Clandestine Affair

Jaci Matlock could look at crime scene photos by the hour and never once get bored. But after a half hour in a Naples, Florida, art gallery with her mother, she was all but climbing the walls. Even the flute of bubbly the gallery owner had pressed into her hand didn't help, though she'd have hated to face the evening without it.Her mother stopped in front of an abstract that looked as if it had been painted by a menopausal chimpanzee. She stared at it for a minute. "I hate to imagine what the artist was thinking when she painted that.""Another night of reruns?" Jaci offered."Or when will my daughter come for a real visit?""I'm standing right next to you. That feels like a real visit to me.""Two days and one night is not a real visit. Are you sure you can't stay longer?""If I did, I'd be rambling through the house alone. You're leaving for a month's cruise Wednesday.""You could use a vacation yourself. We could go to Europe for a couple of weeks when I get back, just the two of us. Paris is lovely in the fall.""Or we could have lunch at that new French restaurant you were telling me about. I can possibly spring for the tip.""I'm not kidding, Jaci. You spend far too much time wallowing in the morbid. Clarence and I could give you the trip as an early present for earning your graduate degree."Her mother's husband, Clarence Harding III, could definitely afford it. And to give the old fart credit where credit was due, he was generous with his darling wife, Evelyn and Jaci as well.But Jaci was far too independent--and stubborn--to live on her stepfather's handouts. Thankfully, her father had started a college fund for her before he'd died. That, a part-time job waiting tables and the small inheritance she'd received from her dad's parents had let her earn her undergraduate and Master's degrees with a minimum of loans.Almost. She still had one major hurdle to pass."If I don't complete my thesis project this semester, I won't be getting the degree," she said, omitting the fact that spending two weeks stalking Paris boutiques with her mother would be far more punishing than any assignment Professor Greeley could dream up."I know you have your paper to write, but surely you could work on that just as well in Paris.""It's not a paper. It's a project." They'd had this conversation before, and if her mother didn't consider forensics an F word instead of a science, she'd have remembered that.Actually, the project should already be half-finished, but Jaci had run into a major complication. After six years of literally getting away with murder, the killer in her research crime had found religion and confessed to everything.The family of the slain woman was thrilled to have closure. Jaci was back to square one as far as her project was concerned. Not a lot of hypothesizing she could do on a case that was solved by the killer's confession, and she hadn't found another cold case that spurred her interest the way that one had."Oh, look, there's Mrs. Baxter and her son, Matthew. He's a surgeon," Evelyn crooned."Nice looking--and single."Which meant her mother had dreams of matchmaking dancing in her head. Jaci sized up the guy as he approached with an over-weight, middle-aged woman dripping diamonds. He was Caucasian, just under six feet, medium build, dark hair, lighter mustache. No visible tattoos or distinguishing marks.She groaned silently. Maybe she had spent too many hours buried in evidence. Actually, the guy was cute, but then so were beagles. Dogs required a lot less energy than a relationship, and she didn't even have time for them.She half listened while her mother and Mrs. Baxter exchanged greetings, then met Matthew's eyes briefly when her mom made the introductions. Jaci put out her hand, and from the second his closed around hers, she was mesmerized--by the painting hanging just beyond his right shoulder."It's the Santiago house."Matthew let go of her hand. "ExcWayne, Joanna is the author of 'Clandestine Affair ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373229420 and ISBN 0373229429.