So much for her stunning sexual powers.
"I could help you," she said quickly. "I'll check out the back of the house in the vicinity of the ladies' room. It's on the opposite side of the club."
"Like hell you will. You will stay right here and wait for me."
"We're supposed to be partners in this thing, if you will recall."
"No one said anything about a partnership."
"Hey, you wouldn't even be here tonight if I hadn't helped you."
"Elly, be reasonable," he said in a very low voice. "This is a casino. That means there's a lot of security everywhere, even if it isn't obvious. You don't know the first thing about evading cameras and guards."
"And you do, I suppose?" she demanded, aware that she was starting to sound belligerent.
"Before I got this Guild boss gig, I spent years working undercover, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, right. I keep forgetting that you used to be an enforcer."
"Investigator."
"Whatever. Okay, okay, go do your thing." She was about to slide into the booth, but the thought of her damp underwear made her pause. "I still need to go to the ladies' room, though, even if you won't let me do any spying."
"Run along." He gave her a pat on her derriere that was both affectionate and possessive. "Probably not a good idea to sit down until your panties dry out, anyway."
He was gone, melting into the shadows and the crowd before she could take aim at his shin with the toe of her high-heeled shoe.
*****
A SHORT TIME LATER SHE EMERGED FROM AN ORNATELY carved and gilded green stall inside the small palace labeled Ladies. She washed her hands at one of the black-and-gold sinks and checked her appearance in the massive, elaborately framed mirror.
Her cheeks were still a little flushed, and she had to make some adjustments to her hair, but otherwise she did not look too much the worse for wear, she decided. Not at all like a woman who had just been making out like a hormone-crazed teenager on the dance floor.
She walked back out of the restroom into the elegantly furnished hall and started to turn toward the opening that would take her back into the main room of the club.
The swinging doors marked Employees Only at the opposite end of the hall caught her eye. She looked at the ceiling and saw no sign of a camera. Doesn't mean there isn't one around somewhere, she thought. Cooper was right, this was a casino, and in a casino someone was always watching.
Still, what harm could there be in just walking along the hall toward the swinging doors? If anyone questioned her, she could always pretend to be a little inebriated and say that she had gotten turned around coming out of the restroom.
She started forward, tipping her chin down and angling it to the side. If there was a camera somewhere, hopefully it would only catch the crown of her head. She pretended to rummage around in her small, glittery evening bag as though searching for a lipstick.
The doors opened abruptly just as she arrived in front of them. She had to step back quickly to avoid getting run down by a man dressed in the green-and-black livery worn by the male cocktail waiters.
"Excuse me, ma'am," the man said, letting the doors swing shut behind him. "Didn't see you. Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for the drinking fountain." She gave him her best high-rez smile. "Someone told me it was just past the ladies' room."
"Other direction. I'll show you."
"Thanks."
She kept her smile firmly in place as she allowed the waiter to guide her toward the black-and-green fountain at the opposite end of the hall. But it wasn't easy to maintain the facade of the happy, slightly drunk guest. Her heart was pounding.
That brief view of what Cooper had called the back of the house had been a revelation. She had felt as though she were standing on an elaborately decorated stage set, gazing into the wings behind the velvet curtains. The swinging doors were gates that divided the fantasy realm of the club from the real world on the other side.
The walls on the other side of the doors were not covered in gleaming black and amber tiles. Instead, they were painted drab beige. There was no carpet on the floor back there, and the lighting was the bright, cold kind that came from fluo-rez tubes installed in the ceiling.
In those few seconds she had glimpsed a number of people garbed in the various uniforms of their jobs- janitors, restaurant staff, croupiers, waiters-all moving about in a busy, purposeful manner.
She had noticed something else, too, something she was pretty sure would interest Cooper.
Harmony Drew, girl detective, eat your heart out.
Chapter 18
SHE WAS SIPPING HER NEW EMERALD GHOST WHEN Cooper finally reappeared.
"It's about time you got back," she said when he slid into the booth beside her. "I was starting to think that something had gone wrong on your little tour of the back of the house."
"Nothing went wrong. I had to borrow a few things, and then I had to return them. Took a little more time than I had planned." He looked at the magnificent cocktail in front of her. "I see you ordered another one of those froufrou drinks."
"Actually, this is my third. I had to do something. The waiter was starting to feel sorry for me. He thought my date for the evening had ditched me."
"Yeah? What did you tell him?"
"That you'd had too much to drink, started feeling ill, and had gone to the men's room to throw up."
"A colorful story."
"I thought so." She jiggled the swizzle stick in the Emerald Ghost. "What things did you borrow and return?"
"A janitor's uniform and set of keys."
"Where did you get the clothes and the keys?"
"Out of a janitorial closet, where else?" he said.
She choked on a swallow of the Emerald Ghost and hastily patted her mouth with a napkin. "You stole a janitor's uniform and keys?"
"No," he said patiently. "I told you, I borrowed them."
"Good grief, Cooper, what if security had caught you? You could have been arrested."
"I wasn't." He patted one of the pockets of his jacket. "Got lucky and came across a little photocopied map of the club attached to one of the janitorial carts. Looks like the janitor used it to keep track of the rooms he'd cleaned."
"What are you going to do with it?" she asked, seriously alarmed now.
"I don't know yet. But it's always nice to have a good map."
A deep suspicion unfurled inside her. "You had fun, didn't you?"
"Fun?"
She took the swizzle stick out of the glass and aimed it at him. "I can tell you enjoyed yourself slipping around the back of the house, stealing stuff. You've got a real adrenaline buzz going, Cooper Boone."
His mouth curved faintly. "You can tell that, huh?"
"Yes, I can." She took another swallow of her drink. "What if I told you that three guys tried to hit on me while you were out playing detective?"
"Point 'em out to me, and I'll fry their brains."
"Hah. I don't believe that for a second. You only conduct duels when there's Guild business involved, remember?"
"We're back to the duel thing?"
"Sorry. Couldn't help it. Didn't mean to bring up that subject, honest." She examined her drink a little more closely. "You know, these things may be a bit sneaky. They taste good going down, but I seem to have become rather chatty in the past few minutes."
He looked amused. "I think it's time we went home. Been a long night."
"Yes, it has, hasn't it? Can't waste this, though. It was a very expensive drink." She picked up the glass and downed the last of the Emerald Ghost. When she was finished she smiled brightly at Cooper. "We can go now."
He helped her out of the booth and steered her toward the green waterfall. "I do believe that this is the first time I've ever seen you tipsy."
"Probably because I always had to be very careful about that kind of thing back in Aurora Springs."