No Holding Back

Circulation and buzz. Yeah, superdeedooper. What about the news? She wanted to write news.

“So…what does this D.G. guy look like?” Dee-Dee tipped her head and started playing girlishly with a fried strand, making Hannah want to tell her D.G. could be Liberace’s surviving twin. “His articles are so charming and funny and classy all at the same time.”

“I’ve actually never met him.” Hannah smiled, aching to change the subject to Jack Brattle—where was he, how soon could she meet him? “But maybe I can arrange to set you up sometime for lunch.”

“Oooh, I’d love that. I have this feeling about him…” She giggled. “Would you really do that for me?”

“Sure, no problem.” Hannah hadn’t been serious, but it didn’t hurt to promise one favor right before she asked for another. And maybe she could work a date with the grievously tacky Dee-Dee into another joke on Mr. Highbrow. “So…Daphne tells me you’re best buddies with Jack Brattle.”

“Oh.” Blink-blink of false eyelashes. “I don’t know about best buddies. I shouldn’t even have told—”

“Friends, though?”

“Well.” She looked uneasily between Hannah and Daphne. “I’ve…met him.”

Hannah sent Daphne a sidelong glance. Met was a far cry from close to. “When was this?”

“Oh, a while back.” She gestured vaguely. “I’m really not supposed to tell. It just sort of slipped out.”

And thank God for that. Jack Brattle had kept himself out of the public eye as effectively as his late gazillionaire father had kept himself in it, which meant the absence of a Brattle in the news left that much bigger a hole.

An interview with Harold Brattle’s son and heir…Or, given that Dee-Dee was full of hot air as well as silicone, even snippets of inside information on Jack’s whereabouts, his habits, tastes, sexual preference…Any reporter would give up major organs for that scoop.

Many had tried, none had succeeded. Not since the disappearance of Howard Hughes had a missing person generated this much mystery and excitement. Yet by all accounts Jack Brattle continued to run his father’s empire while remaining invisible. From time to time people claimed to have encountered him—like people kept seeing Elvis—but the sightings always turned out to be hoaxes or misidentification.

“Whatever you can tell me would be great. I’ll handle it all very discreetly. No one will ever be able to trace anything back to you.”

“Oh gosh. I’m so not supposed to.”

“I know.” She laid a sympathetic hand on Dee-Dee’s soft arm, wanting to pinch her. “I completely understand. I’ve put you in a really tough position.”

“Well…” Dee-Dee bit her bee-stung lip. “I do know where he lives. A guy I met once took me by his house. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you that.”

“Really?” Hannah’s droopy spirits perked up. Rumors had been flying that Jack owned property in the area, but his cover had been scrupulously complete. Or at least he hadn’t walked down any local streets with a giant name tag on. “You are amazing, wow.”

“In West Chester.” Apparently now that Dee-Dee had started, the confession had gotten easier. “My friend said he’s abroad until spring, but the house is not that far from here.”

Hannah’s reporter lust started rising. Around them the chatter intensified as enormous flat-screen TVs in several rooms flickered on, and crowds gathered to watch midnight approach.

“Can you tell me how to get there?”

“Well…yeah. I could. But he’s away. And I’m really not supposed to.”

“Simple curiosity on my part. I wouldn’t try to go in or bother anyone. Just drive past. No one would ever know I’d been by.” She smiled her most innocent smile, shrugging as if it didn’t matter all that much if Dee-Dee spilled or not. Please. Please. Please.

“Well…okay. You got paper or anything?”

“I have a BlackBerry.” She nearly gasped out her relief, fishing the life-organizing electronic device out of her adorable dress-matching red-sequined bag as fast as she could before Dee-Dee changed what there was of her mind. “So what does he look like?”

“Oh, he’s…” Dee-Dee gestured expansively and raised her eyes to the ceiling. “You know.”

“Ah. Yes.” Hannah’s heart sank even as she opened a new memo, ready to write down directions. Dee-Dee definitely hadn’t met him. Probably didn’t even know which house was his. This would turn out to be another attention-grabbing hoax. She better prepare herself for the disappointment right now. And yet, on the crazy minuscule chance this could be legit…“So where does he live?”

She poised her fingers over the tiny keyboard and waited. Several minutes later, she’d written down Dee-Dee’s directions, which consisted mostly of phrases like “turn left at that big stone thing” and “stay on the road even when it looks like you shouldn’t.”

A miracle if she found it. And an even bigger one if there was anything to find.

Excitement swelled in the room. Someone started a countdown from sixty seconds. Hannah slipped the BlackBerry back into her evening bag, then snagged—finally—a second glass of the slightly sour champagne from a passing waiter and turned to face the screen, counting along with everyone else.

As soon as midnight came and went she’d find Gerard, thank him for a wonderful evening and set out on her hunt for the wild and elusive Jack Brattle, heir to his father’s real estate fortune which could, of course, given that Dee-Dee didn’t seem qualified for Mensa, be nothing but a wild-goose chase.

She lifted her glass as the shouting started. Five, four, three, two, one…

Or…she could scoop every other reporter in the country and make this a really phenomenal start to the rest of her life.

Chapter Two

HANNAH PRESSED HER FOOT gingerly on the accelerator, peering through the windshield into a curtain of sleet, bouncing tzap-tzap off the glass and tinkling on the roof of her beloved bright red Mazda, which she’d named Matilda. Hannah considered herself a very persistent investigator, but even she was questioning how smart it was to be out here so late in this mess with no one around. Pennsylvania’s gentle rolling countryside surrounded her car. Despite the beauty of the fields, forests and sloping hills, she did not want to slide off the road and end up spending the night in any of them.

Amazingly, Dee-Dee’s directions had held up so far, which fueled her determination to keep going. Hannah had found “the stone thing” and she even recognized the “amazing tree.” The woman might not radiate brainpower, but, whether or not Hannah found the Jack Brattle pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, Dee-Dee obviously had a sharp eye and a killer memory. All Hannah had to do now was turn down a driveway where the gates were “kind of creepy and jail-like.” Not to mention, “not very visible from the road unless you were looking.”

She was looking; she just wasn’t seeing.

The sleet fell harder. A driveway crept by; Hannah peered toward it. No gates.

“Come on, Jack’s house.” At this point, she just wanted to see the damn thing, mark the address so her BlackBerry could find it again, and come back when the weather wasn’t intent on killing her. Of course hindsight was now sitting on her shoulder whispering that she would have done a lot better to come back later in the first place.

Next driveway. No gates. Phooey. Properties weren’t exactly close together out here in Billionaireland. Everyone needed his own private stable, pool, tennis court, golf course…all the basic necessities of survival.

Her BlackBerry rang. She dragged it from her bag, which she’d flung onto the passenger’s seat, and glanced at the screen. Dad, calling to wish her Happy New Year. If she didn’t answer, he’d worry. She eased Matilda over to the side of the road and turned on her flashers.

“Happy New Year, Dad.”

“Happy New Year to you, sweetheart.” His rough slow voice crackled over the tenuous connection. “Why don’t I hear party noise, you didn’t go? Or do fancy parties not make noise?”

“I left after midnight. Wanted to get home before the weather turned bad.”

“Is it bad now? I haven’t looked outside in a while.”

“Uuh, no. Not bad yet.” The tinkles of ice crystals on her roof turned to sharp taps. In the white beam of her headlights pea-sized balls bounced and rolled on the asphalt. Hail to the chief. “The roads are fine.”

“Okay. But call me when you get home. The storm is supposed to come on fierce.”

Tell me about it. “I’m…seconds away, Dad. In fact, turning on my street now. How’s Mom?”

“Better, still better. Always better, thank God. I don’t know what we would have done without Susie.”

“She’s a blessing, for sure.”