"Rachel Morgan called to see if your date was still
on for this evening," Bernice told Steele as she prepared
to leave for the day.
He blinked, taking his attention away from that scrap of paper
that lay beside the telephone. "Rachel - I'd better call
and cancel. Don't feel up to dinner and dancing this evening."
"You really should at least call him, you know," Bernice
said. "To find out why he's in town. He might have a good
reason this time."
"Daniel has NO reason to be in Los Angeles, Bernice,"
Steele said.
"But he does." When Steele looked at her, she said,
"His son's here." She smiled at him. "Good night."
"Good night, Bernice."
Murphy came into the office as he hung up from talking to
Rachel. "She didn't sound too pleased to be put off,"
he commented, leaning on the doorframe.
"A dozen roses works miracles, Murphy," Steele told
him. "Leaving for the day?"
"Yeah. Haven't heard from Laura, have you?"
Steele cleared his desk, picking up the paper and putting it
into his pocket. "No. She and Mr. Jeffries are probably
having dinner together."
"I doubt it. You made quite an impression on her, you know.
She filled me in on what happened down there. You were lucky."
"I know. So was she." He picked up his briefcase and
turned out the light on his desk.
"What are you going to do about Chalmers?" Murphy asked
as they started toward the main doors.
"I wish I knew, Murphy. But he's my problem. Not yours,
so don't worry about it."
"I worry when a friend's upset," Murphy said. "And
believe it or not, I consider you to be a friend."
Steele smiled. "Why, thank you. He'll let me know sooner
or later why he's here. Although I can guess the reason. He's
come up with another scheme that he needs financing for, and
hopes to con me out of the funds."
"I thought you just sent him some money the day before you
left for Acapulco."
"I did. But Daniel maintains a rather- extravagant lifestyle."
"I'll take my dad and his truck any day," Murphy told
him. "Less complicated."
Steele smiled in agreement as he got into the limo. "It's
a pity all of our lives can't be that simple, Murphy. Tomorrow."
"Yeah. Tomorrow."
Steele entered the apartment and loosened his tie, noticing
that his luggage had been brought up by the building super. Going
to the kitchen, he opened a bottle of wine and poured a glass,
then sat down on the sofa. It had been a long three days, he
mused. In the back of his mind, he wondered how Laura was faring
this evening. If Wilson Jeffries let her go without a fight,
then it would confirm his impression that the man was a fool.
The telephone rang, and Steele didn't move. He let the machine
pick it up. "Harry? Harry, it's Daniel. I'm sure your Miss
Wolf or whatever has given you my message. Call me. I need to
speak to with you."
Taking a deep breath as the machine shut off, Steele put his
head back against the soft leather of the sofa. Daniel could
call all he wanted, but he wasn't going to get another dime.
Not one thin dime.
After a night's sleep, Steele felt much more himself as he
pushed the replay button on the machine. Four messages, three
from Daniel, which he erased as soon as he heard the voice. The
fourth was from Rachel, thanking him for the roses he'd ordered,
asking if he could have dinner with her that evening at her apartment.
Smiling, he left for the office.
"Excuse me."
Bernice looked up and tried to place where she had seen the face
before her. Elfin features, slanted, dark eyes, brown hair -
"May I help you?"
"Is Mr. Steele in yet?"
"No. But I'm expecting him any minute. Do you have an appointment?"
"No, I don't -"
"Bernice, could you-" Murphy looked up from the file
in his hands and smiled broadly. "Laura. This is a surprise."
"I need to talk to Mr. Steele about something-"
"I told her that he wasn't here yet, Murphy," Bernice
said, looking the young woman over. So this was Laura Holt. She
couldn't see anything overly special about the girl - certainly
nothing that would put that silly grin on Murphy's face.
"But he's due in any time, right? Why don't we wait for
him in his office?" he suggested. "Could you bring
us some coffee, Bernice?"
"Of course," Bernice said in a saccharine sweet voice.
"Did you want something when you came out here?"
"I- Oh, yeah. The Brownley file. I need to see it."
"I'll put it on your desk," she told him.
Laura busied herself with looking at the wall of photographs
in the conference area. Remington Steele and the mayor, Remington
Steele and the police commissioner, there was even one of him
with the governor. "He certainly gets around."
"So, did you and Wilson get things settled?" Murphy
asked as Bernice came in with the coffee. "Thank you, Bernice,"
Murphy said as she hovered about. He grinned at Laura over his
cup. "I think she's curious about you."
"About me? Why?" she sat down on the sofa.
"Never mind. You were going to tell me what happened with
Wilson -?"
"No, you asked. I never said I'd tell you. But I might as
well. We both agreed that it was a mistake. And so I can do what
I want to do for the first time in three years, Murphy."
He looked at her eyes, sparkling with excitement and anticipation.
"And what exactly is that?"
"Mr. Steele told me that he might be willing to take me
on as an apprentice -"
"Here? You mean - work -" As much as Murphy wanted
to get to know this woman better, he wasn't sure about this.
"Wouldn't it be great, Murphy? Just like Havenhurst. You
and me, working together again - with Mr. Steele, of course -"
Murphy took a drink of coffee, found that it didn't settle his
nerves at all. What had Steele been thinking, offering Laura
a chance to get her license? "You're sure you want to do
this, Laura? You remember the hard work, the long hours, never
getting any credit - It's Steele's name on that door out there.
You won't get any credit here. I mean, he tries to spread the
credit around, but-"
"You sound as if you don't think I can cut, Murphy,"
Laura said, her eyes narrowing, flashing with growing anger.
"You said yourself once that I was a better detective than
you -"
"What I said was that if you applied yourself completely
to the job you'd be better than me," he corrected. "You
were too worried at Havenhurst about Wilson finding out what
you were doing to be any good."
"Well, I don't have that problem now, do I? I'm a free agent,
free to do whatever I want. I can do this, Murphy. I KNOW I can.
Please back me up with Mr. Steele."
Bernice held out some messages as Steele entered the office.
"Six are from Mr. Chalmers," she told him. "One
is a reminder about the lunch meeting of the anti crime task
force."
He was frowning over the messages from Daniel. "Anything
else?" he asked.
"There's someone to see you in your office," she told
him. "Laura Holt." That got his attention. His eyes
seemed brighter than they had, Bernice thought, her spirits drooping
even more. So that was the way the wind was blowing, she thought.
"Hold my calls, Bernice," Steele said, moving toward
his office.
He heard her laughter as he opened the door. "I'd forgotten
about that. Those were fun days, really, weren't they?"
she was saying to Murphy. She looked up and saw him standing
there. "Mr. Steele."
Murphy rose to his feet. "Laura wanted to see you, I thought
I'd keep her company."
"Thank you, Murphy." He gave the other man one of the
message slips. "Would you call Mr. Arnold and give him an
update on the case?"
"He'll want to talk to you," Murphy said.
"But you're the one who's done most of the work on the case,"
Steele reminded him.
Murphy sighed. If Steele hired Laura as an apprentice, he wasn't
certain if it would work. "All right. But if Arnold insists
on talking to you-"
"Then let me know and I'll take care of it," Steele
said, his eyes on Laura.
"I'll call you later, okay, Laura? Maybe set something up
for dinner?"
"That sounds nice, Murphy," she told him, smiling as
he closed the door.
Steele sat down in the chair that Murphy had vacated. "Since
Murphy's planning ask you out for dinner, is it safe to assume
that you broke it off with Wilson?"
"I was all set to go in there, guns blazing, telling him
that it was over- and he told me that he had come to the same
decision while I was gone."
"So all of your agonizing was for nothing after all."
"Apparently so. But it was nice, you know? We're still friends.
He even paid the month's rent on the apartment so I'd have a
place to stay until I found somewhere else. And he told me to
keep this-" She brought out the engagement ring. "Told
me to use it to get a fresh start. I want you to take it - as
payment for buying those clothes in Acapulco."
"I told you it wasn't necessary," he said, shaking
his head gently, waiting for her to put the ring back into her
purse. "What are you going to do?"
Laura got to her feet. "Well, I thought - you told me that
if I wanted to get my license you might be able to take on an
apprentice. It's only a few months, Mr. Steele. And I promise
to try to keep my impulsive streak under tight control-"
Steele didn't say anything, just got up from the chair and moved
to the window. "You know I can do this job, Mr. Steele.
I didn't really try at Havenhurst," she admitted. "I
was too worried about Wilson's reaction and wasn't ready to do
what I needed to do."
Steele, his hands in his pockets, turned to look at her. "And
you are now? Ready to apply yourself? To work as hard as you
can to prove that you're better than anyone else? Because that's
what it's going to take for you to make it, Laura. You know that."
"I'll do whatever I have to, Mr. Steele. Whatever it takes
to make people believe that I'm as good as any male private detective."
"Better, probably," Steele said quietly. "And
you'll follow established procedure? Murphy mentioned that you
had slight problem with that at Havenhurst -"
"Channels. I HATE going through channels," she muttered.
"But I'll do it, if that's what it takes."
Steele smiled, held out his hand. "Then welcome to Remington
Steele Investigations, Miss Holt."
Laura smiled as well. "Thank you, Mr. Steele."
"Just don't give me cause to regret this decision, Miss
Holt." He said, placing his other hand over hers. The telephone
on his desk began to ring, and Steele glanced at it, frowning.
"Aren't you going to answer it?" she asked.
"Bernice will pick it up," he told her. Laura could
feel the tension in him through his hands. Even after the light
went steady, indicating that the receptionist had answered, he
remained fixed, his eyes on the telephone. It wasn't until the
light went out that he seemed to relax any at all. "Let's
go out and introduce you to Bernice and give Murphy the news,
shall we?" He released her hand and she followed him to
the main area of the office.
"Bernice, this is Laura Holt. She's going to be completing
her apprenticeship with the agency. Laura, Bernice Fox."
"Miss Holt," Bernice said, trying to see what it was
about this woman that had Murphy and Steele both acting like
a couple of schoolboys. She handed Steele a paper. "He called
again."
Steele took the paper, but didn't glance at it as Murphy came
from his office. "Laura. You're leaving-?"
"No, Murphy," she said, obviously excited. He could
see it in her eyes.
"I've agreed to let Miss Holt complete her apprenticeship
with us, Murphy. Why don't we open up the other office for her?"
"That cubby hole?" Murphy questioned. "There's
barely enough room to turn around in there. With a desk-"
"You might be right, Murphy," Steele mused, his expression
thoughtful "You don't use your office very much, do you?"
Murphy's eyes narrowed. He didn't like where this was heading.
"No. I'm usually out - unless you're away -"
"Then we'll move your things into the other office and give
Miss Holt the middle one."
"Oh, no," Laura objected. "I don't want to take
Murphy's office. I'm sure the other one will do just fine -"
"He's right, Laura," Murphy said, sighing. He shouldn't
have said anything. With Laura in the far office, he'd have known
if Steele was in there. Now, unless he kept the connecting door
open, Steele would have access to Laura's office - and Laura
-without anyone being the wiser. "I'll get right on it.
You want to help, Laura?"
"Sure. Tell me what to do." They were heading for the
third door when someone entered the office. Laura almost ran
into Murphy as he stopped suddenly, his eyes moving to Steele.
"Damn!" she heard her friend mutter as he saw the man.
Curious, Laura followed his gaze to find Steele's eyes were as
cold as blue ice. She looked back to the man who was on the receiving
end of that frigid gaze. He was tall, with dark hair liberally
sprinkled with grey, a mustache, and dark eyes that searched
Steele's face for some sign of warmth. He took a deep breath
and smiled, rather like a man facing a firing squad, Laura thought,
then turned her attention back to Steele as he asked in a dangerously
soft voice, "What the bloody hell are you doing here, Daniel?"
"The mountain wouldn't come to Mohammed, so Mohammed came
to the mountain, my boy," Daniel explained.
Steele moved stiffly toward his office door and opened it. "You
have two minutes, and then I expect you to be gone." He
glanced at Bernice.
"I know. Hold your calls." She sent Murphy a look of
frustrated confusion. "Can you believe the nerve? It's not
bad enough that he's been calling every ten minutes -"
"You'd think the guy would figure out that Steele doesn't
want to see him," Murphy agreed.
"Who IS he?" Laura asked.
"Might as well find out now. His name's Daniel Chalmers.
He's Steele's father."
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