Zeph Undercover Read Online Free Page A

talk about.
    Like his case, he reminded himself. He’d better stay focused if he expected that partnership.
    Right outside the town limits Allie turned left into a driveway, and he slowed to stay behind her. A big sign announced that he’d found the town animal clinic. A barn and several corrals around it bolstered the claim. He parked and tagged after Allie into the main building, which had once been a big, old ranch house. The Spanish style looked familiar enough to his L. A.-trained eyes. Red tile roof, white plaster. Bright geraniums like the ones his mother grew spilling out of big pots on a shady veranda.
    He stepped through a carved door that would have done credit to an old Spanish mission. Even the unmistakable sharp hospital-like smell couldn’t ruin its beauty. What once had been a living room had been turned into a reception area, but the reception desk and the benches around the walls couldn’t disguise the old tile floor, striking stone fireplace, and elegant woodwork. “This must have been a real show place,” he said in a neutral voice.
    Allie’s so not-neutral once-over hovered just short of a glare. “We need to talk. My office.” She turned on her heel and stalked into a room that he figured had originally been the library.
    “Yes, ma’am,” he murmured, swallowing a smile. “ You’re beautiful when you’re mad ” could get a chair thrown at him. But, damn, things became clichés because they were true, and anger sharpened her blonde beauty to a point just short of pain. Not that Allie didn’t rev his engine when those blue, blue eyes went all soft and sweet.
    She took a seat behind the big oak desk, radiating I’m-in-command-here.
    Fine. He wouldn’t argue. “We do need to talk. First off, thank you. Your cooperation will make my job a lot easier.”
    Her raised eyebrow told him she hadn’t expected that. But however he might have surprised her, she recovered quickly. “I love this town. If there’s a mess here, I want it cleaned up.”
    “I intend to do that.”
    “And I want it done fast. The sooner you get your job done and leave, the happier I’ll be.”
    “You’ve got it,” he lied. He’d be more than willing to pick up where they’d left off. After the night she’d left him, he’d broken down and called her once. Her excuses—work load, no time to visit him in L. A., she didn’t like cities—had sounded feeble to him. He knew about time management, and he didn’t believe she couldn’t arrange an occasional holiday. No one worked harder than he did, and he still had time for a rich life, full of the hottest new restaurants and hottest new women. In a small back corner of his mind, he wondered when that had stopped sounding like fun.
    Something must have happened That Night. When he’d driven away, she’d been with the program one hundred per cent. When he’d returned, he’d found an empty house and a Dear John note.
    “So what do you want me to do?”
    “That’s my Allie. Always practical.” She opened her mouth but he cut across what he imagined would be her objection to the “my Allie” comment. “First, don’t tell anyone I’m a private detective. Besides you, only Luke and Hannah and Monty know, and they won’t talk. People respond better when they don’t know they’re talking to a detective.”
    “This is a small town. You really think the word hasn’t spread?”
    “You tell me.”
    “Probably. Well-l-l…maybe not. We’ll see.”
    “If that’s the best we can do.” He shrugged.
    “What are you looking for? You only said ‘scam.’”
    He considered her thoughtfully. She’d tell Hannah. Hannah would tell Luke. And it would stop there. Luke and Hannah owed him, even though he’d been paid well to be Luke’s bodyguard. “Someone here in town is fleecing investors in the building trade. Someone who has ties in Sacramento.”
    “Why are you so sure it’s someone here?”
    “All the subcontractors involved are fakes, but they all