The Private Eye

switched on the Toyota's ignition with a decidedly savage twist of the wrist.

    MUCH LATER THAT NIGHT Josh sat alone in his room and put the finishing touches on his plan to trap the Peregrine Manor intruder. His scheme was simple, as was the case with most such schemes. If his suspicions were correct, he wasn't dealing with a criminal genius. No point in getting fancy.
    Another consideration was Josh's own gut-level feeling that he had to move quickly to put an end to the harassment. He had sensed the escalating level of danger after the incident with the furnace. Whoever was coming and going in the basement was either getting bolder or more desperate. He had to be stopped.
    When he was eventually satisfied with his plan, Josh made the decision to put it into effect the following day.
    That left him with nothing of particular interest to do tonight. Maggie had already gone to bed and showed no signs of sneaking across the hall to his room a second time. And he didn't feel like working on the book.
    But it was a cinch he wasn't going to get to sleep easily—not after that conversation with Maggie in the Toyota this afternoon. Not after the way Clay O'Connor had tried to warn Maggie about getting chummy with strangers. Not after the way Maggie had blithely refused to admit she was falling in love.
    Josh chewed on all three annoying occurrences for a while and then got to his feet. He went over to the window and stood looking out at the night-shrouded sea.
    Why was Maggie fighting her feelings for him? Josh wondered. He'd been asking himself that same question since early that morning. He'd been so sure of her last night. She had given herself to him in wholehearted, loving surrender. A woman like Maggie couldn't fake that kind of sweet passion. Besides, she respected herself too much to get involved in short-term affairs. Josh was certain.
    But when he had calmly agreed to the engagement under the watchful eye of the Colonel, Maggie had been furious. Josh had been forced to fall back on the excuse that an engagement would be useful cover for him while on this case. That gambit had apparently only enraged her further.
    What Josh couldn't understand was why she had been so upset in the first place. If he had read the signals right, she was head-over-heels in love with him. And she was a woman who believed in commitment. So why had she gotten so riled up over the idea of being engaged to him, he wondered bleakly.
    Josh moved restlessly away from the window. Maybe McCray was right. Maybe he wasn't very good at dealing with women. Maybe he lacked a sense of romance, or something.
    Josh gave up that depressing line of thought in favor of something more practical. He would do another tour of the house. He had already checked all the locks on the windows and doors once tonight, but doing it a second time wouldn't hurt.
    He let himself quietly out of the room and went down the stairs. His ankle no longer twinged very much when he walked and his ribs only protested when he rolled over in bed. It was a relief to feel almost normal again.
    Josh went through each first-floor room and then double-checked the small basement windows. When he had stalled as long as he could, he went slowly backup the stairs to the second floor. He came to a halt outside Maggie's room. Unable to resist, he cautiously tested the knob. To his surprise, the door opened easily.
    “Maggie? Don't be afraid. It's me.”
    She sat up in bed. “I heard you walking around.” She sounded wary but not frightened. “Checking locks?”
    “Yeah.” He closed the door and stood watching her in the shadows. “Everything's fine downstairs.”
    “Good.”
    “Maggie?”
    “What is it, Josh?”
    He tried to think of a way to introduce the topic of their relationship. Words failed him. But he couldn't bring himself to leave her bedroom just yet. He struggled with another approach, another reason to stay for a while.
    She looked so inviting there in bed with her hair loose and soft around her shoulders. There was just enough pale moonlight filtering in through the window to enable Josh to see her. The sight made him ache with need. He wanted her so much it hurt.
    “I, uh, I've made the plans for the trap I'm going to set,” Josh finally said. He began wandering around the room, examining things in the shadows-He touched the perfume bottle on the dresser and ran his fingers along the spines of some books. Mysteries, no doubt, Josh thought, unable to read the titles