The Private Eye

assignment in your present condition?”
    Josh smiled slowly. “You get what you pay for, lady. And believe me, for what you're paying, I'm the best that's available.”

Chapter 2

    Maggie did not like Josh's smile. It made her more uneasy than ever. It also made her angry. It occurred to her that her emotions had been all over the place in the short time January had been at Peregrine Manor. In the past forty minutes she had experienced everything from hopeful expectation to extreme irritation. Somewhere in the middle, she was forced to admit, there had also been a powerful element of pure, physical attraction.
    Physical attraction was all it could be, she assured herself firmly. The man was certainly not going out of his way to endear himself to her. In fact, it would take very little at this point to make her dislike him intensely.
    It was time to take charge of the situation. She had set this whole thing up so she would have to see it through. Maggie returned Josh's taunting smile with a stiff, mockingly polite one of her own.
    “Mr. January – ”
    “I thought I told everyone to call me Josh.”
    It wasn’t worth an argument, Maggie reflected. “Very well, Josh. I'll be blunt and tell you straight out that you are not what I expected when I set out to hire a private investigator.”
    “I rarely am. What people expect, that is. For some reason I always seem to come as a surprise.”
    “I can understand that,” Maggie said. “Now, then. As we appear to be stuck with you – ”
    “Really, Maggie,” Odessa interjected reproachfully. “There's no need to be rude to Josh.”
    “Yeah, he ain't really done nothin' yet,” Shirley added. “Give the guy a chance.”
    The Colonel cocked a disapproving brow at Maggie. “Quite right, my dear. We must give our man an opportunity to do his job. Personalities should not enter into the equation.”
    Maggie flushed under the gentle rebukes. She could see the laughter in Josh's eyes. “I fully intend to give our – I mean – Josh a chance. As he himself has just told us, we appear to be getting what we paid for.”
    Josh held up a hand. “I have an idea. Why doesn't one of you tell me why you all think you need a private investigator? I believe Maggie's letter said something about 'disturbing occurrences' here at Peregrine Manor. What disturbing occurrences?”
    Predictably, everyone started to talk at once.
    “The most unsettling incidents…” Odessa began in a worried tone.
    “Felt we should get a professional to look into them,” the Colonel confided. “A lot at stake, you know. Potentially millions.”
    “Warnings,” Shirley said eagerly. “That's what they are. Warnings. And I don't mind tellin' you I'm scared.”
    Josh held up his hand again. “I said one of you should give me the details. Not all of you at once.” He looked straight at Maggie. “You wrote the letter and you're apparently paying my fee, such as it is. Tell me what, exactly, is going on around here.”
    The Colonel cleared his throat in an attention-getting manner. “He's quite right, Maggie. If we all talk at once we'll only cloud the issue. Lay out the facts for our man.”
    “All right.” Maggie crossed her legs and absently started to swing her foot as she gathered her thoughts.
    Josh January was the kind of man who dealt in hard facts. He wouldn't be interested in hunches and intuition. “A series of incidents have occurred here at the manor which have alarmed all of us to some degree. In fact, the real reason we're closed for the off-season this year is because of those incidents.”
    “Give me some specifics,” Josh urged, his gaze on her swinging foot.
    “First, there are all the mechanical and structural problems that we've been experiencing.” Maggie realized he was watching her foot, which was half out of her patent-leather pump. She carefully uncrossed her legs and slid her stocking-clad foot back into the shoe.
    “At the height of the season the large freezer and the refrigerator we use in the kitchen went on the fritz. We lost several hundred dollars' worth of food. But worse than that, we had to close the dining room on the biggest weekend of the year. A lot of people with reservations for dinner were very upset. The inn was full and everyone was irritated at the inconvenience.”
    “Go on,” Josh prompted.
    He seemed to have lost interest in her foot since she'd put it back inside her shoe. Now, Maggie realized, for some reason he was watching her