“Hope tells me she finished the portrait of you for your mother,” Sophia said as she began to unload loaves of French bread from the bags and assorted meats from the basket she’d packed.
“Yes. Her birthday is at the end of August. I can’t wait to see her face,” he said, and his gaze shifted toward Hope’s.
“I hope she likes it. I’m kinda nervous about giving it to her.”
“Why?” Sophia looked up at Hope. “You are an amazing artist. I can’t imagine why you would be nervous.”
“Because his mother knows his face pretty well. What if she looks at it and thinks it’s all wrong?”
“What if she looks at it and sees it through your eyes and realizes she’s missed something all along.” Sophia smiled, and Trevor’s nerves settled. “Trevor, I think she’ll love it.”
“I know she will.”
The chime over the door rang and David called back to them, “I’m here to buy the whole place.”
Hope laughed as she moved past them to embrace her father in an enormous hug. He kept one arm around her as he looked at the food his wife set out on the table.
“You did say come by for a sandwich, right?”
“I did.” Sophia turned and kissed him. “I think I covered everyone’s favorites right down to a small jar of peanut butter and jelly for my grandbabies.”
“And to think, you almost gave all of this domestic stuff up to travel Europe.”
Trevor watched as her eyes changed. She turned toward David, placed a hand on his cheek, and smiled. “I’m still trying to make up for those years I lost.” She placed a gentle kiss on his lips again and Trevor thought he could feel tears tugging at him. He turned and pulled out items from the basket. The sentimental moment he’d just witnessed between two people who loved each other so much made him long for that same connection. In twenty years, would he and Hope share moments like that?
He lifted his eyes to see her. She was smiling at her parents as though she’d appreciated the moment as much as they had.
The ringing of his cell phone interrupted his observation. He reached into his pocket and answered.
“Trevor Jacobs,” he said as he walked past Hope and her parents to take the call. “When?”
Hope had walked out of the room and toward him as he spoke. He held up a hand to tell her it was urgent. “I see. And the police?” he asked, and he saw her eyes widen. “Okay. I’ll be right there.”
“Trevor, what happened?” She reached out and touched his arm.
“Someone broke into my hotel room,” he whispered, not wanting to alarm her parents, who were probably listening closely whether they meant to or not.
“Oh, No!” She covered her mouth. “Why? What were they looking for?”
He gently pulled Hope through the store toward the front door.
“I don’t know.” He knew they wouldn’t have found anything but his clothing and toiletries. All his files were in the trunk of his car—he didn’t want Hope finding them yet either. “I have to go.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You’re not going with me.” He gathered her hands in his. They were shaking. “I want you to stay here. You’re going to have to tell your parents and your sister because I don’t want you to be alone.”
She nodded at his instruction. “Why do you think someone did this? Do you think this has to do with Mandy?”
“I don’t know. But if it wasn’t random and they were looking for something that I have, then maybe they know I’ve been with you.” He kissed her gently. “Don’t go back to your place and do not leave this store without someone with you. Tell them what you must, but I want you safe.”
She nodded again and gave him a quick, hard kiss on the mouth. “Be careful.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Whoever had broken in to Trevor’s room had trashed the place, torn down the drapes, turned over the bed. The items Trevor had left were in a pile on the floor.
“Do you have an idea of anyone who would have done this to you?” the police officer asked as he jotted down notes about the room.
“I’m a private investigator. I suppose I could have enemies.”
“Anyone tied to a case you might be working on?”
Trevor knew it was tied to the case he was working on, but he wasn’t about to tell the officer that. He’d pay for the damage to the room. What he couldn’t pay for was any harm that may come to Hope if he spoke.
He shook his head. “It’s never happened before.”
As he walked farther into the room, his cell phone rang. It was Bryce, and Trevor sure wasn’t in the mood to hear about the redhead from upstairs, but to keep the police officer’s stare off him he turned his back and took the call.
“Hey, Bryce. What’s new?” A string of curses from Bryce had Trevor smiling. “Redhead break your heart?”
“They broke into the apartment!”
Trevor was glad he had his back turned to the officer because he couldn’t have hidden the shock that must be plastered across his face.
“Hey, let me call you back in a few.”
“What? Can’t you hear me?”
“I heard you. Give me ten,” he said, hanging up the phone and turning back to the officer. “Sorry, broken-hearted friend.”
The officer nodded. “Well I’ll head back to the station and fill this out. We’ll be looking into the surveillance tapes for the floor as well. If you come up with anything, please let us know. And drop by the station later today. There’ll be an incident report for you to sign.”
“Absolutely.”
He walked through the room only partially aware that the manager of the hotel and the officer were outside the door. He picked through his clothes. There was nothing ripped or torn. They had only thrown them on the floor. He began to fold them up and dig through the remains of the room to find his suitcase.
“Mr. Jacobs, I apologize for all of this.” The hotel manager waved his arms to signal the destruction of the room.
“Please, I know this isn’t your fault.”
“Well, it appears to be a problem with our cleaning staff, sir. I have reviewed the tapes. The only person who was in your room today was the housekeeper, and we cannot find her.”
Trevor nodded. “And my room was the only one destroyed?”
“Yes. It seems she opened the door with the cart parked outside of it. She came back out, shut the door, and walked down the hall to the room where we keep the supplies and left the cart.” He shrugged.
Trevor nodded again. This had nothing to do with the housekeeper and he knew it. “Well, nothing is missing and nothing looks broken on my end.”
“We would like to offer you another room. On the hotel, of course, for your inconvenience.”
“I appreciate that, sir. But I just received a phone call from New York,” he said, still holding his cell phone in his hand. “It looks like I’m needed back. I guess my stay was almost over anyway.”
“I know the police are investigating this, but if we find anything we will certainly be in touch.”
“That would be wonderful.”
“I hope you’d consider staying here again,” the manager pleaded.
Trevor smiled and shook the man’s hand. “My stay was pleasant. This was random. I wouldn’t hold it against the hotel.”
The manager looked satisfied with that and moved toward the door where Trevor now noticed a security guard posted.
He finished packing his bag and signed all necessary papers with the hotel. He threw his bag into the trunk of his car and headed to the police station to sign some papers there as well.
Trevor made the phone call to Bryce as he left the police station. He’d made him wait three hours and he knew Bryce wasn’t going to be happy.
“Bryce.” He held the phone away from his ear as the string of curses flew from his roommate.
“They broke into the office too. What are you into? You should see this place. They broke all my CDs.” He could hea
r Bryce kicking around items at his feet.
“What did they do to the office?”
“I don’t know. Call your mommy. She’s the one who found out about the office. I’m stuck here in the mess of an apartment waiting for the cops.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’d better be. Freaked the redhead out. She won’t move in now.”
He laughed. “Sorry for that too.”
“You know who did this?”
“I have an idea. They just hit my hotel too. I was talking to the police when you called.”
“Man, you’re in over your head.”
Trevor agreed on many levels. “I’m headed that way. I should be in there by nine in the morning.”
“And I’ll bet you need a ride from the airport.”
“Yeah. That would be helpful.”
“And in your sick mind I assume you think I’ll come get you like I owe you for something.”
“You do.”
“What? For all my stuff getting wrecked?”
“For the redhead.”
“I told you, this freaked her out.”
“I’ll talk to her while I’m there.”
“Sure,” Bryce said and Trevor heard the doubt. “Come home. Do the redhead and then dump her on me. That’s a pal.”
“Trust me, I’m not going to be doing anything to her.”
“You’re totally legit with that girl?”
“Totally,” he said, silently laughing at his friend’s cluelessness to the world beyond their trashed apartment. “How’s my mom?”
“Oh, you know her. She’s Sherlock Holmes in a skirt. She’ll have the case closed before you get here.”
He laughed again. Yeah, he was probably right. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
It had grown late and he’d wanted to wait and call Hope when he arrived in New York the next morning, but his phone was ringing before he cleared the turn for the airport. It was Hope’s cell phone.
“Hi, baby,” he answered softly, hoping not to cause panic.
“Hey. Is everything okay? Do they know who did this?”
“No. They think it was a housekeeper. But I want you to stay with Carissa.”
“Yeah, no problem. That’s why I’m calling. Thomas said you should come here too.” Her voice was sweet, and he already missed her more than he’d ever missed any other person in his life.
“I can’t. I’m on my way to New York.”
“Right now?” And there was the sound of panic he was trying to avoid.
“I just got a call from my roommate. It seems my office in the city was also broken into.”
“Trevor,” she whispered and he heard her move about the room and then the door shut. “What’s going on?”
“Listen, it’s nothing. But I have to check on the office and my apartment. My roommate is a little freaked out.”
“Was he at your office?”
“No,” he let out a ragged breath. “They hit the apartment too.”
“No!” He heard the tears forming in her voice.
“Hey, Hope. I want you to calm down. Please.”
“Someone is after you,” she said and in the solitude of his car, he shook his head.
No, honey. Someone is after you.
“I’ll be okay. I want you to stay with your sister. I’ll be back in just a few days. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Trevor, when you get back, you stay with me.”
“Hope, this isn’t the time to go into that.”
“Then don’t. Know that you’re moving in with me. Until everything is settled at least. Then if you think you want a place away from me that’s fine. But I’m being firm on this.”
He smiled. How, he loved her. He was going to have to make a point to tell her that an awful lot when this mess with Donald Buchanan was over.
“Okay.”
“Be careful.”
“I promise.” He took the exit to the airport. “I have to turn in the car now. I’ll call you from New York.”
It was his mother standing at the baggage claim when he arrived and not Bryce.
Violet Jacobs smiled at her son, her arms open wide to engulf him in a hug. Trevor smiled as she wrapped her arms around him. He could have picked her up and swung her around, he’d missed her that much.
He took a look at her when he backed away. She was dressed in a business suit and heels. A string of pearls adorned her neck and her perfectly coiffed hair swung just past her jaw. In true fashion of his mother, she interlaced her perfectly French-manicured fingers and raised her eyebrows to him. She didn’t say a word, but was asking what’s going on?
“I think it’s the wife,” he said as he hoisted his suitcase from the baggage carousel and walked beside his mother toward the elevator.
“Buchanan’s?”
“Yeah.” They stepped into the elevator. “He seems to have disappeared.”
“He had a heart attack Sunday night. He’s still in ICU.”
“Bryce figured you’d have this all solved.” The elevator opened and they exited to the parking garage.
“Did he?” she asked, her voice playful and knowing.
“So fill me in. What did I get myself into?”
Violet said nothing but simply smiled as they walked toward her BMW parked near the elevator. She hit the key fob and opened the trunk. Trevor lifted his case into the trunk and then walked toward the driver’s door and opened it for his mother. She passed by him, patted his cheek, and slid into the car.
Trevor shut the door and took a moment to walk around the car. He let out a breath and then climbed into the passenger seat.
Violet handed him a manila envelope as she drove out of the garage. He opened it and dumped the contents into his lap, then gave a low whistle.
“You work fast.”
“Thank you.”
“So this is Delores Buchanan?” He examined the photograph, his brows knit.
“That’s her.”
“In my head this is exactly what I envisioned. Scary.”
Violet snickered behind her large dark sunglasses. She paid the parking fee and pulled into traffic.
“So you think I’m right? You think she’s the one behind all of this?
“She’s looking for that girl you’re smitten with.”
“Head over heels in love, Mom.”
Violet nodded. “You never were one to wait on things when you wanted them. Does she feel the same way?”
“I think she does, but the family is leery of me.”
“Who wouldn’t open their arms for my son? He’s such a good boy,” she said in a patronizing tone.
“The family who watches out too closely for her.” He lifted his head and turned toward his mother. “They all know she asked me to help find out about her birth parents. Hardest part is keeping my confidentiality for Buchanan. And up until now he’s asked me to get to know her, paid me up front, in cash, but doesn’t want his wife to know. So here I am playing secretive boyfriend and the sister knows I know too much.”
“Oh, you are in so deep.” She was laughing, which meant she wasn’t worried. He hoped that Hope and Carissa would laugh too when the truth came out.
“Anyway, why is Mrs. Scary Buchanan looking for my Hope?”
“I think she’s the reason your Hope lives with her biological sister and her father.”
“Run that by me again.”
She smiled her in-fact-I-do-have-it-all-figured-out smile. “From what I can pull together, your client had an affair with a woman twenty-four years ago.”
“Not news,” he said with a rise of his brows.
“Do you want help?” He nodded. She continued, “Somewhere in all this sneaking around the wife got involved, found out about the mistress, confronted the mistress and not the husband. So whatever went down between Scary Buchanan and your girlfriend’s biological mother landed Hope in the hands of the family she grew up with.”
“You think she threatened Mandy?”
; “Yes, that’s what I think.”
“And why is it that you sell auto, home, and life?” he joked as he fingered his way through the papers on his lap.
His office was trashed too. Every file had been dumped, every drawer emptied, and the water cooler smashed against the wall. Whoever had come looking hadn’t found what he was looking for.
“I told you it was a mess,” Bryce complained. “How are we going to pay for this?”
“I know for a fact you have a good insurance agent,” Trevor joked as he walked through the mess toward his desk.
His letter opener had been stabbed into the wood as though the culprit had taken his revenge on the desk. He shook his head as he tugged the letter opener free.
“Scary Buchanan didn’t do this on her own. She has people working for her.” He looked around. “I need to find out why.”
“Why? She’s an overprotective witch! Her husband messed around on her, and obviously it’s the fault of the floozy.”
“Nice thinking, huh?”
Bryce shrugged. “That’s how some people think.”
“So why has she been quiet for twenty-three years?”
“There wasn’t a threat until you came along.”
“I didn’t just come along.” Trevor looked up at Bryce. “He came to me.”
“Then there’s a reason. If his wife made the mistress disappear, then something got his attention to tell him there was a child.”
Bryce was a moron most days, but he was a brilliant puzzle solver.
“So what I need to find out is who contacted him.”
“Duh!”
Trevor laughed, picked up his chair from the floor, and sat down at his disheveled desk. “So Buchanan can’t keep secrets very well. Wife found out about the mistress, and nearly a quarter of a century later she finds out he hired me to find the child he didn’t know about.”
Bryce nodded. “Yep.”
“And he’s not going to be much help since he’s in the hospital.”
“She try to kill him?”
“I don’t know. Mom said he had a heart attack and is in ICU.”
“And you’re thinking that if he’s in ICU his wife is dutifully sitting by his side and you can go ask her yourself.”
Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) Page 11
