Silent Prey

about the cop she used to date.
    “Ah, God,” she said, staring up at the ceiling, where a large wooden fan slowly turned its endless circles. “He was so good-looking, and he was such a snake. He used to be like this Pope of Greenwich Village guy with these great suits and great shoes, and he hung out, you know? I mean, he was cool. His socks had clocks on them.”
    “How cool can a Traffic guy be?” Lucas cracked.
    She frowned. “Were we talking about him? I don’t . . .”
    “Sure, at your place,” he said, thinking, As a matter of fact, you didn’t, Lily did, Davenport, you asshole. “I remember, mm, important details . . . .”
    “Why’s that important?” she asked, but she knew, and she was flattered.
    “You’re the fuckin’ detective,” Lucas said, grinning at her. “Have another drop of wine.”
    “Trying to get me drunk?”
    “Maybe.”
    Fell put her wineglass on the table and poked a finger at him. “What the fuck are you doing, Davenport? Are you Internal Affairs?”
    “Jesus Christ—I told you, I’m not. Look, if you’re really serious, my goddamn publisher’s not far from here and my face is on the game boxes. There’s a biography and everything, we could go over . . .”
    “Okay. But why are you pumping me?”
    “I’m not pumping you . . . .”
    “Bullshit,” she said. Her voice rose. “You’re a goddamn trouser snake just like he was, and just like Kennett. I knew that as soon as you asked me to dance. I mean, I could feel myself melting. Now, what the fuck are you doing?”
    Lucas leaned forward and said, trying to quiet her, trying not to laugh, “I’m not . . .”
    “Jesus,” she said, pulling back. She went back to the table and picked up her purse. “I’m really loaded.”
    “Where’re we going?”
    “Up to your room. I’ve changed my mind.”
    “Barbara . . .” Lucas threw three twenties at the tabletop, and hurried after her. “You’re a little drunk . . .”
    “Fuckin’ trouser snake,” Fell said as she led the way through the door.
     
    He woke in the half-lit room, a thin arrow of light from the bathroom falling across the bed. He was confused, a feeling of déjà vu. Didn’t Fell just call, didn’t she say . . . ? He stopped, feeling the weight. She’dfallen asleep cradled beneath his arm, head on his chest, her leg across his right. He tried to ease out from beneath her, and she woke and said, “Hmmm?”
    “Just trying to rearrange,” he said, whispering, catching up with the night. She’d been almost timid. Not passive, but . . . wary.
    “Um . . .” She propped herself up, her small breast peeking at him over the top of the blanket. “What time is it?”
    Lucas found his travel clock, peered at it. “Ten minutes of three,” he said.
    “Oh, God.” She pushed herself up, her back to him, and the sheet fell off. She had a wonderful back, he decided, smooth, slender, but with nice muscles. He drew a finger down her spine and she arched away from him. “Oooo. Stop that,” she said over her shoulder.
    “Come lay down,” he said.
    “Time to go.”
    “What?”
    She turned to look at him, but her eyes were in shadow and he couldn’t see them. “I really . . .”
    “Bullshit. Come on and sleep with me.”
    “I really need some sleep. ”
    “So do I. Fuckin’ Bekker.”
    “Forget Bekker for a few hours,” she said.
    “All right. But lay down.”
    She dropped back on the bed, beside him. “You’re not still with Rothenburg?”
    “No.”
    “It’s over?”
    “It’s weird, is what it is,” he said.
    “You’re not saying the right thing,” said Fell. She propped herself up again, and he drew three fingers across the soft skin on the bottom of her breast.
    “That’s because Lily and I are seriously tangled up,” Lucas said. “You know she’s sleeping with Kennett.”
    “I figured. The first time I saw them together, she was dropping him off at Midtown South, and she kissed him good-bye and I had to go inside and put a cool wet rag on my forehead. I mean, hot. But then I saw you two talking to each other, you and Rothenburg, and it looked like unfinished business.”
    “Nah. But I was there when her marriage came apart and she helped kill off the last of my relationship with a woman I had a kid with. We were kind of . . . pivotal . . . for each other,” Lucas said.
    “All right,” Fell said.
    “Lily was driving?”
    “What?”
    “You said she dropped off