Living with the Dead - By Kelley Armstrong Page 0,89

backed into the hall. As she turned, she saw Lily’s cousin, Bernard, top the stairs, his corpulent frame quivering from the exertion, the crotch of his pants already straining with anticipation. Ah, duty.

“She’s waiting for you,” Adele said, as he lumbered past her into the room.

ADELE’S GOOD MOOD lasted only until she closed her bedroom door and caught a glimpse of herself in her full-length mirror. Thoughts of Lily’s impregnation made her consider her own predicament. She pulled her shirt tight and turned to survey every angle. Nothing. She lifted the shirt. Her stomach still looked flat.

Though the book said she shouldn’t show for another month at least, it also mentioned that “small” women might show earlier. Adele didn’t consider herself “small,” but if that was a euphemism for skinny, then yes, she was thin.

Kumpania living didn’t allow the level of privacy she’d need to conceal a pregnancy under oversized shirts. She had to be gone before she was showing.

If she didn’t find those photos soon, she might need a backup plan—someone she could point to as the father. Someone in the kumpania. Otherwise, they’d presume she’d been sleeping with an outsider, and the kumpania would kill her for that, as surely as if they saw that photo.

She sat on her bed and considered her options. Her initial plan, if things went poorly with the Nasts, had been to seduce Niko while she negotiated with another Cabal. It would be hard for the phuri to punish her if their leader had chosen to bless her with a child. But now that idea might, ironically, have been thwarted by the unexpected success of her earlier scheme to get Hugh. If Niko got to enjoy Lily, he might not be as easy to seduce.

Her second choice was riskier. Seducing Colm would be easy enough, but Neala wouldn’t like it. Still, Adele reminded herself, she had no intention of being around long enough to need this backup plan. She just needed to launch it so that if things went wrong, Colm could say, with conviction, that he was the father.

As she stood, she saw a message pad page on her nightstand. The phone number for Jasmine Wills’s publicist. Adele was about to shove it into her drawer. She hoped to be gone before she ever had to produce a photo of Jasmine. But the note bothered her. It was too . . . convenient.

She dialed the number on her cell phone. After the fourth ring, a harried voice answered with what sounded like “café au lait.” Adele paused, letting the woman say it again, the words plucking at a memory. Not “café au lait,” but “Café Olé.” Adele had stared at that sign for an hour yesterday, its play on words another source of annoyance as she’d waited for Robyn Peltier to finally exit the coffee shop.

Adele crumpled the note. She told herself it didn’t matter, she’d already suspected that Robyn knew who she was, but that lead was a dead end anyway. Or was it? Her message had gotten to Adele’s home, left with the kumpania leader himself. She could just as easily have told Niko everything. As Adele stared at the paper ball, she realized that’s what this was: a warning.

See, I can get to you. I can expose you. I can kill you.

Adele pitched from her bed, her breath coming hot and fast. So Robyn fancied herself a player, did she?

Food and sleep would have to wait. Time to kill two birds. With two brothers.

FINN

* * *

MS. ADAMS? It’s Detective Findlay. Could you please call me back as soon as you get this message?”

Finn rattled off the number, then went to put the cell phone in his pocket, thought better of it and set it on his desk, on the remote chance that Hope Adams called back.

The detective room was empty. At ten on a Sunday morning, it often was. Anyone working was out on the street. Which is where he should be, and where he would be, as soon as he could haul himself to his feet again.

He’d called Hope Adams three times since last night, leaving three messages. He’d started with the simple call me back. Then he’d moved to the mysterious there’s been a change in the case I need to discuss with you. Finally, urgent: I have reason to believe Robyn Peltier is in danger. No response.

At 8 a.m., he’d called True News, getting a sleepy editor who’d been there all night and offered to leave