Obsession in Death(88)

Bella spat it out, said perfectly, “Shit!” She plopped onto her butt giggling madly as Mavis danced in. “Mama! Shit!”

Mavis narrowed her eyes at Eve.

“It’s not my fault.” Jesus God, she thought, she was actually short of breath. “She tried to eat this.” Eve held up the spit-covered diamond. “Why would anybody leave me alone with her?”

“Ba-ba!” Bella made a grab for it, but this time Eve snatched it out of reach. The little chin quivered, tears swam into the big blue eyes.

“It’s Dallas’s bauble.” Mavis plucked Bella up, gave her a swing. How she managed to spin a couple circles in the mile-high red boots was a testament to agility and balance skills. “Go get Bella’s baubles. Show Dallas Bella’s baubles.”

“Ba-ba!” Tears banished, Bella wiggled down and toddled off.

“She likes to play dress-up, so I give her some junk jewelry.” Mavis pulled a pack of wipes out of some hidden pocket, passed them to Eve. “She knows better than to put things in her mouth, but it’s so shiny.”

“She knows how to say ‘bauble’?”

“It’s one of her favorites.” She glanced back, hearing Bella jabber, and Peabody answer. “Are we okay, Dallas?”

“You’re okay.”

Mavis pushed at her hair, a curling mass of electric blue today. “Leonardo wants us to go to a hotel, but —”

“You’re good here. Better here. In fact, I’d say we scared her off. She’s going to think twice about trying for this place, for you. You’ve got security in-house, you’ve got two cops wired in. Just don’t be alone, Mavis. Not even for a few minutes.”

Then she heaved out a breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t pull that with me. Not with me.” Mavis threw her arms around Eve, squeezed hard. “I want some wine. We’ll all have some wine.”

“Not for me. I can’t stay. I just want to go over some of the basics. Number one, after not being alone, is you don’t answer the door. Not until I have her, Mavis. You don’t answer the door. Whoever does —”

“Checks the monitors, verifies, and all that. I know how it works. My bestie’s a cop.”

“I’m going to get her, Mavis.”

“DFS.” She took another glance back toward the bedrooms. “Damn f*cking straight.”

“McNab’s nearly done,” Leonardo announced as he came in.

“Good. I want to hit some of the non-negotiables with you and Mavis. I’m going to tell you to be careful, but not to worry. She’s not going to get past the wall.”

“Not worried. See any worry?” Mavis tapped her forehead. “Smooth as Bellamina’s bottom. Careful’s the top. We’ve got good reasons for careful.” She reached for Leonardo’s hand, gave it a kiss. “Babycakes, would you open a bottle of wine? Dallas says not for her, but I could sure use a nice glass.”

“Whatever she says to do, you’ll do?”

Mavis swiped her finger over her heart, kissed it, then laid it on his lips. “Mega promise, not to be broken.”

“I’ll open the wine.”

Mavis waited until he’d moved out of earshot. “Don’t tell me to cancel the ball drop. Mega promise, so I have to if you say. Don’t say.”

“I won’t. No way she’s going to go after you there. She runs, and she goes for solo, goes for alone. You make the mega promise you’re never alone. Not at rehearsals or pre-gig or post-gig, whatever it is.”

Once again Mavis swiped her heart. “No chances. I’ve got two of the maggest of mag reasons for staying safe.” She turned as Peabody came in with Bella, both of them draped in baubles.

“There’s one of them.”

Bella held out her arms, did the toddler version of a model’s turn. “Ba-ba!”

She pulled off a gaudy bangle bracelet and, smiling sweetly, offered it to Eve.

“You think I’m going to trade?” Eve slipped the thoroughly wiped diamond back under her shirt, then crouched. “Disappointment, kid. Get used to it.”

Bella only laughed, threw her arms around Eve’s neck. “Slooch,” she said in obvious delight, and pressed her sticky lips to Eve’s cheek.

Eve sat for twenty minutes after the security team returned, amazed and baffled that Bella insisted on crawling onto and staying on her lap while she talked of procedure and code words.

Then again, maybe the kid was plotting how she’d get her hands – or her mouth – on the diamond again.

Eve took another long scan of the street when she left, then turned, studied the windows of Mavis’s apartment. Bright and colorful for the holidays, tree shining in the center of the glass.

Baubles, she supposed.

Mavis would be smart. She’d survived the street for years, and knew how to be smart. And she’d be only smarter and more careful because she had family.

As safe as possible, Eve assured herself, and got in the car.

Time to go the hell home, she thought. She, too, had family. And she wanted to be home, with her family, eating takeout soup and pie.

As soon as she figured the best way to get the hell out of this parking space.