Julianna Morris - Undercover In Glimmer Creek

“That’s right. Thomas International Products is one of our best business contracts, though it’s a fairly small group this time.” Tessa shifted the cat she held, uncomfortable for several reasons. For one thing, Mr. Fezziwig weighed a ton, and for another, there was something about Gabe McKinley that made her vaguely wary. Her father tried to hire veterans who were struggling to adjust to civilian life, but Gabe didn’t seem the type to struggle with anything.

Appearances can be deceiving, she reminded herself. Yet it was difficult to picture him pruning trees and replacing sod torn up by energetic kids. He seemed more like someone accustomed to giving orders, instead of taking them.

“Could you finish the tour for Gabe?” her father asked. “I just got a call that an order needs to be picked up from the Sullivan Nursery down in Stockton.”

“Sure, Pop. Are you taking the long truck?”

“No, the old one. It’s large enough.” He turned to Gabe. “Poppy Gold has a 1928 AA pickup. People have fun seeing it and think it’s great that such an old truck is still being used. Tessa, can you also show Gabe our fleet of antique vehicles? I hadn’t gotten that far with the tour.”

“No problem. Call when you get back. If you aren’t busy tonight, come over and I’ll fix you dinner.” Tessa kissed his cheek.

When she was alone with Gabe McKinley, she gestured at Mr. Fezziwig. “Just let me deal with this fellow. I’ll be right back.”

Gabe must have missed the “I’ll be right back” because he walked with her to the opposite end of the Victorian Cat. Since no guests had checked in for the day, she’d left the access open to her private, two-story apartment.

“So you live on-site,” he commented.

“Yes, though Guest Registration handles check-ins.” She put Mr. Fezziwig on a chair by the window and ran a finger down his neck. He was still looking at Gabe suspiciously, and Tessa understood exactly how he felt. Gabe had walked right in, past a sign marked Private. “But living at the Victorian Cat works out well, because if one of the cats doesn’t have company for the night, they can stay with me.”

“How often does that happen?”

“We aren’t always fully booked during the off-season, but the closer we get to summer, it’s rare to have rooms available. We try to have something unique about each of the B and Bs, and returning guests have their favorites. Cat lovers usually pick the Victorian Cat, while railroad buffs prefer the Gold Rail Hotel, and so forth.”

“It must be difficult to manage the bookings.”

“We have staff dedicated to reservations and event planning. Poppy Gold Inns is the biggest employer in Glimmer Creek,” Tessa said proudly, “and we support other businesses by buying local whenever possible and outsourcing various services.”

Gabe nodded as if interested, though it was impossible to tell anything from his face. Honestly, they’d only just met, but it was hard to imagine an emotion daring to crack his iron jaw.

“You appear to have a good many antiques. Do you have live-in staff to keep an eye on things at night? I haven’t noticed any video cameras.”

It was probably an innocent question, but it seemed odd to Tessa. She’d dealt with a wide range of new employees and eager beavers who asked everything under the sun on their first day, but Gabe’s manner seemed more like an IRS auditor than an eager beaver. Not that it was fair to make snap judgments; he was still adjusting to civilian life. Anyway, her father would have run a background check before hiring him.

“Actually, we don’t have live-in staff. Security is on duty around the clock, so you won’t need to get involved with those issues,” she said carefully. “Guest Registration is at Old City Hall, which is located by the original town square park.”

“I see.”

Tessa firmly escorted Gabe out and locked the door behind them. “Now, what have you been shown so far?”

“The working areas for Maintenance, including the greenhouses, orchards and vegetable gardens. Also the general employee facility.”

“All right, we’ll go to Old City Hall next.”

They stepped out into the Victorian garden surrounding the large house. Birds twittered in the spring sunshine, splashing in the birdbath and perching on the edge. The California foothills were always beautiful, especially in the historic Gold Country, but spring and summer were the seasons that Tessa particularly loved.

She didn’t even mind the hot days. As a kid she’d swum in the creek when the temperature went up, panned for gold dust in the shallows and picnicked along the shore with friends and family. However busy her parents might have been running their bed-and-breakfast business, they’d tried to join her adventures. Lately Tessa didn’t have much time for adventures, but someday she hoped to get back to them.

“This way,” she said, pointing north.

* * *

CAREFUL, GABE WARNED himself as Tessa Connor continued the tour of Poppy Gold. It was a bad idea to ask too many questions. After all, he was supposed to look like a navy vet, working his first job after leaving the service.

Actually, it was his first job, but he hadn’t applied to Poppy Gold because he needed to make a living. Between his twenty-year retirement from the navy and being a part owner of the family company—Thomas International Products—he had a generous income.

Gabe left running TIP to his younger brother; the thought of being stuck behind a desk all day was more than he could swallow, and doing it for the family company would be that much worse. A muscle in Gabe’s jaw twitched. The company was another reminder of his lousy childhood with a work-obsessed father and a vodka-guzzling mother. He’d enlisted when he was eighteen to get away from the misery at home.

Nevertheless, when Rob suspected a problem with industrial espionage, Gabe had insisted on helping. As a former navy SEAL, Gabe had experience in putting together missions and following suspicious activities around the world. And that didn’t include the joint operations he’d done with the CIA. Together, he and Rob had narrowed down the most likely location where information leaks could have occurred—Poppy Gold Inns. TIP had been holding executive retreats, training and strategy meetings at the small conference center for the past two years.

They’d contacted the FBI with the information, but the agent had said it was only supposition at this point. “Bring us real evidence and we might be able to do something,” the agent had declared.

He and Rob had decided the best way to get the necessary evidence was for Gabe to go undercover. In the past two years, the company had lost millions in deals that had fallen through; it couldn’t continue.

“This is Glimmer Creek’s original city center,” Tessa said, stopping and gesturing around a picturesque park, complete with a gazebo-style bandstand and large fountain. “The town has a different center now, of course, in front of the new city hall. Not that it’s new any longer since it was built in the 1930s, but that’s what it’s called.”

“Why did they build it instead of using the original building?” Gabe asked, trying to sound more like a new employee than an investigator.

“The story is too long to tell right now, but it’s tied up with family history on my father’s side. The short version is that my grandfather owned all of the land and buildings in this part of town before he deeded them to my parents to start Poppy Gold. Before that it was nicknamed Connor’s Folly.”

Connor’s Folly? Obviously that was part of the long story Tessa didn’t have time to tell him.

“Your grandfather must be well-off.”

“Granddad is the owner and president of Connor Enterprises in San Francisco.”