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"Yes, Roslyn came in here yesterday, but only to get some food. Yes, I saw her last night on the riverboat, including that awful scene with Elliot Slater. No, I haven't seen the vamp since then, and I don't expect to," I said. "Whatever you think you saw here yesterday, Roslyn and I are not best friends, merely casual acquaintances. I go to her club on occasion, she gets barbecue here sometimes. That's the extent of our relationship, detective. As for where I was last night, I went home with Owen Grayson. We had a very stimulating evening in his office, if you absolutely have to know. "
Bria studied me for several seconds. "You don't like me much, do you, Ms. Blanco?"
It wasn't that. It wasn't that at all. If anything, I was proud of how well Bria seemed to have turned out, despite everything that had happened to her. She just didn't realize that I had to keep her at arm's length. That my jumbled feelings for her were still too fresh and raw for me to do anything but antagonize her. That sarcasm was the gentlest and least deadly of my many defense mechanisms. That I had a cold, hard, bloody job to do tonight, something that she could never know about or be a part of.
I shrugged. "I don't know enough about you to like or dislike you, detective. What I hate is when someone comes into my gin joint and starts threatening me. I don't respond well to threats, from the police or anyone else. "
She sighed. "I'm not threatening you. All I'm trying to do is help Ms. Phillips. You heard what she said about Elliot Slater, what she accused him of. I've spent the whole day trying to track her down. Surely you know about Slater's reputation, who he works for. I want to find Ms. Phillips before he does. That's all I want to do. "
Bria had that same tired note in her voice that I'd always heard in Donovan Caine's. That same tone that told me how many brick walls and dead ends she'd run up against today-many of them in her own police department. Like she said, she was just trying to do the right thing, just trying to help a woman who so obviously needed it. Bria was trying to do things the legal way. In Ashland, all it would get her was dead. And I just couldn't allow that to happen. Not to my baby sister. Better I deal with Slater than Bria. Better for Roslyn, and better for Bria, whether she knew it or not.
"That's very noble of you," I said in a kinder voice. "It really is. But I can't help you. I don't know where Roslyn is, and I didn't know anything about her problems with Slater until I heard about them last night on the riverboat, like everyone else. Even if I had known before, there's nothing I could do to help her. Not against someone like Slater. You said it yourself. You know who he works for. But I truly am sorry for Roslyn, detective. I truly am. More than you will ever know. "
Bria opened her mouth to say something, when a sharp ring cut her off. But it wasn't the telephone next to the register that had sounded. It was my disposable cell phone. Which could mean only one thing-trouble.
"Excuse me. " I dug my cell phone out of my jeans pocket and answered it. "What?"
"Gin?" Jo-Jo's voice flooded the line. "We've got a problem. "
The tight, worried note in the dwarf's tone told me exactly what she was going to say.
"Roslyn's gone," Jo-Jo said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Roslyn Phillips gone? Fuck.
Bria saw my face tighten. Her blue eyes sharpened with interest.
"Gin?" Jo-Jo asked. "Are you still there?"
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said in a calm voice. "Tell me what happened. "
"I was busy with clients most of the day. I checked in on her at lunchtime, and Roslyn was fine. Well, as fine as she could be, given the circumstances. Quiet, but fine," Jo-Jo said. "I went upstairs to ask her what she wanted me to make for supper, if she needed some blood, if she wanted to talk about anything, and she was gone. She must have slipped out while I was doing my last perm of the day. "
"Do you have any idea why she decided that she didn't like her perm?" I asked.
Jo-Jo knew enough to realize that I didn't want to speak openly in front of whoever might be standing nearby. "She left her cell phone behind. There was a text message on the screen from Elliot Slater. He said for Roslyn to meet him on the street outside Underwood's restaurant in half an hour or he would start killing the people close to her-starting with Xavier. He also threatened to kill her sister and niece whenever they came back to Ashland. "
So the giant had decided to play hardball. And instead of coming to me, instead of trusting me to handle things, Roslyn had gone straight to him. She might even be dead already.
"When did she leave?" I asked. "Right after you gave her the perm?"
"I finished up at six. I heard her moving around upstairs as late as five thirty. She can't have been gone more than thirty minutes, forty tops. "
I glanced at the clock on the wall. Creeping up on six fifteen now. Which meant that Roslyn had been gone almost an hour. The restaurant was only about a twenty-minute cab ride from Jo-Jo's house, which meant Roslyn had to have reached Slater by now.
"I'm so sorry, Gin," Jo-Jo said, shame and worry in her voice. "I thought that she'd let you handle things. I had no idea that she'd take off. "
I sighed. "It's not your fault that she didn't like her perm. Some people just don't know good work when they see it. We'll talk about it later. I have a customer waiting right now. But keep your door open, okay? I'll probably stop by later. "
"Sure," Jo-Jo replied. "I'll have everything ready, including myself. Whatever you need, Gin. "
/> What Jo-Jo really meant was that she'd be on standby, ready to heal Roslyn Phillips when I got the vamp away from Elliot Slater. If I got the vamp away from the giant before he killed her.
"Great. See you then. "
I hung up and looked at Bria.
