The Hinky Velvet Chair Read Online Free Page A

that he hadn’t responded to that last question.
Griffy still meant something to the old man. But what? “You have to cooperate
with our investigation.”
    “Who complained?”
    Clay stood tongue-tied, caught off-guard again.
    Virgil waved a hand. “I don’t need you and your flat-footed
friends clumping around in a delicate job.”
    He’s not willing to
talk about Griffy. In a sick way, that was a sign of hope.
    Virgil changed the subject. “Speaking of explanations owed,
that explanation you gave me for losing my brass bed sucked sour owl stool.
What really happened? I suppose you fell for some girl and gave her all the
money.”
    “I still have my money. You got yours.”
    “I don’t have my bed,” Virgil said. He looked up again and
Clay felt paralyzed, facing those snaky eyes.
    “The bed got crushed. It was, uh, special.”
    “What was so special about it?”
    And Clay told him. He hadn’t intended to. Randy’s story just
fluttered out of him on its own. “—Because his mistress turned him into an
incubus, and he spent two hundred years giving orgasms to women,” he finished.
A sinking feeling gripped Clay. Virgil could get him to betray himself or
anyone else. “The bed got crushed. The guy’s magical. He gets stuck in beds and
my partner, uh, gets him out.” It sounded so dumb when he said it out loud.
    His father snorted. “And you believe this fairy story.”
    “It’s true.”
    “You take the cake. There’s a master con man in this story
somewhere, but I’m not looking at him.” Virgil turned away as if the sight of
Clay made him sick. “Get out of here. I’m sure Griffy will be glad to talk to
you.”
    Sweating, Clay got out.
    Now to get Jewel organized.
    He found a corner on the back stairs and phoned her. “Did
you order breakfast?”
    “I’m at the beach.”
    “Whoa, what happened to the case?”
    “I’ll be in Wolfy Shekel’s in half an hour. Where are you?”
    “So you’ll bring Randy?”
    “No, I will not bring Randy.” She sounded guarded.
    “Why isn’t Randy coming?”
    “We had a fight. As a matter of fact, he’s stuck in my bed
back at my apartment.”
    “In your bed? Like when he was stuck in that brass bed for
two hundred years? And you left him there? That wasn’t nice.”
    She went off like a bomb. “Darnit, I needed the sleep! You said
so, yourself!”
    “I didn’t say you should trap him. I can’t believe you did
that. He must be freaking out, the poor schmuck.”
    “Since when do you care if I’m nice to Randy?”
    “I don’t. But we’re gonna need him.”
    “Randy is not a city employee.”
    “Three cases at once? This will be tough. He might be the
cover you need. He seems to know more about the Venus Machine than you do. Plus
the mind-reading-while-boning-the-suspect thing. He’s a person, Jewel. Treat
him like one.”
    In a small voice she said, “He might not be stuck. He’s done
this before. Disappeared on me and then turned up, running around loose in my
apartment. Buying stuff on my Amazon account.” Now she sounded worried.
    Clay tsked. “You can’t ignore his humanity.”
    “I guess you’re right. I’ll call you when I’m done.”

Chapter Four

    Jewel had been ready to head home when Clay called, but, at
the thought of excavating Randy from bed, she took her shorts off again and
plunged into the lake for another ten minutes.
    Her shoulder cut through the waves against the slap and
heave of the surf. Around her, gulls bobbed, tossed and struggling with motion,
but she slid like a sea lion, moving with the water, never against it, thrilled
by the incalculable power of the lake and yet comfortable in its arms.
    Then she turned onto her back, resting. The water was
bracing-cold, the sky pale blue. Far overhead, a white egret oared its way
slowly along the lakefront on a five-foot wingspan. What was that like? To fly
fearlessly?
    She tried to imagine it. Suppose the water was air. Pretend
the waves were wind.
    She filled her