Miss Fairmont and the Gentleman Investigator

"So, who is she?" Art McDonald said. "A murder suspect? Thief, what?" Bobby Finn glanced at his former Scotland Yard partner then to his assignment: American Grace Fairmont, helpless rich girl whose father didn't want her traveling the U.K. alone. She sat across the pub from Bobby and Art, leafing through travel brochures and analyzing maps. This was a fancy holiday for her, a diversion from her dull life. For Bobby, this was a jail sentence. He'd jeopar-dized the Blackwell Group's last case, and he'd been sent back to London as punishment. A private dick working as a babysitter. "She's a bloody schoolteacher," Bobby explained. "And a thorn in my side." "A school teacher?" Art said. "What's she done?" "Besides bore me to tears?" Bobby swallowed back his ale. "She's nothing, Art. She's not a suspect or an informant." "I think you're overreacting, mate." "I should be back in the States, working on a murder case for Blackwell. Instead, I'm stuck fol-lowing that female around for two weeks." Miss Grace Fairmont had been sitting at a table in the corner for nearly an hour. Her shoulder-length blond hair floated about round cheeks that made her look more like a teenager than a twenty-six-year-old woman. She wore a denim jacket, a purple scarf and soft pink lipstick, accentuating full lips, lips that looked too sexy to be on such a youthful face. A shopping bag sat by her side carrying her spoils from a prestigious lingerie shop. Bobby had spent the day following a woman on her shopping spree. Could there be a harsher sen-tence? "It's great to see you," Art said, leaning across the table. "Tell me about Blackwell, give me all the de-tails." Details of a missing boy, almost lost forever thanks to Bobby? "I cocked-up, mate. That's why they sent me back." "You know Max wouldn't punish you for being human. We all make mistakes, Bobby." Yeah, but Bobby more than most, right? What made him think he could shake his past? Bobby was a failure at protection. Why had Max picked him for this assignment? "Bobby?" He glanced at Art, his mate from the Special Crimes Initiative at Scotland Yard. Art was a good friend, a mentor, and Bobby had missed him. He wished Art had stayed with the private investigative team back in the States, but the man had a wife and kids. He had a life. Bobby envied him. "What happened?" Art pushed. "We were investigating a case of a missing boy." Bobby leaned forward in the booth. "I looked right into the bastard's eyes, Paul Reynolds was his name, and I didn't realize he was the man who was de-manding the ransom." He hesitated and shook his head. "What the hell's the matter with me?" "Nothing, it happens to all of us. We misjudge people." "Not Max, he doesn't make mistakes." "He's human, Bobby, just like the rest of us. And consider what he had to struggle with to get back on his feet. I can see why you admire him, but don't put him on a pedestal. He wouldn't like it." He couldn't help it. Max was the man who'd chal-lenged Bobby out of a life of crime and pushed him into a career in law enforcement. Max was Bobby's only father figure, although only ten years his senior. Max had encouraged Bobby, given him a chance. And Bobby had let him down. "I was doing it by the book, asking the right ques-tions, digging for secrets. I've watched Barnes. He's so analytical and I thought I could learn from him. It all fell into place when Reynolds helped me draw my conclusions." Bobby had been trusting and gullible. Just like when he'd trusted his mum to come back for him. Bobby should have known she couldn't stand the sight of him, not after what he'd done. "The man had no criminal background?"Art asked. "None. He was an upstanding citizen." "Then you had no reason to suspect him. People lie, Bobby. You can't control that." "But I don't have to believe them."White, Pat is the author of 'Miss Fairmont and the Gentleman Investigator ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373692477 and ISBN 0373692471.