can take off, I can arrange a little picnic on the floor of my one-bedroom.”
I smiled. “Let me guess; it’s a picnic because you still don’t have actual furniture yet.”
“You’re right, Cosi. I admit it. See that? And you didn’t even have to beat it out of me.” Mike’s eyes were laughing now; his voice was warm. I’d finally melted him down to the human race.
“I told you before, Lieutenant, many times. You should let me help you detect some furniture. I promise I’ll go easy on your credit cards.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll give in soon. In the meantime, you’ll be happy to know I do have a nice big bed in the bedroom. Is that good enough for now?”
“That’s more than good enough, mister. That’s I’ll be there with bells on.”
“Really…just bells, huh?” Mike’s eyebrow arched. “Kinky.”
I swatted him. He laughed. And then we heard a bell for real; the front door was opening again.
“Hello, hello!” Matt’s mother waltzed in, bundled in a floor-length fur.
“Madame?” I checked my watch. “It’s almost twelve thirty. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you in person, Clare. It’s rather important.”
Mike smiled down at me. “I have to get going.” He squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll call you.”
I nodded. “Be safe.”
Mike winked at me, gave a polite nod to Madame, and then he was gone.
“I remember that young man,” Madame said as she waved me over to a café table. “He’s that nice detective who fixed your traffic violation last month.”
“You mean the BOLO that resulted from the police chase that ensued after you told me to run that red light in Brooklyn?”
“Yes, that one.”
“Mike’s handy that way.” We both sat down. “So what’s up? Do you want some coffee?”
“No, dear.”
I threw up my hands. “I can’t give it away tonight.”
“It’s just that I don’t have much time. My young man is picking me up here in”—she checked her watch—“fifteen minutes.”
“Your young man?”
“He’s only just turned sixty-six, quite a difference in our ages, but I couldn’t resist his charms.”
“Is this the man who was ‘eye-flirting’ with you last night at Solange?”
“The same. We’re going to a nightclub downtown. I haven’t done anything like that in years. And I’m quite looking forward to it!”
“Well, I’d love to hear more about him, but I don’t want you to keep him waiting. So what’s up? Why are you here so late?”
“It’s Joy.”
My breath caught. “You’ve heard from her?”
“I just left her, Clare. We spent the evening together. Now she’s on her way uptown.”
“Uptown? Why?”
“She’s going back to Solange, of course.”
FIFTEEN
INSIDE of six minutes, I’d gotten the entire story out of Madame and was waving down a taxi on Hudson. Then I was off, my driver heading uptown, transporting me back to Tommy Keitel’s hellacious house of haute cuisine.
Madame stayed behind to lock up the Blend, and I was indebted to her for that. But I was even more grateful to her for telling me the one thing I’d been waiting all night to hear:
“Joy wasn’t upset with you, Clare, not in the least.”
According to Madame, when Joy had bolted away from that cheese cave and out of the cellar, she hadn’t been running from me. She’d been running from Tommy Keitel…
“She was mortified by Keitel’s behavior,” Madame had told me. “Seeing his hands on you in that small room, she knew instantly that he was making a pass. It was a tremendous blow to her ego. But she didn’t blame you. She blamed him.”
Apparently, after Joy’s long, tearful walk, she’d returned to her job. But as soon as she started working at her prep table, Tommy Keitel delivered the final cut.
“He loudly told her in the open kitchen that he’d made a decision. He no longer wanted to see her romantically. They were through. Not only that, as of Monday, she was to report to Robbie Gray at his restaurant downtown, where she’d serve out the remainder of her internship year.”
Listening to Madame’s tale, my whole body went rigid. I’d already known what Tommy had planned for Joy, but hearing the blow-by-blow made me sick to my stomach.
“Our girl was humiliated, of course,” Madame went on. “The entire kitchen brigade heard Tommy toss Joy away like a piece of substandard produce. Rather than break down in front of her colleagues, she fled the restaurant and took a cab to my apartment to cry it all out.”
My shoulders sagged upon hearing that. “Why didn’t she come to me?”
“Because, Clare, down deep Joy knew you were right all