Point of Attraction (7 page)

Georgie was shocked not only at
Jeffrey’s terse remark, but also at the blatant visual sweep he was
giving Mason. All words died in her throat. All she could do was
stare. This was a side of Jeffrey she couldn’t remember ever
seeing.

“If you please, for the record, sir,”
Mason said. “I need your name?”

“I’m Jeffrey Sanders, Mrs. Gainsworth’s
accountant, client, and very close friend.”

“And your address?”

“What for?”

“For my report,” Mason said, and the
patience in his tone was worthy.

Georgie just wanted the floor to open
up so she could dive in. Oh, Sam, why aren’t you here to fix all
this? Then thought, no. She leaned on Sam for twenty years. It was
time to let him rest.

“I need your address in case we need to
talk to you,” Mason said, his face showing no emotion, but Georgie
thought there was a hint of humor somewhere behind his set mouth.
“You know, incase we need to verify the time,” he added.

“My office is right here in The Center,
four units over. Sanders Accounting. You can find me there any day
of the week. My home address is in the phone book. I have to go
open my office.”

Jeffrey turned to her with a hand on
her shoulder. “I didn’t take Raggs, Georgina. She must have still
been here when I left, I’m sure.”

Even knowing how he felt
about her and certain he had not taken Raggs, Georgie still
struggled with the urge to pull her shoulder clear of his touch.
Georgie wanted to tell him she knew he hadn’t, but his remark
about
that old thing
went deep. The door chime pinged and they all looked to the
front of the shop. She wondered who had put it back up.

Jeffrey left them and was walking out
while another officer stood at the reception desk. The officer
stared after Jeffrey now out the door, fixing his tie and looking
back through the window.

To Georgie, surprise was the word for
the moment. “Wow,” she murmured. “Never thought Raggs would rate
two police officers.”

“That’s my partner, Officer Clark,”
Mason said. “I asked her to interview your business neighbors who
were open late last night to see if they had any problems or saw
anything out of the ordinary.”

“
That’s
your partner?” Georgie asked,
saw Mason’s brow twitch, obviously taken back by her question, but
before he could say anything more, Officer Clark, arrived with a
wide smile and extended her hand.

Georgie met the gesture. “Tonie,
right?” she asked.

“Yes, Ma’am, Tonie Clark. Told you
you’d see me again,” Officer Clark said. “Only I didn’t think it
would be this soon nor under these circumstances.”

Mason cleared his throat, and Tonie let
go of her hand, tilting her head at him with a subtle roll of her
eyes. “Georgie, I mean Ms. Gainsworth, cut my hair last
night.”

“Really?” Mason asked.

“Yes. Really,” Tonie said.

“Then you were here too?” Mason
asked.

“Well, not that you’d ever notice, but
I was here getting my hair cut. Then I left. Ms. Gainsworth was
going out the door too.”

There was something in Mason’s tone,
but Georgie couldn’t place a name to it. Was it interest? Surprise
maybe? Wow, she thought. Maybe it was true what they say; that a
partner in the line of dangerous duty like police work was almost
as close, if not closer than, a spouse. A couple? Suddenly, Georgie
didn’t want to talk to them anymore. Raggs was gone and she wanted
her back. That was all. She wanted her Raggs back.

“I wished I hadn’t gone to class,”
Georgie said.

“Did anyone else see anything out of
the ordinary,” Mason asked Tonie.

Tonie shook her head. The friendliness
slipped away and Georgie saw the professional take over. Flipping
through and reading the pages in her little notebook, Tonie said,
“They saw nothing they don’t see every night. They did say they
could adjust their clocks by Ms. Gainsworth’s comings and goings.”
She pointed at Georgie. “Which is not a good idea, having a
predictable schedule like that.”

“Okay. That’s all for now,” Mason said
to Tonie. “We’ll check out the whole area, up and down the street.
I’ll go over some more details with Ms. Gainsworth and be out in a
minute.”

“Yes, sir.” Tonie removed her hat, ran
her fingers through her hair and gave Georgie a thumbs-up. “Just
what I wanted. Thanks. Hope we can find your property or that it
shows up safe and sound.” She adjusted her hat back into place and
went out.

For the longest time, Georgie looked to
the departing officer. When the quiet of the moment became a third
presence, she looked up at Mason and nearly blushed at being caught
staring. “I was just thinking.”

“What?”

“Just that it’s tragic enough when a
police officer is taken down, but when it’s a woman?” She shook her
head. “Yet I can’t deny her the right to do the job. I should write
a book about it.”

“If anyone can do it justice, it would
be you.”

“And you.” Georgie felt the eyes of
those around them, and it was a struggle to keep from reacting to
Mason’s steady gaze and that of others who might be taking note of
all this.

“So show me where Raggs
normally sits and where the girls were when they think the theft
might have taken place.” He leaned down and whispered. “And please,
I reeeeally want to know why she’s worth
thousands
?”

“Because I said so, and because I was
being ignored until I mentioned the M word.”

“The M word?”

“
Money
,” she whispered, then raised
her voice. “This way, Officer Montgomery. The girls were back here
at the shampoo bowls, while Raggs normally sits up
here.”

As they walked to the
front, Georgie held her hands out to the girls and customers. “Yes,
I was robbed. No, it was not money. I wished they
had
taken the money. I
would just charge you all more and get it back that
way.”

They laughed and someone even said, “No
doubt.”

“But they took Raggs,” Georgie said,
and she heard a hushed gasp.

“What? Someone took my girl?” a male
voice said, and Georgie turned.

And there he stood; Hawaiian shirt and
cargo short pants. In autumn.

“Nick! When did you...”

“Flew in late yesterday.”

“Nick if you took her...” But in truth,
Georgie was hoping he’d laugh, say he was sorry, and hand over
Raggs. But he did neither.

“Oh, Georgie Girl,” he said, his arms
wrapping around her, then slid a caring hand over her hair, which
he knew she hated, and she swatted away the offending
appendage.

“Raggs is my girl,” he added, with a
finger beneath her chin, tipping it up so she could do nothing else
but look into in his playful brown eyes. “But I wouldn’t kidnap
her.”

“And you would be?” Mason
asked.

“Me? Why, I’m the love of my Georgie
Girl’s life. I’m... I’m...” he muttered while making a rolling
motion with his hand, over acting the search for another
word.

A subtle laughter rumbled through the
shop.

“Nick, please,” Georgie
begged.

“Georgie Girl and I bonded when she
gave me a bloody nose in kindergarten...”

Georgie held up her hand and fought her
way free of his arms. “Nick, not the kindergarten story,
please.”

“Okay. Delete that. The moment I saw
that moving van drive up at the house next door, and saw this brown
haired girl,” he said, giving her hair a quick tug, “with those
hazel eyes, come out of the car behind the van? I knew it was
trouble.”

Georgie swatted off his hand and
shrugged out of his hold to go behind her desk. She sat on its tall
stool and dropped her head on her arms on the appointment
book.

“Georgina?” a soft voice came through
Nick’s never ending tirade. “Are you ready for me?”

Georgie’s head snapped up. She took a
quick look at her book and jumped from the stool. “Mrs. Stewart! Oh
jeez, I’m so sorry. Please, go on back. I’ll be right there. I just
have to finish this here.”

As Mrs. Stewart went by Nick, she
stopped and, though she was shorter, looked up at him eye to eye.
“Nicholas Underwood, you are still a little... what is it you call
him, Georgina? Oh yes. You are still a little shit.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I am.”

“I don’t know how Georgina has put up
with you all these years.”

“Nor do I, Mrs. Stewart.”

As the retired schoolteacher spoke, her
hands worked the handle of her walking stick, giving the impression
she was considering using it as a club. “Now, tell the Officer what
he wants to know so Georgina can get on with my perm, and let me
tell you... if my perm comes out bad, not even Georgina will save
you.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Before Mrs. Stewart started to the back
of the shop, she turned to Mason. “And you make certain you earn
your pay and find Raggs. Georgina’s lost enough in her
life.”

“That I will do,” Mason answered with
the tip of his finger to the brim of his hat.

Georgie swallowed back the rising
emotion, and cleared her throat. She’d forgotten it was Mrs.
Stewart who sent for the pattern of Raggedy Ann for her mother, and
it was Mrs. Stewart who shopped for the dress material and just the
right color of yarn for Raggs’ hair.

“Raggs sat here,” Georgie told
Mason.

As she watched, Mason stood at the
door, looked to the back of the shop, then slowly moved in. He’s
gauging just how far the thief had to enter to reach Raggs, Georgie
thought.

“As you can see,” Georgie said. “It’s
almost a total blind spot from the shampoo bar. That’s why our
money drawer is locked when we’re all back there. We each have a
key.”

When the chime pinged, it didn’t take
much to read the change in Mason’s face and she explained where
they had found the chime. Nick too lost his impish humor, and
though he tried to hide it, his eyes met Mason’s, but neither said
a word.

“The girls and I thought
the same thing,” Georgie said, letting them know their
secret
was hardly that.
“Whoever it was must have been watching and waiting for the right
moment. I just don’t understand, why? No money taken. Just
Raggs?”

Neither man said anything while Mason
wrote in his notebook, then looked at Nick.

“Mr. Underwood, when I run you through
the system, will we find anything we shouldn’t? It’s best you tell
me now before I make my report.”

“Actually, you’ll find my name
nowhere,” Nick started out before Georgie could stop him. He ran
his fingers through his shaggy blond hair, gave her a glance, then
looked to Mason. “I don’t exist, you know.”

“What?” Mason let his sight slid to
Georgie. When she shook her head, waved a hand, and closed her eyes
that she’d heard this far too many times before, he turned his
attention back to Nick.

“I think my parents were,
you know, one of
THE
spooks
.” Nick said.

Mason drew in a deep noisy
breath. “
THE spooks
.”

Nick leaned toward him as
though to share a great secret. “You know,” he whispered, deep
furrows forming between his brows. “Black SUVs? C I A
spooks.” Nick stressed each of the letters in the
acronym for Mason to pick up on it. “Protective custody and all
that?” He spread his hands to wipe away the murmur, “The
never-were.” “Stop. You need to stop,” Georgie told Nick. “Can you
please be serious here. Can you?” She gave Mason in a silent
please be patient with him
plea. “Let me know if you need me to sign anything. I have to
go start my perm.” She walked past Nick with only a hopeless stare
through narrowed eyes.

“What?” Nick asked with that perfected
innocence. “It’s true. Georgie Girl, you know it’s
true.”

Georgie waved a dismissing
hand.

Chapter seven

“Will you please stop?” Georgie begged
Emmee, at the end of the day.

“Are you telling me Officer Montgomery
wasn’t someone you’d want to wake up next to? Or... better
yet...”

“Emmee, I’m warning you. Stop this...
this... whatever this is you’re trying to do.”

“Getting you a guy and all
the
bennies
that
come with it is what I’m trying to do here, Boss Lady.”

Georgie threw a damp towel at Emmee,
but the stylist easily caught it before it hit her face and tossed
it in the salon washer. “Let’s get this place ready to go in the
morning,” she told Emmee, then bit her lower lip, knowing she’d
have hell to pay when Emmee and Brandy found out Officer Montgomery
was in her writing class and had already been to her house. “I, for
one, am tired and ready to go home.”