Brazen Virtue

at her as she lit the cigarette and blew out smoke. “Not right now,” he said cautiously.
    “Then maybe you’d have a couple of hours now and again in the evening for me.”
    He picked up his juice and took a long swallow. “A couple of hours,” he repeated. “Now and again?”
    “Yeah. I wouldn’t expect you to give me all your free time, just squeeze me in when you’re in the mood.”
    “When I’m in the mood,” he murmured. Her robe dipped down to the floor but was parted at the knee to reveal her legs, pale from winter and smooth as marble. Maybe miracles did still happen.
    “You could be kind of my expert consultant, you know? I mean, who’d know murder investigations in D.C. better than a D.C. homicide detective?”
    Consultant. A little flustered by his own thoughts, he switched his mind off her legs. “Right.” He let out a long breath, then laughed. “You roll right along, don’t you, Miss McCabe?”
    “It’s Grace, and I’m pushy, but I won’t pout very long if you say no.”

    He wondered as he looked at her if there was a man alive who could have said no to those eyes. Then again, his partner Ben always told him he was a sucker. “I’ve got a couple hours, now and then.”
    “Thanks. Listen, how about dinner tomorrow? By that time Kath will be thrilled to be rid of me for a while. We could talk murder. I’m buying.”
    “I’d like that.” He rose, feeling as though he’d just taken a fast, unexpected ride. “I’d better get back to work.”
    “Let me sign your book.” After a quick search, she found a pen on a magnetic holder by the phone. “I don’t know your name.”
    “It’s Ed. Ed Jackson.”
    “Hi, Ed.” She scrawled on the title page, then unconsciously slipped the pen into her pocket. “See you tomorrow, about seven?”
    “Okay.” She had freckles, he noticed. A half dozen of them sprinkled over the bridge of her nose. And her wrists were slim and frail. He shifted the book again. “Thanks for the autograph.”
    Grace let him out the back door. He smelled good, she thought, like wood shavings and soap. Then, rubbing her hands together, she went upstairs to plug in Maxwell.
    She worked throughout the day, skipping lunch in favor of the candy bar she found in her coat pocket. Whenever she surfaced from the world she was creating into the one around her, she could hear the hammering and sawing from the house next door. She’d set up her workstation by the window because she liked looking at that house and imagining what was going on inside.
    Once she noticed a car pull up in the driveway next door. A rangy, dark-haired man got out and sauntered up the walk, entering the house without knocking. Grace speculated on him for a moment, then dove back into her plot. The next time she bothered to look, two hours had passed and the car was gone.

    She arched her back, then, digging her last cigarette out of the pack, read over a few paragraphs. “Good work, Maxwell,” she declared. Pushing a series of buttons, she shut him down for the day. Because her thoughts drifted to her sister, Grace got up to tidy the bed.
    Her trunk stood in the middle of the room. The delivery man had indeed carried it upstairs for her, and with the least encouragement from her would have unpacked it as well. She glanced at it, considered, then opted to deal with the chaos inside it later. Instead she went downstairs, found a top-forty station on the radio, and filled the house with the latest from ZZ Top.
    Kathleen found her in the living room, sprawled on the sofa with a magazine and a glass of wine. She had to fight back a surge of impatience. She’d just spent the day battling to push something into the minds of a hundred and thirty teenagers. The parent consultation had gotten her nowhere, and her car had begun to make ominous noises on the way home. And here was her sister, with nothing but time on her hands and money in the bank.
    With the bag of groceries in her arm, she walked over to the radio and switched it off. Grace glanced up, focused, and smiled. “Hi. I didn’t hear you come in.”
    “I’m not surprised. You had the radio up all the way.”
    “Sorry.” Grace remembered to put the magazine back on the table rather than let it slide to the floor. “Rough day?”
    “Some of us have them.” She turned and walked toward the kitchen.
    Grace swung her feet to the floor, then sat for a minute with her head in her hands. After taking a few deep breaths, she rose and