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Chapter Forty-Three

Quicksilver and I hoofed it back to our Sunset Road hoether and free I patted his head as I punched in the code that would open the gates to our cottage

"They didn’t lad you were there"

Hesounds that meant: let e roo red light on the cottage’s non-vintage answeringmood

First I filled Quick’s water and food bowls

Then I gobbled soerator and poured oblet of Merlot I’ve never been a wine snob and Hannibal Lector can keep his "nice Chianti" for the liver-eating a us, which were unfortunately too populous lately, post Millenniuas papers that had piled up and found a second front-section story that made me raise my eyebrows and then some

Last I listened to es

First

"My God! Del! Where are you? I’et here is an answering e Would I like to be a spider-sylph with him in my web! Truthfully, the sound of his voice snapped me the last bit out of a very bad dreaot his cell phone

"Del! You’re back What the hell happened? I’ve been frantic-"

Hey, I liked so frantic about me, especially twice

"I’m okay It’s been surreal Can we ood leads"

"Leads? Do you have any idea? I need to see you"

"Right I have lots of new info"

"Screw the info I need to see you See that you’re all right"

"Where? When?"

"Now Um, I don’t know Where do you want to be seen?"

"With you"

There was a long pause "I know you’ve been through so I don’t knohat What will er pause

"How?"

"Just get over here"

"Your dog on the premises?"

"Yes, but he’ll be off for a run by the tiet here He’s ready for one"

Ric arrived only ten minutes after Quicksilver left

I let him in, kissed him with fresh layer of Lip Venolass of Merlot Betweenhis chops like Quicksilver enjoying a steak

"You’re going to irly beauty product," he said "So where have you been?"

"And where have you been? But me first"

"Suits ical stage career at the Gehenna I didn’tfacilities

"I’ sips of wine "You did the right thing Undercover credo: don’t struggle when you’re outet the hell out Plus, you’ve identified one of the corpses in Sunset Park Good job"

I loved it when Ric treated ative equal I’d been kidnapped by a couple of inco, and I had gotten e than we’d had before Of course, I didn’t irl I’d left behind "

"So I come home to a pile of newspapers," I went on

"I subscribe too"

"Then you must have read this little article"

I knew the small-type headline by heart: City detective attacked in sinkhole I watched his face as he saw it: total LE (law enforcement) non-reaction That’s when I knew

"What’s the Sinkhole, Ric?"

"Badder than bad More north than North Las Vegas Actually, its location seeo there, even if you can find it It’s where the worst predatory unhu out, the penny-ante, lo loser unhuadoon for hell-raiser set Why do you think Detective Haskell was there?"

"Probably had a snitch in the area Haskell is pretty penny-ante and lo hilass, and refilled it Mine too When I brought his glass back, I brushed knuckles with hih

I sat down opposite him "The newspaper says that Haskell was attacked and beaten Pretty badly"

"Couldn’t have happened to a nastier guy"

"He’s in the hospital, Ric The story says he was mutilated In a very sensitive area Chewed"

Ric put down the wine glass He stood up A good offense is the best defense "What? You think I’ olf?"

"I can see your bruised and cut knuckles from here I think you should tell ory details of your sojourn at the Gehenna? I’ serious What did you do to Haskell?"

"First I got seriously mad No one mauls you but me"

"I’m so flattered"

"So I faked a snitch appointht and beat the hell out of hiht If he’d had any balls he could have beat the hell out of me"

"Apparently he doesn’t have much for balls now"

"That wasn’t ot out of there He didn’t even see what hit hiot to him after I left"

"You don’t sound sorry"

"Are you?"

"We ht be He’s still alive He must have you on his list of possibles"

"No, I tell you I dressed for the neighborhood You wouldn’t have recognizedbut my fists I suppose you’re pissed because I went out and avenged your honor You’re liberated and you wanted to do it yourself"

"I’reed, "and I want you"

He actually waited for the rest ofSure, I wanted to solve the crihtwine’s pride and et the hot story, save that poor dead girl’s soul maybe, but mostly I wanted Ric

"I want a date Formal"

"Easy" He sounded relieved The little woht out, a date "Where? When?"

"Soas, but maybe you don’t know me You pick The place, the time, the action"

I alabout hi secrets Seeing Madrigal and his mysterious assistants had madeto work unless I got behind those very attractive barriers he erected Why did he never shed his clothes? Why did he like to control my vertical and horizontal so much?

Yeah, I had phobias to overcome But so did he

This had to be an equal deal I illing to play a little strip poker if I got a little strip poker back in return So My challenge Me Stripped And his play Next

Chapter Forty-Four

Ric stood up, clearly confused Intrigued Hot Cold Wary

"You’re not mad that I took out Haskell?"

"You’re not mad that I crashed the Gehenna? Good Noe only need to find out who the dead guy in Sunset Park was But before that, there’s so his silk-wool blend jacket lapels through my hands I’d learned that he liked that once-reht, ood," I said Then "I’d love to slow-dance naked in your arms"

I felt him catch his breath, then think about it We’d been intimate, but this was intimate on my terms, not his

"Sounds like a plan," he said carefully, as if not believing his luck

My own breath stopped I’d wondered about his reticence His privacy What it hid I didn’t just want me naked with him I wanted him naked with me I wanted to tease him past his shelters, his borders We were both experts at e Sometimes you have to raise the stakes to see the other player’s cards

His eyes were all pupil, dark, half-satisfied already "One condition"

"Only one?"

"You wear so"

I thought Nodded "So where in Las Vegas can we do this naked tango?"

Ric had taught me to be a tad exhibitionistic lately, but Los Lobos was out Maybe in hishouse of mirrors

"Your naked dance First drinks and dinner Then we cha-cha A big Las Vegas evening out Leave it all up to me I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven"

"Isn’t that a little late?"

"It’s going to be a long, late night"

His words resonated in ?" I repeated

"Naked," he echoed

We nodded, agreeing and excited by it

Talk about twenty-four hours of sheer anticipation Ric wouldn’t pick soain, he liked to show ht of his Latino possessiveness, a trait soe records as unwanted, unspoken for, would treasure My wounds, his wounds, our aphrodisiac

He called my cell phone that afternoon "Drinks at the Palms’ Ghost Bar, dinner at the Paris restaurant in the Eiffel Tower"

"Those are primo venues How did you-?"

"No questions This is just a friendly dress code alert"

"Expensive too And neither of those places have dancing"

"Nor nudity"

I could tell my crazy impulse had really turned hi for the perfect gown to get out of Who was I? A stripper? Yeah Soers hesitated over the black velvet thirties Nora Charles gown Perry Mason had returned it with a disturbing e: no DNA on it other than mine Not even Snow’s? What was he, invisible? In that case, Claude should have left a traceable ure that out later

The gown? No Too Snow I didn’t like tothe slippery surface of one of o I s, black velvet thirties cloak when Ric called at ed and slipped out the door before Quicksilver could get a piece ofthat alht in the door of the Corvette as Ric usheredan off-white blazer that looked as smooth as clotted cream over an ice-blue silk shirt carelessly open at the neck His trousers were black wool-silk with a foras dressy casual

We skipped the line of gaggling tourists in front of the elevator to the Palms Hotel’s Ghost Bar, the city’s hottest destination, and fifty-five stories up No shorts, no hats, no tennis shoes, no baggy or torn jeans allowed Dressy sandals permitted, no flip-flops

The Ghost Bar I knew I’d be uneasy there My kind of medium had not been defined yet when this place had been created Sitting in this nineteen-sixties ainst silver and ice-white, I let my cloak fall back to swathe the chair behind raphic photos ofown, all buttoned up to the neck in back and down toof ues like extrehostly faces on the wall The ies blurred as you moved past them They simulated life Only, I felt them Even the animate silver necklace around htened into a dog collar under the pale satin

I sensed their unspoken anxiety at being reduced to dead icons and instantly knew the weaknesses their fame had hidden Watch me, love e, on e? And hadn’t I also found fulfill journalist in my case

I felt their pain Idolized Coe

Clark Gable Carole Lombard Mae West Gary Cooper Cary Grant Irene Dunne Joan Crawford Bette Davis Katharine Hepburn John Wayne Tyrone Power All dead and harried All silver screen stars Sootten idols All hadblack and white Glowing Vibrant Powerful

That was their heyday I felt it in an to rams Some of them had been lovers, I sensed Sohes’s lovers! They were raphic Hall of Fahes was, old and at his worst, still trying to hang on to his money and power no s and queens of old-tih a Vaseline-coated camera lens of memory They sensed that I was siuardianship Delilah, they sighed You see us You love us You will preserve us

How?

Ric touched asht Shut it up!

"You speak to me," I said

He was the Sheik of Araby Rudolph Valentino Ricardo Montalban Ricky Martin my Latin lover He pulled lass-floored balcony at the Ghost Bar lounge with its fifty-so nude below, and even at this impossible distance I erie iht ear

"It would ruin the lines" I struggled to keeppanty, delicate but way too intimate and cold!

He looked down those tens of floors "So the people looking up from the Nude Bar far below-?"

"-would see France if they had fantastic vision" And no silver thong in the way, Irination," Ric said "You ready for dinner?"