Then he heard the front door open.

CHAPTER 58

Dix looked over Pallack’s desk, prayed he’d gotten everything back in the right order, and locked the drawer again. Pallack would never know—but what if Pallack or Charlotte went into the living room and wondered why their gorgeous view was gone?

He heard the front door close, heard their voices and their footsteps. Dix looked at the long draperies on the far end of the study, a cliché, but there wasn’t any other good hiding place he could see. He quickly moved across the study and slipped in behind the thick dark green brocade curtains that dragged to the floor. There was a chair in front of the drapes. Hopefully that would be enough. He made a small opening in the seam of the drapes and looked out onto the study. The Pallacks walked nearly to the study doorway and stopped.

Pallack said, his voice irritated, “Damned alarm system went off again, third time this month.”

Charlotte’s voice sounded tired, on edge. “The neighbors have probably already called.”

Pallack grunted. “It just pisses me off. Could you believe the talk about Barbara being too far to the left?”

Charlotte’s voice sounded indifferent. “They might be right. I’m surprised you can actually remember anything anyone said tonight. Thank God you got us out of there. I thought I was going to scream if I had to listen to any more of that claptrap. Thomas, what are we going to do?”

Dix heard annoyance in Pallack’s voice. “No need to get hysterical. It’s done, there are no more loose ends. Meissen is dead and we have the journals. It’s over. Once Makepeace leaves town, we can forget about everything. Give me a minute to call Berenger Security, find out why the hell the security’s out.”

“But they know!”

“Those ridiculous FBI agents? Julia Ransom? Who cares? Their beliefs will get them exactly nowhere.”

Dix heard Pallack’s heavy footsteps, watched him step into the room and walk across the carpet to his desk phone.

Charlotte followed him in, but not all the way to Pallack’s desk. She said in a weary voice, “I certainly hope you’re right about the FBI. But we can’t stop worrying about Makepeace— he’s out of control, you know that. When he brought you the journals earlier, all he could talk about was killing Julia.”

Dix saw Pallack shrug. “It doesn’t matter. Julia’s not important. If Makepeace kills her, it’s on his own dime, not ours. That’s what I told him. Go to bed, Charlotte. I’ll be up soon.”

He heard Charlotte’s heels lightly tapping the wooden hallway, then muffled by the thick Persian runner on the stairs.

Pallack sat down behind his desk and pulled the phone close. Dix listened to him report the alarm failure to Berenger Security, nasty-bitch the individual on the other end of the line, and hang up. Then he booted up the computer, began to hum as he typed.

What was he typing at midnight? The phone rang. Pallack said, “Yes?”

Pallack listened for some time, said finally, “I don’t care if she is staying at the Sherlock house, there’s no reason to go after her now. Dammit, you shouldn’t be calling me here. A public phone? Still—look, now that I have August’s journals, our business is at an end. You should leave San Francisco as soon as possible.

“Dammit, Julia Ransom isn’t important. I don’t want to have to deal with any fallout from that. No, I don’t want to see you tonight.”

Pallack’s fingers tapped impatiently on the desktop as he listened.

“You’ve lost perspective, Xavier. Listen to me, go to Costa Rica, lie on the beach. Enjoy your money. It’s over, do you hear me?” Pallack jerked the phone away. Dix supposed he’d been hung up on. Pallack slowly put down the phone. Dix saw him stare at it, shaking his head.

Through the slit in the drapes, Dix saw Charlotte walk back into the study, wearing a nightshirt that read across the front I Only Swing Left. The shirt ended at the top of her thighs. Those weren’t Christie’s legs, not the same shape at all. “Thomas, was that David?”

Pallack said irritably, “No, it wasn’t David.”

“I do wish he’d call. It’s been over two days now.”

“Yes, I’m worried now as well. Maybe we should hire someone to look for him.” Pallack struck his fist on his desktop. “If only I could convince that psycho to simply leave San Francisco. But he’s fixated on Julia. Makepeace just called and wanted to meet to discuss it again, but I said no.”

She started wringing her hands, pacing back and forth in front of his desk. “He won’t stop, you know he won’t. I don’t think he can.”