Annie puzzled, "What are you gonna do if this person don't show? You can't stay forever, right?"

"I was thinkin' of hiring a P.I. Know any good ones?"

"Sure. Charlie Mercer. He does private work. He'd probably do it for you."

"You're not just being biased?"

"Cookie, what you and I know together don't match what Charlie knows. Don't underestimate him just acause he's old."

"Just asking."

"I'll give you his number. You can talk to him. Cross here."

Annie cut through a knot of double-parked cars. Frank followed. As she squeezed between two sedans, a huge pit bull lunged from a front seat. The beast gnashed at a half-open window, growling in a frenzy of s...o...b..r and teeth. Frank spun, searching for her gun. It took a second to realize she didn't have it and another second to realize she didn't need it. The dog slavered at the air outside the window, but it was safely behind the gla.s.s.

Annie laughed, "Holy cannoli! He scared the c.r.a.p outta me!"

Frank stared at the salivating brute.

"Hey." Annie tugged her sleeve.

Frank didn't move.

"Frank? Hey. Whatsa matter?"

Tearing her gaze from the dog long enough to glance at Annie, Frank answered, "Nothing."

"Nothing? You're white as a ghost. What's the matter with you? You afraid of dogs?"

"I'm okay."

"Come on." Annie pulled at Frank's arm again. "Look at you. You're shaking."

Frank crossed the street, wondering if her legs were going to hold her up. She felt queasy and stopped to lean against a building. She rubbed her right forearm.

"Did it bite you?" Annie asked.

Frank shook her head. "Long story." She took a couple deep breaths, willing the nausea away.

"You want I should get a cab?"

"No. I'm okay. Just... give me a sec. Catch my breath."

Frank tested her legs. Annie walked close beside her.

"I'm okay," Frank a.s.sured. "Not gonna keel over on you."

"You sure about that?" Annie was still peering at her. "For a minute there I thought I was gonna have to do CPR on you."

"Nah, I'm okay."

"Well, at least your color's back. You just drained, my friend. Looked like Dracula'd got hold of you."

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"Don't worry about it. I been scared worse."

The restaurant was at the end of the block. Annie opened the door for her and the first thing Frank saw was the bar. Under the aroma of seared meat the scent of liquor set her cells aquiver. She concentrated on the other patrons, eyeing them as if she'd have to write them up in a report. The hostess asked if they had a reservation.

Annie said, "No, hon, but we're just two. And my friend here needs to eat or she's gonna faint dead away."

After glancing at Frank, the hostess must have believed Annie. Grabbing two menus, she announced with a worried smile, "This way, ladies."

They settled at a table and Frank studied the menu. She couldn't help but pair each entree with the perfect wine and contemplated ordering dessert for dinner. But she'd been running on doughnuts and cookies all day so decided on sensible food, telling the waitress, "I'll have a dozen oysters on the half sh.e.l.l, the beet salad and onion rings."

"Very good," the waitress said. "As dinner or as appetizers?"

"Dinner."

"And to drink?"

A bottle of Chardonnay, Frank thought. Better yet two. "Water," she answered.

Annie ordered and after the waitress had brought her a gla.s.s of wine Annie asked, "So what's the story with the dog?"

Frank tore her eyes from the gla.s.s. "Weird case. We had this Santerfa priestess who we knew was offing people. First time I interviewed her she warned me about a red dog. I just laughed and forgot all about it. Couple weeks later this pit bull got loose near the station and latched onto my arm." She pushed up her sleeve to show Annie the scars. "Ripped into an artery and did some nerve damage. My thumb's still numb."

"Was the dog red?"

"Yep."

"Creepy."

"That wasn't even half of it. Got weirder. I had this like ... vision while the dog was chewing on my arm. Of me and this Mother Love character. It was like we were adversaries doing battle in a different time and place. Very strange. I dismissed it as a by-product of shock but then it happened again. A couple times. Just this same vision of us dueling to the death. It was really vivid. And to tell the truth, it scared the h.e.l.l outta me. At the same time, I had a witness in this case I was working against the Mother. But he was terrified to talk. He was sure she'd hexed him and that he was gonna die if he went against her. So to get him to testify we persuaded him that another priestess could undo Mother Love's hex, could turn it around so that he'd be protected from her. After I got him worked on by this priestess, she looked at me and said, aI see Mother Love's hand all over you.' I laughed then, too."

Annie sipped her wine, distracting Frank. It was only her second sip. Frank would have been working on her second gla.s.s by now.

"And?" Annie prompted.

"And then I started having these visions all the time. I called Marguerite back-the good witch, we called her-and I let her do this cleansing ceremony on me. What the h.e.l.l, right? Maybe there was something to it. Long story short, I was stupid and Mother Love ended up getting me alone in her warehouse. Had me strung up by my heels, ready to slit my throat and sacrifice me to one of her G.o.ds. Marguerite had said the Mother and I were in mortal combat and that the only way to beat her was to pray. Hanging there like a side of beef, you bet your a.s.s I prayed. Strange so far, right?"

"You could say that."

"Gets better. I'm strung up there, totally helpless and I'm praying to this friend of mine, old partner. The other cops used to tease us. Said we had a Vulcan mind-meld thing going on. We knew each other so well we could usually antic.i.p.ate what the other was going to do. So I'm calling him, trying to get him to feel my vibes, right, and come save my a.s.s. I'm praying to Mickey Mouse, the spirit of Houdini, anybody who can get me outta this jam, and in busts my new detective. His ex-wife is the good witch. He knows all about this Santeria jive acause of his wife and growing up in Louisiana. But he's got a gift too. Told one of my other detectives where to find a forty-four she'd been looking for. Sure enough, it was in a fridge just like Darcy'd said it would be. Anyway, he comes in, big shootout, I guess-I'd pa.s.sed out by then-and later in the hospital I ask him how the h.e.l.l he knew where I was. See, I hadn't told anybody where I was going. No one could have known where I was. He said he just kept seeing the Mother's warehouse and had this overwhelming feeling that I was in trouble."

Frank sat back as the waitress brought their meals. Patting her napkin over her lap, Annie observed, "You sound like one lucky kitten."

Frank smiled. Annie didn't even know about the 9-millimeter.

"If I were you, I'd light a candle, making your guardian angel work overtime like that."

Slurping an oyster, Frank needled, "You believe in angels? They come with the Madonna?"

Annie jabbed a finger. "Let me tell you a story." Between bites of steak, she narrated. "When I was sixteen we went upstate for a vacation in the Catskills. I'm swimming in this lake. I love swimming. It's late afternoon, everyone else is either napping or eating another sandwich, whatever, and I decide to swim across the lake. No big deal. The lake's only about a half a mile wide and I was a good swimmer. Piece a cake, right? So off I go. I get across to the other side. It's nice and quiet, peaceful. I rest a while acause the water's pretty cold, then I start swimming back. Don't you know I get this cramp. That's okay, I've had cramps before, like a Charlie horse, you know. Get it in my thigh, so I float a minute and while I'm floating I get this huge cramp in the small of my back. My G.o.d, it's like I've been whacked with a sledgehammer. Of course my first instinct is to double over, right? Which I did. And I was so startled by the pain that I gasped and breathed in all this water. I tried to straighten up, get my head above water, but I couldn't. It was like my back was frozen. I tried rolling over but I couldn't stay afloat, couldn't keep my head up. As I was turning back down into the water I caught a breath, only it was more water than air and I started choking. I'm breathing in more water and thinking, oh, my G.o.d, I'm gonna freakin' die out here. This is it. I mean, time stopped. Everything was getting gray and I couldn't get my head outta the water." Annie held a finger over the plate of onion rings. "Think I could have one?"

"Oh, sure." Frank pushed the plate closer. "Help yourself. So what happened?"

"So what happened is, I feel this whack on my arm, like it's in a vise, right? And I get yanked. I break the surface and look up into this old woman's face. She's got wrinkles, long gray hair, and she's draggin' me over the side of the boat. Haulin' me in like a prize catch. And let me tell you, I ain't no lightweight. Not back then, neither. I'm sittin' there doubled over, coughin' my lungs out, shakin' like a leaf. She wraps this scratchy wool blanket around me-it stunk to high heaven. Mold, diesel fuel, and let me tell you I've never been so grateful for anything in my life than that rotten old blanket-I point and cough out where I live and she takes me to the sh.o.r.e. Helps me out, watches me walk up the path toward the cabin we was staying in. I tell my mother and my aunts what happened and they're practically hysterical. They spend the whole night making food for this woman and the next morning we all set off to find out who she is and where she lives."

Annie sipped her wine. Frank was so engrossed in the story that it didn't bother her.

Wagging a finger, she continued, "We spent the whole day, I'm telling you the entire day, sunup to sundown, talking to people in town trying to figure out who this old gal could be. Some woman from the city staying at one of the cabins? A local? A hermit? Who was this broad? And you know what? And I'm talkin' a little town here. Out in the middle of nowheres. Everybody knows everybody and they know each other's business. But not one person had a clue who we were talking about. Everybody said no, there's n.o.body like that around here. And this isn't a huge lake, either. Way it's shaped, way the banks were, there's only really four places a person could get a boat in. At the third boat ramp, my aunt tells the story to an old man coming back in. He listens and when my aunt's done he breaks into a big smile.

"aSounds like you met old Ruth,' he says. My mother's crying, aWho's this Ruth? Where can we find her?' The old man kept smiling. He tilted his head toward the lake. aReckon she's out there somewheres,' he said. aBut you ain't gonna find her lest she wants you to.'

"Well, we have all this food,' my mother said. aWe want to thank her. How can we get it to her?'

"The old man shrugged. aPut it in the lake,' he said. aThat's where you'll find her. Old Ruthie's boat went down about two miles from here, oh, close on to twenty-five years ago.'

"My aunt said, aYou mean ...' and the old man nodded. aPulled a little boy outta the lake about six years ago. A woman before that. Pregnant. Heard she had twins.'"

Annie sopped her plate with a piece of bread. "Let me tell you. I never seen my mother cross herself so fast. Speed crossing. If you'd a timed her, she'd a broke a record. So do I believe in guardian angels? d.a.m.n right I do."

"If this old woman had saved so many people how come no one knew who you were talking about?"

"Oh, they knew all right. But the old man said they was afraid of Ruthie. Claimed she'd taken as many lives as she'd saved. Why she saved me, I can't say. Alls I know is, I'm freakin' glad she did."

"Me too," Frank said. "Is that why you do the Mary business? The praying and all that?"

Spearing an onion ring, Annie said, "That's one reason. I been lucky all my life, you know? But it ain't luck. I call it that, but it ain't. It's providence. I believe someone's watchin' out for me. Someone who's got plans for me. Drives my mother crazy but I tell her, when the bullet with my name on it comes for me there ain't nothin' I can do to stop it. On the other hand, there's nothin' I can do to make that bullet come until it's ready. That's all outta my hands. Meanwhile, I'm grateful for each day I get."

Frank snapped her fingers. "I got it. You know who you look like?"

Rolling her eyes, Annie groaned. "Anne Bancroft."

"That's right."

"Pretty slow for a detective. I get people askin' for my autograph all the time. I give it to aem. I tell you, half a New York thinks Anne Bancroft's real name is Silvester."

"You're terrible."

"What? They go away happy, I get my fifteen minutes a fame, and everyone thinks Anne Bancroft's a nice lady. Who's hurt?"

The waitress cleared their plates and over dessert they swapped cop stories. When the waitress slid the bill folder between them Frank reached for it. She put her credit card inside and left the folder by her elbow.

"Give it here," Annie said, waggling her fingers.

"Nope. It's on me."

"Don't be ridiculous. Give me the bill."

"Uh-uh. Think how much money I'd be spending on a hotel. Least I can do is buy you dinner."

Annie protested, "You can't feed me every night."

"Why not?" Frank smiled. "Just accept it as a small token of my grat.i.tude and let it go at that, huh?"

"Some small token. That's a hundred-dollar bill."

Frank shrugged. "One night at the Seventeen. Believe me, it's worth it for the company."

"Stop with the compliments already. And that goes both ways, you know. The company being worth it."

Holding the door for Annie on their way out, Frank asked, "If you want company, why don't you rent one of your rooms out? You're sittin' on a gold mine there."

"Psh. I tried that. I don't want just any company. Besides, this way Ben and Lisa got a place to stay when they come to visit. Other times I let some of the guys crash there. There's a couple of aem live outta the city. It's nice for aem if it's real late or we been working back-to-backs. Oh, yeah, that reminds me, I'm having dinner at my mother's tomorrow. You should join us."

"That's nice, but with any luck tomorrow we'll be interviewing a suspect and eating at McDonald's."

Touching Frank's arm, Annie cautioned, "Don't get your hopes up too high."

"I know. Wishful thinking. And thanks for the invite but I'll pa.s.s."

"Suit yourself, but you're gonna miss my mother's cooking. She's making spaghetti with my cousin Bill's venison sausage. I'm tellin' you, cookie, it's to die for."

"I'm sure it is, but you're about all the company I can handle lately."

"Whaddaya mean?"

Frank shrugged. "I'm just enjoying all this down time. The surveillance is easy, I've been reading a lot, and it's nice to come back to your place and not have to do anything. No files to work on, no reports due. It's like for the first time in my life I'm starting to unwind. It's nice. And it's about all I can handle at one time. So I appreciate the offer but I think I'll order pizza and finish my book."

"Rent a movie if you want. There's a Blockbuster couple blocks away. I'll leave you my card."

"You know," Frank said, avoiding the cars parked along the sidewalk. "I feel rotten I gave you such a hard time that first day. You've been nothing but great to me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it."

Annie laughed. "You came on kinda strong. Then me workin' two homicides for two days straight. It's a miracle we're standin' here at all."

Frank ribbed, "Must be my guardian angel lookin' out for me, huh?"

Annie warned, "Don't you laugh, my friend. Don't you laugh."

CHAPTER 26.