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"Then what?"

"She left I ate lunch, had a drink, and left"

"That’s it?"

"That’s it You can check with Barbara if you’d like She’ll confirot the impression that she’d knohat I’d say, that I was just verifying information she already had That was odd, and it made me worry, just a little So I volunteered ht otherwise have "I did a little research on the Internet later, just fro up on Andrews or the guy she said I’d be guarding her daughter from I’m not surprised Like I said before, I could tell she was lying Then again, a lot of folks do"

Alex gave another a else?"

"No, why?"

"I take it you haven’t turned on the television or checked out the news online?"

Uh-oh That sounded ominous "Not in a couple of days"

Alex looked at ail Andreas abducted off the street in front of her apartht by a pair of masked men We found the van they used a couple of blocks away Ms Andrews’s handbag was in the back, near an ee that contained traces of a sedative Your card was in her bag"

Oh, hell and damnation I hadn’t liked the woman, but still I wouldn’t wish that on anyone "Do you want ive an official statehbors and people on the street saw the abduction The perps were two men and a driver, all in masks, allshethat can be of use"

"Okay I’e of that"

I started at the beginning The story didn’t take long to tell After all, it had been a short ot the impression that a lot, if not all, of what she told ing round to see if soht pop into my memory I’d been questioned si as hell, it does sometimes work

"Nope Like I said, she stormed out of the restaurant" Well, stormed as much as a woman in a wheelchair could "If Barbara hadn’t been able to cancel the order I would’ve had to pay for it" I paused, thinking about what Alex had … and hadn’t said The phrasing she’d used was curious "You said she ‘called herself’ Abigail Andrews That wasn’t her real na you hadn’t caught that"

"Sorry" I wasn’t really, and she knew it After giving , level look, she apparently decided to tell me what I wanted to know

"No It wasn’t her real na it for close to twenty-three years But it was a fake"

Close to twenty-three years That rang a bell A loud one

She gaveelse What is it?"

"The man … Jacobs, she said he’d been in prison a little over twenty-two years I think she was lying about the naot her pretty rattled with my questions Maybe she didn’t think to lie about the time line"

"We’ll look into it"

"Do you wanther head before I could finish the sentence

"No Really, no" The expression on her face was stern andpersonal, Celia, but every tioes to hell in a handbasket I know it’s not your fault, but please, just let us handle it"

Ow That hurt Nothing personal, my lily-white ass

My displeasure must have been written on my face, because Alex winced "Look, I’m sorry I didn’t mean it to sound like that But that curse mark of yours…"

Ah, yes, the curse mark Damn Stefania She’d been a queen of the sirens Her psychic had seen so in my future she didn’t like, so Stefania put a death curse onouldn’t live to cause her trouble Ivy hadn’t I, on the other hand, ed to live to adulthood and helped send her on her way to hell About once a week I wish I could do it again, just for grins "Fine, letelse from me"