"The dirty sneak led me to believe that you were my backup, He should have been a theatrical producer. I'll bet he's drooling in anticipation of Qin Shang's reaction when the two people who queered his operation at Orion Lake walk in uninvited to j his party."

"I hope you're not disappointed at having to escort me. I Under all this makeup, I still look pretty awful."

He gently lifted her chin until he could look down into her I misty eyes. He might have said something witty and clever, I but it wasn't the moment. "About as disappointed as a man who has discovered a diamond mine."

"I didn't know you could say nice things to a girl."

"You wouldn't believe the hordes of women my silver i tongue has seduced."

"Liar," she said softly as her lips broke into a smile.

"Enough of this endearing talk," he said, releasing her. "We'd better get a move on before the food runs out."

After Julia briefly returned inside the house to find her purse f and coat, Pitt led her to the stately and majestic machine parked at the curb in front of the townhouse where she was staying  with an old sorority sister from college. She stared in open  astonishment at the mammoth car with its big chrome wire wheels and wide whitewall tires.

"Good Lord!" she exclaimed. "What kind of a car are we I going in?"

"A nineteen-twenty-nine Duesenberg," answered Pitt, "Since we've been ordered to crash a party thrown by one of the world's richest men, I thought it only fitting and proper that  we arrive in style."

"I've never ridden in a car this grand," said Julia admiringly  as she slid onto the soft tan leather seat. She marveled at the hood that seemed to stretch halfway down the block as Pitt  closed the door and came around behind the big steering wheel,  "I've never heard of a Duesenberg."

"The Model J Duesenbergs were the finest examples of American automating," Pitt explained. "Manufactured from nineteen-twenty-eight until nineteen-thirty-six, they were considered by many automobile connoisseurs as the handsomest cars ever built. Only about four hundred eighty chassis and engines came out of the factory and were sent to the most esteemed coachmakers in the country who produced magnificent designs. This car was custom-bodied by the Walter M. Murphy Company in Pasadena, California, and styled as a convertible sedan. Not cheap, they sold as high as twenty thousand dollars when the Ford Model A sold for around four hundred. They were owned by the wealthy celebrities of their day, particularly the Hollywood crowd, who bought Duesenbergs as a show of pride and prestige. If you drove a Duesy, you had made it big-time."

"She's beautiful," said Julia, admiring the artistically flowing lines. "She must be fast."