Page 13

BOSTON RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL

S am Rashid was waiting in the hall in front of Celine’s penthouse when Dominic got off the elevator and made a face as he walked toward him.

“I hope you had a good day,” he said sourly.

“Personally, mine sucked. That gorgeous guest of yours started off with cursing me and trying to jump out of the limo. She evidently didn’t like the idea of you marching off into the sunset and not giving her a chance to state her wishes.

By the time we got to the hotel, she had quieted down a bit; I checked her into the penthouse and ordered her breakfast. Then I explained that you sometimes have difficulty with the simpler things of life, like courtesy, but it generally comes out all right in the end. ”

“How kind of you to soothe and reassure her,” Dominic said sarcastically. “Do tell me more.”

“Hey.” Rashid shook his head. “I was the one who compiled that dossier on her. According to reports, she could do serious damage to me, and I thought that you wanted her to calm down and rest.”

“And did she do it?”

“Not right away. But after the third time she tried to escape from the suite, she probably became discouraged. Or maybe she just admired the fact that I was alert enough to catch her doing it each time.” He added thoughtfully, “But she’s very good with locks.

Once, she managed to get off the balcony to the next penthouse. ”

“Interesting. Locks and skipping over roofs and balconies…” Dominic paused. “But she didn’t appeal to any hotel guests or employees for help? Yet you must have run into several. It’s a busy hotel.”

Rashid nodded. “It never occurred to me. Of course, a good many people were staring at her. Who wouldn’t? But she wasn’t afraid of me. I’d say it was just the opposite.”

“I’ve done some staring myself. But perhaps it was a weapon that she didn’t want to use…” Dominic stepped closer to the door and rang the bell. “Maybe I’ll ask her.”

The door opened, and Celine Kelly stood glaring at him. “You took your time, Dominic.” She looked beyond him to Rashid. “Not you. I’ve had enough of you to last me for quite a while.”

Rashid nodded. “But I believe you’ll find I’m much more agreeable than Dominic.” He glanced at Dominic. “I ordered your favorite wine. I thought that it might mellow her a bit.”

“I don’t believe wine could do that,” Dominic said. “But maybe if I’m humble enough…”

Rashid was smiling slyly. “Oh, may I stay around and watch that?”

“No,” Celine said definitely. “He couldn’t be humble enough to make me feel in the least mellow. He was rude and ignored me when I told him I needed to talk to him. He treated me the way Jossland did that night he followed me. Like a… thing.”

“You’re right, I’ll make myself scarce.” Rashid turned and moved toward the door. “I hope our next meeting is more to your liking. I’ll check in with you later, Dominic.” The door slammed behind him.

Dominic turned immediately back to Celine.

“I see that Rashid also ordered you a pot of coffee. May I pour you a cup if I promise not to treat you as anything but the woman you’ve shown yourself to be since the moment I walked into that office last night?

” He smiled. “And that’s definitely not ‘a thing.’ I can see why you’d be angry with me—I was abrupt. ”

“Rude,” she substituted.

“Rude,” he repeated. “But I’d given up all night to sit with you in that morgue even though I had business to take care of that could have been important to both of us. I couldn’t allow myself to become distracted.”

“I never asked you to sit with me and hold my hand,” Celine said coldly. “All I wanted was for you to arrange to get me permission to go there. I thought you were someone important in the police department.”

“And now you don’t think that?” He poured her coffee and was carrying the cup across the room to her.

“Please don’t throw this at me. It would please Rashid too much if he heard about it later.

If you spare me, I’ll tell you what I was doing at that precinct tonight.

And then I’ll tell you a few more interesting facts about Jossland that you’ll need to know. ”

“This isn’t a game.”

“No, it’s dead serious. With the emphasis on dead .”

She looked at the coffee and then slowly took the cup.

“You’re not a regular policeman, are you?

In addition to the watch, you don’t dress like a cop, and you scoot around town in a limo with a driver.

And yet you seemed to have the run of the precinct.

You knew that lieutenant. But those M.E.

agents at the morgue had to call someone to verify you had the authority to let me view Barnaby. ”

“All very true.”

“But they practically snapped to attention after they called for permission. So you’re someone who wields a lot of power. Who the hell are you?”

“As I said, Alex Dominic.”

“And why did you come to see me tonight?”

“I had to question you in case you had information I needed. It was necessary.”

“And why did that lieutenant and those other cops welcome you with open arms?”

“You might say politics entered into the picture. I’m a very good friend of the commissioner. I asked him to give me carte blanche with this particular case.”

“And he did it? Just like that?”

Dominic shrugged. “I assured him I’d clear the matter up to his satisfaction.”

“Satisfaction! Barnaby’s dead.”

“Don’t worry. The commissioner is a politician, and he only wants a clean slate. But it will be done exactly as it should be… as you’d want it to be.”

“And how do you know how I’d want it to be?” she asked fiercely. “You don’t really know anything about me.”

“I know much more about you than most of the people in your life,” he said. “Because I’ve been doing a bit of research on you lately, and though I can’t claim to know you intimately, I believe we came a little closer last night. We’re no longer strangers.”

“Research?” She shook her head. “Why would you be doing research on me? What kind of research?”

“As I said, I had to make myself completely familiar with you. Therefore, it had to be rather in-depth.”

She was looking at him in bewilderment. “Because of that monster Jossland?”

“No, it didn’t start out that way. He’s just a minor part of the puzzle.”

“Minor?” she repeated harshly. “He’s a very big part of the puzzle. He killed Barnaby. Or was that a lie, too?”

“No lies, Celine. I told you I’d tell you the truth.

” He shook his head. “It’s just a damnably confusing truth at the moment.

The first thing you should know is that Jossland is a very nasty thug who works for an underworld boss named Ezra Caldwell.

If Jossland tried to hurt or kidnap you the other night, it was almost certainly at Caldwell’s orders.

As far as we can tell, Caldwell has a plan to steal gold from a mine in Central Africa, and it involves at least three people who have been brought to our attention: Masini Zakira, Eve Duncan, and you, Celine. ”

“What?” Celine shook her head emphatically. “That’s crazy. It sounds like something from a kid’s comic book.”

“Except it wasn’t a kid who killed your friend Barnaby,” Dominic said. “And if they showed you Jossland’s police file, you’d notice that his past crimes usually involved torture and dismemberment.” He paused. “You do remember what you saw in that morgue last night?”

Celine inhaled sharply as that memory jolted back to her. “I could hardly forget,” she said bitterly. “Damn you!”

“I didn’t want to have to remind you,” he said softly. “But you had to accept it. Because it wasn’t really Barnaby he wanted to kill. It was you.”

“As I said, it doesn’t make sense.” She sat down on the couch and stared into the amber depths of the coffee in her cup. “Why would anyone want to kill me? And I don’t know anything about gold mining. Who were those other two people you mentioned? Masini Zakirar…”

“Zakira,” Dominic said. “At least you’ll agree he makes some sense. He’s a chieftain living in an African village named Shafira. He’s also a priest who has been causing a good deal of trouble among the other villages in the area. Eve Duncan is the other woman who could be involved, and she—”

“Eve Duncan?” Celine interrupted. “Of course I know who she is. I didn’t catch the name when you were reeling off all that information. It was just a blur.”

“I thought you’d recognize the name since you’re both artists.”

“Don’t be disrespectful. I’m only a part-time artist who works to keep the landlord at bay and put myself through med school.

She’s a genius. I saw an exhibit of her work at a science show in New York and it blew me away.

” She was trying to remember the details.

“So… alive, but not really quite… here.” Then she suddenly frowned.

“And that makes what you told me even more absurd. Why would someone like Duncan be involved with a crook like this Caldwell you told me about? I could see how he might think I could be lured to the dark side. I’m small potatoes as far as income is concerned.

But it’s not as if he’d think he could offer her anything she doesn’t have now.

You can’t get higher in your field than Eve Duncan.

There’s absolutely no comparison between the two of us. ”

Dominic smiled wryly. “You’re wrong. I’m sorry, but there may be a very significant similarity as far as Caldwell is concerned.”

Celine lifted her chin defiantly. “And what’s that?”

“My guess is that he may now be regarding you both as tools. And if you don’t prove useful to him, that designation will change to targets.”

Her eyes widened. “And on what evidence do you base that opinion?”