Trust Me on This - Jennifer Crusie [24]
Alec grabbed her arm as she turned away. “Dinner. If you’re skipping lunch, you’re going to need dinner. I’ll pay. I have—”
“I know. Plenty of money.” Dennie frowned at him. “Will your aunt be there?”
“What is this with my aunt?” Alec frowned back at her.
“Will your aunt be there?” Dennie repeated with deliberate patience.
“Yes,” Alec said. “If I have to drag her into the restaurant myself, my aunt will be there. I’ll meet you at eight in the lobby. What do you say?”
“Fine. I would love to have dinner with you and your aunt. Now go away, I have to work.” Dennie pulled her arm out of his grasp and turned down the street toward the university, and Alec watched her go.
She was going to a library? Alec turned the problem over in his mind. What the hell could there be in a library that would interest a con—?
Of course. His aunt was an academic, so Dennie would assume she’d published. She was looking up Aunt Vic’s publications so she could dazzle her at dinner. Alec shook his head in admiration. Hell of a woman, that Dennie. It was almost a shame to arrest her. He turned back to the hotel to tell Harry there’d be two more at dinner. And if Dennie really was spending the afternoon at the library, that would give him time to run some checks and set up the next day. Really, she was just playing into his hands.
Alec thought of Dennie in his hands and grew warm. It really was a shame she was a crook. Then he shoved that thought away, too, and went to lay the groundwork for arresting her.
On her way back through the lobby after a very productive afternoon at the library, Dennie was waylaid by Baxter, the manager, looking even more rabbity than usual.
“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” Dennie said, trying to duck by him.
“She said you watched her give a speech today,” Baxter said, trailing her with a hopeless expression.
Dennie stopped. “It was a public speech. I sat in the back. I’m not allowed at a public speech?”
“I tried to point that out,” Baxter said, clearly hoping one of the combatants would be on his side. “I asked if you tried to speak to her, and she said no but that wasn’t the point.” Now that he had Dennie’s attention, he began to wax eloquent. “So then I said, ‘But Mrs. Meredith, surely she’s allowed in a public place,’ and that seemed to make her angrier.”
It was probably the “Mrs. Meredith,” Dennie told him silently. Reminders of marriage would have been ill-timed. Baxter, meanwhile, droned on. There must be people at home who loved him very much if he was used to being listened to when he talked like this. Dennie could picture the children gathered round, and his thin little wife holding the latest baby, and maybe a little dog. Not like Walter, though. Walter would have peed on him out of exasperation by now.
“—So I told her I’d make sure you didn’t get near her again this weekend,” Baxter finished. “That’s all right, isn’t it? I mean, we agreed about the police and all, so I thought that would be all right with you. Isn’t it?”
“Sure,” Dennie said, sidling away again. “Listen, I have to go to dinner with some people who are not Janice Meredith, so I’m going now. Give my best to the family.”
“What family?” Baxter said, but she’d already turned and was heading for the elevators. Baxter was the least of her troubles. She had to be intelligent and insightful for Victoria Prentice that night so Victoria would see that she was a serious writer and convince Janice to spill everything.…
Fat chance.
Just do it, she told herself. Thinking about it was only depressing.
At seven that night, Harry hefted the suitcase with the sound equipment in one hand while he knocked on Victoria’s door with the other, wishing he could be anyplace else on the planet. She was a dangerous woman with dangerous eyes, and he’d been thinking about her since he’d seen her the night before. The best thing he could do would be to wire her and get out because—
Victoria opened the door in a white lace robe, and Harry lost his train of thought