He had a good brain, one that picked up on and filed away details.
It was one of the skills that made him such a strong writer. Oh, she hated to admit that one. She hoped her tongue would fall out before she spoke those words to him.
But he had such talent.
Hed chosen that talent over her, and that still hurt. But if he could help her find the key, she would have to put that hurt away. At least temporarily.
She could always kick his ass later.
Mollified, she ate some more pizza. Tomorrow she would get a fresh start. She had the whole day, the whole week, the whole month to do whatever she felt needed to be done. Thered be no need to set the alarm, dress for work.
She could spend the whole day in her pajamas if she wanted to, digging into her research, outlining a plan, surfing the Net for more data.
She would contactZoe and Malory and set up another summit meeting. They worked well together.
Maybe theyd start to work on the building. Physical labor could spark mental acuity. The first key had been hidden, in a manner of speaking, in the building they were buying. Of course, Malory had had to paint the key into existence before she could retrieve it from the painting.
Maybe the second, or at least the link to the second, was in the house as well.
In any case, it was a plan. Something solid to get her teeth into.
She shoved the pizza aside and rose to phone Malory first. With plans to meet for a full days painting set, she phonedZoe .
“Hey. Its Dana. Just got off the phone with Mal. Were going to start the great transformation at the house tomorrow. Nine oclock. Malory voted for eight, but theres no way in hell Im getting up that early when Im not drawing an actual paycheck.”
“Nines fine. Dana.” Her voice dropped to a hissing whisper. “Bradleys here.”
“Oh. Okay, Ill let you go, then. See—”
“No, no. What am I supposed to do with him?”
“Gee,Zoe , I dont know. What do you want to do with him?”
“Nothing.” Her voice went up a notch before lowering again. “I dont know how this happened. Hes out in the living room playing video baseball with Simon, in a suit.”
“Simons wearing a suit?” Dana tucked her tongue in her cheek. “Boy,thingsre pretty formal at your house.”
“Stop it.” But she laughed a little. “Hes wearing a suit. Bradley. He came to the door with a stepladder, and before I knew—”
“With a what? What for? To clean out your gutters? That was not a euphemism, by the way. But, come to think of it, itd be a pretty good one.”
“He gave it—the stepladder—to me—to us—” she corrected quickly. “For the painting and stuff. He thought we could use it.”
“That was nice of him. Hes a nice guy.”
“Thats not the point! What am I supposed to do with this chicken?”
“Brad brought you a chicken?”
“No.” There was helpless, hooting laughter over the line. “Why would anyone bring me a chicken?”
“I was just wondering the same thing.”
“I have chicken breasts defrosted, for dinner. What am I going to do with them now?”
“Id try cooking them. Jeez,Zoe , relax. Its just Brad. Throw the chicken in a pan, rustle up some rice or potatoes, whatever, add something green and toss it on a plate. Hes not fussy.”
“Dont tell me hes not fussy.” She went back to the hissing whisper. “We dont do cordon bleu in this house. I dont even know for sure what cordon bleu means. Hes wearing anAudemarsPiguet . Do you think I dont know what anAudemarsPiguet is?”