Page 102 of Bonded in Death

“My ’link. How odd you’d ask. I misplaced it sometime today. So annoying. I honestly think someone stole it!”

“She’s always misplacing her ’link,” Roger said.

“Maybe we could help with that. Do you remember where you last used it?”

“I do! I had brunch today with a dear friend at Czarina’s. Their blinisare lighter than air! Another dear friend rang me up just as I was going in. I arranged a salon date with her for… How can I remember! It’s on my ’link! Then I set the ’link down on the table. Or put it back in my bag. I’m not sure. But when I changed bags for our dinner, it wasn’t there!”

“We’ll see what we can do. We appreciate the time.”

“I do hope you can locate my ’link. Such a bother getting a new one.”

She was still talking when the door shut behind Eve and Roarke.

Chapter Fourteen

“Go ahead and text Summerset the cousin’s all clear. Tell them to stay where they are.”

“I think they’re aware of that already.”

“Hammer it home. Chez Robert. Yours?”

“It’s not, no.”

“The handy had to end sometime. Chez—French, right? Like sayingRo-bareforRobert’s French.”

“It is.”

“He couldn’t resist. He was capable with weaponry,” she continued when they reached the garage and the car, “but he wasn’t a sniper, a sharpshooter. And he’d have lost a lot of that skill in prison. A few years to re-hone, yeah, but that’s not how he plans to take them out.”

“He may have hoped for all three, but could hardly count on it.”

“He would think that way. Women. One goes to the john, they all go. I can’t figure that one out myself. And he brought in Ivanna, and that’s alittle nudge to add Marjorie. He knows Ivanna’s in New York. And we’ll check with this assistant, but if he learned Iris was, he’d assume the rest.”

“Taking three at once,” Roarke continued. “And what he’d consider the weakest? He could take more time with the rest.”

“They’d be shaken, and angry, and they’d sure as hell lose any trust in me.”

“But none of that’s going to happen.”

“No, it’s not.”

But she had to figure out what he planned in order to subvert those plans.

“He can’t use the gas again unless he rigs it to take out the whole restaurant, or at least the section they’re sitting in. He books the table so he’d know that.”

“Disguised again, some poison in their drinks.”

“Possible. But fancy French place?”

“They’d know their waitstaff. Explosive.”

“That’s top of my list. Remote or timer. Timer makes more sense.” She considered it as they drove through the gates. “He’d want to be close, but not that close. If he can’t see them to set off the charge, a timer works better.”

“How will you handle it?”

“Working that out.”

“You’ll include me.” He pulled up, turned to her. “I’m very fond of Ivanna, and I’ve also grown fond of the rest.”

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