Page 79 of Close Up

Raina took a sip of her cocktail and set the glass on the table.

“Don’t worry, Vivian,” she said. “Everything will be fine. Luther has had a lot of experience setting traps for bad guys and he assures meNick knows what he’s doing, too. Mr. Sundridge is an investigator, after all.”

“I know.” Vivian swirled her drink in an absentminded way.

She reached under the table to touch Rex. He licked her hand as if he understood she needed reassurance. She had given up trying to shake the sense of impending disaster that had been plaguing her since Nick had left the hotel an hour ago. She would not be able to relax until it was over and Nick walked through the door of the lounge.

“It’s not as if there are only the two of them involved in this thing,” Irene pointed out. “Oliver is with them tonight, and so is Detective Brandon from the Burning Cove Police. Brandon has officers watching the road in and out of the rendezvous point. When the assassin picks up the journal, they’ll move in and grab him.”

“You make it sound so simple,” Lyra said.

“Simple plans are usually the best, according to Luther,” Raina said.

“Oliver agrees,” Irene said. “He says that even the most complicated magic trick has a fairly simple explanation. It’s all about distracting the audience with a good story.”

“Exactly,” Raina said. “Tonight the assassin is the audience. The story is that he is finally within reach of something he wants desperately.”

“The journal of poems,” Irene said.

“Right,” Raina said. “He’ll believe he’s safe because the deal was set up by an underworld figure, the Broker.”

Lyra was fascinated. “Does Mr. Pell really have underworld connections?”

Raina’s smile was difficult to interpret. “Luther is a complicated man with a complicated past. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”

Something in her tone sent a tiny chill of awareness across the back of Vivian’s neck. She looked at Raina, trying to read her eyes, but the flickering candlelight made it difficult. The only thing she could becertain of was that Raina’s past was complicated, too. Everyone had secrets.

Curious, she decided to try a little careful probing.

“How long have you been here in Burning Cove?” she asked in what she hoped was a casual manner.

“Not long,” Raina said. “I used to live in New York.”

That explained the East Coast accent, Vivian thought.

“I’ve never met a female private investigator,” Lyra said. “It sounds very exciting. How do you go about getting a job like that?”

“I don’t know how other people do it,” Raina said. “But in my case I just rented an office, put out a sign, and advertised in the local phone book.”

“Do you carry a gun?” Lyra asked.

Raina was starting to look amused. “I own a gun, if that’s what you want to know. But I rarely carry it. The cases I handle are seldom dangerous. For example, I run background investigations on people this hotel and the Paradise Club are considering for employment. I do some missing persons work. I’m also trying to market my services to women who are considering marriage.”

Lyra was fascinated. “What services do you offer them?”

Irene smiled. “She means she’s available to take a close look at the past behavior of the man the client is planning to marry.”

Lyra’s eyes widened. “What a fantastic idea. I wish I’d hired you to look into my ex-fiancé’s history, Raina. I mean, I knew Hamilton had a certain reputation as a ladies’ man but I thought that was all in the past. I never dreamed he was actually cheating on me with one of my best friends.”

Vivian glanced at the rather large handbag Raina had with her. “You brought your gun with you tonight, didn’t you?”

Raina nodded, saying nothing.

“Raina had a rather nasty experience recently,” Irene said. “She and several other people were taken hostage at the Paradise Club.”

Vivian looked at Raina. “I read about that in the papers. Luckily none of the hostages was hurt.”

“Luck,” Raina said, “had nothing to do with it.”

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