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Chapter Nineteen

I will never understand dogs They see the returning ht inside the front door and they still have to sniff your crotch to guarantee you’re you

Quicksilver was tall enough to ht he responded with a growl rather an eager leap to lick my face I can’t say I was all that fond of the face-lick anyway He had a tongue the size of a Saks Fifth Avenue washcloth

"Back, boy" I brushed past his second growl of parental distemper It was kinda sweet that he cared about ht and scent

Quick’s nails clicked over the wood floors to the kitchen, where I let hino up after Quick when I didn’tthings was his job and Quicksilver leavings made really potent fertilizer Woodroas, apparently, one of the perks of residing in the Enchanted Cottage of film fame

But I was what? Tired In a way And wired, in a way I refilled Quick’s water dish and leaned against the kitchen sink, daydrea’s nails clattered on the stone back stoop and I let hiround sound of the Loch Ness iant stainless steel water bowl-another thing about dogs: they go out and then come in and drink up a storth mirror at the end of the hall reflected all lory I looked like a wory

I wasn’t sure I felt the same way, but it was da clothes over the chair and hesitated between the shower and the sheets Nope I didn’t want to wash the night off just yet, so I slipped between the umpteenth-thread-count sheets and fell asleep before you could say "nightmare" and I could even think it

Twittering birds announced the rant flora and noisy fauna, like a cartoon paradise

I bounced out of bed hu, took a long, hot shower, then donned sweatshirt and shorts to take Quicksilver for a gallop in the park

Afterwards I had a quick, cold follow-up shower, gulped down so list

"You can corabbed uard the car This is an indoor, girly expedition"

We both trotted outside Although the cottage had a quaint carriage house that could function as a garage, I kept Dolly sitting under the carport Sun was the only real eneas, just as it was for flesh-and-blood girls

I stopped cold as I neared the car’s sideQuicksilver had turned it into a doggie door during the attack at the pet store lot Noas rolled up tight, perfectly whole and reflective What kind of sneak thieves broke into your yard to replace an irreplaceable car ?

Quicksilver was dancing and panting at the passenger door, eager for a ride I shrugged and went around to open the door and let him in Yup Thefit Dolly’s ed and headed for the driver’s seat

In a ate onto Sunset Road She loved Las Vegas asslots except don I headed for a big suburbanRic in the park First a discount clothing store fringing the ? My Kansas WTCH tailored suits and blazers looked like social-worker wear here in the casual West And I bought a 30-inch, fine silver chain I hat I bought and baggedskins, not styles

Next, I wandered through the crystal and silver maze of the Saks Fifth Avenue cosmetics department There was so much of this stuff, and my black eyelashes and eyebrows hadn’t needed emphasis, not even for a TV camera I’d had to wear the heavy h, to warm up my lily-white skin Maybe that’s why I avoidedcounter with an awesomely flawless foundation job approached to ask if she could help me

"Uh, yeah I don’t wear lipstick It’s too clownish for ht Your hair and eyes are so vivid Have you tried lip gloss?"

"Just lip balm"

"Oh, there’s lotsyou’re one of the few that even orange would work on"

Iinto the built-in drawers behind her

And I did It hadn’t taken long after I smeared a sheeny saer wetting my lips with my saliva Three-two-one, liftoff! I left with three expensive little pots of tinted gloss nae Crush, Veiled Raspberry, and Goddess Gilt, for evening "sparkle"

I also left sold on a si to the saleswoloss "plu circulation with a blend of essential oils including cinnaht the color called "Love in the Mist"

"And the tingle effect is catching,"effect already, but left cosmetics and next applied lish-Spanish dictionaries, but not the exact type I needed Then a thoroughly pierced teen clerk led e" section where I found a tiny red leatherette-bound book titled Street Speak in Spanish

If Ric’s sexyto know the, I’d learned that heress" Really? Of course it could also mean "nut of a screhich wasn’t exactly coar, which ar with both the Corvette and ht a pair of platforotten a kick out of flaunting fire-engine red toenails while the videographers focused on my dead-serious face and stiff upper torso when I intoned my spiel for the camera Maybe I’d always been a split personality

Quicksilver was sitting by the car I couldn’t leave hi

Dolly approved of et hohts, which offered a low-rider next to us a chance to give a histle and shout a new phrase to look up I wasn’t sure if it was for Dolly or h-rider

"Who’re you foolin’, chica?" Iroin’for forcin’ that man into an insanity plea" Maybe "Erma" was short for hermana, or "sister," in Spanish Who knew I had so much Latin blood in me?

Quicksilver’s nose inspected the crotch of ister that they were low-rise and nicely set off the thin silver chain around my bare hips Or that the off-the-shoulder crop top was red and had ruffle-tiered sleeves like a flamenco dancer’s skirt

Okay, maybe this outfit was a little slutty I couldn’t help it For the first ti at the same time and I wanted more of what made me feel that way Who

One-two-three, arriba!

Chapter Twenty

Of course everybody eyedarea They always looked at me when I walked Quicksilver, so I couldn’t tell ifpower of its own I left him with a shelter lady, as only too pleased to entertain him for a while, and worked my way up the Trail of Dead People’s Trees to the picnic table area where I’d firston it, feet on the bench seat, white-shirted, facing Sunset, expecting htwine’s estate Maybe he was conte the Four Horse out of the bland stucco wall

"Hi"

He turned at my voice Ric had that law enforcement professional face down cold: blank, noncommittal, and unflappable The h I couldn’t quite name his new expression, other than stunned

He ju toward hiht-time soap opera queens felt He walked into ers through my belt loops, brushed a kiss over my lips, cheek, neck, just understones, not kisses

"Delilah," he whispered "Muy teo away soon"

"Away?"

"South of the border"

"Down Mexico way?"

"Yes, where exactly I can’t say"

"For a long ti noo or three weeks"

"But I wanted to find out about the dead couple Nightill pay me for a solved case he can fictionalize on CSI You have police access-"

"Not with Haskell on the case Can’t you use your reporter’s wiles to check into it?"

"Librarians rarely need wiles and that’s where I’d find inforo- newspaper archives"

"Good, a library is a fairly safe place" He grinned "Then there’s the angle of the Inferno ga chip And, if needed, I do have one police contact you ht try: Captain Kennedy Malloy See? Lots to keep you busy while I’ The olves won’t leave if they see you in this"

"It’s not supposed toto the wolves"

"And that, Querida,to me"

We’d billed and cooed as enes still had to be dragged kicking and screah to capture Ric’s eyes again Seriously "One thing Does it bother you that our being so simpatico started over a couple of dead bodies?"

"In Mexico, we celebrate the dead, we don’t fear them"

"I know, ’Day of the Dead’ and all that But-" I lowered my eyes, not because I went for that flirtatious crap, but because I couldn’t quite face sos Like my own history "I don’t mean the impact of death I mean the sensuality that came with it It’s almost like it took us me over I mean, I’ve never-"

"I know But I’ve never either"

"You’ve never?"

"Not that intensely I agree We were borrowing from the dead It was like their last bequest"