Manhunting Read online

  “Paul, Derek, and Terence,” Kate said.

  Jake’s laugh held a lot of contempt. “Good Lord, woman, where did you find them? Twits ‘R’ Us?”

  “They were very nice men,” Kate lied. “Did Tiffany dot the i with a little heart?”

  “Tiffany was an assistant district attorney,” Jake said. “Don’t be such a snob.”

  “If Tiffany was so hot,” Kate shot back, stung, “why aren’t you still with her?”

  “Because I wasn’t hot,” Jake said.

  “Oh,” Kate said. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, dummy,” Jake said, patiently. “I didn’t mean she dumped me. She was going places I didn’t want to go. We parted by mutual consent.”

  “Oh,” Kate said again. “That must be nice.”

  “It was hell.” Jake frowned at her. “Nice? Are you nuts?”

  “No.” Kate frowned back. “I’ve just never parted with anyone by mutual consent. I’ve always had to escape while someone was holding on to my ankle.”

  “If they’d been dating you, I can’t believe there was enough life left in them to keep a grip on you,” Jake said.

  “They weren’t really gripping me,” Kate said, staring off into space. “They just hated letting go of the money.”

  Jake leaned forward to get a beer. “Just how much money are we talking about, here?” he asked, not really caring.

  Kate looked up. “Oh, I don’t have that much. But my father does.”

  Jake frowned as he drank. “Should I have heard of your father?”

  “Bertram Svenson?”

  “Oh, hell,” Jake said. “I met him once.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kate said.

  “No, no,” Jake said. “He was very...”

  “It’s all right.”

  “Very... forceful.”

  “He really hated Paul, Derek, and Terence,” Kate said.

  “He looked like he was a sensible man,” Jake said. “Is that why you dumped them?”

  “No,” Kate said. “I hated them, too.”

  Jake drank some more beer. “Uh, there’s no really tactful way of asking this, so I’ll just ask. Why did you get engaged to them if you hated them?”

  “I didn’t hate them until after I was engaged to them,” Kate said. “It always took me a while to figure out that they were more interested in the money than in me.”

  “They couldn’t have been that dumb,” Jake said, and Kate looked up, surprised. “Well, you’re not my type, but no man in his right mind would look at you and say, ‘All this woman’s got going for her is money.’ They were interested in you, too.”

  “Not really,” Kate said. “They were interested in how good I’d look standing beside them, at best. They didn’t know me.”

  “Their loss,” Jake said.

  “Thank you.” Kate bit her lip. “Tiffany couldn’t have been too bright, either, to let you get away.”

  “Tiffany was very bright,” Jake said. “And she didn’t let me get away. She opened the door and I ran.”

  “It was that bad?” Kate shook her head. “I can’t imagine you running.”

  “Oh, very funny,” Jake said. “I was younger then.”

  “I still can’t imagine you having that much energy.”

  “Listen, if I got in the same situation today, I’d find that much energy again.” Jake shook his head and finished his beer. “Damn woman thought I was a mind reader. She kept hinting at things, and I’d miss ‘em, and then all hell would break loose. Plus she had this idea that I was some sort of tycoon, and that we’d be building this empire together. By the time I figured out what she wanted, I’d spent six months getting bitched at every time I turned around.”

  Kate looked surprised. “You were only married six months?”

  “With Tiffany,” Jake said, “six months was plenty.”

  “Oh.” Kate tried to understand. “And you didn’t notice this plan of hers before you got married?”

  “The only thing I noticed,” Jake said, “was that she had a great body and we were terrific in bed.”

  “Oh.” Kate felt depressed. “And that wore off.”

  “Fast,” Jake said.

  “Oh.” She tried again. “And this was how long ago?”

  Jake frowned, trying to count back. “About seven years. Maybe eight. What year is it?”

  “And you’re still avoiding women?” Kate’s sympathy evaporated. “At least I keep trying.”

  Jake snorted. “Yeah, and look who you keep trying with. At least I’m not dating Tiffany clones and trying to kill them to get even.”

  “I’m not trying to kill them,” Kate said. “I’m just trying to find someone, and they keep self-destructing.”

  “Maybe you should stop trying to find someone,” Jake said, settling back.

  “No!” Kate said, surprising herself with her own force. “I’m tired of being alone. I want someone to talk to at night. Someone to laugh with. Someone to...”

  Jake raised his eyebrows. “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  They both observed a polite silence while they thought about the nothing, Jake picking up another apple from her bag. After a while, he changed the subject. “So what’re you doing tonight after you’ve finished off Allingham?”

  “I’m going to Nancy’s. She’s going to teach me to bartend.”

  “Good.” Jake bit off another chunk of apple. “I think it’s important for a woman to have a career.”

  “That’s real liberated of you, Jake.”

  “Yeah. I’m a nineties kind of guy.” He looked up at the sun and sighed. “Time to go back in.” He sat up, took the last bite of apple and threw the core in the lake, and stowed the cooler away so he could row. “Tell you what. Come on back to the pool table when you’re done with Nancy, and I’ll teach you to shoot pool like a real hustler.”

  “All right,” Kate said, surprised. “I’ve never played pool.”

  “Good. We’ll play for money.”

  Jake put the poles in the boat and untied the line from the tree. As he reached for the oars, he asked, “How come I always have to row?”

  “ ‘Cause I’m a fifties kind of gal,” Kate said, and tipped her hat down over her face.

  When Kate looked back on that afternoon with Eric Allingham, there was a certain inevitability to the whole thing, as if she was caught up by forces beyond her control.

  Eric was tall, distinguished, discerning, successful, honest, kind, considerate, clean, brave, and reverent. He was also a little boring, but Kate stomped on the part of her that noticed that. He was a good man. That should be enough. He was patient with her and gentle with the horses. Under his tutelage, she found herself in the saddle of a sleepy mare, clutching the reins with much less fear than she would have been if he hadn’t been beside her.

  “This is very nice of you,” she said to him.

  “My pleasure,” he told her and he really seemed to mean it.

  This is a very nice man, she thought. At last, my plan is working.

  Then the mare kicked him in the knee, and he went down without a sound.

  “Whatever you do,” she told Will when he brought the doctor, “don’t tell Jake.”

  All afternoon, Jake felt vaguely uneasy about Kate’s date with Eric Allingham. He couldn’t figure out why. Allingham was a very nice guy. After the string of losers Kate had been out with, Allingham would be a pleasant surprise. He might even be the key to her stupid plan. For some reason, that thought did not cheer him.

  The sight of the rescue squad turning down the lane toward the stables did, though. Of course, the squad could be going down there for somebody else, he reasoned, but if he knew Kate, Allingham was in need of medical attention.

  And, he thought complacently, I know Kate.

  After an afternoon in the emergency ward, Kate tried to forget about Eric and concentrate instead on getting ready to be a barmaid. It had seemed like a wonderful idea the night before, but eighteen hours later, witho