“Zack, cut it out!” I pulled away and my witch's hat rolled to the floor. When I stooped for it I bumped heads with someone in black: Aaron, coming up the steps right behind us. He returned the hat with a flourish and a barely suppressed laugh.
“Cradle-robbing, Mrs. Robinson?”
I snatched it from him and looked around for Zack, but he had fled. Good, let him go cool off.
“Why didn't you tell me your Web wizard was nuts?”
“Didn't know he was. Must be your black magic working, Wicked Witch. You gonna turn him into a frog? No wait, that comes before the kiss.”
“Oh, shut up. Did Corinne find you?”
“No. You saw her?”
“In the ladies’ room. Aaron, I think she's drinking too much.”
“That's funny. I've been fetching her Perrier all night.”
“Well, it wasn't Perrier she was chucking up. Do you want to go look for her?”
“No,” he said, as we came out onto the pier. He stopped and faced me, and the party guests milling around us seemed to disappear. “No, I want to stay right here and gaze at the city lights and say romantic things to you. For instance, I've noticed that you walk in beauty like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies. Plus, as a bonus, all that's best of dark and bright meet in your aspect and your eyes. I admit you're not quite as dark as Lord Byron's girlfriend must have been, but you know what I mean.”
I sagged against the wooden railing and took a deep breath of the damp night air. Elizabeth had insisted that the rain would hold off tonight, and she was right. Maybe she cut a deal with Mother Nature. Far out on Elliott Bay, a ferry was lit up like a birthday cake against the black mirror of the water. Aaron and I had begun our spat on a ferry ride, and continued it back at my houseboat, with encores on the telephone after that. But I never fought with the men I dated, never. What was going on?
“Aaron, I'm working tonight. And besides …”
“Besides what?”
“I'm just not sure. About the romantic part.” I noticed I was kneading the brim of the witch's hat in my hands, round and round, and made myself stop. “Aaron, I like you a lot, I care about you, but we keep arguing.”
“Then let's not, Stretch. Let's do this instead.”
He'd been moving closer as he spoke and now he kissed me, one brief kiss and another, and then another, longer this time. He didn't touch me at all except with his lips, warm on mine. He was right, I was the Wicked Witch: melting, melting …
Then several things happened at once, none of them pleasant. A scream. A splash. A shout of alarm. “Somebody's in the water!”
People surged toward the railing, roughly jostling me and Aaron as we peered downwards. The green-black water of the harbor was dappled with light and dotted with debris: cigarette butts, a paper coffee cup, chunks of sodden driftwood. And one wavering luminous shape, trailing strands of fair hair and edges of pallid cloth that rippled just below the surface, slowly sinking and rising. Two ghostly arms spread wide, the pale fingers parted as if to conjure something up from the depths.
Then the man who made the splash diving init was Donald, the security guard, I recognized his crew cutreached the body, hooked an elbow neatly under the chin, and towed it to a wooden ladder that rose up along a piling. A cacophony of shocked, excited voices filled the night, and people fell over each other in their haste to help him hoist his dripping burden to the pier.
I stepped back from the melee and called 911.
A Dell Book
Published by
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New York, New York 10036
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2002 by Deborah Wessell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-49284-5
January 2002
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Copyright