Page 131 of Random in Death

“Maybe not. Kiki—”

“Do you know what he did? The totally richest guy? We get a private showing.” She grinned again, but like Andrea, tears sparkled in her eyes. “He made it so we can all go to see Return. The doctor said tomorrow because I have to rest and all today. Plus, it has to be in the morning, like ten o’clock before the theater even opens, because they’re mostly sold out and all that this week.”

“It’s really solid of him,” Presley said. “He doesn’t even know us.”

“It’s what he does.” Eve gave up, picked up the pizza. After one bite she decided Kiki hadn’t exaggerated her mother’s talents by much.

“This is amazing.” Taking Eve’s cue, Peabody ate.

“Told ya. Anyway, he didn’t have to do something so nice. I sort of remember him from last night. Because he’s got that voice and that face. I mean, yum-yum.”

“Kiki!” But Andrea laughed as she said it.

“True is true.” Lola lifted her shoulders. “Add yum three.”

“It means a lot, to all of us.” Connie ladled sauce onto a third round of dough.

“I’ll let him know. Kiki—”

“So how come you—”

“Kiki.” Connie cut her off. “Lieutenant Dallas and Detective Peabody have a job to do. A very serious job. And it isn’t answering your questions.”

With the warning, she set the second pizza on the table, then stroked a hand over her daughter’s hair.

“Sorry.”

“No problem. We’re glad you’ve recovered, and because you have, because you’re all here, we’d like to go over what happened. What you remember. Take us through it again.”

Kiki grabbed another slice.

“Okay, well, after we got in—and that took a while even though we had tickets—and we got our vid food, we went in. They had previews going, and we started down to our seats. Then it felt like somebody stabbed me.” She rubbed a hand on her arm. “I’d kind of banged up my arm trying a change-up on a loop. Fail!”

But she laughed as she ate.

“I didn’t think it was that bad, and they fixed that up at the hospital. Con-TU-sion.” She rolled her eyes. “But when he stuck me with the needle, it practically exploded. It really hurt, and I honest to God thought somebody stabbed me. I was so pissed. I know I swung around. I was going to punch that asshole.”

“Ignoring the language rules only lasts so long,” Connie warned.

“It should be at least twenty-four hours. I think I screamed.”

“You did.” Lola nodded. “Like split the ears open. And you kept screaming.”

“I thought somebody stuck a knife in my arm, so screaming’s required. And he sort of stumbled back, all surprised and whatever.”

“You saw his eyes.”

“Giant WTF eyes.” She mimed them.

“Was his mouth open like that, too?”

“I—I guess, yeah. Yeah, now that you say it. Mom said a police artist’s coming in a while, but I don’t know if I can make a real picture.”

“That’s Detective Yancy’s job.”

“I guess. He started shoving and running. I was going to run after him and punch him, but it was too crowded. And I had on my favorite jacket, and I was trying to take it off, looking down at the sleeve because I thought there’d be blood all over it. But there wasn’t. And everyone was yelling, and I’d spilled my popcorn and fizzy.”

“The light came on,” Presley added. “And everybody was yelling, and they were going to kick us out for, you know, creating a disturbance.”