Talk Nerdy to Me (47 page)

She did, however, slowly
pull back. "We do need to go."

"I know."

"You
two don't
have
to go," Denise said.
"If you want to stay here and, uh ... work, it's no skin off my
nose."

"No,
I want to go." Eve stepped out of Charlie's arms and walked toward her
sister. "I like Jill, and I'm happy for her and David. Besides, I want to
get the reaction to those cookies we worked so hard on. I'll be ready in no
time. We won't be late."

"If
you say so." Denise sent Charlie a parting glance. "See you later,
Charlie."

"Bye,
Denise." He wondered if he would see her later, in this very garage. Then
he had a sudden thought. "Are you two riding over there together?" If
so, and Denise took the car to come back and do mischief, Eve would be stuck at
the party.

"Actually,
no," Denise said. "I'm supposed to meet Manny later on, so we're
going separately. I was just going to follow Eve to make sure I found the
right place."

And so you’
ll
have wheels to
get back here during the party?
The setup was too perfect,
the motive too strong. She'd suggested that Eve and Charlie skip the party
while knowing full well that her sister wouldn't give up a chance to bond with
the women of the town she'd adopted. He felt sorry for Eve, but he thought he'd
found the culprit.

An
hour later, Charlie was watching a belly dancer Archie had imported from New
York and wondering why Eve hadn't called yet. He felt sure Denise would have
slipped out of the bachelorette party by now. And if not Denise, then Eunice.
This was their golden opportunity.

He'd
been keeping an eye on Manny, Kyle, Darrell, and Ed, but he didn't really think
any of them were guilty. Finally he slipped over to a dark corner and called
Eve.

She
answered immediately. "Got something?" Music with a heavy bass
thumped in the background, along with a chorus of feminine laughter.

"Not me. Are you sure
you're watching?"

"You
betcha. Right now both my sister and Eunice are very involved with one of the
three male strippers."

"Three? We've only got
one belly dancer over here."

'Too bad for you."

"You're
not watching the strippers, are you? You have to concentrate."

"I
can
watch the strippers while I concentrate."

He
fought down that stupid green monster. She'd had enough jealousy in her life
without him adding to the mix. "Well, I guess I'd better—" Someone
tapped him on the shoulder. "Just a minute," he said to Eve.
"Don't hang up." He found that he liked talking to her. He missed
her.

He turned to find David,
the eager groom, standing beside him. Charlie envied the guy having all his
matrimonial ducks in a row. And he had a great fiancée. Jill was blond and
gorgeous, almost as pretty as Eve. She was also a terrific person. She was the
hairdresser for both his mother and Aunt Myrtle, and Jill was responsible for
giving them their red hair every couple of months.

"Have
you seen Rick around?" David was several drinks into his evening and had
gotten to the happy and congenial stage. "The guy's so generous that I
hate to bug him, but he offered to take a few pictures, and I'd love to get
some with the groomsmen and the belly dancer."

"I'm
sure he's here somewhere. I'll check the bathroom." Charlie walked in
that direction and put the phone back to his ear. "Eve, I'll call you back
in a minute. I have to get Rick to do his photographer thing."

Rick
wasn't in the bathroom, though. In fact, he wasn't anywhere in the Rack and
Balls. When Charlie finally put on his coat and went out to the parking lot, he
discovered the Subaru was no longer there.

Of course there was an
explanation. Of course. Except a sick kind of certainty was settling into
Charlie's gut. He speed-dialed Eve.

"Hi, there. Listen,
nobody's moving here."

"Well,
someone did here. I'm heading over to your house."

"Who?
Kyle? Ed and Darrell? I can't believe that Manny—"

"Rick."
Then he hung up and hopped on his bike. Maybe nobody would be at Eve's house.
Maybe Rick had a very good explanation for leaving the party. Charlie should
call his cell, in fact.

Driving
one-handed, he punched in Rick's number. And got Rick's voice mail. Well, that
didn't mean anything. Rick could have ... what? Charlie couldn't imagine what
would make his cousin leave a party, especially one where there was a seminaked
woman dancing.

But
stealing the hovercraft design made no sense at all.

The
guy was a successful photographer with big-deal clients. Wasn't he?

When Charlie pulled up in
front of the garage, everything looked perfectly normal. There was no garage
light on, no Subaru parked at the curb—nothing out of the ordinary. But he had
no idea how long Rick had been AWOL from the party. He hadn't been watching
Rick. Rick had not been a suspect, damn it! He was his rich cousin!

Now
he had a better appreciation for how Eve had felt every time he'd mentioned
that her sister might be doing this. People you'd grown up with weren't
supposed to engage in criminal behavior. They were supposed to operate under
the same value system you did.

Eve
swung into the driveway and the garage door rolled up, activating the light
inside. She hopped out of her car. "Everything looks fine! Nobody's here.
How long was Rick gone, anyway?"

"I
don't know." Charlie hated like hell to admit that. "I had no idea
that it might be him."

"It
might not be." Eve walked into the garage and started looking around.
"He might have another reason for leaving the party. Let's not jump to
conclusions."

Charlie
followed her into the garage. She made him feel lower than a mealybug. He'd
been all set to blame her sister, but she was trying to keep Rick from being a
suspect. He could learn a lot from Eve, if he allowed himself to forget his
plan to leave Middlesex. And he could have a damn good life, too. And plenty of
hot sex.

"Charlie!"

His heart lurched into high gear. She'd found
something.

"Is
this what I think it is?" She crouched down and peered under the
workbench.

Charlie knelt down beside her and looked up.
"Holy shit." He was staring at a small homemade bomb. Worse yet, he
recognized the design. It was the same one Rick had joked about building when
they were kids.

"Can you stop it?"

His
mouth went dry. "I don't think so. It's a cheesy bomb, and if I mess with
it, it could go off in my hand." Rick had moved the tank of hydrogen right
next to it. The bomb was small, but the hydrogen would amplify the blast and
take out the garage, including the hovercraft. Charlie quickly moved the tank a
distance away.

"Charlie."
Her voice was tense. "It's showing one minute, forty-six seconds."

"Yeah."
In red digital numbers. Rick would have chosen red numbers for dramatic value.
"A minute forty-three, now. Let's go. We'll call the police once we're out
of here."

"No. We can't leave
the hovercraft."

"I care more about you
than the damned hovercraft!"

But
she was already beside it and lifting the canopy. "I'm flying it out of
here."

"Damn!"
Charlie knew it was no use arguing with her. She'd already climbed in the
cockpit. By the time he dragged her out and hauled her down the driveway, the
bomb would explode.

As
she started to close the canopy over her, he grabbed it and climbed in.

"No, Charlie! Get out!
Run!"

"No way." He
latched the canopy. "Go."

The
engine didn't catch. Charlie stopped breathing. Then it did catch. It was
rough, but it was running. The hovercraft lifted off the cement. In spite of
the fear pumping through him, Charlie felt the wonder of that. "Punch
it!" he yelled.

Eve
pulled back on the throttle and the hovercraft shot out of the garage so fast
Charlie's head snapped back.

She
miraculously sailed over his bike, but they were headed straight for the house
across the street. "Pull up, pull up!"

She
brought up the front of the disk so sharply he saw nothing but the starry sky.
"Level it out!" When this was over, he was so giving her flying
lessons.

"Charlie,
it
works."
She was laughing as they
skimmed over the top of the house. "It—"

Her
garage exploded, rocking the hovercraft so that it tipped sideways.

"Use
your rudder!" Charlie cried out as the hovercraft began to veer toward a
leafless oak tree. "We're going to hit that—"

With
a snap, crackle, and pop, they flew into the tree. Eve killed the motor and the
hovercraft balanced there, cradled by the branches like some futuristic tree house.

Charlie
took a deep breath. "I think it might be time to call 911."

No,
wait." Eve pointed down the street. "Here comes the Subaru."

"That
son of a bitch. Returning to the scene of the crime."

Eve
had to admit the evidence was damning, but she hated to think Charlie's cousin,
who was also Myrtle's son, would do such a thing. "Are you sure?"

"I'm
sure. That bomb was exactly like one he talked about building when we were
kids." Charlie unlatched the canopy. "And he almost got us both
killed. I don't want him getting away."

"Me,
either, but I'd rather you didn't fall out of the tree and bash those valuable
brains of yours. We need a fire truck."

"Yeah,
and that will scare him off." Charlie eased out of the cockpit. "You
wedged us in here pretty good. I should be able to climb out without dumping
you."

"That
would be nice." Eve was already assessing the branches on her side of the
hovercraft. If Charlie could climb out, so could she.

"Just
sit tight." He gripped a limb of the tree. "If you see him drive
away, call 911. Otherwise, assume I've got him under control."

"Okay."
She said it as convincingly as possible, so he wouldn't get suspicious that she
was following him down this tree.

"I
mean it. Don't try getting out of this tree."

"Okay."

He
gave her one last glance. "Seriously."

"Right."

He
swung down, suspended from the branch. Eve leaned over to watch. With his long
arms and legs, he wasn't more than three or four feet above a snowbank. Once he
dropped with a soft thud, she pushed herself out of the cockpit onto the smooth
surface of the hovercraft.

As
she did that, she noticed that the rubber bumper had been a huge factor in
keeping the hovercraft snugly tucked into the tree. Without that, the
hovercraft might have tilted and fallen to the ground below. Denise, far from
being the villain of the piece, might have helped save the day.

On
Eve's side of the hovercraft the branches formed more of a ladder effect, so
she didn't have much trouble dropping down to the snowy ground. Once she was on
the ground she glanced toward her house and gasped. The blast had destroyed the
garage, blowing off the roof and sending debris everywhere. Little tongues of
flame consumed whatever flammable things were left in the garage.

But
that wasn't the only casualty. The blast had lifted Charlie's bike and tossed
it on top of her car, where it had crashed through the roof. Both car and bike
seemed totaled.

Rick
stood looking at the destruction, his body completely still. He was probably
in shock. Eve had to believe he hadn't known that she and Charlie would be
anywhere near the blast, and for all Rick knew they were both dead as a result
of his actions.

Charlie
took advantage of that moment when Rick was riveted by the horror of what he'd
done. Creeping up behind him, he had him in a choke hold before Rick knew what
was happening. The funny thing was, Charlie apparently had wasted all that
force, because once Rick realized who had grabbed him, he dropped to his knees,
sobbing.