Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

was that tired and she wasn’t laughing.
    “It’s over,” she said raggedly. “Ward Forrest is out cold in the hospital with a deputy baby-sitting him. You’ve got a broken wrist, and the sheriff has your gun and it’s over.”
    Ian smiled at her. He could have pointed out the reasons that he felt like the other shoe hadn’t dropped, but all he said was “Humor me.”
    “Ha, ha. You’re humored.”
    But she let him go in first.
    When he got back, she was leaning against the door frame, her eyes closed. Smiling, he tucked a wild, muddy curl behind her ear. Her eyes flew open.
    “You want to shower before bed?” he asked.
    “I’d take a bath, but I’m afraid I’d slide under and drown.” Then she remembered the brutal painting and grimaced.
    “Don’t think about it,” he said, kissing the corner of her mouth.
    She nuzzled against him for a moment. “I feel like I dropped through reality into an alternate universe and I’m still trying to find my balance. Things look the same but they aren’t. People try to kill you and your grandfather is a forger and maybe a murderer who appeared full grown at forty with no childhood and the cops look at you like you’re a nutcase because you defended yourself against a nutcase and then they all but arrest you because you didn’t get yourself killed and—”
    He kissed her until she stopped thinking about it. “Go take that shower, darling.”
    “Alone?”
    He held up his right arm. “The cast might be advertised as waterproof, but it isn’t proof against what we’d do together in that shower.”
    “If you shower after me, I can’t guarantee I’ll be awake when you’re finished.”
    “I love a challenge.”
    Ian watched her walk to the bathroom and told himself he was doing the right thing. She looked pale, fragile, with dark rings of exhaustion around her beautiful brown eyes. The last thing she needed was a romp in the sheets. And when he caught a look at himself in the sitting room mirror, he was surprised she’d even suggested it. His beard-shadowed, dirty, scraped, and bruised face would have made a great poster for a movie called He Came from the Dead
    The phone rang. He gave it the kind of look reserved for things that stick to your shoe, but answered it. Maybe Ward had come to after the surgery and was feeling chatty.
    “Yeah?” he answered, not caring if he sounded rough. It was how he felt.
    “This is the front desk. Sorry for bothering you so late, but a Mr. Quinn urgently wants to see Ms. Quinn.”
    Ian heard the shower running full force, looked at the time, and wondered how Lacey’s dad had found out about the wreck.
    “Send him up.”
    Ian was just drying his face when he heard the knock on the door. He went, checked out the spy hole, and then checked it out again.
    The other shoe had just dropped. Hard.
    With a soundless whistle, he opened the door. “Come on in, Mr. Quinn. I’ve got a lot of questions for you.”

Savoy Hotel
    Wednesday morning
69
    L acey looked at the three examples of the Death Suite propped against the wall. Then she looked at her watch. “They should be here.”
    “They will be,” Ian said.
    “Think they’ll bring Bliss?”
    “After last night, I doubt it. The sheriff had to hold her to keep her from swinging at me.”
    Somebody knocked on the hall door.
    Lacey walked to answer it with the quick, snapping steps of someone who is furious. “I still can’t believe that Ward Forrest isn’t under arrest.”
    “Even after last night?” Ian asked.
    Lacey’s mouth flattened. Her sketchbook was filled with notes from last night’s staggering conversation.
    “It’s still wrong,” she said.
    “Amen. Now let’s see if we can start making it right.”
    Left-handed, he opened the door. Rory Turner and Savoy Forrestwalked in. Both men looked grim and frustrated. Rory gave Ian a hard look and didn’t offer to shake hands. He dumped the files he’d brought onto the wide coffee table.
    “This better be good, Lapstrake,” Rory said.
    Ian smiled. “Oh, yeah. It’s good.”
    Savoy started to say something, but a motion from Rory cut him off.
    Ian closed the door and looked at the two men. They watched him with naked hostility in their eyes.
    “I’m thinking good old Ward finally woke up and started talking,” Ian said.
    “Yes,” Savoy said.
    Ian waited.
    “If he dies,” Savoy said thinly, “you’ll be arrested for murder.”
    “That’s bullshit!” Lacey said, striding right up to Savoy