relief anyway.
âI canât believe this. You must know who I am.â
âWell, Iâm sorry,â Suzy protested, âbut what am I supposed to beâPsychic Suzy, Mind Reader Extraordinaire? Look, we could do it with charades if you want. You start with your name. First word, how many syllables? Hang on, somebodyâs comingâ¦â
At the sound of approaching footsteps she swiveled around. The next moment a bright flashlight shined directly into her eyes. Dazzled and blinking, Suzy held up one hand to shield herself from the light.
And a stunned male voice said, âI donât believe it. Jesus! â
This situation was fast becoming too weird for words. Suzy felt her heart begin to flap like a parrot in a cage. She might be blinded by the flashlight, but she recognized that voice at once.
âHarry?â Shock made her babble. âHeavens, of all the gardens in all the world you had to walk into this one. Harry, I havenât the faintest idea what youâre doing here, but youâre interrupting a really important game of charades. You can be on my team, OK?â
This had to be some kind of elaborate setup, Suzy decided. A ploy to meet her again. Unlessâ¦and bearing in mind that he was, after all, a policemanâ¦
âHang on, is this an undercover operation?â Suzy swung back to face the girl. âDo you work with Harry?â She smiled. âOr are you an international drug smuggler?â
Harry held up a phone.
âIâve been waiting for you to come back to the car.â He was addressing the girl, Suzy realized. âHe just called a couple of minutes ago. Itâs time to go in.â
Going in, that definitely had an undercover ring to it. Maybe the girl was a fellow officer after all.
Next to her, Suzy heard the girl take a deep breath.
âRight.â She turned to face Suzy. âIâm Lucille.â
âWhat?â Suzy mentally ran through the possibilities, charade-wise. Loo. Seal. Well, that would have been dead easy.
âLucille Amory.â
Suzy gazed blankly at her. It was clearly meant to mean something, but she couldnât for the life of her imagine what.
âIâm sorry, Iâm usually terrific at names. Could youâ¦?â
âYour sister,â Lucille said awkwardly.
Suzy laughed. âWhat?â
Her sisterâs name was Julia, for heavenâs sake.
Harry, clearing his throat, said, âI think maybe we should go in.â
Chapter 4
It wasnât until Suzy was standing aside to allow Lucille through the French windows ahead of her that she realized where the clicking had been coming from. Hundreds of tiny beads, threaded among the dozens of plaits in her hair, made contact with one another every time the girl moved her head.
Lucilleâs skin was the color of Tasterâs Choice made with double cream. Her eyes were chestnut brown. She looked nervous but stunning, like a young model making her debut on the catwalk.
âThis is a joke, right?â Suzy glanced from Lucille to Harry and back again. âDid Jaz set this up?â Far-fetched, admittedly, but Jaz may have thought they could do with a practical joke to lighten the mood.
But if he had, wouldnât Lucille be screaming with laughter by now instead of trembling uncontrollably and looking as if sheâd quite like to burst into tears?
Sheâs got eyelashes like Bambi , thought Suzy. Now how fair is that?
The door was flung open, and Julia appeared. Her gaze shifted from Suzyâs legs to Harry to Lucille. âWho are these people?â
Glancing down, Suzy remembered that she had one bare leg and one stockinged one. When she moved, she felt the redundant suspender flapping attractively against the back of her thigh.
âThis is Lucille. Our sister, apparently. Technically, sheâs a half sister. And all this time we thought darling Daddy was such a saint. Oh well, good for him. Thatâs