teapot and a cup were set down in front of her. The waiter poured, and the steamy fragrance of jasmine wafted up to her nostrils.
“You must come here often,” she began.
“I do. Lum Lee is a friend of mine. I helped his kid brother kick the habit a few years back.”
“Drugs?” she asked weakly.
“That’s right. Heroin, in this case.”
“When you were a policeman, I imagine?”
“Yeah. When I was a Vice Squad detective.” A shadow crossed his long face, and grooves suddenly etched themselves from his nose to his mouth. “Big Bob tell you that?”
“Just that you used to be a policeman.”
“Enough about me. We’re here because of your problem.”
“Yes.” She took a sip of tea. She knew what she must look like—the dowdy college professor, too ladylike, too timid, playing a role for which she was totally unsuited.
“So, tell me what happened. Bob gave me a short version.”
Lord, he made her uncomfortable. He was harsh, direct to the point of deliberate rudeness.
“Well, I…”
“Look, you can trust me. I owe your dad.”
“What exactly do you owe him?”
He stared at her for a moment, his blue eyes boring through her, then they softened. “My life,” he said shortly.
“Oh.”
“Listen, this isn’t the time for old war stories. Tell me about your problem. Your son—your foster son, that is.”
“Charley.” She took a deep, quavering breath. “I was a volunteer therapist at a women’s shelter in Boulder four years ago, and I was counseling a girl named Kerry Pope.”
“You’re a shrink?”
“I’m actually a licensed psychologist, but I rarely practice. I’m a professor at CU, the University of Colorado. I teach psychology.”
Those eyes, drilling through her. “Bob didn’t tell me that.”
“In any case,” she said primly, “Kerry was pregnant. Her boyfriend beat her up regularly. She’d been using drugs on and off. She was not in any shape to be a mother. And she knew that. She knew it.” Grace took a breath. “So she gave me temporary custody of her son just after he was born. I became his legal foster mother. Then Kerry disappeared. Never wrote or called or asked about him. Then, when I was going through the adoption process, I found out she’d been imprisoned for armed robbery, and…”
“Damn junkies.”
“Then…then, she refused to sign the adoption papers and went to court to get custody of Charley.”
“Mmm,” he said.
Grace told him about the hearing, everything Natalie had said about working on an appeal, about her own decision to disappear. When she finished, Luke leaned back in his chair and took another swallow of the beer; she could see his Adam’s apple move in his throat. She sat there, one hand in her lap, the other curving around her teacup, and waited for his reaction.
“Okay,” he finally said. “Like Bob told you, we need to get the goods on…What’s her name?”
“Kerry. Kerry Pope. P-O-P-E.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you…I mean, do you think you can help me?”
He leveled his gaze on her and his mouth curved in a merciless grin. “You want this Kerry Pope destroyed, nailed to the wall, right?”
Grace recoiled. “Well, I want proof that she’s an unfit mother, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Can you help?”
He looked down at his beer bottle, then raised his eyes. “Yeah, I can probably do it.”
“I can pay you. I’m not rich, but…”
He waved a hand. “Forget that. I owe Big Bob, I told you.”
“No, really, I insist.”
He reached a hand out and touched her wrist that lay on the table. Her skin burned. “No money, okay?”
“But your time is valuable. I couldn’t…”
“Let’s talk about it later, when this is over. Right now there are more important things to focus on.”
She bent her head and felt heat rise to her cheeks. She withdrew her hand from the teacup and laid it in her lap with the other.
“I’ll need the court papers, whatever you’ve got. And information on this Kerry Pope.”
“Of course. I brought everything I have on her.”
“And you realize you have to stay out of sight?” She nodded.
“Do you have a plan—what you’re going to do, where you’re going to live, anything like that?”
“No, not really. Not yet. I was going to ask my father what he thought.” God, she sounded lost and weak and stupid.
“My investigation might take a while.”
“I’m…I’m prepared for that. As long as Charley doesn’t go to that woman.” She tried to meet his eyes steadily. “This is all new to me. I’ve never broken the law before. It’s all so…sordid.”
“Hey, that’s too bad. You made the choice you live with it,” he said bitterly.
Her back straightened, and a wave of anger washed the heat from her cheeks. “I may not be a tough Vice cop, but I am Charley’s mother. I have to protect him. Can you understand that, Mr. Sarkov? Do you have any children?”
“No kids.”
“Well, then, how can you judge my decision?”
“I’m not judging your decision. Hell’s bells, I’m the last person on earth to judge anyone’s choices.”
“You’ll do this, then? Prove Kerry Pope unfit?”
“I can try.”
“All right. When will you start? Do you have the time?”
“I asked for my vacation days as soon as I heard from your father. I told you—”
“Yes, you owe him.”
Luke studied her face until her skin shrank.
