Three Fates

stabbed one of his chips with her fork. “That’s not even funny.”
    “Wasn’t meant to be.”
    “I’m not calling home like some repentant prodigal.”
    He only smiled at her.
    “I’m not.”
    “After your story, I’m no fonder of your mother than you are. But you’ll call her if you want a fifth of the take.”
    “A fifth? Check your math, Slick.”
    “Nothing wrong with my figures. There are four of us, and one of you.”
    “I want half.”
    “Well, you can want the world on a string, but you won’t get it. A fifth of potentially millions of pounds should be enough to hold you until you reach the ripe age of thirty-five. Are things so strained between you she’d refuse a collect call? Or perhaps you’d do better with your father.”
    “Neither of them would accept charges if I were calling from the third level of hell. But I’m not making the call anyway.”
    “You are. We’ll just have to put the call on a credit card. How’s yours holding up?” When she folded her arms over her chest, stared stonily, he shrugged. “We’ll put it on mine, then.”
    “I’m not doing it.”
    “Best to find a phone box,” he decided. “If Anita has some way of tracking my card, I’d as soon not put a target on my back. Hopefully, we’ll be out of London by tomorrow in any case. You need to work in the statue, so I’m thinking a bit of sentiment there. Missing the familiar things of home, that kind of thing. You play it right, maybe one of them’ll wire you some money.”
    “Listen to me. I’ll speak very slowly and in short syllables. They wouldn’t give me a dime, and I’d slit my own throat before I asked them to.”
    “Don’t know till you try, do you?” He tossed some money on the table. “Let’s find a phone box.”
    How did you argue with someone who didn’t argue back but simply kept moving forward like a big, shiny steamroller?
    Now she was in a real fix and had very little time to wheedle her way out of it.
    She didn’t waste her time talking to him as they walked through the light rain that turned the streets glossy black. She had to use her head, calculate her choices.
    She could hardly tell him, Gee, no point in calling Mom or Dad because—ha ha—I happen to have the statue right here in my purse!
    And if she called—and she’d rather be staked to an anthill than do so—her parents would probably speak to her. Coldly, dutifully, which would only piss her off. If she maintained her temper and asked about the statue, they’d ask her if she was doing drugs. A common inquiry. And she’d be reminded, stiffly, that the little silver statue had stood in her room at home for years. A fact they would know, as her room had been searched weekly for those drugs, which she’d never done, or any sign of immoral, illegal or socially unacceptable behavior.
    Since neither of those choices appealed to her, she had to come up with a third.
    She was still calculating when he pulled her out of the rain and into a shiny red phone booth. “Take a minute to think about what you’re going to say,” he advised. “Which one do you think might be best? Mum in Los Angeles? Da in New York?”
    “I don’t have to decide because I’m not going to call either of them or say anything.”
    “Cleo.” He tucked her wet hair behind her ear. “They really hurt you, didn’t they?”
    He said it so quietly, so sweetly, she had to elbow her way around and stare out into the rain. “I don’t need to call them. I know where it is.”
    He leaned down, brushed his lips over her hair. “I’m sorry this is hard for you, but we can’t keep knocking around from place to place this way.”
    “I said I know where it is. Get me to New York.”
    “Cleo—”
    “Damn it, stop patting me on the head like I’m a puppy. Give me some goddamn room in here.” She used her elbow again to shove him back, then dug into her purse. “Here.” She pushed the scanned photograph into his hands.
    He stared at it, then lifted his gaze and stared at her. “What the hell is this?”
    “The wonders of technology. I made a call from Down Under after our little sight-seeing jaunt. Had a picture taken of it and sent to me on Marcella’s computer. I figured you’d cough up the money I wanted, and the ticket, once you had proof I could get my hands on it. The chase scene changed things. Having a couple of goons come after me upped the stakes.”
    “You didn’t bother to show it to me until now.”
    “A girl needs an