Concealed in Death (In Death #38)(65)

“Sorry, but I wanted to pick your brain a little,” Eve began.

“They’re all dead, these girls? All of them?”

“Yeah.” Eve didn’t like the way the rosy glow in Mavis’s cheeks died to sickly white. “Let’s go downstairs and talk about it.”

“A case. Your case. But I knew them. This one, and this one. This one, too.”

“What?” Eve gripped her shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“I knew her.” She gestured to Shelby. “And her.” Now Mikki. “And her.” And lastly LaRue Freeman. “I knew them, Dallas. Before you. I knew them before you.”

She turned her face to Eve’s with tears shimmering. “They were friends of mine.”

13

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. You don’t forget . . . They’re dead. They’ve been dead all this time. That’s why they never came back.”

“Came back where?”

“To The Club. That’s what we called it. They never came back.”

“Mavis.” Eve took her by the shoulders, shifted a little to block the photos on the board so Mavis would look at her instead. “When did you know them?”

“Before. Before I met you. I told you how it was before.”

“Yeah.” But she’d given Mavis a lot of leeway on details. No point pushing for them when they could make you wonder how many times you could arrest your best friend on prior bad acts.

“I’m going to need you to tell me more now.”

“I need . . . a minute. It’s all still there. You think it’s not. You figure you’ve dumped it, or at least packed it all away. But it’s all still there.” She leaned on Eve a moment, all the bright clothes and hair. “You know.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“We were just kids, Dallas. They were just kids.” She shuddered, eased back. “I want Bella, for a minute. I want Bella and Leonardo.”

“We’ll go down,” Roarke said. He brushed off Eve’s protest before it happened, simply giving her arm a squeeze as he drew Mavis away. “You could do with some wine, darling, and a bit of time to gather your thoughts.”

“I guess. I’m upside down, or inside out. Maybe both. I thought they took off.” She leaned on him now as they went downstairs. “A lot of us did, or got picked up, swallowed up. But a lot just took off. People don’t always stay, even when you want them to.”

“They don’t, no.” He led her into the parlor where Leonardo and Summerset, with equally besotted smiles, watched Bella bang enthusiastically on some sort of colorful plastic cube. One bang and it played a rapid guitar riff, another trumpets blasted like New Year’s Eve on Zeus.

While it riffed, blasted, drummed, tweeted, Bella laughed like a loon and shook her hot pink ruffled butt.

“Look what Summerset gave Bella.” Beaming over the cacophony, Leonardo, a glittering silver vest flowing over a sapphire shirt, rose from the sofa. “She has your musical talent, moonbeam.”

His smile faded as he focused on the sheen in her eyes. “What’s the matter?” He started toward her, but she shook her head, glanced down at Bella.

“Oh, that’s just mag!” Mavis dropped down by Bella to poke the image of a keyboard. “It’s the total ult. You can play backup for Mommy! Thanks, Summerset.”

“I thought she’d enjoy it. Music’s in the blood.” Though his voice held as much cheer as Summerset’s ever did, the amusement had gone out of his eyes.

But for Bella, still shy of her first birthday, the world was bright lights and music.

She spotted Eve and Roarke, squealed with boundless joy.

“Das!” As fast as her chubby legs could manage, she toddled over to Eve, and her pretty face glowing with desperate love, lifted her arms. “Up!”

“Oh, well, I—”

“Up, up, up! Das.”

“Okay, okay.” Flustered, Eve reached down. Bella took it from there, all but climbing into Eve’s arms, then clapping both hands on Eve’s cheeks while she jabbered in the foreign language of baby.

“’Kay? ’Kay?” She made an exaggerated mmmm! sound as she pressed her lips to Eve’s.

“Yeah, sure.” It was hard not to grin around a kid just that pretty and happy, but the timing . . . But when Eve tried to set her down again, Bella clung like a burr, dropped the foreign tongue to a hissy whisper in Eve’s ear. Then laughed deep from the belly at the joke only she knew.

And with a bounce, she twisted in Eve’s arms, gave Eve a hot moment of sheer panic before she tried to fly across to Roarke.

“Ork!”

“Good idea. Great idea.” Mentally swiping sweat from her brow, Eve shoved Bella at Roarke.

He received similar treatment—hands, jabber, kiss—and his reaction slid along the same lines as Eve’s, until Bella tilted her head to one side and batted her lashes like a pro.

Despite it all, he laughed, found she seemed less likely to slip out of his hold when she settled on his hip. “And look at you now, quite the flirt already.”

She smiled, just a little sly, played with his hair.

“Men are her playthings.” Mavis’s voice trembled a little before she sipped the wine Summerset offered her.