Читать книгу Parker And The Gypsy - Susan Carroll - Страница 8

One

Mikey ran through the maze of dark alleys, heart thumping beneath his ragged T-shirt, his grubby sneakers pounding the cold, hard concrete. Behind the kid, the shadow of a man loomed, tall and wavering in the streetlights, like a dangling spider.

Mikey glanced wildly about him for an escape route, but there was none. Brick walls enclosed him on all four sides. A ragged sob tore from his chest as he whirled about. The shadow man crept closer, ever closer. The boy flattened himself against the wall, tears streaking down his dirty cheeks as his stalker stepped into the light.

Mikey could almost see his face now....

“No! Go away,” the boy screamed as the shadow-man grabbed at him, his fingers sinking into Mikey’s shoulder like bony talons. With his other hand, the dark demon raised his knife—

“No!”

The word tore from Mike Parker’s throat as he wrenched awake, his head snapping back against the battered upholstery of his office chair. The leather creaked as he sat bolt upright and clenched the sides of his old oak desk, his brown eyes flying wide open. It took a few moments for him to remember where he was. The four plaster walls, the steel file cabinets and other trappings of his one man detective agency slowly penetrated his sleep-fogged brain.

No dark alleys. No shadow man. No knife. He had just dozed off at his desk, had a bad dream. That was all. But for a brief second, Mike felt all of twelve years old again. Small, helpless and scared. His hand crept reflexively to his shoulder, seeking traces of the wound that had long ago healed. Or should have. Damp patches stained the black T-shirt that hugged the hard contours of his chest, but they were from perspiration, not blood.

Swearing under his breath, Mike shook his head in disgust, raking back uneven lengths of tawny-colored hair from his eyes.

At the age of thirty four, he was too old for this, to be still having nightmares about the bogeyman. Or in this case, a day-mare. Anytime he was overtired or a little run-down, he could almost count on that stupid dream to come creeping up on him again. But after all these years, why, damn it?

“The answer is obvious, Michael,” the grad student from Rutgers he’d once dated had told him. “The dream is a manifest sign about some unresolved issue from your childhood.”

“You don’t say,” Mike had snapped, wondering how they’d gotten around to discussing his restless sleep habits in the first place. He’d been quick to change the subject with a suggestive remark that had brought both the uncomfortable conversation and his dinner date with the lovely Carolyn Saunders to an abrupt end. As she had stormed out of the restaurant, Mike had resolved upon two things. In the future, to steer clear of women who called him Michael. And to keep his dreams to himself.

“Manifest sign,” he muttered, still irritated by the memory of Carolyn’s attempts to play Sigmund Freud. The issues of his childhood had all been resolved quite well as far as he was concerned. Locked neatly away behind the bars of Trenton State Prison and forgotten.

The only thing the damn dream was ever a sign of was a hangover, just like the one that was making his head pound this morning. The dull pain still throbbed behind his eyes despite the cold shower and aspirin tablets that had gotten him awake and into his office earlier that morning.

Rummaging around in his top desk drawer, Mike managed to locate the plastic bottle and shook out two more white tablets into his hand. Uncoiling his six-foot-two frame from the chair, he dragged himself over to the water cooler and filled a stained ceramic coffee cup. He gagged down both aspirin in one huge gulp.

The blasted air-conditioning was on the fritz again and outside his open second story window, the heat and noisy traffic of another Atlantic City summer morning assaulted his much-battered senses in one great oppressive wave. He couldn’t remember how much he’d had to drink last night, but if it had him dreaming about the shadow man again, it had obviously been too much.

It had all started out harmlessly enough—hefting a few cool ones at Boom Boom’s Bar and Grill with his friend Jimmy Potts, in celebration of Jimmy’s upcoming marriage. Mike had spent most of the time staring morosely into his glass and wondering how many months it would take before Jimmy turned up in his office, hiring Mike to get the goods on the little woman when she took to cheating with some new Romeo. That, in Mike’s bitter experience, was how most marital bliss panned out. All those hearts and flowers, promises of love and eternal devotion—just another con game.

Despite his raging headache. Mike congratulated himself on surviving this bachelor party better than he had the last one, when he’d trailed after the girl who’d jumped out of the cake. Darcy Robbins. But she was another nightmare he’d just as soon forget.

Rubbing one hand along his unshaven jaw, Mike tried to summon up the energy to return to his desk and complete the report he’d been working on before he’d fallen asleep. Skip traces on some missing deadbeats for a local finance company. Boring as hell but—

A knock sounded on his office door, nearly startling him into dropping the coffee cup. As he replaced the mug back on top of the water cooler, he grumbled, “Now what?”

He knew it couldn’t be his secretary. Rosa had no respect for a closed door. She barged in whenever she felt like it. The rapping sounded again, causing Mike to wince. “All right, all right!” he snarled. “Just stop the damn pounding and come in.”

The door opened slowly and Mike blinked at the vision that filled his threshold. It was as though a burst of sunlight had pierced his gloom-ridden office and assumed the form of a woman. She was all softness, from the rainbow-hued skirt that clung to the willowy outline of her hips, to the white flowing blouse that shifted half off her creamy shoulders.

Golden ringlets rioted about a heart-shaped face with features as delicate as fine porcelain, from the dainty nose to the small determined chin. She regarded Mike with the most wistful blue eyes he’d ever seen.

She had an angel’s hair, an angel’s eyes, an angel’s mouth. It took Mike a moment to realize he wasn’t breathing and to exhale deeply. It took him a moment longer to snap back to his senses and remember that the only angels he had any use for were the fallen kind.

This young woman had that look of dewy-eyed innocence about her that usually meant nothing but trouble. When she hesitated, fretting her lip, Mike barked out, “What can I do for you, sis? Are you sure you’ve got the right office? The Save-a-Soul Mission’s on the first floor.”

“I’m not looking for the mission,” she said softly.

She had an angel’s voice, too. Mike grimaced.

“I’m looking for Michael Parker.”

“You’ve found him.”

“Oh, no!” Her mouth dropped open in dismay. She took a cautious step closer, her remarkable blue eyes traveling over him. “I—I mean you just can’t be Mr. Parker.”

“I forget a lot of things the morning after I’ve tied one on,” Mike said with a sardonic lift of one brow, “but I generally manage to remember my name.”

“I’m sorry.” A flush rose into her cheeks. “I guess I do see the resemblance now.”

Her shoulders sagged as disbelief appeared to give way to disappointment, but Mike was used to that. He’d been disappointing people all his life—his high school teachers, his foster parents, his ex-wife....

The woman’s gaze flicked from Mike to the newspaper she held clutched in her hand. “It’s just that you don’t look very much like your picture.”

Closing the distance between them, Mike snatched the paper away to see just what she had there. It was a puff piece about him, inserted in the Golden Times Gazette, a weekly magazine distributed mostly to local retirement communities, written and edited by Mrs. Eudora Jenkins, a very grateful former client of his. A more glowing testimonial about the Parker Agency could hardly have been penned by his own grandmother.

Mike didn’t know what was worse: the glaring headline, Mike Parker, Crusading P.I., or the sappy photograph that accompanied the article. He would have been hard-pressed to recognize himself from the picture, his broad shoulders encased in a tuxedo, his slightly crooked mouth angled into a debonair smile.

Mike thrust the paper back at the woman who had invaded his office. “I was doing undercover work,” he explained.

“Oh!” Her brow cleared. “You mean you were on a stakeout last night. That explains...everything.” Her gaze drifted over his disheveled appearance.

No, it didn’t, Mike wanted to argue. What he’d meant was that he’d been doing undercover work when he’d been all trussed up in that tuxedo. His present appearance—the beat-up sneakers, the faded jeans, the T-shirt—was much closer to his natural state.

But somehow he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that. Not with her beaming at him that way, with such a radiant smile.

She had an angel’s smile...

He caught himself wishing that he had at least taken time to shave after his quick shower. Finger combing his hair in a self-conscious gesture, Mike cleared his throat. “I don’t usually see walk-ins. But if you’d like to step out in the reception room and set up an appointment with my secretary—”

“But she isn’t there.”

Mike stepped around her to peer into the outer office. She was right. Rosa’s desk was empty. She had never come in to work.

“Damn! She’s probably planning to call in sick again,” he said. “Off to visit Dr. Blackjack at the United Memorial Casino.”

When his visitor regarded him blankly, Mike explained, “That’s a joke.”

“Oh.” Again that blinding smile.

It galvanized Mike into stalking forward and pulling up one of the seasick green vinyl chairs that comprised his office decor. He couldn’t remember when the last time was he’d leapt to hold a chair for any woman, but he was doing it now.

“As long as you’re here,” he said, “you might as well sit down.”

“Thank you.” She sank gracefully onto the seat. As Mike pushed the chair into place before his desk, he experienced a double assault on his senses. First the sight of her slim, shapely legs as she crossed them. Then the exotic scent that seemed to radiate from the golden cloud of her hair.

The sweet perfume rendered him a little dizzy. Or maybe, he told himself, it was still the effect of last night’s excesses. He stumbled back to his own seat behind the desk and tried to look nonchalant, leaning back in his chair.

“So what can I do for you?”

“Well, Mr. Parker—”

“Please. Mr. Parker was my father.” Or at least it was until the old man traded his name for the number stamped across his prison inmate’s uniform. Mike shoved the grim thought aside before adding, “Call me ‘Mike.’”

“Mike,” she repeated, her smile gone suddenly shy. Her golden-tipped lashes drifted down. “It’s very hard for me to know where to begin.”

“Then why don’t we start with something easy? Like your name.”

“It’s Sara Holyfield. And no h. In Sara, that is.”

“Sara with no h,” Mike murmured, but he was distracted by the silvery glint of her earrings. To his complete fascination, he saw that she was wearing naked fairies dangling off each ear. Very nubile fairies with delicate wings.

And there appeared to be another one suspended from a chain around her neck. This creature poised on top of some kind of crystal. Mike started to lean forward, tracing the path of the fairy where it danced down the front of her blouse, but he caught himself just in time.

Shoving aside the stack of paper that littered his desk—several days’ worth of unopened mail—Mike attempted to assume a more professional stance. He managed to locate a notepad and a pen that actually worked. Jotting down Sara’s name, he pressed her for a few more basic facts such as her address and phone number.

“Aurora Falls, New Jersey, huh?” he commented as he scrawled the information on his pad. “You drove a long way to find yourself a detective.”

“There was no one back there who could help me.”

“Suppose you tell me what the problem is and I’ll see what I can do.”

Sara nodded, but she still appeared reluctant to proceed. Mike had encountered this before in first-time clients—the nervousness, the embarrassment to talk of what were often highly personal difficulties. Usually he lost patience and ordered his customers to cut to the chase.

But something about Sara Holyfield inspired an unaccustomed gentleness in him. Mike tried to set her at her ease by offering her a piece of his favorite peppermint gum. When she declined, he popped a stick in his own mouth, then settled back in his chair with what he hoped was a father-confessor type of expression.

“Just relax and take your time,” he soothed.

She started to speak and ended up fretting with her purse strings instead. She had smooth graceful fingers with neat, well-trimmed nails—nothing like those red-painted talons his ex-wife, Darcy, had sported. Mike had a notion Sara’s hands would feel all warm and silky, just like the rest of her ivory-toned skin.

He clicked the peppermint gum against his teeth, annoyed that he had let his mind go skipping off like that again. After an awkward silence, he probed delicately, “There’s some trouble with your husband perhaps?”

She shook her head vigorously, the fairies swinging with her hair. “I’ve never been married.”

“A boyfriend, then?”

“He’s moved to Texas.”

“And you want me to trace him?”

“No.” Her lips quirked in a wry half smile. “I assure you I don’t want him found.”

“Good! I mean, that’s too bad. I mean—” Hell, Mike wasn’t sure what he meant or why this woman was unnerving him so. Maybe it was because he could usually peg any client within minutes after they’d walked in the door, guess what they wanted before they ever opened their mouths.

But he wasn’t able to do that with her. He didn’t have a clue why she was there. Angels shouldn’t have problems, should they? But something was sure distressing this one. Beyond that serene exterior, he could see it in her eyes. A deep-rooted sadness. If his heart hadn’t been made of shoe leather, it would have moved even him.

“I suppose I should start by telling you a little more about myself,” she said at last. She stood up and paced restlessly to the window. The sunlight filtering through the blinds haloed her hair and rendered her white cotton blouse almost transparent.

“Have you ever had a revelation, Mr. Parker?” she asked.

“No,” Mike croaked. But he was having one now. She wasn’t wearing a bra. He could see the shadow of her small, full breasts quite clearly, down to the pert outline of her nipples.

His response was swift, inevitable and very male. Chewing his gum furiously, Mike forced himself to look away. This surge of attraction was unprofessional, but he couldn’t seem to help it. The life of a private detective was far from glamorous. It was pretty mundane most of the time. After months of pot-bellied men and little old ladies coming through his door, no wonder he was jolted by the sight of a beautiful young woman.

It was like something out of one of those hokey old detective movies that he had a sneaking fondness for. The mysterious dame swishes into the gumshoe’s office, innocent, but alluring, begging for his help.

There would be danger, hairbreadth escapes. Of course, he’d eventually save her life and she would be terribly grateful. Mike got to the point in his imaginings where Miss Sara Holyfield was demonstrating some of that gratitude, slipping that soft blouse off her even-softer shoulders, guiding his hands toward her—

Whoa! This ridiculous fantasy wasn’t doing anything to help his—er—condition. He actually felt beads of sweat gathering on his brow. Sara had finally started talking and he’d hardly registered a word of it.

“...and I realized I’d been wasting my life and talents. After I received the inheritance from my great-aunt Marilla, I walked out of my job at the bank and never looked back. I went to work for myself the very next day.”

Mike risked a peek at her. Mercifully she had stepped out of the revealing pool of sunlight. He didn’t know whether he was more relieved or disappointed.

She turned slowly to face him. “Which brings me to why I’m here. I need to hire you to collaborate with me on a case.”

Mike blinked. Boy, he must have really missed something when he’d been daydreaming. “You are a detective?”

“Of a sort.” Her chin tipped up a notch in an attitude that could have been pride or defiance. “I’m a psychic investigator.”

Mike swallowed his gum and damn near choked. “You—you mean like—like a ghost buster?”

“I don’t bust ghosts, Mr. Parker. I merely explore evidence of supernatural phenomenon.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“I also run a New Age book store and do psychic readings.”

Mike stared at her. She stared back, looking as calm as if she’d just told him she was a dental hygienist. He expelled his breath in a long sigh. Great. He’d finally gotten his alluring, mysterious dame, and with his usual luck, she turned out to be a nut case. Or else she was planning to pull off some incredible hustle on him. Life was so damned unfair.

Swiveling glumly back to the desk, he said, “Sorry, Miss Holyfield, but I don’t think I can help you. I always confine my investigations to this side of the grave.”

“I don’t expect you to go ghost hunting with me, if that’s what you’re afraid of. I have no trouble with that.”

“I’ll bet,” Mike mumbled under his breath.

Bracing her hands upon his desk, she leaned forward. Mike was assaulted again by the scent of her perfume, the soft rise and fall of her breasts.

What a waste. He stifled a groan.

She peered down at him earnestly. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I haven’t been making myself all that clear. I’m here on behalf of a Miss Mamie Patrick. She’s trying to find her son.”

“Oh. A missing-persons case. Why didn’t you say so to begin with? That’s different. That’s—” Normal Mike almost added. It wasn’t the first time someone like this Patrick woman was misguided or desperate enough to consult a psychic to recover their missing child. Mike wasn’t sure he wanted to get mixed-up in this business. But his interest was piqued enough to reach for his notepad again.

“Okay, sit down,” he said to Sara. “And this time give-it to me straight without the psychic bull—that is, just give me the cold, hard facts.”

Sara sank back into her chair, folding her hands primly. “Well, Mamie—Miss Patrick—first made contact with me about two weeks ago. Her only son, John Francis, was put up for adoption when he was six years old. For her own peace of mind, she desperately needs to see him again.”

Mike noted the name of the Patrick kid on his pad. “And how long has it been since she last saw the boy?”

“John Patrick would be somewhere in his late thirties by now.” Sara added anxiously, “Do you think there’s any real hope that you can find him after all this time, Mr. Parker?”

“Anything’s possible. Although I have to warn you, adoption records in New Jersey are sealed.” Mike shrugged. “I’ll have to talk to this Miss Patrick myself and see what leads she can give me, but frankly, I think you should make sure she really wants this matter pursued. These tender family reunions you watch on the talk shows are not always what they’re cracked up to be. After all this time, Mamie Patrick might be better off forgetting about her son and getting on with her life.”

“That would be difficult,” Sara said quietly. “She’s dead.”

“What!” Mike pressed down so hard with the pen, he punctured the paper.

“Mamie Patrick died over thirty years ago.”

“You mean...you’re telling me this client of yours is—is a—”

“A supernatural manifestation.”

“Let’s use plain English here. You mean a ghost.”

“Well... yes.”

“Ah, jeez!” Mike ripped off the sheet of notebook paper he’d been filling out and crumpled it into a ball that he arced into his metal waste can. Shoving to his feet, he stalked around the desk.

Sara shrank back, looking mildly alarmed as Mike’s hands closed around her arms. He tugged her to her feet.

“Mr. Parker! Mike, what—what are you doing?”

“It’s not what I’m doing, doll. It’s what you’re doing. Leaving.”

He started hustling her toward the door, but Sara dug in her heels. “What’s the matter? Have I said something wrong?”

Mike rolled his eyes. “No, nothing much. You just waltzed in here and asked me to go to work for some woman who kicked the bucket over a quarter of a century ago.”

“Oh, so that’s it.” Sara managed to wriggle free of his grasp. She angled a challenging glance up at him. “You don’t believe in ghosts?”

“No, I sure as hell don’t.”

“But you just said a moment ago that anything’s possible.”

“I meant anything normal, not things that go bump in the night. I don’t believe in anything that I can’t see, hear, smell or feel.”

“Then that means that you don’t believe in intuition. Or faith. Or even love.” She exuded a soft sigh. “That’s very sad.”

“Yeah, tragic.” She was the one ready for a straitjacket and yet she had the nerve to stand there looking as though she felt sorry for him.

Stepping around her, he swung open the door. “Sorry I can’t be of service, but I’m sure you and Miss Patrick will manage just swell without me. Maybe you can locate the guy in your crystal ball.”

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Sara said reproachfully. “If I had that much psychic power, I wouldn’t need you to help Mamie.”

“If she’s a ghost, why doesn’t Miss Mamie just fly off and find the kid herself?”

“She’s restricted to the old Pine Top Inn, the last place she lived before she died. Manifestations usually cannot go wherever they want to.”

“Ghosts have rules?”

“Everyone has rules, Mr. Parker.”

“And one of mine happens to be I don’t take on any client where I have to hold a seance to present my bill. So if you don’t mind—” Mike indicated the door with a sweeping gesture, but Sara ignored him, fishing inside her purse instead.

“If you’re worried about being paid, you needn’t be,” she said. “I can write you a check right now.”

Mike pressed one hand to his brow. This woman just wasn’t getting the message. As she started to drag out her checkbook, he covered her hand to stop her.

“Look, honey, save your dough. I have a feeling you’re going to need it. Good psychiatric care is expensive these days.”

She flinched as though he’d struck her “I was hoping that you would be much more open-minded, Mr. Parker.”

“Whatever gave you an idea like that?”

“It was your picture in the paper. Your face...it seemed so wise and accepting. And kind.”

“That was my dazed look. A flashbulb had just gone off in my eyes.”

“But I was so certain you were the one to help,” Sara murmured almost to herself. “I could sense it, and when I trust my instincts, I’m almost never wrong.”

Pressing her lips in a stubborn line, she gazed up at Mike again. “Would you mind letting me feel your aura?”

“Feel my what?” Mike’s pulses rioted with the possibilities. But it was only his hand she reached for. She turned it palm upward.

He tugged free of her grasp, but she begged, “Please. Just let me run this one little test. Then I promise I’ll go away and leave you alone.”

Mike opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again as she looked up at him, pleading. Why was he always such a sucker for big blue eyes?

Grimacing, he held out his hand. “This test isn’t going to involve voodoo pins or anything like that?”

“Of course not.” She cupped his hand in her own smaller fragile one. “Now close your eyes.”

“What for?” he asked suspiciously.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Trust me.”

It had been a damned long time since Mike had trusted anyone, but he gave a long-suffering sigh and shut his eyes. She ran her fingertips lightly across his open palm.

“Just relax, Mr. Parker.”

Mike sucked in his breath. That wasn’t what was going to happen if she kept stroking him in that slow, sensual fashion. When her soft fingers danced across his wrist, his pulse gave an erratic leap. He was starting to really enjoy this when, to his disappointment, she stopped.

“Now I’m going to close my eyes and lower my hand toward yours. If we do this right, as I get closer, you should feel a surge of power between us.”

“This is stupid,” Mike grumbled. He wished she’d go back to the caressing part again. He felt like a total idiot standing here with his hand held out like a bellboy hoping for a tip.

“Please, Mr. Parker. Concentrate and keep your eyes closed.”

Mike tried to, but he’d always had the same problem not peeking whenever he played hide-and-seek as a kid. He cracked one eye open and realized that whatever else Sara might be, she wasn’t a con artist. She really believed in all this mumbo jumbo.

Her smooth brow was furrowed in earnest concentration. Her purse balanced in her left hand, her right one hovered barely an inch above his own. There was something strangely arousing about standing so close to her, just short of touching. He had only to reach out to bury his fingers in her ripples of silky gold hair, trace the line of that fairy chain along the smooth white column of her throat.

With her eyes closed, a delicate flush coloring her cheeks, she almost appeared as though she were in some sort of trance, like that sleeping princess in those sappy stories his one foster mom had insisted upon reading to him. If Sleeping Beauty had looked anything like Sara, no wonder that dopey prince had risked burning his a—fighting dragons to get to her bedroom.

“Are you experiencing anything yet, Mr. Parker?” she asked.

“Not a blessed thing,” Mike denied, but he was disturbed to notice his hand begin to tremble. A tingling sensation started in his fingertips, quickly spreading along his arm, through the rest of his body to become the most intoxicating rush of desire he’d ever known.

Sara’s eyes fluttered open to stare straight into his. She frowned. “You haven’t really been trying. Didn’t you feel any impulse at all?”

Mike shook his head. Oh, he was having plenty of impulses all right, but none, he feared, that Sara would approve of.

“Let’s try it again,” he murmured. “Close your eyes.”

She looked a little wary, but obeyed. She stood before him, her lips half-parted in unconscious invitation. This was too easy, Mike thought with a groan. He should be ashamed of himself. He should resist the temptation, but he didn’t seem able to help himself.

Bending forward, he covered her mouth with his own. He felt Sara stiffen with surprise, but then he was a little surprised himself. He’d never kissed any woman this gently before. At least, it started out that way.

But when Sara didn’t resist, he folded her in his arms, deepening the embrace. She tasted and felt just like she smelled—all softness, innocence and seduction. He kissed her with increasing hunger, passion and heat rushing through him, warming places inside him that he had not even realized had gone cold.