"Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?"

"Honestly, it's no worse than playing the Oakland Raiders. They used to bite and claw a lot. Spit, too."

She looked at me with concern. "You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth."

"Huh?"

"Ibsen. An Enemy of the People."

"Right."

"You don't know much about theater, do you?"

"Not true. At Penn State, I played Big Jule in a student production of Guys and Dolls."

"The large, dim-witted gangster?"

"They needed someone who could lift Nathan Detroit off the stage with one hand." I lowered my voice into my big-oaf baritone. "I used to be bad when I was a kid, but since then, I've gone straight. Thirty-three arrests and no convictions."

I took a slug of the coffee, and Victoria said, "Now tell me about your night."

I gave Victoria a quick summary, making myself sound more heroic and less clumsy than I had actually been. I told her that "Benny" and "the jeweler" were the same guy, but I still didn't know what that meant or his connection to the shooting. Basically, we needed Elena to answer our questions. Especially the big one: where's Nadia?

Ten minutes later, we were cruising north on an empty LeJeune Road. I turned down the volume on the country station, quieting Johnny Cash, who was claiming he walked the line. A left turn on Flagler Street, then a quick right turn on Forty-Sixth Avenue and we were there. Saint Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church. We parked the Eldo, then walked underneath a wooden archway with three blue onion domes on top. The church was a modest one-story building with six golden crosses on a pair of red wooden doors topped by a stained glass window. I tried one of the doors. Open.

Inside, in the dim light, a single woman kneeled in front of a pew. Elena still had on her electric-blue minidress, and her blonde hair was a rat's nest. Victoria and I walked in quietly and sat in a pew directly across the aisle from her. Elena cast a quick glance our way, then continued praying. Maybe she was praying for Nadia, maybe she was asking forgiveness for stealing my watch, or maybe she had just lured us here so Alex Gorev could leap out of the shadows and chop us to ribbons with an AK-47.

After a moment, Elena crossed herself three times, slid gracefully onto the pew, and turned toward us. "Saint Vladimir was the first Christian ruler of Russia. Did you know that?"

I allowed as how I did not.

"A thousand years ago. Before then, all pagans. Now . . . pagans again." She looked at Victoria. "Who is the woman?"

"I'm Victoria Lord. Steve Solomon, the man accused of killing Nicolai Gorev, is my partner. Law partner and life partner."

I didn't care for that "life partner" bit. "Boyfriend" would have been better, but I didn't have a vote on the matter.

Elena turned to me. "You told Alex you were lawyer for Solomon."

"It's true."

"He looked you up after you left with the police. Jake Lassiter."

I nodded.

"He would like to kill you. And Nadia."

"That's why we're here. To help her."

"No, you are here to help Solomon."

"We can do both," Victoria said.

"Elena, we all know the trouble Nadia is in," I said. "Alex Gorev isn't the only one after her. So are the feds. She blew up their investigation of his brother, and they'd like to bury her so deep in a federal prison, she won't see the light of day, much less a courtroom where she can talk."

I wasn't at all sure that's what the feds would do, but it sounded pretty threatening.

"Can they do that, in this land of the free?"

"These days, they can do pretty much anything. Someone in the Justice Department screwed the pooch and they gotta keep it quiet."

"Someone had sex with a dog?"

"In a manner of speaking. The way I figure it, they offered Nadia immunity for whatever they had on her. But she's blown the deal and fled, so she still has the federal charges. Plus the state of Florida is looking for her as a material witness in the Gorev shooting and who knows for what else? Then there's the grand larceny charge on Miami Beach for stealing a watch, which I take it is sort of a hobby with you girls."

"Yours was big fake! I checked it."

"Sorry."

"Makes me think you are big fake, too."

"Finally, we've got Benny the Jeweler," I said, testing the waters.

"What about him?"

"What's his last name?"

She shrugged her bare shoulders. "Only Benny the Jeweler. He shows up once in a while at the club, pinches the girls, and goes into Nicolai's office to talk business. Or he did. I haven't seen him since the shooting."

"Benny has hired some half-assed investigator to find Nadia," I said. "The guy tried to bribe me into giving her up. I'm pretty sure Benny wants to do her harm."

Elena shook her head, her blonde mess of hair untangling. Looking at Victoria, she said, "Your friend is a good fighter but very stupid."

"Like so many men," Victoria said.

"Da! Exactly." Elena slid to the end of the pew and extended an arm, showing off the lacquered fingernails of her left hand. She had rings on every finger except her thumb. She wiggled her pinky and said, "This one."

Victoria smiled. "It's real. A princess-cut diamond. I'd say about three carats, maybe more."

"Three point five! From Benny, who taught me the four Cs. Carat. Clarity. Color. Cut. Very fine diamond. Nearly flawless. He gave one to Nadia that's even larger. She wears as pendant."

"Do all the girls get a diamond from Benny?"

"All the girls get one. But the girls Benny really likes get the best ones," Elena said proudly.

"Why?" I asked. "Why the expensive presents for everybody?"

"You don't know, do you, lawyer?"

"How would I?"

"How do you intend to protect Nadia? You think Benny wants to harm her? He loves her. Not manwoman love. But like a father."

This wasn't going well. I had lost control of the conversation and the situation. "Look, Elena, I may not know all the details, but I know Nadia is in trouble. You know where she is. If anything happens to her, that's on you. Her blood will be on your hands."

Elena's eyes went cold, and her angelic features hardened. I had gone too far. She turned toward Victoria. "How do you work with such a man? He is, what is the word? Rude?"

"And boorish," Victoria agreed.

"Da. Very good sound. Boor-ish. I will use it with the bouncer who always grabs my tits. 'Sergei, you are rude and boor-ish.'"

They both laughed. Either at me or Sergei, or both.

"Lawyer, go have smoke. Me and Victoria talk."

I shrugged, got up, and walked out the big red doors. I have enough bad habits, but smoking isn't one of them. I sat down on a bench in the church courtyard and waited, glad I had brought Victoria along.

-22-.

The Women Talk The two women sat in the church pew, talking. Victoria realized that the atmosphere had become more relaxed as soon as Lassiter left. At least he'd had the good sense to bring her along.

"You are very pretty," Elena said.

"Thank you."

"You could be Bar girl. Small on top, but push-up bra would fix that."

Victoria tried out her Russian. "Spasibo."

"But you are too smart for B-girl."

"I was lucky to get an education."

"Me? Not so lucky. I worked in strip club in Riga when I was seventeen. You know Riga?"

"Latvia."

"Then Tallinn in Estonia. But no money there. So I went to Luxembourg."

"Really?"

"Lots of money in Luxembourg. That's when the Gorevs went from strip clubs to champagne clubs and I became B-girl."

"So you've worked for the Gorevs a long time."

"Since I was kid. I have been around more than Nadia. She is like child in many ways. That is why she is in trouble. And you?"

"College. Law school. I was a prosecutor for a while. I had a case against Steve that got me fired. And it brought us together."

"Do you love him?"

Victoria smiled, thinking about the complicated man she was crazy about. "On the surface, we have little in common. It's hard to explain, our dynamic. He drives me nuts. But life is better with him than without. And, yes, I love him."

"When I first saw you a few minutes ago, I thought you were with Lassiter."

"Only professionally."

"But he would like more."

"I'm not sure about that."

"I know men, more than you, lady lawyer. He has it for you."

Victoria shook her head. This was not a discussion she intended to have. At the same time, she wanted to talk freely with Elena and gain her trust. After all, that's why she was here.

"In his eyes, I can see it," Elena said. "He hurts for you."

"I really don't think so."

"Does not matter. You love someone else. Which also explains Nadia."

"How?"

"Everything she has done. The trouble she is in. Is for a man. Poor, sweet Nadia is in love."

"Really?"

"True love. She wants to marry the man and start over with clean life."

Victoria measured her words. "I'm not sure that's possible unless she tidies up the mess she's left behind."

"If you have plan for this tidy up, I will tell Nadia and see what she says."

-23-.