Twilight Hunger. Maggie Shayne

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СКАЧАТЬ “Time to take a break!” she called. “Carbs, calories and cream filling, just what the doctor ordered.”

      Max sighed, pushing the chair back. It rolled on its casters from the computer desk to the middle of the floor in what used to be the living room and was now an office. If you used the term loosely. It more closely resembled an explosion in a paper-and-file-folder factory. With computers. Lots of computers.

      Storm dropped the bag on her own desk, sat down and peered inside. “Mmm, I got jelly and cream filled, and now I can’t decide.”

      “How many are in there?” Maxine asked, lifting her brows.

      “Half dozen.” Storm didn’t look up. The doughnuts had her mesmerized.

      “Better go for one of each, then.”

      She looked up then, brows arched. “You think?”

      “Oh, yeah. Far better than the risk of making the wrong choice.”

      “I like the way your mind works,” Stormy said, smiling, as she reached into the bag to pluck out a doughnut.

      Max got out of her chair and wandered into the kitchen, which was still a kitchen, where she poured two cups of fresh coffee. “Did you ever wonder just how screwed up I must be to be in the same town, in the same house, in the same rut, after all this time?”

      “No.”

      Max smiled at the sound of the word, because it was doughnut muffled. She carried the two mugs back into the room in time to see Stormy taking another bite and closing her eyes in ecstasy.

      Max set Storm’s cup down in front of her and bent to help herself to a doughnut, knowing they would vanish if she didn’t.

      “You care to elaborate on that answer, or are you just gonna go with the one-syllable reply?”

      Stormy swallowed, licked her lips, took a sip of her coffee. She still had a ring of powdered sugar around her mouth, but what the hell?

      “Who wouldn’t be in the same house? Shoot, girl, your mother gave it to you free and clear. You’d have been nuts not to take it. And I fail to see any rut. You’re running not one, but two, businesses. Both turning a profit, I might add.”

      “Barely,” Maxine muttered. She sighed, dunked her doughnut and took a big soggy bite. When she finished, she dropped the first of her two bombshells. “Web page design is getting boring, Stormy. To tell you the truth, I’m thinking about dropping it.”

      Stormy blinked. “Dropping it?”

      “Closing it down.”

      Setting her coffee mug on her desk, Storm got to her feet. “Why would you do that? That’s where you earn most of your income.”

      “Yeah, but it was never my life’s work. I mean, it’s okay. I’m good at it, but it’s not my dream job. Never was.”

      “So what are you telling me? They’re hiring over at Spies-R-Us?”

      Max shot her a quick glance. “Don’t even joke about that.”

      “Then what?” Storm threw her hands in the air, turning in a slow circle and searching the ceiling for an explanation. “I thought this side business of yours was enough to satisfy your inner snoop, Max. I mean, hasn’t it been?”

      “No, it hasn’t. If anything, it’s only whetted my appetite.” Max had kind of stumbled into the realm of Internet crime investigations when one of her Web clients asked her advice in dealing with a cyber-stalker a year ago. Since then, she had helped track down a half-dozen others by tracing them through their super-anonymous, supposedly untraceable screennames. She had even helped to bust up several hoax rings revolving around so-called paranormal sciences. Scam artists who went online hawking everything from psychic readings to ghost-busting powders. Which was perfectly legal until you tied them to their partners, who harassed and sometimes frightened gullible people into believing they needed otherworldly help, then fed information to the scam artist, who used it to convince the client he was really in touch with “the other side.”

      All of this had given Max the opportunity to touch base with her favorite cop now and then. Not that that had any bearing on her decision to move into this line of work.

      “So what would you say if I told you I was thinking about embarking on another little enterprise?” she asked.

      Storm turned to face her, searched her face warily. “A third business?”

      “I’m dropping the Web designing services. So it would only be a second business. And, in fact, it would be more like taking the existing one to a new, higher level.”

      “What do you have in mind?”

      Max wiped the doughnut sugar from her fingers onto her jeans and went to her desk. She opened a drawer, took out a sheet of paper, slid it across the surface. “Take a look at this and tell me what you think.”

      Storm came closer, leaned over it, reading aloud. “Maxine Stuart, Licensed Private.” Then she looked up. “Licensed private investigator? Since when?”

      “It just came today. I sent in the application months ago.”

      “Maxie …”

      “Look, I know. It sounds way over the top, but if you think about it, it’s what we’ve been doing anyway. Just in cyberspace instead of real time.”

      “They can’t shoot you in cyberspace.” Storm rolled her eyes. “Who else knows about this?”

      Max shrugged.

      “Maxine Stuart, who else knows?”

      Max lowered her eyes. “Well, Lou knows.”

      “Lou. Lou Malone. I figured as much. He probably encouraged this, didn’t he?”

      “Well, he, uh, helped me with the application process. He was one of my references.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “Look, I’m good at this. And Lou’s already got a few cases ready to toss my way.”

      “Hell. I don’t know why you don’t just jump that man’s bones and get it over with, Max.”

      “I intend to. Just as soon as I can get him cornered.” Stormy’s eyes widened, and Max smiled in sheer nasty delight. “But one thing has nothing to do with the other. If I was doing this just to get closer to Lou, I’d have joined the force. It would have been easier.”

      “Yeah. Right. Isn’t the old crock due to retire pretty soon?”

      There was a throat clearing, and they both turned to see the old crock himself standing in the doorway. Max couldn’t judge for sure how long he’d been standing there, how much he might have heard. She figured the man’s bones would more easily succumb to any jumping she might attempt if she could sneak up on them. Take ‘em by surprise, that sort of thing.

      He was too thin, so his suit looked a little on the baggy side. “Am I interrupting anything?”

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