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As Terence approached Jazz, the wolanced up and caught Jazz's eyes, looking away quickly But there'd been no shame in her ex-pression She thinks I'ht Well, fuck her

They left through the candy shop and bakery, Terence pausing only to buy soht of hand, Jazz thought I icked it away She reround, the Victorianht of hand, that's how the greatest tricks were done Misdirection, skill, confidence None of the other ghosts paid her any attention at all None of the others saw her

Maybe next ti or two

At the security desk, Terence picked up Jazz's shoulder bag with a brief but polite thanks He turned and handed it to Jazz, waiting while she shrugged it back on Then he in-vited her to link arms as they exited into the busy streets of London

A black BMW stopped at the curb Jazz barely flinched A tall young woman climbed out, followed by a scruffy man dressed in jeans and T-shirt He seeht then, Jazz felt invincible

"Dinner?" Terence said

"Of course" She walked with hie her life And she realized with a jolt that a sense of invincibility was the surest way to fail his test

But she could not shed the buzz, nor teerous?" she asked, relishing the risk in-herent in such a question

He looked at her sidelong "Deadly"

"Yeah," Jazz said "Pussycat"

Terence said nothing else all the way home

Chapter Fifteen

lessons in art

Terence's ho of an apartment in the Docklands, a posh flat in Chelsea, or apad somewhere in the country, an easy coh to be set within a dozen acres, with its own private woodland and lake and a keeper's house rented out to one of the locals The country-squire look wouldn't suit him, but Jazz knew there would be much more to his choice of home than style and location He had his profession to think about Wherever he lived would be a big part of his cover

When they got off the Tube in Tooting and began weav-ing through aher Maybe he'd just left his car here (a Porsche? No, too tacky Mercedes, perhaps) They passed the police station, turned left, and Terence approached a paint-peeled front door

"Welco in his key and opening the door An alar it off with so the street At one end, a white transit van sat on theels, thetith con-crete blocks in their place At the other end, children played football in the street, shouting and laughing, screeching in startled delight whenever a car ca

"This isn't you," Jazz said, instantly regretting her words

"Oh?" he asked "And what exactly is hed and looked around "So are you going to co you inside, do we?"

Keep your cool, Jazz, she thought She glanced up at the second floor of the house and sao on theja on either side of her face like a funeral veil The woman did not seem to blink

"It's a round floor"

Jazz nodded and walked through the door "Who lives upstairs?" she asked No one, she expected to hear Young woo, but she disappeared and no ones ever seen her since

"That's Janine," he said "Did you see her?"

Jazz nodded

Terence smiled "She does that Scares people Spends hours at that "

"She didn't scare ht" Terence closed the front door behind his down in the hallway "Look, Jasmine, this is e I' to cook you a nice meal, and while I do that maybe you'd like to use the bath? I have spare shirts and jeans you can borrow"

"You want me to have a bath in your place?"

"No" he said, drawing out the word "I' you a bath if you want one"

Jazz relaxed then, a loosening of her tensed shoulders that brought a sigh and then a yawn

Terence breezed by her, passing two doors on his left before entering a s the corridor "Bathroo?"

"Can do," Jazz said, nonco at the sis on the quarry-tiled floor and the pic-tures on the walls There was a landscape of somewhere that looked like Cornwall, then a series of prints that reminded her of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches of ines There was soe was an X-ray vision through so from her shoulder and set it down at her feet

"I have some wine," Terence called

"No thanks"

He appeared at the end of the corridor and offered her a gentle smile "Look let's eat Be at hos here, no ulterior motives And after you've rested, and you believe that, it'll be time for us to talk"

"Talk about what?"

Terence glanced down at Jazz's bag, then back at her face "Lots of things"

The bath was suave off the scent of pine and lavender--and the bathroo on tiles and

Jazz stood at its center for aaround at the s whether she really knew anything about Terence at all He was involved, that much was certain, and he had spoken of soh Jazz should know about it Her ht her never to believe in coincidences; there was so about that blade, Mort's house, and Harry's involvement with the Blackoman that Terence must know

She looked at the door There was no lock on it, and that made her anxious, but she also felt a thrill, because she knehat this was "Another test," she whispered, and the steahosts So she stripped off the new clothes she'd nicked that , dropped them in a pile beside the bath, and stepped in

Jazz sank down into the hot water and bubbles, sighing as she was enveloped in pure luxury How long since she'd had a bath? She'd almost lost track She lay there for a while with her eyes closed and ainst the bath and hearing the whisper of bub-bles bursting all around her She i to tell her their tales

Fro the corridor she heard the steady sound of Terence chopping ingredients for their , iotten she was here