Now You See Her Page 0,27
taxi, get back to the flat of the city before she was soaked to the skin. She’d return here tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. Eventually, Marcy told herself as she hurried down the hill, Shannon would lead her to Devon.
“WELL, WELL. CAN’T keep away, can you?” Liam said as Marcy walked through the front door of Grogan’s House. His smile said he’d been expecting her. “Sit down, luv. I’ll get you some tea.” His hand waved toward an empty table in the far corner of the crowded room.
Barely five o’clock and already the place was almost full, Marcy observed. Did nobody ever go home?
“So, did you find Audrey?” Kelly asked, suddenly appearing at her side.
“No, but I found Shannon.”
“Was she able to help you?”
“I didn’t speak to her.”
“Why not?”
“It’s complicated,” Marcy said after a pause.
“What’s complicated?” Liam asked, lowering a steaming pot of tea to the table along with two mugs, then plopping into the chair across from her. “You don’t mind if I join you, do you? I’m on my break, and you look in need of some company. Do you know you’re soaking wet?”
Marcy quickly pulled off her coat, began patting at her hair. “I couldn’t find a taxi.…”
“Leave your hair alone,” he said. “It’s quite sexy like that, you know.”
Marcy laughed, flattered in spite of herself.
“That’s better. So, what’s complicated?”
“What isn’t?”
Liam’s turn to laugh. “Hunger isn’t complicated,” he said. “I bet you could use something to eat.”
“Anything you recommend?”
“I’d try the special. Kelly, can you get the lady a special? My treat,” he added.
“No, don’t be silly. I can’t let you do that.”
“Consider it done. My way of apologizing for my rudeness earlier.”
“You weren’t rude.”
“I was a bit abrupt. You know, about Audrey.”
“Are you saying you did recognize her picture?”
He poured them each a mug full of tea. “Well, I might have been a little hasty in my assessment.”
“Would you like to see the picture again?” Marcy was already digging inside her purse.
“Drink your tea,” he instructed, taking Devon’s photograph from Marcy’s hand.
Marcy did as she was told, lifting the mug to her lips and taking a long sip, her eyes never leaving his. “Well?”
“I suppose it could be Audrey.”
Marcy tried to swallow her growing excitement with another sip of tea. “Do you know her last name?”
Liam shook his head.
“What do you know about her?”
“Not very much, I’m afraid. I’ve only talked to her a couple of times. She moved here about a year ago. From some small town west of London, I think she said.”
“She has an English accent?” Devon had always had a good ear for accents, Marcy recalled, remembering her performances in various high school plays.
“I suppose. Definitely not Irish, but I wasn’t paying that strict attention. She’s not really my type. I like ’em a little older myself.” A playful smile teased his lips.
Is he flirting with me? Marcy wondered, dismissing the thought as she sank back in her chair. “Can you do me a favor? Can you call me the next time you see her? I mean, immediately. And can you not say anything to her about my trying to find her?”
“Can you tell me why I should do either of those things?”
“It’s complicated,” Marcy said again. Could she trust him not to give her away?
“Can you at least tell me your name?”
“Marcy,” she said after a pause of several seconds, deciding she had to trust someone. “Marcy Taggart. I believe the girl you know as Audrey is really my daughter, Devon.”
Liam’s eyes revealed a long list of questions, none of which he voiced. Instead he removed a pen from the pocket of his white shirt and slid it across the table. “Write your cell phone number on that napkin.”
Marcy started to print her number along the surface of the small paper napkin, then stopped. “Oh, God, I can’t. I threw it away.”
“You threw away your phone?”
“I threw it in the river.”
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“It’s …”
“Complicated,” Liam said, finishing for her. “Figured as much. So, just how do you propose I get in touch with you?”
“I’m staying at the Doyle Cork Inn over on Western Road,” Marcy told him.
Liam nodded, retrieving his pen and scribbling his own number across the top of the napkin. “Suppose you check in with me periodically. That might be easier.”
Marcy almost burst into tears. “That’s really very kind of you.”
“Sometimes we have to rely on the kindness of strangers,” he said with a twinkle in his deep green eyes.
Marcy