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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

She couldn't possibly have heard the slamming door over the acid rock being blasted into her ears, but she must have felt the vibration of the impact because she glanced up and saw Avery glaring down at her, holding a gum wrapper in her hand.

Fancy replaced the brush in the bottle of nail polish and draped the headphones around her neck. ''What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"I came to retrieve my belongings."

Giving Fancy no more warning than that, Avery marched to the closet and slid open a louvered panel.

"Just a freaking minute!" Fancy exclaimed. She tossed the headphones down onto the bed and came charging off it. "This is mine," Avery said, yanking a blouse off a hanger. "And this skirt. And this." She removed a belt from a hook. Finding nothing more in the closet, she crossed to Fancy's dressing table, which was littered with candy wrappers, chewing gum foil, perfume bottles, and enough cosmetics to stock a drugstore.

Avery raised the lid of a lacquered jewelry box and began rifling through earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and rings. She found the silver earrings she had reported missing in Houston, a bracelet, and the watch.

It was an inexpensive wristwatch—costume jewelry, really—but Tate had bought it for her. It hadn't been a bona fide gift. They had been browsing through a department store during a break in the campaign trip. She had seen the watch, remarked on its attractive green alligator band, and Tate had passed the star struck salesgirl his credit card.

Avery treasured it because he had bought it for her, not for Carole.  She had noticed its disappearance from her jewelry box that morning. That had prompted her to storm the meeting in search of Tate. Since he had declined to advise her on how to deal with Fancy's kleptomania, she had taken matters into her own hands.

"You're a lousy thief, Fancy."

''I don't know how your stuff got into my room,'' she said loftily.

"You're an even lousier liar."

"Mona probably—"

"Fancy!" Avery shouted. "You've been sneaking into my room and taking things for weeks. I know it. Don't insult my intelligence by denying it. You leave unmistakable clues behind."

Fancy looked down at the incriminating gum wrapper now lying on the bed. "Are you going to tattle to Uncle Tate?"

"Is that what you want me to do?"

"Hell, no." She flopped back down on the bed and began vigorously shaking the bottle of nail polish. ''Do whatever the hell you want to. Just do it someplace else besides my room."

Avery was on her way out when she reconsidered. Turning back, she approached the bed and sat down. Taking the silver earrings, she pressed them into Fancy's hand and folded her fingers around them.

"Why don't you keep these? I would have loaned them to you if you had just asked."

Fancy flung the earrings as far as she could throw them.

"I don't want your goddamn charity." Her beautiful blue eyes turned ugly with dislike.  ''Who the hell are you to offer me your sorry leftovers? I don't want the earrings or anything else you've got."

Avery withstood the verbal attack. "I believe you. It's not the earrings or any of this stuff that you wanted,'' she said, nodding down at the possessions she had gathered. "What you wanted was to get caught."

Fancy scoffed. "You've been out in the sun too long, Aunt Carole. Don't you know the sun's bad for your plastic face? It might cause it to melt."

"You can't insult me," Avery returned blandly. "You don't have the power. Because I'm on to you."