by Diana Palmer
Bernie put down her purse, folded her cane and took off her jacket before she sat down.
“I don’t see why you work,” Jessie said offhandedly, looking down her long nose at Bernie with a cold blue-eyed stare. “I’d just get on government relief and stay home.”
“I don’t need handouts. I work for my living,” Bernie said. She smiled at the tall brunette, but not with any warmth.
Jessie shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m going over to the courthouse on my break to talk to my friend Billie,” she added, slipping into a long coat.
Bernie almost bit her tongue off to keep from mentioning that their breaks were only ten minutes long and it would take Jessie that long just to walk to the courthouse. The district attorney’s office had been in the courthouse, but this year they’d moved to a new county building where they had more room. The increased space had delighted the office staff, which had grown considerably. Their new office was closer to Mrs. Brown’s boardinghouse and Barbara’s Café, but farther from the courthouse.
She didn’t say it, but her coworker Olivia did. “Who’s in the courthouse today, Jessie?” she asked with a blank expression. “Some really rich upper-class man who might need a companion...?”
“You...!” Jessie began just as Mr. Kemp’s office door opened. She smiled at him, all sweetness. “I’m going to the courthouse on my break to see my friend Billie for just a minute, Mr. Kemp. Is that all right with you?” she added with a cold glance at her coworker.
“If it’s absolutely necessary,” he replied tersely. He wasn’t pleased with his new employee. In fact, he was beginning to think he’d made a big mistake. A glowing recommendation from a San Antonio attorney had gotten Jessie the job, mainly because there were no other applicants. Competent receptionists with several years’ experience weren’t thick on the ground around Jacobsville.
“It really is,” she said, and looked as if it wasn’t the whole truth. “I have a friend in the hospital in San Antonio. Billie’s been to see him,” she added quickly.
“Okay. Try not to take too long.” He paused and looked at her for a long time. “You get a ten-minute break. Not an hour.”
“Oh, yes, sir.” She was all sugary sweetness as she walked out the door in a cloud of cloying perfume.
Bernie’s coworker fanned the air with a file folder, making a face.
Not five minutes later, assistant DA Glory Ramirez walked in the door and made a face. “Who’s been filming a perfume commercial in here?” she asked.
“Somebody who’s mad at me, probably,” Sari Fiore, their second assistant DA, laughed as she came in behind Glory. “Perfume gives me a migraine.”
“I’ll turn the air conditioner on long enough to suck it out of the building,” Mr. Kemp volunteered.
“Ask her to wash it all off. I dare you,” Sari said to the boss.
He laughed and went back into his office. The phone rang. Sari picked it up, nodded, spoke into the receiver and pressed a button. It was for Mr. Kemp. She hung up.
“Where’s Jessie?” Sari asked curtly. “The phone is her job, not ours.”
“There’s some rich guy at the courthouse,” Olivia told her. “She had a call from her friend Billie, who works as a temporary assistant in the Clerk of Court’s office. I guess that was what it was about, although she said she was going to ask about a sick friend.”
“She can’t do that on the phone?” Sari asked, aghast.
“Well, she can’t see the rich guy over the phone,” Olivia said demurely and with a wicked smile.
“Jessie’s a pill,” Glory added. “I wonder how she ever got past the boss to hire on here. She’s definitely not like any legal receptionist I’ve ever known.”
“She’s big-city, not small-town,” Sari said. “She’s got an accent like that lawyer from Manhattan who was down here last month.”
“I noticed,” Glory replied. “How are you feeling, Bernie?”
Bernie flushed and grinned. “I’m doing fine.”
“Oh?” Sari teased. “We heard about your new boarder at Mrs. Brown’s.”
Bernie went scarlet.
“That was mean,” Glory told Sari.
“Sorry,” Sari said, but she was still grinning. “Isn’t Mikey a doll?” she added. “He could pose for commercials.”
“I noticed,” Bernie said. “He’s very good-looking.”
“We heard about the fall. You okay?”
Bernie gasped. “Does he tell you guys everything?”
“Well, not everything. Just when he feels guilty about something.” She smiled gently. “He felt really bad that he’d misjudged you. But it’s not surprising. He’s had women jump in front of his car before.”
“My goodness!” Bernie exclaimed, fascinated.
“He is very rich,” Glory pointed out. “And some women are less than scrupulous.”
“Very true,” Bernie said. “But I’m not.”
“He noticed,” Sari replied, tongue in cheek. “He said you remind him of his grandmother.”
Bernie’s eyes widened to saucers, and she looked absolutely horrified.
“No!” Sari said quickly. “He didn’t mean he thought you were old. He said you had the same kind heart and the same sharp tongue she did. He was tickled when you compared him to that guy in the Police Academy movie.” Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at Bernie. “Paul said he really was like that guy, too.”
Bernie laughed. “He’s a lot of fun around the boardinghouse. He makes our two older ladies very flustered. Mrs. Brown, too.”
“He’s a dish. But he’s not really a ladies’ man, despite the appearance,” Sari added. “In fact, he doesn’t like most women. He had a hard experience some years back. I guess it affected him.”
“We’ve all had hard experiences,” Glory remarked. She shook her head. “If anybody had ever told me I’d marry Rodrigo...!”
“If anybody had ever told me that I’d finally marry Paul...” Sari countered, and they both laughed.
Both women had had a hard path to the altar, with some painful experiences along the way. Now they were happy. Glory and Rodrigo had a son, but Paul and Sari hadn’t started a family. Despite being filthy rich, they were both career oriented. Paul was FBI at the San Antonio office and Sari was an assistant DA here in Jacobs County. Children were definitely in their future, Sari often said, but not just at the moment.
Bernie would have loved a child. It would have been difficult for her with her physical issues, but that wouldn’t deter her if she ever found a man who loved her enough to marry her. She thought briefly of Mikey and her heart fluttered, but she knew she wasn’t beautiful or cultured enough to appeal to a man so sophisticated. And if he’d reached his present age, which had to be somewhere in his thirties, unmarried, he was unlikely to be thinking of marrying anybody in the future. What a depressing thought, she realized, and how silly of her to be thinking of it in the first place. He was only here temporarily. He belonged up north.
She sat very still, aware of conversation around her and not hearing it. Mikey belonged up north. But he was in Jacobsville for no apparent reason, and he’d taken a room at a boardinghouse, which meant he was staying for a while. Why?
She knew he was worried about the people around him in the boardinghouse. Had he made somebody really mad, and they were after him? Was he in Jacobsville because he was safe here? She’d heard just a snippet of gossip from Mrs. Brown, that Mr. Fiore was being watched by one of Eb Scott’s men. Nobody knew why. But Eb’s men were mercenaries, experienced in combat. Bernie hoped that Mikey wasn’t being hunted.
What an odd word to think of, she mused as she pulled up the computer program she used in her work. Hunted. She’d guessed that Mikey was worried about somebody else. Her heart jumped. Was it a woman, perhaps? No. Sari said he was sour on women. A man? Somebody from his past with a grudge? He knew
a lot about organized crime. Maybe it was somebody he’d come across in his job, because Mrs. Brown said he told her he owned a hotel in Las Vegas. He must, she thought, be very rich indeed if he owned property in that expensive place.
She was well into research on a new case precedent for the boss when Jessie breezed back in, wafting her expense perfume everywhere.
Sari glared at her. “Jessie, I’ve told you that heavy perfume brings on migraines. I’d hate to have to speak to Mr. Kemp about it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Jessie said at once, feigning surprise. “I won’t wear so much from now on.”
“Thanks.” Sari gave her a look she didn’t see and went back to work.
“Well, was he there, your rich mark?” Olivia drawled.
Jessie glared at her. “I don’t have a rich mark.”
“Some wealthy gentleman?” Olivia probed further.
Jessie took off her coat and sat down at her desk. “I don’t know. He was riding in a black limousine. He’s from New Jersey.”
Bernie’s heart dropped to her feet. She only knew one rich man in Jacobsville who rode around in a black limousine. It had to be Mikey. Jessie was beautiful and sophisticated, probably the sort of woman Mikey would really go for. Jessie was an oddity in Jacobsville, where most women weren’t streetwise. The older woman probably charmed him.
While she was thinking, Jessie’s cold eyes stabbed into her face. “He said he’s living at Mrs. Brown’s boardinghouse. That’s where you live, isn’t it, Bernadette?”
“Yes,” Bernie said shortly.
Jessie laughed, her scrutiny almost insulting. “Well, you won’t be any sort of competition, will you? I mean, no sane man is going to want to take on a woman who can’t stand up without a cane—”
“That’s enough,” Mr. Kemp said shortly from his open office door, and he looked even more formidable than usual. “You get one more warning, Jessie, then you’re on your way back to San Antonio. You do not disparage coworkers. Ever.”
Jessie actually flushed. She hadn’t realized the boss could hear her. She’d have to be a lot more careful. There weren’t any other jobs available in Jacobsville right now, and she couldn’t afford to lose this one.
“I’m very sorry, Mr. Kemp,” she began.
“Bernie’s the one who’s owed an apology.”
“Yes, sir.” Jessie turned to Bernie. “I’m sorry. That was wrong of me.”
“Okay,” Bernie said, but she didn’t really look at the other woman.
Mr. Kemp hesitated for just a minute before he went back into his office.
“Careless, Jessie,” Olivia said in a biting undertone. “Better make sure the boss isn’t listening when you start making rude comments about one of us.”
Jessie looked as if she might explode. The phone rang and saved her from making her situation any worse.
* * *
At lunchtime, Olivia and Bernie went to Barbara’s Café to eat. Glory and Sari went home, where Glory had a babysitter and she could visit with her son while she ate. Sari had lunch with Mandy Swilling, the Grayling housekeeper. Jessie was stuck in the office until the others returned, thanks to Mr. Kemp who insisted that somebody had to answer the phone while he was out of the office. Jessie was almost smoking when the other women went out the door.
* * *
“Jessie’s a pain,” Olivia said curtly.
Bernie’s pale green eyes sparkled as she dug into her chef’s salad. “You really made her mad.”
“Well, nobody else says anything,” the other woman defended herself. Her voice softened. “Least of all you, Bernie. You’re the sweetest woman I’ve ever known, except for my late grandmother. You could find one kind thing to say about the devil,” she teased.
Bernie laughed softly. “I guess so.”
“At least Sari finally said something about the heavy perfume. I know it gives her fits. She’s prone to migraines from just the stress of her job. Jessie doesn’t care what she does or says unless the boss loses his temper.” She frowned. “What’s she doing down here?” she added with a frown. “I mean, she worked in San Antonio, where salaries are a lot higher. She doesn’t know anybody in Jacobsville.”
“The boss said she wanted a slower pace,” Bernie replied.
“Sure. Like she has any stress. Unless answering the phone gives you ulcers,” Olivia said drily. “Or bending over the desk to show as much cleavage as possible when a wealthy client comes in.”
“Oh, shame on you!” Bernie said, laughing.
“I know. I’m bad. But Jessie’s worse. She met your fellow boardinghouse occupant, too,” Olivia added with a pointed glance at Bernie’s flushed face. “She’ll be after him soon. Nobody here rides around in a limo except Paul’s cousin Mikey. Sari used to, but she mostly just drives now that all the threats to her and her sister are gone.”
“He’s here for a reason, too,” Bernie said.
“A guess, or that intuition that makes most people nervous?” Olivia teased.
Bernie laughed. “Maybe a bit of both.”
“Or maybe not.” Olivia glanced up and then down again. “Any idea about what he might be doing today?”
Bernie’s heart jumped and she felt it flutter. Incredible, that she knew absolutely where he was, without even looking. “He’s coming in the door.”
She hadn’t looked up. She did now, and there he was, in a dark suit with a patterned blue tie, looking around until he spotted Bernie. He grinned as he went to the counter and placed his order, paying for it before he joined Olivia and Bernie at their table.
“Room for one more?” he asked with a grin at both women. “I don’t really know anybody else in here, and I’m shy.”
“Oh, sure you are,” Olivia said with a wry smile. She wiped her mouth. “I have to get back before Jessie turns purple and says we’re starving her. You stay and finish your salad, Bernie,” she added as she stood up. “You have a half hour before you have to come back.”
“Jessie. That the underdressed brunette who works in your office?” he asked.
They nodded.
“Don’t tell her I’m here, okay?” he asked Olivia. He shook his head. “I know how deer feel in hunting season.”
They both laughed.
“I won’t. I promise,” Olivia said. She winked at Bernie and went to carry her tray back.
Mikey looked at Bernie slowly, taking in the blond braid and the nice gray suit she was wearing with a pink camisole. “You look pretty,” he said softly.
She flushed and laughed self-consciously. “Thanks.”
“You’re a breath of spring compared to the women I know,” he added quietly, watching her. “Brassy, overbearing women don’t do a thing for me these days. I guess I’m jaded.”
She smiled shyly. “You’re very handsome and you’re wealthy. I guess women do chase you. Even movie stars and rich women.”
He pursed his lips. “They used to. It’s the other stuff that puts them off.”
Her thin eyebrows lifted. “The other stuff?” she asked.
He shrugged. “My connections.”
She still wasn’t getting it. While she tried to, Barbara brought his steak and salad and black coffee, and put it down in front of him.
“I hope it’s done right,” she told Mikey. “My cook tends to get meat a little overdone. One of our customers actually carried his back into the kitchen and proceeded to show him how to cook it properly.”
“Jon Blackhawk,” Bernie guessed.
“How did you know?” Barbara asked.
“He’s the only gourmet chef I know, and he’s Paul’s boss at the FBI office in San Antonio. They were both down here recently on a case. And nobody eats anywhere else in Jacobsville except here,” she teased.
Barbara chuckled. “Exactly. It didn’t come to blows, but it was close. My temporary cook
’s from New Jersey,” she added.
Mikey’s ears perked up. He glanced at Barbara.
She made a face. “His people are heavily federal, if you get my meaning. His brother works for the US Marshals Service in San Antonio, and he’s a former policeman where he came from. He’s retired.”
“Oh.” Mikey relaxed, just a little.
“I was going to add... Goodness, excuse me,” she said, suddenly flustered as she went back to the counter.
Bernie’s eyes followed her, and she grinned to herself as she watched a husky man in a police uniform smile at Barbara as she went to wait on him.
“Okay, what’s that little smirk all about?” Mikey teased.
“That guy at the counter. That’s Fred Baldwin. He worked as a policeman here for a while, then at a local ranch. Now he’s back on the police force. He’s sweet on Barbara and vice versa.”
Mikey glanced in that direction and laughed softly. “I can see what you mean.”
“Her son’s a lieutenant of detectives with San Antonio PD,” Bernie added.
He nodded. “I met him, last time I was here. Nice guy.”
“Her daughter-in-law’s father is the head of the CIA,” she added.
“I heard that, too. Her son’s dad is a head of state, down in South America.”
“He does have some interesting connections,” Bernie agreed.
* * *
Mikey finished his steak. “What’s there to do around here at night?” he asked.
She pursed her lips. “Well, people go to concerts at the local high school on the weekends sometimes. Other people drive in the Line.”
“What the hell...heck’s the Line?” he amended.
“A bunch of people drive around in a line. Teenagers, married people, even old people sometimes. They have a leader, and they go all around the county, one after the other, sometimes even up to San Antonio and back.”
He shook his head. “The things I miss, living in a city.” His dark eyes met hers. “How about movies?”