One sight of him and I nearly swooned (I’m not kidding). Thank God loads of practice stopped me from doing that.
I walked into the office and tried to think of some lesson my father taught me about people’s motivations. My only conclusion was that Nightingale was telling me where his loyalties lie. If I had some wild plan of vengeance against Hector to put into motion, Nightingale was having no part in it. There were going to be no secrets and nothing behind closed doors. Hector was going to be involved and would hear what I had to say and I had no choice in the matter.
It took a good deal out of me but I just looked at Hector and slightly lifted my chin. At this, his eyes grew dark and if he could have curled his lip in disgust, I knew he would.
I had loads of practice at ignoring that kind of response too.
I shook Nightingale’s hand, he told me to call him Lee, I told him to call me Sadie then I sat in front of his desk and he sat behind it.
Then he’d asked what he could do for me, “Ms. Townsend”, even though I told him to call me Sadie.
My father would read a lot into that and I did too.
Lee was telling me this was a formal arrangement. Very formal.
I hated being called “Ms. Townsend” mainly because my father’s real name was “Tuttle’. It wasn’t a great name but it was real and didn’t sound like some stupid, made up name of a romance hero. But also because I never felt like “Ms. Townsend”. People had been calling me that since I was six (mostly servants, lackeys and henchmen).
I felt like I was Sadie. I had no idea who Sadie was but Sadie sounded, to me, like someone you’d want to know.
Ms. Townsend sounded like someone you wanted to avoid.
“I’d like to hire your agency,” I told Lee, trying to blank out the fact that Hector was still sitting silent on the side of Lee’s desk. He was looking at me, I saw him out of my peripheral vision but I also felt his eyes on me. This might sound stupid but it was true.
“Why do you need the services of a detective agency?” Lee asked.
“I don’t need the services of a detective agency. I need security. I need a bodyguard,” I answered.
The air in the room changed. From the minute I walked in it had been even less welcoming than in the reception area, mainly because Hector was there. Now it went weirdly… electric.
“Why do you need a bodyguard?” Lee asked.
“I’m not safe,” I responded.
“Why aren’t you safe?” Lee persevered.
Oh damn.
If it had just been Lee, I still would have had trouble explaining this. There was no way I could explain it with Hector there too. How did I say it without sounding like I thought I was the end all be all of beauty, grace and all things feminine?
I couldn’t exactly say, “Well, Lee, you know… when a crime lord goes down, unfortunately the crime doesn’t go away. Instead, there’s a war to see who will be the new king. For now, Ricky Balducci won that war. And Ricky Balducci is a lunatic. And now his three brothers and him are intent on acting out their version of a Shakespearean play by doing what they can to tear each other down in order to obtain the throne. Somehow, being the dead king’s princess, I’m caught up in this mess because Ricky isn’t the only Balducci brother who’s a lunatic. They’re all lunatics. And they’ve got it in their head that the one true king has me at his side and they’ll stop at nothing, nothing, to get me by their side. I have no family, I have no friends, I have no one but me to protect me against four insane brothers and I’m absolutely, utterly, completely terrified.”
Instead, I said, “I don’t know how to explain it…” This was true, as you could see, it was hard to explain. “I just don’t feel safe.”
“You’ll have to give me something more to go on, Ms. Townsend,” Lee said to me.
My hands curled into fists in my lap so tight, my nails dug into my palms rather painfully. This was the only reaction I showed to the possibility that this wasn’t going very well. I knew Lee couldn’t see my hands, what I didn’t know was that Hector could.
“I’ll double your fee.” As my father would say, if you meet with resistance, try throwing money at it first.
“Doubling my fee isn’t going to lighten my caseload,” Lee replied.
Oh my.
That was not good news.
Lee was opening a drawer; he sorted through it and took out a card.
“I’m not taking on any new clients right now. If this was an urgent situation, we’d consider it. Since it’s just a feeling, I’m sorry but I’ll have to refer you to Dick Anderson.”
He stood and rounded the desk. I stared at him again concentrating on not hyperventilating.
He couldn’t say no. He was the best in the business. Everyone knew about him and the Nightingale Men. They could keep me safe.