Minding Amy

"And…your point is?"

"Why trust the information you've been given? What makes you think you'll find out anything from it?"

Amy folded her arms across her chest defensively. "You really know nothing about journalism, do you?"

"A little, I have crossed paths with others in your field before."

"But you don't know me, and you don't really know what I'm after."

"Tell me." He opened his hands to her, willing to listen.

"There's huge readership interest in Quentin right now, I can exploit that in whichever direction I choose. Whatever my hunt for information reveals, I can use."

"But what you would really like to do is find Quentin and write that up, yes?"

"Well, yes. That would be ideal, but it's far from necessary for the purposes of writing up several features about the man and his disappearance."

The wistful look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. She did want to find Quentin. That would indeed be a scoop. Sebastian had the urge to hunt down the elusive celebrity and leave her a trail of obvious clues so she could fulfill her ambition. "I got to thinking," he said, as casually as possible, "about possible ways to get results."

She eyed him warily. "Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. What would you suggest I do instead?"

"Well, first of all I'd be wary of any unbidden clues I was being given in a case like this. Did you have to pay for the info?"

She shook her head.

"Why would anyone want to give you—a reporter—clues? What have they to gain from giving you information? You're falling into a cause and effect pattern. Your soundman drops you bait, you follow. It could be a decoy to steer you away from information that is more useful. He wants you to follow a path, but why? That might be a first line of inquiry, check this bloke out, rather than haplessly following a clue that leads you to an obvious dead-end."

As soon as he had stated it, he realized he shouldn't have.

She frowned at him disapprovingly.

"I didn't put that well, but with missing persons maybe lateral thinking is surely the best way to approach it."

"Lateral thinking?" She peered at him, a mite more subdued.

Perhaps he was getting somewhere. "Yeah. Think back from the event. Think about Quentin himself. Have a look at what's been going on in his life at the time of his disappearance and see if we…I mean you, if you can find out some clues in his circumstances at that time."

She almost looked convinced by his argument, then she shook her head.

"That's not going to be bring about the results I need quickly enough…look, Sebastian, I'll come clean with you. I only have a few days on this case then I'm back to writing for the Women's Page full time. This might be my big break and I can't afford to lose it sitting around reading Quentin's diary to figure out what might have happened next."

Sebastian stared at her, silently assessing her words and the situation she was trying to explain. It made sense and it also explained what he had picked up between her and her father at The City News offices. Whatever, he wanted to help the woman. She was far too attractive to him to do otherwise.

"Okay. I respect that, you're the boss." He could find out, though. He could put out some feelers of his own. It couldn't do any harm because she would be none the wiser.

Her gaze rose to his face. "I appreciate your input, Sebastian, really I do…and it's nice to have a sounding board, but at the same time it doesn't really figure into your job spec, does it? You've been hired to be a bodyguard, haven't you?"

Luckily, Sebastian considered himself a man of steel and such unintentional slights could be overlooked. "Sure," he replied, and gave her a strained smile.

Let her think whatever she wanted to, he told himself. She'd probably flip out if she knew he was one of the best and most highly respected Private Investigator

s in London, and head of his own company. She didn't know any of that and it was best kept that way. He didn't want her to freak out, or worse still have her eject him from his place by her side. Right now he'd be her bodyguard or whatever she wanted to stay there for quite a bit longer. He was more than a little interested in pursuing their affair, especially after the taster he'd already had.

Chapter Six

Bless the man—he was really trying to help her. Amy stared across the table at Sebastian while they ate the delicious meal he'd cooked. Much as she didn't want or need a minder, this was turning out to be a real treat. He'd cooked for her, escorted her, fixed the car, and he'd even tried to help with suggestions about her work. Mr. Machismo had turned out to be a real charmer.

The meal was delicious. He'd made a selection of dishes to choose from, spicy crab and mange tout served on a bed of noodles, sweet and sour jumbo shrimp with rice, chicken satay on the side.