The Case of the Missing Secretary Read Free

once. Her first call was, as Dane had suggested, to Christopher Deverell.
    “Mother’s gone again,” he said pleasantly. He was only twenty-seven, just two years older than Kit-but eight years younger than Logan. He and Kit and Tansy were like a different generation. No-body ever told Logan that, of course.
    “Yes, I know, that’s why I’m calling you,” Kit said with a smile in her tone. “I have to find her.”
    “Logan’s office is a mess,” he said. “Logan screamed bloody murder for two solid days and refused to hire anybody else.”
    “I know,” she said. “I was due for a change. I was stagnating in that office with the same routine day in and day out-”
    “Bull,” Chris said. “You were eaten up with jealousy over the delectable Miss Corley. Everybody knows how you feel about Lo-gan, Kit. Everybody except Logan.”
    She didn’t bother to deny it. Chris knew her too well. “He’s going to marry her.”
    “So he says. He’ll find her out in time, though. Logan’s no fool. Well, most of the time he’s no fool.” “She’s very pretty.” “So are you.”
    “I’m just a walking piece of office furniture that he programmed to do his filing and typing,” Kit said solemnly. “He doesn’t miss me. He’s already found a replacement. Three of them, in fact.”
    “Mother found him the best one. She’s a cousin of ours who used to live in San Antonio, and she can type. The other two…well,” he

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    said noncommittally. “Let’s just say that they aren’t quite what he had in mind. Melody, that’s our cousin, is the best of them all, but she can’t spell and she’s very nervous trying to answer the telephone.”
    “I would be, too, with a glowering boss peering down his nose at me,” Kit muttered. “Don’t you have other relatives in San Antonio?” she asked, remembering some veiled references to people Logan didn’t ever go and visit there.
    “Just Emmett. Don’t ever mention Emmett to Logan,” he added. “He has nightmares about his last visit there.”
    “I won’t see Logan to mention anybody to him, thank God,” she said curtly.
    “You hope. Logan isn’t coping well without you,” he said gently. “He won’t admit it, but life without you is like going around in a blindfold.” “I hope he trips over a potted plant and goes out the window.”
    “Naughty, naughty,” he chided. “Don’t you feel guilty, leaving him at the mercy of an office you’re not in?” “No. It’s time he knew what the real world is like,” Kit said.
    “From the tidbits I get from Melody, he may try to toss the new receptionist out a window one day soon.”
    “Then I hope you know a good lawyer to defend him. I’ll be a character witness for the woman. Just call me.” “Shame on you!” He laughed.
    “I hate your brother. I gave him three of the best years of my life and he never even noticed I was around until I told him his new girlfriend was a miner who’d be digging for gold in his hip pocket.” “You should have told Tansy instead. She’d have handled that.”
    “No, she wouldn’t,” Kit argued. “Tansy doesn’t believe in interfering. She thinks people should make their own mistakes. She’s right, too,” she muttered. “When he loses his home, his car and his business to his heartthrob, I’m going to phone him twice a day just to say I told you so!”
    “Before or after you offer to take dictation for free to help him get back on his feet?”
    She sighed. Chris knew her too well. “Where do you think Tansy’s gone?”
     
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    “To Venice,” he said. “She was seen boarding a plane bound for there in Miami.” “Okay. Which airline?”
    He told her, along with the flight number and time of departure. She thanked him, cutting off the conversation before he could say anything else. She turned her attention to the task at hand. She had no time to wallow in self-pity.
    Minutes later, she knew that Tansy