Captain's Paradise Read Online Free PDF Page B

her shoulder bag aside and lifted herself up to sit on the worktable. “Robin and Igrew up in the same neighborhood,” she told them. “She comes from a long line of cops; her father’s been the head of some kind of domestic intelligence organization for about ten years now. It’s very hush-hush; I wasn’t supposed to know about it, but girls talk.”
    Raven smiled suddenly. “Ah. Now I see where those ‘connections’ of yours come from.”
    Kyle, remembering also, said, “Right. When Kelsey was in trouble in Pinnacle, Teddy got the floor plan of that plant.”
    Teddy nodded. “I called Daniel Stuart, Robin’s father, and he got the floor plan for me.”
    “A nice friend to have,” Raven noted. “Go on about Robin.”
    “Robin always wanted to be a cop,” Teddy said. “From the time we were kids, that was her one and only ambition. And she’s always had the nerve of a burglar. I mean, she’d do anything on a dare, and she wasn’t afraid of anything that walked, talked, or dug holes.”
    Raven and Kyle laughed.
    “Some pretty mean beasts dig holes,” Teddy assured them solemnly.
    “You’d know,” Kyle murmured, referring to Teddy’s affinity with animals of all shapes and sizes.
    Teddy grinned. “Anyway, we all expected Robin to join her father, brothers, uncles, and God knows how many other relatives in becoming some kind of cop. She was the only girl in the family with that ambition, by the way. She was taught from infancy to handle guns, and she knew the police handbook verbatim. So … she was accepted into the police academy.”
    “And?” Raven prompted.
    “She failed the written exam. Twice. Nobody who knew her could believe it. Not only is she as smart as a whip, but she
knew
that stuff.”
    Slowly Raven said, “Maybe she didn’t want to become a cop. I mean inside, where it counts.”
    Teddy shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know; she wouldn’t say a word about it to me. The next thing I knew, she’d cut all ties with her family, moved to the other side of the city, and becomea freelance reporter—covering, of all things, the police beat. I know a homicide detective in that area, and when I called him last night, he said Robin has the reputation of being not only fearless, but reckless. He says she’ll go anywhere to get a story, and that she has the nose of a cop.”
    “Have you called her father?” Kyle asked.
    Teddy shook her head. “As a last resort, I will. I don’t think Robin’s even seen him in several years. Daniel isn’t the kind of father to push; when she made it clear she was on her own, he gave her the space. But I know he’s been worried about her. He seems to think that Robin feels she’s failed him somehow.”
    “By not becoming a cop?” Raven asked.
    “I guess. The point is, though, that she’s wrong about that. Daniel doesn’t care what career she picks as long as she’s happy. And she always adored him; he raised her after her mother died fifteen years ago. To cut herself off from him so completely had to be like cutting off an arm.”
    Kyle, who was still virtually estranged from her own parents, spoke slowly. “Generally wesee only the outward trappings of a relationship; it’s hard to know what really goes on. No matter how he feels, if Robin’s certain she disappointed him by twice failing a test she should have passed, it could have hit her awfully hard. That kind of failure can mark you for life.”
    Teddy sighed. “All I know for sure is that she’s in trouble, and I’m the one she trusted. I have to do something.”
    Raven picked up several of the papers on the worktable and leafed through them slowly. “She did her homework,” she noted thoughtfully. “Even before she went to Miami, she’d gotten plenty of information on the Serendipity, the owner, and most of the staff.” She looked up suddenly. “Is she attractive, Teddy?”
    “Beautiful,” Teddy answered. “And she has the kind of coloring those white slavers reputedly