Slow Heat by Lorie O'Clare Read Free Book Online

anything. But she’s a person of interest,” Haley repeated, speaking fast. “She came into the office right after you left. She asked for your number. She wants to hire you to find whoever is framing her for money laundering. Greg and I are starting to think she might actually be innocent. No one who is guilty can act that confused and terrified. I almost felt for the girl,” Haley said, the smile still in her voice.
    “She wants to hire me?” Micah remained rooted where he stood, trying to make sense of what Haley just said. “To find a money launderer?”
    “Yes.” Her voice regained its smooth, authoritative calmness. “If you aren’t interested, let me know. But we don’t have a problem with people we brought in seeking out our professional assistance to confirm their innocence. Sometimes they are innocent, other times they are really good cons until we break through their act and bring them in again. Either way, you have your license. If you want to do some moonlighting on the side and pull off some detective work, that’s fine with us.”
    “I’ll let you know.”
    *   *   *
    Maggie wondered for the hundredth time if she was making a really big mistake. Things had barely settled down and returned to normal since she’d come home from the police station after damn near being arrested for something she didn’t do. Her mother had practically become hoarse yelling about how the country was shit down a pothole when a good American citizen was guilty until proven innocent.
    John O’Malley would turn on his wife, pointing at her with his tobacco pipe that he hadn’t smoked in the house since Maggie’s older sister, Deidre, had been diagnosed with asthma. He would then bellow his disapproval loud enough for everyone in the house to hear.
    “Saints preserve us all, woman!” he’d begin. “I served in two wars that made this country even stronger than it was when our parents came over. If Maggie had been in the old country, only the good Lord above knows how they might have treated her.”
    If Maggie’s mother didn’t lighten up after his war comments, her father would throw the deadly retort that would silence the entire household. “If that daughter of mine had listened to her papa, believed for a moment he might have known what he was talking about, and steered clear of that no-good brother of yours, she wouldn’t be in trouble right now.”
    The silence that followed hadn’t been a pleasant quiet. John and Lucy O’Malley wouldn’t storm to opposite ends of their home and stew about the intolerable nature of their spouse. They would both march into their bedroom, close the door, then sit on the edge of the bed, at the small desk in their room, or stand facing the window, and ignore each other.
    Maggie’s brother Aiden had once said, “Even when they fight they do it together. They truly are the perfect couple.”
    Maggie wasn’t sure screaming and yelling at each other qualified her parents as couple of the year, but after fifty years they were still married. It was more than many could say.
    Either way, it had been several days since she’d come home from the police station. Her temper had cooled as well, and now it was time to do something about it. If the police thought they were being discreet following her everywhere she went, they were really lousy at their jobs. Well, just let them follow her across the city to the bounty-hunting office. See if she cared!
    She hadn’t discussed hiring the bounty hunter with her parents—or with anyone, for that matter. There was no reason to start the ranting and raving all over again. Maggie had done her research, though. Bounty hunters were required to be licensed private investigators in the state of California. Micah Jones already knew everything about her situation. Hiring him made a lot more sense to her than seeking out a stranger and trying to explain the situation when she barely understood it herself. That is, if he was willing to