horse,” she said with approval as she set down her glass and poured them both more wine. “Do you think you’ll go out with him again?”
“Probably. I won’t see him for a few more days, though. He said he’s headed out first thing tomorrow for Connecticut. Curt’s funeral is on Monday, and he wants to spend some time with the family helping them through this.”
“That’s decent of him. This has got to be almost as tough on him as it is on them. I just hope none of Curt’s exes show up for this eulogy. That could get pretty nasty.”
Fortified by their second glass, the two of them devolved into an exchange of black humor regarding some of the speeches that might result from outraged female funeral crashers. They were still laughing when Jake’s cell phone let loose with the nasal falsetto of Barry Gibb. “Hi, Reese,” she said as she pressed “Talk” and silenced the “Stayin’ Alive” ring tone. She listened a moment and said, “Actually, I’m up in Darla’s apartment. Do you want me to come meet you?”
Darla strained her ears to hear the other end of the conversation, but to no avail. Then, with a final, “Sure, see you in a bit,” Jake hung up.
“That was Reese,” she said unnecessarily as Darla gave her a questioning look. “He needs a hand on something related to the case, so I’m going to meet him down at Teddy’s.”
Which was, Darla had only recently learned, a smoke-filled bar frequented mostly by cops and ex-cops. She’d first heard about the place from Jake when the eponymous owner of the place had been threatened at gunpoint by a drug-addled thief intent on robbing the crowded place. The would-be robber had promptly found himself the target of two dozen or more gun-wielding patrons whom he’d discovered to his detriment were off-duty police officers. The incident—surprisingly, not the first in the bar’s history—had made the papers and likely would earn the man a stiff prison sentence as well as the scorn of his fellow criminals.
“What about Hilda?” she wanted to know. “What if she makes bail before you get back home again? You’ve got her purse and house keys.”
“If Hilda calls before then, I’ll have her come here. You don’t mind hanging on to those things until I get back, do you?”
Actually, Darla did. She privately suspected that she was the last person Hilda would want to see. After all, Darla had been a witness to the woman’s arrest. Moreover, if Hilda had indeed taken a crowbar to Curt—no matter the provocation—she was not someone that Darla cared to be alone with in close quarters, either. Still, she could always have the woman wait outside while she handed her the bag from the safety of the foyer.
Thinking fast, she answered, “I’m not going anywhere else tonight. But why don’t you leave her bag in the downstairs foyer behind the lamp table? You have the key to the building. That way, if you get home late you can pick it up without having to call me, and if Hilda gets here first, I’ll just meet her downstairs.” Jake agreed to the plan and a few minutes later had left to meet Reese, leaving Darla alone with Hamlet.
Or rather, she had assumed Hamlet was there until another hour had passed and he still hadn’t come out to join her on the couch.
By ten p.m., she had begun to have serious concerns as to where the stubborn feline had gone. With Robert safely at James’s place, there was no need for Hamlet to be wandering down to the courtyard or up to the lounge to keep the youth company. And Robert had taken pains to inform Hamlet of the change in plans before he left with the store manager.
Hey, little bro, I’m rooming with the Big Hoss tonight. That means you be sure to stay in your apartment where it’s, like, nice and warm, he’d told the cat. Hamlet had meowrmph’ed in reply to indicate message received. Why, then, had the furry beast gone AWOL again?
“He’ll be back,” she declared in her best Ah-nold tone, trying to reassure herself. Hilda had not yet phoned, either. A quick look downstairs indicated that Jake had not returned, since the purse was still in the foyer where she had left it. With things so unsettled, she’d stay up awhile longer, she decided as she put down the best seller she’d been reading and flipped on the early news.
Unfortunately, the lead