The man actually did scream and then the sound cut off in the most horrible way. Vi hadn’t even seen what Smith had done, but she thought she might have nightmares about it regardless.
“Oh my heavens!” Rita said.
Smith shot them both a look and Vi squeaked again. She grabbed Rita’s hand and hauled her out of the booth. Neither of them had to pretend to be alarmed and horrified as they actually stumbled across the floor. Before they made it to the bar, a man grabbed Vi’s arm and squeezed hard. “What’s all this then?”
Vi yelped and tried to tug away, and it didn’t work.
“What did you two have to do with that?”
Vi tried to twist her arm away and failed and then Rita drew a handgun and placed the muzzle directly against the man’s chest. “Let go of my friend.”
The man shoved Vi into Rita, but Rita had been prepared for that, and she caught the weight of Vi against her. They rushed around the bar and out the back. When they reached where Smith had parked the car, Rita shoved Vi into the passenger seat and dashed around to the other side.
The big man who’d grabbed Vi seemed to have followed them because as Rita started the auto, he was there to block their escape. Rita cursed as the man smiled. A crowbar appeared from the sleeve of his jacket.
“Who carries a crowbar?” Vi demanded.
“Shoot him,” Rita suggested.
“Jack will somehow know.”
“Babe,” Rita laughed darkly. “Your arm is a bracelet of bruises.”
Vi groaned as Rita moved the auto forward. The big man slammed the crowbar down, and there was a shatter of glass.
“Head light?” Vi asked.
“Probably,” Rita agreed and then gunned the engine.
The man didn’t move.
“He has a crowbar,” Vi reminded her as the man crashed it down again.
“We have an auto,” Rita replied, throwing said auto into reverse so that the crowbar missed, and then she pulled back into drive and hit the throttle so that the auto jumped forward. The man tripped backwards as she braked just before she hit him. He began shouting obscenities, but Rita only laughed and hit the throttle once more.
The man stumbled out of the way when she made no sign of slowing, but he got in one last hit. Both Rita and Vi yelped when the crowbar smashed down on the window. Rita didn’t stop, and the moment the man was behind them, she peeled away.
“Oh my heavens,” Vi said and then found she was hysterically laughing. “We’re going to be slowly murdered by our husbands.”
Chapter 3
Before Jack got home, Violet dressed carefully for dinner. She dug through her dresses, cursing every one that didn’t have sleeves. Why, why did she insist on buying dresses with slim straps and sleeveless ensembles that ended at her shoulder?
She was nearly frantic until she remembered those particularly long, black gloves she’d bought. Vi pulled the glove up carefully and sighed in relief when it covered the ring of bruises. She was going to murder Smith slowly and then slap herself a little bit for being stupid enough to get involved in Smith’s plans.
She stood in the center of her dressing closet, wearing only stockings, a slip, and evening gloves when Jack came into the bedroom and called, “Vi, darling, I’m home. I’m sorry I’m late.”
She choked back a gasp and then steadied herself. “Hello darling.”
Vi grabbed the first dress with black in it and threw it over her head until she realized it was that spiderweb dress she’d purchased. With a silent groan, Vi pulled it off and then threw it in the corner of her closet, ignoring her need for order. She flipped through several other dresses more carefully and found a simple black sleeveless sheath. She pulled it on and then, knowing Jack would immediately question a dress so plain, Vi found her pretty gray and black lace wrap. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply as she left her dressing room and found Jack shaving in the bath.
“How was your day?” Vi managed to squeak out. Was her voice cracking? Could he tell? Would she be able to hide the bruise until it faded? Vi wasn’t sure, because her skin was rather pale and creamy and the bruise was so dark purple.
His gaze moved to hers, and she angled her body away from him. She felt like a wooden puppet and the thought occurred to her that she should just explain. She didn’t want to see his eyes darken in anger, however, or his jaw tick with fury, so she said nothing.
“Boring mostly,” Jack said. “The woman missed her appointment, but we found her later, and she said she was confused.”
If the woman was confused, maybe the solution to this whole case was the crossroads of confusion and imagination. “What is she hiring you to discover?”
Jack’s eyes moved over her face as he lifted a towel and patted his face dry. That gaze of his was too-penetrating, and she wanted to wince away. Instead, she turned to her jewelry box and started digging through, almost mindlessly. Her gaze was fixed on her arm in the mirror rather than on her jewelry and she pulled out the strand of pink pearls. Vi looked at it for long moments and then decided that putting it back would be more noteworthy than wearing it.
“Are you all right, Vi? You seem distracted.”
“Just thinking book thoughts,” she lied and then blushed deeply, but Jack’s face was in the closet as he pulled out his suit for the evening.
“What did you do today?”
Vi was blushing again, but thankfully Jack was hurrying into his suit. “Wrote some. Spent some time with Rita. Petered about.”
Jack was busy with his tie, so Violet returned to her own dressing room to find a clutch just to avoid Jack’s eyes. He knew her so well—too well—for her to be able to sidestep his question if he were actually focused on her
