Page 46 of Speak of the Devil

Maybe she’d even go to a couple of casinos, just to have it seem as if she was making some effort. That was probably the last thing she felt like doing on a weeknight when all she wanted to do was go straight home and feed her fish, but in case the personnel in the casinos were on the lookout for a woman with long red hair wandering around the premises while she carried out some kind of secret mission, it just felt better to cover her bases.

“It’s a plan,” she said. “I’ll call you next Monday to let you know how things went.”

“Or sooner, if you find something.”

Delia knew that wasn’t going to happen, but she made a sound of agreement anyway. “Of course. You have a good day, Robert.”

“You too, Delia.”

They ended the call there, and she set the phone down on her desk. Good to have gotten that over with, even though she wished she’d had the spine to tell Mr. Hendricks that no, she hadn’t gotten a single ping, so it was time to call the whole thing off.

Almost as soon as it hit the desktop, her phone rang again. She glanced down at the screen, wondering what she would do if it was Robert calling back to request that she extend their agreement for an additional week.

Lie again, she supposed.

But it wasn’t Robert Hendricks. No, the number on the screen was Paige Loomis’s.

“The title search is done,” she said crisply when Delia picked up the phone. “My client wanted to know if Mr. Lowe is available this afternoon to sign off on the final paperwork and to bring the cashier’s check or arrange a wire transfer.”

Wow, that was faster than she’d expected. Yes, the house had been purchased by the current owner only three years ago,so she supposed any problems with the title would have been ironed out then, but still, she hadn’t thought they’d make any real progress on the transaction until closer to the end of the week.

“Let me give Caleb a call and get back to you,” Delia said. She didn’t have any reason to think he wouldn’t be available, but she wasn’t about to make any promises when she had no idea what his schedule today looked like.

“Of course,” Paige replied. “I’ll be waiting.”

No doubt about that. January generally wasn’t a busy time in the real estate industry, so the other agent was probably salivating at the thought of getting a nice, juicy payout when she hadn’t been expecting one.

Delia said goodbye and ended the call, then touched the screen again so she could go to her contacts list and reach out to Caleb. With any luck, he’d be at home and not back at the casinos…or grocery shopping or golfing or whatever it was he did with his spare time.

To be fair, she couldn’t really imagine Caleb Lockwood on a golf course. Tennis…maybe.

But he picked up on the second ring, so it didn’t seem as if he’d been too busy, whatever it was he’d been doing before she called.

“That was fast,” he said, an echo of her own words from just a bit earlier.

“It was,” she agreed, glad she sounded so normal. Although she’d known she would have to interact with him again at some point, she honestly hadn’t thought it would be the very next day after he’d made all those revelations. “But it sounds as if everything went smoothly, so the seller would like to get this wrapped up.”

“Not a problem,” Caleb responded at once. “I just need some time to go by the bank. Does ten-thirty work for me to come by the office?”

“That should be fine,” Delia said, fairly certain that Paige would have kept the rest of her morning open so they could finish their business. “I’ll see you then.”

“See you.”

He ended the call there, so Delia sent a quick text to Paige letting her know to come to the office at ten-thirty.

Now it was just a waiting game. Not too long a wait, just about forty-five minutes, but Delia still knew it was probably going to feel interminable.

She used it up as best she could, fielding a couple of calls from prospective buyers, checking the new listings that had popped up on the MLS overnight. Her mother handled the majority of that sort of thing because it seemed as if sometimes she could sniff out a property before it even hit the database, but still, it never hurt to be familiar with the inventory.

Especially since Delia still hadn’t found anything that would work with her one picky couple, who wanted the moon but wouldn’t budge from their top range of around $350K.

Well, after they’d been looking for several months and still hadn’t found anything they both liked, they might finally realize that either their expectations or their budget needed an adjustment.

At around 10:25, Caleb stuck his head in her office door. As usual, he wore jeans and boots and that same black leather jacket, although today the T-shirt underneath was a dark maroon color.

“I’m a little early,” he said.

“That’s all right,” Delia told him, and made herself smile. Although it was still strange to look at him and know some part of his genetic makeup wasn’t even human, she knew she had toact as normal as possible — especially with Paige Loomis and her client due to arrive at any moment. “Go ahead and take a seat.”

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