Bleeding Hearts. Lindy Cameron
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for life.
Kit pushed on through into the bar and surveyed the crowd. A woman she'd never seen before was playing the piano, half the booths were occupied, about 15 women were crowded around the main pool table and two of her best mates were deep in conversation across the bar.
Kit slid onto the bar stool beside Del Fielding, leant her head on her friend's shoulder to say hello and nodded to Angie, who was showing off a lovely two-months-in-the-South-Pacific tan and a rainbow-coloured T-shirt that read: I love with gay abandon.
"Well, if it isn't the dyke dick," Angie remarked. "Have you been out sleuthing?"
"That's charming," Kit said. "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a dick."
"She's right Angie, that's not very nice. Don't call her names."
Kit sat up and stared at Del. Yes, it was her. The same tall, handsome, grey-haired woman she'd had coffee with that morning. "What's with you? Since when do you stick up for me, in this company?"
"I'm not sticking up for you, but there is someone here who might not like to hear things like that about you," Del said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
"I don't like to hear things like that about me. Who the hell else would care? And why would you worry that they did?" Kit asked suspiciously.
"There's someone playing pool, now, who's been waiting for hours to see you," Del said.
"Who?" Kit queried swivelling on her stool so she could see the pool room. "What? Rabbit wants to see me?"
"Don't be silly, why would Rabbit want to see you?" Angie laughed.
"Well who?" Kit asked, and then caught sight of the who that Rabbit MacArthur was playing with. "Oh, my, God! What is she doing here?" she demanded. "Del?"
"Hey, it's not my fault. Besides she's having a great time."
"I bet she is!" Kit exclaimed. She slid off her stool and, with her hands on her hips, approached the woman who for some strange reason was wearing a huge but official Spangles T-shirt over her green twinset, pearls and tartan trousers.
The crowd around the table took a collective step back as the 58-year-old mother of two very grown-up children, used her pool cue to wave hello and exclaim, at the top of her voice, "at last!"
"Mum, what are you doing here?" Kit asked.
"Playing pool darling. And call me Lil."
"Why?"
"I don't want everyone to know I'm your mother," Lillian replied, as if she was stating the very-bloody-obvious.
I don't either, Kit thought. "Why not?" she asked.
"Sometimes I like to be myself."
"But you've never been Lil," Kit laughed.
"Well I am tonight. Rabbit, Booty and Sal have been teaching me how to play pool. Your father never taught me how to play. You never taught me how to play. So I'm making the most of what started out as a very traumatic evening."
"Traumatic? Why, what? Tell me again why you're here."
"She crashed her car," Rabbit volunteered.
"Mum?"
"Well it's true. Don't go panicking now Katherine, three hours after the event. Obviously I am fine. The car is a wreck, but I am fine. I just need a lift home, that's all."
"What were you doing in this part of town?" Kit asked.
"God, you ask a lot of questions O'Malley," Rabbit commented.
"She's a private eye, Rabbit," Lillian said, instructively. "That's what she does, she asks questions. And to answer the last one, I wasn't in this part of town until after the accident. A tram driver ran me into the pub wall on that corner in Richmond. So after all the usual business with police and tow truck drivers and such, I walked to your place. You weren't there, Delbridge was, and here we all are." Lillian finished with another flourish of her pool cue.
Kit raked her hands through her hair and peered at her mother closely. "A tram driver ran you into the wall of a hotel? Were you in his way or was the tram derailed at the time?"
"Neither, Katherine. There was no tram, just a tram driver - in a blue Commodore. He was on his way home from work."
"Right, of course he was," Kit acknowledged. "But you're okay?"
"Yes, as you can see." Lillian waggled her hips.
"Fine. Good. Um, I've just finished work, so I might go and have a drink at the bar with Del, while you finish your game. Unless you want me to take you home now."
"No, not yet darling. Rabbit's about to teach me how to sight my stick to sink the eight thing," Lillian said.
"Good," Kit headed back to Del. "Why did you bring my mother here?" she asked sweetly.
"Because she was mildly shaken, extremely stirred up and could not be left to her own devices. Brigit said you were coming here, so here we are."
"And where is Brigit, or shouldn't I ask?" Kit said.
Del put her hands around her own throat and pretended to strangle herself. "Brigie is either going through early change of life, the longest case of PMT in history, or she is losing her mind. She hasn't decided which - yet. And she may well scare my mind into a very small cupboard before she figures it out. In the meantime she's..." Del hesitated, as if she didn't quite know how to break the news, then she called out to Angie who was at the other end of the bar: "Kit is really going to need that drink soon."
"Del? In the meantime she's... what?"
"She's gone to have a workout at the gym."
Kit just stared at Del.
Del shook her head slowly. "It's truly scary, I know."
"To which gym has she, ah, gone?" Kit queried politely.
"I don't think I should tell you," Del stated seriously. "It's taken me nearly two hours to get over the shock."
"Oh Del, she hasn't gone to Lulu's Powder Puff?" Kit asked, pressing her hand dramatically to her forehead. "She'll be struck off the Seriously Feminist List. We have to go get her."
"It's too late. Besides it's not Lulu's," Del said, trying to keep a straight face. "She put a pair of boxer shorts on over her track pants and went down to... um, she went to ask Mangle to sign her up for 'the works', including that karate boxing stuff. She wants to learn how to, and I quote: 'kick some serious butt'."
"Oh my god!" Kit exclaimed. "Mangle's building is held together by jockstraps and testosterone. The gym is a known haunt for sweaty men, she'll hate it."
"In her state, I doubt she'll notice," Del stated. "Perhaps we should go and get her though."
"Yeah," Kit agreed. "After a drink or six."
"What are you going to do after sex?" Angie asked, placing Kit's bourbon on the bar.
"Nothing. Who said anything about sex?" Kit asked.
"I did, just then," Angie grinned. "And I do, quite often. What about you, now that you've won the heart of the gorgeous Alex Cazenove?"
Kit sighed deeply. "Angie, could we get this straight, once and for all? I have wooed Alex. I still have no idea whether I've won or not. Subject change, please."
"Granted," Del stated obligingly. "If Brigie's mind and body is still in turmoil tomorrow, would you like to take her place and come to the airport with me to pick up my Aunt Sylvie?" When Kit looked puzzled by the request, Del shrugged and added, "Well, it's a different topic and it beats sitting around the office all day."
"Thank you. And I'd love to Del, but I actually have to see my new client in the morning."
"God, another one? They seem to be coming out of the woodwork," Del commented.
"Yeah, it's great," Kit