” Sykes said. “What’s this about…separating us for questioning?”

Nat gave his charming white smile. “Well now, am I separating you from Poppy, or Liam from Poppy? Or Poppy from both of you?”

“Things have been tense around here,” Liam told him. “Not much is amusing me right now.”

Liam said aloud what Sykes was thinking. And Sykes was grateful.

“Poppy could just as well have been in here. I wanted to give her some time with Wazoo. Wazoo likes her and I can use all the persuasion I can get to convince that woman she needs to move from Toussaint to New Orleans.”

The argument didn’t convince Sykes, but he let it go.

“You and Poppy arrived together this morning?” Nat asked Sykes. “Her brothers hadn’t seen her since yesterday. Was she with you all that time.”

“Am I providing Poppy with an alibi?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Liam sputtered.

“Just pulling his chain,” Sykes said. “Yes, Poppy was with me. All except for when she took a little nap at my sister Marley’s place. Marley was there. So I can account for her every minute of the time.”

“All night long?” Nat said. He returned to the black leather chair behind Poppy’s heavy glass desk and jotted on a notepad. “Until you got here?”

Sykes peered sideways at Liam. “Yes.” He would rather Poppy had been there to speak for herself.

Liam drummed his fingers on his thighs.

“How about you?” Nat asked Liam. “Anyone who’ll admit to spending the night with you?”

Liam smiled. “Unfortunately not. I slept in my cold little bed alone.”

“But you didn’t get there until pretty late, hmm?”

Sykes glanced at Liam who frowned and wrinkled his nose.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Just trying to put everyone somewhere last night. Someone was pretty busy. We’ve got another body. Male this time, but there are some similarities to Sonia Gardner’s death.”

“What kind of similarities?” Sykes asked bluntly. “Was this guy wearing a silver dress, too?”

“Ha, ha, ha.” Nat leaned forward and rested his elbows. “You were at some sort of high-price-ticket event last night, Liam?”

“It could be as high priced as you wanted it to be, depending on whether you felt like giving a lot of money away. I didn’t. I was there because I’m a curious man. It was possible I could learn something that would be interesting to a member of my family, so I went.”

“But you were invited?”

“Yeah. I imagine everyone will be eventually. It was here in the Quarter. A fundraiser for Ward Bienville’s potential senate run. I guess you’d call it a name-gathering event to draw in would-be contributors. I went
because Ward has a thing for Poppy and I’d like to know more about him.”

“You didn’t mention any invitation when I was here yesterday,” Nat pointed out.

“I would have preferred it if no one knew I went. It wasn’t my kind of thing. And Poppy would be furious if she knew. She considers Ward a friend.”

“Was the new body found wherever the party was?” Sykes said.

“That’s not public information.” Nat looked at Sykes. “But, yes, the body was found at the party.”

He got the stunned silence he must have expected.

“That makes two nights, two fundraisers or whatever and one person from each event murdered. You and Poppy both attended the first event, Sykes. Liam was at the second one.”

“Lucky us,” Sykes said, meeting Liam’s eyes.

“I don’t know how long I can keep the powers that be from turning all their attention on you and the rest of the…the rest of your close friends,” Nat said. “Bad news follows you around.”

“You’ve seen enough to know what we’ve been up against,” Sykes said, and stood up. “You were there the last time. You saw those
things
at work trying to kill us—or kidnap us, if they could. We’re the good guys, remember?”

Nat nodded. He breathed deeply and let his head hang back. “Liam, did you see or hear anything unusual last night? Nothing is too insignificant to repeat.”

“He’s got that right,” Sykes muttered. “Why did they have the party without the party boy?”

“A woman and three men who said they were Ward’s advisors did the honors. And they didn’t say Ward had been taken in by the police, if that’s what you’re looking for. They just kept repeating that he’d gotten held up by someone very influential.”

“I guess I just got more important,” Nat said. He didn’t smile. “Nothing else you can tell me?”

Liam shifted in his chair. “Just the weirdo in the bathroom.”

He crossed his arms and met Nat’s eyes.

“And?” Nat said.

“Followed me in as if he didn’t know it was a one-customer-at-a-time variety, and shut the door.”

That got Sykes’s full attention, too. “You’re kidding.”

“Stood there staring at me as if I ought to know him. Kind of a smile on his face. When he moved I thought he was leaving. I expected him to apologize. When he didn’t, I made kind of, ‘after you’ motions and started to get out of there. Only he blocked my way.”

Nat threw down his pen and gave Liam his full attention.

“Look,” Liam said, “this is going to sound off the wall. He walked straight at me until he slammed into me.” Turning his face, he pointed to a red mark on his jaw.

“Right into you?” Sykes said. “Deliberately?”

“The real kicker was that he looked more puzzled
about it than I did. He kept looking into my eyes like he was trying to see inside my head. His eyes were too big or something. Then he backed up a couple of steps and did it again. Wham.”

Nat squinched up his eyes. “Had to be drunk or something.”

“I don’t think so,” Liam said. “He turned away and left, shut the door hard enough to make the thing rattle.”

“You didn’t go after—”

“Sure I went after him. The bathroom was in a kind of curved corridor. I must have chosen the wrong direction. I ran back toward the party and he hadn’t gone that way. By the time I went the other way there was no sign of him.”

E
very few seconds Poppy glanced at her office, expecting to see the men coming out.

“They won’t be much longer,” Wazoo said.

“Good.” Poppy looked quickly at her companion. “How do you know?”

“Just a wild guess.” She reached into a skirt pocket and pulled out something, which she pressed into Poppy’s hand. “This is nothing, just a little thing because I like you so much.”

In her hand Poppy held a dark green velvet bag embroidered with even darker green beads. It hung on a silk cord. “It’s cute,” she said.

Wazoo folded Poppy’s hand over the bag. “It’s also special. I think you know what I mean. Please, for my sake, keep it with you at all times. You can easily wear it under your clothes.

Slipping the cord around her neck, Poppy put the soft bag with it’s slightly lumpy filling under her T-shirt. She wasn’t sure what she thought about fetishes, amulets, but things were strange all over so why not hedge her bets?

“Thank you,” she said. “You made it, didn’t you?”

“It would be worthless if I hadn’t.” She leaned to see around Poppy in the other direction. “And here comes more interesting company looking for you.”

The interesting company was Ward this time. He strode into the club in that way he had of seeming to take up all the space around him. And he didn’t look as if he’d spent harrowing hours under police questioning.

“There you are, honey,” he said, spotting Poppy and switching paths. “I finally decided I would come here and wait until you showed up. To be blunt, I kind of thought you’d be here anyway. Did your brothers tell you I’ve been trying to get you for hours?”

“They did,” Poppy said, overwhelmed as she usually was by his larger-than-life presence. He seemed to pull a whirl of air with him and anyone in earshot stopped to watch.

His cream silk shirt was open at the neck to show a V of tanned skin and his pants, light brown and also silk, hit the well-toned muscle in his thighs with every step.

He slid in beside Poppy and tipped her face up to his. She didn’t react quite fast enough to evade the kiss he dropped on her lips. “You have no idea what those goons put me through,” he said, holding the sides of her head as if she were made of fine china.

“Couldn’t have been that bad,” Wazoo said from the corner recesses of the booth. “You look pretty fresh and feisty to me.”

Ward looked at her as if he hadn’t noticed she was there before.

“This is my friend, Wazoo,” Poppy said. “And her friend’s dog.”

“Yeah” was the most reaction that got. “Best news in the world, sweetheart. It’s all over. The monster who did that to poor Sonia showed up on the surveillance tapes from my place. But she didn’t die for nothing. No, sir, not for nothing. I’m going full steam ahead now, because I believe Sonia died so someone could use her to stop me doing what I set out to do. Well, it’s not going to work.”

Wazoo sang, “How Come My Dog Doesn’t Bark When You Come Around?” Not quite under her breath.

Poppy didn’t know where to look or who to talk to, but she did see the door to her office open and Nat emerge with Sykes and Liam.

They came toward the booth but paused when Ethan appeared from the back, briefcase in hand. The four of them exchanged a few words before Ethan walked out of the club.

“That must be another of your brothers,” Wazoo said. “My, oh, my, such delectable men there are in the French Quarter. There’s something irresistible about a really dark man.”

If Ward wasn’t so self-confident he might notice the comment, but he knew he was good-looking, dark or not.

“Having a good time, ladies?” Liam said. The mo
ment he stood beside the table he took a beignet and a napkin and managed to eat the now-cold dough without dropping a speck of sugar.

“We were,” Wazoo said with a glance in Ward’s direction.

“Hey, Archer,” Ward said. “You still following me?”

“No,” Nat said shortly. “Have you met Liam Fortune and Sykes Millet?”

Ward gave the two men a sunny inspection. “Hey, Liam, it feels good to be back here. Where have I seen you, Sykes?”

“A lot of people seem familiar,” Sykes said flatly. He obviously wasn’t happy to see Ward.

Poppy caught his eye and recoiled from his deadpan expression.

The deadpan disappeared fast and dramatically. “Mario,” he said, pointing at the dog Wazoo held. “My sister Willow’s dog. Where did you find him?”

“He followed Nat in here, and Nat said for me to look after him. Now I understand the poor little boy’s confusion.” She hugged him close. “You got lost, but you’ll be just fine now. Relax and let all the tension out.”

Poppy actually heard the dog sigh.

“Sheesh, I’d better call Pascal,” Sykes said. “Ben and Willow shipped the dog home from Kauai yesterday for a vet’s visit. Pascal said they’d lost him and they were worried sick.”

“He walked right up to me outside,” Nat said. “Good
boy, aren’t you?” He reached across the table to scratch Mario between his ears.

“Must have come here looking for Ben and Willow,” Liam said. “Must be a bloodhound in disguise.”

“I was just telling Poppy my good news,” Ward said and sounded unusually strained.

“That Sonia Gardner apparently wasn’t murdered by you, but by someone else?” Nat said.

“Exactly. Not that anyone could seriously have thought I was capable of something like that. Wow, I’m going to celebrate. We’re going to celebrate, aren’t we, sweetheart?”

Poppy could feel Sykes’s reaction without looking at him. He went stiff. When she did look at him his face was devoid of expression.

“Too bad Sonia can’t be around for the celebration,” Nat said, dropping his face and looking up at Ward from beneath well-defined brows.

“Poor, poor girl,” Wazoo said. “Do you have the killer in custody, Nat?”

He frowned at her.

“Sorry.” She hunched her shoulders. “I forgot I’m not supposed to ask questions like that.”

“Who did you say this was?” Ward said, looking pointedly at Wazoo now.

“My very good friend,” Nat said. “My best friend.”

All eyes were on Wazoo who swallowed visibly. She held Mario close but only had eyes for Nat.

This was not, Poppy decided, a one-way love.

“I’m taking my girl to Bayona for lunch,” Ward said leaning over Poppy. He lowered his voice but not enough to stop everyone from hearing what he said. “I didn’t waste my time this morning. I got you a little something to say sorry for putting you through so much. Sweetheart, you know I would never deliberately worry you.”

“Whoops,” Wazoo said and fanned herself with one hand. “Is it getting hot in here or is it just me? This isn’t your day after all, Mr. er…Poppy and Sykes are all tied up already. Spa for couples. Oh, my. Let me tell you
that
is some experience. Although, I guess, it’s what you make it. What is that place called?”

“Hands On,” Liam supplied helpfully.

Poppy wanted to laugh until Sykes said, “It wasn’t that easy to get a reservation but I suppose…” He let the rest trail off but he had already showed Poppy just how much he did
not
want her with Ward.

“Don’t be silly,” Wazoo said. “Poppy’s been looking forward to it all morning.”

“I’ll need you with me, Wazoo,” Nat said gruffly. “We’ll get Mario back to Royal Street for Sykes. I need a few words with Gray anyway. He may be there.”

“Poppy?” Ward said.

“I’m sorry to spoil your plans.” She smiled apologetically at him and when he didn’t move, Wazoo hastily left the booth to let Poppy slide out.

“I guess that leaves you and me, Ward,” Liam said. He sat down beside the other man. “I went to one of
your fundraisers last night. Maybe you can fill me in more on your plans—since you weren’t there. We can have an early lunch right here. I’ll have our chef come out and talk to us. He’s very accommodating. He does magical things with a pheasant. Not as magical as what gets whipped up at Hands On, I’m sure, but…” He shrugged eloquently.