Page 52 of Fire Dancer
I hated her already, and I was pretty sure Pippa did too.
Pippa gave herself a little shake. “No. Sorry. I guess I was expecting Stacy.”
“Mm,” the woman said, conveying no meaning at all.
I did a double take. Stacy? The Stacy I’d been following?
Pippa didn’t exactly demand an explanation, but her posture sure did.
“She couldn’t make it today,” the woman said with a sharp look.
Pippa considered for a long minute, then let out her own cryptic, “Mm.” She turned back to the workshop. “Just a second, please.”
The few times I’d been in the shop, Pippa had practically jumped to help customers. Now, she took her sweet time turning off the oven and checking the annealer settings.
Click, click, click.The customer tapped her long nails on the glass counter.
I spotted a big beige SUV with tinted windows parked outside. Stacy’s ride.
Every muscle in my body coiled.
I turned away before the glance became a stare and busied myself tidying Pippa’s workbench, though my ears remained perked.
I sniffed the air, but the fan was blowing the woman’s scent away from, not toward me.
Click, click, click.
Pippa disappeared into the back then emerged with a huge box. When she thumped it on the counter, lots of smallsomethingsclinked. Pippa opened the box and started riffling through it, counting out loud.
“Two…four…six…eight…”
I couldn’t see the contents. Lots of small glass items was my guess.
Small glass items headed for TTC Limited — one of many shell companies in a long, dirty chain my gut saw leading to Victor Jananovich, though I had no evidence to prove that.
Yet.
Click, click, click.
“Twenty-two…twenty-four…”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” the woman snipped.
Pippa kept going, counting silently, then pulled out a sheet of paper. “Sign here, please.”
The woman pinched the pen between her claws — er, long fingernails — and scribbled away with an annoyed air.
I looked at the box, then at the SUV. A golden opportunity, so I jumped.
“Can I carry that for you?” I offered.
The woman’s feral eyes traveled over my body and lit up.
I plucked the sweaty fabric of my white T-shirt from my chest.
“Yes, please,” she purred with a lick of her too-red lips.
Pippa shot me a sharp look.