A Taste Of The Nightlife Part 16

"You do not even know that Ilona will consent to speak with you," Anatole reminded me. Us. "She has very definite views about the worth and status of daybloods."

"I was hoping you could help us with that," I murmured.

"Yes, of course you were." Anatole went still the way only a dead man could. There was no way to tell what he was thinking. None at all. I glanced at Brendan, who was almost as still. The difference was that while Anatole was staring at the bucket, Brendan was staring at me.

"Very well." Anatole came back to movement so suddenly that I startled backward. "But only because I also have questions that she needs to answer." Anatole pulled his phone out of his pocket, punched in a number and waited while it rang.

"Ilona," he said and then lapsed into Russian. His voice went . . . delicious. Smoky, rich and filled with hidden laughter. My toes tried to curl up and I reflexively leaned closer. Brendan caught my shoulder and glared at me, which I deserved.

Anatole finished the call and tucked the phone away. "Ilona has agreed to speak with you," he said. "Both of you. But she wants you to come to her theater tomorrow at midnight."

"Um," I said, "why?"

"I expect it is to make you hideously uncomfortable and to show me how weak and pathetic daybloods are."

"Delightful." Brendan sighed.

"Normally I would refuse. But it is plain that Ilona is involved in something dubious. I would like her to have a chance to extricate herself before she is hurt." I found myself wondering how long Anatole had known Ilona St. Claire and under what circ.u.mstances.

"So now we all have a dog in the hunt," said Brendan.

"And we all must follow where they lead," said Anatole.

I didn't have a witty follow-up metaphor, so I just grabbed my bucket of blood and headed down to the walk-in. I would feel better with this locked away. I'd feel best with it poured down the drain. But even I knew that would be a bad idea.

And I could always change my mind later if I needed to. At least, that's what I told myself as I locked the door and climbed back up the stairs. This private reminder did not make me feel better. Neither did the looks I got from both Brendan and Anatole when I returned to the kitchen. Neither did the fact that I was forgetting something. Something important.

Before I could think what it was, my cell phone buzzed against my hip. I pulled it out and saw a text from Chet. Two words. C3 call!

My mouth went perfectly and absolutely dry. Total absence of water. Vamp dry.

"'Scuse me one sec," I croaked to the men, who were looking at least as unhappy about this interruption as they had about the blood. "I gotta do this."

I retreated out the back door into our alley with its stacks of pallets, milk crates and the bucket of sand we keep as an ashtray for the smokers. The alley had also been plastered with a solid sheet of Midnight Moon posters. I had a dozen copies of Joshua Blake staring at me as I hit Chet's number with a shaking thumb. I stared back at those sad, dark, heavily made-up eyes while the phone rang, and some absurd little part of my mind started to wonder if somebody had it in for me.

It was one of those ideas you shouldn't start in with, because as soon as I thought it once, I thought it again and again.

No. This can't be about him. I swallowed hard. I chewed my tongue to try to work up some saliva. It didn't help.

The ring on my phone cut out, and I got Chet's voice. "Hey, C3!"

He sounded happy. No, elated. The last time he'd sounded this chipper was when he came back to tell me Anatole Sevarin was in the house.

And look where that got us. I swallowed again. "Hey, Chet. What's going on?"

"I just got word. The P-Squad's going to let us all the way back in starting tomorrow. We can open again!"

I swear to G.o.d, the alley spun around me. I pressed my free hand against the wall, right over Joshua Blake's aquiline nose. "How did you find out?"

"A friend of mine knows a guy on the night s.h.i.+ft. He called in a favor and got a look at the paperwork."

I couldn't take it. It was too much. This was the news I'd been praying for. But as Chet's words sank in, all I could see was that bucket of blood I'd just locked into the walk-in.

"What friend is this?" I asked. Maybe it was Marcus the Nebbish. Maybe I could weasel a full name out of Chet, and then I wouldn't have to go through this business with Ilona St. Claire.

"n.o.body you know," said Chet. "Doesn't matter anyway. We're back! If we haul a.s.s, we might even be open for the weekend."

Yes, yes, it does matter! I wanted to scream. You're trying to distract me, aren't you? You're trying to get into the walk-in so you can get rid of the blood!

Of course, he could do that anytime. The kitchen was already open, and he had the same set of keys I did.

Keys. That's what I had forgotten. The walk-in was kept locked. Whoever had put what was possibly Dylan Maddox's blood in that bucket had needed keys.

"Charlotte? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still here." The words came out as a wheeze. I felt my fingers curl into a fist, sc.r.a.ping against the paper-covered bricks.

"You don't sound so good. And don't say you're just tired," Chet added.

"No, it's not that. It's . . ." It's that you're scamming me. You're manipulating the accounts and sneaking around with vamps and witches and you won't tell me what's going on!

"C3?" said Chet again.

"Yeah?" I pressed my fist against Joshua Blake's nose. Hard. Harder.

"It's going to be okay. I promise. Cross what's left of my heart."

I smiled weakly. He sounded so much like the Chet I'd always known. My charming, earnest little brother, the boy king of Buffalo.

"Chet . . ." This was it. Last chance. These next words would open doors back up, or shut them permanently. "I've been asking around about Dylan Maddox."

"Charlotte, is that a good idea? The cops are on it. Nightlife's out of it. We . . . you should let this go."

"Yeah. Probably. But as it stands, I've got an appointment to go see Ilona St. Claire tomorrow night."

There was the tiniest hint of a pause before Chet said, "Who?"

"She's one of the vampires Detective O'Grady was asking about. Turns out she's a good friend of Anatole's."

"Charlotte, you're not going alone into a vampire theater."

"Are you offering to come with me?"

Again, that tiny sliver of a pause. "Look, Charlotte, I'm serious. This is a very bad idea. I've been asking around. She's with the separatist movement. h.e.l.l, she practically is the separatist movement-"

"Chet." I banged my fist against the wall. It hurt and the wall didn't care. "Jt tell me if there's anything I need to know."

"There's nothing, Charlotte. I promise."

He could have said that a hundred more times and I still wouldn't have believed him. "Okay," I said. "That's all there is to it, then." The doors were all closed and locked.

"Now you promise me you won't do anything stupid."

You first, little brother. "Okay," I said, which could have meant anything. I wanted him to call me on it. I wanted him to insist he'd come with me, or keep me from going.

"Okay," he said. "Look, I'm going to start getting hold of the front-of-house staff. I'll have a head count for you before dawn."

"Great. Talk to you soon."

" 'Bye, Charlotte."

We hung up. I leaned against the wall of Nightlife. Slowly, my head fell back until I was looking up at the sky. I breathed deep, but that was a bad idea, because that particular alley smell of garbage and grease was too strong, and I was back in a different darkness, with the roll of bills clutched tightly in my hand.

Is that enough? I can get more. I just want to see him. Just for a few minutes, that's all. You can make sure I get to see him, right?

"Charlotte?" Brendan's hand touched my shoulder.

"Yeah," I said, as if I needed to confirm my own name. "Yeah."

"I don't suppose you would care to tell us what has you so upset?" Anatole stood on the threshold, holding the door open for us both.

I looked at my phone dangling in my fingers. "Chet."

"Ah," said Anatole. "I find I am not at all surprised."

"What's happened?" Brendan asked. He hadn't taken his hand off my shoulder, and I was pretty okay with that.

"He says he's gotten the heads-up from a friend of a friend that we're going to be allowed back into Nightlife tomorrow. All the way in."

"And yet you sound rather magnificently unhappy." Anatole leaned against the doorframe. "I will a.s.sume, therefore, that was not all he said."

"That'd be a safe a.s.sumption." I stuffed my phone into my pocket and ran my hand over my hair. My braid was coming apart, with wisps and stray locks hanging out all over the place. Great. Now I had metaphoric hair. Just what I needed.

"I will a.s.sume you're not going to tell us what else he said." Brendan sounded disappointed already.

I closed my eyes, dug deep, and came up empty. "I can't," I said. "Not yet. Tomorrow night."

Tomorrow night Ilona St. Claire would give me a full name to hang on Marcus the Nebbish, and the Nebbish would lead me to Pam Maddox. Tomorrow night I would know exactly what Chet had done.

I just had to hold on until then. I could do that much.

I had to.

16.

Once again I caught a cab home in the wee hours. Both Anatole and Brendan stayed to see me g in safely and give the driver my home address. It was like they thought I'd go chasing off after a clue or a suspect or something. The truth was, I couldn't afford it. I could barely afford the cab. These late-night Nancy Drew shenanigans were starting to seriously strain my budget.

I let myself into the silent apartment-tiptoeing in case either of the roommates was not quite asleep-and collapsed in my own bed. This time, though, I didn't fall dead asleep. This time, I lay under the covers watching the sky brighten on the other side of my crooked venetian blinds. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't planning. Brain and body were both gone far beyond that. I was just waiting.

Eventually the sound of running water filtered through the wall, followed by st.u.r.dy heels clumping on hardwood and then, unexpectedly, a resonant alto having a bad Queen flashback.

"Weeeee are the champions!"

I pulled on my purple velour robe and shuffled out into the hall in time to see Trish shaking her backside in the living room. As she was also in her best black pantsuit, it was quite a sight.

"Weeeee are the champions!"

"Why have all my roommates lost their minds?" Jess had come up the hall behind me, looking at least as blurry as I felt.

"Because you are looking at the queen of the New York City courts!" Trish executed a tight pirouette and waved her cell phone. "They want to deal! They want to deal!"

I squinted at Trish. How did someone get that happy at seven in the morning? "Who does?"

"The MacMillans of Preston v. MacMillan Enterprises LLC, otherwise known as the people who are going to pay through their fraudulent noses and kiss some serious and very public a.s.s, starting with my client's!" She spread her arms and waited. Jess and I looked at each other. Trish wiggled her hands in a "give it to me" gesture, and we both dutifully applauded.

"Yea," I added.

"Thank you, thank you. You're too kind." Trish bowed.

"So, this is the rubber chicken case?" Jess slumped onto the couch and yawned hugely. I wish she hadn't, because now I was doing the same thing.

"Dangerously defective novelty products, if you please," said Trish. "Yes, that case."

I looked down at Jess, but had to shove a wad of tangled hair out of my eyes to do it. "She's defending rubber chickens?"

"Actually, she's defending people from rubber chickens." Jess kicked her feet up onto the coffee table.

"Defective rubber chickens," put in Trish. "Rotten latex. Cracks and turns to powder."

As important as this clearly was, just then I remembered something else equally vital and endeavored to muster a glower for Jessie. "You painted my toenails."

Jess shrugged. "You deserved it."

"Can we focus here, people?" Trish cut in. "This is a multimillion-dollar suit I've just fought to a standstill and my firm gets ten percent of the settlement."

"Multimillion-dollar rubber chickens?" I was so clearly in the wrong business.

"Whatever. Look, try this. The firm's going to be throwing a party tonight at Aquavit. You guys should come. Lots of pretty ngle men, and women who might need makeup consulting."

"Count me in!" Jess managed to sound enthusiastic despite another jaw-cracking yawn.

My roommates both looked at me. "Can't," I said.