The Private Eye

Maggie, I think I can wrap things up here in a few more days. I've got a couple of hunches I want to check out, and then I'm going to see about setting a trap for whoever is behind the incidents here at the manor.”
    “I see.” Maggie swallowed heavily. Josh would be leaving in a few days.
    “In the meantime, I don't want to muddy the waters any more than I already have. I can't afford to send out any alarm signals to the person who's causing the trouble here. We've got to make everything look as normal as possible around the manor. Frankly, this isn't the worst thing that could have happened.”
    “It's not?”
    Josh thought. “No. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I believe this just might be the right move.”
    “I don't understand.” Maggie's mouth felt dry now. She wondered with horror if she were about to burst into tears.
    “Yeah, I think this unfortunate little misunderstanding is going to work to our benefit,” Josh stated.
    “Don't you see, Maggie? It's the perfect cover for the trap I'm going to set.”
    Maggie gazed at him, feeling sick. “I don't understand.”
    Josh straightened in the doorway and started back into his own room. “Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I'll explain the details later. In the meantime, just go alone with the engagement story, okay? I want everyone to believe it, including the Colonel, Odessa and Shirley.”
    “But, Josh—” Maggie broke off when Josh gently closed the door in her face.
    She stood staring blankly at the door for a full minute before whirling around and dashing into her own bedroom. She would not cry, she vowed as she stripped off her robe and jerked off her nightgown.
    She hurled the nightclothes onto the bed as she strode toward the small bathroom. She would not cry.
    But Josh's words about the “unfortunate misunderstanding” being a useful cover story proved too much for Maggie's bruised feelings. What had she expected? she asked herself forlornly. Of course, the man wasn't going to allow himself to be pushed into a real engagement. Nobody was that honorable, these days. In any case, the last thing she wanted to do was try to force him into doing “the right thing.”
    When she stepped under the shower, Maggie's tears mingled with the spray of the water. It wasn't until she'd actually started to cry that she admitted to herself what had really happened to her during the past few days.
    She had fallen in love with Josh January.

    THE KITCHEN PHONE RANG just as Josh and the Colonel were telling everyone about the mysterious severed wire inside the furnace. Maggie jumped up to answer it. She plucked the receiver off the wall.
    “Hello?”
    “Josh January, please, said a crisp, male voice on the other end of the line,
    “Just a moment.” Maggie put her hand over the receiver and looked at Josh. “It's for you.”
    “Right.” He got to his feet and took the phone out of her hand. “Yeah? Oh, it's you, McCray. No, you didn't interrupt anything except breakfast. Just give me what you've got and stop trying to get cute.”
    There was a short pause. Josh's expression turned into a scowl.
    “McCray, that is not funny. None of your cold jokes are funny. When are you going to get that through your thick head? Just tell me what you've got on Wilcox.”
    Maggie and the others stopped talking at the mention of Dwight Wilcox's name. The Colonel assumed his pondering expression and Odessa looked disapproving. Shirley’s eyes widened in fascination.
    “He's investigating Dwight?” Odessa asked Maggie,
    “I guess so.” Maggie went back to her grapefruit. She was not in a chatty mood.
    “Wilcox does know his way around our basement,” the Colonel observed softly. “And he also knows how to handle tools.”
    “I don't know,” Shirley murmured. “Somehow I can't picture that Dwight planning all those crazy incidents. My Ricky always used to say that it took real brains to be a successful criminal. The dumb ones got caught early.”
    Josh ignored the commentary going on around the breakfast table-He had taken a notepad out of a nearby kitchen drawer and was busily scribbling down information.
    “Okay, McCray. It's not much, but it's information. Check something else for me this afternoon, will you? See if Johnny has the time to do some background work on the manor itself, will you? No, I don't know what I'm looking for at this point.” Josh slid a glance across the four rapt faces around the table.
    “Old legends Involving money