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  Amy stopped, startled but not frightened. She crouched just a little to stare into the window. She seemed to recognize the Asian lady in the powder blue jogging suit that matched her sports car.

  “It’s me, Chastity. Remember?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Amy smiled. “My mom’s friend. You were at the hospital, right? Cool car!”

  Chastity nodded and returned the smile. “It’s cold out. You need a lift somewhere?”

  Amy thought for a moment. “Not really. I’m not going anywhere in particular, just, you know, walking.”

  “I get it. Well, how about riding instead? And maybe a soda or something?” When Amy hesitated, Chastity held up her cell phone. “I’ll give your mom a call so she won’t be worried or anything, okay?”

  As Amy’s eyes moved back and forth Chastity thought she knew exactly what the girl was weighing in her mind. Solitude? Or loneliness? Time to think? Or a chance to talk? Chastity knew better than to say a word to try to sway her and, ultimately, Amy nodded again and opened the car door.

  “It is a little warmer in here,” Amy said, settling into the car seat.

  In the furnace room, it was downright hot. Ruby felt perspiration burst from her skin as she heard Rafe’s footsteps coming down into the basement. The light coming in under the furnace room door told her that she couldn’t go out. What the hell was he doing up? Had she been gone that long?

  Rafe called her name a few more times and she could follow him around the basement with her hearing. Finally he approached her. Ruby held her breath as he gripped the doorknob. If he suspected her, he would give the furnace room a pretty thorough search.

  “Quit playing around, girl,” Rafe said. As it turned out he just opened the door, stuck his head in, and closed it again.

  He couldn’t see her of course, stretched out flat on the hard floor covered by the folded canopy and vinyl deck chairs. The dust on the floor tickled her nose, but Ruby knew that a sneeze right then would be totally unacceptable. She had been lucky, she knew. The pieces of yard furniture on top of her must look pretty much the way they did before she burrowed under them.

  Now came the really hard part. The furnace started again, offering cover noise. Very slowly, she pulled herself out from under cover and crouched at the door. She had to get past him, draw his attention away from the basement entirely, and keep him from ever thinking she might have been searching his house. Step one was to make sure the little Ziploc bag was hidden deep in her robe pocket. Step two was to drop the robe belt, allowing it to flow around her. Step three was for Ruby to grasp and slowly turn the doorknob, knees loose and ready for action.

  She slowly eased the door open a crack. Rafe was walking toward the far wall, his back to her. This would probably be her only chance to get past him. Ruby took a deep breath, then a second and, with the third she stepped through the door, silently closed it behind her, and sprinted hard for the staircase. Her dark glistening body was chilled by evaporation, but she didn’t have time to think about that.

  Rafe would hear her rapid footsteps, she knew, but surprise would slow his reactions. In her mind’s eye she could see him turning, his attention drawn to where she had been rather than where she was going. If the timing went the way she envisioned, he would have caught a flashing glimpse of her robe flying behind her and even a glimpse of her bare behind just as she reached the top landing. The hardest thing at this point was to force the small touch that would sell her later story. She managed a playful giggle as she reached the ground floor.

  Without breaking her stride, Ruby dashed for the black leather sofa in the family room and snatched her purse from the cushion as she dived behind the couch. Breathing with her mouth open to reduce the sound, she divided her attention between listening for Rafe’s footsteps and shoving the plastic bag into her purse. Shortly she heard him walk past. He was no longer calling her name. She hoped that was not an indication of anger. After a few seconds of indecision, she heard him head for the stairs. Around the corner of the sofa she watched him go upstairs. He had chosen a silk robe.

  Ruby was feeling a little silly, and a little cold as well. It was time to get Rafe’s attention, and she had a plan for warming up as well. After a slow ten count, she moved to the stairs in typically silent fashion. Half way to the second floor she purposely tripped, thumped her knee on a step and moaned, “Ow! Damn it!” in a loud stage whisper. Then she continued, but at the top of the stairs she came face to face with Rafe who was only a few yards down the hall.

  “Oops!” she said in her usual loud squeak, flashed a broad grin, and scampered back down the stairs. With Rafe panting at her heels she scrambled back to the basement stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she panted as if exhausted, and slowed until Rafe’s arms wrapped around her. She had positioned herself well, so that when he spun her around, her back was to the pool table.

  “Now what the hell was that all about, chica?” Rafe snapped, grasping Ruby’s wrist. His face held a mixture of confusion, irritation and surprise.

  “Just a little hide and seek, sugar,” Ruby said, breathing more heavily than necessary. Her generous breasts were rising and falling in a way that periodically distracted Rafe from her chocolate brown eyes. “I wondered if you’d hear me leave my room. Then I wanted to see if you’d even come looking for me. And I wanted to see if you could even find me in this big old house. And now that you have, well, I guess you get the hidden prize.”

  “The prize?” That was all Rafe had time to say before Ruby pressed her mouth over his. She pulled her arms backward and raised her legs around Rafe’s waist, causing their balance to tip so that Rafe was pushing her back onto the pool table.

  “Hey, is somebody down there?”

  Hector’s call from the top of the stairs was enough to start Ruby giggling, and Rafe quickly added his laugh.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I didn’t realize that you were so ambitious, Ms. Perry,” Irv Jerome said, standing at the front of Linda’s desk and staring down at her. He seemed to be enjoying her discomfort. “I naturally want to know exactly why you’re here so early on a Sunday morning. But since we are all here, and you haven’t officially tendered your resignation, why don’t you make us a nice pot of fresh coffee?”

  Linda had never realized how menacing Jerome could be. He never raised his voice, but there was an edge to it that made her shiver. Of course, having Doc, Frankie and Psycho standing there behind him didn’t make her any more confident. Any one of them could snap her neck like a twig. But she saw that Jerome wanted to play, and Linda needed time, so she forced a smile and headed for the coffeepot.

  One door down and across the hall, Rico Steele’s face was glowing red under his thatch of blond hair.

  “We got to get in there now,” he said through clenched teeth. “There’s no telling what they’ll do to her. That guy’s a nut case. And you know those three bruisers will blame her for the ass-whooping we gave them.”

  “Got to be cool, partner,” Stone said, hands deep in his pockets as if to counter Steele who was waving his gun around and pacing like a madman. “I hate to leave her with those goons as much as you do, but you know damn well that if we go busting in there, guns blazing, they’ll kill her on the spot. Let’s give it a minute. They’ll want to take her somewhere else to do the deed.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Steele said, pacing toward, then away from Stone. “Unless they don’t think that far ahead. Unless Jerome can’t control that guy Psycho. Unless they plan to just slap her around or rape her first.”

  “Not likely,” Stone said, one eye on the door’s peephole. He had replaced the one they found there with a reversed lens that gave them a broad view of the hallway. Through it they had seen Jerome and his crew enter the office.

  Steele stopped his pacing for a moment, and stood staring into his partner’s ebony face.

  “You sound so sure. So what if it was Sherry in there. Huh?”

  “If it was Sherry in there, you know damn well we wouldn’t b
e having this conversation, ’cause I’d already be all shot up across the hall. But luckily, it isn’t Sherry, and I got my head on straight, and we’re gonna wait until we see how this all plays out. Look, Rico, the girl’s no dummy, I figured that much out yesterday. Give her a chance to come up with a play, and I’m betting she squirms out from under them guys.”

  “You think she’s that slick, eh?” Steele asked.

  “Rico, she’s from Jersey.”

  Linda played Suzie Homemaker as best she could, pouring and handing over cups of coffee with shaking hands. She knew Jerome just wanted to make her squirm before he lowered the boom on her, but she wasn’t about to let him think he had her rattled. When she was finished with coffee service she returned to her desk and waited. Jerome pulled a visitor’s chair up to the desk, sipped from his cup and smiled.

  “You still make a good pot of coffee, Ms. Perry. I hate to see you go.”

  “Well, it wasn’t really working out anyway, not after the three stooges here accused me of letting those cops in here. I know they blamed me, but I swear to you I didn’t do it. They broke in some other way while I was gone to look after Danny.”

  “I see,” Jerome said after another big gulp of coffee. “And are you going to deny that you took my ledger with you when you ran?” His smile and his courtroom voice chilled her. It was as if he was setting her up on the witness stand.

  “Yes, I took it. I was scared, you know? Didn’t know what to do, but I thought having that book might give me a little protection.”

  Jerome rested his chin on a hand. “Sure, that makes sense. But then you come sneaking back in here this morning. That’s rather incriminating, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, well, who knew you were such an early riser? How did you even know I was here? I can’t believe that security clown downstairs recognized me.”

  “Not likely. But I did tell them to keep watch for your pass card being used. You see I knew you’d be back and that was the only way you could get in. I wanted to see you again, see? But you weren’t at home. Where were you last night?”

  Doc had stepped behind Linda, and she could feel his hot breath on her scalp as if at any moment he might open up and bite her head off. She thought about his fight with Rico and how mad he must be about the outcome. She looked into Irv Jerome’s eyes, searching for a sign of compassion.

  “Mr. Jerome, with all due respect, you know I hid to keep my boy safe. And you know I won’t give up my son. Not for anything.”

  Doc slammed one palm down on the desk beside her, and Linda jumped but held Jerome’s eyes.

  “Now that, I believe, is the truth,” Jerome said. “I admire that loyalty. But yet, here you are, trying to steal my code book, which you know could put me in a great deal of trouble. I don’t mean to be crude, but how am I supposed to react to that? How should I react to your betraying me this way? Huh? After all I’ve given you?”

  Linda leaned forward, baring her own small teeth. “Just one minute, Mr. High and Mighty. You were a pretty good boss, as bosses go, but every dollar I ever got from you I earned and then some. I kept your secrets and did your dirty work in this office all these months without ever a complaint or question. What I got from you was never more than my due. The only thing you ever actually gave me, Mr. Jerome, was the creeps.”

  Jerome stared for a minute, and then burst into laughter. “You are a treat, Ms. Perry. I do hate to lose you. But here it is. I can’t let people steal from me, and I certainly can’t call the police in this case, can I? Now tell me, can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t let Doc or Psycho here take you out and make you disappear?”

  “Well, yes I can,” Linda said. She took a big shuddering breath, thought again about what she would say, and then fully committed. “If you let me go, I can give you the guys who are after you, the two rogue cops who busted in here. I can take you right to them.”

  Sunday morning is an odd time in New York City. The so-called city that never sleeps is really a city on several different overlapping schedules. Sunday morning is one of the times when those schedules collide and people from different worlds meet at unlikely cosmic intersections.

  One of those intersection points is called Dunkin Donuts. Chastity Chiba sat in a corner booth of one such establishment, nursing a great cup of coffee and watching Amy Brooks lay waste to a box of Munchkins. She was also enjoying some people watching. At this hour, the party people were in at the end of their long evening, catching a last caffeine and sugar fix before heading home from a wild and unforgettable night that they would soon forget. It was also at this hour that the good folks were just heading out. They staggered in wearing their church clothes, to grab that first caffeine and sugar fix calculated to get them through today’s sermon without nodding off in the pews.

  There at society’s crossroads, Chastity began her gentle interrogation, feeling like a dentist cleaning a sensitive tooth.

  “So Amy, what in the world drives you out in the world so early? Back in Japan I used to sneak out to get out of going to church when I was your age.”

  Amy stopped mid chew. “You grew up in Japan?”

  “Yep, in a little fishing village called Kuro, until I was old enough to go to university in England.”

  “You went to a British school? You must be a genius.”

  Chastity smiled. “Well, my mom was death on schoolwork. But more important, she had my father’s connections, even if she never officially took his name. He was British, you see, and mother was able to contact his family. They, or maybe the people he worked for, made sure I could get the best education.”

  “Wow, what a life,” Amy said, washing down another mini-donut with hot cocoa. “I’d trade anything to live in some exotic place like that.”

  “And I’d have given anything to have what you have,” Chastity said. “You see, my father disappeared before I was born. I loved my childhood, fishing and diving for pearls, and Oxford was great, but nothing replaces actually having your father with you. He could have taught me so much.”

  Amy’s eyes clouded over briefly, and Chastity saw conflict there. Chastity decided to push. “Amy? Is there something going on between you and your father?”

  Amy looked away, out the window, as if trying to focus on the thin traffic flow outside. “I don’t think I want to talk about it.”

  “Oh, Amy.” Chastity reached out to take Amy’s hand. “I won’t tell anyone anything you want to keep to yourself. But you shouldn’t keep things buried inside you. You can tell me.”

  “I love Daddy, but he did things.”

  Chastity lowered her face toward the table to try to see into Amy’s eyes. “Baby, what did your daddy do?”

  “Well,” Amy said, and then looked down into her cup as if dredging up an unpleasant memory, “He touched me. He touched me in inappropriate ways. He touched me in places a father doesn’t touch a daughter.”

  Irv Jerome leaned back in his chair, placing his fingertips together to form a tent. “Do you make your offer out of loyalty to our firm? How very touching.”

  “Well, I know how much your friends here want to meet up with them again,” Linda said, “and I figure you’ll want to discuss your ledger with them.”

  “You know, you’re a mighty smart little girl for a receptionist,” Jerome said, leaning forward. “I might almost believe you’re willing to betray these men. They are the only currency you have to offer. But what does the little girl expect in return?”

  Linda placed both her small hands on the code book. She scanned the faces of the muscle men standing behind Jerome. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t expect much of anything from you. But I do expect I’ll be pretty unimportant once you see a way to get your ledger back. I expect these three will be pretty occupied getting control of the two troublemakers they tangled with before, and I should be able to slip away during the action.”

  “And go where?”

  “What do you care?” Linda shot back. “When you’ve got your p
roperty back there’s no evidence against you, so I figure I won’t be important enough for you to hunt down. As long as I stay underground, I’ll be safe. I won’t risk my life, or my boy’s life, to cause any more trouble for you.”

  Jerome began to pace the length of his office, as if turning Linda’s proposal over in his mind. From her seat she watched him move left to right and back again like one of the targets in a Coney Island shooting gallery. She knew he would consider every possibility, but his lawyer mind would have to see that her offer was all in his favor.

  Across the hall from Irv Jerome’s office, Samuel “Stone” Mason snapped his fingers to get his partner’s attention. Stone stared through the peephole, his right hand straying to the gun butt hanging from his holster.

  “Linda just walked out of the office, with Jerome and his boys following.”

  Steele stood with his back to the wall just beside the door, his teeth bared and his big revolver held in both hands, barrel up so its front blade sight almost touched his nose. Stone could smell his excitement.

  “Guns?” Steele asked.

  “None that I can see.”

  “Then open the door and let’s do this.”

  “Cool down, man,” Stone whispered. “They’re headed this way.”

  Stone listened to the tap of Linda’s heels and the heavier footfalls of the men behind her as they approached. He didn’t want to get Steele going again, but he did loosen his automatic in its leather shoulder holster.

  Linda drew closer to him, at the head of her peculiar little parade, and Stone was proud of her for never looking directly at the door. As she came level with the door, Jerome quickened his pace enough to walk slightly ahead of her and look back. Stone took a deep breath and nodded at Steele. If they were to make a move, it would be in the next few seconds.

  “You’re stalling, Ms. Perry,” Jerome said. “Where are you meeting these men?”

  “Okay,” Linda replied louder than necessary. “It’s an alley way downtown, just off Liberty Street, right near Malden. One of them is supposed to be there, all alone, but that’s not until eleven. Do you suppose we could get something to eat in the meantime?”