Read Online Ghost Seer by Robin D. Owens - Free Book Online Page A

Cermak had had a more exotic, spicy scent that had teased his nostrils.
    “You can stay with me. I have a huge old house in Cherry Creek.”
    “Mrs. Flinton—” Rickman began.
    “I don’t think—” Zach started at the same time.
    Her set chin lifted. “I insist. I have a housekeeper’s suite that’s been converted into a street-level walk-in apartment that would be fine for you. My own living area is in the main wing on the second floor. We can talk about a reasonable rent later, when you take me to tea.”
    Zach’s stomach rumbled.
    She appeared triumphant. “There! You’re hungry, too.”
    Rickman pushed away from his desk, plucked Mrs. Flinton right out of the cage of her walker, and she let Zach’s hand go. He let out a grateful breath.
    “Come on, Aunt Barbara, let’s take this a little slower, eh? Give the guy some room.”
    “I want to give him a whole apartment!” she said.
    Zach retreated to the window overlooking the plains. His day was turning downright weird.
    Rickman hauled giggling “Aunt Barbara” out of his inner office. A young Asian guy who moved like a martial artist, dressed professionally, came and picked up the walker, then nodded to Zach.
    “I’ll meet you at the Brown Palace in a half hour, Zach!” Mrs. Flinton called back, her fingers waving above Rickman’s shoulder. “Mr. Yee, I have a new tenant for the ground floor.”
    “Sounds good. I will call the Brown Palace and make an appointment for tea,” said Yee.
    “Aunt Barbara, Yee—” Rickman began.
    Zach had made a mistake in not closing the door. Mrs. Flinton, now solidly back on her walker, stared at him. “Zach Slade, you can’t tell me that you aren’t staying in a motel. Not even a hotel here in Denver, but”—her eyes became distant—“in the northern suburbs.”
    He wasn’t going to admit she was right; good guessing on her part, though.
    “Yee will escort you to the Brown Palace, Aunt Barbara. I’ll see if Zach can make it.”
    “See that he does. He’ll be good for you, Tony, and your business, and me. And we’ll certainly be good for him.” She jerked her head in a nod toward Zach, then at Rickman, glanced at the young blond woman manning the reception. “I’ll see you later, Samantha; have a good day.”
    “You, too, Mrs. Flinton,” Samantha piped.
    “Maybe Samantha might like tea—”
    A jolt went through Zach; was Mrs. Flinton setting him up with a girl, too? A
girl
, not a woman. Clare Cermak was a woman.
    “No,” Rickman said. “The last time you took Samantha to ‘tea’ she got drunk on champagne and missed the rest of the day.”
    “Really, Tony, you are such a poor sport.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Yee opened the outer door. “Come on, Mrs. Flinton. The Brown Palace is waiting for you.” He smiled a charming smile that worked on the old lady. She turned and moved away with more grace and less sound than she’d shown before.
    The outer office door closed, and Rickman came in and closed his inner door.
    “Aunt Barbara?” Zach questioned.
    Rickman took the chair behind his desk. “An honorary aunt, friend of my grandmother’s.”
    “A very unique individual.”
    Rickman’s eyes had gone a thoughtful deep gray, and something moved in his gaze that Zach couldn’t put his finger on. “She likes you. Thought she would. And she’s right much of the time. You going to tell me you aren’t holed up in some motel in the northern ’burbs?” he shot back.
    Zach gave him a flat stare that had no effect on the man. Zach needed to do that background search he hadn’t bothered with before on Rickman. Zach had been so sure he wouldn’t go private.
    “And am I expected to pick up the tab for tea?”
    Rickman stared. “Got under your skin, didn’t she?”
    Zach shrugged.
    “Let her pick up the tab,” Rickman said. His smile was crooked. “We’ll be giving her the friends-and-family rate.” A few heartbeats of silence. “Your consulting fee will be the one we discussed