look he’d expected from Jo didn’t materialize. Instead her attention focused on a little redhead, sitting on a bench by the far wall staring at him with her mouth gaping. He gave a mental shrug. Kids.
“Harry. Why is Ginny still here?”
The sergeant’s voice dropped a notch while he spoke to Jo, “Her mother had to work and her father won’t be home till later. Ms. Wilks said to send her on home, she’d be all right. But I had a feeling you’d rather see she got there.”
“That’s for real. Thanks, Harry, I’ll still have to speak to the mother, though. Where does she work?”
“The Hard Luck Inn.”
One black eyebrow rose as Jo’s gaze left Harry and zeroed in on him. “Looks like we’ve got two birds to kill tonight.” The lopsided smile quirked her lips, producing a dimple. “That will be Ms. Wilks’s hard luck.”
The conversation was interrupted by Bull and Jake bringing two men through the door from the cells under protest.
“Uh-oh, gotta go,” muttered Jo, her gaze on the girl. “I’ll catch you tonight, McQuaid. For now, I have to baby-sit.”
Harry let Jo get out of earshot before he produced the question Rowan could see hovering on his lips. “You two got a date tonight?”
“Not so’s you’d notice. We’re going to visit Jo’s chief suspect.” As soon as he’d said it, he remembered Bull’s reaction and wished he could pull the words back.
“You mean Rocky?”
“Yeah, but keep it under your hat. I don’t think it’s for public consumption. You know the guy, Harry. What do you think of him? Is he capable of flights of fantasy? Satanists?”
“Must admit I thought it far-fetched when I first heard the story, but everyone else was convinced.”
“Everyone but Jo?”
“I guess you could say if I took it with a pinch of salt, she used a bloody ladle. But then, she never worked with Rocky, didn’t know him the way we do.”
“And what do you know?”
Harry’s mouth twisted as he considered. “He can be pretty sharp, and if that’s how things are shaping, watch you don’t get cut.”
“Thanks for the warning.” He hitched one trouser leg and sat down on the corner of Harry’s desk, getting comfortable. “Talking about warnings, why didn’t you do me the same favor with Jo?”
“Made your heart jump, did she? She’s one beautiful woman.”
“There are lots of beautiful women.”
“Yeah, but you still haven’t married any of them.”
“Hell, you’re as bad as Scott—”
“Oh, I can tell you and him are the same. Time you were both married.”
“Well, he’s decided he doesn’t need an heir as long as Taine and I are around, but Taine can’t do the same for me, so I ought to marry and beget heirs.”
“Been matchmaking, has he?”
“You could say that. Now that I’ve left the force, he feels obliged to introduce me to all the eligible women in his circle. He never once said anything against me leaving him to look after the firm to become a cop, but I can tell he’s glad it’s behind me now. I guess he’d always had this idea I was invincible because of being so much bigger.”
“Yeah, it always was you who got him out of trouble.”
“Well, he’s turned that around now with the firm.” He slipped Harry a wry grin. “If it hadn’t been for Scott, we wouldn’t be living in the style we’ve become accustomed to.”
“Scott’s done well by us all.”
“Have you got shares as well?”
“I’ve got the ones your father gave mine, when he worked for him. Probably thought Dad earned them putting up with you lot.”
“Come off it, you spent as much time at our house as you did at your own.”
Harry had the grace to look sheepish. “I helped Dad.”
“Is that what you called it? Well, I’m helping Jo and I’ll probably be about as much use. You can’t find what’s not there.”
Heaven help him, was he starting to think like her? The last thing he wanted was to suspect Rocky Skelton of fraud. If that happened he could be here for longer than a week, long enough for the woman to get under his skin again.
Hell, she was under there now.
Damn, this was a complication. No matter how much he treasured his own hide, he had a dislike of paying out the firm’s money for nothing, probably part of the Scottish heritage he’d been so quick to deny after what his mother did. It was all right for the hierarchy to say, “Write it off as public relations.” In this district most people put their money with the Stanhopes, thinking it would benefit them in the long run.
Rowan stood. “I’d better get going. I’m living on the Fancy. Scott said he’d have someone leave it ready for me, but you never know with him.”
“I for one never thought he’d play matchmaker. Shows how wrong you can be. It’s usually us married guys who’re pushing all their mates into the same boat. Has he managed to set you up with someone then?”
Hoping it would keep Harry off his back, he told him, “There’s a woman I’ve taken out a couple of times, but it’s early days. Might never come to anything.” Hell, he knew it wouldn’t, not now he’d met Jo again.
The shame of it was, he liked Barbara, and had thought maybe he could make it work, since she filled all his requirements. A woman he could be friends with, but who didn’t stir his blood. It was a decision he’d made a long time ago. He wasn’t looking for love. That way he wouldn’t be hurt when she found someone else. The pain his father went through when his mother left wasn’t going to be part of his inheritance.
No, it definitely wasn’t for him.
Harry pushed back his chair and stood up to face him. He was two to three inches shorter, but he’d never carried the bulk that Rowan had, even when they’d both been desk jockeys. “No problem then. I wasn’t really shoving Jo your way.”
“No point. Jo and I have known each other for years. We worked together in Auckland.” It didn’t take more than that for Harry to cotton on. Not that he liked doing it to Jo, but if it would help his old friend mind his own business…
“So, she the one…the one who… Look say the word and I’ll get Bull to put Jake back on the arson job.”
“Hell, no!” He leaned over the desk and stared Harry in the eye. “And if word of this gets out I’ll know who to blame. Right? I’ve no animosity toward Jo. I threw myself in the way of that bullet. My choice. Okay?”
“Sure
