Ask Anyone

by Sherryl Woods

  “Sorry to make you deal with the rush-hour traffic to get back here,” Bobby said insincerely when they were all seated.

  “Not a problem,” Meltzer said. “When I told the mayor about our appointment, he invited me to stay over.”

  Of course Harvey had, Bobby thought. He’d probably been salivating at the thought that this man could make Bobby see reason. Bobby noted Meltzer’s well-tailored suit and starched shirt. “Do you always bring a suit along when you’re on a golf outing?”

  Meltzer chuckled, though there was a hard glint in his eyes at the unspoken suggestion that snagging this meeting had been his plan all along. “I always keep fresh clothes with me. You know how it is—a man in my position often gets caught up in something and winds up staying longer than expected. I never like to show up at a meeting looking anything less than my best.”

  “Good policy,” Tucker said, since Bobby and Jenna were both speechless. “You stay overnight in Trinity Harbor often lately? Seems to me like I’ve seen your car out around Miller’s Pond. Saw it in the lot outside just now. White SUV, right? Tags say something like Liv4Land?”

  Meltzer’s gaze narrowed. “Something like that. So, are you in on this deal with your brother? I was under the impression that the land was owned under one name.”

  “It is, and it’s not mine,” Tucker said at once. “I have enough to do chasing criminals, thanks all the same. Too much politics involved in wheeling and dealing.”

  “You have a lot of crime in Trinity Harbor? I thought this was a peaceful place,” Meltzer said, looking vaguely discouraged.

  Bobby saw where Tucker was heading and admired his sneakiness. King would have been proud. A Spencer never asked outright, when a little subterfuge could get the same result.

  “Enough,” Tucker told the developer. “I’ve got a case right now that has me baffled.”

  “Is that so?” the developer said politely.

  “In fact, it’s beginning to look as if there might be a Richmond connection. I don’t suppose you know anybody in the security business down there?”

  “I know a lot of people,” Meltzer said. “You looking for anybody specific?”

  After a few deliberately false starts, Tucker finally mentioned the actual name of the company. TV’s deliberately bumbling Columbo had nothing on Tucker.

  “Sorry,” Tucker said. “You’d think I could remember that, wouldn’t you? Anyway, have you ever run across that particular firm?”

  Bobby noted that Jenna’s gaze was pinned on the man’s face as she awaited his reply. If he lied, three people in the room were going to know it and pounce on him.

  “I know the name, of course, but I use someone else on all my projects,” Meltzer said, his gaze never wavering from Tucker’s. “Wellstone Security. Maybe someone there could help you. I’m sure Henry Wellstone knows everyone in the business in Richmond. I’d be happy to give you his number.”

  He was telling the truth. Bobby knew it. So, apparently, did Tucker and Jenna. They sighed in unison.

  “We’ll leave you two to your business meeting,” Tucker said. “Jenna, could I speak to you for a minute outside?”

  She cast a disappointed look in Bobby’s direction, then dutifully followed Tucker from the room. Obviously she’d been hoping to linger, to scope out the competition’s pitch. Bobby could have told her she had nothing to worry about, at least not from Dave Meltzer.

  When Bobby finally dragged his gaze away from her progress, he found Meltzer’s gaze on him.

  “What the hell was that all about?” the man asked, all pretense of joviality gone.

  “I thought Tucker explained it. There’s been a crime that’s got him baffled. He’s looking for leads.”

  “And my name came up how?”

  “Like he said, there’s a Richmond angle. I suppose he thought you might be able to help him connect the dots. Believe me, I have no idea how my brother’s mind works.”

  “What’s the woman have to do with any of this?”

  “She’s the victim,” Bobby said.

  Suddenly Meltzer’s expression turned even darker. “Are we talking about that ridiculous stolen carousel horse? That’s your big crime wave?”

  “Crazy, isn’t it?” Bobby agreed. “That sure has stirred up a lot of media attention. It’s an oversized kid’s toy, for goodness’ sakes. How much could it be worth?”

  “Quite a lot,” Meltzer said. “Assuming the newspaper reports were accurate. Is she holding you liable? It was stolen off your property. Or is she just using it as leverage to get you to support her boardwalk proposal? I hear she has the inside track.”

  The last was said with a leer and a wink that almost brought Bobby crashing across his desk to bloody the guy’s nose. He restrained himself because it hardly seemed worth the energy and the messy repercussions likely when Tucker was forced to come back in to arrest him.

  “There is no inside track,” he said tersely. “And you’ve only got another ten minutes for this meeting, so I’d suggest you make the most of them.”

  Meltzer’s expression darkened. “I don’t think I like the way you do business, young man.”

  “Then we’re even,” Bobby said cheerfully. “You want to forget all about this, it’s fine with me.”

  Bobby could see Meltzer struggling with himself. Pride and arrogance wanted him to spit in Bobby’s eyes. The prospect of all that money he could make by plastering the waterfront with condos tempered his response.

  “Here’s the deal,” Meltzer began, then outlined a plan that would have lined both their pockets with a lot of cold, hard cash and forever changed the nature of Trinity Harbor as a peaceful little summer resort. His eyes were shining when he’d finished. “So, what do you think?”

  “Give it to me in writing and I’ll consider it,” Bobby said dutifully. “But I’ve got to be honest, I’m looking in a different direction.”

  “I know what that Pennington woman’s offering. You won’t make a dime,” Meltzer said heatedly.

  Bobby shrugged. “But I’ll be able to live with my conscience. Besides, I like the idea of being able to stroll along the river at night and eat a corn dog and maybe hear the air filled with carousel music and laughter. I’ll be candid with you. I don’t like the idea that that entire section of riverfront would become private property under your plan. Unless you can work around that, we’ve got nothing further to discuss.”

  “I’m confident I can persuade you to reconsider.”

  Bobby’s laid-back demeanor vanished. The look he leveled at the developer was meant to sear him. “And I’m equally confident that you can’t.”

  Meltzer looked taken aback by the harsh tone. “You’re a fool,” he said succinctly.

  “In that case, you probably wouldn’t want to do business with me anyway. Let’s just call it quits now and save us both a lot of wasted time and energy.”

  Unfortunately, Meltzer was shaking his head. “I promised Harvey I’d stick with this. He told me you were going to be a hard sell. I can live with that. Of course, I can’t compete with a little piece of—”

  Bobby was on his feet in a shot and leaning across the desk until he was right in the man’s face. “You really don’t want to finish that.”

  Meltzer allowed himself a satisfied smile. “I thought so,” he said.

  “Don’t be thinking too hard,” Bobby said. “It might fry your brain. As for that written proposal, forget it. I don’t do business with people like you.”

  “You mean someone who understands what it takes to get ahead in this world?”

  “No, I mean slime. Tell the mayor I’m sorry, but his boy’s going to have to find somebody else’s sandbox to play in.”

  Meltzer regarded him with barely leashed fury. “You’re never going to amount to anything more than a small-town operator, you know that, don’t you?”

  Bobby shrugged. “That suits me fine.” A sudden thought occurred to him. “Since you’re so well acquainted with the security business in
Richmond, do you happen to know a man named Mitch Cummings?”

  For a moment, Meltzer looked taken aback, but he covered quickly. “Never heard of him.”

  This time he was lying. Bobby could read it in the quick flash of alarm in his eyes. At the very least he was acquainted with the man the mayor had likely hired to investigate Bobby. At worst, he was in cahoots with the two of them.

  “Oh, well, it was just a thought,” Bobby said, letting the matter drop as he stood up and walked to the door without waiting for Meltzer to budge. “See you. I’ve got places to go and things to do.”

  Meltzer regarded him with a stunned expression. “You’re walking out on me?”

  Bobby grinned. “My, my, you’re quicker than I thought.”

  “Where the hell are you going? Nobody walks out on me,” Meltzer shouted after him.

  Bobby was already halfway to the dock when the developer came charging out the door.

  “Dammit all, I asked you where you were going,” Meltzer said, darting onto the dock after him.

  “Fishing,” Bobby said, stepping down into his boat and casting off in one smooth move.

  Not until he was well away from the marina did he consider the fact that he didn’t have any bait. Didn’t much matter, since he didn’t have his fishing pole with him anyway. As soon as he was out on the water and out of earshot of Dave Meltzer or anyone else who might want to talk about something distasteful, he cut the boat’s engine, dropped anchor, pulled his baseball cap down over his face and closed his eyes.

  For a morning that was only a few hours old, it had been damned annoying. Except for catching Meltzer in a lie and catching a glimpse of Jenna, of course. No question, the latter had been the highlight.

  Somehow her announcement that she was considering an extended stay in Trinity Harbor hadn’t panicked him the way he might have expected it to. Maybe when he woke up from his nap, he’d think about why that was.

  Then, again, maybe he’d just roll with it.

  Daisy and Anna-Louise had corralled Jenna within minutes of her exit from Bobby’s office.

  “I hear you’re planning to stay,” Daisy said right off the bat. “And I couldn’t be happier.”

  Jenna stared at her. “How on earth did you hear that?”

  “It’s a convoluted story involving a fair amount of eavesdropping, which I don’t normally condone,” Anna-Louise said. “But I couldn’t be happier, either. Have you started looking for a house?”

  “Of course she hasn’t,” Daisy said. “When has she had the time, which brings us to why we’re here. Anna-Louise and I are going to drive you around and let you see what’s available.”

  “Shouldn’t I work with a real estate agent on that?” Jenna asked.

  “You could,” Daisy agreed.

  “But we know what’s coming on the market that hasn’t been listed yet,” Anna-Louise said.

  Jenna grinned. “Let me guess—all that eavesdropping again?”

  “Exactly,” the pastor said. “As much as I publicly abhor it, it does have its uses. Besides, since Richard and I got married, my ears tend to be sharper when it comes to ferreting out potential news. He says I’m his best source for the paper.”

  “Which must be really reassuring to your parishioners,” Jenna observed dryly.

  Anna-Louise grinned. “To tell you the truth, I’m having a little trouble making it clear where I draw the line. Since there’s no confessional in my church, the line gets a little blurry. I tend to err on the side of caution, much to Richard’s disappointment and the congregation’s relief. Right now, though, there’s nothing the least bit indiscreet about me pointing out a few homes that are soon to go on the market.”

  “I’m not interested in buying,” Jenna cautioned quickly. “Just leasing.”

  “Take a look and then decide,” Daisy said. “There’s one on the river about two blocks from me that could change your mind.”

  That was Darcy’s dream house, Jenna realized. The least she could do was take a look. “Let’s do it.”

  Anna-Louise drove. She had a surprising tendency to speed, Jenna discovered as they raced through town to the collection of old-fashioned cottages along the river. Some, like Daisy’s, had been remodeled through the years, dressed up with new siding, fancy backyard decks or freshly painted porches and tidy landscaping. When they turned off of Primrose Lane, Daisy’s street, and onto a curving road lined with overgrown hedges of lilacs and picket fences in need of paint, Jenna sat up a little straighter.

  These weren’t mansions. In fact, the first two houses on the block had been allowed to fall into a sorry state of disrepair. To call them fixer-uppers was being kind. They were more like candidates for demolition. In other words, they were places she might actually be able to afford.

  “How can someone let property like this go to waste?” she asked, regretting the fact that she’d missed the blooming of all those lilacs.

  “In some cases, the person owning the house died and the family hasn’t wanted to be bothered with coming down here to keep it up,” Anna-Louise said.

  “Harvey’s been pressuring the owners to at least get the yards cleaned up, but he hasn’t risked going the extra mile and having the work done and a bill sent to the owner,” Daisy said. She pulled to a stop in front of a house halfway down the block. “Here we are.”

  Uncertain what to expect after the other neglected treasures, Jenna finally dared a look. She discovered a sweet little white cottage with bright blue shutters. The grass had been neatly trimmed, though the old-fashioned twisted metal fence was rusting and the gate listed to one side. Stalks of fading tiger lilies lined the fence. Pots filled with bright pink and purple impatiens hung along the eaves of the porch. A huge dark-pink crepe myrtle tree bloomed at the corner of the lot.

  The yard was small, but she guessed from having been to Daisy’s that it stretched out in back until it reached the narrow strip of sand along the river. She fell in love with it at first sight.

  She turned back to find both Anna-Louise and Daisy watching her with grins on their faces.

  “She’s a goner,” Daisy said.

  “That’s my reading, too,” Anna-Louise concurred. “So, do we go inside or not?”

  “How much is it?”

  “Let’s take a look first,” Daisy said, already getting out of the car.

  Jenna balked. “I don’t want to look if it’s completely out of my price range. It’ll break my heart if I can’t afford it.”

  “You can afford it,” Anna-Louise reassured her, exiting the car. “I happen to know the owner very well.”

  “So do I,” Daisy said. “We’ll get you a deal you can live with.”

  Because she trusted them and because she desperately wanted to see if the inside was as charming and ripe with potential as the outside, Jenna followed them from the car.

  On the porch, they didn’t even knock. Daisy removed a key from her purse and opened the door.

  “It’s vacant now?” Jenna asked. “Why isn’t there a For Sale sign out front?”

  “Because the owner hasn’t decided whether or not to sell,” Daisy told her.

  Jenna’s gaze narrowed. “Then why are we even here?”

  “Because Daisy’s convinced he can be persuaded to sell to the right buyer—or even rent, if that’s what you’d really prefer,” Anna-Louise said. “Our Daisy is scheming again.”

  Jenna’s gaze shot to the other woman. “This house doesn’t, by any chance, belong to your brother, does it?”

  Daisy beamed. “Sure does.”

  “And he knows we’re here?”

  “His idea, as a matter of fact,” Daisy said.

  “But…” Her voice trailed off. Jenna couldn’t imagine how Bobby had gotten word to Daisy. Then again, maybe it was as simple as Spencer ESP. They seemed to be able to read each other’s minds, or at least believed they could. Maybe it didn’t even matter.

  “Why does Bobby own this house?” she asked. “He’s not living in it,
and it’s too far away from the boardwalk to have been part of his plans for that.”

  Daisy and Anna-Louise exchanged a look that Jenna couldn’t interpret.

  “Is that really important?” Daisy asked blithely, then unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

  “Something tells me it is,” Jenna said, refusing to budge until she had a straight answer.

  “Bobby used his trust fund from our mother to buy this house for him and Ann-Marie. Then she ran off with Lonnie.” Daisy shrugged. “He wasn’t much interested in it after that.”

  Jenna wasn’t sure she liked this place, after all, with all of the emotional strings tied to it. “Has he been renting it?”

  “No,” Daisy said.

  “But he has been making sure it was kept up,” Jenna surmised, then looked at Daisy with sudden understanding. “Or was that your doing?”

  “Mine, though Bobby pays for it,” Daisy said. “I’m not sure if he’s even driven past it in all these years.”

  “And you want me to move in here?” Jenna said. “Won’t that pretty much assure that he’ll never come to visit me?”

  “Of course not.” Daisy beamed. “You’ll chase away the ghosts. Besides, it’s a great house. I did a terrific job fixing it up, if I do say so myself. I knew that one of these days the right person was going to come along.”

  Jenna thought of the large but nondescript house where Bobby currently lived. It could have been in any subdivision across America. This place, though, had a welcoming coziness about it. It had charm.

  “Am I supposed to lure him back here?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Of course,” Daisy and Anna-Louise said at once.

  Jenna chuckled. “Well, at least you’re honest about it—but what makes you think I can?”

  The two women exchanged a look.

  “You say it,” Anna-Louise told Daisy. “I shouldn’t even be thinking such things, much less talking about them.”

  “My brother has the hots for you,” Daisy said, grinning, though her tone was deliberately prim.

  Anna-Louise nodded. “That pretty much sums it up, from what I’ve seen.”