Show of Evil

'Last night was the pits,' she said, faking a big smile.

He smiled back. 'I smoked a pack of cigarettes trying to go to sleep.'

'That'll teach you to take a night off.'

'We're being watched,' he said, flicking his eyes towards the rest of the staff.

'I know. Isn't it fun?'

'Coffee?'

'Sure.'

'I checked on you last night - to make sure your guardian angels were there,' Vail said.

'I don't know what my neighbours think,' she said. 'One guy parks in front of the house all night and the other one parks on my terrace and cruises the grounds with a flashlight every hour on the hour.'

'Just makes you even more mysterious than you already are.'

'I don't know why I even brought it up, I've never met any of my neighbours.' Her mood seemed to change suddenly when he turned his back to her to draw the coffee. He could see her reflection in the windowpane. She became less ebullient, more introspective, as if she had very quickly fallen into deep thought.

The Stoddard case was heavy on Venable's mind. The discovery of the secret compartment in Delaney's apartment presented her with a peculiar dilemma. As Stoddard's defender, she was not required to tell the prosecution what she had found. On the other hand, the gun was integral to the case and she could be accused of concealing evidence. Her decision had been not to touch anything. She had closed up the secret room and left; her argument would be that she had not been sure whose gun was in the closet. And she still had to deal with Edith Stoddard about her discovery. She decided to put the problem aside for the moment; obviously Vail's meeting would rule the agenda this morning. Loosen up, she told herself.

Vail poured a spoonful of sugar in her coffee cup. She quickly brightened again when he returned with her coffee. As she put the cup on the table in front of her, he said, 'Something bothering you?'

'You haven't known me that long.'

'How long?'

'Long enough to tell if something's got my goat.'

'Ah! So something has got your goat,' he said. He walked around the table and sat down, tilting his chair back with one foot on the corner of the desk.

She leaned across the table and stared at him through half-closed eyes and said, with mock sarcasm, 'I don't have a goat, Mr District Attorney.'

He laughed, and she asked, 'Did you miss me?' looking as if she were asking the time of day.

'Nah, although it did occur to me that some corporate samurai warrior might steal your heart away at dinner last night.'

She laughed at him. 'You can't get rid of me that easily, Vail.'

'I don't want to get rid of you at all.'

They were keeping up the facade of two people casually making conversation, a pantomime for the staff, which was still working very hard to make it appear as if they were disinterested in the scene behind the glass partition.

'Good,' she said, shaking her head so her hair flowed down over her shoulders.

He whistled very low in appreciation of her studied wiles. 'You are a science unto yourself,' he said.

'I suppose a good-morning kiss would stop traffic up here.'

'It would probably stop traffic in Trafalgar Square.'

'Pity.'

'Let's let the Wild Bunch in and get started. I'm sure they're all sitting outside this fishbowl reading our lips. Besides, they're all dying to meet the legendary Jane Venable.'

'Sure.'

'Absolutely. They know all about you. They've all read the transcript of the Stampler trial.'

'Well, that's just great!' she snapped. 'The one trial where Mr