Kara Lennox - Bounty Hunter Ransom

“I thought you said she didn’t give an explanation,” Beau couldn’t help asking.

“I forgot, okay? I got better things to do than keep track of Patti’s soap-opera life.”

“Why do you think her life’s a soap opera?” Aubrey asked.

“What, are you kidding? You live with her. She’s got that gross-out ex-husband, Charlie—I think he’s a serial killer in training—and she works in a topless bar and she bangs her boss.” Summer covered her mouth. “Oops, I’m not supposed to know that. But if that isn’t a soap opera, what is?”

Beau tensed as Aubrey’s eyes got bigger with every word Summer spoke. Come on, babe, don’t blow it now. Summer was spilling her guts to a perfect stranger. Aubrey really did have a knack for this. But she was going to blow it if she freaked out now.

To her credit, Aubrey managed a smile. “I guess my cousin is a bit colorful. But she’s not as tough as she pretends. She’s in trouble, but I don’t want to call the cops if I don’t have to.”

At the mention of cops, Summer’s expression closed up. “Hey, I don’t know anything. But you might ask Greg. He knows Patti better than I do. Way better, if you catch my meaning.”

The girl was as subtle as an army boot.

“I gotta go. Greg’s in his office,” she said, nodding to a closed door. “He’s got a client with him, and he doesn’t like to be interrupted. But he has to come out eventually.”

Without any further ado, Summer pulled her purse out of a drawer and left.

Aubrey sank into the only other chair in the waiting room. “She was sleeping with her boss?” she said in a low voice, sounding appalled.

“I take it you didn’t know that.”

“Surely Patti would have told me if she had a new boyfriend. Anyway, she thinks Greg is a jerk. And what was that garbage about a topless bar?”

“Some of the waitresses at Kink go topless. Or almost.”

“But she doesn’t work there anymore.”

“Does she spend all her evenings at home?”

Aubrey said nothing for a few moments. “I wonder what else she hasn’t told me.”

Beau stood up and moved behind the desk Summer had just abandoned. “I’m gonna see if Patti left anything helpful in her desk. This is where she usually works, right?”

“Beau!” Aubrey sounded panicky. “You can’t just search her desk. What if Greg Holmes comes out here and catches you?”

Beau already had the desk drawer open. “He’ll yell. Big deal.”

The desk drawer held the usual office supplies—pens and pencils, stamps, rubber bands, paper clips. There were a couple of snapshots of a baby, which Beau assumed was Sara. He tucked these in his pocket. Might be useful later.

The file drawer held an array of untidy hanging folders. None of the labels sounded promising. They seemed to contain client policies. A drawer on the other side of the desk held more personal items. Beau examined and set aside a box of tissue, a bottle of antacid tablets, a couple of alternative rock CDs—and a brown envelope. He pulled out the paper inside.

“What is it?” Aubrey asked nervously.

“Looks like a copy of the document Patti’s boyfriend signed, giving up his parental rights. Was she having trouble with him?”

“Not recently. Besides, that voice on the phone didn’t sound like Charlie, although…I guess he could have been disguising it. The voice was kind of hoarse and whispery.”

The murmured voices inside the office got louder, and the doorknob rattled. Beau quickly closed the drawer and scooted out from behind the desk. He pretended to study a picture on the wall of a clown when Greg Holmes’s office door opened.

“I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know,” said the older of the two men who emerged from the inner office. He wore a suit—cheap and ill-fitting—and sported a determined five-o’clock shadow. His thinning hair was styled in a comb-over.

He vigorously pumped the hand of the other man, who was younger and kind of punk-looking, with ratty clothes and a scraggly beard.

The older man, whom Beau assumed was Greg Holmes, stopped suddenly. “Who are you?” he asked in a startled voice, his beady eyes focusing on Beau.

“Summer told us we could wait here,” Beau said affably.

The punk looked a little nervous. He made for the exit, as if he didn’t want to prolong any conversation with strangers.

“Summer knows better than to let customers sit in here unattended,” he muttered angrily. Beau thought he was rather inhospitable for an insurance agent. For all Holmes knew, they could be in the market for millions of dollars’ worth of life insurance.

“I’m Patti’s cousin, Aubrey Schuyler,” Aubrey said with a smile, extending her hand. “She’s told me so much about you, Mr. Holmes.”

Holmes softened a bit. Who could blame him? When Aubrey turned those liquid green eyes on a man, he couldn’t help but fall in line with her wishes. He gave Aubrey’s extended hand a grudging squeeze. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “She’s been gone all day. I was starting to get worried about her.”

“We don’t know where she is,” Beau said, extending his hand. He introduced himself as a friend of the family. “We were hoping you might shed some light on the situation.”

“Why would I know anything?” Holmes asked, suddenly defensive. “She’s just an employee. I don’t know anything about her personal life.”

Beau thought the man’s reaction was just a bit too emphatic. “People who work together all day long often know more about each other than their own families,” Beau said.

“Look, she answers my phones and does a little typing. I don’t spend significant time with her. I’m much too busy with clients to socialize with the receptionist.”

Beau thought Greg Holmes had just taken a giant step back from I was starting to get worried about her. Maybe he wanted to hide the fact he’d been sleeping with her. He wore a wedding ring.

“She apparently got a phone call this morning that alarmed her,” Aubrey said gently. “We wondered if you knew who—”

“Why would I know who?” Holmes said, even more agitated. “I don’t listen in on my receptionist’s phone calls.”

“Do you have a caller ID?” Beau asked.

“No. What right do you have—”

Beau held up his hands to slow Holmes’s rampage of words. “Easy, easy. We don’t have any right at all. We’re just asking, and of course you can refuse us. But the sooner we locate Patti, the less likely the cops will come here looking for the same thing we are. Only, they’ll have a warrant.”

Aubrey gripped his arm. She obviously didn’t like the sudden escalation of hostility.

Holmes backed down slightly. “I don’t have any way of knowing who called.”

Aubrey handed Holmes a card. “That has my cell number on it. Will you let me know if you think of anything, or if anyone else calls or comes by looking for Patti?”

Holmes took the card and stuck it in his jacket pocket. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get home. My wife isn’t feeling well.” He ushered them out, then watched until they got into their car and left.

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