Ned’s eyebrows rose and his lips tugged into more of a grimace than a smile as he interrupted. "Ah, the love of your life." He held out his free hand, and Vinny took it.
I wondered if I could blame my flush on the heat. It was that elusive word again. Vinny didn’t seem to mind; in fact, he seemed to revel in his new title. He grinned.
"Nice to meet you. I don’t know much about Annie’s college days, but I’m learning a lot more about them all the time."
"I could tell you some stories—," Ned started, but I put my hand up to stop him.
"Listen, we can save those stories for another time. Vinny, I need your phone to call Tom."
"Where’s yours?" His eyes settled on my bag, which usually carried all my essentials.
I sighed. "It’s part of the long story. I’ll tell you after I make the call."
Vinny unclipped his phone from his belt and handed it to me. I held it hesitantly. "Why don’t we get in the car and I can call from there? It’s hot out here," I said. I didn’t want Ned to start telling Vinny those college stories while I was distracted on the phone.
When Ned’s eyebrows shot up, I added, "We need to get back to my place and see if Priscilla is okay." I looked at Ned. "Someone got her drunk and dumped her."
Ned indicated the gun in his hand. "What about this?" I really didn’t want to stick around much longer. While I was grateful for Ned’s heroics, I was hot and hungry and tired. I also realized that if Tom knew what had happened here, I’d again have to give a statement and go through all those shenanigans. I wasn’t in the mood. "Can you hold on to it for the time being?" I asked. "I’ll call you in a bit, once I get in touch with Tom."
"Whose gun—"
I stopped Vinny by putting a finger across his lips. "I’ll tell you in the car."
Vinny shrugged. "Nice meeting you." He nodded at Ned, who looked at me as if he were losing his best friend all over again. I owed him for what he’d done. And for not paying attention about his father. That compassion somehow kicked in just when I least expected it.
I put my hand on his shoulder and leaned in, kissing him on the cheek. "Thanks, Harry." I smiled. He smiled back, and I felt a surge of our old friendship. We’d been there for each other a long time ago, and knowing that he would still be there for me now, even after all that shit with Ralph—well, let’s just say that even though I’m not a warm and fuzzy kind of person, it was oddly comforting.
Vinny slung his arm around my waist and gave Ned a short wave as we made our way to the Explorer. Ned watched us until we were inside, and then turned back toward his building.
When we were safely strapped in and my fingers about to punch in Tom’s number on the phone, Vinny’s hand wrapped itself around mine, stopping me. "Okay, you’re telling me everything. Now."
I sighed and related the whole story. Vinny’s eyes grew wide when I got to the part about Ned grabbing the gun from Jamond, but he didn’t say anything. Just listened until I got to the part where he showed up.
"Well, I don’t know what his angle is, but the kid was lying to you, that’s for sure," he said when I was done.
"Felicia’s alive."
Chapter 39
I stared at him a few seconds and realized he was serious. "How do you know?" I asked.
Vinny chuckled. "You don’t trust that I can do my job right? I find people for a living, remember?"
I thought back to someone he hadn’t found, and he read my mind. "Okay, so I miss one every now and then. But Felicia, she’s okay."
"Where is she?"
"In a safe place."
I frowned. "Is she in danger?"
"Why do you think she disappeared?"
I snorted. "Don’t be a smart-ass. So tell me about it. Where is she? How’d you find her?"
We were heading down Fitch Street, and my stomach growled before he could answer. It was dinnertime; that measly spinach salad I’d had at the Union League was hours ago.
"Food. Let’s get some food," he said.
"The Japanese place on Dixwell. The one that used to be Hama but is something else now. I want some sushi," I said, even though the longer I was away from my apartment, the more pissed Tom would be if he found out I wasn’t actually there. Now that I was away from the situation, I must have been suffering heatstroke to think about calling him about Ned and Jamond and the Glock.
Vinny wrinkled his nose. He hated sushi. I thought that was sort of funny, a marine biologist who hated fish.
"You can get something else there," I said. "They’ve got all sorts of cooked food, too, you know." I paused. "And you made me go to that Turkish place."
He conceded that it was my turn to pick a place, and it wasn’t far from where we were, so he made a couple of turns and soon we were pulling into the back parking lot.
The new owners of the restaurant hadn’t changed the interior much. It was typical Asian stark design, and its popularity was still running high. We were told we had to wait about fifteen minutes. Even though I was dying to ask Vinny about Felicia, he didn’t seem to think that was too important at the moment, because he asked, "Are you okay?"
I knew he was asking about the whole Jamond episode. I thought about it a few seconds before nodding. "Yeah," I said. "It happened so fast, and it was sort of like in slow motion at the same time. Know what I mean?"
Vinny nodded. "But it can catch up to you."
I understood what he was saying, but this was different. "I wasn’t really afraid," I said. "I know Jamond had a gun and all, but I didn’t really believe that he’d use it. It seemed more like, well, a prop. Something to scare me with, but that’s all. And he really didn’t put up too much resistance when Ned took it away. He just took off."
"Think someone put him up to it?" Vinny’s dark eyes bored into mine, and I nodded.
"Yeah."
"Who?"
"Jack Hammer, maybe?"
Vinny nodded slowly, and I could see those little wheels in his brain turning. He had something he wanted to say, but his cell phone interrupted. He pulled it off his hip and answered it, then handed the phone to me. "It’s for you."
I frowned, said, "Hello?"
"I’ve been trying to call you," Priscilla admonished.
"Where’d you get this number?" I asked.
"Jesus, Annie, it’s in your book here on your desk. When I couldn’t reach you on your phone, I figured maybe Vinny knew where you were."
I told her about Jamond and losing my phone and Ned.
"And here I was thinking he was an asshole, but what he did was amazing. Didn’t think he had it in him," she said. "Listen, can I stay the night? I don’t feel like taking the train back."
"Want me to bring you some miso soup? We’re at Hama."
"That would be great. But isn’t it called something else now?"
Even though I was standing in the doorway waiting for a seat, I couldn’t remember the name of the place. "Yeah. I don’t know how long we’ll be."
"Don’t worry about me. I borrowed a T-shirt and your sweats and I’m watching TV."
I thought about my best friend sprawled on my couch, then took a look at Vinny, who was looking pretty sexy with a five-o’clock shadow.
"I could stay at Vinny’s, and you could have my bed," I offered, punching Vinny in the shoulder as he shot me a grin and a leer.
"Like that wasn’t the plan already. See you later," she said, and we signed off.
"Are we having a sleepover?" Vinny’s lips tickled my ear, and I shivered a little, but just shrugged.
The hostess finally took us to a table for two and took our drink order. Despite the crowd, it didn’t take long to get our Sapporos and order some food.
I took a long drink of my beer as I waited for my sushi and Vinny to get around to telling me about Felicia. His hand wrapped around his glass and swirled his Sapporo for a second before he looked at me.
"She was at that stripper’s place."
It caught me off guard.
"Jack Hammer?" My brain raced in a million different directions before it stopped on one thought. So that’s why Vinny had looked so curious about me thinking Jack Hammer was in cahoots with Jamond. "He knows I’ve been looking for Felicia."
Vinny made a face at me. "So you think the smarmy bastard was going to tell you?"
"How did you find her?" I asked, ignoring his question.
"I went to his condo. I thought maybe he’s the one who’s been following you, making those calls."
Him and me both.
"He wasn’t there, but she let me in."
"That was pretty serendipitous, wasn’t it?"
"I wasn’t totally surprised to see her."
"Why not?"
"When she called you? She was calling from Decker’s phone."
I let that sink in for a few seconds. "Okay, well, did you ask her about Ashley Ellis?"
"I told her a body was found at West Rock School. That her ID was found with the body." He paused and took a drink of his beer. "She got hysterical when I told her. Said it had to be Ashley, that she hadn’t seen her or talked to her since last night. She said she was scared—she didn’t know where to go."
"Where to—" I stopped. Jack Hammer. She was staying with him but felt compelled to go somewhere else. Felicia suspected him. Damn. Was I right that he was behind what happened with Jamond? If so, he’d really been screwing with my head this afternoon. He’d had me almost believing he was innocent in all this. I had to remember that playacting was his business. "So you gave her a place to go?"
Vinny nodded. I could see from his expression he might not want to tell me where she was. Sometimes it was damn tight between that rock and hard place.
He had put his cell on the table, and I picked it up, punching in Tom’s number again, but still got the voice mail. I left another message. What was up with this? I had another idea and punched in Dick Whitfield’s cell number. I should’ve thought of this when I hitched that ride with him earlier.
"Yes?"
"Dick, it’s Annie."
"What do you want?" His voice was high, nervous.
"Did you get an ID on that body at West Rock School?"
"Not yet."
"Have you talked to Tom?"
"Listen, Annie, you’re not on the story. You said that yourself. You also said that I could handle this, and I am."
I didn’t like it that Dick was getting uppity. It was easier when he was submissive. But I didn’t have Cindy Purcell to blame this time. I had told him he could handle it, that it was his story. It was my own fault. I’d created this monster.
"Dick, I’m not trying to take the story away from you. I was just wondering if you had an ID and if you’ve talked to Tom." I tried to keep my voice light. It wasn’t easy.
"I talked to Tom about half an hour ago," he conceded.
"Did he say anything about a report of another body?" I’d left the message about hearing about Felicia’s body up at Judges Cave.
"Another body? No." Dick’s tone told me he was confused. "What’s going on? Is there another body?" He was worried that he’d missed something. I was sorry I couldn’t indulge that worry and confirm it. "I haven’t heard anything on the scanner, and when I talked to Tom, he didn’t say anything." His voice got higher with each word.
"No, no, Dick, there isn’t," I said, although maybe I shouldn’t allay his fears so quickly. But I was tired and hungry and the waitress had just set my sushi down in front of me. "So there’s no ID on the body yet?" I asked again.
"No, Annie," Dick said. "What do you know?"
"Nothing more than you," I lied easily. I heard a familiar sound in the background: a police scanner. "Are you at the paper?"
"Yeah. But not for long." Silence for a second, then, "If you hear anything else about that other body, you’ll tell me, right?"
Jesus, he was paranoid.
Oh, right, I had egged that on. I smiled to myself. "Yeah, sure, but there’s no news there," I said quickly, then closed the phone and handed it to Vinny, whose mouth was full of beef teriyaki. He was frowning at my yellowtail and salmon sushi.
"How the hell can you eat that shit?" he asked when he swallowed.
"Tom hasn’t given Dick an ID yet," I said, ignoring him. "So where did you hide Felicia?" I savored a piece of sushi. Vinny didn’t know what he was missing.
Vinny drank some more of his Sapporo before answering, and I could see he was thinking about this carefully.
"Like I said, in a safe place."
Even though there were a lot of things I really liked about Vinny, sometimes I really hated him. But just as I was about to push the issue, he added, "She’s at Rocco’s." His brother. Vinny grinned. "Rocco was all over it, thinking he could get something for his next book." Rocco writes best-selling crime novels and is always angling for a new plot idea. He’s got a condo in Ninth Square.
Rocco was a good idea; I had to give it to Vinny. No one would even think to look for Felicia with him, since the players in this game most likely didn’t even know he existed. I could vouch for Rocco’s sleuthing and bodyguarding skills, since we’d spent some time together on a story in April. There might be only one problem.
"So when Rocco got a good look at Felicia, he probably started drooling," I said, stuffing the last piece of sushi in my mouth.
Vinny finished his beer before speaking. "She cut her hair and colored it. I guess it was her idea of how to camouflage herself."
"So she doesn’t look as hot; is that what you’re telling me?" I asked.
"She’s okay. Not my type." His gaze was intense, and I felt a hot flash that landed right between my legs. He knew, too, and waved the waitress down. "Time to go," he said.
I nodded, but then remembered the miso soup I’d promised Priscilla. When the waitress brought us the check, I asked her to bring a to-go container. When Vinny raised his eyebrows, I said, "It won’t take long to drop this off. And you probably want to check in with Rocco, anyway. Make sure he hasn’t eloped with Felicia or anything."