by Sheryl Lynn
Daniel gently grasped her shoulders and guided her onto a chair. Too weary to fight, she sat. He urged her to lower her chin to her chest. She made a small sound of protest.
“Relax.” He began massaging the base of her skull. He worked his thumbs in small, slow circles. He used the pads of his fingers to firmly rub her scalp, but concentrated most of the pressure in his thumbs. He worked his way down her neck. As he probed the knots in her muscles, she couldn’t help a groan. It hurt so good.
The knots loosened, and her skin warmed. He worked his hands behind her ears and over her scalp. Heaven. When he reached her temples she leaned her head back. The throbbing pain melted beneath his fingers. With a touch so light it almost tickled he massaged her eyebrows and the outer corners of her eyes.
“Feel good?” he asked.
“Umm-hmm.”
“How’s your headache?”
“Bearable.” Along with being a movie star, he could also be a massage therapist. “Where did you learn how to do this?”
“Here and there. You ought to try my foot massages. Pure bliss.”
She opened her eyes and found him looming over her. Such a lovely mouth with a full lower lip. Such lovely eyes.
While using his nails to lightly scratch her scalp he eased around her. He maintained eye contact, and though her eyelids lowered in pure pleasure, she watched him, too. Fullness seeped into her belly. His fingers slid over her ears. He cupped her face in both hands. He lowered his face to hers, but paused. Slight trembling reverberated through his palms.
She wanted him to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. He hovered so close she smelled him. That he awaited her permission left her giddy with strange power.
Reason said rebuff him. Reason said he was just like every other horny male who treated her like a toy.
Reason and Daniel Tucker failed to compute. “Are you going to stand there like an idiot?” she asked. “Or kiss me?”
“And have you thinking I’m crude?” He straightened, withdrawing his hands, slowly, agonizingly over her cheeks. He picked up fallen papers.
With her mouth hanging open, she watched him acting as if their little interlude hadn’t meant a thing. She wanted to slap him. But that would mean rising from the chair, and she didn’t trust her knees to support her. He tucked the papers into the folder and handed it to her. She took it automatically.
Arguments formed, but all sounded stupid in her head.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
Only everything. She couldn’t believe she asked him to kiss her—she couldn’t believe he refused! “Did we accomplish anything today?”
He frowned thoughtfully. “I now know you’re a sucker for a good massage.”
Paper crunched in her fingers. His grin widened. Arrogant tease, she thought. He enjoyed her discomfiture far too much.
“Our suspect list is down to five. Pinky is on notice that if he tries any more vandalism he could lose his job and you. Plus, he knows who his real enemy is. Me.” He winked. “Nice touch about me taking you to Greece, eh?”
“Lovely.” His comment spooked her. In all her world travels, she’d never visited the Greek islands. Visiting Greece was her dream vacation. Either he’d made a lucky guess, or he actually was psychic.
She rose and took a moment to straighten her blazer and regain her composure. Looking directly at him proved impossible. “What do we do now?”
“Pinky needs some time to digest this. Telling him he really is anonymous should knock him off balance. He’s going to have to come up with some way to convince you otherwise.” He sobered and placed a hand on her upper arm. “You have to be careful.”
Prickles ran up and down her spine. “I am.”
“I mean, really careful. I’m not willing to bet your life that I can predict Pinky’s behavior.”
She wished he was teasing her again. The headache returned, gallumphing back and forth through her skull like an out-of-control billiard ball.
“The best I can do is speculate. There’s no way to know for sure what he’s thinking. Until we catch him, we can’t know for sure he’s one of our suspects. He could be anybody. Even someone you’ve known for years. Cody. Or your crazy chef. Your buddy the cop. I believe in my heart one of those five kids is Pinky, but we aren’t risking your safety. Got it?”
This was not what she wanted to hear. “I get it.”
“You stick with me. Allow no one, for any reason, to get you alone. Don’t answer doors. Let me do it.”
Gooseflesh broke out on her arms. She shivered. “Isn’t it dangerous for you to answer doors?”
“Better me than you.”
“I’m not paying you enough to risk your life.”
His eyebrows rose and his eyes gleamed. A compelling, sexual gleam that struck her squarely in the belly. She wanted to grab him by the sweater and kiss him. Ravish him. See if he remained so cool and cocky after that!
“Want to renegotiate?” he asked, his voice so silky she almost sighed.
She needed to muster indignation regarding his seductive tone. Knowing and doing were worlds apart. Right at this moment, she wanted to taste his lips, press her nose against his skin, run his fingers through his hair....
The door burst open and both of them jumped. Daniel conjured the Luger before Janine realized he’d moved. She’d have screamed, but the lump in her throat prevented it
Kara flung out a hand. “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Daniel tucked the pistol behind his back. His sharp exhalation matched hers.
“I’m right here,” Janine said. “We just finished the meeting. What do you need?”
In her peripheral vision she noticed Daniel turn a shoulder so he could holster the pistol without Kara seeing the action. He tugged his sweater over his hips. The speed with which he’d reacted astonished her...thrilled her.
“Debbi and Kevin helped me haul decorations upstairs. You said we’d work on the party decorations tonight. Remember?” She closed the door and lowered her voice. “How did it go? Do you know who Pinky is?”
“Not yet. Have you heard anybody say anything?”
Kara displayed hands darkened by dirt and dust “I’ve been rooting around in the basement ever since I got off shift. I haven’t heard anything. What am I listening for?”
“You’ll know when you hear it,” Daniel said. “I have a feeling that by tomorrow morning everyone will have something to say about Pinky.”
Janine couldn’t resist. “And you, dear. Don’t forget, they’ll have plenty to say about you.”
THE FIRST FALLOUT from the meeting struck Janine the next morning while she filled a carafe of coffee. George Hornberger, called Chef by everybody, stormed across the kitchen, yelling at her. A short, dark, thick-necked man, he appeared to swell, toadlike and venomous. His Austrian accent thickened until he was nearly incoherent.
Janine arched an eyebrow. “Pardon?”
Gesticulating wildly, dark eyes blazing, Chef stomped his feet and hollered. Janine understood he was upset about Brian. The kitchen was Chefs territory and as far as he was concerned, anyone who worked in the kitchen belonged to him. Used to his tantrums, she waited patiently for him to run out of steam.
“You are absolutely correct,” she said. “I should have spoken to you before I questioned Brian.”
He scowled suspiciously and shook a thick finger at her face. He slowed his speech as if remembering he spoke English. “Bringing you man troubles in here, not allowed! I Baking, roasting—too much to do. Work dark to dark, not life easy like you, big boss lady. All this man thing, too many problems!”
It took her several seconds to work through his tortured syntax before she realized he blamed her love life for upsetting the kitchen staff. Heat flared on her face and she bit hard on her inner cheek. She refused to argue with Chef; refused to humiliate herself with an explanation. She looked around the large kitchen. The people who were hard at work preparing the day’s fare kept their back
s to the scene between Chef and Janine. “Where is Brian?” She prayed the young man hadn’t quit.
Chef jerked a thumb over his shoulder and told her Brian was unloading supplies from a truck. She tuned out the criticisms he directed at her.
“Pinky is a serious threat,” she slipped in when he paused to take a breath. “If I can’t stop him, we will close the resort in order to protect our guests.” Behind her, Daniel lingered near the doorway. She knew he was studying the reactions of the kitchen workers.
Chefs eyes widened so whites showed all the way around the irises. She was surprised he’d heard a single thing she said. She nodded firmly. “That’s right. We’ll shut the whole place down.”
“’Cause you play man against man?”
“Because Pinky is a seriously deranged criminal and I’m afraid he’s going to hurt someone. You, sir, will cooperate in my investigation.”
Seeing him gearing up for another tantrum, she flung up a hand and leaned in close. He shied like a spooked horse. For his ears only, she said through her teeth, “If you say one more word, I will make you eat every syllable. I am not in the mood!”
He opened his mouth, exposing his teeth. No words emerged.
She grabbed the full carafe and two cups, and stalked out of the kitchen.
Daniel fell into step beside her. He looked amused, and admiring. “He really is crazy. He was even scaring me, and I couldn’t understand a word he said.”
“He’s more trouble than he’s worth,” she grumbled. “One of these days he’s going to take that temperamental artiste crud too far and I’ll can him.” An empty threat He was a wizard in the kitchen, creating culinary masterpieces. Because of him the restaurant was always packed with diners. He’d be throwing temper tantrums unchecked into the next century.
She unlocked her office door. “So what do you think? If Brian is Pinky, would he go whining to Chef about me?”
“I don’t think so. But then again, he might think it’s the way he’s supposed to act That’s the thing with sociopaths. They have no emotional base. They’re like parrots. Instead of mimicking words, they mimic emotions.”
“We don’t know for sure that Pinky is a sociopath.” She passed a hand wearily over her eyes. A nasty nightmare had plagued her sleep last night. In the dream she hadn’t escaped the fire. Her father hadn’t escaped, either. She had frantically tried to beat out the flames on his body while he told her how disappointed he was in her performance. The nightmare haunted to her. “Are we making any progress at all?”
“Pinky isn’t obsessing about your father. That’s progress.”
“Why is he still hiding?”
He showed his palms. “I don’t know.”
She leveled a hard gaze on him. “You’re the expert. You’re supposed to know.”
“We’re not dealing with a machine or a computer program. In Pinky’s head, anonymity controls you. Secrecy is the key to his delusion. He believes you’re conspiring with him.”
“That’s absurd.” It was also incredibly creepy. She scrubbed her arms against the itchy sensation crawling over her flesh.
Daniel opened an employee file. “Brian has a gap in employment.”
She imagined Brian had been pudgy and awkward all his life. Perhaps the teasing and tormenting from other children had created a monster. “He’s only nineteen. Gaps are expected.”
“He’s been steadily employed for the past three years except for one three-month period. Which just happened to occur during the time you lost the Day-Timer.”
She took the file and perused the dates. Brian hadn’t explained the three-month gap on the application form. “He didn’t work at the restaurant where I was having lunch that day.”
“He didn’t list it on his résumé. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.”
“It should be easy enough to check—”
“I did check.”
Surprised, she sat down hard. Her chair squeaked.
He helped himself to coffee. He wore a dark blue sweater today. The color looked good with his shiny brown hair and suntanned skin. She wondered what color boxer shorts he wore. Last night and this morning he’d been vigilant about keeping his robe closed. Such wayward thoughts disturbed her. Daniel Tucker’s underwear was of no concern to her.
“The restaurant was one of those trend chains, owned by an investment group out of Texas. They opened three restaurants on North Academy Boulevard within a year. All three went out of business within a year. The investment group has broken up and they’re all suing one another. I hired a private investigator in Texas to hunt down the employee records for me, but he’s not having much luck. With all the litigation going on, cooperation with us is a low priority.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you hired a private eye?”
“You have your job, I have mine. I told the police about the restaurant and gave them the name of the guy who managed it. We’ll see if it turns into a solid lead.”
A knock on the door startled Janine. Daniel was on his feet in an instant. He moved to the side of the door and opened it about three inches. It was Juan Hernandez. The good-natured maintenance supervisor wasn’t smiling this morning.
“Craig Johnson quit on me.”
Janine invited the man inside. Juan told her how Craig had cleaned out his room and left without a word to anybody. Where he’d gone, Juan hadn’t a clue. And yes, both Lanny Lewis and Jason Bulshe had complained bitterly about Ms. Duke’s unfair and unwarranted accusations. They were threatening to quit, too. The entire maintenance crew was up in arms.
Hurt tightened her chest. Didn’t anyone care about her dilemma?
“I’m sorry about Craig. But Pinky threatened my father’s life.”
Juan’s mouth dropped open. “What do you mean he threatened the colonel? I thought this guy was your ex-boyfriend?” He glanced at Daniel. “Jealous, you know?”
She could have groaned. “Pinky is not and never has been my boyfriend. I don’t even know who he is. He’s made two specific death threats against the colonel. He’s threatened to kill Daniel, too. That’s why we’ve hired deputies to patrol the resort.”
“Guess I heard wrong. Everybody is saying...” His face reddened. “Damn.”
Janine quashed the urge to ask what everybody was saying. She did not want to know. “Pinky works here. I’m fairly certain he lives here, as well.”
He raked his fingers through his black hair and made a soft, confused-sounding noise. “It can’t be any of my boys. I vouch for them all.”
“He fooled me. He can fool you, too.”
“What exactly did Lanny and Jason say to you?” Daniel asked.
Juan cracked a grin. “Can’t use that kind of language in front of a lady. I can tell you this, sir, you aren’t real popular.”
“Did either say anything about the colonel?”
Looking inward, Juan shook his head. “Ain’t ever heard nobody talking bad about the old man. Everyone loves the colonel, Ms. Duke. You know that.”
Everyone except Pinky.
“I’ll keep my ear out, ma’am. I hear anything about Pinky, or anyone trash-talking the colonel, I’ll let you know.”
After Juan left, Janine rested her chin on a fist. Maybe the nightmare had been a warning. Her sister Megan believed in the power of dreams, swearing people who paid attention to dream warnings could avert disaster. A heavy feeling infused her body, a sense of impending doom. “Now what?”
“We keep pushing. Even deluded sociopaths have buttons. We’ll find Pinky’s.”
She dropped her hands to the stack of papers on her desk. “Not today. I must go to the Springs. I have a million and one details to take care of for the party.”
“Good. It’ll give me a chance to talk to J.T.”
She’d forgotten that along with rousting stalkers, Daniel had a business to run. She opened her organizer book and checked the addresses where she needed to go. She envisioned a map of Colorado Springs in order to most efficiently plan her
day. She could drop off Daniel at his office, run her errands and with any luck get back to the resort by dinnertime.
“Let’s set up some surveillance cameras.”
“Pardon?”
“J.T.’s an expert in electronic security. He can set up some cameras. One outside your bedroom door. The dormitory. Maybe one over the front desk so we can see who’s putting notes in your message box.”
She searched his face. Surely he was joking.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“This is a resort, not a prison.”
“I know it sounds extreme, but it’s not. We’ll set them up in public areas. Video only, no audio. No invading privacy.”
“Setting up a camera in the dormitory is invasive.”
“Not inside, outside. That way we can see who goes in and out. It protects your innocent employees.”
She saw his point. If Pinky vandalized something in the middle of the night, they’d be able to establish alibis. She didn’t even want to think about catching somebody lurking around outside her bedroom. “Won’t Pinky see the cameras?”
Daniel laughed. “You have no idea what kind of gadgetry is on the market right now. Nobody but you, me and J.T. will even know they’re there. I guarantee it.”
She didn’t like it, but didn’t see where she had a choice.
ON THE TWO-HOUR DRIVE to Colorado Springs, Daniel played a tape Pinky had sent her. He pointed out the references to secrets and the theme of undercover love. On this particular tape Pinky had recorded a song where the singer assured his lover he’d be watching every move she made. Janine had heard the tune hundreds of times. For the first time she paid attention to the lyrics. A stalker’s lament.
She would never again enjoy a pop song about unrequited love.
In the city, as usual, everything took more time than Janine wanted it to. It took two hours for the liquor supplier to run down the location of the champagne she’d ordered months ago. The supplier assured her the wine would be shipped to the resort that day. A visit to the florist chewed up another two hours.