Page 14 of Colorado Christmas Carol
She glared at him. “I’m tired and worn out. If you need any other information, you can text me,” she said angrily. “And if I wanted to find someone dangerous, I wouldn’t be looking for him at a dig site!” she added icily.
She turned on her heel and started walking.
He started humming the theme song to the Pink Panther. She walked faster.
* * *
She threw things around in her room, absolutely out of her mind with fury. The Pink Panther theme indeed! She wasn’t Inspector Clouseau, and just because she went to a dig, she wasn’t trying to be a forensic detective.
She could hardly think for the anger. So to counter it, she pulled out her laptop and sat down to work on her novel.
It was about a serial killer. She’d read countless books on them and hoped she had learned enough background to make the antagonist believable. The hero wasn’t the usual muscular sports-type hero. He was more like Raylan in theJustifiedTV series—lanky and smart and afraid of nothing. He’d started out to be dark-haired and light-eyed, but lately he looked more and more blond in her mind’s eye.
No connection to that conceited man downstairs, she thought quickly, and felt even more sorry for Mellie, who had to live with him.
But no worries about that right now. She had a new idea for a scene, and she was going to write it before she lost the thread.
So far she had six chapters of what was probably going to be a sixteen-chapter book. It was more fun than she’d realized to write a novel. Now her only problem was going to be who would buy it. Well, that was a problem for later. Right now, the only thing she needed to consider was working on it. Which she did.
* * *
The next morning, Mellie came into the kitchen where Essa was working, morose and upset.
Essa stopped what she was doing and went to the child. “What’s wrong?” she asked softly. “You look like the end of the world!”
“Dean said I could go to the dig with him today if I wanted to, and Daddy said no way.”
Essa sighed, recalling what Mellie’s dad had told her in confidence about Dean. She didn’t believe he was dangerous, but taking a child alone to a dig site sounded a little bit off. He might mean to ask Essa to go along as well, of course. But if he did ask, would she go now, after talking to Duke?
“We just went yesterday,” Essa said gently. “And your dad may have someplace special that he’s going to take you this afternoon, did you think of that?”
“No!” Mellie looked at her plaintively. “He doesn’t take me places, Essa,” she said softly. “That’s why it was so much fun to go with Dean. Daddy doesn’t . . . he just doesn’t do that sort of thing. It’s work, work, work, all the time,” she added sadly.
“Yes, but he might realize that, after seeing how much fun you had yesterday,” Essa told her.
Mellie brightened. “Really?”
She smiled. “Really. So you should stay here, just in case,” she added.
“Okay. I will.” Impulsively, she hugged Essa tight. “You’re so nice. You’re like my mother was,” she added quietly. “She was nice, too. Well, sort of nice.”
“Did you lose her a long time ago?” Essa wanted to know.
“I was five,” Mellie said. “Daddy’s been different since then,” she added. “He never laughed a lot, but he was different. Now, he never even smiles.”
Except when he’s taunting me, Essa thought irritably, but she didn’t dare say it.
“I have to get back to work, but I’ll see you later,” Essa promised, smiling.
“Okay. Thanks, Essa,” Mellie said, smiling back.
“You’re very welcome!”
* * *
She was just finishing a complicated sauce when Duke walked into the kitchen, flaming mad.
“What the hell did you tell my daughter?” he demanded, hands on his hips, face taut with anger.
