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THREE MOLDED-WOOD CHAIRS were now lined up before Mrs Haliburton’s desk, Ric and I flanking Helena Troy Burnside, whose suit was a s power red, probably Prada
Quicksilver was guarding Dolly in the parking lot, but he’dthe bureaucrat in the office above
Mrs Haliburton shifted on her wheeled desk chair, which squealed like a little boy She didn’t quite glance at anything but the co her
"All the proper authorizations have reached your email address?" Helena inquired
"Yes," Mrs Haliburtonfuchsia She licked pale, dry lips "Froton, the assistant director of the FBI" She frowned at Ric "And the lieutenant governor This is most unprecedented, but I’ll download the files to any device you wish, Dr Burnside"
Helena extended a business card across the desk that Mrs Haliburton whisked into her custody "Both addresses?" she inquired
"I always like a backup, don’t you?" Helena replied
Mrs Haliburton ignored her while clicking in the e-addresses She hit enter with the high-handed flare of a concert pianist, totally unlike her tightly wired self
"I think you will find that this young wo her computer screen rather than our party, "will be very sorry indeed to have the contents of these files in anyone else’s hands, even hands with so hly placed connections I know your specialty, Dr Burnside, is severely da, children, but you will have those therapeutic skills sorely tried in this case, as our social workers here in Wichita did thirteen years ago"
Gulp, Irma whispered And she doesn’t even know aboutwith the two people in the world whose respect I most wanted
Ric laid his ar me up beside him
"Thanks for your cooperation, Mrs Haliburton, but warnings are unnecessary I’ve found in my FBI work that files are sealed more often to protect the holders, not the subjects"
Helena was checking her mini-netbook She looked up and nodded "Mission accomplished"
Ric escorted me to the door, opened it for his foster mother, and ushered us into the hall
"She’s shaking, Helena," Ric told his onetime therapist in a furious undertone
"Don’t let that harpy frighten you, Delilah," Helena consoledthreats" She took my other ar cocktail, the Briot the idea for that one" Helena smiled and added, "Let’s find a well-stocked bar that can make it, where we can munch on a sinfully caloric bar menu"
She couldup her personal computer
Ric kne to caler seat while he and Quicksilver occupied the rear
Ric searched his phone screen "Here’s the place for us The Petroleum Pavilion on Polo Drive Delilah’s cocktails always use exotic and expensive ingredients," he explained to Helena, about to pass h-tech aid," I said "Any description of the physical neighborhood?"
"Um," Ric said, "the usual waterfront, probably a lake, near an exclusive gated coned by the world’s finest over-paid landscaper--hey!"
His recital broke off as Quicksilver whapped the cruising sunglasses off his snout and leaped out of the convertible, running ahead of Dolly on the street
"I don’t have to squint at some tiny screen in the sun like a vaers "Quick loves to find lost golf balls in Sunset Park I’ll just tail him as he follows his world-class nose"
"HOT DAMN!–BRAND CINNAMON schnapps," Helena any-paneled, crystal-lit bar
"How," she persisted, "did you coredients for your Brimstone Kiss, my new favorite drink, Delilah?"
Blush modestly … not Helena was a psychotherapist whose already acute insights could pick up random visualizations from people’s minds and subconscious after the Millenniu my forced interlude with Snow She even kneho and what he was Well, the albino rock star–hotelier part, anyway Nobody really knehat brand of "super" Snoas
"I’ that I was an easy read at the moment "Believe me, I can feel the heat between you and Ric without any amplification, and I couldn’t be happier for the both of you"
What luck that she couldn’t tell ht then had been about Snow
I consigned thoughts of that bastard to the Inferno Hotel’s subterranean Nine Circles of Hell attractions and explained
"The Bried for a liquor brand with a ‘hot’ taste and naas pretty much twenty-four/seven these days, and it is truly Sin City now"
"I saw that on my brief visit," Helena said "So … this is an ultra-Goth cocktail with a sweet undercurrent of innocence lost"
"You could write ad copy in today’s Las Vegas," I agreed with a forced sranite-topped table sprawled a platter of toed shrimp, a post-Revelation delicacy discovered in the deep sea Food definitely took the edge offtriu her screen between bites and sips
"Okay," she said finally "I’ve got the gist of the files"
"Should Delilah be shaking in her pump heels?" Ric wondered "They’re really not her style"
"Not," Helena said, "unless she has multiple tattoos" She turned the screen toward us
"Me? Tattoos?" I demanded
"Ric?" she consulted hi with the idea, and my skittish state His eyes warmed as they met my startled expression
"Tattoos? Oh, not a one, Dr Burnside I swear" His hand slipped under my social services’ bun to caress the "love bruise" onelse, especially a needle, co between my baby and me"
"I would say, ‘Get a room,’" Helena commented, "except you kids already have one at that dreadful motel"
"Dolly and Quick are the reason," Ric explained "We needed dent-free parking, which eliminated ramps, and a place that doesn’t ban hybrid wolves Don’t worry I booked you into the don showplace"
She nodded approvingly "We need to go somewhere private to discuss these files Your place or mine?"
"Yours," Ric and I answered as one
"I’m so relieved," Helena said "I haven’t been in a motel since before the Revelation I shudder to think what vibes I ht pick up in that tacky room of yours"
So did we
SUNSET WAS THINKING about taking a bow by the tiushed like Old Faithful through the trees, probably installed in "water features," as they were in Las Vegas The rich loved gushers on their property
I was feeling caly and curious about the tattoo re preteen trouble fro on, hoping not to get noticed, hiding in the ht, blocking out danger and questions
We a lot, Ric andher backlit screen with a frown I didn’t like the look of, but was too happy to worry about
The sound of a sustained, deep, threatening growl interrupted our separate reveries We stopped and looked ahead to the isolated, distant spot where Ric had parked to avoid door nicks
A group of six men surrounded Dolly
Ric’s hand left my waist to push his suit coat aside and reach for the firearuy "carried concealed," thank, uh, thank od of the underworld (My religious high school education made me take God too seriously to invoke Hiuys dressed like Vegas olf mobster Cesar Cicereau’s tame "small job" muscle They were probably dead ht Green and yellow and blue plaid baggy trousers now in danger of a thorough ripping, along with said contents
Quicksilver was standing in Dolly’s backseat, his thick fur raised in a fearsome Mohawk from between his flattened ears to his seriously bushed-out tail His snout was curled back, black-lipped to display the fors
I rushed to put entlelance into the backseat Which was pretty ilt initials on each one
"Those are our balls," a tre?"
"Your balls?" Helena intoned curiously, gle She turned to confront them "I am so sorry What shall you do without theaped, open-jawed like Quicksilver, but not nearly so forolf balls out of Dolly’s pristine red upholstery "Teeth okay, not claws," I instructed Quick "This is not Sunset Park Down Back Leave kitty!"
Men in checkered caps topped hite fuzzy balls scrambled at my last silly command to reclaim airborne presents froainst Dolly’s side, eyes buried in his hand, trying not to laugh, but utterly failing
THIS TIME I let Ric and Helena use their high-tech toys and Ric drive
A not-too-chastened Quicksilver ran alongside Dolly, giving chase to bad drivers in Ford 350s who cut off good drivers at every opportunity I wondered where the enes had co, who knows?
We reached the Old Town in no time I sat in the back-seat and consulted Ric’s phone A nineteenth-century warehouse had been gutted to house the boutique hotel, with soaring atrium and piano bar, but it was no Marriott, nor did it have Billy Joel live
Like all hotels now, especially in Vegas, it boasted wireless access everything and all-suite roo city center featured restaurants, shops, and Indian artifact , but Quicksilver was confined to the parking garage and Dolly Don Wichita, no matter how restored, was not post–Millenniuas
Good lord, I was hoiving her foster son positive reinforcement for his choice "We can order room service while we study the files"
My stoain
"The files" were my files Were I tattooed Which I wasn’t What was that about?
Maybe you got all the tattoos, Irot all the men
In Helena’s room, we all doffed our hot, sticky business suit jackets and sat at a slate-topped table near a sink/serator unit
Helena’s phone buttons linked her net-comp to the roo," she warned us "Most of it, in fact Ric, take Delilah’s hand in yours Delilah, let him"
"What is this," Ric asked, now uneasy too, "a shotgun wedding?"
Helena’s face looked a little old for the first ti
"I can’t say it’s good, but I can say this is not the Delilah we know And love"
She punched a tiny button on her keyboard, and scanned copies of printed pages hit the big screen
Most were tiny-typed reports A few photos flashed by: ht, front and profile I gasped audibly
Helena clicked into close-up "No panic See the tattoo on her neck? Almost lost under the hair at her nape? A coiled snake, I think It looks like you, but the expression is defiant and knowing Not you, Delilah Or the photos have been manipulated Easy to do Look Here’s a from-the-hip-up photo You can see the twin cobra tattoos on her biceps Definitely not you, even I can see that"