Glass Houses (16 page)

“You want my car?” Vanni said.

“
No, thanks.
”
Aiden cleared his throat.
“
Nice offer, buddy, but you need that Four Runner. Nice vehicle for hauling things.”

“In other words, you don’t think much of my wheels.”

“They’re great. I need one. But I’ve got something else in mind. You’ll approve.”

Of course they wouldn’t bow to her wishes. Men were never more than boys grown larger. They smelled a challenge, a game to be won, and they wouldn’t be diverted.

The scenery was all industrial and alarmingly large. They’d driven on a road called the Van Wyck Expressway. Like the motorways at home but blown to enormous scale and with vehicles also on a large scale. Then the Belt Parkway which she remembered from yesterday and this morning. Kennedy Airport sat on the edge of a marshy, sandy, bog-like area. At least there was some blue water dotted with green islands to be seen today.

Unfortunately, the air wasn’t at all fresh. It smelled of low tide, even though it wasn’t, and her nostrils tickled at the scents of oily sludge and exhaust fumes.

“You’re very quiet, Olivia,” Aiden said, turning to look at her over his shoulder. “It’s a pretty day, huh?”

She supposed all things were relative when you lived in a huge city. “In a way. Yes, it is pretty. Like an industrial miracle.”

He beamed and his upper li
p arched away from strong white teeth. “Exactly. Not very many newcomers view the area as clearly as you do. It’s fabulous. You’ll be surprised how quickly it gets into your blood.”

The way he smiled mesmerized Olivia. “Yes, you’re probably right.” People talked about blue eyes, but they were usually more gray-blue nondescript than blue. Aiden’s were blue, neon blue.

Her life was in danger. Aiden’s life was probably also in danger—because of her. And for all she knew, Vanni’s life was threatened for the same reason. And she was obsessing on Aiden Flynn’s physical charms.

He continued to smile at her. There was question in his eyes, as if he couldn’t decide if he should say anything else.

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’ve never had an
adventure, and I’ve always moaned about it. So now I’m having one, and I intend to enjoy it.”

“She’s bugs,” Vanni said.

Aiden inclined his head and said, “I don’t think you should talk about my friend like that.”

Olivia shrugged and said, “It doesn’t matter,” although she had no idea what Vanni meant.

They took the Midtown Tunnel and entered the city. Olivia gripped the edge of her seat while Vanni seemed to drive much too fast for the dense traffic and the waves of pedestrians that surged into the street at every intersection.

“I
live off 49th,” Aiden said. “Not far. People don’t realize it, but nothing’s too far in Manhattan. Take a look at the stores. Everyone says they’re something. I’ve never had time to notice.”

Olivia tried to notice. A shop with a huge bear outside revealed floor upon floor of toys visible through its windows, but Vanni passed too quickly for her to make memorable impressions. He made a turn onto another street, and another until Olivia no longer knew in
which direction they were head
ing. “I’m going to park at the end of the block,” Vanni said at last. “Okay?”

“Yeah,” Aiden said, “Okay. But I don’t have to like it one damn bit.”

When Vanni finally pulled alongside a curb and stopped, Olivia looked out to see shopfronts, many of them still barred shut from the previous night, and what appeared to be flats above. Groups of men clustered around doorways smoking and laughing. Some sat on upturned crates and waved their hands to emphasize what they were saying.

“This used to be a rough area,” Vanni said, “like the Bronx. But it’s a happenin’ place now. Gettin’ to be one of
the
places to live, right, Aiden?”

“Right. Some great apartments here. Get going, Vanni.”

“Yes, master.”

Vanni got out of the vehicle, tossing the keys to Aiden as he went, and sauntered up the block. He stopped in front of a
barred window and looked in as if he was deeply interested in whatever he saw.

“Jewelry store,” Aiden said. “Russian family. Good people. The grandfather owns the building and the ones on either side.”

“I see.” Olivia would like to see much better. She’d like to get out a camera and start shooting. Everywhere she looked she saw something that coalesced into a natural composit
ion. “What’s the shop on the corn
er, the open one?”

“Deli.”

She assumed that was supposed to be so self-explanatory that further questions wouldn’t be necessary. People, mostly men, came and went from the deli.

“Why does Vanni keep on standing there?” she asked. “Isn’t he going to go inside your place?”

Aiden was wondering the same thing, but he couldn’t make a move until Vanni gave him the nod. “He’s looking around. That’s all.”

“He’s not looking at anything but the shop window.”

She was right, but he didn’t want to discuss the point. “Be patient. He’ll signal when he’s ready.”

Not a dozen feet from Vanni, eating voraciously from deli sacks, two men faced each other. They managed to talk and gesture without pausing between the food they stuffed into their mouths.

A yellow cab stood at the curb, and the driver had swung the passenger door open. His light was off, and Aiden decided the two guys were his fares.

So what? Couple of saps just off an all-nighter and in the hungry phase.

Vanni still wasn’t moving.

“So you live in that building?” Olivia asked. The waiting frightened her. “Above the jewelers?”

“Yes. Ryan Hill’s place is on the top floor, but I already told you that.”

“I like it here,” Olivia said, not entirely truthfully, but it
was only nice to compliment someone on the place where they lived.

“So do I.” Aiden liked it a lot. Here he’d finally found a place where peace was his for the taking—and all the shadows could be shut outside his door. “I hope
I
get to spend some time here again before too long.”

“Yes.” Before she had time to heap on more guilt, Olivia studied two men, men with nasty tempers, who were eating and shouting at each other on the pavement. “I say,” she said softly. “Oh, I say. Oh, Aiden. I think I know one of those people.”

“What people?” He jerked around in his seat. Her face registered shock, and he didn’t like it on
e bit. “Quickly. What people?”

“I must be wrong. It’s because I’m tired. I don’t see too well at a distance.”

Aiden undid his seatbelt, searching in all directions as he did so. “You ought to wear glasses if you can’t see.”

“I do.” She delved into her huge bag, pulling out small pouches, a change purse, envelopes of documents.

“Forget it,” Aiden told her when he couldn’t bear the wait any longer. “Tell me what you think you see.”

“Here they are.” Triumphantly she held a case aloft. She removed dark-framed glasses and put them on. Her eyes were vastly magnified. “Oh, dear, he mustn’t see me.”

Olivia slipped from the back seat of the car to the floor and crouched there, twisting her head sideways toward Aiden.
“What
is it?” he said.

She took off the glasses. “They only work for distance,” she explained. “Do you see a taxi at the curb with its door op
en?”

“Yes.”

“And two men arguing and eating?”

“Yes.” He must find the patience not to hurry her.

“The shorter one. Not the plump person in tweeds and suede shoes. The little, thin one. Very straight back. Sandy-colored person. If you saw him really close, he’s got one of those
bumpy, purple noses. Probably from some sort of excess.” She didn’t like to give real labels to people, like drunkard. Mummy and Daddy did that. “He’s the one in the streaky-bacon suit— that means the type that has the thin white stripes in the dark fabric. See him?”

“I certainly do.” He’d have to be blind not to after that description. “You know him?”

“He’s the one, the one who fed the rats.”

Rats?
Aiden took a second to make any connection at all. When he did, he turned all the way around toward Olivia. “You mean the man you believe intended to push you under a train? The one you gave the wrong negatives to? The one you thought you’d successfully lost in London? Either Fish or Moody of the fat checks you’ve got in your possession?”

“That’s him.”

“You’re sure?”

“I know it seems fantastic, but
I
am absolutely certain.”

“Okay.” One choice he didn't have was to arrest the guy. At this point he had nothing on him but Olivia’s accusations. “That’s the man who probably tried to kill you. Shi—shoot. Vanni’s listening to ’em. The fact they’re here, outside Ryan’s place—and mine, of course, but it would be Ryan they’re trying to reach—well, that proves there’s a connection between them and my upstairs neighbor.”

Olivia’s rat-lover fed the residue of his meal to a rangy mutt prowling the spilled contents of garbage cans at the curb and got back into the cab. His fatter friend followed, after throwing his paper sack on the sidewalk.

“Isn’t that the way it always goes?” Olivia said. “You decide someone is absolutely awful—not a single redeeming quality—but that nasty little man likes animals. He’s always feeding them.”

Aiden grunted. The cab didn’t move. Vanni waited a respectable time longer and walked slowly back in the direction of the Pontiac. He got in, took the keys from Aiden, and drove off.

Once he’d put several blocks between Aiden’s home and the car, he said, “Did you see those two guys eating and—”

“I saw them,” Aiden interrupted. “Olivia knows them.”

“I don’t know them,” she protested. “The thin one wanted to kill me, and he came to Hampstead to try to get the photos from me. I’ve already explained all that.”

“Oh, yeah?” Vanni said, sounding disappointed that he’d been scooped. “So you’re the woman they were talking about. They think you’re here in New York looking for Ryan. They know where he lives.”

“Slow down,” Olivia yelled, and both men lurched around in their seats. “Look back there.” She’d been keeping watch over her shoulder.

Vanni slowed down. “Geez, don’t do that to me. I’m not doing more than thirty. You just took ten years off my life.”

“No,” she said, pointing through the back window. “I don’t care how fast you go. It’s Boswell. See him?”

Vanni speeded up again. “Boss is at Mama’s. You’re seeing things.”

“No!”

“No,” Aiden echoed. “Pull over. He’s done it before, remember, gone home looking for me.”

The car stopped, and Aiden jumped out. Olivia couldn’t take her eyes off the way he walked, then broke into a run. The man and the dog ran toward each other.

“That’s all we need,” Vanni said. “Now we got to worry about the canine.”

Olivia wasn’t interested in anything but Aiden.

Boswell, drawing the eye of every passerby, loped with the kind of long, powerful strides that belied even a twinge of arthritis. He reached Aiden, but instead of leaping at him as Olivia expected, the dog instantly dropped and waited. Aiden stood over him, and Olivia had no doubt he was talking. Even at a distance, Boswell’s ears could be seen perking up and flattening.

Aiden bent to rub the dog’s head and press their faces together, then set off back toward the car. When they arrived,
Aiden opened the door beside Olivia and said, “You might want
to ride up front with Vanni.”

“May I ride with Boswell, instead?” she asked.

Aiden didn’t answer her, but he let the dog climb in and returned to the front seat himself.

With a huge sigh, Boswell flopped down and looked puzzled by Olivia’s position on the floor.

“He’s too old to be running for miles like that,” Aiden said. “All the way from Brooklyn. Crazy old devil.”

“Loving old devil,” she said. “I interrupted you, Vanni. Those men. What are they doing?”

“Yeah,” Vanni said. “Okay. Their plan is to hang around Aiden’s building until they see you show up trying to find Ryan, or come out from his building. They seem sure you must already be in New York, but they think you’re lost. Evidently they’ve got some way of knowing Ryan wouldn’t be able to meet you.”

“How would they know that?” Olivia said.

Aiden said, “Only one way. They’re in touch with him. But why wouldn’t they think you came looking for him at his place yesterday and gave up when you didn’t find him?”

Surreptitiously, Vanni pressed a silencing finger into Aiden’s thigh.

“That’s right,” Olivia said, and she felt better. “They don’t have any idea where I am. They’re just guessing. So I’m all right. Actually I never did have Sam’s—Ryan’s—address. All I knew was that he lived in Hell’s Kitchen.”

Vanni gave Aiden a pained look.

Olivia saw that look. “What is it?” She got up from the floor and resumed her seat. “I saw the way you looked at Aiden.” Boswell settled his head on her knee.