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  Sloan expressed her sacrilegious disregard of such frivolous accomplishments by rolling her eyes and lifting her shoulders in a Gallic shrug—a gesture that was somehow so prim, and so unexpectedly cute, that Paul had to choke back a startled laugh. “Then there’s Edith,” he said, mentioning the last surviving member of the family. “She’ll be in Palm Beach, too.”

  “Edith?” Sloan repeated.

  “Your great-grandmother on your father’s side,” Paul explained, and bluntly added, “She’s a ninety-five-year-old dragon with a quick temper who terrorizes and intimidates anyone who crosses her path. She’s also a notorious cheapskate. She’s worth about fifty million dollars, but she reportedly throws a fit if more than one lamp is lit in a room.”

  “She sounds delightful,” Sloan said dryly; then she had to fight down the uneasy awareness of her own frugality— Sara had called her a miser just last week, and her own mother lamented that Sloan hated to part with money. But then, Sara and Kimberly were both hopeless spendthrifts, Sloan reminded herself bracingly. She, on the other hand, lived on a tight budget because she’d learned the necessity of it in childhood and because her salary as a police detective left her very little money to spare. If she had plenty of money, she’d certainly spend it. Well, some of it.

  Satisfied that he’d relieved a little of her anxiety with his best-case scenario, Paul left her pretty much to her own thoughts after that, but as they neared the Palm Beach exit off the highway, he knew he had to bring her back to reality. After his efforts to make her relatives seem human and possibly likable, he now had to remind her that her father was a criminal suspect and her role was to spy on him. “Your father’s house is about ten minutes from here,” he said. “Earlier, I gave you my best-case scenario. I’m afraid we have to prepare now for a worst-case scenario. Let’s go over our stories again, so we can do our jobs.”

  She turned in her seat, giving her full attention to him. “Okay, go ahead.”

  “We’re going to tell them we met in Fort Lauderdale five months ago, when I was attending an insurance seminar there,” he explained, reminding her of the personal details about himself that they might expect her to know. “My father’s name is Clifford; my mother’s name was Joan. She died several years ago. I was an only child; I grew up in Chicago and graduated from Loyola University. I still live in Chicago and work for Worldwide Underwriters Inc. You and I haven’t been able to spend much time together because we live so far apart, and that’s why it was so important to us to spend these two weeks together.” He flipped on the turn indicator and changed lanes, preparing to take the next Palm Beach exit. “Clear so far?”

  Sloan nodded. They’d discussed all this on Presidents’ Day, but now her curiosity was piqued. “Is any of that true?”

  “No,” he said in a flat tone that discouraged any further effort to inquire into his real personal life. “My cover is in place, and it will hold up if Reynolds decides to check me out, but I doubt we’ll need it. Once your family realizes we haven’t known each other long or spent a lot of time together, they won’t get suspicious when you don’t know everything about me. They won’t be particularly interested in me anyway, so they won’t ask many questions. I’ll be there to come up with answers when they’re needed. If I’m not around, say whatever you want but remember to fill me in later. Now, let’s go over your background. Have you decided on a suitable career for yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  They’d both agreed that it would be foolish to tell Carter Reynolds that Sloan was a police detective. According to Paul’s San Francisco informant, Reynolds hadn’t known anything whatsoever about Sloan when he called Kimberly to get her phone number, and there was no reason to think he’d learned anything at all when he called her at work. Paul was still elated about that. “I can’t get over how lucky we were that your mother didn’t have a chance to tell him anything about you the day he called her.”

  “Luck didn’t have anything to do with it. My mother was dying to tell him all about me, but he didn’t give her the chance because he’s heartless and rude. He hasn’t called her in thirty years because he doesn’t care how she feels or what she thinks. When he finally did call her, he told her he didn’t have time to talk, he only had time to get my phone number. As soon as she gave him my direct number at work, he told her he’d call her again sometime when he was less rushed, and he hung up!”

  “I see your point.”

  Sloan didn’t mean to dampen his spirits. “You got your lucky break later, when he called me,” she said with a smile. “I’ve quizzed Sara without her realizing it, and she says she remembers exactly how Captain Ingersoll answered my phone and exactly what he said to Carter. Nothing Ingersoll said would have alerted my father that he’d called the police station or that I’m a cop. That was lucky.”

  “I was due for a lucky break in this case,” Paul said wryly. “Now tell me what career you picked out for yourself.”

  “In college, I majored in marine biology and then mathematics before I switched to law enforcement, but you said you wanted me to pick a career that Reynolds will regard as frivolous or innocuous. A career in science or mathematics doesn’t qualify, and I don’t have enough knowledge in either of those fields to pull it off. I was still trying to think of a solution last week while I was waiting for Sara to finish talking to a client—and that’s when it hit me—the perfect career.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense; what is it?”

  “For the next two weeks, I’m an interior designer.”

  “You’re right.” He laughed. “It’s just what I had in mind. Do you know enough about it to pull it off?”

  “I know enough about it to bluff.” For years, she’d listened to Sara rhapsodizing over furnishings and accessories, and Sloan was reasonably certain she’d absorbed enough jargon and information to fake her way through a few superficial conversations with Carter Reynolds, who would surely find the subject boring, anyway.

  “There’s one more thing we need to discuss,” he said, his voice taking on an implacable quality. “I want to be absolutely certain you’re clear on your role in Palm Beach and on the legalities involved if you deviate one inch from it.”

  Sloan realized exactly where he was going, but she was curious to hear his logic anyway.

  “Legally, your father is entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy in his own home. Because you’re going there at my request, you are technically working for the FBI. Since the FBI does not have a search warrant, any evidence you or I discover will be thrown out of court unless it was in plain view and in a place he allows us to be. You may pass along information to me, but you cannot search for it. Am I making this clear? I don’t want you to so much as open a drawer unless someone asked you to get something out of it.”

  Sloan suppressed a smile at the fact that Paul felt the need to explain what was elementary legal information. “Actually, I learned a little about this on an episode of Law and Order.”

  He relaxed a little, but his tone remained emphatic. “As to conversations you might overhear, the same rules apply. Make sure you’re somewhere you’re allowed to be, and that you had a legitimate reason to be there. It would also help if you happened to be in plain sight of someone at the time. As to telephones, there’s to be no eavesdropping on extensions. We’re going to play this completely by the book. Got it?”

  Sloan nodded. “Got it. The thing is, no matter how scrupulous we are, his lawyers will shower motions to suppress on the court like pamphlets.”

  “Your job is to make certain you haven’t done anything to make a judge feel inclined to grant them. The point to remember is that our primary reason for being here is not to look for evidence. I’m here to keep an eye on him. He spends a lot of time in Palm Beach during the year. I want to know what he does while he’s here, where he goes, and who he meets. You’re here because it’s the only way I could get in and because you may be able to pass along helpful information that you come across. You aren’t he