Claire and Present Danger by Gillian Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

was particularly fond of Lapis Lazuli O’Brien), climactic conditions including a Hurricane Waters, and Sirocco something or other; and one name that was not only odd but included punctuation: X-tra Stein. I 38
    CLAIRE AND PRESENT DANGER
    always wanted to know the story behind the poor girl’s naming, and I had to believe that despite the fancy spelling and having a dash of her own, the Steins were not overconcerned with X-tra’s self-esteem.
    Mrs. Fairchild would have appreciated the names, but I wanted her to keep believing that my story of a day job teaching was a clever ruse and, in real life, I was her full-time investigator. She appeared to be a woman who would not be happy with someone who was not only female, but who had to stop sleuthing in order to grade spelling exams.
    I cut to the chase. “What troubles you about her? What do you want us to look for?”
    She lifted both hands, palms out, as if to defend herself. “Who is she? That’s the trouble.” She seemed eager to make herself clear no matter how many sentences and pauses it took. “That’s what you have to find out. She’s sweet. Friendly. Fine first impression.”
    Did I have to point out that I needed a problem, and she was giving me an endorsement?
    Then, after another long pause: “But—out of nowhere.”
    And we were back to the starting line. I drained my coffee cup on that one because otherwise, I’d have had too much to say. The
    “nowhere” business grated on my nerves. Where was someone supposed to appear out of? Was it necessary to send trumpeters and heralds in advance? Courtiers to inform the court of where you’ve been, so it won’t be labeled nowhere?
    “Do you mean she’s a recent newcomer to Philadelphia?” I finally asked.
    “A year. Less.”
    That was the sin. Of course. An outlander. An alien. I could see the movie marquee now: She Came from Somewhere Else! Thousands of tiny Claire Fairchilds fleeing in horror.
    “Rented a house in Villanova. Joined the cricket club. Charita-ble groups. Right circles right away. Met Leo at a party. Moved here, into this building. Engaged to my son.”
    “She lives here?”
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    She pointed her index finger upward. “Upstairs.” She lifted her eyebrows. “She said the suburbs were no place to be single and childless.”
    Moving to Leo’s mother’s building, lovely and unique a place as it was, did seem a rather obvious positioning of the troops for the major assault.
    Nonetheless, she was right about living as a single in the suburbs. And even if she moved to the city so as to be more visible to Leo, so what? All’s fair, they say, and so far, this newcomer sounded pleasantly—dully—ordinary. Maybe a little tawdry—a gold digger.
    But Claire Fairchild had said this wasn’t about money. And in any case, while it might be more interesting for her to have put her energy into ending world hunger, if her goal was marriage to a wealthy man, then she’d demonstrated expertise and wisdom, and had been out front and honest about it. My mother would have revered her, wished she’d been her daughter, and before I had at-tached myself to my significantly unwealthy man—would have wanted me to make Emmie Cade my guru and life guide. Maybe I didn’t want her as my new best friend, but, so far, she sounded as unworthy of investigation as it was possible to be.
    Maybe we were having a semantic problem. I tried to figure out what Claire Fairchild actually meant, to force out specifics about the nowhere business. “Has she told you where she lived before she moved here?”
    “In her way.”
    “Meaning?”
    Mrs. Fairchild required several deep breaths before continuing, and then her words were spaced with pauses. “Emmie talks. Chatters. Smiles. Answers. Laughs. Very merry. Open-seeming.”
    The significant word, apparently, was seeming.
    This time, Claire Fairchild leaned over and lifted her coffee cup and sipped at what had to now be a lukewarm brew. She carefully