Free The Sweetheart Racket by Cheryl Ann Smith Page A

checked out. I wanted to believe he was everything he said he was. The scoundrel.”
    The comment brought Taryn upright. “No. Don’t apologize. I think you just gave us our first solid lead.” She stood and went to the window and looked out over the expansive grounds. Flowers bloomed everywhere. “If he came with almost nothing, then he hid his stolen items, personal papers and such somewhere.”
    â€œIn a storage locker,” Rick said, without pause.
    She turned and nodded. “Exactly. We just have to find the right one.”
    Jane Clark had nothing more to add as they finished their visit. By the time they drove off, the lady seemed in much better spirits. Taryn no longer worried about her.
    â€œI think she’s on the mend,” Taryn said, as the car rolled its way down the driveway and into the street.
    â€œA trip to the bathroom repaired her face and her disposition,” Rick agreed. “I think she was happy to have provided us with a clue.”
    â€œShe did seem hopeful of getting her painting back.” Taryn shot him a grin. “She even flirted with you near the end. I think she’ll be Mrs. Ellington and back to her old life soon. A con like Teddy can’t keep a good woman down.”
    Satisfied with the morning, and their one new clue for the case, she sped down the road and hit the highway north. Silent in thought, Rick watched the scenery pass as Taryn weaved in and out of traffic going well beyond the speed limit. She liked to drive fast. Jess called her a lead-foot. Summer lectured her on obeying traffic laws. Irving just shook his head.
    They had passed back into Washtenaw County when blue and red lights flashed behind them.
    Taryn’s stomach dropped. “Damn.”
    * * *
    Rick turned to look out the back window, as Taryn eased the Olds off to the side of the road with the crunch of wheels on the cracked pavement. The state trooper pulled off behind them and parked. Rick shifted his attention to the sideview mirror, as the officer settled his hat on his head and stepped from the vehicle.
    Damn was right.
    â€œHow fast were you going?” Rick asked and reached for the glove box. After the morning he’d spent with her at the wheel, he imagined a huge stack of crumpled speeding tickets shoved into the glove box and forgotten. When he popped it open there was nothing but the registration and proof of insurance.
    He collected both.
    Taryn made a face and pulled her bag off the floor. She scrounged around for her wallet. “I don’t know. Eighty, eighty-five maybe?”
    Before he could poke at her, again, about her bad driving, she found her wallet, turned, and smiled brightly for the trooper. “Hello, officer. Nice day, huh?”
    The trooper scowled and crossed a pair of massive arms over his massive chest. Though not overly tall, he’d certainly scare wayward motorists. “Cut the crap, Taryn. How many times do I need to lecture you about your speed?”
    This took Rick aback. They knew each other?
    Intimately, it appeared. The trooper was too familiar with Taryn to be a casual acquaintance. Were they a couple?
    Up came a flare of male competitiveness that led him to size the guy up further. And he wasn’t happy with what he saw.
    The trooper looked like he’d walked off a Twelve Months of Michigan State Trooper Hunks calendar. He was what women would consider good-looking, clearly having won out in the gene pool. His biceps alone left little doubt that the man could bench-press a Mini Cooper. This left Rick thinking he spent all his free time working out. And Taryn had on a flirty expression so he knew she noticed, too.
    â€œCome on, Hunter,” she said sweetly and fingered her driver’s license. “You know I don’t speed on purpose. If they didn’t make these roads so straight and flat, I wouldn’t accidently go so fast.”
    Hunter? Seriously? Rick hated him already.
    â€œSo your