talking about tossing out all this good stuff, like some petulant trophy wife.”
“You don’t actually have to get rid of everything,” Kit said, appreciating his concerns. “Some upholstered pieces can be recovered and you have wood furniture that could be painted and lacquered to look ultramodern. Besides, you may want to keep a few antique pieces in the mix, just as they are. A great room always has both yin and yang.”
“I like that—yin and yang.” Holt looked off briefly, as if studying something on the inside of his brain, and then returned his gaze to her, tapping his knees with his hands. “Well, this has been quite inspiring,” he said, rising. “Why don’t I think it over and get back to you.”
No surprise there. That was what most people said at the first meeting. They wanted time to mull over their decision, even meet with other decorators first. But she’d really sensed that Holt was going to go to yes right then and there. The fact that he hadn’t left her oddly deflated as she rode the elevator to the ground floor.
Her mood didn’t improve when she emerged later from the subway station and checked her phone. Ungaro, the Ithaka security chief, had left a message asking her to give him a call, saying it was urgent. By now, of course, he’d been informed about Healy’s death, and she was sure he wanted to hear her version of events.
She wasn’t going to call him, she decided, hurrying up the block. This was a matter for the police now and it was time for her to completely back off.
The corridor outside her apartment seemed totally forlorn that night. Often she could hear jazz coming softly from the large apartment just to the right side of hers or the yummy smell of an exotic dish. But the tenants, a couple in their forties, had said they’d be on vacation for ten days.
After dinner she tried to distract herself by leafing through some of her art books. In high school, she’d planned to study art in college; at least she had before everything went to hell. As she paged through a section on German post-impressionism, she spotted a painting she hadn’t thought of in ages but one that had had an impact on her years before: Kandinsky’s Murnau: Street with Horse-Drawn Carriage. It had been painted when the artist first began to break free of traditional constraints, and he’d let the bold, fanciful colors of the horses bleed through the lines.
Despite her best efforts, her thoughts were torn back once again to where she least wanted them to be. A man may have died because of her. Not directly, but still, if she hadn’t showed up at Matt Healy’s door, he might never have flown to Miami.
And the same awful questions began nagging her again: Was X really a murderer? Why had he sent her to Matt Healy’s apartment? And the most paralyzing question of all: Was there something more he wanted from her?
chapter 6
She woke the next morning from an anxious dream, though all she could remember was wading desperately through water, unable to move more than an inch at a time. And that the water had been turquoise blue, like the water in the Keys.
Still in her pajamas, she checked online for any news of Healy’s death. So far there was just a small item on the Daily News website, stating simply that he was a New Yorker and had been struck by a car while visiting Miami. It made it sound as if he were a snowbird or tourist who fate had conspired against.
She wondered when she’d hear from the New York City police. Though she hardly welcomed the call, she prayed it would be today. Then that would be behind her, too.
After breakfast, and before either Dara or Baby had even arrived at the office, she grabbed her coat and headed for Greenwich Village, to check once more on the project there. Yesterday the bedroom floor had been sanded and stained, and when she arrived she was grateful to see that none of the polyurethane had splashed onto the floorboards or at least if it had, the contractor had done a good job of touching up the paint. The female client, Layla Griggs, had turned out to be someone with little patience for even the slightest blunder.
Afterward, she caught a subway uptown and met Avery at the D&D building for the first round of furniture shopping. Avery looked