PI On A Hot Tin Roof

money, right?”
    Talba thought at the time it would have been hilarious if this had really been the game Kristin seemed to think it was. (Though later, it occurred to her that she should have paid better attention to that little gambit.) “Don’t worry about Eddie,” she said. “I told him he had to come back to sign a check. He was furious because he has a lunch date at twelve o’clock, and now he’ll be late. Believe me, he’ll be here five minutes, max. See you at—I don’t know—twelve-fifteen?”
    “I’ll be there. Just be sure he’s gone.”
    She got back to Langdon, who said, “I can’t believe I just heard what I think I heard.”
    “Listen up, Skip.” Talba outlined her night’s adventures, and then said, “What do you make of it?”
    “I knew that woman was poison.”
    “What I thought was, we set up a surveillance camera—you can watch the whole transaction—”
    “What? Watch her shoot you? How do you know that’s not what she’s planning?”
    “Oh, I do think she’s planning it. But she won’t do it till after she makes sure it’s the right tape. So you wait in the little coffee room where we have the VCR, and when we come in, you arrest her.”
    “Baroness, are you crazy? Arrest her for what? Overpaying her bill?”
    “Okay, you don’t arrest her yet. You take her down to Headquarters and apply rubber hoses, or whatever you do. And then you arrest her.”
    “Watch your mouth, okay? And no. I can’t do that. And you can’t do that. It’s too dangerous.”
    Talba took a deep breath. She’d known the cop was going to say that. “You’re forbidding me to meet a client in my own office?
You
can’t do that. Look, I’m asking for police protection. Should I just hire a private security firm or do you want in on this?”
    “Police protection.”
    “Let’s try it another way. I’ve got a client coming into my office that I don’t trust. Maybe you could be here as a friend, make sure nothing happens.”
    Langdon sighed, the sound rasping heavily over the wire. “I never used to do that.”
    “What?”
    “Sigh. I never used to sigh. I counted three gray hairs this morning, and I’ve got big bags under my eyes. I never had either one till I met you.”
    “Yeah, Eddie complains, too.”
    “Not half as much as he’s about to. He’ll probably fire you, you know that, don’t you?”
    Talba hadn’t thought of that. The trauma center at Charity, yes. But not Eddie firing her. And then the reality of it hit her. “It’s too late. I’ve already made the date.”
    “Well, unmake it.”
    “I’m doing it.”
    “Goddammit,
Talba! You make sure that office is empty, okay? I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
    “Don’t forget the Kevlar. And maybe a riot helmet.”
    While she waited for the cop, she asked Eileen Fisher if she could please take her lunch break at eleven-thirty, and then she put together a plan—not that Langdon wouldn’t arrive with one of her own, but they could always argue.
    The cop did bring Kevlar—and another cop. Backup. Good. She was first aware of their presence when she heard a man’s voice saying, “Hi, the Baroness in?” It sounded like Adam Abasolo.
    And Eileen Fisher saying, “Sure. I’ll get her. Just be a second.” Very friendly for Eileen.
    “I’m coming, Eileen,” Talba said, and by the time she got there, Langdon was already ordering her to get out and stay out till further notice, which miffed her. It miffed Talba as well.
    “Some people can be so rude,” she said. “Eileen, don’t you have a wedding to go to? Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and go buy a wedding present.”
    “I already ordered one online.”
    “Well, get some dancing shoes, then. This woman’s a cop and she has no manners. Skip, maybe you need to apologize.”
    “Omigod!” Eileen cried. “You’re Skip Langdon! Talba, for shame—
nobody
talks to Skip Langdon like that.” What was up with Eileen?
    Abasolo, probably. He was famous for his crowd-pleasing looks (so long as the crowd was female)—tall, wiry, with black hair and blue eyes. He looked a little like a movie star and a little like a thug, thus appealing to the bad-boy yen that apparently afflicted even Eileen Fisher. Not Talba’s type, but easy on the orbs.
    Langdon laughed. “Well, Her Grace is the only one. But she’s right—I was out of line. We need you out of here for your own safety.”
    “Does Uncle Eddie know about this?” Eileen was rattled. Hardly