“Alberta? No, I’m named after Einstein. Daddy was always fascinated with his theories of relativity. You know, time not being linear, alternate realities, that kind of thing.”
That made some sense, although Justin would have pegged Cosmo’s interest more in copying Einstein’s wild hair.
“I appreciate you coming down here. We’re trying to gather all the information we can to help us track down your father.”
“Thank you. I know you’ll do your best.”
He looked up at the simple sincerity of her words, a refreshing reaction after meeting her sisters’ defensiveness. Of course, he reminded himself she was under stress and willing to believe the absolute best in anyone, even a complete stranger such as himself. Besides, he had a badge. Pulling out the other chair at the table, he prepared himself for polite interrogation. He certainly didn’t want to tip his hand just yet.
“You live here in Vegas?”
“Yes.” She watched him jot the address down as she recited it, a nice little subdivision a few miles from the Strip.
“You rent there?”
“No.” Her nose wrinkled as if she might sneeze. “My mom left it to me. It’s paid off.”
Justin tapped his pen against the pad a couple of times, then connected the dots in a neat square. “Your mom has passed away then.”
“From a stroke when I was a toddler. Daddy was a rock, and my aunt Erna helped out when he couldn’t be there.” Her lids flickered shut then reopened, again revealing large eyes that seemed to see into his soul. They were a paler shade of color than Iris’s, like topazes, with a soft angelic glow to the golden tints.
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?” he asked.
“I wish. But Daddy always said siblings just weren’t in the cards for me.”
He nodded, thinking that Cosmo was a cad for lying to his daughters. “And what do you do for a living, Allie?”
“I’m a stagehand over at MGM, but I eventually plan to become a veterinarian.”
“Those must be two different worlds.” He smiled and was surprised to feel a physical response when she smiled back. Whoa, Nellie. He had no business conjuring up images of that smile or those legs in a skimpy little stage costume. Or wiggling out of it.
He drew another square on the notepad. “Did you learn about theater from your father?”
“Daddy taught me a number of tricks of the trade. I used to help him in his act, but about three months ago he got me this other job. Told me it was time for me to move on and stop working for a hack like him.”
Justin’s brows knit at her words. Was it possible Cosmo had foreseen some kind of danger to his daughter if she were close by his side? “I guess our parents always want to push us out of the nest,” he said as he scribbled more notes.
Fifteen minutes later, he’d gained enough factual information to give him some insight to Alberta Fortune. She was young, beautiful, highly intelligent and just a little quirky. She didn’t strike him as someone who would keep secrets, but she did seem highly protective. On a hunch, Justin decided not to mention her sisters. He’d watch to see how she reacted upon meeting them.
Allie closed her eyes for a few moments, her brow furrowed. When she reopened them, she stared at the ceiling with a beatific smile on her face. “There will be five babies.”
A chill ran up Justin’s spine. That quirky thing about her could be a dangerously unknown factor. “Five babies?”
She started, as if she’d forgotten his presence. “Oh, sorry. Just a vision, still a little foggy, but I’m pretty sure five is right.”
“This isn’t the lady on the bomb squad-”
“I’m pretty sure it is. I can’t tell until I see her face to face.”
“Uh huh.” What else was he supposed to say? “Come with me. There are two women I’d like you to meet.”
Iris stood aside while a police officer who’d introduced herself as Linda opened yet another door. Just being inside the police station gave Iris the creeps-all the locked doors, all the damaged lives, the struggle to provide order and safety in a chaotic and dangerous world.
Linda turned with a smile, perfectly at home in this setting. “You can wait in here. No one will bother you.”
Far from consoled, Iris stepped into the room and folded her arms. Recognizing the movement as a defense mechanism, she made herself uncross them and smoothed back a loose curl. Damn, her pins weren’t holding the French knot in place.
“Can I get you anything?” Linda’s hands rested on her weapon-laden belt.
God, what Iris wouldn’t give for a cigarette right now. Funny, since she hadn’t smoked since college. Smoking was one more dangerous habit she’d stamped out of her life. She’d conquered all of them-sweets, smoking, alcohol, that brief interlude with the sexy philosophy professor, who insisted she try horticulture to expand her horizons and the ensuing nightmare of explaining to the authorities she really didn’t have a clue it was marijuana.
No, she’d wrestled control of her life, and she wasn’t ever giving that up again.
“Thanks, I’m fine.” Iris felt she’d not only answered Linda’s question, she’d proclaimed her motto in life. She was fine. She didn’t need any help from anyone.
“Suit yourself. The others will be here in a minute.” Linda closed the door with a tactful click.
The others. Her stomach tugged into a tight knot as she looked into the large mirror that formed part of one of the white walls. Dissatisfied with her reflection, she turned her back and leaned against the mirror. Surely Justin Hunter had it wrong. It was ludicrous to think she had not one but two half sisters living in Las Vegas. Sisters she’d never dreamed existed.
No, Cosmo couldn’t have pulled that off. Even a master of illusion would have found it impossible to hide three sisters from each other for over twenty-five years.
But then she recalled the business trips he’d take every few weeks when she was little, and later, the lengthy disappearing acts, when neither she nor her mom had a clue where he’d gone.
It amazed her that her level-headed mom never divorced him, a tribute to Cosmo’s devilish charm. That, Iris had learned, was the real danger-allowing a man to wriggle so completely into your life, to give way and fall in love with a blindness that defied reason. Her mom had made that mistake, and while she might have been wildly happy sometimes, she was also miserable other times, the pendulum swinging in unsteady arcs.
Following her mom’s death nearly eight years ago, Iris had looked at her father not with the eyes of a daughter, but from the mature perspective of her then-twenty years. She still saw the charm, faded now to a devilish twinkling in his eye, but she wasn’t fooled by it anymore. Cosmo did what he wanted to do, a selfish, self-promoting con man always out to make a buck and impress the world.
It would be just like him to have harbored two other families and divided himself among them. Resentment simmered within her, but she tempered it with the knowledge that she’d always expected something like this from her father. Still, expecting it and living it were two different things.
The door opened without a warning knock, and a male uniformed officer ushered in a younger woman-tall, lithe, blonde, striking in an angelic way-the polar opposite to Cosmo’s short, stocky build. Maybe Justin Hunter had been pulling her leg.
The young woman’s gaze roved around the small room and settled on her. Coming forward, the woman smiled nervously. “I suppose it’s all right for us to talk while we wait. I’m Allie Fortune.”
Momentarily stunned by the familiar golden eyes, eyes that looked exactly like her father’s, Iris could do nothing but swallow. “I’m Iris,” she finally managed to say.
Allie paced the small room, giving wide berth to Iris’s corner. “This is so nerve-wracking. Almost makes me wish I smoked or something, you know?”