Page 81 of Little Hidden Fears

I appreciated his offer, and given I had no choice, I took him up on it.

I left with one question: was Alexander sincere in his offer to help me, or was he trying to keep Owen from me while he cleaned up his mess?

CHAPTER 32

Austin Cole had his boots kicked up over the top of his desk when Giovanni and I entered his office. He glanced our way, tipping his cowboy hat as he came to a sitting position and said, “Hello there, what can I do for you?”

We took a seat, and I got right to the point.

“I understand you were hired by Noelle Winters to find Dawn Salisbury,” I said.

“You heard right, though finding the girl wasn’t much of a success. Why do you ask?”

“I was hired by one of Noelle’s friends to investigate her murder.”

He raised a brow. “You’re Georgiana Germaine, aren’t ya?”

“I am.”

“Nice to meet you in person. I’ve heard a lot about your detective agency, which is takin’ a bit of my business, I might add.”

Perhaps if he was more successful locating the people he was hired to find, his business wouldn’t be lacking, though I didn’t say as much.

He turned toward Giovanni. “And you ... do you work for Miss Germaine?”

Giovanni grinned. “In a way.”

“Well, what can I do for ya? Guessin’ you’re not here to hire me.”

He slapped a hand to his knee and laughed.

“I believe there’s a connection between Dawn and the reason Noelle’s murder,” I said.

“How so?”

“For starters, I was given a copy of your case file. Within hours of receiving the file, it was stolen from me.”

“Don’t know why it would be. Nothin’ in the file was incriminating.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“As sure as I can be.”

“I’d like to know about your interactions with Noelle and how she came to hire you.”

“Oh, the hiring part’s easy. I took tennis lessons from her.”

“Youtook tennis lessons?”

“I take it you don’t think I look the part.”

“I apologize. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

He swished a hand through the air. “Truth is, I never thought I’d swing a racket in my life.”

“So, why did you?”

“To impress my girl. She plays, and I thought if I learned the basics, I could surprise her on her birthday.”

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