NRoberts - G2 Black Rose - Black Rose

 “She’ll be planning my immediate demise if I don’t get this gift today, and have it FedExed tomorrow.”

 She picked up a doll, set it down again. “Then I assume your niece’s birthday is tomorrow, and you waited until the eleventh hour to rush out and find something for her.”

 He said nothing for a moment, then laid a hand on her shoulder so that she looked over, and up at him. “Rosalind, do you want me to die?”

 “I’m afraid I wouldn’t feel responsible. But we’ll find something, then you can get it wrapped up and shoot it off.”

 “Wrapped. God almighty, it has to be wrapped?”

 “Of course it has to be wrapped. And you have to buy a nice card, something pretty and age-appropriate. Hmm. I like this.” She tapped a huge box.

 “What is it?”

 “It’s a house-building toy. See, it has all these modular pieces so you can design and redesign your own doll house, with furnishings. It comes with dolls, and a little dog. Fun, and educational. You hit on two levels.”

 “Great. Good. Wonderful. I owe you my life.”

 “Aren’t you a little out of your milieu?” she asked when he took the box off the shelf. “You live right in the city. Plenty of shops right there.”

 “That’s the problem. Too many of them. And the malls? They’re like a labyrinth of retail hell. I have mall fear. So I thought, hey, Wal-Mart. At least everything’s all under one roof. I can get the kid taken care of and get . . . what the hell was it? Laundry soap. Yeah, I need laundry soap and something else, that I wrote down . . .” He dug in his pocket, pulled out a PDA. “Here.”

 “Well, I’ll let you get to it then. Don’t forget the wrapping paper, ribbon, a big bow, and a pretty card.”

 “Hold on, hold on.” With the stylus he added the other items. “Bow. You can just buy them ready-made and slap it on, right?”

 “That will do, yes. Good luck.”

 “No. Wait, wait.” He shoved the PDA back in his pocket, shifted the box. His green eyes seemed calmer now and focused on her. “I was going to get in touch with you anyway. Are you finished in here?”

 “Not quite.”

 “Good. Let me grab what I need, then I’ll meet you at the checkout. I’ll help you haul your load out to your car, then take you to lunch.”

 “It’s nearly four. A little late for lunch.”

 “Oh.” He looked absently at his watch to confirm the time. “I think time must warp in places like this so you could actually spend the rest of your natural life wandering aimlessly without realizing it. Anyway. A drink then. I’d really like to have a conversation about the project.”

 “All right. There’s a little place called Rosa’s right across the way. I’ll meet you there in a half hour.”

 BUT HE WASwaiting at the checkout. Patiently, from all appearances. Then insisted on helping her load her bags in her car. He took one look at what was already stacked in the back of her Durango and said, “Holy Mother of God.”

 “I don’t shop often, so when I do I make it count.”

 “I’ll say.”

 “There are less than three weeks left till Christmas.”

 “I’ll have to ask you to shut up.” He hefted the last bag inside. “My car’s that way.” He gestured vaguely toward their left. “I’ll meet you.”

 “Fine. Thanks for the help.”

 The way he wandered off made her think he wasn’t entirely sure just where he’d parked. She thought he should’ve plugged the location into that little personal data thingy he had in his pocket. The idea made her chuckle as she drove over to the restaurant.

 She didn’t mind a certain amount of absentmindedness. To her it simply indicated the person probably had a lot in his head, and it took a little longer to find just what he was after. She’d hadn’t hired him out of the blue, after all. She’d researched Mitchell Carnegie and had read or skimmed some of his books. He was good at what he did, he was local, and though he was pricey, he hadn’t balked—overmuch—about the prospect of researching and identifying a ghost.

 She parked, then walked into the lounge area. Her first thought was to order a glass of iced tea, or some coffee. Then she decided, the hell with that. She deserved a nice glass of wine after such a successful shopping expedition.

 While she waited for Mitch, she called the nursery on her cell phone to let them know she wouldn’t be back in, unless she was needed.

 “Everything’s fine here,” Hayley told her. “You must be buying out the stores.”

 “I did. Then I happened to run into Dr. Carnegie at Wal-Mart—”

 “Dr. Hottie? How come I never run into hunks at Wal-Mart?”

 “Your day will come, I’m sure. In any case, we’re going to have a drink here and discuss, I assume, our little project.”

 “Cool. You ought to spin it out over dinner, Roz.”

 “It’s not a date.” But she did pull out her lipstick and slide a little pale coral on her lips. “It’s an impromptu meeting. If anything comes up, you can give me a call. I should be heading home within the hour anyway.”

 “Don’t worry about a thing. And, hey, you’ve both got to eat sometime, somewhere, so why not—”

 “Here he comes now, so we’ll get started. I’ll fill everyone in later. Bye now.”

 Mitch slipped into the booth across from her. “This was handy, wasn’t it? What would you like?”

 She ordered a glass of wine, and he coffee, black. Then he flipped open the bar menu and added antipasto. “You’ve got to need some sustenance after a shopping safari like that. How’ve you been?”

 “Very well, thanks. How about you?”

 “Good, now that the book’s out of my hair.”

 “I never asked you what it was about.”

 “A history and study of Charles-Pierre Baudelaire.” He waited a beat, noted her questioning lift of brows. “Nineteenth-century poet. Wild man of Paris—druggie, very controversial, with a life full of drama. He was found guilty of blasphemy and obscenity, squandered his inheritance, translated Poe, wrote dark, intense poetry, and, long after his death from a sexually transmitted disease, is looked on by many to be the poet of modern civilization—and others as being one sick bastard.”

 She smiled. “And which camp do you pitch your tent in?”

 “He was brilliant, and twisted. And believe me, you don’t want to get me started, so I’ll just say he was a fascinating and frustrating subject to write about.”

 “Are you happy with the work you did?”

 “I am. Happier yet,” he said as their drinks were served, “not to be living with Baudelaire day and night.”

 “It’s like that, isn’t it, like living with a ghost.”

 “Nice segue.” He toasted her with his coffee. “Let me say, first, I appreciate your patience. I’d hoped to have this book wrapped up weeks ago, but one thing led to another.”

 “You warned me at the start you wouldn’t be available for some time.”

 “Hadn’t expected it to be quite this much time. And I’ve given quite a bit of thought to your situation. Hard not to after that experience last spring.”

 “It was a more personal introduction to the Harper Bride than I’d planned.”

 “You’ve said she’s been . . . subdued,” he decided, “since then.”

 “She still sings to the boys and to Lily. But none of us has seen her since that night. And to be frank, it hasn’t been patience so much as being swamped myself. Work, home, a wedding coming up, a new baby in the house. And after that night, it seemed like all of us needed a little break.”

 “I’d like to get started now, really started, if that works for you.”

 “I suppose it was fate that we ran into each other like this, because I’ve been thinking the same thing. What will you need?”

 “Everything you’ve got. Hard data, records, journals, letters, family stories. Nothing’s too obscure. I appreciate the family photos you had copied for me. It just helps me immerse, you could say, if I have photos, and letters or diaries written in the hands of the people I’m researching.”

 “No problem. I’ll be happy to load you up with more.”

 “Some of what I’ve managed so far—between bouts with Baudelaire—is what we’ll call a straight job. Starting to chart the basic family tree, getting a feel for the people and the line. Those are the first steps.”

 “And at the end of the day, something I’ll enjoy having.”

 “I wonder if there’s a place I could work in your house. I’d do the bulk in my apartment, but it might be helpful if I had some space on site. The house plays a vital part in the research, and the results.”

 “That wouldn’t be a problem.”

 “For the Amelia portion of the project, I’d like a list of names. Anyone who’s had any sort of contact with her I’ll need to interview.”

 “All right.”

 “And the written permission we talked about before, for me to access family records, birth, marriage, death certificates, that sort of thing.”

 “You’ll have it.”

 “And permission to use the research, and what I pull out of it, in a book.”

 She nodded. “I’d want manuscript approval.”

 He smiled at her, charmingly. “You won’t get it.”

 “Well, really—”

 “I’ll be happy to provide you with a copy, when and if, but you won’t have approval.” He picked up a short, thick breadstick from the wide glass on the table and offered it to her. “What I find, I find; what I write, I write. Andif I write a book, sell it, you owe me nothing for the work.”

 She leaned back, drew air deep. His casual good looks, that somewhat shaggy peat-moss brown hair, the charming smile, the ancient high-tops, all disguised a clever and stubborn man.

 It was a shame, she supposed, that she respected stubborn, clever men. “And if you don’t?”

 “We go back to the original terms we discussed at our first meeting. The first thirty hours are gratis, and after that it’s fifty an hour plus expenses. We can have a contract drawn up, spelling it all out.”

 “I think that would be wise.”

 When the appetizer was served, Roz declined a second glass of wine, absently selected an olive from the plate. “Won’t you need permission from anyone you interview as well, if you decide to publish?”

 “I’ll take care of that. I want to ask, why haven’t you done this before? You’ve lived in that house your whole life and never dug down to identify a ghost who lives there with you. And, let me add, even after my experience, it’s hard to believe that sentence just came out of my mouth.”

 “I don’t know exactly. Maybe I was too busy, or too used to her. But I’ve started to wonder if I wasn’t just, well, inoculated. The family never bothered about her. I can give you all sorts of details on my ancestors, strange little family anecdotes, odd bits of history, but when it came to her, nobody seemed to know anything, or care enough to find out. Myself included.”

 “Now you do.”

 “The more I thought about what I didn’t know, the more, yes, I wanted to find out. And after I saw her again, for myself, that night last June, I need to find out.”

 “You saw her when you were a child,” he prompted.

 “Yes. She would come into my room, sing her lullaby. I was never afraid of her. Then, as happens with every child who grows up at Harper House, I stopped seeing her when I was about twelve.”

 “But you saw her again.”

 There was something in his eyes that made her think he was wishing for his notebook or a tape recorder. That intensity, the absolute focus that she found unexpectedly sexy.

 “Yes. She came back when I was pregnant with each of my boys. But that was more of a sensation of her. As if she were close by, that she knew there was going to be another child in the house. There were other times, of course, but I imagine you want to talk about all that in a more formal setting.”

 “Not necessarily formal, but I’d like to tape the conversations we have about her. I’m going to start off with some basic groundwork.Amelia was the name Stella said she saw written on the window glass. I’ll check your family records for anyone named Amelia.”

 “I’ve already done that.” She lifted a shoulder. “After all, if it was going to be that simple, I thought I might as well wrap it up. I found no one with that name—birth, death, marriage, at least, not in any of the records I have.”

 “I’ll do another search, if it’s all the same to you.”

 “Suit yourself. I expect you’ll be thorough.”

 “Once I get started, Rosalind, I’m a bloodhound. You’ll be good and sick of me by the end of this.”

 “And I’m a moody, difficult woman, Mitchell. So I’ll say, same goes.”

 He grinned at her. “I’d forgotten just how beautiful you are.”

 “Really?”

 Now he laughed. Her tone had been so blandly polite. “It shows what a hold Baudelaire had on me. I don’t usually forget something like that. Then again, he didn’t have complimentary things to say about beauty.”

 “No? What did he say?”

 “ ‘With snow for flesh, with ice for heart, I sit on high, an unguessed sphinx begrudging acts that alter forms; I never laugh, I never weep.’ ”

 “What a sad man he must have been.”

 “Complicated,” Mitch said, “and inherently selfish. In any case, there’s nothing icy about you.”

 “Obviously, you haven’t talked with some of my suppliers.” Or, she thought, her ex-husband. “I’ll see about having that contract drawn up, and get you the written permissions you need. As far as work space, I’d think the library would work best for you. Whenever you need it, or want something, you can reach me at one of the numbers I’ve given you. I swear, we all have a hundred numbers these days. Failing that, you can speak with Harper, or David, with Stella or Hayley, for that matter.”

 “I’d like to set something up in the next few days.”

 “We’ll be ready. I really should be getting home. I appreciate the drink.”

 “My pleasure. I owe you a lot more for helping me out with my niece.”

 “I think you’re going to be a hero.”

 He laid some bills on the table, then rose to take her hand before she could slide out of the booth on her own. “Is anybody going to be home to help you haul in all that loot?”

 “I’ve hauled around more than that on my own, but yes, David will be there.”

 He released her hand, but walked her out to her car. “I’ll be in touch soon,” he said when he opened the car door for her.

 “I’ll look forward to it. You’ll have to let me know what you come up with for your sister for Christmas.”

 Pain covered his face. “Oh, hell, did you have to spoil it?”

 Laughing, she shut the door, then rolled down the window. “They have some gorgeous cashmere sweaters at Dillard’s. Any brother who sprang for one of those for Christmas would completely erase a forgotten birthday.”

 “Is that guaranteed? Like a female rule of law?”