Nerd Gone Wild

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

But he made an effort to smile and be loving whenever he turned to Ally. “I’ve waited years to reunite with my niece,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. “This is a dream come true for me.”

  “Me, too,” Ally said, smiling up at him.

  Reunite? Sounded like the jerk had made contact with Ally some time in the past. Mitch fought the urge to go over and remove Kurt’s slimy hand from Ally’s shoulder. He’d checked out Madeline’s story with the only other person who would know the truth, a maid who’d been a young employee at the mansion during the brief time Kurt had been welcome there.

  The maid had been reluctant to talk to Mitch. Years ago Madeline had told her she’d be fired if she ever mentioned Kurt, and she’d seen how quickly another employee had been sacked for allowing a phone call from the black sheep of the family. But eventually she’d told Mitch what she knew, and it had jibed perfectly with Madeline’s account.

  Mitch wouldn’t be ready to judge a guy for one bad incident, but Kurt’s years following that hadn’t been sterling, either. He’d been involved in several shady business deals, although he’d managed to avoid doing jail time. When his father had died twenty years ago, Kurt had continued to receive his monthly allowance, but the rest of the estate had gone to Madeline.

  Considering how much money that represented, Mitch figured Kurt had been nursing a grudge ever since. Madeline’s fears for Ally seemed totally justified. And yet the guy had brought Ally the perfect gift, a world-renowned wildlife photographer as a mentor. Gestures of family feeling didn’t get much grander than that.

  “Ally’s uncle will be using his fifth wheel accommodations,” Betsy said. “But Ms. Mandell will be staying here with us at the lodge.” Betsy spoke the photographer’s name with the same reverence Ally had used. “Under the circumstances, I’ve decided that she should have the parlor suite.”

  Mitch glanced at Betsy in surprise. “But that’s your—”

  “Our finest room, that’s right,” Betsy said, warning him off with a glance. “And that’s what someone like Ms. Mandell deserves.”

  That parlor might suit the woman with the predatory stare perfectly, Mitch thought. Talk about your wildlife habitat. “Will the fifth wheel be staying where it is, then?” he asked. He didn’t have any stake in all those parking spaces being blocked, but he objected to greedy people in general.

  “No, no. I’ll be moving it,” Kurt said. “I just need to get Tanya’s things unloaded.” Both he and Tanya stood there as if expecting a bellhop to appear.

  Betsy suddenly snapped to attention. “I’ll be glad to bring them in for you if you’ll show me where—”

  “No, no, I’ll help,” Ally said. “It would be an honor.”

  “I’ll help,” Mitch said. “Betsy and Ally, stay inside where it’s warm.” He started for the door, cutting Ally off at the pass. For some reason the notion of Ally groveling at this woman’s feet made him cranky. Tanya might take marvy pictures, but after only a few minutes in her presence, he had reservations about her as a human being.

  In his view, a person who schlepped herself around the wilderness taking pictures of savage beasts would be the kind of self-sufficient person who would carry her own luggage into the hotel, luggage that probably included several valuable cameras. If he made his living with equipment like that, he’d want to be in charge of it. But not Tanya, apparently. She stood there and let everyone else rush around getting her stuff.

  Even Kurt hurried toward the door. “I’ll show you what belongs to her. It’s in the fifth wheel.”

  So Mitch ended up going out to the fifth wheel with Kurt, who was obviously bursting with questions.

  “Madeline’s personal assistant,” he said the minute they were out the door. “Not to be rude, but why are you still hanging around? I would figure your job ended when Madeline died.”

  “Not exactly.” Mitch zipped his coat against the bitter cold and put his gloves on. “My contract with Madeline called for me to handle the details of the estate after she died. She knew Ally would be too upset to deal with it.”

  “Yeah, I bet. Poor kid.” Kurt opened the back door of the fifth wheel. “I’m sure it was rough on her.”

  Where was a lie detector when you needed one? Mitch wanted Kurt to repeat those words of concern while Mitch watched the needle jump.

  “But that still doesn’t explain why you’re in Alaska.” Kurt paused and turned back to Mitch. “I assume all the details you were hired to handle are back in Bel Air.”

  “I had a few things come up, things that required Ally’s signature. I decided not to trust the mail.”

  “Hm.” Kurt’s expression said he wasn’t buying it. “FedEx would’ve been a hell of a lot cheaper. But maybe price is no object. Then again, maybe you had other reasons for coming up here.”

  “Strictly business.” He kept his expression blank as he met Kurt’s gaze.

  “That better be all it is.” Kurt’s eyes glittered. “Because if you have some idea of marrying into all that money, think again. I’m looking out for her interests, and no gold diggers are getting past me.”

  Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse. Mitch had to work hard not to laugh in Kurt’s face. “Or me,” he said.

  “Then I guess we both want the same thing.”

  Not even close. “Let’s hope so,” he said. “For the record, I think it’s great that you arranged for Tanya Mandell to work with Ally. I know how much that will mean to her.”

  “It’s the least I can do for my only living relative.” He climbed into the fifth wheel. Soon he returned with a black leather suitcase and a large backpack with all sorts of zippered compartments, obviously for camera gear. He handed that to Mitch and climbed down holding the suitcase.

  Mitch hoisted the heavy backpack to his shoulder. “So this is what helps make the magic?”

  “Excuse me?” Kurt locked up the fifth wheel and turned to him. “What magic?”

  “The award-winning photography. I assume her equipment is in here.”

  “Oh! That magic. Yep, that’s her camera bag.”

  “Looks really new. You’d think after she’d hauled it all over the world it would be kind of beat up.”

  Kurt grunted as he picked up the leather suitcase. “She got rid of her old one and bought herself this new job just the other day.”

  “Sounds like you know her pretty well.” Mitch was having a tough time making it all add up. The scoop on Kurt was that he generally hung around with shifty characters, none of whom were world famous. Mitch couldn’t imagine Kurt moving in the same circles as a woman like Tanya Mandell.

  “Yeah, we’re good friends.”

  “How did you happen to meet her?”

  “At a party.”

  If that wasn’t a non-answer, Mitch had never heard one. He needed to check with Pete and get some info on Tanya Mandell. Maybe once he knew more about her, he’d understand the connection. Right now, it was a mystery.

  They returned to the lobby, Mitch well ahead of Kurt, who was straggling along with the heavy black suitcase. Mitch didn’t have much sympathy for him. He’d chosen which of the two he’d carry.

  When Mitch walked in, the parlor door was open and he could hear women’s voices. Betsy must be introducing Tanya to her new digs. This he wanted to see.

  He carried the camera bag straight in there. “Here’s your equipment, Ms. Mandell.” He laid the backpack on one of Betsy’s red velvet settees.

  “Please call me Tanya,” she said, giving him the once-over. Then she returned her attention to the Murphy bed that Betsy was pulling down from the wall. “Had you seen this room before, Mitchell?” she said without looking at him.

  “Uh, yes, I did see it.”

  “Holy shit!” Kurt staggered in through the door and put down the suitcase with a thud. “This looks exactly like—”

  “That’s what it is,” Tanya said, turning to him. “Betsy’s been filling me in on the colorful history of the Loose Moose. I had no idea.”
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  And she loves it, Mitch thought. The world-famous photog has a kinky side. Oh, well. People were complex. He’d learned that much during his career as a PI.

  “It’s all ready for you,” Betsy said. “I changed the sheets this morning.”

  Mitch just bet she had, after the night she’d spent with Poopsie, the orgasm king.

  “I’ll double-check the bathroom, to make sure everything’s ready in there, and we’ll leave you to get settled in,” Betsy said.

  “And I would love to buy both of you dinner over at the Top Hat,” Ally added.

  “The Top Hat?” Tanya smiled. “Sounds very nice. I assume that’s the best restaurant in town?”

  “It’s the only restaurant in town,” Mitch said. “But it’s very good,” he added quickly, feeling a surprising loyalty to Clyde.

  “Then if we’re already talking about dinner, I’d better get going and set up for the night, myself,” Kurt said. “David, the sculptor guy who pulled us out of the snow, said I could hook up to his electricity while I’m here.”

  “David said he uses a chain saw to sculpt nudes.” The sexual gleam was back in Tanya’s eyes. “I’m dying to see his work.”

  “Mitchell bought one of his nudes today,” Betsy said.

  Mitch could have done without that announcement. Buying the nude in the first place was embarrassing enough, without Kurt and this Tanya woman finding out about it. “Dave calls it ‘interpretive sculpture’,” he said. “Quite unusual. Sort of what you’d imagine Picasso might do if somebody had handed him a chain-saw and a chunk of cedar.”

  “Sounds fascinating,” Tanya said. “Where is it? Up in your room?”

  “No,” Ally said quickly. “It’s not.”

  Well, knock him over with a feather. Ally had sounded territorial right then, as if she’d picked up on the sexual vibes coming from Tanya and she didn’t want this woman, mentor or not, encroaching. Maybe all was not lost in that department.

  “She’s… I mean, it’s over at the Top Hat,” Mitch said.

  “The bathroom’s set!” Betsy emerged from that room with a smile. “Let’s leave Ms. Mandell to herself, so she can freshen up. Then we can all meet at the Top Hat and celebrate.”

  Kurt glanced at Ally, “You’ll be going over, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. I have some great ideas I want to discuss with you.”

  Mitch decided no matter what, he needed to be within hearing distance of that discussion. Kurt might have produced Tanya Mandell, but even that move was suspect. And when it came to Kurt proposing ideas to Ally, Mitch would bet they’d have scam written all over them.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ally kept pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Apparently she was actually sitting at the same restaurant table as Tanya Mandell, because every time she pinched herself, she felt the sting. Uncle Kurt had come through like a champ. If Ally couldn’t learn how to be a wildlife photographer from this woman, she would never learn.

  But Tanya, who sat on her left, wasn’t doing much talking tonight. Uncle Kurt, on Ally’s right, was the gabby one of the foursome. Mitchell sat across from Ally, watching and listening, saying very little. She’d been able to tell from his lack of surprise when he’d walked into the Loose Moose lobby that he had prior knowledge of Uncle Kurt. Grammy must have said something.

  From the way Mitchell was studying her uncle, Ally could guess that Grammy’s comments had been negative, Mitchell was on full alert. He’d barely touched his beer. Tanya, it turned out, spent most of her time looking at Mitchell. She seemed to find him fascinating. That didn’t make sense to Ally, who’d read that Tanya Mandell preferred women. Yet when Tanya gazed at Mitchell, she showed definite sexual interest.

  Maybe Tanya liked both girls and boys. Maybe she had an open relationship with her partner. Creative people sometimes walked a different path from the mainstream.

  Ally told herself not to think about it. If she worried about whether Tanya would hit on Mitchell, then she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on learning every trick of the trade from the most talented photographer in Alaska. In any case, she shouldn’t care if Tanya made a play for Mitchell.

  She shouldn’t care if Mitchell responded, either. That would make it easier for her, because she wouldn’t be tempted to scratch that particular itch anymore. Maybe he’d scratch his itch with Tanya. Ally was so indebted to Tanya for taking time out of her life to help a novice that giving up Mitchell for the cause should be a snap.

  Well, it wasn’t. Ally was so busy noticing Tanya noticing Mitchell that she barely heard what Uncle Kurt was saying. Besides that, conversation was difficult in the Top Hat tonight. Serena was the entertainment, and she was playing the zither. Ally hadn’t heard much zither music in her life, but she didn’t think it was supposed to sound quite so much like cats fighting.

  “What do you have to show us, Ally?” Uncle Kurt took a sip of his Scotch. They’d decided to have drinks before ordering dinner, although Tanya didn’t drink. She’d asked for Perrier with a twist of lime, and she’d been forced to settle for Sprite with a lemon drop.

  Ally couldn’t remember what Uncle Kurt had been talking about and she was starting to feel the effects of the Irish coffee she’d ordered. Tonight she’d stop with one. “To show you? I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Your sample pictures. I advised you to bring some. Do you have them with you?”

  “Oh!” She did, but the thought of taking that envelope out of her backpack and displaying her amateur efforts in front of Tanya made her cringe. “Uh, well, I—”

  “Don’t be shy,” Uncle Kurt said. “That’s the first thing you have to learn. Demonstrate confidence in your work. It impresses people. Tanya wants to see what you’ve done, right, Tanya?”

  “Of course.”

  Feeling more than a little nervous, Ally reached for her backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out a manila envelope. Her hands shook slightly as she took out the five pictures she’d brought and spread them on the table. She hoped Tanya wouldn’t laugh and dismiss them as hopeless.

  Everyone leaned forward, including Mitchell. “Very nice,” he said. “Very nice. I really like that lion.”

  She appreciated his support, but his wasn’t the opinion that mattered.

  Tanya glanced over the photographs. “Definite talent,” she said.

  Ally felt as if she’d won an Academy Award. Her skin warmed with pleasure. Life didn’t get much better than having her work praised by Tanya Mandell. “Thank you,” she murmured.

  “See?” Kurt looked pleased. “You’re ready to leap right into it. Think about this. Everyone else has to build a name and find a publisher in order to be recognized. Photographers can be excellent, but until they’ve collected some photo credits from major magazines, they have trouble selling a publisher on a coffee-table book.”

  Ally remembered why she’d zoned out on the discussion in the first place. She’d thought the idea of publishing something this soon was ridiculous. “I’m a long way away from a coffee-table book, Uncle Kurt.” She gathered up her pictures and put them back in the envelope.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, missy.”

  She wasn’t crazy about being called “missy,” either, but Uncle Kurt meant it in a good way, so she decided to let it go. “Seriously, I need to get a lot of basic training before I’m ready to submit to magazines. I’m hoping Tanya can give me a crash course in technique. Then it’s up to me.”

  Uncle Kurt leaned closer. “Tanya can tell you exactly how to take those pictures, so that your first efforts are more than adequate to create a coffee-table book. And we don’t look for a publisher, we publish it ourselves! I have great contacts in that area. Distribution will be a snap. We’ll flood the media with advertising. We’ll—”

  “Hold on a minute.” Ally put a hand on his arm. He meant well, but he didn’t understand. “This is sounding a little bit as if I’m going to buy my way in.”

 
“And what’s wrong with that?” Uncle Kurt laughed. “Let the other poor slobs dink around for years. Take your God-given talent and head right for the top!”

  Ally took a long, shaky breath. She’d known Uncle Kurt was a go-for-the-gusto kind of guy. That’s why she’d been so eager to hook up with him after Grammy died. She hadn’t counted on this attitude, though. He wanted her to cut corners on her way up.

  “See my point?” He beamed at her. “Good God, Ally, you’re richer than God! Why not use some of that money to get what you want?”

  She clutched his arm and lowered her voice. “I don’t want people around here to know about the money,” she said.

  “Yes, for heaven’s sakes, Kurt,” Tanya said. “That isn’t the sort of information you broadcast. No telling who might be listening. Next thing you know, all sorts of people will be pestering the poor girl for money.”

  “I could handle that,” Ally said, still keeping her voice low. “But what I couldn’t handle is people treating me differently. I came up here to escape the heiress label.” She glanced at Mitchell. “Which hasn’t been easy.”

  “Why escape it?” Uncle Kurt looked puzzled. “Why not use it to get where you want to go? Wouldn’t you agree, Tanya?”

  Ally turned to her, hoping that Tanya would see it her way. “You worked your way to the top. Don’t you think there’s a basic integrity to doing it that way? Aren’t you more confident, knowing you perfected your craft before hitting the big time?”

  Before answering, Tanya glanced disapprovingly at Serena, who was still torturing the zither. Then she turned back to Ally. “If I’d had your resources, I wouldn’t have spent all those years in the trenches, believe me. Why do that when you don’t have to?”

  “But I want to,” Ally said. “I think trench time is a good thing.”

  “Trench time is highly overrated.” Tanya had one hand on her glass, but the other had disappeared under the table. “Public perception is everything. Put out a slick package of your photographs, spend enough on publicity, and you’ll be launched. You could have it happen by next year, instead of working like a dog for ten or fifteen years, like I did.”