Cat in a hot pink Pursuit

she’s a homicide detective. She’s not used to undercover. I’ve decided, abhorrent as the conclusion is, that only you... will do... for this job.”
    “Abhorrent to you or to me?”
    “To us both. Equally. It’s a Mexican standoff, Miss Barr. That should make it easier for you. You win, I lose. I lose, you win.”
    “Why?”
    Molina looked down. “My daughter—”
    “Mariah. Nice kid.”
    “She’s entered the contest. She’s a finalist.”
    “Mariah? A Teen Queen? I don’t think so.”
    “You haven’t been on the Teen Queen scene lately. But you will be now. With a vengeance.” Molina bent down to her big black purse that was half briefcase, and pulled out a plum. A one-sheet familiar to any PR person around. A flyer. An advert sheet A—
    Temple felt her pulse spike even as her jaw dropped. “This is... sick.”
    “We have a stalker. A teen runaway has recently been found dead. That could be unrelated, but another adulterated poster like this was found in the general vicinity of her body. You realize what that means.”
    Temple reluctantly took the paper.
    “It’s a color copy,” Molina said. “You can’t hurt it. I wish you could.”
    Temple nodded. “You’re asking me to risk my life.”
    “You did it for him.”
    “Because... I love him.”
    “I love Mariah.”
    “You can’t ask this.”
    “I can ask. The deal is, I lay off Kinsella.”
    “Max for Mariah? You can’t nail him for anything; you’re not even close to him.”
    “But you are.”
    Temple shook her head. The paper trembled in her hands. Who would deface the image of a young girl like that? And would he do as much to her body? That was the question.
    “You want me there as a chaperon for Mariah? Why not just tell her she can’t do this?”
    “I tried. Six hours of pleading and recriminations. Her whole soul is into this. She thinks she can sing. I’m afraid she actually can. I could at her age. Then, it wasn’t worth much. I could say she can’t aspire because I couldn’t. But I’m afraid she actually could win her division.”
    “You could shut this down right now. Just say no.”
    “Obviously you haven’t a clue about parenthood. Sure, I can say no and win this battle but lose the war and my daughter, forever. I suppose when you grew up in Wisconsin—”
    “Minnesota.”
    “—where it was old-fashioned, mid-American, and too dam cold for teenage girls to get much more from necking than frostbite, parents didn’t have to worry about their kids growing up way too fast too soon.”
    Temple couldn’t help smiling. “We weren’t totally frozen out when it came to being rebellious teens. There was always punk ice-skating.”
    “Not funny. I am hanging onto this kid’s future by the nape of her neck. She’s got a new bad-girl girlfriend. She’s under all the commercial pressures girls her age face: buy-buy-buy, be sexy, be hip, show it all, get guys. Never think of what you might lose by it. She could bolt if I said no. Better she try it and work out her energy and aggressions in a controlled arena. And—”
    Molina looked away, to the tack board bearing the news articles on Temple’s accounts.
    “Mariah has a passion to achieve girls my age, from my place in the world, were denied. Weren’t you? Twenty years ago. Weren’t we all denied? I can’t stop her. I won’t stop her. But I can protect her.”
    “With me?”
    Molina nodded. Her expression tightened. “You’re all I’ve got. My agent on the scene.”
    “You don’t like me.”
    “No. But I’ve... come to respect your... pluck and dumb luck.” She sounded like she was swallowing a pickle.
    Temple sat back, feeling slightly smug. “I’ve only fought for what... who I believe in.”
    “I can’t buy that. I wouldn’t under any other circumstances in the world. But I can arrange things. I’ll have people outside the Teen Queen Castle. You can’t... won’t tell anyone. I don’t want the great Max Kinsella racing to your rescue and getting in the way. This is going to have to be a solo job for you. As it is for Mariah. And me. Maybe it’ll be good for all of us.”
    “I can’t guarantee I’ll make the finals. You know what teens are like nowadays. I don’t know if I can cut it. Mariah might not either.”
    Molina stood up. “I know you both. Unfortunately. I don’t doubt that either you or my daughter can make the final cut if you set your minds to it. You’re two of a kind.”
    “Me and Mariah?”
    “Thorns in a