Midnight Jewels

animal-human communion and groaned.
    "Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be buying a lot of dog food in the future?"

    Mercy was exhausted by the time they reached Denver. Croft had driven straight through, stopping only to notify the authorities anonymously of the fire and to fill the Toyota's gas tank. When they finally pulled into a motel parking lot, all she wanted was a long hot shower before dinner.
    "Do you think the motel clerk will mind us taking two Dobermans into the room?" she asked Croft as she glanced dubiously at the dogs in the back seat.
    "I'll speak to the clerk," Croft said blandly. "I'm sure he'll understand."
    Mercy wasn't particularly surprised when that proved true. Croft had a way of getting what he wanted.
    "I wonder what will become of Isobel," Mercy said during dinner that evening. "That woman gave me the creeps. She is also a twit."
    Croft's mouth lifted in genuine amusement. "You have a way of seeing some dungs in very simple terms, don't you? I think, at the bottom, you and I share a very similar philosophy of life. You're right. Isobel was a twit and Gladstone had a way of attracting twits. As he said, there are always plenty of people out there who are willing to surrender control of their lives to someone else in exchange for a feeling of being unique and important."
    "So what do you think will happen to her?"
    "I don't know and I don't particularly care." Croft shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned, she was just a nuisance. I was after Gladstone, not her. She knows that, which is why she'll disappear from our lives. I imagine she'll find another employer and become someone else's problem. Sooner or later she's going to wind up in jail or dead. It's inevitable. She's not quite as smart as she should be to have a successful career working for people like Gladstone. She doesn't know the fundamental rule for survival in that kind of job."
    "Which is?"
    "When to get out."
    "Oh." Mercy shivered at the casual way he outlined Isobel's probable future. "You were right about Gladstone or Graves or whatever his name was, Croft. He was an evil, dangerous man."
    He looked at her. "I should never have let you get close to him."
    "Don't start in on that," Mercy advised. "I didn't give you much choice in the matter."
    "If I had been sure from the start that Gladstone was really Graves I could have taken steps to prevent you from coming in contact with him."
    Mercy glared at him warningly. "I don't like either the direction this conversation is taking or that look in your eyes."
    He blinked owlishly. "What took in my eyes?"
    "That one that says, 'I perceive that I may have failed to properly carry out my full and noble responsibility in this particular instance.' A sense of responsibility is all well and good, Croft, but you have a tendency to carry it too far. What happened on that mountain was not your fault. You saved our lives and Isobel's, too."
    "You saved our lives by discovering that tunnel in the vault."
    Mercy felt suddenly pleased with herself. "That was clever of me, wasn't it?"
    "Of course, you wouldn't have been in that vault in the first place if you had followed my orders." Croft slipped the point of his verbal shaft in smoothly while Mercy was still preening.
    Mercy's sense of satisfaction evaporated in the heat of her ire. "You have some nerve to start lecturing me after all I've been through in the past few days."
    "What do you think I went through when I saw you get out of the helicopter? You nearly ruined everything."
    Mercy chewed on her lower lip, aware of a sudden, enormous weight that felt suspiciously like guilt. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Croft. When they told me you were a prisoner I didn't think I had any choice but to do as they said."
    "I know," Croft surprised her by saying. "In your shoes I probably would have done the same."
    "No, you wouldn't have done the same," Mercy declared morosely. "You would have thought of some brilliant way to infiltrate the household and rescue me. Which is exactly what you did."
    "I think we can safely say that we rescued each other. Let's close the subject, Mercy. I can see that if I give you the lecture you deserve I'm going to have to watch you grovel while I listen to a lot of pathetic, tearful apologies."
    Mercy hesitated for an instant, aware that he just might be teasing her. "I'll make a deal with you," she finally said. "No more groveling apologies from me if I don't have to listen to any more heroic claims of full responsibility