In Too Deep Read Online Free PDF Page A

is only a few miles from here. Why not let me check it out?"
    "There's nothing to check out," Fallon said. "Norma is new to the local real estate scene. She'll soon figure out that the reason she can't sell the old Zander mansion isn't because of the rumors. It's because the place is more than a hundred years old. Every potential buyer who walks through the front door realizes immediately that it would be a nightmare to remodel the house and bring it up to code."
    "Norma thinks it's the mansion's reputation that is killing the deals. She's convinced that if she can advertise that she had the place certified as ghost-free by a real psychic investigation agency she could sell it."
    "This is a joke, not a legitimate case. It's bad for the image of J&J."
    "J&J is so low profile it doesn't have an image," Isabella said in a tone of sweet reason. "Why not take the easy money? I'll spend an afternoon at the house and report to Norma that all the ghosts have been dispatched. She'll write a check that will go straight to our bottom line."
    "Arcane keeps J&J on retainer," Fallon pointed out. "We get plenty of other business from members of the Society. We don't have to go after the Lost Dogs and Haunted Houses trade. And on the rare occasion when we do take on that kind of job, we hand it off to one of our contract agents who doesn't mind the work."
    "Norma's office is over in Willow Creek. She says the Zander house is about three miles from there somewhere out on the bluffs. There are no other J&J agents available for a radius of nearly a hundred miles. We're all she's got."
    "Forget it," Fallon said. "I need you here."
    "This will only take an afternoon. I think we should develop new revenue streams."
    He wasn't into the zone. Nevertheless, his intuition went ping , sounding a lot like his computer when a new bit of data arrived.
    "You were a waitress before you took this job," he said thoughtfully. "Don't tell me you picked up the term revenue stream in the food-and-beverage business?"
    She ignored that. "You said yourself that the Governing Council or whatever it is that runs the Arcane Society is starting to whine about the costs of the recent operations against that Nightshade conspiracy you're chasing. It would be sound policy for J&J to find other sources of income in case our budget gets cut by the Council."
    "The Council can grumble all it wants. Zack is the Master of the Society and he understands what's at stake. He'll see to it that I get the funding I need."
    "Fine." Isabella gave him another radiant smile. "Then I'll take Norma Spaulding's payment as a commission for my work. I could use the money, given the lousy salary you're paying me."
    He felt like a deer in the headlights when she used that smile on him. It was more dangerous than the crystal gun that had turned up in the Hawaii case. His finely tuned brain seemed to short-circuit when she glowed the way she was glowing now.
    "You're the one who told me how much to pay you," he said, grasping at straws. "If you wanted more money, why didn't you ask for it?"
    "Because I needed the job," she said smoothly. "I didn't want to scare you by asking for what I'm really worth."
    "I don't scare that easily."
    "Are you kidding?" She chuckled. "You should have seen the look on your face when the new desk and chair arrived."
    "If I flinched, it wasn't because of the price of the damn furniture," he said.
    "I know." Her tone gentled. "It was the shock of realizing that you were going to be sharing your working space with me. I understand."
    "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
    "You're accustomed to being alone," she said. "By now you've probably convinced yourself that you need solitude in order to do your work. And it's true, up to a point. But you don't require as much of it as you think you do. You've built a fortress around yourself. That's not good."
    "Now you're analyzing me? I sure as hell didn't hire you to do that."
    "You're right. You don't pay me nearly enough