Second Shot

Even I had to admit that he had a disarming quality about him, but, I reminded myself, all the best con men do. Besides, that didn’t explain how he’d tracked us down so quickly.

“So how,” I began, ignoring Simone’s furious glance, “did you know we were staying here — at this hotel?”

“Process of elimination,” he said, the first hairline fractures beginning to appear in his cheerful demeanor now “I couldn’t leave my little girl waiting for me, could I? I started calling the hotels.”

My eyebrows went up. “All of them?”

He nodded. “I started at the top, which was lucky, because this is one of the best in town. As soon as I found out Simone was here, I hightailed it down.”

“But-”

“That’s enough, Charlie,” Simone said, her voice quiet but no less commanding for all that. “Poor…” Her voice tailed off and I realized that despite her earlier confidence, she was struggling to find the right word to use.

Greg Lucas treated her to his brightest, warmest smile. “Just call me Greg,” he said gently. “For the moment, anyways. Let’s take this one step at a time, honey, hm? I know how hard this is for you and I know I haven’t been much of a father to you,” he went on, reaching out and covering Simone’s hand on the tabletop with his own. Ella, I noticed, couldn’t take her eyes off the gesture. “But now we have a second shot at it, and I’ll do anything I can to make it work.”

Simone nodded, her lips pressed together for a moment. Next thing, she’d jumped up out of her chair and hugged him, fiercely. I heard her muffled voice saying, “I’ve missed you, Daddy. I’ve missed you.”

After only a moment’s hesitation, Lucas’s arms went round her shoulders and his hands drew soothing circles on her back. “I know, honey,” he said softly, but his face, visible over Simone’s embrace, was curiously stiff and cold. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, too.”

The following day, riding north into a sky heavy with the promise of more snow, I had to admit that Greg Lucas wasn’t behaving like a man who was after Simone’s money-if he knew anything about it. The Range Rover we were riding in was the latest model and so new it hadn’t had time to lose the smell of fresh leather inside. Besides, Range Rovers were expensive enough in the UK, but over here they carried even more cachet. And despite the fact that we were staying in a fancy hotel, Simone still didn’t look or dress or talk like she had money

She’d admitted to Lucas that she was an engineer by training and told him about her split-up with Matt. She carefully blamed Matt’s wandering eye for their estrangement and made it sound like he was little more than a distant memory Ella nearly dropped her in it at that point by saying, loudly, “But Mummy, you and Daddy were arguing about the money, too, weren’t you?”

Simone had flushed pink right to the roots of her hair and come up with a hasty excuse that Matt earned less than she did and it had caused some friction.

Lucas had swung his eyes towards me and said, “Well, you must be doing pretty well for yourself if you can afford full-time help for little Ella here.” Simone heard only the paternal pride in his voice, but I heard the trace of suspicion underlying it, and I’m not sure which one of us was picking up the right vibes.

Still, I tried to keep an open mind about Simone’s father. He certainly made every effort to be amenable, taking us on his own guided tour of Boston and for an early evening meal at the Top of the Hub restaurant on the fifty-second floor of the Prudential Center, where we could enjoy a stunning view of the Boston skyline. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I didn’t quite trust him.

And when he invited the three of us to stay at his home in New Hampshire, Simone had accepted practically before the words were out of his mouth. Partly, I suspected, to stop me sticking my oar in. She waited until Lucas had gone to the restroom before she quietly tore into me for my intransigence.

“The whole idea of this trip was for me to find my father, and I did not go to all this time and trouble only for you to scare him off again!” she said in a savage whisper. “For God’s sake, Charlie, lighten up!”

‘All I’m trying to do is ensure your safety,” I said, trying to keep hold of my own temper.

“Well, that’s fine and dandy,” she said, glaring. “Just don’t stop me doing what I want to do or I’ll damned well go on my own.”

I’d called Neagley to see what her impression had been of Lucas, but got her answering service. I left a message asking her to call me urgently. I also rang Sean for advice, but he wasn’t helpful.

“You’ve got first-class instincts, Charlie,” he said drily, “but you can’t stop Simone from seeing this guy unless you can give her a better reason than you don’t really like him.”

“I know,” I said. “But there’s something about this whole situation that makes me uneasy I just can’t quite put my finger on it.”