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I groaned when I pulled into my driveway It wasn&039;t even nine o&039;clock and the whole evening was cruone with Sophie-and as I going to do if she disobeyed me? "Disobeyed," ha! Even the as silly Everybody said I was the queen, but in my head, I was still Betsy Taylor, shoe fashionista and part-time temp worker It had been almost a year since the Aztek had creamed me, but it still felt like about two days

Meanwhile, there was a Ford Escort in my driveway, one that smelled like chocolate Detective Nick Berry, Jessica&039;s new boyfriend

Marc&039;s beat-up Stratus was parked next to it Lucky Marc, he&039;d ht before, but it looked like he was on days again for a while

And a rental car-a Cadillac, no less The Europeans were back

It took a long moment for ine in reverse and got the hell out of there

In the end, I got out and trudged into the o, anyway? This was home

I zeroed in on the conversation-the third parlor, the one that took up a good chunk of the first floor I could hear Marc squawking like a surprised goose: "Whaaaaa?"

I hurried down the die?" he was saying as I entered the parlor He was delighted and surprised, ju up on the couch cushions like Toe?"

"Yes, on a visit to New York City" Alonzo atching Marc like an amused cat He was sleek and cool in a black suit, black shirt, black socks and shoes I didn&039;t know the brand-men&039;s shoes all look the saloss, the bows in the laces perfectly tied "She onderful-a joy"

"It was the last time I saw you," Sinclair commented, "before last year" He was more casually dressed-an open-throated shirt, dark slacks Shoeless and sockless This was a h about you to dress up

"Correct, Majesty," Tina said courteously "We left for the West Coast right after"

It occurred to me, not for the first time, that I had very little clue what Sinclair-my fiance and current consort-had done in the decades before we&039;d et his whole life story out of him It wouldn&039;t be easy When there wasn&039;t a crisis at hand, he was about as chatty as a brick

"You saw her" Marc couldn&039;t get over it Boing, boing on the couch "Live and everything Did you get to meet her?"

"Did you bite her?" I asked I had no idea who Dorothy Dandridge was

"That&039;s the tragedy of her," Jessica said She was on the couch beside Marc, trying not to be pitched onto the floor with all his antics As usual, her hair was up-skinned back so tightly her eyebrows arched-and her mouth was turned down She was dressed in her usual "I&039;m not really a millionaire" style: blue jeans, Oxford shirt, bare feet In the spring! It made me cold just to look at her and Sinclair Tina, at least, had wool socks on Marc hadn&039;t even taken off his tennis shoes "That you&039;ve never heard of her"

"I didn&039;t say that," I said

"Oh, please, it was all over your big blank face" Her broad senuine, and not at all a joke

"What is with you these-" I began, forgetting all about Alonzo, Sophie, bare feet, only to be interrupted when Detective Nick came back into the room

"Thanks," he said cheerfully "I was in the stakeout van half the day-no tiroan Nick was a whole new problem, his own subset, you could say I&039;d known hiht after I&039;d died, and it had driven him nuts Literally crazy Sinclair had had to step in with a bit of vaht The official line was: Nick never knew I died, didn&039;t knoere all va with the party line, or fooling us Noret past Tina&039;s bullshit radar, but Nick was a cop They paid him to lie

And Jessica had decided to date hih

He held out his hand, and I clamped on it and escorted hiain" I had no intention of introducing hi Spanish Killer Vaet to your date, huh?"

"Actually" Jessica began with a lint in her eyes

"Well," Nick said as I hustled hiht we&039;d stay and visit for a few"

"Right, don&039;t want to miss it, have some popcorn forinto the hallway Jessica rolled her eyes at me and followed "See you later!"

Much later

"That was-" Tina said, stopped, and put a hand over her rin

"Efficient," Alonzo suggested

"You hush You&039;re still on my list, chum"

"Oh, Majesty" He clasped his heart like a player in a bad opera "I would gladly cross seven raging oceans to be on any list youto pick me up?" I asked irritably, "or overthrowMajesty?"

"Say that now," Marc said cheerfully As usual, he was clueless-or didn&039;t care He just loved the whole va than his day job, saving lives

"Don&039;t you have some patients to intubate don?" I asked him pointedly "Or some dates to fondle uptown?"

"If I did, do you think I&039;d be here?" Damn So reasonable, and the truth besides He looked at Eric and Alonzo again "So tell me about the show Where did you see Dorothy? Did she look fabulous? She did, didn&039;t she?"

"I was there for other reasons," Sinclair said "I s-on"

Marc groaned and covered his eyes His hair was growing out-he&039;d been shaved bald when I first met him-and his scalp was al white streak above his left eyebrow His green eyes were shaded with long black lashes-guys always got the good eyelashes-and he was dressed in the scrubs he&039;d worn to work They ood, because he was actually a few years younger than I was, and so hi on the couch and grilling an undead Spaniard about so, it was in New York City," Alonzo said, shed and squealed like a bobby-soxer " &039;La Vie en Rose&039; Could it have been 1950? Yes, I think so"

"Oh, ht to put it mildly I&039;m on my third set of scrubs"

"Oh, a lot of patients?"

"Bus crash A lot of DOTS Just really a downer"

"DOTS?" Alonzo asked

"Dead on the Spot," Sinclair and I answered in unison Thanks to Marc, ere up on all the

"That sucks," I continued "Maybe you should skip work for a while, Marc"

He shrugged "They&039;re hauling in a shrink for us to talk to, you know, talk about how helpless and arbitrary the whole thing was" He seemed to make a deter about Dorothy, Mr Alonzo"

"She onderful," the Spaniard said at once, and I almost liked hiorgeous It was i," he added, with a nod in Sinclair&039;s direction