Hotshot P.i.. B.J. Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ sweet as the warm scent of summer. Regrets that made her heart ache. She’d never expected to ever see him again. Never expected to have these old feelings come back with such force. Then to find him on her dock tonight. And now of all times.

      She moved to the table to retrieve her glasses, anxious to be able to see clearly again, wishing she’d had them on earlier. Or at least had her contacts in. All she’d gotten was a blurred impression of Jake. Medium height and muscular. She smiled, remembering the boy she’d grown up with, the boy she’d fallen so desperately in love with.

      She thought about the betrayed, angry look he’d given her that day at the courthouse ten years ago. Tonight, she’d heard that same anger and bitterness in his voice. He still blamed her for his father going to prison. And now he’d come to Montana to help her? She couldn’t possibly let herself believe that.

      But Jake had saved her life tonight, hadn’t he? Clancy shivered, remembering the dark water and the hands pulling her under. Or had they been Jake’s hands trying to pull her toward the surface? If there had been an attacker, where had he gone so quickly?

      She shivered, hugging herself tighter. Right now she needed a hot bath and dry clothing. She didn’t want to think about the fact that she’d walked in her sleep again; she particularly didn’t want to think what could have happened if Jake hadn’t been there.

      She hurried upstairs, anxious to get out of her wet, cold clothing. But as she disrobed and stepped into the hot shower, exhaustion pulled at her, making her thoughts as clouded as the steam that rose around her.

      She yearned to be warm and dry. To wrap herself in one of her mother’s old quilts. To curl up in front of the fire-place. To forget everything. And sleep. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the shower wall.

      * * *

      JAKE QUICKLY SHOWERED and changed into warm, dry clothing, hoping it would soothe his anger and frustration. It had done neither by the time he dialed the private number Kiki had left for him at the Kalispell, Montana, airport along with another cellular phone. She’d evidently anticipated that he’d chuck the first one into the gulf, which he had. It bothered him that Kiki thought she knew him so well.

      Kiki Talbott Conners answered on the fifth ring. With more than a little satisfaction, he realized he’d awakened her from a sound sleep.

      “What time is it?” she groaned.

      Way past his bedtime, he knew that. His eyes felt as if they had sand in them. “A quarter after three.”

      “In the morning?”

      “That could explain why it’s still dark out.” He could just imagine her in a huge satin bed at the Bigfork condo she’d rented, surrounded by plump pillows and pampered poodles. “Your niece and I just got reacquainted.”

      “At three in the morning?” Kiki demanded, grogginess turning quickly to surliness.

      He walked to the window. “It’s a long story.” It looked as though all the lights in Clancy’s lodge were on. What was she doing still up, he wondered. And why all the lights? What was she afraid of? Surely she wasn’t buying into her own lies about a mysterious killer who came out of the water like a shark from Jaws. “Let me cut to the chase. Your niece doesn’t want me on this case.”

      “That surprises you?” Kiki asked, adding an audible “humph.” “Perhaps she thinks you harbor a grudge against her.”

      Kiki’s words snapped his attention back like a short rubber band. “Of course I have a grudge against her. And for a damned good reason.” He raked his fingers through his hair, remembering what Clancy had said on the dock, What could my aunt have been thinking? Exactly what Jake wanted to know. “Which brings me to the reason I called. Knowing that, why in the hell did you want me up here?”

      A faint tinkling sound broke the silence. She was pouring herself a drink. He felt as if he was going to need one, too. Kiki had enough money to buy the best private investigator in the galaxy. And if she wanted evidence tampered with, she could have bought that, too. For a price. But not from Jake Hawkins. So why hire a man who had every reason not to help her niece?

      “The reason I hired you is the same reason you’re not going to quit,” she said simply.

      He wanted to tell her just how wrong she was but that damned hunch of his was doing the lambada across the back of his neck to a little ditty called “Here Comes Heartache.”

      He heard her take a sip of her drink, taking her time. “Come on, Jake,” she said impatiently. “You know the reason.”

      “Blackmail.” He had a bad feeling that Kiki knew all the blackmail in the world couldn’t make him do something he didn’t want to do. He had his own personal reason for being here, and his hunch machine told him Kiki knew that, had known it all along. So what the hell had she hired him for?

      Kiki sighed deeply. “Jake, we both know why you’re in Montana, and it has nothing to do with blackmail.”

      He couldn’t believe he was playing this game with her. “Why don’t you spell it out for me, Kiki.” He held his breath, afraid she was about to validate the strongest hunch he’d ever had.

      “You’re in Montana because you think Clancy’s the key to proving your father’s innocence.”

      Bingo. Jake squeezed the phone and closed his eyes. Clancy was the key. Had always been the key. She’d lied on the witness stand to protect her own. father and let Jake’s go to prison. And now Jake had Clancy where he wanted her. He’d taken this case for one reason only: to get the truth. And as certain as the coming sunrise, he’d do whatever he had to do to get it out of her.

      He stared across the bay at Clancy’s. “My motives for being here don’t worry you?” he asked Kiki incredulously.

      “No,” she answered in that tone he’d come to despise. “I’ve seen how deep your loyalty runs. Unlike your mother. She could never forgive your father for disgracing her. She moved the two of you to Texas. She never visited him in prison. She forgot Warren Hawkins as if he’d never existed.” Kiki sounded so damned sure of herself. “You, on the other hand, can’t let go of the past. You believe in your father’s innocence and would do anything to prove it. The same way you can’t let Clancy go to prison for a murder she didn’t commit.”

      “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” he said, moving away from the window. Kiki thought he was a crusader for injustice? He wanted to laugh. Didn’t she realize it was Clancy who’d done him the injustice? The woman was a liar; she’d proven that tonight. How could Kiki be so convinced Clancy hadn’t killed this Dex Westfall guy? Blind loyalty? He’d once felt that for Clancy, and look what she’d done to him and his family. No, he suspected with Kiki it was simply a matter of saving the Talbott name.

      “I’m quite sure of you,” Kiki said, her tone downright haughty.

      He wanted to tell her what a fool she was. After all these years, she’d just offered him the perfect opportunity to get what he wanted. The truth. And revenge at the same time. “What makes you think you know me so well?”

      Kiki let out a long sigh. “I heard about how wonderful you were for years, Jake Hawkins. Did you forget that for a long time, my niece foolishly thought she was in love with you?”

      Kiki СКАЧАТЬ