Page 180 of Dead Man's List

“Why is she on edge?” Sam had noticed a change in Akiko. She had seemed more preoccupied and anxious over the past week, but he’d attributed it to the trouble with Rita and Christopher Drummond.

Kit sighed. “She said I could tell you if you asked, so I’m not breaking a confidence. A woman claiming to have known hermother called her and asked for a meeting. We’re going in two weeks.”

“We?”

Kit shrugged as she plated two servings of Akiko’s offering. “She’s nervous about it and so am I. It feels…wrong, somehow. Which is probably just me being paranoid like usual, but I made her promise to wait until I could go with her. She called the woman yesterday, but the woman’s out of town for the next two weeks. So…”

“You have good instincts and I’m glad you listen to them. I’m also glad Akiko listens to them, too. It’s good that you two have each other.”

“It is. We weren’t close at first. I didn’t want her at McKittrick House.”

“Why not?”

“She took Wren’s bed, and Wren hadn’t been gone that long.”

“Ah. That makes sense.” Kit had been grieving her sister. She’d been fifteen years old and hurting. “But you’re very close now.”

She smiled. “We are. Sisters in every way but blood. She’s always had my back and I’ve had hers. If you’re impressed with that move I do, taking down men twice my weight? Thank Akiko. She taught it to me.”

“I’ll definitely thank her, then.”

She took a final dish out of another bag. “Cheesecake. This one I bought. Mom was mad at me for not asking her to make something, but she was busy today getting the new girls ready to start school tomorrow. I didn’t want to stress her out.”

“She can make dessert for our next date.”

Kit grinned. “Okay.”

She seemed almost buoyant. If he didn’t know better, he’d wonder if she’d been drinking. But Kit rarely drank and neverwhen she was going to be driving. “You’re in a good mood,” he said tentatively.

“I know. I woke up this way.” She sounded genuinely bewildered by this.

Sam laughed. “I’m glad. It’s just…”

“Abnormal?” she asked, but she didn’t seem irritated.

“A little. I kind of like sassy Kit.”

“Good, because this good mood won’t last long. They rarely do.”

That was something that Sam hoped to change.

“What did you do today while I was playing first mate to Akiko?” she asked.

“I cleaned the condo,” he said with a self-conscious laugh. “And Siggy and I took a walk to the comic book store.”

Kit turned from the fridge, where she’d put the cheesecake. “Ronald Tasker’s comic books. I should have known you’d remember.”

“I promised. And he did give us some valuable information.”

Kit sighed. “And he has another family in LA.”

That was the secret he’d kept, the one that Munro had blackmailed him over. It had been noted in Munro’s three-ring binder. “Yeah. That would be hard for his daughter to forgive.”

Kit pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Anyway. Nonwork topics. This bluefin tuna is ours because the guy who caught it lives in New York City. He got his picture taken with the fish, but he didn’t want to take it all home with him. Akiko offered to ship it, but the guy doesn’t even like fish.”

“Why’d he go on a fishing trip, then?”

“It was a bachelor party. Most of the group were from somewhere else. Even the groom lives in LA.”

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