She stared at him as if he had just threatened her with torture. “Here,” she said. Like “Smith,” he knew it was a lie.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Let me try this one. What’s your favorite food?”
She’d been staring straight ahead, but she looked at him then. “At this moment? Anything not out of a Dumpster,” she told him, and he knew that, at least, was honest.
His nerves felt totally stretched by the time he finally pulled up in front of Genevieve’s apartment, and then he was afraid he would snap like a bowstring from the tremendous sense of relief he felt when he saw her there, chatting with Mac, the doorman. She ran up to the car and hopped into the backseat.
“Hey,” she said cheerfully to Debbie. “I’m Genevieve.”
“Debbie,” the girl said.
“Where should we go?” Joe asked, looking at Genevieve in the rearview mirror.
She shrugged. “O’Malley’s, of course.”
He nodded, and a few minutes later he let the two of them off in front of the pub and went in search of a parking space. Luckily, he found a place in a lot a block or so away. He made his way back as quickly as he could and found that Genevieve and Debbie were playing darts with his two favorite old timers, Angus MacHenry and Paddy O’Leary, and had claimed a nearby booth as their own.
“Joseph Connolly, that took ye long enough,” Paddy told him.
“Hey, I’m not as young as I used to be,” Joe said.
“Well, this young ’un is a pip at darts,” Angus said. “And she’s a Douglas. A nice Scottish lass.”
He looked at Genevieve, who shrugged and gave him a little grin. “A Douglas from Philadelphia,” she said softly.
To his surprise, Debbie walked over to him and gave him a quick hug, then looked at him with embarrassment.
He smiled at her, trying not to look as awkward as he felt. “Philly, hmm?” he said.
She nodded, then threw her next dart.
“Good shot,” Genevieve said encouragingly.
Joe watched as Angus challenged Debbie to a head-to-head match, and she replied with a laugh and a promise to best him.
“Runaway?” he whispered to Genevieve.
“Yes. But we’ve called her parents. They’re on their way.” She turned to him, speaking softly. “She came up here with some older friends, who wound up leaving her on her own a few days ago when they decided to get warm and cuddly with a couple of druggies. There were some toughs on the street, and she got scared, so she ran into Hastings House. Luckily, they weren’t able to follow her.”
“Weren’t able to?” he asked.
Genevieve shrugged. “Strange, huh?” she said, staring at him.
“What’s so strange?” he asked, feeling as if he were choking.
“When she was running, the gate and the door both opened. But as soon as she was inside, they both closed. And locked.”
He frowned, staring at Genevieve. “No. They must have just decided to let her go. When I was on the street, both the gate and the door were open.”
“Right,” Genevieve said, looking into his eyes.
“The security system must be going haywire,” he heard himself say.
“Haywire,” she echoed, but it didn’t really sound as if she were agreeing with him.
“Was everything all right with you today?” he asked her.
She nodded and smiled. “Great. How did it go with Larry Levine?”
He shrugged. “I believe him,” he told her.
“So…we’re not getting anywhere,” she said.
“Gen, you know as well as I do that finding out the truth can take a long time,” he said.
She nodded, biting her lower lip.
“Hamburgers coming up!” Bridget, their waitress of a few nights back, called as she made her way through the crowd milling near the bar. Debbie all but clapped her hands.
“Oh, thank you,” she said fervently.
Angus punched Joe lightly on the arm. “Thank ye kindly, Joe. Gen said you’d be buying tonight.”
“My pleasure,” Joe said, and laughed, then watched as Angus, Paddy and Debbie made themselves comfortable in the booth and started reaching for the ketchup and mustard.
“You did a good thing tonight, Joe,” Gen told him.
“I did?”
“Debbie just got in with a wrong crowd. She’s been here five days. Her parents reported her missing, but…well, you know how that goes. Anyway, if you’d called the police, it might have gotten complicated.”
“Well, then…I’m glad I called you.”
“Me, too. So, do you want a hamburger, too?”
“Sure. I’ll just go with the flow,” he said.
She grinned and started toward the bar to find Bridget and put in his food order. He slid in beside Angus on the banquette.
“Did ye hear about the way the old house welcomed the girl?” Paddy asked him.
“What?”
Debbie looked at him. She was a pretty kid, with warm brown eyes. “That house saved me tonight,” she told him softly. “Well, you did, too, of course. But it was really weird, the way the house just let me in when I needed to get away from those guys.”
“Security system,” he said, but he didn’t even believe that himself.