Deadly Competition. Roxanne Rustand

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СКАЧАТЬ voices in the background “—fifteen minutes, and I’ll only take five minutes of your time. Just talk to me. Please.”

      She did sound more educated than the last few applicants who’d called…and young enough to keep up with a tornado of a three-year-old who never seemed to slow down. And if she was young, that might account for the wariness he’d heard in her voice at first. Maybe he’d just become too suspicious after his sister’s disappearance.

      He sighed. “You have references?”

      “You bet.”

      “You’ve got transportation?” Again, he heard an exchange of voices in the background.

      “Yes, I do.”

      After reluctantly taking her name down and giving her directions to his place, he clipped the phone back to his belt and surveyed the wreckage that was his living room. Somewhere beneath two days’ accumulation of toys there was a carpet, something he rarely saw these days.

      He needed help. No doubt about it.

      Yet he still sensed that something wasn’t quite right about the caller. Trouble. She’s going to be absolute trouble.

      But when he tried to use the callback function on his cell to cancel, there was no answer, and he could hardly leave home with a stranger on her way to his place.

      “Come on, Sarah, let’s find our shoes. We have company coming over, and then we can go to town after our visitor leaves, okay?” He grinned at her. “Want to race?”

      Sarah didn’t enter into the game of trying to find shoes. Her haunting, almond-shaped green eyes brimming with tears, she stood at the fireplace and stared up at the photo on the mantel taken of her and Leah last Christmas, just a week or so before her life irrevocably changed. “I want my mommy.”

      He heard those four sad words every day, and they still had the power to wrench his heart.

      Some days were better than others, but today had been a tough one. This morning they’d gone to the grocery store, and Sarah had glimpsed someone from a distance who’d vaguely looked like Leah. She’d become hysterical, and had been tearful and withdrawn ever since.

      “We’ll find her, sweetheart. I promise I’m doing everything I can to find her.”

      The toe of a pink shoe caught his eye. He went down on one knee to retrieve it from beneath a blue teddy bear, then stayed down and bowed his head in silent prayer. Please God, keep Leah safe, wherever she is, and help me find her. She’s all that Sarah and I have left. We need her back.

      TWO

      When Clint opened the door, he took one look at the vehicle parked outside and the woman on his porch and almost ended the interview right there.

      “Bitsy’s Diner?” he said, eyeing the words emblazoned on the old pickup. If he wasn’t mistaken, he could see the shadow of luggage on the front seat. “I thought you said you had transportation.”

      “I did. I borrowed it.” The woman tipped her head and flashed a tight smile. “I’m Mandy Erick, by the way. And you are…”

      “Clint Herald.”

      Her brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, framing a delicate face that appeared freshly scrubbed and without makeup. Her rumpled clothes—a pale lemon sweater and wrinkled jeans—looked like they were probably expensive labels.

      Unless she shopped for designer bargains at Goodwill, she had to have come from money—yet he caught a definite hint of simmering tension and desperation that she quickly masked.

      Again, warning bells sounded at the back of his mind.

      Why would an attractive woman like this be so edgy? Was she running from something?

      In a town the size of Loomis, people recognized each other. Knew each other’s families from way back. If you saw someone you didn’t know, he was probably your cousin’s best friend’s brother, or had gone to school with your sister…and you could do a quick and accurate character check by picking up the phone.

      Clint had never seen this gal in his life, and he could tell from her cultured, northern accent, that she wasn’t from anywhere close by. What he didn’t need were any surprises, bringing an unknown person into his home. “As I said on the phone, I’m no longer looking for a nanny.”

      “Can we at least talk? I’m new in town and I’d like to stay in the area, so I need to find a job. I love kids and—”

      Behind him, he heard something crash to the floor that sounded suspiciously like the plate of cookies some neighbors had left on the kitchen table. He spun around and hurried to the kitchen with Mandy at his heels, to find Sarah staring at the shattered plate and broken cookies, her lower lip trembling. At least there isn’t any blood. Thank you, Lord, for that.

      “I’m hungry, Uncle Clint,” Sarah whimpered. “I—” At the sight of a stranger, she fell silent and backed up.

      Outside, Clint’s old black Lab, Barney, started to bark, belatedly realizing that someone had arrived. Then Molly, Sarah’s puppy, joined in.

      Clint’s phone started to ring just as he hunkered down to pick up the shards of china. He glanced at the number on the screen and drew in a sharp breath. The Loomis Bank—and if it was the loan officer, the call was one he couldn’t afford to miss.

      Cell phone in one hand, broken china in the other, Clint wavered.

      “Go ahead,” Mandy said. “I can handle this.”

      He frowned at Sarah, hesitating over leaving her in the company of a stranger while taking a call that needed to be private. Maybe Mandy was okay, and maybe not. But after Sarah’s outburst at the store this morning, she’d been tearful and clingy ever since.

      “I’m not going anywhere with your broken dish or your daughter,” Mandy said dryly. “Go ahead. Consider this part of my interview.”

      “I’ll just be outside.” Straightening, he sidestepped the mess and went out to the screened porch off the kitchen dining area, where he could still glance inside and keep an eye on things.

      He was put on hold twice, finally talking to a second loan officer, then the vice president.

      But as frustrating as it was to deal with the bankers, the scene inside his house was a different story. While he was on hold once again, Clint peered into the kitchen and discovered it was sparkling clean. Sarah sat at the table, having milk and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—a menu item that was apparently an exact art, because he still couldn’t make them exactly right to please his little niece.

      After that, Mandy and Sarah disappeared into the living room. Clint couldn’t see them through the kitchen window any longer, but he could hear Sarah giggle. The sound tugged at his heart until he could barely concentrate on his business call. How long had it been since he’d heard the child laugh? How long since she’d been happy and carefree?

      When he finally came back into the house, the toys in the living room had been neatly put away. Mandy was curled up on the sofa, her hair gleaming like rich mahogany with ruby highlights in the soft, incandescent СКАЧАТЬ