The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Of course he was fascinated with Ridley. She was beautiful, and what red-blooded man wouldn’t be affected by a beautiful woman who offered him a night of hot, no-strings sex? But if he spent more time with her, he’d start to see her flaws. It would at least take some of the fascination away. Then he could get back to work, no harm, no foul.

Either way, he wasn’t going to hide his attraction to her any longer. She was a grown woman and he would leave the decision in her hands. They’d agreed on one night but if she gave him even the slightest indication that she’d welcome a little quality time before she left town again, he was more than ready to deliver.

He swiveled in his chair and pulled up his email. When he saw there was an email from Elliot, he smiled.

He opened the message and then double-clicked on the attachment. The top page was a blown up copy of a Florida driver’s license. David Randall Finemore.

“Elliott, you always come through for me.”

He’d just wanted to find out a little about the guy but it looked like Eli had done a full-scale background check. He scrolled through the file. There were several more photographs. They were candid shots, most taken from far away.

Surveillance photos.

The first one was of two men sitting at an outdoor restaurant. Upon closer inspection he could see that one of the men was David.

David Finemore meeting Alberto Moreno.

He recognized his brother’s handwriting scrawled across the image. He’d also written the date the photo was taken.

“This was taken over a year ago.”

Hadn’t Ridley said she’d only just met the guy? He scrolled through the rest of the photos quickly. Most were just of David but Moreno appeared in a few other shots. Some of them were dated even further back than the first one. His brow furrowed as he came to the last picture. Whoever had been following the guy had been thorough.

He flipped through the rest of his mail. There wasn’t anything else that couldn’t wait. He hurriedly signed his approval on a few bills and then put them back in his inbox for Mac to pick up. He might as well finish up early so they could go out to dinner. He could show Ridley what Elliott had found and see how she felt about an encore of the previous night’s festivities. The sooner he got his fascination with Ridley out of his system, the sooner he could get back to normal.

This was a business decision, even if it felt better than anything he had done for a while.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RIDLEY PULLED AN Adirondack chair into a shady part of the lawn. She glanced back at the house before settling down with a paperback book she’d found in the family room. Miss Bessie had arrived at precisely 9:29 am and had seemed more than a little surprised to see her.

When he’d introduced her to his parents he hadn’t mentioned where she was staying so, of course, his mother’s friend wouldn’t expect a woman to open the door.

Talk about awkward.

After her initial fumbling introduction, she’d spent the next few hours puttering around in her room. Things seemed to be going well other than a few loud crashes and what sounded like a full-scale tantrum. She’d finally come down to investigate only to find the boys eating sandwiches at the kitchen table, ominously quiet.

She’d made herself a quick turkey and cheese sandwich before deciding to eat outside. Right before she’d left, she’d heard Miss Bessie telling Jase to take his thumb out of his mouth.

She hadn’t sucked her thumb but she’d been a quiet, introverted child much like Jase. It hadn’t been easy growing up around adults who constantly told her to “speak up” or “just smile, honey!” Hopefully, the trio would get along once they got to know each other. She hoped so, anyway. Otherwise Jackson would be searching for yet another nanny.

After reading several pages, she put the book aside. Perhaps, a murder mystery hadn’t been the best choice. Not when she was smack in the middle of her own unsolved murder case. How could she relax as if she was on vacation when someone she thought of as a friend was probably dead because of her? She thought of the jeweled necklace she’d given Jackson to put in his safe.

It was a good thing she’d been on her way to the bank that day. Otherwise, if she’d put the necklace in her jewelry box with the rest of her jewelry, it would have been stolen when her apartment was broken into. She’d have to ask Agent Graham to contact David’s next of kin so she could return it. Clearly, it had been important to him.

“Oh, hi! Sorry, I didn’t think anyone would be back here.”

Ridley looked up to see a young woman with smooth brown skin and short curls, followed by two young boys.

“Hi. Were you looking for Jackson?”

“No, we were just taking a shortcut over to the next street. Sorry to disturb you.”

“Can we play with Chris, mom? Please?” One of the boys jumped up and down next to his mother excitedly.

“The boys are just finishing lunch. Maybe they’d like to play outside. I’ll go check.” Ridley held up a finger and sat up. Before she could get out of the chair, the back door of the house burst open and she heard a high-pitched shriek.

“Get it away, get it away, get it away! Eeeeeeeeek!!”

Miss Bessie came barreling down the back steps, shaking frenetically and throwing her head back and forth. “Oh sweet lord Jesus, it’s a spider. Get it off!”

A giggle came from behind Ridley and she turned to see the two boys being shushed by their mother. Ridley tried valiantly to stifle her own smile as she hurried toward the older woman. She was trembling so furiously Ridley worried she’d hurt herself.