had a lot of nerve trying to be friendly. Now, more than ever, she was determined to show him how human he could be if he tried. But with Boomer waiting for his next feeding, she didn’t dare take the time. At full strength, Boomer sounded like a foghorn. The last thing she needed was to attract any more attention.
“No, thanks,” she said with a smile. “As I said, I have a full schedule this morning. But leave the papers with me and I’ll give them back to you later.”
Mike started to turn away. “By the way,” she called after him, “are you going to be at the employee picnic Sunday?”
“Picnic?”
Charlie fished in her desk drawer and handed him a handful of picnic flyers. “Try to make it. I think you’re in for a pleasant surprise. And while you’re at it, please leave a few copies in the butler’s pantry on your way out.”
Mike looked doubtful, but after another glance at the coatrack, folded the flyers and put them into his pocket. “As usual, you’re not making much sense,” he muttered. “But if you want to play games, I’m willing to give it a try.” He glanced at Charlie as if he wanted to say something more before he shook his head and left.
With a rueful glance at the quiet tote bag, Charlie dropped into the chair behind her desk. Boomer could wait for his next feeding until she had a chance to come up with the answers to the question marks on Mike’s list. When she returned the papers, Mike would have to admit that the only thing she’d been guilty of yesterday was trying to do her job. And of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As for Boomer and the rest of the zoo population she planned on introducing Mike to, she was positive that once he met them in a more natural setting their personalities were bound to hook him for sure. Just as Boomer had captured her heart the first time she’d seen his picture on the Internet and found out that he was for sale.
If Boomer and the rest of his animal friends didn’t manage to humanize Mike, nothing could.
FRIDAYS HAD NEVER been a particularly good day, Mike mused as he strode along the corridor away from Charlie’s office. The only good thing about this one was that it brought the end of the week. After midnight tonight he had two peaceful days off to look forward to, thank God.
Two days without Charlie Norris and her cute but bizarre pet. He muttered his displeasure under his breath as he strode across the marble floor to his office and, at the same time, tried to rub the kink out of the back of his neck. As far back as he could recall, the only time that damn kink showed up was when he was under stress. No big surprise it showed up this time. He could lay the credit for this episode on Charlie Norris and that baby kangaroo of hers. Bottle-feeding! Diapers! Hell, you’d think that Blair House was an animal nursery instead of a prestigious home away from home for VIPs.
“Wheeler! Wait up!”
Mike stopped in midstride and turned around. His superior, Bradley Simons, beckoned him into his office and closed the door behind them.
“Have a seat.” Simons walked around his desk and dropped into his chair. “Got a job for you.”
“I’ve already got a job,” Mike answered.
“Well, now you’ve got another one.” Simons reached into his desk drawer for a bottle of pills. “Hand me that pitcher over there, please.” He shook out two large pills, put them in his mouth and washed them down with water. “Sorry, with all the crap going on, that ulcer of mine is acting up again. Guess it comes with the territory.”
Mike rubbed the back of his head when the thought of Charlie and her pet began to show all the signs of turning into a headache and a half. “Tell me about it.”
Simons eyed him sympathetically. “You, too?”
Mike shrugged. “Like you said, it comes with the territory.”
“Glad you feel that way.” Simons rummaged in his center desk drawer, took out two letters and handed them across the desk. “Take a look at those.”
Mike read the first letter. His lips set in a grim line as he read the second. Both letters threatened the Blair House personnel for their interference in the attempted assassination yesterday. “Kind of soon for these to show up.”
Simons leaned back in his chair. “Make a guy angry enough…” His voice trailed off. “You notice that the author keeps referring to our Charlie Norris?”
Mike had noticed, all right, but he hadn’t thought of the lady as being “our” Charlie. Maybe she was Simons’s Charlie, but not his. Not after the way the pain was growing at the back of his neck and threatening to take his head off. She may have pleaded her innocence when he’d confronted her after the shooting, but it looked as if she had managed to annoy the hell out of someone out there. “What was she supposed to do, let the two jackasses kill each other?”
Simons shrugged. “Right or wrong, she’s a target. I want you to keep an eye on her.”
Mike blinked. Of all the assignments he could have drawn, guarding Charlie wasn’t at the top of his list. “Don’t tell me that that’s the new job!”
“Yep.” Simons stood. “Get used to it.” He gestured to a picnic flyer Mike had sticking out of his breast pocket. “You can start with the picnic.”
Mike got to his feet and bit back a protest. “I hadn’t made up my mind to go to the picnic, sir.”
“Sure you have,” Simons said amiably as he opened the office door. “Enjoy the day.”
Chapter Three
At midmorning Sunday, Mike checked the address on the picnic flyer against the address on the little red barn mailbox. They were one and the same. The empty field across the road was filled with automobiles, SUVs and motorcycles.
It looked as if Charlie had offered her property for the annual Blair House picnic. That seemed normal enough, but what really got to him was the lack of security personnel at the gate.
He bit his lower lip. With Charlie Norris in charge, he was almost afraid to think of the surprise she said she had in store for him.
What bothered him even more than the lack of security was the conventional, rambling yellow-and-white Cape Cod-style farmhouse. Surrounded by trees and flowering azalea bushes, and with beds of peonies and day lilies randomly placed to make them look as if they grew there naturally, it wasn’t the type of setting he’d expected the unconventional Charlie to own.
On second thought, he wasn’t sure what type of house he’d expected Charlie to live in, but this traditional cottage sure wasn’t it. After she’d told him she had a zoo in her backyard, he’d almost expected her to live in a wooden cabin set in a stand of trees surrounded by animal cages.
“Daddy, hurry.” A small hand tugged at Mike’s knee and pointed to the balloon-decorated side gate. “Hurry up before all the balloons are gone!”
Mike tore his gaze away from the house and moved on.
Mob scenes weren’t his idea of entertainment, he mused as he followed the red arrows that pointed to the side gate. It was the idea of any open gathering in unguarded settings that made him uneasy.
He’d
