For His Daughter. Ann Evans

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СКАЧАТЬ journalist’s career, Dani?” He shot the sudden question at her. “What can destroy you fastest?”

      “Lorraine Jennings Mandeville?” she ventured.

      “No! It’s the unwillingness to open your mind to possibilities. Keep your ear to the ground and your eyes open. You’ll find something you can use.” Her boss took her arms between his hands, looking her straight in the eyes. “Just keep a positive attitude.” He reached out and placed his fingers on either side of her lips, forcing them into the semblance of a gruesome smile. “That’s my girl.”

      Dani’s lips might have been fixed in a grin, but her eyes were sending him the kind of warmth that blows in off a glacier. She was whipped and she knew it.

      Numbly she followed Gary outside while he said goodbye to Cissy and then walked out into the afternoon sun. His car sat at the curb. This late in the day, the street was thick with shadows, a pleasant, nondescript spring afternoon to fit a pleasant, nondescript town.

      A young woman climbing up the outside steps of the bureau office smiled at Dani as she and Gary made their way out.

      “Who’s that?” Gary asked. “She could be bringing you the next big story.”

      “Becky from Becky’s House of Hair,” Dani said in a lackluster tone. “Stop the presses. She’s probably just discovered that the Farrah Fawcett shag is on its way out.”

      Gary looked disappointed. “I always liked that hairstyle on Pauline,” he said, referring to his wife of thirty years. When even that didn’t get a smile from Dani, he gave her a regretful but determined glance. “Come on, Dani. I hate leaving you like this.”

      “Then don’t. Take me with you.”

      He took an exaggerated interest in his surroundings to keep from starting this one-way argument again.

      She watched his eyes roll past Landquist Computers next door, the drugstore, the café where Cissy had bought her lunch, the hardware store that only yesterday had begun advertising Easter baskets. She stood in a warm pool of sunshine and waited. She’d made that mental trip down Main Street so many times, she knew the exact sequence of stores and just how many sections of sidewalk lay between here and the post office at the opposite end of the block.

      “Somewhere on this street could be a story just waiting to be written,” Gary said in his best sleuthing voice. “Somewhere. You just have to look.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “Or maybe it’s someone.”

      The question in his voice made her follow the direction of his gaze.

      The best-looking man in three counties was coming out of a shop halfway down the block. Your typical tall, dark and handsome guy, with an extra edge of male virility that a girl couldn’t help but notice. When he saw Dani watching, he lifted his hand in a wave and smiled.

      Gary was quick to pounce. “Well! I see you’re not completely oblivious to the people around here. You’ve scoped out one of the more…interesting Yokers.”

      “They like to call themselves Yokels. Get it?” Dani inclined her head back toward the sidewalk. “That’s Matt D’Angelo. He’s one of the local doctors.”

      “A doctor!” Gary’s enthusiasm was only slightly less than that of a Jewish mother in search of her daughter’s future husband.

      “He’s getting married to his nurse at the end of this month. I’m covering the wedding. Childhood sweethearts reunited. Friendship turns to love…blah, blah, blah.”

      Dani could see she had left Gary speechless at last. In all fairness, she knew he sympathized with her exile.

      Giving him a genuine smile this time, she went to the driver’s side of his car, reached up on tiptoe and planted a kiss on the side of his cheek. He went beet-red.

      “I know you’re trying,” she told him. “Just don’t forget about me up here.”

      “I won’t,” Gary promised. “I have a voodoo doll with Lorraine’s picture on it, and the moment it works, I’ll be on the phone to you.”

      “Great. My fate lies in the hands of a man who believes in the power of black magic but can’t balance his checkbook.”

      He gave her a hopeful smile. “Lorraine’s fate lies with the voodoo doll, Dani. Your fate lies with you. Make this time work for you.”

      She nodded and stepped back from the car. She watched him pull away, turn at the corner and go over the bridge that crossed Lightning River, the creek that bisected the town. He’d be in Denver in less than an hour, but it might as well be the end of the universe. It was all she could do to finally turn away and go back to the bureau office.

      Becky was still there, sitting on the corner of Cissy’s desk, playing with a pen between two brightly polished nails. She didn’t even look up when Dani entered.

      She lifted one hand as though preparing to swear on a stack of bibles. “If I’m lying, I’m dying,” she said to Cissy. “Althea Bendix saw him through the window of the real-estate office yesterday making eyes at that slutty Nina Jordan, who just about fell at his feet. Of course.”

      Cissy didn’t look all that impressed. “Could have been business.”

      “Monkey business, if you want my guess,” Becky said with a sharp nod of her head. “He’s up to no good, I’ll just bet you, and you know Nina. The woman can speak six languages but doesn’t know how to say no in any of them.”

      Dani had been making her way back to her office, but suddenly swung around to join the women’s conversation. People who were “up to no good” were of considerable interest to her. Rule followers seldom did anything worthy of the front pages of the newspaper.

      “Who’s up to no good?” she asked the two women.

      “Rafe D’Angelo,” Becky supplied. “He’s back in town.”

      The name meant nothing to her, although she knew that the D’Angelo family ran the Lightning River Lodge resort up Windy Mountain Road. The upcoming marriage of their son, Matt, was the talk around town. “And that’s a bad thing?”

      Becky pursed her lips. “That remains to be seen. Lots of folks around here were glad to see the last of Rafe when he left.”

      “When was that?”

      “Straight out of high school. At least twelve years ago. Hasn’t been back since.”

      “And people are still holding a grudge?” Some of Dani’s enthusiasm dissipated. This was starting to sound like stale news to her. Besides, she’d heard the D’Angelos were some of Broken Yoke’s town leaders. She didn’t need to make any more enemies.

      “Not holding a grudge, exactly. Just hoping that his stay here is temporary.”

      Cissy laughed. “Considering the way Rafe and his dad got along, I’m sure it will be.” She whistled through her teeth. “Just being around the two of them during one of СКАЧАТЬ