The Private Eye

every sob-story case that walked through my front door. And none of them were what they seemed.”
    “Tell me,” she whispered, her eyes wide and searching.
    “You want to know what being a private eye is really like?” he asked roughly. “I’ll tell you what it's like. Fathers asked me to find their little lost girl. I'd track down the kid and discover that she had run away from home because she was more afraid of being abused by her father than she was of life on the streets.”
    “Oh, Josh.”
    “I'd find missing wives for distraught husbands, and the wives would tell me they had gone into hiding because their husbands routinely beat them and threatened to kill them. They'd beg me not to tell my clients where they were.”
    “How awful…”
    “And then there were the child-custody cases,” he continued, feeling savage. “Parents wage war with each other and the poor kids get caught in the firing line. The children serve as the battle prizes. Spoils of war. A way for the parents to hurt each other. 1 was supposed to take the side of whichever parent had legal custody. No one gave a damn about the kids themselves.”
    Maggie was silent. “I think I see what you mean. It's not quite like it is in mystery novels, is it?”
    “It damn sure isn't-At least, not most of the time. I finally got smart and decided that since I wasn't going to be able to save the weak and the innocent from the bad guys and since I seemed to have a talent for the business, I might as well get into the end of it that paid well. A friend of mine and I created Business Intelligence and Security, Inc. We got some plush offices in downtown Seattle, hired a staff and went after corporate business. The nice thing about white-collar crime is that there isn't so much emotion involved. And hardly anyone gets killed.”
    “I suppose there is a big demand for corporate security consultants these days,” Maggie ventured.
    “Yeah, and although I never thought I'd say it in the old days, it's cleaner work than the kind of thing I used to do. Give me a nice computer-fraud situation or a loading-dock security problem anytime.” Josh stopped abruptly, shocked at how much he had told her.
    He knew what had gotten him started. It was seeing in her some of the same useless, naive nobility that he himself had once had. It had goaded him into trying to tear the rose-colored glasses from her eyes.
    “You know,” Maggie said quietly, “I didn't want to say anything, but I have been wondering exactly why you took this case. Frankly, I was surprised when your office called and said you were on your way.”
    Josh eased his shoulder into a more comfortable position and studied his throbbing ankle. “You weren't the only one.”
    “BIS was the last company I expected to get a response from. But I had tried every small agency in the Seattle phone book. No one was willing to come out here to Peregrine manor in exchange for a month's free room and board. I was getting desperate, and I figured I had nothing to lose by approaching some of the big firms.”
    “I'll bet most of them laughed in your face,” Josh responded glumly.
    “Not exactly. But all I got from the rest of them were form letters telling me they didn't handle my sort of case.”
    “Your situation here is a little unusual,” Josh allowed.
    Maggie nibbled on her lower lip. “So why did you take this case. Josh?”
    “Felt like a change of pace,” he said simply, shifting again on the pillows. “Like I said. The case is unusual.”
    Maggie studied him for a moment longer and then got to her feet. “I think there was more to it than that.”
    She smiled tremulously as she came over to the bed.
    “You know what I think?”
    He slanted her a speculative glance, wondering if she had figured out that he was using Peregrine Manor as a place to convalesce. “Why do you think I took this case?”
    “I think that, in spite of what you say, you're still playing hero.” Her eyes were soft as she bent over the bed to adjust the ice pack on his ankle. “I think something in my letter appealed to your old desire to rush to the defence of the weak and the innocent. You don't want to admit it because you're much too macho. You're too used to hiding your real motives behind the facade of the tough, cynical private eye who's seen it all.”
    Josh shot out a hand and caught her wrist. Maggie made a small, startled sound. Her gaze flew to his and he took some satisfaction in seeing the dawning