****
Zeph stood on the veranda with an unaccustomed churning in his gut as his friends—his ex-friends?—drove away. People liked him. He had lots of friends. Lots. Just not as special as Luke and Hannah. He turned back into the clinic. “Allie, I—”
“Brought it on yourself.” She stamped into the treatment room and began sorting bandages. After a few minutes of banging boxes around, she leaned back against the counter. “Are you a good detective?”
“Yes. In fact, honey, I am the best. I won’t quit on this until I know who is guilty. And just as important, who is innocent.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I never thought of detective work that way.”
“In a lot of ways it’s the most important thing I do. If your father’s innocent, I’ll prove it, Allie. Trust me to find the truth. Trust me.”
Conflicting emotions warred on her expressive face while she held his gaze. Finally she held out a hand.
He took it and pulled her against him. “You’re important to me, Allie.” Too important for his comfort level. He’d have to deal with that later.
After a moment of surprised stiffness, she melted against him, and all that softness made him dizzy. No matter how this case turned out, he’d never be sorry to have another chance with Allie.
The phone jolted him out of the testosterone haze the feel of her always produced.
After a few minutes of conversation, Allie hooked the phone between her ear and shoulder to rummage in a drawer. “Yeah, I’ve got some samples of that,” she said. “I’ll bring them by, Mabel…no, no problem.” She hung up the phone and turned to him. “Want to go for a drive?”
“Not only stable calls. Now you’re a delivery service?”
“The library cat needs some flea control and librarians have answers. I deliver, you ask questions?”
He needed to get a grip. While he wallowed in lust, Allie had sucked up her hurt and fear and thought about the case. “Right.” After a pause, he added, “Library cat? They let a cat in the library?”
“People like it.” She drove in silence for a few minutes before she said, “So. About Mabel.”
“If she’s the usual small town librarian, she’s been on the job since God was a pup and she knows everything about everyone.”
Allie grinned.
“What?”
“For one thing, Stone’s Crossing is rubbing off on you. ‘Since God was a pup’?”
Shit, she was right. “I’ve been listening to Monty. What else?”
“You’ll see.”
He followed Allie into the library, trying to convince himself that the impish gleam in her eye didn’t bode ill.
Mabel hadn’t been on the job forever. If she was a day over thirty, Zeph would eat the Encyclopedia Britannica. And if she knew everything about anything, it would be men.
“Hi, Allie. And this must be Zeph.” Mabel undulated out from behind the counter and Zeph caught his breath.
He’d been right about the librarian stereotype: dull brown suit, hair in a messy bun with a pencil stuck in it, dark-rimmed glasses. He’d been wrong about the centerfold body filling the suit, the fuck-me stilettos, and the kiss-me mouth. A lock of hair had come loose and his gaze followed it down across her shoulder to—he swallowed hard—the cleavage. That dull brown suit clearly didn’t have anything under it except Mabel.
Allie jabbed him in the ribs. “Shut your mouth. You look like a half-wit.”
“That’s Mabel?”
“You sound like you’re being strangled. Yes, that’s Mabel.”
Zeph took a deep breath and prepared to force himself to ignore the lushness. It didn’t take much effort, which surprised the hell out of him. Back in L.A... He glanced at Allie and his heart did that little jump. Huh.
He looked back at Mabel. Once he got past her body, he noticed the intelligence and humor gleaming in her eyes. “Hello, Mabel.”
She shook his hand briskly. “Glad to meet you. Allie’s spoken of you. I’ve been wondering how you’d deal with a place like Stone’s Crossing.” A sincere smile went with her no-nonsense voice and grip.
“It’s different, all right,” he said. “But it’s where Allie is. And she never said a word about you. You the boyfriend test?”
Mabel cocked her head and inspected him. She nodded. “He’s a keeper, Al. Go for it.”
Allie’s smile faded and she choked. “Thanks, Mabel,” she said when she’d caught her breath.
Her serious face wiped all the amusement out of Zeph. “What? You can’t be with someone unless she approves? We need to talk.”
“Not in the library,” Mabel ordered. “Business first. Fluffy’s in my office.”
“Fluffy’s a mountain lion, right?” Zeph murmured to Allie. “After seeing Mabel, I figure it’s not some long-haired, white puffball.”
“You’ll see.” Allie’s grin did nothing to allay his suspicions.
He followed Allie and Mabel down the hall, shaking his head. Women. Couldn’t do without them, though. Especially, for some reason, Allie. Nothing like the Hollywood women he’d always gone for, the ones who knew the score and the rules of the game. His reaction to Mabel proved his tastes had changed, and he didn’t even want to think about what that meant.
Instead of a mountain lion, a long-haired, white puffball sat on Mabel’s desk. Like Mabel, its looks were deceiving. It sent a death-ray gaze at everyone. Nothing pain-filled and patient about that angry yellow glare. If Allie asked him to hold this one, he’d quit. Snow would fall in downtown L. A. before he got anywhere close to this furry Godzilla.
Allie offered it a tiny fish-shaped piece of something, deftly avoided the slashing claws, and dropped a clear liquid on the back of its neck. “There you go, Fluffy. The library should be safe for another month.”
Fluffy stood and growled at Zeph. Zeph took a step back.
“Safe from fleas,” He said. “What’s going to protect it from Fluffy?” The animal looked capable of anything—shredding a book with one swipe, hunting full-grown deer, eating small patrons. “If you use that thing as a threat, I bet you never have a problem with overdue books.”
Mabel smiled and cuddled the disgruntled cat to her bounteous bosom. “Thanks, Allie. You too, Zeph. I owe you one. Anything you need, just let me know.”
Zeph looked away. Even though Mabel didn’t rev his engine, a man had his limitations. His gaze fell on the books on the desk. Now that they were no longer covered by cat, the titles were visible. He got a tingle at the back of his neck.
The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice
.
Building Codes Illustrated
.
California Professional & Business License Handbook
. “Doing a little research on the building industry?” he asked Mabel.
To his surprise, she blushed scarlet.
Allie put a hand on Mabel’s arm and snatched it back when Fluffy swatted at her. “Mabel?”
“I—I’m—I’ve been helping Santos. Now that Derek is—isn’t here, it’s hard for him.”
Allie made an impatient grimace. “I’m sure that’s true. So what’s with the blushing?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “You’ve got something going. You and Santos, right?”
“Are you accusing me of something?” Mabel burst out. “I like him. He’s a very nice man and—”
“No one’s accusing you of anything,” Zeph said. “But how come he needs help? Allie tells me he’s been Blanton’s foreman for years.”
Fluffy squawked and squirmed as Mabel’s hands tightened around his middle, and she set him on the ground. “It’s not the same. He has to make more decisions, but...Allie, I’m worried. I haven’t said anything to anyone about this, but you never gossip and...sometimes I think something is wrong. He gets phone calls that might be orders, but Derek couldn’t be calling him. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Zeph’s gaze met Allie’s over Mabel’s head. “Someone telling him what to do?” he asked softly.
“Please, please, please don’t say anything to anyone. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I’m just so worried. He mentioned the other day that he’s found some discrepancies in the records and...just don’t repeat this.”
Allie made a zipping motion across her mouth. “Our lips are sealed.”
“You think he’s being asked to do illegal things?” Zeph said.
“No.” Mabel paused. “Maybe. I don’t know. He wouldn’t. But sometimes he seems worried, and I thought if I knew more about his business, maybe he could talk things out. That’s all.”
Zeph carefully kept his expression blank. That just might be enough.
Chapter 7
“Not your typical small town librarian,” Zeph observed when they were back outside.
Allie grinned. “Gee, I hadn’t noticed.”
“I would have figured a small town would be much more—how should I put it—well, I’d expect—”
“Hide bound, strait-laced, judgmental, uptight?”
“Yeah. Like that.”
“Not even close. Where to now?”
“City Hall?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Check out building permits. I might want to build a fancy house here.” Allie stumbled and he caught her arm. “Whoa there.”
She grabbed his arm and dug in her heels, turning him to face her. “You’ve gotten awfully countrified on me. Stop channeling Monty. ‘Whoa there’? ‘Since God was a pup’? And what’s with ‘build a house’? My best guess would be that hell would freeze over before you moved out of the city.” Her mouth flattened. “Silly me. Of course. You’re staying in character.”
He nudged her back into motion. Building a house for Allie, for them, sounded so good, so right, it took his breath away. And that ought to scare him more than a twinge. “Of course.”
She didn’t notice his distress, thank God. “And what do you really want to find out?”
“I want to know how much work Blanton’s has actually done right here. It looks like most of his work has been elsewhere.”
“Huh.” Allie chewed her lip. “I think you’re right. I’d never thought much about it, but most of their work has been out of town. Derek built those cabins down the road from my office, but…well, the first few got gobbled up, but then sales really slowed down and he didn’t build any more. I thought he had planned to cover the entire ranch with those nasty little cracker boxes.”
“That sounds promising. No idea why he stopped?”
“There were lawsuits. The people who bought the first few said they were really shoddy. Derek had to take them all back. One owner talked about a lawsuit, but then he was in an auto accident and the whole thing got dropped.”
“Interesting.”
The tiny City Hall building crouched on one side of the town square. An antique shop, a bank, the post office, Monty’s office, Wentworth’s office, and a general store, all brick and curliques, occupied the rest of the space. “Looks like something out of the last century,” Zeph said and pulled out his tiny camera to snap a picture.
“It is. These are all historic buildings.”
“And city offices are probably open one afternoon a month,” he grumbled. “Or by appointment only.”
“Behave,” Allie admonished. “City slicker. And they’re open five days a week. Well…” She raised an eyebrow.
“Well?”
“Except during hunting season.”
“What? You mean the local government closes so people can go out and murder Bambis?”
“Lots of people here depend on hunting for their winter meat.”
Zeph shook his head in disbelief and followed her into a hall that ran the length of the building, a grand total of about thirty feet. On his right, propped-open double doors led to a meeting room. On his left, three doors bore signs: Administration, Mayor William Bartelett, and Records. All three showed lights through the frosted glass panels, which surprised him in spite of Allie’s assurances.
Inside the Records office, a middle-aged woman bent over a table. She looked up and smiled. “Allie. And you must be Allie’s young man. Zeph, isn’t it?”
He should be used to it by now. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “But we haven’t been introduced. I’d remember such a lovely woman.”
“Shoveling it on a bit thick, I think. Allie doesn’t let you get away with that kind of stuff, I’m betting.”
“Allie doesn’t let me get away with a da—a darned thing.” Real amusement bled into his deliberately charming smile.
“I’m Ethel Hudson,” she said. “And this is the Records Department. Marriage licenses are down the hall.”
“Ethel!” Allie protested.
“I can’t think of any other reason you’d be bringin’ him in here.”
Allie blushed.
Zeph returned Ethel’s bright, inquisitive gaze and waited for the bolt of panic. Just as before, he got only a tingle. No, no, no. Settling down with one woman, in a solid marriage like his parents’, had always been on his agenda. But not now. And definitely not in a place like this. No matter how Allie tempted him. The job. Focus on the job.
He turned up the wattage on his smile. “Believe in the direct approach, do you, ma’am?”
She glanced from him to Allie and back with her head tilted like a bird waiting for a worm. “I learn more that way,” she said with a laugh.
He should be getting used to the direct approach by now. It wouldn’t surprise him to have Ethel check his teeth and feel his legs.
“I’m just showing him around town—” Allie said at the same time Zeph said, “I—uh—I’m thinking I might be interested in building a house here in Stone’s Crossing. I was hoping to look through your building permit file. See who’s done what and what kinds of inspections get done…you know, all that kind of stuff.” He leaned across the counter and grinned at Ethel.