Mysterious Millionaire (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1048)

Being a part-time private eye put a serious crimp in Liz Norton's social life. At half-past eleven on a Friday night in May, she ought to be wearing lip gloss, dancing, flirting and licking the suds off a beer that somebody else had paid for. Instead, she'd spent the past two hours and seventeen minutes on stakeout with Harry Schooner, her sixty-something boss.She slouched behind the steering wheel of Harry's beat-up Chevy. Even with the windows cracked for ventilation, she still smelled stale hamburger buns from the crumpled bags littering the backseat. On the plus side, the cruddy, old car blended with the rundown Denver neighborhood where they were parked at the curb away from the streetlight, watching and waiting.In the passenger seat, Harry pressed his fist against his chest and grunted."Are you okay?" she asked."Heartburn."His digestive system provided a source of constant complaint. Long ago, she'd given up lecturing him on the evils of a strictly fast-food diet. "Did you take your pill?""What are you? My mother?""A concerned employee," she said. "If you keel over from a heart attack, where am I going to find another job as glamorous as this one?"He peeled off the silver wrapping on a roll of antacid tablets, popped the last one in his mouth and tossed the wrapper over his shoulder into the trashed-out backseat. "That reminds me. You're done with your semester. Right?""Took my last exam two days ago."At age twenty-six, she'd put herself halfway through law school. The accomplishment made her proud, even though she still heard echoes of her mother's refrain:"Why bother with an education? The only way a girl like you can make it is to find a man to support you." This bit of advice came right before the grooming tips: "Lighten your hair, shorten your skirts and stand up straight so your boobs stick out."Of course, Liz did the exact opposite. Her thick, multi-colored blond hair remained undyed and unstyled-- except for her own occasional hacking to keep the jagged ends near chin-length. Her wardrobe included exactly one skirt--knee-length and khaki--that she'd picked up at a thrift store for a buck. Mostly, she wore jeans and T-shirts. Tonight, a faded brown one under a black wind-breaker. As for Mom's advice to show off her chest, Liz had given up on that plan long ago. Even if she arched her back like a pretzel, nobody would ever confuse her with a beauty queen.Her twice-married mom had actually done her a favor when she'd shoved her only daughter out the door on her eighteenth birthday and told her that she was on her own.Liz had done okay. Without a man.Harry groaned again and shifted in the passenger seat. "You'll come to work for me full-time during your summer break. I could use the help. I'm getting too damn old for this job.""Thanks, Harry." She'd been counting on this summer job. "But I still need Monday and Wednesday nights free to teach the under-twelve kids at the karate school.""I got no problem with that." He made a wheezy noise through his nostrils and shrugged his heavy shoulders. His formerly athletic physique had settled into a doughy lump. Only his close-cropped white hair suggested the discipline of long-ago military service and twenty years as a cop. "How's my grandson doing at karate?""Not exactly a black belt, but he's hanging in there." She'd met Harry at Dragon Lou's Karate School when he'd come to watch his six-year-old grandson and ended up offering Liz a couple of part-time assignments.Some aspects of being a P.I. were just plain nasty, like serving subpoenas or confirming the suspicions of a heartbroken wife about her cheating husband. But Liz enjoyed the occasional undercover disguise. Most of all, she liked grumpy old Harry and his two grown daughters. The Schooners represented the family she'd never had.She peered through the scummy windshield at a ram-shackle bungalow, landscaped with weeds and two rusty vehMiles, Cassie is the author of 'Mysterious Millionaire (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1048)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780373693153 and ISBN 037369315X.