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.I want to be on the road within the hour.”She bristled, as he half expected she would.“You must have mistaken me for a police dog, trained to obey your every command.”“No chance of that ever happening,” he said, heading inside the house.“You don’t have the brains for the job.”Her reply floated after him: a three word suggestion, succinct and unmistakable in its meaning.“That’s anatomically impossible, even for me,” he called out, taking the stairs two at a time to his office on the third floor.“And shame on you for resorting to language that would make a stevedore blush.”They set off forty-five minutes later.“I thought about flying up to Vancouver,” he said, cruising north along the scenic coast road, just slightly above the speed limit, “but with all the hanging around and jumping through hoops it involves, we can be there almost as fast by driving.”“I doubt that.It took me two days to get to your place.”“Given the kind of car you drive, plus the fact that you were probably poking along at forty miles an hour, that doesn’t surprise me.”The turnoff for the highway linking the coast road to the Interstate lay a couple of hundred yards ahead.Taking the exit ramp at a fair clip, he filtered into the mainstream traffic, steered past a couple of semis, and pulled into the passing lane.“I, on the other hand,” he said, stepping on the gas and enjoying her stifled gasp of alarm as the Jaguar, responsive to his slightest touch, leaped forward, “prefer to get to where I’m going with all due speed.”“I prefer to arrive alive, if you don’t mind!”“Relax, Linda,” he said, patting her knee.“I’ll get you there in one piece, I promise.”“And then what?”“We’ll do some nosing around.Check with the RCMP to see if anything new’s turned up.Talk to people who knew Thayer.Learn what we can about his background, habits, things like that.”“By people, I hope you don’t mean June.She’s pretty fragile right now.”“I mean anybody who might shed some light on his actions,” he said flatly.“June, your mother, Thayer’s neighbors, colleagues, friends.We’ve got to start somewhere, yes?”“I suppose so.” She stared at her clenched hands gloomily.“You’re not exactly brimming over with enthusiasm.Why is that, I wonder?”“I feel I’m running in circles and getting nowhere.I spent two whole days driving from Vancouver to Trillium Cove, and here we are, spending another whole day driving back again.”He swung another glance at her.With the top down on the car, the wind was having a heyday with her hair.In marked contrast to her otherwise troubled demeanor, it streamed around her face, carefree and wild.Squashing the crazy urge to reach out and feel its pale, corn-silk texture sliding through his fingers, he said, “You could have saved yourself the trip if you’d called me first, you know.”“Even if I’d been able to get hold of your phone number, would you have spoken to me? Agreed to help me?”“Probably not,” he admitted ruefully.He could, and did, hang up on importuning phone calls from strangers; disregard their messages on his voice mail.But even he, hardened case that he’d become, hadn’t been able to turn his back on a woman whose physical presence defined the weary hopelessness hers had betrayed.“That’s why I had to come to see you in person.”He drummed his fingers on the leather-bound steering wheel and debated broaching the one subject which had been nagging at the back of his mind ever since he’d agreed to take on the case.“How much do you really know about me, Linda?”“Only what I’ve read, what my journalist friend mentioned, and what you yourself have told me.I know you’ve already published one book, which is being heralded as the closest thing to a bible ever to land on a police chief’s desk, and you’re working on a second.That you do some media work once in a very rare while, and occasionally get called in to consult when an official investigation hits a snag.You’re also difficult, reclusive and guard your privacy as if it were on a par with the Hope diamond.” A thread of laughter lightened her voice.“I half expected I’d find myself looking down the barrel of a shotgun when you caught me trespassing on your territory yesterday.”“Yet you hung around anyway, even after I told you to take a hike.”“Yes.With my sister practically catatonic, and my niece missing nearly two months, what did I have to lose?”He didn’t tell her, Quite possibly the only thing you have left, which is hope! If they were chasing a lost cause, she’d find out soon enough.Instead he said, “Do you know why I turned in my badge?”“Because you’re a rebel and wouldn’t play by the rules.”“No,” he said.“Because I screwed up the last case I worked on and a child died as a result.A baby, Linda, not much older than your niece.”She recoiled, burying herself deeper into the plush leather seat.“But it wasn’t really your fault.You were hamstrung by protocol.”“It was my fault.I was the one who undertook to bring that child home, and I was the one who failed.”“Why are you telling me this now?” she asked, in a small, wounded voice.“Because I’m no miracle worker.I can’t guarantee I’m going to find your sister’s baby.I can’t promise you anything except that I’ll do my best.I don’t want to mislead you on that.And I don’t want you misleading yourself.So if, in light of what I’ve just said, you don’t think I’m the right man for the job after all, feel free to say so.I’ll drive you to the nearest airport, put you on a plane for Vancouver, arrange to have your car delivered to you within the week and no hard feelings either way.”The silence spun out, matching the miles.Finally, when he was about ready to stop the car and shake her into responding, she said, “I’m not going to change my mind.I…trust you.”“So did the parents of that other baby, and I let them down.”“So you say.But if Angela…” Her voice quivered and died.Obviously fighting to bring her emotions under control, she drew in a long, shaking breath and tried again.“If something’s happened to my niece and we’re too late to save her, I need to know it wasn’t because of lack of effort on my part.I need to know I gave it my best shot—which, at this point, is you.Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to face my family ever again.”“You took a real chance, just showing up on my doorstep like that, you know,” he said, steering the conversation into a less sensitive vein.“What if I’d been away or refused to see you?”“I wouldn’t let myself dwell on those possibilities.I had to take some sort of action.Anything was better than sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, and being afraid to answer because the news might be bad.”“Are you always this impetuous?”“Only if the occasion calls for it.Why? Haven’t you ever done something on impulse?”“Yeah,” he said.“I got married on one.”“Why didn’t things work out, do you suppose?”“I was too obsessed with my work.I brought it home with me.It was my mistress, always coming between us, even in the bedroom.” He swung a glance at her, deeming it wise to make his next point, even though their association was purely professional.Women sometimes got strange ideas on the strength of very little.“I’m not good marriage material, cookie.”She turned to watch the passing scene so that he couldn’t read her face, and said, “Were they your ex-wife’s bath crystals I saw in your bathroom?”“No.She’s never seen my house.Never set foot in Trillium Cove, as far as I know.She’d be bored silly in a place like that.She’s a city woman, born and bred
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