Part 140 (1/2)

He decided he was kindly disposed toward Marianne. ”She any good?”

”Yes, very. One day galleries are going to be cutting their throats to

get her paintings. She used to do the most incredible caricatures of

the nuns.” She glanced over, noting his frown.

”What is it?”

”Probably just rookie-cop instincts on overtime. See that sedan, just

behind us?”

She glanced over her shoulder. ”Yes. So?”

”It's been behind us since we picked up the burgers.” He switched lanes.

The sedan followed suit. ”I'd say he was tailing us, if he wasn't so

stupid about it.”

She let out a long, tired sigh. ”It's probably Sweeney.”

”Sweeney?”

”Bodyguard. He always finds me. Sometimes I think Dad planted a homing

device under my skin.”

”Yeah, it could be. I guess it makes sense.” But he didn't care to be

shadowed, so amaturely shadowed, on what he considered his first date

with a longtime crush. ”I could lose him.”

Emma tilted down her gla.s.ses. Behind them her eyes glinted with the

first real laughter he'd seen in her. ”Really?”

”I could give it my best shot. This little baby's bound to leave him in

the dust,”

”Do it,” she said, and grinned. Delighted, Michael punched the gas, cut

off a station wagon, and

peeled up to eighty. ”We used to race on the freeway-in my callow and

misspent youth.” He swerved again, dodging between a pickup and a BMW,