Rachel Alexander 04 - Lady Vanishes

the back of my jacket, trying in her subtle way to get me out of there.
    “Let’s go,” she whispered to my back.
    We said good-bye quickly, and I followed her out.
    “They don’t seem close,” I said in the hallway.
    She rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started,” she said.
    “Get started,” I said, as we headed down the stairs. “I have a job to do. I need information.”
    Venus stopped and looked at me, as if that had never occurred to her.
    “They’re the kind of rich people that give rich people a bad name, snobs without, in my humble opinion, anything about which to feel superior.”
    Finished, she headed down the stairs and out to the street.
    “Is that it?”
    “Harry didn’t like them,” she said, “but he was always decent to them.”
    “Well, they are his wife’s family.”
    Suddenly Venus looked grim.
    Or was that an angry look? Well, in that case, she had some company.
    She walked up to the curb and stuck her arm up. As a cab pulled up, she turned back to me. “They weren’t exactly his favorite charity.” She opened the door and waited for me to get in first.
    I knew that, I thought, sliding over to make room for Venus. In fact, I knew a lot more than that.
    If Venus wasn’t telling me what she knew, perhaps I should be the one talking. It was high time someone gave out with some information. Besides, it was getting more and more difficult for me to contain myself.
    Especially since Friday wasn’t all that far away.

Chapter 17
    You Know How Families Are

    I could barely keep my mouth shut until Venus closed the door and told the driver to head downtown, to Jane and West.
    “What in hell’s name were you thinking,” I said, “hiring me and not giving me the information I need to do my job?” Venus looked away.
    “I have my reasons.”
    “I know your reasons,” I told her, so angry I was trembling. “I know why you wanted me to find out who killed Harry by Friday.”
    She turned and looked at me, then turned away again. “We’ve got to talk.”
    “Okay, Rachel. But we have to go someplace where no one will overhear us.”
    “And where would that be?”
    “Six six six Greenwich Street,” she told the driver.
    “I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “Make that Hudson and Tenth,” I told him.
    “Why?”
    “Your phone at work is tapped. Can you assure me that your apartment isn’t bugged?”
    “But how—”
    “Harry’s is bugged, too. I couldn’t get into Eli’s office. Any bets on that one?”
    She shook her head.
    “How did you—?”
    “Harry’s, through the window. It wasn’t locked.”
    I thought about Jackson, out in the garden where he wasn’t supposed to be, but kept my mouth shut. Maybe the worst thing about being in an institution is that you have no secrets.
    But then I thought the opposite was true at Harbor View. For people like Jackson and David, almost everything about them was a secret. Nonetheless, I kept the faith, at least for now.
    “And my office? How’d you get in there?”
    “Homer.”
    She shot me a look.
    “I said I had to call my boyfriend, and he let me use your phone.”
    Venus nodded.
    “When?” she asked, a moment later.
    “Last night. I took Dashiell back to Harbor View a couple of hours after we spoke, worked with him for a while in the dining room, something to try in Samuel’s class, and then I decided that, since you weren’t telling me what I needed to know, I’d see if I could find out on my own. When you said you were going to see Harry’s lawyer, well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out where I’d find some of the answers I was looking for. Turns out, I found more than I was banking on.”
    We passed the Italian specialty shops on Ninth Avenue, then got caught up for a block or two in traffic for the Lincoln Tunnel and the Port Authority terminal. After that, we sailed downtown, neither of us speaking again until we were out of the cab.
    “It’s right here,” I said, taking out my keys and unlocking the wrought iron gate. “With a little bit of luck, no one bugged my house. At least, not yet.”
    Dashiell seemed relieved to see me. He sniffed Venus, then squeezed between us to get out into the garden, let the world at large know he was still a player.
    We walked inside, and Venus sat on one side of the couch. I got two bottles of spring water from the fridge and joined her.
    “Do you have an extra set of keys?” I asked her.
    “Why?”
    I sighed. “I’m a detective. I need to