wait to have you back, Colin.” The thought of him returning to Paradise Valley for good made her heart beat a little faster and a soft heat radiated over her body.
“I should be there by dinnertime.”
“Let’s go out.” Emily imagined a romantic candlelit dinner at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Colin’s return to Paradise Valley.
“No, I’d rather stay in. I’ll be on the road all day. I’d like to have a nice quiet dinner at your place and just be alone with you.”
“You know I’m not a very good cook.” She was good at a lot of things, but there was no denying that cooking wasn’t one of them.
“Oh, honey, that’s what take-out is for.”
Emily couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Well, I’m not that bad.”
She told him about the football party Camille and Jonathan were planning at their place on Saturday and that all their friends would be there. She filled him in on what she had learned about Jethro’s possible connection to Delia McCall and how the mysterious dark-haired woman in the photo with Evan was likely Jethro’s daughter. Wracking her brain for any other news, she was intent on not hiding anything else from Colin.
“Oh, and another thing…” she started to say.
“What’s that?”
“There’s something I’m investigating where I will need to enlist your help.”
“Sounds intriguing. What’s going on?” Colin asked.
“There’s a possibility of a prostitution ring operating around here, and it may have ties to Camille’s neighborhood.”
“Prostitution ring? Boy, that really surprises me. I’ve had some experience dealing with that in San Francisco, but I didn’t think I’d have to deal with it in a quiet place like Paradise Valley.”
“Looks like you may have to.” Emily went on and described her and Molly’s experiences with the suspicious Asians and what she had discovered about their business.
“I don’t understand why you’re involved, though,” he said.
“I’m a concerned citizen, doing what I can. If human trafficking is happening right under our noses, how can I sit and do nothing, knowing what those girls are being put through night after night?”
“Shouldn’t you report what you know and let law enforcement handle it?”
“Without concrete evidence, they’d just laugh at me.”
“You’re probably right, but—”
“Colin, what if someone had taken a girl you knew, let’s say your sister, and forced her into a life of prostitution? I know you’d be the first to jump in to rescue her. Well, those girls aren’t commodities, they’re somebody’s daughters.”
“I get it, Emily. I’ll help in any way I can, just don’t do anything dangerous before I get there.”
~*~
The next day Emily showed up at the Goodwood restaurant at twelve forty-five. She drove around the parking lot, scanning each vehicle until she spotted the black BMW with Virginia plates. She swung her white Volvo into a space a respectable distance away and sauntered over to the BMW, doing her best to inconspicuously slink by it as she stuck a magnetic GPS device to the car’s frame.
Emily casually waltzed back to her car and texted Isabel that the deed was done. Now she needed to sit and wait for Delia to show up. She hoped her little ploy would prove useful.
Right on time, Delia entered the lot and parked her dark BMW. Emily jumped out of her car and headed to the restaurant, reaching the door at the same time as Delia.
“Hello, Delia.” Emily greeted her with a quick hug and pulled the heavy glass door open.
“Oh, Emily. It’s so good to see you.” Delia’s dark eyes twinkled with apparent sincerity.
Delia was a stunning woman in her early forties, dressed in a handsomely tailored business suit in fine tan wool with a fitted pencil skirt. Her dark waves danced around her shoulders as she teetered to the door in her brown-leather designer high heels.
Emily felt a bit underdressed in her black jeans and cropped black-leather jacket over a scoop-necked white sweater. She politely smiled as she held the door open and followed Delia to the hostess station, glancing nonchalantly around the crowded restaurant. She spotted Isabel sitting opposite Jethro, along the window side of the room, with his back to them. Perfect.
“Table for two?” the hostess asked.
“Yes, along the windows, please,” Emily requested.
“Right this way.” The hostess grabbed a couple of menus from her station and led the women to their table, just beyond Isabel and Jethro. Emily filed in right behind the hostess with Delia trailing close by.
Isabel looked up as they approached the table and her eyes widened momentarily as she appeared to try to hide