LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter One

      It fronted on Royal Street, and it had just about everything an old building in the historic district is supposed to have—lacy wrought iron balconies, shutters at the long windows, gas lanterns. A dream of a place, Christy would think whenever she returned to it. Ordinarily, that is.

      The carriageway that tunneled through the building framed a view of the courtyard. Whenever Christy emerged from the dim passage, she would find herself delighted all over again by the fountain and vines and tubs of flowers. Ordinarily, that is.

      The old converted slave quarters were at the rear of the courtyard. Christy occupied the small structure, her agency on the ground floor and her apartment tucked above it on the second level. It was a cramped arrangement, but, hey, this was the French Quarter and rents were high. So she would count herself lucky that the regular tenant, in a hurry to take a job overseas, had subleased the place to her at an affordable rent. Ordinarily, that is.

      But not this afternoon. This afternoon Christy was oblivious to all this quaint charm—which she was in danger of losing anyway, reasonable rent or not—because the only thing she had time for as she stormed across the courtyard and through the door marked Hawke Detective Agency, was the image inside her head of Dallas McFarland sinking slowly in a bottomless pool of quicksand.

      The office was silent. But since her assistant, Denise, was bouncing and swaying happily at her desk, Christy assumed that the jazz music she relished was pouring through the radio plug stuck in her ear. Fond though Christy was of the woman, she didn’t consider her much of an assistant. However, as Denise was a retired bus driver with an adequate pension, she was willing to work cheap. This was because she had a regrettable longing for P.I. excitement, the kind of action that was in short supply lately at the agency, a situation Denise frequently grumbled about.

      The radio plug came out of her ear with a jerk as Christy slammed over to her own desk and slumped in her chair.

      “Uh-oh. Looks like the Prince of Darkness beat us out of the running again.”

      “I don’t want to talk about it!” Christy snapped. And then, surging to her feet, she proceeded to do exactly that as she prowled from one end of the small office to the other with Denise’s gaze solemnly following her. “I didn’t like the idea anyway! A controlling father wanting to spy on his daughter just because he thinks her boyfriend is no good and up to mischief! All right, so he’s a rich father, and we needed the money!”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “But a contest like that? Come on, it’s dumb! I shouldn’t have agreed to it!”

      “Uh-uh.”

      “I mean, why didn’t he just pick one of us, instead of pitting us against each other?”

      “Maybe he gets his jollies that way.”

      “And McFarland—McFarland just loved it!”

      “Sure, he’s bad.”

      “Got that right! Arrogant, unprofessional, no principles!”

      “And one sexy dude.”

      Christy rounded on her traitorous assistant. “What is it with you and the women in this town and that man? That—that bottom-feeder!”

      “Guess by that you don’t want to hear what happened here while I was out to lunch. Guess you’re in no mood for it, huh?”

      “What?”

      “That the answering machine got itself full up with messages, the fax machine is spitting faxes all over the place, the computer is loaded with e-mail and they’re all from your mama in Chicago lookin’ to hear from you.”

      “I see. And all this happened while I was gone. Could it be possible, Denise, that you had a longer lunch hour than you planned?”

      Denise thought about it. “Could be. Us full-figured gals need to keep up our energy.”

      “I don’t suppose there’s anything else on one of those machines. Like maybe someone needing to hire a P.I. with money no object?”

      “Nuh-uh.”

      “In that case…” Christy returned to her desk and reached reluctantly for the phone. She hated having to call her mother, knowing exactly what she was going to hear before she heard it. No way around it.

      She dialed home, or what used to be home for her, which was the main office of the Hawke Detective Agency founded by her mother and father back in Chicago.

      “Hawke Agency.” The familiar voice was cheerful, efficient. It belonged to her mother, Moura Hawke, the energetic doyenne of both the family and its agency, which had branches throughout the country operated by Christy and her four siblings.

      “It’s me, Ma. What’s up?” As if she couldn’t guess.

      “A celebration, my darling. I hope. Did you win the Bornowski case?”

      “Afraid not, Ma.” Oh, how humiliating it was for Christy to admit her defeat. She was twenty-six years old and still regarded as the baby who had to be protected from the big bad world, still fighting to be recognized by her family as a P.I. in her own right.

      “Oh.” The eagerness faded from Moura’s voice. “I suppose it went to McFarland?”

      “Looks like it.”

      “I’m sorry.” There was a pause, and then Moura’s tone became very gentle. Christy realized what was coming. “The thing is, I’ve been doing all the accounts for the first quarter, and…well, basically, sweetheart, you don’t have a quarter.”

      “I know, Ma. Things have been a little slow.”

      Slow? They had ground to a halt, and both of them knew it. The other phone in the office rang and Denise answered it. Christy paid no attention. She was too busy being heart-broken. She had done everything but promise her firstborn to convince her parents she was competent enough to open her own branch of the agency, and now she was on the sharp edge of losing it.

      Moura had a suggestion. “Eden has a break between cases. What if she came over from Charleston and just sort of helped you to—”

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