Perfect Fit (Serendipity's Finest) - By Carly Phillips Page 0,76
caring. He didn’t doubt she loved him now, but in the beginning? Mike shivered, knowing he was more afraid to know that part of the story, whether being pregnant with Mike had compelled his mother to make a choice she wouldn’t have otherwise.
He forced himself to refocus on Rachel, who was looking at him with a funny expression on her face. “Did you hear me?” she asked.
“Sorry. I got distracted.”
“I said, Simon always loved your mama, even when she was with that scoundrel, Rex…Oh!” Rachel slapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless of me.”
Mike shook his head. “You spoke the truth. No need to apologize.” Everyone, it seemed, knew Rex Bransom hadn’t been a man worth knowing.
Cheeks still pink, Rachel looked to Mike’s desk, pulling a manila envelope from the bottom of his inbox. “This is the last thing. It has your name on it.” She handed the package to Mike without meeting his gaze.
“It’s okay, Rachel. Really.”
She nodded. “Thank you. I’m going to take these stacks and head over to the filing room.” She gathered the papers and quickly made her escape.
With a groan, Mike lowered himself back to his seat, package in hand. He didn’t recognize the writing but realized this had to be the envelope he’d gotten a phone call about over a week ago. He’d forgotten all about it and obviously it’d been buried beneath piles of paperwork.
He opened the envelope and a clichéd black book fell out, along with a note. A quick read told him it was from Judge Baine’s wife:
In a lucid moment, my husband asked me to give you this. Old mistakes that he paid for by living with his guilty conscience that eats away at what few good moments he has now. As many suspected, the old Winkler place was, in fact, a brothel. Many otherwise good, prominent men kept it going—until the time you were asking about. Now you have the list in your hands. Do with it what you must. My husband has more than made up for his sins, at least to me, and he’s barely aware of what’s going on around him most of the time, anyway. But he did want to clear his conscience, and I followed his wishes.
Mike glanced up at the ceiling in his office. “A lead as well as some answers. Thank you, God.”
He jumped up and headed for the squad room, intent on finding Cara. He found her at her desk, typing in reports on the barebones system they had. Soon, though, his new system would be in place and even when he was gone from here, he’d have made a lasting impression.
That mattered to him, he realized. This place, a small police station with dingy walls, an air conditioner that needed to be replaced, and the people in it, mattered.
“Hi!” Cara glanced up from her desk.
Beautiful blue eyes focused on him and immediately brightened his day. “Hi. You have some time?”
“Umm, sure. Let me just save this…” She hit a button and pushed her chair back. “Ready. What’s up?”
He looked her over, loving how she appeared so in control and sexy in her uniform. “I have a lead on the money in the evidence room. Or at the very least, I have a list of names and information I can’t discuss here.”
“Then let’s go.”
She was dropping everything? “Don’t you have work to do?”
“I’m on top of things.”
“Good. I want to look at this in private. Can we go to your place?”
“Sure, but yours is closer.”
Mike paused. “But yours is warmer.” And he didn’t mean temperature. He liked the homey feel of her condo, and for the news he assumed he’d be getting, he didn’t want to be in his sterile room over Joe’s Bar.
Back at her condo, Cara made them grilled cheese sandwiches while Mike sat down at the kitchen table, pad and pen in front of him, Judge Baine’s black book open wide.
“It looks like a ledger,” she said, glancing over from where she stood at the stove, frying up lunch.
“It is, but it’s not used like one. Not exclusively anyway. There’s a list of names here. Prominent businessmen with initials underneath their names.”
She slid the spatula beneath the sandwiches, flipped them one more time, placed them on plates, and carried them to the table. “What else is there?”
He flipped through the book, coming to empty pages.
“Flip further,” she said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “And eat before it gets cold. I worked hard on