When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [42]
Now what? I didn’t like this too much. What were Kit and Angelo up to?
“We have a request from the audience to hear ‘Nel Blu dipinto Di Blu,’ also known as ‘Volare,’ ” Angelo announced. I thought of his butchering the beautiful old song and I cringed. “And to help me with the vocals, straight from the New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Kit Harrison.”
Straight from the New England Conservatory of Music?
Angelo played a little intro to the old Domenico Modugno song, and I noticed that his pianowork wasn’t actually so bad. Now how about Kit’s vocals? And their duet together?
Kit leaned into the mike, and he actually looked as if he knew what he was doing. He looked pretty sure of himself. “This is for Dr. Frannie O’Neill. She’s a wonderful doctor of veterinary medicine, a real lifesaver. I hope this rendition is worthy of her in some small way.”
I modestly nodded my head, and smiled nervously. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say or think. About Kit Harrison? And especially about being serenaded by Kit and Angelo in the local hangout.
Kit began singing “Volare.” And he wasn’t just worthy of me, he was very good. He had a beautiful tenor voice, and he was in control of it all the way through the song.
New England Conservatory? Was that a cute joke, or was it the truth? Who was this man? Everybody in the restaurant and bar had stopped to listen and watch. Kit could really sell a song, and everybody was buying, even the local rednecks and their dates.
When he and Angelo finished, just about everybody was clapping, cheering them on. Kit and Angelo took a few comical bows, then Kit came back to me at the bar.
“The lovely signora approve?” Kit asked. “It was okay?”
I couldn’t even be flip. “Thank you. You were terrific, magnifico. I’m very touched. New England Conservatory?”
“Actually a bar near the conservatory. ‘Sparks.’ I played and sang my way through college and law school. I also worked summers on the Cape.”
Flashback time. Kit and I were working side by side, saving the fox. He was asking me to dinner in Clayton. Little generous acts that left me feeling both cared about and maybe too vulnerable, too fast. My throat ached from the sudden tenderness I was feeling. I was also conscious that I could easily be hurt right now.
“You’re quiet again,” he said. “Don’t be. Please. I didn’t mean to have that effect.”
“I’m just thinking,” I said. But I couldn’t tell him that I was thinking about him and the effect he was having on me. So I told him something else. Trust me, he’d said, when he helped rescue the fox. For some reason, I did trust Kit now.
“I saw something the other day in the woods,” I said as we sat at the bar. “Something that’s going to sound unbelievably crazy to you. I almost can’t believe I’m saying this. To you, or anybody else.”
I stopped myself from going on. Kit looked a little alarmed, but I definitely had his attention.
“What did you see, Frannie? Finish what you were about to say.”
I stared into Kit’s deep blue eyes.
God help me.
I bit my lip.
What if I was making a mistake?
You don’t knowathing about me, he’d said.
“I saw a little girl… I think she was about eleven or twelve. A wild girl. And this is the really crazy part, Kit. She had wings—this girl has wings like a bird’s.”
His expression froze and his mouth dropped open a little.
I wished I could take back my words, but I couldn’t. It was too late for that.
“I know,” I said. “Sounds unbelievable. But, Kit, she was as real as I am sitting here. I saw a little girl with wings. And I saw her fly.”
Chapter 43
KIT FELT THAT THE TOP of his head had just blown off. He was trying not to show it. He had to remind himself that he was a professional, an agent with the FBI, a smart, pretty sane person.
So, he had been right that something was going on out here. He’d been right to follow the case to Colorado, and anywhere else it would take him now. Why in hell had the Bureau pulled him off this case? It made no sense. Jesus, Jesus!