Page 100 of Rest In Pink

“The question is, why is she doing this?”

“She likes buildings,” I told him. “Houses. She’s obsessed with roofs over people’s heads.” I thought about it for a minute. “I think she’s fixing Burney. Relax, your town is safe.”

“But is she?” Vince said. “There are powerful people who aren’t happy about ECOmena. As long as it’s an anonymous company, that doesn’t matter. When it becomes Anemone’s company, she’s a target.”

“Maybe she won’t tell anybody else,” I said.

“If Imani Coleman just walked through the front door of the Blue House, everybody knows. It’s Burney. There are eyes everywhere.”

“So now what?”

“Talk to Anemone when you get a chance. Get an idea what she’s up to.”

“I can’t right now. I have to watch Peri and then take her to her Mandarin lesson later, and it’s not a good time to start screwing with her routine, not after last night.”

“Right.” He hesitated. “Mandarin?”

“At the Red Box. For the China mission.” My phone buzzed with an incoming call. “I’ve got Molly calling. Can you hold?”

“Only for you.”

I swapped the lines.

“Can you meet me at the Red Box?” Molly said, sounding tense as all hell.

“Peri has her Mandarin lesson there at four.”

“Okay. Four. I’ll see you then.”

She hung up and I thought,What fresh hell is this?and then Vince was back.

“Molly just called and asked me to meet her at the Red Box. She sounds upset.”

“What’s going on with her?”

“No idea.”

“Well, she’s got you, so she’ll be all right. You and me, tonight. You’ll have to tell me about Peri’s China mission then. After you are grateful, and I take advantage of that.” He hung up.

That was the second compliment he’d given me in the call. It was unnerving.

“I really love the car,” I said to the dial tone and hung up, too.

Chapter Forty-Seven

“I see Burney is still standing,” Rain said as I pulled up, window-to-window, in the front parking lot of the cardboard factory, leaving enough room for each of us to get out.

“Maybe Mickey will ride by again,” I said. “I come bearing gifts.”

“Donuts?” Rain asked.

“Even better.”

“Why didn’t we meet at the station?” Rain asked.

“Bartlett is there and I don’t trust him.”

“Okay. But I stopped by to talk to George. He briefed me on what happened last night at Porter’s. I updated him on what I had. Politics, Vince. It’s part of the job. You should have been there. You’ve got to cover George’s ass. He needs it.”

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