While she sat staring in shock at the paper, another knock on the door almost made LuAnn jump out of her chair.
“LuAnn?”
She took a deep breath. “Charlie?”
“Who else?”
“Just a minute.” LuAnn jumped up, hastily ripped the news article out of the paper and stuffed it in her pocket. She slid the letter and the rest of the newspaper under the couch.
She unlocked the door and he entered the room and shrugged off his coat. “Stupid idea, like I’m going to be able to spot somebody out on those streets.” He slid a cigarette from its pack and lit up, thoughtfully staring out the window. “Still can’t shake the feeling that somebody was tailing us, though.”
“It could’ve just been somebody looking to rob us, Charlie. You got a lot of that up here, don’t you?”
He shook his head. “Crooks have gotten more daring lately, but if that was the case, they would’ve hit us and run. Grabbed your purse and disappeared. It’s not like they were going to pull a gun and stick us up in the middle of a million people. I had the sense whoever it was was tracking us for a while.” He turned to stare at her. “Nothing unusual happened to you on the way up, did it?”
LuAnn shook her head, staring back at him with wide eyes, afraid to speak.
“Nobody followed you up to New York that you know of, did they?”
“I didn’t see anybody, Charlie. I swear I didn’t.” LuAnn started to shake. “I’m scared.”
He put a big arm around her. “Hey, it’s okay. Probably just paranoid Charlie going off on nothing. But sometimes it pays to be paranoid. Look, how about we go do some more shopping? It’ll make you feel better.”
LuAnn nervously fingered the newspaper article in her pocket. Her heart seemed to be climbing up her throat, seeking a larger space in which to explode. However, when she looked up at him, her face was calm, bewitching. “You know what I really want to do?”
“What’s that? Name it and it’s done.”
“I want to get my hair done. And maybe my nails. They both look kinda crappy. And with the press conference going on across the whole country and all, I’d like to look good.”
“Damn, why didn’t I think of that? Well, let’s just look up the fanciest beauty parlor in the phone book—”
“There’s one in the lobby,” LuAnn said hurriedly. “I saw it coming in. They do hair and nails and feet, and facials, stuff like that. It looked real nice. Real nice.”
“Even better then.”
“Could you watch Lisa for me?”
“We can come down and hang out with you.”
“Charlie, I swear. Don’t you know nothing?”
“What? What’d I say?”
“Men don’t come down to the beauty parlor and watch the goings-on. That’s for us females to keep secret. If you knew how much trouble it takes to get us all pretty, it wouldn’t be nearly as special. But you got a job to do.”
“What’s that?”
“You can ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ when I get back and tell me how beautiful I look.”
Charlie grinned. “I think I can handle that one.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be. I might not be able to get in right away. There’s a bottle ready in the refrigerator for Lisa for when she gets hungry. She’s gonna want to play for a while and then you can put her down for a nap.”
“Take your time, I’ve got nothing else on the agenda. A beer and cable TV”—he went over and lifted Lisa out of the baby carriage—“and the company of this little lady, and I’m a happy man.”
LuAnn picked up her coat.
Charlie said, “What do you need that for?”
“I need to buy some personal things. There’s a drug store across the street.”
“You can just get them in the gift shop in the lobby.”
“If they’re anything like the prices at the last hotel, I’ll go across the street and save myself some money, thank you very much.”
“LuAnn, you’re one of the richest women in the world, you could buy the whole damned hotel if you wanted.”