Chapter 17

“You must act, man, or you are lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for despair.”

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Five Orange Pips

Debra had excellent news. Tom was improving so rapidly that they expected to move him out of ICU to a regular room in the morning.

“He should be coming out of the coma any minute now,” she said, “so you’ll be able to visit him very soon.”

Relieved, I hung up and immediately fell asleep.

The alarm rang four hours later. I shut it off, still half-asleep, still shaking off a misty, red dream world where Jack the Ripper had pushed me down stairs. Sherlock Holmes stood over me cataloging my injuries as Dr. Watson recorded them in his diary. My head was spinning. Somehow I felt worse now than when I’d gone to bed.

Cavalier pressed his cold nose against my cheek and purred loudly. All I wanted to do was turn over and go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. A breaking and entering was on my schedule, so I scooped up Cavvy and headed for the kitchen for fortifications En route, Cavvy and I checked the domicile. Nothing was disturbed - notes or otherwise.

After I had a strong cup of coffee and nibbled on some of Auntie’s goodies, I re-checked the magnetometer unit one last time to make sure the battery was charged. Lastly I disabled the alarm switch and dropped it into my Borghese tool kit. Little did Mother guess that I’d be using the Borghese make up bag she gave me for Christmas a few years back for different purposes, like carrying certain tools of the trade I sometimes need, such as my magnetometer, lock shooter, flashlight, rope and pliers. The Gods be willing, she’ll never know.

I saw from my window that the fog had gotten thicker. Auntie often says that a misty morning may bring a clear day, but it looked as if she was wrong this time.

My phone rang. I flashed back to those midnight crank calls I’d been getting a few weeks ago, so I grabbed it and barked, “Is this a crank call?”

“DD, this is Mitch. What are you doing awake? It’s nearly midnight. I thought I’d be apologizing for calling you so late after a full day on that stakeout.”

I hadn’t told him about the harassment, and I wasn’t about to do so now. “Hi handsome,” I greeted him cheerily. “It’s great to hear your voice. What a nice surprise.”

“You didn’t answer my question, DD. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” I lied. “I woke up to get a glass of water, that’s all.” I wasn’t about to let him know my plans to commit breaking and entering. He’d go ballistic.

“I wanted to hear your sexy voice, DD. You know I love that throaty sound.”

I smiled. “Well, I’m here all alone - except for Cavvy of course. Three wouldn’t be a crowd if you were here, too.”

“Save a spot for me, will you?” Mitch asked and my heart melted.

“There’s one right here next to me, and I can’t wait ‘til you’re back.”

“When I am, I’m going to do some awful things to you,” he said.

“I’m waiting. Remember you’re the one who told me what Eddie Murphy said.”

“Oh yeah. ‘There’s only two times that sex is important -the first time and the next time.’” He laughed.

“Well, I’m waiting Mitch.”

“DD...” There was a pause. I had a bad feeling. “I called you so late because I’m not going to be able to contact you for awhile. Something big has come up here on this end,” he said. “It’s breaking fast. We’re going under a security black out, so I may not be available for the next few days.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s something top clearance involving the Feds. I can’t talk about it.”

“Is it dangerous?” I felt a shiver. This suddenly felt like when I lost Scotty.

“Probably not as dangerous as your stake-out, darlin’. I forgot to ask how that’s coming along. Do you think she’s pulling a scam?”

“You just changed the subject,” I said.

“True, but I am interested in your surveillance job.”

“Well, I do trust Goodson’s instincts, but so far Romani’s shown absolutely no signs of fraud. I don’t know how long they’ll authorize the surveillance. And to return to our original subject, I miss you like hell.”

“Me too. Remember the last time we were together, DD?”

I certainly did. I was visualizing what his hunky naked body had done to mine. My bad premonition vanished in a blast of heat. “I can think of at least three things we were doing,” I said. “Which specifically are you referring to?”

“Specifically you know damn well.”

“Now that you mention it like that, I do. You were awfully creative that night.”

“You weren’t so bad yourself.”

“The sooner you get back here, the sooner we can do it again, the Feds be damned.”

“I’ll tell them you said so. In the meantime, you’ll just have to wait patiently.”

“You know I’m never patient.” I really wasn’t. I could barely catch my breath. I wanted Mitch here now.

“I liked it when I caught you coming out of the shower,” he said with a low, sexy laugh that sparked even more heat.

“Yeah, I liked it too, especially when I saw that neat towel holder in front of you that sprang up. That’s a very handy thing to have.”

“It did hold up that towel pretty good, and you’re certainly right about handy. Those chilly little hands of yours almost drove me out of my mind. The way you... Something’s happening here. You’ll never know how much I hate to do this, but bye for now.” The line went dead.

It was 12:15 AM by my clock, and even though we’d talked for a long time, I felt so alone. I could still feel the lingering thrill of Mitch’s laugh, and I wanted more of him. I called his Paris number, hoping against hope I’d catch him. It rang four times and then the voice mail came on. I told him I was so glad he’d called and to please keep in touch whenever he could. And I added a few other intimate phrases as incentive for him to call me back soon.