Heat Wave

by Jill Marie Landis

  “He reminds me of somebody,” she admitted.

  “Someone you don’t like.”

  “Somebody I loved once.” The moment she said it she wished she hadn’t.

  Ty was silent for so long that she hoped maybe he hadn’t heard. But he had.

  “You’ve had to listen to me going on about my life all day You want to talk about it?”

  She laughed at that. Talk about it? She’d been trying to wipe out the memories for years. She never talked about what happened in Hawaii. Never.

  “Nope.”

  “I didn’t think so. But if you ever change your mind, Kat—”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

  KAT WAS SUBDUED on the way back to the house on Lover’s Lane as Ty hummed along to a Jimmy Buffett CD.

  “Living on sponge cake, watchin’ the sun bake. . . .”

  When they reached her place, Ty killed the motor but didn’t make a move to get out. In the confines of the car the warmth she saw in his eyes made her catch her breath.

  “What time should we start in the morning?” he asked.

  “I have physical therapy. How about afternoon? Say around two?”

  “Two?” His impatience was showing.

  She was braced for an argument, but after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded in agreement.

  “Okay I’ve got a conference call and some other loose ends I should clear up first.”

  She could tell there was more he wanted to say. “What is it?”

  He fiddled with the gearshift. “Do you really think we’ll find her?”

  “We won’t if you spend all your time asking me that.” She couldn’t look away from the intensity in his eyes. “This really does mean a lot to you, doesn’t it, Ty?”

  “She’s my daughter. It worries me that she might need help.” He sighed. “And it haunts me to think that she probably doesn’t even know I exist.”

  In that split second she realized that if she wasn’t careful she’d end up trying to move heaven and earth to find Sunny for him. But she was pragmatic enough to know that sometimes things just didn’t work out. Her pop liked to say, “Honey, sometimes God says no.”

  “I’ll do my damnedest, Ty, but I can’t make you any guarantees.”

  “That’s all I can ask.”

  He got out, walked around the car, and opened the door. Then he took her hand to help her out, perhaps he held it a little longer than necessary, but it didn’t feel wrong.

  There was an infinitesimal second when she could have stepped around him and started walking for the door, but she didn’t, couldn’t, move. He reached out and cupped her jaw, bent his head, and kissed her, softly, gently, before he let go and stepped back.

  “Thanks for coming over for dinner.”

  The simple, brief exchange was so soul stirring that she was too stunned to say a word. Instead, she merely nodded, pulled herself together, and started walking toward the house.

  When they reached the front porch she had the feeling he might try to kiss her again and realized she was holding her breath, waiting, but he didn’t even try.

  Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kat.”

  She told him good night, and as she watched him walk away, she decided that her earlier impression of Ty Chandler had been way off the mark.

  He was certainly handsome. He was polite, low-key, and considerate. He was interested in her and actually listened to what she had to say. He knew who he was and what he wanted, but he wasn’t in the least obnoxious about getting it, just determined.

  He was the kind of guy who would quietly lay siege to a woman’s heart until he captured it.

  But he wasn’t really harmless at all. He was possibly the most dangerous man she’d met in a long, long time.

  Chapter 5

  FOR THE FIRST time in forever Kat went to bed at a decent hour, slept through the night, and awoke to the sound of birdsong, refreshed and looking forward to the new day.

  She pulled on shorts and a tank top and gave her hair a quick combing before she went to physical therapy in Twilight Cove, then took time to walk along the beach.

  She’d forgotten the tranquility that came from being on the water and savored the walk in the ocean air, the sound of the surf, and the sand between her toes.

  She didn’t have to remind herself that this kind of peace was a fragile and fleeting thing.

  After she got back to the house she showered, wrapped herself in a batik pareau—a long rectangular swath of colorful cloth splashed in varied hues of aqua and green—and tried to keep her thoughts on a smooth, even keel and off of Ty Chandler.

  She turned on CNN Headline News for background noise and wondered how long it had taken Jake to change gears and slip into the laid-back rhythm of Twilight Cove. Then she remembered he’d had Carly and Chris to help him adjust.

  She polished off a Cup o’ Noodles and hurried into the office to pick up yesterday’s notes. Added to the Simmonses’ address on Barbara Chandler’s stationary was the name “Sunny” along with the month and year of the girl’s birth. Not much to go on.

  It was almost one in the afternoon. Two in New Mexico. She found the number of Jake’s vacation rental and punched it into the phone.

  Carly, Jake’s wife, answered almost immediately.

  “Hi, Carly, it’s Kat.”

  “How’s everything going? Are you finding things all right?” Carly sounded upbeat and happy. But then, both Jake and Carly always sounded that way now that they’d found each other.

  “Everything’s great,” she assured Carly. “Actually, I’ve taken on a case.”

  “In Twilight?” Carly’s shock registered over the line. “You’re kidding. I thought you were going to relax.”

  “It’s not complicated. Just a missing-person search. I have a couple of questions for Jake, though, if he’s not busy.”

  “Sure. I’ll get him. You take care of yourself, okay, Kat?”

  “Thanks.” Kat tapped the end of a pen on the notepad in front of her. Jake’s wife was not only beautiful, but a talented artist and a great mom, too.

  Suddenly Jake was on the line. “What’s up, Vargas? Couldn’t stand to just veg out?”

  Kat laughed. It was good to hear his voice. She imagined him sitting by the phone, kicked back, lounging on the sofa.

  “That’s about it. Actually, I’m helping a guy search for a daughter he didn’t even know he had until a few months ago. She’s nineteen now. We’ve got her month and year of birth, no day. A first name. Mother’s last name.”

  “Ever adopted?”

  “No idea.”

  There was momentary silence on the other end of the line and then, “You’ve tried all the preliminaries?”

  “Do frogs fart in a pond?”

  “Okay. How about Social Security?”

  “Nothing under the names we tried.”

  “Whoa. Did you just say we? What’s up?”

  “Okay, so the guy is typing for me.”

  “What’s wrong with one-handed hunt and peck?”

  “Shut up, Montgomery.”

  “Did you say the girl is nineteen now?”

  “Right. Ended up in foster care when she was around eleven years old.”

  “How about the mom?”

  “She was caught up in drugs and some phony rehab compound in the Angeles National Forest when the baby was born.”

  “River Ridge?”

  “You’ve heard of it?”

  “It was in all the papers. The DEA was pretty proud of that one.”

  “Well, Mom’s out of the picture. Deceased.” She heard voices in the background—Jake’s son, Chris, talking to Carly—a reminder that Jake was on a family vacation. />
  “Jake, if you’re busy—”

  “What about the welfare rolls? With her background, you might find a lead there.”

  “You have a way in?”

  “I’ve got a contact in Sacramento. Hang on. I think the password he gave me is in one of the files I brought with me.”

  She started doodling waves on the notepad while Jake retrieved the information. He was back in seconds.

  “Here you go.” He recited the information. She jotted it down and thanked him.

  “Remember, you didn’t get that from me, okay, Kat?”

  “I know. If I tell anyone, you’ll have to kill me.”

  “Hey, Vargas?”

  “What?”

  “Take it easy, okay? You’re supposed to be relaxing.”

  “This is relaxing. You told me to get out more.”

  “So who’s the client?”

  “A guy named Ty Chandler.”

  “Never heard of him. Is he a good guy?”

  “So far, so good. But he is a client.” She didn’t tell Jake that for a moment last night she caught herself wishing Ty was a date.

  “Give him a chance, if he’s interested. Don’t be a hermit.”

  She hung up on him without saying good-bye. It was an old joke between them, seeing which one could hang up on the other first. She knew Jake would be laughing on the other end.

  TY KNOCKED PROMPTLY at two, and Kat called out for him to let himself in. He watched the news broadcast for a couple of seconds before he found the remote, turned off the television, and walked into the home office.

  He had his back to the door but he knew the minute Kat stepped into the room. He turned and saw her framed in the open doorway, her gaze warm yet uncertain.

  He’d just gone through three major life quakes: his mother’s death, his move to California, and hearing the news that he had a child. The last thing he needed right now was the challenge of a new relationship, but Kat Vargas was too hard to resist.

  She looked like summer in a pair of baggy white linen pants and a short, red Hawaiian print top. Like a model in a Roxy ad in Surfer magazine.

  “Hey, you look great.” He could see that his compliment took her by surprise when she had to glance down to see what she was wearing.

  “Thanks.” She crossed the room, and when he pulled out the chair beside him, she slipped into it, smelling like soap and coconut shampoo.

  His impatience to start the search again was all that kept him from being distracted by her nearness.

  “Okay, what are we doing?” He rubbed his hands together.

  She read off the numbers she wanted him to enter, explained how they were going to search the California welfare rolls.

  “So now I’m a hacker? Can we get arrested?”

  “Not unless you go around broadcasting this.”

  “What’ll you give me not to tell?” He caught himself staring at her lips, thinking about last night. He hadn’t meant to kiss her; he simply hadn’t been able to resist.

  She broke the stare and mumbled, “You should be afraid of what I’d do to you if you did.”

  At first they had trouble accessing the site, then suddenly, bingo, they were in.

  “This is it. I just know it.” He reached out, touched the back of her hand where she’d rested it on the desk. “Thanks for calling your partner on this, Kat.”

  She finally turned his way again. Her gaze probed his face. Her smile had dimmed.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high. This could be a dead end. In fact, it’s a real long shot.”

  “It’s better than nothing.”

  When they entered the scant information they had, they came up with countless hits. There were so many listings for young women born in September of eighty-four that he was overwhelmed.

  “It’s going to take days to go through this county by county.”

  She leaned toward the monitor. “We’ll start with the most obvious—L.A.”

  “Which probably has the most listings of all.”

  An hour and a half later, he straightened, rubbed his palm against the back of his neck, and let go a sigh.

  When Kat stretched, arching her back and unconsciously emphasizing her breasts, he looked away.

  “Are you tired?” Her hand grazed his sleeve, drawing his attention back.

  It took him a minute to collect his thoughts. He was tired of sitting, but wanted to keep going.

  “We can’t stop now.” Seeing all those names had only heightened his urgency.

  “How about we take a break, have some iced tea or a soda?”

  He opted for iced tea.

  She was headed for the kitchen when his cell phone rang.

  KAT LISTENED AS Ty responded to the call with quick, sure answers. His strong hands gripped the phone as he sat perfectly still, listening.

  When he hung up she asked, “Trouble in River City?”

  He shoved the phone back into his pocket. “I’ve got to do some quick damage control. An A-list reservation got canceled for the week after next by mistake.”

  “Oops.”

  “A real oops. I hate to go.” He glanced down at the monitor, regret all over his face.

  “You take off. I’ll print these out and look them over.”

  “Call me if you find anything. I’ll try to get back as fast as I can.”

  He looked so torn about whether to leave or not that she had to warn him, “I will, but don’t count on it, okay?”

  After he left, she tried to ignore a moment of disappointment and poured herself a diet Pepsi. She juggled the cell phone and the printout and went out to the back deck.

  She sat down and started circling possibilities, but in a few minutes found herself daydreaming about Ty and realizing she was looking forward to talking to him again.

  When he didn’t call, she devoted her attention to scanning the list until her eyes were tired. She was about to toss the printout aside when an entry caught her eye a third of the way down the page. A Social Security number was listed for a Sunny Simone at an address in Hollywood.

  Sunny Simone. Almost Sunny Simmons.

  Kat pictured a blue-eyed, dark-haired ingénue with Ty’s smile waiting tables in a beat-up coffee shop on Hollywood Boulevard, hoping to be discovered by a talent agent.

  That would be the good news.

  Hollywood Boulevard was a haven for pushers, pimps, prostitutes, and panhandlers. Sunny Simone sounded like a stage name on a porn video.

  She circled the listing, got up, and paced the deck.

  Sunny Simone. Sunny Simmons.

  She walked back inside, got a pencil and notepad ready, picked up the phone, and punched in 411.

  A generic, computerized voice came over the line. “What city and state?”

  “Hollywood, California.”

  “What listing?”

  “Sunny Simone.”

  Within seconds a real live human came on the line. “I have no listing for Sunny Simone. Do you have a street address?”

  Kat gave him the address. Still nothing. She tried Sunny Simmons, with no luck, thanked the operator, and hung up. Knowing what the possibilities would mean to Ty, she found it hard to focus on the bucolic scene around her.

  If she left now, she could be in L.A. in four hours at the most. She could run by the Hollywood address, see if Sunny Simone was the girl they were looking for. She hated to have Ty get his hopes up for nothing.

  Sometimes it was better to have a third party make the first contact anyway. If Sunny Simone wasn’t his daughter, then they’d be back to square one.

  It felt great to have a plan. Her adrenaline was pumping as she mentally ticked off a l
ist of what to throw in an overnight bag. She’d spend the night at her place in Long Beach and check in with Jake’s retired buddy, Arnie, who was handling her open cases.

  Suddenly, the house phone rang. She walked inside in time to hear the answering machine pick up. Jake’s recorded voice urged the caller to leave a message after the beep.

  “Kat? Are you there? It’s me, Ty. Pick up, okay?”

  She hovered beside the phone, torn by indecision.

  “Kat, listen, now something else has come up and—”

  Perfect. She picked up the receiver.

  “Hey, Ty. What’s up?”

  “How’s it going?”

  Unexpectedly, she caught herself smiling at the sound of his voice. “Fine.”

  “You find anything?”

  “Not much.”

  “Listen, there’s been a real glitch. One of the equipment suppliers has filed bankruptcy and I have to find another outfit to handle our orders ASAP.”

  “Are you going to Alaska?” If so, she might have time to slip down to L.A. and get back without him being the wiser.

  “No need for that, but this is going to take me a lot longer than I expected. It looks like I’ll be tied up for the rest of the day. I just wanted to call and tell you I have no idea when I can get back over there.”

  Handsome and considerate. This guy is too good to be true.

  She stalled, glanced down at the answering machine, imagining him in his quaint house on the point, remembering the feel of his lips upon hers.

  “Listen, Ty, something’s come up for me, too. I . . . have to go down to Long Beach on business and while I’m there I thought I’d stop in and let my doctor take a look at my hand.”

  “You haven’t reinjured it, have you?”

  “It’s fine. Just a quick turnaround. I’ll be back tomorrow evening at the latest.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line and then he asked, “This is kind of sudden, isn’t it?”

  When she hesitated a moment too long, he read her like a book.

  “You have a lead, don’t you?”

  His suspicion was so right on that it took her a second to recover.