Andrew rose, gathered his dishes, and carried them to the sink. 'You have many wonderful qualities, Natalie, but subtlety isn't one of them. You'll find out about her when I'm ready for you to. That is if you stay long enough.'
'Oh, Dad, that isn't fair!' Natalie exclaimed. 'A bribe to get me to stay?'
'I like to look at it as an incentive.'
'You think you're pretty smart, don't you?' Natalie asked. 'Well, don't be too pleased with yourself. You've already given away something about her.'
'And what would that be, Detective?'
'She has a cat.'
Andrew smiled. 'Good luck tracing her in a city of twenty thousand people with that piece of vital information.' He turned on the faucet, drenched his dishes in water, and looked up at her. 'I have work to do. Enjoy yourself today and Natalie, for once, try to stay out of trouble.'
Lily was picking her up at twelve-thirty for lunch. Dinner and clubbing last night, lunch today. I'm turning into a regular party girl, Natalie thought. Well, what better way to get over a broken heart? Except that this round of socializing couldn't go on forever. She needed to make a decision about Kenny.
Natalie shook her head. She'd promised herself a week of relaxation with old friends. Next week she'd try to figure out the rest of her life. Right now all she needed to figure out was whether to wear a chain of silver or gold with her pale blue blouse. Silver. She tossed her long hair to one side and fastened the chain. First major decision of the day. 'Natalie, you're making fantastic progress,' she told her reflection in the mirror as she applied sienna- colored lipstick.
The doorbell rang. Her father claimed he had errands.before rounds at the hospital and had left over two hours ago. Natalie thought he'd taken flight because he feared she and Lily might drag him to lunch. No matter. It was better to have Lily to herself. She might be able to find out something about Andrew's mysterious new girlfriend.
When she opened the door, Natalie marveled as always at Lily's youthful appearance. Her long blond hair hung thick and straight to her shoulders with a fringe of bangs across her forehead. She wore tan linen slacks and a matching jacket over a green silk shell. Her large hazel eyes sparkled. She'd pushed her designer sunglasses atop her head and she flashed an impish grin. 'How much trouble did you get into for not coming home until one a.m? Drunk.'
'Dad pretended to be asleep, but I know he wasn't. Still, he didn't rise to deliver a lecture. He doesn't want to drive me away in just three days, so he's going easy.'
'That won't last long. Your father is a good man, Natalie, but he never did cut you much slack. Hey, are you starving!'
'No,' Natalie said as she stepped out on the porch and pulled the door shut behind her. 'Dad fixed me a huge breakfast.'
'He is working hard to keep you here. I live alone so I had a stale doughnut and a cup of lukewarm coffee. I could eat one of the hamburger deluxe platters at The Hearth. And a big piece of cheesecake with raspberry sauce.'
'I will never understand how you and Tamara eat so much and stay so thin. What are you? One-ten soaking wet?' Natalie asked, climbing into Lily's red Corvette. Ever since Lily was twelve, she'd wanted a red Corvette.
'One hundred and fifteen,' Lily said. 'My sister, however, has dropped at least five pounds. Maybe more.'
Natalie picked up the serious note in her voice. 'Are you worried about her?'
'A little. She is so obsessed with pleasing Warren and she thinks he's unhappy because she hasn't gotten pregnant.'
'Does he really want a child?'
Lily shrugged. 'I don't know. I've never seen him display any fondness for children, but something's wrong with him. He's irritable and nervous.' They roared out of the driveway and shot away from the house. Lily drove like a professional race car driver. 'Warren Hunt wasn't my choice for my sister. He's too controlling.'
'Tamara isn't as independent as you. I think she likes his domination.'
'Maybe, but he's not my cup of tea.'
'Which is good because he's married to your sister.'
Lily threw back her head and laughed. She had a deep, hearty laugh that always made Natalie smile. Lily slid a CD into the player. In a moment the speeding car filled with the sounds of Nine Inch Nails.
'Ah, still a lover of the classics,' Natalie said. 'I made the mistake of mentioning to Dad this morning that we used to go to The Blue Lady to practice our music at night.'
'That was so much fun. We were going to call our band 'Fetish.' ' Lily giggled. 'We thought the name was so shocking! Poor Tam fretted over it for days. She was afraid Mom would have a fit. Like we would have ever made it in the rock world. You were the only one with any talent. When you left Kenny's in a whirlwind, did you remember to bring your guitars?'
'One. Toting it around is second nature to me.'
'I'm glad you never stopped playing music like Tam and I did. Speaking of Tam, I've got a great idea. Warren is in Cleveland at some conference. He won't be back until tonight. Why don't we go by and pick her up for lunch? She'd love to see you, and you're not going to die from hunger before we get to the restaurant. I know she's lonely.'
'I'd love to have lunch with her. It'll be like old times.'
'I'll give her a quick call on the cell phone. She hates being taken by surprise. You know how structured she is.'
Lily turned down the music and called. She waited a few moments, then frowned. 'No answer.'
'So much for lunch. I'll have to see her another time. I won't be leaving for over a week.'
Lily slowly put down the phone. 'Maybe we should go by her place, anyway.'
'But you said she hates surprises.'
'She does, but something isn't right. Even though she'd already turned me down about going to Panache last night, I called right before we left. I thought it was worth one more shot. No answer.'
'Maybe she went to a movie.'
Lily shook her head. 'When the great Doctor Warren is away, he always calls at ten o'clock. I called around ten- fifteen from Panache. Still no answer. I know I sound like a mother hen, but I need to see about her.'
'You have one of your bad feelings, don't you?' Natalie asked. 'One of your twin feelings.'
Lily looked slightly embarrassed. 'Well, I am worried about these unanswered phone calls, but yes, I do have one of my feelings. You probably think I'm crazy, but…'
'I do not think you're crazy,' Natalie said as Lily turned right, heading away from the business district and toward the lake. 'Even if I. hadn't read so many articles about this mysterious communication twins have, I've seen it in action with you and Tamara.'
'We're not as phenomenal as some of the people you see on television, but there have been a couple of spooky times.'
'Like when we were twelve and no one could find you. Tamara insisted you were at Ariel Saunders's house. You were-with a broken leg. Everyone assumed Tamara had guessed where you were because we went there sometimes, but she told me she actually saw you in one quick flash lying at the foot of the staircase with your leg twisted under you. She made me promise not to tell anyone about her vision.'
'She felt odd about it. She was afraid people would think she was strange. I had a couple of visions about her, too.' Natalie noticed that they were going faster-too fast for these roads, but she didn't ask Lily to slow down. Clearly she was worried about her sister. 'I'm not having any visions now-not of Tam, at least. But last night I kept dreaming of a dog howling in the rain. It probably had nothing to do with Tam, but every time I woke up from the dream, I'd go back to sleep and dream it again. Anyway, I do have an uneasy feeling. It's probably based on absolutely nothing except that I can't reach her on the phone.' She turned a slightly tight smile on Natalie. 'Thanks for indulging me, though.'
'No problem. If she's home, we might stand a better chance of dragging her out if we approach her in person, right?'
'Right,' Lily agreed, her smile broadening.
Natalie looked out the car window. The storm seemed to have blown the atmosphere clean. The sky was
