“Forgot about the . . . er . . .” Vincent gestured toward the panel with a grimace and then moved back to take her arm. “Close your eyes,” he ordered as he ushered her toward the door.
Divine reluctantly did as he asked, and allowed him to lead her outside. When he said, “Okay, open,” she blinked her eyes open to find him standing in front of her grinning like an idiot and blocking her view. Just as she started to arch an eyebrow, he waved his arms about like a magician and then stepped aside with a loud singsong of “Ta-daaaa!”
Divine stared in surprise. There were two RVs parked in front of the house, both of them at least as large if not larger than her own had been. She stared at them briefly and then said, “They look new.”
“Newish,” Vincent admitted. “We have older ones, but I like to travel in comfort so told them to send the newer ones.”
Divine frowned. “I understood you were in the theater business.”
“Among other things,” Vincent agreed. “We use these sometimes for dressing rooms for the more demanding stars in our plays. Or for stakeouts.”
“More for stakeouts than demanding stars,” Jackie said dryly. “Vincent doesn’t seem to understand that stakeout means being unobtrusive and drawing as little attention to yourself as possible, and that parking a big old boat of a recreational vehicle out in the street is the opposite of unobtrusive.”
“Nonsense,” Vincent said at once. “We’ve never once been pegged as being on a stakeout.”
“Only because no one with any sense would imagine a detective would be stupid enough to drive such a ridiculously large and noticeable vehicle around on a stakeout,” Jackie said with exasperation.
“See. It works then,” Vincent said with a pleased smile.
Jackie shook her head, but then smiled and even gave a short laugh as she admitted, “Yes, it does.”
“And we enjoy the comforts of home while spying on the ne’er-do-wells of the world,” he said with satisfaction.
Divine narrowed her eyes and turned to Marcus.
“Jackie was a private detective before she turned,” Marcus explained quietly, and then added, “Well, she still is obviously, and Vincent helps her out from time to time.”
Divine let her breath out on a small sigh. Great. So the two she’d thought were a baby immortal and a flaky artsy type were just another pair of detectives out to find her. Great. She turned back to Vincent. “Why two?”
“One for us,” Vincent said, slipping his arm around Jackie. “And one for you two.”
“You can change that to one for you two and one for Marcus. I am not sleeping in either of those with him,” she said firmly, and then shifted impatiently. “Actually, I don’t know why you two are even coming. You have no business at the carnival. Marcus and I can handle the authorities.”
“But you need protection,” Jackie said firmly. “You’ve already been attacked twice. We don’t want it to happen a third time. Vincent and I will help with the authorities and then stick close to help sort out who set the fire and who attacked you the first time.”
Divine almost said, “Don’t you have to wait here for Lucian to show up?” but caught the question back. She had no intention of revealing that she knew about that. Her main concern at that moment was to get to the carnival, let Bob and Madge know she was healthy and well, and make sure they weren’t being held up by the authorities looking into the RV fire. After that, she could slip away and disappear and start yet another new life. First, she had to get to the carnival though, and it was looking like if she wanted to get there, she’d have company. It would have been a lot easier if they’d let her call a taxi, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen.