Part 18 (1/2)
I sat in the cold winter suns.h.i.+ne watching people board the train, Werner beside me, my brain stuck on the fuzzy memory of a dream kiss.
Werner cleared his throat. ”Nick is in DC until tomorrow, but he stopped by to apologize for his green routine before he left.”
”Green as in jealous, you mean?”
”That would be correct.”
Knowing Nick had been honorable made me miss him more. ”He was a jerk yesterday.”
Werner shrugged. ”He was protecting something he holds dear.”
”Aren't you the forgiving soul?” I said. ”Didn't you kinda wanna hit him? I did.”
Werner chuckled. ”Are you going to tell him that we don't totally remember what happened the night we spent together. I mean, I had some thermonuclear dreams that night.”
I came up coughing. He shouldn't have said that while I was drinking.
When Werner stopped slapping my back and I could breathe again, I was practically speechless. ”I'm . . . honored?” It was the best I could manage considering my own sizzling dreams.
”Mad? Suppose you are, you know?”
”Obviously I'm not or I wouldn't be drinking this beer.”
He chuckled. ”Good try.”
”I'm hardly the immaculate conception type and that's what it would have to have been. Let it go, Lytton.”
”But suppose what I dreamed did happen and bears results.”
Hot face. Hot face. ”Lytton, we weren't that concussed.”
”You mean,” Werner said, speaking carefully, ”you couldn't have been so concussed-read, stupid-that you might have been attracted to me?”
”I mean, so concussed that we forgot we had s.e.x, which we didn't, because I would remember. Stop putting yourself down. You're something of a hunk, Detective, but if you tell Jaconetti I said so, I'll deny it.”
Werner really looked at me then. ”Tell Jaconetti? I'm taking out an ad in the program for our next cla.s.s reunion.”
I barked a laugh. ”We slept. That's it. You know that right?”
”I can dream.”
”Obviously quite well. Just as long as you know a dream is what it was.”
”Didn't you dream?”
”A kiss. I dreamed a hot and excellent kiss.”
”Yeah, that was a stunner, wasn't it?”
I elbowed him. ”Stop trying to embarra.s.s me. Your body spoke volumes when we were hiding in Pierpont's top-floor closet.”
Werner ran a slow hand down his face. ”Gee, thanks. I nearly managed to forget about that.”
I stood and threw my empty bottle in the recycle bin while Werner downed the last of his Dos Equis and did the same.
A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of my father's house. Werner got out and came around to open my door.
”Nick and I decided that since you're determined to find Dominique's killer, and we were both with you to observe the funeral and theater at different times, we should get together to compare clues and suspects tomorrow night at his place. Are you up for that?”
”I am. What time?”
”Seven. I'll bring Dos Equis.”
”I'll bring a margarita pie.”
”Never heard of it.”
”Think key lime pie but made with tequila and triple sec. Yum.”
”Dos Equis and tequila pie sounds like the perfect way to mellow us out and even the playing field, after, you know.”
”A kiss,” I said. ”It was only a kiss.”
”Yeah, like Noah's ark was only a boat.”
My father came out and welcomed me with a big bear hug. Dad's arms were where I could forget death threats and thermonuclear kisses.
”It's sure good to be home,” I said. ”Not that my work for Dom is finished.”
My father kissed my brow. ”Why isn't it?”
”I have a fas.h.i.+on show of her vintage clothes collection to put on for charity, and-hold on to your mortar board-I'm the executor of her will.”
Werner opened his trunk as my father and I talked. ”Ms. DeLong really trusted you.”
”Heck, she practically dared me to try and find her killer, like it's a game or something.”
”Sleuthing again, eh?” my dad said, accepting my bags from Werner. ”You approve of this, Detective?”
”I must. I chased her to New York so I wouldn't miss anything.”
”Is that what you did?” I asked.
”And to see if I could find out who tried to break into Nick's house, presumably for Ms. DeLong's gown.”
”Did you find anybody who might have done that?” my father asked.