Suspects(64)

“Is she French?” she asked suspiciously.

“No, she’s American, but she lives in Paris.”

“Are you getting married?” Fiona asked him, while Theo was at her desk in the living room of the suite. Her office had been sending her work by email every day, ever since Mike was better. She was struggling to keep up with it, after being away for three weeks.

“No, I’m not getting married, but she’s important to me. And so are you, and she wants to meet you.”

“Can I come to the hotel the way I am, or do I have to get all dressed up to get through the door?”

“You can come however you want. She’s a good person, Fi, you’ll like her.”

“The last girl you said that about was in college, and she hated me, and I hated her more.”

“You won’t hate this one, and I happen to love her.”

“Oh God, that’s bad. You’ve never said that about any woman. Now I’ll have to be nice to her.”

“Be yourself. Do you want to come to dinner tonight?”

“No, but I will, because I love you, you jerk. And why didn’t you tell me you got hurt?”

“I didn’t want to make you nervous.”

“What happened?”

“I got shot. But I’m fine now.”

“Okay, I’ll come. What time and where?”

“How about seven? Do you want to bring Ian?”

“No, he’s teaching an art class tonight.” She’d had the same boyfriend for fifteen years but they didn’t live together and didn’t want to get married, and she was happy that way.

He gave her the address of the hotel and their room number, and she said she’d be there. He walked into the living room to tell Theo. She looked up from the computer and smiled. She was so happy to see him up and around and looking like himself again.

“She’s coming, at seven. I told her I got shot. She took it well. I didn’t give her the details.” Theo could sense it was going to be an interesting evening.

Mike opened the door when his sister rang the bell promptly at seven, but he had forgotten to tell Theo that Fiona had pink hair. She had had it for as long as he could remember, and the bright pink pixie cut looked good on her. She was wearing paint-splattered sneakers and a matching shirt, torn blue jeans, and a synthetic leopard coat. She looked about twenty years old, not forty-two.

Theo crossed the room to meet her and was glad she’d worn jeans too. Fiona had a wild teenage style to her, but the whole look worked on her, and she had brightly colored flowers tattooed on the insides of both arms, that actually were cute on her. Theo was wearing a pink Chanel sweater and black and pink Chanel ballerinas with her jeans. They were both good-looking women but in entirely different ways. Fiona was hesitant as she greeted Theo, but Theo was warm and welcoming, and Mike looked like a proud papa bear with two cubs.

He offered his sister a drink and she asked for white wine.

“What kind of art do you do?” Theo asked her as they sat down.

“Street art, like graffiti,” she said, and Theo smiled.

“I love street art,” she confirmed.

“I’ve been doing it for about twenty-five years, before everyone knew about it and people started paying a fortune for it. My gallery says I should raise my prices, but then no one will be able to afford it except rich people, and it should be for everyone. What do you do?” She looked like a model to Fiona.

“I sell clothes online. Do you sell your work online?” she asked her.

“I have a website. I do pretty well with it,” she said as she sipped her wine and relaxed a little. She didn’t want to like Theo and she thought the hotel was ridiculous, but she had to admit, her brother was right. Theo was nice, and although she was wearing expensive clothes, she wasn’t pretentious or a phony or a snob. She was a normal person, in fancy clothes and rich surroundings, and she could see why Mike liked her. Fiona did too. They talked about art, and life, and work, and Fiona told funny stories about Mike as a kid.

“He used to lie all the time. Biggest liar I ever knew. He probably still does. But he got all holier-than-thou and honorable when he joined the CIA. He was kind of a pain in the ass for a while, playing Mister Secret Agent, but he’s almost normal these days.” Theo laughed at her irreverent description of him.

“He lied to me too. He told me he was a lawyer when I met him.”

“He does that. I think they tell them to,” she said in his defense, “but if you’re going to go around getting shot, you might as well tell people the truth, otherwise they’ll either think you’re a cop or a drug dealer.”

They ordered dinner then. Theo said the burgers were pretty decent, and the roast chicken was good, but the pasta wasn’t so great. In the end, Mike had a steak and Fiona, who was a vegetarian, had a veggie plate she liked. They had ice cream sundaes for dessert, and Theo told her about their banana split on their first date.

Fiona stayed until ten o’clock, and Theo noticed that Mike looked tired by then. The two women hugged before Fiona left, and Mike hugged Theo after Fiona was gone.

“You were fantastic. She loved you, and you were so nice to her. I never know what she’s going to do or say.”

“She’s terrific.” Theo smiled at him. “The only thing I want to know is how you could let me sell you that red purse for her. She’ll never wear that in a thousand years. I would wear it, she wouldn’t, not in a million years. Did you give it to her?” Theo asked him, and he looked sheepish.