The Private Eye

happening.
    The Colonel rapped softly once more. “January? Still awake?”
    “Josh?” Maggie threaded her fingers urgently through his dark hair-”It's the Colonel. He's at the door.”
    “No one could be this unlucky,” Josh growled as he reluctantly raised his head. “Not even me.” He rolled to the side of the bed, got out and grabbed his jeans. He raised his voice to call out softly. “Hang on, Colonel. I’ll be right there.”
    Maggie felt the laughter well up in her at the sight of Josh's grim face. She struggled to conceal her amusement but Josh saw it. He glowered down at her and then varied over the bed, trapping her between his arms.
    “You,” he ordered very, very quietly, “are not to move. And don't you dare make a single sound. Not one peep. Got that?”
    “Yes, sir.” She grinned up at him from the pillow and reached out to tug playfully on his chest hair. She was feeling very bold.
    Josh stifled another groan and straightened. Then he caught hold of a fistful of quilt and yanked it up over Maggie, covering her from head to toe.
    Maggie lay curled in the pleasant warmth and listened intently as Josh crossed the room and opened the door.
    “What's wrong. Colonel?”
    “Believe the furnace is down,” the Colonel announced briskly. “It's been getting colder and colder.
    When I got up to reset the thermostat a second time, I realized it wasn't functioning. Thought we'd better have a look. Could be a malfunction, but the last time this happened, we suspected sabotage, if you'll recall. Couldn't prove it, but we all knew someone had monkeyed with the damn thing.”
    “It was working fine after Wilcox serviced it. I watched him myself.”
    “Well, something's gone haywire. I'm going downstairs to have a look, Thought you might want to come with me. No need to awaken the ladies. They'd only worry.”
    “Right. I'll come with you,” Josh replied.
    Maggie waited until the door had closed and she could hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
    Then she pushed back the covers and sat up in bed. Her amusement faded rapidly as she contemplated the possibility that another “incident” had occurred.
    She slid to the edge of the big bed and got to her feet; she found her quilted robe on the floor and pulled it on quickly-She would follow the men downstairs and see what was happening. The Colonel would think she had been in her own room all along and had simply been awakened by the cold.
    Maggie walked over to pull the fire screen in front of the blaze Josh had built and saw the glow of the computer monitor. It was facing the far wall, which was why she hadn't noticed it when she'd entered earlier.
    Josh had obviously been working late on the case, she thought. She was touched by his dedication to the job, She was certainly getting her money's worth.
    Curious, Maggie stepped closer to read the text on the screen. She had always wondered how reallife private investigators worked....

    I went down the darkened corridor, pausing briefly at each door to read the sign outside. The office building had been closed for hours. The guard was a creature of habit and would be doing his rounds on the third floor now.
    I figured I had maybe thirty minutes before he got to the twelfth floor.
    I found Stallings's suite at the end of the hall. A quick check of the lock revealed that getting inside would be easy. Maybe dead easy. A man like Stallings, who was getting ready to steal millions and was prepared to cover up his theft with murder, didn't use cheap hardware-store stuff like this.
    I stroked the little lock as carefully as if it were a It was simple-Nothing to it. All in the wrist, you know. No doubt about it, I could be inside in fifteen seconds, max. The damn thing was practically an open invitation.
    The last time I'd accepted this kind of invitation, though, I'd almost gotten killed. But what the hell. I was born to be socially flexible.
    I went to work on the lock. I was wrong. It only took twelve seconds to open it. I spent the time wondering why Stallings was making it so easy for me to get into his private office.

    Maggie sat down and stared at the screen, stunned ,by what she was reading. It looked as if Josh was writing a book!
    Her work as a librarian had made her very familiar “with computers. She frowned down at the keyboard and found the key that enable her to scroll through the text on the screen. She made her way back through the story until she found a chapter heading. It was a