The P.I. Contest

by C. J. Carmichael

  “You aren’t planning to go to Liberty Lake by any chance?” he asked.

  He was. How had he managed to trump her again? “Obviously you weren’t as preoccupied with your nephew’s problems as I thought.”

  His pleased smile waned. “I’m doing everything I can to help Eric. And that includes finding a new career.”

  Again, she felt that pinprick of guilt, knowing that he needed this job not only for himself, but for his nephew, too.

  He could find something else, she reminded herself. This is my job. Lindsay promised it to me first.

  Trying to disguise her chagrin, she shrugged. “Great. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have a car to pick up.” She tried to step around him to the counter, but he touched her arm.

  “It doesn’t make sense for us to both rent a car and drive all that way. Why don’t I just fill you in when I return?”

  “Good idea. Only I’ll fill you in when I return.” She tried again to get around him, but once more he blocked her.

  “We’ll both go,” he said.

  She sighed. “All right.”

  “In the same car.”

  She hesitated, torn between his practical proposition and her personal preference to make the trip alone. Maybe, if she got to Liberty Lake first, she could still scoop him on the DNA sample.

  Brilliant idea, Kate. What are you now? A rally driver? Much as she hated to admit it, his idea was the most logical.

  “Okay, fine,” she said. “We’ll take the same car. But come back to the counter. I want my name listed in the contract as one of the drivers. And I’m taking the first shift behind the wheel.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  KATE DIDN’T LOOK WELL, but Jay hesitated to say anything. He didn’t often run across people with a stronger competitive urge than his, but he suspected Kate fell in that category. She’d sooner expire from exhaustion than admit she wasn’t up to driving.

  Not that he felt unsafe. She was keeping her attention on the road and maintaining a reasonable speed. But her face was flushed and she was going through throat drops like candy.

  “How’s the gas?” he asked, thinking if they stopped at a station, he’d be able to suggest it was his turn to drive.

  “Almost full.”

  Damn compact cars. They should have rented a gas-guzzling SUV. Jay gazed out the window at the forested hills sprawled on either side of the highway. They’d left urban life behind about an hour ago. According to his GPS they still had almost two hours to go.

  Kate reached for the cup holder and took a swig of the orange juice she’d brought along for the trip. Then she popped another throat drop.

  “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she insisted, her tone edgy.

  She didn’t look fine. A sheen of sweat had formed on her brow. “Well, I’m sure you wouldn’t risk our lives by driving when you knew you weren’t up to it.”

  She glared at him, but otherwise made no reply.

  Interesting woman. He wondered if she would ever reveal her softer side to him. Maybe she didn’t have one. But then he supposed if you wanted to work for the NYPD, you had to be tough.

  Kate certainly acted like she was.

  She didn’t look it, though, and maybe that was why she adopted an extra edge when she was working. In profile her features were delicate, and her hands on the steering wheel were fine-boned and elegant, despite the closely cropped fingernails that spoke to her practical nature. She was a very thin woman, especially in her upper body, with a narrow rib cage and high, small breasts. He’d bet she was hot in a bikini. And even hotter without one.

  “You’ve got to stop looking at me like that.”

  Her glare made him smile. “How did you know how I was looking at you?” He could have sworn she was concentrating on the road.

  “I’ve worked with male partners ever since I graduated from the academy. Trust me, I know.”

  “Is that why you’re so serious around me? Are you afraid I’ll hit on you?”

  “Why? Do you want to?”

  The direct challenge caught him by surprise. He found himself thinking it over. Did he want to? His body immediately reacted to the idea, which was an answer he wasn’t about to share with Kate.

  “You’re a very attractive woman—”

  “Oh, forget it. I was just yanking your chain. The reason I’m serious around you is because whenever you see me, I’m at work, and I take my work very seriously. It’s why I’m eventually going to win this competition and get this job.”

  “If this guy at Liberty Lake turns out to be our man, you won’t win. We’ll be tied.”

  She scowled. “Don’t I know it.”

  “Maybe they’ll give us a second case to work on.”

  For a moment he thought she was going to explode. Then he realized she was laughing, and he joined in. Enjoying the release of tension, Jay confided, “I’m serious about my work, too. Believe me, you wouldn’t want to fly with a pilot who wasn’t.”

  She flashed her gray-green eyes in his direction, her gaze curious. “How old were you when you decided you wanted to fly for a living?”

  “Oh, I was young. Like a lot of kids, I was fascinated by planes. When I was about six we lived very close to the airport. I used to hike to a field beside the flight path. I’d lie in the grass and watch the planes soar over my head.”

  He used to wonder where all the people were going. One day, he promised himself, he’d go places, too. And not just as a passenger.

  “Your mom let you do that by yourself?”

  “She wasn’t what you’d call a ‘hands-on’ kind of parent. She had a lot on her mind. Most of the time I had my kid sister with me. She liked planes, too.”

  Until she was older. Then she’d started liking boys. And alcohol. And, for a brief period of time, drugs. For years he’d tried to figure out what he could have done to help Tracy turn out differently. He’d never found any answers. Which didn’t bode well for Eric, he was afraid.

  “What about your dad?”

  “He was with the army. The year Tracy was born he was killed in Nicaragua.”

  Maybe life had been good before then. Jay had no way of knowing for sure, though there were photos that suggested his mother had once been not only kind and loving, but also sober.

  “That must have been tough.”

  “We survived.” He had, anyway. His mother had died well before her time. And now Tracy was gone, too. They had both died from overdoses of the substances they were addicted to. And he had stood helplessly on the sidelines watching it happen.

  Now his nephew faced the same dangers. Drugs or gangs. Either one could kill him. But how could he convince the fourteen-year-old that he was on the wrong path?

  He twisted slightly in his seat. Time was ticking away, along with the miles. Since they’d started talking, Kate didn’t seem to be reaching for as many of her cough candies. Maybe the conversation was distracting her. Or perhaps the little white pill she’d swallowed earlier was finally taking effect.

  At any rate, he’d rather chat than sit in silence and stew about his problems. “What about you? Where did you grow up?”

  “In Manhattan. The Upper East Side. My parents both taught at State University.”

  “Any brothers or sisters?”

  She gave him a dour look. “My parents were in their forties when I was born, and not about to make the same mistake twice. Dad got snipped before I was even born.”

  “I suppose that was the smart thing to do, if he knew he didn’t want more kids. I hear it’s a simple operation, as surgeries go.”

  She seemed surprised he had said that. “Out of curiosity…how would you know?”

  He shrugged. For years he’d been toying with the idea of getting a vasectomy. Unplanned pregnancy was a sort of theme with his family. First his mother, then his sister. He was always very careful with birth control, but it would be nice to know that he was one hundred percent safe.

  “You don’
t want to have kids?” she pressed.

  “No.” He’d spent his childhood raising his sister. Now he had Eric to worry about. “Do you?”

  Her answer surprised the hell out of him.

  “More than anything.”

  AN HOUR LATER, Kate spotted the turnoff for Liberty Lake. A narrow paved road led fifteen miles off the highway to a lake nestled in the midst of a heavily treed valley. The road stopped about two hundred yards shy of the beach. The lake would be frozen at this time of year and the sand was covered with snow, but Kate could tell it would be heavenly in the summer. A row of cabins stood behind a tall stand of spruce. Only one cottage, bigger than the rest, had been built along the shoreline.

  “Nice place.” Jay had been quiet ever since she’d admitted how badly she wanted children. She wondered what had shocked him so much.

  Did he think that someone who had worked as a police officer couldn’t be a good mother?

  Or did he simply find the idea of wanting children incomprehensible?

  She thought about Conner, who had told her he’d like to have three or four children, too. When he’d told her that, she’d felt so sure that they were made for one another. But maybe he’d only been saying what he thought she wanted to hear.

  Last night was the first time he hadn’t tried to call her since she’d moved him out of her apartment. She wondered if he’d already moved on. Maybe he was more serious about Emily White than she’d thought.

  Whatever the reason, she really didn’t care.

  Again, she felt fortunate that she’d discovered the truth about his character before the wedding and not after.

  “There’s a sign for visitor parking.” Jay pointed out a right-hand turn, and she coasted the small car into a slot in a row of empty parking spaces.

  Kate squirted some disinfectant hand-wash into her palm and rubbed it over her hands. Then she pulled a wool hat over her head and stepped out into the gray, cold day, her feet settling on packed snow. All the cabins appeared vacant—which was to be expected given this was off-season.

  Still, Kate had no trouble imagining what the resort would be like in the summer. The green of the trees, the smell of the water, the sound of children laughing and splashing. All of the happiest times of her childhood had been spent at a summer camp in a setting much like this one.

  At camp her parents’ opinions hadn’t mattered so much. The physical activities she loved—swimming, softball, running—were actually encouraged and there were no white linens to worry about at meal times.

  “I guess the owners must live in the big house on the lake,” Jay said.

  Kate agreed, and set out with him in that direction. A path had been shoveled through the snow and they followed this until the sound of voices diverted their attention to the lake. A man and a woman were out on snowshoes, heading toward the cottage. Wooden steps leading from the cottage to the lake had been cleared of snow and she and Jay waited there as the couple approached.

  “Are you looking for us?” the man asked as he drew near. He was about five foot nine, in his mid-forties, trim and obviously in good shape. The woman beside him seemed similar in age, a few inches shorter, with the sort of pale skin that turned brilliant red when cold—much like Kate’s.

  “That depends,” Kate replied. “Are you James Morgan?”

  “Sure am, though I usually go by Jimmy. This is my wife, Samantha.”

  “Sammy,” the woman corrected with a smile.

  Jimmy and Sammy. Too cute. Kate couldn’t hold it against them, though. There was something inherently likable about these people, who, judging from their friendly behavior, were not the sort to fear bad news from strangers.

  “I’m Kate Cooper and this is Jay Savage. We’re private investigators with a firm in New York City. We’ve been hired by Hannah Young to locate her biological father.”

  “And you figure I can help you find him?”

  “Do you remember Rebecca Wagner?” she asked, using Rebecca’s maiden name.

  Jimmy went still. Then he swallowed. “I think we better go to the house and pour some drinks.”

  AS SHE FOLLOWED the Morgans up a set of stairs, through a porch and into a large, open family room, Kate felt she was entering a home filled with comfort and love. The cottage had white wainscoting on the walls and wide windows overlooking the lake. The decorating was haphazard, everything from the furniture to the knickknacks to the paintings on the walls had been chosen with no particular theme in mind, and nothing in the room seemed to have been purchased in the current decade.

  Still, the ultimate effect was to make a guest sigh and feel at ease.

  Jimmy went to a cabinet and took down a bottle of port. Kate and Jay both declined, but Sammy accepted a small glass and immediately swallowed all of it.

  “Rebecca is the girl I told you about in my first year of college,” Jimmy told his wife. “She dropped out of school before finals. I never thought to wonder why. We hadn’t, um, gone out again after that first time.” He turned to Kate. “I take it she had a child?”

  Kate glanced at Jay. He was following the conversation with interest, but didn’t seem annoyed that she’d taken the lead with the questioning. She turned back to Jimmy. “Yes. She had a daughter.”

  Jimmy gave a long whistle of amazement. His wife stepped behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. He rested his own hand over hers. A nice gesture of solidarity, Kate thought.

  “Hannah Young, you said?” Jimmy sought confirmation in her eyes and Kate nodded.

  “If she was conceived in your first year of college, she must be about twenty-five,” Samantha calculated.

  “Wow.” Jimmy gave a slight shake of his head. “This is amazing.” He turned to his wife. “Samantha and I—we weren’t able to have children. We’ve come to terms with that and we have a great life. But, why did Rebecca wait so long to tell me?”

  “Rebecca gave her daughter up for adoption,” Kate explained. “Hannah has been very happy with her adoptive parents and the only reason she wants to find her birth parents now is to make sure there are no genetic problems in her family tree. She recently married and she and her husband are hoping to have children.”

  “Wow,” Jimmy said again. “Well, you can tell her not to worry on my account. My parents are alive and healthy and both sets of grandparents are still around, as well. I’d love to meet her and so would they, I’m sure.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Jay cautioned.

  At Jimmy’s and Samantha’s confused frowns, Kate said, “Rebecca isn’t certain who the father is. She has given us the names of three possibilities, one of whom is you. Only DNA testing will give us the definitive answer Hannah needs.”

  “Three possibilities,” Samantha said, her tone a little incredulous.

  “That doesn’t sound good, but Rebecca was a nice kid from a strict family,” Jimmy explained to his wife. “A lot of us went a little wild with our first taste of freedom.”

  Kate thought it was gallant that he was so quick to defend Rebecca. Apparently so did his wife. She smiled gently. “Wild? You, Jimmy?”

  He laughed, then poured a second helping of the port for both of them. “I guess I had my moments.”

  They were such a sweet couple. And what a gene pool. Kate really hoped that Jimmy would turn out to be Hannah’s father.

  “So how do we test my DNA?” Jimmy asked. “Do I need to go to a doctor or something?”

  “Actually, it’s very easy.” Kate opened her leather bag and extracted the kit she’d brought from the office. “We just need a swab of saliva from your mouth, then we send it, along with a sample from Hannah and Rebecca, to the lab.”

  Jimmy cast his wife a nervous glance. “That is easy. How long until we’ll know the results?”

  “The agency uses an express service, so it takes only two working days. And the results are virtually one hundred percent accurate.”

  “Oh my God.” The enormity of it all was finally sinking in. Jimmy sagged down on a kitc
hen stool. “I could have a daughter. A twenty-five-year-old daughter.”

  “And perhaps, in nine months or so, a grandchild,” added his wife.

  He locked gazes with her, and slowly they both smiled.

  Kate’s eyes watered as she watched the slow blossoming of an abandoned dream. They hadn’t been able to have children of their own. It would be such a wonderful gift if Jimmy turned out to be Hannah’s father. As she reached for a tissue, she noticed Jay watching her.

  “This darn cold,” she muttered.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  AFTER THEIR MEETING with the Morgans was concluded, Kate and Jay headed back to the rental car. Kate’s head was pounding now and she felt so chilled she could hardly wait to get into the car and crank up the heat.

  “My turn to drive,” Jay said.

  She didn’t have the energy to argue. She placed her bag with the DNA sample in the backseat, then relinquished the car keys to him.

  She sank into her seat and barely managed to find the energy to fasten her seat belt. God, it felt good to relax.

  Jay backed out of the parking space and started along the road toward the highway. She waited impatiently for the vehicle to warm up, but even fifteen minutes later she still felt cold.

  “Mind if I turn up the heat?”

  “It’s already—” Jay looked at her assessingly, then acquiesced. “Sure. Go ahead.”

  She adjusted the dials and a moment later, hot air was blowing at her feet, slowly warming her from the bottom up.

  She needed another pain reliever, preferably two, but the vial was somewhere in the bottom of her leather bag and she felt too tired to search for it. She hated feeling under the weather like this. What she needed was a good night’s sleep. The idea of sinking under her down comforter was heaven, but first she’d need to take the DNA samples to Nadine and make sure they were sent by rush courier to the lab.

  She couldn’t leave that job to Jay, because technically, if he was the one who sent in the sample, then he would be able to say he solved the case, which was so far from the truth.