The Matchmaker Meets Her Match Read Online Free PDF

mysteriously disappearing whenever he came to visit — she had been tempted to cut him loose.
    But Gran had always said you couldn’t turn anyone away, not as long as they were of legal age and wanted a relationship with another consenting adult of legal age. That was what had set Gran apart. She could fix up anyone and make it stick — eventually. So Rilka had enjoined Marcus to return the silver (which he had done with a charming smile and the explanation that he’d done it just for the practice) and extracted a solemn vow (and a security deposit) that he would not thieve from any of his dates. Even felons had dreams of romance.
    Gran had been something of an adventuress herself and she never worried about getting a knock on the door, a cop on the other side saying, “You knew he was a jewel thief and you set him up on dates with women who own jewels?” Somehow Gran would have been able to talk her way out of that. But Rilka wasn’t sure she could do the same. Probably the difference between her and Gran was that Rilka had a conscience.
    She studied Hilda. Hilda had no jewels. Rilka would just warn her not to carry too much cash. And she would make Marcus increase his security deposit. Oh, what the hell.
    “I have an idea,” Rilka said. “I just thought of someone you might enjoy meeting. His name is Marcus. He’s a bit younger, but I think you’ll find him perfectly polite and charming. You could get together for a drink.” It was just a drink. What was the harm?

Chapter 3
    “Rilka, my love, I need your help.”
    Rilka tried to concentrate. She knew the voice but couldn’t place it. It was three o’clock in the morning and the phone had awakened her from a deep sleep. She couldn’t remember her own name at the moment. Whoever it was seemed to understand, for he waited patiently. She heard his slightly stressed breathing and wondered if it was an obscene phone caller.
    “Rilka?” the voice said again after a while.
    “What is it, Marcus?” she asked, finally recognizing the voice. She shoved herself to a sitting position and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Marcus, three A.M. This couldn’t be good.
    “We have a tiny problem.”
    “
We?
What did you do?” she demanded. Oh, she’d known better than to send Hilda out with Marcus. But she had ignored herself. She hated it when that happened.
I told you so
, she told herself. “Marcus?” she said sharply. “
What?
”
    “She’s going to insist that the D.A. press charges. Rilka, I really, really need you to intercede.”
    “She” could only refer to Hilda.
    “What did you steal?” Rilka asked, falling back against the pillows and closing her eyes.
    “I can’t believe you would ask that question,” Marcus said, outraged. “You know they tape these phone calls.”
    Depressingly, she did know it. Depressingly, she had been Marcus’s one phone call before.
I told you so
, she told herself again, and felt a headache start. Seriously, what criminal called his
matchmaker
when he got into trouble?
    “What’d you do? I thought I emphasized romantic and charming.”
    “I was romantic and charming. I’m always romantic and charming. It’s my nature.”
    This was true. It was his best characteristic. Also his worst.
    Rilka pressed the heel of her free hand against the corner of her eye, which had started twitching. She was pretty sure she would have preferred an obscene phone call.
    “What happened, Marcus?” she asked, the weariness as deep as bone.
Something
must have happened. Probably not what Hilda thought had happened, but men could be dogs, even Marcus.
    “She was receptive to my charm. I kissed her. She giggled. I call the giggle exculpatory evidence.”
    Exculpatory evidence. Christ. “I’m not the D.A.,” Rilka reminded him. “Then what happened?”
    “She said she wasn’t that kind of girl. I said everyone is that kind of girl with the right man.”
    The idea that Hilda could refer to herself as a girl frankly staggered