Missy slid into the seat next to me, wiping her hands on a paper towel. She also looked like she’d put on lipstick and combed her hair for the occasion.
‘Is Rosemary all right?’ I asked.
‘Sleeping like a baby,’ Missy said, head directed toward the towel in her hands. ‘It’s probably for the best.’
‘The best for your event. No question.’
‘And now,’ Zoe was saying, ‘a special and heartfelt thank you to someone who has gone above and beyond for us. As Mrs Hubbard, played so elegantly by Lauren Bacall in the movie, I give you …’
Missy’s head jerked up, her face shining. She slid over to the aisle and dropped the paper towel on the table, preparing to be introduced.
‘Audra Edmonds!’
‘You had to have seen that coming,’ Pavlik said as I nursed the new espresso martini he’d brought me as Markus took over for his talk on Agatha Christie. ‘Nothing has gone right for poor Missy.’
‘Through no fault of her own,’ I pointed out. ‘And what did go well will be ignored anyway. That’s the plight of the special event planner.’ I sighed and gazed into my whipped cream.
‘Poor baby,’ Pavlik commiserated. ‘Good thing you’ve left behind the drudgery for the exciting new world of coffee.’ He nodded toward my martini. ‘How is that, by the way?’
‘Delicious, thank you. And your wine?’
‘Awful, but if I switch I’ll be sleeping it off next to Rosemary Darlington.’
‘Ah, no, you won’t, actually,’ I said, swiping a finger into the whipped cream and offering it to Pavlik. ‘That woman knows too many moves.’
‘So I hear.’ Pavlik licked the cream off my finger.
Engagingly slowly.
I gave a little shiver. And, happily, not because I was either cold or scared. In fact, it might be raining cats and dogs, alligators and pythons outside, but inside the train it was comfortable and I was here beside my sheriff.
Life was good. I sighed.
‘Something wrong?’ Pavlik asked.
I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. ‘Not a thing.’
I should have known it couldn’t last.
ELEVEN
‘Excuse me,’ a voice said.
I opened my eyes to see Danny/Col. Arbuthnot’s name badge sidle into sight. Tilting my head, I saw the tousled dark head.
‘Danny.’ I sat up and self-consciously slid the spaghetti straps of my sundress back onto my shoulder like we’d just been caught making out in the back seat of a Chevy. ‘Have you met Sheriff Pavlik?’
‘Jake, please,’ Pavlik corrected.
‘Jake,’ I repeated. I wasn’t used to all this first-name stuff. In fact, given Pavlik’s position as Brookhills County Sheriff, I made a real effort to use his title when addressing him in front of others, especially his deputies.
‘Thank you, Jake.’ Close up, the young man looked older than I’d thought earlier, maybe mid-twenties. ‘And please, call me Danny.’
‘Danny it is.’ Pavlik turned to me. ‘And, obviously, you two have already met?’
‘I don’t believe so.’ Danny’s matte brown eyes showed no recognition.
‘The coffeehouse owner?’ I reminded him.
He squinted at me.
‘I told you I wasn’t a writer?’ I tried.
‘Oh, yes.’ Danny turned back to Pavlik. ‘Well, it’s a real honor to meet you, sir. I’m looking forward to your workshop tomorrow on “How to Kill Realistically with Guns, Knives and Bare Hands.”’
‘That’s the name of your panel?’ I asked Pavlik.
‘They edited it. My title was longer.’
Figured. So many weapons, so little time.
‘And it’s a workshop, not a panel,’ Danny corrected, this time. ‘“Hands-on,” the program says.’
‘I’ll be calling up volunteers and demonstrating some techniques,’ Pavlik said, looking pleased by the younger man’s enthusiasm.
For my part, I was imagining myself – a convenient ‘volunteer’ – being tossed around like a crash-test dummy. Maybe I’d sleep in tomorrow morning. Catch Pavlik’s second panel. ‘What’s the other one you’re doing?’
‘“The Ins and Outs of Firearms,”’ Danny supplied eagerly. ‘All about guns and ammunition. And entrance and exit wounds, of course.’
Even better. The hotel probably had a nice pool. I’d hide there.
‘You’d be surprised,’ Pavlik said, ‘at the number of mistakes in books – or in television and even movies, too. And it’s not complicated stuff. Simple terminology, or the difference between a semi-automatic and a revolver.’