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“Waldo.”
    “Jo.” He didn’t look up. He knew what was coming. She thought about what she was going to say, studying the pink scalp that showed through the thin red and black hair on the top of his narrow head.

Chapter Five
    Right Down to her Velvet Knickers
    The restaurant salary was standard, which Chief Graybel had already mentioned and which meant it was low. But I discovered in the first few hours that the tips weren’t bad, and it turned out that Blackjack was a very good employer, better than most. The free lodging brought the pay up to more than reasonable. Drew, the busboy, mentioned in passing that people who stayed past six weeks got benefits worth more than the pay—vaccines, certificates, and yearly boosters. Neither Judith nor Waldo had mentioned that. Stupidly, I’d never thought to ask about benefits at all. Someone really looking for work and expecting to stick around would have. Maybe I’d been so overwhelmed by Judith’s snow globes, or by Judith herself, that I’d forgotten the drill. I’d have to do better. A distracted merc is a dead merc.
    Timmy confirmed the vax.
    “It’s one of the things that’s kept us working here.” He sneered in the general direction of Waldo, who was seating a man and woman at one of Tim’s busy tables. The place had first started filling up around eight, just as Timmy had predicted it would. And now, after eleven, people were coming in for a late supper. Timmy grabbed a couple of menus from the host station. “That and the free rooms. A suite because there’s two of us.”
    He had now used the word “us” twice. “Us?”
    “Me and my sweetie Fredo. You’ll meet him later.”
    Well, he and Gran could still like each other. “I guess you and Waldo don’t get along?”
    He snorted and shook his head. “We get along. I do what he says and ignore his nasty self.”
    Tim went off, menus under his arm, before I could ask more. And although we spoke briefly on and off through the rest of my shift, I never got a chance to hear more about the “nasty self.”
    I was serving a half-drunk party of three at about eleven o’clock when a pretty woman wearing knickers came in, approached Waldo at his station, and spoke to him. He listened to her, scowling. She stopped talking and looked my way, turned back to him again. He nodded and waved me over.
    The woman watched me coolly as I walked across the room. I had been stared at by much less interesting people, but I wasn’t intimidated by the scrutiny, I was intrigued by it. She had nerve. Maybe even power. Pretty didn’t half describe her.
    She glared at Waldo. “You can leave us now.” He lumbered back to his station by the door, where a pair of customers stood looking around the room. She turned back to me. “I’m Jo Coleman. Judith’s sister.” Ah. She did have power. Lots of it. And warm brown eyes. And a soft, deep voice. “She tells me you’re going to be working here.” I nodded. “And that you want to sing for us, too.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “Are you any good?” A challenging half-smile. I smiled back, agreeably, with less challenge, allowing Jo to be alpha bitch.
    “I’m very good.” Our eyes locked for a second before I looked away. I could feel heat rising to my face.
    “When is your shift over?”
    “One o’clock.”
    “Fine. Meet me in the lounge.” She waved her hand in the direction of the unlighted room I’d noticed earlier. “Sing something sad.”
    A slight nod, the smile only in the eyes now, and Jo walked out. This time, I was the one doing the watching, and I wondered if she knew it.
    I had guessed the place probably closed at one, but when Timmy told me they stayed open through the night I thought it must be the most popular eating spot in Tahoe. Or pretty much anywhere.
    “It’s really busy all night?”
    “No. We can get good crowds up ‘til two or so but it’s pretty darned dead by three. Judith wants to provide the service anyway. She’s very smart, you