Derek tapped his fingers on the arm of the couch. “I hate to suggest it, but this Rajiv might’ve cultivated Shiva’s friendship precisely to use her daughter as an unwitting courier.”
The thought made me angry all over again. “If that’s true, I hope your Interpol friends can track him down and make him pay.”
“If it’s true, I’ll be happy to arrange it.”
“Good.” I sighed and leaned back into the pillows of the couch. “The sooner we can resolve all this, the sooner I can go back to a life free of Ukrainians and Russians knocking down my door every other day.”
“The American dream.”
“Yeah.” I laughed dolefully. “I guess I should call Robin and let her know we’re coming.”
Derek jumped up, found my cell on the table, and brought it back to me. With a smile for him, I pressed Robin’s number and waited. There was no answer, so I left a message, then called Austin’s house. His voice mail picked up and I left another message.
“I guess they’re out tonight.” Or maybe they weren’t picking up the phone. After all, they were still under the dubious influence of Mom’s enchantment spell. “I should call my mom, too,” I mused. “Let her know we’re coming.”
There was no answer at my parents’ house either.
“What’s going on in Dharma tonight?” I wondered aloud. “Why isn’t everyone home and in their jammies?”
“Perhaps there’s a community event.”
“Probably so.” But I had to rub my arms against a sudden chill. “Are you sure Gabriel’s healed enough to keep watch on Robin?”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“You’re not convincing me.”
“I’m not convincing myself,” he grumbled, and pulled out his cell to check in with Gabriel. Pushing himself up from the couch, he said, “I’ll let him know the latest and make sure he stays alert to any unusual activity.”
I smiled and mentally added one more item to my list of reasons to thank Derek Stone.
It was another late night of police procedure. Happily, no fingerprint dust was involved. However, our two intrepid inspectors, Lee and Jaglom, were unable to shed much light on who the dead man was, beyond what Derek had gleaned from his own search of the man’s passport and belongings.
Derek had already sent the information off to his contacts at Interpol.
Meanwhile, Inspector Lee warned that the FBI or some obscure Homeland Security agency still might step in, now that it seemed even more likely that the threatened turf war between the Russians and the Ukrainians was heating up. Apparently, it was all heating up inside my apartment.
Derek said nothing to contradict the police take on the situation, but I knew he didn’t agree with the cops’ assessment. At least, not as it pertained to Robin and her problems, which had nothing to do with a turf war and everything to do with a missing flash drive that some people were willing to kill for.
But unfortunately, Derek was not in a position to divulge the full story to the inspectors. It was turning into a highly sensitive international situation, and something Derek was not at liberty to turn over to the local police. I assumed that officials at the highest levels of government would eventually step in and take over. Meanwhile, my two main concerns were that Robin was safe in Dharma and that she’d told me everything she knew about Alex and Rajiv and the Kama Sutra.
It was a relief when the investigator got all the blood he needed from those few drops spilled by the Russian and gave me the okay to clean and sanitize my workroom floor right then and there. The thought of having to put off cleaning for days while the blood was analyzed was too depressing to think about.
The police traced my intruder’s bloody footprints from the curb outside my building, across the sidewalk, up the interior stairwell, and down the hall to my place. The same way he’d escaped the night Tyler had seen him.
Currently, there was a car parked where the footprints began out by the curb, but as the police inspected it, the owner ran over from the Thai restaurant across the street. So it was not the dead man’s car.
So he’d been shot, then dropped off in front of my building? It didn’t make sense. But then, nothing about this chilling situation made much sense at all.
The following morning, I called Robin one more time, and again there was no answer. I assumed no foul play was afoot, because Gabriel had reported to Derek that everything was fine in Dharma. I had to conclude that Robin was simply too enthralled with Austin to answer the damn phone. Fine. I guessed we would show up and surprise her.
Before leaving for Sonoma, I packed the Kama Sutra carefully into my briefcase, more unwilling than ever to leave it here while we were gone. Then I called the head of my homeowners association, who lived on the third floor, and let him know that the hall rugs on the sixth floor needed cleaning. I didn’t mention bloody footprints. They would have to figure that out for themselves.
Before Derek pushed the elevator button, I jogged down to Vinnie and Suzie’s place to let them know we would be gone for the day. They promised to look in on Pookie and keep their eyes and ears open for weirdos. Then we headed off to Dharma.
Derek maneuvered the Bentley through the tollgate plaza and onto the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun came out from behind a cloud, and the view of Marin was beautiful. I pulled sunglasses out of my purse and put them on as we left the bridge for land and continued driving through the winding hills above Sausalito.
“The Kama Sutra must hold the key,” Derek remarked as we descended into the flatlands. “Everything happened after Robin returned from India with the book.”
“I think you’re right,” I said. “I’ll start taking it apart as soon as we get home this afternoon.”
He leaned over and squeezed my knee. “We’ve got my office party this evening.”
I winced. I’d completely forgotten! Earlier in the week, I’d been so thrilled that Derek had invited me to the party, but now it was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Oh, I knew that,” I said lightly. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
He laughed. “Of course you are, darling.”
“I am,” I said, trying to sound both sincere and insulted that he would doubt me.
“Yes, I am, too,” he said genially, letting me off the hook. “Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t be worse. We have more important matters to deal with.”
“If we get home early enough, I still might have time to work on the book.”
He nodded. “We’ll see how the day goes.”
As the freeway widened near San Rafael, Derek increased his speed. “If the Ukrainians were aware that the flash drive was hidden somewhere inside the book, why didn’t they just break into Robin’s car and take it while she was dining at the Indian restaurant with Alex? That way, they would’ve had what they wanted that first night.”
“And Robin would never have been involved.”
“Exactly,” he said.
“And chances are Alex would be alive. Nobody would be hurt. Except the book.” I turned in my seat to face him. “I’d hate to imagine what damage they would’ve done to the book.”
He smiled indulgently. “Yes, God help them if they’d destroyed the book. The wrath of Brooklyn would be unleashed.”
“That’s right,” I said, chuckling. “I would’ve tracked them down and made them pay.”
Derek tapped his thumb on the steering wheel in contemplation. “So Robin went home with the book that night. It doesn’t make sense that Alex or one of his people didn’t simply go through Robin’s house and find the damn thing.”
“I’m glad they didn’t,” I said firmly. “Robin stayed home and slept all day. If she’d awakened and found them, they might’ve…” I shivered.
His eyes narrowed to black slits. “If they were any good at all, she never would’ve known they were in her house.”
I shook my head. When he said stuff like that, I was reminded that he could be as dangerous as he looked.
“And that night,” he went on, “she brought the book to your house. Alex didn’t know it, but his window of
