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Instead, she finished dramatically wiping her hands and fought hard to keep a
look of disgust pasted on while the boy dissolved in snorts and choking
laughter. She doubted he'd laughed like that in a hell of a long time.
It wiped away his fear of her. However, when the brief episode was over, he
became suddenly shy, and she decided that Wanda Steiner was right: It was best
to take things in stages - too soon to ask about the name Kimbal. She led him
off to the car and drove him home, chatting about nothing.
But when they were in front of the Steiner home, she caught him before he
could open the door.
"Jules was my friend, Dio," she said quietly. "I intend to find out what
happened to her, and I can't afford to ignore what you know. Think about it."
He walked away, subdued. She drove away, buoyant with the knowledge of a step
taken, and with the thought of some days alone with Lee.
"Has Jon been home since this morning?"
"Just to drop off the swimsuit he bought me. You like it?"
Kate turned from her examination of the closet to look at the piece of nylon
Lee was holding up.
"Good heavens, it looks like you could actually swim in the thing. I'd have
expected something that looked like spiderwebs, or with plastic fruit hanging
off it, or made out of snakeskin. How on earth did you get him to buy just an
ordinary suit?"
"I told him I'd make him go back until he got me one that I would wear, that
I'd pay for only one suit, and that if he succeeded, he could have three days
off."
"Clever you. Does it fit?"
"More or less."
"Will wonders never cease? But anyway, he does know we're going away?"
"I told him I doubted we'd leave before tomorrow morning - I didn't think
you'd actually get away, to tell you the truth."
"Ye of little faith. Do you want the sweatshirt or the sweater?"
"Both. I did tell him we'd leave a note if a miracle happened and we actually
got away before he gets back. Which reminds me, did you make any arrangements
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with work, or are you just calling it medical leave?"
"I called in two days of vacation. Have you seen those rubber sandals I bought
last year?"
"Jon put them in the box on the left. Sweetheart," said Lee in a different
voice, "what do you want to do with these?"
Kate turned from the closet and saw Lee holding the envelope and loose
pictures.
"Ah, hell," she said. "I don't know. Send them to Al, I guess. No, not the one
of Jules. And leave the negatives out, as well; he won't need those. Just
stick them in the drawer, and here, give me the envelope." She sealed the flap
and, downstairs, paused in the act of carrying out the suitcases to address
the envelope to Al in care of D'Amico's department. She then added a P.S. to
Lee's note, asking Jon to mail it, and then she carried the suitcases out to
the car.
She left her gun in its drawer and the cellular phone on its charger. After
much agonizing and changing her mind three times, she left her pager too, on
the table next to the phone. Like it or not, this would be a holiday. She felt
that she owed Lee the symbolic commitment of leaving the beeper behind.
Three hours later, Jon came in, his arms filled with grocery bags. The puzzled
look on his face cleared when he found the note propped against the
saltcellar, and he looked pleased, then mildly irritated as he glanced at the
food he had just bought, and then he began to look even happier as he realized
he did not, after all, have to cook it. A phone call and a quick distribution
of groceries into the refrigerator and freezer, followed by a trip downstairs
for a change of clothes and a small overnight bag, and he was also out the
door. However, a minute later his key sounded in the lock. He went back to the
kitchen, picked up the manila envelope, and went out again.
At the shipping place, Jon hesitated briefly over the methods of delivery
before deciding that the other jobs he'd done for Kate lately had been matters
of life and - no, maybe that wasn't the best phrase - had been urgent as hell,
so he might as well treat this the same way. If Kate was too busy to mail it
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