Delia came over to him and gave him a quick kiss, nothing too lingering, since he knew she was strapped for time.And honestly, he wouldn’t have wanted to get too hot and heavy here anyway, not when there wasn’t a stick of furniture in the place and the air seemed just slightly stale from the house being closed up for so long.
He preferred to wait for better things.
“See you at six,” he said.
A swim had helped to clear his head a little, and he’d showered afterward to get the chlorine off and prep for the meeting at Delia’s house.Not that he expected anything to happen between Delia and him, not when Pru would be there as well, but Caleb supposed that his mother’s impressing on him the need to look presentable at all times was still buried deeply enough in his psyche that he really couldn’t do anything else.
When he pulled into the driveway, he noted that Pru’s little green Mini Cooper was parked at the curb already.Since he was right on time, he guessed she must have been eager to get over to the house and share her findings.
If she was that Johnny on the spot, Caleb had a feeling that what she’d wanted to share couldn’t wait.
Steeling himself for whatever might lie ahead, he went to the front door and rang the bell.It was way too early in their relationship for Delia to have given him a key, but he kind of wished he had one anyway.He didn’t like things being so formal between the two of them.
She answered the door in skinny jeans and a loose, sleeveless blouse, so he knew she’d given herself enough time to change before their “meeting” started.Also, while he knew she had a fairly extensive wardrobe and was always the height of professionalism when she was at work, he guessed she wasn’t really a fan of those clothes, since she always did her best to get out of them almost as soon as she could once she was off the clock.
Once a punk rock chick, always a punk rock chick, he supposed.
“Hey, Caleb,” she said, and stepped out of the way to allow him inside.
The foyer was just barely visible from the living room, but that didn’t stop him from bending down to place a quick kiss on her lips.It wasn’t as if Delia was trying to hide her relationship from Pru or anyone else, so he didn’t see the need to change the way they usually greeted one another.
“Hope I didn’t miss anything,” he said, and Delia smiled.
“No, although Pru’s champing at the bit to share what she’s found out.Let’s go sit down — I already have some munchies and a pitcher of iced tea ready to go.”
Caleb would have preferred a pitcher of beer or maybe margaritas, although he also understood that it probably wasn’t a good idea to muddle his wits too much if they had serious topics they needed to discuss.He followed Delia into the living room, where Prudence Nelson was sitting in one of the club chairs.Her hair was still the same dark emerald green it had been during their adventures in Laughlin a few weeks earlier, which surprised him a little.From what he’d been able to tell, she tended to change it with almost bewildering frequency.
Maybe her hairstylist had told her to cool her jets for a while to avoid damaging her shoulder-length locks beyond repair.
“Hi, Pru,” he said as he settled himself on the sofa.
“Hi, Caleb,” she responded.She had a glass of iced tea and a plate of munchies — stuff he thought was from Trader Joe’s, mini quiches and a section of a small pepperoni pizza — sitting on the coffee table in front of her.“Glad you could make it.”
Something in her tone almost made it sound as if they’d been waiting on him to get started.In a way, he supposed that was true…although only because Pru had been early, and not because he was running late or anything.
“Well, my calendar had an opening,” he quipped.
Delia grinned, although Pru only shook her head.
Caleb went ahead and got himself some iced tea and a few snacks as Delia sat down next to him on the couch.He wondered if she’d put something together that was a little more substantial than just chips or cheese and crackers because she intended this to substitute for their dinner, and thought they’d probably still need to order some takeout after they were done talking with Prudence.
“Okay, so Delia asked me to look into the Angel’s Dream Wedding Chapel,” she said, obviously deciding there had been enough chitchat and now it was time to get down to business.“And almost at once, I found some kind of sketchy stuff.”
“Such as?”Caleb asked, then drank some iced tea.
Next to him, Delia sat up a little straighter, her expression immediately concerned.“What, is it owned by the Mob or something?”
Pru shot her a crooked smile.In contrast to the green hair, she had dark eyes and pale skin, and was pretty enough in a sort of French street urchin sort of way.“No, not as far as I’ve been able to tell.But it was purchased recently by a shell company that looks like it’s the same outfit that has been buying a bunch of other wedding chapels across Las Vegas.”
Delia was frowning, although that didn’t stop her from putting a few morsels on one of the plates she’d stacked on the coffee table.“Why would anyone want to buy a bunch of Vegas wedding chapels?”
“I have a theory.”Pru set down her iced tea and then reached for the satchel she had sitting on the floor next to the club chair she currently occupied.Caleb knew she carried her laptop and various other odds and ends in the thing — and that she never seemed to leave the house without it — but this time, rather than her computer, she pulled out a large paper map of Las Vegas, one that had circles around what he assumed were the properties in question, along with a series of lines connecting them.
Lines whose pattern looked ominously familiar.
Delia asked the question first.“Are those…?”
“Yep,” Pru responded.“Ley lines.We already knew that they crisscross the city, and it turns out all the recently purchased chapels are arranged along them…except for Angel’s Dream.That place sits right where two of the lines intersect.”
