Elementary, My Dear Watkins (25 page)

“Hi, babe,” he said. “Am I catching you at a good time?”

“Are you kidding?” she replied. “Anytime is a good time for you to call. I got your message. Where are you now?”

“Still in Zurich,” he said. “It’s going really well, but it’s a lot of work. We’ll be here again tomorrow, and then the next morning we leave for Africa.”

“Africa,” she said breathlessly, sounding very happy for him. “Tell me everything, Danny. I want to hear all about what you’ve done and what you’ll be doing.”

“Okay, but first, are you doing okay? I didn’t catch you in the middle of making dinner or anything, did I?”

“No, sweetie. I’m in the car.”

“Going somewhere fun?”

“Well, actually, I’m on my way back to New York. I’m going to stay at my grandmother’s estate for…for a little while.”

“Your grandmother’s? Why? What did the doctor say? What did the Bronx police say?”

“Oh, I’ll e-mail you with all of that. Gran just wanted me to come for a visit. Right now I want to hear about your trip. Tell me all about it. Start at the beginning.”

Leaning as far as the wire would stretch, Danny hooked one foot under the side of a nearby green velvet wingback chair. Sliding it toward him, he finally grasped it with his hands, spun it around, and got comfortable.

“Let’s see,” he said, reviewing the past 24 hours in his mind. “This whole thing started just yesterday, when my friend Luc invited me to dinner…”

Jo listened to Danny’s adventures, relieved that it had been easy to deflect the conversation back to him. Really, it just felt so wonderful to hear his voice and share in his excitement and forget all about her own problems for a while that it was almost a relief to pretend that nothing was wrong on her end.

As Danny talked, Jo could tell that this trip really was the chance of a lifetime for him. It sounded as though the photographer, this Kalunga Bashiri fellow, was turning into a mentor and friend, and that the whole trip would end up greatly enhancing Danny’s photography and his career.

The more he told her, the more Jo knew that she wouldn’t destroy this opportunity of his for anything. At some point down the line, of course, when he finally learned about what had been going on back home at this time, he would be angry with her that she had kept him out of the loop. But as he talked now about all he was experiencing, she decided that her silence now and his resulting anger later would be worth it in the long run. If he knew what was going on here, and that her life was in danger, he would hop on the next plane home—and she couldn’t let him do that. The price was too high.

Besides, if he really could have been of significant help to her in some way, then she might consider telling him what was going on. But the truth was, she already had the considerable resources of her grandmother and her parents, a staff at her fingertips, and round-the-clock bodyguard protection. What could Danny give her that she didn’t already possess? There was nothing he could bring to the situation except comfort and love, and the need for them wasn’t worth the sacrifice he would have to make to give them.

Jo leaned back against the leather seat and looked out of the window, loving the familiar cadence of his voice, growing misty-eyed just picturing him in his excitement, gesturing in all of those cute ways he had and even drumming absentmindedly with his feet against the floor.

He had worked so hard to get where he was. He deserved this.

“Wait, you have to get
how
many shots?” she asked now, laughing. Danny always had turned into a big baby at the doctor’s office.

“The number keeps growing!” he exclaimed. “Tonight at the gala, somebody else told me to throw in cholera and typhoid. By the time I get on that airplane, I’m going to feel like a pincushion!”

Smiling, Jo closed her eyes and listened to his voice and tried to imagine that she was there with him now. The thought warmed her heart and made all of her current problems seem very far away indeed—at least until he had to hang up.

“This is the only pay phone around,” he told her regretfully, “and there are two other people sort of hovering off to the side, waiting to use it.”

“I understand.”

“I probably need to get on to bed, anyway. It’s late here.” He went on to tell her that he loved her, and that he’d call again in a few days.

“If you can’t reach me on my cell, try my grandmother’s house,” she replied, waiting as he grabbed a pen to write the number down. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying there.”

As they said their final goodbyes and hung up the phone, Jo felt a warm rush of love spread from her head to her toes. She leaned her head back and watched the world go by, allowing that warmth to hold the realities of her own situation at bay for the rest of the drive.

D
anny was sound asleep, dreaming of Jo, when a loud “thunk” woke him up. Confused, he reached for the bedside light and flicked it on, surprised to see a half-dressed Luc sprawled across the hotel room floor.

“Whoa!” Danny cried, swinging his legs over the bed and sitting up. “You okay, man?”

“Dah-neeee!” Luc replied, rolling over onto his back, completely drunk. “Why is ze room spinning around in ze circles?”

Taking a deep breath, Danny ran a hand across his face and then reached down to help his friend. Apparently, too much alcohol made the Frenchman sound just like Pepé Le Pew.

“You’re drunk, buddy. Can you sit up if I help you?”

Together, they managed to get Luc from the floor to the bed. There, he laid across the top of the covers in only his tuxedo pants and cummerbund.

“Where’s your shirt and jacket and tie?” Danny asked, surprised that he didn’t see them anywhere in the room.

“In the bathroom, I think. I hung them on a hook on the back of the door.”

Grunting, Danny pulled slacks on over his shorts and padded down the hall to the shared bathroom. Sure enough, there he found Luc’s clothes, hanging messily from the shower head. He carried them back to the room and closed and locked their door.

“Is there anything else you lost along the way?” Danny asked, patting the inside jacket pocket of the tuxedo, relieved to find Luc’s wallet and cell phone tucked safely in there. Thank goodness his clothes hadn’t hung in the bathroom all night, where anyone could have rifled through them.

“Non,”
his friend said, raising a hands in front of his face and studying them as though they were foreign objects. “I have lost nothing but my pride.”

Wearily, Danny helped Luc off with his shoes, and then he moved the trash can next to his bed.

“If you need to puke, the trash can’s right here, okay?”

Danny then climbed back into his own bed and turned off the light, desperate to slip back into sleep, but Luc wasn’t having any of it.

“Do you sink I am a bad person, Dah-nee?” he asked, his accent heavy and slurred.

“No, of course not.”

“Some people must think I am,” he continued. “They keep throwing money at me and asking me to do things. Terrible things.”

Danny opened one eye, looking over at his friend in the dark.

“What happened?” he asked. “Did you have problems with the Dutch girl?”

“
Non
. She was
mignonne comme tout
. It was all the phone calls, the interruptions. She finally left me at the bar and told me to call her when I was ready to give her my full attention.”

Danny smiled, understanding how she must have felt, remembering all of the calls Luc had taken today during the photo shoot.

“Who keeps calling you? What do they want?”

Luc didn’t answer Danny’s questions, though he did keep talking.

“You cannot trust a person in this world, you know? Even the people you think you should be able to. Even the ones who are closest to you.”

Danny didn’t reply, torn between wanting to get back to sleep and wanting to know what had made his friend so upset.

“Watch your back, my friend, is all I can say. Watch…your…back.”

Danny exhaled slowly, wishing Luc would either come out with it or be quiet so he could go to sleep.

“Why should I watch my back, Luc?”

There was no reply for a long moment, and then the snoring began, loud and long. Danny put the pillow over his ears, counting the minutes until Luc went back to France and he could get some sleep.

Alexa was just slipping the black cap over her hair when she heard rustling out in the hallway.
Oh, great
. There were soft voices and lots of footsteps, and she had a feeling that the old lady’s granddaughter was back from wherever she had gone for the day. Alexa had asked why Jo wasn’t at dinner, but all the old lady said was that Jo was out and she’d be back later.

That time must have come. Now Alexa would have to wait even longer to get out of there. She moved more quietly, tucking every loose strand of hair under her cap, wondering when the coast would be clear for her escape. It was early still, not even 8:00 yet. But this time she really couldn’t wait until everyone was asleep to make her getaway.

The rustling seemed to die down after a while, but then, suddenly, there was a soft knock at Alexa’s door. She froze, her heart pounding.

“Yeah?” she called, trying to make herself sound sleepy, as she frantically ripped off her “escape” clothing and pulled on her T-shirt and pajama bottoms instead.

“Oh, I’m sorry, were you asleep?” a female voice called through the door. “It’s Jo. Mrs. Bosworth’s granddaughter. Never mind. We can talk in the morning. Sorry I bothered you.”

Quickly, Alexa shoved her backpack, tools, and clothes under the bed. Then she opened the door. She didn’t want anyone getting suspicious of what she was planning to do tonight for any reason. Better that she go ahead and show her face and act as though nothing was wrong.

“That’s okay. What’s up?” Alexa asked, seeing that Jo had already gone halfway down the hall, where she was talking softly with Fernando and some big guy. In Jo’s hand was a leash, which led to a dog.

Alexa gasped. A dog? In this fancy house? A
dog!

Jo turned back, saw Alexa’s gape, and smiled. The two men left, and then Jo and the dog walked toward Alexa, who took one step backward, into her room.

“Hi, Alexa. I just wanted to let you know about Chewie here. He’ll be staying in my room, so if you hear any growling or barking or anything, I didn’t want you to be scared.”

Alexa’s eyes were wide.

The dog looked harmless, like a pet. But where she came from, most folks couldn’t afford pets. The only people she knew with dogs were the dealers who had dobermans or pit bulls.

“Does it bite?”

Jo laughed softly.

“Are you kidding?” she said, kneeling down next to the big brown creature and putting an arm around him. “He’s a big sweetheart. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. Though he might eat a spider or two.”

Alexa wasn’t so sure. He had a cute face and all, but he was breathing heavily, his mouth open, and those teeth looked really sharp.

“Are you afraid of dogs, honey? I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that. You don’t have to worry. He’s not going to be loose.”

“He’s not?”

“No, during the day he’ll be outside, mostly, out behind the carriage house. Muck put up a temporary fence for him. At night, when he comes inside, he’ll be in my room.”

That didn’t sound so bad. At least he wouldn’t be out there at night, when he might hear Alexa sneaking past and start barking.

“You can pet him if you want.”

Alexa thought about it and shook her head.

“Maybe later.”

Jo stood, brushing off her knees.

“That’s fine,” she said. “Oh, and I brought you something. Just a sec.”

Taking the dog with her, she disappeared into the Rose room and came back out a moment later with a little plastic package. Alexa took it from her and unwrapped it to find a pair of neon green socks.

“What’s this?”

Jo shrugged.

“I just thought they were cool, like something a teenager would wear. Not that I know a whole lot of teenagers.”

They were kind of cool, but Alexa sure wasn’t going to put them on right now, as she had a feeling they would glow in the dark.

“Thanks,” she said, feeling awkward. The people in this house were always giving her gifts, one of those rich-people habits like talking about investments or eating with cloth napkins. Alexa liked it, of course, but she still hadn’t grown used to it.